Another (first-hand) Breakaway New Years Review

[mmmken]

I think it's all such a shame as I wonder what your review would have been if the medical problems hadn't occurred?

 

Thanks again! :)

 

Thanks for reading my wordy review!

 

It would have still been the same if I omitted the medical whoops: bad. My main concern is NCL employs robots onboard that have issues communicating with one another to ensure good service. You can tell from even the small things like the wooden "RARE" pegs in their steaks. Any self-respecting restaurant with competent staff and good communication between the kitchen and its wait staff should not need such things. Things like that are only in place because the wait staff lack adequate training and it's a patch solution (which clearly didn't really work in my example since they still didn't bother checking).

[SuiteCruiser]

That is the difference between private insurance vs government insurance ;)

 

It works the same for Canadians as it does for Americans. You pay up front, you get your insurance provider to pay up when you get home (fingers crossed). We do not get free medical outside of Canada, we pay for our own travel coverage or we get it through our employers.

Edited January 7, 2014 by SuiteCruiser

[mizLORInj]

OP Hope your mom is feeling better.

 

SINAN is on the Breakaway!?!?!? You made my day; can't wait to see him in a few weeks!!!

And I agree you get more personalized service when having a fixed dining time on other lines. Still, I don't mind freestyle and being unscheduled for dinner sometimes too. :)

Edited January 7, 2014 by mizlorinj

[LizG12]

yes he is, and he's got an annoying "mmm'nnnyow" at the start of almost every speech.

[Cloudyrain]

I appreciate your opinion but I am confused. Are you in healthcare?

 

To have their situation (called a crisis in healthcare) happen and then be expected to accept the type of treatment they received when they were in a very stressful situation only adds to the stress. If you are in healthcare then you know the situation they were put in is unacceptable and people should expect better care.

 

In healthcare when someone is sick enough to ask for medical help it is a very stressful situation. Perception is reality. Their perception is that they did not get good care and from what the OP described IMHO it wasn't and should be reported. IMO, calling the healthcare people/process on possible negligence should not be dismissed as flaming or cheerleading depending on which side you happen to be on. We all deserve better than this; it should be an expectation that healthcare has higher standards. It should not matter what healthcare facility you are utilizing.

 

Sorry if you felt I wasn't very clear; I responding to what the OP mentioned about the fact that the medical team on board waited until 12 to put his mum in a taxi - they didn't arrange an emergency ambulance on arrival in port so hadn't classed it as an emergency. Furthermore, the OP stated that they were mostly upset that the hospital had no details, the costs were not fully explained, and that the NCL medical team were unable to communicate with the team at the hospital. I agreed that none of that was good and is extremely stressful. If I have misunderstood then apologised to OP, but it's just how I read that section.

 

I responded with my suggestion in view of what i said above, and of my experience in similar situations. In my role I often have to arrange referral, and transport, to hospital/A&E/clinics. It is our standard process to provide copies of any useful information for them to take with them, including a copy of a GPs referral letter if available, in addition to the information we send via post/fax.

 

I don't get that you think I'm saying it wasn't serious - I said he should write so it can (and should be) investigated. I certainly didn't dismiss the seriousness of what happened, I merely dismissed people coming to a conclusion without knowing what happened (e.g. Did they not call at all, call the wrong people, speak to the wrong department, forget and do nothing, did the hospital not pass the information on etc etc etc). I also take it that the OP was reluctant to complain, and I can understand that, so I was also suggesting that even if he didn't feel he/his mum wanted to drag it all up again and mention personal medical matters, it would be helpful if NCL could be aware.

 

I hope that clarifies matters :)

[mmmken]

OP Hope your mom is feeling better.

 

SINAN is on the Breakaway!?!?!? You made my day; can't wait to see him in a few weeks!!!

And I agree you get more personalized service when having a fixed dining time on other lines. Still, I don't mind freestyle and being unscheduled for dinner sometimes too. :)

 

Yep! Sinan was one of the highlights of the ship (minus his morning jingles of course).

 

Imagine both "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are.. << suspenseful pause >>.. grey." at 9AM and "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.." at around 3PM every single day.

 

yes he is, and he's got an annoying "mmm'nnnyow" at the start of almost every speech.

 

.. and his laugh that sounds like he's choking on something, lol!

Edited January 7, 2014 by mmmken

[Cloudyrain]

Thanks for reading my wordy review!

