Norwegian Getaway Review
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We booked this cruise around late August, having seen a good deal on the NCL website which included the premium beverage package, 250 minutes of wifi and the prepaid service charges. As per the title, this is my first cruise in a decade (last being on Independence of the Seas on Royal Caribbean), and my first ever with Norwegian.
The cruise began in Rome, so we grabbed the earliest flight from London Stansted and took a private taxi straight to the boat - thankfully, best laid plans and all that, this went smoothly and we joined what was already a long queue around midday. Embarkation took some time, given the numbers of people and the numerous Covid restrictions currently in place, but it was pretty efficient given the circumstances. The longest wait was the penultimate step, where we received lateral flow tests and awaited the results. This involved waiting in a fairly small holding area for half an hour, scanning for our unique ID's to come up that we were negative. We did get through after almost exactly a half hour, but the TV screens are fairly small and having to watch these screens constantly for complex numbers was quite tiring - not the most enjoyable part of the holiday, for sure! Also, fair warning - the Covid test was excruciating, easily the most painful I've ever received and, likely as a result, the most thorough! You will also need to take tests midway and at the end of the cruise in the Bliss Lounge which a much less painful experience, in more ways than one!
The boat: I'll keep this short - it looks great. I believe it was refurbished in 2019, which explains why it looks brand new, especially given the whole Covid thing. It's a lot bigger boat than I thought it'd be yet its very easy to navigate, which is quite impressive; a lot of boats like this can be really disorientating. All open spaces, corridors and so on were clean and well maintained, and staff were ever present in areas like the spa and fitness centre. It'll become clear later on, but the crew on board were outstanding and while travelling with more seasoned cruisers than I, we all agreed they were easily the best staff we've all ever seen on any cruise.
Cabin Review
I managed to get a really reasonable upgrade from an inside cabin to a balcony room. Having only done inside cabins previously, the upgrade is well worth it. I love how pitch black the inside cabins are at night but those rooms can be really disorientating without natural light. There are downsides - on one particular day it was very windy, and waking up at 6am to howling winds squeaking through the gaps of the balcony window was certifiably not a good time - I thought I was going to be deafened and there is no way around the noise. If you're on a trip where the weather is going to be suboptimal it's worth considering this - you won't have this issue in an inside cabin or studio.
Outside of this, the room itself is great - its mostly well designed and with lots of storage space. The bed is on the soft side but it is extremely comfortable. The balcony is a decent size, felt surprisingly private and provided great views of the ports from the back of the boat - being able to read a book coming into and out of the port is worth the upgrade free by itself. The bathroom was good, lots of storage space and a nice shower, although I did think the space around the toilet was pretty limited by both the shower and the washbasin.
On this note, I felt the biggest design flaw of the room with regards to a lack of space in this room was between the bed and the wardrobe - its pretty tight, and that made unpacking, grabbing clothes and packing again more of a pain than it needed to be. Another flaw the room has in the same part of the room was the lack of charging outlets on either side of the bed - they're all on the desk opposite the bed and underneath the TV. This isn't a huge problem, after all there's plenty of outlets, but its a little weird compared to other boats and hotel rooms not to have them, if only to charge your phone.
Finally, a huge shoutout to Charlie, who was our cabin steward. He was terrific; super helpful, always keeping the cabin clean and tidy, and great at replenishing the Yorkshire tea (which is way better than the Liptons on offer, sorry Americans!).