The Breakaway 7/21-7/28/2013

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Breakaway 7/21/2013 – 7/28/2013

As fair warning, this seems long and boring to me, but some might appreciate some of the information I have included in the report.

I’ll start by filling in the pre-cruise information and then continue on.

My mother-in-law wanted to cruise for her 80th birthday, which is in December. So after some discussion last year we all decided that a cruise in the summer would be best for all involved. It was left up to me to handle the details. The in-laws are not fans of flying, so I had to look locally for a cruise. I’m a fan of cruising, period, having sailed on RCCL, Carnival and NCL cruise lines, and also a first time possible cruise on Princess in the spring if I decide to book it (another freebie from a Maryland casino that I have visited 4 or 5 times in the last year). Knowing that the Breakaway was under construction, it made sense to look into it. I emailed my PCC, at NCL, whom I have used many times in the past. Explained what I needed to him and see what he could do for us. He offered my wife and me a comped inside cabin, explaining that the criteria has gone up on this ship for the comped cabins and I would have to pay for anything above it. No big deal, as I easily upgraded to aft balcony (my favorite) for a few hundred dollars. As for the other cabins for my wife’s family that I booked, they all received 10% off of their fares, plus whatever OBC that was available. Not a bad deal and much appreciated by everyone. Last year when I booked, I reserved 6 cabins, and they were the following, inside family cabin on deck 5, balcony deck 10, ocean view deck 13, inside deck 13, aft balcony deck 13 and a guaranteed inside. My in-laws offered up $1000 pp. for the rest of the fares, so this helped the others in the family pay for their cabins. You all should have seen my credit card bill when the final payments were due! I did use my NCL credit card for the fares, which allowed me to earn a few hundred in OBC if I wanted to use it. I figured we would have others joining us, not direct family members, but they did not commit at the time of booking, so I forward my PCC/CAS name to them and he allowed them to book with him at a discount. Two other couples joined us, one in a balcony and another in a Haven suite. That balcony also received the 10% discount and the Haven suite was comped (he must gamble a hell of a lot more than me!) All told we ended up with 20 in our little group. Our ages ranged from 16 to 79, with the 16 year old being the only one under 18. I will say we are all partyers, not a teetotaler in the bunch of us adults. My wife and I can no longer go all night, but we can keep up with anyone during “normal’ hours. A few of us enjoy gambling, whether it is a table game or a slot/video poker machine. All of us enjoy a pool, beach time and a week of sunshine too!

Now for the sad and tragic part, sometimes life is not fair, really it is not. 5 weeks before sailing, my father-in-law passes away. He went from being a relatively healthy and sane 81 years old with gout in his left foot, to passing away with multiple problems in a matter of weeks. Now what to do? After much discussion we decided all would still go on the cruise, which is much tougher than it would seem. You see during the week of this cruise, my in-laws would have been celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary on the 26th and his 82nd birthday on the 24th along with my 53rd birthday in between on the 25th. While he was suffering from what appeared to be only gout, I emailed NCL, and explained what was happening and could he get them in any kind of handicapped cabin as a wheelchair might be needed. I offered to pay whatever was needed for the change, but there were not any handicapped cabins available, he stated he would continue to check in the weeks to come. After his death, I contacted at NCL, explained what has occurred and what we were going to do. No one purchased any type of cruise insurance. We had a few days to decide before the 30 day window closed, which would have given my mother in law a 50%. I’m thinking she would lose either his fare or be charged for a single, using his fare towards that single supplement charge. Ncl called back with good news, they would refund in full, his part of the cruise fare, a little over $1500 and there would not be any extra charge for her to be a single in their ocean view cabin (that lack of a single supplement charge, was due to the fact I booked through him. He stated a single charge does not exist when booking through CAS) Refunding his fare was very kind of NCL. I tried searching on the board for others who have had a death right before cruising to see what would happen, but could not find anything. I do not know what normal policy is, but it was much appreciated. I will give my mother in law credit; she is a trooper, as I’m not so sure I could have gone on the cruise if this had happened to me.

