the view from our balcony, Mini Suite Deck 10 room 10186. While there is so much to do inside the ship, it’s really the view of the sea, that makes a cruise, special
Norwegian Cruise Line invited my husband and I to sail with them from New York City yesterday on what might just be called the first official cruise of this new ship. Breakaway, to the delight of New Yorkers, will be home-ported in the Big Apple all year round.
Although I am planning to write comprehensive reports once back on terrra firma, here are our initial thoughts while we are still sailing in beautiful “nowhere.”
First, for a ship of this size, and it is large–more than 4,000 passengers double occupancy, Breakaway feels spacious and extremely well organized. There are touch screens to help you navigate and to make reservations, everywhere. This is really a bonus, since you don’t have to flag someone down to ask a question. However, the while the children onboard had no issues other than maybe being too young to reach up to the screens, some of the older adults seemed a bit “lost” and there were staff members to help them learn.
Many cruise ships these days compete to be flamboyant, however, to our delight, Breakaway is actually very beautiful inside and out, and very elegant. There are a wide variety of room types and sizes to suit singles, couples, and families. And, the staff is extremely well trained to handle whatever and needs you may have.
That being said, there are some issues that are mostly due to “shakedown” and will resolve in time. The public rooms are lovely, but NCL will have to analyze crowd flow, as some of the venues seem under-sized for the potential of a full ship. And, we have experienced a few technical difficulties, not unexpected for a brand new ship.
The bottom is that NCL has stunningly successfully refined the Freestyle concept of cruising (one that they created) on Breakaway. The ship is sure to be a crowd pleaser. More later.
