Is the NCL Breakaway as bad as almost all of the current reviews say it is?

[n4w]

3 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

You seem to be correct.  There are a few of them on CC.  I guess I always look for the best in other people, so when someone acts like a troll, offers snide remarks in response to an earnest question from someone else seeking advice from other CC members, or tries to be "just so cute" with their postings, my first reaction is to assume that they are being genuine, honest, and forthright with their response.  So, yes, sometimes responses like that tend to slide by me.  It now seems that @n4w thinks that by warning others away from a cruise which he plans to take that he will find himself sailing on a less-than-full-to-capacity ship. 

It's Friday, it was a joke, and not heavily disguised.  Lighten up.  Do I believe these efforts will succeed - of course not.  After seeing so many posts from you I'm most surprised of the offense you in particular are taking.  Nevermind then, sorry I entered your sandbox, sorry I didn't see your rules.

 

Snide remarks?  What snide remarks?  

[The Traveling Man]

On 3/14/2024 at 4:11 AM, RWK1952 said:

Wow.  I started scrolling through the very recent, 2024 Cruise Critic reviews for the NCL Breakaway on which we currently have paid the small, refundable deposit on a cruise around the Iberian peninsula in March 2025. 

It doesn't look like NCL has a cruise scheduled immediately prior to your cruise.  That could mean that it already is sold out, so it no longer appears on the website.  The other possibility, though, is that it is scheduled to remain in dry dock right up until the start date of your cruise.  That raises a couple more possibilities.  The repairs may take longer than planned, meaning that NCL may delay your embarkation day and skip one or more ports of call.  An even worse alternative would be that workmen would remain on board and some of the work might still be ongoing, with all the fumes, noise, and closed off venues which that entails.  Our TA on the Getaway in 2019 was cut short by two days so the ship could enter dry dock earlier than planned.  Even that was not enough, however, as the start of the first cruise after the dry dock was also delayed by a couple of days.  Let's hope you don't run into any problems, but I just wanted to advise you that it can happen.

[cincicruisers]

2 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

According to @justhappy in post #16, the Breakaway is scheduled for a dry dock in February 2025, shortly before the OP's planned cruise.

Hmmm I am scheduled to sail the 9 day cruise 1/29 - 2/7.  Looks like there is the TA after that then dry dock?  Do you think it’s a bad idea to sail right before dry dock?

Edited March 16 by cincicruisers

[zqvol]

2 hours ago, n4w said:

Not a troll, it just went over your head.  I'm advocating a less crowded cruise for myself in July.  Jeez.  Try reading the responses again.

That’s OK, it will probably be at about 108% capacity 

[The Traveling Man]

45 minutes ago, cincicruisers said:

Hmmm I am scheduled to sail the 9 day cruise 1/29 - 2/7.  Looks like there is the TA after that then dry dock?  Do you think it’s a bad idea to sail right before dry dock?

I try to avoid them since our experience on the Getaway in 2019 when they cut short our cruise by two days so the ship could enter dry dock a couple of days earlier than scheduled.  The cruise after that dry dock also was cut short by a couple of days.

[BirdTravels]

On 3/14/2024 at 5:11 AM, RWK1952 said:

Wow.  I started scrolling through the very recent, 2024 Cruise Critic reviews for the NCL Breakaway on which we currently have paid the small, refundable deposit on a cruise around the Iberian peninsula in March 2025.  I had to double check to make sure that I had not selected just the 1 star (out of 5) reviews.  

 

We wanted a 1-way cruise ending in Barcelona and there do not appear to be many options.  Plus, the 2 person fare, even for a Family Balcony Suite, was extremely reasonable .. extremely ... on the Breakaway compared to say, Oceania, which was one of the only other cruises I found going 1-way from the U.K. to Barcelona.

 

I found out that the Breakaway is huge - 3900+ guests and 1600+ staff.  

 

Reviews on CC consistently say that everything is crowded, including the main breakfast/lunch/dinner buffet and the complimentary dinner areas, and the food is average and often room temperature.  Trying to see shows is often impossible since you are competing with almost 4000 other people.

 

We recently (September 2023) took a cruise on the Celebrity Millennium in Alaska.  That ship has a little more than half the passenger capacity as the Breakaway, and we had no issues with the complimentary and specialty dining areas or with the food quality, and no difficulty just walking in to see the shows.  Unfortunately, Celebrity only seems to do round trip cruises, at least in Europe.  Also, our Alaska cruise was at the very end of the Alaska cruising season so perhaps that was a significant factor.   

 

Is the NCL Breakaway potentially as bad a choice for us to take as seniors, as the reviews here on Cruise Critic make it sound?

 

The breakaway is a great ship. We have sailed on her about 6 times and would like gladly sail again. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Mostly fake news from people that like to complain. 
 

