WOW! What a nice trip! Our family loved this cruise! The weather was so warm we wore shorts! The weather reports said high 50s to low 70s. It felt much warmer than that to us! We brought rain jackets but did not use them. The Breakaway was equipped with blankets on deck if it got a little breezy. Make sure you pack sturdy shoes with a lot of support because the cobblestone streets kill your feet. We wore tennis shoes and still got blisters on the bottom of our feet. This cruise involved a lot of walking, an average of 12,000 steps while in port. We have cruised many times but this was our first 9 day itinerary. I found we packed too many clothes but not enough basics, socks and underwear. The ship has a laundry special on day 4, $19.95 a bag, but it takes 4 days to get it back. Embarkation: in Copenhagen. Wow! This was the smoothest Embarkation on any cruise we have been on. We arrived at the cruise port after a short taxi ride from our hotel at 10:45 am. Check in took less than 10 minutes for our party of 5! If your stateroom is on an even number floor have your taxi drop you off at Terminal 1 of the cruise port to check in. If your stateroom is on an odd floor you check in at Terminal 2. We went to the buffet and it was open with hot brunch food! Our cabin was ready when we checked after eating! Ortiz was our room steward and he was amazing! He always greeted us by name and our room was spotless! The Breakaway: We had never been on a ship this size and we were worried. Most of our cruises on NCL have been with the Jewel class ships. We loved it! The ship had so many bars, restaurants, and fun activities. We did not feel that the ship was too big. Our favorite spots were O’Sheehan’s, the card room, and our secret find on deck 16 outside Vibe where there was a quiet bar and comfy chairs! My family loved Bingo and Deal or No Deal. We played trivia and took the Canvas 4 You painting activity. The painting was the only activity that was disappointing. The instructor struggled with English and just said paint flowers without directions. Then he criticized my painting! Best Place to Eat: O’Sheehan’s! They had the best wings, nachos, and burgers on the boat! It is open 24/7. They have a prime rib special one night that was great! Our Room: Mini Spa Suite with balcony, 14766. We originally booked a balcony cabin and we bid $150 and were upgraded to the Spa Mini-suite. We had access to the Thermal Suite in the Spa. WOW! We went in after a long day ashore and we had it to ourselves! It was amazing! There is a hot tub and a plunge pool as well as saunas and a salt room, and rain and steam showers. The stone loungers in the Thermal Suite were heated and felt incredible! The views off the front of the ship were the best! It was so peaceful and a great place to rest your weary feet! This perk came with our cabin and is available to purchase if you are not in a spa suite. I’m not sure if I would have paid over $200 a person for a Thermal Suite pass but I would for sure bid on this type of Suite again! Our room comfortably slept 3 with plenty of storage. My 6 ft 4 in son slept comfortably on the converted sofa. We brought a small fan and it really helped us sleep! The Breakaway was very well constructed because we heard no noise from our neighbors. The pool deck was above us and we only heard music one night. The room was able to stay cold enough for our tastes, we like it very cold. One time it got warm and our room steward told us to turn the handle on the balcony door to closed even though the door was not open. We bought the 12 bottles of water package and our room steward cleaned out our minibar so we could stock the fridge with water. The 1 liter bottles came in handy and lasted for our 9 day cruise. We had the unlimited drink package and it was totally worth it, especially for a 9 day cruise you get your money’s worth. We also had the dining package and made reservations before the cruise. I will not make reservations for Cagney’s the last sea day because half of our group didn’t want to go. They were having too much fun on our last day to go to a sit down restaurant! Warnemunde: Super Warm Weather! High 70s! We took a Friends of Dave tour called Mega Mecklenburg! Christian was our guide and he was amazing! This tour is packed with information. We learned so much about the region. I especially liked the perspective Christian had about his mom’s view of growing up in East Germany and then living through the transition to united Germany after 1990. This tour