I chose this cruise because my husband wanted to try a trans-Atlantic cruise. The cost was very reasonable and many other couples in our community were traveling on this cruise so it seemed like a great idea. There were some positives and a lot of negatives.

First, the positives were the crew, food and entertainment. The staff were amazing! Very kind and always smiling. The food in the regular restaurants was good but the food in the Specialty restaurants were exceptional. In fact, we had purchased 5 Specialty dinners prior to boarding and were so impressed purchased an additional 3 Specialty dinners. The entertainment was acceptable.

The negatives unfortunately outweighed the positives. I have never experienced a feeling of too many people onboard a ship. I have traveled with Princess, Holland, Royal Caribbean and Carnival and none of these ships had an overcrowded feeling. There were people everywhere on the Getaway. We could not go to 2 ports. The first port in the Azores because seas were too rough and then due to a mechanical problem, our trip to Belgium was also cancelled. When we arrived in Brest, France, the was disorganization getting on and off the ship. In fact, we were in line for over 2 hours disembarking and over 1.5 hours embarking. I guess disorganization is the term I would use to describe this trip. The management team did a very poor job of organizing for this number of people on this large of a ship. it seemed like it was a first time voyage and we were the guinea pigs. Read more