Just off the Breakaway (June 8, 2014). Long review and ASK ME ANYTHING!

[TravelDiva88]

Norwegian Breakaway to Bermuda June 8, 2014

 

This morning was back to reality after a wonderful cruise on the Breakaway. Bare with me, as this review is going to be a bit long-winded. I’m going to break the review into sections based on service area vs. a day by day recap.

 

I’m normally a fairly laid-back traveler, but as this trip was for business, I knew I’d be looking at the amenities, service, and ambience through a different lens than normal.

 

We sailed on the Breakaway last September to Bermuda, and this was my 3rd NCL cruise to Bermuda in the past 4 years. To say I love the itinerary is an understatement. It starts off a bit rough, but it does get better. I’m also going to give each service area a letter grade.

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Embarkation

Overall Grade: F

Embarkation was an absolute nightmare. We arrived at the pier at 8:45 AM after driving straight through the night (12+ hours). We were the 10th and 11th individuals in line. Our arrival started off on a good note after being dropped off by the valet from the Parking Garage on 42nd. Upon arrival we were seated in line based on our arrival, and the port agent who was in charge of keeping us in line was awesome.

 

That’s when it all fell apart. We were ushered through the security line, and when we got to the check-in desk, we were given no recognition of our Latitudes status (Gold) and I was perplexed when we received boarding group 23. Please remember at this point that we were the 10th and 11th people in line. I was livid. There went any chance of getting a Vibe pass. When I asked several port agents why we received such a late boarding group, they avoided the question, were quite rude, and told me to just relax and deal with it- that we’d all be on the ship. NOT a great start to the vacation.

 

I did manage to locate the spa table in the terminal (it’s NOT well marked at all, but it was near the food & beverage tables) and secured two Spa passes for my mother and I.

 

Finally around boarding group 7 I had enough of it and handed them my boarding #23 and got on the ship anyway. Nobody stopped me or said anything, and it was generally chaotic. Once we made it up the gangway though and were greeted by NCL employees the general ambiance and morale improved slightly.

 

The good news in all of this is that despite being in and amongst boarding group #7, I did still manage to obtain a Vibe pass once onboard. We were among the tail end of Vibe pass recipients. They WERE selling day passes, but ONLY for days in port, and they DID NOT make this clear to guests in line. The result is that folks who stood in line for close to 45 minutes finally made it up to the guest services counter only to find out they couldn’t buy a day pass for a sea day, and by the time they came to this realization, Vibe passes were sold out and they were out of luck. I saw several people who were none too happy about this.

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Housekeeping/Room Steward/Housekeeping Supervisor

Overall Grade: C

 

I still don’t know who my room steward was. He NEVER stopped by to introduce himself a single time on the cruise. Despite being “ready” upon embarkation, the stateroom was not actually clean. There were nail clippings on the floor, and the ice bucket with filthy- just absolutely dusty. I left a note for the steward around 5PM before we left for dinner asking to please vacuum, replace the dirty ice bucket, and to please empty the mini-fridge. When we got back to our cabin at 9PM our stateroom had not been turned down, the mini fridge had not been emptied, and the ice bucket was still as disgusting as ever.

 

I went to Guest Services to exchange my ice bucket, and they were incredibly apologetic. They sent a supervisor up with a replacement ice bucket. Upon the supervisor’s arrival, he did not take any of my complaints seriously, made excuses as to why it was unreasonable to expect our room to have been turned down by 9PM (your steward has 16 cabins, it’s a busy day, etc). This was 100% unacceptable in my book. The supervisor then hands me an EMPTY ice bucket and looks flabbergasted when I asked him to please fill it with ice. It also took 30 minutes to get a copy of the freestyle daily from our room steward before we went to bed.

 

The ONLY reason I gave housekeeping a C is because despite never introducing himself, our steward quickly learned our daily pattern (early to bed/early to rise) and from then on out our room was made up by 10AM, and turned down by 7PM.

 

I was very disappointed by the lack of response by the supervisor as well as the general morale of our steward. I will say that overall, the stewards we passed in the hallway were very friendly, and despite not being “our” steward they would frequently stop us and ask how our day was going, etc.

 

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Complimentary Dining

Overall Grade: B

 

We did not do any specialty restaurants this cruise. Overall I appreciated the variety of the new restaurant menus, but I did miss having French Onion soup offered daily.

 

I feel that the new menu rotations offer more appealing vegetarian options than in the past, but several of the nights are heavy on the seafood- so beware if ocean fare isn’t your favorite.

