Norwegian Getaway Cruise Reviews - Reviews

been on Norwegian twice once on breakaway and now getaway, iam a royal Caribbean diehard , have really enjoyed though Norwegian line both times , do like the restaurant feeling in most of the ship and food is equally as good as royal , you CAN NOT beat the unlimited drink package , not as much it seems going on in various lounges throughout the day like royal but if you like things around the pool certainly fun. not super crazy about having to book at box office any show I want to see after or before dinner but if you know this ahead of time not much of problem, few things they charge for which royal never does , but we saw the illusionary show and it had dinner included which was great , well worth the 30.00 dollars , right now I cant say there is a bigger bang for your dollar then Norwegian , the only thing I will say is their new private island harvest Caye  Belize that they developed for 5 years , we were supposedly the first to hit this resort exclusively for there boats and will most likely never book another western cruise if this is on their itinerary , they had the worst service and amateur bartenders I've ever seen , never actually got a beer after waiting 20 minutes at land shark bar , and then watched my family (5) more wait 15 more for the worst overpriced/made  drinks my daughter has ever had and she's a bartender at Dave and busters serving a 50,000 sq. ft. restaurant .I finally got so upset I went back to the ship complained how lousy the service was and that I would never again TRY and spend money on that island. I feel they lost a good 3-4 hundred dollars from my 6-person family and we all went back to the ship within 1-hour , they took my room number but never followed up , they said that these were 3rd party people , I just would of thought first time people are on your island PAYING instead of free on ship your would have knocked it out of the park , so many people that I told my story to agreed was lousy service and very expensive , think maybe they need to handle their own staff??? but besides that one island I would definitely do Norwegian again , as far as cheap cruises , this is my 3rd time booking with them and we came from the northeast and ran into major travel issues ,thank god I took trip insurance , of course after much additional cost and travel (rental cars ) etc. we got there . later I got a terrible insurance claim guy after getting back who wanted me to jump through circles to PROVE  our flight was DEFINITLY  canceled ,long story short I got so politely say upset I called cheap cruises and complained that their selling these trip policy's and their insurance company like ALL want to not pay , the people at cheap cruises HAVE been BEYOND GREAT from start of my booking to the end with this insurance problem they talked directly to them got me (real understanding)agent and hopefully all will go well in getting my extra costs reimbursed , but I will CONTINUE  to use cheap cruises without one question because there service all times I've used them has been BEYOND spot on and awesome !!!!!!

We enjoy the Western Caribbean and this is our third cruise there.  The ship is designed well except for the entertainment venue's, they are too small for the size of the ship.  The entertainment was excellent, especially the Grand Master Magic Show.

I was blind sided by 13.50 a day per person charge for the cabin steward. I did not agree with this charge. I would not cruise again with this charge.

The food was fairly good at the Garden Cafe.  it was  better at The Tropicana, Savor and (Taste?).  However, the menus share too many of the same items.  Add more variety to the menus. The water slides and climbing on the rope course were 2 welcome additions to the hot tubs. On Harvest Caye, the music volume was so loud, I wouldn't use the pool.  Install more speakers around the area, and turn down the volume. The shop salesmen at the Costa Maya pier are pretty aggressive, which makes it a place to avoid for me.

Aside from the inefficiency of the security company handling check-in at Terminal C Port of Miami, the Getaway was pleasant experience. This very large ship had numerous small venues resulting in a small ship feel. We were impressed by the activities for youths and appreciated their location in remote areas. Adequate elevators yielded short waits. Our stateroom was comfortably furnished and impeccably maintained. We're still getting used to the trend toward "ala carte" entertainment and dining but found sufficient enjoyable alternatives on the Getaway. 

ncl delivers a quality experience. cruise staff and results managed very well. I  have sailed on the epic and the getaway. good, clean ship with quality entertainment and food.  a thirsty traveler should be prepared to take advantage of the drink programs.  Honduras and Bahamas ports raggedy, and very short on local amenities.  Belize and most Caribbean ports are isolated amusement parks, not connected to the mainland. Very nice value for a vacation, but consider the svc chg/gratuity in your overall pricing.

