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Breakaway February Break Review

geegee1

By geegee1,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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geegee1

geegee1

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Just got off the Breakaway and was pleasantly surprised how nice of a ship it is. After reading the reviews we were expecting the worst, especially with it being a packed cruise due to the school break. The only time we felt that it was overly crowded was on Friday's sea day by the pools. But that only lasted around 3 hours or so. I'll be back today and tomorrow with a much more detailed review.

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Fishbait17

Fishbait17

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Looking forward to reading your review! Do you by chance know who the concierge is?

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

Adrian Bica is the current concierge, but he's leaving in a few days for vacation. He'll be back in mid-April. He told us that Ruth will be taking over in his absence, but wasnt 100% sure a few weeks ago.

 

Robin

Edited by Fishbait17
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dexddd

dexddd

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Adrian Bica is the current concierge, but he's leaving in a few days for vacation. He'll be back in mid-April. He told us that Ruth will be taking over in his absence, but wasnt 100% sure a few weeks ago.

 

Robin

 

Is that a good thing or bad thing? I remember reading some reviews where thoughts were mixed - seemed she either likes you or doesn't and that is the treatment people were getting.

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Fishbait17

Fishbait17

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Is that a good thing or bad thing? I remember reading some reviews where thoughts were mixed - seemed she either likes you or doesn't and that is the treatment people were getting.

 

Ruth is an excellent concierge, just not as personable as Adrian. She runs a tight ship! Maybe shes not as flexible, but we've never been disappointed with her service.

 

Robin

Edited by Fishbait17
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kmc86

kmc86

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I understand the breakaway is very large And concierge has a great deAl of people to attend to but she was not very friendly or accomodating. Inthe past florentina and carlos were very approachable, pleasant and always tried to please. Not so with ruth. So many of our requests were met with negative responses....:(

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garnet115

garnet115

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Very interested to hear about the crowds! Most of the negative reviews pick apart things that don't ruin my vacation, so always happy to hear a positive :)

 

I was also on this sailing and had a wonderful vacation. Were there crowds? It was a ship with over 4000 passengers during a peak holiday week - of course there were crowds! Did the crowds spoil our vacation? No! There a few moments of frustration, but generally we were able to do the things we wanted to do, relax, and have a great time. It's all about expectations - don't go on a "megaship" and expect a serene, crowd-free vacation.

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geegee1

geegee1

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Sorry for the delay on posting this. Life has gotten in the way:

 

Still writing up the whole review. Figure I'll break them up.

 

Before we booked the cruise, the negative reviews made my wife and I a little leery of the Breakaway. Making it a cruise during February break didn't do much to make it any easier of a decision (we only booked this week because our daughters, 8 and 5, were off from school). When we booked it, we booked a Mini Suite Guarantee. On the Friday before we leave, I get a call saying that NCL has no more Mini Suite's available and will be downgrading us to a BA Balcony. Having sailed on the GEM before, we really enjoyed the Mini Suite set up. After some back and forth between the TA and NCL we were back in the MS. To say the least, all of this set us up for expecting the worse on the cruise.

 

I'm going to break this review off into different subjects

 

EMBARKATION

We drove ourselves to the pier for the first time ever. We arrived at 10:15 and after paying, parking and getting a porter to help us with the bags we were checked in and waiting by a little before 11. After we were settled, I found the Spa table in the terminal where I bought my wife and I spa passes as well as booked us both a massage. Boarding started around 11:45, our group boarded around noon or so. When we walked on the ship we were told that we could go to our rooms to drop our carry on's off. When we got to our room the room steward told us that the room wasn't ready yet, but that we could drop the bags anyway. On the way out we saw that there was an envelope with excursion tix in someone else's name. We asked the steward and he said that the room was registered to someone else. We beelined it to Guest Services, after speaking to 2 different people we were told that the room was indeed ours and just a clerical error. Since that was settled we dropped off our bags and went to the buffet to get some lunch.

 

Quick note about the complaints about the boat being too crowded. We only felt like this once. For 3 hours on Friday we had amazing weather on the sea day back to NY. From around 11:30a – 2:30p the pools were a crowded mess. But besides that, we did not feel like the boat was too small for all of the people on it. We went to the shows, bars, spa appointments, meals when we wanted to without a problem.

 

Food section is next. It's a long one...

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Michylicious

Michylicious

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I was also on this sailing and had a wonderful vacation. Were there crowds? It was a ship with over 4000 passengers during a peak holiday week - of course there were crowds! Did the crowds spoil our vacation? No! There a few moments of frustration, but generally we were able to do the things we wanted to do, relax, and have a great time. It's all about expectations - don't go on a "megaship" and expect a serene, crowd-free vacation.

 

Crowds usually don't bother me - I look at it as more people I can potentially meet :)

 

I've never had a bad cruise - it's all about attitude. I like reading reviews from people who look at vacationing from the same perspective I do!

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geegee1

geegee1

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FOOD

I'm going to grade the food on a 1 t o10 scale. For reference, to my wife and I a (1) is Golden Corral/Sizzler; a (5) is Chili's/Outback; a (10) is Ruth's Chris/Your Best Local Restaurant

 

We only ate one meal the entire trip in any of the MDR's and that was a breakfast. The food overall was good, giving it a rating of around a (7). When I asked for more syrup for my pancakes the waitress looked at me like I asked her to go tap the maple tree herself. But besides that it was tasty.

