Cruised with my two adult children ages 31 and 26 for a mom getaway, no pun intended to the Western Caribbean Jan. 7 to 14. We stayed at the Hampton Inn downtown, which I would do again and took an Uber to the port around 10:30 am. Waited in line about 5 minutes to enter the terminal and after quickly checking in were seated in a large area and called to board about a half hour later. We headed to the buffet for lunch where seats were always plentiful throughout the cruise even in peak times. I have been on a dozen cruises, the latest being Royal’s Allure in Oct. 2016. Overall this ship was the cleanest and sanitized ship I had ever been on. Hand washing is continuously emphasized by the crew which I feel is a good thing. We had balcony cabin 1380 which is an angled balcony where the ship sticks out so it was twice the size of the balcony beside us. There was ample storage space and in fact we did not use all of the shelf space in the cabin or bathroom. Bring an extra hotel room key from somewhere to put in the slot in the room which keeps the electricity/ lights on when you are not there. The bed was way more comfortable than those on Allure and the cabin was always spotless. Our room steward Eton was fabulous and well worth his extra tip at the end of the cruise. Loved being able to signal the room steward with indicators when we wanted our room done. The climate control in the cabin also worked much better than on Allure which was always hot and stuffy. I was also pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food. I found the food on Allure to be mediocre at best and was afraid this was an industry trend. However, our four meals in the Tropicana main dining room were excellent and always hot. The prime rib on the last night was very, very good. Lobster was not on the menu, but being from New England that didn’t matter to me. Tepanyake was excellent. The food was delicious and way too much to finish. The Japanese chef certainly funny and entertaining. We also went to Canney’s. No complaints there and to La Cucina, which was also very good. Every day I had made to order omelettes in the buffet for breakfast. No waiting. One morning we did have an excellent breakfast one of the main dining rooms which was very good. The food in Osheehans was good for lunch or a snack, just avoid the Nachos. Found the buffet food good as well at lunch, except for the pizza which was bland and a not so good crust. I assume the ship was full but the only crowding we experienced was in the atrium when activities and shows were going on. We were usually on deck by 10 am even on sea days and did not have a problem finding lounges in the sun. Our complaint being fron New England was that the Patriots playoff game was only broadcast on the smaller TVs in osheehans and without audio because there were activities in the atrium. We watched the end of the game in our cabin. The adult comedy show in the theatre was good and we really enjoyed The Million Dollar Quartet performance was excellent. For excursions we did the Maya Key Private Island Retreat in Roatan. Would have been nice except it was pouring rain and cold that day but we did enjoy seeing all the rescue animals in the preserve. My kids did a Jeep and snorkel excursion in Cozumel which they enjoyed. They got off the ship shortly after 8 am and were supposed to return at 1.30 and didn’t get back until 3 so they were very hungry. Obviously they didnt rush anyone from the beach. We chose self disembarkation which is very popular. A little bit off a line to get off but that’s expected. We left our cabin at 8.15 and took an Uber to the airport and were in thru security by 9.15. No more putting your support teases out in the hall the night before which is nice! And you don’t have to fill out custom forms any longer unless you were a big spender. Oh, and the casino. The smoking portion was really, really smokey which I avoided but the slots seemed to be pretty loose. Overall we were very impressed with the Getaway. It was a lot more open to the sea with the outside dining concept than Allure. We are sticking with NCL and getting people together for a cruise on the new Bliss next year. Have to add all the crew seemed very happy and enthusiastic. Service was always good everywhere on board.