Recently off the May 22-29 Breakaway Sailing ~ My thoughts and a few tips

[acct1975]

thanks for this awesome review!! After the day by day recount. Would you mind giving your feelings on the cabins? How were the conditions? Cabin stewards and attendants? 

 

TIA

[HxFx]

16 minutes ago, LisaLisa87 said:

Take a catamaran ride to Jost Van Dyke? DH is a huge Kenny Chesney fan, so when I saw the Rebel Yell excursion to White Bay on Jost Van Dyke, I knew that was what we had to do.

We were on that one as well! Of course we were the suckers that got off just after 6AM (got in line right after Starbucks opened and we got coffees). We didn't want to risk a long line after St. Thomas the day before! We sat at the back of the catamaran for both legs (outside but under cover).

 

In port, we sat in front of the Soggy Dollar, in the Adirondack chairs. Did you play with the web cam? We were pretty close to that and sent notes to our families and ended up waving and dancing for them (I was in a pink swim cover up!). Fortunately my niece took a (fuzzy) screen shot since that's the only picture of me on the cruise! My husband is terrible at taking pictures and I do NOT look good in selfies.

[LisaLisa87]

41 minutes ago, acct1975 said:

thanks for this awesome review!! After the day by day recount. Would you mind giving your feelings on the cabins? How were the conditions? Cabin stewards and attendants? 

 

TIA

 

I'm glad you're finding it helpful! Yes, I'll share my thoughts about the cabin, ship, and service when I wrap up the last port. 🙂

[brookie848]

This is the only NCL excursion we've ever done and we've done it twice. The first time our friend sat at the top with the captain. It was hot that day and the seas were a bit rough. She would aim for wakes from other boats and then duck and everyone got soaked.

 

I actually looked at a couple of houses for rent on White Bay. Something to consider for my husband's retirement next year!

[LisaLisa87]

41 minutes ago, HxFx said:

We were on that one as well! Of course we were the suckers that got off just after 6AM (got in line right after Starbucks opened and we got coffees). We didn't want to risk a long line after St. Thomas the day before! We sat at the back of the catamaran for both legs (outside but under cover).

 

In port, we sat in front of the Soggy Dollar, in the Adirondack chairs. Did you play with the web cam? We were pretty close to that and sent notes to our families and ended up waving and dancing for them (I was in a pink swim cover up!). Fortunately my niece took a (fuzzy) screen shot since that's the only picture of me on the cruise! My husband is terrible at taking pictures and I do NOT look good in selfies.

 

That is too funny! We sat up top both directions and had some interesting conversations with the captain -- or skipper, if we're being technical, since she doesn't own the boat. We were in lounge chairs to the left of the Soggy Dollar if you're facing it from the water. We did not interact with the web cam. It's great that your niece got a pic of you (even if it was fuzzy)! I read somewhere that there's kind of a long delay in the feed, so it's great that some of your family members got to see you!

 

An interesting note since you're in the DC area: DH noticed a banner for the high school he attended in DC (St. John's College High School) on one of the walls, and he thought it was odd because there were only 4 banners total. He ended up striking up a conversation with the young woman in the bar. Turns out her father is the owner, and he went to SJC as well! She is a Georgetown Visitation grad. Small world! Also, she shared that he bid on the bar at an auction a few years ago and then had to figure out how to run a bar when he won. Can you imagine??

[LisaLisa87]

8 minutes ago, brookie848 said:

This is the only NCL excursion we've ever done and we've done it twice. The first time our friend sat at the top with the captain. It was hot that day and the seas were a bit rough. She would aim for wakes from other boats and then duck and everyone got soaked.

 

I actually looked at a couple of houses for rent on White Bay. Something to consider for my husband's retirement next year!

 

What a great idea! I'd go back in a heartbeat.

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by LisaLisa87

[tikcho]

On 5/31/2022 at 10:51 AM, acct1975 said:

So happy to see that Splash Academy is open. We're cruising the Breakaway Jun 19th and was curious if it would be open for my son. If you used it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it is post COVID.

 

Thanks!

It appears that the Splash Academy is only open from noon to 7 pm which is useless! My child is used to going to the kids clubs at night and we like to do adult stuff then. I would have never booked this cruise if I knew that would be the case...ugh!

