Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

August 25th review of the SS Minnow...I mean the Breakaway

Shoppie124

By Shoppie124,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

 Share

Recommended Posts

Shoppie124

Shoppie124

Posted
  • Author
Posted
5 hours ago, Hotspring said:

Fantastic review!  


Yes, it was odd reading how a wine drinker was allergic to grapes.   But agree is pitiful that the butler did not honor your needs.

Hopefully you did not leave her the $15/day/person tip to the butler that Birdtravels likes to recommend.   Our butler did an excellent job,  but we three only tipped him one third  that including the additional 2 days (we did not make any unusual special requests).   If all 14 of the cabins he was assigned were as value minded  as we where he would still be hauling in at least $1,900 for nine days of work, or close to $98,000 annually for a goosed up waiter job.

 

On Roatan, we took the Nature Preserve tour to see the sloths, monkeys, and birds without them being in cages.   What is interesting is that they stated that it has been illegal to kill or eat iguanas for the last five years.   Made sense and can be confirmed by Google.   Now one needs to question the integrity of the outfit that took you someplace to eat endangered creatures.

 

While you mentioned that the passengers were told to return to the ship by early morning Saturday to move to a new pier,

you apparently did not hear from our deck mates and eventually the captain that some folks took one of those independent excursions that would not get them back to the ship until 10:30PM Friday.   That is why we left so late.    One has to wonder if we could have made it back to Miami before it was closed if we left at the scheduled 5:30PM departure time.   After all we were only 89 nautical miles away from Miami when the Captain announced at 10PM Saturday that the Coast Guard closed the port again.  At 21 knots we likely would have been there in under 4 hours, an over an hour shy of the departure delay Friday night.  The ship did not even slow down or change course until after the announcement as observed on the navigation channel 21.

 

The 'Ask the Captain' meeting in the theater Monday was meaningful, the captain and his officers were quite forthright with what was going on.   He made it abundantly clear that it was the Coast Guard driving the decisions.  IMO the cruises line were only working around their idiocy.

 

While we did not RSVP to the Sea Day mingle, we were turned off when we saw the huge numbers that appeared to be attending.   I guess we should have gone when we saw on the other site that anyone just show up.   We only saw your family once, but perhaps that was because we existing more on West Coast time rather than East Coast.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your family and well done trip report.  You are absolutely the best!

 

I have to admit my food allergies are weird.  The allergist thinks it’s the mold on the skin of the grape that causes the reaction.  Wine is so processed, it gets rid of the allergens.

 

We did not even hear about an independent excursion.  I had heard about people getting hotel rooms.  I think truly if they made a plan and stuck with it, people wouldn’t be so upset.  I changed my hotel and flights numerous times.  Royal was in the same situation, made one decision and stuck with it!

 

Sorry we didn’t meet up!  I’m glad you enjoyed the review.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Tigeroy

Tigeroy

Posted
Posted

Pier Runners! 😄

On 9/6/2019 at 7:49 AM, Shoppie124 said:

I need to step back to Roatan...We had some pier runners 😂😂😂

 

Pier Runners!😄 On the Escape last year in Bermuda there were like 25 runners and we were cheering them on!   I yelled out 'Last one on buys the whole ship a round!!!'. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Peachypooh Great Review Rare

Peachypooh

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Shoppie124 said:

Post announcement riot video courtesy of Nick

 

I totally understand this man's frustration. However I think he came pretty close to crossing the line or even did.

He is lucky one of his hand/finger pointing gestures didn't touch the officer. He might have ended up in the brig.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
SenatorsFan

SenatorsFan

Posted
Posted

Thanks for taking the time to review your cruise. I'm sure the uncertainty was hard to take, but you seem to have made the best of it and gave us a balanced, enjoyable report. 

Wow, that video is scary and I would not have wanted to be anywhere near that!

Heather

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shoppie124

Shoppie124

Posted
  • Author
Posted
1 hour ago, Peachypooh said:

I totally understand this man's frustration. However I think he came pretty close to crossing the line or even did.

