Breakaway, February 6th - 13th - Mini-review

[SimplyAlbert]

Here’s a mini-review of our cruise on the Breakaway (2/6/22 to 2/13/22)

 

Due to a winter storm we arrived in New Orleans on Thursday February 3^rd.  We were originally supposed to fly in on Friday, but changed our flight.  Turned out to be a good choice as I got an alert early Friday morning that our flight had been cancelled.  We stayed at the Marriott Convention Center and would definitely recommend it.  We spent Friday and Saturday walking around and exploring the French Quarter and Garden District.

 

The covid testing took place at our hotel so we had them hold our luggage, did our tests, retrieved the luggage, and walked across the street to the ship.  Testing went quickly.  We got in line about 8:55 am and we were done by about 9:30 am.  Walked across the street, gave the porter our bags, checked in and were in the waiting area by 10:00 am.  Boarding started around 11:00 am and we were sitting in Taste having lunch by 11:45 am.  Rooms were not ready until 1:00 pm.

 

We were in an aft balcony cabin, #12910.  While neither one of us is handicapped, this is a handicap cabin.  Since we booked about 5 weeks out my guess is that it hadn’t been booked and was released to the general public.   We loved it!  Room and bathroom were both larger than the standard aft balcony and the balcony was huge.   Our cabin steward, Arnold, was great!

 

We’ve cruised a lot so we didn’t plan to do anything in the ports.  We just wanted to get away from the snow/cold/ice and hang out in warmer weather.  We had quite a bit of rain on this cruise, but at least it was warm.  We just got off the ship and walked around in Cozumel and Belize.  We didn’t leave the ship in Roatan or Costa Maya.  We spent a lot of time hanging out on our balcony.

 

Food, as usual for Norwegian, ranged from very good to great.  We did our specialty dining in Ocean Blue and Le Bistro.  Both meals were excellent, but we both thought Le Bistro edged out Ocean Blue.   We ate primarily at the buffet and everything was good.

 

Entertainment was fantastic.  We saw Six, Burn the Floor, Velvet (dinner show with an upcharge), magician, vocalist (2 nights in the theater, but different songs), comedy shows, Dueling Pianos, and the band in Syd Normans.  There was always something going on in the Atrium.   We’re not big casino people, but it was open.  We did manage to lose some money in the slots.

 

We heard there were only about 1,000-1,100 guests on the ship.  It was really weird.  There were no lines anywhere.  Several places we were the only people sitting at the bar.  It was easy to get seats anywhere at the buffet. There were times we walked the entire length of the ship and didn’t see anyone.  We only shared an elevator once during the entire trip. 

 

All in all it was one of the best cruises that we’ve taken.  We had a great time talking with the staff and hearing about where they’re from.  We probably spent more money on tips than anything else.  We took a lot of ones with us and tipped the bartenders and left a couple of bucks on the table at the buffet after each meal.  It was very much appreciated.  With hardly anyone on the ship I’m sure the staff’s wages have been reduced.  We also asked our cabin steward if he needed anything when we went ashore as they’re not allowed off the ship.  Toothpaste, Listerine, and junk food were his requests, and we were happy to get them.

 

We spent another day post-cruise in New Orleans and stayed at the Courtyard Marriott on Julia Street.  I would also recommend this hotel.

 

I’ll try to answer any questions.

 

 

[Cruising Lynne]

Thanks for posting. Sounds like you know how to have a fun and relaxing time. Good to hear that they had all the shows running.

[bigrednole]

Thank you. We are inside 8-weeks now. We don't have to do the testing which is nice. Glad things went well. I was worried about the shows because that is a huge plus for us. My daughter wants to see most of them as do I. 

 

Thanks for posting about asking room steward if they need anything while ashore. 

[Summerstravel]

Thank you for sharing. I have a question about the time zones. Does the ship stay on ship time or use local time zones in ports? I am concerned about port times and returning to the ship on time. Any information would be really helpful. 

[BeerMan007]

I was on the previous sailing and we seemed to change clocks a LOT.

NOLA: Central

Cozumel: Eastern

Roatan: Central (there was some confusion at the pier what time the excursion went, but the ship time was accurate for the excursion - Jolly Roger snorkle)

Costa Maya: Eastern

NOLAL: back to Central

[SimplyAlbert]

31 minutes ago, Summerstravel said:

Thank you for sharing. I have a question about the time zones. Does the ship stay on ship time or use local time zones in ports? I am concerned about port times and returning to the ship on time. Any information would be really helpful. 

 

This was the first cruise we've ever taken where they had us change our watches/clocks.  We've always left port on ship time and stayed on ship time throughout the cruise.  They put a card on your bed at night with the Freestyle Daily with instructions to either turn your clocks back or forward an hour.

[ALD18]

Great information, thank you for sharing😀

[Summerstravel]

2 hours ago, SimplyAlbert said:

 

This was the first cruise we've ever taken where they had us change our watches/clocks.  We've always left port on ship time and stayed on ship time throughout the cruise.  They put a card on your bed at night with the Freestyle Daily with instructions to either turn your clocks back or forward an hour.

Oh wow thank you for sharing with us. I plan on doing a private tour at one of the ports and want to make sure I don't miss the ship. 

[rellersi]

5 hours ago, bigrednole said:

Thank you. We are inside 8-weeks now. We don't have to do the testing which is nice. Glad things went well. I was worried about the shows because that is a huge plus for us. My daughter wants to see most of them as do I. 

