Our Breakaway Diary

[dawnprincess]

Quick question ... when you get around to it.....any shady areas around the pool, promenade deck, etc. that you recall? We have sailed recently on ships that had an indoor pool or on Princess with the Sanctuary area. We always look for shady spots. Any help is much appreciated!! Can't wait for the next installment in your diary!

[garnet115]

Quick question ... when you get around to it.....any shady areas around the pool, promenade deck, etc. that you recall? We have sailed recently on ships that had an indoor pool or on Princess with the Sanctuary area. We always look for shady spots. Any help is much appreciated!! Can't wait for the next installment in your diary!

 

Around the pools on deck 15, there are plenty of shady areas that are set back and covered by the sundecks on 16.

[Michylicious]

Great review so far!!! Can't wait to hear more!!

[whenisthemidnightbuffet?]

Loving your review so far. I agree with your disappointment with no fanfare for sailaway, since 1/2 the year this ship will be sailing in iffy weather, they should come up with some sort of indoor way to make this a festive event. It was great meeting you both and I look forward to reading the rest of your "diary"

 

Regards,

Phyllis

[kba1988]

Great review so far.....:):)

[RickinNYC]

Great review so far! Totally agree with respect to your thoughts on the lack of sailaway events. I was a little surprised that they didn't do anything at all, even inside. It was a bit of a let down for my partner; he was looking forward to having his first cocktail on the top deck with everyone. Be that as it may, we'd sailed out of NYC a few times, so I used it as an opportunity to unpack.

[NCLbigfan]

It was now Monday, February 17 and it was our first full day at sea on this cruise. We were heading toward our first port of call the next day which was Port Canaveral. As is usually the case I was up before the wife. In my business life I am up at 4 or 5 am so even on my days off I wake up early. I don’t remember the exact time that it was but the sun was beginning to rise in the distance. I did try to go back to sleep but knowing that a balcony was just feet away from our bed I couldn’t wait to open that door and breathe the warm air. What a shock to learn that it was still cold outside. Well, that door was closed immediately.

 

One of my morning rituals on a cruise is to put on the television station which tells us where we are, how far we sailed, how far we have to go and so on. It’s called, “The Report from the Bridge”. Judging by the line which was showing our position on the right side of the US map, we were somewhere off the coast of North Carolina.

 

Another one of my morning rituals is to go down to the reception area and pick up two additional copies of the FD. The one that is placed in our cabin in the evening never gets used and goes home with me as a souvenir and for future reference. The two that I pick up are for the wife and me to use throughout the day. Those copies usually get folded, written on, and eventually destroyed by the end of the day before being thrown away.

 

It was late morning when we went for breakfast. Since we enjoyed our dinner in one of the dining rooms we decided to have breakfast in there also. I work in the food service industry and know how difficult it can be to please everyone. I am very sympathetic to the people who serve me food because I know what they are going through. However, each morning we seemed to have a different problem with either the food or the people serving it in the sit down restaurants. Again, I am very patient so there were a lot of ‘please’ and ‘thank you’s in my dialog. One morning I asked for white bread toast and was brought out whole wheat toast. When I explained the error I waited five minutes before another set of whole wheat toast was brought out. I again explained the error and waited another five minutes before a third set of whole wheat toast was brought out. By then I just ate the damn thing.

 

On other occasions we would ask for our bagel to be toasted well done, practically burned, but it was always brought out either not toasted or barely toasted. One time I asked for eggs but they weren’t even brought out until I asked for them again after all my other food had been sitting on my table for five minutes. The waiter checked his paperwork and then told me I hadn’t ordered eggs. But I reminded him that he asked me how I wanted them despite me having told him how I wanted them earlier. Again, I am very patient and kept telling everyone in these situations that everything was fine. I knew that I was on a cruise, heading to warmer weather, and I wasn’t going to let anything bother me.

 

However the final straw came toward the end of the cruise when the wife ordered a veggie omelet. She told the waiter what she wanted in it and he repeated everything exactly back to her. However, it showed up at the table with ham in it. She was upset but ate the food anyway. On the way out one of the maître d’s asked us how everything was. It was then we nicely explained what had been happening all week; how it just seemed like a comedy of errors; how I was in the business and was very sympathetic to everything and how we were having a good time despite the many small problems we were having at breakfast time. Later that night we received a plate of chocolate covered strawberries compliments of that maître d.

 

The high point of the morning was the 11am meeting of our cruise critic roll call at the Savor restaurant. However, when we got there we were redirected to the La Cucina Italian restaurant. There was coffee and hot water set up on a table with lots of different danish. On previous cruises during cruise critic meetings there were always chocolate chip cookies available. Today they weren’t there. In fact, I would have a hard time finding them throughout the cruise.

