RCI ANTHEM/QUANTUM VS NCL BREAKAWAY

Hey everyone! I just got back from a seven day Bahamas cruise on the NCL Breakaway. The crew was great! The food was great! And the entertainment was OK. There was o e very small kids pool and one adult pool. Both pools were very small and crowded. The entire casino reeked of cigarette smoke. There was even an area on the main pool deck where guests were allowed to smoke. That's great if you're a smoker, but it "stinks" if you're non-smoker. I am thinking about taking the family on either anthem or quantum of the seas next year. Any comments about the Royal Caribbean Anthem/Quantum of the seas versus the NCL Breakaway would be greatly appreciated.

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Welcome back and any cruise is better than no cruise but we took the Breakaway a handful of years ago when she was under one year old. I will be taking my 70th cruise next months, so just keep that in mind when I tell you we HATED the Breakaway for all reasons with the exception of Ocean Blue and Le Bistro, never ever again will we cruise NCL.....but I agree with what you saying, stick to RC you won't regret it.

I think that the Anthem is a great option... we would have sailed on her this Summer, but she does a combination of nine and five day cruises in the Summer, and that doesn't work well with our schedule. Instead, we are going on the Breakaway to Bermuda for seven days. The Anthem goes out of Bayonne and the Breakaway out of Manhattan. The Anthem is one of the newest ships in RCCL's fleet and one of the most technologically advanced.

jersey, sounds like you didnt like the bus stop on the BA. them all huddled in there smoking. kinda funny really. late at night after i got out of the hot tubs id see a straggler or 2 there. also as i recall its sorta on the way to the kids pool you have to pass by there.

i have anthem booked in december so ill try to remember to come back and post about it. main thing about BA i hated is on cold december days you had nothing to do inside with the kids really. and there really are no indoor seating areas on the BA . i'm doing anthem because of 270 and solarium and 1 other indoor pool area.

For indoor areas don't forget the enormous Seaplex area on deck 15 as well.

We tend to go back and forth between NCL and Royal. We have cruised Getaway and Escape but not Breakaway. We sailed Quantum when she was here and are doing Anthem next month.

Royal has a much better solarium for adults and a inside pool for everyone. It also has the seaplex that is a teen agers dream. IMO Quantum felt similarly crowded to Getaway multiple times on the cruise. But every ship is crazy on a sunny sea day on the pool deck. Royals is just more split up.

We miss the water slides and ropes course on Royal but enjoy the flow rider, ripcord, and seaplex enough to get over it.

The shows are of similar quality. The food is so subjective we loved the specialty restaurants on NCL and stayed in the Haven so barely ate in the MDR on NCL. We generally find Royals food (outside of specialty and Haven) to be better than NCL.

We don't find Royals suite program to be worth the extra cost but most people on this board will disagree with that. We are a family of 4 so the 2 bed 2 bath rooms are perfect for us. Our teens don't/can't do sofa bed together any more and that is a issue as I have never seen, heard of, or found a balcony cabin that sleeps 4 with a Pullman on Quantum or Anthem.

Anthem is built for cold weather sailing so there is more inside space. Great when going in and out of NY when your first and last day can be cool or cold 9 months out of the year.

NCL adult only area spice H2O can not compare to Anthems Solarium. The tiers pools and hot tubs are so much better than the "water feature" But I am shade seeker not a sun worshiper.

I've gotta agree with you on the Breakaway. It's my least favorite ship.

They allow smoking all over the ship. We had a cabana in Vibe for the week which was the best part of the cruise but had to walk through a smoking section to get to the door of Vibe. The beautiful waterfront area was full of smokers which every time the outside door opened the smoke would flow inside and into the Italian restaurant. I could even smell the casino smoke in Le Bistro. This ship is definitely a smokers paradise.

I also found nothing grand or pretty about the ship. I'm baffled when people comment about how beautiful the ship is. It's probably got one of the ugliest theaters I've ever been in with the most uncomfortable seats. The total design of the ship is an epic fail IMHO.

We've booked Anthem for this years cruise and are really hoping we like it. I'm trying to find a ship out of the NE that we like. Carnival Pride was good except for the vibration of the ship. I won't book that ship again unless they resolve that and Boston sailings are always so much more expensive.

I'll report back after I sail too but hopefully more experienced Anthem and Breakaway cruisers will chime in.

The Anthem pool layout is far superior to Breakaway. There is an outdoor pool/hot tubs and a kids pool with lots of space for children including adorable child size loungers, there is a bar and Johnny Rockets right there. Then there is the indoor pool and a splash pool on the side for kids plus two gigantic hot tubs and a bar. Plenty of loungers as well as tables and chairs. Then there is the adults only Solarium with shallow wading type pools in a tiered design ending in 4 large hot tubs by the windows. Also has it's own bar with "healthy" smoothies. It's really awesome. The casino is well removed from the rest of the ship, you will not need to pass through it for anything. We never even saw it on our cruise. The dining options are great, as is entertainment and activities like iFly, North Star, FlowRider, Seaplex which features bumper cars, roller skating, and other events as well as the hot dog stand. I like both ships but Anthem is better for pool areas and activities.

 

Royal has a much better solarium for adults and a inside pool for everyone. It also has the seaplex that is a teen agers dream. IMO Quantum felt similarly crowded to Getaway multiple times on the cruise. But every ship is crazy on a sunny sea day on the pool deck. Royals is just more split up.

