Review of NCL BREAKAWAY September 17 - 24, 2017

[stungazed]

This is my review of the Norwegian Breakaway on the September 17 – 24, 2017 sailing.

Sorry for the delay in posting this. I had to return to work right after the cruise and it's been pretty busy.

 

 

Here we go!

 

 

Norwegian Breakaway:

This cruise was booked with one of those “free” cruise certificates that many land based casinos offer. In this case Caesars Entertainment in Atlantic City. This certificate offered an inside cabin. I “only” had to pay $140 per person in “administration” fees. This is just a load of crap charge. If it's free, it should be just that. When I book a cruise at full fare I don't pay an admin fee so why is there one in this case? Just another case of NCL extracting as much cash as possible from their guests. The port charges also had to be paid which I have no problem with.

 

I took this cruise with my father while my mother and wife stayed home and had "girls week".

 

I booked this cruise back in June. At that time I was offered one perk off the list of: free shore excursions, drink package, dining package or internet. We chose the specialty dining package as neither of us drink much. At the time we booked I upgraded to an ocean view from the inside.

 

Like I said in the past I thought the ship was VERY nice but compared to ships with fewer passengers I don't think they added enough space for the public area. The pools in particular were one of the areas that seemed to be fairly crowded with 4000 passengers on board. The Atrium was another point of congestion. It's way too small of an area to hold major events in. The casino is also pretty tight and there are a lot of bottle necks on this ship.

 

Regularly there have been many posts on Cruise Critic about the smokiness of the ship, particularly from the casino. Compared to previous cruises on this ship there were way more smokers on this voyage than in the past. Obviously the casino is a bit of an issue. Since the ship was built with the casino in the center on the 7th floor open air to the 6th and 8th. The smoke does travel to these areas. Down on the 6th floor it went as far as the hallway to the atrium. It wasn't noticeable in the atrium though. It also went in the other direction almost as far. Up on the 8th floor it went into the center area and down the hallway a bit in each direction. Other than that I didn't detect any smoke smell but it was heavy in the casino especially when the casino was open.

 

 

The only other exception would be the stupid little smoking booth on the pool deck. Whoever designed this thing should be fired as the design is quite useless. It's a square box with glass surrounding it. The problem is it's open to the pool deck. Instead of it being a solid room with ventilation out to sea, the smoke just comes right to the pool deck. Depending on how many people were in there at any time it was either really bad, or not noticeable.

 

The ship has all the amenities of most ships with shops, a casino, library, gym, bars, night clubs and of course FOOD! They also had a few things that aren't on other ships, the ropes course being one of those. The last time I was on the ship I did do this but this time I didn't. Kind of like one of those been there, done that things.

 

Overall I thought the ship was in good condition and well maintained. For the most part the ship was spotless.

 

Below is my review of the stateroom, food, and entertainment and ports of call and more. I’ve broken it down by category.

 

Pre-cruise Hotel:

I don’t have much to report here because I live about an hour away from the pier in NYC. It was nice not having to fly and check into a hotel the night before the cruise. However, the parking fees at the terminal are VERY high at $280 for the week. Welcome to New York City! There was no traffic along the way and we were at the pier before 9am.

 

 

Embarkation:

We were originally planning to get to the pier at about 9am. We were probably in the first 100 people that had arrived.

 

 

When we arrived at the parking garage there were already many people coming off the ship while many people were still on the ship on their balconies.

 

 

Things seemed very organized here when we arrived. Security wasn't open yet and the lines were beginning to form but kept under control. Once they opened things up it moved well and after going through security checking in only took a few minutes. Once checked in we were directed to the staging area and given a number. This was the number when we were supposed to board which was 21. I'm not sure why they would be handing out 21's to people that were the first to arrive at the pier. We were then directed to the "staging" area where we waited for the current passengers to disembark and the ship to clear.

 

 

They made a few announcements that they would probably be starting the boarding process early and to stand by for more announcements.

 

 

 

 

If I recall around 10:45am boarding actually started. This was pretty organized but as always a few a-holes can't follow instructions and just slow things down for everyone.

 

Other than the Haven/VIP's/Casino Invited Guests they started boarding with people holding Group ONE cards. OK, fine, I thought these were expedited guests and didn't think much of it until they got up to 6 & 7 (I had 6 last time we cruised). We had 21 and people that I know arrived WAY later than we did were boarding first? Not happening. I'm not sitting in the terminal for another hour until they get up to 21 when I've already been here for 2+ hours and people that just arrived were boarding already. We stated our case and were told to board now. We made our first stop the buffet for lunch and were among the first to arrive at the buffet for lunch while others were exploring the ship.

