Was nervous when reading some of the reviews when the Getaway arrived in New Orleans a couple months ago. If you are organized and do your research before boarding, you will have a wonderful vacation. Our family has been on 8 cruises on medium to large Royal Carribean and Carnival ships and found the Getaway to be very similar in many ways. We always sail during the busiest times to cruise (Christmas or Spring Break) and was pleasantly surprised with how smoothly embarkation went at the port of New Orleans. Such an easy port to cruise out of and many family friendly hotels to choose from within 2 blocks. I recommend the Springhill Suites Convention Center. Large family suites with a large breakfast buffet included in the nightly rate. We arrived at 9:45 at the port and check-in and security took 15 minutes. They assign boarding numbers and we were on the ship by 11:15 eating lunch at O"Sheehans. Again, you will have a wonderful cruise, but the Getaway is a ship that requires advance planning. We reserved both large shows and all of our sit down meals 2 months in advance. We have most recently sailed on the Carnival Vista, Carnival Breeze and RCCL Freedom of the Seas and this is how we thought the Getaway compared:

Pros:

The main dining room menu selection was better than the last few cruises on Carnival and RCCL. Read more