 

The meeting started at 11am with a presentation of the officers introducing themselves. The captain was missing but instead we saw the hotel director (prem kainikkara), the assistant hotel director (Sonja Sommeregger), the food and beverage director (Mustafa Gulbahar), the executive housekeeper (Marite Naz), the cruise director (Dan Olsson), the guest services manager (Michelle Taladhay), the executive chef (Charles Fernandez), the restaurant manager (lulian Grumeza) and the beverage manager (Dindo Ramos). I spelled the names correctly because we were handed a card with this information and their individual extension phone numbers to call if we had any problems.

 

There was a brief question and answer section before they left and the real fun began. In my past experiences with the cruise critic meeting it usually ended shortly after the officers left but not this time. One of the attending members had created a variation of the bingo game in which each box had a description of something rather than a number and we had to go around the room and find out which one of us the description applied to. The first one to get a line won although it was designed more to get to know each other better. There were descriptions like ‘had a root canal”, “have traveled to four foreign countries”, “this was your first NCL cruise”, and so on. I’m not one to strike up a conversation so I just sat and waited for people to come to me. There were about six box descriptions that applied to me so I gave anyone who came over to me the opportunity to pick from those six boxes that applied to me.

 

After that there was a trivia game based on New York City. My answers resulted in the top score but being tied with two other people. This time there were actual prizes to be won but there were only two so a game of rock, paper, scissors was played. I sent up the wife and she came away with one of the prizes; a beautiful snow globe with a city scene inside and a cruise ship on the base of the snow globe. Thanks, Rick! It was beautiful and immediately went into our curio when we got home as a reminder of the cruise and the best cruise critic meeting I’ve ever attended. However, it didn’t end there.

 

We had planned a slot pull. After going on 12 previous cruises this was my first meeting with a slot pull. There were 16 of us who participated and we each put in $15.00 for a total of $240.00. This enabled us to have five turns on the $3.00 max bet Wheel of Fortune machine. During the initial 80 spins we hit a bunch of cherries and assorted bars for some small wins but also hit the ‘spin’ feature twice. One of the spins resulted in a $250.00 win. Thanks Phyllis! This caused a loud cheer from us and one passerby wanted to know if we were part of a family. We told him that we were part of a large family. Unfortunately, I contributed nothing to the pot because my five spins resulted in five losers. After the 80 spins were taken we were ahead but would have to divide the money into some odd amount so we decided to play another bunch of spins with each of us taking one spin until the money could be divided evenly. Once again my one spin contributed nothing. At the end of this round there was still an odd amount to be divided so the lady who organized the event was allowed to play down the money until it got to $400 which gave us each $25.00 and a profit of $10.00. I wonder if this was the first time any cruise critic slot pull had won money.

 

Next Up: The afternoon at sea with a deal or no deal slot machine.

[Birdnutty]

We've only done two, but both failed miserably. The Wheel of Fortune machines (in my limited experience) are unbelievably tight. You did very well!

 

Enjoying your review. We're thinking of going on the Breakaway soon. This review sure helps. Thanks!

 

just as an aside - when the ship's officers give you their cards, they really do want you to use them. A remark to the Maitre d earlier in the week may have had better results and given him an opportunity to work toward improvement with his staff. If no results are obtained, NCL really wants you to pursue it to higher authorities until satisfaction is obtained. That all aids in the proper training of their staff.

 

Other passengers are not as likely to be understanding and patient as you are and are more likely to give flaming reviews without giving the ship a chance to rectify the situation. But I applaud your patience. I, too, am very understanding and forgiving and know how hard it is to do what they are doing and please everyone. But patience does not necessarily help them to supply a better product.

 

I do believe that they rely on helpful, constructive "suggestions" from objective, rational sources to help them be the best they can.

[psac]

I hope your intention was to be humorous at the same time as informative, because I read my wife your stories of the toast, your eggs, and your wife's ham, and we were totally cracking up. :D At least someone got some enjoyment out of it!!!

[NCLbigfan]

I hope your intention was to be humorous at the same time as informative, because I read my wife your stories of the toast, your eggs, and your wife's ham, and we were totally cracking up. :D At least someone got some enjoyment out of it!!!

 

I try to put a little humor into all of life's ups and downs

[meatball_nyc]

Still here reading :)

 

 

 

 

Robin

Norwegian Breakaway July 2014

Carnival Miracle 2010

Carnival Legend 2006

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

[mylife4Jesus]

Just read the first installment reads just like a book, thanks for sharing really enjoying it!

