Review: My Wonderful Breakaway Inaugural Cruise to Bermuda

[Coastalbreezes]

Like a child on the night before Christmas, I didn’t sleep a wink the night before embarking on the Breakaway’s inaugural cruise to Bermuda. I had been looking forward to this cruise for months and couldn't wait to get on board!

 

 

I sailed on this trip with my friend Dee, and this is my story of our fabulous week on this amazing ship.

 

Day 1: Embarkation

 

An easy 2½ hour trip from Rhode Island, we arrived at the pier at 9:30 a.m. and wheeled our luggage down to the porters. Before that, atop the parking lot, the first glimpse of Breakaway elicited a huge “WOW” from me as I tried to take her all in. The Peter Max artwork is even more beautiful close up and I couldn’t wait to get on board and start exploring.

 

As I was a guest of CAS (Casinos at Sea) as well as Platinum, we were directed to a line where we were quickly checked in and received our cabin keys and boarding group #1 ticket. The excitement in the waiting area was palpable – everyone was smiling and clearly happy to be there.

 

Around 11:00 a.m. our group was called and up the gangway we went. Our first stop (after advice from Cruise Critic) was the guest services desk where we signed up for the Vibe Beach passes for the week (cost $69 and worth every penny!). More about Vibe later, but if you are into an adults only, relaxing area, this is for you!

 

 

Instead of going directly to the Garden Café, we headed to Savor, one of the three main restaurants on board. We waited only a short time to be seated as they weren't quite open yet. I have to tell you that I have been on Weight Watchers since January and was determined to remain selective about my food choices while on this cruise, so for my lunch I enjoyed the summer spring rolls (a tad chewy, but flavorful) and a crisp Caesar salad with grilled shrimp, dressing on the side. Dee had the club sandwich and said it was delicious.

 

Immediately after lunch and before heading to our cabin (which was ready early), we went to check out the spa to see about spa passes for the week. Halfway through the tour of this beautifully appointed facility, I just said “sign me up!” and off we went to do just that. We were given welcome gifts of two different jars of body scrubs and a small mitt presented in a gossamer drawstring bag. Nice!

 

Now, off to our cabin, an MA mid-ship mini-suite 12182. Our cabin steward, Mochamed was in the hallway and introduced himself. He did not explain but we figured out that in order to turn on the bathroom and cabin lights and television, your room card must be inserted into a slot next to the bathroom. Later in the week someone told me that you could use any card (grocery store card, CVS card, etc.) in that slot. All in all, it was no big deal. Also, there is a great system inside the cabin where you push a button that either says “do not disturb” or “make up cabin”; much better than the outside wheel in my opinion.

 

As has been reported, the balcony was tiny: two regular chairs and one small table, but it was sufficient. In the cabin were two twin beds, a sofa, long counter with a one-cup-at-a-time coffee maker. Flat screen TV overhead, mini-bar underneath and a cabinet with three shelves.

 

Also (again, thanks to Cruise Critic), I remembered to bring hair conditioner (only dispenser shampoo and shower gel in the bathroom) and lots of extra hangers as there were only about a dozen or so hangers in the closet and we definitely needed them! The closet had one overhead shelf and four shelves to the left, one of which held the safe.

 

The bathroom itself was huge for a mini-suite and included a large double-sink and huge tub/shower. One of the things I will remark upon throughout my review is the great attention to even the smallest details throughout the ship. For example, the bathroom sink’s backsplash was crafted of gorgeous iridescent tile. An elegant touch.

 

Pretty soon our luggage arrived and after unpacking, we headed up to check out Vibe. I ended up spending several hours there each afternoon. It had lots of super-comfy loungers, (only) six clamshell chairs (there was a hefty extra charge for these, which I can’t remember the price), two large hot tubs (more like lukewarm all week for some reason), a large bar and shower and tables and chairs. Again, in both the shower and backsplash of the bar were beautiful Caribbean blue iridescent tiles. It never once felt crowded (for that matter, neither did any venue on the ship).

