C-line

Unless it's changed you buy them at Guest Services. Head directly there when you board because they may sell out.

Hi Kilmar, your post sounds familiar, I'm pretty sure I "read it" somewhere else! (hardy har har) :)

If you look at my post history I've done some rambling about the Breakaway, some of it might be useful.

We've used a TA once, usually we book directly through NCL.

I can't comment on the price, I don't know what it's going to do.

Maybe they were updating their site?

 

Today, for the very first time ever that I have ever noticed, NCL is listing fare prices in CAD. We have always only seen USD pricing.

 

Just a guess? Any other Canadians notice this?

It's been like this for a little while - if you look through the threads there's a discussion on it. :)

I did it in a pair of Keen sandals, which sound similar to what you're talking about.

We've cruised on the Breakaway a few times with my in laws (who are close in age to your mother) and we always have such a good time. We've never done it over Christmas, but we've gone later in the spring when there has been lots of families.

If you're looking for somewhere to escape the kids there are a few adults only options.

Spice H20 is at the back of the ship on deck 16. It has a bar, hot tubs, and seating. No pool. I've never spent any time there during the day so I'm not sure how they are with enforcing the adults only policy.

The second option is the Vibe and I honestly don't know a lot about it. We looked into it once and they sell passes which are good for the length of your cruise. There's a couple of hot tubs, a bar, and seating. Maybe someone else who has experience can chime in (or you can search for it - I'm sure you should be able to find some first hand information).

The last option I know of is the thermal suite. They sell both weekly and daily passes (subject to availability). They have a hydrotherapy pool, heated tile loungers, sauna, salt room, etc. They also have other regular loungers. There are absolutely no kids there. It's usually quiet, but depending on who's there sometimes it gets a bit loud.

Something else we enjoyed doing was playing cards in the games room right beside the library. It was usually pretty quiet. They have a selection of different games (scrabble, monopoly, cribbage, etc).

If you're not overly interested in Nassau or Port Canaveral I'd pick one of those days to stay on the ship and enjoy the peace and quiet while everyone else is gone.

Port Canaveral - The first time we went to Epcot because DH spent a lot of time there as a kid and I'd never been. It really wasn't enough time and we wouldn't do that excursion again. Another time we did an airboat gator tour and we had a blast. The last couple of times we just stayed on the ship and that was fun too. I don't think there's really anything within walking distance besides maybe a couple of restaurants.

Nassau is a nice port to get off at because the port is within walking distance of things like the straw market or downtown shopping, and it's a quick bus ride to a beach. I know people hate on Nassau but we always have fun there. We don't do anything super exciting. We always do the horse and buggy ride. One year we went up and did the Fort beside the water tower. A couple of times we went to the Queen's Staircase. Once we took the local bus on a big loop from downtown to the end of the line and back. We stopped at Junkanoo Beach and got a bite to eat on the way back to the ship.

 

Does anyone find the ship different at all over time? I read complaints about quality of food, ship being understaffed but can't tell if it is people being overly critical or honest.

We generally only cruise once a year and have been on the Breakaway a few times but last year we cruised on the Breakaway at the end of January and again at the beginning of April. Things have obviously changed over time, for example the menus in specialty restaurants, and the noodle bar changing to complimentary instead of paid (yay!), and the policy about not carrying beverages on board. As far as quality of food or staffing we haven't noticed any changes. There have been some bumps along the way, but nothing major, and we haven't noticed our experience has been changing negatively over time. I'm sure some of the complaints are legitimate, and some are just over dramatic, but we've always had a fantastic time overall. :)

I just checked - worked fine for me.

Thank you for the review :) We met Ramona when she was a server in Le Bistro and the next time we were on the ship we heard she was working in the Haven. She's super nice.

I was a little sad coming to the end of your review - it's almost like it was my own last day on board!

If you get your laundry done on the ship they put tags on everything they washed. The number of smiles we get out of seeing those tags when we're back home definitely makes it worth the $20. :) (The tags are little labels inside your clothes, so we just leave them on until they fall off or if we're sending them through the laundry on another trip)

I've read the terms and conditions and see the choices have to be locked in 48 hours before sailing. I was pricing out a cruise for next year that indicated the promotion was available but I didn't see any options during booking to select the choices. Am I missing something? I'm trying to figure out what the procedure is.

You usually pick the promotion options after you choose your cabin. If you were choosing a guaranteed cabin you wouldn't be given the option because the promo doesn't apply to guarantees. Just a thought. If it wasn't that I don't know what the reason would be.

We've been on the Breakaway 4 times and have our fifth booked for January. My only other cruising was on Carnival a couple of times before we switched to the Breakaway but my other half and his parents have been cruising for years and years with different lines and they love the Breakaway too.

