Spring BREAKAWAY Live! 3/10/19

[cruisingbajan]

Fantastic review👍. Really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

[Gatorj]

Disembarkation wasn’t bad, it’s just the port of New Orleans is a mess. The taxi situation is interesting, and the lines were long. Moved pretty well, and ship to taxi was about 15 minutes.

Day 7 and final thoughts will be later today.

[Sand and Seas]

Sorry your cruise is over.    Looking forward to your final thoughts.

[pinklucky61]

On 3/10/2019 at 2:44 PM, Gatorj said:

Don’t expect quick bar service right now just before muster. Atrium bar is crushed.

do they allow drinks during muster?

[PJDH4]

Thanks for the review!  We will be on Breakaway in 28 days out of Miami!  The last two times we cruised with NCL (Getaway and Epic), there was a Farewell Show in the Main Theater on the last night - kind of a review of all the entertainment (comedians, dancing, singing, etc.).  Looking through your dailies, it looks like they changed it to a Welcome Aboard Show instead.  Just trying to plan out our nights and dinners...  

[Sand and Seas]

23 minutes ago, pinklucky61 said:

do they allow drinks during muster?

No, I have never seen drinks allowed at muster.  Usually a table as you walk in were they have you leave them.

[Greenpea2]

No drinks during muster 

[pinklucky61]

thanks for review and replies. fun read!

[Samstress]

I loved your review!   We will be on the Breakaway in October & I'm headed to Shakers bar to make friends with the barkeep:-)  Cheers & safe future travels..

 

[senoragilbert]

On 3/15/2019 at 10:54 PM, MandyGirl said:

 

So we were the opposite... I was the only one who signed up but brought two extras from my family. So we were three of those 12. Plus my parents were a little late and stood outside to not interrupt and listened just off to the left, enter right as the officers left. They weren't signed up either.  Definitely the smallest I have ever attended of being on CruiseCritic for 19 years...

Can you please explain how NCL messed up? They switched our venue to the Spiegel Tent, 11am, but I see on the daily that there’s an event there at noon. My contact has been very curt to say the least so if I need to push with her I just need to know what happened so I can get her attention. 

[AdoraBelle]

Thanks for the review.

 

Anyone have any car service or shuttle recommendations for MSY <> cruise port? Any other tips for minimizing the chaos? Right now I suppose my plan is to go with a taxi (not Uber or Lyft ... if those are even present in NOLA?) in hopes they’re experienced with the port situation.

[ferg42995]

We enjoyed meeting you and your family at the martini tasting and then Shakers after!

[MandyGirl]

1 hour ago, senoragilbert said:

Can you please explain how NCL messed up? They switched our venue to the Spiegel Tent, 11am, but I see on the daily that there’s an event there at noon. My contact has been very curt to say the least so if I need to push with her I just need to know what happened so I can get her attention. 

 

Someone else had posted they messed up (not me) so could you possibly be referring the posts 204 or 210 made by others instead maybe?

 

The weird thing is our rollcall thread posted 11am Monday La Cucina which is where it was held as posted. We had not many there. I was the weird one who had signed up on the spreadsheet for one person then had 2 others with me plus my parents entering later to not interrupt. So my 1 actually became 5. So instead of being less than our indicated number on the rollcall spreadsheet we were actually more... and the event did take place at the date/place our rollcall thread on CC posted. 

 

Later in the week a card arrived to do it Saturday 11am which I could not make that one. 

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by MandyGirl
Found the posts

[MandyGirl]

I’ll add that we actually left home January 29 for this 47-night trip so I had the CC M&G marked in my spreadsheet for this cruise. (We had a Cape Horn cruise on Princess prior to Breakaway March 10 so flew to New Orleans from Santiago on March 7-8). We didn’t receive a card in the cabin for the Monday CC event and I had not even looked at the Freestyle Daily - just went according to our rollcall post that I had marked on my spreadsheet for the trip. 

 

Feels good to be home now 🙂

Edited March 18, 2019 by MandyGirl

[MandyGirl]

41 minutes ago, AdoraBelle said:

Thanks for the review.

 

Anyone have any car service or shuttle recommendations for MSY <> cruise port? Any other tips for minimizing the chaos? Right now I suppose my plan is to go with a taxi (not Uber or Lyft ... if those are even present in NOLA?) in hopes they’re experienced with the port situation.

