Norwegian Getaway Review
Overall Great Ship but Definitely Not Perfect
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This was our first cruise on Norwegian and overall I would rate it pretty well. The Getaway is a beautiful ship with something to offer for everyone regardless of age or activity level. There were some aspects that were fantastic and some that could use some refining. The ropes course and waterpark were awesome but the main pool was shockingly small for a ship of this size. And why they let people put chairs inside the pool area to make it even smaller is beyond me. The way they do the photography is pretty nice as are the touch screens located around the ship to help with reservations or seeing what's going on, dinner menus, etc. The ship was pretty much spotless and seemed very well maintained. Overall we really enjoyed the cruise and were quite happy with it.
Embarkation: Very well handled and very quick. One of the best I've experienced in years which was impressive considering the size of the ship and the amount of passengers. Our room was ready when we boarded which wasn't true for most areas we saw, maybe this was due to it being a family area. However our luggage didn't arrive until about 8:00PM which was odd.
Port of Miami: The port was easy to access even though we flew into Fort Lauderdale. We stayed two nights in South Beach prior to cruising at 'The Hall Hotel" which also was fantastic. We simply took a taxi to the port which was cheap and easy. I didn't book transfers back to FLL as I was told by multiple people it would be cheaper to take a taxi since we had 4 people and this turned out to be true. Ended up costing $75 for a private van back to FLL. The sailaway from Miami was beautiful!
Cabin Review
Family Mini-Suite with Balcony
I originally had booked a different Mini-Suite but opted for a mini-Suite guarantee at the suggestion of our T.A due to over a $600 savings. We ended up in cabin 12182 which was a "Family Mini-Suite" located a bit forward of mid-ship, quite a nice location actually and unusually quite for being so close to The Splash Academy. That said, this cabin was not a Mini-Suite IMO but rather a balcony cabin with a bigger bathroom. The bathroom was nice but had bathtub instead of the upgraded showers the regular mini-suites have. Lots of space and drawers in the bathroom. The bed was situated by the balcony which was a plus as I can't imagine how tight the closet area would have been with the bed in that location. We had 4 people in the cabin and the room has a sofa-bed and a pull-down bed which worked fine. Oddly enough the room steward never once changed the room back during the day to give more space, I have never experienced that before on any cruise as they always change the rooms back during the day and then do a "turn-down" service at night. I also had to ask for towel animals as the kids love them but our room steward seemed to have no intention of doing this even though we had a kid with us. The balcony was the smallest I've ever seen!