Great cruise for the money

We went as an extended family, all adults trip. Both embarkation and disembarkation was quick and smooth.

Our expectations were pretty low both due to some reviews we had read and experience with similar size ships on Princess. We found the Breakaway layout much easy to get around than the Princess experiences.

Almost all of the staff was very friendly. Our room steward was fantastic even calling us by our names when he would see us.

We enjoyed the food for the most part. Much better than Princess, but not as good as Viking which should be better as very expensive. Both Savor and Taste were good places for breakfast, lunch (when open) and dinner.

We found the Manhattan Room to be way loud. There is music during dinner, so it makes it impossible to have a conversation. There is a dance floor, so it seemed that the oldsters who had taken ballroom dancing enjoyed it.

We ate at the buffet on occasion, but four of the six of us are not fond of buffets.

O’Sheehans was okay for lunch. Not great. We did no specialty dining.

We had scheduled online for a couple of the shows. I don’t understand reviewers who did not and felt disappointed as early communication with Norwegian was pretty clear. After boarding and lunch at Savor, we stopped at the Box Office to sign up for other shows. It was a short wait and the service was fantastic. Some shows are first come, first serve. But even for those where you are preregistered, need to get there at least 30 minutes ahead at Breakaway Theater.

Favorite show was the comedian-magician. The female comedienne was pretty horrible and gross. John Stringer, comedians, was pretty good with the Fred Bevil being the best.

We did the Escape Room which was way too hard. All of us had done them before and this was an experience in frustration as well as a waste of time.

With their apparent British accents, it was difficult to understand lyrics in “Six.” But a lot of talent on stage as with “Burn the Floor.”

We are a card/game playing group. The game room is small and dark. But we did find other locations to play.

Due to rough seas, we could not stop at the first place - Norwegian’s private island. But we were understanding of that.

We did an excellent excursion with Charlie Miller’s Roatan tours on our own in Roatan, Honduras. We scheduled it through email. It was only $40 per person and just the four of us in a minivan. Went to the monkey and sloth hangout which was a lot of fun and the driver Stanford gave us a wonderful tour of the island which we found to be our favorite place on our trip.

Also did three NCL excursions - although the wait was long to get in the Bamboo raft on Martha Rae, the rafting experience was fun and relaxing. The paddler was focused on our enjoying our trip. We agreed that we could have skipped the Monkey River Eco boat ride. There were lots of Mayan ruins options. We wanted to limit our time traveling, so we chose Chacchoben Mayan Ruins. Four of us went with the intent to check off seeing ruins expecting we would not return to Mexico. So again, low expectations paid off and it was a great excursion. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and we experienced many ruins.

Smoking passengers on the ship were a bit of distraction/unpleasant. The smoke from the casino would linger on floor below. My brother and sister-in-law experienced people smoking off their balconies which is forbidden. And the smoking room near the pool was unpleasant to walk by. It sadly has an open door.

For the money, it was a great trip.

Room was clean. Couch not comfortable (probably makes up to third bed). King sized bed was very comfortable. Shower was larger than other ships. Excellent service from steward.