Yup, if the ship is sold out, it will be crowded. 
 

if you can find a 1/2 full ship, good for you. We cruise on multiple lines at all times of the year and all have been sold out lately. 

[cruiseny4life]

@n4w, I feel like I have to just say...well done, sir/madam! I enjoyed your clearly well-intentioned joke posts. It brightened my Monday morning.

[MoCruiseFan]

There are a lot of professional complainers on these boards who think it is their job to post as many negative comments as possible.  Get in the habit of moving past their posts and you will be much better off.  I hope you get to go on yoru cruise and that you have quite an amazing adventure (and come back with stellar reviews).

[texastennis]

On 3/14/2024 at 1:03 PM, Crazy planning mom said:

Getting the Priority Pass would be a good investment to avoid crowds at embarkation, disembarkation and tendering.

I have not sailed NCL in a long time, and did not know about purchasing a priority pass. How/where can I do this?  Thank you.

[SimplyAlbert]

We've sailed the Breakaway twice and wouldn't hesitate to sail her again.  Our first cruise was just after everything opened back up and there were only about 1,000 guests on-board, so our review from that cruise wouldn't be helpful now.  Here's my review from our February 2023 cruise.  Cruise was full so it should give you an idea of what we experienced.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=696311

 

[Asawi]

On 3/14/2024 at 10:11 AM, RWK1952 said:

We wanted a 1-way cruise ending in Barcelona and there do not appear to be many options.  Plus, the 2 person fare, even for a Family Balcony Suite, was extremely reasnable .. extremely ... on the Breakaway compared to say, Oceania, which was one of th

 

@RWK1952 is this cruise still on? I had my eye on it but it disappeared from NCL site a few days ago. Maybe it¨s completely sold out, but somehow that doesn't make sense to me since there were lots of rooms available the day before it disappeared. Tried to find a roll call for it but no luck.

[RWK1952]

I just noticed that yesterday as well.  I sent a message to my NCL consultant and am waiting to hear back.  Does seem a bit strange that it might already be full.

[Asawi]

2 minutes ago, RWK1952 said:

I just noticed that yesterday as well.  I sent a message to my NCL consultant and am waiting to hear back.  Does seem a bit strange that it might already be full.

Please update here when you find out what's going on! It could be that they have pulled it temporarily from the site for some reason or other connected to the drydock preceding it.. 

[TheycallmeFlip]

3 hours ago, texastennis said:

I have not sailed NCL in a long time, and did not know about purchasing a priority pass. How/where can I do this?  Thank you.

I believe that you can do this when it's time to check-in.  I'm not sure if it's a standard rate, but when I cjhecked-in this morning it was $199 per stateroom.

[RWK1952]

1 hour ago, TheycallmeFlip said:

I believe that you can do this when it's time to check-in.  I'm not sure if it's a standard rate, but when I cjhecked-in this morning it was $199 per stateroom.

I have added the Priority Boarding to our reservation for the March 2025 Iberian cruise to Barcelona.  I did it ahead of time by just asking my NCL Cruise Consultant to add it to the invoice that will be due in November. 

[RWK1952]

On 4/29/2024 at 10:28 AM, Asawi said:

Please update here when you find out what's going on! It could be that they have pulled it temporarily from the site for some reason or other connected to the drydock preceding it.. 

I just spoke with my cruise consultant earlier today.  He confirmed that he also could not see it on the NCL cruise search.  However, he said he was able to check on the number of rooms booked on the cruise and he saw that there were still plenty of rooms available in each category of stateroom, including the Haven. 

 

When I also asked him about the fact that I had seen that the Vigo Spain port stop had been removed from the itinerary, he confirmed that it had been removed.  That also may explain why the cruise is not currently searchable.  NCL may be redoing the web pages for that cruise to reflect the change in itinerary so as not to mislead new people looking to book that cruise.  He said since that cruise is still about eleven months away from departing, Vigo will more likely than not be replaced with another port stop.

[djfunk]

On 3/15/2024 at 7:18 PM, n4w said:

It's Friday, it was a joke, and not heavily disguised.  Lighten up.  Do I believe these efforts will succeed - of course not.  After seeing so many posts from you I'm most surprised of the offense you in particular are taking.  Nevermind then, sorry I entered your sandbox, sorry I didn't see your rules.

 

Snide remarks?  What snide remarks?  

I definitely got a good chuckle reading your first post, well done!

 

Op, i was on breakaway july 2023.  The ship is perfectly fine and never had an issue with overcrowding or quality of the product.  my only complaint about the breakaway class (been on Getaway too) is they place the damn customer service desk next to a large main gathering point.  It gets loud and it's hard to yell at the customer service reps about not having 3 turndown services that day.

[Asawi]

14 hours ago, RWK1952 said:

He said since that cruise is still about eleven months away from departing, Vigo will more likely than not be replaced with another port stop.

