Bermuda Breakaway

Overall, our Breakaway experience was a good. one. The boarding/exiting processes were organized and efficient and our luggage and room were ready early on boarding day. Except for a miniscule balcony which we realized would be petite, our mini suite was spacious with storage space leftover. The bathroom with the large double sink area and large, jetted shower was the best I've experienced on a cruise ship. The boardwalk dining option is an excellent idea, although when we ate at Ocean Blue, rain prevented our eating outside. Seating at the complementary diningrooms was handled efficiently and the cuisine, while good, lacked variety of past cruises. The buffet was tidy and offered many choices of foods during all meal times. As with other NCL ships, the cleanliness of our cabin, restaurants, and other public areas was superb. Entertainment productions were handled smoothly and their quality was good--not the best I've witnessed, but certainly enjoyable. The for-fee cirque production was exception, incidentally. The swimming and recreation areas were quite elaborate, although there were so many untended children aboard that participating in some activities was compromised:  kids on the golf couse, for example, fooled around and kept playing the same hole over and over, preventing others from completing the round.

At Spice H2O, I was disappointed that there was no adult designated swimming pool--a favorite feature of min on the Epic. While visually attractive, the chilly water cascade feature did not provide an adequate substitute for a real pool. While I realize that there is only so much space on a ship, the narrowing of the stateroom hallways was sometimes problematic, especially if a steward's cart was parked there, or if one had to follow a very slow moving individual up a very long hallway. Doing so often resulted in a long line of people "backed up" in a traffic jam-type queue as they wended their way to an elevator. I also question how such narrow halls would fair in rocky seas !

The staff onboard were friendly and generally knowledgeable regarding questions posed to them. Our room steward was "low profile" and kep our cabin neat and clean throughout the cruise. I also appreciated that, unlike former cruises, I was not habitually harrassed by staff selling bar items.