NCL Getaway, 10 day Baltic Capitals cruise, June 2017, Balcony Aft cabin, deck 14. I have taken 15+ cruises on most of the major cruise lines including our last previous cruise on the NCL Spirit. However this was the first cruise on one of the new Mega size cruise ships. There were 6,580 people on our cruise (1,800 were staff). It really is a floating small city. Because of its large size, there are many positives and negatives about cruising on this type of ship.

Positives: The staff were great, very friendly and always looking to help you enjoy your vacation, NCL does a great job at port check-in and departure, the entire process took only a few minutes. The ship was very stable, even in choppy water, we never felt any movement. The high speed elevators were very efficient. Our cabin was well designed, lots of storage space, comfortable bed and pillows. The food in the complimentary main dining rooms (3) was excellent every meal. We ate dinner in the Tropicana every night, and a few of our breakfasts in the sit-down Savor/Taste restaurants. The food in the Garden buffet was good with lots of variety including vegetarian, Indian, Asian and a different theme Western menu changing daily. Shenanigan’s Pub offered very good complimentary food and snacks 24 hours/day. Therefore we never ate in any of the specialty restaurants. FYI – the wine selection is excellent. The ship offered a comprehensive entertainment program, including a great Circa Sole dinner show ($25/pp) and a Broadway style dance show Burn the Floor (free).

Negatives: because of its large size the buffet lines were always crowded and it was difficult to find a table, especially if your group was larger than 4 people. You needed reservations for almost all the entertainment on the ship (both free & paid), including the evening main theater shows (a first in all my cruising trips). Most prime time shows were booked solid by the second day, therefore you had to wait in a standby line. We were not able to dock at the Warenmunde port because it was a windy day and our ship was too large for the narrow channel. We had to circle outside for the port for 1 ½ days waiting for the wind to die down, all the while watching other cruise ships enter and leave, including another smaller NCL ship !! 800 passengers disembarking that day missed their flight and travel connections home, and another 800 had to stay overnight in Germany waiting to board the ship. Because of this, NCL had to cancel the next port call in Tallin, Estonia and sail full speed direct to St. Petersburg. Act of God, therefore no compensation from NCL for any lost costs. The line to get back on the ship in Germany was over one kilometer long and took one hour and 45 minutes to re-board. Russia was not much better, it took 45 minutes to exit the ship due to the long passport control lines. Finally we were not able to dock in the port of Stockholm, once again because no large berths were available for our ship that day, and we had to dock one hour outside the city. NCL did not offer any compensation or free transport into the city. I can understand bad weather and acts of God which NCL has no control over, but NCL certainly has control over which ports they visit and they should not schedule port calls where the ship can only enter under optimal weather conditions or where the port does not have the capacity to handle the large number of passengers getting on and off the ship. If we were sailing on a smaller size ship, none of the negatives above would have occurred and it would have been a perfect vacation. Therefore, I have to give the Getaway two thumbs down for this trip and NCL for poor customer service and logistical management. No more mega ship cruises for me !!