 

The rest of the breakfasts and lunches we did have on the boat were OK. All but one other breakfast came from the buffet. The selection of food was fine. It was the taste of some items that made the meals disappointing. The burgers were dry, the bacon was way too greasy, the OJ was watered down to the consistency of apple juice. The hash browns were usually over fried and dried out. Overall the buffet came in at around a (4) for us.

 

We did have one breakfast at the Uptown Grill and it was much better than the buffet. Unfortunately for us we didn't go there until the 6th day and it was closed due the the weather on the 7th. We'd rate that as a (7).

 

Now the dinners. We bought the UDP before we left. We ate 2 dinners at Cagney's, 1 at Moderno, 1 at O'Sheehans, 1 at Ocean Blue, 1 at Cirque and 1 at Teppanyaki.

 

Cagneys – (7.5) both times. The steaks were good and properly cooked to our order. I had the rib eye both times and my wife had the sirloin. The sides were very good and my eldest enjoyed the shrimp cocktail, filet and fries.

 

Moderno – (4) – This was the restaurant I was most excited to try. I love Churrascaria's and was really looking forward to this meal. From being to others and reading the reviews we knew not to fill ourselves up from the salad bar. By doing this, it seems we threw the wait staff for a loop. They came up a couple of times to remind us about it, each time we told them they were fine without. Then the maitre' d came to check, when we told him we were waiting for the meat they finally brought us our plates. The first thing they brought us was the sirloin which was amazing. Then they brought over chunks of the filet and garlic steak, both were very dry. Then came the lamb chops, which were very tasty but dry. Not as dry as the previous meats, but dry none the less. After that everything went down hill. The Portuguese sausage was dry and not really tasty, as was the chicken wrapped in bacon. Even though we had the card turned to green the whole time, they stopped bringing us food. They finally came over and asked about dessert. I commented that we haven't yet received the chorizo nor the beef ribs. I should have taken the hint when they asked about dessert. The chorizo was dry and tasteless and the beef ribs were sliced, while juicy, still lacking taste. This was a very disappointing meal.

 

O'Sheehan's – (3) – After the muster drill we went to O'Sheehan's for some drinks and snacks. We ordered 2 orders of the wings that everyone seems to rave about. They were pretty good, not great, but good none the less. The funniest part for me was that one order had 4 wings and the other had 6. We then went there on Tuesday night. We got there after 9 and was disappointed to find out that they were no longer serving the Chicken Fry. I got a burger, which was as bland as the one in the buffet. My wife and father in law both got the Fish N Chips. They both said that they were fine, but not the tastiest. My mother in law had the Pot Pie and had the same comment. We went one other night to get some late night wings. Asked for 2 orders again, this time one had 4 wings and the other 5. But these wings were basically inedible. We had 3 of 9 and ditched the rest. They just weren't tasty at all. I asked for them to be well done and they were not, making them a soppy mess.

 

Ocean Blue – (5) – Going in we were expecting a meal that was worthy of a $50 upcharge. Basically a 10 on the 1-10 scale. What we got was a 5. My rib eye was not nearly as tasty as Cagney's and my wife's scallops had grit aka sand in them. The meal as a whole really was forgettable, which is a shame . It made my wife and I wonder if the Iron Chef just sold his name to NCL and really doesn't care about the restaurant itself.

 

Cirque – (6) for the food and a (10) for the show. The food was your standard wedding food. A filet that you were told was cooked to medium, but was closer to medium well. I've never been served “coconut” shrimp with a marinara sauce before. But the amazing show made up for the lackluster meal. I've seen Cirque shows on TV and in person before. This show was one of the best. The fact that they accomplished so much on such a small stage is truly remarkable. It also performed an amazing trick of keeping both of our daughters entertained for the entire show.

 

Teppanyaki – (7.5). Our eldest daughter was really looking forward to this restaurant the most. They are learning about Japan in school and were scheduled to have a school trip to a local Teppanyaki restaurant. As always, it was a great performance. Our daughter's loved it, but the potent smell of the soy sauce did start to bother our youngest one. All of us received the steak and shrimp meal. While tasty, the steak again was over cooked. The shrimp was tasty as was the rice and noodles.

 

So overall for us, the dinners were around a 6 out of 10. Not great, but not horrible. That is except for O'Sheehan's.

 

Do want to point out the great job the staff did in the UDP's when it came to serving our daughters.

 

Coming up next, room, spa and overall feel...

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trivia nut

trivia nut

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Looking forward to your review!

I'm considering this itinerary for April. My mother in law may come. Does she need a passport? Or will a birth certificate with drivers license be enough?

 

Just got off the Breakaway also, It was fantastic! 1700 + children did very well. The ship, staff, food, shows and activities were all terrific. The bathrooms are the best at sea. I loved the newness of the ship and the fun and friendliness of the staff. We were spoiled with the best cabin steward, Josephine, we've ever had. Have sailed 18 times and this was our favorite cruise. Great Stirrup Cay was gorgeous. Florida was sunny and warm, and the 8th wonder of the world, The Atlantis, never fails.

Go have a great time and stop reading the negative reviews.

 

Get a passport for you mother-in-law. Most countries and cruiselines require them now. BC isn't enough.

 

Enjoy your cruise. We have already booked the Breakaway for next January's 12 day southern Carribean.

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