NCL "Broke-away" from Customer Service on the Breakaway

[SuiteCruisin14]

I am very sorry this cruise was not what you expected. We have 22 cruises completed and I know what a disappointment it must have been.

 

We decided not to do any of the Mega ships when they first started because of size and other posters mentioning service. We have been on 3 cruises that had GSC as a destination and only got on the Island once and it was very windy.

 

We like NCL because the prices are reasonable and everything is a la carte from shows to dining, we only buy what we want.

 

The best cure for this is to have another cruise booked as soon as possible, on a smaller ship. LOL.

 

Lynda

[Ronni G]

I disagree about the captain not being visible all week. We saw him several times and once in the [/color]Uptown Grill engaged him in conversation. He was very friendly. As far as service throughout the ship, we had no issue. All the wait staff was friendly... yes, service might have been a bit slower in some of the restaurants but it certainly was not bad. Our cabin steward kept the cabin neat and clean and provided extra towels as per our request. Did he know us by name.... no, I don't think so, but was always friendly. Who cares if they know your name?

Edited November 4, 2013 by Ronni G

[Laszlo]

As far as nickel and dimed goes I rushed on the ship to get a Vibe pass, which was a total waste of $79.00. When you pretty much get the same in H2O, which I discovered day 5 of the sailing. Spa passes,The Cirque Show I absolutely loved, but really to charge $39.99 for children too. The Gelato, the cupcakes . I traveled with 3 children so every time I turned around I was paying additional for something. By no means am I cheap and we dropped our fair share of money on this sailing.

Yes, I did understand how the turn cabin light worked and used it always. Our cabin steward just moved in turtle speed. We would go hang out with our other family members whose cabins were cleaned and ready within an hours time. I'm serious when I said it took her 2-3 hrs to touch our room.Not to mention I would clean up my cabin and would make up our pull out couch daily to save her the trouble.

 

Vibe was completely different compared to H20. We got Vibe passes also and loved the place. I went back to H20 a few times during sea days and it was mobbed. At the most we had 20-25 people in Vibe at any one time

[njhorseman]

Whenever I see something like "Food was good, but it was the same thing every night, everywhere!" I immediately discount the review as being from someone whose representation of the facts is suspect. Yes, there is a fixed side of the menu, but every night the other half of the menu changes (and by the way all the mass market cruise lines do pretty much the same thing in one way or the other, offering entrees such as salmon, chicken breast and steak every night together with entrees that change every night). You're entitled to your own opinions, but you're not entitled to your own set of facts.

 

Then we have the failure to tender into GSC. All I can say to the OP is that when you're qualified to be the master of a ship carrying 4,000 + passengers, then you can make the decision on whether it's safe to do.

 

By the way, although there were a number of things I didn't like about Breakaway, customer service wasn't an issue. Our cabin steward was terrific and we gave him a good sized tip . Someone's cabin has to be the first cleaned, someone's cabin has to be the last. Two to three hours after you leave the cabin in the morning isn't in any way unreasonable or unusual.

 

And what the heck does "nickel and diming" (another phrase that makes you question the honesty of the review) have to do with the size of the ship?

Edited November 4, 2013 by njhorseman

[jdvmd]

Thanks for your comments.

[azcater]

thanks for the review. Your experience is one of the reasons why we are hesitant to go on any of these Mega ships. I won't say never..

 

By the way, I don't understand why people are not entitled to write a review, state their opinion, etc without others discounting or negating everything. Pretty soon no one will write reviews unless they are all rainbow and unicorns.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to write about your experience, obviously everyone's experience will be different on each ship, but it's good to see the positive and negative.

[jeannep]

All their new ships are mega ships to come. Would really love if they would make a newer ship in the 85,000 ton range.

 

I feel the same way. Definitely like the smaller ships but hoping the Breakaway will be fun.

[DMH15]

All their new ships are mega ships to come. Would really love if they would make a newer ship in the 85,000 ton range.

I realize that. I imagine that NCL, Royal, etc. may all just get bigger and bigger. My favorite ship so far is the NCL Sun. It's perfect. I guess when tat day finally comes that I will have to cruise every other year with a luxury line. I guess they will still keep some smaller ships. What a shame, as I adore freestyle.

[DMH15]

As far as nickel and dimed goes I rushed on the ship to get a Vibe pass, which was a total waste of $79.00. When you pretty much get the same in H2O, which I discovered day 5 of the sailing. Spa passes,The Cirque Show I absolutely loved, but really to charge $39.99 for children too. The Gelato, the cupcakes . I traveled with 3 children so every time I turned around I was paying additional for something. By no means am I cheap and we dropped our fair share of money on this sailing.