[acct1975]

1 minute ago, tikcho said:

It appears that the Splash Academy is only open from noon to 7 pm which is useless! My child is used to going to the kids clubs at night and we like to do adult stuff then. I would have never booked this cruise if I knew that would be the case...ugh!

I'm not too comfortable leaving him later in the evening (weird quirk of mine) so the times don't bother me much. Really, I planned as if the kid's club wouldn't be open so this is a happy change for us!

 

[LisaLisa87]

9 minutes ago, tikcho said:

It appears that the Splash Academy is only open from noon to 7 pm which is useless! My child is used to going to the kids clubs at night and we like to do adult stuff then. I would have never booked this cruise if I knew that would be the case...ugh!

 

According to the Dailies, there were evening hours as well. Usually 6-9pm, 7-10pm or 9pm-1am. Look on the last page, in the Hours of Operation section under Guest Services.

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by LisaLisa87

[tikcho]

1 minute ago, LisaLisa87 said:

 

According to the Dailies, there were evening hours as well. Usually 6-9pm, 7-10pm or 9pm-1am.

Oh, I did not see that. In the first daily that you posted it only said 12pm - 7 pm. Or am I reading it wrong? We are going June 26.

[LisaLisa87]

1 minute ago, tikcho said:

Oh, I did not see that. In the first daily that you posted it only said 12pm - 7 pm. Or am I reading it wrong? We are going June 26.

 

See above. I just edited my post to be more clear!

[LisaLisa87]

[snorklinbarb]

Loved your review and pics - what a photogenic family!

 

Enjoyed especially hearing about Jost van Dyke day.

 

You mentioned only entertainment for theater besides Six and BTF, the comedy magician (doesn't sound like he's in the least bit funny).  The Daily lists a Motown concert vocalist.  Did you by chance catch his shows?

 

Did you by chance get to Syd Norman's Pour House for the great rock concerts?  I was on Breakaway last Sept. and again in Nov. and it was a great hangout although got totally filled up quickly!  They are really really good.

 

Just got off Escape and facial recognition worked like a dream, thank goodness.  Though we didn't have any issues on Breakaway, it sounds like your cruise was a slow slow process, especially after tendering.  Add some hot sun and waits could add to the frustration.

 

Hope your DH recovers soon!  I was in quarantine on Escape for 7 days.  

Hope you continue to be negative!

 

 

[HxFx]

17 minutes ago, snorklinbarb said:

Did you by chance get to Syd Norman's Pour House for the great rock concerts?

We saw the Rumors Fleetwood Mac tribute band at Syd's and thought it was excellent. Probably our favorite show.

[LisaLisa87]

40 minutes ago, snorklinbarb said:

Loved your review and pics - what a photogenic family!

 

Enjoyed especially hearing about Jost van Dyke day.

 

You mentioned only entertainment for theater besides Six and BTF, the comedy magician (doesn't sound like he's in the least bit funny).  The Daily lists a Motown concert vocalist.  Did you by chance catch his shows?

 

Did you by chance get to Syd Norman's Pour House for the great rock concerts?  I was on Breakaway last Sept. and again in Nov. and it was a great hangout although got totally filled up quickly!  They are really really good.

 

Just got off Escape and facial recognition worked like a dream, thank goodness.  Though we didn't have any issues on Breakaway, it sounds like your cruise was a slow slow process, especially after tendering.  Add some hot sun and waits could add to the frustration.

 

Hope your DH recovers soon!  I was in quarantine on Escape for 7 days.  

Hope you continue to be negative!

 

 

 

Thanks for the kinds words! I'm not sure how, but we missed the Motown concert vocalist. We also never made it to Syd's. DH and stopped by twice, but it was closed both times. I should have looked more closely at the Dailies!

 

Quarantine for 7 days?? That sounds awful! I hope you were treated well. I'm claustrophobic and was worried about being quarantined in an inside cabin. I'm not sure how I would have managed.

 

Edited to add: I just looked at all the Dailies, and Shaun Brown, "the prince of Motown" performed in the Breakaway theater twice, both times at 10pm. That explains why we didn't see him. We're usually in for the night by then!