He is lucky one of his hand/finger pointing gestures didn't touch the officer. He might have ended up in the brig.

I'm sure he came close...  It was very ugly.  I have to say, he person he is yelling at had no control over the situation.  I'm sure it made this guy feel better to get nasty but it really didn't change anything.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shoppie124

Shoppie124

Posted
  • Author
Posted
47 minutes ago, SenatorsFan said:

Thanks for taking the time to review your cruise. I'm sure the uncertainty was hard to take, but you seem to have made the best of it and gave us a balanced, enjoyable report. 

Wow, that video is scary and I would not have wanted to be anywhere near that!

Heather

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
graphicguy "Live from...." Rare

graphicguy

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, Shoppie124 said:

Thank you!

 

if you can control it, worry about it...if you can’t make the best of it!

Great advice.  Great review!

 

Got to give you huge kudos, if it wasn’t for your posts, I would not have known what was going on with my Breakaway cruise on 9/1.  My TA couldn’t get through to NCL, and neither could I.

 

Many thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shoppie124

Shoppie124

Posted
  • Author
Posted
8 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Great advice.  Great review!

 

Got to give you huge kudos, if it wasn’t for your posts, I would not have known what was going on with my Breakaway cruise on 9/1.  My TA couldn’t get through to NCL, and neither could I.

 

Many thanks!

Thank you!  I'm glad it helped!

 

I just sent my email off to Andy & Vivian @NCL ...  Let's see their response!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
david_sobe

david_sobe

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Peachypooh said:

I totally understand this man's frustration. However I think he came pretty close to crossing the line or even did.

He is lucky one of his hand/finger pointing gestures didn't touch the officer. He might have ended up in the brig.

I agree. I turned the video off after about 10 seconds.  Way over the line.  I love how snowflakes melt because they keep demanding answers to questions no one knows.  They changed the hurricane forecast every 3 hours for 5 days.  Why take out the frustrations on the crew who can only take the ship where they are allowed.

Message to this guy.  Please never take a cruise again because clearly you cannot handle being on a luxury cruise liner for 3 extra days.  The staff waited on you and kept your big belly full.  You traveled without travel insurance and yelling at people because you are out money.   People lost their lives and homes.  All this guy lost was convenience of travel.  God forbid a real emergency.

People scare me.

  • Like 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites
graphicguy "Live from...." Rare

graphicguy

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, emm126 said:

It's truly sad that NCL employees or any employees are  put in these type of situations, having to defend the actions of their company to upset customers. That looked pretty scary.

Absolutely no call for that sort of behavior.  If NCL can identify him, they should ban him from sailing ever again on their ships.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
bluesea777

bluesea777

Posted
Posted (edited)

As we live in the hurricane alley we have some experience/knowledge of hurricanes’ behaviours.

 

Dorian appeared to be out of ordinary - he moved at normal speed until he reached north Bahamas and started slowing to very slow speed for several days hugging the FL and SC coast, before finally speed off toward Halifax, NS.

 

That would explain why several indecisions were made by weather, Coastal Guard, NCL.

 

Usually hurricanes move at consistent speed but Dorian didn’t. Dorian reached north Bahamas on Sept 1 and would have cleared the FL coast by Sept 2 evening but he was on snail’s speed for several days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

92570D74-13D9-494F-8574-0BCFF611FD04.jpeg

Edited by bluesea777
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shoppie124

Shoppie124

Posted
  • Author
Posted
41 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

One more thing, I looked at the Marine Traffic on Sept 3, the day the POM opened, and there were 5 or 6 ships there already, so it might be the reason your ship went to NOLA.

 

 

They made the decision to go to NOLA long before the port reopened.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
C cruise

C cruise

Posted
Posted

Enjoyed your report and enjoyed your pleasant attitude.... I was happy to read you made the most of the extra days knowing nothing could be done about it.... when I watch the video of that enraged man I think of all the people he is getting upset (imagine his family) ... loved your pictures - loved the handstands - loved the cocktails... thanks for the detailed report!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail Beyond the Ordinary with Oceania Cruises
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: The Widest View in the Whole Wide World
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...