Yes, I did understand how the turn cabin light worked and used it always. Our cabin steward just moved in turtle speed. We would go hang out with our other family members whose cabins were cleaned and ready within an hours time. I'm serious when I said it took her 2-3 hrs to touch our room.Not to mention I would clean up my cabin and would make up our pull out couch daily to save her the trouble.

I like paying for just what I want.

[DMH15]

thanks for the review. Your experience is one of the reasons why we are hesitant to go on any of these Mega ships. I won't say never..

 

By the way, I don't understand why people are not entitled to write a review, state their opinion, etc without others discounting or negating everything. Pretty soon no one will write reviews unless they are all rainbow and unicorns.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to write about your experience, obviously everyone's experience will be different on each ship, but it's good to see the positive and negative.

A review is one thing. It's ok to state OPINION. But to say in FACT that the food was the same every day is just not true and if someone is coming on here to decide if they want to cruise don't you think they need to know the TRUTH?

[Charles4515]

Whenever I see something like "Food was good, but it was the same thing every night, everywhere!" I immediately discount the review as being from someone whose representation of the facts is suspect. Yes, there is a fixed side of the menu, but every night the other half of the menu changes (and by the way all the mass market cruise lines do pretty much the same thing in one way or the other, offering entrees such as salmon, chicken breast and steak every night together with entrees that change every night). You're entitled to your own opinions, but you're not entitled to your own set of facts.

 

Then we have the failure to tender into GSC. All I can say to the OP is that when you're qualified to be the master of a ship carrying 4,000 + passengers, then you can make the decision on whether it's safe to do.

 

By the way, although there were a number of things I didn't like about Breakaway, customer service wasn't an issue. Our cabin steward was terrific and we gave him a good sized tip . Someone's cabin has to be the first cleaned, someone's cabin has to be the last. Two to three hours after you leave the cabin in the morning isn't in any way unreasonable or unusual.

 

And what the heck does "nickel and diming" (another phrase that makes you question the honesty of the review) have to do with the size of the ship?

 

I discounted the review completely when I reached the point in the review where the OP thought they were more qualified than the Captain on whether it was safe to tender to GSC. Sheesh.

[Demonyte]

The Gelato, the cupcakes . I traveled with 3 children so every time I turned around I was paying additional for something. By no means am I cheap and we dropped our fair share of money on this sailing.

 

While everyone are entitled to their opinions, this I don't get. Those mentioned are "premium" extras and one can just as well go without paying any extra for them and getting the normal ice cream and pastries from the buffet for example. One has also the option to drink ridiculously priced bottled water everywhere but in my experience most choose not to, exactly same goes here.

 

You chose yourself (although probably under pressure) to pay for the extras that You seemed fit, we like to do exactly the same and that's why we are fixed on cruising with NCL as we can choose from a wide variety of extra options on top of the normal offerings included in the fare (neither of those two examples are ones that I'd be comfortable paying extra for, I can manage just fine with the goodies available from the buffet and room service plus desserts in other restaurants).

[slkrgk]

Also on the 10/27 sailing of Breakaway. This was our first Norwegian cruise. Loved the ship and had a great time. With regard to this topic of service, we didn't have any real problems. We did eat in the Manhattan Room on first night and didn't have the best server - brought us the wrong entrees and wasn't overly friendly - but no big deal.

 

Some memorable crew members that provided great service: Courtney and Jorge in the Vibe and Lily in Headliners. Amazing how she handled the bar basically by herself when the place was crowded with Howl at the Moon. Our cabin steward, Ferdinand, was great. Although we rarely saw him, he took care of our cabin twice a day. One morning we left for only 35-40 minutes and when we came back, like magic, Ferdinand had already been there and everything taken care of. This was the trend the entire week - we never came back to an unmade cabin.

 

The Vibe was great and I'm very glad we decided to do it. It was so nice to have a quite place to go and relax. Met some great people there and it was nice to hang at the bar in the Vibe, have great service, and to be able to hold conversations.

[Ronni G]

True to what I had heard before cruising on the Breakaway was that the menus in the 3 "free" dining rooms were exactly the same. The choices on the left side of the menu changed daily while the right side of the menu remained the same throughout the cruise. Do miss the delicious cold soups that have been eliminated from the menu for some time now, the nightly shrimp cocktails and now lobster night being only in the buffet. And, NO chocolate buffet. Why is that? We found the food to be so so in the "free DR's", excellent in the three specialty restaurants we tried and very good in the Uptown Grill and O'Sheehans. Then of course, there were some new things on this ship that we thought were a nice touch - the hotdog stand and the additional free drinks that are offered.

