I was on 3 back to back cruises. 2 with Carnival and 1 with Norwegian. I expected more for the price of the cruise, but the staff was extremely rude, the pubic spaces are way too small so it was always overcrowded and the restaurants,buffet areas were always understaffed. I will not be cruising with Norwegian again. Our interior room was on deck 8 at the very front of the ship. It was extremely loud. You can hear the ship when we're pulling into port. I'm not exactly sure what it was but I assume it was the engine or steering equipment. Also, the 2 times we had to tender to port, when the anchor was put down the entire cabin would shake like an earthquake. Not the greatest to wake up to around 7am. The Entertainment wasn't that great. The activities are geared toward the elderly. I've never seen so many people on scooters on a cruise ship. It was odd. I would not book excursions through Norwegian. I booked locally and my sister booked through Norwegian. They ended up cancelling one of hers and the local tour company still held mine, even though it was the same thing. Norwegian is also double the price vs locally booked. Read Less

This is my third cruise with Norwegian and they get better and better. This ship is enormous And to be honest I was a bit concerned with reading that people had stated that it was crowded and you had to que for everything. The ship had about 4000 people on board, yet It never seemed crowded, I never had to wait for a table at dinner time, you could sit Comfortably in the bars and lounges, and there is literally 100.s of sunbeds. We had a balcony cabin which was roomy bright and clean, with a comfortable queen size bed. The cabin steward was brilliant and kept the place immaculate. The food in the restaurant was excellent, really couldn’t fault anything, the entertainment was good and varied. We went on several excursions, apart from one, they were very good and worth the money. As I say, this was our third cruise with Norwegian, we are now Gold class passengers, and Already planning our next cruise to Hawaii Read Less

I don't like to write negative reviews, I always try to be positive, but you need to know this before you spend your money on the Breakaway!! Background information- We took the Norwegian Breakaway at Thanksgiving out of New Orleans. The ship was crowded and you had to wait in line for everything even if you had made prior reservations they were not honored. You just got in line and waited. When you dialed the operator on the phone you were simply put on hold to listen to music. The crew are not passenger centered nor properly trained. Activities- The activities on the ship were average but too crowded. Example there were only 4 hot tubs at the small pool for the 4,000 guests so you had a 1 in 1000 chance of enjoying those. We never got near one. The omelet stations were the same. Never got one. Service- The service on this ship was horrible! I don't know a worse word than horrible or I would use it. Waiters constantly cut in front of you at the garden buffet, there was frequently nobody at the carving stations. Crew members were not personable and did not assist or greet passengers . When we were boarding the ship and had requested wheelchair assistance we were ushered down a separate aisle but could not find the wheelchairs so we asked a crew member and he said you have to go back to the beginning of the line! He then said “you should have known that” This crew was not properly trained nor were they passenger centered. You don’t blame the guest for not knowing the workings of the ship! He should be there to help us not rebuke us. Port & shore excursions The ports were great but there was a lot of walking to get off the ship to the ports. Many times they would only open the door furthest away form the port so you had to walk even further than needed. Sometimes there was transportation but it took a very long time. The shore excursions were enjoyable but poorly organized. I fell during one and they just continued on without me. They neither helped nor waited for me, I had to find my own way back to the ship! But all in all the shore excursions were the high point to the trip. Dunn's falls was great, The parasailing was excellent and the beach on Roatan were all wonderful. Travel to embarkation port- The port is highly congested and you sit in traffic for the longest time. Our bus finally let us out a block away and we had to walk to the port. They offered to take our luggage so we didn’t have to carry it, however they left the luggage out in the rain and (delivered it to the wrong cabin) when I finally found it all my clothes were soaked with rain. The ship was over 2 hours late leaving port and there was no place to sit to wait Cabin The ocean-view cabin which was not ready for 3 hours after we boarded the ship was nice for the first few days. After that It smelled like raw sewerage. I complained and they told me It was a broken water pipe (that smell was not water). Finally after complaining many times and getting sick from the smell they gave us a different cabin to sleep in but put us right back in the smelly one in the morning. They did send us 2 pieces of candy and a bottle of wine to apologize but trust me it was not enough. Dining The food at the garden buffet was average at best and most of the time it was poor. The food was cold. It was not good choices. It was simply the same old same old. In the dining rooms it was the same menu with very little change. Even if you made a reservation you had to stand in line with everybody else because they were not honoring reservations. I ordered Steak rare and it came well done (inedible) the waiter never asked me why I didn’t eat it he just took it away and brought desert. The waiters in the main dining rooms were much better than at the buffet. The specialty restaurants were a different animal. Ocean Blue was excellent. The food, the service and the atmosphere were everything you could want. The food parings were perfect. Moderno too was excellent in every way including you could opt to sit outside on the deck which we did. The salad bar had everything you could hope for and a few choices we had not heard of but tried anyhow. Everything was great here food, atmosphere and service! Tappanyaki The food was excellent here too, however, they gave you very few paring choices, you had to choose their parings and that was not optimal because you may like one thing but not the other. You ended up choosing the lesser of 2 evils. This restaurant was entertaining but way too loud for us. We will not choose this one again because although the food was excellent, well prepared and the cook entertaining it was not the relaxing experience we hoped for. Le Bistro Again, the food was excellent, well prepared and beautifully served by a very attentive waiter, however, there was a woman laughing and screaming so loudly at the next table it absolutely ruined that experience. She should not have been set in the middle of the restaurant at all. And others should not have been subjected to this uncouth behavior so they could not enjoy the meal they paid for. This was probably the hostesses area of responsibility and she failed miserably. Again not considering passenger comfort. Entertainment The entertainment we experienced was great. They said to make reservations and nobody would be admitted after the beginning of the show but again reservations were not honored and people kept coming and going standing up in front to you during the shows. Many shows were an up charge but considering your value for the dollar on this ship we did not opt for any of those. Disembarkation Again, we needed wheelchair assistance to leave the ship and even though we requested it in advance, we had to stand in line to get a wheelchair to disembark. However, that did go smoothly once we finally got a wheelchair. Summary The ports of call were great, we had fun on the shore excursions and the specialty restaurants had great food. That being said, I would never travel on this ship again. Bad food, bad accommodations and the poorest service are what we got and not what I want on a luxury cruise. This is not just my opinion, when you rode the elevators or sat in the common areas, people were openly sharing these same thoughts. There is not much good you can say about the Breakaway. Consequently, because of this awful experience, NCL is not on our list of cruise lines to travel with in the future. Simply put we did not get what we paid for…It was a waste of money for us. Read Less