 

 

After lunch we grabbed some pool chairs and hung out poolside.

 

 

We finally made our way to the muster area for the safety drill that was going to happen around 3pm. This would go just fine if people would just shut the hell up and listen like they are instructed to do. I do not understand why people feel the need to carry on personal conversations during this. You've got all week to talk, it can wait.

 

Stateroom:

We had ocean view cabin 11104. This cabin all is all of the way forward and the window faces froward. These are the windows you see when looking at the front of the ship. The room was laid out well and roomy enough to move around. The only tight spot was trying to get past the bed to the window but other than that we had plenty of space to move around.

 

We had twin beds with a small nightstand on each side them. There was plenty of closet/dresser space.

 

The bathroom was standard cruise ship issue. I liked the fact that the shower had glass door and not a curtain and the water was HOT and had good pressure.

 

There were no issues with the room everything was stocked for the most part. This room was clean and was spotless. Even typically dusty areas in most rooms were clean and this steward knew how to clean! When we arrived at the room our steward was putting the finishing touches on the room as we entered.

 

 

Speaking of the room steward his name was LODSON. He asked if we needed anything special. My father's only request was to have ICE in the room each evening. Night one, NO ICE. This was a hit and miss thing. Some nights it was there, others it wasn't.

 

 

One thing to note is this room is FAR from the elevators as the forward elevators are actually closer to mid ship. It goes back to one of the design flaws on this ship.

 

Captain & Cruise Director:

The Captain was Matko Candrlic. Our Cruise director was Dan Dan once again. Not much to report here. Dan Dan is, well he's Dan Dan. The Captain made his daily announcements and let us know what was going on.

 

Dinner:

We ate three of our dinners in the main dining room, Manhattan and 4 in specialty restaurants. We never had a wait to get in the Manhattan room when we dined between 5-7pm. The other days we went to Cagney's, Moderno, and La Cucina. We don't usually partake in any of the restaurants that contain an additional charge. My reason for this is simple. I feel by doing so it’s going to lead to a time in the future where all food is extra and nothing is included in the fare price. Since my last NCL cruise I've already seen the prices increased and some venues go a la carte just like a land based restaurant. My second reason is cost. I don't see the point of spending upwards of an additional $60+ for dinner when I already paid for food in the price of the cruise. By paying for this extra meal you’re actually paying for it twice. We did eat at these venues this trip due to the fact they were our free perk.

 

I had been reading reports that said the food in the MDRs had been getting better. As far as the foods went in the Manhattan Room, I’d say they were hit and miss. Some of the meals we had were excellent, high quality, great flavors and ample portions. Others weren't that good being bland, overcooked or very small portions. Food is always very subjective and opinionated so I won’t go too much into detail. I won't agree or disagree with the reports I've seen. I can say that it seems like there is less selection and more “inexpensive” (cost wise) foods. I was glad to see they have removed the “extra charge” stuff from the menus.

 

Service in the dining rooms was varied day to day. Some days the service was extremely slow, others it was quick. There is one difference with the freestyle dining concept to the traditional dining of other lines. On the traditional lines all of the appetizers/salads come out at the same time followed by the main course. Freestyle they all come out as ordered so there's no continuity. Sometimes they came out quickly, other times each course took forever. It's part of the give of having the freestyle ability and going when you want and dressing how you like.

 

 

Speaking of dressing, I get the freestyle concept. I appreciate it but, some people take it a bit far. Seriously folks, while I'm all for comfort I don't really think it's acceptable to be wearing a baseball cap, a “wife beater”, shorts and flip flops in the main dining room. With that said, no, things like that don't ruin my dinner like it does to some. It's strictly an observation.

 

 

Cagney's

Our first specialty meal was in Cagney's. I was looking forward to this as was my father because we both enjoyed it last year. An initial look at the menu showed a few more NCL cutbacks. One that stood out the most was the removal of the Tomahawk. I had the pork belly appetizer and he had the shrimp cocktail. I tried out the 5oz filet and can say it was pretty good and cooked perfectly. My father had the Shrimp Skewers. These were a disappointment as the shrimp were rather small and there was a total of 6 of them with a few asparagus spears and carries a price of $25. (covered by a dining plan but if someone were paying it's WAY too much money for what was served). In what appeared to be another NCL cutback, the sides were smaller than they were last time. In fact I had the creamed spinach as one of my sides and it came in a small black “pot” and had a so little in it I thought it was a joke. There was a total of 4 bites in this “pot” (and honestly I could have eaten it in one mouthful had I wanted to). Compared to last years sides that came in much larger metal bowls these were tiny. The food was excellent though.

