Breakaway Review 4/17/2016 (Questions welcome!)

Quick background to frame the review - my husband and I are in our late 20s/early 30s, and were travelling with two other couples. We have been on 3 cruises before (2 Carnival and 1 MSC).

Embarkation

We arrived at the time on our check-in documents (11:40 for the 11:30-12 slot), and boarding hadn't begun yet. Obviously most people don't follow the check-in times because check-in was halted for about 30 minutes because there were so many people in the waiting areas for boarding. The guy on the speaker said that over half the ship was currently in the terminal before boarding began. I'm not sure what time it usually starts because I think that he said they were also running a bit late. Boarding began around 12:15, and we were onboard by 1. Overall I give them major points for handling things so smoothly - no one likes to wait but I don't think they could have possibly done anything any better!

We were able to go right to our room and drop off our carry-ons. We then decided to just go to the Garden Cafe buffet for lunch. The food at the buffet was definitely some of the best we have had (minus maybe MSC in the Mediterranean but only because we love pasta!). It was pretty similar every day - I was really excited at first that they had chicken curry but it was literally there every day. I never found that the lines were bad, and we could always find a seat. Embarkation and debarkation were definitely the busiest (as a side note Taste and Savor were practically empty on debarkation day when the buffet was a zoo!).

Ultimate Beverage Package

We then started making use of our free UBP package! We were really excited about this having had in on MSC before, as it was too expensive for us on Carnival (drink package is much cheaper in Europe for some reason ...only paid about $250 Canadian each!)

I will review the bars as I review the package.

First we went to Shakers. We love martinis so this was a staple all week. This is a small bar so sometimes it can be hard to get a seat, but the drinks are great. My favorites were the Citrus Gem and Le Fizz!

Mixx Bar is between the Taste and Savor Dining rooms and we usually used this as a meeting place for dinner no matter which restaurant on the ship we were going to. This was my favorite place to drink and I can say that was 100% because of the service. Rohit, the bartender, is amazing. He knew all of our names and favorite drinks after the first night, and was in general just awesome! This worked well for us because then if we we said to meet at a certain time and someone was running late we would just happily drink away until they showed up! My main go-to at this bar was the Rebellious Fish! Light and easy to drink. Another tip - the UBP is up to $15 and there are cocktails on the menu for $15.95 with an asterisk saying that they aren't included in the UBP because they include a souvenir glass. You can still order it without that glass and it rings up to under the UBP limit which I didn't realize the first few days. The Painkiller was one of those and was delicious!

Fat Cats was a blast. Go see Charlie Love and the Silky Smooth Band. Just do it seriously. So much fun. Pretty much the same drink menu as Mixx so nothing really to add there!

Bliss is the night club type bar. We went there twice and it was really fun. One night was a toga party and the ship actually provides the sheets and has people to help you put them on haha. We tried to go the last night and it was closed for a private function so I'm not sure what that was about. It might have opened up later but we didn't stick around.

Maltings Whiskey and Beer had some different drinks that my husband really liked, but I'm more of a cocktails and wine kind of girl so I can't really give much input on those - he was a fan though so they must have been good.

As an overall conclusion I thought the UBP was awesome. There was honestly hardly anything that you couldn't get unless you wanted bottles of wine or extremely top shelf liquor. Service was pretty fast everywhere, unless you are crazy impatient (we heard a guy at Bliss yelling at the bartender when we were seated at the bar that he waited for 20 minutes ... he was literally standing there for 3 minutes tops). The only place we found service slow was in the Manhattan room ... there weren't enough bar wait staff for the size of the room. We got a glass of wine when we sat down and then not again until after we had received our desserts! Taste and Savor had way better drink service from our experience - they literally saw me taking my last drink of wine and would bring over another glass.

The other thing that I will mention is that on NCL you don't have to sign for your UBP drinks when not at port, unlike my experience with MSC. This is actually great except that I like to tip extra sometimes and planned to do it through my sign and sail so didn't have any dollar bills with me and had to get some on shore in Florida. Good to know for next time. Also, if you are a couple you only need to send one person to the bar if you bring both cards with you.

Any questions about UBP just ask!

Food review up next!

Restaurants

We originally intended to eat at one or two specialty restaurants but honestly it just wasn't necessary!

