NCL Breakaway Haven verse Jr Suite on RCCL Anthem

[IluvZ]

I am posting this on both RCCL and NCL to get diverse opinions.

 

A little background. I am taking my parents, avid cruises, on a trip to NYC for the Macy's parade and then on a cruise. We have all been avid cruises and Iam Platinum on NCL, they are high on RCCL and NCL. We had a bad experience food wise two years ago on the NCL Spirit out of Europe, although we love that ship overall. And we had an average time years ago on RCCL Adventure and haven't been back to that line since. We did MSC in Yacth club and loved that.

 

Another important note, we have a soon to be 13 DS traveling with us.

 

For the same price, we can get a one bedroom H7 suite in NCL including all the current perks - drinks, dining, internet. Or we can get a Jr Suite with an attached Studio with a small OBC.

 

We have historically loved Haven except for the drop in food quality. But the Anthem looks amazing for a 13 year old.

Thoughts?

[dexddd]

I am posting this on both RCCL and NCL to get diverse opinions.

 

A little background. I am taking my parents, avid cruises, on a trip to NYC for the Macy's parade and then on a cruise. We have all been avid cruises and Iam Platinum on NCL, they are high on RCCL and NCL. We had a bad experience food wise two years ago on the NCL Spirit out of Europe, although we love that ship overall. And we had an average time years ago on RCCL Adventure and haven't been back to that line since. We did MSC in Yacth club and loved that.

 

Another important note, we have a soon to be 13 DS traveling with us.

 

For the same price, we can get a one bedroom H7 suite in NCL including all the current perks - drinks, dining, internet. Or we can get a Jr Suite with an attached Studio with a small OBC.

 

We have historically loved Haven except for the drop in food quality. But the Anthem looks amazing for a 13 year old.

Thoughts?

 

I'm not going to be able to add much as we don't sail RCCL but have been in BA Haven. My question is really around the room setup - so who will be in the H7 and where will the other folks be at on NCL?

[hansolosmom]

I did both Anthem and Breakaway last year.

 

The Breakaway trip was with my mom and sister (for my mom's birthday) and we did the Haven, while the trip on Anthem was with my dh in aBalcony cabin.

 

We loved the Haven on Breakway. I thought the food was excellent and the ship was really nice. In all honesty though we didn't really get a feel for the ship because we spend most of our time in the Haven. We almost every meal in the Haven restaurant. I think we did the Garden Buffet for lunch twice and the Manhattan room once for dinner. We saw the Rock of Ages show, loved it and went to some of the parties at night.

 

The Anthem is also great and there is lots to do. We loved the adult only Solarium pool. My dh did the North Star, I chickened out. We didn't do any of the activities like roller skating or bumper cars, but rather spent time in 270 or the solarium. We also do a lot of trivia. I thought the show "The Gift" was ok, my dh hated it. We bought the specialty dining package so we did Jamie's twice (excellent), the Steakhouse (OK) and Wonderland (excellent, but unique). Our trip still had dynamic dining which they have since changed so I won't really talk about the dining rooms.

 

Both trips were great. All the kids I saw on either ship seemed like they were having a good time. I will say the lines get long for bumper cars and the rest of the activities on Anthem. For example, they do trapeze school but only 24 people can do it during a session so you have to get there early. You need to take into account what your DS likes to do to decide if you think one ship is better.

 

I booked a trip for our family of 4 this summer on Breakway. It was really a toss up on which ship, the deal breaker was the price. I created a spreadsheet with the room costs plus extras - perks offered on NCL vs room cost and drink packages on RC. Also take into account travel. If you're going to the parade, it will probably be a taxi ride for Breakaway vs car service or rental for Anthem. Just some things to think about. I really think either ship is a good choice.

[IluvZ]

We would be sharing the H7 so I know that ther Anthem would be more room. My DS and I in the living room and my parents in the bedroom. Not ideal but I would want everyone to have Haven benefits.

[dexddd]

We would be sharing the H7 so I know that ther Anthem would be more room. My DS and I in the living room and my parents in the bedroom. Not ideal but I would want everyone to have Haven benefits.

 

Ok, was just wondering as I think the H7's have some for only 3 people and some for 4. Are you able to go with the H4 - that would be a good setup for your group?

[timf2001]

If you are only comparing suite perks, The Haven would win hands down because a Jr Suite is essentially just a larger room without full suite perks (no concierge/butler, no access to suite-only areas except dinner, no priority service).

 

However, since it sounds as though you are looking to have 4 multi-generational people in the same room, you may find the Jr Suite + Studio arrangement more comfortable. It would give you two smaller bathrooms as opposed to one larger one, a much larger balcony, and real beds for 3 of the 4 instead of only 2. You would probably fit fine in the H7, but you're going to lose your living area and have a difficult time accessing the balcony when the extra beds are made up.

 

Ultimately, it comes down to which ship excites you more and how important the suite perks are. NCL provides a great value, while RCCL has more unique experiences.

[drb116]

I think there are lots of things to consider, but I have done both the Breakaway in the summer and the Breakaway and Anthem in the winter. While I would give an edge to the Breakaway overall, I think the Anthem is the better boat in the winter and I also think the Anthem is a great boat for teens.

 

The Breakaway struggles with activities for poor weather and chances are you are going to have some poor weather the first and last day. On the Breakaway, the cruise staff still scheduled things like swimming, slides, and the ropes course, but the weather doesn't really allow for it. We found very few activities for kids other than hanging out on these cool days.

 

On the Anthem, they have the Seaplex, which is an indoor sports complex. The first part of the week had activities like bumper cars and roller skating. As the weather turned bad at the end, they also had the Circus school set up in the Seaplex. In addition, even if it is cool and windy, the iFly is still a decent option.

 

I also found that the Anthem had a lot of teen only activities, such as a teen only bumper cars, flowrider, etc.