Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The cruise staff was very obliging and professional, however, after that there were many things which we did not like. 1. Ship balconies were very small, and confining. 2. Restaurant capacity for the standard restaurants seemed inadequate, as we could only avoid long waits by eating very early. The same was true at times for the restaurants which charged extra fees, especially on the last two nights of the voyage. The extra fees were as high as $49 per person. 3. On the entire voyage, we were never able to find a lounge on Deck 15, the pool deck. Even at 7:00 in the morning all had items saving them, even though ship policy, stated that after an hour, these things would be removed. They never were. Thus we had to forget about any sun bathing or pool activities. 4. The entertainment was not to our liking, except for a duo called Fire & Ice, which conducted very lively performances. The Rock of Ages show was not appropriate for our boys, not what it was cracked up to be, and other than dance there was little theater entertainment, and though we did see a Cirque show in one of the restaurants, it was for a fee. 5. The coffee and pastry shop, experience on other ships was far better. NCL had nothing but coffees and pastry, all for fee, while other ships provided these things, plus interesting salads, sandwiches, etc. charging only for the coffee. Pizza was available, but a delivery fee of $5 was charged if brought to the room. 6. Drink prices were way too high, especially the specials! 7. The restaurant, O'Sheehans, was only fair at best, and in the center of all the noise of the so called atrium, for lack of a better word. 8. The entire experience was far too commercial, and there were too many people for the facilities of the ship.

We cruise every year and this was our first NCL and our last. Everything from the ships lay out to poor service was unacceptable. The staff was rude, the cabins were exceptionally small, the food although good you had an extremely small selection, pool area was the worst I have seen on any ship, entertainment was strictly for ADULTS thought this was a family friendly cruise. Specialty restaurants were great but you had to fight for reservations. Overall attitude of the entire crew right up to the officers was extremely poor with no regard for the passengers. You want a great cruise vacation go on Royal Caribbean!!!

From the moment we boarded til the moment we stepped off the ship we had nothing but poor service, rude comments, nasty encounters, inept staff members. I need a real vacation. Royal Carribbean....now you're talking....

My cruise was to celebrate my grandson's 13th birthday. We chose the Breakaway based the fun things to do. Fortunately, my grandson enjoyed the cruise immensely, so that is why I rated it as 2 stars. Unfortunately, for my wife & I who are serious cruisers, NCL is lacking in services, dining, entertainment and customer relations. If a couple over the age of 25 wants an enjoyable cruise, don't cruise with NCL. If you are a young family with toddlers, I think of NCL as a Carnival value which attempts to compete with Disney cruises, but fails in quality. The cabins are tiny, have a micro-balcony sized for 2 chairs facing each other with a few inches to stretch out. If you you like dining with other guests to talk about and share experiences during the day, choose a line that has set dining times, not the crazy anytime dining. One time I invited two additional guests to our table and waited 30 minutes. Poor services! Some of the entertainment is additional charge and is variable in quality from poor to OK. if you like to have wine and drinks, expect to pay $9 per mini pour. To put the icing on the cake, they closed one of the pools to teens, causing my 13 year old grandson to swim with the toddlers. I submitted a complaint.......never got a response. The next night, we were in the adults only area and all sorts of kids were there; special night....several teens were drunk. I submitted another complaint and guess what. Yep, never responded. Soo....... if you're a serious cruiser wanting quality and value and expect something similar to Princess, Holland America, or Royal Caribbean, you will be very disappointed. I expect I will never cruise with NCL even if they gave me a week for free.

We have been long time Norwegian cruisers. We brought a group of 11 aboard for this trip. The food was only fair. The dinner selections were repetative. The buffet was not what we were used to. We ate sandwiches at the Pub some nights for dinner because of a bad dinner experience the night before.There were many, many pay extra restaurants where the food was superior, as long as you paid additional for it. Entertainment, especially Rock of Ages, was adults only! Not what you expect from a family ship. Risque performances should be for adults only, late at night. Other shows were just good. You were also expected to pay to see the Cirque show $39 each, and also pay for the children's show. No chocolate ( or special) buffet. No special attention or services, unless you wanted to pay for it.