[youngestof9]

Some memorable crew members that provided great service: Courtney and Jorge in the Vibe.

 

The Vibe was great and I'm very glad we decided to do it. It was so nice to have a quite place to go and relax. Met some great people there and it was nice to hang at the bar in the Vibe, have great service, and to be able to hold conversations.

 

We loved it there too. Courtney was quiet when we first met him, but we got him going and halfway through the week we had him in stitches. Jorge is a great kid. I was happy to give them both tips at the end - they were awesome.

[setsail1975]

Setsail1975, in regards to the cirque show I presume your kids all took up a seat and ate the same food as the adults. If correct why would you expect them to get it cheaper?

 

 

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I would expect the price to be cheaper because my children are 6, 10 & 12 and ordered off the children's menu. They had chicken tenders and fries. They discount the specialty restaurants for children who order off the children's menu. As far as the show itself it was excellent! But I've seen similar shows on other sailings in the main theatre for free.

[setsail1975]

thanks for the review. Your experience is one of the reasons why we are hesitant to go on any of these Mega ships. I won't say never..

 

By the way, I don't understand why people are not entitled to write a review, state their opinion, etc without others discounting or negating everything. Pretty soon no one will write reviews unless they are all rainbow and unicorns.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to write about your experience, obviously everyone's experience will be different on each ship, but it's good to see the positive and negative.

 

Thank you. It was simply my experience with the ship. I was pointing out some things I did not like as well as things I haven't experienced before on previous NCL sailings that were unfortunate for us on this sailing.I read others thoughts, reviews , etc. I would never bash anyone for giving their opinion. So I appreciate your acknowledgement towards my experience.

[setsail1975]

What didn't you like about Vibe? We absolutely LOVED vibe on our 10/13 sailing. Maybe because it wasn't warm for the first day and the last day (I'm assuming?). The service from Courtney and Jorge there was phenomenal. It was an excellent area to relax, go in the hot tubs and have great drinks. I'm just wondering why you didn't like it.

 

As far as missing GSC, I have to say that it makes me laugh when people say things like "well, other ships were tendering". Do you honestly think that the captain said "eh, don't feel like GSC today". There is always a reason for things and while it stinks you didn't make it, I'm 110% positive the decision to skip is not taken lightly.

 

Sorry you didn't care for your sailing. I hope you'll find another sailing more to your tastes.

 

I did not ," Not like" the Vibe I just didn't find it to be all that it was hyped up to be. Maybe if I sailed during peak summer months it would have been worth it. I did not hang at the bar at all so did not get to know bar staff. The fruit on skewers not a big deal, cold towel and water spritz I only experienced 1x while I was there. On Saturday was the only time it happened to me. It was actually too hot for me and I went to H2O where there I got fruit icees, spritzed by water and they had hot tubs and a waterfall feature that cooled me off. I noticed some of the same loungers there , which the Vibe had and they had the hot dog stand there, which I do not eat but it was there for those who do. For $0.00 extra dollars.

As far as GSC goes I was just so disappointed we missed it yet again. Then passing by RCCL and they were tendering passengers really bothered me more, who were being tendered in the same water conditions.I know the Breakaway only sailed this itinerary 2 sailings previously. I've sailed there this past April on the Sky in harsher water conditions the Tender was rocking and rolling and we were not diverted. Again smaller ship less people to tender. Unfortunately on this itinerary your very limited where you can be diverted to. So to answer your question No ,I do not think the captain said let's just skip it.

[setsail1975]

I disagree about the captain not being visible all week. We saw him several times and once in the [/color]Uptown Grill engaged him in conversation. He was very friendly. As far as service throughout the ship, we had no issue. All the wait staff was friendly... yes, service might have been a bit slower in some of the restaurants but it certainly was not bad. Our cabin steward kept the cabin neat and clean and provided extra towels as per our request. Did he know us by name.... no, I don't think so, but was always friendly. Who cares if they know your name?

 

As far as the Captain goes it made no difference to me if I saw him or not. My issue of poor service was from the wait staff in the dining room who forgot food I ordered , never came back to refill our water, which was our only drinks . Wait staff in the Manhattan Room who gave me a used cover off of a dirty tray to cover my daughters uneaten food that she wanted to take back to the room. The check in lady at Taste could not give me an approximate wait time for dinner seating when we tried to get in there, who suggested to us we try another restaurant. My cabin steward, who never introduced herself to us. Who gave me a grin when I asked if she could make up our pull out sofa back into a couch during the day instead of leaving it down as a bed all day long. After returning to our room 2-3 hrs later seeing her standing in the halls talking to other stewards and my room still being left untouched.

