Overall we really enjoyed our 12-day cruise on the beautiful Norwegian Breakaway. Some of our appreciation, we'll disclose up front, almost certainly comes from our last-minute upgrade offer from NCL, which moved us from a mini-suite with large balcony (which we had been very happy to have) to a courtyard penthouse suite in The Haven. We are a married couple in our mid 40's and this was our 4th cruise and second on NCL.

We opted not to park at the pier, because we found a hotel 15 minutes away that allowed us to leave the car there for no extra charge. We took a car service to and from the pier. Embarkation was ridiculously fast.. From the moment we handed our luggage to a porter to being on the ship having a "snack" lunch of sliders and fries and punch in the Haven lounge was literally no more than 10 minutes.

Our room was ready almost immediately. It was spacious, about the size of an average hotel room, with a king size and wonderfully firm mattress. Tons of storage, his and hers closets, a full tub.. Great! Not a huge balcony, but larger than average, didn't feel cramped. Read more