Monster Photo Review of NCL Breakaway Cruise 7/31 to 8/7

[skeeter195]

I truly understand what you are trying to say. I live north of NYC and will only go there when I absolutely have to. The "NY attitude" is awful. With so many people in such a small place it can and does bring out the worst in people. Look at it this way if 1% of the people are bad in NYC that still comes out to about 80,000. That is a lot of "attitude" being spread around.

 

Great review so far.

[Sissaaaaaa]

Not only was there a 1000 people on a pool deck designed for 400, and a pool designed for 50 (my opinion). There were no deck chairs available anywhere near the pool. Im not saying all of them were occupied, there were entire rows of chairs with towels on them that never had anybody sit on them. Maybe Im wrong, but I think the "northern" attitude of the majority of the cruisers had something to do with it. Remember when I talked about embarkation, and how lots of people were trying to game the system, and break into lines to get an advantage in boarding? well, that same mindset was on display when it came to loungers. Im used to "chair hogs" on the other cruises I have been on leaving from southern ports, Southerners can be chair hogs too, but the amount of it going on during this cruise was over the top.

 

I know this is cruise critic, so let the angry replies to my last paragraph begin.

 

I am from NY/NJ originally, and I agree with you 100% It's the primary reason I will not sail from that area! It is much nicer, and WAY more laid back sailing from Florida! "Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes"....

Edited August 11, 2016 by Sissaaaaaa

[Mid43]

Totally agree with you. I'm enjoying the OP's review but found the stereotyping of us "northerners" unnecessary.

 

Native NY'er here and I could care less what the OP has to say about NY'ers, or anyone else for that matter. It's his opinion, fair enough. So be it, move on...

 

Now... continue on with the review and keep your opinions to yourself... oh wait, then you can't tell us what you thought of the food, what you thought of the ports, or even the ship... Hmmm how are we going to get around this...

 

It's an opinion, and I value all opinions no matter how narrow minded, or open minded they may be...:)

[Two Wheels Only]

I don't have little kids and don't need to sit right next to the pool.

 

The same is true for most of the people there. For some unknown reason, some people "need" to be front and center which contributes to the crowding.

 

Can you confirm if Lobster has been removed from the Teppanyaki menu and other restaurants?

 

It was still on the menu that he posted earlier.

[Smitty74]

Day 2, First sea Day continued...... time for dinner

 

so where was I before I started talking about the evil chair hogs? Oh Yes, now I remember.

 

 

After my second Lunch, it was dinner time. As you can imagine I was that hungry after eating that half pound hamburger, so I took it easy and have a little rotisserie chicken for dinner at Taste

 

 

My Wife had the short ribs.

 

Let me sidestep a minute and talk about the food in the restaurants. Just looking at menus, the dinnertime food in the "free" restaurants (Taste, Savor, Manhattan Room, O'sheehans and Buffet) look to be gourmet offerings. they use alot of big name ingredients, and sound like your eating a fancy meal. In reality, Overall the food is just "good". Its not amazing, its not something that your going to tell people was the highlight of your cruise. there were a few items that were truly great (I will point them out), but they were the exception, and not the rule.

 

the specialty restaurants on the other hand. the ones you have to pay extra for (Le Bistro, Teppanyaki, Cagny's, Lacucina, Ocean Blue, Moderno) are a step above the free ones. Probably several steps above the others. Almost every meal in those restaurants was worth writing home about. each of the specialty restaurants has its own kitchen, and you can tell the cooking staff is the best the cruise ship has to offer,and is using the best ingredients the ship has to offer.

 

Its a shame Cruising has come to this point, but if food is a highlight of your cruise, then your going to want to factor in the specialty restaurants into your budget.

 

P.S. in a previous post, somebody asked about lobster. None of the free restaurants offed it during the week. Every specialty restaurant offered it every night.

 

Time to go listen to a little music in the atrium before bed.

 

 

Day 3, Second Sea day

 

I woke up early and went down to sheehans for Breakfast. I ordered the full breakfast.

 

Not as good as your local IHOP, but very serviceable. as a side note, I dont drink coffee and prefer a diet soda with breakfast. since the bars dont open till around 10 am, and they wont let you bring on your own drinks, Sheehans is the only place you can get a soda at the crack of dawn. You can get a soda for breakfast at taste and savor, but they dont open till 8am.

 

this is also the day they made us move our clocks ahead an hour so that we would be on bermuda time. I hate time changes, but I guess its necessary.

