socrdad

As soon as you mentioned the "rustling in the trees," I had a vision of the creatures from Jurassic Park waiting to pounce. "Watch out for the velociraptors!!!!"

 

I wanted to head out to the lighthouse, but never made it. Glad to see I didn't miss much!

 

Richard/Tralfie

Richard, I am sure that is the vision that Ann had running through her head the entire time. It was fun watching her (step, step, jump, "what was that" step, step, jump "what was that":eek:).

Fantastic review! One of the best I've read in a long time. Can't wait to be back on Breakaway in May. Glad no one was hurt during the storm.

 

Tracy

Thanks Tracy! Glad you are liking the review. Good to hear that you enjoyed the Breakaway so much that you are sailing her again, she really is a great ship.

Day 4 continued...........

It seemed to take a while for the tender to get to the island but it was a very pretty trip with beautiful weather. We headed to the little shopping huts as I forgot to pack a hat. They are very reasonably priced for their items and they are cute little huts. We then headed to the buffet to get our first meal of the day. We both had a burger and it was good. The buffet line was not very long and it went fairly quickly. After lunch we decided to explore the island a little. We started walking around and I had heard about a walk to a lighthouse on the other side of the island so we started to wander around trying to find our way. Norwegian is definitely putting a lot of money into this island and I think when they get it completed it is going to be spectacular. It looks as though they are building a water park amongst other upgrades. We found a tram and hoped on it, we had no idea were it was going but decided we might get a little tour. It made a stop at a little lagoon that was a ways away from the main beach area. It was a very pretty little lagoon. We talked with the driver for quite a while and he lives on an island nearby, has a 10 minute boat ride to get to work each day and works 5 days a week. He was very friendly and very talkative. We told him we were wanting to hike to the lighthouse and he said he would drop us off as close as he could but we would have a 20 - 30 minute walk to get there.

We started the walk and it was a bit of a downer as we walked along a dirt road with tall trees and bushes on each side so there really was not much to see. There are lizards, iguanas and wildlife and we heard a lot of rustling in the bushes. My DW was a bit nervous as the vision of getting eaten by a giant mutant iguana was running through her head. I had heard on CC about problems with bugs but we did not encounter any at all. I am not sure if we were there during the bug free time of year or not but I was happy as we forgot the bug spray in our room. We were at the lighthouse in about 20 minutes and it was a big let down. It is an old run down lighthouse that is boarded up and has a boarded up small building next to it. I certainly hope that Norwegian plans on fixing this up and hopefully opening it up so you can climb to the top of the lighthouse. It would probably have some beautiful views from the top. We continued hiking for a few minutes and we came to another beach but it said we were leaving the Norwegian owned island and were to proceed at our own risk. We headed back and stopped at a couple of beach areas that were a little off the dirt road but accessible. They overlooked the Breakaway and there were a couple of people snorkeling off the coast. Very few people were on either of the beach areas and they were very nice areas if you wanted to get away from the crowds.

Here is the view as you take the road to the lighthouse.

Here is the lighthouse. It will be very cool if they ever refurbish it.

Here is one of the critters that were making noises and helping to make the DW very nervous during the hike.

Here is the view from the area past the lighthouse that is off Norwegian property, very pretty.

Here is the main area of the Great Stirrup Cay.

Here is the lighthouse if you look at the left side of the picture just over the cables. It is a bit of a hike as this picture would be to the left of the previous picture. I would guess it is about a 1 1/2 mile hike to get to the lighthouse.

We had spent enough time on the island, enough so we could say we were there, and headed back to the ship. Back on the tender and back on the Breakaway in no time. We headed back to the room and I spent the next couple of hours just hanging out on the balcony watching the boats and parasails go by, it was very relaxing. My DW headed to the spa for an hour of relaxation.

We had made reservations at Cagneys for dinner and needed to get ready for the night. I was really looking forward to the filet and lobster again but it was not nearly as good as it was the first time we ate there. I am not sure if it sat under the heat lamps for a while or what but it was not nearly as good. It was still very good just not incredible like my past experience. We sat at the back of the restaurant and had a great view as we were sailing away.

