SassyGirl

Mariah Carey probably wasn't the best example when trying to describe the horrible music at the pool but she was one of the few artists I recognized! It was non-stop crappy teen music - the stuff you hear at the mall when you walk past Aeropostale or Forever21.

We too were disappointed with the mac 'n cheese at Lawn Club Grill and I had the same reaction....almost no lobster and tastes like it was made with Velveeta. Not good. We did love the grilled fish and kabobs, the salad bar and the warm cookie dessert, though. And the pizza was to die for.

Sorry, don't have any menus to share.

Whenever we ventured to the Sky Lounge, nothing was going on, day or night. I think there were some DJ/dance parties held there around midnight but we like to dance earlier since we get up early to go ashore at the ports. They need more dance parties during the earlier evening hours when people are walking around the ship before and after dinner.

Celebrity is more pricy, more elegant, finer dining and a classier demographic of passengers. Far fewer kids on Celebrity. It is also a quieter line. You won't hear as much yelling and screaming over loudspeakers, not as many noisy, obnoxious things going on with screaming and yelling. It's not a party line, so a little more low energy and relaxed. People dress a bit nicer for dinner.

Hi -

The $2,000 watch wasn't a Cartier. Sorry if my review was confusing. It was some other brand, but there was also a Cartier store where NOBODY was shopping.

As for the juice, it is not right that they are calling frozen juice "fresh squeezed". Fresh squeezed juice is juice that is squeezed right before you drink it and it has a delightful and very distinct flavor and texture. The stuff they are passing off might as well be from concentrate.

One of the ships I was on (not Celebrity) had a big machine in view of the passengers that squeezed the juice and you could watch your juice being fresh squeezed.

Interesting about the OJ. Well, they aren't doing it any favors by freezing it, as that seems to completely obliterate the fresh-squeezed taste.

I also wanted to add another comment about specialty dining.

The food in the main dining room is pretty darned good - I would argue almost as good as the specialty restaurants. However, I think the dining EXPERIENCE is more enjoyable in the specialty restaurants as those venues tend to be much smaller and intimate and there is less noise and chaos. The main dining room is pretty loud and it seems very frenetic, with numerous staff people racing around like headless chickens, dishes clattering, etc. The specialty restaurants are much calmer and have a more relaxed, sophisticated feeling which I think really adds a lot to the dining experience.

I am not sure the food alone warrants the huge extra charge, though, as good as it is.

If I remember correctly, the show times were 7:00 and 9:00.

I neglected to mention how good the show "Uptown" was. It was a group of 3 singers doing a musical review of soul and Motown music. They were awesome!

The other show, The Pearl, was pretty to look at (cool Cirque du Soleil elements in the beginning) but the show made no sense at all and after the initial Cirque part, the rest was the usual corny singing and dancing. Hubby wanted out of there but we were in the middle of the row and I yanked him back into his seat.

I posted this review in the Reviews section, but thought it would be good to post here too.

I added the part about the fresh squeezed OJ here because I forgot when I wrote the review.

________________

We are a couple in our 50s and this was about our 12th or 13th cruise. We've sailed on Celebrity (this was our 4th), Royal Caribbean, NCL, Holland and Carnival.

We had a balcony cabin for this cruise and this was a 7-day Western Caribbean cruise.

Overall, we would score this cruise 85 out of 100.

WHAT WE LIKED

- The ship is soo beautiful and elegant and easy to navigate

- We loved our balcony cabin which felt spacious, was well-designed and generally comfortable (with the exception of the bed..more on that below).

- The specialty restaurants! We are not normally people who splurge on this kind of thing, but we had a good amount of shipboard credit to use, so we got a 5-dinner package. We dined at Qsine (we thought the food here was just okay and some of it tasted weird, although presentation was fun), Murano (excellent, sophisticated and gourmet), Tuscan Grill (the best of all of them...especially the lobster rigatoni alfredo!), The Porch (relaxed dining, lots of seafood options), and Lawn Club Grill (loved this one, especially the wood fired pizza and the warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream).

- Dinner In the main dining room. The food was great and we thought the Grand Cuvee was a beautiful space.

- The service - our cabin steward did an awesome job, as did everyone on the ship. While there were a small percentage of staff that seemed serious or cranky (maybe 5%), the vast majority were warm, friendly and smiling. ALL staff are hard working.

- The second comedian of the cruise...Derek-somebody. He was freaking hilarious and I was laughing so hard throughout his show, I had tears streaming down my face.

- Our fellow passengers - this line obviously attracts a more classy crowd and we appreciated how mannerly, courteous and friendly everyone was. We observed very little borish behavior like pushing, cutting in line, running other passengers over with scooters, yelling (or talking loudly), and it was nice to see people dressing up nicely for dinner. While tuxes and gowns are now a rarity, most people did wear nice clothes to dinner and we saw very few passengers in jeans and tee-shirts. We also loved the fact that there were very few children on this cruise. It made the whole experience more enjoyable and relaxing.