About 3 weeks before our cruise I noticed the fares had gone down, in some cases hundreds of dollars. I emailed NCL to see if he could work his magic and upgrade some of the cabins. He works a few small miracles so speak, and gets an inside GTY upgraded to a balcony on deck 14, an inside on deck 5 to a Mini on deck 10, an inside on deck 13 to a balcony on deck 10 and an ocean view on 13 to a mini on deck 9. Not bad for some of those in my little group. Everyone kept there OBC too.

Everyone lives in Maryland except my mother in law, who does not see very well out of one eye, and she had retired by the beach in Delaware. So we make arrangements for family members to pick her up the Thursday before and stay with us until we leave the following Sunday and to return her home to her house at the beach after we return from the cruise. I tried to arrange for a charter bus to take us all to New York but the quotes I did receive were outrageous to say the least. I looked into Megabus and booked it to take us to NY for approximately $65 pp. r/t. A few families booked different departing times but we were all on the same returning bus coming home. We live about 30-35 minutes from the pickup point so Sunday morning it was easy drive to the park and ride to meet the bus.

 

Day 1

We get up and are on our way to meet the Megabus at White Marsh, about 30 miles from my house. There are 6 of us on this bus. We had a 6:30 or so departure. The bus made a rest stop along the way, not sure why, since it was a nonstop bus. This is very easy to do, if you are traveling from Baltimore or the Washington area and do not want to drive yourself. Arrived in New York around 10:00am and were dropped off a short cab ride away from the port. We spilt up since we needed to take two cabs to the port. I was in the second cab and arrived a few minutes after the first one. Here is where a problem occurred; I had given a small soft-sided cooler to my wife who was in the first cab. For some reason it was put in the front seat of the cab, so when they arrived at the port it was accidently left in the cab. I was told minutes after the cab had departed to parts unknown. We tried to see if it would return with other fares, but not really knowing who we were looking for it seemed like a lost cause. You would think that I would not have given it much thought but I had a few electronics inside, a camcorder, iPod, chargers and such. I’m not a happy camper at this point, knowing that I’m in NY and left something in a cab, never thought I’d see it again. We head inside the terminal, scanned our carry-ons ok. We were then told by a NCL employee to head all the way down the terminal to check in. As we are walking I’m thinking this can’t be right, there has to be a CAS check in or a Latitudes check in, something that I (we) were entitled too. We finally get to the end and we were told that we had to back to the front of the terminal to check in. Strike two, as far as I’m concerned, this trip is starting off bad. The NCL person can tell I’m not thrilled in the least bit. He took us all back up, parted the ropes, walked us right up to the counter and waited as we checked in. Then he took us down to the boarding area and gave us a number 5 boarding spot card, I think they were now giving out the high twenties by the time we were checked in. A few minutes of waiting, we hear an announcement, anyone who left an “Atlantic City” cooler in a cab, please come to the front counter. Well you could have knocked me over with a feather. Sure enough, the cab driver had returned and dropped the cooler off at the scanning area. I would have bet and given odds that I would never see again. So Cabby, if you are out there, Thank You! (we did email the cab authority, complimenting an unknown cab driver) By the time I have retrieved the cooler, minus a pint of Vodka that was confiscated from inside of it (it was tagged and given back on the last night of the cruise) our number was called. As we were boarding, the same NCL person came up to us and could see we were all in a better frame of mind, we explained the problem with the cooler and I apologized for being short with him earlier, but at least now he knew why I was in no mood for being led astray. All is good, we were onboard around 1 hour after arriving at the port. We were allowed to drop off the carry-ons in the cabins. The wife and I are in an Aft, 11312, our adult kids are in a balcony-mid deck 10, and my mother-in-law is in a mini suite on deck 9. Others were on deck 14 balcony, Spa suite, and various balconies on decks 10 and 11. After grabbing a bite to eat, our group meets the rest of the party who are all now on the ship. We start celebrating on deck 15, moving up to deck 16 for pictures and then up to deck 17 for more drinks and the sailing under the bridge (Verrazano-Narrows) Cruising under the bridge is an experience in itself. Not to be missed, well really you want to miss hitting it! Minutes later we are in the Atlantic Ocean. Right before the muster drill unknown to anyone in our group, my nephew had slipped on a wet step leaving the basketball deck heading to drill and fell. While we were at the drill (Manhattan room) we did not see Steven (18 yrs old) anywhere, after it was over and we all on deck 16, we hear the dreaded announcement, would so and so (his parents) call the operator. 9 stiches later, Steven is back with us. I did find out it was all done free of charge, even the removal of the stiches 6 days later, I’m not sure if that is case with all accidents or not. I think we cruised around 10 knots or so going to Bermuda and twice that returning. That night all 20 of us, dined in the Manhattan dining room at 3 tables together, but with 3 different waiters. One table had waited 1 hour and 45 minutes for their meals, which caused some to leave before their main course had arrived. We had already ate and left and found out about that later. I can’t blame them, I would have left too. Overall for my table, the food was good, although I cannot remember what I had. (I do suffer from CRS) Later that night most went off to the casino to gamble. I probably broke even or close to it, as this was the best I would end up. By the end of the trip I was a beaten man. Glenn – 0, Casino +1.

