Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Reviews - Reviews

There was plenty to do on the ship. The shows were good and the food very good. The staff were friendly and service overall was good. There were just too many people. There is no space on most decks to find a spot to relax without kids or drunk people.

Also the port where we had to tender was a total nightmare. They started by announcing people with cards starting A and B could board the tenders, but then allowed other people to cut the lines and called other letters within 20 minutes of each other. I had a D card and had a nice long conversation with the people in front of me who had an A card since we were well over an hour standing on line waiting to board.

stateroom corridors were narrow & cluttered with cleaning equipment, with room service dishes on the floor. This made it difficult to pass by. It did not look good, and possed a potential hazard.  Service was slow in the specialty restaurant and at the bars. Bartenders were not especially attentive, even with few or no customers waiting. We had the ultimate beverage package, but the drink prices still were inflated. As a result, we would not sail with NCL without a beverage package offered as an incentive to book. As much as we love NCL ships & experience, we think there are a lot of extra costs (i.e. dining, entertainment). Overall we had a good time & enjoyed ourselves.

                                                                                  Thank You,

                                                                           John & Domenica Marcella,

                                                                           Cabiin #12615, 

                                                                           11-8-15 sailing, Breakaway    

My husband and I and another couple decided to cruise for our 30th wedding anniversary.  As it turned out, my husband had been very busy at work.  The Breakaway was very affordable and provided us with ample opportunity to relax. The restaurants were fabulous: food, service just terrific.  Our attendant for our room was extra special: very friendly, attended to our room with great detail, right down to the towel animals!! We had massages in the spa which was Awesome! The ship was very clean with noticeable attention to hand sanitation.  Our only negative was the fact that there was only one adult only pool. :(

First of all, I love Norweigian, I've been cruising with them since 2003 and love the freestyle concept and that is what is wrong with the Breakaway.  The amount of passengers overwhelm the seating capacity of many of the free amenities on the boat.  For example, the theater has limited capacity and you need to reserve a seat in advance.  Never have I had to do that before on any other Norwegian boat or any other cruise line.  And, I felt, the staff on the boat was overwhelmed with the amount of people and there were a few servers that didn't care for the passengers.  One other comment regarding the entertainment.  The cruise offers Rock of Ages as their free show.  I live ten miles out of NYC, I can see a broadway play anytime and this ship claims to be a NYC based boat but the show was terrible.  The singers were off key, the acting was poor... I compare it to a High School play.  If you claim to be NYC based, your going to get a lot of NYC people so you better offer a quality play.  As for their Cirque type play, be prepared to pay for it.  Thats not freestyle cruising.  I understand you have to pay upcharges for some restaurants, which were very good but the entertainment should be free.  It's not and it was explained by the customer service people that, although they serve dinner, you are paying for the show.  I didnt go on a cruise to be nickel and dimed for what should be free on any boat.   They also sit you, as customer service explained, family style so you will be eating with other passengers.  One of the reasons I enjoy Norwegian is the ability to sit with my family, on my vacation without being forced to share my time with them.  I turned down the show and ate elsewhere.  Again, love the cruiseline but if this is the future of Norwegian, I'll take my business elsewhere.   Also, the NY Pier is a disaster, the capacity overwhelms the design of the pier so there is a lot of waiting to board but the pier becomes uncomfortable.  Breakaway is very disappointing

This was my 6th cruise but 1st on Norwegian.  Never again will we cruise on Norwegian.  The ship was large enough to hold over 5,000 people but not large enough to entertain that amount of people.  We were herded like cattle in the terminal and then put on the ship to eat without enough room to sit and eat the food.  There was always chaos in the buffet every meal because lines were forming at each end of the food station.  Norwegian touts  "freestyle cruising" but it is far from freestyle.  The theater is on one floor and holds about three hundred people.  I have to point out the chairs were the most uncomfortable chairs I have ever sat in.  Cushions were worn out and if you sat up straight in chair, you were sitting on a metal bar across the back of the seat.  Remember, there are over 4000 guests so you must make reservations for all of the shows.  The other 3600 people are trying to watch the entertainment in the two story atrium which definitely does not have enough chairs or room.  People are leaning on the backs of the chairs you're sitting in, standing so close their clothes are brushing your face, or standing in front of you so you can't see.  We were unable to get off the ship in Great Stirrup Cay due to winds so everyone was at the one and only free pool on the ship.  To get a drink at the one bar that was open, you had to wait in line for over an hour.   There are about 25 chairs, maybe less, that are actually in the sun around the pool.  All other chairs are under the cover of the floor above.  To actually get a chair in the sun, we had to go two floors above the pool.  The stateroom hallways are very narrow.  Two people cannot pass each other and there are always cleaning carts in the hall all through the ship.  You are constantly ducking into alcoves to allow someone to pass.  There were too many restaurants and other services that required a fee in order to participate.  There were too many kids and it was rumored that we saw so many of them because they could not accommodate them in the kid section.  Staff in the restaurants did not understand the English language well and were very soft spoken making it difficult to communicate.  The floor in the pool area is wet all the time and is very slippery.  You must walk through this area to get to the buffet so you must be very careful.  There was no consistency in how drinks were made.  Each bartender makes drinks differently so you might get a Bahama Mama made with rum one time and vodka the next. There were many staff who did not seem to like their jobs including the bus boys in the buffet, the waiters in the Howl at the Moon club, to the Fire and Ice singer.  On the last night it was very obvious that she did not want to be there.  Last bit of advice, do not let the porters take your luggage to your room.  This was the second time a wheel was broke off our luggage.  The difference between Carnival and Norwegian was that Carnival told me to get the luggage fixed and submit the bill to them for reimbursement.  Norwegian wanted to glue the wheel back on and call it a day.  It took three phone calls to finally get a $40 credit to my account.

