Tech Review: iConcierge, Data Plans & Other Bonus Breakaway tips

[darkNstormy14]

I am just back from an amazing week on the Breakaway. I traveled with a group of 18 and was eagerly anticipating using iConcierge to keep in contact with the group regarding excursions, dinner plans, and the general "where are you?" throughout the day. We also used it to communicate with new friends we made on board.

 

Once up and running, the app worked well, however the texting portion of the app is very difficult to initially set up. IMHO, NCL should have spent more money on a developer to make the app sleeker and more user friendly. Aside from your cabin mate, you will need to add any other contacts manually by entering in their "number." I initially incorrectly assumed that this meant their normal telephone number (assumed the app pulled it once logged in), however it is a unique number that is listed on your "contacts" page. Each person's phone # will be "77" followed by their cabin #, followed by a "01, 02" etc for each person in the room. For example, my phone number was 77912401. Once we figured this out it was just a matter of adding everyone as a contact.

 

While the texting worked well, I could not hear on the "pax to pax" phone service thru the app. However, you an also use the phone feature to directly dial a stateroom. We also used it to get in touch with our excursion people because the weather looked grim. To call ashore, it is $0.79 per minute rather than $4.99 per minute on the cabin phone.

 

While I mainly used the app for texting, it also has the freestyle daily (learned that on the last day).

 

Also, we all had difficulty connecting to the ship wifi after coming back onto the ship each day. My phone said I was on the wifi, but the iconcierge app said I was not. I toggled the wifi on and off to no avail. This made it hard to communicate with people to even let them know the app was down. I called to complain/inquire and I was told if it was still down in an hour they would refund me. In about an hour, the app clicked back to life - no refund. I was much happier to have it working!

 

All said and done, and despite the crappy design, I found the $7.99 fee to be extremely worth it. I probably would have paid triple for the convenience.

 

As for the much discussed new data plans, I was extremely disappointed, not in the quality of the connection, but in NCL's failure to give explicit instructions on how to not have the data be eaten up within minutes on a smartphone. My best advice would be that if you will need or want to be on the internet, bring a laptop and do not log into internet on your phone. If you are using any smartphone, the usage will get eaten up before you even got to read 2 emails. The data package flyer lists the amount of emails you can read and pages you can load with the certain amounts of MBs. With a smartphone, this is simply not the case. If you will have a smartphone only, go to the iConcierge tech desk BEFORE purchasing the package to have her set up your phone to make sure it uses the least amount of data on background stuff. I felt that I did do everything necessary to turn off background apps, but I guess not.

 

On another note, we noticed that you can access ncl.com for free, if you need to get your internet surfing in. :)

 

 

Finally, I'll leave you with a few other tips I picked up...

 

As a theatre minor in college, I especially enjoyed Second City, but had only made 1 reservation for the entire trip, and they had multiple shows every other night. First off, it is imperative to be 20 minutes early. The first show we saw was standing room only despite the fact that we had a reservation booked. While everyone else is in the "standby" line, you can easily sneak in a back door. There is a hallway with bathrooms behind the entrance to Headliners. You can easily go in that backdoor, there would be no way of knowing. NCL don't hate me!

 

I don't condone this and I did prepay before the cruise, but I found that you could probably sneak into Cirque as well if you darted in with a sense of urgency as if your party was already seated. While on the topic of Cirque, the show was worth $40, but I felt that the meal was the worst of the entire 7 days. If you are a foodie, the money would be better spent at Ocean Blue (rave reviews from my mom).

 

Ropes course was absolutely amazing. I did it twice. The camera on the plank is broken and probably not getting fixed. I was in line before it opened and got a great picture from the beginning of the course that the "zip line" photographer would not have taken if I wasn't about the 10th person in line. Also, don't rush off the ropes course if you are enjoying it.

 

I did not feel that the time spent waiting for the rock wall was worth it. To preface, I got shut down from the rock wall 5 times before I actually was able to do it on the last day. Make sure you get there prior to 15 minutes before the scheduled closing time, are not wet, and have socks. I did that and was finished with my climb one hour later. And that was with being in the beginning of the line. Also the belayers really have no sense of urgency in getting everything set up. I was very disappointed in that, as they know the enormous lines on sea days and that the wall is only open 2 or 3 hours per day.

 

For both ropes course and rock wall, your time will be well spent if you get to them 20 minutes before they are scheduled to open. Same thing with water slides. We waited long for the free fall, only to get up there and learn that it was "broken."

 

The ship has so much to do. You simply cannot do it all. We never went to Ice Bar, never saw the jazz musician at fat cats, barely strolled the waterfront, only ate at 1 specialty (Moderno), never went to the atrium games/activities, did not see burn the floor. If you want to spend money on all of the extras, you can. But if you are put off by spending additional money on extra activities, I believe you can pull off a low bill if you eat in Manhattan room every night, see the free shows, do the outdoor activities, etc and not feel that you missed out on anything that was a paid activity. That being said, I had the UBP and was in the bars often (Maltings & Shakers waterfront). On that note, I would never do the UBP again. Its completely unrealistic to drink the requiste drinks and be "well" enough to have the desire to drink your money's worth again the next (six) days. Not to mention port days etc...

 

For the beer drinkers, Brooklyn Lager is available on draft ONLY at the Uptown Grill. I would have liked to see my hometown beer available at more than one bar (which was only open during the day). Good thing Uptown had the best lunch food anyway!

 

Last but not least, if you would like to mingle with the Rock of Ages cast and second city cast, they will likely be at the pirate ship bar after 2AM (pax area crew curfew) on one or both port nights. We had a great time with them!

 

While we did hit some snags (standing room only in Headliners, horrible service in Savor, waiting times for slides/rock/ropes, napping through lunch buffet hours) these were all incredibly minor in comparison with the trip.

I LOVED the Breakaway and could do the same itinerary three more times and have completely different experiences each time.

[Hikini]

Glad to hear you had a great time - thanks for the tips about the app!

[puddles99]

I had similar issues with the internet package - disappointing to go from over 200mb left to 0 in an instant. Definitely would suggest getting help setting up, however lines are long with others doing the same! Also, to get your latitudes "bonus" mbs, you need to see the internet manager, it isn't automatic.

 

Like you, had a great time in Breakaway despite a few glitches along the way!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[meatball_nyc]

Welcome home. Thanks for the post.

We used the iConcierge app a lot to text and check our accounts. Really worth the $7.99 I agree with you.

We didn't do any of the Atrium shows or games either, liked the Waterfront so much better.

Loved Breakaway and will be booking again for next year. So much to do it's really really hard, if not impossible, to do it all with one trip. The Ropes Course was a big hit with the young adults in our group.

Thanks again for your post. Glad to hear you had a good time. She's a great ship.

 

 

~Robin

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[PathfinderEss]

Nice review, thanks for posting.:)

[mommiejaxx]

So if you download the app and pay the $7.99 then you can use your cell phone to call home back to the states and it will only be $.79 a minute? This would be awesome as we will have a teenager home and we will need to check in.

[wasiii]

.....I will bring this "cheat sheet" with me because I tend to forget things with my oldsheimers kicking in.

 

;)

 

wasiii

[darkNstormy14]

So if you download the app and pay the $7.99 then you can use your cell phone to call home back to the states and it will only be $.79 a minute? This would be awesome as we will have a teenager home and we will need to check in.

 

That is correct. I never experienced having someone from ashore call me though. I beleive there is a unique # as well.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for the review.

 

Keith