Just back from the Breakaway (Aug. 3rd - 10th)

[ClaireAndMike]

Day 6, Still Bermuda

 

Okay so now here is Friday, our last day in Bermuda and the day our catamaran outing had been rescheduled to.

 

We enjoyed room service again, what an awesome thing!

 

We met the rest of the family at 9:30 where our vessel, the Chelonia, picked us up. They had some very strict rules while onboard which I understand because I would later learn that they live on that boat. For example, we had to apply sunscreen before we got on and if we needed to reapply, we had to do it on a certain part of the boat in a very careful way. I got it, but it visibly annoyed a couple of my teenage cousins. But, when you're in someone else's house, you play by their rules.

 

This is the day I got horrendously sunburned on my back. I loaded on SPF 100 in the room before we left the ship. My mother liberally applied it on my back. And yes, I reapplied before I got into the water and swam. Thankfully, I was wearing a HUGE brimmed hat so I got nothing on my face or neck.

 

The boat stopped twice on our journey, once for some cliff diving and again for some swimming, snorkeling, paddle boarding and kayaking. I didn't jump off of any cliffs but when we stopped the second time, I decided to be a good sport and a team player and swim with everyone. I knew that if I didn't, everyone would want to know why. I knew damn well I would burn and I should have known better but I made a serious lapse in judgment. It had probably been 20 years since I was in a swimsuit in the water in the sun and also 20 years since I've been burned that badly. I had my first pre cancerous mole excised from my ankle when I was 22 and I am normally SOOOOOOO careful.

 

While I was in the water, I did have fun though. They provided those underwater scooter things, noodles and other fun water toys. I floated around on a noodle drinking Coronas. My first alcoholic beverage since Tuesday night. I don't think I was in the water even an hour, but it was long enough for some serious skin damage.

 

We had lunch onboard. My uncle had gotten wraps for us and the people who own the boat provided hummus and chips and some of pepper jelly/cream cheese thing. Also, unlimited drinks.

 

When we got back to the ship that afternoon, I noticed the sunburn and was absolutely mortified. Then the pain set in.

 

I'm a bit jealous because my sister in law can lay out in the sun for hours (and finds great enjoyment in doing that) and many of my cousins rode jet skis immediately after the catamaran and didn't get burned. I'm out there for an hour and get a nearly blistering burn. I don't even care about getting a tan, I just don't want to get burned! Whining done.

 

So that night, I ate in Taste with my sister, mom, brother, sister in law and niece. I had the vegetable lasagna rolls from the non-changing menu. I said it earlier and I'll say it again. I miss my vegetable risotto, pumpkin gnocchi, veggie burrito, mushroom ravioli, eggplant parmesan from the old MDR menus. They still had the delicious rolls I fell in love with on the Epic, so for that I was thankful. I treated my brother to a glass of Merlot since I still had quite a bit of OBC to spend. This was also the chocoholic night. I ordered the Nutella pot de creme or something which was DELICIOUS. I didn't have dessert most nights, but I made an exception for tonight.

 

The crew in Taste were SO great. They and people in general absolutely go crazy over my niece. It's actually kind of funny to see. She's such a cute baby, but not very interactive with people she doesn't really know, which still includes me at this point in her life.

 

After dinner, sister in law and niece went to bed and I went to the "magic show" with my sister, mom and brother. This also elicited mocking from some family members. I don't know why my mother continuously offered our whereabouts to them, knowing they would just laugh at us.

 

Magic show was good. I forget the dude's name. He's from Copenhagen. Afterwards, they did the special crew finale thing. My sister was hoping for Fountains, but it didn't happen. I hope they didn't do away with it as my sister LOVES it. It makes her laugh so hard. What they do is really nice, but the "We Are A Family" song is a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle campy.

 

When we were walking out afterwards, Captain Hoyt was posing for unofficial pictures with people which I thought was really nice. People were just taking them on their own cameras as opposed to being taken by "official" ship photographers. We kept walking though, I figured he was going above and beyond by doing that.

 

The fireworks were also tonight. This is kind of funny. When my sister and I are together (which isn't often) we usually laugh a LOT and to the point of crying. All week, my mother would yell at us to be quiet because she honestly thought we would disturb our niece next door. I have NEVER heard any noise from an adjacent cabin. We never even heard her screaming, which I know she did several times. We only heard her when they had her out on the balcony. Another funny thing, my sister was sitting out there playing Angry Birds on her iPad one afternoon and my brother had the gall to tell her to turn it down. But I guess it's just fine when they were playing cartoons on their iPad on the balcony. And when the baby was crying out there. And when she was throwing toys down and pushing the table and chairs around. I bet the people below LOVED that. It wouldn't bother me had it not been for the fact that he had such an issue with the pretty benign sounds of Angry Birds. I guess anything goes when you have a baby? Mini rant over.

