If you like cigarette smoke, you will LOVE the Norwegian Breakaway. Their casino, where smoking is permitted, is right in the middle of the ship, with NO WALLS TO ENCLOSE THE SMOKE. The casino is on the 7th floor by a spiral staircase, so waves of smoke waft up and down to the 6th and 8th floors too, which is where all the restaurants are.

My wife and I are middle-aged and have both have been happy on other cruises, on the Princess Line and on the Clipper Odyssey. We have never encountered any volume of second-hand smoke like the NCL Breakaway's. My wife was totally healthy when we boarded the ship, but had a terribly sore throat and sinus within 2 days. It began when we had to wait to get into La Cuccina, an Italian restaurant where, to be fair, the food was very good, as it was at nearly all of the restaurants, including the French, Brazilian and steak restaurants. (And nearly all the staff was courteous and competent too.) But during the wait at the restaurant the smoke wafted in from the casino. We couldn't avoid it, and that was when my wife developed sinusitis. She was in pain for the rest of the trip; OUR HONEYMOON WAS RUINED.

To avoid the cigarette smoke, we walked through the narrow halls at edges of the ship, where the rooms are. Because when we walked on the decks outside, every other restaurant permitted smoking. In other words, YOU HAD TO WALK THROUGH SMOKING SECTIONS TO GET TO THE NON-SMOKING SECTIONS. Read more