Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Reviews - Reviews

People who didn’t sign up shore excursions with cruise ship were not treated equal. We had to disembark after the people who signed up with them. I think that’s unfair. I paid for the transportation from shore to the town in Helsinki and they wouldn’t give me refund. Their reason was they don’t have a record who used the transportation even though I had a receipt that I took hop on & off bus from the shore. If they told us the info that there is Hop on & off bus at the shore, I wouldn’t have purchased the transportation to town.

It was a great cruise the there was a activity person that wasn't very nice. She thought she was funny but she wasn't. She yelled when she spoke and really didn't listen to what you have to say. For example they sent us out to our bus for the shore excursion before the regular crowd came down because my husband was super tall and we had to see if we could find a seat that he could fit in which we did all the way in the back in the middle. When we went down one of the activity people were call ahead of time and knew we were coming down and even though the person that took the call was trying to get us to the bus, this other activity person (I think her name was Bennie) she kept trying to put us to the side while the other person was trying to get us to the bus. This Bennie was trying to hold us and if the others came down and my husband couldn't fit we would have had to cancel the tour. There were other instances in the boat with the same activity person. So that is the only thing that was bad about the boat was this activity person.

Overall, this was time and money well spent! I truly enjoyed my vacation and all the parts of call visited.

Above and Beyond! Great Trip. Thank You so much. I can't say enough great things. no problems or issues. cant wait to do it again! Thank You Thank You THANK YOU!!!!!

We had a haven spa suite and haven cruising makes a big difference. The food in the haven restaurant is excellent and much better than the other restaurants. I do think they should change Haven menus between the various ships though. This was the same menu we had on the Epic. Lines to get through the port after Berlin and St Petersburg were very long, though maybe not the ship's fault.

My bucket list shore excursion was St Petersburg Russia. It was expensive, but it met all of my expectations and was excellent. We went off ship in all ports using Norwegian excursions and enjoyed every one. The Baltic is rife with old world architecture and incredible scenery. We have traveled to 56 foreign countries and this trip was one of our favorite.

We had a great time on this cruise and would definitely recommend it. Norwegian's Freestyle Dining plan is the way to go! There were no shortage of things to do onboard during the days at sea. The only downside was the WiFi. It is slow because the ship is moving. However, even when we were docked it seemed slow. We had no WiFi from our cabin for two days, and we finally talked to someone at the Internet Cafe and they did something about it. One must remember to log off the internet, otherwise the minutes in the plan will run out quickly.

Once in a lifetime cruise but I wouldn't do it again. Booked too many tours and the most extensive cruise in each port. No independent exploration opportunities or time to just relax and enjoy the ship.

I was extremely disappointed in Norwegian’s service. The staff was not helpful and was not able to answer basic questions such as “is there anywhere on board where I can print?” “What is the name of the port?”, etc. The response was always “I don’t know”. One day I received a note in my room stating for me to call Guest Services as they had a question for me. When I called no one knew what the note was in reference to. I have so many examples of their poor service and I will list them: -My friend and I upgraded our room 2 days before the ship and paid the difference. We also Pre-paid for EVERYTHING such as excursions, shows, Internet access, etc. At about 8PM THE DAY BEFORE OUR EXCURSION we noticed that we did not get our excursion tickets and went to go pick them up. We were told that we actually were not in their system and had no reservation. My friend showed them the confirmation email. It turns out that due to a glitch caused by the upgrade, Norwegian CANCELLED ALL OF OUR EXCURSIONS AND SHOWS and used those funds to pay for the difference in the upgrade even though we ALREADY paid for them. Causing me to be charged TWICE. The WORST part was that no one knew WHY or HOW this happened and would not help us. The manager told us to wait on a huge line or call LONG DISTANCE to my travel agency which had nothing to do with THEIR zero. They cancelled EVERYTHING on us and to this day they did not apologize or were able to figure out the situation. Terrible service. -we were a party of 9 and the hostess would be visibly annoyed whenever we requested a table for 9. One time a hostess at The Manhattan Dining Room even replied “seriously?” When we asked for a table of 9 (by the way reservations were not required). -On sea days, the ship is very crowded and does not have enough space to accommodate enough people. There really is no place for anyone to sit and relax. I asked a staff member if there was any place for us to sit and have coffee. Her response was “This is a ship with 4000 people what do you expect? If you would have called before your trip and asked us to reserve you a space we could have done it”. I’m sorry but who calls ahead of time to reserve a space for 5 people to drink coffee? Isn’t that what the restaurants are for? By the way they close them very early and they are only open during certain hours on Sea Day. - Restaurant service was horrible. Breakfast takes 1.5 hours even for a group of 2. Steaks are never prepared as requested. Even at the specialty dining restaurant I asked for a medium rare steak and it arrived well done. Your drinks will also be forgotten about.

