My wife and I had done a transatlantic cruise on the Breakaway last April, but our travel companions had to back out due to a late medical problem. So we decided to get together this year and do it again with everyone being healthy again.

The cruise left from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, which is a bit hard to find, and is not really an inviting place to sit and wait for boarding instructions. However, once on board, everything went well. We had lunch in the Main Dining Room (MDR) and proceeded to our cabin (a mid-ship mini suite on Deck 11). We met our cabin steward, and have him a small cash tip to ensure good service. We never saw him again, but I must say that he did his job very efficiently and our cabin was always clean and made up after breakfast and turned down each evening. The cabin was comfortable with lots of storage space and nice verandah.

Food onboard was of very good quality. We ate in the Alizar dining room a few times and found it noisy and cramped. The menu there was always identical to the menu in the MDR. My biggest problem was with the shortage of variety from day to day. Appetizers did not often change and the main entree page, while being different almost every day, often did not appeal to me. Having said that, the food was well prepared and always arrived hot. Servers varied from VERY attentive and friendly, to almost indifferent and slow. One evening in the MDR, we were seated in a corner and almost forgotten. In order to make the 9 PM show, we had to get up and leave before dessert because the server was incompetent and brought the wrong items. But, for the most part, service was good. Read more