Norwegian BREAKAPART!! (from on board the 5/19 sailing)

[joeski27]

According to a passenger who just got off Breakaway: Steve Paternoster "There were VERY high speed winds on the return home on the last sea day. I did not personally see this (I had a balcony stateroom and had no issues nor could I see any issues from my balcony). The good news was that the ship is so massive that in my personal opinion you could barely even feel the sea or the wind at all."

 

Ok I dunno what ship he was on, but yesterday/last night the Breakaway was shaking as heavily as any cruise ship I've ever been on. And for for us in particular near the bow we could feel the impact of each and every large wave break, in the form of the entire cabin shaking (bed, pictures walls, etc.). And we also ate up at the rear of the Garden Cafe for dinner and was constantly rocking and shaking.

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[joeski27]

I did notice a distinct sewage smell near the aft elevators, especially around deck 6, 7, and 8. Many people commenting about it as we were going to dinner.

 

Yeah actually we noticed this as well, in the aft elevator area and in the hall all the way forward on deck 8, just down the hall from our cabin.

 

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[joeski27]

Ok, here are the photos as promised (in thumbnail form so as to not create obnoxiously large posts ;)). And literally aside from a few city skyline shots this AM these were the only photos I took on this trip, as I was too p***ed off from having to sit hobbled in my stateroom for most of the trip.

 

Anyways, this is sort of a "before" shot, showing our lovely patio, which we did use on the Tuesday at sea for a bit around when this shot was taken. Our steward hooked us up with a second lounger (just to the left in the image). Though I should note, as the crew were taking away our furniture during the heavy winds, I did hear one mention to the other, while carrying the loungers, something like "these aren't supposed to be be here". So take it as you will, but still feel free to ask your steward for them. Also, note the sweet sun exposure...find me another balcony that gives you that:cool:

 

 

Here's a shot looking straight up, where you can see the underside of the bridge wing and the little see-through area of the floor:

 

 

And here's one more looking towards the aft from our cabin, showing the rest of the M6 balconies along with some of the larger balconies above it (B6's):

 

[joeski27]

And now here's the first shot moments after the first panel came down (separating us from 8718). Our other panel, to the left, along with this one had been rattling violently for quite awhile, until finally the bolts either sheered off or were stripped, allowing the panel to first swing freely, and then come crashing down:

 

 

Then I stepped out onto the patio for a closer look (granted, a very dangerous idea, probably shouldn't have done it, as there were of course plenty of panels yet to come down). The photos might not show it - other than the nasty water/waves in the background - but these was taken with about a 50-60mph wind at my back):

 

 

 

And here's a close up of what first caused that panel to break. As you can see, the metal column basicall sheered at the hinge. Incidentally later that night after dark that column started swaying in the high winds and came crashing down as well:

 

[joeski27]

And then came the domino effect (sort of); once a couple of panels came down, that opened the wind tunnel to taking down the rest. So a little while later, and after quite a lot more crashing and smashing, it looked like this, with panels, framework, nuts, bolts, and other debris everywhere. And when I say this stuff was loud when it came down, I mean it was insane (combined with the heaving crashing/shaking of the bow from the massive waves, the constant freight-train sound of the wind, and the up/down/side-to-side action of the seas):

 

 

 

 

Shortly after this, a crew of about 6 or 7 crew (a few pictured here) came through to remove the panels and debris - and eventually the furniture - from the 6 or 7 total balcony areas (these shots only show about 4 or 5 cabins effected, but it did "expand" over the next few hours as more panels either came down or were taken down by the crew). They carried quite a bit of it through our cabin as well:

 

[joeski27]

Finally, at the end of the evening, more panels came down via the incredible winds on the balconies just forward of us. I told one of the management crew who I met in the hallway that this particular panel loss presented a very immediate and very dangerous problem which was different from just losing balcony dividers. After that panel came down, I poked my head out from our balcony and down around the corner to the left, and due to the angled layout towards the bow, the loss of that panel created a sizeable area where there was a direct opening with no railing at all. The photos below, taken this morning, show what they did in a pinch to rope it off. Kinda like a new ropes course, actually, lol, only slightly more adventurous :D They also came to our staterooms and posted the sign which we were asked to stick on our sliding glass door:

 

 

 

 

So there you go, that's the highlight of my hobbled and horribly dissappointing trip aboard the beautiful, but obviously not gale-ready Norwegian Breakapart. Hope you all enjoyed, and good luck to future balcony guests, hopefully you won't have the same issue (assuming of course they don't just put the dividers back as before but find a way of improving their support!).

