Family review: NCL Breakaway vs Disney Dream

We just got back from a wonderful cruise on the Norwegian Breakaway. Meanwhile, we have also taken multiple Disney Dream cruises (last one in January). Both are great ships for families so I thought people may be interested in a comparison of them from a family perspective.

Background:

We are a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 kids (boy-girl twins, both 9 years old).

We have cruised DCL each of the last 5 years. We do these trips in the winter to get out of the cold. All of our DCL cruises have been 4 nights, because we also squeeze in a couple of days at WDW and only want to take a week vacation. We’ve considered a week on the Fantasy but when we tell the kids that means no parks, they vote for the Dream.

My wife and I have been to Bermuda twice before the kids were born. I had been looking at a trip to back with the kids but were nervous there wouldn’t be enough for the kids to do. If it isn’t already obvious, we definitely over cater to our kids too much and feel that if they are happy, then we’ll be happy. When the Breakaway was announced with its Bermuda itinerary, I thought it was a great match with plenty of shiny new kid’s activities and a few days in Bermuda.

Full disclosure: my family was shocked that I suggested a non-Disney cruise as they thought I was fixated on Disney and wouldn’t go on another line. Disney is such an easy sell to everyone that we’ve been defaulting to them. I was looking for someplace to go for a summer vacation (it didn’t have to be a cruise) and when the Breakaway was announced, it seemed like a great option.

We live in Massachusetts and the Breakaway leaves from NYC, so it helped the cost to not have to fly and instead went down a few days early to explore the city.

Anyways I thought the background would be fair in case you detected a Disney slant. I tried to be as fair and open minded as I possible.

I didn’t review the itinerary or the adult features. I think the itinerary is very dependent on what you are interested in. Typically we do our own thing on the excursions, so I didn’t review those or what’s available at each port. Instead I focused more on the ships and their features.

Feel free ask any questions.

Jeff.

Cabin:

We had a family mini-suite with a balcony on the Breakaway. On the Dream we’ve had a deluxe family verandah (4B). Both slept 4 with a sofa that turned into a bed and a bed that pulled down from the ceiling. The Dream cabin was definitely larger, both wider and longer. The Dream room has an extra 3-4feet between the sofa bed and the balcony doors. I would say that the Breakaway room compared closer to a DCL category 5 room oceanview stateroom with verandah than the category 4. That said the Breakaway room still had plenty of storage and we fit comfortably in it.

Both DCL and NCL had good storage in the closet with a section for hanging clothes and also shelves for clothes. Both had a small desk and the beds are high enough to store suitcases under. NCL had 2 large drawers under the sofa as well as a small stool (it was a cube with a wood top that came off) for additional storage. DCL has a trunk and table that can be used for extra storage.

DCL has a small cooler (they don’t call it a fridge because it doesn’t get very cold), while NCL has a mini-bar (I heard you can ask the cabin steward to remove everything so you can use it but we didn’t bother).

The layout of room is pretty similar between the 2 lines except for the closet. As you come in the room it is almost like a short hallway with the bathroom on one side (more on the bathroom layout later). On DCL, the closet is opposite the bathroom. On NCL, the closet is after the bathroom and facing into the main part of the room.

I should say that the location of the sofa and bed can vary on NCL. In our room, the sofa was first and then the bed was next to the balcony. The adjoining stateroom had it the opposite (and like all the DCL rooms) with the bed next to the bathroom and the sofa closer to the balcony. Initially, I was concerned that when the sofa was made up and the upper bed setup if there would be enough room to get into the closet, it was tight but fine. I guess I’d prefer having the sofa near the balcony, but it worked out fine.

The one major issue with the NCL room is there is no curtain or separation between the kids beds and the main bed. I found this to be a major oversight on NCL’s part. My kids go to bed reasonably early (9-9:30) and there is not a good reading light that does not bother them. A simple curtain like on the DCL ships makes so much sense.