 

Thanks for posting about asking room steward if they need anything while ashore. 

Did NCL change their requirements? why do you not have to do the testing?

[bigrednole]

12 minutes ago, rellersi said:

Did NCL change their requirements? why do you not have to do the testing?

Match1 only home resting 2 days prior to embarkation. No testing at port.

[bigrednole]

Boy do I need to get to my eye Dr for a new prescription. For sailings starting March 1 or later, you need to test at home within 2 days of Embarkation. NCL is no longer testing at the pier. Show your negative results with all other documentation.

[SimplyAlbert]

15 hours ago, Summerstravel said:

Oh wow thank you for sharing with us. I plan on doing a private tour at one of the ports and want to make sure I don't miss the ship. 

 Just as an FYI we were originally scheduled to be in Costa Maya until 2:00 pm, but it was changed during the cruise to 1:00 pm *we got the notice on Wednesday night for Friday).  It didn't make a difference for us, but if they make the change again it could affect a private tour.

[Viajera7]

Thanks. I received an e-mail with the update. Since I have been there before, I plan to stay in the ship.

[Travelicious]

10 minutes ago, SimplyAlbert said:

 Just as an FYI we were originally scheduled to be in Costa Maya until 2:00 pm, but it was changed during the cruise to 1:00 pm *we got the notice on Wednesday night for Friday).  It didn't make a difference for us, but if they make the change again it could affect a private tour.

They have already made this change for our cruise next week.  

 

Thanks for the mini review.  Glad you had fun.

[chrisdar1]

Thanks for the review @SimplyAlbert!

 

We'll be on the Breakaway 4/10-17.   Do you happen to know what night the deck parties were held on?

 

Not sure if you kept the dailies but I'd love to see entertainment/show schedules as well.  We just reserved dining, and I'm curious if I messed up any nights with dining res times...

Thanks!
Chris

[SimplyAlbert]

34 minutes ago, chrisdar1 said:

Thanks for the review @SimplyAlbert!

 

We'll be on the Breakaway 4/10-17.   Do you happen to know what night the deck parties were held on?

 

Not sure if you kept the dailies but I'd love to see entertainment/show schedules as well.  We just reserved dining, and I'm curious if I messed up any nights with dining res times...

Thanks!
Chris

 Sorry, I didn't keep any of the dailies.   We didn't go to the parties, but we saw Burn the Floor on Friday night and the cruise director was talking about one of the dance parties that was scheduled for that night.

[bigrednole]

53 minutes ago, chrisdar1 said:

Thanks for the review @SimplyAlbert!

 

We'll be on the Breakaway 4/10-17.   

We are on that cruise as well

[nattie]

46 minutes ago, bigrednole said:

We are on that cruise as well

We are too!

[SimplyAlbert]

To the best of my memory the theater shows were:

 

Sunday -Vocalist

Monday - Six (show times were 7:30 and 10:00 pm) We saw Velvet.

Tuesday - Six

Wednesday - Magician

Thursday - vocalist

Friday - Burn the Floor (we saw it this night)

Saturday - Burn the Floor  - it was really good and we thought about seeing it again, but decided to pack and then go the Syd Norman's.

 

 

 

[MtnCliner]

23 hours ago, Summerstravel said:

Thank you for sharing. I have a question about the time zones. Does the ship stay on ship time or use local time zones in ports? I am concerned about port times and returning to the ship on time. Any information would be really helpful. 

Just took that cruise two weeks ago - the time changes were the oddest part of the whole cruise. Happily, we were willing to ignore watches and clocks altogether for the most part, so it didn't have much effect on us. Just odd.

[c-cruise]

33 minutes ago, MtnCliner said:

Just took that cruise two weeks ago - the time changes were the oddest part of the whole cruise. Happily, we were willing to ignore watches and clocks altogether for the most part, so it didn't have much effect on us. Just odd.

Is staying on ship time just an NCL thing? I haven't been on NCL in a while, but I don't recall every going on a cruise where they didn't change to local time. Mostly sailed on Disney, Princess, and HAL.

[SimplyAlbert]

10 minutes ago, c-cruise said:

Is staying on ship time just an NCL thing? I haven't been on NCL in a while, but I don't recall every going on a cruise where they didn't change to local time. Mostly sailed on Disney, Princess, and HAL.

We've cruised Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Norwegian and this was the first time we experienced the clocks changing.

[bigrednole]

I am on the east coast. I read somewhere that ship time stays constant, I could be wrong. Cozumel is on Eastern time. I think the other 3 are on Central. I am just going to run a stop watch when in port.

[TequilaKen]

16 hours ago, bigrednole said:

Boy do I need to get to my eye Dr for a new prescription. For sailings starting March 1 or later, you need to test at home within 2 days of Embarkation. NCL is no longer testing at the pier. Show your negative results with all other documentation.

 

You probably already know this, but for people reading the post, make sure it's a proctored test.  The self-administered home tests are not valid.  The following is from ncl.com/sail-safe:  

Cruises with embarkation dates beginning March 1, 2022:
At time of check-in, all guests will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 antigen or PCR test result administered by a verified third party or via medically supervised home test (i.e. https://www.emed.com/ or BioReference's Scarlet service - BioReference sends a trained Scarlet Health Professional to your home to collect your COVID-19 test specimen), within two days prior to boarding for cruises originating in a U.S. port and three days prior for voyages departing from a non-U.S. port.

[bigrednole]

Yes, it has to be the eMed or other proctored one.