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Live from Norwegian Breakaway (Western Caribbean) - December 17-24, 2023

HoosierShipmate

By HoosierShipmate,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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HoosierShipmate

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As we are ten days away from embarkation and exactly one week away from being ‘on vacation’ I wanted to start a live trip report with an introduction. To be honest, it’s also just to see if my iPad alone will work for posting and since it’s my first ‘live’ posting experience, make sure I have an idea of what I’m doing.  On previous cruises the internet was so slow I wouldn’t even think of trying to post throughout the cruise, but early indications are that Starlink really is the cat’s meow and hopefully that means I won’t encounter many problems.

 

This cruise will be our 2nd or 3rd (there is a family debate about this and NCL says 2nd) on the Breakaway, our 5th or 6th (same debate) on NCL, and our 7th or 8th from New Orleans including Carnival ships. It’s always the same route out of the Port of New Orleans, and I really wish there was some variety there. But the distance to the port means a pretty easy drive, the price is usually right, and we’ve been very impressed at how easy that port is to navigate. PLUS it’s nice to go far enough south that our winter cruise has relatively zero chance of being frigid the whole time.  

 

This is a family trip, and the family is as follows:

Jeff (that’s me) - 53

Angie (my wife) - a gentleman never tells a woman’s age or weight, but let’s say she’s a couple years younger than I am

Chelsie (daughter) - 19

Josh (son) - 16

 

All of us love cruising and are looking forward to being in the sun, eating great food, and the adults look forward to making sure we get our money’s worth from the drink package.  Mostly we just look forward to being together as a family.   My daughter is in college, and our son is a typical teenager, so the time we can all be together is limited these days.

 

While onboard, I’ll do my best to comment fairly on everything, post pics of food, locations, menus, and more, and to keep you somewhat entertained if you find yourself at work wishing you were at sea.  

 

Prior, if you have any questions about NCL, Breakaway, the itinerary, or really anything else, please don’t hesitate to ask.  I’ll do my best to reply/answer anything and if I don’t know it’ll give me something to google as I count down the days, hours and minutes until we are at sea again! 

 

Blurry family pic from this time last year:

 

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HoosierShipmate "Live from...." Rare

HoosierShipmate

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A week from today we’ll be in the car headed south, and will stop in Slidell to stay at our usual hotel (Hampton Inn Slidell) which is a short drive to the port.  Packing is starting. . .and by that I mean my wife has started her process and I’ll procrastinate until later this week or maybe the night before.  I’m more of the logistics person, making sure we have the magnet hangers, lanyards, passports, etc. ready for the trip.  Clothes are an afterthought because really I need something for the pool, something for dinner, and if I had my way that would be two outfits for seven days LOL.  

 

I had a request for the dailies which I’ll happily provide, as I know folks like seeing the daily activities and menus as well.  We’ll be in the main dining rooms, Cagney’s and Ocean Blue for sure.  Not sure about La Cucina yet. I have two extra specialty dining credits but four people - so might use two for lunch or just deal with two for another specialty dinner and pay for the others.  

 

Final note: I received a lot of flack at home for the ‘blurry photo’ so here’s one that’s a few years older and we have pledged to recreate it this year.  Amazing how much older the kids look today vs. then, but I’m sure Angie and I look just exactly the same and haven’t aged a day!

 

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dcn8tve

dcn8tve

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Just here to say I'm looking forward to reading this as I'm on the Breakaway next month (1/21-28) and also to say GO Hoosiers!  [IU '89 :classic_biggrin: ...so I was in Bloomington for the last championship ...and I'm an old!]

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sarahandmike23

sarahandmike23

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Well…. This will be fun!  We are on the same cruise. We’ll be flying in from ATL to New Orleans on Friday morning. This will be our first family weekend in NO. We have dinners planned there at Bayona and Bistro Daisy, and some spa appointments to be ready for the cruise. We’ll be delivered to the port Sunday at 10:30. It’ll be my husband, son (24) and me. We’ve been on the Breakaway once and many other NCL cruises. This is our first cruise post-Covid. We have dinners planned at Moderno, Teppanyaki and Le Bistro. We arranged for spa passes onboard. Hope to meet you all. Happy to post photos and comments on our experiences as well. 

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@dcn8tve Love the Go Hoosiers post - and we would have been at IU around the same time!  I’m a ‘92 grad.  @sarahandmike23 Hopefully we will meet on the ship!  As you might imagine from the prior post we’ll be the family in the ridiculous amount of Indiana University clothing and/or ‘ElderRaver’ gear 🙂

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sarahandmike23

sarahandmike23

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2 hours ago, HoosierShipmate said:

@dcn8tve Love the Go Hoosiers post - and we would have been at IU around the same time!  I’m a ‘92 grad.  @sarahandmike23 Hopefully we will meet on the ship!  As you might imagine from the prior post we’ll be the family in the ridiculous amount of Indiana University clothing and/or ‘ElderRaver’ gear 🙂

We’ll be looking for you definitely!  6 more days!