 

It would have still been the same if I omitted the medical whoops: bad. My main concern is NCL employs robots onboard that have issues communicating with one another to ensure good service. You can tell from even the small things like the wooden "RARE" pegs in their steaks. Any self-respecting restaurant with competent staff and good communication between the kitchen and its wait staff should not need such things. Things like that are only in place because the wait staff lack adequate training and it's a patch solution (which clearly didn't really work in my example since they still didn't bother checking).

 

I think that's a really good point, and such a shame. Back in my waitress days I sometimes made mistakes (when I thought a blue steak meant it was frozen!) but at least I had a good attitude and always smiled and laughed with my customers. I really hope that NCL can look at what has happened where these reports are being made and react in terms of staff training and maybe morale building: genuinely happy and personable staff is a very important thing that I think sometimes managers overlook it's value.

[MCAT48]

It's so strange that in three months since my time on the breakaway the service has gone downhill. I don't remember ever having incompetent staff to deal with, or rude staff. Everyone I encountered on my cruise that I remember was great. I wonder what would be the cause of the downhill of service in three months?

[MCAT48]

Yep! Sinan was one of the highlights of the ship (minus his morning jingles of course).

 

Imagine both "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are.. << suspenseful pause >>.. grey." at 9AM and "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.." at around 3PM every single day.

 

 

 

.. and his laugh that sounds like he's choking on something, lol!

 

He did that when he was our cd on the gem and really it always made me laugh! So I guess it makes some people happy and some people not so happy.

[shiphound]

It's so strange that in three months since my time on the breakaway the service has gone downhill. I don't remember ever having incompetent staff to deal with, or rude staff. Everyone I encountered on my cruise that I remember was great. I wonder what would be the cause of the downhill of service in three months?

 

I wonder if the ship was more crowded during the holidays and more than they could handle.

[Love my butler]

I wonder if the ship was more crowded during the holidays and more than they could handle.

 

I think that is the case no matter how many passengers are on board.

[xcell]

For health insurance - there is usually a number you need to call and let them know that you are going to see a doctor and they will provide you a list of doctors that they deal with (at least that is what my health insurance has told me in the past). It is helpful especially if you are in a place that English is not their primary language - the insurance will even help find someone who can translate. So, if you have extended health insurance, it would be good to get the information of "what if" before you leave...

[BlancaNoir]

Can you clarify the issue with the bed sheets? The breakaway looks like such a cool ship but dirty sheets upon arrival...?

[mjkacmom]

A couple more things. Interesting, the process of getting onboard Breakaway was the worst and most disorganized I have ever seen getting on a ship. It took 15-30 minutes (in cold and rain outside) to just drop off checked luggage. Total time from arrival at the port to getting on the ship was almost 2 hours. Just a disaster.

 

But, getting off the ship was a delight. The easiest and fasted time getting off a ship that I have had.

 

Also, a lot of the big spaces, the buffet restaurant and the theatre for example, seemed very undersized for the size of the ship. Interesting ship, very tall, very long, not very wide.

 

Just a FYI, it's all about the timing. We always arrive before 10, and have never waited on a single line during embarkment. There is a finite number of staff provided by the NYC port, and a finite amount of space, so if you arrive at a peak time, you will have to wait. We live 10 miles away, so we go early, but if we happened to miss that window, we'd opt for late.

[lgfromdg]

It's so strange that in three months since my time on the breakaway the service has gone downhill. I don't remember ever having incompetent staff to deal with, or rude staff. Everyone I encountered on my cruise that I remember was great. I wonder what would be the cause of the downhill of service in three months?

 

 

I was wondering the same thing. I sailed Breakaway in October and had a great time. I wasn't impressed by the service in O'Sheehans but found it to be fien everywhere else. Never experienced rude behavior.

 

The funny thing is I was on Breakaways first Bahamas run and there was a lot of concern from the crew about the first time tendering to GSC. It went off without a hitch; I think everyone made it to the island in less than 2 hours. Of course, we had beautiful weather and teh seas were calm so that might have made a difference.

 

The officers cell phone numbers are given out the ship so that problems while onboard can be addressed immediately. The OP, and anyone else who had problems, should have called the appropriate officer and discussed it right away. If you don't give them a chance to make things right while onboard, it's not really fair to come here and complain. And a Dear Hugo card is not going to get the immediate attention that a phone call would.

