travelmatron

Thanks for taking us along again. Happy travels to you!

It's a hard choice. The Penthouse suite on the Breakaway is disappointingly small. Very similar to just a mini suite small! Two of us felt crowded and never did find the cabin "comfortable"...BUT it's a great Haven to be in. The dining room is right there, the bar is right there, the concierge has a desk there, saw the butler all the time, the tubs, pool, and sun deck are right there. I've always loved aft balconies, but on the Breakaway, it's not the distance from the Haven facilities, it's that the rest of the ship always seemed noisy and crowded. As poor as the cabin is, I think I'd choose it again.

I really don't remember about the outlets since we didn't bring much with us. So just guessing I'd say to bring supplies. I'd also bring a hair dryer. The one that is supplied isn't very powerful, and I hated that I had to sit down (short cord) in the room near the entrance door to use it, as opposed to being in the bathroom.

I am disappointed to hear that the courtyard penthouse haven was small. We are sailing next week in one. We were upgraded from the Haven spa suite.

The suite is small, but the Haven location is wonderful. While we were disappointed in the cabin, perhaps we enjoyed the Haven more because we spent more time socializing outside the cabin. Remember, YMMV...and we still enjoyed the cruise

As a very big ship there are a lot of really special entertainment and dining options on the Breakaway that would be impossible on a small ship. We truly enjoyed the evening shows and specialty restaurants. The public areas are crowded, and the smell of smoke from the casino spreads to other decks and venues. It's a trade off. We made that trade off by choosing the cruise within a cruise concept of the Haven. Since the ship is so big the Haven includes its own pools, whirlpools, sun deck, lounge, dining room, and bar. The staff was excellent, the service outstanding, and the fellow Haven guests were friendly and outgoing. We enjoyed every part of the Haven except our cabin, and we'd simply choose a larger cabin the next time.

We stayed in a Courtyard Penthouse. Even though we had seen pictures and diagrams before we cruised we weren't fully prepared for how small this suite really is. It's more like a mini-suite with a very tiny balcony. We were disappointed. The bed was just fine, but it was truly the only comfortable part of the cabin. I know, first world problem. Fortunately, for us, the rest of the Haven was wonderful.

We found Bermuda to be beautiful, colorful, and exceptionally clean. We knew we were rushing the season be going in May instead of during the summer, but hoped for the best. Sometimes wishes aren't realized, and we had three days of cool, overcast, and rainy weather. I think if we lived on the East Coast we'd be interested in returning to see it at a better time, and we do understand why so many people love it so much. From the Pacific Northwest, for us, Hawaii is much closer, also beautiful, and a much less expensive trip.

Because we were traveling cross country we spent a couple of days in New York before and after the cruise and just "played tourists". It was great! We stayed at the Ink48 Hotel which is a very short (under 5 minutes) walk to the pier. It has an amazing roof top bar with outstanding views of the harbor and sky line. The line to get into the bar forms quickly going out of the lobby and onto the sidewalk. Hotel guests are given a priority admission, otherwise come early. The hotel is fairly small and much more interesting than most chains. The staff went out of their way to be accommodating. We would happily stay there again.

Thanks again for posting the hotel pictures, we enjoyed it as much as you did! I loved being able to walk to and from the pier, and that roof top bar is amazing...although still cold!

The Haven concierge is still wonderful at getting reservations for specialty restaurants, but the UDP has made some difference. A couple of weeks before our cruise we pre-booked with the on line concierge and were unable to get some of the times we wanted. We booked the times available and the on line concierge made note of the times we really wanted. When we got on board the Haven concierge had already changed the reservations to what we wanted, except in Le Bistro one evening when a particularly large group had pre-booked at our favorite time. We just ate at Cagney's that night.

I'm hoping that by leaving the snorkel stuff at home, it will act as a talisman for the whole cruise, and bring us all great, warm weather. As long as you're bringing umbrellas we should be all set!

Hey there Taytaysmom. We're on the same cruise. My DH is a meteorologist, and in checking the 14 day forecast it looks as if our highs will be in the low 70's. BUT he says that any forecast farther out than 4 days is just an educated guess and that spring weather is notoriously unpredictable. Sounds just like a meteorologist, doesn't it? I'm packing a couple of sweaters. I can always take them off. I'm told that people who live in Bermuda don't go in the ocean until the end of the month...but tourists do it all the time. We're packing swim suits, but leaving the snorkel equipment at home. I'm sure tougher, braver people will be snorkeling.

There is a daily service charge added to your bill. It is a per person fee and is charged to everyone in the cabin over a certain age (3 I think). It can be pre-paid if you wish after booking. It covers staff that you would normally tip on some other lines, and additional support personnel.

You will see an additional fee of an 18% gratuity on your bill for drinks and specialty restaurants. I believe the beverage package also includes the 18% gratuity, so in effect, it's already pre-paid. Additional tipping/gratuities are at your own discretion. Any additional tips can be paid in cash or by charging the amount to your on board account at the time of service or at the end of your cruise.

We liked it very much and we will stay there again. They served wine for one hour every afternoon, included, and in the morning they had coffee in the lobby.

