Norwegian Breakaway Review
Rating by category
Additional details
I'll preface this review by saying that despite some complaints we had a wonderful weekend aboard the Breakaway and that this is our 6'th cruise as well as our third on Norwegian. I'll also offer a quick summary to state the food was pretty good, the entertainment was excellent (if you could get in to see it), the ship and the cabins were very nicely appointed, however it felt extremely crowded (needs less staterooms and more public space), the service was adequate but rather slow and no one seemed to go out of their way to go the extra mile. We had a great weekend onboard, but a weekend was enough; I wouldn't want to spend a whole week on the Breakaway. Finally, having sailed both NCL and RCCL multiple times, this trip helped to solidify RCCL as our favorite over NCL.
We arrived at the cruise terminal about 10:30 and received boarding group 7, wasn't too long of a wait during check-in, however it seemed a bit disorganized as even the port employee standing at the front of the line directing people to each check-in agent as they became available was wondering out loud where all of the agents were as there were only maybe 4 or 5 agents there. We were among the first people aboard the ship when we finally began boarding about 12:40. First impression is that she ship is more refined and has more of an upscale feel to it than other NCL ships, I think it's largely due to the color scheme, more elegant with less tropical pastels found on other NCL ships, reminded me more of a Royal Caribbean ship.
As we hadn't eaten breakfast and were later getting onboard than we had expected, we went first to the buffet and as we were among the first few people on board, there was plenty of space. The food was good, especially the pretzel rolls we've come to love and expect aboard NCL ships. We then proceeded to begin walking around the top decks of the ship, and by just before 2:00 they made the announcement that the cabins were ready.
Cabin Review
We were sailing for the first time in a balcony cabin (we booked this only a couple weeks before sailing and the price of the balcony was only very marginally more than an inside). The cabin was excellent. The bathroom and shower were plenty large enough. The shower had a curved glass door (no annoying curtain). Our bed was closer to the closet (with small programmable safe) and the couch by the window (it appeared the cabins alternated with the bed by the closet and then by the window). Although our room was considered a standard balcony, we were right next to the first cabin that was considered a "large balcony" cabin, so our balcony was actually angled like a trapezoid and larger than standard balconies, the left side of it was much deeper than the right, giving the railing an angled look toward the front of the ship. It was really great and I'd definitely recommend cabin 9110 (not to mention how easy it is to remember the number). The flat screen TV has an excellent interactive feature to review your onboard account, make dining and entertainment reservations, and review all of the activities scheduled for the day