Breakaway Review: Oct 9 New England & Canada

[barric]

We seniors did this 7 night cruise, having sailed Breakaway and Getaway, (among other NCL ships)  previously.  We no longer LIKE Breakaway.  Here are the good and the not so good.

 

Service.  Ship was near capacity but all service was outstanding:  bars, restaurants, customer service, boarding.   All good.

 

Music.  Big disappointment.  Daytime and early evening only had poolside music.  But this is Oct, and not suitable to sit and listen outside.  Only once or twice was there lounge music at 5:30.  Only in a small lounge, crowded of course.  With really horrible furniture.  Form over function.   After 6 there was some music in the Atrium.  Hugely crowded.  Worst chairs you can imagine.  Only good for someone 7ft tall.  Nobody could sit back comfortably.  The last place for early evening music was in the Manahattan room but this was  at dinner.  Wife and I like to have a pre-dinner cocktail and hear some entertainment, but forget it. Did I mention the bad furniture throughout the ship?

 

Later on, there was music.  Howl at the Moon was exceptional. 

 

Buffet.  Good!  Self serve.  Had lots of protection for food.  Breakfast and lunch choices were good.  Staff was accommodating, going specially for a juice item I wanted. 

 

Around the ship:  No forward indoor viewing areas.  No aft outdoor lounges.  So if you wanted to view sailing, nothing was satisfactory.

 

Daytime entertainment;   Trivia, sodoku and not much else to our liking.  There was always some kind of commercial event going on.  And always some outdoor stuff in the 55-65 degree weather, with wind. 

 

Boarding and disembarking:   fast, easy.  Tendering was aok.

 

Dining:  We learned to carry a cocktail into MDR and order wine inside.  This avoided the slow bar service in Manhattan.  Cocktail service in other places outstanding. 

 

OSheehans expectedly good.  Last time on NCL, this restaurant did not feature daily specials.  This time yes, including prime rib.  MDR Manhattan was either poor or satisfactory.  A short ribs entrée was just shredded beef on a ton of noodles.  Good thing I ordered a double because the meat serving size was pathetic.  One or two nights nothing in MDRs appealed to us so we used our specialty dining perks

 

Cagneys:  not up to previous quality.  Porterhouse did not seem to be a good cut. 

Ocean Blue:   Wow! Just great.

La Cucina:  We always like this place and it did not disappoint again.  Osso Bucco and Filet Mignon outstanding.

Le Bistro was good

 

Internet:  Poor.  We each had 150 minutes.  It cost me nearly 100 on line to achieve 30 useful minutes.  

 

We have a sailing on Getaway in March, so it will be interesting to see if anything is different.

[dandelpino]

I did the sailing right before you (10/2) and agree with your observations, especially regarding the lack of comfortable viewing areas. I will say I didn't think the service, especially in the restaurants, was very good. It was superficially nice and polite but if you asked for anything even slightly outside the norm you'd get everyone frazzled. 

 

I have a gluten intolerance and we traveled with our toddler so we booked the Haven for more personalized service, we pre-ordered my meals a day ahead, and we at all our meals early when the restaurant was not busy. And still the service was poor, though very polite and friendly.

 

We had breakfast in the Haven restaurant every morning. I pre-ordered ordered gluten free toast for every morning along with eggs, bacon, etc. I would ask for the toast as soon as I sat down and yet every morning the gluten free toast would arrive just as we were finishing up. This is not good service.  All very polite but it felt like our requests fell on deaf ears most of the time.  

 

We decided to eat at Teppanyaki one evening (at 5:30pm mind you) but after one hour of being seated we had only received the soup and salad appetizers but the chef had not come. Our daughter started to get bored and cranky at that point.  I had to take her back to the room while my wife stayed behind alone. The staff were all super friendly and apologetic about the delay but provided no meaningful service, resolution, or help beyond a superficial apology. I asked for my food to be sent to my room and it arrived after 7pm... 

 

I don't know if they put their more junior crew on the Breakaway but I don't think I've experienced service like this before so I think I'll avoid the Breakaway in the future as well.

Edited October 20, 2022 by dandelpino

[randomthought]

Thanks for your reviews.  How were the fall colors for each of your sailing dates?  We are scheduled to do a Canada & New England 10 day cruise next year on Sept 25th, but I'm a little worried it will be a little early for fall colors based on what I'm reading from other people's sailings this year.

[dandelpino]

12 minutes ago, randomthought said:

Thanks for your reviews.  How were the fall colors for each of your sailing dates?  We are scheduled to do a Canada & New England 10 day cruise next year on Sept 25th, but I'm a little worried it will be a little early for fall colors based on what I'm reading from other people's sailings this year.

Oct 2nd sail date was a little too early this year. Some trees were starting to turn but it wasn't the picturesque landscape you might hope for. I think OPs date of Oct 9th must have been much better. 

[Treasure Hunter]

Our September 25 trip this year was too early but it was due to summer drought. It’s very hard to guess. The last time we did that date the colors were glorious. The later you go, the colder touring will be.

[randomthought]

On 10/20/2022 at 5:28 PM, Treasure Hunter said:

Our September 25 trip this year was too early but it was due to summer drought. It’s very hard to guess. The last time we did that date the colors were glorious. The later you go, the colder touring will be.

 

Good to know, thanks for the info!