First, I really like NCL and I would recommend this cruise line to everyone I know. The Breakaway is a beautiful ship. I have only one recommendation and that is to schedule Deal or No Deal in a different location. The Atrium is not big enough to seat everyone comfortably. As a result some of the passengers entered into altercations with each other. Other than that the service was great, the specialty restaurants were wonderful. Rock of Ages was such a great show. The spa was wonderful. All in all we had a fantastic time.

The staff was very attentive! And the complimentary buffet food was definitely up to par and more than we expected. The only thing that might need improvement was the complete absents of vomit bags when the waves got ruff on the way back home. I was looking for some.

The new flag ship the BREAKAWAY is nothing more te media Hype and a big promo to get your money.. For One.. They do net tell you that all the GOOD attractions on the ship are A La Carte extra, even the "Ice bar" had a $20 cover to get in & just look.. Cirque De Sol Lie show was good, but again an EXTRA charge.. To get sun up on deck.. you had to ge someone to basically get there # 5am before sunrise & HOLD a good spot.. unless you want to PA EXTRA for the CIP deck with private pool & bar.. The pool was way to small to accommodate 4500 plus people. There were little to no activities for adults.. unless you include shuffle board, bingo, book reading etc.. unless your were under 15 then you had 3 clubs & plenty of things to do.. The night entertainment was horrible.. except for Fat Cats with Slam.. he was great.. but the club was small so you had 2 get there early.. The other act FIRE & ICE was a cheap glorified lounge act.. should be called melting ice.. because you would rather hear & watch melting ice than them.. Other than that there was no place for an adult 2go get drink & hear real goood LIVE music.. I cannot believe it..on all the cruises I have done.. there is always plenty of live music.. The BREAKAWAY had a jazz band in the Manhattan room that took a break every other song.. Grand Slam band in Fat Cats.. that was it.. even Fire & Ice was a vocal & keyboard for the 80's with drum machine.. Even Cirque was pre recorded tracks with a live violin on top... ridiculous... Then the DJ in the nite club played the same playlist everynight and only Catered to one type of musc... SHAME! Then main thing that got me even more pissed. was to ge from Ship forward to aft on any other cruise shi they have some sory of Promenade that you can walk thru if you wanna stop thru a shop fine.. if not it is not forced.. on the BREAKYOURPOCKETSAWAY you either have to walk through the casino (in which they allows smoking, so whatever appetite you had or just ate is destroyed with somke in you hair clothes tastebud) Or you can walk thoru the open air gift shop.. more efforts to get you to spend money.. by the 4rd night you get tired of hear "Can I have your room so I can charge you up the a$$ for an astronomical price.. Even then buffet SHUTS down locks the door after 11:30 (What cruise does that) were you et even get water.. I have spent so many after midnights with my fellows passengers trying to find working water fountain.. unless you wanna pay $!10 for a bottle of water in yur mini bar... Also when we docked in Bermuda another cruise ship came in right behind us, so now you have 4500 on our ship 3000 on another all trying 2 do the same overpriced things at the same time in Bermuda.. Cruise ships are the vegas of the seas.. all the care about is milking every penny you have.. they heard you on & off the ship like cattle, tell u waht 2do & how much you have to pay.. & that is the bottom line.. So in conclusion unless you have very very extremely deep pockets for $200 massages, $75 per person shows, cramped deck unless u pay VIP and you have a bunch of ill mannered untrained children & want them to roam free to disturb OTHER peoples vacation... Break yourself for the BREAKAWAY....

Breakaway is a smaller boat and has less things to do than Epic. It was very crowded and noisy during the trip. Guests from New York were occasionally very rude. Food choice was poor in the main dining buffet and the same every day. Wine selection was poor. Two shows were excelent but the rest not worth it. Cabin attendants were very pleasant, but guest desk service on the level 5 unattentive and not interested. Internet was slow and did not work occasionally. Bermuda was beautiful.

We had a problem with no sheet for the babies porta crib. New ship was not equipped with appropriate bedding. Brought it to housekeeping attention and desk and even wrote in to them and they did nothing. Not even a partial discount. We traveled with my daughter Puleo. We were both on the eleventh s floor. June. 9th. Departure.

