Breakaway from Port Canaveral?

[bob brown]

Noticed that on NCL site, they are selling "combined itineraries" next February thru April on the new Breakaway.

This is where the ship is basically on a week's cruise from New York to Port Canaveral, GSC, and Nassau, but they will also sell embarkation from Port Canaveral and return. This apparently is common practice on some Med. cruises, where passengers can start from multiple ports.

 

I don't know about this....it changes the whole dynamics of the cruise...

It means that there is no proper 'welcome aboard' or 'farewell' activity...

not the same as a B2B, either.

And how many people would want to leave warm Florida in those months for some cold weather cruising, just to spend a few hours in NYC? And they would have to all get off in NYC to clear customs, before getting back on, even if they did not intend to see the city. Of course, they wouldn't have to do it again in Port Canaveral, unless they purchased some expensive items on board after leaving NYC...

[electricron]

Noticed that on NCL site, they are selling "combined itineraries" next February thru April on the new Breakaway.

This is where the ship is basically on a week's cruise from New York to Port Canaveral, GSC, and Nassau, but they will also sell embarkation from Port Canaveral and return. This apparently is common practice on some Med. cruises, where passengers can start from multiple ports.

 

I don't know about this....it changes the whole dynamics of the cruise...

It means that there is no proper 'welcome aboard' or 'farewell' activity...

not the same as a B2B, either.

And how many people would want to leave warm Florida in those months for some cold weather cruising, just to spend a few hours in NYC? And they would have to all get off in NYC to clear customs, before getting back on, even if they did not intend to see the city. Of course, they wouldn't have to do it again in Port Canaveral, unless they purchased some expensive items on board after leaving NYC...

 

Starting and ending a cruise in multiple homeports means the ship isn't close to selling out from the main port - in this case New York City. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any cabins left to sell in the second homeport, etc. Therefore, the ship being used is too large for the main homeport. One of the reasons why multiple homeports work in Europe is passengers prefer port side activities in their native languages and there are so many different languages in Europe - that isn't true for the USA.

Maybe NCL should use the Gem for that cruise, and reposition the Breakaway to Miami instead? Or lengthen the winter season itineraries to a full two weeks so the ship makes less turns in New York City?

Edited March 3, 2013 by electricron

[dexddd]

Not sure yet if they are doing it with the rooms when you get on in PC, but on the Med cruises on the Epic they didn't have all the rooms available to book either from the secondary ports of embarkation (e.g. suite categories).

[sjbdtz]

There are at least two significant advantages to a revolving 2 embarkation-port itinerary:

 

 

1. Prices can remain higher without sailing empty cabins

 

 

2. Embarkation/turnaround can be staggered. If they're only turning around 3/4 of the cabins, they would need fewer stewards (or would be able to lighten the workload for existing stewards).

 

 

 

.

[dexddd]

Answering own question - I checked all the Breakaway sailings out of PC and suites for all sailings marked "sold out".

[bob brown]

Starting and ending a cruise in multiple homeports means the ship isn't close to selling out from the main port - in this case New York City. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any cabins left to sell in the second homeport, etc. Therefore, the ship being used is too large for the main homeport. One of the reasons why multiple homeports work in Europe is passengers prefer port side activities in their native languages and there are so many different languages in Europe - that isn't true for the USA.

Maybe NCL should use the Gem for that cruise, and reposition the Breakaway to Miami instead? Or lengthen the winter season itineraries to a full two weeks so the ship makes less turns in New York City?

I like the idea of running the Gem on the 7 day, and using the larger Breakaway on the longer cruises. I would also like to see them vary the longer cruises....alternate the Eastern Carib. with a Western Carib. or a Southern Carib.....the Western Carib. is rare from NYC, unless part of a repositioning cruise. 14 days should be sufficient for any of them.

[Got Tequila?]

Will they do the muster drill twice on these sailings?

 

Lobster night is generally the first night, which will it be for these cruises?

[Sauer-kraut]

Will they do the muster drill twice on these sailings?

 

Lobster night is generally the first night, which will it be for these cruises?

 

They will have to.

[puddles99]

I think this actually addresses some feedback NCL had received about the fact that they no longer had a ship home-porting in Port Canaveral (I actually sailed on the second-to-last PC cruise on the Sun before she was moved). By adding PC as a second embarkation option for Breakaway, customers who prefer to board there - sometimes to combine the cruise with a few days at Disney or Universal Studies - can do so.

[coscab]

Port Canaveral is so convenient for us, we loved sailing on the Sun from there, now have to drive to Miami. I booked the Mar. 11 Breakaway from PC but there were very few cabins to choose from, ended up far forward, also, we prefer smaller ships but love NCL so we are happy to try this mega ship.

