Family Day on the Norwegian Getaway #UltimateGetaway
*Disclosure: I was sent an invitation to attend the #UltimateGetaway Family Day event on the Norwegian Getaway. There was no cost for the event, and we were given lunch, entertainment, and tours. No posts or reviews were required. All opinions expressed are my own. If you've followed my blog for very long you probably know that my family kind of loves cruises. I think it's safe to say that if we had to choose one way to vacation... it would be on a cruise ship. I may have lost count at this point... but I believe (if I just go off the top of my head) that at 5 years old Ana has been on 5 cruises, and at 8 years old Zoe has been on 7 cruises, Nick has been on 10 or 11, and I've been on one more than Nick. We love cruising and will tell anyone who will listen.
We haven't planned a cruise for this year (which is killing me a little). When I was contacted by The Moms and Norwegian Cruise Lines with an invitation to grab my family and join them for a sneak peek on board the new ship, the Norwegian Getaway, I didn't hesitate to say yes. The whole family was excited about seeing a brand new ship.
We've been on quite a few cruise ships, with a few different cruise lines. Obviously, this is a brand new ship, so it was impressively shiny and modern. In addition to that though, it was just a truly gorgeous ship.
We were treated to lunch in the Illusionarium. The food was DELICIOUS. The girls chose to have the meal offered on the "regular menu" and vacuumed up their steak and potatos and broccoli. The presentation of the mean and the desserts (yummy!) were really beautiful. The restaurant itself was really interesting. Just from spending time in this restaurant/theater I could tell that the Norwegian Getaway was big on details. The entry (pictured bottom left above, and top left below) was full of curiosities. There were scientific collections of small bones, magnifying glasses, bottles. Each top drawer could be opened and you could find things (under glass) like collections of bird nests and feathers... and even sets of teeth (like a bunch of baby teeth carefully sorted in sets). While some of it was slightly creepy... it was all very cool in the attention to detail.
Zoe and Ana both loved the little show excerpts we were able to see during our lunch. We saw an awesome dance group called Burn the Floor, an illusionist, a scene from Legally Blond the Musical, and a bit of singing and dancing with some Nickelodeon friends. The kids all got the chance to do a meet and greet with their favorite characters. My favorite part of the day may have been after taking the picture with Dora and Diego when Ana walked over and whispered "Mommy!!!! Did you see Dora just tickled me??? She was tickling me???
After our lunch the kids were offered the chance to go on a ship tour with the adults or to go check out the Splash Academy. The question was barely to their ears when Zoe and Ana both declared "kid camp. bye!" Another reason we love cruising? Kid camp included. Kids are thrilled. Mom and Dad are thrilled. Enough said.
While we were on our tour we were shown one of the rooms. Before you say "oh my gosh that's the smallest closet of a room I've ever seen!!!!" let me say that the room they showed us was a small interior cabin. What was cool about it (from a family perspective) was that directly left of this picture was an identical (mirror image) cabin with an adjoining door. The "tour guide" pointed out being able to get the kids a room of their own. While I think it's a cool idea I don't imagine we'll be doing that anytime soon. Yes, 4 in a cabin is a little cramped... but we barely spend any time in the room. A little cabin (bigger than pictured) is perfect for the 4 of us to sleep and shower for dinner. I will say... the rooms had a very spa like feel to me. (And... Nick and I might have talked about trying to stow away in one of these opened rooms.)
The only really horrible part of this visit on the Norwegian Getaway? There was no way for us to stay on board when they sailed off to Miami! We weren't planning (or budgeting) for a cruise this year... but since coming home on Sunday we've been rearranging things and researching cruise ship schedules. While we won't be flying down to Miami to hop on the Getaway, you might be hearing about a cruise on the Norwegian Breakaway in our future. The Breakaway is the twin sister ship of the Getaway... and it ends up she sails right to Bermuda (which happens to be one of our favorite cruise destinations)!
Have you cruised before? What were your favorite (or even least favorite) parts?