Breakaway - March 2nd - Deluxe Owners Suite review

connes1 · March 23, 2014

Thanks for info

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Tralfie · March 23, 2014

I noticed a group of people talking with Richard/Tralfie. This was our first chance we had to get to talk with him. We made our way over and hit it off with Richard right away. After collecting our winnings we went to a bar and had some great conversation for about an hour or so. Richard was a blast and every bit as funny in real life as he was on his posts. This was just the first of many run ins we had with Richard throughout the cruise.

!:D

Wow, I'm so glad you liked Richard/Tralfie. I thought he was... I don't know, okay, I guess. I expected more. Or maybe less. He's a LOT to take in!

:)

LOVING the review. It takes me right back. It's interesting that unlike a lot of my vacations in the past, this one has really stayed with me. I can close my eyes and be RIGHT back there, having drinks with you guys...

Chesneygirl · March 23, 2014

I am loving your review so far...and your photos are absolutely beautiful!

Did you have your camera on a tripod to get such great photos of the seagulls?

What kind of camera and lens were you using?

socrdad · March 24, 2014

Wow, I'm so glad you liked Richard/Tralfie. I thought he was... I don't know, okay, I guess. I expected more. Or maybe less. He's a LOT to take in!

LOVING the review. It takes me right back. It's interesting that unlike a lot of my vacations in the past, this one has really stayed with me. I can close my eyes and be RIGHT back there, having drinks with you guys...

Richard - You were a blast to hang with. It is so unlike us to meet other people when we cruise. For the most part we just enjoy spending quality time together. It was really a lot of fun spending time with you and I sincerely hope that we get another chance to cruise with you again in the future:). I told my DW that this trip must have had a big impact on me as I have dreamed about it every night since we returned!

socrdad · March 24, 2014

I am loving your review so far...and your photos are absolutely beautiful!
Did you have your camera on a tripod to get such great photos of the seagulls?

What kind of camera and lens were you using?

Chesneygirl - I am glad you liked the pictures of the seagulls. I do not use a tripod and I do not like to crop my pictures (to me it seems like cheating). I have a Nikon D7100, used a 55-300 lens and I shot it on the sports mode. It is a newer camera for me as I upgraded from my Nikon D3100. I am by no means an expert in photography but I do enjoy it and I really like this camera.

Here are a couple additional seagull pictures for you. These were taken coming into port at Port Canaveral also.

gelo7 · March 24, 2014

Love your pictures.

dexddd · March 25, 2014

There is a curtain between the main bedroom and bathroom, it is very thick and a room darkening material. Curtain closes beyond door frame so no light gets in the room from the bathroom area. You can see it briefly in the room tour we posted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zg1ZFR_FWA.

You guys left the room in pretty good shape for us except for the red stains by the front entrance on the carpet. Looks like wing sauce. I know another lady was complaining to one of the butlers about red stains on her carpet and they had one of the stewards cleaning it. Not a big deal for us - we didn't complain.

Roy is our butler and we asked about Fernando and Roy rounded him up the first night to meet us. Roy explained they rotate room groups every two weeks. Roy also recently came back from vacation. Fernando seems very energetic but we really like Roy so far. All of the staff on board has been very nice and friendly other than the couple ladies working the slides don't seem too happy but I think it is because they are cold.

They also added a door out on the balcony where it starts to curve to the right. Ceciillo explained that was added in the last two weeks to keep the furniture from going over to the side (or over the side) - I couldn't quite tell which he meant.

Edited March 25, 2014 by dexddd

socrdad · March 26, 2014

You guys left the room in pretty good shape for us except for the red stains by the front entrance on the carpet. Looks like wing sauce. I know another lady was complaining to one of the butlers about red stains on her carpet and they had one of the stewards cleaning it. Not a big deal for us - we didn't complain.

The red stains on the carpet were actually M&M's (peanut and regular) that mixed with wine from the mess that happened from the night of the storm. We were going to address this when we got to that night on our cruise review but I will post it a bit early.

