Norwegian Breakaway - show/tell me your good, bad, and ugly pics encouraged!

[angeleyez915]

I will be cruising on Norwegian Breakaway out of New Orleans next year. Would love to hear your stories and see your pics. What did you love, what did you hate? The more pics the better. We will be in an Aft balcony deck 14, it will be my oldest son who will be 20, my youngest son who will be 11 and myself. Have one friend who is going so far, hoping to get more to join as well so give me some selling points to help encourage others as well.

[trishnmike]

Glad you asked this. We are cruising out of NOLA too. But will be in an ocean view room on the 5th floor. I’ve been reading everything I can on this beautiful ship. Can’t wait.

 

 

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[angeleyez915]

Glad you asked this. We are cruising out of NOLA too. But will be in an ocean view room on the 5th floor. I’ve been reading everything I can on this beautiful ship. Can’t wait.

 

 

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This will be a couple of firsts for me - one is that i've not been on NCL yet, all my previous have been with Carnival. second is that I've never been to NOLA and its always been a bucket list item for me to go there. We are going to go and stay a couple of days before the cruise

[ColinIllinois]

If you search you will find a ton of excellent reviews on the Breakaway. Here is one from Gambee, his are always good.

 

http://www.cruisewithgambee.com/breakaway-review-2/

[trishnmike]

I was born in NOLA. And live less than an hour from it. If you like coffee, check out cafe du monde. I love that place but go to convington, la to get my fix. I’m the same as you, always cruised with carnival, with one with RC. Just couldn’t pass up NCL special. Plus she is so pretty. Very contemporary. Always wanted to check out NCL. I’ve talked to a lot of nice people who cruise only NCL. I think we will have a blast.

 

 

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[AndyCapn]

The good: There's lots to do on board and it's fairly easy to navigate.

The bad: The pool is woefully inadequate for a ship of 4000 passengers.

The ugly: If it's raining on a sea day, everything indoors is on decks 6, 7 and 8... and it's a madhouse.

[Zenica]

The Breakaway was our first cruise and we loved it. Nothing to complain about with respect to the vessel itself. The premium dining for us wasn't so, premium. It was just different in comparison to the free dining venues. Our favorite was the Garden Cafe and Shanghai Noodle.

The staff were fantastic.

 

The only gripe we had were the long lines and feel of over crowding, especially at the pool area and bars.

 

Our cabin had plenty of space for us and the balcony was a decent size too. It would be great if they had a kids channel so in hindsight, next time we'll pack more for the kids to watch. My son kept wanting to watch "channel 10", the safety channel where they go over the do's and don'ts.

[WoodandWhiskey]

Sailed on the Breakaway in February 2016 from NYC to Florida, the Bahamas, and their private Island. We originally booked a Family Balcony, but received a call and were able to upgrade to Haven for a reasonable fee. This forever changed my opinion on cruising as it was amazing.

 

Like everyone else has said the main ship was super crowded and if it wasn't for the escape to the Haven I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much, but this trip was awesome. I traveled with my wife and two small kids who loved all of the pool slides and activities on board. The actual main swimming area was small relative to crowds and not ideal for just lounging around the pool, but luckily we had the Haven pool to retreat to.

 

Our kids have been to Disney and on the Breakaway for vacations. We asked them this year what they wanted to do for a vacation and they picked (without hesitation) going on a cruise. Leaving in a week on the Jade for Christmas! Got lucky again and bid on a Haven Suite and got it. So excited.

 

I apparently also spent too much time in the Casino late night on the Breakaway and received an offer for a free cruise (naturally after I booked the one we are going on in a week before getting the offer). Decided to take them up on it for a kid free trip on the Pearl with some friends in March out of New Orleans. I doubt I will try to upgrade without the kids, more than enough room in the standard rooms for 2 and the smaller ships aren't as crowded at the pools. Never been to New Orleans so I'm also looking forward to that.

 

Crazy thing is that my wife and I sailed on the Pearl exactly 10 years earlier for our honeymoon. Didn't even realize it until after we booked it and we haven't cruised at all between our sailing last year and our cruise 10 years ago.

 

Never, been in an aft cabin, I need to make that happen as I hear it's awesome. You will have blast. Enjoy!

[TYSONBOXER]

We also sailed in the haven on the breakaway and are spoiled. It was fantastic. We sailed last year on the Gem in the haven. Have to say I was disappointed. It’s not the same as breakaway. There is no haven restaurant and lounge. The haven area is small. I guess we were spoiled by the breakaway.

