Breakaway Nola Cruise Info Please

[eltigre]

We haven't been on an NCL cruise since 2018 and have never been on a a 3900 PAX ship.  I have so many questions.

 

I have been reading soo many negative reviews on the ship, the lineups, the food, the number of badly behaved kid. Are these people who are just never happy or  has this ship's standards deteriorated? 

 

We are 71 have 14 cruises with various lines under our belt. Minor issues don't trouble us.

I really want this as my departure port and I wanted to try a larger ship. Will I be disappointed? My only other option is the Carnival Glory which is again a smaller ship (We like Carnival as well as any of the others we have sailed )

Thank you for your help 

[RocketMan275]

3 minutes ago, eltigre said:

I have been reading soo many negative reviews on the ship, the lineups, the food, the number of badly behaved kid. Are these people who are just never happy or  has this ship's standards deteriorated? 

Read some more reviews.  You'll find exactly the same type of comments on any ship.

People are far more likely to post negative than positive reviews.

The only way to find out if Breakaway suits yourself is to try it.

We were on Breakaway last March and we've booked another Breakaway cruise this March.

I will tell you this, the boarding process at NOLA is screwed up.  The terminal really wasn't designed to handle the large number of passengers but that is in the past once you board.  

[Sand and Seas]

OP, love that you say 'minor issues don't trouble us'.  That is how we feel, especially since we retired and we can choose how to spend our time.   And, we absolutely love the larger ships.  So much to walk around and enjoy in the evenings.  So many complimentary food venues.   There was usually live music to enjoy.  Wish I could recall the name of the gentleman who played guitar and sang several times in the atrium.  Very talented!   We now only sail the larger NCL ships as we love the laid back freestyle cruising.

 

We love to cruise from New Orleans.  Just returned from there on Breakaway 10 days ago.  For embarkation, we waited to go over to the port until 11:30am.  When we walked in we could hear them starting to board. Very little line for us until we had our keycards and were boarding. We could have went at 9:30 and waited, but chose on that day to go at 11:30.  (We walked over to the port from our hotel and it was raining pretty hard earlier.)  To avoid any wait, would suggest people wait to embark until after noon or 1pm.  (We want to get onboard and enjoy that first lunch!)

 

We had quite a few children on board but were never bothered by them.  We love to spend our outdoor time on the Watervront (Deck 8).  You can usually find shade and a nice place to view the ocean or read a book.  There's an outdoor bar on that deck, too.    Have no idea how busy it was on pool deck🤔

 

Yes, you could get in lines to get into the MDR when it opened.  Not sure why so many wanted to be the first ones dining, but we waited until 7 or so and had very little wait.   They will hand you a pager if the wait will be over a few minutes.  Plenty to walk around and see while you wait for the pager to go off.

 

There was also a line for shows like Syd Norman's Rock the Pour House as it doesn't take reservations.  There isn't a lot of seating, so we happily planned to get in line an hour early to get a good seat.  Waiting in the line was fun too.  DH would hold our place while I went to get drinks for us.  Met some fun people to talk with in that line😊  

 

The only other line we chose to join was to get into the complimentary Shanghai Noodle bar.  It can be a wait, but you can trade off with your spouse.  Line begins before 5pm, then after the first wave is seated you can get a beeper and head off to enjoy the music, shopping or casinos on decks 6/7/8.   (Okay, I spent some fun time in that casino!)

 

Point being, there was nothing we HAD to line up for.  It was easy to find other entertainment or food available.  Had many good meals at O'Sheehan's.  Once in a while, they might give you a beeper if the wait is 30 minutes or so but we never had to wait that long there.  Then of course, the buffet is huge and has a lot of choices.   

[wolft927]

19 minutes ago, eltigre said:

We haven't been on an NCL cruise since 2018 and have never been on a a 3900 PAX ship.  I have so many questions.

 

I have been reading soo many negative reviews on the ship, the lineups, the food, the number of badly behaved kid. Are these people who are just never happy or  has this ship's standards deteriorated? 

 

We are 71 have 14 cruises with various lines under our belt. Minor issues don't trouble us.

