Norwegian Getaway Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We traveled with our daughter, son-in-law and 2 teenage granddaughters.  This is the 4th cruise we have taken as a family -- the 1st 3 on RCL (Adventure, Allure and Liberty) and the first on NCL.  We wanted a change of pace.  It was a great vacation -- the food was second to none -- we loved the specialty restaurants, especially tepanyaki - best hibachi style food we have ever had and the chef kept us so entertained.  La Cucina (Italian) and Cagneys (Steak House) were excellent as well.  Ate in a complimentary restaurant the other 3 nights - especially liked Tropicana with Live music and dancing.  As much as we enjoyed the specialty restaurants and the variety - we missed having the same waiter every night in a dining room who knew us:>)  We also loved the waterfront deck -- watching the sunset and having a drink was great.  The excursions were the best we ever had - South Port Zip Lining (Roatan), Jolly Roger Catamaran (Roatan), Fury Catamaran (Cozumel) and the private Island Harvest Caye (amazing beach and spectacular pool) - was best private island ever.  Now for what we would like to see different -- we loved the mainstreet and central park on Allure -- on Getaway it was very choppy.  And we were surprised on Harvest Caye we couldn't use our drink package -- and that the ship didn't offer a bbq or picnic as most private islands do.  It was a great holiday and we would definitely entertain doing another NCL vacation with the family.

disclaimer:  I am not a big fan of cruises.  The staff of the Norwegian, for the most part, were  extremely accommodating.   I was surprised though how many times the restaurants that I wanted to try had limited hours. I was also annoyed how there was always a sales pitch  for some way to spend your money. Bingo, specialty restaurants, art galleries, entertainment shows that cost money, drinks that are not included even when you purchase the ultimate beverage package, tips, casinos, water, shopping on board, mini bars, spa services. I loved my balcony ocean view and the room was very nice.  The million dollar quartet was awesome show.  Get there early for decent seat.

This was our third cruise with NCL and we loved our trip the crew was awesome food was great wasn't to crazy about the private island Harvest Cay it was pretty so that's something.  The biggest problem was getting off the ship took about 2 hour and it was crazy NCL really needs to work on this if you are going I would recommend just waiting until the make you get in the line to leave stay on as long as you can that might work. Other than that the ship was great we lived it . 

We had a great time but had some disappointments as well.

You now have to reserve seats for almost all of the shows and there are charges for most of their big productions as they serve diner with them. This was my 10th cruise and 3rd with NCL and have not seen this before. 

Upscale dining package was amazing. My favorite was Cagneys steak house. 

We met a couple on the cruise that picked the Upscale dining package as one of their free picks and they were not able to even go to one because they did not make their reservations in advance of getting on the ship so they were all booked. 

Also very disappointed in Harvest Caye Belize. Snorkeling was listed as an excursion but was not available due to 'Technical difficulties'. It's NCL's new private island and that's all it is. There was a lot of garbage on the beach and in the water. The beaches in Florida are much better. We also missed our excursion zip lining in Roatan due to our ship being diverted to Cozumel for a medical emergency. All NCL excursions were cancelled that day as we only ended up having about 3 1/2 hours there. Definitely disappointing. 

Costa Maya is also a poor excuse of a stop. 

Cozunel 3 reef snorkeling excursion was awesome!

The ship itself is beautiful but there are a lot of passengers so expect long lines and difficulties getting lawn chairs by the Pools. Waiting line for the ropes course was almost 2 hours. 

Staff in the shops were very pushy. One actually grabbed my arm to pull me into a jewelry shop to show me the big clearance sale. I refused to go. 

My experience on this ship is nowhere near as good as my previous experiences. 

Almost everything was great about our cruise. We had a fun time, were served well by the crew, and were treated fairly. The only issue I had was with the Bingo. If you are going to charge everybody what you did for the cards, then you should give away the full amount of money that you secured. Also never mentioned the 47 number limit when selling the cards. Not transparent.

