Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We had a great time on this cruise. the ship is huge so there was plenty to do. Didn't even have time to do everything. Our travel agent Kim at was great in helping with all our questions.

The only 2 complaints I have is the smoking in the casino area and the kids in the adult pool area. Other than that Norwegian and the staff were great. Already booked our next cruise!

My husband and I enjoyed the cruise.  The ship is nice and the staff is outstanding.  The entertainment is great.  Rock of Ages was great.  So was the Cirque dinner show.  Burn the Floor was ok.  Loved Nassau.  Florida was ok and Great Stirrup Cay was WAY too crowded, so that was not our favorite stop.

Negatives:  I wish there was more than 1 pool, as it got a little crowded on the "at sea" days.  The last 2 days at sea we hit some bad weather, so the pools and upper decks were closed.  I feel like the staff was not prepared for a ship full of people with not much to do.  It definitely get a little boring. 

Our biggest complaint, though, was the food selection.  My husband and I are both vegetarians.  This meant that we could not eat at any of the specialty restaurants (while there was an italian restaurant, when we tried to go they were out of the only vegetarian selection on the menu!).  The complimentary restaurants always offered only 1 vegetarian entree, but that entree was not always appetizing (i.e. stuffed tomato-bleh!)  The staff was accommodating and would make us a pasta-but there is only so much pasta with marinara sauce you can eat in 1 week.  If I could change anything, I would wish that they always have more than 1 vegetarian selection, to give us herbivores some choices!! 

Otherwise, it was a really fun time and we would total cruise with Norwegian again. 

NCL has become my favorite cruise line due to its casual atmosphere, high quality entertainment and freestyle dining arrangement.  The Breakaway is a large ship but never seemed overcrowded although it was a spring break week and pretty full.  Interior hall cabins seem claustrophobic.  Glad I had an ocean view.  Housekeeping surprisingly poorer than expected for such a new and classy ship.  Room not fully cleaned and was smelly when I first entered and that was not rectified later on.  During the course of the week I encountered several ladies rooms that were dirty/smelly/leaky even during slow times.  Also several latches/hinges broken!  Shouldn't the cleaning staff report broken items to the maintenance staff?  Worst thing was the layout of the ship with the Casino in the middle dominating 2 floors and causing horrible cigarette smoke smell throughout that area.  However, despite these small failings it was a great trip.

FIrst off, we love NCL. Their bermuda trip is amazing.

The ship arrived late to port, so 12 of us, along with more than 4000 other people, sat in the cruise terminal in mind numbingly long lines and watched as all of the staff there took a break because there were too many people checked in. So we not only had to wait in line for nearly two hours, but most of that time was spent in line because there was nobody processing passengers. they just stood around at the desk waiting to be told to start again. Seriously? So much for setting a time beforehand, which we were there perfectly on time for. 

The breakaway is a great ship, albeit a little big and with one major flaw - apparently it has rats! Our group of 12 had luggage chewed into and clothes ruined by rats on the last night of the cruise. Seriously. Rats got into luggage and took a dump all over the clothes and everything else in there. 

The excursions were awful because NCL botched the tender process to get us from the boat to their private island, amongst other things. 

We didn't get to choose a tender time for the private island because their system for reserving slots didn't work on our television. Typically you can reserve everything with a tv controller. On this cruise, none of that worked even though that was how we were instructed to make reservations.

The private island is small, too rocky and just genuinely terrible. The cost to use a simple inflatable is off the charts, not that there were any available. 

After arriving on the island 1.5 hours later than our tender time, we found a little spot to put all of our bags and blankets and headed off to get lunch, because for some reason we didn't get onto the island til 1, even though things began 4 or more hours before. 

What happened next though... We returned to our gear to find that the excursion staff had organized a tug of war. First with kids, and then with beef cake men with bad tattoos. Only problem, they did it directly over all of our stuff. When we returned, everything had been spilled, covered in inches of sand or completely buried. We are still missing things. Our bags had inches of sand in them. Ask yourself, what sort of person does this without regard for the items of 12 passengers? 