The DCL room has a clock while there is not in the NCL room. Not an issue for us as I always carry a clock. The DCL clock is also has an iPOD charger built in, which is a nice feature.

Lastly the DCL pull down bed has a starlight scene above it, which the kids always get a kick out of and is a nice little feature.

Going in I was very worried about the size of the NCL cabin and that the 4 of us would be on top of each other and want to kill each other if we were in the cabin too long. That didn’t happen and the cabin was fine. I’m actually thinking we can save money on the next DCL trip and move to a smaller cabin.

Cabin bathroom:

DCL has 2 rooms for the bathroom. One room has a sink and toilet while the other has a sink and shower. This is a nice setup when getting ready as someone could be using the bathroom or sink while someone else is in the shower. The downside is both rooms are pretty small as you can imagine. NCL has 1 larger bathroom with the toilet, a large rectangular sink with 2 faucets and a bath tub. Most rooms only have a shower but the family mini suite does have a small tub. My daughter used the tub for a bath one night and it fit her fine, but it probably wouldn’t be as comfortable a larger adult.

It is a bit of a tradeoff between the two rooms and one larger one. With twins that get on each other’s nerve, it is nice having the 2 rooms in order to separate them at bedtime. But again, it was nice being able to stretch out and towel off after a shower in the larger room.

There was no clear winner for me, both are very nice.

One minor complaint with NCL is they provide shampoo and shower gel in the shower, I really prefer a bar of soap over the gel.

More to come....

Activities (non-water):

Here is where I think NCL did some great new things with the Breakaway and one of the reasons that we booked it.

Both DCL Dream and NCL Breakaway have a sports course, mini-golf, shuffleboard, ping pong and video arcades.

NCL has added a rock climbing wall, a ropes course, a eurobungy jump thing and a spider climb/slide. On the ropes course you walk across some balance beams and other obstacles including a small zip line, while being ~15feet above the deck. You wear a harness and are attached by a line to a track above you. I’m probably not describing it well, but it is very cool for the kids and adults. The eurobungy has multiple large rubber bands that attach to your waist and pull you go higher as you jump on a trampoline. The spider climb has you climbing up a tower where there are elastic webs along the way that you have to squeeze through and then stand on to get higher. At the top there is a slide down.

DCL has the mouse detective game and sport simulators. The mouse detective game is like a video scavenger hunt around the ship to solve a mystery. The sport simulators are giant video games, one where you can play golf and the other where you can play a variety of sports against a video goofy.

If there was no one on the ship and we had full access whenever we wanted, NCL would win this hands down. The ropes course is especially neat and a bit scary at first. But the line to get on was very long most of the time. There were two issues, first they could only have so many people on the course at one time and secondly they had to make sure everyone was properly harnessed for safety. We ended up going at an off time and didn’t have to wait too long. It would have been nice if they had some more staff to stay open later. The spider climb always had the shortest line and my kids enjoyed that. We did not wait for the rock wall or eurobungy but they looked like fun once you got past the line.

We’ve always had fun doing the mouse detective game and sport simulators. They definitely aren’t as extreme as the NCL activities but much easier to access. We had to prebook and pay for the sport simulators on our last cruise but didn’t have any trouble getting times.

As long as you aren’t rushing to do the NCL things on the first day and pick an off time when to do them, the NCL activities wins between them.

Water Activities:

The NCL Breakaway and DCL Dream have very similar pools. Both have a small splash area for the little ones. NCL is Spongebob based while DCL is Finding Nemo. I think the DCL is slightly bigger and it is all under cover so there is plenty of shade.

NCL has the following pools:

1) Very shallow and small pool within the splash area.

2) Kiddie pool that is about 30ft by 10ft and 4ft deep.

3) Adult pool that is roughly the same size as the kiddie pool but deeper. It also had a shallow section on each side to enable people to sit with their feet in the water and socialize.