Day 2

Sea day, we are up early and on the deck by 7:30. Chairs on the pool deck are getting claimed left & right. We head up to deck 17 where we agreed to meet the night before. We secure a few lounge chairs and we managed having most of us together for the whole day. We had beautiful weather and a smooth cruising day. The adult pool is crowded, the hot tubs are full. Breakfast today and all week was in the buffet. I had egg white omelets all week, along with breakfast meats. Perfect for me, the others also dined in the buffet for breakfast and not one complaint was heard. This was the first time I had noticed “Washy Washy” but a few times, no one was around the buffet with the spray bottles, not sure why. Tonight we all went to the buffet to eat. After dinner some went to Burn the Floor, I passed since the casino was calling my name. I guess a few liked most of the show, others, it just wasn’t their cup of tea. Most claimed the music was the problem, not the performers. The casino was another bust for me.

Day 3

Sea day, the deck lounge chairs are really filling up. I think this was the day that deck 17 was not open because of winds. They had the stairs tapped off, but many went up anyway only to be turned away and sent back down. People are getting upset and it’s only 10:00. We had a nice spot on deck 16 overlooking the sea and great for people watching. After an hour or so they started to bring lounge chairs down from deck 17 to deck 16 and the jogging track area, this helped. Lunch I think, was at the Uptown grill, meatball sub, very good. Dinner was at Savor for 18, we had about a 20 minute wait, no big deal. Once again, good food and great service. We went to Rock of Ages tonight; I’m not a play person, as I would rather watch a movie than see someone acting live! I must say it was a very good show (I would cut out about 15 minutes of it though) well-acted and well sung. IMO, anyone 16 or older should not have a problem watching it. I think the F word was spoken 3 times anything else was suggestive at best. Nothing that any 16 year old hasn’t heard, or seen before, IMO. I saw no one leave the theater during the show, how anyone could have been offended is beyond me. Go see it, I strongly recommend it; you should have a good time.

Day 4

Bermuda! Today we had planned to go to the beach at Tobacco Bay. We purchased a 3 day bus/ferry pass for $35 a person and jumped on a ferry for a 40 minute ride to St. George dock and a short cab ride to the beach -we had my 79 year old mother-in-law, who has problems walking long distances with us. Others walked from the dock to the beach. Beautiful beach, chairs and umbrellas are available to rent. The beach is not very big but it was not that crowded, but we went there thinking that most would head to Horseshoe beach this day. This beach is a must, shallow, easy to snorkel and swim. The water is calm and clear. We had perfect beach weather, mid 80’s.