 

One area I was greatly disappointed was dessert in the buffet. The selection was abysmal. It was all lukewarm mousse-on-a-crust variety. Not very appealing. I’ve broken out our experiences at the dining venues as follows:

 

Room Service Breakfast Delivery: A+

Our room service breakfast orders were all the proper temperature (coffee hot, yogurt cold, fruit chilled) and arrived usually 10-15 minutes before our desired breakfast time. Not a single disappointment here.

 

Room Service Afternoon Delivery: C

Room service during the day left much to be desired. The food was all tepid, and delivery took between 60 and 70 minutes, despite a 45 minute promise. Staff was very dismissive of my concerns. There is no reason my cheesecake and chicken tenders should be the same temperature.

 

The Manhattan Room: A

Our service was fantastic and friendly in the Manhattan Room. Food was delivered quickly, pacing between courses was appropriate, and the selection was varied and appealed to both of us.

 

Savor: A

Savor was where we had the best service of the trip. Both evenings our servers were incredibly pleasant, our wait was short (less than 5 minutes despite being told 20) and the timing and presentation were spot on. Our server Hileria was an absolute doll and a pleasure to interact with during our meal.

 

Taste: D

Both evenings in Taste were abysmal. The service was horrible. We did not have bread plates, and had to ask for them the first evening. We dined around 5:45 and the restaurant was not crowded at all. We also ordered tea with dessert, and they did not bring us tea cups. Ended up not drinking it, as we had finished dessert and conversation well before anyone stopped by to see if we needed anything (like cups!).

 

The second evening in Savor, we waited almost 20 minutes after being seated to have our water filled and our order taken. We skipped dessert that night.

 

O’Sheehan: A

It’s fast, the food was great, and the atmosphere was pleasant. There was truly nothing to complain about with our meals here. We took several lunches and a late dinner here during our port days.

 

Uptown Grill: A

The food was tasty and well-prepared. The waffle fries especially were great. I would have preferred toasted buns, but for being a build-your-own burger buffet it was a great spot for a quick meal/snack.

 

Garden Café: B

The food was plentiful, however it lacked punch. It was rather bland, and often was lukewarm at best. As mentioned above, the dessert selection was rather disappointing.

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Entertainment

Overall Grade: A

 

Holy cow! The entertainment staff hit it out of the park on this one. Boredom was not an issue, and from a performance/technical standpoint they nailed the shows! Across the board every single entertainment experience was an A ,so I’m not going to break it down by experience- but I will recap the highlights.

 

We did the Wine Lovers Musical Lunch which was cute. The meal was super heavy for a lunch, and the wine was plentiful.

 

We attended 3 Second City Scriptless performances and we were in tears doubled over laughing at each show. Truly a talented cast!

 

Howl at the Moon was fantastic (both times we went), and Burn the Floor was impressive as always. We skipped Rock of Ages this time around (not impressed last fall) and didn’t make it to the comedy magician.

 

 

The final night of the cruise, Howl at the Moon had guest appearances from Norm (Second City), the bassist and drummer from Rock of Ages, several dancers from Burn the Floor, and from one of the lounge piano players (William?). It was the most bizarre, exciting, and AWESOME experience I’ve ever had on a cruise ship- and the Howl at the Moon folks made it clear that the other performance staff was there simply because they wanted to have a good time together, and not out of work obligation. It is probably one of the most memorable experiences of any cruise I have ever been on.

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Vibe & Spa Passes

Overall Experience: A

As mentioned, we had both the Vibe & Spa passes. The Vibe pass was a spur of the moment decision made on the drive to the cruise, and boy am I glad we did it. We had done both last September and didn’t have much of a chance to use Vibe due to rain. This cruise we had 6 picture perfect days (3 sunny days in port, 2 full sunny sea days, and embarkation day was gorgeous). As such, we spent MUCH more time up in Vibe, and when we walked across the main pool deck on sea days I was SO glad we had spent the $79.

 

We never had issues finding a spot under an umbrella, and Vibe employees were very attentive to the needs of the guests. I’d say there were never more than 30 people up at the Vibe at a time, and we probably spent 6 hours a day there on sea days. Blissfully quiet and the hot tubs did seem a bit warmer than our last cruise- especially by mid-week.

 

Our Spa experience was also wonderful. Due to the glorious weather it was never crowded, and there was never competition for the thermal loungers (heaven on earth). It was quiet, it was peaceful, though there was quite a bit of standing water on the floor that was not frequently squeegeed up. Other than the standing water it was a great experience.

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So there you have it. Please feel free to ask questions- I’d be happy to answer them as best as I can. I also purposefully left out information on our time in Bermuda, as I plan to write up a separate section highlighting our time on the island. But I’m happy to answer any Bermuda questions as well.