For those of you that did not hear about our storm night, it happened on Friday night. We woke up in our room about 4:30am as the boat was really rocking and rolling. About 5am we heard a crash in the bathroom and we had our soap dish slide off the counter and hit the floor. We turned on the tv to watch the navigation channel and the channel was saying we were in 43.5 foot waves. We were enjoying the ride and laughing about it, it was kind of fun. At 5:30am there was a major crash in the living room. We went out to investigate and there was a huge mess as most of the items on our counter came crashing down. Even the wine glasses on the upper glass shelves flipped over the glass barrier that were there to stop that from happening.

Here is a picture of the bar area with a lot of the stuff that came crashing down. If you look in the upper corner of the blue bar you will see the wine glasses that came crashing down. This picture was taken at the start of our cruise so there were lots of personal items along with 3 additional bottles of wine that were on the counter when they came crashing down.

To give you some reference, here is a picture of waves from our balcony that were at 10.5 feet. This is on the 16th floor so things tend to look smaller than they really are.

Here are some pictures of the waves about 15 minutes after the crash in the living room. I would have taken more (I really wish I would have taken a video) but I was getting a bit queasy looking out the front balcony.

Here is the damage that happened in the living room. This is after I cleaned it up a bit. I finally gave up trying to clean it up and called the butler. The person that answered asked if we had damage because they were calling in all butlers and all cabin stewards as many cabins had damage. Our butler said of his 10 cabins, 7 of them had damage.

Yes if you look close you will see a pair of thong underwear. It was the pair of underwear that my DW had caught at the Rock of Ages show that night.

Here are the M&M stains on the carpet after everything was cleaned up.

The captain came on over the intercom system (in the rooms) at about 6am to announce that there had been some reports of damage and he wanted to calm people's nerves over the storm. He said there was a low pressure system that was lingering longer than forecasted and we would be exiting it in the next few hours. He said at that time we were in 30 foot seas and they would continue to decrease in size. He said the ship was holding up very well. The butler and room steward showed up and cleaned everything up. It was definitely an eventful experience.

socrdad · March 26, 2014

Roy is our butler and we asked about Fernando and Roy rounded him up the first night to meet us. Roy explained they rotate room groups every two weeks. Roy also recently came back from vacation. Fernando seems very energetic but we really like Roy so far. All of the staff on board has been very nice and friendly other than the couple ladies working the slides don't seem too happy but I think it is because they are cold.

They also added a door out on the balcony where it starts to curve to the right. Ceciillo explained that was added in the last two weeks to keep the furniture from going over to the side (or over the side) - I couldn't quite tell which he meant.

It sounds like you are having a great time and enjoying the room as much as we did. We thought the staff was incredible and everyone was so friendly. I think I saw the added door you are talking about on some Getaway pictures that someone posted. I thought they might have put them there to keep people off the side of the balcony while the bathroom is in use as the shades do not give you complete privacy when pulled down (could be a traumatic experience for your kids if not careful......lol) . Otherwise, I wish they would have put it further on the curve to block the wind while sailing. They could then put the sliding glass door in the bedroom that opens out to the balcony right next to the bathroom entrance. This would have made a great area of the balcony that would be useable while at sea.

I hope the rest of your trip is fantastic, enjoy!!!!

socrdad · March 29, 2014

Well sorry this is taking so long to post this review but I am encountering the worst part of a lengthy vacation, getting back to work and playing catch up for the next month. It has been long days and not too many days off but I think I can get another day in today. Well onward we go!

Day 4

This is our second port and it is the Bahamas Island owned by Norwegian - Great Stirrup Cay. We were not overly excited about this port as we do not really like to just sit in the sun. We contemplated staying on board and enjoying the ship but decided to make the trip to the island. We were not really in a hurry to get off the ship so we slept in a bit and slowly got ready for the excursion. We met up with Ruth (concierge) and she escorted us down the back halls of the ship until we got in the front of the line for the next tender. It was a short wait as they were already loading and we were on board in no time. The people sitting next to us were saying they had been waiting for about 1 1/2 hours to get on a tender so it was another outstanding perk that the Haven guests get. I think we were on the tender in less than 5 minutes from the time we saw Ruth in the Haven. We were on the upper deck and had great views during the boat ride to the island. This was really our only time that we could see the Breakaway in its entirety, she is a beautiful ship!!!!!!

socrdad · March 30, 2014

Day 4 continued...........