The Getaway is a great ship and the quality of the food on board is superior for this class of cruise. We went with our kids 12, 10 and 5 and we all liked the food better but they prefer Royal's Kids Club and Entertainment.

The Norwegian Getaway is a beautiful ship with lots of amenities and great entertainment. The ports of call were mostly enjoyable. Costa Maya was a little questionable as it still lacks a lot of infrastructure; however, the beaches were nice. An area that Norwegian still has room for improvement is the disembarkation process at the conclusion of the cruise. The delays would have been more avoidable with more structure and organization. Other than that they did a fine job.

We loved the layout of the ship. Everything is very open so you can see what's going on, even when in the casino. Ship was very clean, balcony room had tons of storage, nice size shower.

The food was great too. We had 3 specialty dinners-Cagneys, Le Bistro, and Teppenyaki. All were excellent with excellent service. Loved O'Sheehans too, which is open 24-7. Also loved the free style dining. 

Great entertainment too. We loved Burn The Floor! There was always something to do and several types of music at various venues. 

Our only disappointment was that there was not enough room at the pool. It was almost impossible to get a spot in the sun. Spots in the shade were no problem. 

Embarkation (from Miami) was a breeze. Disembarkation was quick and easy too.

All in all a wonderful time. We will cruise Norwegian again. 

The ship was definitely very nice with so many places to roam around and enjoy and relax. Lots to do, even for the kiddos on Spring Break (we didn't have any), but lots of families around. I was a bit disappointed with the food in the Garden Café; seemed to have the same meal choices for breakfast. The same goes for the dinner restaurants.  The menu choices did not really seem up to par with other choices we've seen before on other NCL cruises and other cruise lines (mediocre at best). The Shanghai Noddle Bar was awesome, however, it was small and very hard to get into.  The table seating arrangement is very tight with no privacy really, but well worth the wait.  We literally showed up 10 mins. before closing to finally get in.  The Wasabi sushi place was also amazing--great food and reasonable pricing. Margaritaville was also great, only if you want to pay extra.  The Tropicana dining room was a really good experience overall - better than the Savor or Taste in my opinion. We had a bad experience at the Savor where we waited over an hour to get our main course, which winded up being a disappointment after the long wait (prime rib roast)--cold and tasteless--didn't even order dessert. The liquor prices are outrageous, though, which definitely could be a buzz kill at the end of the trip when you see your bill! 

The other downside was there were too many smoking areas for my taste and too many smokers. Each time we went through the casino or the designated smoking areas, it was horrible smelling. Couldn't enjoy playing the casino due to the smokiness and leaving with smelly clothes.

Service was also a disappointment--room steward rarely spoke to us and didn't seem to speak much English, just nodded and smiled; other staff throughout the ship seemed to walk and work like zombies, just routine work for them. Poolside bathrooms and congested areas were always messy and needed more attending, but I'm sure it's hard when there's that much activity throughout the day. We simply took the time to go back to our stateroom bathroom when needed rather than use the public areas--much safer for sanitary reasons--or simply use the restrooms in less congested areas.

We also used the spa services of the sauna pools, chairs, and salt rooms. These were great perks we received as a make-up for our bad experience at the Savor.

The upside was the itinerary and the ports, which were amazing.  The new Harvest Cay port is beautiful, but again, very congested. The beaches and pools were great, with lots of chairs and areas to relax in.  Could use more shaded areas, though, after too much sun. Overall, a good experience, but not 4 or 5 star quality.

This was our second time on the Getaway.  We had a great time, enjoyed the food, beverages and excursions.  I do have a couple of complaints.  Our room steward was slow and didn't show up one night.  Also, the process to get off the ship was total chaos.  Lastly, Harvest Caye was beautiful but it needs to be advertised differently.  A cruise line private island that you have to pay for everything, even food???  That was a disappointment.  

