TRIP REPORT Fresh Off Breakaway to Bermuda {First Time NCL, Upsell, Spa, Vibe}

[Quincella]

Thank you so much, and please go for it! It takes all types! I would love to read a different perspective from our sailing. Did you do the roll call activities?

 

 

 

I missed it because my phone changed times on me :o

 

 

 

I also missed it because I was sick as a dog and slept through most of Monday.

 

 

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[Viva_la_Vida]

I also missed it because I was sick as a dog and slept through most of Monday.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Oh no! Seasick? Seas were a bit rough that day . . . So sorry you were not well.

 

Are you right in the city? We live about an hour north. We didn't meet too many southerners on board, mostly people that could drive in.

[Viva_la_Vida]

Day 3, At Sea

 

Here is another well-used daily!

 

 

 

 

We went to the buffet again for breakfast. This morning was like yesterday food-wise, except more crowded today. It was actually difficult finding a table and we were only able to snag one because someone had just left it. Their empty drink was still left behind. After a couple of coffees and the captain’s morning announcement, we headed for Vibe. It turned out to be a very sunny day! We enjoyed many hours in the cabana, bar, and just lounging on one of the padded loungers. I enjoyed a pina colada, red sangria, a bushwacker, and of course a Mango Meltdown! Marc was a fan of the dark ’n’ stormy drink all day. Richard took good care of us at the bar, as well as Leon.

 

Richard said the boat was sold out and that vibe was also sold out. It was definitely more crowded today, but not bad at all. The seas were very calm in the morning and afternoon and I couldn’t even really feel that we were moving. That’s one big difference this trip. I’ve just felt such little movement compared to previous cruises.

 

I looked all around for the Summit but she was nowhere in view. I thought that strange. After hanging out on the Celebrity boards here on CC upon return, I know why! Captain Kate McCue ended up taking a detour under the tail of Tropical Storm Colin in a path that took them south of us. They were apparently going much faster than normal too, the Summit got to Bermuda about 12 hours before us. I guess our Captain may have told us that, but we could often not hear the announcements well.

 

While overall we liked NCL Breakaway better, there are about four things I liked better about the Summit and Reflection or wish I had had on the Breakaway:

 

1. Cafe al Bacio, which is Summit’s equivalent of the Atrium cafe. Except it’s WAY better. It’s cozy, very aesthetically appealing, and all the sweets in its cases are free. The specialty coffee is also free with the bev. Package, as you know from me complaining about it a couple of times already, HA! Get with the program, NCL!

 

2. Aside from Ocean Blue, the food in general was way better on Celebrity, especially plating, presentation, and variety. As my husband put it, NCL’s attitude towards food seemed to be just another chore and necessity. I felt like just another one of the 4,000 mouths to feed. Yes the Summit is smaller, but the Reflection’s capacity is 3,600 so I don’t think this is just a mega vs non mega problem. On Celebrity, food was treated more like an art. And we ate in the main dining room, buffet, or other free grill 99% of the time on Celebrity, so I’m not comparing their specialty restaurants with the free restaurants on NCL. How it was at Ocean Blue was how it was like most of the time at just the free places on X. At Ocean Blue, the wait staff took pride in telling you all about what you ordered, describing the cooking method, sides, etc. Everywhere else it was just like at McDonalds, here’s what you ordered, no big deal, on to the next person. Celebrity has four course meals, so you have a salad course, appetizer, entree, and then dessert. Neither Carnival nor NCL does that. I’m not saying I need more food or anything, but Celebrity is queen of the fine dining experience. I think NCL could do a lot more with their presentation and meal planning. We never had anything bad or that we couldn’t eat, but sometimes the sides were very sub-par. The menu could be spiced up and the quality bumped up. Freestyle does not have to mean a lesser quality of dining.

 

3. Embarkation champagne - it’s a little thing, but it goes so far! It’s the nicest welcome to a ship you could have.

 

4. Captain Kate!!! She’s pretty famous on these boards and for good reason. She’s the first American female captain and I would love to be part of history by sailing in one of her vessels. That’s definitely a goal of mine! Here’s a Travel and Leisure article about her for anyone interested. I hope more cruise lines are taking note and making sure they’re doing what they can to help deserving women like Captain Kate, break the glass ceiling of the bridge.