4) Small shallow pool with waterfall in adult area (called Spice) which seemed more for decoration than anything but nice place to sit with feet in the water (hard to socialize as the noise from the waterfall).

DCL has the following pools:

1) Very shallow Mickey shaped pool made up of 3 circles (2 are ~10ft in diameter and the 3rd 20ft in diameter)

2) Family pool that is about 30ft by 10ft and 6ft deep

3) Adult pool that has a small circular section and 2 smaller shallow sections for socializing.

All the NCL pools except #4 are salt water, which was a surprise to us.

The entertainment during the afternoon is by the adult pool on the Breakaway and the family pool on the Dream. Initially we thought this was strange because we were used to seeing the adult pool being the quiet pool, but on NCL the adult pool is really the party pool. That said the small waterfall pool is a very quiet and relaxing area.

NCL has a number of hot tubs around the adult pool and in the adult quiet area that were supposed to be are adult only, although later at night I did see kids in them. DCL has a couple of hot tubs in the main area that become a kiddie stew. There are also a large adults only hot tub in the adults area.

NCL has 5 water slides in the area: 1 smaller open slide with a minimum height of 40inches, 2 enclosed larger slides with a minimum height of 48 inches, and 2 drop slides (get in a small capsule and the floor drops out on you) where you must be at least 48 inches and weight at least 100lbs.

DCL has 1 smaller Mickey slide where you must be under 54inches. There is also the Aquaduck, which is a raft ride in an elevated tube around the ship (my wife calls it the human habitrail).

NCL clearly wins in magnitude and variety but the Aquaduck is so cool that makes it close. With both NCL and DCL, if you are looking to ride on the first day or sea days, be prepared to wait in lines. We found that DCL opens the Aquaduck earlier and stays open later and is less crowded at those times. The lines on the NCL definitely drop as the week goes on and when in port. We have picked our spots on both ships and have been able to ride almost non-stop.

Kid’s Club:

The kid’s club on the Disney Dream is really impressive. They have high tech video games as well as lots of different spaces for the kids to play in. They kids are separated by ages into different sections but they can go between the spaces if there is something of interest in the other area. The councilors have a schedule of activities that are done but the kids can also go off to play in other areas if they decide.

The NCL kid’s club is less visually impressive. The kids are divided into age groups and there are 2 levels (bigger kids upstairs) and there is no moving between the ages. Typically each age group is focused on one activity at a time and everyone in that age group participates. They also take the kids to the sports courts once or twice a week for games there.

I have two very different kids. My son is very social and makes friends easily. He loves both kids clubs and wants to spend lots of time there. On the recent NCL trip, he made a couple of friends the first day and always wanted to go to the club to play with them. He was very sad the last night when I checked him out from his last visit. My daughter is more reserved and shy, she usually has an outgoing girl find her as opposed to being the outgoing one. She likes the DCL kids club alright but I found out that she mostly just watches tv/movies in there. She went to the NCL club the first day and didn’t want to leave, but then never asked to go back. It ended up that once her brother made friends, she felt left out and there was no TV to fall back on.

NCL has more limited hours than DCL. Typically NCL opened at 9 (or 10), then closed for an hour or two at both lunch and dinner then closed for the night at 10:30. They did have options to pay for late night or over meals on port days, I believe, but we didn’t make use of these so I’m not quite sure. DCL opens in the morning and does not close until after midnight.

Overall, I was very impressed with both clubs. There always seemed to be plenty of councilors in both clubs and very engaged in what the kids were doing. After sailing so many times with DCL, I thought the NCL clubs might be a letdown for my kids. It was not in any way and they had a great time there (especially my son).

Entertainment

Shows: All the DCL shows are very well done and geared to the families. This is the kind of stuff that Disney is known for.

