We booked our NCL Breakaway cruise in July of 2016 for the week of Christmas 2016. We paid a premium for the week because, well, supply and demand for that week. Kids were off. Mom and Dad were off. So we surprised the kids with a cruise. This cruise had two convenience factors: It left out of New York so we didn't have to fly anywhere, and it was the right time of year (and duration) so no missed school. Keep in mind, we are no novice cruisers. We have been on three other lines and have had spectacular experiences. This was the first time we traveled on NCL Breakaway as a family (caveat: my wife took the Bermuda cruise with her mother April 2015 and was ho-hum about it).

Let's start with the rooms, or rather "closets". We booked the inside rooms because it was expensive enough for those, let alone the outside rooms. Traveling with six people, we had to limit the expenditure on the room. However, I was not expecting the room to be so small. We had two rooms: one for three girls and Granny, and one for mom and dad. They were next to each other, but not connected. SMALL is an understatement. The four in the room had absolutely no space to move around. No storage space. Nada. Ridiculously small would be sufficient to describe these cabins (recall: not novice cruisers).

Activities for families... not really. Ok, so you could go bowling for $5 per person on a shortened Duck pin lane, that sometimes worked. We did do the scavenger hunt, and won. But that was it. Most things scheduled were craft-related. I have two teenagers with me... they were not interested in crafts. Granted, they also did not take advantage of the teen club, but looking in on that, most of the kids in the teen club simply had their phones in front of their faces the entire time. No thanks. Read more