Edited June 16, 2014 by TravelDiva88

[NJ Johnny]

I know you said you didn't attend the Comedy - Magician show, but do you remember the name of that person? I thought I read somewhere on the forum that Michael Finney was being replaced. Thank you.

[TravelDiva88]

I know you said you didn't attend the Comedy - Magician show, but do you remember the name of that person? I thought I read somewhere on the forum that Michael Finney was being replaced. Thank you.

 

It was Michael Finney.

[NJ Johnny]

It was Michael Finney.

 

Do you know when he is leaving the Breakaway by any chance?

[Irene7]

My sister and her family were on this cruise with you. They had a great time.

[TravelDiva88]

Do you know when he is leaving the Breakaway by any chance?

 

I don't :( I'll see if I can find out though!

[happy to be cruising]

Enjoyed your review. You never mentioned what room you were in, just hoping we don't have your steward on our upcoming trip!

[TravelDiva88]

Enjoyed your review. You never mentioned what room you were in, just hoping we don't have your steward on our upcoming trip!

 

EEK! Knew I was forgetting something.

 

I was in 13601- a midship inside stateroom with an interior hallway. It was a great location (no noise, low traffic) and would have been perfect had the steward been a bit more... present

[Debbie1029]

Would you please tell me more about the parking garage on 42nd that you used that had valet service to the port? Name, cost, etc? We are going on the Breakaway in September. Many thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[TravelDiva88]

Would you please tell me more about the parking garage on 42nd that you used that had valet service to the port? Name, cost, etc? We are going on the Breakaway in September. Many thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

Absolutely! And I take it back- the address is on 43rd street (oops- I was tired).

 

Website is http://manhattancruiseparking.com/

 

It's $28/night (with tax). When you arrive, the valet attendant will drive you to the pier and help you unload your luggage. They will give you your claim ticket and then drive your car back to the garage.

 

After the cruise you can either walk back (2-ish long blocks from the pier) or take a taxi. Taxi drivers are difficult to get because it's such a short distance/low fare, and several were quite rude.

 

The garage will reimburse you $5 of your taxi fare (ours was $9 with tip, we had heavy bags) or you can just walk.

 

The folks at the garage were all very nice, and it took less than 5 minutes to retrieve the car after returning to the garage.

[Juvesgirl]

Absolutely! And I take it back- the address is on 43rd street (oops- I was tired).

 

Website is http://manhattancruiseparking.com/

 

It's $28/night (with tax). When you arrive, the valet attendant will drive you to the pier and help you unload your luggage. They will give you your claim ticket and then drive your car back to the garage.

 

After the cruise you can either walk back (2-ish long blocks from the pier) or take a taxi. Taxi drivers are difficult to get because it's such a short distance/low fare, and several were quite rude.

 

The garage will reimburse you $5 of your taxi fare (ours was $9 with tip, we had heavy bags) or you can just walk.

 

The folks at the garage were all very nice, and it took less than 5 minutes to retrieve the car after returning to the garage.

 

I used this service for a "cruise to nowhere" for 3 days and it was great, I would recommend. Another thing to keep in mind is that some garages charge by the "day" and this one charges by the "night," so you end up saving money. For example, our cruise was Friday-Sunday. Charging by the day would have been 3 days; charging by the night was just two nights.

[Kenlorz]

I just read your review and like I mentioned in another thread, I am flabbergasted at what happened to you at embarkation :eek:. Especially since no one could offer you any explanation of what happened or why it happened.:eek:

 

Few questions for you regarding embarkation, as we plan on arriving around the same time as you...

1. Arriving at 8:45, were there porters readily available to take your bags?

2. Were you able to enter the building right away?

3. Was security open yet? Or how long did you wait for security to open?

4. How long from the time you went through security until you were able to check in?

5. By the time check-in began, were there a ton more people there and if so, do you think that was were some of the breakdown occurred...between security and check in? Were the check in people taking you in the order that you arrived?

[TravelDiva88]

I just read your review and like I mentioned in another thread, I am flabbergasted at what happened to you at embarkation :eek:. Especially since no one could offer you any explanation of what happened or why it happened.:eek:

 

Few questions for you regarding embarkation, as we plan on arriving around the same time as you...

1. Arriving at 8:45, were there porters readily available to take your bags?

2. Were you able to enter the building right away?

3. Was security open yet? Or how long did you wait for security to open?

4. How long from the time you went through security until you were able to check in?

5. By the time check-in began, were there a ton more people there and if so, do you think that was were some of the breakdown occurred...between security and check in? Were the check in people taking you in the order that you arrived?

