Loved the cruise on the NCL Getaway. This was my first NCL cruise, and I really enjoyed the way the ship is designed with the convergence of decks 6, 7 and 8 into a big exciting atmosphere with tons of activity. The variety of restaurants and entertainment is also fantastic. The food was very good, although I still believe Holland America to have been the best so far.

The bad... deck 15 with the pools is far too crowded and poorly designed for a ship with almost 4,000 passengers. Had they done some clever design and perhaps removed one of the bars, it wouldn't have been so cramped. I never once saw a hot tub with fewer than 5 people in it. The main pool is tiny. Good luck finding a deck chair on any of the at-sea days. NCL offers a private pool section that you can pay $100/per person to use for the week, but we were too late and it was sold out. Speaking of week-long purchases, use of the spa/thermal room/pools/sauna was only available as a $200/per person for the week option instead of a per-day option as I've seen on other cruises. This is a bad idea and ludicrously overpriced. I would have gladly paid $40-$50/day for this, but it was not an option.

Another issue that indicates poor crowd control was that embarkation was a zoo. I'm not sure whether this blame belongs to Port of Miami staff/facilities or NCL. But, the waiting area is absolutely not suitable for as many people as were packed in. The bathrooms were filthy in the embarkation lobby and were tiny. In addition, the communication by the staff indicating how to queue up to board the ship was awful. One staff member was literally screaming at people and ordering them to sit down even though there were not enough chairs for everyone.