Breakaway 11/3 Sailing.. summary and thoughts

[Weeziblu]

After a year and some odd weeks of planning and anticipating, I can say that I was slightly underwhelmed by this sailing.

 

I do believe that the weather played a part - only having one beach day in Nassau with 2 warm, sunny days for swimming/water slides on either side of Nassau didn't help.

 

A general overview of our thoughts:

 

Stateroom: We had an aft balcony on deck 9. The location was wonderful, the room had plenty of storage, we loved the bed and really enjoyed our view. The balcony had 2 loungers, 2 regular chars and a small table and we had PLENTY of room for more. We asked for an egg crate for our daughter for the sofa bed (she said it was a little hard) and she was happy with that. Our room steward, Fery, was fantastic! Water pressure was great, room was very quiet when the doors were closed.

 

Food: We thought the food was really good. We definately preferred Savor/Taste over the Manhanttan Room, specifically because service was much bettter. The Manhanttan room seemed understaffed. We ate their twice and had better service the first night with our party of 3 than the second time we tried it with out party of 7. But, food was very good in each of the dining rooms. We ate at the buffet for breakfast most mornings, but also had Uptown Grille and found both to be very good, plenty of variety, you will not go hungry. For lunch, we typically ate from the buffet or Uptown Grill. We tried O'Sheehan's a few times.. wings were very good and it was just a nice, relaxing place to chill out and have a beer when the weather was bad (it was cold/windy a few days). We also tried the Raw Bar (fantastic!) and Le Bistro - which was our favorite meal of the trip. Overall, the desserts on board were underwhelming but the lobster tail from Carlo's Bake Shop was wonderful. Cocktails were plenty strong and we did participate in one margarita tasting -WELL worth the $$ and lots of fun!

 

Kids Club: Our kids, two 10 year old girls and an 8 year old boy were bored by many of the activities... this is where I can say that Carnival does a better job keeping the kids engaged. The kids club spaces are wonderful, but the activities themselves were a little dull. I imagine that a smaller crowd would have helped the situation. Apparently there were soooooo many kids at times that waitng for a game to end took a really long time so the girls lost interest.

 

Shows; This is where I feel like the freestyle concept needs help. Dining is truly freestyle. Shows - no so much. EVERYTHING needed a reservation and if you happen to sail during a fullly booked sailing (like we did) be prepared to miss a LOT if you haven't prescheduled your entire week. So much for freestyle, eh? We saw Cirque du Soleil which was fantastic and Burn the Floor which was also good. Rock or Ages sold out quickly for all performances. We would have had a difficult time talking the kids into kids club if we had a reservation anyway, so probaby better off that we didn't get in.

 

Crowds: We could really feel the crowds at certain times. On sea days (and we had LOTS of them due to weather and missing GSC it felt crowede on the upper outdoor decks for things like ropes course and trampoline. It was REALLY cold and windy up there, too. So standing in line for 40 minutes felt like an eternity on some days. When the weather was sunny and warm, we had an easy enough time finding seats on the upper decks around the slides but we are early risers.. later in the afternoon it got very crowded. The lines for the slides weren't typically very long. One of the twisty slides was out of service each time we were using the slides. The pools are CRAZY crowded. the kids pool is very strange.. you climb down a ladder into the pool rather than the adult pool - which was more of what I'm used to on other cruise ships. It was entirely too crowded to the point it seemed unsafe. People were playing football in the kids pool (adults) while others were in there with their young children. Not very fun, but we really didn't use the pool as our kids were busy on the slides.

 

Overall, we did LIKE Breakaway. But didn't love it. I think that because we are sun lovers and like warm weather and to be outdoors, we made a bit of a mistake booking a cruise out of NY in November. More sun/waterslide/GSC would have made this trip more enjoyable for us. And I'm not sure I'm totally sold on "Freestyle" cruising when entertainment is anything but.

 

I would try Breakaway again on the Bermuda itinerary during summer months.

 

And although I came away slightly disappointed at some aspects, we still had a wonderful vacation and ate/drank well and were well taken care of by NCL staff during our vacation.

 

If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them, as I'm certain I've forgotten lots of information/details from this overview/summary.

[Turtles06]

Thanks very much for taking the time to post your review.

 

We happened to be on the Celebrity Infinity in Nassau on Nov. 6 when you sailed in. In case this is of interest to you, here's the Breakaway backing into the dock that day (which was amazing to watch), and then docked across from the NCL Sky:

 

 

 

(photos by turtles06)

[Weeziblu]

Oh wow, thank you, those photos are beautiful! We were on our aft balcony at that time, I bet if I look hard enough I'd be able to find us in that picture :-)

 

Pulling into port was a lot of fun with the other ships' passengers cheering and waving to us.

