Raquel Molina
April, 2024
#1 – Parking/Drop-Off
On December 12, 2023, my mom and I boarded the Norwegian Breakaway sailing out of New Orleans, LA for a five night Caribbean cruise. Since there was also a Carnival cruise leaving out of the port on the same day, the traffic was an absolute nightmare. There were no signs directing you to the correct area to drop-off or park and there was no designated area for disabled drop-off or parking. I did not see where any accommodations were made for a disabled solo traveller and it seems as if it would have been almost impossible for someone in a wheelchair or scooter to park anywhere near the embarkation area. Some may argue that this is a port issue and should not reflect on Norwegian, however it is a part of the cruising experience and therefore I feel it should be mentioned.
Once inside the port, things moved a little more smoothly but I must admit that by this point I was a little cranky and ready to take a breather in our cabin. Luckily, our cabin was ready but upon entering it I was a little disappointed. I booked an accessible cabin for my mom and I and in that respect it met our needs. However, our beds barely looked made up and our toilet only flushed after pressing the button numerous times.
#2 – Narrow Corridors
The Norwegian Breakaway is an older and smaller ship which might account for why the corridors were more narrow than what we were used to. In some instances we could not use the hallway at all if another scooter or room attendant was in the same hallway. Also, Norwegian does not seem to have, or at least enforce, the policy of not parking a mobility scooter outside of your cabin. We noticed at least three scooters on our floor that were parked outside of the cabin. This made it even more difficult to traverse the narrow corridors. One fun thing to note about the carpeting in the corridors is that the fish will be swimming towards the front of the ship. This can be really helpful with figuring out which direction you are heading.
#3 – Poor Customer Service
Perhaps the most frustrating way that Norwegian fell short with addressing their cruisers with accessibility needs was with customer service. During this cruise my mom’s scooter malfunctioned. We went to guest services and waited in a very long line to see if there was a manual wheelchair that we could borrow for the one night remaining on the cruise. We were told that there were none that could be used without Norwegian staff accompanying us. I understood this policy but stated that we would need assistance disembarking because her scooter would start and stop at random and we didn’t know how we would get it off of the ship. We were told (with an attitude, might I add) that it would be up to us to get my mom to the disabled meeting area which was on the opposite end of the ship from our room. We decided to just take our chance with the broken scooter and it was an absolute nightmare.
This was our first time on a Norwegian cruise and even though there were some shortcomings, it was not all bad. The onboard live entertainment was pretty good and I really enjoyed being able to see the Broadway play “SIX” which was awesome. Also we saw “Stomp the Floor” while dining in the Manhattan Room which was really a treat.
Overall, I would not recommend Norwegian Breakaway for SWAN cruisers at this time. This is just my opinion based on my most recent experience. In addition to not meeting our accessibility needs, I feel that a lot of things were not communicated by staff and cruisers were left to seek out pertinent information on their own. For example, we had no idea how the disembarkation process worked or where we should pick up luggage tags, etc. However, it was not so bad that I would not give them another chance at some point in the future.
Your Accessible Cruising Specialist 