Working in a public school, I can only cruise on Spring Break and during the summer. This year, we wanted to cruise out of New York again. We have already been on the Gem, so we booked the Breakaway. Flight issues put us into NYC late on the day before embarkation, so we didn't explore our departure city. The next morning, there could have been a problem with traffic with both ships unloading and loading as well as a half-marathon blocking traffic near the port. But we knew this ahead of time, so we booked a Lyft that would come in from the north to avoid the traffic.

We had a smooth embarkation, much better than the previous two NCL cruises. This is partly because we arrived so early. I didn't have that "WOW" feeling when boarding the ship, and I think it is because we arrived on the aft of the ship and went straight to Guest Services to get some assistance with medical supplies. There wasn't a crowd (yet) so I didn't have the feeling that we were on a mega ship. We were reassured that the medical supplies were delivered, so we headed to Taste for lunch. They said that they weren't ready to seat anyone yet, and told us to go to Savor. We ended up going to Savor every time after that. The ship never felt crowded, except at shows and while waiting for tenders. Generally, we never waited longer than a few seconds for an elevator all week. We loved that the 678 was centrally located, and we spent a lot of time in the atrium listening to live music. With our cabin by the aft stairs and elevators, I would definitely plan more dinners at Manhattan, Cagneys, and Moderno. They were our favorites, and they were easily accessible. O'Sheehan's has super slow service, but that is mainly because they are so spread out over the 7th floor. The sushi bar is amazing; I regret not going there more. We never went to La Cucina, and Le Bistro was good but not great. The food at Cirque wasn't worth the ticket price... I wish that we had re-thought those tickets. They are worth about 30 dollars.

Our cabin was huge, because it was an accessible cabin. It was the width of two cabins, the balcony was the same width (About the size of a chair) but it had double the length. When we did the cabin crawl, everyone loved the size of our cabin, but they all agreed that the large balcony rooms have the best balcony size. Our service was hit or miss... most staff seemed very helpful. Guest services and the special access desk were amazing. Best we have ever had. Our room steward was not the worst we have had, but we could tell that he was cutting corners to save time in our cabin. We don't care about that, but I am sure that many other cruisers would have flipped out if they didn't get ice on a few nights or had towels that weren't exchanged. It's not really an issue to us, so we didn't complain. The shows that we went to were Burn the Floor and Rock of Ages. Let me start by saying that if you enjoy the first few minutes of Dancing With the Stars when the professionals are dancing and there's no competition or dialogue going on, you will love Burn the Floor. We almost walked out after the 3rd or 4th song. I think I nodded off once. There's no storyline, there's no emotional interest, there's nothing that makes me want to watch these dancers. It's an exhibition of different dance styles. For Rock of Ages, we didn't want to walk out because we enjoyed the music and the storyline. The actors seemed rushed, but I think that has more to do with the fact that it is a 3-hour musical that they are trying to cram into 2 hours. Some of the acting was spotty, but a few are standouts. Cirque was a great show, but not worth the price of admission. I enjoyed the acrobats and the interaction with the audience, and the small setting was fantastic. But I think this could be incorporated into a "brunch" on multiple days, lower the price, adjust the food down to mini-sandwiches or a salad, and the room would have been filled. The price is too high for entire families to attend, and that's who this is mainly designed for. Read more