 

 

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[ncklhaus]

Love love love the Breakaway. We've sailed on her 3 times so far and have a review with pictures for each time in my signature. Sailing on her again on Friday and will do another review. I'm still debating if I should do a live report or an after the cruise review. :D

[uneamie]

Most of these are "Haven" passengers. The Haven is a far cry from all other cabins. There's no comparison because they barely ever use the ship and it's common areas as much as regular cruisers do.

[HolySpearit]

This will be a couple of firsts for me - one is that i've not been on NCL yet, all my previous have been with Carnival. second is that I've never been to NOLA and its always been a bucket list item for me to go there. We are going to go and stay a couple of days before the cruise

 

We are in the exact same boat (pun intended) and leaving about 90 days behind you so please post a review when you come back :D

[Two Wheels Only]

Most of these are "Haven" passengers. The Haven is a far cry from all other cabins. There's no comparison because they barely ever use the ship and it's common areas as much as regular cruisers do.

I can't speak for others but we enjoyed both inside of the Haven and outside of the Haven. Being in the H6 (opposite end of the ship from the Haven), we had plenty of time to enjoy the public areas. We enjoyed the main pool (and waterslides) as well as the Haven pool and hot tubs

 

Other than the main pools and their surrounding areas, crowds can be avoided even without the Haven....but (obviously) with the Haven, it is much easier.

[mkmaj]

We sailed Breakaway in a non Haven balcony cabin and loved it. There is SO much to do on the ship. We didn't really encounter long lines on a full sailing but it was crowded. Just make sure to account for those crowds - show up early to atrium events, make reservations for shows, etc.

[Tiggertastic]

Loved the ship, the decor, the entertainment and the restaurants. Hated the tiny balcony, we couldn't get our knees between the chair and glass so you have to turn them sideways. We had a cabin on deck 14 and it turned out to be under the treadmills so at 6am we got thumping wake ups so tip is look where the room is.

 

 

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[newmexicoNita]

I will be cruising on Norwegian Breakaway out of New Orleans next year. Would love to hear your stories and see your pics. What did you love, what did you hate? The more pics the better. We will be in an Aft balcony deck 14, it will be my oldest son who will be 20, my youngest son who will be 11 and myself. Have one friend who is going so far, hoping to get more to join as well so give me some selling points to help encourage others as well.

no pictures but here are some of the things that leave a memory of the ship. We sailed her last April>

depending on the time of year: filled with kids, way too many and they were rude. Of course it was the end of spring break. It never dawned on us it would still be spring break. That was the real downer of the cruise.

 

We loved the food overall, Try the Manhattan room for a very fun evening without an upsale cost. Otherwise, O'Sheehans was our go to choice for a quick snack. All the specialty dining rooms were good. Another favorite for us was the wine luncheon the last day at sea. I don't remember the name of it, but it will be advertised alot and was super fun. We did try Margaritaville for a light breakfast, nothing else. The view was great and it wasn't crowded but the food was just so/so. We are not much on buffets but did try the buffet a couple of times, the first night for dinner and once for lunch; enjoyed it more than some we have tried. Modenos and Cagney's were open for lunch of sea days, they had a limited buffet but it was wonderful. That type of buffet I do enjoy. Be sure and give it a shot.

 

The entertainment including the wine lovers lunch I just mentioned was good for the most part.

 

Considering the ship was sold out the service was good and we had a wonderful cabin steward.

 

The negatives: small pool area for a ship this large. Not nearly enough elevators.I know this is brief, but these are the things I think of when I think of our spring cruise. Would I cruse her again? Probably if the price was right, but for us, more than the ship, we are just into smaller cruise ships I think. I am sure you will love her, many really do.

[newmexicoNita]

The good: There's lots to do on board and it's fairly easy to navigate.

The bad: The pool is woefully inadequate for a ship of 4000 passengers.

The ugly: If it's raining on a sea day, everything indoors is on decks 6, 7 and 8... and it's a madhouse.

unfortunately that is what we had 3 or the 7 days; the same on the Epic. it does make for lots of crowds.

[Laszlo]

I will be cruising on Norwegian Breakaway out of New Orleans next year. Would love to hear your stories and see your pics. What did you love, what did you hate? The more pics the better. We will be in an Aft balcony deck 14, it will be my oldest son who will be 20, my youngest son who will be 11 and myself. Have one friend who is going so far, hoping to get more to join as well so give me some selling points to help encourage others as well.

