oceanfun77

We cancelled our Alaskan cruise at the end of May.  Originally the $1000 deposit was nonrefundable, but I called them up today due to coronavirus getting more severe, and I was able to get the $1000 back.  Whew!

Yes, I saw massive bags of Lays potato Chips original flavor located in the buffet

I was on the Breakaway for Memorial Day and they had a little event at the atrium where they asked veterans to come up to the stage. There was also a Memorial Day cake and ice sculpture at the buffet.

We got to Bermuda early so are just wandering around aimlessly until we can dock tomorrow.

 

 

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Is that what happens???? That's why it takes longer for the ship's itinerary to get to Bermuda (64 hours) than to come back (41 hours)? I never got the reason for that.

It was crowed, but I found it quite bearable. I was looking at weeks in may and June and May 28th was cheaper than other weeks for some reason, and so that's why I chose May 28th (that and only using 4 vacation days).

I don't know why that week was cheaper than the previous week though.

On the Breakaway, a dancer from the show, Burn the Floor will have 30 minute dance lessons in the atrium ranging from Salsa, to Rumba and other styles? You never get to perform it though. There was one day when they did have a dance rehearsal to learn the Thriller Dance and you could perform that at the 80s party they had later on that night.

Thanks for the review! Were the pools and loungers crowded? Any must try items on the buffet?

The pools and loungers were definitely VERY Crowded on day 3 at sea and day 6 in the afternoon after everyone has boarded the ship to go back to NYC. I'm not sure how the situation was on days we docked in Bermuda since I was out since the morning and didn't come back until night.

At the end of May, the 2nd and 7th day at sea is closer to NYC and it's quite still quite chilly, so not as much takers as on the days when we're closer to Bermuda and it is actually hot.

Thanks for the review :) I was on the same cruise with you, but stayed on an oceanview room. Our room stewardess came into our room to make it twice a day! When I get back to my room around 5ish to change out of swimsuit and shower, my room is made. Then, after I get back from dinner and evening shows, the room is made again (and a daily schedule added to your bed) and the towels I used at 5ish to shower were replaced. I was very very very happy with the service I got :)

I had a feeling the 7th sea day would be chilly since we're closer to NYC. I remember the 2nd seaday to be super cloudly and foggy and chilly too. I actually wanted to go on the waterslides on the 7th sea day, but when I got up there, all the lounges were practically empty and it seemed like they might have closed the waterslides as well (it definitely was very chilly)...there was almost no one outside.

I went on 2 cruises (one the Golden Princess to Alaska, another NCL Breakaway to Bermuda). I thought Princess was the way bigger ship, had the better shows and performances (a different show each day!!), had better cruise directors and cruise staff, and also had a better theatre and lobby stage, as well as better dinners (we had lobsters one night!), and more eateries (you could get free pastries where the stag lobby was whereas you had to buy it in the Bake Shop on NCL). Princess also had an impromptu sushi lunch spread near the pool one day that wasn't written on any dailies schedule.

However, NCL has more built-in playgrounds (waterslides, ropes course, rock climbing, a child's pool space, a basketball court, and a jogging space), better arranged space in the rooms, no formal dining, and more freedom on your dining times I think.

2 highlighters? I hardly ever lose a pen or lipbalm, but I managed to lose my highlighter on the 2nd night of the cruise, within my small little room somehow. I searched everywhere, but it's just gone. I had to use a pen to circle the dailies sheets...not too bad, but wish I had a highlighter.

Earlier this year, there was an article about Tom Moore's Jungle in Bernews. In the article, there was a paragraph that stated that swimming would be banned from all ponds and cave pool. Did you see any postings prohibiting swimming at the entry of TMJ or near any pond or pool?

 

Thanks,

SBtS

Nope. I saw a bunch of people jumping into the blue hole pond too.

Rain all day or really just showers? If rain, you can go to the caves & aquarium.

ocean fun. did you find other trails or not find them and give up. your review sounds almost like mine. i was there right after the hurricane last year. we spent 1 or 2 hours and i believe found the same surprises you did. also the place where there used to be a diving board and the deck over the one hole as well as lotta cool caves by the water etc.

 

we made a decent attempt but couldnt really find more and i'm pretty sure we only scratched the surface?

