CAcruisin202

For anyone thinking about kosher on Norwegian, our first bit of advice is - don’t do it. We just got back from the Norwegian Breakaway and had a terrible experience as far as kosher goes. “Freestyle” dining sounds great in theory, but not when you have special meal requirements (whether they are kosher, vegan, no dairy, etc). Without a set waiter for meals, there is no one who actually knows you are keeping kosher. The waiters don’t get too engaged with the customers like on other ships since they are all getting a pooled tip. The regular waiters are not trained and don’t know anything about keeping kosher. For example, they had Heinz Malt Vinegar on the ship so whenever we had salad in the main dining room, we requested this dressing. One night, the waiter swore the dressing he gave us in a little cup was the malt vinegar but it was clearly a non-kosher balsamic vinegar. He eventually brought us malt vinegar. They will gladly bring you a dairy dessert (all of the desserts on the menu are dairy even though there is no indication of that on the menu and they are served without any labels) after a fleishig meal. In addition, the kosher meals were Spring Valley Catering brand and they were absolutely terrible. There was no quality control of these frozen meals - from day to day the same meal could vary so much that it could be OK one day and absolutely tasteless the next. The meals overall tasted like they had been thawed and then refrozen. We never got the exact meals we requested. There were no dairy options on the entire menu.

On other ships, the salad buffet works well. On this ship, most of the vegetables were coated in dressings which made them inedible to us. They did have a “special kosher skillet” that they made omelettes for us on. They also said they had a “special kosher oven” and that was where they baked challah and cooked double wrapped food. We had double wrapped salmon a couple times and when we requested a different type of fish, it was like pulling teeth but we finally got mahi mahi. On Royal Caribbean we got different types of fish each night without any issues. The only kosher wine on the ship was Manischewitz which is pretty unacceptable.

General Thoughts on the Ship

The ship was overcrowded and poorly planned. The ship has so many private spaces that the public spaces are just teeming with people. The elevators were very slow to come even when most of them weren’t moving and obviously free. When they did come, they were so crowded that we joked Norwegian was trying to simulate the NY subways during rush hour. The running track was on the pool deck where it was impossible to run as it was crowded and tended to get wet from the pool. The fireworks were shot directly over the audience so ashes fell on us. The casino was the majority of level 7 in the 678 center and was very smoky. The hallways in front of the rooms are so narrow that the staff are trained to stop whenever you walk by which is a little uncomfortable. For some reason, the inside rooms have their own hallway so there are 3 hallways and not enough space. We also weren’t enamored with the dark fake wood decor. Light decor would help make the spaces seem larger. Ceilings are low in the dining rooms and other public spaces. We also paid extra for a mini-suite which was not really worth it. We thought the room would be larger but we basically paid for a slightly larger bathroom which was unfortunate. We did enjoy our balcony. Entertainment on the ship was not as spectacular as on other large ships.

My wife and I pre-arranged a taxi tour of Bermuda on Wednesday (5/29). We would be happy for company and to split the cost. We're a couple in our 30's. If anyone would like to join us, please let me know.

My wife and I are sailing on the Breakaway May 26. It's our first trip to Bermuda and we're interested in doing a taxi tour of the island on Wednesday, May 29th. Has anyone who has already arranged a tour interested in 2 more people to share the cost? Or does anyone want to join us on one? We're a married couple in our 30's. You can post here or send me a yahoo private message.