I've been on past sailings where I swear they hid under our beds . They acknowledged us , my children they would do little extras for. That is was I missed on the Breakaway and this was what we experienced.

[Squidward Q Tentacles]

I discounted the review completely when I reached the point in the review where the OP thought they were more qualified than the Captain on whether it was safe to tender to GSC. Sheesh.

 

I would rather have a captain that cares about his passengers than one that took bad risks.

[Demonyte]

True to what I had heard before cruising on the Breakaway was that the menus in the 3 "free" dining rooms were exactly the same. The choices on the left side of the menu changed daily while the right side of the menu remained the same throughout the cruise. Do miss the delicious cold soups that have been eliminated from the menu for some time now, the nightly shrimp cocktails and now lobster night being only in the buffet.

 

As you obiviously are experienced NCL cruises before, the situation in MDRs should not have been any surprise - that's how things are in all other ships too, there is "AFT MDR" and "MID MDR"(s) with the same menu configuration on every NCL ship.

 

All NCL's restaurant menus are fleetwide and the "always available" side in MDRs is unique to both locations of MDR so there are partly different dishes on that page of menu in aft MDR than in midship MDR(s). The differences are not big (different kind of pastas/sauces, different kind of meat dish, different kind of chicken dish, different naming of some dishes, etc) but they are there. The other, daily changing side is the same in all MDRs across the fleet.

 

Also, for the first time, on Breakaway the midship MDR is split in two because there is a hallway in between them unlike on f.ex. Epic where the midship MDR is located in the same place but as one continuous space covering the whole width of the ship with no access to aft elevators on deck 6. So while the midship MDRs have their own names, they are just two sections of the "same" restaurant with exactly the same menu in both.

[L3GWG]

How can you be given an expected time for dinner? It all depends on when other guests choose to leave no one has a crystal ball. As for the room steward, they have many rooms to clean and I am sure id you had asked for your room to be cleaned early she would have done it, and really you think they are not allowed to talk to each other in the corridor. Your workplace must be an extremely quiet environment if you expect the same standards of others as your self no talking while you work please, really !

If you look for fault you can always find something to moan about but your issues are in my opinion nothing to moan about at all.

 

 

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[luvcruzing]

I'm serious when I said it took her 2-3 hrs to touch our room.

 

Sounds like the cabin steward I had on the Sky in May. I would leave for breakfast, and put the "Make Up Cabin" sign in, read in the lounge for awhile, get a salad for lunch and bring it back to the cabin, go to the pool for an hour or two, and come back around two to take a shower and relax, and my cabin would still not be made up. Seemed like she never made up the cabin while I was gone, but only when I was there.

[setsail1975]

How can you be given an expected time for dinner? It all depends on when other guests choose to leave no one has a crystal ball. As for the room steward, they have many rooms to clean and I am sure id you had asked for your room to be cleaned early she would have done it, and really you think they are not allowed to talk to each other in the corridor. Your workplace must be an extremely quiet environment if you expect the same standards of others as your self no talking while you work please, really !

If you look for fault you can always find something to moan about but your issues are in my opinion nothing to moan about at all.

 

 

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As far as the wait time went , I disagree with you. When you walk up to any podium at a restaurant and if seating isn't available and you ask ,they can give you an "approximate" wait time. They know when they sat other people. I've never gone to a restaurant where they have said "I have no idea and go elsewhere." My workplace is far from quiet I work on a labor & delivery floor in a city hospital. She could talk all she wants, I know they work long hours, but when you see people come down to the cabin to check if its ready after 2 hrs and she clearly saw us. I think talking should be put off till the job is done. We had lots of empty cabins around us so that was no excuse.

As far as finding things to moan about was not my goal these were my experiences. I've been NCL's biggest cheerleader for years. Will I stop going on NCL over this ,absolutely not!!! I just will not be booking mega ships any longer.

[setsail1975]

Sounds like the cabin steward I had on the Sky in May. I would leave for breakfast, and put the "Make Up Cabin" sign in, read in the lounge for awhile, get a salad for lunch and bring it back to the cabin, go to the pool for an hour or two, and come back around two to take a shower and relax, and my cabin would still not be made up. Seemed like she never made up the cabin while I was gone, but only when I was there.

 

It very well could have been. It's just when you leave the cabin for a few hours and then you want to go back to your cabin and find it not done, you have to leave again. My cabin I kept clean enough that she wouldn't even have to do more than stock towels, but unfortunately I had the bunk that came from ceiling that needed to be stowed away with her assistance.