Breakaway Review June 7-14 (Kids Club, Vibe, Restaurants, Shows etc.)

[1stTimeRoyal]

Just off the Breakaway June 7-14, I know cruises are subjective, but I wanted to come on here and first say thank you to the many other cruisers who had such great suggestions which helped us a lot on the trip, but more importantly to say the Breakaway was an awesome ship, and one of the best cruises I've ever been on.

 

Some quick info on various places within the Breakaway...

 

 

Kids Club- This was a hot topic before I left, so I wanted to give some updated info. Before the cruise, we registered the kids at the pier for Splash Academy, picked up the bracelets later that night. There were 800-900 kids on our cruise, which is busy, but not like the 1300+ they were expecting the rest of the summer. They did have occupancy signs up, I think it was 160 in Splash Academy, and then like 110 in Bliss (which is where the 6-9 group had kids club). I'll be honest, we never had a wait, there was never a line, and our kids LOVED the kids club. So much better than carnival...just high energy, tons of stuff to do. The move to Bliss really opens up the kids club so as to not even come close to hitting capacity. Also, they told me on future cruises they will be utilizing other public spaces so as to fit more guests. I was really worried about this stuff, but no issues at all. The funny thing is, I was looking around, at least half if not more of the kids on board don't even have bracelets, so even if there are 1300 kids on board, like this upcoming week, I doubt there will be massive issues. Basically...I don't even think they were ever even at 50% capacity on this run in the club..so if you add 500-600 more kids, I still don't think they will fill up much of the time. Point blank..on our cruise, total non-issue.

 

 

Food. So good, it really was excellent across the board. Best meal I had was Ocean Blue, not even close. I was skeptical about the cover charge, but the meal was easily twice as good as any other meal we had. Here's a tip..get the Iced Tea, it was amazing. Teppanaki was good, buffets were consistently great, especially at dinner. We had a really good meal at the Manhattan Room, and a really bad meal at Taste, so dining room dinners are hit or miss. Moderno for lunch was a great quiet spot that no one seemed to know about. Uptown grill had great burgers, but an even better salad bar. OSheehans was solid for bar food, and we ate two dinners at the noodle bar, where the food was excellent but service spotty. Only truly bad meal all week was at Le Bistro, and I'm still not sure what happened there. Maybe we just ordered wrong, but it was sub-par to the dinner buffet. I didn't like the location of Le Bistro either. Oh, I forgot, La Cucina was probably our 2nd best meal, everyone really enjoyed it and we ordered most of the menu between the 8 of us.

 

Bars...Really busy. We've sailed Carnival the last 4-5 cruises, and the big difference service wise between the lines was that on Carnival you are constantly being pushed drinks, being pushed photos...not here. I didn't have a drink offered to me at the pool all week. I'm not a big drinker so NBD, but with so many drink packages the busiest people on the ship are the bartenders. Service otherwise was great all week, I found the BA staff to be as freindly as any cruise we've been on.

 

Shows...we saw Burn the Floor, Rock of Ages, and Wine Lovers, and would highly recommend all 3, esp Rock of Ages. I didn't go to Wine Lovers, but the report back from the show was excellent food and wine and a show that no one really paid attention to, but still a good time and glad they did it. At night, we liked Howl at the Moon much better than Second City. Also, on our cruise they were playing the NBA finals in the Atrium which added a live sporting event feel to the ship.

 

Pool Area.. it's crowded, no way around it. We avoided the main pool, mainly hung out by the kids pool, which was fine. My kids were big enough to do the slides (not the freefall), so you could sit at the bottom and watch as they did the slides. Ropes course was a blast.

 

Vibe...we were in boarding group 7, and we got passes 60-63. So, we got lucky, and it was so worth it. Secluded, peaceful, quiet, it really made the trip to get the Vibe passes.

 

 

All in all a fantastic cruise. Weather was perfect all week, Bermuda was fun (My only complaint about Bermuda is that it seems that you spend so much of the day in buses/ferries/taxis...I wish there was more closer to the ship), but the weather in Bermuda was perfect and we had fun. I would do this trip again in a heartbeat.