 

After Vibe, we checked out nearly every venue on the ship. Again, the beautiful selection of woods and incredible, careful attention to detail everywhere from the furniture selection to wall and restaurant décor brought tears to my eyes more than once. The ship IS a New York ship and you literally feel it especially in the little “clubs” – Headliners, Blues Club, the outdoor terrace of Le Bistro all gave off that NYC feeling. Also especially noteworthy is the combined entrance to Cagneys and Moderno. As you enter, there are comfortable chairs and before you is a magnificent mahogany (I think) bar. Breathtaking. To the right is the host station and Cagneys; to the left the same for Moderno. One big room but NCL did a nice job keeping the two restaurants with a separate feel.

 

Back to the cabin for sailaway and then off to the casino. FYI, my player’s card and drink card were not in the cabin. Apparently there were 800 CAS players on board and some of us had to line up at the Player’s Club to receive our cards. No big deal. As I got to the front of the line, I spotted Casino Manager, Jules and Host, Rimarie both of whom I have sailed with several times. Big hugs all around and the vibe was really upbeat.

 

After a short time playing in the casino, we headed to Teppanyaki for dinner. We had a full, lively table and the “show” was fun as usual. Dinner was delicious, but as I said I am on Weight Watchers and haven’t had a lot of sodium since January. Our chef was a little too liberal with the salt and soy sauce and the next morning my hands and ankles were very swollen due to water retention. I made it a point from that morning on to be extra careful about my food choices. More about that later.

 

Wrapped up the evening playing for several hours in the casino; hundreds of slots and many table games. So many slots, so little time! Now I am a smoker (no flaming, please), but even I felt the casino was pretty smoky. The casino was HUGE, the largest at sea I have ever been in. It was on deck 7 forming a large diameter of the deck with a few hallways branching off from it.

 

 

 

Apparently the slots in the hallways were designated as non-smoking slots, but there was no signage whatsoever and the casino attendants were constantly chasing smokers out of there. The simple solution would be to add free-standing “non-smoking section” signs at each entrance to these areas.

 

Please feel free to ask any questions. Coming up, day two at sea.

 

Tracy

[youngestof9]

oooh more more more please :)

[nyc12345]

Just want to make sure, you are in room 12182, right? Isn't that a M2 family mini-suite? Have been reading that only family mini-suites have bath tubs. Just want to make sure...

[sailingnut]

I cannot wait for you to continue! I sail October 6th in a studio cabin~~did you happen to see what they look like? I hope I am lucky to get a vibe pass and also a spa pass~~two things on my list of things to do!:)

[092306]

Great start so far, looking forward to more! Just curious, how did you end up doing with food choices on the cruise and weight watchers? Sounds like you had a great time.

[Coastalbreezes]

Just want to make sure, you are in room 12182, right? Isn't that a M2 family mini-suite? Have been reading that only family mini-suites have bath tubs. Just want to make sure...

 

Yes, you are correct. I was looking at my original booking paper and it did say MA. But I double-checked and it was an M2.

 

Tracy

[Coastalbreezes]

Great start so far, looking forward to more! Just curious, how did you end up doing with food choices on the cruise and weight watchers? Sounds like you had a great time.

 

I mostly did very well. I had fruit and one poached egg on a half slice of toast for breakfast, salad or light lunch and at dinner, I had a protein and vets, no starches. I saved my points for cocktails and wine ;)!

 

Weighed in today and was down a 1/2 lb so was very happy. And I even ate dessert twice and had one of Buddy's chocolate cannolis.

 

Tracy

[grossguy]

Thanks for the info, sounds great

[newcruiser48]

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

[fivegirl]

Hi. Do you know what hours Vibe was open?

[Coastalbreezes]

I mostly did very well. I had fruit and one poached egg on a half slice of toast for breakfast, salad or light lunch and at dinner, I had a protein and vets, no starches. I saved my points for cocktails and wine ;)!

 

Weighed in today and was down a 1/2 lb so was very happy. And I even ate dessert twice and had one of Buddy's chocolate cannolis.

 

Tracy

 

 

Should have said protein and VEGS not vets :D

 

Tracy

[tiffygirl]

Hi Tracy,

thanks for doing a review! Great job!

 

My one question about vibe is did you see any umbrella's?? I know the clam shells have the shade, but i've have yet to see a picture with an umbrella over a lounger. Did you notice any??

