Recently sailed out of New Orleans on the NCL Breakaway to the Western Caribbean. This was our fifth cruise on NCL and first on the Breakaway. All our other NCL cruises were on their smaller ships. The large number of passengers did not seem to make as much of a difference as I feared as the boarding at each port was very well coordinated including one Tender port at Grand Cayman.

The food and service at both the main dining room and specialty dining rooms were generally very good but we felt that the entertainment was largely uninspiring and very pedestrian. Almost all areas featured various forms of old T11232op 40 retreads... over and over again. Nothing representing music of the areas we were going to and the Theater presentations we extremely corny and juvenile. It's a waste of the dancing talent that NCL has at its disposal.

We also prefer (as most people we talked to) the design of the smaller ships. The Breakaway has no observation lounge so the only place to sit and enjoy the view of the sea or ports from inside was in the noisy Buffet. So unless the weather is almost perfect you are stuck with sitting inside with no view. The bars are numerous of course but generally small and crowded. The casino was in the mid-ship so it was tricky to avoid and the smoke constantly wafted to the areas around it. Read more