 

 

So that was the food review of this meal. The service meal was another story. The first was the table selection. They appeared to have overbooked party of 2 reservations. To accommodate this they split up some 4 tops into two, 2 tops. This puts 3 tables for 2 in a small row with little to no room between. Our was the makeshift middle table that wasn't even set properly. Every time someone walked by they bumped into the table. Every time the waiter or assistant came to the table next to us their asses were in our faces. Add to this that our waiter kind of sucked. He was slow, never checked on us (despite putting his ass in our faces multiple times) and forgot a few things. It wasn't the ideal meal. I was ok but it really pissed off my father. He actually left after dinner and skipped dessert (and if you know my father, dessert isn't something that gets skipped). I stayed for dessert and had the 7 layer cake which was the best dessert of the cruise again.

 

 

What I didn't know until later on was he spoke to the assistant maitre 'd on his way out. Ashish Shara agreed with him that it was a bad situation and told him if we came back he'd take care of us. We actually had a reservation there for Thursday so we would see.

 

 

Moderno

The last time we were here I wasn't impressed but thought we'd give it another shot. What appeared to be another NCL cut back was the salad bar. Gone from last time was the giant bowl of shrimp and there seemed to be a lot more pasta style sides. There were still some of the more expensive items like parma ham and higher end cheeses. The small buffet/salad bar set up was good enough in itself. Most of the meats that came out were flavorful but all of the red meats were overcooked for my liking (I like my beef rare/med rare) and over seasoned, mostly with too much salt. This is a complaint I've read about a number of times in other reviews of it. Last time our server kept telling us to hold out for the pineapple and how good it was. I can honestly say that it was worth the wait last time. This time, not so much. But, this could simply be a difference in the pineapple itself. While it wasn't as good as last time, it was still good.

 

 

Cagney's #2

Thursday saw us back at Cagney's again. As soon as we walked up to the podium Ashish recognized my father and welcomed us back. He told the hostess to give us a great table. We were seated at a proper 2 top and our server was great and attentive this time around. I had the pork belly again and my father the shrimp cocktail. We both had the baked potato soup which was tasty, rich and filling. For our entree we had rib eyes. They were cooked to perfection and flavorful. I had the creamed spinach again and this time there was even less in the “pot” than there was the other day. My father had sauteed mushrooms and there was the equivalent of about 2 mushrooms cut up. Seriously NCL, I get it, you're in business to make money but how much do you need that you can't even give a decent amount of spinach or mushrooms to a guest? For dessert we both had the 7 layer cake again. The meal was excellent and in the end Ashish took care of the bill in full.

 

 

La Cucina

Since last night's meal was comped we still had a credit to use on our dining package. We were able to get into La Cucina at 5:30pm and were seated promptly. Our server was good and friendly. We both had the beef carpaccio. While flavorful, it was the thinnest I've ever seen anywhere. For the first course we both had a pasta dish. I thought it was fine for what it was. My entree was the Veal Marsala. It was tasty but the veal was overcooked and a bit tough. IT doesn't take much to overcook such a thin piece of veal. I found the portion to be a little weak for the price charged (2 very thin pieces of veal about the size of my hand). My father had the Shrimp Diavolo. It was supposed to be shrimp over pasta in a spicy sauce. He said the sauce wasn't spicy at all and as for the shrimp, there were 3 medium sized shrimps and one the equivalent of one more shrimp chopped up. Again, like at Cagney's the shrimp dish was WAY over priced at $25 for the small amount of shrimp that came in it. For dessert my father had the Tiramisu and said it was probably the best he's ever had. I had the chocolate tart. This was nothing more than a chocolate cream pie without the cream on top. It was tasty but a little low end for a pay restaurant.

 

Other Dining:

Garden Cafe (Buffet):

A HUGE room with many different stations and selections. Laid out pretty well and a huge assortment of food. All of our breakfasts and lunches were here. Not much changed from day to day but it's breakfast, and there's only so much you can do with it. There was normally plenty of seating too unless you were there right at prime time, then it was a bit packed. The staff did a good job of turning over tables and clearing dishes.

 

 

There seemed to be a bit of a down grade to the foods here too in terms of quality and what was offered. Not a big deal as there is enough variety to find something good. One cutback that I really noticed was in the cold cut department. On previous cruises there was a fair selection of cold cuts and a good rotation each day. This trip it seemed like bologna and mortadella were served daily. Rotating with cotto salami and ham. There was never turkey or roast beef available.