 

Our family of four did Uber the port from our hotel downtown last Sunday. This morning were off the ship by 7am, pulling into rental car facility at MSY at 7:35 with our Uber ride, and in rental car on the road home to Texas by 8am. Our driver did tell us it would be chaos by 7:30 at the port and we arrived last Sunday about 9:45 (yes chaos then with people still being picked up). We were Haven this week so planned to arrive early to enjoy that benefit hence arriving so early. Boarding started promptly at 11am last Sunday. 

 

[AdoraBelle]

Just now, MandyGirl said:

 

Our family of four did Uber the port from our hotel downtown last Sunday. This morning were off the ship by 7am, pulling into rental car facility at MSY at 7:35 with our Uber ride, and in rental car on the road home to Texas by 8am. Our driver did tell us it would be chaos by 7:30 at the port and we arrived last Sunday about 9:45 (yes chaos then with people still being picked up). We were Haven this week so planned to arrive early to enjoy that benefit hence arriving so early. Boarding started promptly at 11am last Sunday. 

 

 

Thanks a lot for the very specific and recent info. 🙂

 

We’ll also be Haven. Did you get Haven staff to escort you off early? Our flight isn’t until after noon but Hubs is always happy to get to the airport and wait around. 🙂 (Says he’d rather that than be late.)

 

Our flight there lands at 8:35 so I expect us to roll up around 10, although I can’t recall how slow luggage is at MSY, haven’t been there since 2014 or so. 

[MandyGirl]

16 minutes ago, AdoraBelle said:

 

Thanks a lot for the very specific and recent info. 🙂

 

We’ll also be Haven. Did you get Haven staff to escort you off early? Our flight isn’t until after noon but Hubs is always happy to get to the airport and wait around. 🙂 (Says he’d rather that than be late.)

 

Our flight there lands at 8:35 so I expect us to roll up around 10, although I can’t recall how slow luggage is at MSY, haven’t been there since 2014 or so. 

 

Luggage was fairly slow even we arrived from our connection in Miami on Friday morning but not horrendous. We did get escorted down service elevator within Haven shooting us out in theatre with someone swiping our keycard to walk out right there. We were not first off but it was smooth getting off. Customs barely glanced at passports 

[Gatorj]

So, it's been a day since we left the ship, but I promised a closing of the thread.  

 

Day 7 was cloudy, cool, and windy.  Not much action on the upper decks, with the exception of those who enjoy cloudy, cool and windy.  And kids that liked to try to run into the wind.  We basically stayed inside and just walked around.  Went to the cruisenext desk to sign up for our normal 2 pack of certificates and was basically verbally accosted for being an idiot by asking for the onboard credit.  There's a new program and you can EITHER get the normal 50% onboard credit off whatever you pre-pay, or now you can get double the certificates.  I don't mind someone explaining it to me - but I was literally called an idiot for not wanting the double up and felt like I was being pressured by a seriously deranged used car salesman.  It was literally the most unprofessional behavior I've witnessed.  Did I report it?  No.  Why?  Because that's his job.  I took the double up and went back to the cabin for long, cold shower.  Now that I've washed off the rebuke......

 

Early afternoon means time to head back to the room to pack.  Dirties in one suitcase, leftover clean and other stuff in another, and none of that crazy Marie Kondo method this time.  Does it fit?  Yep.  Looks good to me.  Time to dress for the evening and head out to BINGO.  I'll take 3 big packs please.  Got really excited when DW and I both stood up with 1 numbers left.  Looked over at her, and we both needed the same number.  Dangit.  And???? Didn't win.  Oh well.  Didn't win the cruise either.  Guess I'll use to pressure packed cruisenext certificates.  

 

So off to dinner, drinks (not in that order), the Perfect Couple show, and then off to see Milan and Jovana in Shakers.  When it was time to depart (and I mean time for the 2 old people) DW and I headed down to Osheehans for the final chicken wings.  See previous post.  I think I was actually crying.  Or maybe it was the sauce in my eye.  Off to bed and last night on the ship. The kids decided to close out the bar.  3am.  Patch or no, I'm too old for that. And that's that!  

 

 

[Von & John]

Thanks for a very enjoyable cruise...

It'll hold us over until we free up time in our schedule to go...

[Gatorj]

So final thoughts.  

 

We've done all the Away and Away-plus ships (does the Joy count?), as well as almost all the other NCL ships.  As far as an experience, the Breakaway ranked in the middle.  Probably along with the Getaway.  Why?  NO SPINNAKER.  Trying to cram 500, 700, or whatever into the Atrium for EVERY gameshow is simply ridiculous.  It literally makes that area a trainwreck to get around.  They've fixed it on the Excape, but then screwed it up with the Bliss by making that area an observation lounge in which nothing happens but an indoor chair-hog heaven.  