The food was fantastic.  The activities like the ropes course, bungee jump and water slides were great.  The games shows and comedy shows were hysterical.  Cupcake making was so much fun and the kids had a great time, as did the adults, at this activity.  Rooms were clean and spacious (for a cruise ship).

The Assistant Cruise Director was super.  The Cruise Director was new to the ship and very soft spoken and hard to understand.  However, it seemed like the assistant took more of the lead for all ship activities.

There was always a line at guest services and we had a problem with our promotional offers.  They still haven't been able to resolve these issues (which may have been related to the travel agent and not NCL) and we spent a few hours during the cruise trying to make the corrections. 

If you want a good spot on the pool deck, you MUST get up super early to reserve a chair or you will not get a lounge chair for the entire day.

We have been on many cruises and are very happy with NCL!

My favorite part was the different dining options.  We had a different place to dine each night and that was great.  The many choices we had to party for New Year's Eve was a refreshing departure from the usual "I'm stuck."  We partied in the Tropicana to Salsa - such a treat!

The ship was great and the entertainment was top notch. Just the big shows were a bit boring. all the ship staff were professional, friendly and great.

we loved our experience on the Norwegian Getaway.  The ship is beautiful and has so many amenities that we didn't have time to try them all.  The food was great, especially at the specialty dining restaurants. And NCL's freestyle cruising is perfect for the way we like to travel - on our own time and with lots of choice. The shows were top quality, and the service on board was attentive, but not overbearing. We will definitely do another NCL cruise in the future!

My favorite part of the cruise was the dining choices and show Illumination.  Guest services was great but, I think the way your balance from your deposit or monies you put on your account should be able to be kept up with and visible throughout the cruise shoelwu get your starting balance and daily uses subtracted.  I also think our stay on the islands should be a little longer. You should also be offered free WiFi, or something substantially cheaper than what you are offered.

It begins with an enormous wait time (2 hours in our case) despite of arriving at the defined check-in time.

Ship is new (built in 2014 by Meyer Warf, Germany), and has nice amenities like water slides, wall climbing. Sunbeds are available everywhere  (unless you _require_ one in a specific place, e.g. by the pool).

Food is very good, service is excellent. Lots of specialty restaurants for every taste.

Nice gym but now showers there, so you would need to go back to your stateroom.

Shows have to be booked well in advance and all of them are for a fee.

SPA area is ridiculously expensive ($70 per day or $250 for the whole cruise).

Be sure to get free packages before the cruise (e.g. 250 minutes of Internet,  $50 of shore excursion payback, free open bar, etc.

Dispute the "service charge" if you fell like it.

My favorite part of the cruise was actually sailing on a Norwegian ship for Christmas.  I was really impressed with the smooth boarding on and off the ship. 

The dining was off the chain, and I have never seen such pleasant and helpful staff.  Needless, to say I was overjoyed with my Christmas Cruise.

If I could get you to improve upon anything it would be the registration for most activities  on ship

This ship needs to take a check on the staff attitude, the way they run their ship, the way they treat their passengers, how they run protocol for when issues happen, and I personally would not recommend this ship. I could have taken a petition around and had at least two hundred plus signatures of people who would not have went on this ship or  will not go on a  Norwegian Cruise Line again because of this Cruise. People were asking for deposits back for cruises that they booked for future dates. 

I had a very bad experience with the "Tulum Mayan Ruins"...the bus company (Sun & Fun) that Norwegian has contracted to take us to the ruins....is stealing $5.00 (CASH) from EVERYONE on the bus.  The guide (SAUL) is telling everyone that if they want to take pictures at the ruins they must pay him $5.00, it's the law he tells everyone on the bus.....what a lie and scam.  I did bring this information to the Norwegian Shore Excursion staff....spoke to two staff members.....Marcus Taylor and Clinton Peterson. Marcus Taylor said he would email me with what has been done to fix the problem....he NEVER got back to me....very disappointed...and now I'm NOT planning on using Norwegian again....this was my fourth trip with the Norwegian line...and I'm spreading the word!!!!!