[Viva_la_Vida]

We spent some time enjoying our balcony. Our room had been nicely made up. For lunch, we opted to try uptown grill. The line was fairly long and didn’t seem to move. I had asked DH if he wanted to just do the buffet, but the guy in front of us said it was worth the wait. I’m so glad he said that, he was right! It’s a made to order burger place, and they also have a made to order salad area (that side had no wait, ha). We had a garden burger and a cowboy. Please note that the garden burger is NOT vegetarian! I thought that title a bit deceptive. It just has lots of lettuce and veggies. There is a veggie burger offered, I noticed.

 

We sat at a nice table and had a drink from the bar.

 

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Pictured is a Pain Killer (left) and a Dark ‘n’ Stormy. The Pain Killer was the drink of the day and had rum, pineapple, and orange with some nutmeg. It was OK, but I didn’t get it again. The drink of the day is a GREAT deal though. They are $7.95 and are found both on the bar menus as well as the lower left corner of the first page of the daily. Carnival has a daily special but I think it’s more like $10 and only available in the outdoor pool areas. I am not positive where NCL offers theirs but if you don’t have the beverage package and want to save a few dollars, definitely check those specials out.

 

 

In about 10 minutes, someone brought us our food. We were able to find a spot on the same deck, but there is additional seating below for Uptown Grill.

 

Our burgers were both really good and HUGE. The cowboy is pictured first.

 

 

[Viva_la_Vida]

We went back to Vibe for a continuation of cabana-bar time.

 

Look, Richard put a heart in my Mudslide <3

 

 

 

YUM! Those are sinfully good. I posed the above pic so you could see the cabana in action and the shade/sun. I wish I could tell what time it was taken, but I can't figure that out.

 

A side note about the per-day service charge/gratuity. We know that the beverage package supposedly adds the bartender gratuity in, but the per-day charge of $13.50 specifically excludes these hardworking people! That being said, give a little extra for great service!

 

We mixed it up with some daytime casino and then went to the spa, which was as amazing as always. There is one part of the spa I don’t understand. There is a shower labeled “aromatherapy shower”. There is no aroma to it, just a regular shower with some fancy jets. Maybe I missed something?

 

We got ready for dinner, and kept it very simple tonight as we decided to do buffet. It was disappointing. We expected a bit more variety, but it was basically just like it had been for lunch the previous day. There was a meatball entree with mashed potato and also a pasta station, otherwise just the regular stuff. There was someone making crepes, which was nice. We took our ice cream back to the balcony and then called it an early night since we have a very early morning in Bermuda.

 

 

There were very rough seas! Lots of shaking of the boat! I see why Summit went around that. I’m glad our Captain navigated wonderfully and we arrived to Bermuda safely.

 

[Quincella]

Oh no! Seasick? Seas were a bit rough that day . . . So sorry you were not well.

 

 

 

Are you right in the city? We live about an hour north. We didn't meet too many southerners on board, mostly people that could drive in.

 

 

 

Fortunately, not sea sickness. I picked up some sort of upper respiratory nonsense that I'm still trying to get over. I didn't really let it slow me down much beyond that first day.

 

We're about 20 minutes north of midtown Atlanta off of I-75. And we had the same experience...most people we met were semi-local to NYC.

 

 

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[Aldeya]

 

Yes it's $20 more on board per person. When we did the tour they were trying to get us to purchase them and of course were making it sound like they just had a few left. I don't know, maybe that's true but it didn't seem too crowded ever, even during the rainy times.

 

Does it mean that you can book the spa pass online BEFORE boarding for $20 pp less?

[paulajj]

Thanks so much for your report!!

[cincicruisers]

Awesome review! Looking forward to more.

[Viva_la_Vida]

Does it mean that you can book the spa pass online BEFORE boarding for $20 pp less?

 

 

Yes, the spa is $179 if you purchase it online and $199 pp if you do it once on the ship.

[Aldeya]

Yes, the spa is $179 if you purchase it online and $199 pp if you do it once on the ship.

 

Thanks a lot! I couldn't do it online before, only on the ship. I'm glad I don't have to run to the spa after boarding :)

[jimp1266]

Loving your review, thank you.

