Our trip was fabulous. We love Norwegian. We prefer the mid size ships of about 2000 people. The elevators are never crowded and the garden cafe is smaller. We got lost so many times in the garden cafe on the Escape and the Breakaway. We also love to sit in the Spinnaker lounge and the bigger ships don’t have this large beautiful view at the top of the ship. It was sorely missed on the Breakaway/Escape. From passing the statue of liberty and. Verranzano bridge to coming into ports. It is a great room for music and dancing. No other room on the ship does what the spinnaker does.
The food was excellent. We actually had a very bad night at Cagneys, with a waiter that disappeared for a long time and we think, neglected to put our food orders in. We waited 2 hours for our steaks. We were livid and complained. They satisfied us with more complimentary dinners etc and we subsequently had a very special dinner at Cagney's later in the week with stellar service. All food was wonderful. I could complain about a few dessert brownies and a profiterole that was very dry and hard. All you have to do is order something else! Also this ship had sugar free chocolate ice cream! Helps my diet so much!
Service was terrific to stellar. Everyone tried to accommodate us in every way possible. The freestyle dining is a bit of a myth. We like to eat 6:30, 7:00, or the latest 7:30. It was a constant struggle to find a place to eat during our window. We usually make reservations 90 days before the trip so we get what we want. But this time, we were with another couple and our reservations were not all intact when we boarded ship. It took away from our relaxation to have to.be worrying about dinner reservations and have to beg hostesses to allow us to eat earlier. We ate at special restaurants 6 nights out of 10. But the reservations became a big hassle.
The room was small tk us because we usually get a balcony. But we felt we were going to be in cold weather 2 days down and 2 days back. So we chose the ocean view. However the storage in this room was amazing. We were able to stow everything in drawers, bins, closet and under bed. The bathroom was the same size as in most balcony rooms. We loved being on deck 8, not far from all the action.