Did the NCL Getaway make me want to cruise like a Norwegian?

On the 15th January me and some of my family members had the opportunity to board the brand new NCL Getaway for our one night cruise to nowhere. I had sailed on the Norwegian Majesty when I first started in travel 16 years ago and before the freestyle cruising notion had come in so was intrigued and excited to see what an NCL ship was like. None of my family have cruised with NCL before either so were also excited about the cruise to nowhere.

Watch my video of this stunning ship here: Norwegian Getaway 2014 – January

We arrived at Southampton docks around 11am and went straight through security and to check in. My sister was checking in next to actress Jennifer Ellison. We then proceeded to the waiting area to board the ship – we had all been give embarkation numbered cards and had to wait for our turn. The whole process ended up being shambolic as they started to recycle the cards whilst we were sitting there – so those people who had arrived after us were receiving embarkation card numbers already called and boarding before us. After waiting 45 minutes eventually we boarded and headed straight to the garden Cafe on deck 15 for lunch.

The Garden cafe is a buffet restaurant and there was a wide selection of food on offer – anything from salads, pizza, hamburgers, roast beef, curry, lots of vegetables etc.  After lunch we quickly proceeded to our inside cabins on deck 12 to drop our bags off and then go on our big exploration of the ship.

We headed down to deck 6 where the plan was then to work our way up.  We quickly stopped at guest relations and checked about booking the ice bar and was told the only time we could all get booked was at 19.30 so we quickly booked this up and then proceed to walk through deck 6 and then up to deck 7.  The weather seemed to be making a break from the drizzle so we then decided to head up to the outdoor areas and check out the aqua park, rope course an mini golf. My sister and my partner then decided to test out the water slides despite the cold and went down the purple slide 4 times before heading into a hot tub to warm up  (crazy people but you will see in my photo slide show they had a good time)

We then headed in for a drinks party and was surprised at 3.30 for the barman to say he had already run out of Rose wine! It was then time for life boat drill for our cruise to nowhere and we didn’t have to take our life jackets, they scanned you in when you entered the muster station and then still asked for your cabin number to manually tick you off the list.

After life boat drill we decided to have a quick tour of deck 8 where the waterfront is (lots of restaurants with outdoor areas for nicer weather) and then decided to  get ready for dinner as we had reservations for the ice bar at 7.30pm and then Legally Blonde Musical show at 10pm. We decided to try one of the main dining rooms and ate in the Tropicana Restaurant where we had music played to us as we ate. Not sure whether our waitress was new or over worked as she was yawning away and even got mine and my partners main meal wrong – we chose not to send it back and have to admit it was nice what she served us it just what was ordered. Walking round the ship there are lots of touch screens to guide and help you. i particularly thought the restaurant screen was useful as it showed all the restaurants and there current availability.

For me and some of my party the Ice Bar was a bit of a let down  – we had recently visited the one in London (for previous blog click here) and this one felt like walking into a meat chiller and wasn’t big enough for the number of people they were letting in. The two drinks included in the price was great but apart from the throne there was no seating area as described in their literature. After the Ice bar it was time for a couple of Martinis/Mojitos before heading to the theatre to see Legally Blonde.

You can pre-book the shows before you board and I would suggest you do as they do get booked up quickly and not always able to get tickets on board. The show was good and lasted for an hour and a half. After the show we proceed to Headliners located on deck 6 for the Howl in the Moon – this is where 2 pianists duel against each other and play a wide variety of songs from Elvis to Beyonce, 70/80’s dance classics to rock tunes. I thoroughly enjoyed this and would recommend going to see the show.  This took us to 1am where we then headed to deck 15 for the Garden Cafe for a late snack – but alas there was nothing and was closed apart from to get tea or coffee.

This ship was very big and in the 21 hours we were on board did not get to see everything this ship has to offer (we never found the bowling alleys). If you like to have lots of dining options then there is 27 outlets to choose from with 22 bars/lounges to enjoy. I thought the staff all seemed very happy and all of them greeted us with a friendly smile and a big hello.

The one thing I was disappointed with and was glad I wasn’t sailing for a long period of time in one was my cabin. The bathroom was spacious and one of the bigger ones I have been in on a standard cabin, but the bedroom was tiny. We only had an inside cabin as it was only one night and our cabin supposedly could have accommodated 4 as it had the pull down beds but these were jutting out of the wall and actually meant as the cabin was made as a double you could hardly edge your way down the side of the bed to get in to it and when i woke in the morning I actually bashed my shoulder on the upper bunk.

The bar staff seemed overwhelmed in places like the Sugarcane bar in the afternoon and they were running out of drinks and no chance of restocking, the Headliners called in extra bar waiters to help with amount of people.

Out of the 6 of us that went on board – 4 of us would certainly consider an NCL Cruise for the future.