Its only a minor difference, but enough to make one ship bigger than the other. When launched last spring, the Norwegian Breakaway came in at 146,600gt. Her recently launched sister, the Norwegian Getaway, is measuring 145,655gt. According to a CruiseInd source, the reason is simple: The Breakaway has The Haven enclosed. The Haven, you may remember is the exclusive courtyard for suite guests. Here it is on the Breakaway and you can see how its covered:
And here is a rendering of it on the Getaway: (I’ll update once we have a proper photo of the area.)
It’s only my conjecture that they enclosed it on the Breakaway to protect the guests from the elements of sailing yearround out of New York. The Getaway will be based out of Miami, so no need for the enclosure.
Popular misconception is that gross tonnes is how much a ship weighs. You’ll probably hear it mentioned like this on TV alot. It’s infact a measure of a ships volume, not her weight. There are rather complicated formulas that go into calculating a ships gross tonnes. In order to be included in this calculation, it must be enclosed, such as Breakaway’s Haven. That’s why the dome covered Breakaway is 945gt’s more than her newer sister.