Norwegian Breakaway Review
Rating by category
Additional details
This was our second time on the Breakaway, this time with the kids (ages 7). Overall, we found the service and quality of the cruise worse this time around. We still had a good time (who wouldn't when you don't have to cook and clean for a week!), but we were a bit disappointed with some of the things we encountered. Here are our thoughts about the trip:
Parking/Embarking
We used the Hilton Garden Inn Ridgefield's Stay/Park/Cruise deal, and we loved it. We arrived late Saturday evening and when we checked in, they asked us what time we wanted to be picked up. We'd chosen 10am, and our driver was there by 9:45am. The ride was about 30 minutes, and he dropped us off right at the port around 10:30am. We checked in pretty quickly, and we were group #14. We were on board by 12pm. We would definitely do this again if we sail out of NYC.
Cabin Review
Family Balcony Stateroom
We had a family balcony stateroom on Deck 12, and we were happy it and our room attendant. It had a pullman bed that came down from the ceiling, right above the sofa, forming a bunkbed for the kids. When we were on cruises with Royal, their staterooms had curtains that separated the bed area from the couch/TV area. We wished the Breakaway had that too, as we found the TV was right in front of the kids' sleeping faces and was too bright for us to watch after their bedtimes. But we discovered that the area on the ceiling around the pullman bed was metal - so when we stopped in Port Canaveral, we MacGvyer-ed our own curtain system. We found some magnet-clips at the dollar store and used them to hold up a curtain of towels around the bunkbed so that we could watch TV and do stuff after the kids when to bed. I wish I'd taken a picture....but I'll definitely bring a big stash of magnet clips with us next time (we tried using the magnets we brought with us, but the towels were too thick for the magnet to "go through", so we needed the magnet clips). If we were to do this cruise again, we would choose a balcony on the Starboard side so that we could view the Statue of Liberty from our balcony going out of NYC (ours was on the port side this time around). However, the good thing about being on the port side is that we get the sun in the mornings on the way down, so it was nice to enjoy coffee on the balcony as it got warmer and warmer travelling south.
Port Reviews
Port Canaveral (Orlando)
We rented a car in Port Canaveral and drove to Lori Wilson Park/beach. The kids had a good time playing in the sand and ocean. There was free parking and washroom/shower (cold) facilities. There was also a lifeguard on duty, even though no one really went that far into the water.
Great Stirrup Cay
Seas were too rough for tendering, so GSC was cancelled.
Nassau
we arrived in Nassau at 8PM and had an overnight stay. We didn't go ashore for the evening as the kids were with us, but I spoke to the staff, and they said that we could go on/off all night if we wanted to. In the morning, we went early to Junkanoo and hung out around the Tiki-Bikini Hut area. There were seaweeds on the sand/in the water, but it wasn't as bad as we'd expected (users over on the Bahama boards said there were glass when they went to Junkanoo, which we didn't find). We did find certain parts of Junkanoo had more rocks/pebbles in the sand than others, but the area in front of the Tiki-Bikini Hut was okay. We only stayed for the morning, and went back to the ship around lunchtime.