is very intensive and if you struggle with walking it might be difficult for you. The cobbled streets are very hard to walk on. Warnemunde is very beautiful and the beach was breathtaking! Christian had so many stories to tell. Ask him about the dogs in the windows! Tallinn: Cloudy and breezy but warm, high 60’s. We took a taxi into the Old Town, 25 euros for all five of us. Beautiful city! We did not do a tour just walked around on our own and shopped. There were a lot of stalls set up in the knit market. They sold beautiful sweaters and scarves. It was too warm for us to want to buy a heavy sweater. We took a taxi back to the ship again 25 euros for all 5 of us. St. Petersburg: Sunny and hot in the 70’s! We took the SPB 2 day Deluxe Tour. Our guide Kate and driver Alexey were amazing! Kate knew so much information! The first day was in the outskirts of the city and there was a lot of walking involved. Peterhoff and Catherine’s Palace were so amazing to see! The second day was more in the city center. The lunches provided by SPB were very good. I thought the shopping stops were expensive and had arrangements with SPB. This stop was the reason we booked this cruise and we were not disappointed. Helsinki: Sunny and warm in the high 60’s. We did not take a tour here. We walked into town because we took a wrong turn looking for the tram. We went to the Market Square where a lot of vendors sold a variety of hand made crafts and the usual souvenirs. They were less expensive than the tent at the ship. If you don’t want to walk in the tents are fine. We struggled to find a taxi that would take us back to the ship. We asked three taxis in a line and they all acted like they couldn’t understand English. The fourth driver got angry because the first drivers didn’t want to take us because it wasn’t very far. He made the first driver take us because that is the rule. It cost 25 euro to get us back to port. Stockholm: Partly cloudy and breezy in the mid 60s. We took a tour through SPB because we wanted to go into Stockholm and they picked us up at the ship. There was a group through our Cruise Critic Roll Call that wanted to add a canal ride to our tour. So for about $30 more we switched to the Stockholm Highlights with a canal ride. Our guide Suzanne met us in downtown Stockholm and she was a disappointment compared to the guides we had in St Petersburg. Our 7 hour tour became a 5 hour tour when we added the canal ride, which doesn’t make any sense because we added more and ended up with less time for more money! There was absolutely no free time to shop or get a bite to eat. Our guide showed us items in shop windows but didn’t allow us to go in. When we complained she gave us 10 minutes which was not enough time because the shops were packed. Suzanne’s transmitter died and she didn’t have any spare batteries so for the second of the tour we couldn’t hear anything. She became irritated with our group and didn’t bother to hide it. The canal ride was the best part of the trip! If I had to do this again I would have purchased ticked to the Hop On Hop Off buses at the dock then bought a ticket for the canal ride. There was a small souvenir shop at the port but the prices were inflated, the exchange rate was bad, and the selection minuscule. Disembarkation: Super Easy! We purchased airport transfers from NCL and it was a good choice. I noticed that NCL sold the transfers before the cruise for $5 less than if you bought them on the ship. We walked off the ship with our carry on bags about 10 minutes before the scheduled time and got on a motor coach for a 45 minute ride through Copenhagen! The city was quiet and it was beautiful. NCL took our baggage the night before and we picked them up at a tent at the airport. It was much easier and quicker than getting your bags at the port. In Conclusion: NCL Breakaway was a great ship and this was a trip of a lifetime! The weather was hotter than we expected and we came home with sunburns. The staff was superb especially our room steward Ortiz and our favorite waiter at Cagney’s Ericcson! Everyone we encountered on our tours was delightful and I felt like we made some new friends. We would definitely book with Norwegian again and we wouldn’t hesitate to book on their large ships again! We loved our Cruise Critic family that we met on our Roll Call! We made many friends especially Bonnie and Nancy! We love you ladies! Thanks for working so hard to plan events and being a smiley face every time we saw you on the ship! Read Less

