BDay Breakaway Bermuda cruise 8/16-8/23

[GoAndHaveFun]

I'm enjoying this review. I was on the Breakaway in 2013 and on the Gem last Christmas. Mom and I fell in love with O'sheehans on the Gem, we even had breakfast there. It was great for us, same stuff every day? Fine.

 

I'd love to do the Haven some day. I'm real cheap and would feel strange if I spent that much money on a vacation. I keep worrying about "what if something happens?" No cursing for me this year, as I have had extensive foot surgery and have no clue when I'll be out the cast.

 

But I love your reviews, pictures and everything. Maybe I'll be on the Haven in a few years! :)

 

I also took the Breakaway in 2013 as well! I still remember early 2013 when there was the Breakaway hype and I was definitely hyped for it too! Fast forward 2 years, now we are all hyped for the Escape.

 

I like that O'Sheehans is 24 hours but I have always been meh about it mainly due to their bad service half the time.

 

We used to always stay in balcony rooms and mini-suites on Epic and Breakaway/Getaway (in which they really aren't that much bigger than balcony rooms) so it's definitely nice to be in the Haven.

[GoAndHaveFun]

For day 6, we had teppanyaki again (remember, we love teppanyaki!) except this time, the party of 5 that was arranged to seat with us were like 15 minutes late. As mentioned in an earlier post, this is one thing I dislike about teppanyaki and it's that we are dependent on others showing up on time before we can get our orders taken and then have the teppanyaki chef cook our food for us. For those cool cats on here who like to dine at teppanyaki, please show up on time or maybe 5 minutes late. Please don't be 15-20 minutes late as then people will be impatiently waiting for you for that 15-20 minutes. For those who always shows up early or on time, stay awesome! I decided to switch it up this time and got the land and sea (aka filet mignon and shrimp).

 

After dinner, I went up to the buffet and got a crepe! Every cruise, I would always tell myself that I will go get a crepe but then I get lazy about it. NOT this time! This time, I went and got a crepe with strawberries and nutella.

 

My crepe filled with tasty strawberries and nutella. It takes like 2 minutes to prepare the crepe and 30 seconds to devour it :D

 

After dessert (not to say the teppanyaki's green tea ice cream and cake wasn't good cuz it was definitely good), I attended the Jeopardy show and then the Sing It If You Know It. I wanted to be a contestant for Jeopardy but then they wanted 2 people. The game had some interesting rules that were or weren't enforced. For example, anyone can 'ring in' (by ringing in, I meant making an animal sound lol) when the question is being read (you can't do that on actual Jeopardy" and the cruise staffer host Megan would refuse to accept an answer if it was "what is ___?" vs "who is ___?" I coulda swore Jeopardy isn't that anal about a "who is.." answer instead of a "what is...?" answer. I also remember there was a 'poker' category and these group of 2 knew like almost all the answers. Megan then said something like "woah, it's bad that you guys know this stuff. Are you guys compulsive gamblers?" when they were pretty basic poker questions. I just thought she sounded really judgmental with her tone as it didn't come off as a quick but funny crack like what Silas, Zack, Ferdi or Adam would do.

 

The Sing It If You Know It game show was pretty fun but it started off as a bit dull. For the first song, only one person from the other team went up to the stage (there were 2 teams). However, as the show progressed, like 20-30 people (each side) started getting more and more involved. Basically, the show consists of the live band playing a song and one person has to run up on stage and name the song. Afterwards, someone will have to sing the lyrics while making up a dance routine.

 

I would say for this game show, how lively it will be will depend on the crowd. If you are among cruisers who don't wish to participate, I imagine things can get awkward fast.

 

I then attended the 80's Dance Party at Spice H2O and it was really fun. In fact, it would rain at random intervals but DJ Onyx and both Silas and Adam would be like "the party goes on!!!!" I got selected to 'dance' with cruise staffers once again. Of course, chosen participants get one free drink so I got pina colada this time! I was chosen to be the KISS singer and we (3 of us and then 2 others that were Mcdonna and someone else) had to wear KISS masks and omg it was freaking hot. It also didn't help that I could barely see as the eye holes were pretty small.