 

Oh and I think I did mention this before, but there were about 5 or 6 dividers blown out above us up on the deck nine B6 balconies, and maybe one or two in other more random locations that I could see from our deck.

[Tyron]

And then came the domino effect (sort of); once a couple of panels came down, that opened the wind tunnel to taking down the rest. So a little while later, and after quite a lot more crashing and smashing, it looked like this, with panels, framework, nuts, bolts, and other debris everywhere:

 

 

 

 

Shortly after this, a crew of about 6 or 7 crew (a few pictured here) came through to remove the panels and debris - and eventually the furniture - from the 6 or 7 total balcony areas (these shots only show about 4 or 5 cabins effected, but it did "expand" over the next few hours as more panels either came down or were taken down by the crew). They carried quite a bit of it through our cabin as well:

 

 

WOW!!! Glad no one was hurt!!!!

[joeski27]

By the way, here comes the Breakapart now, should give us a clear shot of whether or not they were able to get repairs done in time. Anybody wanna place bets?? ;););)

[kerrytens]

OMG Joeski:eek: Those are some seriously scary shots but that last one with the gaping hole is by far the scariest.

 

Wow, I do have to wonder how this will be fixed. I also wonder if the Getaway has the same design flaw now?

 

BTW, I'm so sorry about the ankle. I hope it isn't too serious. Go and get it checked out as soon as you can.

[grobma]

Took a walk down to the pier and caught her just as she started to back out (a little late, about 4:30PM). Looks like whatever dividers were down have been replaced, and the first 7 or so cabins on Deck 8 (8110-8122 on Port side, 8710-8722 on Starboard) and the first two or so on Deck 9 (9112-9114 on Port side, 9712-9714 on Starboard) now have what looks like a reinforcing device (Blue stripe in middle of divider. Strap? Board? Slat?"). Pic is a bit grainy as it was from my my iPhone about 100 yards away.

 

Matt

[joeski27]

Well I'll be damned, just showed a nice closeup of the M6 area on the NY Harbor Webcam, and it looks like they're all fixed! But time will tell if they just "fixed" them, or properly replaced and reinforced them to prevent this from happening again! ;)

[tiffygirl]

By the way, here comes the Breakapart now, should give us a clear shot of whether or not they were able to get repairs done in time. Anybody wanna place bets?? ;););)

 

Sorry your vacation didnt go well. Missing a step and spraining an ankle sucks. Too bad the the high winds took out your panels on your balcony the last night. Its like shutters and siding that breakapart from a sturdy built house during strongs winds and rains. It happens unfortunately:mad: .. Father nature dont want to cooperate when we need him too at times. Dangit..lol

 

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

[MESS11MVP]

Well I'll be damned, just showed a nice closeup of the M6 area on the NY Harbor Webcam, and it looks like they're all fixed! But time will tell if they just "fixed" them, or properly replaced and reinforced them to prevent this from happening again! ;)

 

Thank you for all your updates and pictures! It looks like (from everything I have read) that this was an issue only on the larger balconies towards the bow. Glad you are ok except for the ankle. I am sure the repairs if not permanent will be when parked for 3 days in Bermuda. I am on a normal sized balcony next week on 12th deck mid ship. Apparently the feeling of the rocking and rolling was felt more in the front as well as people that were mid ship did not complain about it.

[gambee]

That incredible, I can't believe the amount of damage done to those rooms. They better start fixing tha for getaway. I am curious as to what the permanent fix is going to be.

[ibcnusoon]

The weather up the east coast has been terrible. I live in NYC and the last 3 days we've had torrential rain and today the wind is really bad. The seas are rough from the lousy weather we've been having. The wind is still strong as I'm writing this. Mother Nature hasn't been a happy lady lately :(

 

Strong winds here too along the Jersey shore, not only yesterday but today.

 

I expect those on today's sailing will feel it!!

