The Breakaway Plus Class, in one read
Breakaway Plus is marketed as one class and behaves like two. Norwegian Escape (2015) is architecturally much closer to the earlier Breakaway ships than to her supposed sisters — same length, no observation lounge, ropes course intact. Norwegian Joy (2017), Bliss (2018) and Encore (2019) are 25 feet longer with an extra deck, and they traded the ropes course away for a go-kart track. If you book by class name alone on these four ships you will get a materially different holiday depending which hull you land on.
Fit scores, not review scores — these measure who the ships suit, not how good they are.
Travellers who want a big, venue-dense ship at a fare well below NCL's newest hardware — and who know which of the four they're actually booking.
You want quiet outdoor deck space. Cruise Critic's own editor says of Encore that the ship prioritises paid attractions over complimentary spaces, leaving sun worshippers disappointed by compressed deck areas.
What this class was built to solve
The answer is not the theme park on the roof. It is the high street one deck down.
The real innovation: a revenue street inside the hull
678 Ocean Place is a three-deck dining, entertainment and casino complex on decks 6, 7 and 8, wrapped by The Waterfront — roughly a quarter-mile of open-air promenade with outdoor restaurant and bar seating. Escape carries 28 bars and restaurants. That complex, not the slides, is where onboard spending actually happens, and it is what NCL has expanded in every refit since.
The theme park sold the brochure — and was free
On Escape, as on Breakaway and Getaway before her, the ropes course, the zip tracks, the Planks, the sports complex, mini-golf and every waterslide were included in the fare. There was essentially no revenue-generating amusement attraction on the top deck at all. The thrill deck was a marketing differentiator, not a profit centre.
Then Joy imported a different model
The paid attractions — go-karts, laser tag, a virtual-reality complex — all debut on Norwegian Joy in 2017, the ship purpose-built for the Chinese market, where high onboard spend through gaming, retail and paid experiences was the entire commercial premise. NCL then carried that model into Bliss and Encore.
And since 2024 it has been reversing again
Laser tag has been removed from Joy and Encore. Joy's virtual-reality complex was demolished for a thermal suite. What replaced them is adults-only premium space — expanded Vibe Beach Club, Spice H2O, thermal suites — plus two dozen revenue cabins carved out of each observation lounge. The direction of travel is away from thrills and toward adult premium.
The rule book Norwegian threw out
Norwegian's whole pitch — the one “It's Different Out Here” now carries — is that the passenger, not the programme, decides the day. Freestyle never went away; it just stopped being a slogan once everyone copied it. This class is where you can watch the philosophy wrestle with its own commercial temptations, sometimes on the same square footage. Tap a rule to tear it up.
What Norwegian did: NCL built a theme park on it — the first go-karts, laser tag and VR complex at sea — then spent 2024 and 2025 quietly taking the theme park apart again.
On this class: The Speedway survives on Joy, Bliss and Encore; the laser tag mostly doesn't. The rule book on this class has been rewritten twice on the same deck, which is exactly why the feature explorer above exists.
What Norwegian did: Freestyle is still the operating system: no fixed seatings, no assigned tables, dinner when you're hungry. The industry copied it so thoroughly NCL stopped bragging about it.
On this class: Escape carries 28 bars and restaurants, and not one of them will ever ask which seating you're on. That number — not the thrill deck — is the real revenue architecture of this class.
What Norwegian did: The Waterfront put restaurant tables and bar stools on an open-air promenade wrapping the hull — an idea competitors have been rediscovering ever since.
On this class: All four ships carry it. It remains the best free real estate aboard, and the pressure valve when the pool deck fills.
What Norwegian did: Show pre-booking is gone fleet-wide — NCL's deliberate lean back into spontaneity.
On this class: The freedom is genuine; so is the queueing at headline shows. On this class the workaround is the second showing, which nobody plans for and everybody could.
How the line that invented the free thrill deck ended up charging for it — and then un-charging — is part of the bigger story in our essay: Why Norwegian Cruise Line threw out the rulebook →
The free-to-paid switch, step by step
The single most revealing sequence in modern NCL design. Tap through.
