Norwegian Breakaway 10/2/16 sailing

This was a cruise that my wife and I took out of NYC to Bermuda.  This was our 6th cruise and second on a Norwegian ship.  First time on a ship of this size.  We both enjoyed the cruise very much and were excited to have a longer visit in one port where we did not feel the rush to get back to the ship before sailing each day.  Bermuda exceeded our expectations as a cruise port.  The Royal Naval Dockyards were clean and well kept, unlike some other ports we have visited.  The locals were extremely friendly and offered home grown insight on our shuttles to the beach.  Speaking of the beach.  Horseshoe Bay is one of the most beautiful beaches we have experienced.  Ranks right up there with Trunk Bay in St. John and 7 Mile Beach in Grand Cayman.  We liked it so well that we spent both of our beach days right there.  The ride to and from has some wonderful sights to see.  Now getting back to the ship itself. There are a lot of things that we truly enjoyed.  We felt check in was orderly and went smooth.  We got on board and found our way around rather easily.  Ship maps and deck listings by the elevators were easy to understand.  We started off our cruise in the sports bar watching football.  What a great way to start!!  Good food, drink and the Cowboys on TV.  This is a great place to grab a snack of the usual sports bar fare.  The Atrium is on the deck below and has a large video screen that can be seen from both decks.  The Atrium seems to be a central meeting place on the ship and I think that it's design and use is well thought out.  There were many activities taking place here and you didn't always have to go to a theater or lounge to take part.  Bingo, games, singing, karaoke, and movies, etc.  The movies shown were great!    Not to take anything away from the clubs or lounges.  We enjoyed those as well.  The production of Rock of Ages is very well done.  Howl at the Moon (dueling pianos) was great and the skits in the comedy club were very funny.  Overall entertainment on board is excellent.  We would have to say that overall the food was just o.k.  It wasn't bad, and lord knows we ate our fair share, but we didn't have any meals that we thought "wow".  Whether it was the main dining or specialty restaurant.  I don't mind a leisurely meal, but the courses were very slow sometimes.  So slow in fact that dessert was skipped at times.  We just felt that there were other things we would rather be doing.  Do love the Freestyle Dining.  But enough about that.  Back to the good stuff.  The pool areas were very nice.  Kids seemed to enjoy the slides, climbing wall, and ropes course. We never found it difficult to find a deck chair in a spot we wanted and the pool side games were fun to watch as always.  The crew was very attentive, whether it was filling drinks, clearing plates, or what ever.  They work extremely hard.  Our cabin steward was fabulous and we were surprised when he called us by name after first meeting us.  The captain and his officers were very accessible.  They could be seen out and about on many occasions.  They all seemed very happy while mingling with the passengers.  Shaking hands and thanking those on board for cruising Norwegian.  I thought that the captain did a great job of keeping us informed about the weather.  There was a Category 5 Hurricane hitting the Bahamas while we sailed, but we were never affected and the Captain was very reassuring.  The only thing that happened was we had to leave Bermuda a few hours early on the last day to get ahead of the storm heading home.  We were worried that this might put us back in cooler weather sooner, but it did not.  Whether the ship changed course, we don't know, but it was nice to soak up another day of sunshine before we ported.  Leaving early was a small price to pay for what could have been a disastrous week with the weather that was around us. Overall this cruise gets high marks and we will definitely look at another cruise on the Breakaway.