Back today from The Breakaway (4/17/16)

Just back from the Breakaway!!! Overall we had a GREAT time!! We had a party of 29 people with us with ages ranging from 5-75. We had several first time cruisers with us. We also had two wheelchairs in our party. We came from CT and hired a round trip coach bus to drive us all.

My immediate family consisted of my hubby, my son 15, my daughter 13 and me. This was our 4th cruise and kids 3rd. But first on Norwegian for us. We have been on Royal twice and Carnival once. Going to share some of the good and not so great. Eventually I will post some pictures also.

Rooms: We had a few different rooms in our party. We had cabin # 8122 a mini suite with a large balcony. The room was a little smaller than I had expected, but was very happy that we had the pull down bed over the couch for my daughter. We did love the large balcony but really didn't have many days to enjoy it because it was cold the first few nights and the last two nights it was cold as well and we had 15 feet waves.

My BIL with his wife and two young kids had cabin # 9122 one room over and above from us. I believe this room is a family Balcony, it also has a pull down bed over the couch. I didn't see much difference in size in the rooms just in the obvious balcony sizes. This was their 2nd cruise.

My Aunt and Uncle had cabin # 9194 a mini suite with a regular balcony. The room appeared bigger to me, since the couch is near the balcony. They both enjoyed the room and the close proximity to the elevators.

Both SIL's with hubbies had inside cabins. One had cabin # 5169 they said the room was fine for what they needed. The other SIL had cabin # 14617. Theirs was an inside 4 person. Again they also said the room was fine for what they needed. First time cruisers.

My other SIL had an inside Handicap room cabin # 9461 for 3 people, her and two of her kids. They had to move the bed over so her electric wheelchair could fit. She is wheelchair bound so needed the room to get her wheelchair up to the bed to get in and out of bed. The room worked for what she needed.

Her other children had cabin # 9463 an inside for 4 people. The room is really small, for 3 grown boys ages 18-24 and my nephews girl friend but they made do with what they had. (All first time cruisers)

My in laws had cabin # 11914 a handicap balcony. Their room was huge and nice with a great view from the balcony. (They have been on several cruises)

Along with part of our group we also had another family with us (friends of my SIL). They came with us so they could drive on the bus with us. This worked out nice because it ended up lowering the price per family for the bus. I'm not sure of their cabin # 's but I believe they were on the 12th floor with two side by side balcony cabins. I heard no complaints from them about their cabins. (The parents in this party have been several cruises but first for their son and his family)

Food:

With such a big party we never ate at the same times or same places.

Garden Cafe Buffet- Very good food at the buffet with plenty of choices. I just didn't like the set up, very congested. We had a group of boys with us with ages ranging in 15-24. They all found plenty of choices.

Uptown Cafe- The burgers were excellent, nice and big. The salad bar was also very good.

Savor- The first night we ate at Savor and it took a little over 2 hrs. So that's why we never really wanted to go back to the dinning rooms. With all the activities sometimes eating at the buffet or Osheehans is your best bet.

Taste- We did go to Taste later in the week on Friday when there wasn't much that we wanted to do or any shows we wanted to see. We had a great meal and we were in and out in a little over an hour but didn't get desert since we wanted to get to a show.

Osheehans- Even though all the food was good I wasn't a big fan of it being the only restaurant to get food at 2 am and you have to wait. Our last night I was so tired but wanted a burger and asked if I could get take out but they said no. For all the boys eating at Osheehans after midnight became a nightly thing. So I had them order me burger while I took a little nap. On the Explorer of Seas a couple years ago we liked that we could get pizza or a sandwich anytime we wanted with little to no wait. My son did try breakfast at Osheehans with Grandpa and he wasn't a fan. He ordered some type of scrambled eggs and they were runny.

Noodles- My son went earlier in the week with his cousins and he hated it. But he is a picky eater, he ended up at the buffet later that evening. We tried to get in a couple of times but the wait was always 45 mins. On Thursday we went around 8:30 and the wait was about 45 mins again. We decided to wait tonight, ended up only waiting about 25 min. it was my SIL, BIL, hubby and I. We ordered a variety of appetizers to sample. I wasn't a big fan of any of them. The combination fried rice was excellent!! I also ordered some noodles in a broth that I didn't like. We didn't order desert since nothing appealed to us.