[Tiggertastic]

Use the cards with the phone numbers

 

We had bad service from guest relations, trying to get a smell in the cabin dealt with and after 4 goes of reporting we got nowhere - however as soon as we called one of those numbers, the issue was resolved in 10 minutes

 

they do not want you to go away and moan, they want you to tell them straight away so you can resolve it

[dalgirl]

Having sailed on the smaller (Sun, Dawn), medium (all Jewel class ships) and larger (Epic) NCL ships, it seems that the service on a larger ship is going to be less personalized and more chaotic. When you meet 4000 new people every week, I imagine that we just start to "blur" to the crew. Main dining room service can be slower (we are fast eaters and don't like to linger), but many people like to "dine" and slower service works for them. We have gotten excellent and indifferent service at one time or another in all of the restaurants (including fee based) and when it is an off night I think "here we go again" and when it is "on" I think yeah, I can relax and enjoy. It is true a single individual can your day.

 

Our last cruise on the Epic we met two couples who really hated the larger RCL ships - they even liked Epic better. The each complained about the service and cold food. They did not say they would never sail RCL again, just not those ships. I still want to try those ships and will make up my own mind.

 

OP - if you find the opportunity to try another, smaller NCL ship, please do. It is true that indifferent service can put a damper on a great cruise, when it has happened to me, I try to forget those negatives so that our cruise is not ruined. I hate that your first experience with NCL was not up to par, it really can be a wonderful, and mostly economical, cruising experience.

 

We will be on Breakaway in May and I am hoping that the crew will be settled in and that these negative issues will have had time to be addressed. I am sure that the customer service reps monitoring these boards are taking note.

[nycruise]

It's so strange that in three months since my time on the breakaway the service has gone downhill. I don't remember ever having incompetent staff to deal with, or rude staff. Everyone I encountered on my cruise that I remember was great. I wonder what would be the cause of the downhill of service in three months?

 

 

Probably a whole new crew. The Getaway is sailing next month and most of the good staff from the Breakaway have probably been transferred to the new ship. The remainder are the non-performers and new staff being trained. We were on the Breakaway in August and were very pleased with the crew.

[bingo3]

Thank you for the detailed review. I am sorry you didn't have as good of a time as you should have, but I appreciate you taking the time to post your experiences.

 

One thing that I have taken from your review is to stick to our plan to dine in the specialty restaurants. It may be hard to believe, but in 3 7 day cruises, we have only eaten at a main dining room one time, and couple of times at the 24 hour restaurants. We have never eaten at the buffets. Maybe it is because of this, we have almost always had very good service at the restaurants. My opinion, if you cruise in a non suite, figure out how much extra the specialty restaurants will cost you for the week, and just add that to the cost of your cruise. Maybe if you do that, you won't have to deal with poor service at the main dining rooms.

 

I'm sorry, but people should not have to pay extra to get good service and good food. I realize the options will be limited, because with so many upsell restaurants, unfortunately there's not much left to serve in the included venues, but it certainly should be good.

 

And other mega-ships manage to handle the crowds quite well, with variety of menus in the mainstream restaurants and great service. I agree with the OP that the 24 hour options (late night) are better on NCL, but from the menus I've seen, the included food options are definitely better on the other line. You have to pay extra and go to a specialty option to get the same on NCL.

debbie

[DeckLife]

"If you don't give them a chance to make things right while onboard, it's not really fair to come here and complain."

 

This sentiment is voiced frequently in these forums when people have critical comments.

 

Making complaints while on board ought not be a prerequisite for sharing information and opinions and complaints here.

 

Also, how can things be made "right"? The wrong still happened. NCL and other cruise lines might lessen bad feelings with credits and apologies, but they can't turn back time and remove the wrong.

 

That said, improvements can only be made when problems are known. For that reason, I would encourage the OP to make a formal complaint about the medical issue, especially now that the fears and worries of that stressful day are past.

[mmmken]

Can you clarify the issue with the bed sheets? The breakaway looks like such a cool ship but dirty sheets upon arrival...?

 

The bed sheets had what appeared to be blood stains and hair on them. It didn't look like they were even changed from the previous sailing. There was what looked like a poop stain (or chocolate hopefully) on a towel so we had all the towels changed for good measure.

