ofhs93

Just now, CntPAcruiser said:

 

How lovely! Are you on the roll call?

We are not...I guess I need to do that...it's been a few years since we have cruised lol. *Waves from the Scranton area*

On 9/11/2023 at 8:20 PM, CntPAcruiser said:

Vision is a nice small ship, and Baltimore is a relatively uncomplicated port. The one major drawback would be sailing in the Atlantic if you are not experienced cruisers and think that rougher seas might bother you. All things being equal, I'd jump on eight nights in a heartbeat. We'll be on Vision at the end of October and are hoping the sea gods will be kind to us on our way to Bermuda and the Bahamas, and back. 

 

Another advantage is that if you find you enjoyed your cruise, most other ships you might choose for the second one will be larger and may have more to offer. Sometimes people cruise on the biggest ship first and find anything after that a letdown. 

We'll be on the same sailing! So looking forward to this. It's our 25th anniversary and our honeymoon was on a 7 day RCL to Bermuda. We have not had a chance to cruise back to Bermuda since then. 3 sons and seemingly a lifetime later...we are very much looking forward to the time alone and visiting the beauty of Bermuda again 🙂

On 9/11/2023 at 4:55 PM, Thoenix said:

Do you think that the Baltimore port would be less chaotic and/or that Vision would have fewer people on it?  Just trying to figure out what all factors I ought to be considering.  Decisions are so hard!!

Yes to both questions. Your location also factors in. If you are all in the mid Atlantic then not having to go through the hassle of flying to Fla and all the added stress that can add on should be considered.

Oops..just had a chance to read through the thread...not local to Baltimore...but still likely the easiest port and location from the Midwest.

Trust me...you can't trust the seas forecast a week out. I was on the same sailing with mumblez...the forecast was good for us a week out as well ;) As was stated...just have backup options planned :)

I did not read through all of the responses above but I would highly suggest you AVOID the departures before 1pm. You are taking too much of a chance. A few extra hours should not kill you...and honestly...do you want that extra stress during disembarkation?

I *have* seem them listed and sold on EBay. That might be something to look into?

use the slides without waiting in lines.

This! Basically anything that you want to do on top deck will have tremendous lines on sea days. If you don't get off the ship in port then take advantage of the top deck activities...*if* they are open....which there is a strong chance that they aren't...that's a different matter for a different thread.

Breakaway by a mile.

I always find it amusing on how opinions can be so completely different lol. We don't like the BA at all last week...I guess it all depends on the particular sailing and what people have personal preferences for. We had extensive lines for basically everything on the BA. That's not my idea of a relaxing vacation lol.

ofhs93, thanks for an honest review.

 

I have heard many complaints about the Breakaway, and many positives about her identical sister the Getaway.

 

I suggest you post your message as a cruise review, in addition to being a message in this thread. More folks could benefit from reporting your experience!

After I had made that post and realized how much I had listed I did just that ;)

We just got off the Breakaway...it's the 1st time we have been on a mega ship and we will not be back. The midsize seems to be much more to our liking...and we just hit our 40s...maybe we have old souls lol. The crowds and lines we very much NOT to our liking on the Breakaway. Much of the top deck is dedicated to younger activities...which would be fine if they were open long enough...but they aren't. The pool area is woefully inadequate for the 4000 passengers that are on board. The Waterfront area *is* nice...but for us it does not make up for the negatives.

We were also on this same sailing. GSC - I never expected to get there... I must be the jinx, so don't travel this itinerary when I am on the ship. Four times we have done this itinerary and we have never made it to GSC.

 

This is not our first time on the BA, but I did feel it seemed more crowded then before in the Atrium and OSheehans. As far as the kids were concerned, feel lucky that you are not on the this weeks sailing and we were told there were over 1200 kids sailing.

 

We only ate in the buffet once for a snack and only ate in Taste one evening. The rest of our meals were either at the Specialty restaurants or The Haven restaurant and had no complaints about the food.

 

I also wondered why they kept advertising Second City Comedy when they were no where to be found. I was not that thrilled with their show anyway last time that we saw them on this ship. I was not overly impressed with any of the shows I saw in Headliners. Magic and Mayhem was entertain and ROA is my favorite.

 

We are booked on The Escape next year since the BA is leaving and going to NOLA. Not excited about even more people, but what are you going to do if the ships keep getting bigger and bigger.

Yes I heard about the 1200 young ones this week lol. I'm sure my experience would have been different in the Haven haha.