The favorite part of the cruise was ANYTIME not spent aboard the ship! Normally, we're quite satisfied with the food, entertainment, downtime, and shopping options when cruising. The food aboard the Getaway lived up to those expectations. NOTHING else did, including the lack of adequate cleanliness standards of the stateroom. When I walked into my stateroom, there were spots on the room mirror as well as the bathroom mirror. Amazingly, they weren't even touched at all during a 7-day cruise!

The ship was absolutely beautiful.  There was alot of activities to do on days at sea.  Staff were friendly and helpful at all times.  The rooms were nice and the room attendant was amazing!  Getting on and off the ship at each port was so easy.  Honduras, Cozumel and Costa Maya were amazing!  Belize is just an extension of the cruise ship, you get to see no local culture and everything is way over priced.  Don't waste your money on excursions here, sleep in and then lay out on the beach for a few, there is literally NOTHING to see on this stop.  The food was less than average at the complimentary dining places.  Worst thing about the trip has nothing to do with the cruise it self, but we didn't realize when we planned our vacation that it was also spring break, so there were drunk college students everywhere and no one was being cut off.  We will definitely cruise again with Norwegian and we would definitely recommend this cruise to others.... just don't go during March or April.  

here is the letter we had to send to Norwegian about how awful our cruise was :

Dear Norwegian,

My family and I recently took a cruise through you all on the   Getaway from dates march 5th- march 12th. We booked this cruise with our family that totaled 20 people for our aunt sally’s 50th birthday. We booked with you all because our aunt sally and my mother in law sherry have cruised with you all a couple of times and really like your company and we really like the idea of freestyle dining. This was our first cruise ever but everyone else who went with us has cruised multiple times before with different cruise ships including yours. We booked this Itinerary because we all wanted to experience Belize.I want to  state the fact that I am a server/bartender so i work in the customer service field and I understand how things work and how things happen so when I tell you my experience I want you to understand that for me to take the time to type this to you that this was indeed THE WORST VACATION WE HAVE EVER HAD.

I want to note on the positive side first that Amanda was EVERYTHING customer service is about and  I believe amanda was the shining star of what Norwegian should be and stand for.  We met her at the host stand of Moderno, Cagney's, and Savor. I believe she is a floating host. She was awesome! It’s unfortunate that everyone else and everything else wasn’t as awesome as amanda. I regret forgetting her last name but she was our vacation hero.

Now for the terrible experience we had. It started before we ever set forth on the boat. My mother in law booked everyone else through a travel agent at sky delta. She put ours on reserve but when we paid for our cruise we paid/ booked through you all and not the travel agent, however later she was able to pick it up i guess. When we called we were told by NORWEGIAN that they had family activities that we could do together ( me, my fiance, our 3 year old son , and our 1 year old daughter). We were also told we could go daily TOGETHER to plash academy stay with them and do coloring, paint and stuff daily. On 3 separate occasions onboard  we found out that was not true. We were told also that you had a toddler friendly pool which we found out through cruise critic that was a lie and however it is a national law most cruise ships do have a specific toddler pool for that reason. We also saw a baby in the kid pool with a top and a swim diaper on.( i have pictures to prove it) They were there for 3 hours and no one said a word to her but my little one year old wasn't allowed to. I had found out through a review on cruisecritic.com that you all didn't have a toddler friendly pool. I spoke to a young male representative who told me “ that’s something we don’t advertise or tell you unless you specifically ask us”  which was un acceptable he also questioned why my 3 year old wasnt potty trained. Also UNACCEPTABLE.

We originally were going to do the promotion of free drink package and the waived gratuities but due to us being told how family/toddler friendly our ship was we decided to trade those in for the 3rd and fourth person free, just buy our drinks on the ship, including a bottle of wine at dinner, and $192.00 on a bar setup that we other wise wouldn’t have bought had we known it was a lie.