It seemed to take a while for the tender to get to the island but it was a very pretty trip with beautiful weather. We headed to the little shopping huts as I forgot to pack a hat. They are very reasonably priced for their items and they are cute little huts. We then headed to the buffet to get our first meal of the day. We both had a burger and it was good. The buffet line was not very long and it went fairly quickly. After lunch we decided to explore the island a little. We started walking around and I had heard about a walk to a lighthouse on the other side of the island so we started to wander around trying to find our way. Norwegian is definitely putting a lot of money into this island and I think when they get it completed it is going to be spectacular. It looks as though they are building a water park amongst other upgrades. We found a tram and hoped on it, we had no idea were it was going but decided we might get a little tour. It made a stop at a little lagoon that was a ways away from the main beach area. It was a very pretty little lagoon. We talked with the driver for quite a while and he lives on an island nearby, has a 10 minute boat ride to get to work each day and works 5 days a week. He was very friendly and very talkative. We told him we were wanting to hike to the lighthouse and he said he would drop us off as close as he could but we would have a 20 - 30 minute walk to get there.

We started the walk and it was a bit of a downer as we walked along a dirt road with tall trees and bushes on each side so there really was not much to see. There are lizards, iguanas and wildlife and we heard a lot of rustling in the bushes. My DW was a bit nervous as the vision of getting eaten by a giant mutant iguana was running through her head. I had heard on CC about problems with bugs but we did not encounter any at all. I am not sure if we were there during the bug free time of year or not but I was happy as we forgot the bug spray in our room. We were at the lighthouse in about 20 minutes and it was a big let down. It is an old run down lighthouse that is boarded up and has a boarded up small building next to it. I certainly hope that Norwegian plans on fixing this up and hopefully opening it up so you can climb to the top of the lighthouse. It would probably have some beautiful views from the top. We continued hiking for a few minutes and we came to another beach but it said we were leaving the Norwegian owned island and were to proceed at our own risk. We headed back and stopped at a couple of beach areas that were a little off the dirt road but accessible. They overlooked the Breakaway and there were a couple of people snorkeling off the coast. Very few people were on either of the beach areas and they were very nice areas if you wanted to get away from the crowds.

Here is the view as you take the road to the lighthouse.

Here is the lighthouse. It will be very cool if they ever refurbish it.

Here is one of the critters that were making noises and helping to make the DW very nervous during the hike.

Here is the view from the area past the lighthouse that is off Norwegian property, very pretty.

Here is the main area of the Great Stirrup Cay.

Here is the lighthouse if you look at the left side of the picture just over the cables. It is a bit of a hike as this picture would be to the left of the previous picture. I would guess it is about a 1 1/2 mile hike to get to the lighthouse.

We had spent enough time on the island, enough so we could say we were there, and headed back to the ship. Back on the tender and back on the Breakaway in no time. We headed back to the room and I spent the next couple of hours just hanging out on the balcony watching the boats and parasails go by, it was very relaxing. My DW headed to the spa for an hour of relaxation.

We had made reservations at Cagneys for dinner and needed to get ready for the night. I was really looking forward to the filet and lobster again but it was not nearly as good as it was the first time we ate there. I am not sure if it sat under the heat lamps for a while or what but it was not nearly as good. It was still very good just not incredible like my past experience. We sat at the back of the restaurant and had a great view as we were sailing away.

We got some more pictures taken and wandered around the ship some more. There really is a lot to do and see and we certainly did not get to see and do everything that we wanted. I guess we are going to have to book another trip.....lol. We spent a little time in the casino and then headed to the buffet to get some ice cream for dessert.

It was a pretty low key night as we were really just enjoying not doing anything. For us, just getting away from the hustle and bustle of life to enjoy each other and chill for a bit is a fantastic vacation for us.

Coastalbreezes · March 30, 2014

Fantastic review! One of the best I've read in a long time. Can't wait to be back on Breakaway in May. Glad no one was hurt during the storm.

Tracy

Tralfie · March 30, 2014

As soon as you mentioned the "rustling in the trees," I had a vision of the creatures from Jurassic Park waiting to pounce. "Watch out for the velociraptors!!!!"

