Any Recent Breakaway reviews not from Haven?

[sandheichert]

We get it . Haven in the spot. Anyone stay in a non haven room recently with a review?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[3poundpuppies]

We just got off on Sunday; It was our first time on the Breakaway. Had a balcony cabin starboard aft. I haven't even thought to try a full-out review like some of the folks do on here. What were you interested in, perhaps I could answer?

[sandheichert]

Anything really. First time NCL cruisers here going on our first family cruise. Have a larger balcony port side cabin booked. Seems like most reviews on here are from the Haven

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[3poundpuppies]

This was our first time on the BA, but not NCL. Much bigger than we were used to. First observation was that there arent enough chairs available right around the pool because people "reserve" them with their towels. We decided that next time we head to breakfast in our pool gear then head right to the pool afterwards.

 

The ship is beautiful throughout! We stayed away from the Garden cafe for most of our meals. The Manhattan Room, Savor, and Taste all had the same menus, but definitely different atmospheres. We did Cagney's and Moderno. Both were great!

 

We were on deck 9, last cabin before the aft balcony cabins. You could definitely feel the motion in this location! Very quiet though, no kids running through the halls or anything.

 

As with our other NCL cruises, we found all of the servers, bartenders, and stewards to be nothing but great. They were all very nice, and attentive.

 

I pre-booked the Rock of Ages and Burn the Floor. I learned this week that my DH does NOT like broadway type shows! He fidgeted worse than a little kid during them!! We also did the Cirque show. LOVED it!!

 

HATED Second City! The comedians on Carnival were MUCH better!

Howl at the Moon was somewhat entertaining.

 

We did self-assist for debarkation, and didn't have any problems.

Let me know if I can help with anything else.

[NJsharon]

We got back on April 3rd. Had a good cruise, not great & not sure we would sail the Breakaway again. We had a very active large roll call group & seemed like most people had a slightly more favorable opinion of the ship, but there were some others like us, that thought it was not for them.

 

We were a family of 4. Myself (42yrs old), husband (52yrs old) & twin daughters (10yrs old). Originally we were booked for forward facing oceanview on 13th deck & balcony guarantee (got assigned spa balcony on 14th deck). Long story but was meant to be me & hubby in oceanview, then kids came along last minute & no cabins were left that would hold 4 passengers, so had to split our family between 2 cabins.

 

Oceanview front facing cabin was great though. Really nice set up with a large picture window, with a soft padded seating area under the window.

Spa balcony looked nice too, but didn't spend too much time in there as I was in the oceanview with one of our girls.

 

Luckily once onboard one balcony on deck 12 opened up, that would hold 4 passengers. So we took it so we wouldn't be split as a family.

 

It had 2 twin bed, put together as a larger bed, sofa bed & a pull down bunk bed. Was comfy cabin, little cramped & not much space for storage. We had 2 large hardcased suitcases & they would not fit under the bed & closet was small so they had to sit next to the cabin door for the week.

 

Our girls loved the kids club & spent quite a bit of time in there during the week.

 

Ate at Teppanyaki (great food, very slow service, took an hour to just get a drink & our salad). Ate at Ocean Blue which was fantastic & definitely worth the upcharge. Then also ate at Moderno too. Moderno was a bit too much food for me as I don't eat much. I would have been happy with just the salad bar! Hubby really enjoyed Modernos though, but he is a big meat eater!

 

We ate a lot at the Garden Cafe/buffet as we had the girls with us for meals & that is what they preferred. Buffet was good, not great, but good. Carvery station was nice, every day a different meat being carved. Breakfast was good, sometimes was hard to find a seat though.

 

MDR, we ate dinner at the Manhattan room & I really enjoyed it. Service was good & food was great.

 

Had breakfast on debarkation day at Taste (or could have been Savor, I forget) & that was okay. Slow to get food & food was so-so. Lady next to us ordered 2 eggs medium & they came barely cooked, so she sent them back, then they came back cooked completely. lol I had crispy bacon with scrambled eggs. Bacon was very greasy, but guess that is to be expected? Eggs were okay.

 

Saw Rock of Ages, good production, well done. Definitely not for kids under 12 I don't think... lot of raunchy sex stuff. I personally prefer the cast shows on some of the other smaller NCL ships, rather than these bigger productions. But hubby really enjoyed Rock of Ages.

 

Went to bingo many times, that was fun but VERY expensive. I play bingo normally here in NJ, so used to playing a lot of cards & good payouts. Payouts were not really great I didn't think & for a 6 pack of cards it cost $49.

 

Also spent a good amount of time in the casino. Won $500 the first night there on slots, but after that the slots were really tight. Everyone playing around me was saying the same thing.

 

Pool was always very crowded, as were the hot tubs. We did go by the pool a few times, but could only find seats way back in the shade.

 

Dan Dan the CD was good. Had had him on a previous cruise & he was annoying & awful on that cruise. He has since improved, I have to say. Not top notch, but was good.

