Good but not as great as past cruises

Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 5
Helpful Votes: 119

Overall rating:

4.5 out of 5
Norwegian Breakaway

7 Night Western Caribbean (New Orleans Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 24, 2019

Ship: Norwegian Breakaway

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 14112

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

We love cruising with NCL. We are going to try one of the smaller ships next time as we have only been on the larger ships so far. Overall the ship was clean and the staff good. We had a few small issues, but speaking with an officer they were quick to explain to us the situation or remedy it and make us happy. We will continue to cruise with NCL. The one thing that I noticed on this cruise was the number of teenagers that were left unattended and created havoc on the ship. I know many parents will say "not my kids", but they were somebody's kids. We watched two children taking serving utensils off the buffet and play with them at the tables. We had to "parent" them and ask them to return them to ship staff so they could be used by other people on the cruise. We also watched poor staff have to clean up after some kids who decided it would be fun to have a ketchup and mustard fight in the buffet dining room taking out several seats at a busy breakfast time. It was also overheard a couple of teenagers deciding to have a party in their parent's room while their parents were out doing who knows what. While it feels like our children can't be taken because they are on a ship, let's not be foolish, things can still go wrong. Children should not be running around unsupervised at 1:00 am as I saw on our last cruise.

Embarkation

4 out of 5
The port out of NOLA was not great. Getting on the ship wasn't bad at all, but the port itself was bad.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
O'Sheehans pub side service was really bad this time. Everywhere else was great service!

Ocean Blue

5 out of 5

New menu when we were there. The appetizer which was the pork belly was amazing! Food was great. I had the Chilean sea bass which was excellent. Service was amazing! If you do this as part of your meal package there is an additional upcharge but worth it. They do serve chicken and steak if you don't want seafood.

Shanghai's Noodle Bar

5 out of 5

Good food, books fast. If you want to try this I suggest booking a meal at the start of the cruise. We got stuck eating at 5:00 as there were no other times left to pick from. Limited seating. It is part of the complimentary dining.

O'Sheehan's Neighborhood Bar and Grille

3 out of 5

The restraunt side was good and has a bigger menue. The pub side service was just bad most of the time. Also, the pub side does not serve food after midnight. Perhaps after this contract the service may change, I think the contract will change after June 2019. But if you eat or get drinks on the pub side, don't expect great service.

The Manhattan Room Restaurant

5 out of 5

The food and service was very good!!

Teppanyaki

5 out of 5

Always fun, food is good.

Garden Café

4 out of 5

Was good, their scrambled eggs don't seem like real eggs. I end up getting scrambled eggs from the omlet bar instead.

Cagney's Steakhouse

5 out of 5

Excellent as per usual. Service was great!

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5
Didn't do a lot of the activities. We hung out at the pool on sea days. Went to one of the art auctions for the first time, that was entertaining. We stayed in a spa room so spent time in the thermal spa which was crowded. So many people camped out on the heated stone seats despite signs stating not too and people were loud.

Spa Thermal Suite

5 out of 5

So, this is a smaller thermal spa. There are signs asking to not "reserve" stone beds and to limit your time to 30 minuets yet people posted their towels down are will camp on the beds for a very long time when it's busy. It's frustrating.

Pool

4 out of 5

VERY crowded. They will kick the kids out of the pool as it's for adults only but the kids will crowd into the adult hot tubs. The pool is missing some tiles which is surprising since the ship was just in dry dock last year. People will come out and reserve seats early. Great for people watching though.

Spa Salt Room

5 out of 5

It's good, not crowded

Entertainment

5 out of 5
Saw Rock of Ages that was excellent (Those complaining that it was not for children, there were AMPLE warnings prior to the show in writing and verbally). The adult comedy show was great and the Syd Norman Pour House show was so good we saw them three times.

Spice H2O

4 out of 5

We didn't spend a lot of time here this time. Their water feature was closed. I assume it's because it was missing A LOT of tiles. Again, with it just being in dry dock just last year I am surprised.

Syd Norman's Pour House

5 out of 5

This is now Syd Normans Pour House. The show is EXCELLENT. Get there early for a seat. They don't perform on Wednesdays and do kareoke earlier in the evenings. We ended up going to watch them three times in the week.

Headliners Comedy Club

5 out of 5

This will be hit and miss based on the comedian. Ours was great!

Breakaway Theater

5 out of 5

We saw Rock of Ages here and it was an excellent show. There was PLENTY of warning about the adult content of this show via signs and announcements prior to the show.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5
We had excellent service from our room steward, Whiskey bar, shops, Manhatten Room, Ocean Blue, and Cagneys. Service, in general, was good. As stated before, service from the pub side of O'Sheehans was horrible. We are pretty reasonable but when it's not busy and we are waiting over 45 mins for food or just don't get food we ordered. Or when nobody comes back to see if we need more drinks or never brings our drinks, there is no excuse for that kind of service.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5
I was actually surprised to see some of the wear in some areas considering the ship was just in dry dock last year. The pool had missing tiles in a few spots and the water feature in Spice H2O was closed with A LOT of missing tiles. There were many stains in the carpet in elevators and carpet area by stairs that I thought had just been replaced.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
The bed was hard for me so I was not as comfortable as I would have liked. Other than that it was fine. It was clean. Our steward did a great job keeping our room clean.

Ports of call

Belize City, Belize

5 out of 5
We did the Rum Tasting excursion, it was a great excursion. It was interesting to see the city and get some information about it while we were on our way to our destination.

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

5 out of 5
I do like this port despite it being mostly shops. I love the pool in the middle. If you go back behind the main shopping area there is a taco place behind that is AMAZING. Strongly suggest eating there. If you buy jewelry here, do not pay suggested price, anytime you walk away, they will drop the price by 1/3 almost right away.

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
Line was long, but moved quick once it started. Be sure to have your room key card and passport at the ready as you will need room card to leave ship and passport after that. Both will help the lines move quickly.
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3 Comments

kpalmer1    5 years ago

We will be on the Breakaway in January, so thanks for the review! Going on the Dawn in 21 days! First time on a smaller ship! Thought we would give it a try! Loved the Escape and the Bliss!!

nclcruzr    5 years ago

Thanks for the review, we will be on the breakaway April 21. We have sailed on several ncl ships but not the breakaway. We were on the getaway in March and the college kids were pretty unruly! Plus they can drink at 18 which doesn't help! The poor crew having to deal with them!

PandCcruisers    5 years ago

Try the Pearl, Jewel or Jade, you will like their lay out.

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