 

Sorry to hear about your ankle Joe, happened to me on a land trip to the Florida Keys the day we were to fly home, I wasn't able to have it looked at until the next morning.

 

Wishing you a speedy recovery!!

[bellebud]

we were on your sailing... so sorry about your ankle!! Hope it heals fast and you can book another cruise soon.

 

2 years ago on the Gem, we were in 28' seas and the swaying of the ship was completely insane. Side to side, front to back, lifted straight up - hovered - then slammed down. Everything slide off our tables, broken glass on the floors, etc. Really horrible! 3 out of 4 of us in our cabin sea sick.

 

Maybe because of that experience, I didn't find yesterdays swaying too bad. I did take Bonine this whole trip - don't know that makes a difference. When we came out of the Dance show in the theater around 8:30pm, I did mention to dd that it looked like a movie outside - and I took a video. It looked like we were going super fast (so I said to dd13 "wow! we're bookin!", to which she replied "what the heck does bookin mean? you're so old!") lol!

 

We were port side in a haven room on deck 15, didn't notice much when inside the cabin. The haven itself during the day was heaven - I could see the rain and wind battering the furniture and glass outside, but inside was so insulated, I fell asleep. It really felt like a different world (except when the hot tub water poured out from the swaying a couple of times).

 

I felt like when our speed was up, the ship handled the waves wonderfully. I felt a lot of swaying when we were going slow - that was annoying. Anyway, I really hope you feel better quickly :)

[pyrrhus]

Finally, at the end of the evening, more panels came down via the incredible winds on the balconies just forward of us. I told one of the management crew who I met in the hallway that this particular panel loss presented a very immediate and very dangerous problem which was different from just losing balcony dividers. After that panel came down, I poked my head out from our balcony and down around the corner to the left, and due to the angled layout towards the bow, the loss of that panel created a sizeable area where there was a direct opening with no railing at all. The photos below, taken this morning, show what they did in a pinch to rope it off. Kinda like a new ropes course, actually, lol, only slightly more adventurous :D They also came to our staterooms and posted the sign which we were asked to stick on our sliding glass door:

 

 

 

 

So there you go, that's the highlight of my hobbled and horribly dissappointing trip aboard the beautiful, but obviously not gale-ready Norwegian Breakapart. Hope you all enjoyed, and good luck to future balcony guests, hopefully you won't have the same issue (assuming of course they don't just put the dividers back as before but find a way of improving their support!).

 

Oh and I think I did mention this before, but there were about 5 or 6 dividers blown out above us up on the deck nine B6 balconies, and maybe one or two in other more random locations that I could see from our deck.

 

So it was only the outermost portion of the dividers that failed?

 

Yeah for the most part the dividers wet an annoyance when you first mentioned it, but that last picture showing the divider that blocks off an area going toward th bow with no railing is just plain scary. I shall keep my small balcony mid-ship :)

[FormulaRacer]

From some of the photos it looks like that perhaps metal fatigue and just poor metal is a problem. One has to wonder that if this ship was in a major storm, could it sustain even more damage. Also would be of interest to hear how anybody could possibly dine outside in the Waterfront dining areas even in mild winds.

 

I wonder how many cruisers have experienced the outside dining and what their feedback is.

 

Also what is the integrity of the welds throughout the ship? I am sure that in storms like Joe encountered, the ship takes alot of bending and twisting.

[gambee]

From some of the photos it looks like that perhaps metal fatigue and just poor metal is a problem. One has to wonder that if this ship was in a major storm, could it sustain even more damage. Also would be of interest to hear how anybody could possibly dine outside in the Waterfront dining areas even in mild winds.

 

I wonder how many cruisers have experienced the outside dining and what their feedback is.

 

Also what is the integrity of the welds throughout the ship? I am sure that in storms like Joe encountered, the ship takes alot of bending and twisting.

 

The ship was vibrating some last night, we never felt that in the X ship. I never felt unsafe, but now looking at these pics I wonder.

 

WE dined outside with average winds, it felt ok. Nothing horrible, the winds did knock over on of the chairs on the table next to us. But I was on a regular shirt and it felt nice. But with stronger winds no one sits out there, a good part of our cruise the area went unused.