Rewind to cape canaveral, a completely pointless destination. You can pay exorbitant sums of money to go to disney and spend 2 hours there if you like, but I definitely do not recommend it. We did the air boat tour which was nearly double what it would cost (we knew this going in) to get directly. It was alright, except we were late to arrive because the excursion staff is horrible. Then, our ride was cut in half because we had gotten there so late and there were so many tours trying to do the same thing. Part of that blame goes to the airboat place, most of it to NCL. 

When we arrived in Nassau, we were sent out for our excursions at around 9:45. There was literally thousands of people out there on the pier and I could count the number of excursion staff on one hand. once I managed to find a staff member, I was given instructions to go to the wrong spot and wait. That staff member basically ruined the day. When we got to The Blue Lagoon, we noticed that everyone else on the boat had wrist bands. Not us. We never got checked into the excursion because the crew member screwed up. I then spent the better part of two hours trying to fix that while my family swam. Luckily Blue Lagoon is great and handled everything perfectly. 

Otherwise the cruise was great until disembarking. Our friends had small kids and too much stuff. They were a group of 8. When an NCL staff member asked them f they wanted to go ahead in the line, because of the kids, they were quickly sent back into line because all 8 of them, traveling together, in one vehicle, expected to go. Once the security guy saw them, he sent them all to the back of the line. ??? So we disembarked in a matter of minutes, our friends took hours. Again, with actual disembarking times and everything. Whats the point of setting times? This was the case for the entire trip. 

We did have great fun, believe it or not. But we wont go to Nassau nor on the breakaway ever again. 

Had a fantastic time.  The staff and crew were awesome.  Great Stirrup Cay Awesome.  Nassau Awesome. Florida...eh...I would like to stop in Key West instead of Port Canaveral. The Entertainment was great.

The only real issue I have with the Breakaway is the pools.  The Adult only pool is always filled with kids and no one tells them to go to their pools.  Which all in all isnt so, so bad.  The parents should really take care of that. But everyone is on vacation so you just gotta make the best of it.

Length of cruise was perfect. A couple of days to settle in while at sea and a couple of days to wind down at the end of the week. Seas were rough coming back but that's the weathers fault. Room Service was good, housekeeping kept room clean but not as much as Carnival experiences. Very Very smokey and cigarette smell in Atrium on deck 6 (where all the family activities occur) directly below casino floor. Casino is on deck 7 with very heavy smoking smell, (right where we have to exit ship for every port) so this was not good for my granddaughter who has asthma. Whoever designed this like that did not take children and asthmatics into account. 

the only highlight of our trip was our stateman Dino.The service was terrible ,we had to wait two hours to get on the ship and was told nothing why we were so late. We found out we had lost half of the regular crew to another ship and got a bunch of new peope who had not been trained well.The food was nothing to write home about either.Do not believe i will be traveling norwegian again.

Good time. Pictures are way too expensive. Should have different prices for different sizes. Normal people don't need 10 8x10 pictures geez. You shouldn't have to buy prints if you just need digital copies...ripoff. Complimentary rest should not all have the same menu. 

DJ would play 1/2 of one obscure song then switch to another part-song from another genre and so on all night long. It was difficult to get into dance grove and enjoy the place. Eventually gave up.

The Norwegian Breakaway is the best designed cruise ship that I have sailed on. Even though it is a mega ship in the cruise industry, the flow of people was great throughout the cruise until Disembarkation  day when the 4000 passengers became an issue.  This was my first time on Norwegian and first experience with Free Style cruising.  The Free Style cruising was perfect for a ship with limited ports.   I still like traditional cruising but now have Free Style as an option.

