Norwegian Getaway Review

4.5 / 5.0
3,272 reviews

First Cruise on Norwegian

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Getaway
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McJay
2-5 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jan 2020
Cabin: Balcony Stateroom

Selected this cruise based on price because it was sailing out of New Orleans and stopping in Jamaica. Price included balcony, 3 specialty restaurants, premium beverage package, 250 minutes free wifi and air was included. Just had to prepay gratuities and a deviation fee to spend a few days pre cruise and post cruise in NOLA. Having cruised with Celebrity, I thought the cruise was freestyle as advertised. Thank goodness I took the advice of a neighbour and prebooked everything. Reservations are needed for entertainment and there was no waiting for dinner. We have nothing negative to say about Norwegian in terms of service, food or drink. The bars could have used an extra bartender at times. Food should have been more authentic (for instance a Greek buffet with no Greek salad, no kalamata olives or feta in sight) and the steak at the Brazilian Steakhouse should be more flavourful and should melt in your mouth. But overall, the food was delicious. The buffet was crowded and loud so we avoided it. Had breakfast at Margaritaville (free for breakfast) and lunch and dinner in restaurants. It was a very windy cruise and our cabin steward was snippy with us for leaving the balcony door open when we were in our cabin. (Why would you pay for a balcony if not to enjoy the sound of the waves?) Service everywhere was exceptional. We joked about trying to make the steward smile. The Getaway can be crowded and noisy but we avoided the crowds by lounging in the adult only area and sitting outside. Entertainment was really good. We enjoyed Burn The Floor. Absolutely LOVED Million Dollar Quartet. (Go early. There are line-ups. And don’t forget to reserve.)

Now for the negatives. Oftentimes we had to walk through the casino. We’d jokingly say Ready? Hold your breath. Let’s go. Smoke is unavoidable. We couldn’t eat at the Noodle Bar. What a smoky stench. Their beverage package doesn’t include nice coffee. There’s coffee in the room but no water to make it. Don’t use water from the fridge, that cup of coffee will cost you ten dollars. It was a windy week so excursions were cancelled. No catamaran, no snorkelling, no swimming with the stingrays. That was disappointing but we had a good day shopping and going to Seven Mile Beach. It was too windy to dock in Jamaica. Not their fault and the captain was apologetic but it took him half an hour to tell us after I’d said Omigod we’re not going to Ocho Rios! We’ve gone down, made a U turn and we’re headed back up! I was watching television and texting my friend who was on her way from Kingston to meet me. Half an hour to make the announcement confirming we couldn’t go. No idea what the excuse was but that was annoying. The guy in charge of wifi is great. Why they’ve placed him in the noisy atrium where you have to holler at him is beyond me. I have no idea how he works in that noise. As he said, he needs a plexiglass barrier. He was always cheerful and helpful. The wifi leaves a lot to be desired (remember dial up?) and putting it under one passenger’s name with only one device at a time allowed is frustrating. What annoyed me was at the end of the week I had 140 minutes left and I thought Good. We don’t leave the ship till 9:30 tomorrow morning so I’ll be able to check email and texts. They don’t wait till you’re off the ship, unfortunately, they just take your minutes away. When you get up that morning, you no longer exist.

Would I cruise with Norwegian again? Of course. The pros outnumbered the negatives. We were just so glad that we’d reserved everything online in advance.

Cabin Review

Balcony Stateroom

Our cabin was midship on deck 9. We tended to hang out in areas aft of the ship which made for many steps and calories burned. The cabin was clean, small but with plenty of storage and met our needs.

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