 

1- yes, porters were ready and available

2- yes, we were able to enter straight away

3- no, security was not open. They lined us up in chairs in the order we arrived, and then when security opened around 9:45 we were escorted over to the security line in the order we arrived.

4- it was immediate. Cleared security, went straight to the check in desk, and did not have to wait for a desk rep to help us.

5- see #3 and 4

[Kenlorz]

1- yes, porters were ready and available

2- yes, we were able to enter straight away

3- no, security was not open. They lined us up in chairs in the order we arrived, and then when security opened around 9:45 we were escorted over to the security line in the order we arrived.

4- it was immediate. Cleared security, went straight to the check in desk, and did not have to wait for a desk rep to help us.

5- see #3 and 4

 

Thank you...very helpful indeed

[bragstarr]

We did the Wine Lovers Musical Lunch which was cute. The meal was super heavy for a lunch, and the wine was plentiful.

 

Curious about this one....going on BA in January on the 12 night to the Caribbean and figure we may be looking for things to do. Is it the same menu as they give you for Cirque Dreams? I'd really appreciate knowing what they gave you to eat....and were the wines decent? Thanks.

[TravelDiva88]

Curious about this one....going on BA in January on the 12 night to the Caribbean and figure we may be looking for things to do. Is it the same menu as they give you for Cirque Dreams? I'd really appreciate knowing what they gave you to eat....and were the wines decent? Thanks.

 

I will post the menu and wine pairings tonight :)

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[bragstarr]

I will post the menu and wine pairings tonight

 

Cool! Thanks!

[illiniwahoo]

Was it warm enough to swim in Bermuda in early June?

[whenisthemidnightbuffet?]

Thanks for your review enjoyed reading it. You said you are Gold level, do you happen to remember what night and time the VIP party was held? Thanks.

[dadof4kids]

Nice Review.

My wife and I are going in September on the BA. We have never been to Bermuda and are anxious to see a lot there. We plan to spend much of the 3 port days on the island...

Because of this, I'm thinking a weekly Vibe pass would not be necessary. My question however is, you stated that there were no Vibe day passes left for sea days.

Is it safe to assume then that they have a very limited number for sea days?

Should I just try to get the weekly passes? We are staying in NY and planned on getting to the terminal by 930.

 

Thanks so much.

[TravelDiva88]

Nice Review.

My wife and I are going in September on the BA. We have never been to Bermuda and are anxious to see a lot there. We plan to spend much of the 3 port days on the island...

Because of this, I'm thinking a weekly Vibe pass would not be necessary. My question however is, you stated that there were no Vibe day passes left for sea days.

Is it safe to assume then that they have a very limited number for sea days?

Should I just try to get the weekly passes? We are staying in NY and planned on getting to the terminal by 930.

 

Thanks so much.

 

They simply do not sell the vibe passes for sea days only. We still found the $79 cost to be very much worth it for the 3 sea days and sailaway

[TravelDiva88]

Was it warm enough to swim in Bermuda in early June?

 

Yes, and there were plenty of others in the water as well.

 

Air temps were in the high 70's/ low 80's and average sea temps are in the high 70's by the end of May :)

[BluIDblonde]

Thanks for writing your review. I am headed on BA in a few days. I wanted to be clear about the embarkation. Based on your review, it doesn't really matter how early you get to the pier because they do not register you as first come first serve? They group you? Procedurally it seems alittle backwards. Thanks...

[TravelDiva88]

Thanks for writing your review. I am headed on BA in a few days. I wanted to be clear about the embarkation. Based on your review, it doesn't really matter how early you get to the pier because they do not register you as first come first serve? They group you? Procedurally it seems alittle backwards. Thanks...

 

What is supposed to happen is that you get lined up in chairs prior to security opening. When they seat you in the chairs, it's in the order you arrive.

 

And then when security opens, they escort you in the same order you were seated to security. Where you then go through security in the order you arrived.

 

From there you immediately go to the check in counter- more or less in the same order you arrived- I'll say +/- 2-3 people depending on how fast of a walker you are.

 

When you arrive at the counter you are SUPPOSED to receive a boarding group number that is assigned numerically based upon your arrival. I don't know how many folks are in a boarding group, but for the sake of argument let's say 50. So the first 50 people should theoretically receive boarding group #1.

 

Then when general embarkation starts, everyone who has a #1 boarding group will be the first passengers to be let through the "normal" entrance. Haven/Suite guests, Casino at Sea guests, and VIP's (wedding parties, travel agents, etc) are escorted on ahead of general boarding.

 

So theoretically getting there early SHOULD secure you a spot among the first handfuls of people getting on the ship.

 

Clearly didn't happen the week I sailed.