Breakaway Reviews

[NYcruzzer]

New Yorkers are good people, but just like any other place there are some bad. I just wanted to no what David meant about NY crowd, very curious as a New Yorker myself.

 

Apparently David doesn't think to higher of his neighbors to the south.. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2411112

[sunnsail]

Apparently David doesn't think to higher of his neighbors to the south.. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2411112

 

Its apparent that he doesn't like us New Yorkers(L.I.also) he should consider cruising out of Boston!

[easyboy]

We've been on the Breakaway 4 times and have our fifth booked for January. My only other cruising was on Carnival a couple of times before we switched to the Breakaway but my other half and his parents have been cruising for years and years with different lines and they love the Breakaway too.

 

We considered doing the Jade out of Tampa in January instead but when we looked at how close the two cruises were in price and factored in that we'd have to travel to Tampa we decided to sail out of NYC again. We like that we know the Breakaway so well too - it's almost like going home. :)

 

Entertainment: We love Rock of Ages. We've seen Burn the Floor several times and even though it's a great show I don't think it matters either way to any of us if we see it this time around. Every trip after the first one we've said we're not going to do Cirque but we always end up there and it's a little different each time and we always enjoy it. I think if we kept doing the 7 day things would get repetitive. We found a huge difference between the entertainment on the 7 day vs the 14 day. I think there were only a couple of nights on the 14 day that we weren't in the theatre. They brought in different entertainment - an Irish singer, a Four Seasons tribute, a woman that did Broadway songs, a juggler/comedian - on top of the regular shows. Howl at the Moon is one of my favourite things about the Breakaway. :)

 

Meals: We didn't eat in the MDR much for our first two trips. We had the dining plan so we mostly ate breakfast and lunch either in the buffet or at O'Sheehans and then dinner in a specialty restaurant. The last couple of trips we've eaten in the MDR more and it's been mostly enjoyable. A couple of times the service was pretty slow and we had to send something back once because it wasn't hot enough. I like the MDR breakfast a lot better than the O'Sheehans breakfast, but the other people in our group preferred O'Sheehans I think. We loved Uptown Grill because their burgers were pretty good and the salad bar was great. I'm a little disappointed to see it's been changed to Margaritaville but I think the rest of our group is excited to see the change.

 

Drinks: A lot of people complain about the bar service being slow but maybe being friendly and leaving the odd tip on top of the auto gratuity goes a long way because we never felt the wait was too long. Maybe we were just more laid back than the people who have voiced concerns. I've read comments about NCL being a "booze cruise" now that the UBP promo is widely available. People were definitely enjoying their drinks, but they weren't causing problems on the cruises we've been on. It seems like it would be more of a problem for the shorter 3 and 4 day cruises. We're disappointed with not being able to bring on pop and water this time around, but it's not a deal breaker. We have the beverage package and the women don't mind drinking the ship water - we'll just bring a couple of refillable water bottles. If the men are fussy I see that they have packages with 1L bottles that aren't outrageously priced. I don't know how well the 1L bottles will fit in the fridge, but they can use the ice bucket or whatever.

 

Disembarkation: I do agree that disembarkation can be aggravating. It probably doesn't help that people are little sad/grouchy that the cruise is over. We always do the self assist. It would go *much* more smoothly if everyone followed the announcements telling them when to line up to get off the ship instead of rushing to be the first in line whether you're supposed to be there or not. I think it's pretty obvious who's doing self assist and who's not and sometimes I see crew members turning away people who aren't carrying their luggage when it's supposed to be self assist only, but I wish they'd enforce that more.

 

Cabin: We did an aft balcony a couple of times on the 7 day Florida/Bahamas it was fantastic! I loved being on the back of the ship cruising out of NYC and any time we had an aft balcony in Nassau we had a beautiful view of Atlantis. The downside is that Spice H20 can be *super* loud late at night. I'm talking glasses rattling on the shelves loud. I don't know if we just had the luck or if it's like that all the time. Some people wouldn't care, but it would drive others bananas. The other times we've had a regular balcony - I definitely wouldn't want to give up the balcony. We spend enough time out there and in our cabin that it's worth it to us.

 

It's unfortunate that there are so many negative reviews. We've had issues while on board and once while booking but most of them have been handled very well. There hasn't been anything major enough to prevent us from booking again or anything we felt we had to share on a forum like this. If something is a legitimate problem the crew on board is pretty good to work with you to find a solution. I read something the other day (on these forums) where someone commented that the Breakaway has a reputation of not being a great ship to work on and that it's reflected in the attitude of the crew but we absolutely haven't seen that. It's amazing that we interact with so many crew members over the duration of a cruise and nobody stands out in my mind as being unhelpful or unfriendly.

 

So... add our experiences to the "Yay for Breakaway" camp. :)

 

Sorry if this doesn't flow very well - I kept going back and forth from it to some work I'm trying to get done. Once we have something booked I have a hard time not thinking about it!

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[dslucas]

As Bill already alluded to, most of the consternation stems from the way NCL handled the itinerary change and overall lack of communication, not the itinerary change itself.

 

There were a lot of angry people on the 10/09 sailing that felt as if NCL waited until they boarded and gave them a bait and switch with no way out but a total loss. Anyone watching the weather forecasts knew Nicole's guidance was north toward Bermuda. This includes NCL. Passengers called NCL in the days leading up to, and hours before embarkation and were told countless times that there would be no impact to their itinerary.

 

To make matters worse, as the announcement was made over the ship's PA, passengers learned from relatives and friends that other lines (CCL, RCL) who had cruises impacted by these storms were offering much more to their customers and that really soured many folks, including me. It was common opinion among the passengers that NCL could have done a lot more. In the way of communication and compensation.

 

Many posters on Shipmate, and to a lesser extent CC feel that passengers for the 10/09 sailing are upset because of the itinerary change. This is not the case (for the majority). We are disappointed in the way NCL handled the situation.

 

I've sent my survey results to NCL, filed a formal complaint, mailed a letter to their corporate office, and posted a review on CC (waiting to have it published). I'm only posting here to clear up the misconception about why the anger exists. And i'll leave it at that.

 

As for the ship itself - have no worries. She's a fine ship. A bit burly, but fine. :) You will have a good time. My wife and I still managed a nice vacation, even given the circumstances. I did a lot of reading up on BA before our sailing and I was glad I did. There are a lot of tips floating around that will help you out. I posted some of these in my pending review.

 

Enjoy your cruise! :cool:

Edited October 20, 2016 by dslucas

[HowardK]

I went on the ship 2013/2014 and loved it- easy for me to get to as I am 90 minutes south in NJ. In particular I liked Cagney's, O Shennans and the music venues.

 

Does anyone find the ship different at all over time? I read complaints about quality of food, ship being understaffed but can't tell if it is people being overly critical or honest.

 

 

The one thing that does seem different (and this is outside of the ship itself) is that the last minute deals do not seem to be there anymore. If you take a guarantee you get none of the promos

[C-line]

 

Does anyone find the ship different at all over time? I read complaints about quality of food, ship being understaffed but can't tell if it is people being overly critical or honest.

 

We generally only cruise once a year and have been on the Breakaway a few times but last year we cruised on the Breakaway at the end of January and again at the beginning of April. Things have obviously changed over time, for example the menus in specialty restaurants, and the noodle bar changing to complimentary instead of paid (yay!), and the policy about not carrying beverages on board. As far as quality of food or staffing we haven't noticed any changes. There have been some bumps along the way, but nothing major, and we haven't noticed our experience has been changing negatively over time. I'm sure some of the complaints are legitimate, and some are just over dramatic, but we've always had a fantastic time overall. :)