Let me start off by saying that this is our second cruise. We took our first cruise last March on board the Celebrity Reflection. That was an amazing experience all around! I knew from the reviews that the Getaway was not going to be the same experience that we had on Celebrity Reflection, but I guess I wasn't prepared for how different it would be.

Embarkation went just fine. Of course there were long lines, but the staff had everything under control and we moved through pretty quickly! We got on board and our bags were at our stateroom pretty early. It was a nice start to our cruise.

The entertainment and activities on this ship are great. It seems like there is always something to do! We spent more time enjoying the night life on this ship than Celebrity. In addition to evening entertainment, there were lots of activities during the day as well! We made some awesome friends during trivia that we stuck with for the remainder of our vacation. The public areas surrounding the three story foyer encompassing deck 6-8 were completely intolerable due to the cigarette smoke coming from the casino! This is clearly a design flaw! To make matters worse, they force to walk through the casino. It was awful for those of us that don't smoke. I didn't bother eating at Shanghai's since it was right in the midst of this smoke cloud! For such a new ship I was very much surprised by this. While on the topic of design, who ever thought the such a small pool area was enough for such a large ship! I understand that the water slides, ropes course, rock wall, and such take up room, but it left for no "relaxation" space near the pool. Aside from the that, the area was always packed. In all honesty I think I spent 5 minutes in the pool, I couldn't stand it! Read more