Seas2mountains

I would also be concerned about the mechanical issue. They won't have any issues getting the ship cleared and cleaned in time. We had a significant mechanical issue when we were on the Jewel in October 2016. We ended up being stuck at the port of Puerto Vallarta overnight and for an extended time the following day which resulted in us missing the ports of Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlán. It was really frustrating as they updated us and thought we would not have to stay overnight but once the divers were involved, it took longer than was initially anticipated. We did get a refund and FCC for missing two of the three ports. Hopefully it is a quick fix but I am sorry you will all miss Tortola and San Juan with the itinerary changes. I hope you get to the other ports. I hope you can have a good time with the cruise even if it is an altered itinerary.

Thank you for the warning. We will embark on POA in 63 days. Would you trust sending your laundry in on POA or not? We have had great laundry experiences on NCL shops but think we should probably avoid using it on POA.

It was in Cagney’s on Prima. Breakfast and lunch menus. On sea days, steak and eggs and waffles are additional options on the menu for breakfast. These photos were taken in June 2024 on Prima.

That’s a good time to leave London and you can be waiting in the terminal eating second breakfast or first lunch in the Haven area while waiting to embark.

The fjord in Geiranger is called.....Geirangerfjord.

We have typically embarked as early as 10:45am-11:30am on NCL with it beginning at 11am in most locations. The delay was due to immigration in the UK.

Thank you for your kind words! Have a wonderful cruise in 38 days!😀

Yes, it is sad but the count down for our next cruise is beginning to get closer. In the meantime, I will enjoy the other live reviews. Thank you again for all you contributed to this live review from your past experiences!

Thank you for your live review. You confirmed some of the same service concerns we experienced on our May 26-June 2 cruise with long lines or extended waits to get drinks at bars and lounges. We also tip for drinks and we did get served faster in the atrium when the bar servers remembered we tipped and came over to us. In Shakers, the bar server was helping the bartender who was constantly slammed and could rarely get out from behind the bar especially when Matthew was performing. That is disappointing about your food experiences in GC and Ocean Blue but it is nice to hear the Haven was a wonderful experience. Did you happen to catch Matthew singing? He was fantastic and Prelude Duo is one of my favorite duos. I don't understand how the CD on Breakaway had them scheduled as it was very different than other cruises and with other entertainment as you mentioned. We also had a wonderful cruise with our family but we experienced more service quality issues than we have experienced on other recent sailings on NCL ships. We did have a Lagoon Villa reserved but GSC was canceled due to valid weather concerns and it definitely makes GSC an excellent experience with the villas from our past experience in one this year. NCL Joy has some great 9 and 10 day itineraries in Alaska next summer. We are booked on a 10 day one with some decent time in ports compared to what you would experience with Encore or Bliss. If this is your first Alaskan cruise, I do recommend booking one with Glacier Bay.

Hi RWK1952. I know you quoted me and MJSailors on this posting. Thank you for clarifying that your comment last night was not intended for me. I realized that after you edited it and with your follow up comment. I think you may have quoted me in error now that you are using the quote option? My most recent cruise on the Breakaway was on the May 26 - June 2, 2024 sailing. As mentioned, I think a lot can happen between now and your March sailing. It is interesting that firstmickey who got off the Breakaway on Sunday noted the same issue with difficulty getting drinks at bars and had to bring drinks with her. I did not experience these extended waits on five other recent NCL cruises within the past 12 months. This was isolated to the Breakaway. I don't know why it was so bad on the Breakaway compared to other ships. Despite the numerous service concerns, we had a wonderful time on this cruise with our family. It was by far not one of NCL's best service delivery experiences and if I were a first time cruiser on NCL after this experience, I would be reluctant to book another one. I hope you have a wonderful cruise and hopefully the service issues that multiple people have noted happening this summer on the Breakaway will get resolved by your March sailing. Maybe you can come back to this thread after your cruise and report back on your experience. 😀

I would have been happy in any cabin - it is a cruise which is better than not cruising! We loved the Prima, too! This was a wonderful itinerary and I cannot recommend it enough.

Yes, we would have loved this cruise from a balcony cabin, too. That is the category we initially booked it in but I watched prices drop and changed to one of the last SJ suites that were available when the price came down to a price we were willing to pay. I think our itinerary initially had an early morning time listed for disembarkation but it was a normal disembarkation schedule. I believe everyone had to be out of their cabins by 8am. Have a great cruise!

Like @ontheweb and @Ellis1138 mentioned, I agree that it was smoother sailing than I expected especially from Norway to Iceland. I remember feeling it a little when I woke up in the middle of the night but it just rocked me back to sleep. I would have preferred to feel more motion as I like some gentle rocking of the ship when sleeping. Have a wonderful cruise!

Why was it poor. 1. Cabin steward was not motivated to clean cabin to normal NCL standards. Worst experience for us on any NCL ship. 2. Thermal spa was loud and no one cared for it to be a quiet experience as signs were removed reminding guests it was a quiet environment. Spa manager and assistant manager were too focused on surfing on their computers to care. 3. Dining experiences were good. Not great for food and service. 4. Bar servers were too overwhelmed to help bartenders and weren’t able to take orders in lounges and with limited service in atrium. Same in pools. 5. Shakers and Atrium were beyond crowded for the excellent entertainment options but there were probably 25-50 people standing in each location. The online reviews for Breakaway are a good warning to have concerns. I tend to promote NCL but cannot promote Breakaway given our very recent experience. If you go ahead with Breakaway and have a poor experience, please give another NCL ship a chance. This was the worst experience for us. Feel free to dig your head in the sand and ignore our warning pretending we have no recent cruise experiences. It was a kind warning.