Feature explorer
Which of the four has what — this is the section that will actually change your booking. Tap through.
The incredible shrinking waterslide
If you assume newer means wetter, this chart would like a word.
The Speedway ate the ropes course and the slide count never recovered — Joy, Bliss and Encore run exactly two apiece. Escape, highlighted, is the last big NCL ship where the entire top deck is free to use — no wristband, no per-lap pricing, no fine print.
The three tiers hiding inside one class name
Escape is closer to the earlier Breakaway ships than she is to Bliss. The powertrain proves it is a real engineering difference, not marketing.
| Norwegian Escape (2015) | Joy, Bliss & Encore (2017–19) | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 1,069 ft — same as Breakaway | 1,094 ft — 25 feet longer |
| Decks | 19 | 20 |
| Gross tonnage | 164,998 | 167,725–169,116 |
| Guests (double occupancy) | 4,218 — the largest in the family | 3,776–4,010 |
| Top deck | Ropes course + sports complex (free) | Speedway go-kart track (paid) |
| Observation Lounge | None | Yes — but partly converted to cabins in 2024–25 |
| Waterslides | Four | Two |
| Laser tag / VR | Never had either | Both, originally — most now removed |
| Most recent major refit | None significant in her service life | Joy 2024, Encore 2024, Bliss 2025 |
The hardest evidence is the powertrain. Breakaway Plus ships run five engines at 76,800 kW against four engines and 62,400 kW on the earlier Breakaway pair — about 23% more installed power. NCL's own language when it exercised the option described adding an additional deck to incorporate further innovations. Escape sits between the two generations: she got the extra power and the extra deck, but kept the free top deck.
The four ships, and the one reason to pick each
Tap between them. The differences here are larger than the shared class name suggests.
Full ship guides: Norwegian Escape · Norwegian Joy · Norwegian Bliss · Norwegian Encore.
| Ship | In service | Gross tonnage | Guests (2x) | Crew | Guests per crew | Primary appeal | Durable deployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norwegian Escape | 2015 | 164,998 GT | 4,218 | 1,733 | 2.43 | Best cabins and balconies in the class; the free ropes course | Caribbean, with seasonal repositioning |
| Norwegian Joy | 2017 | 167,725 GT | 3,776 | 1,821 | 2.07 | Best crew ratio of any large NCL ship; strong Haven and thermal suite | Alaska in summer; Mexican Riviera and Panama Canal in winter |
| Norwegian Bliss | 2018 | 168,028 GT | 4,010 | 1,716 | 2.34 | Design and atmosphere; the 20,000 sq ft Observation Lounge | Alaska in summer, Caribbean in winter |
| Norwegian Encore | 2019 | 169,116 GT | 3,958 | 1,735 | 2.28 | The largest go-kart track; Onda by Scarpetta; strongest recent form | Caribbean and Alaska |
Which Breakaway Plus ship fits you?
Four questions. On these four ships the differences are big enough that this genuinely matters.
How the Breakaway Plus Class is actually received
Two rankings point in opposite directions and both are real. On lifetime Cruise Critic member scores, Escape leads the class at 3.7 out of 5 with the lowest negative rate at 19.7 percent, while Joy and Encore sit at the bottom on 3.2 each. On Cruise Critic's rolling twelve-month ranking of the whole NCL fleet, Encore is first and Joy is third. Those measure different windows — and the most plausible explanation is that Encore and Joy are the two ships that came out of major 2024 refits. We are presenting both rather than picking the flattering one.
Escape's strength is space and her weakness is operations. She draws the best cabin feedback of any ship in this family — genuinely spacious family cabins, three closets, bathtubs, generous balconies, all a direct payoff of the widened hull — and she is the only one of the four whose buffet attracts positive comment. Her signature problem is embarkation and disembarkation, which appears in review after review, and she is visibly showing wear after a service life with no significant refurbishment.
