Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We really loved the days at sea, and the beach at Great Stirrup  Cay. The Bahamas turned out to be a Third-World destination with a very thin veneer of shopping. (Yikes!) The natives there are pretty upset, and who could blame them, watching millions of dollars getting offloaded with each ship, yet none of those dollars finding their way to even paint their buildings. Don't ever want to go back there.

There is nothing that can compare to sitting cozily on the balcony, watching the ocean go by, or eating at a world-class restaurant getting pampered as if we were royalty. Amazing. Wonderful.

HOWEVER: wow. That was 'way too many people. I had to run several delightful, cruise-related errands. No problem. But getting through the throng... UGH! The press of people was so close that I could not swing my arms as I walked. The poor wait staff was obviously overworked and exhausted. They were prompt, friendly, gracious, and tried to anticipate our every need, but their eyes were glassy and leaden from lack of sleep.

What a difference between this and the Pride of America! Those workers were exhausted, but joyous. Our ship then was full enough that we HAD to socialize, instead of being so crowded that conversation was impossible. The Breakaway, had it been our first voyage, despite the top-drawer amenities, would most definitely have been the last.

We inquired at the CruiseNext desk, and it turns out that we need to go on a longer cruise, smaller ship, and avoid school breaks. We will try cruising one more time before giving it up altogether.

We had never cruised on a ship this large, and soon knew it wasn't for me. Long lines for everything. Dinner selections were varied and fine.  Truly enjoyed the show "Bump the Floor". I think it was called. AMAZING. Service in any dining option we chose was excellent. We found every staff person we encountered helpful and pleasant. The young man who took care of our room also did a wonderful  job. We appreciated how professional and pleasant he was. Enjoyed the balcony. 

Great staff/food/cleanliness/shows.  The February departure from New York means that you will lose at least two(2) day of caribean temperature from your cruise. Inside the ship can also be crowded during these two (2) days as the temperature does not really allow upper deck activities....except for the braver passengers.

The cruise itself was lovely. Port Canveral, Grand Stirrup Cay, and Nassau were just beautiful, sunny and warm. The beaches were lovely. The cruise line left much to be desired. Freestyle dining is a joke. If you did not have reservations you waited and waited for a table. One evening there was literally a mob scene on the line waiting for entry into the Manhattan Room. My husband walks with a cane and was almost knocked over twice! The cruise line paid more attention to it's pay restaurants (there were more of them). There were very limited and unimaginative activities. Reservations were also needed for any of the entertainment; some entertainment you had to pay for!! There are too many other choices for cruise lines; don't waste your time or money on this one.

Me and my wife went on this cruise on our honeymoon not knowing what to expect being our first cruise. It was beyond our expectations. The staff was so nice our room was always cleaned twice daily and the food was amazing! I plan on taking this cruise again next year for our 1 year anniversary 

1.5 hours to disembark- Of which we had to wait  30 minutes outside in the 12 degree weather - poorly handled.  Ship is way too crowded. Lines for everything.

Overall had a great time.  Ship was clean, food very good & shows great.  This is our 2nd time on this ship &  loved it both times.  I would want to go with another couple next time.  The more the merrier -I only went with boyfriend & sometimes you want to do other things.   But the ship is great & has may options & resturants to try.  Love cruises! 

food was okay.... Service on the dinner room hit or miss. The Pub has great food and great service.  Show at night was :( ... Miss the really Broadway show that family friendly.  Parkwest put on a great show... Must go check out art auction...

Need to book seat for some show (second city, rock of age....)

for 985 dollars can't really complain.

Food was ok...not nearly as good as we thought it would be...not much to do when the weather is cold...unless you gamble, the casinos on the ship allow for smoking, which is a real bummer.  The best part of the cruise was the Rock of Ages Show.  WE saw it on Broadway and these performers were better than we saw on Broadway.  AMAZING!  

Tendering lines were CRAZY long to get off the boat....not sure I would cruise on this cruise line again.  Our friends RAVE about the food on their cruises...and they have never gone Norwegian.  SO maybe we would try a different cruise line next time...and also, leave when it's warmer so there is more to do besides gamble. 