 

After My wife and daughter woke up, I was taken to the Bermuda jewelry shopping presentation given by Jason in the theater.

 

About 10:30 we went up to the buffet for a snack.

[Mid43]

There is a small drink area at the front of the buffet, on the port side, where the offer mimosa's and some other basic drinks (certainly not a full stocked bar) that you can get fountain soda's in the morning. It is just outside the revolving doors on the port side. Hope this helps someone.

[Smitty74]

Day 3, second sea day continued....

 

Still getting snacks in the buffet

 

Notice the water bottle in my wifes hand? Its a good idea to bring one. the tiny cups in the buffet are not big enough, and I was always fighting dehydration.

 

My daughter talks mom into a virgin strawberry Daiquiri

 

After Lunch, the daughter is off to splash academy, and I end up in the atrium to watch a couple of the activities.

 

tango class

 

discussing how much food we eat. Talk given by Dan Dan the cruise director

 

A Caprihinia makes this talk alot more interesting

 

Ships officers answering your questions

[roe2ship]

 

Not only was there a 1000 people on a pool deck designed for 400, and a pool designed for 50 (my opinion). There were no deck chairs available anywhere near the pool. Im not saying all of them were occupied, there were entire rows of chairs with towels on them that never had anybody sit on them. Maybe Im wrong, but I think the "northern" attitude of the majority of the cruisers had something to do with it. Remember when I talked about embarkation, and how lots of people were trying to game the system, and break into lines to get an advantage in boarding? well, that same mindset was on display when it came to loungers. Im used to "chair hogs" on the other cruises I have been on leaving from southern ports, Southerners can be chair hogs too, but the amount of it going on during this cruise was over the top.

 

I know this is cruise critic, so let the angry replies to my last paragraph begin.

That is simply not the case. The pool is a joke and the upper deck is poorly designed with limited space resulting in not enough loungers available. This is also a problem on the Getaway (same class) I've cruised from the area with other lines/ships and NEVER did I experience these issues like on Breakaway. It is by far the worst and has nothing to with the area, the problem falls with the ship itself.

[Smitty74]

The pool is a joke and the upper deck is poorly designed with limited space resulting in not enough loungers available.

 

I can agree with this. Another part of the problem is ALOT of space on deck 15 (pool deck) and 16 is taken up by the Haven Also theres a large area of deck space thats not accessible unless you buy a vibe pass. Imagine how much room there would be if Vibe deck area and Havens courtyard was available to the general public.

Edited August 11, 2016 by Smitty74

[OV8]

 

What a mess.

[Smitty74]

Day 3 continued, second day at sea....

 

After all the excitement in the atrium, I headed up to my room for a nap. Let me tell you. there aint no napping like cruise ship sea day napping. the ship is gently rocking. You got a belly full of buffet food. a couple of cocktails in you from the bar. and best of all, you can cut the AC up so its nice and cool in your room. heaven..........

 

Heres a picture of the temp control in the room. Greens shows where the temp is. Blue shows where you have set the temperature to.

 

I was seriously impressed with the temp controls on this ship. I like my home to be at about 72 degrees and the setting in the picture above is what gave me that temp. If you cranked it down lower that that, you would freeze in there. No problems keeping cool as long as you kept the balcony door closed. If you opened that door, the AC turned off, and it went from 72 to 85 degrees in about 5 minutes. Once you close the door though. pressing the snowflake button gives you a burst of cold air for a few minutes, and then its cool again like normal.

 

dinner was at the Manhattan room. We got a seat by the window, but way far away from the band and the singer.

 

Once again, dinner was just OK.

 

Heres an shrimp dish

 

and here is their version of a banana split for desert.

 

thats all for Day 3. Tomorrow we arrive in Bermuda, and I have a bunch of photos to share of that. stay tuned.

[Two Wheels Only]

Imagine how much room there would be if Vibe deck area and Havens courtyard was available to the general public.

 

No need to imagine since.....that's not going to happen. ;)

[Sprasa03]

DId you get any pictures of the dailies? I like that you tell what talks you went to but I'm interested in knowing all that was available.

If you're saving them till the end that's fine too - i don't want to mess up your flow...

[NLH Arizona]

My daughter talks mom into a virgin strawberry Daiquiri

 

Not only is your daughter adorable, she has great taste, as I also like the virgin strawberry Daiquiris. Edited August 11, 2016 by NLH Arizona

[Son of a son of a ...]