Bliss is the critics' favourite and Encore is the crowd's current one. Cruise Critic's editor describes Bliss as a sophisticated ship with an upscale feel more typical of luxury brands, and her observation lounge is the most praised space in the class. But the dominant member theme since roughly 2023 is a decline in service warmth, and the editor endorses a sharper criticism still — that paid specialty dining quality has become comparable to the buffet. One fairness note: a cluster of one-star Bliss reviews are actually complaints about an NCL airfare promotion rather than about the ship.
Encore's weakness is the clearest evidence for how this class was designed. Reviewers describe a single crowded pool, an undersized adults-only sun deck, and waits reported as long as two and a half hours for the go-karts. Cruise Critic's editor states it directly: the ship prioritises paid attractions over complimentary spaces, leaving sun worshippers disappointed by compressed deck areas. That is a professional reviewer describing the commercial logic of the whole class in one sentence.
Joy carries her origins visibly. A named Cruise Critic editor writes that she retains distinctive features from the China design — smaller pools, a tighter go-kart track, smaller balconies, cramped standard cabins with awkward closet placement — and concludes she is a functional megaship with quirks. Her own standout complaint is structural noise: amplified music from the Lido deck carrying late into the evening with, as one reviewer put it, no escape on deck 15. Against that, her 2024 refit gave her the largest thermal suite in the family, and she has the best crew ratio of any large NCL ship.
One theme runs through every ship's reviews without exception: upcharge fatigue. It appears in Cruise Critic's editor cons for all four and throughout member reviews. Alongside it sit main-dining menu repetition and real variability in cabin-steward service. None of that is unique to this class, but it is consistent enough across four ships and eleven years that it should be treated as a characteristic rather than a complaint.
Book Breakaway Plus
For far more ship per pound — 28 venues, a genuine promenade, and go-karts or a ropes course — at fares well below NCL's newest hardware.
Book Prima Plus instead
For better service density, dramatically more solo cabins, a bigger Haven and a complimentary headline attraction — at a higher fare.
Ask Seabound about Breakaway Plus Class
Tell us about your trip.
Homeport, group size, kids' ages, budget and length — and we'll tell you which of the four actually fits, because the class name won't.
Instant answers from our guides · always verified against current Norwegian information before you book.
Quick answers
What is Norwegian's Breakaway Plus Class?
A four-ship class built by Meyer Werft: Norwegian Escape (2015), Norwegian Joy (2017), Norwegian Bliss (2018) and Norwegian Encore (2019). They run roughly 165,000 to 169,000 gross tons and carry between 3,776 and 4,218 guests at double occupancy. They are an enlargement of the earlier Breakaway design, with five engines rather than four and about 23 percent more installed power.
Which Breakaway Plus ships have go-karts?
Joy, Bliss and Encore. Norwegian Escape does not have one — she kept the ropes course and sports complex instead. The tracks differ meaningfully in size: Joy's came first and is the smallest with the tightest turns, Bliss runs about 1,000 feet, and Encore's is the largest at roughly 1,150 feet with 10 turns and four sections cantilevered out over the side of the ship.
Do these ships still have laser tag?
Mostly no, and this is the most common error in guides to these ships. Laser tag was removed from Norwegian Joy in early 2024 and from Norwegian Encore in late 2024, and NCL's current materials no longer list it for Norwegian Bliss either. Norwegian Escape never had it. Confirm directly before booking if it matters to you.
Which Breakaway Plus ship is best?
It depends which measure you use, and the two disagree. On lifetime Cruise Critic member scores, Norwegian Escape leads at 3.7 out of 5 with the lowest negative rate. On Cruise Critic's rolling twelve-month ranking of the NCL fleet, Norwegian Encore is first and Norwegian Joy third — both ships having recently come out of major refits. We publish both windows rather than picking one.
Why does Norwegian Joy have no solo cabins?
She was purpose-built for the Chinese market, where solo studio cabins were not part of the product, and the 2019 conversion for Western sailing rebuilt her interiors without adding them. She is the only ship in the Breakaway Plus and Breakaway families without solo studios, and there is no solo lounge either. For a solo traveller that single fact should probably decide which ship you book.