This boat is very large and plenty to do on it. All employees are very friendly and open to have a nice conversation. The food was fantastic. Even only having an interior room for my girlfriend and I it was more than enough room and very comfortable. And if you decide to dine in at Savor, ask for Petar, he is a fantastic wine specialist who can recommend all types of perfect beverages to suit what your meals would be. Fantastic service and a great time all around.

Got Back of what Norwegian use to be,because  after this cruise  your Company lost a lot of customers.There is not to much to talk about of what I feel about this cruise  Service OKAY/Food nothing special about it Buffet  below average/ Shows

average and very hard to get a seat  unless reserved before and 99% of the time not available.

Coming home. The stops were not interesting, there was very little to do. The price of the Cruise was attractive, however I found myself nickle and dimed to death, everything had a fee. Speciality dinning with the exception of Cagney's was on par with Diner Food, one Speciality restaurant had a additional $17.95 per person fee. Purchasing a bottle of Pepto cost $43.75, ( $13.75 for the Pepto, $30.00 for someone to open the door to medical and hand it to me, the other person wanted a band-aid, he was directed to a vending machine, 50 cents for two Band-Aids. The free excursion I was told I had, was actually a $50.00 credit towards a excursion. The Staff was uniquely unhelpful, most of the Staff had limited English language skills. I was very disappointed with the experience. 😡 

The service personnel (waiters, house keeping, guest services, shore excursion staff, etc.) were all very professional and kind.  Really enjoyed the people on board as everyone was nice.  The complimentary food was plentiful (waiters never made you feel guilty if you ordered more food, but we waited a long time to get the food) and had a decent variety; only thing I never saw complimentary was the lobster.  It would be nice if the Shanghai Chinese restaurant was available for lunch as it only opened for dinner, which limits lunch to buffet or the normal sit down restaurant.  Sometimes I just want dim sum or fast Chinese food, but it wasn't available.  Many activities on the ship were often outdoors, so was limited by weather.  Even though the itinerary said the pool, slides, rock climbing and rope course were open, they were not for the two days we were returning because it was too cold or too windy or too something.  Other cruise companies have some of these in an optional enclosure if weather was poor, but not this ship; everything just stops operating.  However, I do have to say that this ship has some unique activities such as the Free Fall slide and rock climbing even though we hardly had the chance to use them.  As for shows, there were only two complimentary shows, and two available for purchase while other cruiselines offer free shows every night.  I do like the movies at night, but they had old movies half the time and the few newer movies repeated. What was nice though was the 3D Star Wars movie in the theatre.  That one was so overcrowded that they should have repeated, but did not.  So, entertainment on this ship just isn't well thought out.  My friend went to the solo travelers' meeting that was listed on the itinerary, but when she got there, the lounge that it was held in was closed and another passenger stood with her in the hall wondering why it wasn't available.  They got all dressed up to meet other single travelers for nothing.  Lots of disappointments in terms of following the day's itinerary as there are no backup plans.  As I said, the best are the staff.  I fell down the stairs on one of the excursions and when I reported it, the staff offered me to see the medical doctor for free and sent a tray of fruits and wine while following up with me later.  As per the bad, the casino hardly paid out, so expect to lose your money there.  As per the good, the liquor store on board had great prices and are must buys if you enjoy owning some spirits.  This ship has lots to improve on, but I enjoyed the people, especially my friends as we had four rooms booked on the ship.  We created our own activities such as our own scavenger hunt, etc.

Our favorite part of the cruise was "Howling at the Moon" dueling piano bar.  The players were outstanding and so much fun. The specialty restaurants were also very good especially Le' Bistro. The Cirque show was just ok.  The  entertainers seemed a bit weary and not overly happy to be there although they tried to look like they were.   The food in this show was just ok, Being it is a pay extra it should be better quality. Burn the Floor was outstanding, the entertainers had so much energy and truly seemed to love what they were doing.  

We have taken this cruise 4 times out of the last 10 Norwegian cruises.  We take it because the departure dates match up with our states school vacation.  We love Norwegian cruise line but wish they would mix it up a little.  It's always the same.  Same entertainment, same destinations, same food.  Some food was even less then last time.  They used to have great morning pastaries and a different varity each day.  This trip they had the same 4 every morning. If you wish to keep your loyal cruisers you have to mix it up. Js.