 

Thanks,

Tiffany

[MsTabbyKats]

Can you tell me about the slots in the casino?

 

Penny games? Minimum bets?

 

Do you remember the names of any of the games?

[tiffygirl]

delete

[Ctrinh225]

Hi.. Great review. Hungry for more. I have never done the CAS program but got a discount from my status at Harrahs properties. So there is a separate line for CAS members to board? How do they know that u r...does it say it anywhere on edocs?

The drink card...any kind of drink or specials...how does that work? Thank u in advance.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[rstout]

Congratulations on eating so well...that is really great!! I seem to just go crazy on cruises and gain a lot.

[bubbletoes]

I cannot wait for you to continue! I sail October 6th in a studio cabin~~did you happen to see what they look like? I hope I am lucky to get a vibe pass and also a spa pass~~two things on my list of things to do!:)

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to see a studio cabin on the Cruise Critics Cabin Crawl. Compact, bright and streamlined, but roomy enough for the little time you'll be spending there with so much to do on the ship! The studio area has it's own two-story lounge with comfy conversation areas and seating to have coffee and snacks, and I hear a bartender comes in for a social hour late afternoon. I have pictures, but not sure how to get a url on them to post?

[Coastalbreezes]

Day 2: At Sea

 

Headed up to the spa around 8:00 a.m. This was my first cruise ever having a spa pass and I enjoyed every minute of it. First stop was into the large hydro pool. In the center was a wide waterfall; if you stood under it with your back to the water, you got an amazing massage on your shoulders and back. Yummy.

 

From there, I headed over to another area in the pool where, with the press of a button, the “raging river rapids” bubbled and boiled around you. I think I said “ahhhhhhhhh” about a million times. The water was intensely warm in a good way and I was super-relaxed upon leaving the pool and then headed to the sauna. Spent about 20 minutes in there to open up the pores and then made my way into the Salt Room to let all the healing properties of the salt get going. NOTE: you can only use the Salt Room if you have the spa pass.

 

After the salt room, I read my book and dozed a little on one of the heated loungers. This was my routine every day on the cruise and was worth the cost. Very, very relaxing start to the day. I kept saying I wanted to go up there in the evening, because 1) I wanted to see the little ceiling lights lit like stars and 2) I thought it would be nice to do before going to sleep. But I never did make up there. Too much else to do!

 

After the spa, went to Savor for a light breakfast of poached eggs and fruit. The menu had just about anything you could think of on it. NOTE: if you order the poached eggs, do ask for them to be cooked close to medium. I had to send them back on two occasions because they were very undercooked.

 

Made a donation to the casino before heading to Cagney’s for our CC Meet & Greet. A big shout-out and thank you again to Rose for making 200 beautiful name tags for our very group. The M & G was the largest I have ever attended and the captain and senior officers not only attended, but made it a point to stop and talk to every table. Kevin Sheehan also attended – a real gentleman who talked with us and posed for photos. I also met him in the casino the evening before and got a great photo with him! He was beaming with pride over Breakaway and I understand why.

 

Back to the casino for a bit and then I ate a wonderful sushi lunch at Wasabi: Godzilla roll and spicy tuna roll. All a la carte, but very reasonably priced.

 

Spent a good part of the afternoon relaxing and talking with fellow guests up at Vibe.

 

We decided to try O’Sheehans for dinner. When we entered, to the right were some high-top tables and a long bar so we decided to sit at the bar. FYI, they have Newcastle, Amstel Lite, Dos Equis, Heineken and Stella on tap. There was only one other person at the bar besides us so it was a bit frustrating to be ignored by the bartender. After several minutes, he finally came over and asked for drink orders. One thing I noticed right away was that the bar was filthy (sticky and lots of food crumbs) so that was a turn-off. When he brought the drinks, I had to ask twice for a coaster or napkin because I didn’t want to put my glass on the obviously dirty bar. He had to go somewhere to find some which was strange. He never did clean the bar, but eventually offered us a menu which only had four items on it, which I thought was odd considering all that I had read in advance about O’Sheehans.

