Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Favorite part of the cruise was the day trip excursion to the Zoo/Aquarium and the Crystal Cave. The worse excision was the overpriced boat ride to the Bermuda Festival followed a close second by the glass bottom boat. Too many people on the glassbottom boat - there was not enough room for everyone to see stand around the glass bottom and see the ocean. The limited excusions and limited night entertainment on the ship is why i only gave this 3 stars vs. 5 stars.  The ship was very nice and the staff were polite an courteous.

We had a wonderful time cruising to Bermuda on the Norwegian Breakaway. Lots to do every day... activities galore, for all ages. Fantastic fitness center, great entertainment, day and night, wonderful shows, and delicious food in a wide variety of restaurants and cafes. Though it's a big ship, we easily found out-of-the-way spots away from the crowds, to have a drink and quiet conversations. The friendly staff couldn't do enough for us, making our first cruise memorable, safe and enjoyable. 

there were 4800 people on this ship. way too many. the ship is way too big the cabins are tiny and I could hardly get my walker through the cabin door. A crew member was killed when a life boat fell on him during a  drill. that sort of put a damper on any festivities there after. The pool was tiny and 4000 people wanted to swim at the same time.

pros. itinerary- 2 1/2 days spent in bermuda

        food, especially in the restaurants

        number of entertainment places 

        bar services not pushy

        service in general

cons. upper deck with water slides,zip-lock etc was a waste of space for us

        no swimming pool for adults

        alcohol drinks price vs quality

       theater shows good quality but not every day and problem with getting in          (reservation required)

A very large ship full to capacity. Bermuda was beautiful. Nice beaches and water views. It was impressive how the crew keep up with the crowd. Only experienced issues with the excursion desk and La Cucina restaurant while on board.

The ship has adult only areas. The adult areas need to be monitored more closely by the crew. On our cruise babies in diapers, kids and teens entered the adult area and adult only pools.

My Husband and I enjoyed the cruise very much, we were extremely happy with the staff on board. We would like to give a shout out to Alan and Rainer at the pool area as well as Kris who took care of our room. The shows were fantastic and the restaurant's were very good (Our Favorite was the French one). The staff were cleaning every time you turned around and they were very big on washy washy with hand sanitizer. We had a lovely mini suite with a large balcony enough room for a couple.  The one word of caution and only thing I would change is the disembarking plan. It is a real safety issue with the amount of people on board. If you were carrying your bags off on your own you were the first to be called however imagine hundreds of people getting off at the same time carrying their bags and looking for their family. The elevators were stuck in the open position and the halls crammed with agitated passengers all looking to get off the boat. There were old and young and people with disabilities not to mention those who thought they were a size 2 trying to mow you down with their large luggage to get to who knows where. I think a little more organization is needed and more staff present during the disembarking process, so definitely pack your patience!  All in all we had a lovely time and would cruise again.

The kids pool was not operating for half the week, we had two mishaps that only one of which we were notified, and the disembarkment process is out of control and very scary.  We are from the Emergency Management family along with EMS and Fire background and it is completely unsafe!!

Dynamic duo- Mr Hartley was a hilarious, careful, expert, marine specialist with a helpful, tender, and knowledgeable son. Mr Hartley engaged each one of on the entire tour, especially our 8 year old (or maybe she charged him first ;) and as a result she felt at ease, trusting his every directive (despite 15 seconds of getting comfortable with wet suit, cool ocean water, and breathing. Both the children and I were blown away by what was in store for us on this helmet dive. Glorious coral reef, pristine turquoise water, friendly & interactive fish that one can handle, constant learning on the ecosystem and marine biology, relaxed and engaging tour team, wordsmith captain, timeliness, etc., make for a stellar experience in Bermuda. THE best tour in Bermuda! THE best way to support a local business in Bermuda! SO glad we looked into various types of water experiences. BRAVO Hartleys! BRAVO Helmet Diving!

Oh & we loved our balcony rooms. Great housekeeping. HANDS DOWN- BEST KIDS PROGRAM CALLED SPLASH ACADEMY! Struggled to get kids out of the camp. They would beg to go and stay as much as possible, all day LOL. Beautiful showcase in the huge theater. My daughter auditioned and was selected as the kid- MC for the show. Will stay with her forever.... My girls cried when saying goodbye on the last night. 

Other than that, the pools are too small and crowded for mid-day activity. Spice H20 space and tubs are lovely and quiet during most of the day & great parties at night. 

Highly recommend this cruise for families!

The Breakaway was intended to server over 4,500 passengers, but the pools, theaters, and Atrium area cannot accommodate this number of people. They can no longer claim to be "freestyle" when reservations are required for many dining and entertainment functions. The service was very slow. This was not due to the staff themselves since they always tried their best to make the customer happy. The problem appeared to be under-staffing. NCL has implemented cutbacks in services as well as increases in fess and charges. They will no longer allow bottled water or soda to be brought onboard and will soon replace the free Uptown Grill with an a la carte fee-based version of Maragritaville. I can no longer recommend NCL. If you do wish to try an NCL cruise, I suggest doing the Gem out of NY rather than the Breakaway.