- The Solarium. We always enjoy solarium on ships but this one was extra nice with the beautiful New Age music, comfy loungers and beautiful fountain.

- The premium drink package. We received the classic package as part of our booking but we upgraded hubby to the premium package. He loved the wide variety offered in wines, spirits, beer and cordials. He also liked the World Class bar and Cellar Masters wine room.I

- Lots of comfortable relaxing areas in the ship. I have been on other ships (for example NCL) where you cannot find a relaxing, quiet place to sit to save your life. On the Silhouette, these types of spaces abound, both inside and outside on the decks.

WHAT WE DIDN'T LIKE

- Music in the pool area (piped in music) was too juvenile for the demographic. Average passenger age on this ship is 55-65 but much of the music at the pool was teeny bopper music like Brittany Spears, Mariah Carey, etc. It would have been great to hear pop and rock music from the 60s - 80s. We actually avoided the main pool area most of the time because of the annoying "music".

- Live music on the ship - all of the musicians were good but there was far too much loungy music, not enough up-tempo music suitable for dancing around the ship. The music that WAS up-tempo was usually stuff that doesn't necessarily inspire you to want to get up and dance, like blues. The bars, Quasar and Sky Lounge would be great venues for a hopping party band, but every time we walked into those bars there was either nothing going on or some terrible piped-in music (polka!!???) Celebrity, please realize that just because your clientele is a little on the older side, doesn't mean we don't want to shake our booties! People in their 60s and 70s today are not like older people from decades ago. We spoke to a couple in their 70s and they too were lamenting the lack of really upbeat dance music on the ship. That tells you how sedate it was. This issue alone would prevent us from sailing on Celebrity again, despite all of the great things about the line. Oh, and this was the first cruise we have been on that didn't have a Latin or Caribbean band.

- The food in the buffet - The only excellent thing we tasted in the buffet was the pizza, which was shockingly good. The made-to-order omelets were pretty good too. Everything else we tasted was fair to inedible. A raisin muffin I tried was so bad, I actually spit it out. I have no idea how it is possible to make a simple muffin taste that bad.

- Each time hubby ordered the fresh-squeezed orange juice he looked perplexed and told me he didn't think it was fresh-squeezed. I tasted it and he was right. He even got a regular OJ and tasted it side-by-side with the fresh-squeezed and the only difference was that one was colder in temperature. We both love fresh-squeezed OJ and it normally tastes noticeably better than regular.

- Too much space on the ship wasted on ultra luxury shopping. From what I can tell, Celebrity passengers are mostly middle to upper middle class, not Rockefellars. We didn't see a single person shopping in the Cartier shop. One watch my hubby saw in a window (that came with an adorable model yacht) cost over $2,000. There were several luxury stores that had no customers in them, no matter what time of day we walked by.

- The bed in our cabin - was so firm, it gave me serious back pain. Thankfully, our cabin steward was able to add an extra mattress pad which fixed the problem.

- Pools are too chilly. I am not a person who tends to be cold but both the pools in the main pool area and solarium were chilly and uncomfortable to get in. They need to be heated a little more this time of year (winter). Additionally, the Solarium area is often chilly when it would be more appropriate for it to be a little warmer. The A.C. was blasting in there.

Overall we had a really nice time and are happy with our experience on this cruise. I would say this cruise is perfect for older, sophisticated people who prefer a more sedate experience. If you like slow dancing or polka (ha ha) you probably will be very happy on this ship. If you prefer a more lively experience and you are energetic and youthful in your approach to life, you might be happier on Royal Caribbean, although there are many more children on RC cruises.

Thanks so much, everyone, for answering my questions!

Hi All!

Going on the Silhouette in January and purchased the 4-restaurant dinner package using onboard credit.

Now, I am trying to figure out how to make dinner reservations for the specialty restaurants on Celebrity's web site. Can anyone direct me? It seems like when I try to make a reservation, the system tries to charge me again, even though I already bought the 4-dinner package. Do I have to call Celebrity on the phone to make these reservations? (I like to plan ahead and would prefer to book my reservations before the cruise if possible).

Also...a couple questions about the specialty restaurants...

Hubby and I don't eat meat, however, we DO eat fish/seafood, eggs, cheese. Given this:

- For the Lawn Club, are there seafood options for grilling?

- The Tuscan Grille is listed as a steakhouse. Are there enough non-meat options to make this restaurant worthwhile?

- Are any of the specialty restaurants not worth our while, given we don't eat meat?

Thanks for any tips you can give me!

SassyGirl

I am a person who did not like the Breakaway, but I will tell you one thing I thought was great...