 

All the crew that do the game shows, bingo etc are very friendly & good at their jobs. They genuinely seemed to be happy to be on the ship doing their job. Tiara was our favorite, she was so sweet to me & one of my girls got along really well with her.

 

We missed Great Stirrup Cay due to weather. Been there before though & it is nice but not as nice as some other cruiselines private islands I have been to.

 

Stopped at Nassau early, as we missed GSC. Shopped the usual tourist shops, did the straw market briefly (why I go back in there is beyond me, won't go again, just hate the pushiness of the people in there) & shopped quickly at the small bahamian supermarket (across from the rum cake store) for some chips, sodas & other snacks for the cabin.

 

Hubby used the spa a lot with the spa pass & really enjoyed it. Said it was very relaxing. I didn't get the chance to check it out.

 

We also got the internet package with out cabin. Didn't end up using all the amount available. Was slow sometimes to connect to Facebook, but really not that bad considering we are in the middle of the ocean!

 

Overall the ship was big, so had to walk a ways to get from one area to another. Yet with it being big it felt crowded all the time everywhere! Way too many people packed onto that ship. So really didn't enjoy it as much as we could have done.

 

It was good, but next time we would go back to the Gem or smaller ships.

 

Let me know if you have any specific questions & happy to try to answer them. ;)

[sandheichert]

Thanks. Pretty much all things I thought. Are plan is almost identical as yours. Not a huge fan of crowded pool decks so that wasn't on my plan .

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[riverbeachgirl]

We got off on March 27th. We were in 11726 and 11728. Great location..quiet and not much movement. It was me (37), dh (39), dd14, dd11, ds10.

 

Like pp said we had a good time and enjoyed everything. This was our first ncl and our kids first cruise.

We enjoyed the shows. The food was good to grear. We actually liked the buffet better than rccl and we don't usually eat from buffets. Kids refused to go to kids clubs or teen area so they mostly hung with us or eachother. We did turn off kids ability to charge after the first day in yhe game room (apparent they had no clue how many times they were swiping the card).Rooms were Very nice and well kept.

My only drawbacks were very slow and Impersonal service in the mdr. Boiling point was last dinner where we completely ignored or forgotten until I got up and found the head waiter.

Not enough to do on sea days in iffy weather. The atrium only holds a few hundred comfortably and with 4000+ passengers it was crowded. I think we may prefer smaller ships.

[sandheichert]

We got back on April 3rd. Had a good cruise, not great & not sure we would sail the Breakaway again. We had a very active large roll call group & seemed like most people had a slightly more favorable opinion of the ship, but there were some others like us, that thought it was not for them.

 

We were a family of 4. Myself (42yrs old), husband (52yrs old) & twin daughters (10yrs old). Originally we were booked for forward facing oceanview on 13th deck & balcony guarantee (got assigned spa balcony on 14th deck). Long story but was meant to be me & hubby in oceanview, then kids came along last minute & no cabins were left that would hold 4 passengers, so had to split our family between 2 cabins.

 

Oceanview front facing cabin was great though. Really nice set up with a large picture window, with a soft padded seating area under the window.

Spa balcony looked nice too, but didn't spend too much time in there as I was in the oceanview with one of our girls.

 

Luckily once onboard one balcony on deck 12 opened up, that would hold 4 passengers. So we took it so we wouldn't be split as a family.

 

It had 2 twin bed, put together as a larger bed, sofa bed & a pull down bunk bed. Was comfy cabin, little cramped & not much space for storage. We had 2 large hardcased suitcases & they would not fit under the bed & closet was small so they had to sit next to the cabin door for the week.

 

Our girls loved the kids club & spent quite a bit of time in there during the week.

 

Ate at Teppanyaki (great food, very slow service, took an hour to just get a drink & our salad). Ate at Ocean Blue which was fantastic & definitely worth the upcharge. Then also ate at Moderno too. Moderno was a bit too much food for me as I don't eat much. I would have been happy with just the salad bar! Hubby really enjoyed Modernos though, but he is a big meat eater!

 

We ate a lot at the Garden Cafe/buffet as we had the girls with us for meals & that is what they preferred. Buffet was good, not great, but good. Carvery station was nice, every day a different meat being carved. Breakfast was good, sometimes was hard to find a seat though.

 

MDR, we ate dinner at the Manhattan room & I really enjoyed it. Service was good & food was great.

 

Had breakfast on debarkation day at Taste (or could have been Savor, I forget) & that was okay. Slow to get food & food was so-so. Lady next to us ordered 2 eggs medium & they came barely cooked, so she sent them back, then they came back cooked completely. lol I had crispy bacon with scrambled eggs. Bacon was very greasy, but guess that is to be expected? Eggs were okay.

 

Saw Rock of Ages, good production, well done. Definitely not for kids under 12 I don't think... lot of raunchy sex stuff. I personally prefer the cast shows on some of the other smaller NCL ships, rather than these bigger productions. But hubby really enjoyed Rock of Ages.