Anyway...in regards to some earlier responses...I knew going in that being on the "mega-ship" might be an issue (thus the reason I picked a week that is *supposed* to be slow traditionally) I'm certain that the Gem breakdown was a major contributing factor to the overcrowding. On day 1 right out of the gate I overheard crew members remarking to each other that "this is worse than I expected". Unfortunately that confirmed my fears going in.

We made the best of it...obviously getting to GSC would have help but I knew the drill on that going in (we are now 2 for 4 on private island visits)

Maybe this was just a particularly bad week for Osheehans but I was pretty bummed about the food there combined with the wait times and slowness of food delivery. The corned beef stew was really just cabbage and potato soup...zero corned beef in it. The wings were really mediocre at BEST...I think we are spoiled where I live on those...the breading was a disappointment (was told in the last it was just a slight coating...not now) The fajitas were ehh...I guess I went into there expecting a little better quality in the pub food. The fact that every time we went to it required getting a pager and waiting (including after 2am one night) probably didn't help my view of it.

The extreme lines for the kids activities on deck were also a big negative. If they know there is a full boat why are these activity hours so limited...and they are *never* all open at the same time...which further contributed to the long lines...if you are funneling everyone on board to 1 or 2 activities when there are 4 different ones available you can imagine that those that are open are going to get crushed.

Management to crew communication...clearly missing GSC is not an unusual event. When this happens they adjust the onboard activity schedule to attempt to compensate...unfortunately the news didn't seem to get to all of the crew that is assigned to take care of those newly scheduled activities very quickly. We ran into a few different spots where crew seemed to have been caught unaware that there was supposed to be an activity taking place or a venue open on the day that we were supposed to be at GSC. I found that surprising.

As far as choosing the "mega ship" over a mid sized one...I debated over this when booking the trip to begin with. The idea was I felt BA would give my kids more fun things to do than a mid sized ship could afford to them...which in a perfect world (or maybe even the average week before Thanksgiving sailing...see Gem issue above) would have been true...unfortunately the lines and congestion I feel may have completely negated all of those extra fun options for them.

My teenager still had a good time...and the other kids did overall. My wife and I...not as much as we would have liked...but as was said before...a day on the boat is better than a day at work...unfortunately we can't take cruises ever year...or really even every other year. So we'll have to wait a few and see how things look in 2020 or 2021.

Any speculation why NCL is continuing to operate Margaritaville as they have?

Probably under contract...as it currently stands it's a complete waste of space...particularly in the winter season. It is literally empty during the vast majority of the time. As stated...we ate breakfast up there a cpl of times but the options offered are quite limited.

Still listed as flat as of last week. It's the most empty space on the entire ship lol...if you need some peace and quiet along with wind then MVill is your place...for a cost. We ate breakfast up there a cpl of times.

I agree with OP assessment of the kids club and the disappointment of missing GSC.

When we went in October, DS 9 said the kids club wasn't as much fun as the Jade because there were just too many kids. A few times he didn't want to go unlike the previous year when he was obsessed with the club. Also like you said the lines to get into the club is ridiculous. There has got to be a better way to check kids in. In order to make sure DS got into the club we just decided to go 20 mins early. If we have to stand in line for 20 mins, we figured we might as well be first and ensure his spot.

 

As for missing GSC, I knew it was a great possibility due to all the posters on CC who said they have missed the island. I too was also very disappointed since PC was a bust and Nassau is well, Nassau.

 

 

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Exactly our experience...and we did the same in regards to gerting in line early later in the week.

GSC...I knew it could happen...but it still doesn't take the disappointment away...unfortunately in *my* mind that itinerary's success hinges on whether you get to GSC or not...and by the time u get to Nassau at 4pm on Weds it's too late to do much of anything there...at least anything that is family friendly.

I haven't been on NCL since 2009, but the second city folks we had on our cruise were decent (definitely nothing memorable, but I was laughing through the performance). From reviews I read, the second city performers were always hit and miss depending on the ship/contract. Basically the lowest rung of the Second City system was the NCL circuit, so it was always almost entirely fresh meat, which doesn't mean they aren't talented, but most were very inexperienced.

 

Honestly I'm excited to see if they are booking better acts now for headliners rather than the 4th or 5th string of a well known theater company.

Unfortunately the lineup last week didn't seem any better than what you probably have experienced in the past. Honestly...one of the 3 was just not funny period. The other 2 were OK...like I said...the local Comedy Club in Wilkes Barre PA has a better lineup on a weekly basis...we go at least once every 2-3 months and it's has always been better than what we saw in BA last week.