 

Thanks for posting!

[Medtech2]

We try to cruise no later than the 1st week of October because I am such a warm weather lover.

 

I know it is difficult to schedule when you have kids in school. It sounds like you still had a good time :) I agree that the shows are not that freestyle. Were you able to see the comedy magician? What about the Nickelodeon stuff for the kids?

[Weeziblu]

we did not see the comedy/magician because the early shows were sold out and the later shows were not rated PG and since the kids weren't really into the kids club, it made it difficult to try for any late show. On one evening, my daughter went to the kids club activity without her cousins and we took advantage of that time by eating at the raw bar and enjoying some cocktails on the waterfront (it was that first night we docked in Nassau).

 

We did attend a Nick Live Poolside event one afternoon. It was cold and windy and only 3 or 4 kids get picked to participate. Another was scheduled for later in the week but we didn't go.. I believe it was scheduled for poolside and it was raining at the time. We did 1 arts and crafts with the Nick crew, too, but it was most definitely geared toward much younger children and our girls were probably the oldest in the room. They colored some kind of cardboard picture frame.

 

My daughter is a dancer and really enjoyed the Q&A with the Rockettes!

[Infiniti820]

Oh wow, thank you, those photos are beautiful! We were on our aft balcony at that time, I bet if I look hard enough I'd be able to find us in that picture :-)

 

Pulling into port was a lot of fun with the other ships' passengers cheering and waving to us.

 

Thanks for posting!

 

If you were in 9916-there are 2 people standing on the balcony if you enlarge the picture!! I know this because I was right next door to you in 9918 and looked to see if we were out;)

We had Fery as our room steward also- loved him- always a smile and did a great job all week. I enjoyed the cruise also- all the meals were great and had no issues with service at all. I, too, wish we has gotten another day or 2 of better weather as I thoroughly enjoyed Wednesday & Thursday sitting in the sun all day long. The adult pool area is way to small and I could count, on one hand, how many loungers were actually in the sun- the setup is bad but I spent a lot if time at spice h20 when it was sunny out- never had a problem finding a lounger there. I am thinking about doing the Bermuda itinerary as well- going to check out the dates for next year- will probably take my daughter with us (she will be 7 but has special needs) so I think docking for 3 days would be less overwhelming for her first cruise experience.

[ibcnusoon]

We were on this cruise also, although we enjoyed ourselves and mostly relaxed (because of the amount of sea days involved and the surprise overnight in Nassau).

 

I don't think I'd do this cruise again other than maybe the few southern Caribbean cruises it does down to warmer weather (and no tendering). We've basically concluded that we are not fans of multiple sea days. Good think I found this out and won't be booking a transatlantic anytime soon. :p

[opalinem]

we did not see the comedy/magician because the early shows were sold out and the later shows were not rated PG

 

 

 

!

On the internet, the magician shows are not available for reservation for my cruise in December. I just assumed that those were shows you didn't need to reserve ahead of time (like the welcome on board one). When you say "sold out", does it mean you actually have to reserve them but can only do it on board? The magic show is my daughter's favorite, so any tips would be welcome to make sure she doesn't miss it!

[ibcnusoon]

On the internet, the magician shows are not available for reservation for my cruise in December. I just assumed that those were shows you didn't need to reserve ahead of time (like the welcome on board one). When you say "sold out", does it mean you actually have to reserve them but can only do it on board? The magic show is my daughter's favorite, so any tips would be welcome to make sure she doesn't miss it!

 

We saw the magician/comedian. He wasn't that funny at all but I think it depends on which show you see. This was supposed to be 18+ but there were alot of kids under 18 that he pointed out and that may be why his show wasn't that funny.

 

We had to book this show while on board and for the entire week the only availability was a 10:45pm 18+ show but it was a waste, so was Second City in Headliners, that was the worst show I ever saw, actually didn't even see it because the view from where we were sitting was blocked by columns and others sitting in high top chairs. I'm glad I didn't spend another $20 per person for the Second City brunch.

[opalinem]

We saw the magician/comedian. He wasn't that funny at all but I think it depends on which show you see. This was supposed to be 18+ but there were alot of kids under 18 that he pointed out and that may be why his show wasn't that funny.

