Norwegian Breakaway Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We did our research before booking the cruise and it offset a lot of legitimate complaints people have of the Breakaway. The pool is too crowded? True, so we bought a cabana at the Vibe for $329. The Main Dining Rooms have long lines at dinner. True, so we selected the Ultimate Dining Package. There's never any seats for the shows? Seems true, so we reserved tickets in advance on my NCL. Never had a problem with any of these.
Not that the ship was without problems. Embarking and Disembarking were stressful, a lot of which seemed to be due to passengers ignoring announcements and the staff being unable or unwilling to enforce the rules. Drink service was nearly non-existent in the casino. We never met our room steward the entire cruise (or got any towel animals, to my DW's dismay). The sound levels were noticeably off for the Rock of Ages show, ruining some of the numbers.
There is certainly enough to do on board and the ship is still shiny in its newness, but I wouldn't call it a relaxing vacation. To make the most of your time requires planning, and those looking for a true "freestyle" vacation would be better off with a smaller ship.
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Balcony Stateroom
This room has an angled balcony, making it about 30% larger than regular balcony rooms. It also means that you can see (and be seen by) other rooms further up on the ship if you're sitting by the part that juts out. The room itself has loads of storage space and had more than enough space for the two of us. It is very close to the stairs and elevator but external sound was only an issue with extremely loud groups.
Port Reviews
Nassau
We just walked up to Bay Street and the Straw Market, shopping for souvenirs. Prices at the Straw Market are half of what they are sold for in the port area. We did not find the vendors or taxi drivers to be aggressively pushy as others have stated. Maybe we were just used to it after spending a cruise with a ship full of New Yorkers.
Great Stirrup Cay
Disembarkation was a complete mess. We were scheduled for the 5th tender group out of 16, but the line from the theatre extended through the casino more than halfway down the ship. There was no way everyone in the theatre, the backstage hallways to the fourth deck, and those lined up on the 7th floor were all in the first five tender groups (and after one boat had already left). But nobody from the ship checked anyone's tender group until you were already at the disembarkation point. We waited until the afternoon and spent a couple of hours on the beach. Again, our plans to spend more time at our destination were thwarted by transportation issues.
New York (Manhattan)
We took the Yankee Trails cruise express bus to and from the port, which saved us a big hassle (not to mention dollars) in terms of driving and parking. Embarking was delayed several times because too many people were crowding the embarkation area before their numbers were called. Apparently a lot of people choose the self-embarkation option, since that group took 45 minutes before the next embarkation group was called at at 8:50 (scheduled for 8:15). By 9:45 though the colour groups were being caught up to their scheduled times.