I think your cruise from Southampton to Barcelona will have a very different vibe than our experiences on Breakaway with a NY to Bermuda cruise and a recent May/June 2024 cruise in the Caribbean with two canceled ports. One was legitimately canceled due to weather reasons and the other was due to BS reasons for “fuel optimization and environmental reasons” after final payment was made. Every cruise we have taken has been fun and we have always had a great time but we had a not so great experience on Breakaway recently. Some has to do with the loud thermal spa experience and despite the great entertainment choices, it was crowded in Shakers and the atrium. They had a private group that had Bliss lounge booked during the day and early evening for dancing. On a typical cruise, my husband will write 5-10 Vacation Hero cards. On the recent May/June 2024 Breakaway cruise, it was the only cruise ever he wrote ZERO Vacation Hero cards. For comparison, he wrote 15 Vacation Hero cards for our June/July cruise on Prima. And we have more crew to mention on the survey. Again, I think your experience in Europe will be very different from ours. I have no idea why we couldn’t identify one crew member for a Vacation Hero card. Food was good and service was good but not great and the crew didn’t seem as happy as we have experienced on other ships. No one went above and beyond like we usually experience. We had to go to the bar to get drinks as the bar servers seemed too overwhelmed in the lounges. Same with the pool. Not what we are used to on other NCL ships. The May/June 2024 cruise on Breakaway was probably our worst NCL cruise and we canceled three 2025 NCL cruises after that cruise and booked on Celebrity. Thankfully, our June/July cruise on Prima resulted in one 2025 NCL booking as it was an amazing experience. We will keep cruising on NCL but I don’t think we will go on Breakaway anytime soon. Our cabin steward was not good and the cabin was not as clean as we experienced on other cruises. Like there was nasty stuff not cleaned from the previous occupants and we were disappointed and disgusted. Sorry for my honest feedback as I’m sure this may leave you with some concerns. I hope you have a wonderful cruise. And I hope it is very different from our recent experience.

We tend to upgrade to P+ and drink bottled water most of the day with some exceptions. We have not experienced having swollen ankles.

My list based on ships we have been on: 1. Prima 2. Spirit 3. and 4. (tie) Bliss and Encore 5. Escape - the District Brewhouse for the piano player is why it is higher than Breakaway and Getaway. 6 and 7 (tie) Gem and Pearl (based on better pool in thermal spa than Jewel and Jade). 8 and 9. (tie) Jewel and Jade 10. Dawn ( this should probably be ranked lower but we had a great suite with views) 11. Sun 12. Sky 13. and 14. (tie) Breakaway and Getaway. (Based on limited lounge musical entertainment we like being restricted to Shakers/The Mojito bar and the atrium with limited to no use of Bliss lounge. That means it can be challenging to find a seat. We don’t care for dueling pianos and don’t stand in line to get a seat in Syd Norman’s. It seems so crowded on these two ships.) What criteria is most important for us: 1. Peaceful and quiet spa or hot tub area with no kids. 2. Lounges with musical entertainment (pianist, guitarist, duo, or band) options preferably not a crowded atrium. 3. Outside spaces to read or relax. 4. Observation lounges with musical entertainment and space to dance. Bliss lounges tend to have good dance floors, too. 5. Deck for walking.

I hope you have a better experience than we had. The thermal spa facilities on the Breakaway are great. Hopefully they will reinstall signs to set the expectation that it is a quiet area. It really depends on the people on the cruise. We went early to try to avoid people and that worked initially until loud people arrived.

Loved the thermal spa experience on Prima. I haven’t been on Epic yet to compare. The loudest thermal spa we experienced was this year was on Breakaway in late May/early June. There were no signs posted like there are on other ships to state it is a quiet area. The Jewel class thermal spas can be lovely when it is quiet.

Thank you for your kind words! I agree with you about the decision to pass on the Vibe pass for the expected weather in September. Who needs a Vibe pass when you have one of the biggest balconies on the ship! I hope you enjoy the views and the breakfast and lunches in Cagney's We unfortunately missed the Rumors show at Syd Norman's. We did the Latitudes "Behind the Scenes" tour which did not include the bridge tour. We were so appreciative that we were able to see the bridge tour that the captain offered to high Latitude status members. We loved Prima and this itinerary so much! Prima has what we thought was the best spa on a ship from what we have experienced so far. Have a wonderful cruise! 😀

This is an excellent point. When it is just two of us, we can easily be done in 90 minutes or less. When we traveled with family and had a party of 5 people, at least two hours was required.

I think you might mean a different city than Amsterdam? I have a cruise booked in 2025 that embarks and disembarks in Amsterdam so I was surprised by the comment but understand your point about cities banning cruise ships. It looks like they will limit ships going forward before moving the cruise terminal in 2035. https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ports-destinations/cruise-ships-will-continue-berth-amsterdam-city-centre-terminal-relocation

Day 11

Day 10 photos as it wasn’t uploaded in the App.

Day 9