I wanted to head out to the lighthouse, but never made it. Glad to see I didn't miss much!

Richard/Tralfie

socrdad · March 30, 2014

Fantastic review! One of the best I've read in a long time. Can't wait to be back on Breakaway in May. Glad no one was hurt during the storm.

Tracy

Thanks Tracy! Glad you are liking the review. Good to hear that you enjoyed the Breakaway so much that you are sailing her again, she really is a great ship.

socrdad · March 30, 2014

As soon as you mentioned the "rustling in the trees," I had a vision of the creatures from Jurassic Park waiting to pounce. "Watch out for the velociraptors!!!!"

I wanted to head out to the lighthouse, but never made it. Glad to see I didn't miss much!

Richard/Tralfie

Richard, I am sure that is the vision that Ann had running through her head the entire time. It was fun watching her (step, step, jump, "what was that" step, step, jump "what was that":eek:).

meatball_nyc · March 30, 2014

Gorgeous photos.

Very glad no one was hurt by all that damage during the storm!

That storm came up the coast and by the time it hit Cape Cod/Nantucket, they got about a foot of snow. Waves out at sea were reported at 70 feet. We had wind gusts in the New York area at over 35 mph. Nasty.

Enjoying your review very much! Thank you!

Happy Sailing!

Robin

Norwegian Breakaway July 2014

Carnival Miracle 2010

Carnival Legend 2006

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

Stillfloatin' · March 30, 2014

Enjoying your review.

socrdad · March 31, 2014

Gorgeous photos.
Very glad no one was hurt by all that damage during the storm!

That storm came up the coast and by the time it hit Cape Cod/Nantucket, they got about a foot of snow. Waves out at sea were reported at 70 feet. We had wind gusts in the New York area at over 35 mph. Nasty.

Enjoying your review very much! Thank you!

Happy Sailing!

Robin

Norwegian Breakaway July 2014

Carnival Miracle 2010

Carnival Legend 2006

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

It was definitely the worst storm we have ever been in at sea but at no time did we ever feel unsafe. We felt very fortunate that we were on a very large cruise ship as I am sure some of the smaller ships were taking a beating. We felt very bad for the staff that needed to clean up after all the damage. I am sure they had better things to do than deal with all the mess.

I hope you have a great cruise on the Breakaway in July!!!

connes1 · March 31, 2014

I have a few questions about your dining experience...Did you need to make reservations for restaurants? If you did not make reservations were there long waits? How far in advance did you need to make reservations? Thanks for your help I have never sailed ncl info is appreciated.

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socrdad · March 31, 2014

I have a few questions about your dining experience...Did you need to make reservations for restaurants? If you did not make reservations were there long waits? How far in advance did you need to make reservations? Thanks for your help I have never sailed ncl info is appreciated.

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

connes1 - We had our concierge make dining reservations for us. When we made reservations they were made in the early afternoon for that night. There was one day that we did not make reservations as we were not sure if we were going to eat dinner that night or not. We tried to get into Cagneys around 8:30pm but they said there would be an hour wait. We went next door to Moderno and got right in. With reservations, I think the longest wait we had was at Teppanyaki and we waited about a minute or two. I would definitely recommend the Unlimited Dining Package if you can afford it, well worth it. I hope this helps:).

connes1 · March 31, 2014

connes1 - We had our concierge make dining reservations for us. When we made reservations they were made in the early afternoon for that night. There was one day that we did not make reservations as we were not sure if we were going to eat dinner that night or not. We tried to get into Cagneys around 8:30pm but they said there would be an hour wait. We went next door to Moderno and got right in. With reservations, I think the longest wait we had was at Teppanyaki and we waited about a minute or two. I would definitely recommend the Unlimited Dining Package if you can afford it, well worth it. I hope this helps:).

Thanks for your help all your info is appreciated

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socrdad · April 5, 2014

Well on to day 5...........

This was the day of the trip we were looking most forward to, a day in Nassau, Bahamas. We have always wanted to go to Atlantis and had looked at vacationing there in the past. There were always stumbling blocks as it is not one of the cheaper places to vacation. In addition, since we live in Montana it takes two days to fly there and two days to get home.

