Having sailed once before on Norwegian, 3 times on Carnival, and once on Royal, we had already established that we did not favor Norwegian. However, we were enticed to sail on this brand new super ship the Breakaway when we noticed that it was offering the Kids Sail Free Program again. After all, it was a new ship???

Embarkation: All parking lots at the Manhattan Terminal were blocked off, and thus many cars, including ourselves had to circle the port many times, and inquire many workers, prior to being told just to go through the cones! This search for parking took over an hour, and many people were frustrated. We stood in a line for approximately 1 1/2 hours, but to our surprise, we were allowed to immediately board without any further waiting. There was no welcoming from the staff, although we sort of liked not being badgered to buy things the moment we got onto the ship.

Food: There are many complimentary restaurants as well as the garden buffet. The garden buffet is always loud, and there is difficulty finding seating every sea day. On Monday they serve Lobster only on the buffet. You would think that you were setting sail for your last meal on the TITANIC! It is absurd, and people are pushing and shoving, trying to demand many lobsters on their plates. The food in general is typical as far as cruise ship buffet style food. I felt as though the lunch and dinner choices were primarily ethnic, and would have liked to see more American traditional choices especially for the kids. The lines for the Manhattan rooms/taste/savor always had at least a 30 minute wait, even when you arrived early. this was not conducive to feeding children, as even once you were seated, you can expect very slow service with the meals in general taking over 2 hours. The food is of large portions, but never hot, and not nearly as tasty as our local chain restaurants. The rooms in general are very crowded, loud, with only a few staff running around like crazy. i feel that they were trying their best, but very understaffed. We had issues getting water glasses filled, and bread on the table. DO NOT wait in the hour plus line at Great Stirrup Cay for the cold/tasteless food. Just take a couple snacks off the ship, and get back on for lunch. It was the biggest waste of my time, and I regret standing in that line for food that was fed to the sea gulls. Read more