msky44

Yes I did check prices again this morning and there doesn't seem to have been any price drops for our cruise so that theory does not apply to our case. Almost all the  balcony cabins seemed to have disappeared though so I believe there have been upgrades awarded all through August as there was a point when the remaining balconies were dwindling a couple of weeks ago, which worried  me. 

Good luck to all the PoA folks out there!

Late last week I received an email stating that our bid of $155 pp for an upgrade from midship inside to deck 10 balcony BA was accepted.

Pride of America

Sep 28th sailing (believe this week had many available cabins)

Over 40 days to go

Bid was in the high poor range

No NCL status but did cruise earlier this year on the Escape

We are super excited as the balcony cabins were not affordable to us on this cruise. Also did not expect to hear anything this soon.

There was pizza on the buffet which I believe was open till 11 pm.

yes, there still is cold cereal - fruit loops, raisin bran etc. Just not as many pastries as the forms shown on this thread.

We were just on the Breakaway last week. The continental is free and includes coffee but the forms being shown here have more choices than we experienced. For pastries we got to choose between the cinnamon rolls (ok), fruit danish (like from a convenience store) and blueberry muffins (simply awful). There was no bagel, croissant or chocolate croissant (I love those and would have gotten them). For omelets it was either tomato and spinach or ham and cheese served with two hockey puck hash browns (tasty). No toast was served either. The pot of coffee had enough for two cups maybe three and they are small.

I do enjoy having some of those perks on the ship, but on a cruise in cold weather, the practicality of having them is lost. There were so few days to use them, and/or such limited time when they were actually open, that we weren't able to do much.

Very true! The Margaritaville restaurant was only open one afternoon the whole cruise. I think it was open for breakfast buffet 3 or 4 days too.

TracyESQ, I do agree that some of the perks of a mega-ship such as mini-golf, rock wall, water slides, rope course are not things I would be interested in so a smaller ship would probably be a better fit. I am not sure which ship is coming to NYC to replace the BA but a mid-sized ship would be nice.

In response to questions:

The debarkation went well. It was a long line that moved swiftly through the ship. We were in the first group with people who walked off with their own luggage. I think we were out of the terminal by 8:30.

The waterfront is a strip of outdoor seating of restaurants with a take out window for ordering from Ocean Blue and a gelato stand. Forgot to mention we got the lobster rolls and they were dinky. I think the name "Waterfront" conjures up more than what it actually is.

We were midship on deck 9. The aft balconies from the land looked beautiful. There was a vibration that could be felt on upper decks and more towards the back of the ship on this sailing. I think the BA is going in for some repairs.

This is my review of my week on the NCL Breakaway 12/15 – 12/22. While this is my only my opinion and your opinion may be different, I want to add that it may be clouded by two things – 1. I haven’t been on a cruise in almost 20 years. I remember cruises as a place where elegance and fine dining and amazing service were the norm and I know that cruises, in general, are no longer the same. 2. I had an accident 5 weeks prior to my cruise and had a double shock ankle sprain and was on a crutch/2 crutches throughout my cruise. Instead of going through all the minute details of the cruise, I will just focus on the top 5 things I enjoyed about our cruise and the 3 things I did not enjoy.

First the good (in order of appreciation):

5. the drinks!! Wow – how we enjoyed the ultimate beverage package. NCL did not skimp – the drinks were made in real glassware with the appropriate amount of alcohol and ingredients. For instance, I love mojitos and I had several. They were always served with several large lime slices and copious amounts of mint leaves. There was no skimping on these ingredients and I thought they were awesome. We loved Shakers martini bar and thought even with the surcharge, the espresso and chocolate martinis were some of the best we have had anywhere. The Mango Meltdowns and Painkillers hit the spot at the pool bar and I loved the Buena Vista Irish coffee at Prime Meridian – just like the restaurant in San Francisco. The bartenders were quick, attentive and remembered what you liked. Many of the drinks were complicated and specialties of the particular bar you were at, which made finding a favorite very fun. Also, I would like to add that the empties were usually picked up promptly. The way the drinks were flowing you would think you might run into tons of empty glasses everywhere on the ship but the staff was always on top of that and we rarely saw an empty glass. The servers were great too. THIS was the highlight of the cruise IMHO even though I am not really a heavy drinker. It was just nice and relaxing to have a drink before dinner or out by the pool without worrying about what your bill was going to be at the end of the cruise.

