Just Off the Norwegian Cruise Lines 9 Day Baltic Itinerary 25 – 5 July 2018.

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Disclaimer -We would like to pass on our impressions and thoughts of our cruise experienceto anyone planning for or getting ready to participate in a similarItinerary. Everyone knows that reviewsare subjective. One person’s gold isanother’s trash. That said pleaseremember this is our personal impressions and yours, of course, will vary. We ignore postings that are made in responseto our reviews that merely seek to flame. We will review subsequent posts in order to provide answers to questionsasked. We appreciate this understanding. Please ignore any spelling or grammar errors –we want to get this posted swiftly before we lose focus on ourexperiences. Thank you.

 

Travel andEmbarkation - We are a semi-retired American couple (both 65 years ofage) living as expats in an Asian country. This was our sixth cruise (3 on Princess and 3 on Norwegian). We were accompanied on this cruise by two ofour granddaughters (age 14 and 12). Wechose to make all our own arrangement for this trip including directreservations with Norwegian Cruise Lines, air travel, hotel, and transfers(control freak syndrome).

 

We flew in two days ahead of the 25 June sail date so wecould enjoy some time in Copenhagen with the girls. Our pre-cruise stay was as the ScandicCopenhagen (Vester Søgade 6 Copenhagen V) located just across the street fromthe Tivoli Amusement Park where we spent a good part of Sunday. We also visited the statue of the LittleMermaid. The weather was great.

 

On boarding day we took a taxi cab from the hotel at justafter 10:30 AM and arrived at Passenger Terminal #2 just prior to 11:00 AM.After dropping off our bags we walked directly to security and then to check-inwithout waiting in a single line. Wewalked on to the ship within 15 minutes of exiting the Taxi.

 

The Ship – Itis big. The Breakaway had justcome out of dry dock recently and I have to say that the ship looked to be inexcellent condition. We saw no signs ofdamage from sailing into Winter Storm Grayson last January. We also saw no evidence of on-goingmaintenance during our cruise such as what occurred on the Norwegian Sun duringMarch 2018. Our mini-suite was PortForward on the 8th deck and we generally walked the stairs andrarely took an elevator so crowded elevators were not a concern. We did noticethat often there were many waiting to ride.

 

We did not use the casino but we did walk through thearea a couple times and noticed a very heavy tobacco odor permeating thearea. We decided that after the firstday when walking from the front to the rear of the ship we would simply walkeddown a flight of stairs, crossed under the casino and walk back up the stairson the other side. The odor, whileevident, is not in our opinion, something to get into a huff about.

 

The often mentioned vibration in the rear of the ship isa fact. As our cabin was forward theonly time we noticed it was when we were having a meal in either the ManhattanRoom or the Buffet. It seems that atcertain speeds there is a very noticeable “rumble and shake” at the stern.

 

Our granddaughters thoroughly enjoyed the swimming pool,rock climbing wall, rope course, and basketball court. The weather was agreeable most days. There are two swimming pools on deck 15 (oneadult and one open). Both are small andcertainly could be a real problem during a cruise in a warmer location but thiscruise was in the Baltic.

 

Our Cabin– We had a mini-suite with large balcony on Deck # 8 Port Side Forward. Our cabin steward was very intuitive and wasalways available but never intrusive. Hewas very friendly and always helpful. Towels were replaced almost as soon as used and the room servicedregularly. The room was kept very clean.

 

We had a large sized bed located by the balconydoor. The two girls used a convertiblesofa and a Pullman bed. Both reportedthat the beds we comfortable. The roomis more like a superior balcony then a mini-suite in size. The bathroom was very large and had a bigglass door shower with a rain shower head and multiple body jets. If you would like separate shampoo and rinseyou should consider bringing your own. We were not a fan of the product provided. The bathroom was spotless.

 

With the four of us I must say that storage space was acommodity. We managed. We had two lounge chairs, two regular chairs,and a large table on our balcony.

 

The television was surprisingly small and the channelselection was non-existent but useful for checking your shipboard accounts andreservations. Ship announcements werenot broadcasted into the rooms so you had to listen from the outside if youwanted to hear the public announcements.

 

We had a 250 minute Wi-Fi package which lasted for theentire cruise and was fast enough to use our Voice over Internet Protocolapplication on our Cellular Telephones to made calls the girl’s parents.

 

There was a coffee maker with free coffee provided in ourcabin but we did not use it as the coffee available at many locations aroundthe ship provided plenty of very satisfactory coffee.

