I never sailed with Norwegian before always sailed with their competitors and went on many cruises with them. I was very disappointed from several things on this ship. First was the overall cleanness of the ship:

The main dining rooms and also the buffet floor were extremely dirty. Especially at the buffet. And I am not talking about food crumbs/pieces. There were "dust bunnies" all over the floor around almost every single table like it was never vacuumed before! Pay attention to the glasses on this ship: almost every glass that I picked had residues or stains from a previous drink. Whether it was a brown coffee line or other white lines and a few times food residue inside the glasses! This was easily noticeable on the glass glasses but a little harder to tell on the frosted finish plastic glasses at the buffet. The glass signs around the elevator floors, the glass windows of the buffet and the mirrors in many areas were so dirty that when the sun was shining through it was nearly impossible to see out through the windows due to the white film residue that was on them. It's as simple as wiping them down but it looks like it's not done very often at all. Our room was also dirty upon entry the shelves had toothpaste/lotion/soap residue all over them along with the previous guest's hair clip that was left there and many lipstick stains on the floor, shelves, table, mirror. Those marks were easily smudged off with a finger with the exception of the stain on the carpet. The fact that they remained in their place for the entire 14 days I was in the room disgusted me it only shows that they hardly wipe down or clean anything in the rooms as well. I rather get a well cleaned room instead of a towel animal. The bathroom glass doors had an oily residue on them that was clearly visible from day one and was never cleaned either. Second was service: Our closet doors had a malfunction: each door is supposed to have a part that holds them in place from sliding side to side when the ship is moving. On one door this part was functioning properly and on the other door it was broken so every night while the boat was moving a little more than usual we woke up in the middle of the night from the door slamming from left to right over and over. We politely asked our steward, guest services and a supervisor over at guest services desk to fix it and follow up with us when it was done for a total of EIGHT TIMES! nothing was ever fixed so we got frustrated and just shoved towels in between the closet doors so they stop slamming. I was very disappointed from the service and the fact that we spoke to multiple people one after another for a few days with no luck in resolving this issue. The public men's bathrooms were dirty as well. There was almost always a puddle of urine on the floor in every single one of the bathrooms around the urinals. The sewage also started to flood a few common areas including the nightclub and a couple of other bars it seems as if sewage overflows on this ship on a regular basis from seeing the staff bring special vacuum almost immediately and having line poles nearby to block people from stepping on sewer water. On a big cruise ship like the Breakaway to prevent diseases and other germs from spreading among people high levels of hygiene are extremely crucial. Out of all cruises I have ever been to I never saw cruise ship staff that was so miserable. It was hard to get a smile out of a big portion of the staff as if they just didn't want to be there. There were exceptions and many cruise employees that were very nice and friendly and made our vacation memorable but unfortunately they were not the majority of staff. I do not expect some high level presidential service when I go to a dinning room but at least a smile, how are you, eye contact. almost always neither were done.When me and my small group of people occasionally went to the poolside bars there were employees constantly yelling that they "only have one blender" (in other words they were trying to ask people to not order frozen drinks because there is only one blender) on a hot day I cannot imagine that people will get anything but frozen or iced drinks so yelling at people that there is only one blender before they even say what they want I thought was very rude. Third is dining: The service was also very slow in both the free and the specialty restaurants. We timed 45 minutes at the Italian restaurant from the moment we ordered an appetizer to the moment we actually got it and that was after we told our waitress that we have to be at a show later on that night. A dinner at the Manhattan room took an average of 1.5-2 hours. When we got to the Italian restaurant for the first time we were also not told what foods we could have gotten with our dining package after we asked so we pretty much missed on a fair portion of the menu because of that and discovered it the second time we went there. After our meal was over the waitress at one of the specialty restaurant asked to what card they should bill it and we politely replied that we have a dining package. The waitress took both of our cards and was pointing her fingers on them with a sour face staring at us as if we are idiots. When we asked what happened she pointed again at the cards and said she does not see the little imprint for the dining package (for some reason Norwegian never had them printed on our room cards) Kudos to the Japanese steak house and the sushi bar for having exceptional service and great food. The rest of the restaurants both specialty and complimentary were very slow and the food wasn't that different between the restaurants. One night over at the noodle bar someone in our party asked for the shrimp dumplings (they had either shrimp or pork on the menu) that person along with all of the people who ordered shrimp dumpling received shrimp AND pork dumpling (the mixture inside consisted of both) when we asked the waitress why the dumpling had both shrimp and pork in it she replied that they started to make the dumplings with pork and shrimp inside followed by a blank stare and silence. If pork and shrimp filled dumplings is what they make: it should be updated on the menu like they do in any other restaurant. Also make sure you do a good research on their dining package. We were surprised to find out that over half of the specialty restaurants had an additional "up charge" in addition to the dining package cost. The entire cruise in general had many extra charges all throughout the ship (much more than any other cruise line I visited).

On the good side the entertainment and shows on the ship were very fun. The staff on the shows seemed happy and enthusiastic and it was overall a great experience. The occasional parties were also fun and it was a great way to gather and meet with different people on the ship. This cruise was overall fun but for the most part I did not like the feeling of telling myself all throughout the cruise that it could be worse than that. I do not go on a vacation to get that feeling. I go to relax, unwind, meet new people and have fun. I will not recommend Norwegian to other family or friends and will stick with other cruise lines from the past that set the bar in standards at a higher level than Norwegian was able to offer.