Mini 14 Day Southern Caribbean Review

[UnaPalomita]

My husband will probably post an in depth review with pictures, so stay tuned for that :)

 

Just some background info, we're in our mid thirties and have a 5 year old. We've done 1 Jewel, 2 Gem (all NCL), and 1 Voyager of the Seas (RC a long time ago). This was our first time on the Breakaway out of NYC sailing Jan 29th to Feb 12th 2017. The itinerary was Puerto Rico, Tortola, St. Martin, St. Thomas and then 4 new to us islands Martinique, St. Kitts, Dominica, and Barbados.

 

We were kind of worried about going on the Breakaway for the first time because of all the bad reviews online. Even some of the "good" reviews had some bad stuff in them. But guess what... we loved it!!! :D So this is a positive Breakaway review!

 

I think the Breakaway gets a lot of bad reviews on the shorter cruises. On our 14 day cruise the average age aboard was 61 years old. My son's age category for Splash Academy (3 to 5 years) was only 10 kids! The amount of passengers on board was about 3800 to 3900. The cruise immediately following on Feb 12th had a 1,000 more passengers and 500 to 800 kids.

 

That is a huuuuuge difference! So many of the problems we read about like waiting forever to get an elevator, splash academy reaching their child limit, not being able to get a drink at a bar, there being a million people in the pool, etc do not apply on the 14 day cruises. We had zero problems with the above listed.

 

Some of the staff we've talked to mentioned that the average age of the passengers makes a difference. People get up earlier and go to bed earlier. Not so many night owls on the ship. Also there is a lot less drinking during the day and from the start of the day lol.

 

There was some uniqueness to our cruise, like passengers taking a really long time at the buffet, etc. Just imagine going on vacation with your Oma or Opa!

 

Some other things I noted:

 

I would not book the thermal suite next time on a Breakaway or Breakaway + class ship, don't get me wrong, I had an amazing time in the thermal spa... but I felt compelled to spend at least an hour there each day and sometimes fitting it in after dinner was exhausting. One time I fell asleep at 9:40 PM on the heated lounger all by myself, eeek (it closes at 10 pm). Also, I felt like thermal suite time took up time I could've been listening to music.

 

The only spa service I got done was waxing, I did not get a product pitch during it, thank goodness. I hate that! They use a blue hard wax, which works great and smells good. Prices seemed ok for that. However, when checking in to the thermal suite I got a lot of, "when are you booking blah blah blah". So slightly annoying. :p

 

All the restaurants were amazing. Manhattan Room, Taste/Savor, Cagney's, Moderno, Ocean Blue and ESPECIALLY the Raw Bar. Special shout out to Sandy!! He was the was best at the Raw Bar. So gooood!! Jenna the manager of Ocean Blue was also a sweet heart. She was so good to my little guy!

 

I did not love the Garden Cafe buffet. It was okay and I always found something, but it ended up becoming a place where we would only go to for pizza / fries. On our Gem winter 2016 cruise the buffet was the best place on the ship IMO.

 

Alternatively the breakfast and lunch buffet at Modern/Cagneys was super yummy! One day they had a bavarian buffet with a band playing edelweisse, etc.

 

We did the complimentary breakfast room service a couple of times. Always nice to have a morning muffin, fruit, and coffee on the balcony. One time our slip disappeared and I called down to see if they would deliver. They offered to deliver at that time, but we ended up going to the buffet instead.

 

I did get a lot of very obvious attention from the older gentlemen whenever I wore something short, either shorts or a dress. :eek: I don't wear plunging necklines, so I can't comment on that aspect lol ;) But yeah, usually my husband doesn't notice stuff like this, but it was extremely obvious to him too.

 

Splash Academy was fun! My son was one of 10 kids, but usually they never showed up and he was alone. But he's hyper so I am sure the counselors were running around like they had 3 kids. It was the first time we did the late night babysitting. They charge $6 per hour, usually we did one extra hour. You have the option of putting a tip on the bill. We ended up tipping extra at the end. What else does everyone else tip?? We did I think $24.

 

Room steward was friendly. He gave us towel animals every night. And chocolates, we have like 50+ which made my son happy!

 

Never really made it to Spice H20, I blame the thermal suite for that!

 

Went to Fat Cats once, my son enjoyed it too. The singer was cute and said my son was a future blues fan.

