They ruined my vacation

Item: Norwegian Getaway
Rating: 3
Author: aasil74

Norwegian Getaway Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean

aasil74

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 9

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

9 Night Greek Isles: Santorini Mykonos & Istanbul (Athens To Rome)

Sail date: July 12, 2023

Ship: Norwegian Getaway

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 5100

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

I will never travel with NCL again. I have traveled with RCL many times but this was the first and last time with NCL. This trip was supposed to be my daughters graduation gift. I saved money for it since 2019 and it simply got ruined by NCL. Also they sold me as one laundry per person but it was one laundry per stateroom. So they charged we for the second laundry bag.

Embarkation

3 out of 5

Extremely horrible. We arrived at 3:30 and they said we would have our luggages in one and half hour. We didn’t have it until 7:30.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

I found lipstick on coffee cup and hair in my oatmeal

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Water slide and spa

Entertainment

3 out of 5

The only entertainment I enjoyed was the salsa dance, everything else was lame

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

I have been in RCL, this NCL was nothing like RCL

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Again for the most part it was clean but finding lipstick on my coffee mug and hair in oatmeal was not a good experience

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

My cabin numbers were 13782 and 13784 which you don’t even have option above to be select these numbers. We found stain on clean washed towels. If the towel has stain and you cannot clean it you need to get rid of it not to put it back in the rooms. The lady that cleaned our rooms was nice.

Ship tip

We work hard to save money to come to our European trip. Your shore excursion team were very unorganized. I had a terrible experience with my excursion on this trip. First before we embark the itinerary changed on us and Istanbul got short and our two excursion turn to one. Then we arrived to Mykonos they said the water was choppy and they could not stop on Mykonos and our whole excitement of visiting Mykonos turn to disappointment an hour before we reached to Mykonos. Our 9 day cruise with zero at sea turn into two days at sea.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

3 out of 5

Good start except the part the we received our luggages after 4 hours not 1.5 hours.

Thumbs Up 0

Istanbul, Turkey

1 out of 5

Itinerary changed on us from spending 22 hours in Istanbul to 8 hours from which we spent a lot of time because shore excursion team were very unorganized to get us out to the bus.

Thumbs Up 1

Santorini, Greece

1 out of 5

Once again we got to Santorini at 2 pm and all the people without shore excursion got out and started enjoying the island but we were sitting in Tropicana room until 5 because they needed a green light from the Tender to get us to the island.

Thumbs Up 0

Mykonos, Greece

1 out of 5

As I mentioned it got eliminated from Itinerary an hour before we reached the island because the water was choppy and it was not safe to stop at Mykonos.!

Thumbs Up 1

Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

4 out of 5

This was the first day that everything went smooth and on time. I just wished the cruise would provide cold water since it was very hot.

Thumbs Up 0

Catania, Sicily

4 out of 5

This was a great stop but the tour guide didn’t give us enough information. She was quiet most of the time.

Thumbs Up 0

Naples, Italy

3 out of 5

We had to walk a lot basically tour bus took us on top of the hill and we had to walk down which was a lot of walking in hot temp

Thumbs Up 0

Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy

5 out of 5

This was the best part of the trip. Although the tour guide barely spoke English we had a good time. It was expensive but well worth the price.

Thumbs Up 0

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

1 out of 5

Civitavecchia is not Rome they need to delete the word Rome as it’s misleading. We had to take a bus then train to get to Rome where we had our return flight booked.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

No unexpected event

Traveler Photos

Dirty towel that was left in our room as a clean and washed towel

9 Comments

AndreeaJ 1 year ago

We were on the same cruise and I agree is one of the worst, I think the management of this ship need to take a step back and let someone else handle it.

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

javawoody 1 year ago

Interesting

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

Gwbigdog 1 year ago

Oops sorry 😞 thanks

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

24MyLuckyDragon 1 year ago

Wow, So sorry to hear about your disappointing experience onboard NCL Getaway. I sailed on the Getaway 6 months ago, and I completely agree w/ your excursion desk/staff review. Disorganized & perhaps even rude at times, with an air of “take it or leave it” kind of attitude. I also share the sentiment w/ “CruisedudeNY65” I have been with NCL for many years, Platinum & soon to be Sapphire, but I have already begun to shop around & cruising on other lines. I’ve even completed the “status match” with MSC. It’s very disappointing to see the downward turn NCL has taken. When charging cruisers that much, they really need to re-evaluate their standards. Btw, as per NCL, if you chose the cruise excursion credit package, it’s per port. The Getaway staff told me “1 per cruise”. That’s giving me how unfamiliar they are w/ the NCL Brand. NCL TAKE NOTE!

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

cruising2004 1 year ago

Sorry you were disappointed with your cruise.

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

Tropicgal 1 year ago

Sorry for you having less of expected. Thanks for reviewing

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

CruisedudeNY65 1 year ago

Thanks for the review. Sorry for your disappointment with this cruise. Hopefully ncl can get back to prepandemic ways of doing things.I'm a long time ncl cruiser and haven't been happy with how they're doing things since they're back to full capacity. I'm sapphire with them and I am looking at other lines myself since to me they are trying to make up for lost time..they've cut costs and staff and it shows

Thumbs Up 2

Flag

karlgrgurich 1 year ago

Unfortunately, cruise ports get cancelled and times get changed. That information is in your cruise contract that you agree to.

Thumbs Up 2

Flag

Frogboo95 1 year ago

Sounds like a great cruise all those ports. It is a beautiful Ship too. Norwegian is truly a good cruiseline.

Thumbs Up 3

Flag

Other reviews of this sailing

Cruising is not for Me

Good cruise, but terrible itineray and times at ports

Great Mediterranean Cruise