Buffet at Great Stirrup Cay- I had a burger and really enjoyed it, I also had ribs which were good They had several side dishes like potatoe salad, a cold pasta that hubby and kids thought was horrible. They also had corn on the cob which was just ok tasting. Very limited desert choices, we only enjoyed the chocolate covered rice Krispy treats. If I remember correctly they only had water or lemonade for drinks.

I didn't go to any of the pay restaurants but others in our party did. My Aunt and Uncle had the 4 restaurants dinning plan. They did Teppayanki, Moderno, La Cucina and Cagneys.

Teppayanki- they said was just ok.

La Cucina - didn't get a review from them on La Cucina will update if I do.

Cagneys- They enjoyed their meal here.

Moderno- they loved Moderno they said everything was excellent! Because of the great review my BIL AND SIL tried them out also and they also thought it was excellent!

Wine the Musical- Two of my SIL's, my BIL and nephews girlfriend did Wine Musical. I Only heard one of SIL's review, she thought it was just ok. She didn't think it was as funny as they said it was. She did learn some new things about wine though. The food was good.

Romance package- My SIL ordered the Romance Package included with Romance Package:

Sparkling wine and chocolate-covered strawberries in your stateroom upon embarkation

Canapés delivered to your stateroom one evening

Classic Dozen Red Roses

Romantic Dinner for two in La Cucina

Tea service in your stateroom on the afternoon of your choice

One 8x10 Professional Portrait

They both had a very nice dinner at La Cucina but they think something they ate there made BIL sick the next day.

The canapés were delivered to their room in the beginning of the week. It wasn't what they were expecting so they brought them to my my room but they never got eaten.

The tea service was scheduled on the day that BIL got sick so they only had the tea and then SIL brought the pastries to our room. The tray had chocolate chip cookies, pound cake, and scones. I couldn't figure out the flavor of the scones but they were really good with the fresh cream that was also included.

I will review more in the next couple of days.

Appreciate the review, looking forward to more.

Fantastic review and I look forward to the rest.

Keith

Thanks for the review...Thinking of taking her this fall.

Thanks for the review. We leave on Sunday. Can't wait to hear about onboard activities

Wonderful review. Can't wait to hear more. Hubby and I sail in 40 days and I'm so excited. Our first NCL cruise.

iconcierge app

Just about everyone in our party had the iconcierge app downloaded on their phone and activated the phone and texting feature for $7.95 each. Aside from occasionally not being able to hear the person that called you this feature was great to have. Just be sure to have notifications on for the app in order to see any calls or texts come in. If you don't have them on you will need to go into the app every so often to see if you have any texts or missed calls. Well worth the $7.95 x 4 for us to be able to call or text whenever we wanted. You can also call any of the cabins from the app, you just dial the cabin number. The app was also great to have to see all the times and places of activities throughout the day. You can also review your account, make reservations and find out the location of places all over the ship.

Shows and activities

Atrium:

Let me first start off with a review of the atrium. I don't understand why a majority of the activities happen in the atrium. The sitting area for the atrium is very limited so when a popular activity is happening the atrium gets very busy and congested. A majority of people end up standing and blocking the people that are sitting in the Internet cafe. When we were on the The Explorer of the Seas a couple years ago they had a lot of their activities either in the theater or a lounge.

The Not So Newlywed Game:

Ok this game should be held in the theater, it is a very popular show. My SIL and BIL wanted to try and get picked as a couple. We all tried to cheer as loud as we could so they would get picked but I guess we weren't loud enough.

My daughter is 13 and at first we told her that she couldn't see the show. She managed to convince us that she was mature enough to watch it. I was cracking up at her expressions, she was laughing hysterically and enjoyed the show. Everyone else also laughed hysterically!! Great show not be missed!!

Mr. Sexy Legs contest

I had this on my list of things to do but forgot about it. I happened to be walking through at the time they were having it. I hear them say over the microphone (my nephews name) from CT. I looked at hubby and said "no way" so we both ran closer to see. What do you know it WAS him!! But the funny part was it wasn't only him it was also two other of my nephews AND my Uncle!!! They didn't win but they had a great time being contestants and they did get a complimentary drink.

Shows and activities To be continued...

Great review so far, looking forward to reading the rest.

I was also on this cruise, and so far I am in agreement with your review.

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Enjoying your review

Thank you for taking the time to post:)

Lucky that you made it to GSC.

Nice review. Looking forward to more.

