Breakaway 12/13/15-12/20/15, a few thoughs

[boo214]

This is my first review so bear with me. This was my first cruise with Norwegian (my wife's second). we have both cruise before (3 times with carnival and 3 times with royal carribean). This is not necessarily meant to be a comparison to royal but I will make some observations comparing the two. That being said, lets start at the beginning:

 

Check-in/Boarding: Got to the port at about 10:45. breezed through check in then had to wait about an hour or so to board. While waiting to board we were able to sign up ds (6) for splash academy as they had counselors posted in the waiting area which we though was a nice touch. All in all a good start.

 

Muster drill: by far the easiest and quickest drill I've experienced. After boarding we went to our room, dropped our carry-ons and went right to O'Sheehans for lunch. it turned out our muster station was there so it worked out perfectly.

 

Stateroom: we had a balcony on deck 9. the room was very nice. we had a bed and couch/bed for ds. For the 3 of us it was fine however, dw and I agreed it was the smallest stateroom compared to royal and carnival. Also we felt it could have used a little more storage room. All in all, no real complaints about the room. We also felt that the hallways were narrower than both royal and carnival as well. again not a complaint, just an observation.

 

The Ship: The Ship was beautiful and there was so much to do. We used the sports deck, pool, library, game room, shuffleboard, giant chess set and rope course. The one thing dw and I did not love was the location of the casino. it is on deck 7 in the middle of the ship. so if you wanted to go from one side to the other on deck 7 you had to walk through the casino. not a deal breaker or anything, just a minor annoyance.

 

Dining: we had the udp and booked our dinner reservations before boarding. We enjoyed all the restaurants. We ate at cagneys, moderno, le bistro, la cucina, the noodle bar (I think it was called shanghei) and teppanyaki.

 

Now the teppanyaki on board was like any teppanyaki you would go to on land. The chef cooks the food in front of you and puts on a show. However, this was by far the LOUDEST teppanyaki I've been to. let me try to explain. while the chef is cooking he puts on a show where he bangs the skillets (or whatever you call the utensils he uses) and talks to everyone at the table. The way he was banging those skillets its as if he was trying to make us all go deaf. Now I had no problem with the show, I thought the chef was great, I just though he did not need to slam the skillets so hard. that being said we still gave him an extra tip.

 

for breakfast and lunch we mostly ate at taste and savor. We did the buffet a few times and though the food was fine we felt that it was very hard to get a table as compared to royal. Also we enjoyed the sit down service at taste and savor.

 

all in all, pretty good

 

Splash academy: We loved the counselors and they were great with our son. however he did not spend as much time there as we would have liked. the first night we took him there and (there are 2 levels) the music from the second level (upstairs) was blaring and it scared my son a little (he does not do well with very loud noises). So we asked them to turn it down and they were very accommodating but the damage was done. oh well, more time spent with the boy. He did go 2-3 times throughout our voyage and the last night they had a pajama party and he loved that. so overall, no real complaints.

 

Tendering: we felt that royal does a much better job with this. we had to wait on line to get in the theatre and then they went row by row and we had to then wait in line to board the tender. coming back to the ship was not as bad. we had to wait in line for the tender but they had cold water for everyone so we could stay cool and hydrated.

 

Debarkation: more lines. what happened was this. we had a leisurely breakfast in taste. Then we found a couch to sit on just outside of taste to wait for our color to be called. they call our color and we go down to deck 7 only to find a line that snaked through the casino and almost to osheehans. my wife and I just thought why don't they wait until the line is at a minimum before calling the next color. we felt royal did better with debarkation as well.

 

the staff: The staff was wonderful. our stateroom attendant was great and all the servers and guest services and photographers and basically anyone we came into contact with were super nice and attentive.

 

My only other observation is that we found the ship to be very loud overall. It's hard to explain. It seemed that the announcements were louder than on royal. they could benefit from turning down the volume just a little bit. Also by the pool. when they had activities it seemed to be extremely loud. now, we have no problem with the activities it just seemed they needed to turn down the mic a little. not a deal breaker, just an observation.

 

Overall we had a very nice cruise. dw is already looking to book another:)

[cyndepet]

Thanks for posting your review - nice job! Sounds like you enjoyed the cruise. We're headed back on the Breakaway in 30 days for our 2nd round :-)

[boo214]

Thanks for posting your review - nice job! Sounds like you enjoyed the cruise. We're headed back on the Breakaway in 30 days for our 2nd round :-)

 

have fun

[ncklhaus]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Breakaway. I enjoyed reading your take on the ship.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for your review.

 

Keith

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report.

[Clarea]

Interesting, thanks.

[boo214]

you are all welcome