The molten chocolate lava cake, which is offered every night in the MDR. I think I ate it 5 or 6 out of the 7 nights, it was so good!

I love it when people say you are a complainer because you are critical of a cruise. It IS possible that a cruise just isn't that good. I have posted positive reviews of cruises I was very happy with (for example, Allure of the Seas) and I have posted negative reviews of cruises I didn't think much of (Breakaway). I post positives and negatives of every cruise. Some cruises have more positives, some more negatives.

As far as a cruise being "what you make it", I always go on the cruise with a positive attitude and with the expectation of having a great time. I don't HOPE for a bad cruise or go out of my way to find problems. Sometimes, though, the problems are blaring and obvious, like on the Breakaway. If crowding, noise, cigarette smoke, non-stop nickle-and-diming, a manic screaming cruise director, blaring loud speakers, too small public areas, no solarium, painful theater seats and very few quiet areas doesn't bother you, you probably will enjoy this cruise.

I love cruising and have been on about 10-12 cruises on various lines. I have enjoyed most of the cruises I've been on. My cruise on the Breakaway was one of my least favorite, though. I didn't like the way the ship was laid out. Although it is a "mega ship", it didn't feel like it, and not in a good way. The public spaces were too small and crowded and not designed to accommodate the number of passengers aboard. The pool area was too small. There was no solarium for regular guests (only for Haven people who pay a lot more). It was too noisy of a ship...too many loud speakers blaring, too few quiet areas to chill, the Atrium was always jammed packed with too little seating, volume way too loud. Cigarette smoke wafting around the ship because the casino is open to other public spaces.

I did think the food was good overall, with some exceptions, and the big shows were excellent. The cabin was the smallest I've been in, but the beds were comfortable. Service was pretty good across the board.

I wouldn't sail on Breakaway again, even though it's very convenient for me to sail out of Manhattan (I live in NJ).

What it is most important is that in the event of an emergency, like hitting an iceberg, the Haven guests are evacuated first!

Of course, music is subjective and what one person may think of as great music is crap to another.

There was only one day during our cruise where we were both pleased with the music we heard playing. It was during a day in port when we stayed on the ship. My mom and I hung at the pool and they were playing what I consider to be awesome music all day...basically 70s classic rock....like Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, Pink Floyd, etc. My mom even liked it, and she is in her early 70s. The rest of the cruise, all we heard was modern pop music, which we both think sucks. Oh, except in the hallways, elevators and bathrooms, where they were playing Christmas music all week, which was odd because our cruise started the day after Christmas.

There were NO quiet outdoor decks that were free of music, except portions of the Waterfront. Every other space that we checked out had music playing, which was either crappy, too loud, or both.

Even though we loved the classic rock playing on the pool deck that one day, I will say that the volume was too loud. My mom and I agreed that if they had been playing less appealing music, we would not have been able to tolerate it because of how loud it was.

I am not sure, but they may have been simulcasting parties from various areas of the ship into other areas. All I can say is the Spice H2O party was non-stop screaming from Alvin.

The ship was sold out but I didn't think the proportion of kids to adults was out of balance. There were many more adults than kids but there certainly were more kids than there would be on a non-holiday cruise.

Yes, Margaritaville was open.

You know, I was worried about how many kids there would be on board, but there didn't seem to be an unreasonable amount and overall they were well-behaved (with a few exceptions). There were many more adults on board than kids.

I posted a full review under the reviews section, but just wanted to comment on our experience on the Breakaway. I took my mom on this cruise for her birthday and Christmas and overall we had a decent time, but it definitely was not my favorite cruise. In fact, by the end, I couldn't wait to get off the ship, and I don't think I have ever felt that way on a cruise.

In a nutshell, the main problem (for me, and it also bugged my mom) was the NOISE and CROWDS. The ship is not well laid out for the number of passengers, public areas (especially the Atrium) are too small to accommodate the people who want to participate in the shows/events. I forgot to mention this in my formal review, but there is a serious problem with cigarette smoke on this ship. The casino is wide open, the smoke spreads beyond the casino into other areas of the ship. On top of that, there is an outside deck that is a smoking area, and the smoke from that deck permeates a large area inside the ship - I think it was deck 8, near the Italian specialty restaurant.

There is loud music EVERYWHERE and much of it is annoying teeny bopper music. The cruise director was manic and seemed to be screaming into microphones at every event. We had a hard time finding quiet areas to "chill" away from the crowds and chaos. The Waterfront deck was nice and quiet, but some days it was too chilly to sit out there. The Atrium has non-stop activities and with all of them, the sound system is blasting and the entire area is totally crammed with people. There is only seating for about 150 total in that area, which is nowhere sufficient.

I am not sure who designed the Breakaway Theater but the seats in there are the most uncomfortable I have ever sat in. The seat bottom slants downwards, so you slide down on the seat. If you try to scoot your butt backwards, your hit a wooden bar in the back of the seat. They are terrible. The deck loungers are also very uncomfortable.

