Breakaway differences and myths

[Lovetotravel7559]

I had good intentions of posting every day while on our 10 day western Caribbean cruise but internet access was difficult.  

Some differences I have noted on NCL/Breakaway include:
No daily news papers from US,EU,Australia.  Maybe everyone gets their news online.
No hamburger or hot dog grill near the pool.  
No lunch offered in the main dining rooms.
No instructions regarding obtaining disembarkation tags etc.  If you don’t go to guest services to inquire you may be SOL. 

 

Myth:  New Orleans Port is a disaster with waits of 2 or 3 hours to board. Disembarking is a mess.  
Fact:  We boarded at 11:15 after arriving about 9:30.  However we heard of others who arrived at 11 and didn’t board until 2 or 3.  Getting off the ship was fairly quick although we were routed all through deck 7.  
Myth:  Food is terrible except for specialty restaurants. 
Fact:  Complimentary restaurants are comparable to a chain restaurant such as Chile’s or a buffet in a gambling resort.  If you want fine cuisine every meal it isn’t here but plenty of choices with salads and fresh ingredients ensured that no one went hungry. 
Myth:  staff is unhelpful and unhappy. 
Fact:  staff informed us that each crew member has their own cabin unlike other ships where some crew have to share with 3 others.  Most crew we met were very helpful and friendly.  
Myth:  Breakaway has a huge amount of entertainment. This is actually a fact. Wide variety of singers shows and comedy along with game shows etc.   I believe this is NCLs strong point.  
Myth:  the whole ship reeks of cigarettes. Fact:  More smoking is allowed than other cruise lines or ships but I have asthma and I haven’t noticed much at all except in the casino.  
Myth:  The Breakaway is old and dirty.  Fact:  we noticed one chip out of the Formica at our desk area and 2 small holes in the drape to our balcony.  The walls are very thin and we could hear our neighbors.  Luckily they were pretty quiet.  Our room steward kept everything clean although he forgot coffee and ice a couple of times. If there was a mid cruise laundry special he didn’t inform us .  But he’s on his way home and perhaps he’s a little distracted.  We will give him an additional tip with an explanation of how it can be larger if he improved.
Myth:  because of the UBP everyone is soused all the time.  Fact:  we mostly met folks who had the package because it was offered, and others like ourselves who just bought a drink occasionally.  
Myth:  Buffet area and public areas are crowded.  This is a fact. Even the hallway to the cabins is quite narrow.  And the tables are fairly close together in the buffet.  
Myth:  if you don’t like Rock of Ages you are an old fashioned prude.  It was not my favorite only because the girls in thongs bent over and the hip thrusts by the guys grew tiresome.  I did stay to the end and I enjoyed the music and dancing. However the story line seemed to be a Mamma Mia wannabe without any of the charm.  Seems as if another show would be better suited to this demographic. 

Any. Questions I can answer just ask!

[TPgal]

Thank you!   We are booked for a New England cruise on the breakaway and it's great to hear your opinion and experiences.    No buyers remorse.

 

[cruiserssandr]

Were the main dining rooms open on the day you got on?  Usually they are open on sea days, was this not the case on the Breakaway?

[FLAHAM]

38 minutes ago, cruiserssandr said:

Were the main dining rooms open on the day you got on?  Usually they are open on sea days, was this not the case on the Breakaway?

On my Breakaway cruise last fall two MDRs were open for lunch each sea day. They were closed on port days.

[Sand and Seas]

One of our favorite things about the Breakaway is the complimentary themed lunch buffets in Moderno on at Sea days.  Not as crowded as the regular buffet and we enjoyed the food there.

[Paul Bogle]

I was going to make the same comment about Savor and Taste. It was open on the three sea days but closed on the six port days. Since the port days were consecutive it might have felt like they were not open at all.

 

The Day 10 Daily had an insert with the cover "You'll Be Leaving Soon". The back page (page 4) was "Order of Disembarkation" and had a concise list of all color luggage tags, what time each color could expect to be called and whom each color applied too. Since we are entitled to priority debarkation we had to go to the Guest Services desk and request yellow tags. We were greeted by a service rep walking the line asking what people were in line for as most were in line to resolve onboard account issues. We showed our card and asked for Yellow tags and were promptly given them.

 

The only problem was that the ship arrived early and began debarkation early with self-assist called shortly after 7:00 am. Yellow was supposed to be called at 8:45 but the call came at 8:00 am. We were ready to go so we were off the ship with our bags and on the street at 8:15. It was a real breeze.

 

 

[KeithJenner]

53 minutes ago, FLAHAM said:

On my Breakaway cruise last fall two MDRs were open for lunch each sea day. They were closed on port days.

This is standard on NCL cruises. On most ships it is just one of the MDR's, but on the Breakaway I assume they use both Taste and Savor.

[Lovetotravel7559]

I will be rechecking my dailies to see if and when the main dining rooms were open for lunch.  Also we were in the hallway this morning for self assist from 7 -7:30 am and we never heard any announcements for any groups to disembark.  I thought it was interesting that instead of distributing the tags in our rooms as other cruise lines do we needed to go stand in line at guest services.  I agree with Paul that it was very easy though.  

[Zippeedee]

On the Breakaway TA last April my steward did not leave the pages about disembarking. If I hadn't seen the tags when walking through the Atrium I would have been the last one off the ship.

[BirdTravels]

3 hours ago, Lovetotravel7559 said:

I will be rechecking my dailies to see if and when the main dining rooms were open for lunch.  Also we were in the hallway this morning for self assist from 7 -7:30 am and we never heard any announcements for any groups to disembark.  I thought it was interesting that instead of distributing the tags in our rooms as other cruise lines do we needed to go stand in line at guest services.  I agree with Paul that it was very easy though.  