Day 5

We wake up and I’m a year older. After breakfast we head to the ferry to go to Horseshoe Bay, quick ride over on the ferry and then a bus ride to the beach. My mother-in-law skipped today’s trip to the beach, which was for the best. When the bus drops you off, it is a bit of a walk to the beach. There is a van that offers rides down and back up from the beach for $1 and $2 respectively. We walked both ways. Horseshoe bay is beautiful, but it was very crowded close to the beach entrance, so if you rent a chair and an umbrella walk down to the left where it is less crowded. Drinks, food and various beach equipment rentals are available here. After a day here we took the bus directly to the dockyard, approximately a 30 minute ride on an over-crowded bus, not very pleasant. When we arrived back on board, the cabin steward had made me a birthday cake out of towels, with a cupcake on top. It also had a birthday card with a note to bring it to dinner, signed by the Marcella and the Captain! Tonight it was La Cucina Restaurant, dinner for 16. I thought it was a good meal, I had the chicken parmesan. Others had everything from pasta to the steak. My wife had left the birthday card at the hostess’s desk and after the meal they brought out a full sized customized birthday cake, very nice touch on NCL’s part. After dinner we walked around the dock area, stopping here and there for a drink or two. There was a band playing somewhere out there and we listened for a few songs before heading to Snorkel beach area. It was close to 10 pm and they wanted to charge a cover charge ($10 I think) to have a drink, we were going to pass, but then they let us in the beach area without a cover charge. Good thing, I think our group was the only one there. I assume it turns into some kind of “club” at night?

Day 6

Last day at Bermuda, I stayed onboard others went shopping in the dockyard area. Ship was not very crowded, easy to find a lounge chair just about anywhere. If you want to do a beach the last day, it might be a good idea to pay $5 and go to Snorkel Park. Sail away was a few minutes late and it started to rain as we were leaving. The rain lasted most of the night and the fireworks were cancelled. Casino opened shortly after departing Bermuda (I wished it had stayed closed!) Dinner was at Taste, once again we had a large party and we were told the wait would be 40 minutes, after 20 we were all seated. Good meal again. I must say I did not hear one complaint about the food itself. We had a comedy show booked, but the time was moved up and we decided to pass. Gambling again tonight, another loser for me, but for someone who hit $30k on the Wheel of Fortune slot it was a good night.

Day 7

The last full day; we had breakfast at the Garden café again, another egg white omelet for me. Out and about to snag some lounge chairs on deck 17. This was the most crowded day on the decks and the pool. Today you really noticed how small the sun deck and pool areas are. We saw NCL people putting “yellow dots” on vacant chairs, with towels, but no one sitting there. We also saw them remove towels from empty chairs. Lunch was at the Uptown grill, again good. Dinner was in the buffet, with some “fresh” made pasta, just ok, nothing great. It was empty in there; I assume most had specialty restaurant reservations. Last chance at getting my money back was met with a failure. Oh well, they did comp me the cabin, which I then upgraded, so it might have really been a break even trip.

Day 8,

Buffet breakfast, off the ship by 8:30ish and a quick cab ride to the bus stop for the return trip to Baltimore on the Megabus.

Notes, my opinions and comments;

The Breakaway cruise that I was on, did seem very crowded to us at the pool and the sun decks, almost too crowded, if you weren’t up early, then you were hunting for a place to sit. I suggest, dropping the basketball court and moving the two pool area bars to the sides of the decks.

Some passengers are just plain old rude, and that is being kind, really some are just A-holes. I can’t believe their mothers did not raise them better.

I was always greeted warmly by every crew member, yes every. I have to assume that they have corrected whatever problem others had reported about the service because it was great!

Washy, Washy is back, at least what I saw getting off the elevators.

I suggest buying the 2 day ferry/bus pass and using it the first two port days and on the last day, just visit the nearby shops and beach. It will save you a few dollars. Most of us in my group only used the pass 2 days.

JS, I looked for your board to write on, on deck 13 portside aft, but did not see it!