 

We also had most of our lunches here as well. There was more of a rotation for lunch each day as well as the standards that were offered each day. One thing I can say they really got right in here was the chicken items. In particular the breaded chicken like the fingers, and cutlets for Parmesan among others. Crispy and flavorful.

 

 

Much like the previous 2 cruises on this ship, the desserts in the buffet were mostly weak with the occasional surprise.

 

While we didn't eat dinner here we did stop by later in the evening a few times after dinner and everything looked good. They also had themed nights that kept things interesting.

 

 

There were the typical buffet issues here like people not reading the signs about NOT filling water bottles, people eating in line, drinking at the drink stations and leaving their glasses on the counter and people just in a frenzy. It amazes me the way people act when they see an endless supply of food free for the taking.

 

 

 

Margaritaville (Formerly The Uptown Bar and Grille):

We didn't eat here at all as I refuse to pay for food on a cruise. I did want to comment though because I've been reading reports that's it's been pretty empty. I can confirm that it's empty almost constantly. Each time I walked by there were few, if any people in there. Admittedly I didn't walk by here often but when I did it was a ghost town. I can also say that it appeared to still have a cover charge as the menu had no prices on it so that tells me it's not a la carte pricing.

 

 

O Sheehans:

Had late night snacks here. One night at about 3am I was told there was a 20 minute wait. I said forget it, I'll just go to bed. Come on NCL, you've got 4000 guests and there's one late night dining venue that holds about 75 people (because the back is closed off). Service was slow but the food came out hot. Nothing much to report here as I only had wings and French fries.

 

 

Desserts:

Similar to the meals in the dining room, some of the desserts were excellent while others were lacking.

Pay Restaurants:

As I said above I don't usually go to these places but we did this trip because they were part of the package. I did find the food better here than in the MDR but in the future would still not pay extra to eat at these places as I find the MDR to be more than suitable.

Entertainment:

Since this was our 3rd time on the ship the main entertainment was still the same with Rock of Ages and Burn the Floor. We skipped these for obvious reasons. We also skipped the welcome aboard show.

 

 

Magic & Mayhem:

This was a little magic and a little comedy. Fun show with some decent tricks.

 

Man from Mars and Farewell Show:

The same guy that did Magic and Mayhem along with his wife did a Cirque – like show. I thought it was a pretty good show.

 

 

After the show Dan Dan came out and thanked everyone for sailing and introduced all of the behind the scenes people. Room Stewards, Food Service, Bartenders and everyone else came down the aisles to the stage.

 

Other:

We also checked out some of the smaller acts in the Atrium, played early risers trivia (is 9:30am really early??) and won twice! I also caught some of the Howl at the Moon Dueling Pianos but didn't spend a ton of time there like I did on a previous cruise. I skipped Second City this trip as well as I hate Improv comedy. There was almost always something going on somewhere.

 

 

 

 

Casino:

I got this cruise for ''free'' from a casino so it’s no surprise that I’d spend a little time here on this cruise. It was fairly large for a cruise ship. They had most of the newer popular slot machines and a large amount of table games. I pretty much played Craps. The craps game had a $10 minimum for the week with 3-4-5x odds. The casino staff was very good for a cruise ship, better than some land based dealers. Since I was brought in through the casino, I was offered a card that allowed free drinks in the casino. I can say that this cruise easily had more gamblers than any other cruise I've ever been on. At times the casino was so busy it was tough to get to a table or on a machine. With that I can also say there were more smokers in the casino than I've ever seen before. I'm not going to get into the smoking debate but some of you smokers are real slobs flicking your ashes on the carpet and all over the machines and surrounding area. When ashtrays were full some of these slobs didn't bother getting a new ashtray or ask to have them dumped, instead they'd just overflow them. You know who you are.

 

In Room TV:

The in room TV was interactive and you could look up your account on it. I do have to say though that they had the weakest TV channel line up of any cruise line I’ve ever been on. Not that I go on a cruise to watch TV because I don’t. It would just be nice to wind down at night with something to watch. Of course if you’re in the room watching TV you’re not out and about spending money! That's what NCL is all about.

 

Ports of Call:

Bermuda:

This port was our first and only stop for 3 days. Well that was the plan. We were informed on our first day that because of Hurricane Jose that we would be leaving 21 hours early so we could take a longer route back to NY to avoid this storm that was going to hit New England and turn back south. Turns out while we did take a slightly longer route home, we really didn't need to leave 21 hours early.

 

 

On the first day in port we took the ferry to Hamilton and then took the bus to the Aquarium. It's a nice place to visit with an Aquarium and a small zoo. For $10 admission it's a pretty good deal. $5 for Seniors. We took the bus back to Hamilton and then took another bus back to the Dockyard. For under $5 you get a pretty decent tour of the island.

