My husband and I have sailed several times with the Norwegian Cruise Line. This was our first time aboard the Breakaway which is by far the worst of the NCL. Let me begin by addressing the amount of time to build this ship. We often hear how promoters of the Breakaway boast about the short time to construct this ship. This is not a positive aspect of this ship, as it becomes apparent that the short amount of time in construction exposes the unpreparedness of everyone involved. By being built in such a short amount of time, the Breakaway failed to accommodate the overbooking of passengers, causing us to walk sideways at times in order to move around.This is not something NCL should be particularly proud of.

I agree with other reviewers here that the food quality was of low standard. It often came undercooked and generally cold amongst most of the restaurants. Because of the amount of passengers aboard during our trip (4000+), we found that the service poor. Some of the staff tries their best to help, but it is clear that they are overworked because of the amount of passengers. For example, ordering a cup of tea only to retrieve it myself 20 minutes later. Every time we made the Maitre 'D aware of our concerns, we received wine, cheese and chocolates in our room. Our complaints were not to receive and free gifts, but rather to fix the problem for the future, which did not happen. I asked that these items be removed from my room. We also brought our concerns about returning food to Hugo (the hotel director) who failed to return my call after promising to look into these issues. Poor management and staff in general.

My husband and I come from a place where smoking indoors in completely banned, and to the exposed to such a putrid cigarette scent in the casino area everyday was unacceptable. Read more