We chose to cruise the Breakaway only about 6 weeks prior to sailing which is not normal for my family. We typically book 9 - 12 months out and have a lot of time to plan. At any rate, this was our 8th cruise and 4th cruise line so I would say we have a pretty good comparison meter. When we book cruises, we choose a sailing based on itinerary and whoever can give us the best deal. Since we waited so late, we didn't have a ton of options. We chose this cruise because of the promotion packages offered and travel to/from the port wasn't too far away. Promotions included airfare for two, beverage package for two, 3 specialty restaurants for two and $50 shore excursion credit for 3 stops.

Restaurants - we ate at the buffet, Taste, Savor, O'Sheehans, Ocean Blue, Cagneys, Teppenyaki and ordered room service one evening. The buffet was nothing to write home about. I was most disappointed in that. We had dinner one night it Taste and breakfast one morning at Savor (I may have those backwards). Dinner was good. Breakfast did not have very many options and I was missing some food when it came out. When it was supposed to be corrected, I was still missing food. O'Sheehans was good - I enjoyed the wings on several occasions. Ocean Blue was good but options seemed limited. Cagneys was really good and you got a lot of food, but it just took forever between courses. Teppenyaki was the best of all. Great show and the food was excellent and way more than we could eat.

Entertainment - this is the first ship we have ever had to make reservations. We figured this out during our planning process and booked a couple of shows and our specialty restaurants. For being a freestyle cruise, it is hard to plan all of that in advance not knowing what else will be going on around the ship. You will certainly miss other things around the ship you want to do. The theater was the smallest I can remember on any ship. The shows were good. We had no idea that you needed to book comedy reservations and by the time we found out, all reservations were already sold out. We ended up getting to every show 30 - 40 min early and waiting in stand-by to get in. We always got in, but a lot of waiting. The comedy space was too small. The comedians themselves were very funny though. Read more