Burn The Floor:

We had reservations for the earlier show but never made it since we were at GSC longer then we had planned. We stood in the stand by line for the later show. We were at the back of the line with my handicap SIL. A worker came up to us and said that the wheelchair could come in with one person. So I went ahead with her. In the handicap section there is enough room for 3 wheelchairs in one section. She pulled up to one spot and I sat next to her. A worker came up to me and said I would need to move if another wheelchair came in. I said yes course I would move. A few minutes later my hubby and daughter came in, no other wheelchairs had come in so they sat next to us. Not much longer another wheelchair came in so I moved so they could take my spot and then another pulled into the 3rd spot. The families of the wheelchairs all stood around us so the area became congested. Hubby and I decided to move with DD. I told SIL we would meet her back here at the end of the show. Because of this situation this is one reason I didn't favor how wheelchair friendly the ship was. I will report more on that later.

We lucked out and found front row seats to the right if looking at the stage. My daughter loved the show and was thrilled that one of the performers dress touched her. I on the other hand thought the show was good but too long for my taste. On the way out my DD had her pic taken with two of the performers.

Shows and Activities to be continued....

Rock of Ages

Part of our family had gone to Rock of Ages the night before and told us how funny and great the show was. They all said not to miss it!! We had reserved it and we got there nice and early to get close up seats. We sat in the 2nd row in the middle. The family members that had seen the show the night before didn't reserve it but stood in the standby line and got right in.

The show was great! Very funny, we were laughing non stop! The show is almost 2 hrs long so keep that in mind if your planning on going. My daughter wanted to see it also but we didn't allow her to. We made a good decision. My SIL had reservations to see the 9:30 showing but they ended up canceling the show and we don't know why.

Let me start off by saying two years ago on the Explorer we did a photo scavenger hunt. We had a lot of fun doing it, they even provided you with the camera. They gave you a list of tasks to take pics of and you could do them in any order. At the end they went through each teams pics and displayed them on a big screen and gave you points if you did the task correctly and if wrong took points off.

Well on the Breakaway they did it completely different. First off we had to use our own camera. They gave you a list of tasks to do and they needed to be in order. They only gave us 20 minutes and if you were late they deducted points. We arrived late along with several others and the guy didn't want to see any of the pics. At that point he already declared the winner.

Battle of the sexes

Another game that was held in the atrium. Not a lot of room for the 10 guys and 10 girls they picked. This is funny but very short.

Survey Says (I think that's what they called it)

Not much to say about this just that it was good.

Who wants to be a Bazillionaire

I was very bored at this show! I don't remember the name of the girl who hosted it but she was an extremely boring host. I also thought it was silly that she was giving hints to all the answers. She also hosted an Early risers Trivia and again very boring.

The Variety Show

Another rather boring show. They had the dancers from Burn the Floor perform some of their dances. One of the assistant Cruise directors did a magic show and the assistant CD Luz sang some Tina Turner. She was the only good part of the show. I believe I fell asleep here for a little bit.

GLOW Party

They started off the Glow Party in a very fun way. I packed some glow sticks for the kids but they do give out some. We didn't stay long, we aren't fans of dancing.

Quest

We did this game on our last cruise on Explorer of the Seas 2 yrs ago. The way they do it is they have teams in sections. So there's probably 30 or so people in a group. Breakaway does it by teams of at least 4 people and up to 10 or so. They were passing around a paper with team numbers on the paper. They came around to us and I declined. My SIL kept saying come on let's play. I said no your not going to want to do the stuff they ask you to do. So the game starts and the first items they asked for were easy and simple things like a cruise daily. So again my SIL said aw man see we could of done this. I kept saying just wait.

They eventually got to the fun part of the game, they were asking for things like 2 ladies bras, a guy and girl had to switch clothes on stage, two girls doing a dirty dance and so on. Great show, very funny not to be missed. After the show I asked SIL if she still wanted to do it? She's like NOPE! This is held in spice H2o

This is great! Thanks... My countdown continues.

Bingo

We played Bingo the first full day at sea. Packages start at $49 and go up to $69 I believe, might even be $79. I bought the $49 package, as did my Aunt. My SIL purchased the $69 family pack. If I remember correctly the $79 package you get a t-shirt.

I think Bingo is too short with only three games for the prices they charge. The callers do make it entertaining with their jokes though.