Now for onboard. That bar set up i spent 192.00 on that i mentioned was suppose to come with 6 garnishes and 6 juices/sodas. I was told on the phone when i booked it that i would tell them when i got on the boat what i wanted. When we got to our room we had diet pepsi, pepsi and limes. So i called Guest services who i will refer to as “THE HELPESS DESK’ for reasons i'll get to in a moment. I called the helpless desk and told them i didn't want the diet and what else i wanted they told me i needed to call room service and they would bring it to me. So only because i asked them specifically if i would be charged the room service fee was i told YES. After arguing and being on hold for 23 minutes did they decide to finally waive that fee. I had already spent 192 bucks on  a bottle of bacardi and disaronno which we both know doesn't cost 192. Or anywhere near that. That was ridiculous. At one point  While i was playing deal or no deal my fiance bought a jack and coke for 11.95. Which we were charged but we also got charged a additional 28.00. So he either tipped himself 28 bucks which If so I will file a police report because that is unlawful theft, or he charged our drinks and then someone else's drinks on our card.

I’d like to talk  about our captain. We were late to every port, he let everyone off the boat in costa maya an hour before even announcing it, he never did announce it in cozumel we just all got off. On the morning of the day we were set to go to belize our captain ran our ship into a sandbar. He kicked up a lot of sand. We saw it with our eyes. We were stuck for over a good hour before he announced we were not going to make it there due to “high winds” and that we would have another at sea day. This meant we had to find activities that did not exist for our kids to do. Belize was the whole point of the itinerary we had chose. Every other ship we encountered at other ports (carnival magic, princess, and royal caribbean) made it to belize that same day no problem and even though we had an extra 24 hours to get to costa maya we were still 2 HOURS LATE!!!! There was a sweet lady we met who worked in the jewelry store the first day we came on she had been working 16 hours a day on sea days she was looking forward to her day off at the day we went into belize for  port day. She never got it and that broke my heart and made me mad for her.

As far as the activities goes. There was a cupcake decorating thing my kids could do. They had things like origami that my kids couldn't do, the guppie playroom has 3 mats and a few toys that really don’t change much. It needs to be bigger and needs more toys and activities. My 3 year old loves golf so we were looking forward to playing mini golf together. You had enough equipment for 10 people our ship had over 4800 passengers. You do the math and tell me how long of a line you think  it was. There were no chairs available ever to sit down outside, pools were over crowded, at one point a kid puked in the kiddie pool and my kids couldn't even play in the splash area. I highly suggest taking toddler friendly off your website for this ship.

I had paid ahead for 3 specialty dining creds. On our 3rd day i was told at guest services i could pay to get more all i had to do was go to any restaurant and they could do it for me. So i went to le Bistro where Claudia was working. I am a little dyslexic I told her the wrong room number twice she got impatient with me, she told me she couldn't help me and that it was only for the first 2 days you could upgrade. So she eventually called to ask someone else because i was a little persistent, she had to call them multiple times, she was stomping her feet, huffing and puffing, rolling her eyes, and slamming the phone down hard. RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. there were tables next to us that could see her. She also charged us for 4 additional credits when we only wanted 3.

We used one at margaritaville which was AWFUL. We ordered appetizers it took our waitress 30 minutes to come back and get our food order, we only saw her 4 times, it took an extra 45 minutes to an hour for our food to come out. Which should have took 12 to 15 minutes. We ordered a quesadilla for our 3 year old, 2 burgers for me and my fiancee, and fish n chips for our 1 year old. EVERYTHING was gross except for the fish and chips however we told the waitress we ordered it for our 1 year old and our 1 year old kept screaming while eating it.  we thought maybe she was tired till we tried it and dipped it  in the tartar sauce. It was hot and not just kinda spicy i mean hot and she had been dipping gobbs and gobbs of it on her fish.  I filled out a service card on that and placed it in my reciept book that i signed. The waitress also had kept our room card the whole time because my fiance ordered 2 landshark beers, when he ordered the second beer she asked for our card in which we replied she still had it, it took her looking for a minute to find it on her tray and then had to ask me if the name on the card was mine or not.

