We chose this cruise because we are frequent NCL cruisers and we like the convenience of leaving from NYC. We live in CT so it is an easy train ride into Grand Central and a mile long taxi ride to the pier. This was our first time on Breakaway and we wanted to try it because it is the largest ship we have sailed on. We took the NCL Gem for the last 3 years to Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Kay (NCL's Private Island) and Nassau. The last time we went to Bermuda it was on the NCL Star, which is the same size as Gem (now both considered "mid-sized" ships).
Breakaway carries almost double the passengers as Gem or Star and is enormous in comparison. The Breakaway was very clean and generally well maintained, although several main public men's rooms were consistently out of soap throughout the entire trip, which is a really big issue for me, considering one of the main concerns on cruise ships is bacteria and food contamination, caused by improper hand washing etc.
We were concerned about boarding issues on such a large ship but we arrived at the pier at about 9:45a and were through the security check and the the check-in process by 10:30a. They began boarding at about 11:15a and we were on board at 11:30a and had time to explore the ship before lunch. Disembarking was even quicker. We always carry off our own luggage, so we got an 8a departure. We got in the long line to disembark at 7:50a and we were off the ship and through customs by 8:15a. We went up to the 2nd floor to catch a cab to Grand Central and there was no line at all, so this was a truly painless disembarkation. Really great job by NCL in coordination of the whole process!
The cabin was kept extremely clean by our fabulous cabin steward Gonzalo. He knew our names on the very 1st day and greeted us by name every time we saw him thereafter until the last day of the cruise. He saw to every possible need we had and was truly outstanding.
The bathroom was good sized, with a double trough style vanity (kind of a waste of space), and a large stall shower with 6 body jets and a rain shower head (Very nice). It would have been nice to have a real tub like the mini suites on Gem but the shower made up for that.
The mini suite itself was nice, but there was definitely less storage than the mini suites on Gem and the balcony was absolutely the smallest balcony we have ever had on any of our past cruises on NCL or other lines.
We went through NYC the morning of the cruise to get to the cruise terminal. We didn't do any New York sightseeing