Norwegian Getaway Review: Part 5 – Embarkationfeatured
It’s kind of hard to believe that it took us 13 years of cruising and 20+ cruises to book our first Norwegian cruise.
I’m not entirely sure why it took so long – everything about the concept of freestyle cruising appeals to us and Norwegian builds some pretty awesome ships. But we didn’t book this cruise to try Norwegian. We booked this cruise because Royal Caribbean and Carnival weren’t offering this kind of itinerary. Finally getting to cruise NCL for the first time was just an added bonus.
We woke up to cloudy, gray skies in Copenhagen. Cold with bursts of drizzle. Not ideal sail away weather, but when I bartered with the cosmos in my head about the weather forecasts, I had much rather have cold, dreary weather on the day we sailed away than on the days we were out exploring Copenhagen, so I wasn’t complaining.
And on the topic of Copenhagen, I was so, so sad to leave it. All of the worrying I wouldn’t like it as much as I do Barcelona and the other European ports we’d visited were for naught – Copenhagen is nothing short of wonderful (even if I still can’t pronounce any words in Danish or understand the concept of Hygge. I did leave, however, with the ability to roughly convert Krones to Dollars).
Our documents had mentioned that boarding wouldn’t start until noon, so we didn’t rush through our morning. Stephanie wasn’t feeling well, so we mostly took it easy, but the excitement to get onboard was too much. Hotel checkout time was at noon, but we checked out a few hours early and got a head start on our cruise adventure. We weren’t sure how long it would take to get to the port or to check in, so we wanted to give ourselves enough time, cognizant of the fact that being first time cruisers on Norwegian meant no special line and no priority embarkation.
The hotel concierge called a cab for us to ensure we’d get one large enough to fit the ridiculous amount of luggage we were carrying across the Baltics with us. We noticed many other cruisers were waiting for their taxi’s, having also chosen the Tivoli Hotel for their pre-cruise stay and, as long as you can manage with the thin mattress, I highly recommend it (if for nothing else, the clean and modern accommodations, the centralized location and the replica Little Mermaid statue in the lobby).
Our cab driver came to find us with our room number written on a white board (total VIP style, right?), packed up our luggage and we drove off, leaving the Tivoli in the rear view mirror. The ride from our hotel to the port was around 20 minutes and cost 271 Krone, which converts to roughly $40 (per my converter app – four days in Denmark only taught me to divide Krones by 7 to get USD, and I’m not that good at math).
We pulled up to the cruise terminal at Oceankaj just before 11:00 am. Norwegian had secured two terminals for boarding to expedite the process (the Getaway is a super ship and over 3700 passengers were boarding in Copenhagen) and we were dropped off at Terminal 2, as NCL had assigned us on our documents. There were no baggage porters to handle luggage right out of the car. Instead, passengers had to take their own luggage in and place it onto a conveyor belt for security and sorting. And, of course, the conveyor belt had broken as we had walked in, so we stood there for about 15 minutes while they fixed it.
Thankfully, it was all smooth sailing from there (and thankfully x2, Oceankaj has free wifi). We walked right through security, there was no line to check in (there were at least ten agents doing check in at this terminal and I imagine an equal amount at the other) and we were seated in the terminal within a half hour of arrival.
Haven passengers had a separate seating area next to the boarding door with all kinds of beverages and snacks. Sailing in a balcony cabin only got us a few seats in the general boarding area, where they had coffee, tea and water, but we weren’t complaining. Before boarding began, agents came through to pass out boarding numbers to everyone seated in the terminal, and we were assigned Group 2. Boarding went quickly and we were walking onto the ship by 11:45.
We boarded through Deck 0, so our first impression of Norwegian wasn’t of a grand atrium or a spirited casino. In fact, our first impression was that two of our three sail and sign cards didn’t work and we were those people holding up security as they tried to figure out why our cards weren’t pinging. Sorry, everyone behind us.
The security issue was quickly resolved and we were ushered into an elevator to go up to deck 15 for lunch. The first thing I noticed was that everything was very orderly and thought out – even at boarding, the elevators were cordoned off to control for traffic. And the elevators, themselves, were deeper than standard elevators.
We had a choice of a few places for lunch but we settled on the Garden Café, the standard buffet. Even with all of our research, it was going to take us a few days to really get used to this whole freestyle thing. I’m all for options, but put too many in front of me and I become indecisive. The Garden Café was a solid choice, though, because it literally might have been the most expansive buffet I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship. Asian food, Indian food, a grill, a salad bar, hand scooped ice cream, build your own sandwiches, did I mention hand scooped ice cream? And even better was the fact that everything we tried was absolutely delicious. Why did it take us so long to book a Norwegian cruise again?!