This cruise was chosen because it met the timelines available for our two grandsons who were graduating from high school as well as most of the destinations that we thought important That said, as frequent river and ocean cruisers we were significantly disappointed in our first NCL experience. The definition of a mini suite was in fact no more than a balcony stateroom on most cruise lines An unexpected poor choice when traveling with two teenage boys. The overall service of the staff was poor from front desk, excursion desk (which was not open between 0800 and 1800 on days in port to resolve issues) and waite staff Because of fixed rate gratuity there was no incentive among the crew for excellent service The food was less than good with poached eggs served hard boiled. Stuffed chicken breast in reality an unstuffed thigh and leg, hot chocolate served cold and rare prime rib served extra well done. To name only a few issues Changes in excursions were not communicated consistently nor to all members of the excursion. As an example we had to findout on our own the transportation plan in Sweden and then only received half of the plan Likewise the excursion to the Peterhof although listed a 5 hours in fact was merely 70 minutes from gate entrance to departure the rest was wasted time The only good part of this cruise was the onboard entertainment which was quite good The overall experience was far below Viking, Princess Royal Caribb, Uniworld, Globus and etc Read Less

Wanted to travel to this part of the world and this ship was the best suited for the time we wanted to go. Getting on and off was one of the easiest we have experienced. The ship was missing large open spaces. Our inside cabin was the smallest we have ever had in over 20 cruises. No storage in the cabin to empty two suitcases. Sometimes getting hot water was longer than it should be. It seemed that passenger capacity was the priority in this ships build. Always a wait for a table in the morning at the buffet. The dining room at night was a pleasant surprise. They always had live music and dancing. If there was a wait it was never more than a few minutes. The shows were well done. Remember to book before the cruise for the popular ones like Rock of Ages. This was a Baltic cruise and we missed having an indoor pool or solarium. The highlight for us was the Syd Norman pour house bar. Live Rock and Roll music in a smallish venue. The same crowd was there most nights and it got busier as the word got out. The cast of Rock of Ages came and performed with the band some nights. Norwegian is not the cruise line we use the most, but it is trying a lot harder than say Royal to get our business. Read Less

Hi We are back from our Baltic Cruise. Except for some ship board issues we had a wonderful time. My wife put together an addendum to my daily cruise trip note critiques. Flight: Flight with SAS was smooth, service at check in was fast and clerks were very pleasant and food was pretty good too. Seating that we upgraded to near the bulkhead was very roomy on the way there. Coming back we sat in the economy seat and there was still enough room. Next trip maybe upgrade to plus or business class. Addendum: our fourth NCL cruise. Ship the Breakaway, Sail date May 29, 2018. The positives, excellent service, amazing food, wonderful excursions good entertainment. Exceptional service from Alvin Villorente, wine steward, Manhattan Club. Ricky, waiter at Moderno , Kadek and Heidi, servers at Taste, Vincente, Ice cream man, at the buffet, who went above and beyond to get us cookies early. And Andrew Fernandes, excellent waiter at the Manhattan supper club. The negative problems : after boarding ship, we waited for announcement that staterooms were ready. Went to our “upgraded mini suite, opened door , room was still messy. Our friends cabin a few doors down was ready, so we went to the atrium to wait. We were paged, met with a junior officer, who told us people in our stateroom were staying on the cruise, so we were given a ”upgrade to a spa suite”. So we went to room 14756 instead of 11194. Amenities, like our free wine, ordered case of water, ordered cheese tray took 3or4 calls to be delivered. Two important notices, transportation to Stockholm and luggage tags and transportation to airport were never delivered. If not for our traveling companions we would not have been aware of these important events. We booked next cruise credits before these problems arose but this matter not being resolved right away gave us pause about our next cruise. We felt our room change was never properly fixed in computers, as we were still listed in room 11194 at the guest services computer where we went to solve this problem. Eventually all matters were resolved and we hope we don’t have any problems like this on future cruise. Our excursions to Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Sweden were great. We had a couple of glitches but above that it went well. Restaurant food was very good as well as the service. Read Less

The ship is big but you don’t feel overwhelmed. As it wasn’t hot, didn’t get a chance to go to pool. Food in dining rooms were ok, soufflé was great though. Didn’t really participate in any events. Burn the floor show was ok, but didn’t appreciate it as much as that is the noise I hear in my room. I had heard the previous cruises took a long time to disembark in St. Petersburg. I’m glad they found a way to fix this problem. However we didn’t realize til we were on board that we needed to book a time to disembark. For dining we made reservations so did not really need to wait. We tried the free dining at shanghai and the food was not good. We also had Indian food at moderno and it was ok, not much variety. Also we did private tours as the cruise ones were overpriced Read Less

This is a very large ship, with many restaurants and bars. But it is lacking in shops, and entertainment. Only three shops in the entire ship and the theater is not luxurious at all. My high school had a nicer theater.The restaurants if they where free had the same menus, why would you do this? To have a different settings arrangement? I do not understand. The personnel iwas great, but that is the same across all companies/ship's. I did enjoyed the Haven aspect of NCL, but you do pay for it. With the Haven you have your own sections, restaurant, and bar.. you also get moved to the top of the waiting list if you go to a papular restaurant, ND reserved seating at the theater. Overall I am going back to the old faithful Holland America and Roya Carribean. I love cruising, and will always keep looking for better and better choices. Read Less