I really want this as my departure port and I wanted to try a larger ship. Will I be disappointed? My only other option is the Carnival Glory which is again a smaller ship (We like Carnival as well as any of the others we have sailed )

Thank you for your help 

I have been on the Breakaway several times out of New Orleans. We have never experienced anything dramatic when it comes to lines on the Breakaway. Shows were good and food was good as well. We have sailed both Carnival and NCL out of New Orleans and the only thing i can say is embarkation is always a bit of a pain. The Breakaway   is one of the largest if not the largest ship that docks there. Boarding is a Pain so my advise is to relax and board a little later. If not there super early odds are you will be waiting outside to get into the terminal as it fills up fast, and then everyone waits for the ship to be cleared for embarkation. But i will say I love the sailaway down the Mississippi River!

[RocketMan275]

58 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

We love to cruise from New Orleans.  Just returned from there on Breakaway 10 days ago.  For embarkation, we waited to go over to the port until 11:30am. Tha  When we walked in we could hear them starting to board. Very little line for us until we had our keycards and were boarding. We could have went at 9:30 and waited, but chose on that day to go at 11:30.  (We walked over to the port from our hotel and it was raining pretty hard earlier.)  To avoid any wait, would suggest people wait to embark until after noon or 1pm.  (We want to get onboard and enjoy that first lunch!)

 

We had quite a few children on board but were never bothered by them.  We love to spend our outdoor time on the Watervront (Deck 8).  You can usually find shade and a nice place to view the ocean or read a book.  There's an outdoor bar on that deck, too.    Have no idea how busy it was on pool deck🤔

Thank you for the information on boarding.  That confirms our decision to wait till 1130 or a little later to arrive at the port.  

We will have to try the Waterfront.  For some reason we didn't last cruise.  Sounds great.

[SimplyAlbert]

We sailed the Breakaway last February and are booked again this February.  We tend to pick check in times between 11-12:30 so as to not wait in long lines at the port and it has worked out well for us.  Usually by the time we're done lunch the rooms are ready.

 

We didn't have any trouble getting into any of the shows, clubs, bars, etc.  Like a PP pointed out, if you want a good seat sometimes you need to line up a bit early, but we were able to get into everything with little to no wait times.

[Topdog52]

Looking forward to NOLA!!!!!

Edited January 18, 2023 by Topdog52

[Topdog52]

10 minutes ago, SimplyAlbert said:

We sailed the Breakaway last February and are booked again this February.  We tend to pick check in times between 11-12:30 so as to not wait in long lines at the port and it has worked out well for us.  Usually by the time we're done lunch the rooms are ready.

 

We didn't have any trouble getting into any of the shows, clubs, bars, etc.  Like a PP pointed out, if you want a good seat sometimes you need to line up a bit early, but we were able to get into everything with little to no wait times.

Where is the best place to reserve all the shows and clubs at once. On the Joy we did it at the Comedy Club, we filled out our times while in line.

[SimplyAlbert]

19 hours ago, Topdog52 said:

Where is the best place to reserve all the shows and clubs at once. On the Joy we did it at the Comedy Club, we filled out our times while in line.

 

For shows/clubs that can be booked ahead of time we used the electronic boards after we boarded.

 

For things that were first come/first serve we just lined up 30-45 minutes early if we wanted to make sure we got a good seat.  If we didn't care about seating we just walked in.

[Redsky5292]

I can't comment on leaving out of NO as I haven't done that yet but we have sailed the Breakaway three times, and will be going on her again this April out of NO.  We have also sailed the Getaway prior to the Covid shut down, which is Breakaway's sister ship.  It's a great ship!  We really like hanging out on the waterfront on deck 8, it can fill up but seats usually open up.  The Atrium is small and can get packed during events like Deal or No Deal.  Lines at the elevator can get long but we just took the stairs instead.  There was always something to do or see on the ship.  Have fun!!!

[Topdog52]

10 hours ago, SimplyAlbert said:

 

For shows/clubs that can be booked ahead of time we used the electronic boards after we boarded.

 

For things that were first come/first serve we just lined up 30-45 minutes early if we wanted to make sure we got a good seat.  If we didn't care about seating we just walked in.

Thank You. We tried that on the Joy and the Boards were not working. They told us to go to the comedy to book our events which turned out to be very easy to get everything done. They handed us a slip with all the days and times of the shows, and by the time we were at the front of the line we had all the times and events picked. I just handed it to one of the persons and he booked everything.

Edited January 20, 2023 by Topdog52