The best part was the beauty of the ship interior and the Broadway shows. The past that needs help is the schedule.. I think they should try to get to Florida sooner.. Like by morning or midday the day after take off. Too much time in cold weather... Something should be adjusted.. I never got to use the water slides or pool. Live Dan Dan.. He's a riot .food is excellent. Clean, great service in all areas. Pleasant crew

Pros, 1-great helpful staff, 2-good shows, 3-price, 4- restaurants fast seating , 5 - food OK. 6- promt response when I had a problem with TV and toilet.

Cons, 1- 2 hrs on line to check in, 2- only ladders no stairs to enter pool as on the Gem, if you have arthritis forget it. 3-  PA informed us to report to area and stand

 on line that did not move for 2hrs to go to NCL privet island, gave up if you book something you will see it if not good luck, 4- my room was next to children's 

Guppy center from 10am to 8pm the noise from the kids jumping on floor reverberated into my room, so much for piece and quite. 5- Small theater, need reservations, hence full house. 

The slogan should be renamed to reservation style.  This was a school mid winter break trip, so it was a full ship.   I was previously on the Norwegian Dawn in 2006.  Lots of improvements compared to that trip.  I had a hard time getting to / understanding the reservation system on the website.   I kept on thinking I was being up-sold to buy more dining packages. I would really appreciate a separate tab/area for reservations.  Would be helpful to have more warnings and help on how to reserve from Norwegian.  I had made my reservations a few weeks before the trip, so many time slots had already filled up, and I ate dinner often around 9PM.  We prefer the sit down meals vs. the buffets, but with kids in our group, we often had a pre-dinner snack at the buffet. We missed all the shows, as they were fully reserved.  You can wait before the show starts and hope to get in.  We did not do this.  Not sure if you can reserve shows before the trip, but we tried doing this on the first night on board, and nothing was available. Kids area was often full if you were not early enough to get there 20 minutes before they opened. Their operating hours always closed for lunch and dinner times.  This causes so much pickup and drop off wait times.  Compared to Carnival, Carnival was mostly open, and is a more freestyle way to pick-up/drop-off, that does not cause massive lines.  The kid liked the splash academy, so no issues with the staff and activities. Food:  very salty, and desserts were too sweet.  The amount of food waste on ships is so high, it sickens me in general.  People take too much, don't like it, and toss it.  I understand it is difficult for the company to find a good balance of quality vs quantity.  A bit disappointed on the food due to everything being too salty.  The hard ice cream was generally good though, and I liked the hot cobblers/crumbles, and the crepe station at the dinner buffet. We had two add-ons when booking the cruise - we chose the pre-paid gratuities and the dinner plan (3 meals in the paid restaurants). I would not recommend the paid restaurants.  Food quality was about the same as the regular restaurants.  Next time I would pay the extra service charges for the Drink plan.   Ship is very well maintained.  The room balcony was excellent.  It might be windy on deck, but the room balcony was nice and calm.  Grand Stirrup Cay is still a crappy island. Much better than 10 years ago, but still not developed enough to handle the crowds.   They need a pool there!!!   Went to the Atlantis resort for the aquarium tour.  Got a taxi and went to the box office to buy the day pass.  About half of what the ship excursion costs.  We did not leave the ship for Port Canaveral.   Wanted to go to the space museum, but felt that there was not enough time there with the ship arriving there around 1PM, and the museum closing at 6PM.   Disembarkation was a bit slow.  Took an hour from getting called to getting to customs. Next time I will chose self disembarkation It was a long time since I had been on Norwegian, and would consider them again after knowing what to do now.

The cruise was great. The food could have been a little better tasting.

Our  cruise director did a great time keeping us entertained. The splash academy for the kids was also wonderful. They kept my daughter entertained the entire time. 

My favorite part of the cruise were the shows.  Had a great time.  The room was comfortable, loved our housekeeper, Grace. There were a lot of choices when it came to food. There was always some activity going on the ship.  Would definitely cruise again.