LuckyLori

On 2/20/2019 at 1:20 AM, Ashland said:

Then you should be paying less for your tour since it's now a group tour. I can't remember exactly how much time we spent but I do know that it was more than enough for us. Your choice at this point.

 

We were supposed to be in a group of  6 people but only 4 of us showed up....We waited for the other couple (we had each booked separately) but they apparently went to the wrong pickup location (specific instructions were clearly given). On our next tour with Cosol in St Lucia we heard them complaining (loudly) about this and I couldn't help but to tell them we had indeed waited...it was their fault..they quickly stopped blaming Lawrence. The 4 of us had each (individually) found and followed instruction's they hadn't. I hate when people are quick to blame someone else.

 

Best of luck on whatever you decide will work best for your group.

8 hours ago, KKB said:

 

On 2/20/2019 at 1:20 AM, Ashland said:

Then you should be paying less for your tour since it's now a group tour. I can't remember exactly how much time we spent but I do know that it was more than enough for us. Your choice at this point.

 

We were supposed to be in a group of  6 people but only 4 of us showed up....We waited for the other couple (we had each booked separately) but they apparently went to the wrong pickup location (specific instructions were clearly given). On our next tour with Cosol in St Lucia we heard them complaining (loudly) about this and I couldn't help but to tell them we had indeed waited...it was their fault..they quickly stopped blaming Lawrence. The 4 of us had each (individually) found and followed instruction's they hadn't. I hate when people are quick to blame someone else.

 

Best of luck on whatever you decide will work best for your group.

We just booked the Cosol tour.  Did you enjoy it?    Did it feel rushed?  Did you do the mud baths?  Would you recommend the tour?  How many people in each vehicle? How many vehicles?  Thanks

On 11/2/2019 at 6:40 PM, fstuff1 said:

i was assigned an Inside room mid-13th floor.

trying to figure out noise situation.

 

on the deck plans, the middle of the 14th floor is blank. https://www.cruisecritic.com/norwegian-breakaway-deck-plans/dp/?shipID=642&deck=14

whats there?

We had 13659 in January on the Breakaway and it was perfect!!  Right next to the elevator, we never heard any noises at all.  Being right next to the elevator was so nice you just stepped out your door and get on the elevator and go from there.  We spent a lot of time at the Spice area.  The buffet was also right by those elevators so that was convenient also!!  Loved the breakaway!!  

On 11/5/2019 at 7:58 AM, Roadsofa said:

For the Pats last four trips to the Big Game I have been on a cruise ship. '15 & '17 I was on the Getaway; they won! '18 I made a poor decision and was on another line; they lost 😞 Last year on the Breakaway!! They won! I have just booked a trip on the Bliss leaving Super Bowl Sunday. I have my Tedy Bruschi jersey already packed to watch the Pats play. 

 

So to answer your question, in the past anyway, the game has been on. I know that I will personally throw the cruise director and anyone else over board that would be responsible for the game not being played. 

 

Go Pats!!

We were on the breakaway this year for the super bowl!  It was a fun night, even though we are not patriots fans!!  Watching the game on the big screen in the Spice area was very cool!

On 9/19/2019 at 6:39 PM, JohninDC said:

Taxi van or UberXL will be about $25-30 to the port.

On 9/19/2019 at 6:39 PM, JohninDC said:

Taxi van or UberXL will be about $25-30 to the port.

Is that per person?  We will be there in Jan and there will be 4 in our group.

The only thing I will add is you will have to pay the tax on drinks until the ship has moved down the river a ways.  I don’t remember how far but we were charged taxes on alcoholic drinks for a few hours.   They are charged to your room.  This is also true in certain ports along the cruise.  Again I don’t remember which ports but they did tell you when they charged you.  It was around $1 a drink if I remember right.  

We have gone out of New Orleans twice.  We drive down from Kansas and stay in Covington.  At the Best Western, very nice and it was around $100 for one room with 4 adults.  It’s about a 45 minute drive to the port but we like it!  

On 3/4/2019 at 11:55 PM, gotscrapz said:

 

Can you please elaborate on the smoking in Spice? I have a cruise on hold that I was about to pay for tonight until I read this. I am new to NCL and researched their smoking areas on their website and this was not mentioned as  a smoking area for the Breakaway or other ships from what I can tell.

 

Maybe I missed it?

 

My understanding is that it's only allowed in the casinos and outdoors on the waterfront starboard side only and away from the food venues - just at Maltings? Areas I felt I could easily avoid.

 

I need a ship with a s little smoking as possible, can you please explain the areas you were allowed to smoke? I thought vibe and spice were both smoke free... areas that would like to use.