We considered doing the Jade out of Tampa in January instead but when we looked at how close the two cruises were in price and factored in that we'd have to travel to Tampa we decided to sail out of NYC again. We like that we know the Breakaway so well too - it's almost like going home. :)

Entertainment: We love Rock of Ages. We've seen Burn the Floor several times and even though it's a great show I don't think it matters either way to any of us if we see it this time around. Every trip after the first one we've said we're not going to do Cirque but we always end up there and it's a little different each time and we always enjoy it. I think if we kept doing the 7 day things would get repetitive. We found a huge difference between the entertainment on the 7 day vs the 14 day. I think there were only a couple of nights on the 14 day that we weren't in the theatre. They brought in different entertainment - an Irish singer, a Four Seasons tribute, a woman that did Broadway songs, a juggler/comedian - on top of the regular shows. Howl at the Moon is one of my favourite things about the Breakaway. :)

Meals: We didn't eat in the MDR much for our first two trips. We had the dining plan so we mostly ate breakfast and lunch either in the buffet or at O'Sheehans and then dinner in a specialty restaurant. The last couple of trips we've eaten in the MDR more and it's been mostly enjoyable. A couple of times the service was pretty slow and we had to send something back once because it wasn't hot enough. I like the MDR breakfast a lot better than the O'Sheehans breakfast, but the other people in our group preferred O'Sheehans I think. We loved Uptown Grill because their burgers were pretty good and the salad bar was great. I'm a little disappointed to see it's been changed to Margaritaville but I think the rest of our group is excited to see the change.

Drinks: A lot of people complain about the bar service being slow but maybe being friendly and leaving the odd tip on top of the auto gratuity goes a long way because we never felt the wait was too long. Maybe we were just more laid back than the people who have voiced concerns. I've read comments about NCL being a "booze cruise" now that the UBP promo is widely available. People were definitely enjoying their drinks, but they weren't causing problems on the cruises we've been on. It seems like it would be more of a problem for the shorter 3 and 4 day cruises. We're disappointed with not being able to bring on pop and water this time around, but it's not a deal breaker. We have the beverage package and the women don't mind drinking the ship water - we'll just bring a couple of refillable water bottles. If the men are fussy I see that they have packages with 1L bottles that aren't outrageously priced. I don't know how well the 1L bottles will fit in the fridge, but they can use the ice bucket or whatever.

Disembarkation: I do agree that disembarkation can be aggravating. It probably doesn't help that people are little sad/grouchy that the cruise is over. We always do the self assist. It would go *much* more smoothly if everyone followed the announcements telling them when to line up to get off the ship instead of rushing to be the first in line whether you're supposed to be there or not. I think it's pretty obvious who's doing self assist and who's not and sometimes I see crew members turning away people who aren't carrying their luggage when it's supposed to be self assist only, but I wish they'd enforce that more.

Cabin: We did an aft balcony a couple of times on the 7 day Florida/Bahamas it was fantastic! I loved being on the back of the ship cruising out of NYC and any time we had an aft balcony in Nassau we had a beautiful view of Atlantis. The downside is that Spice H20 can be *super* loud late at night. I'm talking glasses rattling on the shelves loud. I don't know if we just had the luck or if it's like that all the time. Some people wouldn't care, but it would drive others bananas. The other times we've had a regular balcony - I definitely wouldn't want to give up the balcony. We spend enough time out there and in our cabin that it's worth it to us.

It's unfortunate that there are so many negative reviews. We've had issues while on board and once while booking but most of them have been handled very well. There hasn't been anything major enough to prevent us from booking again or anything we felt we had to share on a forum like this. If something is a legitimate problem the crew on board is pretty good to work with you to find a solution. I read something the other day (on these forums) where someone commented that the Breakaway has a reputation of not being a great ship to work on and that it's reflected in the attitude of the crew but we absolutely haven't seen that. It's amazing that we interact with so many crew members over the duration of a cruise and nobody stands out in my mind as being unhelpful or unfriendly.

So... add our experiences to the "Yay for Breakaway" camp. :)

Sorry if this doesn't flow very well - I kept going back and forth from it to some work I'm trying to get done. Once we have something booked I have a hard time not thinking about it!

As far as I know Les Getrex and Creole Cookin are in Fat Cats right now (it was Charlie Love and the Silky Smooth band up until late February).

The cruise director was DanDan on the Jan 31 - Feb 14 cruise and I think he had just started not long ago so he's probably still there.

We leave on the Breakaway on Sunday (April 3) so if you haven't heard by the time we get back I'll let you know. :)

I think it would be fine to go through the xray machine or whatever but I'd be worried that everything inside might be in disarray by the time it's delivered to your cabin.

This sounds like something that would have happened in the episode of Keeping up Appearances when Hyacinth and Richard go on the cruise!

Thanks for the info Ann - we were wondering the same thing.

When we sailed on the Breakaway on January 31 they had just switched to a new menu at O'Sheehan's. It seemed to be the same one they switched to on the Escape (http://www.beyondships2.com/uploads/8/2/4/5/8245255/cr_204_osheehan.pdf). We sail again on April 3 so it's disappointing that they seem to have changed it again to include far fewer items.