Super interstellar ports and fantastic service on board- definitely recommend

Exciting cruise for us, especially visiting Russia. Tours could be tiring especially you have to go to the theater for meeting point. Burn the Floor was a fantastic show, don't miss it. The specialty restaurant was a plus and the buffet was pretty good.

A Great first experience! Large boat, lots of eating venues. Was a family cruise, next time, pick time of cruise better. Too many kids. Took over entire pool / outdoor area. Were running in halls & room above us at all hours of day. Was a bit frenetic. But next time, will check that. Otherwise a cruise where nothing really went wrong. Amazing! Will cruise again!

Pros: Staff was amazingly pleasant from top to bottom. I just did not have one single interaction that was not good. I think that is incredibly hard to do given the number of staff they have, so kudos to the whole team there. Food at all the 'included' restaurants was solidly good aside from the desserts, which were mediocre. Ports of call and shore excursions were really, really good. I find it worth it to go on guided tours as the guides will provide in one 5 minute talk what it would take me to learn over a few hours of wandering on my own through museums and reading placards. Our balcony suite was excellent as well. More roomy that I expected for two adults and a 17 year-old. Beds were comfy, and the balcony was worth it. The violinist was very entertaining as was their singer/guitarist. Cons: Really, NCL needs to work on the design/functionality of their IT systems -- Their website is clunky, got our guest names, dob's, pictures, packages all mixed up when they were doing the boarding cards. They don't have an app that you can use to manage your trip until you actually get onboard. I also found the way they presented the shore excursion options on the website to not be the way a customer would review, compare, and select.

Overall this cruise was excellent. Plenty of dining choices. Staff were friendly and accommodating. Entertainment was of a very good standard. My only problem was the position of the casino. This should have been on deck 8 where the shopping was not on the main dining deck. Either that or make smoking areas closed in with plenty of ventilation.

Had the impression that Norwegian tried to squeeze every last cent possible out of the clients. Even had to pay for water. Had a free drink package and three specialty dinners free. . Cost me a ton of money in the end because tips were not included. Crazy expensive for things that were supposed to be free. Not really honest. I can also guarantee that those poor servers won’t see a penny of the tips I paid.

This was a good cruise for the most part. We've cruised many times, and for the first time they confiscated my power strip citing electrical/fire hazard. there are only 2 outlets in the room, we had to juggle all our devices throughout the entire trip. they also took away bottles of water we had in our luggage.

The Breakaway is a great ship. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise as a whole. Don't expect much from the food or service from NCL, and you won't be disappointed. You don't need to buy an excursion for any port besides St. Petersburg, as all can easily be done on your own. Plan and know your transportation options and sight destinations beforehand. Be ready to GO GO GO, as you have 5 days straight in ports, and a lot of time and attention is needed to manage your travel, stay on time, and ensure you don't miss the ship. Plan to do a lot of walking. There were six in our group, and everyone from age 10 to 56 loved it. Our weather in late July was amazing. Mostly sun with temps in 80s throughout the Baltics, which was generally better than average. Throughout the cruise, we experienced less than 5 total minutes of rain. The Baltic Sea was amazingly smooth throughout the cruise, except for about 3 windy hours leaving Helsinki. In general, we loved the ship, loved the ports, loved the cruising, but was given poor service and nickel-and-dimed by Norwegian Cruise Lines the whole way. I would do this cruise again in a heartbeat, but find another cruise line than NCL.

Norwegian Breakaway is a large cruise. However, the evening entertainment is poor. You won't get to enjoy a show every night like Princess Cruiseline. They changed the port from Stockholm to Nynashamn. We wasted 4 hours to get on and back to the cruise.

You just had to pay extra for too many things especially with teenagers traveling with you.

Very-Good in general. I did not realized how big this ship is until I was at the breakfast buffet. I would like an smaller ship.