My favorite cruises are the Trans-Atlantic repositioning trips. This one looked like a great itinery and that's why we took it. I'm not particularlly fond of the BIG ships, but we thought we'd give the Getaway a try. Ocean crossing was great - some sun & some clouds and mostly smooth sailing. Our first stop in Ponta DelGada was cancelled because of strong winds. Captain said it was too dangerous. That was okay and safety rules. Our next stop in Brest, France was extremely disappointing. The captain was negligent, by his own admission, in that he did not know the tides at the port. As a result, we had to disembark down ONE steep 'plank' to get off the ship - all 4,000 of us who wanted to get off. We stood in line for nerly 2 hours to simply get off the ship. Getting back on was the same........So, we spent 4 hous of our shore day standing in line. A lot of unhappy people......

Next, the ship developed a propulsion problem and we had to chug along slowly resulting is us missing our next port - Brussels. Not happy about that but, the ship needed a repair.

Rotterdam was a delight and the weather was nice and we had a great day - free shuttle bus! Read more