We got some more pictures taken and wandered around the ship some more. There really is a lot to do and see and we certainly did not get to see and do everything that we wanted. I guess we are going to have to book another trip.....lol. We spent a little time in the casino and then headed to the buffet to get some ice cream for dessert.

It was a pretty low key night as we were really just enjoying not doing anything. For us, just getting away from the hustle and bustle of life to enjoy each other and chill for a bit is a fantastic vacation for us.

Well sorry this is taking so long to post this review but I am encountering the worst part of a lengthy vacation, getting back to work and playing catch up for the next month. It has been long days and not too many days off but I think I can get another day in today. Well onward we go!

Day 4

This is our second port and it is the Bahamas Island owned by Norwegian - Great Stirrup Cay. We were not overly excited about this port as we do not really like to just sit in the sun. We contemplated staying on board and enjoying the ship but decided to make the trip to the island. We were not really in a hurry to get off the ship so we slept in a bit and slowly got ready for the excursion. We met up with Ruth (concierge) and she escorted us down the back halls of the ship until we got in the front of the line for the next tender. It was a short wait as they were already loading and we were on board in no time. The people sitting next to us were saying they had been waiting for about 1 1/2 hours to get on a tender so it was another outstanding perk that the Haven guests get. I think we were on the tender in less than 5 minutes from the time we saw Ruth in the Haven. We were on the upper deck and had great views during the boat ride to the island. This was really our only time that we could see the Breakaway in its entirety, she is a beautiful ship!!!!!!

Roy is our butler and we asked about Fernando and Roy rounded him up the first night to meet us. Roy explained they rotate room groups every two weeks. Roy also recently came back from vacation. Fernando seems very energetic but we really like Roy so far. All of the staff on board has been very nice and friendly other than the couple ladies working the slides don't seem too happy but I think it is because they are cold.

 

They also added a door out on the balcony where it starts to curve to the right. Ceciillo explained that was added in the last two weeks to keep the furniture from going over to the side (or over the side) - I couldn't quite tell which he meant.

It sounds like you are having a great time and enjoying the room as much as we did. We thought the staff was incredible and everyone was so friendly. I think I saw the added door you are talking about on some Getaway pictures that someone posted. I thought they might have put them there to keep people off the side of the balcony while the bathroom is in use as the shades do not give you complete privacy when pulled down (could be a traumatic experience for your kids if not careful......lol) . Otherwise, I wish they would have put it further on the curve to block the wind while sailing. They could then put the sliding glass door in the bedroom that opens out to the balcony right next to the bathroom entrance. This would have made a great area of the balcony that would be useable while at sea.

I hope the rest of your trip is fantastic, enjoy!!!!

You guys left the room in pretty good shape for us except for the red stains by the front entrance on the carpet. Looks like wing sauce. I know another lady was complaining to one of the butlers about red stains on her carpet and they had one of the stewards cleaning it. Not a big deal for us - we didn't complain.

The red stains on the carpet were actually M&M's (peanut and regular) that mixed with wine from the mess that happened from the night of the storm. We were going to address this when we got to that night on our cruise review but I will post it a bit early.

For those of you that did not hear about our storm night, it happened on Friday night. We woke up in our room about 4:30am as the boat was really rocking and rolling. About 5am we heard a crash in the bathroom and we had our soap dish slide off the counter and hit the floor. We turned on the tv to watch the navigation channel and the channel was saying we were in 43.5 foot waves. We were enjoying the ride and laughing about it, it was kind of fun. At 5:30am there was a major crash in the living room. We went out to investigate and there was a huge mess as most of the items on our counter came crashing down. Even the wine glasses on the upper glass shelves flipped over the glass barrier that were there to stop that from happening.

Here is a picture of the bar area with a lot of the stuff that came crashing down. If you look in the upper corner of the blue bar you will see the wine glasses that came crashing down. This picture was taken at the start of our cruise so there were lots of personal items along with 3 additional bottles of wine that were on the counter when they came crashing down.