NOT HANDICAP FRIENDLY, HAD TO MOVE CABIN STEWARDS CARTS OURSELVES SEVERAL TIMES EVERY DAY.  NCL NEEDS A NEW PRIVATE ISLAND OR A PORT BUILT AT GSC SO THAT IT CAN BE REACHED

Getting on and off the boat was the worst long tedious process they gotta make that better.When you disembark take your luggage with you. ( I wasn't told that but would have done it to get off the ship way earlier. The food in the specialty restaurants was excellent Cagneys steak house is highly recommended. The entertainment on board was not that good for me, maybe just not my style. Comedy show when I went was not that funny. Cirq dinner theater would have been better as a stand alone show the dinner was not that good and you cant communicate with wait staff or leave your chair during the show. We had some excellent wait staff and bar tenders. Casino dealers were also excellent. Overall I would recommend the trip. Lot of good beer and bourbon. They even have guiness but you have to ask for it as it is not on the beer list. 

Love the Breakaway had a nice time love the restaurant, and there shows. I am planing to go and go to escape next year with my daughters and husband to see how it is.

the cruise was very enjoyable, it met or exceeded our expectations. the only issue was that a ship of this size holding up to 3,900 passengers, which I understand was sold out, made it very difficult using an elevator. after the muster drill , it was two hours before elevators were freed up. and I think more swimming pools are needed. way to crowded to enjoy a day at the pool.  

I have sailed on several NCL cruises with average expectations and results. We decided to select this sailing because we didn't want to fly.  We really enjoyed the specialty restaurants, with many options  the large casino and GREAT entertainment.  However, the main theater has the most uncomfortable seating we have ever experienced.  In order to see a show, by the 3rd night , I had to bring a cushion from our room to place behind my back.  Very, very embarrassing.  We didn't like being charged extra for a Cirque show, but as it turned out, worth the extra charge.  Thought the ala carte charges high at the specialty clubs until we ate the food,  the price justified the quality of the meals.  Service was very good in these restaurants, however there was such long, long lines to embark and disembark that a lot of the sparkle wore off pretty quickly for many passengers.

This cruise is so convenient for those in the NY area. The ship is huge and well kept, the crew is fabulous and always smiling. There is so much to do on the boat and they do a great job of keeping you informed of your options. The food is fabulous, from the buffet to the specialty restaurants. Our room steward was over the top pleasant and efficient. When in Port Canaveral, take the shuttle bus to Cocoa Beach, 10 minutes away and $15 round trip.

Nice to avoid air travel by cruising out of ny but not worth 3 days of cold weather. Rock of Ages show was terrible

improv comedy was good but every night same random show

dueling pianos was great fun

freestyle is becoming poor waiters

if you want cheap buffet food and one or two days of sun this is your cruise.

Well, the one thing I learned is I will never take a cruise again on Spring Break out of NY. The weather was simply dreadful. We arrived in FL on Tuesday after being at sea for 1 1/2 days only to be forced back onto the ship because of thunderstorms.   Wednesday, we couldn't get off the ship at all in Stirrup Cay being the waters were way to choppy and the tenders couldn't make it to us.  Thursday, Nassau Bahamas was on and off cloudy but it was doable.  Friday was the only HOT day to sit out and enjoy the beautiful deck the Norwegian Breakaway offers.  Then it was off at sea AGAIN.  Loads of entertainment but after day 3 I was simply bored out of my mind. The staff was good once you engaged them in conversation other than that they kept to themselves.  Rooms were very clean and the ship was always being cleaned. I can't remember a time I didn't see someone cleaning something.  The Splash Academy could have been a little more structured age wise.  My 9 year old was stuck with 6 year olds and he hated every minute of the camp. He was just to mature for that group.  Perhaps it should be 6 to 8 yr olds and 9 to 11 and 12 and 13. 

Beautiful ship but we went on spring break which the whole cruise was filled with kids.. Besides that the ship is nice except there is not enough seats for everyone to sit.

The best thing was the food. The room wasn't always checked in the PM which meant no towels in morning so we had to get the room steward. Some of the staff wasn't very friendly like other cruises I have been on. My wife said the public women's bathrooms smelled of old urine. There isn't much to do at night. Movies were shown in the Atrium right next to a bar so you couldn't hear the movie. We were planning on booking a 10 day cruise next year but are haveing second thought about going back to our old cruise line.