Great review!!

[Shannon12]

Hi Smitty 74,

I have two questions. Can you confirm if Lobster has been removed from the Teppanyaki menu and other restaurants? Secondly have you been able to tell from experience how high some of the Ultra premium liquors now cost? I am a big fan of high end libation i.e Remy Martin XO, Patron or Glenmorangie. It used to cost 2 dollars more but now I can only imagine how much more it will cost based on the new drink prices. Thank for any insight you can provide:):).

 

Lobster was still on the menu on the July 31 sailing. I know because that is what I had lol.

[balcap]

I am really enjoying your review....and it's getting me excited for my BREAKAWAY experience in November. Your photos are beautifully sharp...what type camera are you using ( I'm in the market for a new one)

[easyboy]

finally, The Statue of Liberty

I love this shot. Never did one without any photo bomber:)

Really enjoy following.

[christinalvt]

Thank you so much for your great review. I am also very upset about losing uptown Grill to Margaritaville, I loved the breakfast at Uptown, and don't understand why they would replace a free restaurant with an upcharge one. I'm taking friends on their first cruise on the Breakaway in November and now they won't experience the Uptown Grills burgers. Oh well.

Regarding the chair hogs, I noticed that Carnival enforces the 40-minute rule by actually removing towels from the chairs, why can't NCL do that?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Two Wheels Only]

Regarding the chair hogs, I noticed that Carnival enforces the 40-minute rule by actually removing towels from the chairs, why can't NCL do that?

 

NCL gives 60 minutes.

As for why/when/if the enforcement is spotty, I don't know.

[christinalvt]

I've watched, I never saw any staff enforcing it so I just did it myself. If I saw a chair vacant for 40-45 minutes, I move the towel and sat. No one ever said anything to me.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[easyboy]

I've watched, I never saw any staff enforcing it so I just did it myself. If I saw a chair vacant for 40-45 minutes, I move the towel and sat. No one ever said anything to me.

I guess the staff should have the same guts that you have.

I can't imagine how they can fairly enforce the rule by monitoring the continuous vacant time of each and every chair.

Cruisers should also do the same as you did.

[Two Wheels Only]

If I saw a chair vacant for 40-45 minutes, I move the towel and sat.

As stated in the NCL dailies, passengers have up to 1 hour to leave items unattended. If you moved items at 45 minutes, the owner of the items wasn't breaking any NCL rule. You were.

[babs135]

After reading negative after negative I am really enjoying following your review. DH and I will be onboard over New Year and are looking forward to it.

 

Thank you for helping me realise that for every negative there is a positive (hopefully lots of positives) and I eagerly await your next posting.

 

BTW I hope you will mention if there are any 'perceived negatives' and not just ignore them to make your review read better. The pics of the pool area look truly horrendous and I'm now wondering why I bothered to buy a new swimming costume if I can't get near :D :eek:

 

Could you tell me how bad the smoking and the smell of smoking is? Some reviews say it is pretty bad.

Edited August 12, 2016 by babs135
To add something

[bjlaac]

What a mess.

 

This is NCL's own doing as it fits right into their charge for everything you can. If you think about it for a moment, NCL has been innovative of many things, freestyle dining, multiple specialty restaurants, Haven exclusivity, etc.

 

Unfortunately, they have done this by removing a lot of "free" stuff to push you in that direction. Take the specialties for instance, years ago they removed items like Escargot, osso bocco, lobster, shrimp cocktail, etc from the free locations and made them only available in the specialties. Other lines did some of that but not nearly to the extent of NCL has perfected.

 

The same as with the pools, you want space, peace, access well then pay for a Vibe pass or book a Haven Cabin. What's troublesome is NCL laughs in your face when you question them on it. I remember when the Breakawy first launched and we were sailing maybe 6 months later we had the chance to talk to the Captain about the pool space and size. How there are volumes of complaints on board of how poorly designed it was. He's response was "oh our research has proven families don't want big pool areas on ship these days, they want something else in its place." Something else, like what? More paying pool areas or activities.

 

Here we are 4 years or so later and what's the biggest complaint, pool size and charging for everything. If you look at their financials they appear to be sailing virtually full across all their ships so and I just don't understand it. I guess there are enough first time cruisers to make up for the ones looking elsewhere and there's a captive audience for the haven and specialty products.