Edited June 2, 2022 by LisaLisa87

[LisaLisa87]

15 minutes ago, HxFx said:

We saw the Rumors Fleetwood Mac tribute band at Syd's and thought it was excellent. Probably our favorite show.

 

Sooo sorry we missed that.

[HxFx]

8 minutes ago, LisaLisa87 said:

We also never made it to Syd's

Yeah, we thought it was a regular bar that had live music from time to time but I think it only opened for specific shows. We tried going in several times before the Rumors show and it was not open. I was alerted to the show from the FB group - there was a guy that was on the same itinerary 2 weeks before and gave us good gouge. I wish I had made it to other shows.

[rellersi]

On 5/31/2022 at 8:27 PM, LisaLisa87 said:

I've decided that I will provide a summary of each day after all. I'll cover embarkation day and the first sea day in this post and save our first port day for the next one.

 

Embarkation Day in a nutshell:

• As previously mentioned, embarkation was unexpectedly quick and easy. I'd be happy to answer any questions about the process.
• We had a short list of boarding day items to take care of, and we knocked most of them out before going to lunch at Garden Cafe.
• No muster drill! Instead you go to a designated location and have your room key scanned. Now I understand why I was asked three separate times before the cruise to watch the safety video!
• We went to Garden Cafe for lunch expecting big crowds and a lack of seating, but again we were pleasantly surprised. Maybe the key is to go in with low expectations??
• Look for the "Compound Salad" station, which has a different made-and-mixed to order salad each day (e.g., steak and blue cheese, Greek, Cobb, etc.).
• We had an early reservation at La Cucina for dinner, which we enjoyed very much.
• There are lots of bars and lounges on the ship and we tried most of them at least once, but Shaker's Martini Bar was our go-to for most of the cruise.

 

 

Sea Day #1:

• We slept in on our first sea day and then ate breakfast at Garden Cafe.
• By the time we got out to the pool deck, it was a madhouse. People soup in the pool and pretty much all deck chairs occupied.
• We tried deck 16 and did two full laps before we got lucky and came upon two people who were packing up to leave. Then we had to do that awkward hovering thing where you don't want to be too close, but you also want to make sure anyone coming from the other direction knows those chairs are OURS.
• Interestingly, there were very few chairs being saved with towels/flip flops/etc. -- most were occupied! The public sundeck on 17 was closed because it was really windy, and that contributed to the lack of available lounge chairs.

• We had a reservation at Cagney's for dinner, and once again we had a positive experience. Both the service and the food were great.
• We went to the 7:30 showing of Burn the Floor, which was surprisingly entertaining. We didn't really know what to expect, and even DH enjoyed it!

 

That's a wrap for now. I'll post about our experience in the Dominican Republic (with lots of pics) tomorrow.

 

 

We were also on this cruise would like to make an additional comment on embarkation day. And this complaint has nothing to do with NCL but rather the Port of Miami, once we got to the terminal everything was smooth, but getting to the terminal was horrendous. there was no signage as to which terminal which ship was at then we had to circle the port twice before we found the luggage drop off for NCL. Once there it was very simple to get to the parking garage but it took time to find the right place fortunately we were early and there was little traffic

[LisaLisa87]

28 minutes ago, rellersi said:

We were also on this cruise would like to make an additional comment on embarkation day. And this complaint has nothing to do with NCL but rather the Port of Miami, once we got to the terminal everything was smooth, but getting to the terminal was horrendous. there was no signage as to which terminal which ship was at then we had to circle the port twice before we found the luggage drop off for NCL. Once there it was very simple to get to the parking garage but it took time to find the right place fortunately we were early and there was little traffic

 

You're right, and I had completely forgotten about that! DH asked me when we were almost there if I knew where to go, and I told him not to worry because I was sure there would be plenty of signage. Then, being the Type A person that I am, I decided to Google it. I was so glad I did because we didn't see a single sign and it's hard to tell where to turn off to get to NCL's terminal! Even knowing that it was Terminal B, we almost drove by the entrance to the parking garage.

[snorklinbarb]

@LisaLisa87OT but in answer to your question:  Quarantine was in Italy so required 7 days (varies with country) Thank goodness an Oceanview!  

Agree interior would be tough!

