Brief review: December 11 Breakaway CTN

[mizLORInj]

It was a fun 2 days with incredibly warm weather on a beautiful ship!

 

We arrived at the port a little after noon and embarkation was quick and painless as was the muster drill later on.

 

Sailaway from Spice H20 was wonderful. The ride down the Hudson was beautiful at night and it’s amazing that in December we were outside with just a light jacket on. Hot tubs were open at that point but no one was in them.

 

Saturday the weather was actually hot and we did some sunning on our angled balcony. Nice comfy chairs were available along deck 8 outside by the Waterfront and loungers on the pool deck and upper decks too.

 

The ropes course was open on Saturday and we saw people enjoying walking the plan.

 

Burn the Floor performed in the Manhattan room both nights 2x. Rock of Ages was on both nights as well. No reservations needed. The casino was very busy.

 

We have not enjoyed ship The Second City performances for quite a while now and this trip was no exception. We, along with many others, walked out during the performance. Fortunately we already know to be near an exit just in case. . . and it worked out well. The current troupes are just not funny to us or at least not the type of humor we enjoy.

 

We ate in Savor a few times and service and food were very good. Buffet always has something we like and then some. Also had burgers at Uptown Grill that were good.

 

NCL hosted a M&G on Saturday and we had a decent turnout. A bunch of us at the M&G expressed our disappointment that there were no martini tastings scheduled. The beverage manager at the M&G wouldn’t do it for us unless we had 15 people so we arranged it ourselves at Shakers and with the dozen or so of us, they did end up with probably 20 in total. Gede the bartender hosts this very well. It was fun to hang out with some of our fellow CC people. Shout out to Connie for arranging the M&G and hi to Dawn too and others who were there. I know I'll be seeing some of you in March too.

 

I will say that cabin service and some other services were not quite what we've come to expect and received on longer cruises. Even some of the officers at the M&G with whom we interacted seemed less than customer-focused on this shortie cruise.

 

Before we went to sleep we took a pic of the onboard account on the tv screen and I'm glad we did since no final bill was delivered.

 

We were at the dock by 6am and the beautiful NCL Gem came in a while later. Got some nice pics of it. Debarkation was started around 7 and we were off quickly and handed in our customs card.

 

Maybe some day the CTN will be back. I hope so. They were a great weekend getaway and we’ve enjoyed many.

 

Breakaway is still a beautiful ship with lots to do.

 

How do I post the CC group pics we took? I have a few from the tasting and in the clamshell thingie at Vibe that beautiful Saturday afternoon

Edited December 13, 2015 by mizlorinj

[a79fh3873]

I was also on this cruise and attended the meet and greet. Prior to the introduction of the Norwegian staff to the cruise critic guests, I had an interaction with the hotel manager, 'Prem', which mirrored the perceived 'lack of engagement' I felt my cruise companion and I received over the course of the weekend.

 

He was not paying complete attention to what I had to say and was staring off to his right as if trying to overlook my questions regarding the early shutdown of hot tub services as well as the complete lack of a published schedule for them on Saturday. Would they be open?

 

Then, another Norwegian staff member who was conversing with Prem prior to the meet and greet delivered a pair of excuses which made no sense. The first was a reference to a 'law' that they be closed which when countered with "they've been open late on Gem on other cruises" morphed into the need for the tubs to be cleaned. The truth is they were netted and retired from service.

 

I can tell when someone is making stuff up and dismissed the statements wondering why they have to make stuff up.

 

So I am bidding a fond farewell to cruises to nowhere for now. I hope the pendulum swings back again someday as I've found them to be a nice respite during the off season in the northeast.

[CruiserFromMaine]

We took this CTN and really enjoyed it. It was only our second Norwegian cruise. We usually cruise Celebrity or Royal Caribbean.

 

We did think embarkation was a mess though. They were calling boarding numbers over the PA and the folks on the floor were calling different numbers.

 

The weather was great and the bar and restaurant service was good to very good. Meals in Moderno and Le Bistro were really good. Howl at the Moon was a blast. If there was a downside on board, the shops were too small and the casino too smoky. We didn't get to the CC events.

 

I'll get a longer review posted in the next couple days.

Edited December 15, 2015 by CruiserFromMaine
Typos

[YBA]

Unfortunately, the service was subpar except at Le Bistro where they were slammed but additional wait staff were called from other restaurants to help the staff.

 

We went to the front desk to ask a few questions. The lady could not be bothered looking at us while answering our questions. She kept answering us while looking at her computer.

 

The cabin stewart forgot to do the turn down service the first night. We called the front desk to complain. It took literally 2 hours some someone to show up to prepare the room for the night.

 

We asked to have the mini bar unlocked but with no success.

 

The manager at the spa was rude when we asked to purchase the therapy pool access for a single day. She was pushing to sell a two day pass as opposed to a single day pass as we were looking for.

 

Breakfast took over 60 minutes to arrive at our table once we ordered. The smoked salmon on the Benedict eggs was literally cooked (probably stayed under a warmer too long)

 

Question for the frequent ncl sailers. Does ncl provide surveys to fill at the end of each cruise? I did ask this question to the front desk and was told that there are no surveys to complete. I find this odd compared to other cruise lines.

 

On the positive side, the ship is great. The food at the bistro was excellent (the lamb is really really good). The embarkation process was very smooth. The DJ was excellent. The deck staff did a good job.

 

Overall it was a good week end but better service would have made a big difference.

[mizLORInj]

. . .

 

Question for the frequent ncl sailers. Does ncl provide surveys to fill at the end of each cruise? I did ask this question to the front desk and was told that there are no surveys to complete. I find this odd compared to other cruise lines.

. . .

 

NCL occasionally sends out surveys via email post-cruise.

[CruiserFromMaine]

Here's a link to my review of the CTN.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=520635