Thanks for the update! Let's hope Vigo will be replaced with something nice, but I suspect it will be a sea day. I like sea days though. 😄 

[RWK1952]

On 5/1/2024 at 8:46 AM, Asawi said:

Thanks for the update! Let's hope Vigo will be replaced with something nice, but I suspect it will be a sea day. I like sea days though. 😄 

Well, it is Thurs AM and I just got the email from NCL telling me that the Breakaway cruise starting May 28, 2025 has been cancelled.  I looked online for other articles about this and found that a number of NCL vessels are having their 2025 schedules redone, and a number of cruises have been cancelled.  Interestingly, the articles I saw listed about 8 other NCL ships, but NOT the Breakaway.

 

The email I got said that one of the factors for the cancellation is that the drydock for the Breakaway, scheduled for the period just before the cruise was scheduled to depart, is now due to be finished earlier.  I wonder if they are going to try and fit in an earlier cruise?  The email also said that the Mediterranean cruise for the 28th would be rescheduled as a later, 14 day cruise.  Sounds like cruises will be able to start to be rebooked on about May 20th.  It also said anyone having a cruise cancelled will be able to get a 10% discount on any cruise leaving before Dec 1, 2025.  I thought we were getting a pretty good deal on the May 28th, 10 day cruise, so it will be interesting to see how any new cruise compares.

 

Here is a tip I heard about from another person on Cruise Critic.  There is a really comprehensive cruise search site called CruisePlum.com.  It provides a lot of really detailed search capability.  That may even be how I first identified the NCL Iberian cruise.  I will certainly be using that once again to find a replacement cruise, but then going to the individual cruise line's website to actually make the reservation.  That seems to be the way to make the best deal.

 

I hope that we can find something at least very similar to the May 28th cruise.  I have already done lots of research, in particular about Barcelona and the east coast of Spain where we had planned to spend time after the completion of the cruise.  

 

I will post back here with what I find out.  Since it appears that you may have been planning to take that same Iberian cruise, perhaps we can can communicate more directly.  If we eventually end up booking the same cruise once again, it might be fun to at least know someone ahead of time a bit more personally among the 4000 or so guests who board the cruise ship.  Just a thought.

[Asawi]

41 minutes ago, RWK1952 said:

Well, it is Thurs AM and I just got the email from NCL telling me that the Breakaway cruise starting May 28, 2025 has been cancelled. 

Thanks for the update! (Surely it's March, not May?)

I suspected it had something to do with the drydock. Fingers crossed for a good alternative! 

(I do use that site you mentioned to check for price drops.)

[Asawi]

1 hour ago, RWK1952 said:

Since it appears that you may have been planning to take that same Iberian cruise,

I was planning to. But I'll probably do a short landbased trip to Lisbon in February instead to get a break from Swedish winter.  I was there in February this year and it was wonderful! My arthritic joints thanked me. 😄 

 

[RWK1952]

55 minutes ago, Asawi said:

Thanks for the update! (Surely it's March, not May?)

I suspected it had something to do with the drydock. Fingers crossed for a good alternative! 

(I do use that site you mentioned to check for price drops.)

My mistake.  It is our March 28th cruise that was cancelled.

[RWK1952]

1 hour ago, Asawi said:

I was planning to. But I'll probably do a short landbased trip to Lisbon in February instead to get a break from Swedish winter.  I was there in February this year and it was wonderful! My arthritic joints thanked me. 😄 

 

I hope you enjoy whatever new trip you are able to book.  I am sorry that we may not have been able to meet aboard an NCL cruise.  My mother and grandmother were Swedish - Burquist.

 

Since you mentioned that you were able to monitor price drops on CruisePlum, I was wondering whether you caught those latest two price drops on the NCL Iberian cruise?  I saw them on the NCL website.  I contacted my cruise consultant and he issued new invoices reflecting the price drops.  But I wondered whether those would have been caught automatically by NCL if I had not first brought them up? 

[zqvol]

29 minutes ago, RWK1952 said:

I hope you enjoy whatever new trip you are able to book.  I am sorry that we may not have been able to meet aboard an NCL cruise.  My mother and grandmother were Swedish - Burquist.

 

Since you mentioned that you were able to monitor price drops on CruisePlum, I was wondering whether you caught those latest two price drops on the NCL Iberian cruise?  I saw them on the NCL website.  I contacted my cruise consultant and he issued new invoices reflecting the price drops.  But I wondered whether those would have been caught automatically by NCL if I had not first brought them up? 

Why would an NCL cruise consultant notify you of a price drop? That’s not their job. 

[RWK1952]

1 minute ago, zqvol said:

Why would an NCL cruise consultant notify you of a price drop? That’s not their job. 

NCL has a price drop guarantee on their cruises.  Maybe it's not my cruise consultant's job to notify me, but I am curious how it gets done otherwise without me notifying them first?