This is my first time cruising with Norwegian Cruise lines and it would be my last. I am so upset that members of the staff had no compassion for people that were aboard your cruise line..My family and I were on this ship and my Uncle Allen Craig had to go to Dialysis and your staff was so rude to my Aunt Christine Champagne. My name is Tina Champagne and I cannot say that my vacation was a happy one.. The staff there was very rude overall. Not to mention the number of children that were on the cruise..Its no fun having to deal with unruly children bumping into you and cutting you off while your in line. That's a huge problem for me. The balcony was so small it was horrible.. I have taken several cruises before and this is by far the worst experience I have had upon a cruise line. Hopefully you guys can train your staff on how to be more compassionate to your guest. After all if it weren't for your guest you wouldn't have a staff. Hopefully you will be able to improve on this..I wouldn't know because I will never travel Norwegian Cruise lines EVER AGAIN!!!!

Our family cruise on the Norwegian Breakaway from 11/1/15-11/08/15 was a horrible experience. I would not recommend going on this ship again. The crew members were rude. We never met our room steward. The cruise director was never seen.Prices for additional activities on board were way too high, There were nothing interested ever going on. Paying for the fine dining was a waste of money, still had to wait forever to be seated even after having reservatons, Would not recommend this cruise line or ship to family and friends. Was promised on board credit for being so upset but never received it. Very unhappy!!!

We had a wonderful time!  Staff was super friendly and helpful.  The boat needs more hot tubs for adults only!  Would be great if there was an adults only dining option or time and an area on the ship specifically for adults at all times.  Disappointed the spa area was closed. We were not told that until we got on the ship.  Planned to purchase that so we had some special things to pamper ourselves with for our 30th.

Ship too big  Food excellent Free style restaurants great  Shows wonderful  Have to work on better handling of Excursions and giving more time in ports

What a great trip! Excellent service, food, and entertainment. Tip for parents traveling with kids/teens ages 10-17: Kids pool was smaller than the adult pool and it gets crowded with lots of smaller children. There are still plenty of other kids activities to do if they want to escape the pool scene. Would def do this cruise again. 

THE CRUISE Was fantastic the ship was beautiful the food was awedome. Would love to have had bottled water though. Customer service on the ship needs to be improved. Overall we had a nice vacation. 

I love cruises. will take a cruise at anytime. getting ready to look into next year. Feb 2016.''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

The ship is beautiful but its to big and dosent have much to do didn't like that have to reserved to see shows not to many but overall have beautiful time

We enjoyed it and we will cruise again.   The embarkment was terrible.   We waited at least 2 1/2 hrs in line before we boarded.  The disembarkment was total chaos.  Everyone getting off at one time.  The Breakaway was very disorganized and lots of seasoned cruisers were not happy with this ship.   I think that the cruise line should provide more information to 1st time cruisers, like how to get the lights in your room to light, your bill at the end of the cruise and also that the mini bar is not included in your drink package, (72.00 later we found that out).  We will cruise again now that we are not in the dark about things

The ship is beautiful and has lots to offer.  However several things were disappointing.  The rooms were the smallest i have ever stayed in.  I didn't like that we were told to have a better dining experience we needed to go to the paid dining rooms.  I didn't like the fact that there were areas on board that we were not allowed in because the people there had paid more money to stay in.  It reminded me of the Titanic.  The shore excursions certainly need to be better organized.  It took 2 hours to go on a 5 min. crossing to get to their private island.

TOO MANY PEOPLE ON BOARD  LONG LINES FOR JUST ABOUT ANYTHING

    MORE THAN TWO HOURS TO GET OFF THE SHIP. COST ME AN ADDITIONAL 47 DOLLARS FOR MY RIDE TO MY HOME.  I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE

The Breakaway is a beautiful ship and the staff work their tail's off, but there isn't enough staff for the amount of passengers on the ship.  3 hours for dinner on the first night, 2.5 hours to tender to the private island.  There was no organization no one to direct you on the day of disembarkment.  Had an issue with the cruise staff at a BINGO session, he was using very sexual comments when calling numbers.  I now know his sexual preferences and that he loves nutrella spread over his body and licked off.  Very inappropriate in my opinion.  I had to call 3 times to get my safe fixed.  First time cruising with them and the last time.

Better check with NCL if they are going to carry specific sports events.  Leaving out of NY with the Mets in the World Series, and they didn't license the games.  Per the cruise staff, it was too expensive, but when you called NCL to check they said yes.  Be prepared to spend money for your internet connection if you want to see something special.

We took our three children on a cruise over Halloween.  Nickelodeon made the entire cruise for our family!  They had crafts, meet & greets with characters, games, slime, whip cream pies to the face, contests, and even came onto the island with us for more fun and games!!  Many Kuddos to Piper and team Nick!!  Sadly, we heard Nickelodeon and Norwegian are done with their partnership at the end of the year.  We sadly will have to book with another cruise line that offers an entertainment value for our children. 

The ship was way too crowded. Going forward they should plan for overcrowding when tendering and getting off the ship at the end of the cruise....a lot of wasted time trying to exit the ship. 

This is our second trip on the Breakaway and it is just too crowded!  The value was exceptional but in going below the Haven the ship is a mob scene.  That said, I cannot recommend the Haven, it's staff and the Haven restaurant highly enough!  However, food and services on the private Island were unsatisfactory this time and the chef's put bell peppers in EVERYTHING and it was not indicated on the menu.   Many others said they can't eat peppers (my Daughter and I are 2) and finding dishes made w/o them was a challenge..