 

 

Anthem is built for cold weather sailing so there is more inside space. Great when going in and out of NY when your first and last day can be cool or cold 9 months out of the year.

re: solarium. is it safe to assume on good weather days that solarium is empty? i have no problem doing that vs crowded pool deck if so

re: cold weather sailing, thats the kind of music my ears likes to hear about anthem. i like to hear positive reinforcement :)

NCL adult only area spice H2O can not compare to Anthems Solarium. The tiers pools and hot tubs are so much better than the "water feature" But I am shade seeker not a sun worshiper.

the haven 'pools' are a joke but good for getting your feet wet. i did enjoy the hot tubs in haven. no one in rarely. it was nice having the private deck and inside seating area though. but there were towel hogs even in haven!

i'm very much looking forward to the solarium in december. i heard they took down the swing though

Carnival Pride was good except for the vibration of the ship. I won't book that ship again unless they resolve that and Boston sailings are always so much more expensive.

 

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i'd appreciate if you could briefly touch on Pride vs Breakaway? in an effort to find something cheaper than anthem, i priced pride. i can get over the dated public areas because thats no big deal to me. but the 2 or 3 youtube videos for balcony rooms just did not impress me at all. the sofas looked worn and even torn in some cases. and stuff just looked old and yes i do spend time in my room. for saving 3 or 4 hundred i would not go on the pride likely compared to BA. and overall anthem is much higher than the BA price so i hope it's worth it :)

I was on Pride in 2014.

I think it went through the 2.0 updates since then. We had a balcony cabin and I didn't notice it being any different than any other balcony cabin we've had. On Breakaway we had an aft balcony on 9 which was huge but next door to a Haven corner aft that had a lot of people on the balcony all the time so our balcony wasn't that relaxing.

The ship itself is obviously smaller than Breakaway so less choices for specialty restaurants. That being said the steakhouse on the Pride was the best meal I've ever had on a ship. The chef was present and every creative and into her art. The food in general IMO was much better on the Pride than Breakaway. The adults outdoor section was nicely appointed with a good size pool.

Even with the weird old school decor I think the Pride is a prettier ship than Breakaway.

The Pride doesn't have all the activities like the newer bigger ships.

On our sailing the vibration in our cabin and the MDR was very annoying and as I periodically look at reviews I see it still mentioned so I'm not going back until I see they've fixed that issue. Some reviewers never mention it so I don't know if it's just certain sailings or what.

i admit i never looked at the date of the youtube vids so that is something i must check into.

that stinks about the vibration. i know on BA you have to worry about aft noise from spice but never really read about vibration. was the vib only aft on the Pride?

i admit i never looked at the date of the youtube vids so that is something i must check into.

 

that stinks about the vibration. i know on BA you have to worry about aft noise from spice but never really read about vibration. was the vib only aft on the Pride?

Yeah you wouldn't think it would be annoying but after a while it gets annoying. You couldnt leave things on the counter tops in the cabin because eventually they'd vibrate right off.

The MDR was aft but our cabin was mid ship so I'm not sure how far reaching it is.

i'd appreciate if you could briefly touch on Pride vs Breakaway? in an effort to find something cheaper than anthem, i priced pride. i can get over the dated public areas because thats no big deal to me. but the 2 or 3 youtube videos for balcony rooms just did not impress me at all. the sofas looked worn and even torn in some cases. and stuff just looked old and yes i do spend time in my room. for saving 3 or 4 hundred i would not go on the pride likely compared to BA. and overall anthem is much higher than the BA price so i hope it's worth it :)

We sailed the Pride April 2014 (right after the refurb) and Breakaway October 2016. We are sailing Anthem in 9 days. We definitely thought the pride was an ugly ship. The refurb areas were nice and so was guy's burgers, and the Mexican cantina. Our major issue with it was the extreme vibrations (the pride is known for it's vibration issues) and extreme listing. The boat was rockin and rollin the ENTIRE time in very calm weather. The MDR felt like being in a paint shaker. We are not prone to seasickness, but the way it has been explained to me is that it's a very thin ship, so it tilts from side to side extremely. It was honestly a bit scary. And we were a little sick the entire time.

The pride had just been through a dry dock and they even had the old tube Tvs in the rooms. The furniture was worn, and just a lot of things out of order, like many toilets and sinks in the public areas. We would not sail the pride ever again. We had a good trip, but no reason to take the pride with breakaway and anthem being on the east coast.

The Breakaway was absolutely beautiful. But I would agree the layout was downright weird. Especially the atrium being always used as some sort of activity center or theater. It was always crowded. The pools were tiny and useless. Regular sized balconys are TINY (we had an extended balcony). We loved the outdoor promenade deck with the outdoor restaurants and bars. We thought NCL main dining room food was horrible compared to RCI and Carnival.

RCI has amazing adult only Solarium areas, but we found the one on the Allure to be extremely hot since it was indoors. I hope the Anthem isn't quite so hot in the solarium. There was good and bad about both the Pride and Breakaway but I'd bet anything we will like Anthem better than either of them. We would sail the Breakaway again though, only with an extended balcony, and planning ahead of time to eat at specialty restaurants each night for dinner. The food was that bad.