We attended 2 NCL shows, both were meal/show combinations. The Cirque Dreams show was very good and my kids loved it. There was also a lunch time comedy improve show that we went to and it was OK, our kids liked it more than we did. I’ve read that as the night goes on the show gets more inappropriate for kids. There is also a couple of other shows that we did not go to because they were not appropriate for kids.

Dining:

This is a complicating one to classify, so starting with the easy one.

Buffet: NCL Breakaway has the garden grill while DCL Dream has Cabanas. Both are very large pod style buffet. I would say the quality of the food on NCL is slightly better. It also has more variety. I found the food on the DCL buffet to be more generic and “safe”. My wife does not like very exotic food and had trouble a couple of lunches finding something to eat on NCL.

DCL has soda, juice, coffee and water machines around the buffet, while NCL has juice, coffee and water. Additionally, NCL has (pay) wine machines scattered around the buffet.

In either case the buffet can get crowded and it can be hard to find seats at peak times.

Dinner:

NCL has freestyle dinning which means that you can dine whenever and at whichever restaurant you want. I really like the concept but the reality is there are 4000+ others that are trying to do the same thing. NCL also has many more signature (read: pay for) restaurants. The signature restaurants include a steakhouse, Japanese, brazillian steakhouse, French bistro, Italian and seafood. There are 3 main restaurants, an Irish pub and the buffet which are free. You can make reservations at the signature restaurants but have to walk into the free ones. We found that the free ones were very crowded if you ate at a standard time while the signature ones you could reserve either the day before or the morning of and get a time you’d like. We only ate at one night at one of the main free restaurants. We had a reasonably short wait but then the service was very slow and not very friendly. After that we did one night at the buffet, one night at the irish pub and the rest at signature restaurants.

DCL has the more traditional 2 seatings for dinner but they have rotational dinning where you are in a different themed dining room each night. There are 3 dining rooms: Enchanted Garden room, Royal Palace and Animator’s Palate, each has a different menu. There is also a pirate night for everyone (you dine in 1 of the restaurants twice on the 4night cruise). For vacation the early or main dining is too early (~5:45) for me while the late is too late for my kids. My kids need their sleep or else they would start to get more and more cranky as the trip went on. For happier kids, we always do the main seating on DCL.

In going with NCL, I did miss the fact that there were new servers every night. You get to know the DCL servers and they get to know you. They also get to know what you like and do their best to have everything the way you like it without being asked. Also with NCL, it seemed wrong to pay for a meal so often when on a cruise. We’ve done the pay restaurants on DCL but usually limited it to 1 per cruise, it was just more here. Also the service and food on the DCL pay restaurants is excellent and far exceeds the NCL signatures.

Misc food:

Both the Breakaway and Dream have options outside of the traditional buffet and restaurants.

The Breakaway has a region called the waterfront where there are some more pay options. Some of the different options are: sushi, raw bar, noodle bar, gelato, bakery and hot dog cart. I’m sure I’m missing some. We tried the sushi, noodle bar, gelato and bakery, all were very good and reasonably priced. I should say the bakery is operated by Carlos of the cake boss, which doesn’t mean much to me but others were excited. My wife got a small pastry here almost every day while I just got coffee. The hot dog cart is like you see in NYC and is in different places on the ship each day, but I can’t say that I ever saw it. Also, I don’t think I ever saw anyone eating at the raw bar.

On the Dream they have a number of different fast food windows around the pool to grab a quick meal. They have pizza, hamburgers/hot dogs/chicken fingers/fries, premade sandwiches and salads, and a fruit window. The Dream also has 2 small coffee shops, 1 by the adult pool and the other in the atrium.

The 2 lines have different approaches here. NCL is creating a place away from the pools for people to eat and hang out. Meanwhile DCL has a place where you can quickly grab food while hanging out at the pool and not have to go to the buffet. I should say that the NCL buffet had a section where they were covering the standard selections that DCL puts outside.

Both concepts work very well for what they are trying to do. I really liked the waterfront as it was a nice relaxing place to sit outside without all the crowds of the pools. On the other hand, you have to pay for most of these options while on DCL they are free.

