Cruzinnana47

Enjoyed reading your review and must say after sailing on the Breakaway, agree completely with your honest assessment of the Getaway, which has the same layout.

We still enjoy sailing with NCL, but not in any hurry to sail on one of the "megaships" again.

Knowing which ports you will be visiting might make it easier for others to "narrow down" the possibilities of what you can do or see in each port. For example, as you're sailing to the Eastern Caribbean--imagine you might stop at St. Thomas or St. Maarten, which are pretty staple ports for that itinerary. Spending time at one of the beaches in St. Thomas or taking the ferry over to St. John and snorkeling at Trunk Bay are popular choices, also a stop at Maho Beach in St. Maarten to see the planes land and take off is always fun.

Have had quite a time trying to book LeBistro for our cruise in April. I did it last week and it showed Confirmed, but when I checked MYNCL today, the dinner reservation for 6 was gone. So I tried again, same date, same time, same # of diners. Again showed as confirmed. I got back on later & just decided to check the dinner reservation again to make sure and it had dissappeared again!:eek:

Called Tech Support to see what the problem is. I know I've read on other threads issues with making reservations online. The girl told me NCL is having problems on the website and would enter reservation for us, and told me to go in and check...it was there one minute and...you guessed it... GONE !! She said she'd enter it in one more time--now it shows a dinner reservation for just 1 person at 5:30. I'm about ready to give up...:(

It is definitely them and not us!

Tacked this question on to the end of another thread re the Star by mistake :o, but think it might be better asking this specifically about the Dawn.

For anyone who has recently sailed on her, is Chef's Table is still offered on the Dawn? If so, which night, if you can recall?

TIA!:)

Asking for my DD and her BF, who are interested in Chef's Table when we all cruise on the Dawn in April. Would anyone know which night this might be offered? I know they would need to book it as soon as they board the ship. This is their 1st NCL cruise, so I'm checking for them. Of course I know the best place to check is here on CC...;):)

Just posted over on NCL general threads...and CC News item from yesterday confirms it. So, the mystery is over--for now.

Called NCL Shore Ex and was told an e-mail will be going out to all who have booked cruises coming up including Harvest Caye in itinerary. We're sailing in April and glad to have this settled once and for all.

Called also and was told the same--Harvest Caye delayed until Nov. I was suspicious when I saw all the Harvest Caye excursions completely deleted from the list for our cruise in April, especially after I had previously been told any sailing after March 1st would be going there.

Glad this is finally settled so we can get serious now about booking our excursions. Actually relieved to be going to Belize City as well.

Nothing could be farther from the truth! Especially in the summer, there should be a lot of young people, from little ones to teens and your son's age. You'll probably see a lot of multi-generational families sailing together. Leaving out of Boston should be quite convenient for you, as it is for us, without the need to fly.

Good luck with your planning.

Congrats! Bermuda is a lovely island. A great way to celebrate DH's birthday...enjoy your cruise!

well said op, Merry Christmas to all. Not sure about the weather were you all are, but here in CT, it's almost 70 degrees, craziest thing I ever saw :)

Not too far off that in MA--we have broken records all over the state. No White Christmas here--but, we'll take it for now--snow won't be too far away...:eek: Enjoy your holidays!:)

I love this thread---something positive for a change. No complaining allowed! LOL ;)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all fellow cruisers. May you & your loved ones enjoy this holiday season. Wishing you smooth sailing on your upcoming cruises!:D

It's possible, but could be cutting it close, if there's any delay at all in disembarking. We did the same thing in 2014, but took a later train home. Even though we waited a little at Penn Station, I was relieved as it was an absolute horror show getting off the Breakaway (after 11am before we were picking up our luggage in terminal) & then grabbing a cab to Penn. Perhaps it would help if you did the early "walk-off" with your luggage.

Good luck & enjoy your cruise!:)

Nope..afraid you will be on your own. Careful, it's a pretty scary experience, darting across 12th with all your luggage in tow...:eek:

We have taken the Academy Bus from Braintree. Our last trip using the bus was Jan., 2014 when we sailed from NYC on the Breakaway. No parking fee in Braintree at that time. You may want to check Academy's website for current info. When we went, the r/t fare was $100 pp, but do believe it has gone up a little since then.

Very convenient & comfortable way to get into the city. Your luggage goes with you and when you arrive at the NYC terminal, the driver opens the luggage compartment under the bus and will help pull pieces out if necessary. Then it's a short walk to the terminal.

Academy contracts with NCL for this service, but no priority embarkation comes with it. Of course if you are platinum or a suite guest, then you would have this perk.

We've sailed out of NY several times and never had the experience you just described. Yes, rude people we definitely encountered - but MOST of them were other passengers! I found the day of disembarkation much worse--especially going down to claim your luggage -what a nightmare - especially when we got off the Breakaway.