[NCLbigfan]

Monday Afternoon, February 17: One of the best things about sea days is that the wife and I usually split up for a couple of hours and do whatever each of us wants to do. If she wants to go to the gift shop, or participate in an arts and crafts event or even sit by the pool she can do that. On the other hand, if I want to hang out in the casino or play bingo I can do that too. On this day the wife and I separated shortly before the cruise critic slot pull and agreed to meet back in the cabin for dinner.

 

After having won a few dollars with the group, no thanks to me, I tried to find my luck in the casino. I wanted to apply for a casino slot card but the woman at the counter told me that I could use my room key card. Sure enough, when I entered my card into the machine, it welcomed me by scrolling my name across a little screen. There was also an option available where I could download a dollar amount onto the card, which would be applied to my on board account. That could be a dangerous thing so I played a little using the cash that I had won with the extra that I had in my pocket.

 

There was a bank of five Deal or No Deal video games that I decided to play. It was a penny machine but the minimum you could play was 50 lines or 50 cents/credits a spin. In addition to any winning combinations, you had to accumulate at least 18 cases to play in the bonus round that was displayed on a large screen on the wall. Certain symbols were scattered through the wheels and if they came up you were awarded cases based on the symbols. However, if you played the minimum 50 credits you only got the cases that were revealed on the first of the five video dials. If you played 100 credits than you got the cases that were revealed in the first and second video dial. So, in essence, the more money/credits you played the more chances you had to win cases and qualify for the bonus round. Are you with me so far?

 

In addition to that, there was a sixth wheel which multiplied the number of cases that appeared on the dials that you had qualified play on. Sometimes it was easy to accumulate cases, like when a symbol came up with five cases and it was multiplied by ten and other times it was difficult with many spins going by without any special symbol appearing and awarding cases. Depending upon how many cases you accumulated before the bonus round began determined how many times your winnings were multiplied. For instance, if you earned 18 cases you would multiply any winnings in the bonus round by one. If you had earned 36 cases you would multiply any winnings by two. And so on.

 

Still with me? The bonus round occurred every eleven minutes and was counted down on the big screen. Because of that there was another element that you had to be aware of. Let’s say you were running low on credits but there was still eight minutes to go to the bonus. You had to pace yourself not to run out of credits to stay alive for the bonus round. If you ran out of money and removed your key card you would lose all cases won and the opportunity to play in the bonus round. If a certain time went by without play a video of Howie Mandell came across your screen and would remark, “Hey, what are you waiting for? Come on!” On the other hand, let’s say you had 17 cases and were one shy to play in the bonus round with only a few seconds to go before the bonus round. You had better hope that the case symbol came up so that you could play in the bonus round. If not, then your cases were held over until the next round which was another 11 minutes after the next bonus round was finished.

 

Playing in the large screen bonus round was definitely fun as it was played just like the television version where you picked your favorite numbered case. Then the other cases were opened to reveal prize amounts. The lower the prize amounts opened, the better chance that your case had a high amount in it and the higher amount offered by the banker. You then had to decide whether to take the amount offered (deal) or refuse it (no deal). The game was so addicting that it was easy to forget the case with 5,000 in it was pennies and not dollars (just $50.00). And don’t forget that your winnings were multiplied by the number of original cases you accumulated to get to the bonus round

 

I may have made this game sound more difficult than it was but several things to note: I spent a good amount of time at this machine during the week and it was always crowded. And it took me for a lot of money.

 

By early afternoon I decided to grab a quick bite at the buffet. There were almost 5000 people and who should find me at the buffet? My former business associate that I had become friends with but had lost contact with. She had invited me over to join her husband and twin eight year old girls. We reminisced about the past and talked about what we were currently doing. We were a dynamite pair that raised the sales and profits of two different companies. We had talked in the past about going into business for ourselves but that changed when she became a mother. We had stayed in contact for a while but we realized her goals and mine were different so we drifted apart. We agreed to catch a drink later on in the cruise, just the two of us, and exchanged cabin numbers before our lunch was over.

 

I then walked around the ship and eventually headed to the cruise consultant/latitudes representative. It always amazes me that this person is only available during certain times of the day, like 12:00 to 4:00. I mean, what is he doing the rest of the day? Waiting tables? Cleaning cabins? Serving drinks? I had two things on my mind. First, where was my Norwegian Breakaway lapel pin I was supposed to get in my cabin? He gave me two (one for me and one for the wife) but only after asking me what cabin I was in and then looking this information up on the computer.

 

My other concern was that although I had received an invitation for the silver, gold, platinum latitudes wine and cheese gathering, I hadn’t received an invitation for the general latitudes meeting; the one where prizes are raffled off from the spa department, the gift shop, and from other departments of the ship. I was told that they do not have that party on the Breakaway or even on the Getaway or Epic because there wasn’t any venue big enough to hold the number of latitude members on board. In this case there were over 1500 members on our cruise. There are far fewer silver, gold and latitude members which is why they have a party just for them.