 

We had to book this show while on board and for the entire week the only availability was a 10:45pm 18+ show but it was a waste, so was Second City in Headliners, that was the worst show I ever saw, actually didn't even see it because the view from where we were sitting was blocked by columns and others sitting in high top chairs. I'm glad I didn't spend another $20 per person for the Second City brunch.

Thanks. I guess I'll try to book the early magician show as soon as we board. I don't understand why people can't book it BEFORE boarding like the other shows. 2nd city is on all ncl cruises. I won't go out of my way to see them. I'd rather see the new stuff. I saw pics of Headliners and it seems that if you're a rather short person (like me!), there will definitely be visibility issues unless you're in first row. Not an ideal space for shows for sure.

[heakja]

How was the noise level from above (H20) and below (restaurants)? Did you feel any vibrations, like others in aft cabins have reported?

[ibcnusoon]

How was the noise level from above (H20) and below (restaurants)? Did you feel any vibrations, like others in aft cabins have reported?

 

My parents had aft-facing HC on deck 12. On nights there were parties in Spice H20 their room vibrated and you could hear the music even with the soundproofed balcony door shut close. It was awful, I felt so sorry for them. By Thursday NCL offered to move them but they didn't have another HC cabin available.

 

We were right next to them and although we had slight vibrations and could hear the music from Spice above, I could sleep through anything so it didn't bother me.

 

Surprisingly, the Breakaway aft had alot more vibrations under sail than the Carnival ship we were only last year.

[mjkacmom]

Thanks. I guess I'll try to book the early magician show as soon as we board. I don't understand why people can't book it BEFORE boarding like the other shows. 2nd city is on all ncl cruises. I won't go out of my way to see them. I'd rather see the new stuff. I saw pics of Headliners and it seems that if you're a rather short person (like me!), there will definitely be visibility issues unless you're in first row. Not an ideal space for shows for sure.

 

The poles were annoying (we were in the back) but there is a large screen on the wall if you can't see something.

[Infiniti820]

How was the noise level from above (H20) and below (restaurants)? Did you feel any vibrations, like others in aft cabins have reported?

 

I was in an aft balcony in deck 9 and didn't hear any noise at all from Spice.

[ibcnusoon]

The poles were annoying (we were in the back) but there is a large screen on the wall if you can't see something.

 

We were on the other side of the room and had to squint to see the act on the TV screen. It was awful. My dad was in a wheelchair and couldn't see ANYTHING. If it was stand-up comedy it might have been enjoyable, but improv needs to be SEEN too.

[Weeziblu]

no noise from Spice from inside the stateroom but when we were outside on the balcony at night, we could hear that there was a party going on.. and moreso when docked overnight in Nassau.

 

We did feel vibrations in the aft balcony on deck 9 but nothing that bothered us. I rather enjoyed the "noise" while sailing and find being docked overnight, I didn't sleep as well. We had some rough seas and loved being rocked to sleep, too.

 

I don't mind sea days as long as they are WARM and sunny! But the weather was just too cold for us on this particular sailing (aside from the one day in Orlando and the surprise overnight in Nassau). With only 3 of 7 days being warm and sunny.. just not for me. But others probably rather enjoy that.

[eliw23]

I was on this sailing too and I wanted to get away from the cold weather but it seemed to have followed us. I thought at least Friday we would have a nice, warm sea day but it was cool and overcast/rainy and seas were a bit rough. It's great not to have to fly to get to the cruise ship but during the colder months, I think I'll fly instead. I've never been to Bermuda so Breakaway + summer months might be the better choice. I can't imagine how this itinerary will be during the very cold, winter months. I wish they had some sort of retractable roof for the pool area.

[ibcnusoon]

I was on this sailing too and I wanted to get away from the cold weather but it seemed to have followed us. I thought at least Friday we would have a nice, warm sea day but it was cool and overcast/rainy and seas were a bit rough. It's great not to have to fly to get to the cruise ship but during the colder months, I think I'll fly instead. I've never been to Bermuda so Breakaway + summer months might be the better choice. I can't imagine how this itinerary will be during the very cold, winter months. I wish they had some sort of retractable roof for the pool area.

 

I agree, it was even too windy and cold to walk the Boardwalk. :(

 

I can't image a cruise like this in the dead of winter. There aren't enough of indoor activities to keep you busy and out of the casino. :(

 

We too loved going into and out of the NYC port and being only an hour from home, driving distance.

 

Next year we flying to San Juan one way and debarking in New York City. At least I know I'll have warm air most of the 8 days. Never again will I cruise out of the New York area in Fall/Winter/Spring.