Staterooms wouldn’t be ready until 1:30 pm – that took some getting used to. Our Platinum status on Carnival has our room ready at boarding, and we find it super convenient to be able to drop our bags off at the room so we can go explore the ship without our carry luggage weighing us down. Instead, we took turns walking around. The Getaway has a rock wall (like Royal Caribbean) and some pretty baller water slides (like Carnival), but it also has a Margaritaville (!!!!!), two pools and four main hot tubs (two specifically designated as adults only). I wasn’t sure we’d find much use for any of these things on a port intensive cruise through the Baltics, but it was fun to compare this ship to the ships we’ve sailed the past.
The stateroom hallways still weren’t open at 1:30 – rooms were ready closer to 1:45 – but we didn’t have far to go anyways. We booked a room right beneath Garden Café — stateroom 14262, a balcony cabin. We went back and forth on whether we should book a balcony or a mini suite, but we went with the balcony even though the price difference was nominal because there weren’t really any additional perks and we weren’t really getting a bigger room.
14262 is a standard balcony cabin but has one special little quirk: an odd shaped balcony that gave us a little extra balcony space (important on Norwegian, where the standard balconies are pretty tiny). I was really impressed with our room when we first stepped in. The furnishings were modern and really functional, with tons of extra storage that we found incredibly useful. There were a few small touches that we really appreciated, too, like the fact that they put liquid soap in the bathroom (we always pack our own because most cruise lines do not). The balcony was the obvious highlight of the room, though, as it fit not only the standard two chairs and small table, but a lounger, as well.
Stephanie still wasn’t feeling great, so she took a nap while Mom and I set off to explore the ship. We started on deck six and worked our way up through all of the public areas. I love a little glitz and glam, so I thought the Getaway was absolutely stunning. Themed after Miami’s South Beach, the ship shows that SoFlo influence throughout, but especially outside on the Waterfront, a wraparound area similar to the Ocean Plaza onboard the Carnival Vista, with restaurants, bars and viewing areas. Sailing through the Baltic Capitals on a ship that was designed in homage to South Beach felt kind of hilarious, but the ship was beautiful and huge and offered plenty to keep me busy with, so I certainly wasn’t complaining about it.
By the time we got back to our cabin, all of our luggage had been delivered and we had a solid hour to unpack before we had to go to muster drill. Though the closet seemed small, it was designed well and we had plenty of room for the three of us to settle in.
Muster drill was quick and efficient, just the way we like it. Our muster station was in the Tropicana dining room, and all we had to do was scan in and sit at a table in the back. I’m pretty sure I dozed off for most of it. I still hadn’t kicked the jet lag. It was over as soon as it started.
The sail away party was moved into the lobby due to the pretty frigid temps outside. We checked it out for a few minutes before heading up to deck 8 and the Waterfront to check out the view of Copenhagen as we left. When we realized we’d have the same view from our balcony, we hightailed it back to the room.
When it came time for dinner, we decided to try O’Sheehan’s instead of the other options. The menus for the week were posted on the iConcierge app and we didn’t care for the main dining menu. Stephanie wasn’t in the mood for dim sum and noodles, so Shanghai was out and we all decided the menu for O’Sheehan’s appealed the most.
O’Sheehan’s is a bar slash 24 hour eatery onboard the Getaway, with tons of fun (they have a bowling alley and ski ball!) and a menu full of bar food favorites (think chicken wings, nachos and six different burger and hot dog options). We were a little surprised at just how good the food was (the cheesecake dessert might be the best cheesecake I’ve ever had at sea. It was, like, real cheesecake. Not that weird gelatinous kind you usually find on cruise ships).
Nachos
Warm Spinach & Artichoke Dip
Open Face Turkey Sandwich
Fajitas
Strawberry Pound Cake
Brownie Cheesecake
The entertainment for the evening was a Welcome Aboard show, hosted by our Cruise Director, Silas. He introduced the senior cruise staff and the entertainment crew, played some games with the audience and then emceed a preview of a few of the different shows and entertainment options for the week ahead. If this show was any indication, we were going to have our pick of great entertainment all cruise long!
We called it a night after the show, probably earlier than we ever had on a cruise vacation before. We had an early morning planned in Warnemünde (one that required getting off the bus right after we docked to begin a three hour drive to Berlin!) and with all of the crazy touring we did in Copenhagen and all of the fun things we wanted to try on the Getaway, we got our rest in early so we could have our fun for the next nine days.