I think I heard that the Secind City contract finished literally last week and wasn’t being renewed? TBH most of the feedback I’ve heard was that it was never that good, and people often left, but can’t talk from personal experience... that’s just the main feedback I’ve seen from research I’ve done.

That seems to be the case with every contract that ends these days with NCL...they are clearly cutting back. Now...had they NOT continued to promote 2nd City then I wouldn't have been as miffed...but they are actually STILL running the promo videos all over the ship lol. I'm not saying it would have been better but it's just a very clear case of false advertising. We enjoy improv and they are promoting an improv group...it's just another piece in the disappointment pie that's all. And the replacements were less than stellar as well so....

I wouldn’t swear off NCL, my favorite ship is the Gem. I think your typically quiet week was impacted by many of those who were supposed to sail the Gem.

That could very possibly be the case, and honestly it's what I was afraid of going into the trip when we got the Gem breakdown news...but I'm pretty sure that we won't be back on the Breakaway...the ship is just badly designed. There's potential there but it loses SO much space to the specialty dinning areas.

I very specifically choose my vacations to be during what *should* be "slow" times, to try to avoid overcrowding...lines ect...obviously that didn't work out last week ;)

I agree with your assessment of this cruise. We found most of the same things. Our daughter loved the kids club and we went at least once a day but the line to get in and out was insane. It did seem like there were a ton of kids on this cruise, way more than I had expected. I think part of this might have been the Gem cancellation as ours ended up being fully booked.

 

The service in the restaurants and bars surprised us the most. It was not bad service, but it just was not personal at all. On our previous cruise on the Allure of the Seas 2 and 4 years ago we were able to get to know our waiters and some of the bar staff. On this cruise it seemed like they were just there to do a job. Part of this is the freestyle since you can go anytime you want wherever you want you do not carry the same waitstaff the entire week. We did the my time dining on RCCL and even with that we were sat in the same section most nights. Even in the bars it didn't seem like the bartenders were all that interested in carrying a conversation and we were at O'Sheehan's quite often.

 

The flow of the ship was weird. I did not like how they had a bunch of the glass partitions in the middle of walkways on the waterfront and the pool/sundeck. It made walking through difficult. I understand it is to cut down on wind but it really made traversing the ship hard. I was also surprised by the smoking section on the pool deck being on the same side as the kids splash park and the hot tubs the kids could use. While it was somewhat enclosed it still seeped into those areas. No clue why they would not have put it on the adult side of the ship as that is the side that smoking is allowed on the waterfront.

 

We still had a good time and would probably go on NCL again. I am hoping that the service part of the experience was just the breakaway. We will probably try the Escape next and maybe try another RCCL ship to get an accurate comparison.

I appreciate that I wasn't the only one that saw some flaws lol...It was also nice meeting your family Belly....even if you ARE a Pat's fan ;)

Our next cruise will almost definitely be with RCCL unless one of the other lines comes up with some unbeatable deal that makes it worth trying out. Sailing from NYC or Baltimore really is tremendously more convenient for us...so that automatically cancels out some of the other lines that simply don't sailfrom those ports.

I can see the appeal for some people when it comes to NCL....but the lines...yikes...and the lack of individual treatment....those were dissapointing. Our cabin steward was great and we made sure to put in a vacation hero card for him and also gave him a little extra tip at the end of the trip...but outside of that it just wasn't special in any way....again...not terrible...but not memorable either...which has not been the case with RCCL and Disney. I want to also remind folks...this is our 1st cruise in 5 years...so maybe this type of thing is the norm these days on all lines...I don't know from personal experience....but I *do* recall our 1st NCL cruise way back also not being up to RCCL standards as well....*shrug*

Different strokes for different folks :)

Too bad your experience did not live up to your expectations. Thanks for your feedback.

 

 

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All in all..not terrible...just didn't live up to what NCL advertises itself....the Second City thing and missing GSC were 2 big misses...one out of their control...the other not so much. What felt like overcrowding causing the lines everywhere was also disappointing....Thankfully we have had good cruising experiences elsewhere...My mother went on this one as well...this was her 1st cruise and for her it wasn't the greatest either...I'm trying to convince her to give it one more try with RCCL before giving up on cruising altogether.