Deal or No Deal

My SIL's went to Deal or No Deal so we went with them just to check it out. They charge $20 and you get to play two games. On your card there is a number on the bottom of the card, they pick a random number to come up on stage to play. Even if your number isn't called you can still play on card from your seat. We didn't play we just watched, it was fun.

Casino

I went to the casino earlier in the week, played some slots and also roulette. I didn't have any luck at either of those. When I first started playing roulette I made a dummy mistake. I got change for $100 and started playing. The minimum for the the table was $10, so I put down ten chips to play and no win. Next round I put down another ten chips and no win. So I'm sitting there looking at my chips and saying wow I only played two rounds and I don't have a lot of chips left! Then it hit me OMG these are worth $2 each not $1 like I'm used to at home. So from then on I started playing $10. No luck at all.

Throughout the rest of the week a few of my family members kept saying how they got a little lucky at the casino. One SIL went and deposited some cash to her account.

Later in the week I decided to give the casino one more try while hubby and DD went to another showing of Burn the Floor. I sat at a .25 slot with $50 and got lucky and hit a few times and walked away $200 richer. As I walked away I see my nephew and his girl friend at the slots were you put in quarters to try and knock down other quarters, key chains, some paper money and chips good for a free drink. They really had fun playing this game as I saw them also earlier in the week playing. They convinced me to give it a try, so I did with $20. I had fun but didn't think I was making any money either. I did manage to get a free drink chip. My nephew asked if I wanted to play some roulette, I said sure let me cash out. I got $18 back plus the free drink and had fun playing.

So we both sat at a roulette table with $50 each. My nephew lost his money quickly. I hit twice while he was with me. He finished up and said he would see me later. I continued to play. Fast forward to about 45 minutes later and I walked away with a $500 chip!!!! I found my nephew again and gave him my free drink chip. He's like you don't want it? I said no I decided I'd rather have this chip (I showed him the $500 chip). He's like is that from roulette?!?!? Shortly after I cashed in and called it a night.

On our last night hubby wanted to give it a go at the casino since he hadn't played yet. He did really good at a $1 wheel of fortune. He had a few nice spins. He hit $100 twice and then $400.

Thank you for the very detailed review! Very helpful - Sailing tomorrow!

A few quick questions -

1. Who was your cruise director?

2. Communicating on board - So you think downloading the app was worth it? Have read many mixed reviews!

3. Weather - the temps look like they are the low 70s. Was it warm on the beaches or when sailing? 70s in one place can feel very different than in others. Trying to pack - how cool was it on the pool deck during the day?

4. Any "wish I had known ahead of time...." moments?

5. Communicating with those at home - did you buy the wifi? Use any apps? If yes, when did it work for you without extra charges on your phone? And was the wifi worth it?

6. Gym - I don't remember if there were classes offered or just equipment.

Thank you for any input!

Thank you for the very detailed review! Very helpful - Sailing tomorrow!

 

A few quick questions -

1. Who was your cruise director?

2. Communicating on board - So you think downloading the app was worth it? Have read many mixed reviews!

3. Weather - the temps look like they are the low 70s. Was it warm on the beaches or when sailing? 70s in one place can feel very different than in others. Trying to pack - how cool was it on the pool deck during the day?

4. Any "wish I had known ahead of time...." moments?

5. Communicating with those at home - did you buy the wifi? Use any apps? If yes, when did it work for you without extra charges on your phone? And was the wifi worth it?

6. Gym - I don't remember if there were classes offered or just equipment.

the

Thank you for any input!

1. Dan Dan with Luz as the assistant

2. Yes we all thought it was worth it. Just some small glitches but otherwise great to have!

3. Weather wasn't 100% on our side. Our first two nights it was chilly on the pool decks not unbearable but still cold. Several people from our party did indeed use the pools the first two nights. On the days we were in Fl and Bahamas the evening were very nice. I should of made time to use the pool and water slides one of those nights since the last two nights were COLD!! We had lots of wind and 15 ft waves. We had perfect weather on our stops in Fl and Bahamas.

4. Wish we had known that One of the pay restaurants serves the same breakfast buffet as the Garden Cafe. I think it was Moderno, very nice and not as congested.

5. We didn't purchase wifi but while in Nassua while visiting Atlantis we purchased wifi for $20 ish dollars for up to 4 devices. We also used our phones in FL.

6. I believe they had some Yoga classes

Thanks for the great review! Very informative.