 

So anyway, I bring up the noise thing because my mom was all worried that the sound of the fireworks would wake the baby. I suggested she inform the crew and maybe they'd cancel the fireworks to accomodate the sleeping baby. I sound bitter and like a jerk, but I mean it in humor. The hypocrisy is amusing to me. I would never have said anything to my brother about the cartoons or anything else, it just amuses me that he said it to my sister despite the fact that there was quite a bit of noise coming from his balcony. I think being around lots of family overwhelms me in general and the week was pretty emotionally and psychologically draining for me, it was starting to get to me. I was reaching my breaking/boiling point by now.

 

Back to the fireworks... And the family yuk yuks... Apparently fireworks don't impress them. None of them watched them. They had a 9:30pm reservation at Teppanyaki. I've obviously seen fireworks too but there's something really cool about seeing them off of a cruise ship. They were going off literally right outside of our balcony so we watched them from there. I would've liked to have gone up to the 80s party and watched them from Spice H20 but with the sunburn, I just didn't feel that well. The fireworks themselves lasted about 6 minutes. I'm really glad we saw them.

 

I didn't sleep well at all that night. I put a cold washcloth on my back which felt soooooooooo good but what I really needed was some aloe which I of course didn't pack because I didn't plan on getting burned. I never have before on a cruise.

 

On to Saturday, the final sea day...

[ClaireAndMike]

Day 7, Sea Day, the final day of the cruise!

 

As is always the case, the week flew by and we found ourselves on our last day. I had planned on using the last of my OBC on a massage at the spa but had to cancel those plans due to the sunburn which was far worse than I thought it was.

 

Did we get room service today? I think we did, but we also met some family (mainly Grandma) at the Garden Cafe for a few minutes. This was the encounter where my mother told them we were going to the Officer's Q&A as well as the crew talent show. This was also when my uncle replied with the silver polishing quip.

 

The family also organized their own shuffleboard tournament to be held at 3pm that afternoon.

 

The baby spent a little bit of time in the kiddie pool, which we joined in on for a few minutes. I recall my brother saying something about how there were some "not so little" kids in the kiddie pool that were playing a little rough. Again, I don't have kids and know nothing about parenting politics so I don't know what is "acceptable" and what isn't. I guess when you're in a public place you have to expect a variety of behavior. And I don't know if getting splashed by another older kid is a serious playtime offense.

 

So come 2pm, I headed into the theater with my mom and sister where we attended the Q&A. At first, it was just cruise director Julie talking about the construction of the Breakway. She then showed a brief video, though it was actually about Getaway but she said she used it anyway since they were sister ships.

 

Then out came the officers. They answered a lot of questions, some were pretty funny. Someone asked what the craziest guest on guest altercation was and Captain Hoyt's answer was that some stories are best left untold but that they'd basically seen it all. I can only imagine...

 

Then came the talent show. It was quite cool how into it and supportive the audience was. At the end, they did the special finale again, exact same as the night before, and no Fountains. My sister was disappointed and I fear that maybe Fountains is no more. Oh well. Our first cruise was in December of 2011 and lord knows how long it had been around before that.

 

We made an appearance at the shuffleboard tourney but didn't participate, much to the horror and chagrin of the family. They all wanted to know why. I didn't really have a reason other than I just didn't want to. I was just fine with watching. They were quite organized with different rounds and semifinals, finals, championship... They are extremely competitive, and me, not so much. I do things for fun, not competition. I was in the marching band growing up, not an athlete!

 

Our 2nd and final big family dinner was this night at Cagney's. The reservation was for 7:30 I believe. We were instructed to meet early at the staircase outside of Le Bistro and Headliners to take a family photo.

 

Well, everyone was late and I felt like a jerk clogging up the staircase with 27 people but we did it anyway. Some brave ship photographer was charged with the taking of the photo. We were quite a sight to behold. A woman stood below us in wonderment as I saw her using a finger to count how many of us there were. It reminded me of a family portrait we took on my Grandparents' front porch when I was in high school. Every car that drove by honked and yelled at the window at us. Pretty amusing. People on the ship actually cheered when we were finally done and they could use the stairs again.

 

Then it was off to Cagney's. This dinner dragged out quite a bit. We were all seated at two long tables, but people kept getting up to go out to the Waterfront to take pictures of the sunset. Our poor waiters were probably so confused. At one point, both tables were almost totally empty.

 

The niece was ready for bed right as the food arrived. My brother left with his wife and his burger sat getting cold on the table before he'd taken a bite. The waiter put it under a warmer until he got back. Of course by that time, we were all on dessert. I skipped sweets and had a cappuccino.

 

After dinner, of course toasts and speeches were made. I am so incredibly appreciative of my Grandma for paying for all of us to take this trip, I just don't show it as outwardly or ceremoniously as everyone else. I'll write her a nice thank you note rather than make a flowery emotional speech. So one of my uncles began a toast/speech but had to stop because he got too choked up. Eventually, practically everyone was tearing up too. Except me (of course). I don't usually cry, not even at sad movies. The moment of melancholy passed and then it was time to take pictures with Grandma. She was also given a cake that said "We Love You Grandma" which yes, we all do very much. I hope my non-sentimentalness doesn't come across as ungratefulness because that's not the case at all. I think everyone can agree that family time can be stressful.