Ok...we had a whole slew of things we packed...lol...let me go over what I felt were the most useful.

multi-port USB charger for our cell phones ect...

magnets! the walls are metal...you can hang all of your dailies ect...anything you would post at home...you can use the wall just inside the doorway as your cork board using magnents ;)

over the door shoe holder: we used this to hold all of the various items you might need on a trip away from home (we had 2 adults and 2 children in an inside room...not a lot of space lol) the shoe holder gave us lots of space to store and also be able to easily see the items when we needed them

refillable water bottles: we didn't have a drink package...we brought along "mio" drops (one of the things held in the shoe holder) and our water bottles...no need for the drink package

with the shoe holder there is no need to skimp on items...so you can get all of the small vacation sized items you might ever use at home....including band aids small med kit items...all of your toiletries...anything you can think of.

a cpl of external batteries to charge your cell phones...always good to have extra juice when in port....I would forgo the walkie talkies (as stated previously...not all that effective inside the ship and not very neighbor friendly) you may want to look at going with iconcierge on your cell phones. $9.99 per phone.

Let me start by saying this was our 5th cruise and our second with NCL (last one being 14 years ago on the Dawn)

Let me also preface that our last cruise was 5 years ago with RCCL when our oldest boys were 8 and 6.

Our overall experience this past week was honestly just bleh....

1. we couldn't tender to GSC due to rough seas (not really anyone's fault but a $19 per passenger refund really doesn't come close to covering the disappointment) My wife and children had been planning for months for a tremendous private style beach day...this was a letdown...we made it up in Nassau but that cost me an extra $275 that wasn't exactly planned on

2. everything and I mean everything came with a line involved...no matter what you were trying to do there was a line...we have never had that experience in the past...maybe this is cruising on all lines in 2017...I don't know...I just know that our RCCL cruises have never had that.

3. the food was hit and miss in my mind...the buffet was ehh (i try to avoid that place anyway) osheehans was really a disappointment...main dining room for dinner was hit and miss...not up to RCCL previous experiences overall...and the fact that the lunch menu never changes was baffling to me honestly.

4. service was decent but attention to detail was lacking...I think a lot of that may be due to a few different issues...mainly stemming from the freestyle dining and the fact that there are so many surcharge restaurants....its pretty clear from our experience that the service in the surcharge locations was superior to the main dining rooms....as was the food. This would seem to point to the main dining areas being used as training areas in a sense for the surcharge dining locations....that's not been an issue on other cruse lines we have been on.

5. with all of the *amazing* activities available on deck for kids ect....it's a serious chore to try to actually experience them....the hours that they are open are extremely limited...and with 4000 other passengers on board you can imagine the length of the lines when these thing finally are made available....not fun.

6. the kids program...hmmm...this is up and down...the line to simply check them in and out can take 15-30min at times (no im not exaggerating)...the kids had fun for the most part...but...unlike our last cruise...our youngest 5 and middle 11 at times balked about wanting to go....never had that in the past...i believe the lines and a level of overcrowding may have contributed to that.

7. entertainment: overall...this was a REAL disappointment....My wife and I really enjoy going to the local comedy club and both enjoy improv...NCL advertises the Second City comedy group constantly everywhere...but that group was not on the ship...they had 3 other comedians that...honestly...were rather lacking and did no improv act of any kind...now if they didnt advertise Second City all over the place (including on THIS sailing) then we wouldn't have been so disappointed...but....our local comedy club in PA has a better lineup on a weekly basis to be honest. On the other hand the Rock of Ages show was a huge hit...I went into it not expecting a whole lot (espesially since we had seen the comedy act and heard some reviews about it being just too raunchy) but my wife and I both enjoyed it very much...in fact it was probably more comedic than the comedians. NOT kid friendly...but very good. They also had a magictian that I would say was also very good as a whole....mixed comedy in as well. For us the rest of the entertainment options were very lackluster and also overcrowded. Part of this is due to the design of the ship...which honestly is pretty terrible considering its size.

8. Ship public spaces/design. This is a real weakness of the Breakaway....dont get me wrong...there are lots of places to see...but the layout is just not intuituve and the public areas are very undersized for the number of passengers this ship carries...it gives the ship a clausterphobic feeling...its a huge vessel but it feels small because nothing flows and there are few open spaces. Its by far the largest ship we have been on but it felt like the smallest...which is strange....again...I believe the number of extra pay restaurant options *greatly* contributes to this issue....those locations take up so much space and are so numerous that they effectivly eat up a tremendous amount of space and turn into dead space for the majority of the day.

9. I certainly get many peoples "nickle and diming" complaints....it didnt really effect us so much because we were prepared for it and were not really effected...but the constant upselling and attempts to get people to buy into other things while attending unrelated events was a bit annoying.

We did not have a terrible time....but we could have had a better time and HAVE had better times on smaller and older ships on a different line....bottom line...we wont be back to NCL from what we experienced on this cruise. We will go back to RCCL next time as they have not failed us...and to be honest...NCL is really 0-2.