I tipped Marcella the first day, to keep my cooler full of ice and the beer cold, best $20 spent on the cruise!

Yes I smuggle, first time I have ever been caught. A bottle of Fireball was removed from my suitcase and a note was left to pick it up the last night at the towel desk (no naughty room) Judging by the bottles I saw on the last night, quite a few others got caught too! Also the pint of Vodka that was picked up when it went through the port scanner was also at the towel desk waiting for me on the last night. No big deal for us, they were for a toast (fireball shots) in the room and my much better half likes to have a Vodka and Cranberry in the room while getting ready in the evening.

The aft balcony is the way to go, once you have had Aft, you’ll never go back!

We renewed our membership in the “Balcony Club” (TMI?)

I’m not thrilled about some of the table games having their rules and payouts on an electronic sign only, where those rules and payouts could be changed in an instant. As a side note, I do not need to be told wrong odds while I’m playing, by a dealer, if you were at my table Friday night you should understand my questioning of the payout odds. I think the pit person did correct the dealer. I did see someone win $30k a few feet away who was playing a Wheel of Fortune $1 slot while I was taking a beating at Let it Ride. So someone was winning, just not me!

CAS, very interesting in my case. I believe the Host was the same woman I saw and spoke to on the last few Epic cruises that I was on. She was not very friendly on this cruise and did not seem interested in me or my play. I just got a strange feeling or vibe from her; I wish I could have put my finger on it. In any case I had booked 6 of the cabins from Alan at CAS, all had a cabin discount, Susan and I had drink cards in our cabin and in two other cabins, one person had a drink card, I’m not sure why any one person received the drink the card in those cabins, no rhyme or reason as they weren’t much of a gambler(s) to start with. When I picked up a slotclub card I was a “Lucky” player, I asked and the same Host stated that was from 3500 points earned from February. I’m pretty sure I had around 8000-10000 points a few months ago on that trip. Once again it didn’t make a difference to me only in principle, as I should have had a higher card to begin with. After the first night someone gave me a “Hot” card. I never received any benefits from it. We never received any goodies in the room either. It was just strange, the whole gambling/rating process. Maybe they are still ironing out the kinks? I’m not highroller, but I would say an above average gambler. The last few cruises I have taken and my upcoming cruise were comped, so I shouldn’t complain and really I’m not. The last evening they took all of the points and credited me on my bill. I think it was around 6000 points earned on this trip. The on board credit seemed very low this trip. I think they gave me $95 +/- off our bill. It has always been a few hundred off the bill, along with a few dinners and wine.

The pool area was crowded, too crowded, the stage was squeezed in front of the small adult pool.

I'd give the ship a "7.5" and the cruise to Bermuda a "10" Would I sail the Breakaway again, free or not, probably not, at least not in the near future.

Various pictures;

Aft cabin 11312

Aft cabin 11312 balcony It was 9' 10" Wide & 11' 5" deep ~112 sqft, two loungers, table and two chairs were on the balcony.

Closet and safe, cabin 11312

Freedom Tower departing New York

Aft cabin 11312 is the one with the flag

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More pictures;

The Breakaway docked in Bermuda

Tobacco Bay

View from Tobacco Bay looking at the cruise ships

"Towel" cake

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Formal night pictures

Shuffle up and deal

Maritime museum (the port webcam is on the second level, left side)

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Royal Navy Dockyard area (Clocktower mall)

Someone didn't have a good cruise (boat salvage)

Looks like it was under water for a while

"Boner bar" at the Dockyard

Returning to New York on the 28th

 

Glenn........................

[Fins2theleft]

Nice formal night picture.:D

[sjnyc323]

Awesome review thanks for sharing

 

Suzanne

[newcruiser48]

My sympathies to your family, glad you all made the best of a sad time. Thanks for your review.

[RN Cruiser1]

Great review, lots of interesting points. Love your pics, you all must be a hoot to travel with. Sorry for your loss, best wishes to your Mother in Law.