We ate mainly at Taste or Savor. The menu was also the same at the Manhattan room. We liked Taste and Savor because we found them more relaxing and easy to talk. It's much calmer and in our opinion a better dining experience. The Manhattan Room just always seemed chaotic. We did like the live band which could have been nice, but there were just too many people/servers constantly bustling around - I think that it really just depends what you are looking for.

The food was great on this cruise. I liked pretty much everything I ordered. I did find that sometimes the appetizers were a little too out there for me, and I wouldn't say that I'm super picky or anything but there was always the caesar salad as a fall back plan. The everyday NY striploin was really good which was a nice surprise. Also I found NCL was really good about substitutions which was a first for me on a cruise line - so you could change the fries for mashed potatoes, etc. The beef tenderloin and chicken parm were some other favs.

Lunch was good in the main dining room as well (best place to get nachos on the ship). Tomato pesto soup was my go to.

We liked grabbing lunch at O'Sheehans. I had the Texas BBQ wings probably too many times but hey - go with what you like! We had dinner there one night and I had the Shepherds Pie which was quite good too.

Ports

We had never been to any of these ports (despite being to Florida many times we have never gone to the Port Canaveral area).

Port Canaveral - We went to Cocoa Beach. We planned on just taking a cab. When you get off the ship there is no port area at all in terms of shops, etc. You just walk straight out tot he transportation area. Having done my research I knew it was a short cab to Cocoa beach and there were 6 of us splitting it, yet they were practically forcing us to buy the shuttle for $13 round-trip each ($78 total). I had to pretty much get in an argument with the guy that I wanted a cab not a shuttle (they were putting the shuttle ticket holders in cabs as overflow or something it made no sense) so I finally got a taxi. It cost us $15 there and $16 back so even with tip we saved about $40, and got dropped off right at the beach instead of the shuttle drop-off at Ron Jons. Nice try guys.

Honestly can't say I loved this port. We had a fun day, but the surf the really strong so it was like a wave pool. Two chairs and an umbrella was $30 and you had to set the chairs and umbrella up yourself. One bonus was a 7-11 across the street so we just bought a little cooler, ice and beer and coolers for $30 for 6 people. Not bad!

One note I would be careful taking kids here. Between the waves and inexperienced paddle/surf board renters it's dangerous out there. One person in our group got hit by a kid attempting to surf who had no idea what they were doing. Huge bruise and welt!

GSC - We rented clam shells at the Cabana Beach area which is a bit quieter than the main beach. Best $30 I spent all cruise probably it was so hot it was nice to have the shade. Thanks to tips I read on here we reserved it as soon as we got on board and there were only 5 left at Cabana beach when we went to book. We also got on the first tender and got 3 in the front row all with the mesh part for air circulation (again thanks to these boards)!

The water was awesome and not too crowded at all. There was a little bar right off Cabana beach, but after our first drink we just gave the server that comes to you chairs a tip and the drinks kept coming all day. Oh and this is also included in the UBP :) They also had Smirnoff Ice on the island which was awesome. Order a Miami Vice - so good.

The buffet was better than I expected - ribs, chicken, burgers, corn on the cob. No issues at all!

Overall loved the island and had a great day!

Nassau - After some research we decided to book the Hilton British Colonial in advance for $60/person (including $40 credit). It was a short walk from the pier through a nice little area with lots of shops and was a good place for souvenirs.

The Hilton was beautiful and not crowded at all. We borrowed snorkel gear which was included and snorkeled in the reef off the beach, and also used the free kayaks and the pool. We loved the little beds by the pool with shaded canopy's - so comfy and relaxing.

The only complaint was that we had booked as a group of 6 to make sure there were enough spaces available for everyone and so they just gave us one credit voucher for the 6 of us worth $240. Not a big deal at first we just decided each couple would track their own stuff and chip in for whatever they got over $80. Then we noticed some stuff on the tab that we were pretty sure no one in our group ordered so we had to go check with everyone and get it removed. This happened twice. If we hadn't been paying attention we would have been overcharged. I will say that management was very good about fixing it though - they were very keen on making sure everyone was happy and looked after. I do wish you had to sign something or got a receipt when you ordered stuff. I would definitely go back again but make sure we all booked separately just to make things less confusing.

Great review. I'm hoping there is more to come .