Misc items:

Smoking: I’m sure this is a sensitive subject. My kids and I are very rarely around smokers so any smoke is noticeable especially to them. The Breakaway has a casino and allows smoking in there. There are a couple of restaurants near the casino and my daughter did not want to eat there because of the smoke. They also allow smoking on the decks and by the pool, the smell was also noticeable at any outdoor bar where there are ashtrays left on the bar.

There are a few very isolated spots on DCL where smoking is allowed so if it is something that bothers you there are easy ways to avoid it.

I have heard people complain about others who smoke on their balcony. This is not something that has ever bothered us on either NCL or DCL. I did just receive an email from DCL saying that smoking on balconies will be prohibited in the future.

Freestyle cruising: I like the laid back nature of NCL where there is no need to get dressed up. DCL is not fancy by any stretch of the imagination but still a little more traditional cruise wear than NCL. A couple of those hot summer days, I did not feel like putting on long pants for dinner and I didn’t feel that I had to and that nice shorts would work. I don’t think I’d wear shorts to one of the DCL restaurants at night.

Service: Our experience is the overall service on the Dream is much better than on the Breakaway. Everyone on the DCL is there to help and go out of the way to please you. Meanwhile the service on NCL was good but not exceptional. The wait staff at dinners were happy to take your order for meals but a number of times we had to ask to order drinks. We also were not impressed with our cabin steward as he was not all that friendly.

Fireworks: Both the Dream and Breakaway have fireworks. I’d say the shows are about equal. I think the Breakaway lasted longer but they didn’t have the finale that the Dream has. I got the feeling that the Breakaway is still learning how to do this. The boat was still moving in a circle when they starting lighting them off. The Dream has essentially stopped and is facing the right direction by the time they start. On the Breakaway, a portion of the viewing area is roped off for safety. As a matter of fact a few of the still glowing embers landed on the deck near people and one even in the crowd.

Price: The perception that I hear often is you pay a premium for Disney, which I disagree with. I compared a 7 night cruise on the DCL Fantasy (the Dream’s sister ship) versus the Breakaway for the cabins that we book and they came out very close to each other. When you add on top of that the additional fees that NCL charged us for signature dinning and shows, I really think it came out the same.

Little things:

Sometimes it is the little things that really make the difference in a cruise. Here are some that we’ve noticed:

DCL- chocolates on the pillow at night. My wife commented as we put the kids to sleep how 1 little chocolate would hit the spot.

NCL- Last day in Bermuda as everyone was coming back on, there was a party like atmosphere with music, people singing, popsicles, cool towels, punch and water to drink. Nice touch. Also, each afternoon NCL had someone at the dock handing out water and cool towels as people came back on board.

DCL- having the staff of Castaway Cay wave goodbye with Mickey hands as the ship pulls away.

DCL- impromptu run ins with characters. We’ve run into characters many times walking the deck. Also my kids had a private pretend tea party with Alice one day when she was wondering the deck.

DCL- being announced on board at the start of your cruise

NCL- kids club staff knowing yours and your kids names at the registration desk and greeting you by your name. Maybe unfair to DCL because after a week they would know us there as well.

DCL- having the same servers every night and getting to know you and how you like things.

Both- interactions with Aquaduck/waterslide staff as you are getting ready to go. The activities staff are always some of the most outgoing people you will meet on a ship.

Final comments/conclusions:

We’ve always had a great time on DCL and will definitely be going back (already booked for this winter). We had a great time on NCL and it had a lot of neat things to offer. We would not hesitate to take a NCL cruise again but would probably default to DCL given the same or similar itinerary.

Funny that you are from MA & took the Breakaway out of NY. We live in NY (30 minutes from NYC) & traveled to Boston & took the NCL Dawn. We got home this past Friday.

Great comparison.