To give you some reference, here is a picture of waves from our balcony that were at 10.5 feet. This is on the 16th floor so things tend to look smaller than they really are.

Here are some pictures of the waves about 15 minutes after the crash in the living room. I would have taken more (I really wish I would have taken a video) but I was getting a bit queasy looking out the front balcony.

Here is the damage that happened in the living room. This is after I cleaned it up a bit. I finally gave up trying to clean it up and called the butler. The person that answered asked if we had damage because they were calling in all butlers and all cabin stewards as many cabins had damage. Our butler said of his 10 cabins, 7 of them had damage.

Yes if you look close you will see a pair of thong underwear. It was the pair of underwear that my DW had caught at the Rock of Ages show that night.

Here are the M&M stains on the carpet after everything was cleaned up.

The captain came on over the intercom system (in the rooms) at about 6am to announce that there had been some reports of damage and he wanted to calm people's nerves over the storm. He said there was a low pressure system that was lingering longer than forecasted and we would be exiting it in the next few hours. He said at that time we were in 30 foot seas and they would continue to decrease in size. He said the ship was holding up very well. The butler and room steward showed up and cleaned everything up. It was definitely an eventful experience.

I am loving your review so far...and your photos are absolutely beautiful!

Did you have your camera on a tripod to get such great photos of the seagulls?

What kind of camera and lens were you using?

Chesneygirl - I am glad you liked the pictures of the seagulls. I do not use a tripod and I do not like to crop my pictures (to me it seems like cheating). I have a Nikon D7100, used a 55-300 lens and I shot it on the sports mode. It is a newer camera for me as I upgraded from my Nikon D3100. I am by no means an expert in photography but I do enjoy it and I really like this camera.

Here are a couple additional seagull pictures for you. These were taken coming into port at Port Canaveral also.

Wow, I'm so glad you liked Richard/Tralfie. I thought he was... I don't know, okay, I guess. I expected more. Or maybe less. He's a LOT to take in!

 

 

 

LOVING the review. It takes me right back. It's interesting that unlike a lot of my vacations in the past, this one has really stayed with me. I can close my eyes and be RIGHT back there, having drinks with you guys...

Richard - You were a blast to hang with. It is so unlike us to meet other people when we cruise. For the most part we just enjoy spending quality time together. It was really a lot of fun spending time with you and I sincerely hope that we get another chance to cruise with you again in the future:). I told my DW that this trip must have had a big impact on me as I have dreamed about it every night since we returned!

What is UDP?

UDP is the Unlimited Dining Package. On a 7 day cruise it is $119 per person for unlimited dining at the specialty restaurants. On our trip we would have paid $180 each for the specialty restaurants we ate at. It was definitely worth it for us.

Day 3 - Our first Port.

View while coming into port.

The only time we ever saw sea life on the cruise. There were about 6 dolphin that swam near the front of the ship.

Lots of different types of seagulls and I have an affection for shooting pictures of birds.

Sorry about the birds but I really did not take many pictures of anything else at this port.

I promise this is the last one!

Port Canaveral is our first port for the cruise and not the most exciting of ports. We probably would have stayed on the ship other than my natural father lives in Orlando and we decided to drive to Orlando and spend the day with him. I had reserved a car through Thrifty, by way of Hotwire, as they were much less than the other companies in the area (we would soon find out why). We wanted to get an early start so we met our concierge for the express path to exit the ship. She escorted us through the back workings of the ship and we came out just before the podiums to swipe your ship cards. This is really one of the great perks you get with your Haven room. We were off the ship in about 2 - 3 minutes. We headed over to the rental car shuttle bus area (we were one of the first people there) and most of the other agencies had their buses waiting already, but no Thrifty bus. About 30 minutes later our bus finally arrived. A mass of people hurried to the bus, as we also did, to make sure we were able to get on this bus. We were all packed in like sardines but I think we all made it. It was a short 10 minute ride to the rental agency. We all got out of the shuttle and got in line at the counter. There were about 8 separate groups wanting to rent a car and they had all of 1 agent at the counter. We waited another 50 minutes for our turn to get with the agent and rent our car. So, 1 1/2 hours after we got off the ship we were on our way to Orlando. The trip to Orlando was very easy as the road the agency is on is the same road that you take to Orlando. We had a very nice visit and headed back to the ship about 5pm. We returned the car after the agency had closed. They make an arrangement with a taxi company to be waiting right there to return passengers to the ship once they return their car, it worked out rather well.