 

Me with KISS mask on. The wig really made my skin itchy! The funny thing was Adam the assistant cruise director told me to work the crowd but I don't know any of KISS's songs. I remember I would point the mic at the crowd for them to singalong but at times I would do it when there were no singing being done lol. Kinda hard to get into a song when I don't know the song and could barely see out of the mask haha. I recall bumping into my other fellow KISS members a couple times too as that's how much I couldn't see.

 

All and all, the 80's Party was pretty fun. The only thing I didn't like (nothing to do with the party per se) was when the Entourage kids (aka kids under 18) would crash the party after a decent chunk of people have already left. It's not to say I am old or anything (cuz 27 is still pretty young..to me at least!) but when a dance party is just filled with under 18 kids, the dance party just becomes meh. Even lamer is when under 18 kids try to enter Bliss Lounge after midnight (when they require you to be 18 and over to enter). Is it really that cool to be clubbing with people over 18 after midnight? A bit unrelated but whenever I see underage drunk and loud folks who try their hardest to enter O'Sheehans to get food after midnight, it just makes me roll my eyes.

[jesron1269]

Following along. Nice review. My wife and travel companions will be in a 2 bedroom haven villa next May over Memorial Day to Bermuda. I had just a couple questions: (1) Did you ever try the Haven gym? If so, how was it compared to the main gym? I noticed you said they had a sauna but any other spa-like features in the Haven? (2) I was reading that Bermuda has a John Lennon tribute one day each week. Did you attend this? If so, what is worth attending? Cannot wait to see how this concludes. Keep up the good work!

Edited September 1, 2015 by jesron1269

[GoAndHaveFun]

For day 7 (sea day), I tried waking up at 9am but that was a fail. After getting up at noon, I then went to Haven Restaurant for lunch. I got shrimp cocktail, turkey burger, banana cream pie, and the brownie ice cream.

 

Turkey burger with fries, brownie and ice cream, and banana cream pie.

 

I got both brownie & ice cream and banana cream pie because I didn't get it the entire week as I ate at the buffet instead of in the Haven Restaurant. I have previously had both banana cream pie and brownie ice cream on Jewel-class ships so I had to satisfy that craving. It even got the attention of the table next to me as they were in awe that I got 2 desserts on top of my burger.

 

After like half an hour, I finally went on the slides as I got lazy during the week and didn't go on the water slides. The free fall slides were closed temporarily so there were only the twisty slides and those were fine by me. I also finally sat on the lounge chair in the Haven, went inside hot tub and also the sauna. I thought it was just so cool how there was a sauna inside the Haven.

 

For dinner, we went to Ocean Blue because it came highly recommended. Not gonna lie, Ocean Blue being 40 bucks per pop already made me feel ehh. When I saw the menu, I noticed there weren't a lot of variety..at least not to me. Because I am not really into super high class food, I am more into quantity over quality. This is also the same reason why I am not into expensive steakhouses. Like I wouldn't dine at a place like Cagneys on land but we had the dining package so why not? I got the calamari and it was pretty delicious. I also got the scallops with pork belly and it was delicious but I thought the portion wasn't great. And as mentioned, this is where I am more quantity over quality as I just want more food. I actually left dinner a bit early to sign up for Karaoke Idol but turns out they were only picking 6 people due to scheduling. I didn't get picked but that's okay! On the last night, there typically aren't much events as people are typically packing. I watched the Perfect Couple show and it was pretty funny. I have seen it on other ships and although they repeated some innuendo games, they also came up with newer games I haven't seen before.

 

Calamari. It was yummy!

 

Ocean Blue had like the coolest cup and ice for my diet pepsi! Menu is in the background as well

 

The Perfect Couple Game show. It's pretty entertaining

[GoAndHaveFun]

Following along. Nice review. My wife and travel companions will be in a 2 bedroom haven villa next May over Memorial Day to Bermuda. I had just a couple questions: (1) Did you ever try the Haven gym? If so, how was it compared to the main gym? I noticed you said they had a sauna but any other spa-like features in the Haven? (2) I was reading that Bermuda has a John Lennon tribute one day each week. Did you attend this? If so, what is worth attending? Cannot wait to see how this concludes. Keep up the good work!

