Great cruiseline, terrible ship

Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 12

Overall rating:

2 out of 5
Verified Review
Norwegian Breakaway

7 Night Bahamas & Florida (New York Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 01, 2015

Ship: Norwegian Breakaway

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 14870

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 9 years ago

Review summary

First of all, I love Norweigian, I've been cruising with them since 2003 and love the freestyle concept and that is what is wrong with the Breakaway.  The amount of passengers overwhelm the seating capacity of many of the free amenities on the boat.  For example, the theater has limited capacity and you need to reserve a seat in advance.  Never have I had to do that before on any other Norwegian boat or any other cruise line.  And, I felt, the staff on the boat was overwhelmed with the amount of people and there were a few servers that didn't care for the passengers.  One other comment regarding the entertainment.  The cruise offers Rock of Ages as their free show.  I live ten miles out of NYC, I can see a broadway play anytime and this ship claims to be a NYC based boat but the show was terrible.  The singers were off key, the acting was poor... I compare it to a High School play.  If you claim to be NYC based, your going to get a lot of NYC people so you better offer a quality play.  As for their Cirque type play, be prepared to pay for it.  Thats not freestyle cruising.  I understand you have to pay upcharges for some restaurants, which were very good but the entertainment should be free.  It's not and it was explained by the customer service people that, although they serve dinner, you are paying for the show.  I didnt go on a cruise to be nickel and dimed for what should be free on any boat.   They also sit you, as customer service explained, family style so you will be eating with other passengers.  One of the reasons I enjoy Norwegian is the ability to sit with my family, on my vacation without being forced to share my time with them.  I turned down the show and ate elsewhere.  Again, love the cruiseline but if this is the future of Norwegian, I'll take my business elsewhere.   Also, the NY Pier is a disaster, the capacity overwhelms the design of the pier so there is a lot of waiting to board but the pier becomes uncomfortable.  Breakaway is very disappointing

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Ship Quality

1 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

Do not stay on the 14 level, the 15 level is active due to the arcade, and other sports activity so it tends to be occupied to the early hours. You can hear all the people moving chairs and such. It becomes very disruptive at 3 am when the boat staff go to clean the deck and all you hear is them moving things and pressure washing the deck. Also in the back of the boat, on the 16 level, there is the over 21 dance level, Spice H2O. There is loud music thumping till it closes at least after 1 am so you can not keep you balcony door open.
Was this review helpful? 12

3 Comments

Gwbigdog    1 year ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise.

Gwbigdog    1 year ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

jimnavorouski    9 years ago

You should have stayed home

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