A Family of Five Takes to the Seas on the Norwegian Breakaway

Shared with permission from Michelle Marckesano:  This fall we enjoyed our first cruise to the Bahamas as a family of five leaving from New York on the Norwegian Breakaway. We have three daughters and at the time of the cruise they were 7 years old, 5 years old and 18 months old.  First, I must say that this ship is amazing in so many different ways, but for us we absolutely loved the fact that they had something that was fun and made the cruise enjoyable for each one of us.Emily and Juliette, my older daughters were both able to go to the Splash Academy kids club, where we were able to leave them during the times that it was in session.  They were grouped into different groups according to their ages.  Each day they had a theme and they did different activities around that theme.  Although Emily is older she was more reluctant to go to the kids club; however each time we picked them up they both had huge smiles and said they had a great time and sometimes even asked if they could stay longer.  I was really impressed that the kid’s club staff learned their names and recognized my husband and myself so quickly.  They played games, did arts and crafts and learned different skills like juggling and plate spinning.  In addition to the kids club the girls really enjoyed the other activities on the ship, such as the water slides, mini golf, the bungee trampoline and the spider web, a 24-foot enclosed climbing cage.Although there was no kids club group for Clara, our 18 month old, they did have a room set up where my husband or I could take her to play called the Under 2 Zoo.  The room was clean and cheerful; it had a rubber mat on the floor and different toys out for the kids to play with which they changed up each day.  They also had a cd player with kid’s songs playing in the room.   This room came in very handy when Clara would get fidgety and just need to have some freedom to walk around and play without being in the stroller or sitting in the room.  It was also nice to meet some of the other families that were cruising with young children.  In addition to this play room, they also had special play and art activities times set up each day just for babies which looked really great; unfortunately we weren’t able to get to any of them since we were so busy enjoying all the other fun activities on the ship.My husband and I spent most of our time enjoying the different activities on the ship with our children.  I loved doing the ropes course with Emily.  It was really windy on the day we did it, but it was still such an amazing thing to try out.  My husband, Emily and Juliette had fun climbing the rock wall.  Together we all enjoyed and were amazed by the Burn the Floor dance show and the Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy dinner and show.  While Emily and Juliette were in the kids club and Clara slept on my lap, my husband and I were able to enjoy Rock of Ages, which was in my opinion an equal performance to an actual Broadway show in New York City!Finally, we were really happy with our stateroom.  We booked a Family Oceanview, which is only located on deck 5.  Our room was a great size for the five of us.  We had a queen bed and then a couch that converted into a bunk bed with a twin sized bed on the top and a full sized bed on the bottom.  We also had a great sized bathroom with a full size tub.  The location was close to the elevators and stairs.We had such a great cruise that none of us were ready to come home.  We can’t wait for our next vacation on the Norwegian Breakaway to enjoy some of the great things we already did and to experience some new things that we didn’t get to on our first trip!