Just a thought NYFirstTimeCruiser - did you go to O'Sheehan's very late at night? It seems to me that they had a limited menu overnight. Maybe that was the menu you took a picture of.

edit - I forgot to say thank you very much for uploading the pictures of the menus! :)

I know I'm digging up an old post but I can't seem to find a more current one.

According to this news article the Breakaway will be in Halifax, NS on June 29, 2016. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/cruise-ship-season-2016-1.3463940

http://cruisehalifax.ca/our-visitors/cruise-schedule/ shows the Breakaway in port from 8 am until 5 pm.

I came across the article and was curious what itinerary it was as I hadn't heard of the Breakaway being in Halifax before. I couldn't find any info about that sailing other than this thread. I think with a 5 day there would be NY, sea day, Halifax, sea day, NY so no other ports of call.

We recently cruised out of NY with my inlaws who had two rolling carts of medical supplies to take on board with them which they needed help with (it's a long way to the top of that ramp!). After checkin there wasn't enough room for the four of us in the special needs seating area so we sat close by and kept an eye out for them to begin boarding. When they were ready to board we joined them and pushed the carts for them. It was nice to be able to board before the elevators got super busy because we basically needed one elevator just for the four of us and the carts. Plus we didn't feel rushed pushing the carts up the ramp because the group as a whole was moving pretty slowly. If your husband needs some extra time don't be afraid to ask - it would be much better to have him relaxed instead of being stressed at the beginning of his vacation because he feels like the people behind him on the ramp are upset by being "slowed down" (some people just don't understand the idea of vacation!).

I understood that the premium seats were the ones immediately beside the performers. There are two tables up there, on the opposite side of the stage from the rest of the seating. That's the way it used to be advertised as recently as last spring - I didn't pay much notice when we sailed at the end of January this year because we thought the regular seats were fine (and I would have felt like I was on display in the premium seats). We've been three times and every time we sit in one of the booths. I think we miss seeing up as high as those seated at the tables nearer the front, but we prefer the booths and I don't feel like it took anything away from the show.

For what it's worth, here's our last day UBP story. We got off the Breakaway on Feb 14.

The O'Sheehan's menu advertised breakfast drink specials for Bloody Marys and Mimosas. We ordered a Bloody Mary with breakfast. First we were told we couldn't order it because the bar was closed. Then our server said he would get one from the Atrium bar and bring it up. He did tell us that the UBP wouldn't cover it. When we got our slip we were charged almost double the price listed on the menu (plus port tax, which I understand). When we questioned it we were told that the drink specials didn't actually start until 9 am - there was no mention of this anywhere on the menu. Ok, fair enough.

We ordered another one a few minutes later (a few minutes after 9) and when we were again charged full price our server said it was because the drink specials don't apply to debarkation day and the drink specials were actually for the passengers boarding that day (who would not be seeing the breakfast menu). I know it may seem like we were being jerks putting in two separate orders from the Atrium bar downstairs but my husband was trying to prove a point by then.

So... We paid full price for the two drinks plus port taxes, and it came to something like $25 for the two drinks. Husband spoke to a manager at O'Sheehan's who refunded the difference between what we paid and the advertised price. I suspect the reason we were charged full price in the first place was because the drinks were rung up in the Atrium bar but I wasn't there when husband spoke to the manager and he said the manager didn't really give a reason for the higher charge.

My husband was excited to take me to Disney the first time we went to Port Canaveral. He had been many many times and he wanted to share the magic. We went to Epcot. It was crowded and we had very minimal time there. It was not very magical at all until he saved the day by taking me over to Fort Wilderness.

The second year we did an airboat gator tour with Airboat Rides Melbourne. That was a blast.

Last year we just stayed on the boat and enjoyed the peace.

People start arriving around 9:30, boarding starts around 11:30 (first come first served). If you come early, you won't have lines, but will wait to board. Of you come after 11:30, you will have lines, but won't wait to board. If you come later, you won't wait at all, but will miss lunch. Cabins are usually available around 1:30, but there won't be a lot of napping time before muster. After the muster drill is sail away.

This changed, but I'm not sure how recently. For our sailing on the BA on January 31 we had to select an arrival time when we did our online checkin. The times started at 9 I believe. The earlier times seem to fill up fastest because they weren't available when we did our online checkin.

I asked this specific question when on board the Epic in January. I was thinking of going back 2-3 week later in February. My thoughts were that I could lock in a promo with the CruiseNext Ultimate and then immediately make the one-time change to the sailing that was going within 30 days.

 

I was passed to the CruiseNext manager who explained that this would not work and if a switch was made to sailing within 30 days of the sail date then you DO NOT get the locked in promo.

Thanks for the heads up. We were considering this possibility too.

I haven't been on recently but every time I've been on Breakaway it's been a hotel-style coffee in a filter pod type of thing. Like a tiny drip coffeemaker.

Just off the ship today. This is what we had in our balcony room.

Update - Just got off the Breakaway and Clamato was hit or miss. We might have had better luck if we'd ordered directly at the bar more often - a lot of the waiters had no idea what we were talking about! :)