Breakaway Review March 19-26

[drevil0208]

Currently travelling home after getting off the Breakaway this morning. It was my first cruise on NCL (done Princess and RCL before), first time with kids (boys aged 8 and 5), and first time out of NYC.

 

Embarkation:

 

We got an uber from our manhattan hotel to the pier. However, there was insane traffic near the terminal

because of the marathon, so we ended up getting out and walking the last 7 or 8 blocks... which was a little challenging with our luggage and our kids!

 

We got to the pier around 10:45. We experienced no real lines and were on board about an hour later. Very efficient!

 

The Ship:

 

We loved it! After reading lots of negative reviews I was nervous but we had very few issues. I liked the layout of the ship. I've never been on a ship with water slides and sports related activities before. So it was nice to have these options.

 

The smoke was noticeable from the casino, especially on decks 7 and 8. It wasn't awful, but my kids did complain about it a lot so I just turned it into a positive and used it as an opportunity to engrain in them that smoking is bad for them and they should never do it, LOL.

 

Cabin:

 

We had a balcony cabin on deck 8 mid-ship. We were directly above the waterfront. In our cabin, 8780, you had very little privacy and there was lots of noise from the nearby blues bar and whisky bar when the door was open. So we ended up having to sleep with our door closed.

 

We had no issues with our room, and kids loved the towel animals that the steward made each night.

 

Splash Academy:

 

For us, this was the star of the ship. Our kids LOVED it! Almost every night our 8 year old was miserable when we picked him up simply because he didn't want to leave!

 

Some days our kids would spend more waking hours there than with us! We felt a little bad except they were begging to go there! They even wanted to do the Port Play meals a couple of days, where you pay $6 each and they take them to O'Sheehan's for dinner. They also wanted to do the late night play a couple of nights.

 

I thought the counsellors all did a fantastic job. Our kids especially loved Tiny, Mufasa and Pineapple. I thought splash academy went above and beyond. And I would sail NCL again just because of this. Our kids each made friends who they would say hi to or play with at the splash pad.

 

Food:

 

With how much our kids loved SA, I would usually take them to the buffet for dinner at 5:30, and then my wife and I would go for dinner after 7 when they were at the kids club. We did Manhattan Room twice, Savor one night, La Cucina, Le Bistro, Tappenyaki and O'Sheehan's.

 

The MDR food was good, I'd say similar in quality to Princess and RC. We enjoyed all the specialty restaurants. I actually enjoyed O'Sheehan's and the burger I had was awesome.

 

For breakfast and lunch we mostly did buffet, which we found good and rarely had trouble getting seats (we had good weather for the most part and sat outside often, which was less busy than inside).

 

We had breakfast one morning in Taste, and had a bad experience. The food was ok, but took forever! We were in there for about 90 minutes. Apparently they had problems with the galley. The maitre d took our room number and sent us chocolate covered strawberries that night, which I thought was a good gesture.

 

Ports:

 

We only got off the ship at GSC. It seemed a lot of people have the same idea on this itinerary, as the ship was still busy even on port days.

 

Even with GSC, we took the last tender at about 1230 to avoid the crowds. We liked GSC, and our kids had fun playing at the beach.

 

Entertainment:

 

We liked it a LOT more than Princess and RC. As Norwegian seems to appeal to a younger crowd, it was nice to be at the pool without hearing 60s music on replay and Sweet Caroline all the time.

 

We did rock of ages, which blew us away (except for the douchebags who brought a baby and when it cried, refused to leave for about 5 minutes even when asked to by the usher!).

 

We did 2 second city shows. We loved the first one, but the second one (Game Night), was not nearly as good as the other one.

 

We also loved Howl at the Moon, and stayed until 1230 2 nights when our kids were in SA.

 

Disembarkation:

 

Did self disembark. Left the room at about 8. Was extremely slow! Out of the terminal at about 10.

 

Overall:

 

We were pretty lucky with weather. Our second sea day (Friday), the seas were rough and it was super windy, so the ropes and waterslides and main pool were closed.

 

Don't think we would do another NYC cruise again, just because the first sea day and last sea day are pretty chilly still.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Dina7]

Thanks for your helpful review! Every review I have read mentions the long disembarkation no matter if they do self-assist or not. Not looking forward to that for our BA cruise.

[skywalkervadar]

We were on the same cruise. We also did self assist but decided to go down about 7:20 and literally walked right off the ship and through customs. That was a pleasant surprise after the nightmare of the marathon screwing with traffic on embarkation day turning our 15 min drive in from our hotel in Jersey City into a 3 hour game of NYC street Tetris.

[newmexicoNita]

We have only done self debarcation once and it was enough for us; we did it on the Epic a few months ago.

 

Thanks for your honest and objective review; We will be on the BA next Sunday and are a little concered about the weather, but excited to sail out of NYC.

[cage keeper]

Thanks for your helpful review! Every review I have read mentions the long disembarkation no matter if they do self-assist or not. Not looking forward to that for our BA cruise.

 

We were also on this cruise. Set alarm for 7, crawled out of bed about 7:05, out of room about 7:25 in cab by 7:50, Grand Central Station by 8:00.

[Grlpowers]

We got in the self debarkation line about 7:00 and we were on the road by 7:45. The key is to get there early. I would rather self debark any day than the nightmare of carnivals debarkation!

The marathon traffic coming in was horrible. Took us 2 hours from the tunnel.

It was our second time on the ship and I think the food was better this time. We left our kids at home with the grandparents and got a spa room. Well worth the money to be able to use the thermal spa everyday.

[Fred Quimby]

yea,,,cabin 8780 sucks,,,but you were close to everything