Me and my wife went in this cruise with expectations that it would be ALLOT better than it was. Unfortunately we were wrong. Positives: The ship is clean and very nice looking, There is plenty of staff members, our rooms were regularly cleaned and bermuda was AMAZING! NEGATIVES: The food was horrible! Especially the buffet. I have eaten better food I'm high school cafeterias. The restaurants TASTE and SAVOR are exactly the same. They both have the same exact menu. I have no clue why they gave them two different names. There is seriously no difference at all between them. The staff was nothing compared to the staff on Royal Caribbean. They did not pamper you or do anything special for you. If you needed something or had a question they would help you but that's it. It was almost like they didn't want to socialize with you or do anytHing to ensure you were having a good time. The worse part was if you wanted a decent meal or if you wanted to do a fun activity it seemed like you had to open your wallet. There are way too many restaraunts you have to pay for. If you wanna climb the rock wall it's costs $. If you wanna eat good it costs $. If you wanna see the circus show it costs $. It was just all around a bad experience on the ship. The only reason i even have this review 2 stars was because BERMUDA was so nice. From here in out its Royal Caribbean all the way.

The cruise over all was ok. I have been on smaller ships and have had a better time. There were not a lot of stuff for younger than 3 kids to do. They did have a small kids pool area. But the pool area was slippery, and the paint on the pineapple slide was peeling off. The food was ok. I have been on the Dawn and the food was excellent. The unpaid resturants the service was terrible and there was a huge language barrier. In most places the food you got was like warm and not hot. The paid resturants the service was much better. Cagneys steak house the food was not good at all, and did not measure up to steak house food. We got the best food in the pub, noodle bar, savor, an garden cafe. These resturants were not accommodating for my 20 month old daughter. They would not make anything differnt than what was on the menus. The only place she could eat was the pub because they would make her grilled cheese, plain chicken, and steamed broccoli. We also ha to wait in the dining rooms sometimes over 20 minutes for a high chair. The needed one more pool because the adult pool was too small for all the people on the ship. If you did not get out by 7am and puts towels out all the chairs were taken. There water slides were a nice ouch to the ship for the older kids and adults. They had a play room for kids under 3. The room was dirty. All the room was, was toys thrown all over a floor with padding. It was hard to get to the room also cause it was on 16 and only 3 elevators on the ship went to 16. The shows were nice. Rock of ages was great, the improv comedy show was not so great, cirqu de sule show was excellent and well worth the money, and the pajama jam was terrible all it was, was a way for the ship to make money by you kid waiting in 6 differnt line to take pai pictures with the characters.

The ship was beautiful. I really enjoyed the interactive features, such as touch screens at all of the stairwells. The touch screens made it quick and easy to view the day's activities, dining menus, and entertainment options. One suggestion, the rooms should have drawers. It is really difficult to put/keep items like socks, underwear, and swimsuits on shelves. The buffet was excellent, with a wide range of options. There were enough stations, so that no one area was too crowded. I'm not sure how I feel about the free-style dining. In some respects, it was nice to be able to pick the time to eat; however, every time you had a different server. I feel like the service suffered in the dining rooms because of the lack of continuity. I also did not like the tips being automatically charged to your room at the end of the cruise. I think I should have the discretion to tip for the services that I use most. For example, I only ate in the dining room twice. I should not have to tip the dining room staff the same as if I had eaten there every night. The cruise director staff was hit or miss. Some were great and alot of fun. Some had the personality of a brick and I would skip any activities in which those individuals were involved. I have always enjoyed playing bingo on cruise ships. I've played bingo on Royal Caribbean and Carnival. Norwegian, by far, had the worst turn out for bingo. The casino was nice. I appreciate the fact that there was a small non-smoking section. The only problem was that the ticket redemption machines were out of service the entire time, so the lines got long waiting in line for the cashier.