 

Any and all questions fire away between the 8 in our group we experienced almost everything on the ship.

[nancynana9950]

Le Bistro is always one of our favorites. Can you elaborate on why your experience was not so good? Food, service, etc. I'm looking forward to going there but maybe things have changed.

[1stTimeRoyal]

It was our favorite restaurant as well, so we were a bit disappointed. I dunno, we both thought the appetizers (scallops and mussels) lacked flavor, and the main dishes (filet and fruits de mer) were good but not great. Service seemed a bit rushed, we didn't like our table setup (small table for two right in the middle). Best part about the meal was coffee and creme brulee.

 

 

I thought the steaks at La Cucina and esp Ocean Blue were much better than Le Bistro. The Mussels at Ocean Blue are approximately 1000 times better.

 

So, I dunno, we probably won't go back if we do NCL again, but that's ok. So many places to eat, so many great meals. If I want something french the crepes at the dinner buffet were some of the best things we ate all week.

[bangzoom6877]

Thank you so much for that wonderful review! I'm so thrilled to read positive things about the kids club, especially that they used another area of the ship to accommodate a large number of children onboard. Sounds like they plan very well for the crowds. Our sons are 8 and 10 and are very much looking forward to the kids club. They loved it on NCL 4 years ago, and on Carnival 2 years ago.

 

What did you eat in the Manhattan Room that was really good? We will be eating 5 dinners there. The other two are at Cagney's and Le Bistro. We love Le Bistro and I hope we still have a great experience there. DH will be there for a date night and my parents are bringing our sons to dinner that night in the MDR.

 

I've been concerned that drink service won't be as good as it used to be due to so many people having UBP and the bartenders being busy. We have no problem going up to the bars for drinks if servers don't come around to see if we want to purchase drinks, but how crowded was it around the bars? Is it going to be next to impossible during busier times for us to get drinks, like during sail away?

 

I know what you mean about getting around in Bermuda. It's my favorite island, but the ship does dock far from the main attractions. I remember the old days when ships would dock in Hamilton, so convenient! We are going to the crystal caves one day with the boys, and the ferry and bus will probably take an hour or more each way.

 

We sail in 5 weeks from today and I can't wait!

[cruise4family]

Thanks for the review. Great information. Was there pre-registration at the pier for the older teen group Entourage? These are 15-17 year olds. First time for us on NCL. We have reservations for Le Bistro. Hoping our dinner there is better than your experience.

[1stTimeRoyal]

As far as the kids club, my 6 and 4 year old never wanted to leave they had so much fun. I do think at some points in the summer there will be waits, but if you plan ahead, maybe take them there 5 minutes early, it shouldn't be an issue. And like I said, there were 800-900 kids on our cruise, and they were never close to capacity. I know adding another 600 kids sounds like a lot, but not every kid uses the kids club, not even close.

 

We ate at the Manhattan Room first night. I think we had prime rib, some people had the grilled cod, just the service was spot on, which makes the food taste better if that makes sense. Honestly, in the MDR on NCL, because you don't have the same waiter all the time, I think the dining rooms are just a roll of the dice. We probably just had a random bad experience in Taste, where I'm sure others were perfectly happy. Really though, I'd just go to the buffet rather than sit through a LONG dinner in the MDR. I mean, the food in the buffet is as good, if not better. Made to order pasta, carving stations, tons of food for the kids. And Crepes!! We had multiple meals pre booked for Manhattan, but we ended up going to buffet and Shanghai later in the cruise because it is so much faster, and the food was better there than the MDR.

 

Its really crowded at the bars, pool bars at peak times are crazy. So...improvise. Go to other bars and carry a drink up. Atrium bar would also get crazy. I found that the best bars on the ship to get a drink fast were on Deck 8 (shakers, maltings)

 

Any other questions let me know.

 

(Julie is the CD btw...I think she was the CD on the Spirit cruise I think we were on together in 06)

[1stTimeRoyal]

I think there was only pre-registration for Splash Academy, but I wasn't looking for the Entourage table. Le Bistro from the main dishes to desserts was perfectly fine, apps were kind of a bust and service was kind of impersonal. It was horrible by any means. Just, I mean, Ocean Blue was soooo much better.

[MisterX88]

Thanks for your review. We're sailing on Aug 2 so we're also doing a bit of research as well.

 

You mentioned you were boarding group 7. What time did you arrive at the port and when exactly did you get on the ship? We're trying to arrive there between 10:00-10:30 but not sure if that's okay or we should go earlier?

[1stTimeRoyal]

We got to the pier at approximately 10:30. We were there earlier, but our car service went up the ramp when he should have stayed on street level, and that mistake cost us 30 minutes. There were two ships loading that morning, the BA and the Gem, which also made things pretty hectic.

 

I would say we got to the Pier, with luggage out at 10:30, and we were on the ship in about an hour, maybe 45 minutes. We spent much of that time in the Splash Academy registration line which moved pretty slowly.

[beandippa]

Following. And thanks

[bangzoom6877]

Thank you! I sailed on July 22, 2006 on the Spirit. Were we on the same sailing and were you at the Meet & Greet?

 

I'm not sure if you know the answer to this question, but...

 

We are driving to the ship and parking the car for the week in the garage by the pier. Does DH have to drop me and the boys off at street level? When we cruised out of Manhattan in the past, he drive right up the ramp to drop us off, but we haven't cruised since 2013 so I'm wondering if that has changed and we should get off at street level instead. Do they have someone directing traffic indicating whether to go up the ramp or stay at street level? Or are there signs that indicate where to go?

 

Also, where was the registration table for the kids club in the terminal? Is it easy to spot or is it easy to miss it? We'd also like to buy spa passes in the terminal if they're available before boarding, so we don't have to run up ti the spa when we first get on the ship.

Edited June 15, 2015 by bangzoom6877

[rogue 35]

Thanks for the review!

 

Question about Vibe, if I may.

 

Do you feel like you got your monies worth despite having kids?

 

We were on Breakaway in November and didn't by the passes because we weren't sure how much we would use them since we have young kids. We found that we didn't put the kids in Splash for the 1st and 2nd session and spent that time together on the slides and other activities. Then the kids would go to Splash for the evening session and my Wife and I got to have a quiet dinner and whatever else we wanted to do.

 

I'm sure if given the choice my kids would have spent most of their days in Splash (they loved it) but I wanted to make sure we had family time as well.

[1stTimeRoyal]

So long as you guys are in a car, and not a cargo van thing we were in (with a driver), he can go up the ramp, and then drop you off...then he has to loop around and park the car. This way is a lot less crownded than the street level. Our mistake was thinking that we could just be dropped off, but with 8 people in a van, they considered that a limo/bus, and wouldn't let us get off, which sucked and we lost 30 minutes for that mistake.

 

Kids club was a big sign and table you could not possibly miss. I wasnt looking for the spa, so I don't know.

[1stTimeRoyal]

As for Vibe, we probably used for like 1-2 hours per day, which we felt was well worth it. Sometimes I would take the kids while the Wife laid out, sometimes we'd put the kids into Splash Academy from like 3-5, and use it then. Its only $10 pp, per day when you break it down, so I thought it was worth it for sure. Its open late too, so if you want to do a late night hot tub, you basically know it won't be crowded.

[bangzoom6877]

So long as you guys are in a car, and not a cargo van thing we were in (with a driver), he can go up the ramp, and then drop you off...then he has to loop around and park the car. This way is a lot less crownded than the street level. Our mistake was thinking that we could just be dropped off, but with 8 people in a van, they considered that a limo/bus, and wouldn't let us get off, which sucked and we lost 30 minutes for that mistake.

 

Kids club was a big sign and table you could not possibly miss. I wasnt looking for the spa, so I don't know.

 

Great, thanks! That's the same thing we did the last time, he dropped us off and looped around to park. Didn't have to wait too long for him!