Breakaway Review Aug 9 - Aug 16

[Puma03]

After reading so many reviews and helpful comments I wanted to share our experience on the BA.

 

We are a family of 5. DH and I and our kids, 14, 11 and 9.

 

We live about 30 miles from NYC so we drove in and parked at the port. It was super simple and we arrived around 10:30AM. We were directed to park, we grabbed our luggage and headed down the elevator. It was a bit crowded when we got down to level 1 but we were able to give our bags to a porter somewhat quickly. We took the elevator up to where we were boarding and quickly went through security. We are Latitude members so we headed over to that line to check in. Check in was a bit slow but most parties ahead of us were large families so it took a few minutes to check them in. When we got the counter to check in the woman asked us for our health form. The guy handing them out skipped us and didn't give us our boarding number either. So we would have been number 9 but instead got 11. No big deal because once we were checked in, we took our pic and then sat down. About 3 minutes later they called groups 7-9 and then 9-11 and we were walking out to board the ship! All in all an easy process.

 

Cabins:

 

We had two cabins because we are a family of 5 and the costs of a suit large enough to fit us was quite high! We had booked a balcony and an inside room with the thought that the doors would be right across the hall from each other. Well, we were a bit surprised as we were walking toward our cabin to see there were no doors on the inside hallway. We found our cabin first (13218) and went to look for the kids cabin (13605). It turns out that the inside cabins are down another inside hallway. We had to go past the elevators and down a hallway and then down another hallway. So technically the room was across from ours but the door was not! I had checked the deck plan numerous times but I did not realize where the doors were. My bad. It was not a big deal as my kids are mature and my oldest is capable of letting us know if anything is wrong. My kids loved the inside cabin because they barely felt the movement of the ship.

 

I had read so many reviews that mentioned how small the balconies are on the BA. While having a balcony still seems like a luxury to me I was a little concerned that I had paid more for a balcony and that I would barely be able to use it. It was fine! Certainly not large and roomy but plenty of room for me and my DH to sit out. I sat out most mornings after I woke up with a cup of coffee and just relaxed. Well worth it!

 

The room was nice but small. With the two of us we had enough storage I do think it would have been hard had we had a third person in the room with us. Like many have said before there are really no drawers and I saw some places where drawers could have been placed and it would have helped with the storage. Our bed was near the closet in our cabin but we were able to get to the closet just fine.

 

The bathroom had great storage and the shower had nice pressure. I also noticed that the whole cruise our bathroom never had that stinky toilet smell. We were on the Disney Magic in December and we had to ask them to come a few times to clean out the drain because of the smell.

 

The ship!:

 

The BA is a beautiful ship! I was worried that it would be too big and that we would feel overwhelmed. I never felt that way. I love how the atrium has a lot of seating and the big screen is great for the games and movies that they show. The only place where we felt that the ship was crowded was by the pool. I don't have anything different to say then most people in regards to the chairs by the pools. If you do not go out by 7/7:30 in the AM it is impossible to find a chair. A chair! My DH went out one morning around 8 and all he could find was one up right chair by the kiddie pool. I never saw anyone enforcing any rules about saving chairs. In fact, one day we had two chairs and there were two next to us with towels. We did not see the people for at least 2 hours. My beach bag was leaning a little on their chair and when they finally made an appearance the woman made sure to let me know that they were using their chairs... Overall, the pools were fun to sit at. The music at the pools was good and we really enjoyed our time up on the pool deck.

 

Drinks:

 

Because I was listed on our balcony room I had the UBP and my son had the soda package. A lot of people ask about the service with the UBP. We had no issues at all. We hardly waited for our drinks at any of the bars. It is annoying to always have to sign the receipt but I suppose that is how they keep track of the gratuity and what is placed on the plan. We never saw a bartender skimp on the alcohol either. Each drink was made well. We were pleasantly surprised!

 

Food:

 

We ate in Taste, Savor, Moderno, Shanghai, Teppanyaki, The Manhattan Room, O'Shea's and the buffet. We were really pleased with most of our meals. We thought the buffet had a very good variety and my kids were always able to find things to eat. In the afternoon the buffet has great fudge cookies. Overall, I thought the food was great.

 

Splash:

 

Both my girls really enjoyed the kids club on this ship. When we were on Disney in December they hated the kids club and never went! Here they would ask to go to the kids club. They thought the counselors were great and loved how they had activities planned. Both my girls were in the show at the end of the week.

 

Service:

 

This may be the only place I was a little disappointed. Compared to Disney and even past cruises we have taken on Norwegian I felt the service was a bit blah. Our cabin steward Enrico was great, but most of the waiters at dinner were just ok. Not bad, but nothing over the top either. I think if I had not cruised before I would not have noticed, but having had the top notch service in the past it makes you notice. Again, not a deal breaker and I would certainly cruise NCL again.

 

Overall, we had a great time. I would definitely cruise out of NYC again and would even go on the Breakaway again. I feel like there is still so much to do on the ship that we would not be bored.

[emmak8]

Thanks for posting your review. Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[woodburykt]

Glad to hear you had a good cruise!

 

We'll be sailing on the BA for the first time in 54 days!