[WV transplant]

Viva la Vida, you are wonderful with all you tips, photos and narratives. We are going in October and I would appreciate it if you would tell me who you were talking with just before the cruise to get the upgrade, etc. Was it your travel agent or direct with the NCL. Thanks, I'm ready to go back and continue reading!

 

WV transplant (originally from LI)

[Viva_la_Vida]

Viva la Vida, you are wonderful with all you tips, photos and narratives. We are going in October and I would appreciate it if you would tell me who you were talking with just before the cruise to get the upgrade, etc. Was it your travel agent or direct with the NCL. Thanks, I'm ready to go back and continue reading!

 

WV transplant (originally from LI)

 

Thank you! For the original upgrade where I paid the $200 pp for a balcony from an inside, that was my big box travel agent that I can't mention on here. The next free upgrade from the balcony guarantee to the mid-ship mini-suite was also through the big box travel agent. The last upgrade from the mid-ship mini-suite to mid-ship spa mini-suite was directly through NCL via the Upsell Department. They took care of everything and updated my reservation.

 

I hope you can have upsell success as well for your cruise in October!

[Viva_la_Vida]

Day 4, Heritage Wharf

 

Wednesday, June 8th

 

Let’s start with the dailies again:

 

 

 

 

I awoke around 6:15 am to see that we were passing by St. George’s! It was foggy, grey, and cloudy, but not yet rainy.

 

 

 

I stayed awake for a few minutes to snap some pictures, and then caught some more sleep. When we woke, it was not better weather-wise. Our original plan was to take the 9:30 ferry out to St. George but made the decision not to try it due to the weather. It's a good thing, because we learned a bit later that all ferries to St. George's were cancelled due to weather. We were hoping to do Horseshoe Bay instead, but wanted to see what the weather would do. We went to the buffet for some breakfast, along with the rest of the ship! It was pretty crowded. My strategy was to go for the very back. The buffet items repeat on one side at least twice, maybe some stations three times, so it gets much less crowded towards the aft. We managed to find a table and enjoyed our food. It was pretty much the same as the days before. Eggs, cereal, bacon, hashbrowns, etc. It was a deluge outside as we were eating.

 

We really took our time eating then decided to go back to the room to decide what to do. We put on swimsuits and packed our ponchos.

 

As soon as we disembarked, it started raining again, but it was off and on.

 

 

We just walked around and rode the free shuttle train around a bit. It was slow as molasses and I don't recommend taking it unless you really need it. It's absolutely faster to walk it at even a moderate pace. We bought a few things at the Dockyard Pharmacy. It’s a great store with just about everything you could need.

[Viva_la_Vida]

The rest of our tour adventure and our first day in Bermuda will have to wait until Monday afternoon because I am calling it an "early" night tonight :) I was up early today cooking for my awesome dad and am getting pretty tired.

 

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed your trip report.

 

Keith

[Sea Legs]

Thanks for posting your Breakaway review and all the pix! Just skimmed over it this morning as "off to work I go". We will be on the Breakaway in October and are really looking forward to it. Have sailed Carnival (platinum) RCCL and Princess, but this will be our first time on Norwegian. Am starting to look at hotel prices in NYC and they are scary. We were there last September (New England and Canada cruise) and paid an outrageous amount, but they seemed to have increased some since then. We will fly in a day early (from Newnan, Georgia) and explore the city some more. Don't want to wish the summer away, but sure are looking forward to Bermuda.

[WV transplant]

Thanks so much for your help.

 

Happy cruising!

[Viva_la_Vida]

Thanks for posting your Breakaway review and all the pix! Just skimmed over it this morning as "off to work I go". We will be on the Breakaway in October and are really looking forward to it. Have sailed Carnival (platinum) RCCL and Princess, but this will be our first time on Norwegian. Am starting to look at hotel prices in NYC and they are scary. We were there last September (New England and Canada cruise) and paid an outrageous amount, but they seemed to have increased some since then. We will fly in a day early (from Newnan, Georgia) and explore the city some more. Don't want to wish the summer away, but sure are looking forward to Bermuda.

 

New York hotel prices are very scary! AirBnB often has places at a better price, I would check them out. October is such a lovely time to be in NYC though, have a blast!