I thoroughly enjoyed your review.

Thank you for sharing.

Great review!

Thanks for taking the time to do the comparison.

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

We love NCL and travel quite a bit with them (we are platinum).

For a fun experience for our 9 yr old son (now 10) and before he got too old to enjoy the characters, we did a Disney Wonder cruise (March) and loved so many things about the experience.

We really enjoyed the adults only pool and restaurant on DCL because it was so quiet. We thought DCL does a superb job of catering to both kids and adults.

In our case, we would default back to NCL only because of the dining options. We weren't too happy with the set table, table mates and the rotating restaurant schedule on the Wonder.. But truly loved the Disney Ship and the Amazing staff!!

Thank you for the great review and I am glad you enjoyed your cruise!:)

Thanks for taking the time on the cruise to pay attention to things and for taking the time at home to write it out for us. Very helpful!

Well done!!!

We will be on the BA next month over Halloween. I found the info on the kids club very informative as we are traveling with our kids as well.

Thank you.

Thanks for posting a detailed comparison. We are looking into DCL after the Breakaway. From everything you said would love to try Disney. Glad you enjoyed your cruise!

Loved your review. We have taken our kids and grand kids on family cruises. Is the price per room about the same?

Loved your review. We are Platinum and now do NCL only. Our Christmas cruise will be with our son & his family. They went between the NCL and DCL with NCL winning because it is out of NY and we said we would go.

If we find a waiter in the MDR tha we really like, we will ask them their schedule and follow them if possible. When we get to to the dining room we ask for their station. We have almost always been accomadated. Only time this was a problem was our waitress was very good and well known. Someone from the Haven called and requested her as a server so management sent her up to the Haven. That was on the Jewel.

You can make reservations in the MDR. We are cruising in October and plan on doing that so that I can get a table that has a better view of the dance floor for the shows.

I will pass on your comments about the kids program. Our grandson has focusing/attention issues but a TV show or video game can get him calmed down and re-focused. It is good to know so that we can be sure to tell the staff to call us at any sign of problems and remove him for the environment. Do not want im to be the cause other children having a bad experience because of him.

I did not notice the height requirements for the water slides and have been telling the grandkids about them... guess I will have to re-focus on the mini-golf course. LOL

I am a fussy eater also and I agree, there were times I roamed the buffet looking for something I would enjoy. On the other hand I always use the buffet to try at least one new food -- being able to take a very small portion so that food is not wasted is a nice incentive.

I do not like the lay out of the buffet on the Breakaway. I feel it is just to long. The Jewel had it in sections and easier to find food...traffice onctrol is probably better on the Breakawy.

I do miss the Washy-washy person!

Thanks for sharing your observations!

Great review!

Although my kids are older and I'm not in a space to consider a DCL cruise, I really enjoyed your comparisons. I've sailed on NCL three times and really enjoyed it although I look forward to someday broadening my cruise line horizons. Who knows?? Grandchildren may exist someday and your information is priceless.

I particularly enjoyed how balanced all your information came across for both lines!

Thanks again, and happy cruising!:)

Thank you so much for your thoughtful comparison. It was informative and enjoyable to read.

Funny that you are from MA & took the Breakaway out of NY. We live in NY (30 minutes from NYC) & traveled to Boston & took the NCL Dawn. We got home this past Friday.

Yeah, that would have saved me some $$$, 2 nights hotel and parking at the port were not cheap. We've been wanting to take the kids to the city and this was a good excuse.

I was worried the Drawn wouldn't have enough things to keep my kids entertained. I think I would have liked it better, as my biggest complaint was the number of people on the Breakaway.

I will pass on your comments about the kids program. Our grandson has focusing/attention issues but a TV show or video game can get him calmed down and re-focused. It is good to know so that we can be sure to tell the staff to call us at any sign of problems and remove him for the environment. Do not want im to be the cause other children having a bad experience because of him.

