momtonoah

Hmmmm....as for smoking only allowed on one side of waterfront, I didn't notice that. I felt like smoking was allowed everywhere, it didn't really matter where you were. In fact I was just watching the video I took of my son dancing during sail away party up in Spice H20 on the dancefloor. There was a guy dancing with a cigar hanging out of his mouth on the dance floor!!! Having sailed a lot, I am used to smoking in certain areas on every ship of course. I just avoid casinos, and have no problem at all. This specific sailing it was everywhere. That being said, this did not ruin the trip. It was more the crowding and non service.

We have tried another NCL...the pearl in Alaska. I would say that cruise was "ok"....not great, but not horrible. I do remember the staff being pretty unfriendly though. After the second blah experience with NCL I am done. There are too many ships in the sea to sail!

If you are sensitive to smoke, I would caution booking the BA. Even folks in my family that don't normally notice smoke were complaining. I don't usually mind smoke when I am outside on other ships, but for some reason it really bothered us at most places in the waterfront. That was really sad, since I loved the design and feel of the waterfront. I would suppose it would depend on your sailing, as I am sure # of smokers varies. I am very used to the casinos being smoky, but on this ship it seemed to float out to all the common areas. :(

Yeah, and I would add that the cabin was not "reasonably clean" unfortunately. And I realize that putting the bed up every day is work, but I have never seen another cruise not do it (We have used the bunk on about 5 different ships now).

It was my son's spring break in Seattle. Most of the passengers were from the east coast, so no, they weren't on spring break. So I don't think that explains the crowds (not to mention others have said this about the BA). There actually didn't seem to be an over abundance of kiddos in the clubs.

As for nothing to do on the ship, I think that I just couldn't stand the thought of fighting through crowds to get to the inside game/activity/etc so that's why we were somewhat bored. The outside spaces had a lot to offer (slides, rope course, rock climbing, golf) but of course those are limited by weather.

Thank you for sharing your perspective of your cruise on Breakaway. What seems annoying to some people can also be trivial to others. Honestly, the dust for me would be no big deal. As long as my cabin is reasonably clean, I don't look for perfection. The cabins are the size that is posted on the website, so really no surprise there.

 

Mega ships are not for everyone and not every cruiseline is for everyone. Also, the entire experience could be completely different from one week to the next. /QUOTE]

 

It is hard to convey in a review, but we are actually extremely easy going travelers. Cruising is our love of life, so it is rare I complaint at all about it!

Dust is also not a big deal to me. My point was if there was that much dust in a room which was just previously occupied and supposedly cleaned, what else was not clean??? This was the obvious thing we could see. The floor was also filthy, but I didn't mention that. I also have never had a cabin steward introduce himself. It did save us the extra tip we usually give them though!

 

As I wrote, we have sailed Oasis (a bigger ship) twice and loved it enough to sail her again this July. We actually LOVE mega ships, and gravitate to them always, and fear smaller ships. We love the options mega ships offer. But the BA was not build to accommodate the crowds, plain and simple. It would be better if it sailed from warmer location so at least people could always occupy the outside space as well. This definitely helps things.

We (myself 39, hubby 42, son 6) traveled with a group of 22 extended family members on the 4/3 Breakaway. We are experienced cruisers, sailing 10 times now on RCI, Disney, Princess, and one prior sailing on the NCL Pearl. We were pretty disappointed with our Pearl experience. Fast forward 6 years, and we needed a NYC departure to accommodate the east coast members of my family as well as a sailing during my son's spring break, so we had no other options. So we gave NCL a second chance. We read a lot of reviews, and thought the negative ones had to be exaggerating, or written by folks who just didn't enjoy cruising. We were hopeful for a great trip, but were very wrong.

GOOD:

-I would say the best part of the sailing was Splash Academy. We were pleasantly surprised by how much my son enjoyed it. The staff were extremely nice and engaged.

-Ropes Course and Slides. Limited hours due to weather, but very fun!

-Late night buffet for junk food. A lot of cruise lines don't offer this anymore.

-Uptown Grill. Great burgers and waffle fries. We also liked the breakfast as no one was ever there and they had good egg sandwiches.

-Beverage package. This was free with promo. We really had little problem getting drinks in timely manner. Drinks are NOT weak at all!!

-Rock of Ages and Howl at the Moon were very good, comedy pretty good, jazz club singers were very good, family Karaoke was a hit with the kiddos

BAD:

-We had cool weather going in and out of NYC. This of course would be expected. However when the outside decks are not open, there is really nothing to do in the ship if you don't gamble. This is the first ship that I was actually bored at times. They do all the games in the atrium, and that takes an act of God to get a seat there, so we skipped them all. I found that we wandered around the ship often, not really doing anything. Usually I am running from one place to another doing all the activities.

-We just don't get the Freestyle way. Freestyle = no style. We were lucky and our travel agent got us a reservation in the Manhattan room since we were with a large group. But every night there were long lines of folks waiting for tables. Service in the Manhattan room was extremely blah. Servers did not chat with you, nor really even give you eye contact. Food was edible, but that's about it. I think we were only able to actually order drinks 2 of the 7 nights. We went to noodle bar one late night; the food was actually pretty good there but they never brought my husband's main course. We finally just left. We were not surprised of course.

-Our balcony cabin was the smallest cabin I have ever seen, even compared to inside cabins. It was also FILTHY. I put my beach bag on the upper shelf in the closet and it was covered in dust. The little rack below the TV had about 1/4 inch of dust on it. We had 1 conversation with our cabin steward. It was the first night when he said "you have a kid in there, right?". Um, shouldn't you KNOW that???? He also never bothered to put the bunk back into the ceiling about 1/2 the days, so you had to be careful not to knock your head. I guess that was too much work.

UGLY:

-SMOKE. It is everywhere. The Waterfront area is a really neat place to hang out for drinks, but nonsmokers can't enjoy any of it. Twice I had smoke blown in my face when ordering a drink. The casino is right in the middle of the ship, so smoke flows everywhere. I left the cruise with a sore throat and eyes due to the smoke.

-CROWDS. This is my main point of this review. This ship was built to hold 4,000 people in their rooms, but like 1,000 in the common areas. We have sailed Oasis of the Seas twice which holds 6,000 and never felt crowded ever. I had a panic attack in the buffet at breakfast and ended up not being able to go back in for food! (At least I had a Mimosa!). We ate outside when using the buffet even in the cold weather because none of us could handle the crowds. You can't walk anywhere in the main areas without people being in every square inch. Its insane. I wanted to fly home 1/2 way through the trip due to the claustrophobia. The hallways by the cabins are also about 1/2 the width of any cruise hallway I have ever seen. Getting off the ship is a complete fire hazard due to the crowds as well.

In summary, I will not sail NCL again even if you paid me.

Great review! Question for you...how do you "book" a tender for GSC. We also have a large group. TIA

Hello! Wondering if anyone knows if the Breakaway doors are magnetic? TIA!

Hello, does anyone know what terminal # the Breakaway ports at PC? Tia!

Hi! Hoping those who have cruised the breakaway before can help me.

1. We are a group of 22 cruising. We tried calling group services to help us with organizing dinner. We were hoping that with such a large group we could get a few tables together in the Manhattan room every night. We are more than happy to eat very early before the rush. Group services did not help us, and told me to have my travel agent call. Waiting on that to happen, as we did not all book under same agent so have to get everyone's reservation #s. I was also thinking of just going to dining room manager when we board. Anyone have experience with this?

2. Thermal spa....do you have to buy week pass or do they sell day only passes?

TIA