Once back on the ship we had dinner reservations at La Cucina. Neither one of us enjoyed this dinner much and it was the worse dinner of our cruise. We have eaten at La Cucina on other Norwegian ships and really enjoyed it. I think it was just what we ordered. I had the lobster fettuccine as I figured I would never order this at any other restaurant. I was right as I will never order this again at any restaurant. My DW ordered the lasagna and she thought it was just ok. It did seem to have a strange flavor to it that we could not tell what it was. After dinner we headed back to the room to watch us sail away.

It was overcast and the lights looked very cool reflecting off the clouds.

After we set sail we just walked around exploring the ship some more, stopped in and watched Slam Allen, had more pictures taken and just had a relaxing night.

Just quickly before I get into day 2 I thought I would post a couple of pictures of the Haven area in case anyone had not seen them.

The Haven lounge area.

The Haven Courtyard.

Upper level of the Haven Courtyard.

The Haven sundeck.

Day two started out with some very dense fog in the morning. The ship sounded off its horn many times throughout the morning. When the fog started to clear it was very pretty as it was coming off the water.

We started our morning with breakfast in the Haven restaurant. Our opinion of the Haven restaurant was it was very nice, the service was fantastic and everyone was very friendly. We found the food to be just ok, nothing great. We ended up only eating at the restaurant for 1 breakfast and 2 lunches. Portions were fairly small for the meals we ordered. I had the french dip once (very small) I could have eaten 3 of them easily. I had the french toast for a breakfast, again very small portion and a steak for another lunch. I thought the steak was just ok, but after eating filet mignon at the specialty restaurants it was bound to be a let down. My DW had the chicken breast for one lunch, ham and cheese omelet for a breakfast and french dip for her other lunch. She did not touch her french dip as she started feeling a little queasy so I ate it in addition to my steak.

After breakfast it was time for our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet and Slot Pull. This was our first cruise were we had been involved with Cruise Critic. What a great experience and a great group of people. Once there, we started mingling with everyone and all we kept hearing from them was "Where is Richard/Tralfie, I need to meet him, his posts are hilarious". He was definitely the talk of the group. We had a presentation from most of the officers but the captain did not make it. The meet and greet was actually over very quickly and then it was off to the slot pull. We actually made money on the slot pull (amazing because I never win on slot machines). I guess my bad karma was overpowered by another's good karma....lol. We each came away with $4.00 more than we started with. After the slot pull, while everyone was waiting for their cash to come back, I noticed a group of people talking with Richard/Tralfie. This was our first chance we had to get to talk with him. We made our way over and hit it off with Richard right away. After collecting our winnings we went to a bar and had some great conversation for about an hour or so. Richard was a blast and every bit as funny in real life as he was on his posts. This was just the first of many run ins we had with Richard throughout the cruise.

After our get together with Richard, my DW spent the next few hours in the spa and I wanted to try the ropes course and slides. I could not get my wedding ring off (finally got it off on day 4) so I decided I would hang out in the casino. My DW really liked the spa but she liked the spa on the Pearl a bit more. It was not very crowded and she was easily able to get a heated chair and anything else she wanted. I had a good time in the casino but ended up losing a little. I like to play blackjack and the dealers were great. All were a lot of fun and very engaging.

Time was flying by as we had early reservations at Cagney's for dinner before our social with the captain. Dinner at Cagney's was phenomenal! I had the potato soup, 8oz filet mignon (garlic butter), lobster and gratin potatoes. It was one of the best steaks I have ever had (we have really good steak in Montana). My DW had the potato soup, 5oz filet mignon (butterflied) and gratin potatoes. She loved her meal also. Cagney's was our favorite restaurant on board as we would eat here a total of 3 times. We missed desert as we ran out of time to make the social.