 

 

One the second day we were going to go to St George but with the shortened stay in Bermuda decide to stay on the ship. We had the pool area mostly to ourselves for most of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disembarkation:

During the middle of the night I was awoken by the ship vibrating like crazy at 3:30am. A look out the window and we were in the middle of the Hudson River right next to the port. No telling how long we were there prior to that. Yeah, we needed to leave 21 hours early. I got up at 6am expecting to disembark at 8am using self assist. As I got out of the shower I heard Dan Dan announce they were starting disembarkation early and those with gray tags could depart now. Holy crap, it's not even 6:45am. I finished getting ready and we headed out. There wasn't the usual long lines and elevator waits and we were off the ship in about 2 minutes.

 

 

Customs was empty and we cruised through there as well. I was actually in the car at the parking garage at 7:45am.

 

 

It worked out that I had friends that had arrived in NYC on Regal Princess the day before so ran over to Times Square to pick them up and bring them to my house for the day.

 

Other:

The seas were pretty wild for the first 2 days this trip. The swells were in the 10-15 foot range according to the TV but nothing so bad. Every now and then it was tough to walk in a straight line but I didn't see anyone get sick or fall over. Once we were out of range of the storm things were smooth as glass.

 

The weather was crappy on the way with both sea days cloudy, rainy and windy. On the way back the first sea day was nice. The second was windy. Because of the weather and sea conditions the main pool was closed every sea day. I don't see why other than the fact that it was overfilled and they closed it for safety reasons so people wouldn't get washed into the walls. Instead of closing it they should have drained it to a normal level. They also had the kids splash area closed as well.

 

I don't have anything booked with NCL in the future but they are always a possibility especially since they sail out of NYC. Having been on the Breakaway 3 times in the last 18 months though I'm pretty sure I won't return to this ship any time soon. Perhaps when the Escape arrives I will give that ship a try.

 

 

I do have my first ever Royal Caribbean cruise booked in February going out of Bayonne to celebrate my wife's 50th birthday (her very first cruise ever) with my parents.

 

 

Questions and comments can be posted or e-mailed to me directly.

[poona1]

great review stungazed...having been on the Breakaway three times over the past 2 years, I know just how you feel...I am hoping the Escape leaving from NYC next year is better

[Casino Comp Chick]

i was on the same sailing.

 

Your review which includes not 1 but 2 sections about smokers in the casino just proves my point that NCL will not go smoke free no matter how many non-smokers whine about it.

 

 

We bring in the money and that is all they need to know.

 

 

:D

[newmexicoNita]

Interesting and objective as you saw it. We sailed the Breakaway a few months ago and didn't find the cut backs you did, but maybe we were just not looking for them. I do think the casino set up, both on the Breakaway and Epic (mega ships) is a bit strange. Of course I have to admit, we are not fond of mega ships. We will probably give Breakaway another try when she moves to NOLA> As for the administrative charge I really do not understand your complaint.

[Princess30]

We were on this sailing as well, third time on the breakaway. I heard some creaks and groans which we hadn’t heard before, so wasn’t surprised when they said she was going in for a dry dock. We are booked next year on the escape out of ny. Looking forward to trying that ship as we love the breakaway.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[PelicanBill]

Great review. We've noticed many of the same issues as you about the food and smoking areas. But will go for our third time in December. Thanks!

[crayola1932]

This is my review of the Norwegian Breakaway on the September 17 – 24, 2017 sailing.

Thank you for your thorough review. I read it with great interest because we are going on Breakaway next spring, and although we are frequent NCL cruisers, this is our first time on one of the mega ships.

 

Unfortunately, there are two competing animated video ads connected to this thread--one at the beginning and one towards the end of the page . The thread kept bouncing back and forth from the beginning to the end of the page, and for the life of me, I couldn't read your entire review (my browser is Chrome). I finally figured out that if I started a reply, I could read your whole review in the quoted portion of my reply window without any bouncing back and forth. So, if others have this same experience, Cruise Critic is making it hard to read your review.

 

Thank you again for the review.

[Keith1010]

Very well written review.

Keith

[GeriatricNurse]

i was on the same sailing.

 

Your review which includes not 1 but 2 sections about smokers in the casino just proves my point that NCL will not go smoke free no matter how many non-smokers whine about it.

 

 

We bring in the money and that is all they need to know.

 

 

:D

 

Celebrity Cruises (X) went Smoke-Free, fleetwide, in their casinos, didn't they? I believe that Celebrity Cruises remains in business! (y)