epanchenko

I imagine that would be the best way to go.

The entertainment is the strength of Breakaway. There are two Broadway level shows (until they get rid of Six in January), and the other entertainment is good too. The atrium is always crowded and too small. The inside cabin I had was very small.

I stayed in the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani a couple of weeks ago, which near the Hyatt Regency and Moana Surfrider. It does not have much of a beach view, but otherwise it was a great hotel in a great location.

When I was on last year, the comedy club dealt with the reservations. Make sure you do this first. Ocean Blue was the only venue I had a hard time changing the time while on the cruise. I asked a maitre d in front of the French restaurant for help with a reservation I had made, and he angrily told me to go to the comedy club for help.

My friend and I were on the Breakway in October, and we paid for the dining package. He is a foodie more than I am. Our dinners were the highlight of our trip. Based on some breakfast and lunches I had in the MDR and the buffet, I am happy I splurged on the package.

Jennifer Hudson used to work on Disney Wonder. When her contract was up, she auditioned for American Idol, and the rest is history. I was on Oosterdam in August 2019 to Alaska. I saw every performance of LC. During a Q&A, I believe they said the auditions were hard and rigorous. One member said he was leaving soon to a job in a Florida orchestra. He also did not like the design of the venue they were in. I thought it was too small. I thought the B.B. King room at the time was too small for the amplification of the band.

I was on Breakaway last week. I ate all dinners in speciality restaurants. I did not go to Moderno because my friend is vegetarian. I felt Le Bistro, Cagney's, Ocean Blue, and La Cucina were all very good. Ocean Blue is very small and was our favorite. It booked up very quickly and the reservation couldn't be changed. I am happy I bought the speciality dining package instead of eating in the main dining room where my breakfasts and lunches that I had there were not terribly good. La Cucina was half empty some of the time (we ate there three times), but the food is very good there.

Not too much, a little bit in Canada.

I just came back from going on my first NCL cruise. I have previously sailed on Celebrity and Holland America (2000 passenger size ships). This was my first ship that had a capacity of 4000 guests (we were 3600 on board). I am happy I got the seven day dining package, each of the restaurants we went to were excellent (Cagney's, La Cucina, Le Bistro, and our favorite, Ocean Blue). I don't think I would have been happy with the buffet/main dining room food for dinner, based on our breakfast/lunch meals. The nighttime entertainment was very good. We particularly enjoyed Six (even though I don't like the show) and Burn the Floor, as well as Howl at the Moon (dueling pianos show). The production values were much higher than on previous cruises on the permanent theater shows. The vocalist and magician were fine, standard touring cruise ship quality. What I didn't like were the daily activities. For instance, some of the game shows I were in came down to luck at the end in order to win. There wasn't a lot for me to during sea days. Also, the atrium was always full of people parked in their chairs where they had many of the games. A general complaint of the ship is there are not enough good location lounges for you to sit in, the ship felt very crowded. I sailed on ships half the size before the pandemic that were full, and they did not feel this crowded to me. I guess I prefer smaller ships. The Bliss nightclub was not appealing . They should utilize their Spiegel tent are more as a nightclub after the shows in the space are over. The cruise was a little too freestyle for me (this is a selling point for many people, I understand). Very few in total dressed up. The ports of call were not as dramatic as I envisioned they would be, but that is not NCL's fault. We missed Newport because of rough weather.

I just came back from the Breakaway 10/02-10/08 and there was hardly any color change yet in what we saw.

I just came back from a Breakaway cruise. We rented the GEM car. Our car was running out of battery, it was barely moving at one point, and we were holding up traffic. Luckily we were by Jordan Pond House and were able to get a landline to tell them to pick it up. If you get the GEM car, first make sure they have the right car listed under your reservation. When I called them, they thought I was in another car. Two, get precise directions on how to exit the park, I did not have precise directions. (They tell you not to go on route 3 to exit, but they were not specific on where exactly to leave the park). Also, we did about one loop or a little more of the road without going up the mountain and we were almost out of power.

I just came off the Breakaway. They showed NBC Sunday Night Football, and Monday Night Football. No baseball playoffs at all (I saw someone the Mets game on their phone, I imagine the person had the video streaming package as the normal internet package was very slow). My friend couldn't believe it, even though I knew ahead of time by reading this forum.

Also, if the OP doesn't know, the ship has to make a foreign port call, otherwise the ship would be subject to US laws, that is why there are no cruises to ports along the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. only. Pride of America is registered in the US and adheres to US laws.

Cunard is probably your best bet for enrichment (the QM2 has the planetarium), the smaller luxury lines like Viking also cater to this. Holland America did have some enrichment when I went on their Alaskan cruise.

From Penn Station by train, it is almost a wash going to EWR and JFK. EWR might be faster actually.