 

I do miss the Washy-washy person!

Just to clarify a few things:

On NCL the group usually did things together, it was on DCL where they had the option to do something else like TV. I'm sure if they know to be on the lookout, they will keep an eye on him and try to accomodate him.

When we checked our kids in each time they asked where we'd be. We did not have any pager or phone where they could contact us if needed. I believe for the younger kids they do give pagers.

Honestly, we had the other issue. "OH no, its 5 o'clock and the club is going to close, we got to go get our son." Even then after 2 hours with us, he was asking to go back.

The lack of pagers was another difference with DCL. DCL has wave phones which work all over the ship. If your kids are in the club, you are supposed to carry your phone so they can contact you.

BUT... NCL has the iConierge. It is an app for iPhones and iTouch. Not only does it do things like what's going on and make reservations, but you can call or text others on the ship. It uses the ships wifi and costs something like $8 per device for the entire ship. It worked out great when we split up and wanted to meet back up.

You know the washy-washy person showed up one morning! They were at the entrance to the buffet with the hand sanitizer.

We just returned from our first Disney cruise and have also cruise NCL before. We are feeling VERY spoiled from our Disney experience and not sure if we can go to another cruise line!!! Disney was hands down the best cruise we've ever been on. I don't even include the Disney characters roaming around as part of it...it truly was amazing attention to detail and superior customer service. Any question or request was taken with a smile and no problem type response. Often asked if there was anything that could be done differently to improve service by waitstaff. These are some of the things we don't know if we can do without.

We are trying to decide between the Getaway and doing the DCL Fantasy again. We loved that we didn't have to deal with being nickel and dimed for eating, paying for adult are loungers, soda, even shows! I"m taken aback at how many restaurants are at add'l cost vs all but 2 on Disney were included in the cruise cost. We had to actually go find ways to spend money the last night of the cruise bec we charged so little during the week and had OBC to spend!

Thanks for taking the time to DETAIL items in your comparison. I have a really good idea of what we are looking for having the DCL ship fresh in my mind!

:)

Thanks for taking the time to write this. My kids are almost past the DCL ages and while we love NCL, this reminds me why we did DCL for years. If not for the cost, DCL does have a service edge for families.

Activities (non-water):

Here is where I think NCL did some great new things with the Breakaway and one of the reasons that we booked it.

 

Both DCL Dream and NCL Breakaway have a sports course, mini-golf, shuffleboard, ping pong and video arcades.

 

NCL has added a rock climbing wall, a ropes course, a eurobungy jump thing and a spider climb/slide. On the ropes course you walk across some balance beams and other obstacles including a small zip line, while being ~15feet above the deck. You wear a harness and are attached by a line to a track above you. I’m probably not describing it well, but it is very cool for the kids and adults. The eurobungy has multiple large rubber bands that attach to your waist and pull you go higher as you jump on a trampoline. The spider climb has you climbing up a tower where there are elastic webs along the way that you have to squeeze through and then stand on to get higher. At the top there is a slide down.

 

DCL has the mouse detective game and sport simulators. The mouse detective game is like a video scavenger hunt around the ship to solve a mystery. The sport simulators are giant video games, one where you can play golf and the other where you can play a variety of sports against a video goofy.

 

If there was no one on the ship and we had full access whenever we wanted, NCL would win this hands down. The ropes course is especially neat and a bit scary at first. But the line to get on was very long most of the time. There were two issues, first they could only have so many people on the course at one time and secondly they had to make sure everyone was properly harnessed for safety. We ended up going at an off time and didn’t have to wait too long. It would have been nice if they had some more staff to stay open later. The spider climb always had the shortest line and my kids enjoyed that. We did not wait for the rock wall or eurobungy but they looked like fun once you got past the line.

 

We’ve always had fun doing the mouse detective game and sport simulators. They definitely aren’t as extreme as the NCL activities but much easier to access. We had to prebook and pay for the sport simulators on our last cruise but didn’t have any trouble getting times.

