Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Reviews - Reviews

First the positives: The service staff was fantastic. All of them work incredibly hard and are incredibly friendly and really want you to have a great time. Passenger numbers were around 2200, making it not difficult to do almost everything you wanted and not feel crowded. The ship certainly did not feel empty by any means. The pool was always busy, but you could find a lounger no problem. Six is a fantastic show, highly recommend The activities (when available) on the boat are really fun and the ropes course is pretty impressive. The food was good. Not amazing (other than Cagney's, which is on par with most steak houses landside), but definitely good. The negatives: SMOKE SMELL: From just outside of the MDR's at the aft of the ship, up to where Syd Norman's is (so call it 1/2 of the indoor area on decks 6/7/8), there is a reeking smell of smoke from the casino. The majority of the main public areas on decks 6/7/8 of the boat just smells like an old Vegas casino. This is just due to the layout of the casino being open and there being two atriums that allow air/smoke to circulate (and of course, NCL allowing smoking in the casino). I get it, you want smokers to stay at the tables and not leave, but it really stinks up the ship. A redesign of the casino to create a smoking area would do wonders to overall quality of the boat (for non-smokers in my opinion). ROATAN: NCL really needs to figure out Roatan.I would love to know the number of times in 2022 that this port has been skipped. On our cruise, we woke up, you could see Roatan on the port side of the ship and mainland Honduras on the starboard. As we approached the island, all of the sudden w e turned around. The captain came on and said due to the winds, he could not safely port and we would have a sea day. A huge bummer, as we had chartered a boat to take us snorkeling all day in Roatan. To make matters worse, as we sail away, a RCL ship (I believe the Allure), goes right into the port. I attended the Q&A with the Captain a few days later and the first question asked was about Roatan. He said, when the Breakaway docks in Roatan, the positioning of the dock is such that the winds hit it broadside. If the winds are over 33 knots, he cannot hold the ship. He said theRCL Ships dock at a different pier in the same port where they are not positioned broadside into the wind. From what I've read online (taken with a grain of salt), RCL invested in infrastructure in Roatan and built (or funded) the pier they dock at so that they can get ships (even bigger than the Breakaway). NCL has not done this and I know that out of the past 3 cruises, Roatan has been skipped twice. NO MINI GOLF OR CLIMBING WALL: Despite advertisements (including videos ON the ship) there is no longer Mini golf or a climbing wall. Some people have said these were removed due to new scrubbers for the exhaust, which could make sense for the climbing wall, but there is basically a huge empty area under the ropes course with NOTHING there. I have no idea why that couldn’t be used for mini golf. IMPROVEMENTS SUGGESTED: Work with Roatan to figure out a way to get a consistent way to dock or find a different port. Fix casino layout to trap smoke in a smoking section Use Spice H2O (outdoor area at the back of the ship with a huge screen) more for activities. Everything is in the Atrium, which is fine, but not really a distinctive or interesting place to be. Spice H2O was underused.

Embarkation was slow. The food was average. Service was good. The shows were good, but no band or music to listen to on the ship. Sail away was terrible. The band would start a song and then stop in the middle. Wait 5 minutes and then start a different song. WTF! The drinks were very weak, after drinking 10 of them. It was like I was drinking fruit juice.

As this was my first cruise, I learned a lot. I can’t wait to do it again. I learned what not to do next time. Overall it was still a great time with my mom, and we met a lot of great people!

We have sailed 44 times and will not sail on NCL again. Service was poor, lots of extra charges and they seem to be trying to funnel dining to specialty restaurants or the buffet.

I am a loyal NCL customer and love their commitment to customer satisfaction, service and food & drink. Only the Bliss is a better NCL ship than the Breakaway.

We had a great time on the ship and the most memorable time in Roatan. The ship was clean, there were plenty of things to do, and the service was top notch. Sid Normans was AMAZING! We did not find out about it until a few days into our trip. Some of the ports, such as Cozumel were a little disappointing.

best cruise ever! The cruise staff did an amazing job.

Great trip with many adventures, lost of entertainment, and good food and drink. Look forward to our next adventure and maybe getting more family to come.

Amazing time! First cruise since COVID and first time on NCL. Our family of 5 loved every minute of it.

Our itinerary was changed and we weren’t notified until we arrived at the terminal. We had excursions booked through independent companies. This was our fifth and last cruise on NCL. It feels like something happened with there customer service. We will do a different line next time.

We had the most amazing time. Everything was fantastic. It was more thank I could ask for and more. We got to meet lots of new people. We got to see new places and explore as a family. We heard a lot of complaining from a lot of people but given the circumstances of some of those issues we overall didn't care about any of them. We were happy to go on our trip. It was actually a rescheduled one for us because of covid. We had amazing service from all the crew members. There was a change in the ships itinerary that we didn't know about until the day of but for us we didn't care. We had to change excursions but actually for us it turned out to be the best thing for us. We had high ambitions going into the trip not realizing how much walking we would be doing all the time. We had so much fun we cannot wait to plan our next one and are already in the process of doing so. We absolutely loved NCL and we will definitely be using them again.

Would sail Norwegian again probably from a different port. We spent 3 hours just parking & getting through security at the port. Once we were on the ship & in the haven, we had an amazing experience.

First cruise for my family. We are already putting another one in the works! Thank you all. This is our “Hell Week”. In March 2018 we lost my dad. 5 days later we lost my husbands dad. So we do fun stuff this time every year. You all made it perfect.

Beautiful ship, good food and service, small pool area and not enough lounge chairs.

Great time on the Breakaway. Great crew. Good layout.

Cruise Finally On After 4 Rescheduling. Absolutely glad for the wait

Excellent return to cruising since the Pandemic hit. Cozumel and Roatan had some of the best snorkeling I’ve done. Service and food on NCL were top notch.

Overall, it was a good cruise, but having sailed on the Breakaway a few times prior to 2020, I see the ship is getting older and can use some updates (especially carpet and upholstery in cabins) and thoughtful improvements (especially seating and choice of furniture in high demand venues). Too bad there is only one pool for most guests to enjoy. The staff works so hard to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone.

We had a great time on the cruise. From the speciality dining to the shows. The only thing we wished NCL would do, is to prep us on the evening activities like the Glow party or other things we could pack for. Other than that, we enjoyed it very much.

Great cruise, spoiled with a 40% capacity cruise. Norwegian as a company needs to do better by their staff and match the great service that the front line service staff provide. The guest services on board and pre cruise are horrendous but I have never been treated better on cruise ship by everyone else like we were on the Breakaway. We are giving it another try in September, because of the staff and the ship!