 

This is not an attack on smoking, but a both preference and medical issue for 2 of group. I appreciate your knowledge and experience on this issue. 

 

I'd rather book elsewhere if need be.

 

Thank you for your time.

As I said above, one half of Spice H2O is smoking.  The side with the bar.  There is no smoking allowed on the waterfront. There is also an enclosure by the pool and smoking is allowed in the casino, against the walls on both sides.  We are smokers and we spent most of our time at the Spice area.

On 3/5/2019 at 3:46 AM, cheersforbeers said:

On the Breakaway the entire Port side is smoking area.  From the steps to the bar, men’s bathroom down to the hot tub. 

We just cruised on the Breakaway Jan 27- Feb 7, 2019 and you can NOT smoke on the the waterfront any more.  There are only 3 smoking areas.  The plexiglass enclosure by the pool, one side of Spice H2O and the casino against the walls only.

20 hours ago, Gatordad815 said:

 

Thanks for the pics & info! I’m leaning in the direction of trying this place out based on reviews/pics/flexibility of just showing up! Thanks!

We liked that it was away from the other beaches and not crowded and not loud!!  

We have only been on 2 cruises both NCL the Pearl in 2017 and we just got off the Breakaway, Feb 7. We are a group of 4 ages 55-74.  We had a great time on both ships. We are from a small town, 5000 population, so we were a little worried about being on a ship for 11 night with roughy 6000 people but it was awesome!! We never felt crowded except at the buffet in the morning but we expected that.  

Just my opinion but but I loved the Breakaway more than the Pearl.  We are jeans and t-shirts kind of people and choose NCL because we wanted a more casual atmosphere.  We ate at 4 of the specialty restaurants and also saw the Cirque Show in the tent.  My husband did have to wear ‘long pants’ (jeans and a button up) to the Cirque Show, Ocean Blu and Manhattan.  We thought the food and service was the same whether we ate at the specialty restaurants or the main dining rooms.  

We did make reservations ahead ahead of time, you can make reservations 100 days before sailing.  We never waited more than a few minutes to be seated.

We did go to Sid’s Pour House and enjoyed the rock band there, it was loud but we expected that.  We also saw the Rock of Ages Show, it was risqué but we are all adults so it was a fun show.

We are smokers and we were happy with the space provided in the Spice area, deck 16.

We had inside rooms right next to the elevators on deck 13 at the back of the boat and we thought the location was perfect for us.  No noise from the elevators.  Very handy because of the Spice area and most of the restaurants are located near the elevators.  Our room steward was awesome!!

We heard a couple people say it was the worst cruise they had ever been on but we had a great time and will definitely cruise on the Breakaway again!!

Last thought, you can make your vacation a great time or you can ***** and moan about every little thing, we choose to have a great time.  The weather was awesome, how can you complain about a floating hotel, bar, theatre in the Caribbean when it’s snowing and freezing back home!!

On 1/30/2019 at 9:58 AM, laedw said:

I've read about Montezuma's revenge in drinking the water in Mexico.  Is that something I should worry about on the ship - brushing teeth with tap water and ordering drinks with ice cubes?

We just got off the Breakaway, 11 nights, Feb 7. The water is filtered on the ship so the ice cubes and water are fine on the boat.  I had ice from the ice bucket everyday.  Also the water in the bathrooms are safe.  It has to be.  As far as drinking the water in Mexico, Belize and Jamaica it not advised, most places will only serve bottled water or have filtration systems.

We went to Blue Kay on February 4, it was great.  We were charged $10 each and got 2 drinks free plus we got pads for the loungers.  I will say it was beautiful and not crowded, we got there around 11:00 and left around 2:00. The drinks were not great but we drank them.  It was hard to communicate with the employees.  But all we wanted was a nice relaxing few hours at the beach and it was great for that.  I did talk to them through ‘messenger’ and they told me $35 for the day and that included free drinks and lunch for 3 hours.  But we just paid the $10 each.

There was very little seaweed and the water is very shallow out from the beach for a long ways.  

54 minutes ago, NOLALADY said:

Mardi Gras doesn't really start in earnest until February 22nd so your flight should not be affected by it. 

You might check prices on flying out the next day.  Some times it’s cheaper to stay in a hotel an extra night.

6 hours ago, galliegirlie said:

I just got a quote from Almaplena for $85 ($45 beach pass + $40 transportation) for 2/15/19.  Is this in line with quotes that others have recently gotten?  Seems rather high. 

 

Maya Chan was already fully booked for the day I will be in port.  And I can't seem to figure out the Blue Kay website (can't find the option to change to English and not seeing the beach pass option).