Not saying we didn't meet some impatient & annoyed terminal employees, but not anywhere as rude as you experienced. Sorry you and your family had to go through all that.

We can attest to the CRAZY driving in NY. :eek:

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Thanks for all your hard work!

Pappion--Thanks for posting the video of the passenger rescue from the Breakaway. The USCG does a fantastic job with these medevacs. We witnessed one a number of years back on the NCL Majesty (a woman out on deck fell and suffered a serious head injury during strong winds & rough seas enroute from Boston to Bermuda). While the ship was underway, the chopper pilot was doing a remarkable job hovering over the ship while the rescue was taking place. The passenger was flown to a hospital in MA.

All in a day's work for the Coast Guard.

Quebec is definitely a must-visit port. As far as the 2 itineraries you mentioned, both are good ones. On the Quebec-Boston run, the port of Bar Harbor has the added bonus of Acadia Nat'l Park, which is spectactular, as well as Bar Harbor itself. Really gives one a perfect view of Northern Coastal NE and the state of Maine. In Sydney, you may need to take an excursion to see much of interest there. The Fortress of Louisbourg or Alexander Graham Bell Musuem may be good choices.

On the Boston to Quebec itinerary, the port of Charlottetown is a good stepping off point to visit the lovely island of PEI. And Portland, ME is an interesting and fun city.

Whichever you choose, you'll see beautiful scenery (lighthouses, harbors and quaint villages) along the way.

Have a great cruise!:)

We sailed on the NCL Gem out of NYC just 3 yrs. ago on a 10-day Canada itinerary in the 1st part of Sept. and had a wonderful cruise. The itinerary was great - Halifax, Quebec, Cornerbrook, and Sydney (no NE ports on that one). We had fantastic weather for the most part - it did rain in Halifax, but actually hit 80 while we were in Quebec (a bit unusual).

We would love to take another cruise to Canada again. You may or may not see some colorful foliage, depending on when you sail--of course the colors turn earlier the farther North you travel. Around here in Southern MA it's later in Oct. We are lighthouse fanatics and enjoy seeing them along the coastline.

My vote would be the Spirit. To be fair, we've not sailed with Carnival, but loved the Spirit as she is a unique ship--smaller and easy to get around with a lovely Asian decor and teak promenade deck. She's one of our favorites. Having the balcony and drink package is certainly a bonus.

Good luck with whichever ship you choose and have a great cruise.:)

If we sail NCL in 2017, choice of ship would be either the Pearl (Panama Canal) or the Gem. :)

Favorite NCL cruise was on the NCL Seaward, as it was our 1st cruise, when we celebrated our 25th anniversary, and therefore very special.

Close second was cruising on the SS Norway, which became our favorite NCL ship--one of the last great oceanliners. Even experiencing all the glitz and excitement of the newer ships cannot compare with our memories of her.

We live in MA, but have not limited ourselves to sailing just out of Boston, by any means (actually have only done that twice so far after taking 15 cruises), however, I also think it's time NCL puts another ship in Boston for the Bermuda & Canada runs. I'd like to see the GEM myself.

Thanks for sharing that video. This is just one example of what the U.S.C.G. does on any given day. Saw a medevac years ago on the NCL Majesty and it was truly impressive. Those pilots are certainly skilled keeping the helicopter as steady as possible over a moving cruise ship with often choppy seas and very windy conditions.

Hope those passengers are OK.

We have sailed on both NCL and Princess ships (including both Dawn and Breakaway), so we are aware of some of the differences between the two. Although the MDR/buffet food on NCL is usually fine/adequate for us, I would give the nod to Princess on this. We LOVE the International Cafe and MUTS, as well. However, as far as entertainment AND having a nice Promenade deck to stroll on, I would definitely prefer NCL. As another poster mentioned, the Breakaway would not probably not be to your liking if you want a walk-around promenade. Also, the casino area is extremely smoky and our impression was that the smoke carried over into other areas. The Dawn might fit your needs better, IMO. The Dawn departs Boston on Fri. for Bermuda and the Breakaway leaves NYC on Sun. for it's Bermuda run.

We did enjoy the Breakaway, which certainly is a newer ship than Dawn, but found it a bit too large for us and the "freestyle" concept didn't seem to apply as much--when we sailed on her, we had to make reservations for shows--first time we ever had to do that on any ship. Personally, we found the pace on Dawn a bit more relaxed (again, just our opinion).

Good luck with your decision, whichever ship you choose. And have fun in Bermuda--such a lovely island!

As a latitudes member, you can log into NCL and create an account, if you haven't already. In the Latitudes rewards area, you will see some limited cruise history info., i.e.: Cruise date, name/description of the particular itinerary (no details of ports visited), ship name, reservation#, type of stateroom, and # points earned.

FYI, our older NCL cruises taken 2001 and prior don't provide the itinerary description and one doesn't show the reservation #.

Perhaps you could give NCL a call to see if they can help "fill in the blanks".