We had a wonderful time ALL staff were very attentive, helpful and friendly. It was our first cruise and we can not wait to do it again.We are not even going to LOOK at any other cruiseline  We are officially hooked to Norwegian. Tysm for an awesome vacation

We very much enjoyed our recent Christmas cruise on the Norwegian Getaway!  Once we were aboard the ship, everything went smoothly.  The food and service were great in the complimentary restaurants, and 2 of the shows were spectacular!  The "Burn the Floor" dancers were amazing, and the Broadway show, "Million Dollar Quartet" was excellent.  Our only complaint was that each show was repeated a 2nd night (perhaps because this was a large ship & they wanted everyone to be able to attend?), so that limited the variety of entertainment in the theater.  The musicians/bands on the ship were also great, however we were disappointed that the "jazz & blues club", Fat Cats, never had any jazz or blues, and the Bliss Lounge had a DJ rather than live entertainment.  The comedy club was fun, as well as the dueling pianos. 

The shore excursions were also good overall, however we booked them through Norwegian and there were large numbers of people on most of them.  The "Underwater Sculpture Garden" was a huge disappointment (Great Stirrup Cay), as there is NO underwater sculpture garden, and it isn't expected to open until sometime in 2017, so this was falsely advertised.  Also, although we had very good snorkeling during the "Wreck & Reef" snorkel tour on Grand Cayman, it was supposed to be 45 min. of snorkeling at each site but was actually only about 30 min.  The same was true of the bamboo river raft tour in Ocho Rios, which was supposed to be 90 minutes, but was actually only an hour.  Nonetheless, both were enjoyable.  We were less satisfied with the 3 snorkel site tour in Cozumel.  There were about 40 people on the tour & the guides wanted everyone to stay together & follow them, which meant that everyone was in one large group & kept bumping into and kicking each other, which was very frustrating.  It would have been much more enjoyable if the guides had told everyone the general area to snorkel & let everyone explore on their own, as we did in Grand Cayman.  Also, one had to go through a shopping mall from the pier to get to the street area, which was annoying.

The major complaint we had about this overall excellent cruise was the boarding process.  It took us over 2 hours to get on board the ship.  The lines were VERY long & slow, and once we got inside the terminal, there were no health forms available in English, so we had to wait 15 min. for them to print more, then wait in additional huge lines.  The whole boarding process was extremely slow & there were not enough staff to accommodate the large number of passengers trying to get on the ship.  Also, we were able to disembark by 9 a.m., but had been told not to book a flight home until after 4 pm, so we had to sit at the airport from 9:30 am until 6 pm, which was a lot of wasted time, as we could have actually been on a noon flight, had we not followed the cruise line recommendations.

Ship has great on board activities and shows. Food was also excellent.  Excellent slides and pools. Activities with shows are top notch shows for free. Flow around the ship was smooth with next to no congestion areas. Ship staff was very delightful and helpful. 

We were very surprised with the service on the Getaway ... and not in a good way. 

The tension between employees aboard the ship was definitely noticeable, I remember one smile the entire week.  They weren't happy and it was showing.  This was our 4th cruise aboard Norwegian and we aren't so sure we will book with the cruise line again. 

The all inclusive beverage package and dining packages have ruined cruising.  Servers don't work for tips anymore and therefore they have nothing to work towards.  If you want a drink (soda, water and/or alcohol), get ready to search from one end of the ship to the other for a bar (good luck finding one that isn't closed).  There were multiple times at dinner in the specialty restaurants that my glass was empty ... after asking for more water and then a Pepsi 3x's, I finally gave up.  Entertainment was subpar compared to other ships that I've been on ... if you even make the show ...  how are you supposed to make it if you can't find a clock onboard and your dinner is running over because of slow service?  Aren't you supposed to be on vacation anyway?  Who cares what time it is????

The specialty restaurants did not have particularly good food. The buffett was very mundane and simple. First time i've been on a norwegian ship and lox was not available. I thought all Norwegians loved lox! Other lines offer leg of lamb, lobster tail etc. without having to pay for upgraded dining. Take a page out of Celebrity's menus along with Princess.