If anyone has any specific questions regarding the Breakaway ect I woud be happy to answer those that I can.

I have not read through the entire thread but I will give my 2 cents. We just got off of the Breakaway yesterday so it's all fresh in my mind.

Let me start by saying this was our 5th cruise and our second with NCL (last one being 14 years ago on the Dawn)

Let me also preface that our last cruise was 5 years ago with RCCL when our oldest boys were 8 and 6.

Our overall experience this past week was honestly just bleh....

1. we couldn't tender to GSC due to rough seas (not really anyone's fault but a $19 per passenger refund really doesn't come close to covering the disappointment) My wife and children had been planning for months for a tremendous private style beach day...this was a letdown...we made it up in Nassau but that cost me an extra $275 that wasn't exactly planned on ;)

2. everything and I mean everything came with a line involved...no matter what you were trying to do there was a line...we have never had that experience in the past...maybe this is cruising on all lines in 2017...I don't know...I just know that our RCCL cruises have never had that.

3. the food was hit and miss in my mind...the buffet was ehh (i try to avoid that place anyway) osheehans was really a disappointment...main dining room for dinner was hit and miss...not up to RCCL previous experiences overall...and the fact that the lunch menu never changes was baffling to me honestly.

4. service was decent but attention to detail was lacking...I think a lot of that may be due to a few different issues...mainly stemming from the freestyle dining and the fact that there are so many surcharge restaurants....its pretty clear from our experience that the service in the surcharge locations was superior to the main dining rooms....as was the food. This would seem to point to the main dining areas being used as training areas in a sense for the surcharge dining locations....that's not been an issue on other cruse lines we have been on.

5. with all of the *amazing* activities available on deck for kids ect....it's a serious chore to try to actually experience them....the hours that they are open are extremely limited...and with 4000 other passengers on board you can imagine the length of the lines when these thing finally are made available....not fun.

6. the kids program...hmmm...this is up and down...the line to simply check them in and out can take 15-30min at times (no im not exaggerating)...the kids had fun for the most part...but...unlike our last cruise...our youngest 5 and middle 11 at times balked about wanting to go....never had that in the past...i believe the lines and a level of overcrowding may have contributed to that.

7. entertainment: overall...this was a REAL disappointment....My wife and I really enjoy going to the local comedy club and both enjoy improv...NCL advertises the Second City comedy group constantly everywhere...but that group was not on the ship...they had 3 other comedians that...honestly...were rather lacking and did no improv act of any kind...now if they didnt advertise Second City all over the place (including on THIS sailing) then we wouldn't have been so disappointed...but....our local comedy club in PA has a better lineup on a weekly basis to be honest. On the other hand the Rock of Ages show was a huge hit...I went into it not expecting a whole lot (espesially since we had seen the comedy act and heard some reviews about it being just too raunchy) but my wife and I both enjoyed it very much...in fact it was probably more comedic than the comedians. NOT kid friendly...but very good. They also had a magictian that I would say was also very good as a whole....mixed comedy in as well. For us the rest of the entertainment options were very lackluster and also overcrowded. Part of this is due to the design of the ship...which honestly is pretty terrible considering its size.

8. Ship public spaces/design. This is a real weakness of the Breakaway....dont get me wrong...there are lots of places to see...but the layout is just not intuituve and the public areas are very undersized for the number of passengers this ship carries...it gives the ship a clausterphobic feeling...its a huge vessel but it feels small because nothing flows and there are few open spaces. Its by far the largest ship we have been on but it felt like the smallest...which is strange....again...I believe the number of extra pay restaurant options *greatly* contributes to this issue....those locations take up so much space and are so numerous that they effectivly eat up a tremendous amount of space and turn into dead space for the majority of the day.

9. I certainly get many peoples "nickle and diming" complaints....it didnt really effect us so much because we were prepared for it and were not really effected...but the constant upselling and attempts to get people to buy into other things while attending unrelated events was a bit annoying.

We did not have a terrible time....but we could have had a better time and HAVE had better times on smaller and older ships on a different line....bottom line...we wont be back to NCL from what we experienced on this cruise. We will go back to RCCL next time as they have not failed us...and to be honest...NCL is really 0-2.

Just want to thank you for all of the info you have provided to us all over the last week plus. We will be boarding the BA on Sunday and the information will be very valuable to myself and my family.

Quick question regarding the wifi...I assume you had to have purchased one of the existing plans to qualify for the $85 unlimited upgrade?

We'll have Att international day passes for GSC and Nassau. Trying to decide what I really need for sea days.

following :)