My review of Breakaway..just back yesterday

[luv2gamble]

Hi all, Had a great time on breakaway. Just returned 4/6 from Florida, Great S.Cay and Nassau. First of all got to port 11am and there was a long line already to get on ship. No need to go to buffet and fight the crowd. Go for lunch at savors which is open and seated right away. My room was ready by 1:30 and my luggage was there by 3 pm. Port side of ship you will see the Freedom tower and the starboard side you will see Statue of Liberty. The pool was heated to about 78 degrees so it was nice. Had great weather the entire time. Thought I would outsmart everyone and stay on ship in florida (P.C.) because been to florida so many time. Figured I would enjoy the ship to myself, WRONG! Everyone did LOL. I would say about 60% stayed on board for same reason. Pool deck was packed but lots of fun. Private Island was beautiful but you have to tender. This was new to me, but, you have to make reservations to get off ship or you will be last. First to get off are people who have excursions booked. Then the reservation people. They started to tender and each tender took about 10-15 mins. Finally got off about 11:30 and all beach chairs were taken but I got lucky and dragged two from 2 different areas. I was shocked the water was quite cold and had to get used to it but I did. Be careful because lots of rocks in water. In your cabin by the mirror there is a booklet, in the back of the booklet is the room service request for the next morning. If you want coffee, etc, you have to fill it out and leave it on door before 4am. I didnt find that out until day 2 where the request forms were. You use your room key to turn on/off your lights. So, when you leave your cabin you loose electric. Dont think you are charging your phone or something because you are not unless you leave the key in. Trick..haha...any card works in slot. I used my casino card and left on electric on but one day the room porter lifted it up enough to stop the electric. First thing i did when got in room i asked for my minibar to be emptied to avoid charges and have room for my stuff. Besides, the count was wrong when I got there. It was already missing 3 bottles of liquor and I notified them right away so I didnt get charges. NO NEED TO BUY OR BRING BOTTLED WATER. The water was great on ship. The water AND ice were both purified. Actually, it was the best water I ever had. No clocks in room and even if you plugged on it, the electric goes off with no card in slot. Best to have a watch. Only clock I saw was poolside LOL. I bought a watch in Nassau. Best place to buy is across from Sr. Frog in a yellow building. 2 watchs for $20 or one for $15. Finally had a watch LOL. The casino was good. The cheap $6 blackjack table is hard to get at. Texas Holdem, only one table, if you dont get there by 7pm you usually have to wait til midnight or so to get a seat. I won the Holdem tournament $1800 on the last day:). All the other days the tournament was for a another tounrment on the epic in Nov. If you won, you could play for 250K on the epic but you have to buy the cruise tix but the last day was cash tournament :). The magic show was just soso. Like you would see on TV. The other shows we never got to but heard they were great. Cagneys was worth it! The only paying resturant I went to but well worth it. We had 4 appetizers LOL. Huge shrimp cocktail and the crabsalad was awesome. Had the 18oz ribeye but could only have a couple of bites. So full LOL. Go there for sure. No need to really make reservations unless you want to eat 7pm prime time. All in all had a blast. Leaving the ship we walked off w luggage so we can leave anytime but when you get off its a very long line through immigration (slow as hell). At least 1 hour to get out but 2 mins to get off ship LOL. Any questions, I will be more than happy to answer.

[mking8288]

Thanks for a quick write-up and welcome home. We had Priority Tendering for GSC except that we only managed to stop there briefly and went onward to Nassau - could've tried to pass them ...

 

We came back the week before & we drove pass Pier 88 yesterday and saw the BA again. As of last Friday morning, there're still last minute cabin availability for this past Sunday's sailing and tempted to go again - except, we got to work, LOL. Congrats. for your winnings !! (we almost break even too, LOL)

 

CBP was relatively "slow" for us too, luckily - we had Priority Disembarkation & found our Yellow Tags luggage quickly and were out of there in about 15 minutes. It appeared that uniformed officers were really checked passports & matching documents with faces, and it's beyond NCL's control. Last year on our CCL's return, they merely "collected" our Declaration Form & said "Go".

 

Any thoughts on the buffet and/or MDR menu & choices, the choices were fine but ... Mrs. M and I feel that we need more than 7 nights to sample all of the restaurants and specialty dining options, must be NCL's marketing strategy to get us to book her again soon.

[luv2gamble]

I agree, need more time LOL. BTW, the Manhattan Room (MDR) was only serving dinner. I could not believe it. The entire week no lunch or breakfast. However, on the 16th deck the bar&grill had a great lunch noon-5pm. They cook to order in front of you and a small buffet that was great. The fries were awesome LOL. You can get coffee/tea and an assortment of juices for free and also several sugar free lemonade/strawberry juice, etc. Wish I was still on ship LOL. NEVER saw the cruise director at all lol. The duty free shop best day to buy was Saturday. Cheaper prices :)

[luv2gamble]

BTW, The only paid dining I did was Cagneys for $30 a head. Someone on CC told me the $30 is used towards the tip. So, I only paid the $30 and left. Afterwards, I spoke to someone that works on ship and said it was not true. So, basically, I left NO tip. Felt like an idiot. I have no idea how much you should tip but I didnt because I was told wrong info.

[luv2gamble]

BTW, Room Service charges you $3.95 for services midnight until 5 am. Bingo the 1st day out for 3 games, was 3 choices $39, $49 or $69 and the next day it was only $10 but only one game.

[LMaxwell]

So no MDR breakfast or lunch at all, or are their multiple MDR? Just starting to research sister ship. I enjoy MDR breakfasts. Is this across all NCL ships? As far as specialty dining goes I think a portion, not sure how much, goes to server as a gratuity. Hope I am not wrong, but I don't think you stuffed anyone

 

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[LMaxwell]

Never mind, found the dining chart. A different mdr is open for breakfast and lunch. Phew

 

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[luv2gamble]

The smaller ships the MDR is open. All I know is I just got off the Breakaway and the MDR (the Manhattan Room) was closed and only open for DINNER ONLY! Yes, I was disappointing also. Choices were the Savor, The Taste or the Buffet which are all comp but nothing like the MDR. Much smaller and limited menu. No omelettes on the menu. BTW, they charge you for espresso or cappuccino. When I was on the smaller ships it was free. The coffee is terrible BTW but the water is great.