 

The location of the hotel is excellent even if a cruise isn't a part of the trip and as you could see, the view is excellent too. They have a very nice bar which probably is supernice during the summer.

Thanks, we'll be staying a couple of days before and after the cruise, so it's good to know. The choice of hotels in New York is pretty overwhelming! I enjoyed your review, too. I wish there were "like" options here.

We'll also be staying at Ink 48 before our cruise next month. The location to the pier looks excellent, and we loved your skyline view. How did you like the hotel?

Sail,

I think you'll be surprised with how nice the suite experience is on NCL. When we first started on HAL I was afraid we'd made a mistake. You are very wise to ask specific questions because there certainly are differences between the lines, but mostly they are just that, differences.

Have a great cruise!

The couch that converts to a bed in the 2nd bedroom goes from wall to wall, it's not as if his feet can merely hang over the end of the bed.

Just guessing based upon the Jewel 2 bedroom...These suites were really intended to be used by families. It's not so much that the 2nd bedroom is small as much as that there is a huge difference between the two. The main bedroom and bath is lovely, with a soaking tub and separate shower overlooking the ocean, and two sinks. The bed is King sized with a very comfortable mattress. There is a large closet. The second bedroom is a couch that can be converted into a bed, and made reasonably comfortable by adding a foam "egg crate", and an upper bunk. The bathroom is fine, but very much "standard issue". As I recall, the closet was more like pegs on a wall. It's also inside, dark, and subject to hall noise, where the other main bedroom is very quiet with a view from the bed. I wouldn't like being the couple in the 2nd bedroom, but when I was a kid, I would have thought it was just fine.

Isn't the advice you get on CC wonderful! I think you'll be very happy you bought the upgrade!

Going back several posts about the food available to suite passengers. Not only can you use your butler to get something from the specialty restaurants, but you can get food from other areas in the ship while using the suite breakfast and lunch areas. A couple of months ago, on the Jewel, I was commenting to my husband that I was missing vegetables and the waitress at lunch overheard me. She was very quick to suggest that she could get a stir fry for me if I'd like, or if there was something specific I'd like she would find it. While I didn't take her up on the offer I thought it was nice to know.

Two rooms equals two bathrooms. With 4 people that can mean a lot

There actually is...it's just a matter of most people not realizing that it's there. :)

 

Click the arrow by "Search" up at the top of the page. See the little link that says "Advanced Search"? If you click that, there are a few different 'sorting' features that you can use to narrow down the results you receive.

 

For instance:

 

 

ORANGE: I usually put "1" (as I've done in this picture) so that I don't get a ton of threads where the question I want to ask has been asked but it hasn't received a reply. If you only want threads that have 2+ replies, then put "2" instead.

 

PURPLE: You can actually choose which forum(s) you wish to search. This will eliminate A TON of threads that are from all over CruiseCritic. If you're wanting results for an NCL ship, the simply choose the NCL forum and then you won't receive results from the Carnival board, RCCL board, etc. You'll ONLY get results from the NCL board.

 

RED: The DATE feature! If you leave it on "Any Date", then yes...you will receive a ton of results from long, long ago. However, if you click that little drop down menu, then you can select how new you wish the thread to be. Or, if you are looking for old threads, simply change "Newer" to "Older" and it will show you threads that are older.

 

 

Oh, and at the bottom of the advanced search, where it says "Show Results As"? If you change that to "posts", then it will display a portion of the actual posts in the search results, so you don't even have to open the entire thread unless you're sure that particular thread is talking about whatever you're searching for.

 

Hope that helps someone! :)

AWESOME! I know how long it takes to do something like this so well that it's understandable. I'm sure you've helped a lot of people. I know it will improve my search results!

I come at this from a professional perspective, 30 years manning the reference desk at a public library.:)

 

The search function here is not the best, and unexperienced searches will waste time with ineffective searches. Some people will not be computer savvy enough to make any progress on their own. For the last several years as a librarian, I had many people preface their question with "I just spent the last hour on google". This is what keeps libraries relevant. Time is valuable to everyone, so if you don't know what the answer is or can't give a link to current information, don't waste your time answering & don't make the asker waste their time either.

Indeed. I think and answer with a link is very helpful

There isn't the slightest thing snide about that comment, and I'm certainly not going to apologize if me researching a cruise prior to cruise critic offends you. Good grief.

If I misread your statement I apologize.

wow. just wow. Why are you here? What benefit do you get by making someone else feel like "less" with these kinds of snide remarks?

 

Don't you wish you had had a helpful place like this?

 

"Kids these days don't know what it's like to have to look up a phone number in a book!" No. They don't. I'm so happy for them!!!!

I've stayed away from the thread so far and just read, with great interest, what everybody has been saying. But where's a like button when I want it?

Holland America is a fine cruise line, but I've sailed in suites on HAL and a Haven Suite on the Jewel. With kids, a 2 bedroom/2bathroom Haven Suite would win hands down. The only suite perk on HAL that isn't available on NCL is free laundry.

There are two threads this morning with simple questions, and among the responses to each are directions to go the NCL web site. On other threads I've noticed responses with instructions on how to use the search tool. Why not just answer or ignore the question? Is the implied criticism of the question really helpful or necessary?