A big part of the cruise experience for us is the food. The buffet for lunch and breakfast is horrible. Not enough seats for 4000 plus people, a real disappoinment. We did not really like the free dining options so we ended up going to your pay for meal restaurants. Ocean Blue was great, Cagneys OK. LaBistro was so bad first night they comped a comback another night. That meal was just as bad. The free style is horible, bring back traditional seating as an option. You make reservations in advance then need to change everything based on entertainment you want to see. Theatre is too small for a big ship causing problems and need for pre made reservation, very poor. Shore excursions cost way more then vendors not associated with ship such as Viator. Elevators an issue at times with large crowds, I can't imagine what it wouyld be like in the summer when kids add additional persons in rooms. All in all my biggest issue was the quality of the food and seating at buffet for lunch and breakfast. Other options listed for breakfast and lunch have limited hours meaning if you sleep late your only option is the buffet. I had previous;y done a Norwegian Cruise and was not happy then with the freestyle however we gave it a chance because of the price and ports it visited which were excellant. Never again, I will pay more and go with Celebrity and or Royal in the future. Read Less

I've only been on 9 cruises, so I may not know it all but this is my experience on the NCL Breakaway: I booked this cruise for a group or family and friends against my true desires to sail on NCL again. The first time with NCL was the Hawaiian cruise in 2007 - it was not good either. 1) Staff- NOT the friendliest as other ships. They do their job, but that's it. No going the extra mile to cater to their passengers. You are a number, nothing else. Except for a handful of people, including my room steward who I only saw 3 times, when we boarded, when we needed a laundry order form and when we left, and a couple of people on guest services. 2) Dinning- Even whit the many options, I didn't eat anything that I would crave to order again. Expect to pay if you want different food at the specialty restaurants. At the main restaurants it took way too long. Sometimes it took too long to get our food. Granted we had a couple of large tables, but food for 10 per table shouldn't take so long! Two morning we had breakfast at the main dining room, just my husband and I and it took as long! plus my order was wrong, so I ate what they brought, because I was so hungry by then! Buffet selections are good. the food lacks flavor, It's bland. Nothing I ate was impressive. On the buffet some days it was super hard to find seating and it took longer than usual to have a clean table. I love the lobster on formal nights... I guess since NCL has free cruising style, no formal nights mean no lobster for me :( or anybody else... 3) Ship- It's ok but not impressive at all. Just big. Nothing to be "wow" by. Nothing special on the main attrium or public areas. I usually want to take pictures of the ship, this one I took pictures of the rope course and some slides. that's it. My son's bathroom had a faulty light so for 2 days he had to use the bathroom and take showers in the dark!!! My cousin's balcony was small. Rooms over all are much smaller than other ships and not enough place for storage. It was very clean. 4) Entertaiment- It was good, but nothing to WOW me. We chose not to go to the paid shows. I have never seen other ships charge for entertainment. I expect it to be included. I loved the violinist and some of the dancers where REALLY good. The theme parties, games etc were just "Blah". Music on other lounges were ok, but not great. 5) Ports- The ports and cost were the one of the main reasons we booked this cruise. The Berlin tour was the worse. I did not enjoy it. Too long for just being on the buss for 5-10 minute picture stops. NO real visit anywhere. My favorite and unexpected was Tallin Estonia!!! Loved it! I was super impressed by the stops in St.Petersburg. The russian ballet was held at a beautiful venue, but besides the main dancers, the rest seem to be students at the academy next door. They were good but not impressive. It was nice though. 6) Booking a group though NCL- We were promised several things and it was super hard to get what we were promised. If you book directly with NCL make sure everything is in writing. Apparently they can change what they quote. 7) We were celebrating my anniversary and had b-days on board. NCL did NOTHING in regards to the special event even though we told our NCL cruise consultant. SO there was NO special treatment AT ALL. 8) Rooms- Smaller than other ships. AND they charge even for movies. TV has poor selection. Over all I enjoyed my ports but traveling with NCL left me with the desire to book elsewhere. I will not be bringing my groups to NCL again. Twice I got burned by NCL. I guess you get what you pay for... It seem to be the less expensive option, but it wasn't. They nickle and dime you for so many things! Other ships include a lot of what NCL charges for. I should have kept my booking with Princess. Their itinerary was better and service is the best. Read Less