On New Years Eve, we went to the blues bar, which was a nice escape from the manic cruise director and bad music elsewhere on the ship. At 11:25, the blues band took a break, and a large projection screen was unfurled and a simulcast of the New Years Eve party at Spice H2O was broadcast into the blues bar, with Alvin the cruise director yelling and screaming the entire time. We went to the blues bar to escape that insanity and now we were forced to endure 35 minutes of Alvin screaming. We stayed because we didn't want to lose our seats.

On the plus side, we loved the main shows, Burn the Floor and Rock of Ages. These were 2 of the best shows I have ever seen at sea. The blues band, Les Getrix and Creole Cooking Band, was very good, although some of their material repeated itself on different nights. We didn't eat at any speciality restaurants, but the food in the complimentary areas (other than the buffet) was consistently decent to very good. My favorite thing was the molten chocolate volcano cake, which was offered every evening and was just scrumptious. So was the creme brulee. Some of the buffet food was inedible and disgusting. Just looking at the watery scrambled "eggs" made my stomach turn. The pizza wasn't even as good as Ellio's.

In a nutshell, the Breakaway seems to be ship that is geared toward chaos and partying. It's non-stop noise and people everywhere. It seemed like the majority of real estate on the ship was dedicated to extra-fee stuff and there wasn't much that was included. We were really disappointed that there was no solarium, which has always been my favorite area on the ship to hang out during the day. I think there was one, but it was for "Haven" guests only (i.e. extra fee).

Hi Folks,

I am going to be surprising my mom (who is a youthful 73 years old) with a mother/daughter cruise on the Breakaway Christmas week (12/26 - 1/2) out of NYC. My dad passed not long ago and I know this will be a much-needed and appreciated escape for both of us.

Couple questions as I am not that familiar with NCL or sailing during the holidays.

1. Should I expect that the ship will be packed with kids that week? How crazy do you think it will be?

2. What are some nice areas of the ship where kids are not permitted, or where there are fewer kids?

3. Mom and I love to dance. She loves oldies from the 50s-60s. I love music from the 70s-80s. Any tips on best places to dance, special theme dances, etc.?

4. What food items are especially good on the Breakaway? For example, Carnival is known for its chocolate melting cake. Are there items that NCL is known for?

5. Our cruise came with the alcoholic beverage package that allows (I think) for drinks up to $15. Do most cocktails fall within that range? Does this package also include non-alcoholic drinks like mocktails, soda, etc?

6. Not that crazy about Nassau and Port Canaveral. Any recommendations for excursions or should we just stay on the ship? (We don't want to spend a ton of money on excursions). We do love beaches.

Anything else you can recommend for my mom and me? I already booked our dinner reservations and the two big shows, so that's taken care of.

Thanks,

SassyGirl

Hi,

Can't comment on the camera as it was my friend Matt who did the video, not me. I will ask him and will report back!

As for excursions, in Nassau, we just walked over to the British Colonial Hotel and spent the day there. There was a flat charge (I forget how much) and it included use of their beach, pool, chairs, umbrellas and a credit toward food and drinks. It was a very short walk from the cruise port....maybe a 10 minute walk. Considering the short amount of time our ship was in Nassau, we thought this would be an easy excursion that wouldn't take us too far from the ship.

In St. Thomas, we did the "Multi Beach Adventure" with St. Thomas Adventures.

http://www.stthomasadventures.com/

We really enjoyed it and got to snorkel in a couple different places and saw different kinds of sea life.

In St. Martin, we used Diederick Tours and took the tour called "Island Tour - Beach and Shopping" (Tour 1). We went all over the island.

http://sxm-tours.com/

We were very pleased with the St. Thomas and St. Martin tours and would recommend both.

I tried to embed the video here as per instructions, but it didn't work (no YouTube icon), so hopefully this link will work:

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Actually, it is my friend Matt who made the video. He and Jim are the stars and the rest of us have short appearance as well (I am the "svelt" woman).

I will see if I can figure out where the video section is and post it there as well.

We went on the Allure in early April and my friends made a fun (and a bit crazy) video of our trip.

It's a bit long, but hope you enjoy it!

I thought about moving peoples' towels, but the problem is, how do you know which empty chairs are legitimately unoccupied (i.e. people are in the pool or Jacuzzi and will only be gone a short while) versus illegitimately unoccupied (i.e. chair hogs)? The only way to know is to stand there and watch to see how long the chairs are unoccupied, right?

People start "reserving" chairs early in the morning but there are usually a lot of chairs still available so it's not a problem. Once it gets to be closer to 11 a.m. or so, it gets harder to find a chair. There was one day where we could not find 2 chairs together in the Solarium at all, so we had to sit on a deck outside the Solarium.