For breakfast we decided to head down to Carlos Bake Shop to try the famous Lobster Tails that we had read so much about on CC. We were both in agreement, they were ok but nothing out of this world delicious like we were hoping. We then headed back to the Haven to meet Ruth, our concierge. She took us the back way down to exit the ship and we were off in no time flat (have I mentioned that I love this perk........lol).

We found our meeting place and waited about 20 minutes before we all started heading to the buses. There were a lot of people in our group and the line to get on the buses was fairly long. I think we loaded up 6 buses or so to get everyone there. It is a short drive to get to Atlantis but boy is there some crazy driving that goes on in Nassau. We thought we were going to die a few times. Maybe 10 minutes at the most and we had made it, alive even.

We had a tour guide that escorted us through Atlantis for our day at the water park and tour of the Dig. It is a fairly long walk to get to the water park and there were many stops along the way for our guide to give us some information and point out areas of interest that we may want to explore later in the day. We finally arrived at the water park and found some lounge chairs to claim. It was still 25 minutes before the park officially opened and my DW had a swimming suit malfunction. She said she would just not go in the water and lay in the sun. I said "let's just go find you another swimming suit here". We wandered for a while trying to find a shop that would carry swimming suits. We finally found a store that carried them and then my DW looked at the price:eek:. It had a price tag of $245.00. They also had some men's button up shirts so I looked at the price on them, $255.00. I figured this must be in their own currency and there had to be an exchange difference. I asked the attendant if these are priced in American dollars or their own currency and she said it did not matter as the exchange rate was 1 for 1. Needless to say we did not buy a swimming suit and I certainly was not going to buy a shirt. My DW said she would be fine just enjoying the sun.

We made our way back to our loungers and the park was now open. I went on the lazy river (maybe it is the "not so lazy river" as that would be a better name for it). What fun! It is over a mile long and there is a big wave machine that shoots a big wave down the river every 30 seconds or so. The waves are large when you are near the wave machine but it is a lot of fun and the waves just speed you down the river a bit faster. As you get further from the wave machine the waves get smaller and smaller until you barely notice them. The river meanders around and then you come to a fork in the road that gives you two choices (I believe it was rapids or chutes). I chose the chutes as that is where most of the kids were going (it had to be good then, I thought). There is a long section of a very narrow river that you either had to push yourself along by pushing off the sides while floating or finally just give up and get off your tube and walk. After pushing off the sides for a while I decided it made a lot more sense to just get off and walk. I walked until I came to the conveyer belt that takes you on your tube up a hill. At the top of the hill there is a building and you have another choice as they have two water slides (hills and drops). I again put my faith in the kids as most of them were going in the "drops" line. I waited my turn and then I was off on the slide, sitting on my tube. It was a blast! The kids did not let me down. The slide takes you right back into the lazy river to continue the journey. It was about a 40 minute round trip to get back to the starting point. I checked on my DW and headed for another trip. This time when I came to the fork in the river I took the rapids. It was ok but I wish I would have tried the "hills" slide by taking the other fork again. I could have stayed on this all day and been happy but there were other slides to conquer.

I found my DW and we decided to head over to some of the water slides. First up was the Challenger. It is a racing drop that two people can take simultaneous and see who is faster. They have a time clock at the end so you can see who has the fastest time. It is over in about 4.5 seconds, but it is a lot of fun. I then got in line for Leap of Faith. This is the 60' almost vertical drop that once you level out you are in a tube going through the shark tank.

Here is the slide!!!!!

It is a lot of fun but you really can't tell that you are in the middle of a shark tank as there is water splashing in your eyes and you are in the shark tank for about 1 second. I then decided to try the Serpent Slide which takes you through the Mayan Temple with twists and turns in darkness. It then spits you out in a tube that goes through the shark tank slowly. It was a lot of fun. There were many more slides to go on but I figured I had tortured my DW long enough.

We decided we would tour the facility and we headed over to the Dig. This is an underground tour of the undersea world of the lost city Atlantis. They have a huge amount of fish with underwater sea life with the background of a ruined city. It is very elaborate.

We then just walked around the beautiful resort for a while. Here are a few of the pictures we took.

Breakaway - March 2nd - Deluxe Owners Suite review

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