Unlike other cruise lines that assign you a disembarkation time, NCL Freestyle allows you to pick a disembarkation time by picking up tags that match your needs. THey are normally on the shelf in the guest services area with a video display telling you which colors match which times. In most cases, the colors will be called long before the times posted. 

[davy jones]

Haven't seen a "newspaper" on any cruise ship since ships got satellite TV and internet.

[misguy]

We just got off of the Breakaway and the MDR were open on the day you board, they open at 12:00 and we ate lunch there rather than fight the masses at the buffet.  We got the notice about tagging luggage with our Freestyle Daily two nights before we returned.  I liked being able to choose our time for disembarkation.  

[Itchy&Scratchy]

12 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Unlike other cruise lines that assign you a disembarkation time, NCL Freestyle allows you to pick a disembarkation time by picking up tags that match your needs. THey are normally on the shelf in the guest services area with a video display telling you which colors match which times. In most cases, the colors will be called long before the times posted. 

however, this was our very first disembarkation on Norwegian, and we had no idea where to get the tags. Our cabin attendant didn't bother notifying us. Heck, we didn't even get the Freestyle dailies every night.

[Lovetotravel7559]

20 hours ago, TPgal said:

Thank you!   We are booked for a New England cruise on the breakaway and it's great to hear your opinion and experiences.    No buyers remorse.

 

You will have a great time!  Especially for the price that we paid it was great. I loved the entertainment options. 

[Lovetotravel7559]

16 hours ago, Zippeedee said:

On the Breakaway TA last April my steward did not leave the pages about disembarking. If I hadn't seen the tags when walking through the Atrium I would have been the last one off the ship.

Yes although our room steward kept our room clean he sometimes forgot to replenish our coffee or ice.  I also expected a mid cruise laundry special and packed with that in mind.  Either it wasn’t offered or he forgot to put the info in our room.  It seems as though the communication regarding many things was lacking.  For instance the time changes, and debarkation procedure should  have been constantly broadcast on the in room tv as other lines do.  

[Lovetotravel7559]

4 hours ago, davy jones said:

Haven't seen a "newspaper" on any cruise ship since ships got satellite TV and internet.

I thought we had it on our last two Oceania but maybe not!  They were such port intensive cruises that maybe I thought they were there and they weren’t. 

[Lovetotravel7559]

19 hours ago, Paul Bogle said:

I was going to make the same comment about Savor and Taste. It was open on the three sea days but closed on the six port days. Since the port days were consecutive it might have felt like they were not open at all.

 

The Day 10 Daily had an insert with the cover "You'll Be Leaving Soon". The back page (page 4) was "Order of Disembarkation" and had a concise list of all color luggage tags, what time each color could expect to be called and whom each color applied too. Since we are entitled to priority debarkation we had to go to the Guest Services desk and request yellow tags. We were greeted by a service rep walking the line asking what people were in line for as most were in line to resolve onboard account issues. We showed our card and asked for Yellow tags and were promptly given them.

 

The only problem was that the ship arrived early and began debarkation early with self-assist called shortly after 7:00 am. Yellow was supposed to be called at 8:45 but the call came at 8:00 am. We were ready to go so we were off the ship with our bags and on the street at 8:15. It was a real breeze.

 

 

Paul you were exactly right!  They were open on sea days for lunch and closed on port days

[Lovetotravel7559]

20 hours ago, cruiserssandr said:

Were the main dining rooms open on the day you got on?  Usually they are open on sea days, was this not the case on the Breakaway?

Yes they were! We had so many port days that I didn’t notice that they were open on sea days.  However the other cruise lines I have travelled upon had the main dining rooms open regardless of sea days or not. Just one of those differences..

[FLAHAM]

10 minutes ago, Lovetotravel7559 said:

Yes although our room steward kept our room clean he sometimes forgot to replenish our coffee or ice.  I also expected a mid cruise laundry special and packed with that in mind.  Either it wasn’t offered or he forgot to put the info in our room.  It seems as though the communication regarding many things was lacking.  For instance the time changes, and debarkation procedure should  have been constantly broadcast on the in room tv as other lines do.  

Time changes are announced on the front page of the Freestyle Daily the night before. 

[Lovetotravel7559]

A couple of other observations:  TV offerings are pretty slim.  Even the procedures for tenders and disembarking weren’t televised or explained on the tv.  We were able to watch football on our stateroom tv though. Also Burn the Floor was the best entertainment we saw on the ship!! We almost skipped it due to tepid reviews on this board.  It was amazing!!

[Lovetotravel7559]

3 minutes ago, FLAHAM said:

Time changes are announced on the front page of the Freestyle Daily the night before. 

I’m sure that’s true.  But not sure that everyone read it right before going to bed. A lot of info in that 5 page daily that was single spaced.  We had no problems as we didn’t schedule any excursions but if the room steward had forgotten to put the announcement on the bed you could conceivably miss your excursion 

[pinklucky61]

thought i read somewhere that they televise shows, did they televise rock of ages? we already have burn the floor reservations

[misguy]

I did not see any of the shows televised.  

[Lovetotravel7559]

52 minutes ago, misguy said:

I did not see any of the shows televised.  

I agree.  

[davy jones]

20 hours ago, Lovetotravel7559 said:

I thought we had it on our last two Oceania but maybe not!  They were such port intensive cruises that maybe I thought they were there and they weren’t. 

Oceania is higher up on the food chain.  Perhaps they pick some up in port.  

 

 Back in the day  (showing my age), there would be a one sheet typed news summary delivered to your cabin daily.  I used to try to pick up a newspaper in each port.  The ships were much smaller then.  In cabin TV and internet eliminated the need for that.