 

A baby must've pooped in the baby pool one day mid-trip, so after that point we DID NOT ever go back into the baby pool/splash area. SO GROSS. My son was big enough for the two divided family pools and the slides thank goodness! He measures 41". I think we're going to make it a point not to do any more baby pools from here on out.

 

There were a ton of european passengers this trip. Previously on the Gem sailings it was mostly New Yorkers and Canadians.

 

The ONLY time the smoking really annoyed me was when we were at the Noodle Bar in the casino. The food is really good there, it's a shame it was placed in a smoking area :( I wish they offered take out.

 

We did Bliss lounge one time and they had some fun 90s mix. We were the only ones dancing. On the following nights they continued to play the usual baby boomers stuff. I did do the twist one night, haha.

 

Overall we looooved Barbados and Dominica. If you are going to Dominica make sure you book Screws Spa, it's a natural sulphur spa. It's gorgeous. My husband has to post his video on youtube. It was a Sunday and we had the place to ourselves.

 

We contacted Edison on the Screws Spa Facebook, he's Screw's son, and he provided us with a van to the spa and even did a mini tour of the botanical gardens on they way back to the ship. The spa is $20 a person, they didn't charge for my son. They also have beer, ginger beer, etc. Here is the Facebook link:

 

https://www.facebook.com/Screws-Natural-Sulphur-Spa-372449869453319/

 

Just send them a personal message on their and they will get back to you. They were sooooo friendly!!!!

 

On Barbados we did Sail Calabaza, also very friendly and lots of good food. The ship is beautiful! Saw some turtles. Definitely want to return to Barbados too. They also picked us up at the port. Here is their Facebook:

 

https://www.facebook.com/calabazasailingcruises?hc_ref=SEARCH

 

Tortola we did Brewer's Bay which is ok, defnitely a let down compared to Virgin Gorda and The Baths. But we didn't feel like taking the ferry over. So our loss... We heard Cane Garden was better?

 

St. Thomas we went back to Magen's Bay, always gorgeous.

 

St. Kitt's we went to Mr. X's Shiggity Shack, I think in Frigates Bay. It was okay. The food was great. But since it's a party place there was lots of straws, cups, etc on the beach from the night time partying. I would try a different place next time.

 

Martinique we walked around town and went to Mcdonald's lol. We did the french pharmacy thing as recommended by Gwyneth Paltrow and also saw the basilica.

 

San Juan we walked around the old part of town and got another Panama hat, this time for my mom at Ole. Also got some puerto rican snacks at CVS. Also, longest line ever at the Marshall's, not worth going into and shopping unless you want to spend a half hour waiting to check out, FYI.

 

St. Martin is always good, we went back to Le Gallion beach and then shopped for booze. Also stopped at the smallest bar in the world Juggie's Place. Very unique. It's like $5 for a cigar and some booze. Then we stoppped at the candy store

 

Overall a fabulous trip. My inlaws booked for next year because they loved our pics!

 

We're going to skip a year and book the 2019 Western Caribbean from NYC on the Escape instead. Going through some hard post-vacation blues!

[Gregor4500]

Thanks for posting.

[UnaPalomita]

Thanks for posting.

 

You're welcome! It was a good time :)

Edited February 14, 2017 by UnaPalomita
Made a mistake

[Carolina Girl 99]

Thanks for the quick review! We are doing a 10 day Southern on the Jade in Dec 2018 and will be visiting most of the ports you mentioned, so I am checking out some of your "excursions"

[easyboy]

Glad you had a fabulous trip. Thanks for the feedback.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[UnaPalomita]

Thanks for the quick review! We are doing a 10 day Southern on the Jade in Dec 2018 and will be visiting most of the ports you mentioned, so I am checking out some of your "excursions"

 

I am excited for you!!! :) Best time of year to go because you appreciate the warm weather! What ports are you going to?

[UnaPalomita]

Glad you had a fabulous trip. Thanks for the feedback.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

You're welcome! Definitely would want to cruise Breakaway again. Just need to find FT work now :)

[Arzeena]

Enjoyed reading your review. Thanks for posting.

[UnaPalomita]

Added some pictures!