 

 

Check back in about 3 months. My wife and I are doing a 14 day on the BA in February. I plan to take a lot of photos and doing a couple video tours of areas on the ship

[Birdnutty]

We were on the breakaway 2 years ago. We had gotten a Haven room on an upsell (which they don't do anymore), but our room was not in the Haven Coutyard area. It was allllll the way forward in the bow of the ship. We did spend a great dal of time out of the haven area. It was prolly our 25th NCL cruise. The ship is BIG. And as someone said before, if the weather is not good, the public areas on the three main floors get very crowded. We left out of NYC in Jan, so there were 2 days on either end that kept people mostly indoors. The Atrium and O'Sheehans were madhouses. And when the weather was good, as someone else mentioned, the pools were small and overcrowded.

One comment that I have not yet heard from anyone is how loud all the public venues are. I think the general populace is losing their hearing capabilities, because very few people seemed to mind the dangerous levels of sound everywhere, especially in the shows and the Atrium. It actually gave me pain. (We own a sound & lighting company and have decibel level apps on our phones, not that we needed them to tell) But if you do treasure your hearing and want to keep it, as I do, bring good earplugs to protect yourself. And keep them with you because you can't escape it. Every public venue is overwhelming. Just MHO

The shows are fantastic. NCL's always are. Make reservations and get in line about 15 minutes before the show, because as of 5 minutes before, they open the doors to everyone and your reservation doesn't matter anymore. That's also a hint in case you don't have a reservation. Get in the standby line.

[Birdnutty]

Oh yes. If you want to view an event in the Atrium, get there early, especially if you want to participate. On our cruise, there were some people that got there in the morning and just planted themselves. And stayed. All. Day. Long. There is not nearly enough seating, and lots of people standing around to view the proceedings. You're in better shape if you're tall. Having been on all NCL's ships a number of times, except Bliss, I've decided that I'm not a big fan of the Atrium being such a major source of entertainment. Ah, progress ... gotta love it.

[maggie cruises]

The casino smoke permeates the 6/7/8 atrium area into le bistro and the waterfront area is next to a bar smoking area and the eating areas on deck 8 atrium area also get the smoke. This of course may thrill some pax. Not all pax. Lol

 

 

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[geneticfreak]

Yep, the casino smoke is my biggest complaint and it it a direct result of the open design of the area. It doesn’t bother me much, but it triggers my wife’s asthma just walking through no matter what deck we are on.

 

 

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[maggie cruises]

2 more cruises certs to use on ncl and then on to Celebrity for us. Don't get me wrong we like the ncl casual cruise product etc but if I want to cruise with DH in the future it will not be ncl due to their smoke issue

 

As it is I'm using the current certs to cruise with other family members on the getaway because I will not subject my asthmatic dh to the getaway.

 

He is ok with jewel class ships though however I just want to use up my certs asap

 

 

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[geegee1]

The good: There's lots to do on board and it's fairly easy to navigate.

The bad: The pool is woefully inadequate for a ship of 4000 passengers.

The ugly: If it's raining on a sea day, everything indoors is on decks 6, 7 and 8... and it's a madhouse.

 

Never been in the Haven, so can't comment on being secluded from the the rest.

 

• The last time we were on the Breakaway in 2015 for February Break, we had bad weather for 5 of the 7 days. We didn't find it to be that much of a madhouse.
  
• The pool is very poorly designed for a boat with so many pax.
  

• Personally never really experienced the smoke issues other complain about
  
• Do like the spaciousness of it, so there are more places to go to, more activities to use, like mini-golf and ropes course.
  
• Do not like that there isn't a Spinnaker's like lounge for cold sail away and night time parties
  

[Price31]

Never been in the Haven, so can't comment on being secluded from the the rest.

 

• The last time we were on the Breakaway in 2015 for February Break, we had bad weather for 5 of the 7 days. We didn't find it to be that much of a madhouse.
  
• The pool is very poorly designed for a boat with so many pax.
  

• Personally never really experienced the smoke issues other complain about
  
• Do like the spaciousness of it, so there are more places to go to, more activities to use, like mini-golf and ropes course.
  
• Do not like that there isn't a Spinnaker's like lounge for cold sail away and night time parties
  

I went on Feb break 2014 and it wasn’t busy at all. We had perfect weather though