Loved the ship. Our room was comfy. Staff and service was great. Highly recommend the Breakaway. The food was good and we enjoyed the shows and specialty restaurant -- Cagney's Steakhouse

We were so excited to be going back to Bermuda and equally excited to sail on the new Breakaway. Bermuda did not disappoint but the Breakaway sure did. From the size of our mini suite which should be named micro suite to the crew we were less then impressed. For starters our suitcases would not fit to roll between the bed and the wall. It was advertized that we would have a tub to only receive an email that we would have a large shower and no credits were given for this. I will say the shower was nice and yes it was large but anyone would expect to get what they pay for or they would think a company would make good on the issue in some fashion.To say these rooms have a balcony is somewhat misleading even by cruise standards. Our balcony was 27 sq ft and felt as cramped as it sounds. This was so frustrating as we enjoy time with our travel friends on the balcony in the evenings and this was just not possible. The crew except for our steward and 1 waiter was the worst we have experienced on any of our 7 cruises. They acted like they were doing you a favor and were not as friendly as we have normally experienced. You should also know that you can't attend a new show each night and some of the shows have a charge. We enjoy going to the shows so this was irritating as was having to make reservations for all shows. You might freestyle dine but you won't freestyle show. I could go on but with this you get this point.

The food in free restuarants was't good,15 floor buffet was the same menu for 7 days. Was food poison in Japanese restuarant and attend hospital,after that my vacation was spoiled.

I would not recommend this ship again only because there was not enough space around the tiny adult pool area, nor seating. By 9:30 am all the seats were taken. In addition, you had to make reservations for the "free styling" eating other then the "garden Buffet" which ran relatively smooth. Also, often the shows which you had to make reservations were completely booked. This has NOT been my experience on other Ships as well as NCL. I did like the option of walking off the boat with my luggage although it was not organized very well....I was told the ship had a capacity of 4000 guests and there were actually 4500 on ship...

The Ship is beautiful but very big and there's not enough space for the amount of passengers. Everyone on staff was excellent! The specialty restaurants are good but priced too high, opt for the regular dinning rooms. All the shows are great and the Jungle dinner theatre is worth $29.00, opt for the regular price not premium seats and get there early for a great banquet! The Manhattan Room is wonderful and reminiscent of the past, opt to eat there when "Burn the Floor" dances during dinner time. The "Ice Bar" is novel but the space seems unfinished, make sure you get a photographer in there with you - we didn't and did not get a good photo as it's too dark. The cabins are small but nice and the balcony is way too small. The worst part of the ship is the very, very small pool and 3 floors of pool chairs and we still walked around for 30 min to find 2 together this was very frustrating!!!! The kid's area is very nice but if your looking for an adult cruise go on another line!

First time cruisers and celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. We loved the food, entertainment and service. We ate at several specialty restaurants (Ocean Blue, Moderno Churrascaria, Carney's & Cirque dinner show) and went to all the Broadway shows on board. The 80's theme night was just up my alley as it brought back such wonderful memories of our youth from 70's to 90's. I was amazed that with such a large ship, we didn't have any issues with waiting for anything. We couldn't have had a better time!

It has been about 10 years since my last cruise and I think my expectations may have been off a little. While the Breakaway is a lovely ship, the sheer size of this ship means a LOT of passengers, and if you dont like crowds, this is not the ship for you. Be prepared to stand for many activities that take place in the main atrium, wait for dinner every night, (we waited for the main dining room every night for at least 20 minutes with some days as long as 45 minutes), be extremely close to others in the pool, etc. Being that this is a cruise that spends several full days at sea, you must bring your patience on the ship with you. You will be around others just about anywhere you go, so be prepared. Also be prepared to spend a boat load of money on the ship. Everything from the drinks to the photos, to the services, to the activities, are all expensive. Lastly, long gone are the days that the waiters made you feel special and knew you by name. I even remember them singing , joking, etc and they made dinner a lot of fun. No more...The freestyle dining means that you're just one of thousands of nameless cattle passing through so it's just all business, get in and get out. Keep in mind that the wait staff does not have to go out of their way to earn your gratuity any longer, nor does anyone else for that matter, as it is automatically charged to you. Now just to be fair, I just want to state that it wasnt all bad and I'm not saying I did not have a good time. My kids really liked the kids club, the water slides, and the mini golf. We also liked our oceanview stateroom which had good storage space, comfortable beds, and a much bigger bathroom than on other ships (even had a tub and two sinks!). Our cabin steward was very nice and the live entertainment on board was pretty talented. Oh, and the Carlo's cupcakes are really good also... All in all, it was like any other vacation, fun at times, a hassle at times, expensive but worth it for the experience and the memories...