 

The three of us:

 

 

Average day at the pool, right before the Mr. Sexy Legs Contest:

 

 

Walking around Old San Juan. The ship got there an hour later than normal. It was a little weird to be walking around at dusk :) But definitely cooler:

 

Edited February 16, 2017 by UnaPalomita
typo

[UnaPalomita]

Hat from Ole Curiosidades in old San Juan, Puerto Rico. They have great quality Panama hats. This is our fourth purchase:

 

 

Complimentary room service breakfast on the balcony (yes they were smaller than the Gem, but I'm 4'11'' so still good for me):

 

 

Magen's Bay on Saint Thomas USVI:

 

 

The beach bar at the start of Brewer's Bay on Tortola BVI:

 

[UnaPalomita]

Le Galion Beach on Saint Martin / Sint Maarten, the French side:

 

 

More Le Galion Beach, made it a point to take a picture of the sign since I always spell the beach name wrong. Waves are very calm there:

 

 

Thermal Spa on the Breakaway. I usually went at 8:30 or 9:00 pm at night, no one was ever there at that time:

 

[UnaPalomita]

One more from Brewer's Bay, BVI, this is the view opposite the beach bar, a lot sandier farther down the beach:

 

 

The candy shop at the Philipsburg (spelling?) Saint Martin shopping area (the Dutch side). This place is a hoot! Definitely a stop if you have a kid:

 

 

The Raw Bar at Ocean Blue on the ship. So good!!!

 

 

View of Martinique from the ship's thermal spa suite:

 

 

McDonald's in Martinique, Fort de France, yes, lol, but we did get Pokemon card in French!

 

 

The church in the downtown area of Martinique. Wish I had better pictures:

 

[UnaPalomita]

The strip at Frigate's Bay on St. Kitt's. The ocean was rough here, but less rough at the far left of the beach:

 

 

The Sulphur springs on Dominica, this place was paradise on Earth!!!

 

 

Drinks at Screws Spa on Dominica:

 

 

Screws Spa is just beautiful!

 

 

Saw so many rainbows when the ship was in port on Dominica:

 

[hladygirl]

We loved theScrew Spa. I found it online and got a bunch of cruise critic members to go with us on our cruise. One of the best excursions we all had.

[Jezo]

We loved theScrew Spa. I found it online and got a bunch of cruise critic members to go with us on our cruise. One of the best excursions we all had.

 

How did you end up getting there? Transportation was the biggest issue we had. We searched high and low and ended up having the Son of Screw pick us up at the cruise terminal. We tried to figure out the taxi situation and everything else but just couldn't make head's or tails of it all.

[easyboy]

Nice photos!

[Carolina Girl 99]

I am excited for you!!! :) Best time of year to go because you appreciate the warm weather! What ports are you going to?

 

I'm excited, too! We are visiting San Juan/PR, St. Thomas/USVI, Roseau/Dominica, Bridgetown/Barbados and Philipsburg/St. Martin

 

Love seeing the pics you just added to your review!

[UnaPalomita]

We loved theScrew Spa. I found it online and got a bunch of cruise critic members to go with us on our cruise. One of the best excursions we all had.

 

Yes! :) I am surprised it is not more popular with the cruising crowd!

[UnaPalomita]

Nice photos!

 

Thank you! Hoping to post a link to my husband's videos too :) He still hasn't uploaded anything though lol

[Jezo]

Here's the video walkthrough of Screw's Spa in Dominica.

 

[YOUTUBE]zb37c-mai0g[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

I have it fully annotated so if that doesn't show up on the embedded video here is a link to the Youtube site:

[tweetylori]

Great review and pics, thank you! I have to ask though...what is the French pharmacy thing?

[UnaPalomita]

Great review and pics, thank you! I have to ask though...what is the French pharmacy thing?

 

 

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed :)

 

I was looking for fancy french lingerie stores on Martinique but couldn't find anything online, I wanted something like Princesse Tam Tam you'd find in Montreal or Paris. Anyway, I found this link from Gwyneth Paltrow:

 

 

http://goop.com/the-french-pharmacy/

 

It's a list of products you can find in France. We walked around randomly and popped into a couple of pharmacies in Fort de France and found two of the items on the list :) But beware, the line to pay was really long and it's nowhere as fast as CVS or whatever at home!

[brikee]

Good review. Thanks for sharing.

[NLH Arizona]

Great review, loved reading it.

[BabysBday]

Thanks for posting! Can't wait for our trip, even if the Breakaway will be at full capacity 🙈