I went to Blue Kay’s Facebook page and messaged them.  They told me $35 per person for 3 hour free bar and a couple options for free lunch.  That includes pads for the chairs.  The 3 hours starts when you get there.  They also offer snorkeling from a boat that cost $25 per person and takes about 90 minutes, that is offered every 2 hours starting at 9:00.  But you can snorkel from the beach.  She said a taxi to Blue Kay will cost $10 max and take about 5 minutes.  They don’t have lockers but will hold you stuff at the counter while we snorkel.

We are planning on going there.  If we don’t party to late after the Super Bowl our plan is to go snorkeling at 9:00 and staying until 2:30!!

There are a few videos on you tube if you want to check them out!!

For our first cruise a year ago, I didn’t know if I would need it but thought I should get it just in case.   I just called my doctor and she called in the patches for me.  I got sea sick on the first sea day.  I put the patch on, very small circle behind my ear and it worked great.  Within about 2 hours I was fine.  Definitely worth the money, I think it was around $60 for the patches.  You just use one at a time and it’s last 72 hours.  I just got her to call it in again so I’m set to go for this one.  

I started out with the ginger pills but they didn’t work for me.  I didn’t have any side effects with the patches I also used the sea bands, so I’m not sure which worked.  But I’m planning on using the patch alone this time.  But taking the sea bands in case I need them.

When you print your edocs there is a tab that says print luggage tags.  They are color coded. The tab is kind of hard to find it is on one of the pages of your edocs.  I think it’s on the first page.

They are open, check out their Facebook page.

They are open!!  You can look at their Facebook page.  We were there last year in October and had a great time.  I know they had a fire that was really bad but they are open 

As to your question about excursions through NCL, all the excursions leave from Harvest Caye and return to Harvest Caye.  You can’t book an excursion to Placencia through NCL.  You have to book through a 3rd party or maybe at the Harvest Caye excursion dock. We have booked the Spice Farm and Mayan Ruins this time through NCL.  

The ferry is is operated by Belize not NCL. It is $20 round trip per person and it is charged to your ship card.

Sorry to disagree but my information is correct!  I said it was from last October, which is dated but what we did on our trip to Placencia is correct.  

We we be cruising to Harvest Caye again in January and NCL still does not offer an excursion to Placencia.  But there is a ferry that goes there.  I also stated the the ferry runs back and forth all day.  Which I believe is still accurate.

We booked our excursion through ShoreExcursioneer.  But once we got to Placencia we did not trust the guide.  So we just walked around.  The wrist bands we got when we got on the ferry stated we would return on the ferry 3 hours later.  They do that so they know how many people will be on each return trip.  Otherwise there might be to many people trying to return at the same time.

We went to Harvest Caye last October and NCL does not offer any excursions to Placencia.  But there is a ferry to Placencia.  It takes about 15 minutes and I think it cost $20 or $40 I don’t remember, that was charged to our ship card.  You take the ferry over there and you have about 3 hours before the ferry returns to get you.  The ferry might run more often but that’s what we did.  

There is a wide sidewalk that you follow with houses and some shops along the way.  To the right over a ‘block’ was the coastline with several small beach clubs where you can eat or drink, reasonably.  To the left of the side walk is the town.  Not very pretty but kinda cool.  We went into a couple stores and bought some plantain chips, kinda like corn chips but real salty.  If you look at my profile I have a review and lots of pictures from Placencia.  

When we got got back we just wandered around Harvest Caye and hung out on the beach!  The food and drinks are not cheap on Harvest Caye. 

You won’t have time to go to Placencia.  It’s too far from Belize City.  It about a 3 hour drive from Belize City and I don’t think there are ferry rides from Belize City to Placencia.  Only Norwegian ships port at Harvest Caye, as far as I know.  It is their private island.

We are going to both Harvest Caye and Belize City in February.  We are going to Caye Caulker.  I will give a review when we get back.

We went to Harvest Caye and Placencia last year.

When we went last year the ferry ran back and forth to Placencia unti about 3 or 4, if i  remember right.  As far as going there, the ferry ride was about 20 minutes and you can walk around for an hour or 2 and see plenty.

Are the hop on hop off busses safe to tide during Mardi Gras ?

When we were there last Oct while on the bus it stopped for about 30 minutes for a parade. They have parades almost everyday of the year for some sort. Some are short a couple floats and some are longer. They were also shooting a movie while we were there so we got held up for a few minutes for that. We never felt unsafe the whole day, but we kept our eyes open. The bus only runs during the day it was like 9-5. We walked down Bourbon Street, without any worries. But I don’t know what it is like at night.

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