 

Dining &Entertainment - We ate breakfast and lunch in the buffet on deck15. Breakfast was the standard fare withomelets made to order and a wide variety of breakfast foods to choose. In our opinion the buffet was well designedwith adequate seating. The staff wasvery fast at removing plates and silverware and cleaning tables as peopleleft. We never had a difficult timefinding a seat. We found the food in thebuffet to be generally good but quite repetitive. One thing that both my wife and I found a bitirksome was the nightly themes in the buffet. Highly advertised Russia Night, American Night, Grill Night, etc. nevermaterialized. There may have been a couple of added entrees but certainly not a“Theme Night”. Others may have haddiffering impressions. The girls fell inlove with the self-serve soft ice cream machine in the buffet.

 

We had dinner twice in the Manhattan Main DiningRoom. Both were excellent meals. Having reservations we were seatedimmediately. We did notice a slight lagin service but the menu items were always appropriately hot, warm, orcold.

 

On the first sea day we ate at the Cirque Dreams andDinner Entertainment venue. It was anexcellent show that the girls obviously enjoyed very much. The food was OK and of adequate quantity butthe menu was very limited.

 

On the second sea day we had dinner at Norwegian CruiseLine's hibachi-style Japanese restaurant -Teppanyaki. It was very entertainingand the food was very good.

 

Tours –We booked all our tours through NCL. Aseveryone knows this is a more expensive option but the benefits of ease ofbooking, guaranteed return to the ship, and tour operator vetting are hard forus to ignore. We did not want to takeany risks with our grandchildren. A noteto those of us who need to take a bathroom break often – Make sure you availyourself at every opportunity as we found that facilities in all ports aresomewhat limited and there are usually long waiting lines.

 

Rostock Germany – Picturesque Views & Molli Train. It was a great tour with an engagingguide. The short train ride on thenarrow gauge coal fired steam train was very interesting with the shake andrattle and smell of the smoke was such a treat. We had German Chocolate cake and coffee/tea after the ride in a localhotel.

 

Helsinki Finland – Highlights and Architecture. We toured the former home of Finnisharchitects Eliel Saarinen, Armas Lindgren, and Herman Gesellius. The home wasbuilt in 1902 by a beautiful lake. Thehome is meticulously maintained and contains much of the originalfurniture. Later we stopped at theSenate Square in Helsinki where we saw the Lutheran Cathedral, and thePresidential Palace. We later visitedthe Temppeliaukio Rock Church (the highlight of the tour for us).

 

St. Petersburg Russia (2 days) – We visited the HermitageMuseum, Catherine’s Palace, and Peterhof Grand Palace along with an extensivebus tour of the city. Tours at allvenues were extremely crowded with many (many) busses and tour groups allcontending to view the exhibits at the same time. Our guide for the two days was a wonderfullady who was extremely knowledgeable and personable. She kept us all together and engaged withcommentary and interesting conversation. There is very much information available on line and in other places concerningthe exhibits in these locations so I will skip and lengthy dialog except to saythat anytime you can get to see a da Vinci painting or a Michelangelo sculpturealmost within arm’s reach you should jump at the chance. I remain in awe.

 

Tallinn Estonia – Upper Town and Kadriorg Palace. We dida walking tour of Tallinn Old Town where we entered the Alexander NevskyCathedral which has numerous gold icons and mosaics. We visited the Kadriorg Palace (now a museum)built by Peter Great in honor if his empress wife Catherine I. Our tour guide was an engaging lady who kepteveryone’s attention with knowledgeable and interesting dialog.

 

Stockholm Sweden – Best of Stockholm. We visited the museum of the Swedish warship'Vasa', once considered one of the world's largest and the pride of Sweden'smighty navy. The present museum is built around the 17th century warship whichsank in Stockholm's inner harbor on her maiden voyage in 1628. Next we visited Stockholm's oldest andcoziest quarter, the old town of Gamla Stan. We viewed the exterior of the RoyalPalace and walked through the narrow, twisting alleys and cobblestone streets. No opportunity was provided to enter any ofthe buildings. Our tour guide wassomewhat inflexible and allowed no one to divert from his schedule ordirection. Several of the tourparticipants asked to use a restroom but he continued to talk about glacialretreat while we suffered. We finallybolted from the group and went around asking for directions to facilities. We regret having taken this tour under thesecircumstances. Otherwise – Stockholm isa very beautiful city with much to see.

 

Overall we had a wonderful time and would recommend theNorwegian Breakaway and the Baltic itinerary. The Breakaway is a great ship for families having facilities foreveryone. The one area for which wewould like to see change is more family entertainment in the theater. Mature themes kept us from attending all butone of the shows – Burn the Floor – which we greatly enjoyed.