 

After dinner, I decided to join most of the group on the waterfront by maltings. I STILL had $50 of OBC to spend. After I was successful doing that, the group migrated to the casino for some craps. I didn't spend much time there at all. It was very late and I hadn't even started packing yet.

 

So that's pretty much it, in a nutshell. Bottom line is, it was an incredible trip overall. The Breakaway is a FANTASTIC ship. Bermuda was beautiful, but I think I saw all I needed to see. I'd love to sail the Breakaway again, but not out of New York and not only to Bermuda so it sounds like a cruise on the Getaway may be in order soon. We did the St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Nassau thing on the Epic already and we're doing a western Caribbean on the Epic this coming February. I'd like to travel to some different ports before repeating them but the Getaway will definitely be on our future cruise list.

 

The waterfront was such a great concept, I really liked that. I really would've liked to spend more time on the ship taking advantage of more of what it has to offer.

 

I emailed my aunts and uncles and asked for any feedback positive or negative on what they experienced that I didn't. I haven't gotten any responses as of yet. If they do, I will add them.

 

I do know that a group of them went to the late night Second City show (with Grandma) on Friday night and she left after about 10 minutes. I guess it was waaaaaaaay too raunchy for her. I heard that it had more to do with the fact that most of the audience was drunk and giving poor suggestions. Another member of our group said that it wasn't "real" Second City and that if it had been, they would've told the drunken people that their ideas sucked and called them out on their state of impairment. I'm not a huge fan of improv in general and I've been to Second City here in Chicago once or twice and not since college.

 

I will also post my link to Shutterfly where I will upload menus, the dailies that I have etc... I haven't done it yet, but hope to do it either tonight or by the weekend.

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoyed your review, thanks for taking the time to write and post it.

[kkpcruiser]

We were also on this cruise and I'm enjoying your summary. I 100% agree

with you on the Howl at the Moon having been on Epic as well.

I didn't care for the 3 guys either and only went a few times whereas

we stopped in every night on the Epic with Drew and gang.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[aquarianne11]

Great review and pics! Thank you for taking the time.

 

The pics at Jobson's Cove were amazing. I'm not so worried about the rain anymore. ;)

 

Now I'm even more excited for our cruise.

[kba1988]

Fabulous review! Looking forward to the ShutterFly photos!!:D:D:D

[ClaireAndMike]

Yes, it was soooooooooooooo pretty!

 

Great review and pics! Thank you for taking the time.

 

The pics at Jobson's Cove were amazing. I'm not so worried about the rain anymore. ;)

 

Now I'm even more excited for our cruise.

[ClaireAndMike]

Yeah, it was just not the same. It was fun, but not nearly the same level of energy as the Epic crew. Kin did a KILLER version of Landslide that was soooooooo beautiful. They were such talented musicians.

 

We were also on this cruise and I'm enjoying your summary. I 100% agree

with you on the Howl at the Moon having been on Epic as well.

I didn't care for the 3 guys either and only went a few times whereas

we stopped in every night on the Epic with Drew and gang.

[St. Louis Sal]

Really enjoyed your comments about your cruise. We were on the BA for the July 27th cruise. I did post a review which was actually my first one. Of course after spending a lot of time thinking about it I still left out a few things.

 

I would like to go back to Bermuda a second time as there were some things we missed.

 

I can't imagine traveling with so many people. I lose track of my two daughters sometimes; could never keep up with 20+.

 

Thanks again,

St. Louis Sal

[ClaireAndMike]

Yeah, I would not recommend it! Then again, my sister and I largely kept to ourselves but many of the rest of our group did things together. I don't know what we would've done without the iConcierge app. Even with the supposed shortcomings that my family brought up, the fact that we could text message each other was pretty cool I thought. I only had the numbers of my mom, sister and brother but I know some of my party had EVERYONE'S number.

 

Really enjoyed your comments about your cruise. We were on the BA for the July 27th cruise. I did post a review which was actually my first one. Of course after spending a lot of time thinking about it I still left out a few things.

 

I would like to go back to Bermuda a second time as there were some things we missed.

 

I can't imagine traveling with so many people. I lose track of my two daughters sometimes; could never keep up with 20+.

 

Thanks again,

St. Louis Sal

[ClaireAndMike]

I finally got my pictures uploaded, I think. Shutterfly has been such a pain in the arse for the past two hours. Below is the link for the menus/dailies, though they don't look like they turned out very well at all. I'm trying to get the link for the pictures, but it won't even load at all at this point. Grrrrr.

 

https://bermudanclcruise2014.shutterfly.com

 

FINALLY!

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

I can see them just fine on my phone. Thanks for taking the time to collect and post them. 5 weeks until my turn!

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[ClaireAndMike]

I hope you have as great a time as we did! I read some of the negative reviews and I wonder how it's even possible since our experience was so positive.

 

I can see them just fine on my phone. Thanks for taking the time to collect and post them. 5 weeks until my turn!

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[welove2cruise232]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review! We are looking forward to being back on the Breakaway in less than three weeks!:p