I did not want to walk all the trails to discover new things since we had a long list of sightseeing to cover that day, so I just followed the directions of what I posted and left shortly after. I did find one extra cave a very short walk from the trail, but no other surprises...what kind of other surprises are there to be found on tom moore's jungle?

Oh! So I got to sit in the VIP section without paying for VIP tickets :)

I was on the same cruise as you and I felt the Cirque dinner gave us more than enough time to eat. I finished eating and was just waiting for the show to start.

Hi!

Quick question about your Circe seats...

Did you have VIP?

If not, do you know where the VIP seats were?

Thanks so much for the quick review, very helpful and informative!

NonnaT

No, I didn't have VIP seats, but I did sit at the 2 tables on a raised platform in front of the stage. The couple who sat with us on the same table asked if we had VIP, and I said no...they were under the impression they purchased VIP seats...so I have no idea.

Ship - Breakaway

Deck - 5

Stateroom # - 5208

Stateroom Category – OB

Starboard or Port Side - ???

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Yes! Clean, spacious, comfortable

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? -no

Balcony View - N/A

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? N/A

Was wind a problem? N/A

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? N/A

Any specific problems with this cabin? The level to stop the sink doesn't work, so not so great if you want to rinse or soak your bathing suits, underwear, etc...

Any other comments? Quiet, convenient, spacious, comfortable, things are arranged intuitively. Nothing blocking the closet (I visited a mini-suite and the bed was placed in front of the closet, making the closet space almost useless)

Just a mini review on some lesser-reviewed items on the NCL Breakaway for 5/28/17 - 6/4/17. Our Cruise Director was Alvin Oliva.

This is my 2nd cruise (my first cruise was with Princess to Alaska).

Evening Shows

Compared to Princess, I find the evening shows more limited in that they really only had Burn the Floor and Rock of Ages repeating all through the week. We saw Burn the Floor twice. And Rock of Ages once...I thought the show and songs to Rock of Ages were kind of meh...I'm glad I didn't pay to see that on Broadway! Before I saw the show, I thought I would like Rock the Ages more and Burn the Floor would be meh, but boy did Burn the Floor surprise me!

Cirque Du Soleil Jungle Fantasy - I loved this show! During dinner, people dressed up in costumes come up to your table to playfully tease you a bit and take pictures with you. The show itself was fantastic! I was like 10 feet away from the performance stage so I saw everything close up and it blew my mind.

Unadvertised Additionals - If you see Burn the Floor on Friday, after the show, they bring out a representation of the stewardess, restaurant waitresses, and other staff to the stage which I thought was kind of neat and touching

Also, an unadvertised performance which you can't book for in advance on the MyNCL website is Broadway star Carla Stickler who performs on Saturday at 7pm & 9pm. You don't find out she performs until you get your dailies paper on Friday night.

For super fans of Burn the Floor, the cast puts on a mini though impressive show in the Manhattan Dining Room at 9pm on Saturday. This was also unknown until you get your dailies paper.

Food

Every night, the buffet has a different theme of foods available (Carribbean, Italian, Mexican, Oriental, etc...) though they serve their usual comfort foods as well. If you're a picture taker, I would go up to the buffet area every night just to take a picture of the fruit carvings they did...it's beautiful.

Shanghai Noodle Bar, Teppanyaki, and Oriental Lunch Buffet at Moderno - I am Asian, and thought their oriental foods were disgusting! Way too salty and way much salt. The Shanghai Noodle Bar's noodles had a weird taste to it (that might appeal to western palates?), but it definitely wasn't something we would cook ourselves or combine the ingredients they used into one bowl. The only good item was the Shrimp dumplings, but would suggest they give us sirracha sauce as the dipping sauce instead of sweet & sour sauce.

The oriental lunch buffet at Moderno they had for a day was yucky. They did hang up nice decorations for it though. We ate like 20% of the food on our plate and then went up to the real buffet to eat instead.

O'Seehans - this was my favorite place to eat! The Thai Chili chicken wings are to die for...they also had great sandwiches that came with French fries that were better than the ones you get at the buffet. You can also get hot dogs from the cart like you see on NYC streets if you want, but I didn't get it.