These mega  ships loose the experience, tried it twice. Theater only holds 700 people, the ship has 4,000 passengers. Have to make reservations & only had 4 different shows. Activities that were held in lounges & theater are done in the Atrium. Unable to get seats & difficult to get through. with all the crowds. Difficulty making Specialty Reservations. Getting off ship terrible, long lines went from back going around in a circle.  Cabin bathrooms couldn't flush 3 different days for about 3-4 hours. The pool much to small, no chairs. I personally enjoy the smaller ships, like the Gem class.

The cruise re-energized me.  I was burnout by my job and need a trip that would help me gain my passion for teaching back. This trip helped me reconnect with myself and my passion for teaching.

I had the dining package and the drink package and apparently so did the entire ship. There were not enough bartenders to handle the crowds. There were very few waiters walking around as on past cruises. Bartenders did not have any sense of ergency to make drinks or serve the people that were sometimes four deep waiting for drinks. I guess they weren't getting tipped like they were used to so they took their time.

As for the dining package if you done make dinner reservations online before the cruise then your will have a very difficult time getting into the speciallty restaurants. I was disappointed I could not use my dining package as i intended. I only could get into two restaurants.

Also, whta's with people reserving all the lounge chairs with towels before breakfast. I noticed some of these resrved chairs were empty until after lunch. The crew should pick up towels after a while to free up chairs for other passengers.

Enjoyed the freestyle dining which puts NCL a step ahead of the other cruiselines that I previously sailed (Royal Carib, Carnival and Princess)! The thermal spa was incredible and the entertainment was terrific. Definitely would reccomend to others.

Service from staff was outstanding in all aspects.  Waiters, Bartenders and cabin stewards all went out of their way to be accomadating.  Food at all areas was very good except for LaCucina which was disappointing as was entertainment with the following exceptions:  Burn the flloor dancers, Donna V vocalist who appeared on the last night and Arvin who performed in the atrium were all outstanding.  Main show "Rock of Ages" was vulgar and inappropriate for cruise venue. Also, although we had the upgraded dining package, we were told there was an additional "up" charge for the Ocean Blue restaurant.  We were not informed of this when we booked our dining reservation or by our travel agent prior to sailing.  Consequently, we will not be sailing with Norwegian in the future!!!!

The best part of the cruise was the specialty dinning experiences. The food was superb, the service was great and the drinks was on point! Had a great time with my husband, best friend & husband and a bunch of family members! Best cruise yet. Lets see who can out do this one. Next trip to Jamaica!

The ship was perfect - well maintained and clean. The staff was incredible - very polite and accommodating. The food was delicious - great menu and well prepared. Our room steward - Giru - was a real treat. I have nothing negative to say about the experience! Thank you!  

I've been on cruises as a kid with my parents, but this was my first time cruising as an adult. I got a drink and specialty dining package as part of a promotion and it was great! All four of the speciality restaurants I attended were amazing and the drink package is definitely worth it! If I booked a cruise in the future and there was no drink package promotion being offered, I would still purchase the package. As for the food overall, the buffet and the free dining were delicious as well and I would be okay with not even dining in any of the speciality restaurants. The staff were so friendly and the service was on point. As an example, the water was not going down the shower drain (probably due to my hair) and I called housekeeping, who sent a plumber to fix the issue immediately. The housekeeping was okay, not immaculate, but our particular housekeeper (Arlene) was so cute and sweet. However, a few of my friends that had a different housekeeper, were not a fan of theirs. Which brings me to my main complaint. There is a daily service charge of $13.50 PER PERSON staying in the room, which I was told is gratuity for the housekeeper. I was not informed of this prior to the cruise, and a friend who cruised with Norwegian a year prior was not aware of this either, because she cruised in Feb 2015 and apparently this was just implemented in March of 2015. Now I had every intention of leaving a nice tip for my housekeeper before I knew about this automatic service charge and I understand that some people are cheaper and probably wouldn't even leave a tip, but that comes out to $95 for a 7 day cruise per person. So with a room of two people, that's a mandatory almost $200 service charge. My friends who were not fond of their housekeeper, we're not fond of this charge lol. Anyway, overall, I give it a solid 4 stars and would definitely cruise with Norwegian again (and will now be prepared for that service charge). 

This was my husband and my first Norwegian cruise and I must say it ROCKED!!!!  We left the kids back on land and had a fabulous time.  We definitely got our monies worth and I do strongly suggest that you purchase the beverage package.  All of the staff were fantastic and got to know you through out the trip.  Our favorite show was the Rock of Ages, however I did see a sign for it being an Adult only show but did see many young children in the audience.  The food was phenomenal as were the drinks.  I can't say enough about this cruise, there was no hassle, very low key and FUN!!!!  We will definitely be cruising again on Norwegian.

My family and I took the seven night cruise from New York and I have to say that it was the best vacation that my family has ever taken.

To start with the rooms were nice and since the ship is new therefore it is very clean.  The staff working on the boat and in the cruise terminal were all friendly and happy to help.  

On board the food was good, because we were traveling with my son we didn't get to try too many of the specialty restaurants.  

My seven year old loved going to Splash Academy (their kids club) which gave my wife and I some time alone on the ship.

Once on the island, Bermuda was beautiful and the people were happy to help you out however they could.  We loved it so much that we have booked the same trip for next year.

Beautiful Island.  Beautiful people.  Excellent experience and the ship and staff were awesome.   Take out life insurance before getting on the Pink Bus.  Just Kidding but you will fear for your life.  Plenty to do once you get a feel for the island.