 

1) Unless there was a secret gym inside Haven I wasn't aware of, there's no gym in the Haven. Instead, you will have to use the gym on deck 15. To get to the gym, you simply go down the stairs to deck 15, go left and exit 2 door and VOILA, you are right outside the gym. The Haven on the Jewel-class ships has its own separate gym but it was really a treadmill and a cycling machine lol.

 

Besides sauna, they also have massaging available.

 

2) I don't remember a John Lennon tribute although the cruise staff did dedicate a trivia session to "Can you name this Beatles song?" and proceeded to play 20 Beatles songs.

[GoAndHaveFun]

For day 8 (aka disembarkation day), I woke up at 8am and went to breakfast inside the Haven Restaurant for one last time. I had the steak and eggs once again with diet pepsi. Perhaps we arrived late but I noticed they already closed the breakfast buffet. This has never happened on the Jewel-class ships!

 

Steak and eggs with potatoes were delicious as always.

 

Of course, day 8 is always the saddest as it's like "omg, where did the week go??" When you see people with luggages leaving the ship, that's when it really hits you that your cruise is over but memories are forever right? This was our 12th cruise but every ship (even if I have been on it) will always have its own memories. It's always amazing how you meet people, see them throughout the week (even on a ship as big as the Breakaway), chat with them and then it dawns on you that you won't see these people ever again. Like I know cruise staffers say that as a way to get you to participate in whichever activity but for me, I do feel a bit sad sometimes when I think about how I have met some great people but I will never see them again. It's just an awesome feeling to see someone (including cruise staffers) on the ship and they greet you by name. I think this also means I need to start being more proactive in finding ways to keep in touch such as instagram, email or facebook.

 

After breakfast, we then bid adieu to our cabin steward Judy and our butler Hipo and both did a fantastic job. I also bid farewell to Silas the Cruise Director on our way off the ship and it was nice being recognized by him and the other cruise staffers. For those who plan on boarding the Breakaway soon, you will see there's another tall white guy named Zack (he goes by Zesty too) that's part of the cruise director's staff. If you mistakenly took him for Silas the cruise director, I don't blame you lol. In fact, Zack himself has talked about how people would mistake him for Silas.

 

So this is my review! Thanks for reading cool cats. Feel free to ask any questions!

 

My next cruise will be Thanksgiving cruise on the Escape so stay tune for that. I have a feeling that would be a loooong review as it is the newest ship.

[jesron1269]

1) Unless there was a secret gym inside Haven I wasn't aware of, there's no gym in the Haven. Instead, you will have to use the gym on deck 15. To get to the gym, you simply go down the stairs to deck 15, go left and exit 2 door and VOILA, you are right outside the gym. The Haven on the Jewel-class ships has its own separate gym but it was really a treadmill and a cycling machine lol.

 

Besides sauna, they also have massaging available.

 

2) I don't remember a John Lennon tribute although the cruise staff did dedicate a trivia session to "Can you name this Beatles song?" and proceeded to play 20 Beatles songs.

 

 

Thanks for the answers! For the record I have no clue why there was a strange emotioncon face in my subject heading as I don't ever do that kind of stuff, but I must have hit it as opposed to the default of no icon. Looking forward to the remainder of your review.

[alrichards4003]

What did you think about the glass bottom boat? Was it crowded with a lot of people in a small space?

[GoAndHaveFun]

What did you think about the glass bottom boat? Was it crowded with a lot of people in a small space?

 

I liked it as the both guides were very informative and entertaining. Surprisingly, I never felt crowded despite having that many people onboard

[Cruise-mom]

Great review, I enjoyed all the ship details as we are on Getaway next June.

[GoAndHaveFun]

Great review, I enjoyed all the ship details as we are on Getaway next June.

 

Thanks for reading! Because I took Breakaway first and then Getaway, I also enjoyed the Getaway a lot as well. I highly recommend Flamingo Grill on the Getaway!