Jezo

In all seriousness all the water from any of the taps on the ship comes from teh same place and through the same pipes. If your butler gets you a pitcher it will simply be filled from a tap. Water in the buffet and restaurants is filtered an additional time to remove the excess chlorine, but most people cannot tell the difference.

 

 

If you want it filtered you need to bring something like a Brita.

When I got water from the bars on the Gem two weeks ago I just saw the guy go to the tap at the sink there and fill me up a glass that had ice in it.

So none of this is a joke.

Nope. I sat in one on my Jan 2 cruise. There are about 4 of them I recall

 

Very cozy and private and they are all the way to the right and around the corner

 

It looks like they took over some other space and just enlarged magenta

 

Trust me they are there and in use and very nice and have a huge window too

Hmm.. so are they buried all the way around the corner? I wish we knew.. we loved the booths last year and were sad to see all of them gone when we were on the ship a few weeks ago. Boo. Now we need to go back to find the hidden ones!

I seriously apologize if I am offending you folks that feel the need to explain to me where tap water comes from, etc. I was not asking the question I asked to annoy anyone. I also wasn't asking the question to which you have provided an answer.

 

I have my reasons for asking the question I asked. If you don't have an answer specific to the question I have asked, please move on to another thread where you can possibly demean someone else. Unkay? Gheesh!

You could have someone else in your room fill up an empty pitcher with the tap water, walk it to you, and pretend like they are your butler if having the water brought and served to you is the deal breaker. I know filling up one's own glass is beneath some folks so this might be your best be if a constant supply of water is needed.

I highly suggest you go to magenta and when you do ask for a booth table over to the far far right and around the corner.

The booths are gone post drydock. They are all tables and chairs now.

If you turn on the sink in the bathroom water comes out.

It's the same stuff they will put in a pitcher and deliver to your room.

Thank you for the unbiased review, we will be traveling on the Gem on March 12, it will be our first NCL Cruise and I am a bit apprehensive, so I was pleased to read your review. I am a firm believer in "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" and some people tend to dis one cruise or another because of a single bad experience. Your honest review pointed out the good and the not so good, yet you still put a positive spin on it, thank you.

We were on the same cruise as the OP, there is nothing at all to be apprehensive about. People will come on this message board and complain about everything, they start their trips cranky and never relax as they spend the whole trip mad at things.

It's all how you view things. On our ship people complained about the slow service at O'Sheehans and how they would never go again because it took so long to get food. Our take on that? O'Sheehans was a nice relaxed place that we got the chance to sit down in and look out the window, unrushed. It's a ship in the middle of the ocean, where does anyone need to be? I always love reading the negativity people spew after the same cruise I take. We love it and are already booked with Norwegian for 2017 yet these people come home, get online, and just start typing about how bad everything is in life.

Meh.

You are on a boat in the Caribbean in blue water and hot weather, it would be very hard to make that bad for me.

How much of a tip did she leave you? :D

She had the UHP* so it was all included in the cost of her fare.

(*Ultimate Husband Package: Terms and conditions apply in forthwith that if husband does not deliver food as expected a lifetime of alimony and suffering are included as a way to make up for such terrible behavior)

You went from $1,099 for an tiny inside room with no windows or light or space to a balcony room for a savings of $100.

Pretty sure there is no way that can be considered a mistake.

I guess not many people use the gym..

What's the splash park look like now without any Spongebob stuff?

My wife got free room service every day, full menu included, delivery time was 10 to 15 minutes.

.....

We bought and brought these style takeout food containers. Each morning, as well as sometimes for lunch and dinner, she sent me up to the buffet with a reusable insulated grocery bag where I loaded up with meals for her, my 4 year old son, and herself, and brought them back to the room.

She'd get things moved around in the balcony to have it ready for when the food was delivered and we'd spend the morning outside with coffee and eggs and at night for sunset sit with a plate of cheese and olives. I'd toss three of the napkin/knife/fork combos in the bag as well as a bowl and a carton of milk for cereal for my son and walk back to the room.

I enjoyed watching people give me cranky looks as I transferred from plate to container, they were just mad they didn't think of something so grand. We were responsible and I put the plates on the waiter's trays when I was done and with the containers in the room bring them to the room steward for garbage or walk them back up to he buffet.

Pretty sure this is going to be a normal thing for us going forward on our cruises to come, it was a brilliant idea.