We sailed on the jewel 3 years ago and it was good. The Breakaway was a lot newer and bigger, the food wasn't good at all I didn't think anybody could mess up chicken but they can. The dinning room on all cruise lines have the New York Strip Steak I ordered med rare ( all others have ben 1 1/4" thick juicy and tender) It came out a little pink in the middle, like I ordered, and 1/2" thick and very dry, tough and full of gristle, I couldn't eat it. My wife had ordered a mushroom & chicken soup that smelled and tasted spoiled she left it and we went to the buffet, It didn't have spoiled food but the worst buffet we have ever been to. Anything good and some of it was if you went back for more they were usually out of that. One night they had fish & chips and we don't waste food so we got a very small portion and if we found anything good went back and got more the fish & chips was good, like Long John Silvers, I went back after more and they were out. The workers would run into you if you didn't dodge them 2 times I got run into by a worker and made me spill my drink. We got to where when in port we ate the local food and it was always good. The theater was smaller than any ship we have ever been on and I heard of several people being turned away because they didn't have reservations and the theater was full. The comedy club just had wooden chairs with no cushion and small. Over all the ship is just designed to haul a lot of people about 4000 and less entertainment and smaller gathering areas than any of the 6 or 7 cruise ships we have been on. We will not again cruise on a Norwegian Ship. A lot other people we met had the same problems and they said no more Norwegian for them too. This is just a few of the things we didn't like many other small things not worth mentioning. Read Less

Beautiful ship! Clean, good entertainment. Smoking is sadly allowed in the casino which is open air into the lobby and adjoining noodle bar restaurant. The smoking section is right in the middle of the pool deck which again allows smoke to drift in all directions. Embarkation and debarkation was smooth and well organized. Food was good, sometimes very good. Never excellent. Staff were generally friendly but not all. The corkage fee of $15.00 per bottle of wine even to drink in your own room is a cheap cash grab. Too many lineups for shows etc. even with reservations you had to show up 30 minutes early to get a good seat. Cruise Director Armen is excellent. Assistant Cruise Director Lester is absolutely annoying. Rock of Ages, Burn the Floor, Tenors of Rock and Barricade Boys were great shows. The Atrium is over used for entertainment. It is constantly packed with Senior Citizens and you can never find a seat. Read Less

