Norwegian Breakaway
Norwegian Cruise Line · Cruise · In service · built by Meyer Werft
Norwegian Breakaway opened the most productive class in NCL's history in 2013, introducing the outdoor Waterfront promenade that every later NCL ship has carried.
Derived metrics
Computed by ships.fyi from the core specification — see how we calculate these.
How big is it, really?
The Norwegian Breakaway's length overall, against things you already know the size of.
The 747-8 held the longest-airliner record for over a decade, until Boeing's 777-9 took it by about 19 inches (76.72 m) — our sibling site aircraft.fyi measures everything that flies the same way.
One Norwegian Breakaway = 1.20 Titanics · 3.1 football pitches · 13 blue whales · 4.2 Boeing 747-8s laid end to end.
Plan a sailing on Norwegian Breakaway
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The numbers
| Length overall | 324 m |
|---|---|
| Beam (moulded) | 39.7 m |
| Gross tonnage | 145,655 GT |
| Passengers | ≈3,963 |
| Passenger cabins | 2,015 |
| Crew | ≈1,657 |
| Decks | 18 |
| Installed power | 67,200 kW |
| Speed | 22.5 kn |
| Entered service | May 2013 |
Put the Norwegian Breakaway next to something
Last verified: 2026-07-15 · Spot an error? business@luck.fyi
What makes it different
Norwegian Breakaway matters more than her size suggests. She introduced the platform that NCL then built on for six straight years — two Breakaway ships, four Breakaway-Plus ships, and three more hulls for Genting's own brands — making it the most reproduced design the line has ever ordered.
The idea that carried forward is The Waterfront: a quarter-mile outdoor promenade wrapped around Deck 8, with restaurants and bars opening directly onto it rather than facing inward. Before it, large ships were pulling social space inside; Breakaway pushed it back out to the rail, and every NCL ship since has kept it.
She was built for New York, with a Peter Max hull design and a Rockettes-themed interior, and ran year-round from Manhattan — an unusual commitment for a ship of that size in a seasonal climate. She has since moved to Caribbean and European deployments.
The Norwegian Breakaway line
Breakaway class
The Waterfront
Who operates the Norwegian Breakaway
All 1 operator of record, verified 2026-07-15. Figures marked ≈ are approximate.
NCLNorwegian Cruise LineOriginally New York year-round; now Caribbean and European itineraries.1✓→