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PaperSniper4

PaperSniper4

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On 12/9/2023 at 1:50 PM, HoosierShipmate said:

A week from today we’ll be in the car headed south, and will stop in Slidell to stay at our usual hotel (Hampton Inn Slidell) which is a short drive to the port.......

 

I had a request for the dailies which I’ll happily provide.......

 

We often cruise out of NOLA also and drive down from near Memphis. In our younger days we'd drive the 420 miles in one go, leaving home around 0500 to be sure to get on the ship with a little buffer time. However, now we're older we plan next March to drive to a Hammond, LA motel the day before, then do the 90 minute drive to the Breakaway the following morning.  Coming home we will just drive straight back.

 

We have not sailed out of NOLA since October 2019 <also on the Breakaway>, so we're curious about the changes at the cruise port, especially the Whale Parking lot. I recall we paid about $20 a day last time to park there. There have been reports of vandalism; I hope those are overblown.

 

I'm curious as to lunch that first day on the ship. We're in a Club Balcony Suite (category MA) cabin if that makes a difference. Those are not real suites BTW for those who are new to NCL. We always avoid the lido deck for most meals, and especially for that first day craziness. Sometimes one of the MDRs has a lunch available. Would you please check if something like that on your cruise? I think last time we went to O'Sheehan's on deck 7. But it was pretty crowded also.

 

Yes, please post the dailies when you can. We're interested in all that's going on, although we probably will not attend many shows, etc. Our last two cruise this year resulted in both of us getting Covid on one, and Norovirus on the other. This in spite of exceptional efforts like hand washing, masks, Purell, bleach towelettes, gloves, etc. I guess our immune systems aren't what they used to be!😪 If we have health issues on our March 2024 cruise we will probably discontinue cruising. That would be very sad.

 

Enjoy your cruise!😀

 

 Doug

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HoosierShipmate "Live from...." Rare

HoosierShipmate

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As I post this, we’re about 2.5 hours from our hotel in Slidell (around an hour door to door to the port) and we’re going to make the drive in about 12 hours total. That’s 10.5 hours plus bathroom breaks (small bladders don’t come genetically from MY side of the family) and of course a stop for lunch at a Buc-ee’s which could take a whole afternoon if you aren’t careful.  But it was a great lunch of brisket and banana pudding!

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(This was a few hours ago)

 

@PaperSniper4 I’ll let you know if anything is significantly different with parking. I saw the recent crime reports too and have a bit of worry about that, but honestly I’m going to sea, so if they steal my car I won’t know until I return LOL.  I’ll also comment on the other items you talked about in a post tomorrow.  Our room is also a Club Balcony Suite (faux suite really lol) 


There has been a LOT of chatter on the Facebook groups about the rough seas for the current Breakaway cruise, and for those of you with concerns it looks like the worst of it is clearing up tonight around the time she returns to the river and tomorrow looks to be much better. We’ve been on ships during very rough seas before and I’m fortunate nobody in my family seems to get seasick. So here’s to hoping that continues! I’m more worried about a strong breeze and chilly temperatures as we make our way south.  Monday might be a bit on the nippy side if you’re a ‘sit in the sun and drink pina coladas’ type of person. . . . 

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@dcn8tve today’s loss was painful. IYKYK. 

 

For all the new followers, stay tuned as embarkation is less than 24 hours away!  

 

 


 

 

 

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Embarkation day!  And the ring doorbell tells me the woman staying with my dog this week has moved in so that’s one less worry for me.  Our puppy has bone cancer, and is nearing the end of his journey with us so I’m glad he has a friend this week. Please no comments on this, it makes us sad and this is a vacation week! Happy thoughts only!

 

Breakaway was a little late getting to NOLA this morning, but early enough that I don’t anticipate any delays. We are awake, getting breakfast at the hotel and then making our way to the port. Trying to time it so we can grab beignets at Cafe Du Monde Riverwalk then get on the ship.  

 

View from the ship right now, Carnival Glory in front of her. . .

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We are on the ship!  After our snack we headed to the terminal - the line to get into the main security area was the longest I’ve seen - this mornings delay of two hours for the last folks got get off backed up the earliest embarkation times.  Still, relatively painless.  About 35 minutes in line to get to security. Once we got to that section about 10 minutes, the another 10-12 minutes to check in and get on the ship.  So the whole thing was about an hour from start to finish and being on board.  Simple, just a lot of people all at the same time today. Headed to Taste for an MDR lunch.
 

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Lunch options upon embarkation included O’sheehans, two MDR’s (Taste and Savor) and of course the buffet.  We chose Taste.

 

NOTE: I’ll share menus and pics of food but please don’t think I ate everything I show photos of. I’m gluttonous on cruises but travel with a wife and kids so they’re responsible for eating too!  
 

Taste MDR Lunch Embarkation Day Menu

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wedge salad


corn hush puppies - pretty tasty


chicken noodle soup


Quesadilla - kids loved and wished they ordered two

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my cheesesteak was delish

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Risotto

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orange chocolate mousse - delish

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