This was our sixth cruise and fifth on NCL. We were so excited to sail on the Breakaway. Our ship sailed from Manhattan on 1/19/14 and we booked quite a few months ago. Total sum of the entire trip – definitely not up to the NCL standards that we are accustomed to and 99% sure we will not be sailing with NCL every again! I actually started to keep a log of all the incidents that occurred… yes… a log.. three months prior to our sailing my husband had major surgery so we knew that many of the excursions were off limits… however, that didn’t mean we couldn’t enjoy each port as his health was quickly improving. TOO many people, not enough staff and it showed throughout our stay.

1) Immediately upon entering our “mini-suite” we were shocked. How in the world was this a mini suite when it was so small? The walls were paperthin and every single night we heard the couple in the next room having their nightly conversation loudly. No they weren’t yelling, they were just talking. The bathroom was larger and had a double sink but who cares? There wasn’t even a shower cap/lotion etc. provided. The balcony was so small that if you were standing on the balcony and sneezed you would have gone over the railing/overboard. Every single time we went to sit and enjoy our balcony we had to rearrange the two chairs and mini table so that we could pass by. The balcony glass was never, ever cleaned and I personally cleaned this in every port using a bathroom towel and my water bottle. Also there was always a pool of standing water beneath the glass balcony. With the threat of mosquitos in St. Martens I personally pushed the water to the drain to the right of our balcony.

2) The Manhattan Dining Room was to be the “place” so this was our first destination. At our table we waited 40 minutes even to be recognized.. another 20 minutes to get glasses of water … then another 30 minutes for our appetizers/salads and then another 15 minutes for our meal… trying to get a refill of water was out of the question and forget about ordering coffee/dessert so our party of six finally gave up and left. Upon leaving the dining room one of our tablemates questioned one of the captains and we were advised that this ship was down approximately 500 staff… and it showed!!! We went back to this dining room several more times – both lunch and dinner – and the service was still horrid. During one of our lunches we actually were served our meal – lukewarm, then twenty minutes later our salad & soup. Read more