I had two bad experiences at your buffet. During transition to lunch time i went to get my 3 year old a piece of cake. They had already stuck ladles in food to signal it was ok to eat. So as i was pulling the piece out i had already got it majority of the way out when a male cook told me “ to stop and put that back it wasn’t ready yet.” Me and my son came back later for lunch we got up from our table for 1 and a half minutes to get a sandwich and chips and when we got back a guy had bussed our table sat a family at it and was still talking to them. When i told him we weren't done and were sitting there he told me he hadn't seen anyone there for a while. Which i guess that means a minute and a half is a looonnggg while. I also had to have him go search for my sons toy pig he threw away when he cleaned that table.

After going to the helpless desk on 3 separate occasions and after raising my voice i got to speak to jahy the manager. I felt like he didn't help much but i felt like  he could tell we were upset and he tried to understand but i still feel like he did not.  Your helpless desk needs more training  I could tell they didn’t have enough answers to provide me with the issues i had which I blame norwegian for. You trained them after all and it’s unfortunate for them because they have to deal with those unhappy guests in person which I know can be hard. Jahy refunded us our gratuities which in turn hurts everyone  we encountered not just the awful ones but that was all he could do he said, he was suppose to fix the extra 28 we got charged and the extra meal credit claudia charged us for but never did.

All in all this was a TERRIBLE experience. The rest of the 20 people had their own unhappy experiences and have vowed never to cruise through you all again even the ones who travel with you all often. We easily all spent over 50k on this cruise.  I am looking for a partial refund.

Sincerely,

Jasmine Decker

The ship and the crew were great!

Who doesn't like an afternoon nap?!!!!

First time to Costa Maya. Very cool!

They have a pool with a swim-up bar in the shopping area.

I ve been on 13  cruises and i found this ship was my worst. the food and service stunk. if u want to see a show you need to make reservations before you leave.camra was broken on the walk the plank. too many things to list.

We had a fantastic time overall.  Honduras was our favorite place we stopped by far, because of the awesome tour we set up. Belize was great, but a bit underwhelming since EVERYBODY from the ship was at the port, and I feel like I didn't really get to see Belize, I got to see Belize how Norwegian Cruise Lines interpreted it. The ship was fabulous, it was always clean and we had top notch service. The activities on board were great! We would totally use Norwegian again!

Loved all of the dining options.. Freestyle dining and specialty restaurants.

Ship is laid out well with beautiful finishes everywhere.

The Waterfront really made our specialty dining memorable, with warm Caribbean breezes and fantastic service.

We has the ULB (unlimited beverage package), and enjoyed the freedom to have a drink at our leisure.

The food and crew were  great.  Not enough time in ports. The disembarking the last day was extremely disorganized shouldn't have taken 2.5 hours to get off boat when we opted for the quick way to keep our bags with us the night before to expedite the process. 

NCL is our cruise line of choice (This was our 15th NCL cruise), but we hate the new ships (This is our 4th and last cruise on one of these ships).  The pool space is a joke.  NCL uses the atrium to house their game shows (i.e., Newlywed which is VERY popular) which holds maybe 100 people including the 25-50 that are left standing...for a ship that has 4000 passengers!  We also hate the fact that it appears NCL has outfitted this ship exclusively to attract the latino crowd of Miami at everyone else's expense (i.e., If you think you will be listening to a steel drum band playing bad renditions of Jimmy Buffett, think again.  You get a latino band playing music in spanish!).  And one of their main theater productions...a latino dance production called Burn the Floor.  Our disembarkation for this cruise was the worst we've ever seen.  NCL did a terrible job putting people in place to disseminate information.  On the flip side, NCL's staff is the best.  The production show Million Dollar Quartet is FANTASTIC.  The buffet & specialty restaurants are great.  Getting on and off the ship was a breeze (except disembarkation).  NCL's new island looks better on paper.  The beach is on the windward side and had a fair amount of sea grass washing up....and the food selection sucks (hamburgers and hot dogs, mainly).

Great cruise, only problem was getting off the ship at port, and once organized moved very well. We had never cruised before so the experience was fresh and good, nothing to compare it to.