 

What we did like, and there was MUCH we did like (even love).  The food and service on this cruise were far and above what we've experienced on most of our NCL cruises over the last few years.  The main dining room food was really good, even exceptional, for main dining rooms.  Not only was the food very good, but we did not have one single bad service (except Osheehans - why is it always so slow?).  We didn't even experience a mediocre service.  We dined in Taste, Savor, and Manhattan room, and all were fantastic.  The credit goes to the onboard leadership and their guidance and insistence that the service and food quality were very good.  The ship was clean. The restrooms seemed clean in the public areas.  The staff seemed friendly, if rushed and overworked, but friendly.  

 

(Post cruise we found out that the ship had failed an inspection prior to our sailing - perhaps they went over and above to improve on this sailing?)

 

Nevertheless, we were very happy.  In fact, we felt the food was better in the main dining room than the 2 specialty choices we made.  That says a lot.  

 

So, as a cruise line NCL still ranks in our top couple as far as preference, but the Breakaway just isn't our class of ship.  I think we prefer either the bigger Escape, or the smaller Jewel class ships.  We're looking forward to the Encore, Joy, and the Leonardo's once they sail.  And yes, we'll try them all. 

 

We do however have an MSC cruise booked on the new Seaview this coming June.  Sailing the Western Med after spending 4 days in Rome.  And, trying out the Yacht Club experience.  Will be interesting to compare to the Haven on NCL.  

 

Until then and I hope you've enjoyed - I have!

 

.....So long!

 

 

[Gatorj]

I leave you with one more tidbit.

Remember this?


And this?


Flying home through Atlanta, we ran into this:


It’s as if the chandelier and stairway had a very large baby.

Ta Ta!!

[BigNance]

Thank you for sharing! It has been very enjoyable to follow!!

 

[kapoho2]

Thanks so much for the review and the laughs.  Loved reading it.  We are booked on the Breakaway for Nov.  How did you enjoy Rock of Ages?  That show is one on the main reasons for us booking the Breakaway.

[Mid43]

On 3/15/2019 at 12:19 PM, Gatorj said:

So last night was a doozy. First, Rock of Ages was great. Let me soapbox again however. They announce this show as adult oriented with lots if language, sexual innuendo, and that it is loud and obnoxious. If that sounds like it would offend you, DON’T GO. Many people got up and left in a huff because there was foul language, sexual innuendo, and loud and obnoxious behavior.

Next time, listen to the announcements, read the info, and don’t be “those people”.

Back to the evening.

After the show it was down the the Dancing with the stars show. It was entertaining to say the least. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all, but still fun to watch.

Up to Syd Norman’s. Referring back to a very early post where my spelling and use of the word Sid was critiqued and the name Syd was referred to as short for Sydney (almost always a girls name).

Syd Norman was a guy.

After a while in Syd’s it was time for Shakers. Out come the dice for a 2 hour long game of 7-14-21. Bartender’s choice for the shot. If you’ve played it, you know. We ended up recruiting 2 more groups to join in and soon we had about 10 people playing. Yep, glad I had the patch. The DW did not. Rough morning today indeed.

So today we stayed on the ship and it’s surprisingly empty. A port like Costa Maya is not typically a super busy excursion day, especially with the short duration in port. So, empty ship and Osheehans for lunch. Good times.

Day 6 Daily:

 

I got up and left from Rock of Ages not because of all the things they warn you about, but because it was loud, obnoxious, and I've seen High School drama clubs with better shows and talent than what I saw on this ship.

[kblac708]

On ‎3‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 3:28 PM, fabnfortysomething said:

on subject of meet and greets-Ihave attended and hosted several

 

there is always a drop out rate from those who say will attend and dont

 

however when NCL  changes the date time or venue last minute and you only get to know as co Ordinator when you get a letter in your cabin it can be a bit tricky especially if they bring it forward!

 

last cruise where brought forward 1 hour to a different venue

 

cruise director stood up and said he had changed venue to Margaraitaville as weather good and wanted to showcase the [underused] venue then commented how low turn out was!!!!

 

I made sure he knew why!

 

now I make every effort to get people to email me their cabin numbers so can communicate last minute changes

 

It is because of this I have asked people for the upcoming meet and greet on our cruise for their cabin numbers. It's just for the "just in case something changes" after we board. I have cards made up to leave on people's cabins as well. Not everyone is giving me their numbers which is fine, but at least I tried. (especially since I have 113 people signed up.)