[DeeT]

I am loving your detailed review and especially all of the pictures!! thank you so much for taking the time to do this. We can't wait for our August Bermuda/Breakaway trip!!!

[Viva_la_Vida]

We were headed back for the ship, but a taxi driver was at the corner offering tours. That was something we had initially talked about doing, and at that point I was excited to think that we could actually be doing something fun on our first day, instead of it just being a wash out and stuck at the dockyard. We asked the price and he said $10 per person per hour. I was shocked, because most of the prices I read about on CC were $50 per hour. This is probably because those are from the official taxi drivers and our driver was not in a white cab, he had a blue van. It had a "to the top" sign on it and I recognized it as one of the shuttles that will take you from Horseshoe back up to the bus stop for a couple of dollars. [transportation policy side note: As it turns out according to our driver, Dean, the transportation policy enacted recently has had a very negative impact on his business. Yes, the Bermudian government reversed the dockyard 2-day pass restriction policy, however, there are no longer express busses to the beaches and a lot of the cruise passengers are taking cabs now instead, which impacts him. He seemed upset that the Bermuda officials didn't take those types of businesses into question.]

 

I asked if we could just do a 2 hour and see Gibb’s Lighthouse and some beaches and he said that was fine. He asked us to wait while he rounded up a few passengers. We waited a few minutes with no luck, and he said to give him 10 more. 10 turned into a half hour and we were getting pretty annoyed. We were just about to get out of the taxi when he came over. He had given up and it was just going to be us for the ride. Dean took us to see the world’s smallest drawbridge.

 

 

 

You can see where the old railroad used to pass over in the picture above. I have never done the railway trail while in Bermuda, but it’s definitely on the bucket list!

 

We got out to take pics anywhere we wanted. Dean was a great narrator and we heard lots of local stories as we drove along. I had expressed interest in Warwick bay (locals pronounce it “war-ick” bay) and the beaches in-between. We went to horseshoe first. It was nice getting to drive down the hill instead of walking it. We got out and were so excited to see it, even if it was very cloudy and sprinkling rain.

 

 

 

 

 

[Viva_la_Vida]

A few more of Horseshoe, lovely even in clouds and sprinkles.

 

 

That pink sand is amazing.

 

 

It was almost completely deserted. I think there were probably less than a dozen people. We took some pics and also waded into the water at the little cove behind the nearest cliff.

 

 

 

[Viva_la_Vida]

We then headed to check out the little beaches between Horseshoe and Warwick. These beaches are connected by a park with little trails, which you can duck off of and into these little coves of paradise! They are gorgeous. My pictures don’t do them justice. They were totally empty and I imagine even on sunny days they don’t get crowded.

 

 

 

 

Jobson’s Cove, the closest cove to Warwick.

 

 

 

A trade off for a more secluded beach is of course, lack of facilities. Had the weather cooperated, our plan had been to start at Warwick and walk to Horseshoe, which would allow us to use the lounger/umbrella rental, food, and restrooms there before heading back to the ship. Oh well, another plan for next time!

 

Here is a map of the area. The grey line shows in feet how far it is from Warwick to Horseshoe. 3,471 feet is a bit more than half a mile.

 

 

This map is a close up of Chaplin Bay, Stonehole Bay (not labeled), Jobson’s Cove, and Warwick Long Bay.

 

 

[Viva_la_Vida]

At Stonehole Bay, there was a little parking lot and a trail out to the very close beach. It was picturesque and again, deserted. The next stop was Warwick Long Bay. It lived up to its name, with an expansive bit of sand and beautiful views.

 

 

 

We hurried west to see the little cove next door (Jobson’s Cove). We couldn’t stay long though, as a downpour was headed for us. Dean showed us the trail connecting Warwick and Horseshoe. It would be easy enough to walk I think, if it were a nice day. There didn’t seem to be a lot of shade though, so lots of water is recommended! The sand was also difficult and tiring to walk through. It was very deep and even packed in by rain, it sunk when walked on.

 

Some of the greenery on the trail between Jobson’s and Warwick:

 

 

 

Another view of Jobson’s Cove, just because it’s beautiful!

 

 

Looking towards Warwick from the trail coming from Jobson’s Cove: