Norwegian Getaway

05 Sep 2019

Ship was very good and most of the staff were pleasant and polite. The food was excellent, shore trips are expensive, gratuities expensive, the drinks package is very good, WiFi is expensive for the amount of time you get. Overall the cruise is a well-oiled machine; there's a well-planned time table. I prefer the smaller ships and adults only, glad I did the cruise but not sure I will go with Norwegian again. 

26 Aug 2019

Spacious cabin, friendly crew, many bars and restaurants, the food was excellent, and the entertainment was varied and plentiful.  The ship was very clean and tidy though there was a shortage of seating in and around the bar areas. Children’s areas are excellent. Embarking and disembarking was easy. The drinks and specialty dining packages were excellent value. However as with all cruise lines the gratuity charges are scandalous.

21 Aug 2019

Fantastic huge ship. So many places to eat, and the speciality restaurants are well worth the extra charge (book a package before sailing) Entertainment is plentiful and enjoyable, the illusionarium show is a must see! Loads of bars, good service and hardly any wait even at busy times. Didn't use the pool or water slides but they looked really good and seemed busy. Overall I loved this cruise, my only negative is that you can't walk to the front of the ship on the top decks as its closed off for "Vybe Club" which is a bit disappointing.

16 Aug 2019

Thoroughly enjoyed the Baltic cruise. A little forward planning, ie booking shows & restaurants before we went meant no disappointments. The food was really good in all venues and the staff extremely pleasant. The only slight criticism is that due to the layout of the ship there were not many places with free seating in the smaller bar areas.

08 Aug 2019

very good cruise, staff excellent embarkation and disembarkation fast. food very good

22 Jul 2019

An excellent tour of the Baltic including the major attractions of St. Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm. A large ship but not too busy and no queuing, though some shows and meals needed to be booked. The trip began and ended in Copenhagen which was a beautiful city.

20 Jul 2019

We had the most amazing cruise. The ship was excellent, our cabin lacked for nothing. We didn’t have enough hangers in the wardrobe but when I mentioned it to our steward he brought us some. Our balcony was superb and we were able to sit out and watch embarkation and disembarkation as well as sunsets. The staff everywhere were totally brilliant - very friendly and polite and couldn’t do enough for us. Everyone spoke English so we didn’t have trouble communicating. The ship was run with great efficiency and everything ran like clockwork especially the excursions. The restaurants and Garden Cafe were kept spotless and served a good choice of food. The speciality restaurants were excellent with wonderful staff. The entertainment on board was second to none and our final night at the Cirque of Dreams and Steam was totally awesome - never seen anything like It. Just wonderful. Well if I have to make one criticism it would be that there were too many people - around 6,000 in total and 70 nationalities. We found ourselves surrounded by hundreds of people - no escape!!! Apart from that I’d highly recommend. Five star!

12 Apr 2019

Just back from Western Caribbean cruise on the Getaway. Couldn't really fault the ship but the destinations weren't up too much. Roatan was a small island off Honduras, with nothing much to do but snorkel or go to beach. Belize again was much the same, as the island was developed and owned by NCL so nothing cultural, again snorkeling and beach. Costa Mayo in Mexico was better as more excursion of interest offered but we chose the water park which we found to be excellent. All the slides start under cover which means you are not getting burnt while waiting to go down slide. Everything is free in Park except food/drinks etc. Zip lines were good fun and well organised and felt very safe. Had visited Cozumel about 14 years prior and couldn't believe the difference so commercialized it has lost all its charm. We had a stateroom with balcony mid ship on the 14th floor and we found the room pleasantly bigger than we had expected. Bathroom was amazingly big with double sink and large walking in massage shower. Wardrobe was big enough for the 3 of us. I couldn't fault the rooms and the balcony was big enough for us to sit and have coffee drinks etc. Our only complaint about the 14th floor was the noise from above early in the morning when the staff were putting out the sunbeds for the day. All the shows we saw were of a high standard and again couldn't fault them. Burn the floor and Million Dollar Quartet are worth seeing. We did use the casino on a couple of occasions but had to leave due to the fact our 17 year old was under age and was asked to leave. See the point if she was a 5 year old running about causing disruption, but sitting quietly watching her parents have some fun, felt this was unnecessary as she was not doing anyone any harm. We had the drinks package but be aware, can get coffes in restaurants at night but have to pay for coffees during the day, ice creams not included either. We believe that you would need to drink at least 7/8 Alcoholic drinks per day to get value from this package. We are not big drinkers so struggled with this. Didn't like the free for all restaurants as it felt like a cattle market and it continually repeated itself but for breakfast was adequate and the food was average. Booked 3 speciality restaurants and all 3 were excellent especially the Japanese. The other 3 free Savour restaurants were good but they all had the same menus which was a bit disappointing. Plenty of bars to choose from and we found plenty of quiet seating areas to sit and relax. A must is the Mixx bar outside the 2 Savour restaurant to meet Parveen, he is a lovely man and excellent host and should be part of entertainment. Would certainly pick this ship again just not the destinations.

24 Sep 2018

Excellent ship, only let down by the horrendous charges for WiFi. It's astronomical. I fail to see why a cruise line can charge so much. The only other tiny fault is that we needed more hooks in our inside cabin, it's a bit short on hanging space. If you stay on Floor 5 in the middle, be aware that it's under the guest services area and you can hear people in heels walking on the hard floor above. The food was amazing, although the garden cafe buffet can get very busy. The sushi restaurant Wasabi is worth the small extra charge. Cirque Steams and Dreams was well worth the cost, the food was great and the show is on a par with Cirque de Soleil. I personally found some of the excursion desk staff really unhelpful. We wanted advice on catching a cab but they have a vested interest in selling you the most expensive tours. At Roatan port we paid $15 each for a minibus to a nearby beach resort, and an extra $10 at the resort which included sunbeds, umbrellas and WiFi. A similar excursion on the ship was about $80. Shop around. The staff on board the cruise were lovely, from all over the world and extremely chatty and helpful.

26 Oct 2017

We took the Norwegian Getaway this summer and absolutely loved it. We are a family of 7. I have been on cruises (many of them) where you step on board and are constantly bombarded by staff trying to sell you upgrades, cases of water, cocktails etc… However, Norwegian is not like that. On the NCL Getaway, you are treated like a guest at a luxury resort. You are waited on and served like you should be. The entire ship is meticulously clean at all times. I have no idea how they pull that off given how massive the ship is. It is also laid out beautifuly making it easy to get to where you need. Not always the case when it comes to deck plans on cruise ships. We’ve have been onboatd several that made no sense at all and it felt like we were walking from on end of the ship to the other constantly. Not the case with the Getaway.Food is always something people look forward to when cruising and I feel like Norwegian scores high in this category. Their freestyle dining gives you the freedom to dine when you want and where you want each night. There are 3 included restaurants as well as a bunch of specialty dining spots. The specialty spots do come with cover fees or ala carte pricing options. However, I have always booked when they are offering free upgraded specialty dining and drinks packages which I would highly recommend looking into. I hardly ever eat at their main dining areas with the exception of the occasional table service breakfast which is super tasty. Entertainment wise, there is a lot to do. My kids liked the ropes course, basketball and the ice bar. Overall we loved this cruise, the ports, pretty much everything. 