The Captain's social was in the Haven and there was a fair amount of people there. We talked with the captain for about 10 minutes and had a very good discussion, he was very pleasant. We saw Richard at this event also but we had to run as we remembered we had reservations for Burn the Floor that was to start in 10 minutes.

For all the shows in the theatre there are special seats saved for all Haven guests, we never used them. They are about 1/3 of the way from the front, on the side. We sat in the front row on the side isle seats. The seats were good and the show was very good. We definitely like the other shows better but it was certainly worth our time to watch the show. The dancers are very talented and have a ton of energy.

After the show we went to get some pictures taken from their photographers and went to Howl at the Moon. It was a good time and a good show. We have seen the Dueling Pianos in Las Vegas many times and they are a bit better than the Breakaway players, but it was still a lot of fun.

After another long day we decided to call it a night again. It was a great day!:D

Thx for the pics of the DOS! We were just on the Breakaway in the Haven but we booked late and both of the DOS were sold out but we want to do this next time and take the 3 cabins(dos, os, and ph) and make it like a mini GV.

 

It looks great! How awesome was the balcony?

We loved the balcony when we were sailing into port and while we were in port. It was very windy on most days while we were sailing so we did not use it much at all while at sea. I wish they would have put a removable divider between the front of the balcony and the side of the balcony to block the wind while at sea. You would then be able to use the portion of the balcony on the side of the ship while sailing.

I think combining the DOS, OS and PH would be fantastic. It would really open up the DOS and OS as they would combine the living rooms of both into a large living area. They can also combine the balconies of both to make an enormous balcony. The PH would still seem like a separated suite as there is just a door between the PH and DOS, the balconies do not combine at all. It would certainly be a great suite complex to have all 3.

How was Ruth?

 

Who were steward and butler and how were they?

Ruth was fine and very efficient. What I really liked about the location of the room is anytime we left the Haven we had to walk by the concierge desk. When we were on the Pearl, with the concierge desk on a different floor, we rarely used the concierge. This cruise we used them a ton. We did not see Ruth at any restaurants as we did with Anoop on the Pearl but that was not a big deal to us.

Our butler was Fernando and he was very good. We did not use him as much as we used our butler on the Pearl but he was very pleasant, always had a smile on his face and did everything we asked of him very well.

Our cabin steward was Cecillio (spelling?) and he was very good also, no complaints from anyone in the Haven area:).

I hear you met a particularly awesome dude on this voyage.

Don't try to jump ahead in the story, that part is coming;).

Is there a curtain or door between main bedroom and bathroom?

There is a curtain between the main bedroom and bathroom, it is very thick and a room darkening material. Curtain closes beyond door frame so no light gets in the room from the bathroom area. You can see it briefly in the room tour we posted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zg1ZFR_FWA.

Beautiful! Is Adrian no longer the concierge?

I heard Adrian left for a break a few weeks before our trip.

This is us. Regardless of line or vessel. Sorry to delay everyone.

 

It certainly did not bother us at all, we were just hoping everyone was ok.

We were on the 3/2 thru 3/9 Breakaway cruise (yes the one with damage from the high seas) and we were in the Deluxe Owners Suite. First a little bit of background about us. I am 48 and my wife is 46. We have 3 grown children (28, 25 and 21) with a 4 year old granddaughter. We have lived in Montana for the last 28 years, moving here from Los Angeles. Many people live the life that Loverboy made popular (Working for the Weekend), we on the other hand live the life of working for the VACATION. This was our 7th cruise and 4th with Norwegian. Our other 3 cruises were on Carnival. On our 6th cruise (on the Pearl) we were paid a visit from the "upgrade fairy" and we were upgraded from a mini suite to the Owners Suite for a very reasonable fee. As many have said "once you try a suite you will never go back" certainly has applied to us. Will we ever sail in a non-suite again...............probably at some point, but we really like the suite life. We knew we were going to be in New York for business 16 months in advance and we knew we wanted to tie a cruise onto the business trip. The Breakaway being a new ship seemed like the perfect choice. We followed the making of the ship, her first sailing and we waited for every bit of information we could find on it. We finally booked the room just over a year out...........boy did that seem like a long time to wait.

