The focus is on activities especially dining and nightlife. While Norwegian Breakaway has some eye candy, decor is not its calling card. Perhaps more will be revealed, but so far this is all we know about Norwegian Breakaway until she hits the shores of America. There are more, and more varied water slides on Breakaway, including two of the fastest at sea called “The Plunge.” The addition of the two new restaurants by Geoffrey Zakarian are new, otherwise Breakaway has the very same dining venues as Norwegian Epic. The entertainment lineup is different but I should mention Breakaway also has the Fat Cats Jazz Club, Second City and Howl at the Moon, just like Epic has, but Breakaway does not have Legends at Sea or Blue Man Group. Other ships have come close, but this is the first to offer food, drink and a view, all in one spot on a lower deck. This “sea-view” public area with access to the dining rooms and lounges is an entirely new concept in cruise ship design. The Waterfront is the next major difference. The biggest difference is the fully enclosed singular bathroom instead of having separate rooms for the toilet, shower and sink facilities. The daring “New Wave” style staterooms on Epic were not carried forward to Breakaway. The Norwegian Breakaway differences: to sum up, the biggest differences between Breakaway and Norwegian Epic begin with the staterooms. Most importantly, the staterooms have been retro-designed to industry standard, so there are no bad surprises, only good ones like coffee makers and a plethora of American 110-volt AC-electric outlets. Gladly, Norwegian Breakaway fixed any design mistakes made on Epic, and even added some important innovations, such as the “Waterfront” outdoor promenade to open up many of the middle deck public venues to the outdoors – a feature still surprisingly rare in the cruise industry. While the previous ship, Epic, was supposed to represent the epitome of “Free-style Cruising,” unfortunately there were some negative features, mostly in the design of the staterooms, which knocked Epic’s reputation down a few pegs with the larger cruise community. Each guest makes his or her own course throughout the cruise to eventually seeing “everything” on board. This means a wide variety of smaller but more diverse dining and entertainment options that are each open every night of the cruise. Those numbers indicate that Breakaway boasts the “Free-style Cruise” format like all current Norwegian ships. For example, Breakaway has 27 dining options, 22 bars & clubs, Three Broadway shows and the largest water park at sea with five water slides, two of which are the fastest at sea. So, while it may sound like Breakaway is more crowded, the way the space is purposed makes the ship feel bigger and more open than Epic. Norwegian Epic is 156,000-tons (a measure of indoor space) for 4100 berths and 5183 passengers total, while the new Breakaway is a smaller 147,000 tons for 4028 passenger berths and also about 5000 passengers total. Norwegian Breakaway has a very similar floor plan to the line’s previous ship, Norwegian Epic, except that the new ship is smaller. Rooms that were once kept closed for most of the day, like discos, piano bars and even production shows theaters, are being eliminated or re-designed to make them into “transformational” space that can be repurposed for various activities morning, noon and night. New generation ships are slightly smaller but have far more efficiency in utilizing all available public space on board. In the past idle and open space denoted luxury, but today efficiency per passenger is the key metric. There is a fundamental philosophical difference to this new generation of ships. Notably, Breakaway is the first of a whole new generation of cruise ships designed, built and delivered after the world economic collapse of 2008. Since it takes at least two years to design and build and new cruise ship, from 2008 through early 2011 the industry was still bringing out new ships that had been ordered before the economic downturn. This was our first chance to see actual pictures of the real ship, not just designer renderings, so we can see how she really looks. The highly anticipated Norwegian Breakaway arrived in Southampton, England for its first cruise with regular passengers on the night of April 29th, 2013. One of the best ships for Solo Cruisers with 96 “Studio Staterooms” available with no singles supplement. A fun mega-ship with lots of nightlife, great entertainment, romantic staterooms and a large variety of alternative restaurants.
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