I can't find anything specific listed under my account or the website, at least where I am looking. The page says "The first two guests receive between 3 and 6 meals of specialty dining depending on the length of your cruise. " but not how many you will get once it's booked.

So for a 14 night cruise on the Breakaway, how many meals is this?

For those of us not getting the spa pass, are there any free shower facilities at the gym or is that reserved only for folks with the spa passes?

Here you go (mostly, a few of the days I suppose we had too many martinis or were dealing with the hurricane to worry about pieces of paper..)

Day 1: https://hostr.co/file/hNLu1NXCmkSX/20160218_060525.jpg

Day 3: https://hostr.co/file/gBcTNVrGeHFm/20160218_060534.jpg

Day 4: https://hostr.co/file/sQpQWgRvCZG1/20160218_060547.jpg

Day 5: https://hostr.co/file/fVIJeydNfRCT/20160218_060558.jpg

Day 6: https://hostr.co/file/bWfSuimVRnIk/20160218_060609.jpg

Day 7: https://hostr.co/file/l8TzFoSu9sig/20160218_060616.jpg

Day 8: https://hostr.co/file/jBl8t7xvIUnI/20160218_060629.jpg

Day 10: https://hostr.co/file/wtiSkH1fO2cR/20160218_060650.jpg

The website says it's the $7 upcharge, which is fine, but what does $7 get me? A soup, a roll, and a dessert, or something more?

Since they don't do anything for Mardi Gras, I highly doubt they'll have anything for St. Patrick's Day. Its not a Catholic cruise line.....:rolleyes:

Isn't the CEO a born Catholic and doing things like taking away emergency contraception for the staff because it goes against religious ideals he has?

The basic gym itself is free, right? No spa pass needed?

Maybe this is because they usually put the tips in a communal jar? Can anyone comment if this is the case?

This is what we usually see. They go into the jar unless you give it to them a bit out of the way, then you'll see a hand slip into a pocket, especially with a $5 bill.

Le Fizz.

Dont ask, just order it. It's an elderflower martini. It tastes like you are out on a nice spring day with a breeze gently rolling over you as you stand on a grassy medow with the sun shining down.

We discovered it at the martini tasting.

Get it. You wont regret it.

Thanks.

Thanks for that review. We learned alot being newbies to cruising. Can you please tell us what the drink prices were for a bucket of beer and wine? Also, did you get an upgrade to the "free packages" with your balconey upgrade?

Bucket of beer is $35 I think? Fosters will be your best value if you go that route. Pro tip #2: O'Sheehans sells pitchers of beer for about $16. Apparently only one guy on the whole cruise knew this and I became the second when I saw him do it as no one ever had a pitcher and just ordered by the glass, even people paying. Pitchers were about 3 tall sized glasses of beer for around the price of 1.

Wine I am not sure of as I never ordered any but the cheapest bottle is (I think) $36

For the upgrade, no, because it was done 2 days before the cruise we got the upgrade at the really cheap price but kept the promos we had, nothing changed and they made sure to mention that during the upgrade process.

There were two very prominent signs in the Guest Services/Atrium area stating that the ship was completely booked...They were up almost the entire 14 days.

I wonder what happened to the folks that freed up the rooms that caused the sign to come down.

:)

And now question time!

Is there anything comparable to the Gem’s Great Outdoors (Aft outdoors free buffet/snacks) on the Breakaway? On the Gem its a big outside seating area overlooking the back of the ship. It's nice to eat outside when the weather is nice instead of sitting inside looking out at the nice weather.

Do they show movies on the Breakaway? We really enjoyed a couple on the Gem, Jurassic Park in the main theater and in the atrium.

Are there family fun activities on the Breakaway? The gem had cupcake making, balloon making, family pool party, and the family white hot party.

The ropes course, is that free?

Does the ship have an outside free eating area similar to how the Jewel style ships have the great outdoors? It's the back of the ship and a place to sit and watch the water connected to the buffet, a pretty big area with food, a bar, and lots of seats. It's also open when the buffet isn't serving breakfast and lunch. Anything like that on this big ship?

What is XYL?

Google says it's a Ham radio term for young lady, or wife.

So I guess that would fit into what he he saying.

People keep talking about a change in the gratuities with the new UBP vs the old. They mean the charge up front, right? You aren't paying 18% a drink, correct? Just the one time fee and then the rest is free.