[david_sobe]

Thanks so much for posting. All I can say is WOW. Very scary. One of those dividers flying off could kill someone. Thankfully no one got hurt. Lots to rethink for Getaway and reinforcing the Breakaway. Only the second Bermuda trip and this! I can imagine lots of finger pointing from NCL to Germany and vice versa. As someone already stated, what would have happened with a storm. After all the heat the French took for Epic, they must be laughing tonight.

 

Wishing you a extremely speedy recovery and maybe we will see you on the Getaway :)

[swim13]

Just incredible, I wasn't expecting the damage to be that extensive! I'm surprised they got all of those dividers replaced so quickly, maybe they knew something like that may happen if they have all of those extras!

 

 

Even though the situation is bad in this picture, I love the new Freedom Tower (WTC 1) in the background!

[shaun07]

your story made the front page

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5366

[Fishbait17]

If I hadn't read about it here I would have never known! We didn't feel nearly as much movement as we have on some other sailings - sailing thru a hurricane on Carnival was about the worst I can remember, but we have had much worse movement on a few other sailings. Must be the size of the ship, I was all over deck seven and eight all day, and while there was some movement, it didn't seem too bad to me at all! The wind was brutal, though, and the wash on the port side was pretty bad, I can only imagine how bad starboard must have been! :eek: after reading Joeski's post, I did check the port side M6 balconies several times, they remained intact yesterday, last night, and this morning... (We were directly overhead of them). Not the nicest sea days for sure! Vibe was closed for two of six days, and only partly usable on a third. There definitely was a nasty smell aft last night, we had dinner in Moderno's, the smell was awful outside the restaurant, and there was some rocking, but had no problem with dinner..

 

My "missed step" occurred on the glass stairway - almost went down half the steps! My own fault as well, was paying too much attention to the photographers taking family pictures on the stairs and wondering how I was going to get by to my family waiting at the bottom.. Be careful on those stairs - the depth varies by step! Mine is pretty minor, a re-sprain of an ankle I had done a few years ago, but recovering much more quickly this time - able to put most of my weight on it today.. :)

 

Robin

[gambee]

If I hadn't read about it here I would have never known! We didn't feel nearly as much movement as we have on some other sailings - sailing thru a hurricane on Carnival was about the worst I can remember, but we have had much worse movement on a few other sailings. Must be the size of the ship, I was all over deck seven and eight all day, and while there was some movement, it didn't seem too bad to me at all! The wind was brutal, though, and the wash on the port side was pretty bad, I can only imagine how bad starboard must have been! :eek: after reading Joeski's post, I did check the port side M6 balconies several times, they remained intact yesterday, last night, and this morning... (We were directly overhead of them). Not the nicest sea days for sure! Vibe was closed for two of six days, and only partly usable on a third. There definitely was a nasty smell aft last night, we had dinner in Moderno's, the smell was awful outside the restaurant, and there was some rocking, but had no problem with dinner..

 

My "missed step" occurred on the glass stairway - almost went down half the steps! My own fault as well, was paying too much attention to the photographers taking family pictures on the stairs and wondering how I was going to get by to my family waiting at the bottom.. Be careful on those stairs - the depth varies by step! Mine is pretty minor, a re-sprain of an ankle I had done a few years ago, but recovering much more quickly this time - able to put most of my weight on it today.. :)

 

Robin

 

You know as I am writing the review I typed the same thing, that glass stairway is dangerous. I can see a few people having issues with that in the future.

[mdwcruises]

And now here's the first shot moments after the first panel came down (separating us from 8718). Our other panel, to the left, along with this one had been rattling violently for quite awhile, until finally the bolts either sheered off or were stripped, allowing the panel to first swing freely, and then come crashing down:

 

 

Then I stepped out onto the patio for a closer look (granted, a very dangerous idea, probably shouldn't have done it, as there were of course plenty of panels yet to come down). The photos might not show it - other than the nasty water/waves in the background - but these was taken with about a 50-60mph wind at my back):

 

 

 

And here's a close up of what first caused that panel to break. As you can see, the metal column basicall sheered at the hinge. Incidentally later that night after dark that column started swaying in the high winds and came crashing down as well:

 

 

It's lucky no one was hurt! But I guess since the wind was so fierce no one was on their balcony.

 

Sorry your ankle is still hurting. Hope your next cruise will be smooth sailing and all sunshine.