 

So one of the perks about being a latitude member is the general meeting where you can drink for free and win prizes and it’s not even offered on the larger ships. What a crock! With two even larger ships being built, and probably more in the future, is this the end for the general latitudes meeting once NCL starts getting rid of their older, smaller ships?

 

Next Up: The Captain, Karaoke and Burn The Floor, Oh My!

[kba1988]

Do keep 'em coming. Even without pictures, this is definitely one of the best reviews!!!:D:D

[vacation luvver]

So one of the perks about being a latitude member is the general meeting where you can drink for free and win prizes and it’s not even offered on the larger ships. What a crock!

It is a crock, because when I was on the Dawn in 2006, there were so many Latitude members on board that there wasn't a room big enough to accommodate everyone for a Latitudes party. So they held two parties! Why don't they do that on the Breakaway or Getaway?

 

I'm going on the Breakaway on March 16, and unfortunately, I already know something that I'll complain about.

[whenisthemidnightbuffet?]

It is a crock, because when I was on the Dawn in 2006, there were so many Latitude members on board that there wasn't a room big enough to accommodate everyone for a Latitudes party. So they held two parties! Why don't they do that on the Breakaway or Getaway?

 

I'm going on the Breakaway on March 16, and unfortunately, I already know something that I'll complain about.

 

I can understand how you may feel about losing a perk, but if it makes you feel any better at the Lat Party for Silver Plus, there were no raffles and no giveaways, so other than the one free drink not really much else.

[RickinNYC]

Really enjoying the review! And I'm glad you liked the snowglobe! :D

[JuneauMe]

Hi, I love reading your review!!! I just booked the Breakaway for Sept. I'm very excited, but unlike the other NCL ships I've been on, this one is so big that I'm am starting my research now so that I don't miss anything, LOL! I have a question. I recently became Platinum, and this will be my 1st cruise where I get to enjoy a complimentary dinner in a specialty restuarant. Do I need to book this, & if I book it, will the Beakaway know that it is the comped benifit, & lastly, could I wait untill I'm on the ship?

Thanks

[geegee1]

Hi, I love reading your review!!! I just booked the Breakaway for Sept. I'm very excited, but unlike the other NCL ships I've been on, this one is so big that I'm am starting my research now so that I don't miss anything, LOL! I have a question. I recently became Platinum, and this will be my 1st cruise where I get to enjoy a complimentary dinner in a specialty restuarant. Do I need to book this, & if I book it, will the Beakaway know that it is the comped benifit, & lastly, could I wait untill I'm on the ship?

Thanks

 

I was on the same cruise as the OP. If your cruise is anything like ours was I would book it in advance. The board that shows you what restaurants are available seemed to always be yellow or red for the specialty ones.

[OriginalFlamingo]

GeeGee - can you please explain this board? Does it show all restaurants, including the main dining rooms, and possible waits at each? ...or am I completely misunderstanding?:confused:

[geegee1]

GeeGee - can you please explain this board? Does it show all restaurants, including the main dining rooms, and possible waits at each? ...or am I completely misunderstanding?:confused:

 

It shows all restaurants. There is a key on the bottom, where Red means something like "worth the wait", yellow "filling up fast" and I forget what greens says, but means it's available.

[JuneauMe]

Thanks Geegee

Will the Breakaway staff know that this is the Platinum benitfit? I'm don't want to make more work for me or the ship staff just to go eat, LOL

[geegee1]

Thanks Geegee

Will the Breakaway staff know that this is the Platinum benitfit? I'm don't want to make more work for me or the ship staff just to go eat, LOL

 

Sorry I have no idea about the Platinum benefit

[jdvmd]

Thanks Geegee

Will the Breakaway staff know that this is the Platinum benitfit? I'm don't want to make more work for me or the ship staff just to go eat, LOL

If you are Platinum, you will receive an envelope in your cabin. You will make the reservation and fill out and bring the free dinner for two certificate with you to dinner. It is a wonderful benefit. You will also receive a bottle of wine. If your cabin mate is also Platinum, then you both receive a certificate hence two dinners for two and two bottles of wine.

[whenisthemidnightbuffet?]

If you are Platinum, you will receive an envelope in your cabin. You will make the reservation and fill out and bring the free dinner for two certificate with you to dinner. It is a wonderful benefit. You will also receive a bottle of wine. If your cabin mate is also Platinum, then you both receive a certificate hence two dinners for two and two bottles of wine.

 

But if you are using your Platinum benefit for the dinner you would not make the reservation prior to sailing (as the OP had inquired) because you would have to prepay that or not?