We chose this cruise because one of us wanted to go to Russia, and this was the easiest and cheapest way to do that. Embarkation was one of the best we've had (this was our 7th cruise), and we couldn't believe it that our room was ready for us and our luggage by the door before 2pm. Our room (balcony) was huge! The balcony was pretty small but we're so glad we paid the extra $ for it because there were some awesome sunsets on this cruise. The complementary restaurants were ok; the buffet was probably the best we've had. Service was always very good in the restaurants. The bar tenders was great! We especially liked Andy from The Phillipines at the bar outside the buffet area. The shows were really interesting and entertaining. Rock of Ages was amazing. Our cabin attendant, Jesse, was excellent. This is the first cruise we've taken where we didn't keep running into cabin attendants in the hallways, but he was always around when we wanted him. Each and every port was interesting and different from each other. Our shore excursions were really good except for one in Saint Petersburg where the guide repeated everything at least three times. I happen to smoke and there was an outdoor bar/smoking area where we met lots of interesting people. The ship's layout was the best ever. Our cabin was near the back of the boat but the elevator banks were located nearby. And the elevators were quick, especially considering there are 4,000 people on this ship. I would definitely recommend this cruise to people, and I would also recommend they use Louis at vacationstogo.com to book. He was super responsive and helpful. Read Less

We caught the public bus 25 from Norreport to the port with no problem! Took about 10 minutes (only one stop on the way) and cost 24 DKK per person. Dropped suitcases off and then lined up for about 20 minutes and then we were on! Our only regret was not keeping out bathers in our hand luggage so we could enjoy a hot tub while waiting for our suitcases to arrive (took about two hours). We had bid for an upgrade from interior cabin to a balcony successfully, and so glad we did! We had the most amazing warm weather on our trip, so even though our balcony was small, it was so nice to have the balcony door open and view the sea whilst lying in bed. Our cabin was perfect (9264). Our cabin attendant (Rolando) was nice and friendly and kept our cabin lovely and clean. I asked if there were any robes available (mainly for to and from the hot tubs) and he had one in our room later that day! Although it was a fully booked cruise, we didn't find it felt overly crowded or shoulder to shoulder in the public areas. We did feel though that the Atrium area was used incorrectly, would have been nice to have live music playing there throughout the day while enjoying a drink from the bar. However they played games, did dance lessons and played an occasional movie. I feel they might have got more people to join in the dance lessons etc if they were in another venue and not in front of the bar with lots of eyes watching on!! Not as much entertainment during the evenings as we have experienced on other cruises, but still found something to do most of the time. The only show we didn't like was the Rock of Ages. We were aware of the adult themes etc., but it just wasn't a good show and went for way too long. We had thought it would be similar time frame to other shows and events (eg. about 45 minutes - 1 hour), but I think it went for nearly 2 hours??!! It was definately 1 1/2 hours anyway. Maybe in the daily planner they should also write the time frame for the shows, as it makes it easier to plan your dinner reservations or meeting others when you know how long it will be. We did arrive about 20 minutes pre show to get a good seat down the front, enjoyed a drink while waiting! It was a little too cool for me (not for others!) to swim, but we did use the hot tubs and really enjoyed them. Nice and warm and not too busy. We ate mainly in Taste, Savour and Manhattan and enjoyed all of them. They all have the same menu. Food was very good, but not wow! It was very enjoyable with a nice range. Waiters were all very friendly and helpful. It was very easy getting on and off ship for port days, a little bit of queuing, but nothing too bad. Of course St Petersburg was the biggest queue, but we had been warned. Took about an hour or so on the first day and only about 20 minutes the second day to get off ship and through immigration to meet our Tour Group (SPB Tours - wonderful!!). St Petersburg was the highlight of the ports we visited, was amazing, and our tour leader was so good getting us into venues ahead of all the queues etc and explaining everything. We all had individual headsets, so very easy to hear and small groups. We had the drinks package (free with our booking), and could order any drink under $15 for free - except for coffee/teas, and red bull. We enjoyed the house wines and the cocktails. We would definitely recommend NCL Breakaway and also the Baltic cruise. We had a wonderful time :-) Read Less