This cruise was only 75% full and we still could not get tickets to see many of the shows. This is the first cruise we have been on that requires you to sign up to see entertainment. A small one story theater that only holds a couple hundred people cannot adequately support several thousand passengers. The other entertainment venues are even smaller. They even charged extra for several of the available shows. The shows we did see were very good. On at sea days there was a lot of down time with little entertainment options. The cabin was the smallest we have ever stayed in. You also had to have dining reservations or wait a long time for a table in one of the 3 free main restaurants. I tried making reservations a month before the cruise and some times were already full. I saw many upset people trying to get a table for dinner. The food was good and the wait staff good most of the time. We had the all inclusive drink package, however you had to pay extra if you wanted a bottle of water. Most of the time I had to go to the bar to get drinks since it was difficult to find a waiter. It appears NCL reduced the size of the public venues and rooms in order to add more rooms to make more money. Consider a different ship for your cruise. Read Less

My wife and I chose this cruise for the itinerary and the price. We had never been on a ship this big and after sailing on her we much prefer the Jewel size ships. This was our 18th cruise and our 8th with NCL. Since we had never been to New Orleans we came in two days prior to the cruise to check things out. There is always something interesting happening in NOLA we found out. We stayed in the uptown area, away from all the noise but close enough to walk to everything we wanted to see and do. On Saturday, we took a walking tour of the French Quarter. Our guide was excellent and after our cruise we did a HOHO bus tour. Getting on and off the ship was a breeze in NOLA. Even the two ports where we had to tender were easy and quick. As we are Platinum members on NCL maybe this helped us. Right from the get go my wife and I had negative feelings about the ship. First the bad then I will give the good about the Breakaway. No drawers for storage in our room and getting past the couch to get clothes in /out of the closet was a pain. Most events took place in the atrium which was too small for everyone, very noisy and poor viewing unless you like to watch everything on a big screen. Casino in the middle of the ship poor design - major traffic issue. Almost everywhere we went it was noisy and somewhat smoky. O'Sheehan's didn't have the window seats and booths for viewing the sea like on other ships. This is definitely not a Freestyle cruising ship. We had to book seats for theatre shows and specialty dining weeks in advance of the cruise. Once on the ship we had to book other entertainment. There was always the opportunity to stand in line for standby seats for no shows - not something most people enjoy doing. Freestyle means doing things when you feel like it not scheduling it weeks in advance. Now for the good. We had an extra large balcony on deck 9. The Waterfront on deck 8 is wonderful to stroll or have a meal at one of the many restaurants. We have always enjoyed the entertainment on NCL and it was better than expected. It was excellent on the Breakaway. We could always find a place to sit and eat or play table games. Although it was a large ship it was very easy to find your way around. Read Less