4. the entertainment – I loved the entertainment on NCL ships long ago and I still thought it was great. Burn the Floor and Rock of Ages were very good and I thought the musicians on board including Charlie Love and his band, Melvin and the Howl at the Moon Dueling Piano bar were great. I loved the Reggae Band Soulful Pleasures and I applaud NCL for giving us real jazz and reggae bands and not just bland stuff they think will appeal to everyone. We went to the comedy show too and that was funny. My friends just saw Rock of Ages in Las Vegas this past fall and spent $65 each for tickets so I think the cruise ship entertainment was a great bargain in addition to adding to a fun vacation.

3. The specialty dining package – We went to Cagney’s, Teppanyaki and Moderno’s as part of our SDP and thought all three were great. I would like to add that I am an excellent cook and fussy about restaurant food (usually I can make it better myself) so the fact that I found these three to be very good even though I wasn’t expecting much, surprised me. We went to Cagney’s the first night on board and it was largely empty. I thought my steak was as good as the one I had at Michael Jordan’s in Mohegan Sun for $55 a la cart the previous week. I want to add, however, we ran into a couple from our meet & greet a couple of nights later and they had a bad experience at Cagney’s with overcooked, dry steak. We had a great time at Teppanyaki and I thought the food was very good for that type of restaurant. Our chef was cute and very funny but a little soft spoken so it was hard to hear him sometimes over the more raucous chef that was cooking nearby. For Moderno’s, I had read such mixed reviews that I almost changed our reservations but I am glad that I didn’t. The salad bar was very good and included sushi, smoked salmon and shrimp salad. I didn’t care for the lobster bisque but I loved the cheese bread that was delivered to the table and enjoyed the filet, bacon wrapped filet, lamb chops and pepper sirloin that I tried out of all the meats delivered to our table. Putting our card to red to stop meat delivery didn’t seem to matter because the servers came with everything they had on the skewers lol.

2. The cabin – Cruising 20 years ago meant an inside cabin for me. There wasn’t as many balconies to be had and as such, these were not affordable and I never really saw the point of paying an extra couple hundred dollars for a porthole. Also, I remember the cabins as closet-sized, with barely enough room to turn around in – especially the bathroom. Our balcony cabin on the ninth floor was so spacious and that balcony was just the bomb. We ordered breakfast every warm morning and enjoyed eating it on our balcony – it was such a treat, I think it was probably the second highlight of our trip. I thought it was well worth the $7.95 delivery fee although a few more choices would be nice so you don’t have to eat the same omelet every day.

1. The staff – Overall I thought the service ranged from very good to excellent. Almost everyone on the staff was courteous and smiling and tried their best. Sometimes, the food service was slow and incorrect, particularly in the dining rooms but I would chalk these up to language barriers and new staff as opposed to a lack of trying or bad attitude like we usually run into back home. Out of all meals we had, we found O’Sheehan’s to have the worst service overall and the Manhattan dining room to have the slowest service. Our cabin steward, Julie Ann, was efficient and quick and kept me loaded up with ice in the ice bucket so I could ice my ankle a couple of times a day. Twenty years ago, I remember the cabin steward as being full of personality and really organizing your stuff for you in surprising ways like putting your shoes back in the closet, hanging up your clothes you left on the bed or stacking your loose change you left out but I realize times have changed. Julie Ann cleaned our cabin as a hotel staff would, not touching our personal stuff. We didn’t meet her until the end our second day. They work very hard with long hours though and I am going to chalk up the difference to changing times and not any fault of hers. We tipped her extra at the end of our cruise because of the ice and her stealthy way of servicing our cabin, never inconveniencing us. She also kept us in towel animals even though we did not have kids too.