 

As long as you aren’t rushing to do the NCL things on the first day and pick an off time when to do them, the NCL activities wins between them.

 

 

Water Activities:

The NCL Breakaway and DCL Dream have very similar pools. Both have a small splash area for the little ones. NCL is Spongebob based while DCL is Finding Nemo. I think the DCL is slightly bigger and it is all under cover so there is plenty of shade.

 

NCL has the following pools:

1) Very shallow and small pool within the splash area.

2) Kiddie pool that is about 30ft by 10ft and 4ft deep.

3) Adult pool that is roughly the same size as the kiddie pool but deeper. It also had a shallow section on each side to enable people to sit with their feet in the water and socialize.

4) Small shallow pool with waterfall in adult area (called Spice) which seemed more for decoration than anything but nice place to sit with feet in the water (hard to socialize as the noise from the waterfall).

 

DCL has the following pools:

1) Very shallow Mickey shaped pool made up of 3 circles (2 are ~10ft in diameter and the 3rd 20ft in diameter)

2) Family pool that is about 30ft by 10ft and 6ft deep

3) Adult pool that has a small circular section and 2 smaller shallow sections for socializing.

 

All the NCL pools except #4 are salt water, which was a surprise to us.

The entertainment during the afternoon is by the adult pool on the Breakaway and the family pool on the Dream. Initially we thought this was strange because we were used to seeing the adult pool being the quiet pool, but on NCL the adult pool is really the party pool. That said the small waterfall pool is a very quiet and relaxing area.

 

NCL has a number of hot tubs around the adult pool and in the adult quiet area that were supposed to be are adult only, although later at night I did see kids in them. DCL has a couple of hot tubs in the main area that become a kiddie stew. There are also a large adults only hot tub in the adults area.

 

 

NCL has 5 water slides in the area: 1 smaller open slide with a minimum height of 40inches, 2 enclosed larger slides with a minimum height of 48 inches, and 2 drop slides (get in a small capsule and the floor drops out on you) where you must be at least 48 inches and weight at least 100lbs.

DCL has 1 smaller Mickey slide where you must be under 54inches. There is also the Aquaduck, which is a raft ride in an elevated tube around the ship (my wife calls it the human habitrail).

 

NCL clearly wins in magnitude and variety but the Aquaduck is so cool that makes it close. With both NCL and DCL, if you are looking to ride on the first day or sea days, be prepared to wait in lines. We found that DCL opens the Aquaduck earlier and stays open later and is less crowded at those times. The lines on the NCL definitely drop as the week goes on and when in port. We have picked our spots on both ships and have been able to ride almost non-stop.

This was so good to read as I have only been on the Disney Cruise and we are going on the Breakaway on Sunday. I am a huge WDW fan but for the same reason as you, I love that we don't have to fly to NYC to get there. Yes I feel like I'm being a traitor to Disney but we just spent a week there the first week of July. :)

Great review! Thank you for taking the time to be so detail oriented.

Thanks for the great review. We have almost 9 year old twins :) and a little one. We have sailed DCL before and are going on the Breakway this fall- mostly because we can drive and don't have to pay airfare and the price was great. I'm glad many things were close to being comparable. I really want the kids to have a great experience!!

Thank you for such a detailed comparison. We are going on our first cruise in a few weeks, but leaving out of Boston on the Dawn. The Breakaway was tempting, but we usually do very long road trips for vacations, so the appeal of just driving 30 minutes and really being done with that part of the travel won out this time around.

As someone pointed out, you can make reservations in the MDR if you want on NCL.

Curious what you did with the kids in Bermuda. What did they like? Was there anything that was a miss? I have three kids that bracket the ages of yours (almost 11, 8 and 6). We're definitely looking at the beaches, but I also want to see Hamilton and St. George, and I know that might be a tougher sell.

Thanks.