 

We finally decided to move to a high-top and had a good laugh as we suddenly looked across the hallway to see the “real” O’Sheehans! Apparently the bar we were just sitting at was more for overflow for O’Sheehans guests. Once we moved “across the street”, we were treated like gold. Moises was our waiter (who presented us with the full menu!) and we ordered sandwiches. Had much more fun than on the other side!

 

After dinner, went to the Atrium to listen to musical duo Fire & Ice. These two were amazing and I couldn’t just sit there…I wanted to dance! But no one was getting up; about 50 people just sitting there and I was getting itchy. Do I get up by myself? How could absolutely NO ONE be getting their groove on? Finally, this man saw that I was ready to move and he said “come on, let’s get this party started” and off we went onto the dance floor. Try as we might, we eventually only got about 8 or 10 others to dance with us, but we didn’t care. We danced and danced and danced. That’s what I love about cruising. If you feel like dancing, you just go with your feelings! It was a really fun evening, then off to bed around 11:00.

 

To be continued…

 

Tracy

[Coastalbreezes]

Hi Tracy,

thanks for doing a review! Great job!

 

My one question about vibe is did you see any umbrella's?? I know the clam shells have the shade, but i've have yet to see a picture with an umbrella over a lounger. Did you notice any??

 

Thanks,

Tiffany

 

 

Yes, they had many wide market umbrellas. I definitely used them as it got very hot up there.

Tracy

[Coastalbreezes]

Can you tell me about the slots in the casino?

 

Penny games? Minimum bets?

 

Do you remember the names of any of the games?

 

 

There were probably hundreds of penny machines, many of them with progressive jackpots. Minimum bet was 30 cents all the way up to $5.00 max bet to hit the progressive.

 

Here's some that I remember: Quick Hit Platinum (six of them), Hot Hot Habanero (my personal favorite and very hard to get on), Roller Coaster, Pink Diamonds, Mr. Cashman. There were also lots of video poker. Also several high roller machines: $5, $25 and $100. A rumor quickly spread about a woman who won $80K on the high roller machines the first night!

 

If you are looking for a particular slot, ask me and I will see if I remember it.

 

Tracy

[Ctrinh225]

Hi TracyE. I just asked about the CAS program earlier Can u give some info about that. Thank u. I'm supposed to go to work but sooooo loving ur review. Lol. I guess I'll be late!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Coastalbreezes]

Hi.. Great review. Hungry for more. I have never done the CAS program but got a discount from my status at Harrahs properties. So there is a separate line for CAS members to board? How do they know that u r...does it say it anywhere on edocs?

The drink card...any kind of drink or specials...how does that work? Thank u in advance.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Yes, there is a separate boarding line for CAS. It is marked with a sign and also I just told the NCL rep at the entrance that I was checking in as a casino guest and she just pointed me to the correct line.

 

Depending on your play level, your drink card either says "House", "Premium" or "ultra" as to what type of booze you can get. For example, I had "house" and as a wine drinker, that meant I could only get chardonnay or merlot, not my usual pinot grigio.

 

There are daily drink specials (try a Bushwacker or Rebellious Fish), but not in the casino.

 

Tracy

[sdmike]

Loving the extensive review so far. Maybe someone can chime in about O'Sheehan's menu. It was pretty extensive on the Epic. Maybe it was a "bar" menu?

[Ctrinh225]

Yes, there is a separate boarding line for CAS. It is marked with a sign and also I just told the NCL rep at the entrance that I was checking in as a casino guest and she just pointed me to the correct line.

 

Depending on your play level, your drink card either says "House", "Premium" or "ultra" as to what type of booze you can get. For example, I had "house" and as a wine drinker, that meant I could only get chardonnay or merlot, not my usual pinot grigio.

 

There are daily drink specials (try a Bushwacker or Rebellious Fish), but not in the casino.

 

Tracy

 

Thank u!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Coastalbreezes]

Loving the extensive review so far. Maybe someone can chime in about O'Sheehan's menu. It was pretty extensive on the Epic. Maybe it was a "bar" menu?

 

Yes, you are correct.

 

Where we sat initially it was a four-item bar menu. When we moved to the other side, it was very extensive with burgers, sandwiches, chili dogs and more. I remembered to write down the beers that were on tap but not more of what was on the menu, but there was a very good selection.

 

Tracy