And now the bad and the ugly (in order of annoyance)

1. The buffet – OMG I was almost scared when we went up there at breakfast time on the second day. It was a madhouse – noisy, crowded and kind of gross with people swarming everywhere with huge plates of food like it was the last meal they were going to ever eat. Maybe it was the crutches and my inability to handle my own plate and fear of being knocked over but I absolutely hated that buffet. I will admit to going up there a couple of times at off peak times later in cruise for an ice cream and once for a late night snack and while it was still kind of crazy, it was not as bad. Everything I had from the buffet I would describe as mediocre, particularly the desserts - I would describe almost all the desserts on the ship as bleh. We did go a couple of times to Margaritaville for coffee and had a few things at that breakfast buffet which overall was a much more enjoyable experience.

2. My fellow passengers – I struggle with how to describe this without sounding like a jerk but I feel like this issue was a detriment to my cruising experience so here goes. There was a large population of non-English speaking passengers and also a lot of kids on board this cruise. There was a lot of pushing to get on and jumping in front of me for the elevators (which I took for even one floor thanks to my injury) and they jumped in front of others already at the buffet and other lines which bordered on rude. Also, you never got on an elevator without extra buttons being pushed and older kids would run the corridors chasing each other. One time at Savor, a family of two dads with two toddler girls was having lunch nearby and one of the dads kept a running commentary at full volume with his daughters over every bite they ate and everything they said. The kids were actually fine but the adults were obnoxious! The first two days (at sea) were the worst – crowded and pushy – after that things got more relaxed and spread out and were better although I never totally got rid of the feeling that I was at a Walmart the week before Christmas.

3. the ship – I am on the fence about my feelings on the Breakaway. I didn’t feel the love like I have for other ships I have been on in the past. Despite its size, the Breakaway feels small and closed in, loud and obnoxious many times of the day. The atrium combined with O’Sheehan’s made for a loud environment with the Karaoke, pool, pinball machines, music, bowling, crowds and slots all going on at the same time. The outdoor spaces are small and not well designed. Too much space is wasted on the waterslides which looked under-utilized, Margaritaville – which was rarely open and the jogging track is so tiny for the amount of people. I missed the promenade deck! Getting an elevator takes too long and the two banks of elevators seem too close to each other with mostly everything jammed in between them. I was sad to see the limited shopping available as I have enjoyed going to the cute boutiques and souvenir shops in the past and there was very little of this on the Breakaway. While I was not bothered by the smoke as many people have said, there was a lot of noise coming from the outdoor bar areas near Maltings until late at night (3am) and drifted up so that keeping the balcony door open at night was impossible. Getting on and off the ship was a PITA with the lines and crowds. Getting off in Nassau was a disaster and then coming back we had to wait in a long line while the staff entertained us with a welcome back party which did not take my mind off the wait lol. I did get to skip all the lines with my crutches on boarding and also going through customs so my injury did help me to miss all that annoyance. Lucky me!

In closing, I had a great time on my vacation. Cruising is not what I remembered but it is more affordable with a lot more options for ship sizes and home ports. The food, while not the be all and end all of cruising it used to be, was adequate to very good. The highlights were the specialty restaurants and the breakfast on the balcony and the lowlights for me was the buffet. The private island was wonderful. We happened to get fabulous weather and lounge chairs under the palm trees and we enjoyed our strawberry daiquiris and the beautiful blue ocean water. I didn’t feel nickeled and dimed with the exception of a $9.95 charge for movies in the cabin. The music and entertainment was plentiful, the drinks were delicious, the staff were so nice. In spite of the crowds, I got off the boat feeling relaxed and refreshed like I really had a vacation (and this is for someone with a painful foot which says a lot). I bought 4 cruise next deposits and hope to be back on board a ship soon. :)

Ship: Breakaway leaving New York on 12/15/17 sailing

Lattitudes: First time cruisers (actually have cruised NCL twice on the Norway many years ago but doesn’t count)

Booked Midship Balcony BB on 10/12/2017 with two free promos and free gratuities and email to upgrade came on the same day

Submitted poor bids for H5 (Haven Courtyard Penthouse) and H7 (Haven Forward Facing Penthouse) of $450 each (minimum bid was $400)

At 48 hours prior to sailing, got emails that bids were NOT accepted

Bummer but still going to enjoy our balcony cabin!