We chose this cruise because the ship moved to where we could drive. Have sailed from New York and the one port is not enough for me. So it came to NOLA. Should come to Galveston and we would sail more often. Shows were great. Burn the Floor is the most interesting dance show I have seen on a cruise ship in 30 years. I was a dancer in my youth and the precision, lifts, ballroom dancing and Latin dancing is phenomenal. I saw the show twice and they dance at 100 percent as if they were auditioning for Broadway. The Rock of Ages show was campy, raunchy, punny, sexy, funny and I loved it. Flip the comedian was quite funny--just wish they had more completely different shows. I see some comedians who have enough material to do three completely different shows in a week. They probably should have more than two comedians for an 11 day cruise. Syd's Pourhouse had a brand new rock band. They bill as classic rock, but only about 20% are true classic rock. Some is pop music and I would have preferred more Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Journey, AC/DC and the like---but it still was good. Tenors of Rock on the Seas was good and Barricade Boysj rocked it with Bohemian Rhapsody. LOVED that song with the four of them. So, all in all, I loved the entertainment. The bar service was excellent everywhere we went. Li outside of Syd's was awesome and we had him on the Dawn too I believe. We had a newbie that joined the cruise from Celebrity in the Atrium bar and he did great as well. They are awesome bartenders throughout the ship. And my steward, Freddy. Perfect!!! Did the Ropes course which was fun and "walked the plank". Wich they would have had the camera working on that. We ate at Cagneys twice and it was good. Loved the pork belly! Ate at Bistro twice and it was excellent. Got my fix of escargot twice. Their tenderloin and sole were both delicious. Ate at La Cucina and sadly, it was not good. The appetizer of Fettucine with mushroom was should have cooked a bit more and the sauce was thin and very little. Also barely a mushroom to be found. The seabass was not edible unfortunately. I had just had fresh caught seabass the day before on shore and it was delicious. The sea bass was so fishy and the side was a boiled plain potato. The Manhattan Room had dancing and a band so that was a huge plus. The Burn the Floor dancers entertained at dinnertime several times. I LOVED that. The size of the theater requires the ship to offer multiple showings. I believe they lost the balcony due to the Speigel Tent. I am still not a fan of making reservations, though if you want to guarantee shows, you will need to make them for the most popular shows. The ship's interior is not like many other cruises hips. For example, The bistro actually looks like a bistro and they use brick throughout. There is not a 6 plus high atrium that you see in many ships. it is only 2 decks high and maybe 3 in the center where the casino is on deck 7. Smoke in the casino is unbearable in some areas of the casino is a snall slots area. I like to play slots occasionally, but I had to avoid that area as it was too smoky for me. Spice H20 had parties each night, though we only stopped by for a couple of minutes. Our cruise director was Armen. He has a great voice for announcements, but his personality in the games was a little abrasive, "that's enough, that's enough, that;s enough, that's enough, no touching, no touching, no touching " etc. in some of the games. Kind of bossy I guess. I know that job is hard as he has to be everywhere on the ship, but he should be more friendly and it should look effortless if you are doing it right. I still think he did a good job; he just needs to laugh and interact a little more with guests. The captain is the most verbose (in a GOOD way) of any other captains I can remember. We had a great Cruise Critic party on the second sea day and several officers attended as well. Our cabin this time was a balcony. I liked the layout of the bathroom and the fact that there was a door rather than a curtain for the shower. BIG improvement. There is very limited closet space compared to other ships. Getting into bed on the side by the sliding glass door affords about six inches of space to walk in. They have squeezed every inch out of the room. The room also had much less storage space from what I have experienced on a number of other ships. The carpet was interesting and I liked it. Most importantly, the bed and PILLOWS were actually comfy. After all, we need a good night's sleep so we can go, go, go during the days. We ordered great weather and it was delivered. The last day on our return to NOLA was very windy and chilly, but overall, weather was warm with lots and lots of sun. This was our 20th NCL cruise over 3 decades, I would definitely do another Norwegian cruise soon. I loved the ship and the service. We were even serenaded by the Washy Washy wandering singers! Read Less

I traveled on the 11.17.18 sailing of the NLC Breakaway and was an extremely disappointing experience. The boat felt extremely crowded and oversold. My wife and I were on our first experience with NCL and can not imagine returning based on this experience. We had a Spa Balcony room with the drink and specialty dinning packages. We were unable to prebook our specialty dinning options and once on board everyone was sold out for the duration of the sailing. When contacted Guest Services, we were informed we could "use our options at lunchtime for Margaritaville." The wait times at the bars on board the ship were often times over twenty minuets to get a simple beer due to the lack of staffing so it felt. The overall service levels in all aspects of the ship were below expectations. We did have an attentive cabin steward but was the extent of the positive hospitality we saw on the ship. On return, i contacted customer service, waited over thirty minuets on the phone, and was unable to get any actual help other than they will have to contact the ship and call me back. When I filled out the online help request the note at the end states to allow 15 business days for a response. Read Less

Hard to find a bar hostess/waitress. Had to go find an open bar, then wait. Shows booked by day two. Was able to book 1 comedy club night, had to wait in stand by line for other. First cruise I’ve been on that you had to pay EXTRA for the shows. Hard to get sit down lunch, only 1 open for a later lunch and long wait. Unlimited bar drinks that cost over $800, didn’t include bottled water, that was extra. Paid extra for steak house, they forgot my meal, brought it 15 minutes later, and it as WELL DONE. They gave me a bottle of wine to day sorrry. Nice try but I don’t care for wine and I had the unlimited alcohol package, so my wine was free anyway. Much of the food was good. Most of the drinks were good. The ship was clean. The ports were good. This was my 18th cruise, first Norwegian, and last Norwegian. Read Less