02 Oct 2017

This was our second cruise, the first being a 'taster', overnight cruise on P&O Britannia. We originally intended to sail in June to the Baltic but due to circumstances had to wait until April to start booking anything by which time our cruise line options were limited even for a September cruise. Embarkation was very painless. We boarded at 3pm, my partners luggage arrived about an hour later but my luggage still hadn't turned up by 7pm. My partner went to reception to enquire and by chance found this was due to there being a travel iron in the case (electrical and certain other items are banned but this is not made clear by NCL). The case, along with many others had been put into a back room and required one of us to open it to remove said iron; why we were not told of this when the other case was delivered I don't know. anyway, iron removed, case retrieved, cruise commenced. BTW; The iron was returned on disembarkation. The cabin and balcony (mid-ships balcony stateroom) were adequate (16 sqm & 3 sqm) although smaller than average cabins on other ships; it was a bit tight between the bed and the wardrobe. A good size bathroom had a roomy shower with instant hot water. Plenty of storage throughout both rooms but the safe was tiny; I had to put my iPad in at an angle for it to fit. Although noise from other cabins was not a problem at night, come 5am the airline style suction toilets started flushing and doors banged as people got ready for the day. The Cabin Steward was excellent (as were all the staff) and kept the cabin clean and tidy with the obligatory towel animal on the bed each evening. Ship was kept spotless at all times. I found the interior very closed in and busy,; in the evenings it was very noisy. I initially failed to recognise the atrium on our first explore, it was so underwhelming. In this area there are a couple of cafes, Guest Services and the Shore Excursion desk; unfortunately there is also a dance floor and big screen so this area is constantly noisy, something that even the staff on the Guest Services desk complained about. One thing in its favour it never felt crowded on board. If you can't afford to go "Havan" then there is no lounge for you, you'll have to fight for a (limited) seat at the (noisy) bars like the rest of us or sit in a dingy corridor. Anyone seeking quiet couldn't even escape to the library as it is situated next to the Atrium screen/dancefloor - good planning. Fortunately we had good weather and were able to sit outside but even then armchair seating was limited. As usual smoking was permitted in the overlarge and underused casino which made the air in this area a bit stale. There were plenty of activities onboard. We did not partake in any organised events but tried out the rope walk, crazy golf deck games and some arcade games inside. There were excellent shows in the theatre but get there early for a seat. Food was excellent everywhere, service good and restaurants clean. We have some of our best meals in the Garden Cafe which seemed to cope with the large number of cruisers very well and would recommend Bistro and Cagney's. Excursions were pricey; we did two; 2 day St Petersburg mainly because it was easier than arranging our own visas etc and a bus ride into Stockholm mainly because my partner would not take the train. It was very easy to do your own thing with a bit of forward planing. All the calling points were of interest and being portside so no tenders were involved, very accessible. Although we were informed of the $28/day (discretionary) gratuity when booking 18% is a bit on steep side for us Brits where 12% is more the norm but we were happy to pay it considering the excellent service we received onboard.What we did object to was the additional 18% on purchases outside our package; these included fancy coffees and bottled water at $5 /bottle. Needless to say we followed more seasoned travellers and refilled our water bottles for free in the Garden Cafe. All goods in the shop onboard and the guest photos were ridiculously overpriced. Halfway through the cruise we received a letter saying that having got us from the airport to the ship if we wanted to get back again it would cost us $60. At least this meant we weren't kicked off till 9am so had a lay-in and breakfast but had to hang around the airport for our 3pm flight. Would we choose Getaway again? No. Would we choose Norwegian again? It wouldn't be our first choice. We will be cruising again but at least we area bit more aware of the scams and pitfalls.

18 Feb 2014

Loved this ship. Just got back from The Getaway's very 'first' sailing (actually the first sailing after the christening). Thoroughly enjoyed our cruise from the second we stepped onto the pier. Check in and embarkation were fast and efficient. Smiles were plentiful. Opted for a VIBE (NCL's beach club) pass for some peace and quiet when we felt like it. They distribute only 60 of these so get them as soon as you get onboard. Loved our cabin. There's a real Miami vibe on board, which puts you in vacation mode right away. We loved the different restaurants and thought that the nominal additional fees were a steal (paid a lot more on some other cruise lines). Food was excellent, entertainment opportunities for everyone. Thought that both Burn the Floor and Legally Blonde were exceptional. The talent in those shows is what you'd expect on Broadway, not a cruise line. There was a little gem called Wine Lover's musical during lunch we enjoyed too. The magic at the Illusionarium blew us away. We dropped in at Headliners and enjoyed the 'sing along' casual atmosphere there. Lots of things to do onboard too, great parties in the evening with a lot of the crew involved (go Julie, the CD), an incredible ropes course with a zip line, an amazing water park, a beautiful spa and work out area. This ship really has everything! Highly recommend it. There is something for everyone!