My best friend and i (42 yr friendship) saved every penny we had to go on this cruise for our 50th birthdays. we left our husbands and kids to celebrate our birthdays and friendship. we were over the top excited and was our first time traveling together. we were determined to make it memorable. we have both cruised before but not on norwegian so we did extensive research. i read both good and bad reviews. living in ct the convenience of leaving out of new york was a big seller and the breakaway being a new ship was the other.

The good things: huge beautiful ship, lots to do for all, the shows were amazing (cirque, burn the floor) broadway class, spa n fitness was great, lots of restaurants to choose from, large casino, more bars than you know what to do with, nice mix of people crusing (young, old, families, singles), boarding was easy, loved bermuda and being there for 3 days was awesome it was super clean and beaches were amazing and boarding on and off in bermuda was easy.

The bad things: huge ship - this is not for people who have issues walking or are not in good shape. To go up and down is ok because there are elevators but walking the length is exhausting. sometimes there is such a thing as too big and this counts as one. restaurants - we were told there are 4 complimentary restaurans (garden cafe, manhattan room, savor and taste), in reality there are 7. the other 3 are ( o'sheehans, shanghais noodle bar, uptown grill). i worked with a norwegian consultant to book everything and even asked if there were more than 4 complimentary rests and he said no. We spoke with many people on board and that was the consensis, no one was told about the other 3. not sure why norwegian would hide that information. fyi, the menus at manhattan room, savor and taste are the same. all other restaurants have a fee. the food at the complimentary rests were just ok. we were not impressed at all. i was treated poorly at the manhattan room when i told the waitress the food i ordered (cuban dinner) was not good. she brought over another meal and literally threw it down in front of me and just walked away. the bread was stale and when my girlfriend told the waitress she gave us another basket of stale bread. Needless to say we didnt go back to that rest. Read more