HoosierShipmate

@thedoc29ca I definitely will if they are still doing print versions!

As we are ten days away from embarkation and exactly one week away from being ‘on vacation’ I wanted to start a live trip report with an introduction. To be honest, it’s also just to see if my iPad alone will work for posting and since it’s my first ‘live’ posting experience, make sure I have an idea of what I’m doing. On previous cruises the internet was so slow I wouldn’t even think of trying to post throughout the cruise, but early indications are that Starlink really is the cat’s meow and hopefully that means I won’t encounter many problems. This cruise will be our 2nd or 3rd (there is a family debate about this and NCL says 2nd) on the Breakaway, our 5th or 6th (same debate) on NCL, and our 7th or 8th from New Orleans including Carnival ships. It’s always the same route out of the Port of New Orleans, and I really wish there was some variety there. But the distance to the port means a pretty easy drive, the price is usually right, and we’ve been very impressed at how easy that port is to navigate. PLUS it’s nice to go far enough south that our winter cruise has relatively zero chance of being frigid the whole time. This is a family trip, and the family is as follows: Jeff (that’s me) - 53 Angie (my wife) - a gentleman never tells a woman’s age or weight, but let’s say she’s a couple years younger than I am Chelsie (daughter) - 19 Josh (son) - 16 All of us love cruising and are looking forward to being in the sun, eating great food, and the adults look forward to making sure we get our money’s worth from the drink package. Mostly we just look forward to being together as a family. My daughter is in college, and our son is a typical teenager, so the time we can all be together is limited these days. While onboard, I’ll do my best to comment fairly on everything, post pics of food, locations, menus, and more, and to keep you somewhat entertained if you find yourself at work wishing you were at sea. Prior, if you have any questions about NCL, Breakaway, the itinerary, or really anything else, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll do my best to reply/answer anything and if I don’t know it’ll give me something to google as I count down the days, hours and minutes until we are at sea again! Blurry family pic from this time last year:

Breakaway for my upcoming cruise (December 17) is showing $299 for the week. I wish I could remember what I paid last time. I love a good sauna/steam, but not at nearly $50 a day.

We have used Bodden twice on two different cruises and had a fantastic experience. Our driver stayed with us the whole day and when we were ready to go he took us back. It was like we hired a private tour guide for the day!

My kids have heard everything, are very mature and I never worry. Last year on a Carnival cruise, we attended the 18+ show (son 15, daughter 18 at the time) and I had no worries. Then the show started. I doubt there was anything they hadn’t heard or discussed with friends, etc. but it was 100% the raunchiest most sexually explicit show I’ve ever seen. I was not offended. But I was uncomfortable being with them, and I can’t imagine how uncomfortable they must have been. To make it worse, she wasn’t even funny. But she was descriptive, I’ll give her that!

Does anyone have an answer for this one? I’d hope both get a bottle, but unsure and will have this situation often.

Special thanks to a couple of these comments for making me completely reevaluate my dining ‘schedule’ for my next cruise. I love the comments about celebrating night one with something great. We always ended our cruise with Cagney’s on the last night and did whatever otherwise. Now I’m starting with Cagney’s (and still ending with Cagney’s) and putting Ocean Blue in the middle. I’ll stop salivating now. Thanks!

I read the first part of the original post and thought I was going to have a heart attack, right up until I learned about the new ability to assign two rooms to each key. My family of four always gets two cabins, and extra cards and it’s kind of a hassle. Looking forward to having room access to both rooms on each key, and not juggling (and remembering) who is what LOL.

Seconding @Liljo22 - I always arrive at my table with a fresh cocktail because I know it’ll take a while for anything ordered in the MDR to arrive. I also like to order where I can watch them make it so I’m not getting well/bottom level if I’m paying for top shelf.

Every time I travel, as I’m packing to depart I declare I’m packing less on my next trip. I practically live in my swimsuit all week during the day, need 1-2 pairs of shorts and some shirts for dinner. Add underwear and I should have what I need. Instead I end up packing like my wife and daughter, and have several swimsuits (need one maybe two), and for a week seven t-shirts, seven polo shirts, seven shorts, and some long pants. And I wear about half of it hahaha.