The free dining rooms (Taste, Savor, Manhattan) - I loved eating at the free dining rooms...the desserts are far superior to what you will see at the buffet area, though be forewarned, it takes 2 hours to finish a meal here! The breakfast here also has some other items not available at the garden buffet such as eggs benedicts and open-faced smoked salmon with bagel.

Gym Classes

I tried out the free 7am stretch and 7:30 abs class my 2nd day They were mediocre at best and way too easy for anyone under the age of 60.

I also took a Fight 2 Klub paid gym class my 2nd day. It cost $24.99 plus gratuity totaling $29.50. There were 2 other people in my class and the instructor was totally improvising the class and I didn't even break a sweat. The instructor did know what he was doing and did it very well and strongly, but it didn't translate well to the 3 students. I did not feel like I got my money's worth with that class and that was my biggest waste of money while on this trip.

Pool & Waterslides

There are 2 pools, one main pool which is 6 feet deep, and a smaller pool that is about 4 feet deep? As a short non-swimmer, the 6 feet pool was way too deep for my comfort...I spent a little bit time in the 4 feet deep pool, but I spent a lot of time on the waterslides! The yellow and purple ones are really a lot of fun, but I spent a lot of time on the open-top light blue slide as well since that one was a bit tamer, but on the upside also meant there was a shorter line. Didn't have the guts to go on the free fall red & blue slide!

Rock Climbing, Spider Slide, Ropes Courses, Bungee Trampoline

Rock Climbing - it's only usually open for 3 hours a day, from 3-6pm, so read your dailies to find out when it's open.

Ropes Courses - I meant to try it, but when I got up there and saw the ocean on the very edge where the ropes course starts, I froze up and couldn't do it. I had to make the shameful walk down stairs....why am I such a wuss?

Spider Slide - I've been meaning to try this, but it's only open like an hour and 45 minutes each day and I kept missing the time when it's open since I was busy with other things, but on Saturday, I made sure to go do it...only to find out it has a weight limit of 30-120 pounds only...meaning it's really a kiddy apparatus...I was only a few pounds over, but oh well...

Bungee trampoline - I think this was closed the entire duration of the week. There was also no open times listed on the dailies schedule.

Will continue when I have more time.

Yes you can! I just came back from Bermuda yesterday and we walked from the Caves to Tom Moore's jungle. I am copying and pasting a post made by a member on cruisecritic whose directions I followed and I found the Blue Hole park. I didn't walk the other trails further as we were crunched for time.

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start at the swizzle inn. go down to the gas station and get water etc if you need it then go further down the hill toward the water. on the otherside is an entrance to the jungle. we didnt spend more than 1 or 2 hours there but even just at that 'end' of the jungle there were nice caves and trails and a surprise or 2 in there. we couldnt find the more extensive trails to go further but i feel just in that limited area is is so well worth it to do something you cannot do many other places. the caves were very cool

From the entrance, walk along the stone pathway, past a nice beach on your left. When the path bifurcates, take the left and you will reach an open grassy area.

From the open grassy land with a picnic table on one side, you can see the steps to a small wooden platform (having an wooden bench on one side). Standing on the platform, you can soak in the serene beauty of Blue Hole pond with surrounding cliffs and greenery, and watch fish in the water.

I looked at the weather forecast and it seems like it's only in the mid-70s next week, but my co-worker just came back from the cruise last week and said it was mega hot there and that their 70s feel like high 80s. I'm just trying to gauge what kind of clothes to bring. I'm living in the NYC area.

Also, would you recommend wearing sneakers or sandals while in Bermuda? Thanks!

Sorry for the dumbest question ever, but is there mac & cheese available on the NCL ships? Where? Thanks!

We did both with our 9 month old last week. We really enjoyed both of them.

 

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What was different about the 2 different caves? Thanks!

I called expedia asking for any upgrade possibility because the price o my cruise dropped so much. I am currently in Oceanview (OB) category on Deck 5 and they offered me an upgrade to Balcony (BD category) for $50 for both persons. Is this worth it?

I checked NCL website and OB category is currently selling for $999, and Balcony BD Category is only selling for $949 though.

Thanks!

Congratulations on the win! I will be sailing on the 28th! Counting down the days!

I'm going on a cruise with my mom and I would like double beds instead of a large single bed. Are they available for balcony rooms, or just oceanview and inside statesrooms? Thanks!