 

Went to bingo many times, that was fun but VERY expensive. I play bingo normally here in NJ, so used to playing a lot of cards & good payouts. Payouts were not really great I didn't think & for a 6 pack of cards it cost $49.

 

Also spent a good amount of time in the casino. Won $500 the first night there on slots, but after that the slots were really tight. Everyone playing around me was saying the same thing.

 

Pool was always very crowded, as were the hot tubs. We did go by the pool a few times, but could only find seats way back in the shade.

 

Dan Dan the CD was good. Had had him on a previous cruise & he was annoying & awful on that cruise. He has since improved, I have to say. Not top notch, but was good.

 

All the crew that do the game shows, bingo etc are very friendly & good at their jobs. They genuinely seemed to be happy to be on the ship doing their job. Tiara was our favorite, she was so sweet to me & one of my girls got along really well with her.

 

We missed Great Stirrup Cay due to weather. Been there before though & it is nice but not as nice as some other cruiselines private islands I have been to.

 

Stopped at Nassau early, as we missed GSC. Shopped the usual tourist shops, did the straw market briefly (why I go back in there is beyond me, won't go again, just hate the pushiness of the people in there) & shopped quickly at the small bahamian supermarket (across from the rum cake store) for some chips, sodas & other snacks for the cabin.

 

Hubby used the spa a lot with the spa pass & really enjoyed it. Said it was very relaxing. I didn't get the chance to check it out.

 

We also got the internet package with out cabin. Didn't end up using all the amount available. Was slow sometimes to connect to Facebook, but really not that bad considering we are in the middle of the ocean!

 

Overall the ship was big, so had to walk a ways to get from one area to another. Yet with it being big it felt crowded all the time everywhere! Way too many people packed onto that ship. So really didn't enjoy it as much as we could have done.

 

It was good, but next time we would go back to the Gem or smaller ships.

 

Let me know if you have any specific questions & happy to try to answer them. ;)

 

 

Thank you! Daughter will be almost 14 and son almost 9. You said your twins enjoyed the splash academy. Did they go a lot ?

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Freckle53]

I did a review of ours from late February. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2323103

[NJsharon]

Thank you! Daughter will be almost 14 and son almost 9. You said your twins enjoyed the splash academy. Did they go a lot ?

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Yep, they loved splash academy! One of my girls was crying getting off the ship as she was going to miss splash academy! They went most afternoons & some evenings until 10.30pm too. We didn't ever do the after hours with them though (from 10.30pm-1am) so don't know how that was. But yes, they loved Splash!

[ann41]

Can you tell me if splash h20 the adult section was all full ?

Where you able to get chairs ?

[sandheichert]

From every post there are always chairs available on the sun deck

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Suze10860]

Hey there. I was on the April 3 sailing in a mini suite. I'm currently working on a review...in installments. If there are any specific questions I could help you with, I'd be more than happy to try.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2341421

[darlene62]

I was on the breakaway last October and agree with over crowding in atrium. It was a bit scary the way some of the popular shows were set up. The chairs were lined up so to fit maximum people without regard to a clear isle. As I had blown out my knee a day prior to cruise I was a bit nervous about navigating an exit, lmao and as a daughter of a firefighter who drilled in me at a young age to always look for the exit...bit nerve wracking. I will be cruising again on this ship in May. Because sailing out of NY etc. it is a cruise my mother thinks she can handle. My disembark last October was not good. We lost my dad 3 years ago, and my mother has cancer not responding great to treatment but doctors have cleared her to go on this cruise....I want this to be the best ever for her so I am doing everything to make it happen for her but have anxiety.

[stungazed]

Here is my review for the March 13 sailing

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2339109

[HighVoltage#9]

We got off on March 27th. We were in 11726 and 11728. Great location..quiet and not much movement. It was me (37), dh (39), dd14, dd11, ds10.

 

Like pp said we had a good time and enjoyed everything. This was our first ncl and our kids first cruise.

We enjoyed the shows. The food was good to grear. We actually liked the buffet better than rccl and we don't usually eat from buffets. Kids refused to go to kids clubs or teen area so they mostly hung with us or eachother. We did turn off kids ability to charge after the first day in yhe game room (apparent they had no clue how many times they were swiping the card).Rooms were Very nice and well kept.

My only drawbacks were very slow and Impersonal service in the mdr. Boiling point was last dinner where we completely ignored or forgotten until I got up and found the head waiter.

Not enough to do on sea days in iffy weather. The atrium only holds a few hundred comfortably and with 4000+ passengers it was crowded. I think we may prefer smaller ships.

I was on this cruise also,had a good time but not great. This was my 3rd time on the Breakaway and something just felt off. I agree it was crowded,the weather didn't help,forcing us to spend more time inside.MDR was hit or miss,loved raw bar ,Moderno wasn't that good,meats too salty and salad bar lack luster this time.I have a 15 yo son and I set up a cash account for him so he doesn't break the bank in the arcade. I will do the BA again but not this time of year or this itinerary,I'll stick to Bermuda .