 

When my parents asked their stateroom attendant to set up the third bed, he did it in front of us and let the sheets hit the dirty floor, and at times even stepped on the edges of it with his shoes. A little careless here and more of an "appearance" concern, but I thought that I should bring it up since a common question was asked.

 

Just a FYI, it's all about the timing. We always arrive before 10, and have never waited on a single line during embarkment. There is a finite number of staff provided by the NYC port, and a finite amount of space, so if you arrive at a peak time, you will have to wait. We live 10 miles away, so we go early, but if we happened to miss that window, we'd opt for late.

 

This was true for us as well. We didn't have to wait at all when we arrived at around 10 AM. Getting on and off was pretty easy.

[mmmken]

The officers cell phone numbers are given out the ship so that problems while onboard can be addressed immediately. The OP, and anyone else who had problems, should have called the appropriate officer and discussed it right away. If you don't give them a chance to make things right while onboard, it's not really fair to come here and complain. And a Dear Hugo card is not going to get the immediate attention that a phone call would.

 

We didn't really feel like what we experienced was "complainable" enough to warrant an actual complaint. We weren't treated rudely nor was there something that could be done to resolve it. At most, they'd probably offer free dinner or some free on board credits and I'm not going to be a beggar for such things. I also doubt a single complaint about what appears to be an systematic problem can be resolved overnight (or even in the 7 nights we're sailing).

 

Honestly, the only thing that would alleviate any negative opinion from me of their ship and company is to offer us a replacement cruise when they've cleaned up their act. A refund (or partial refund) wouldn't be fair since we've had service (although poor service) rendered and food served. Anything less won't change my perception of their cruises.

 

I'm reluctant to complain because I know this is a lot to ask for and if they really cared - they'd have seen this review already and offered it themselves.

 

OP - if you find the opportunity to try another, smaller NCL ship, please do. It is true that indifferent service can put a damper on a great cruise, when it has happened to me, I try to forget those negatives so that our cruise is not ruined. I hate that your first experience with NCL was not up to par, it really can be a wonderful, and mostly economical, cruising experience.

 

That actually might be true on their smaller ships. Unfortunately, I'm not too keen on wasting another vacation for experimentation when I already know I can get a better product (in my own opinion) elsewhere. My parents feel even more strongly about this since they paid more for their mini-suite (in comparison to our interior room). We only get so many vacations each year of course!

[CI66774]

OP- first, I hope your Mom is ok. The medical situation would have been the same had you cruised on any of the lines. Where you're in a foreign country, you have to deal with how they handle health care. You also indicated you have "free" healthcare in Canada? It is my understanding it is NOT free and Canadian citizens pay dearly for it in terms of high taxes. Hope your next cruise is a happy one!

[mmmken]

OP- first, I hope your Mom is ok. The medical situation would have been the same had you cruised on any of the lines. Where you're in a foreign country, you have to deal with how they handle health care. You also indicated you have "free" healthcare in Canada? It is my understanding it is NOT free and Canadian citizens pay dearly for it in terms of high taxes. Hope your next cruise is a happy one!

 

Thanks, she's doing well now.

 

We understood that the procedures are different in foreign countries and respected this, but we felt that there were huge problems in the way it was handled for us - to which several others (presumably in the industry) here on CC have confirmed.

 

And it's "free" (see the quotations). ;)

[lgfromdg]

mmmken - I know Tess, the Executive Housekeeper, on Breakaway and I know she would have wanted to hear (and would have been appalled by) your complaints about the bedding and towels. Yes, she would have fixed your problem and then had a serious talk with your room steward. Giving you a free dinner or OBC is not viewing you as someone who's looking for a freebie, but as a gift of apology for your inconvenience. And really, any problem that upsets you and has an extremely negative effect on your cruise is "complainable"; you deserve to have a good trip; you paid for it.

 

DeckLife - Sorry but I disagree with you. If you have a problem on a cruise, you should seek to get it corrected onboard; give them a chance to make it better, so it doesn't eat at you the whole cruise. It's difficult to give all 4,000+ passengers a perfect experience (and unfortunately in some cruiser's experience even a "decent" one) but they do want everyone to have a good cruise and to come back again. If they don't make a reasonable attempt to correct the problem and make you happy, then, of course, you should come back here and complain. If they fix the problem and salvage the rest of your trip, you still can talk about the problem (no need to whitewash it) but give them credit for fixing it.

Edited January 10, 2014 by lgfromdg