Did you have any problem finding chairs at h20 or by the pools ?

Thanks for the review.

Along with Ann41's question did you try for the Vibe Beach Club and whether you were able to get it or not - did you feel you needed it to get away from the crowds?

Entertainment

Rock of Ages was so much better than I even expected. I always assume shows at sea or at resorts are kind of cheesy. Rock of Ages proved to be up to par with most broadway shows I've seen (taking into account obviously that Rock of Ages itself is a musical with a lot of crude humor, etc no matter where you see it!). It was definitely meant for mature audiences - it blew my mind the amount of people who let their kids watch it but to each their own I guess (my favorite was when the guy announced it should be minimum 15 and over and some kids stood up to leave and their parents told them to sit down....) Then we heard people complaining after that it was too racy for kids ... he literally announced it 5 or 6 times! The performers were great, and some of the voices were amazing.

Second City - We went twice. To be honest I would take the comedy club on carnival over NCL any day, but I just don't love sketch comedy and would rather stand-up. It is what it is and if you like sketch comedy you will like it.

Burn the Floor - I loved it for the first 20 minutes. 45 minutes was too long for a straight dance performance for me (I need a story of some sort to stay interested), but there is no doubt that if you like the style of show that the talent was incredible!

Ropes Course - I am pretty bummed that we didn't get a chance to do it, because it was closed for the last 2 sea days due to wind. I'm not sure if it was open the first sea day because it was pretty windy that day too but I didn't check. I would say if you want to do this and it is open do it early so you aren't disappointed. Waterslides were also closed both days so didn't get a chance to do those either.

Deal or No Deal - We played Deal or No Deal one day for $20. It was really fun, and we won a break-open lottery card but we didn't bother redeeming it because they make you go somewhere else at a certain time to get it (if you win money or a free photo they just credit your account). We didn't play again but went to watch because it is fun to watch the person who actually gets called up to play the real game.

Room

We had an inside stateroom ... we had originally booked an oceanview but saw a sale that saved us $450 so we downgraded before final payment and definitely didn't regret it. The room was plenty big enough for us and the amount of time we spent in it, and we put the money towards a hotel upgrade in NYC to times square, where we spent 3 nights before the cruise.

Ann41 and StillCruzn

The pool area could get a bit congested but we never had a problem getting chairs on the deck that overlooked the pool, we never had a problem at all on the H20 deck. Most of the time there wasn't even anyone in the hot tub.

It always seemed a bit warmer on the H20 deck and since we had no kids that was mainly where we stayed. We didn't try for Vibe since we knew that we were planning 3 beach days, and weren't sure how warm it would be near NYC. I definitely didn't feel that we needed it after all.

There was one day when there were kids on the H20 deck and wearing snorkels and stuff in the hot tub. Luckily I didn't need to complain because I'm too meek for that and the NCL guy came over within five minutes and told the parents that they weren't allowed in the H20 area (to which the parents complained obnoxiously....) and they left.

Enjoying this so far.:)

We were headed to the Yankee game on Sunday and drove right past the Breakaway on our way to the game, I asked everyone in the car if we should skip the game and get on the ship lol. Oh well the game was good anyway. Loved the BA when we did it to Bermuda this past October, can wait until next time

Thank you for your review.

Great review! Thank you for sharing ... we will be on her in a few months.

Terrific review.

Keith

Thanks for your great review. One question I have is does BA have pizza and soft serve ice cream at buffets or restaurants available most of the day. That is the one thing my 18 year old is looking forward to. Imagine that!! lol

scorpioeyes23:

Yes there was pizza and soft serve ice cream at all times that the Garden Cafe Buffet was open! (The pizza was pretty good too!)

Are coffee and /or water included the UBV?

Genie:

Coffee and water are both available to everyone in the buffet and the dining rooms for no fee (not including bottled water and specialty coffee which actually aren't available in the UBP either).

If you want for instance a Bailey's and coffee though you can just order a shot and then mix it yourself!

thanks for the review!

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 - did you download the NCL apps on your phones? If yes, how did this work? Were you in airplane mode, was service consistent, etc.?

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!

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to boarding BA in 2 weeks. :D

The weather was in low 80s all 3 port days the ropes course was open on Friday the first sea day at Least when I did it the second time around 5 PM also did it leaving Nassau.