Finally the wait was over and the trip was here. We arrived in New York on Thursday afternoon for our business meetings that were to take place on Friday and Saturday. This was our first trip to New York and we had a little free time so we went to a few shows (Phantom and Wicked), visited the Empire State Building and the 911 Memorial. We had a great time in New York but we were really looking forward to the cruise.

Sunday finally arrived and we arrived at the pier about 10am. Check in was a breeze as we were checked in immediately and waited in the Haven waiting room. While we were waiting and talking with the customer relations employee a gentleman came over and started complaining that they should start boarding right now, why are we waiting, get the show on the road and being pretty much an obnoxious jerk. He said he had cruised the Breakaway two weeks earlier and they were already on board by now. After reading on Cruise Critic about all the irate people and the complainers we both thought "here we go, it was all true". Fortunately this was really the only time we ever encountered one of them. We started boarding about 11:40am as they said there was one family that was having a hard time getting off the ship. We were the first passengers on the ship........Yahhh! We were escorted to the Haven lounge were we were met by Ruth, our Concierge, for a briefing of the suite life and what we could expect. Right after our discussion with Ruth we met a representative from the spa and the DW signed up for the spa pass immediately. Our room was all ready so we immediately headed to the room to check it out. What a room it was! The 16 months of saving and scrimping to pay for it all seemed worth while now.

It really was all we had hoped it would be. In addition to the room there was a huge balcony, and it was at the front of the ship.

Our balcony was at the upper right side of the ship (left side of the picture) directly under the two red umbrellas.

After checking out the room we left to go check out the ship for about an hour and then had lunch at the Haven restaurant. After lunch we had the muster drill that was very quick and orderly. We then went back out to the balcony to watch our trip down the river out to the Atlantic. What spectacular scenery of the New York skyline and Statue of Liberty. It was a fairly chilly day but not too bad, I did not even have my jacket on. That could have been from the fact that we are from Montana and we came to New York to warm up.....lol

We had a fairly early dinner scheduled at Teppanyaki. Research tip #1 - We purchased the UDP as we read many reviews about the slow service, wait lines and not so great food at the MDR's. We never set foot in an MDR and the food in the specialty restaurants was outstanding. I highly recommend the UDP and the specialty restaurants if you can swing it. Research tip #2 - We had made reservations for the Cirque Dreams Dinner for the first night as it is discounted 25%. We read the dinner at the show was not the greatest so we decided to eat at a specialty restaurant and skip the dinner at the show. The show itself was definitely worth the price of admission without the dinner and with the UDP it did not cost extra to eat a great meal before the show, bonus!

After the show we decided to call it a night as it had been a long day. I will end this for now and continue on in the near future.

Thanks for the great review Richard, looking forward to the rest of it. This is the person formerly known as "Bob". Ann and I had a great time visiting with you as it is just as fun talking with you in person as it is reading your posts. We had a great time on board the Breakaway and getting to meet and visit with you was a special treat. I hope we are able to cross paths again on a future cruise:D.

Steve and Ann Denny

We just got off the Breakaway and had the UDP and it was great. We ate at Cagney's 3X, Teppanyaki 2X, La Cucina 1X and Moderno 1X. In addition to saving $61.00 each, we never waited to be seated, had great service and fantastic food. I would do it again in a heart beat. I hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did.

We were upgraded to an OS on the Pearl from a mini suite for our first suite experience. We really took the upgrade for the additional benefits more than the butler or concierge. There are many benefits you get in a suite but one of the best in my mind is the upgraded "Bliss" bed and bedding (it is phenomenal). We did use the butler for a few meals in our room and a few other minimal requests. We did not use the concierge much but he did give me a private tour of the bridge when I missed the original tour time. We did tip our butler and concierge $100 each and also gave our room steward $100 as he was awesome. We will be in the DOS next week on the Breakaway:). As many others have said, once you have been in a suite it is difficult to go back.