[kerrytens]

Hmmmmh, this thread intrigued me enough to go and do a fake booking to check the pricing ... can anyone explain to me why the 3rd person rate is $999? In some cases it is higher than the first 2 person's rate.

 

Hopefully just a glitch.

[TVLady3]

This is similar to the B2B that I'm doing. But I'm going 10/6 to Bermuda than the first sailing to the Bahamas on 10/13th. And its much cheaper too.

[Barb Nahoumi]

I like the idea of running the Gem on the 7 day, and using the larger Breakaway on the longer cruises. I would also like to see them vary the longer cruises....alternate the Eastern Carib. with a Western Carib. or a Southern Carib.....the Western Carib. is rare from NYC, unless part of a repositioning cruise. 14 days should be sufficient for any of them.

 

This Idea appeals to me also. I hope that NCL will take note of these posts and do it. Have the Breakaway call in some east coast ports such as Charleston, SC, as well.

[Barb Nahoumi]

The second embarkation point would save Florida residents a flight to New York. This could be a good thing for passengers as well as NCL.

[rolloman]

I think it is awesome. Booking it now.

[RetiredArmyCruiser]

I think it'd be great to have a port call in NYC without having to pay $250 or more for a hotel for the night.

[coscab]

I think it is awesome. Booking it now.

Did you find the cabins that are available not to be what you would have picked had you had a choice, I got a balcony deck 12 very forward, not what I would have chosen, there were only about 4 available, but couldn't pass up a trip out of PC on NCL, only about 80 miles from Ormond by the Sea.

[NYcruzzer]

For those embarking in Port Canaveral. Based on a 3:00 departure from NYC I assume it will be all aboard by 2:00 . That doesn't leave alot of time to visit. I strongly suggest those embarking take an organized tour. Otherwise you can easily get stuck in traffic and miss the ship.

[bob brown]

The second embarkation point would save Florida residents a flight to New York. This could be a good thing for passengers as well as NCL.

Why would Florida residents want to fly to NY to cruise to Florida and back to NY and then have to fly home? There are so many different cruises departing from various Florida ports to choose from.

And as others have said, there would not be enough time to really see much of NY....not even enough time to see a Broadway matinee, if the call was on a Saturday or Wednesday...

About the only market I could thing of, would be Florida cruisers wanting a change from the usual, or wanting to sample the new ship, or possibly meeting friends and relatives living in New York area for lunch in the city....

Edited March 4, 2013 by bob brown

[ttnc4me]

I love the idea of the PC itinerary. I just can't stomach $719pp for a junky Bahamas cruise. Hopefully the prices will come down so we can try the newer ship.

[coscab]

The NCL website is no longer showing a cruise originating at Port Canaveral, when I booked it there were only about 4 balcony cabins to choose from. We just wanted the convenience of sailing out of PC to experience the Breakaway, we have never been on a ship that new, we would never take a cruise that stops in Nassau for any other reason, actually we avoid the Bahamas, been there, done that, but we are making an exception this time.

 

We are driving to Miami in Dec. for the 10 day Southern Caribbean on the Sun, we love that ship and have not been to a few of the ports on the itinerary, it's a long drive and the parking is expensive but thankfully we have hotel points to cover the Hampton Inn stay the night before sailing.

[coscab]

Still wondering if anyone else booked the Breakaway out of Port Canaveral when it was available, some cc'ers besides me must have booked one of the dates, we are boarding March 11th 2014.

[mafig]

Hi, Coscab!

 

My heart leaped with excitement when I saw this thread, thinking booking in Port Canaveral was on again.

 

Guess not.:(

[coscab]

Hi, Coscab!

 

My heart leaped with excitement when I saw this thread, thinking booking in Port Canaveral was on again.

 

Guess not.:(

Wish it was back on, I maybe would switch to a mini suite if the price came down a little, I can't believe no one on CC that reads the threads has posted that they are booked out of PC, if others are booked that are not CC'ers, I wonder how they found out about it back when it was offered. No one has posted on the March 9th roll call out of NY since I posted that I would be joining the cruise on March 11th out of PC, only 2 or 3 members on that roll call so far.

[Irene7]

Why would Florida residents want to fly to NY to cruise to Florida and back to NY and then have to fly home? There are so many different cruises departing from various Florida ports to choose from.

And as others have said, there would not be enough time to really see much of NY....not even enough time to see a Broadway matinee, if the call was on a Saturday or Wednesday...

About the only market I could thing of, would be Florida cruisers wanting a change from the usual, or wanting to sample the new ship, or possibly meeting friends and relatives living in New York area for lunch in the city....

 

To some people the ship is the destination (especially these mega ships)and if they want to sail a certain ship, they would have no choice but to fly, so I can see why some would fly to NY from Fla.:)