Went on the Getaway to cruise in Northern Europe through the Baltic Sea. This was my wife's first cruise and my first with NCL (I had been on two HAL cruises as a kid). I went into the cruise feeling pretty apprehensive based on the dozens of horribly negative reviews I had read about this ship. Fortunately, I found very little of that negativity to actually manifest itself on my vacation.

Some common complaints I had read and my rebuttal based on my experience:

"The ship was too crowded.": Yes, the ship had over 4000 passengers along with 1600 crew members. There are a LOT of people on board. However, the ship is gigantic and I found it actually eats up crowds pretty well. The only time I felt overcrowded was at the buffet (more on that later) and occasionally in the atrium. We were always able to find chais lounges or chairs outside by the pool, or up on the sun deck. When it wasn't nice enough to hang out outside, it was very rare to not find an open seat somewhere in a public area. Read more