 

[LisaLisa87]

Day 6: Sea Day #2

We slept in and woke up to a beautiful, sunny day. The sea was calm and there was a light breeze -- nothing like the wind we experienced on the first sea day. We went up to Garden Cafe for breakfast, again. I would have liked to try one of the MDRs for breakfast, but Taste was only serving breakfast until 9:30am and that's about when we finally rolled out of our room. I had also noticed that O'Sheehan's serves breakfast. Does anyone know whether that's a sit-down breakfast or a buffet?

After breakfast, we headed back to the room where DH and I got ready for some time up on deck. DD decided to chill in the room for a little while, and we made plans to meet up for some game time a little later. This time we went straight up to the public sundeck on 17, which is on the port side near the entrance to Vibe, and there were plenty of lounge chairs available. I had forgotten until now, but we also spent some time up there after we left Tortola. That turned out to be a great spot. Not only was it not as packed as decks 15 and 16, but there was a bar there that never seemed very busy as well as a large shower to cool off. We hung out there for a couple of hours, and then we took turns doing things with DD around the ship while the other lounged. It was kind of a lazy day, but very enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

That isn't me up there, but I walked the plank on embarkation day! DD and DH both chickened out.

That evening, DH and I had dinner at Ocean Blue. We were a little surprised about how small that venue is, although Wasabi and The Raw Bar take up quite a bit of the real estate in that area. One thing we found interesting is that, with the exception of Teppanyaki, there were always quite a few open tables in the specialty restaurants -- at least while we were there. This is despite the fact that there were no reservations to be had after about day 2. My guess is that they were limiting capacity due to low staffing. Whatever the case, our service at the specialty restaurants was good across the board. I was a little disappointed in the menu at Ocean Blue, particularly the "Seafood Specials" section. Aside from the "Hong Kong Style Snapper" (which DH ordered), I didn't think there was anything particularly inventive. I ended up ordering the Atlantic Salmon with white wine lemon butter, and it was very good but nothing special. My favorite part of the meal was probably the Black Tiger Shrimp Trio, but they were very stingy with the cocktail sauce!

After dinner we went back to the room and picked up DD, and then headed to O'Sheehan's for some games. A note for anyone who enjoys (or whose kids enjoy) air hockey: The arcade has two non-standard air hockey tables, one with curved sides and another that utilizes two paddles (pushers?) per side and multiple pucks. The table at O'Sheehan's is a regular table. O'Sheehan's also has basketball, skeeball, two mini bowling alleys, a pool table, darts, and probably a couple of other things that I'm forgetting. One other bonus is that you can see the large screen in the Atrium from there, so I was able to watch Deal or No Deal while DH and DD were duking it out over air hockey.

DH and I spent a little time at Mixx, where we had become friendly with the (very overworked) bartender, and then we headed up to Shaker's because I had been wanting to try their Rum Cake Martini but had not gotten around to it. It was delicious, but one was plenty!

The next day was our Great Stirrup Cay day, and I was equal parts excited and nervous that we wouldn't make it there. Thankfully we did, and it was quite possibly my favorite day of the cruise. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

[LisaLisa87]

[snorklinbarb]

O'Sheehan's has a few breakfast offerings such as Express, Full English, and one that I enjoyed - a brioche w/scrambled egg, ham and cheese (but you could have sausage or bacon on there side if you wanted) plus hash browns.  I think pancakes are also on menu.  Breakfast on Escape was available there until 11 am.  I think that's pretty standard on NCL ships.  Then they take about 1/2 hour to shift over to lunch.

[LisaLisa87]

11 minutes ago, snorklinbarb said:

O'Sheehan's has a few breakfast offerings such as Express, Full English, and one that I enjoyed - a brioche w/scrambled egg, ham and cheese (but you could have sausage or bacon on there side if you wanted) plus hash browns.  I think pancakes are also on menu.  Breakfast on Escape was available there until 11 am.  I think that's pretty standard on NCL ships.  Then they take about 1/2 hour to shift over to lunch.

 

Oh wow -- that sounds really good! I'm sorry we missed it. That brioche sound delish! I checked the Dailies, and O'Sheehan's did serve breakfast until 11am. 😥

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by LisaLisa87

[Jac199]

I love a good, detailed review. Great job bringing us along on your cruise! I look forward to your observations of GSC.