Just was on phone with Costco for 45 minutes. Got a really nice agent who I believe really tried to help me. NCL was not giving any on board credit and would upgrade me to a family mini suite but as I said before I believe my M6 is bigger and has a larger balcony. Advantage of the family mini I believe is location. I would rather have the bigger balcony. Anyway I asked for a discount (as I don't expect to be upgraded for free from a mini to haven) for the S9 and NCL would not budge. Back to my original question, Is it worth an extra $1,000 for the haven? My son is only 12 so neither one of us will be using the spa so I would be booking for the haven perks only. Thanks!

It was on a different ship but we were upgraded from a mini suite to an Owners Suite for $1,000 on the Pearl. It was the best (and most expensive) $1,000 we ever spent. Perks were phenomenal and well worth the upgrade charge. It was also the most expensive $1,000 as we will never cruise in a non-suite room again. We have the DOS booked on the Breakaway in March. We tasted the high life .............and it tasted good.:D

We're (wife, myself, 2 girls 8&5) about to book a cruise on Breakaway. But reading a lot of the reviews has gotten us a little nervous. There barely seems to be a good review out there. We've been on NCL in the past and it's our favorite line. Does anyone have anything nice about it?

My wife and I will be traveling on the Breakaway on March 2. I have read every review and they do not bother me at all, here's why. There have been approximately 36 cruises that the Breakaway has made. Conservative figure of 3,500 - 4,000 passengers per cruise, so about 126,000 - 144,000 passengers have experienced the Breakaway. Out of that many passengers 421 have decided to write a review on CC or 0.3% of the passengers have written a review. Of the 421 reviews, 32 have given a 1 star rating. Less than 1 person per cruise had such a horrible experience that they wanted everyone to know about it. Of all of the complaints, if you took out the cigarette smoke, MDR's and balcony size, most of the complaints would be wiped out. There is not much I can do about the cigarette smoke but I know about it and I can avoid it or put up with it. MDR's, I will purchase the UDP ($238 to wipe out the biggest complaint) and that will solve that problem. Small balcony, I know about it and I can either get a different room (I have a suite:)) or if I get a balcony I should expect it to be small. If you look at the possible problems and try to find a way to solve it, or ask yourself it that problem would ruin your vacation, you will know if you should book the cruise or not. I have been on 6 cruises and never had a bad time. I can just about guarantee you I will not have a bad time on this cruise either. Take the Breakaway cruise, get on board knowing what to expect and have a fabulous time! I hope you have a wonderful vacation no matter what you decide to do:).

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. It is great to hear you enjoyed the Haven and all it's perks. This is making me more anxious for our BA trip in a few months.

Originally Posted by jtvmi77 View Post

My wife and I have done about 6 or 7 cruises, and wanted to go kind of big on our next one. We've never done a suite before, but have sailed on Celebrity, Princess, HAL, Disney, and Royal. I sailed on the three-night NCL Sky a couple of years ago with two guy friends (bachelor weekend before I got married). We shared an inside cabin. I got a very good vibe from the line, even though we were doing about the most economical cruise possible. Technically, this was not my first NCL experience, because as a kid I went on Starward and Windward, if anyone remembers those.

 

Based on what is posted here, and on other threads, it really seemed like NCL offers the most for suite guests. We booked an Owner's Suite on Pearl for Alaska this July (a place neither of us have been).

 

This is where I think CC is very helpful in sharing info, because I would not have thought to book NCL for our cruise had posters not shared this kind of stuff. We are pretty excited about the trip.

For our first "Suite" experience we were upgraded to the Owner's Suite on the Pearl in March 2012 on a Caribbean Cruise. The "Suite" life and room surpassed our expectations and was incredible. We talked about what a fabulous suite this would be for an Alaskan Cruise. You are definitely in for a treat. I cannot imagine a better suite for an Alaskan Cruise than the Owner's Suite on the Pearl!! You can check out our room tour at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xT0Pk4XG64. Enjoy your trip!