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

[PaperSniper4]

1 hour ago, HoosierShipmate said:

The captain really needs to speak up during his announcements. He’s so soft spoken. CD is loud and easy to hear. 

I may be in the minority, but in my opinion, I could sail quite happily without a cruise director on board. I do feel the need for a ship's captain, and of course, for the hotel director who is always the guy that makes or breaks a cruise. 😎

 

 Doug

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, PaperSniper4 said:

I may be in the minority, but in my opinion, I could sail quite happily without a cruise director on board. I do feel the need for a ship's captain, and of course, for the hotel director who is always the guy that makes or breaks a cruise. 😎

 

 Doug

I've been on 10 cruises and I can't remember a single CD.

I've been on several cruises where the CD did a morning show on the in-room TV.  Amazed at the number of people who attend that show in person.

[HoosierShipmate]

26 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

I've been on 10 cruises and I can't remember a single CD.

I've been on several cruises where the CD did a morning show on the in-room TV.  Amazed at the number of people who attend that show in person.

I agree with both of you on this topic.  I know they need somebody to coordinate the activities but a ‘big personality’ isn’t really important to me - like an emcee every night.  

[HoosierShipmate]

If the app had the MDR menu (or

if I wasn’t too lazy to go downstairs and take a pic) I’d put it up here and have y’all vote or choose my dinner order. 

[mexicobob]

Did your Club Balcony come with robes and a coffee maker? If not, could you ask for them?
We look forward to our cruise on The Breakaway in February.

 

Really enjoying your review. Good words and pictures. Maybe you should start a blog and do this for a living. I will follow.

[HoosierShipmate]

50 minutes ago, mexicobob said:

Did your Club Balcony come with robes and a coffee maker? If not, could you ask for them?
We look forward to our cruise on The Breakaway in February.

 

Really enjoying your review. Good words and pictures. Maybe you should start a blog and do this for a living. I will follow.

Thanks @mexicobob I’m going to read your post verbatim to my wife in a minute and watch her roll her eyes and make fun of me haha.  I, however, am blushing with happiness over your compliment!

 

We do not get robes in this room category, but am told if you ask the cabin steward you can get a coffee maker that uses the flat pouch style coffee pods and they will refresh daily.  My steward shows up once a day on a schedule I’ll never understand and hasn’t actually spoken to me other than to nod and say hi.  I have the feeling staffing cutbacks have made his job nearly impossible to keep up so many rooms and be as friendly and chatty as I was used to in days past.

 

The robes never fit me, so I’m not mourning that.  I would love the umbrellas I saw today for Haven guests, they were pretty impressive!

[HoosierShipmate]

Dinner tonight was planned for Savor but we ended up at Taste.  Same menu of course, they look pretty much the same inside, but the wait time for Savor was ‘around an hour’ and when we asked at Taste they said ‘about 30 minutes’ - so Taste was the choice.  They really need to figure the system out to merge checkin - they’re 20 feet from each other and could make it so much more efficient.

 

We waited at Mixx and had a drink and they called us about 20 minutes later.  It was just after 7:00 when we got our pager.

 

The menu:

 

 

 

For the appetizer course I had minestrone soup and it was very good.  Angie had the same plus ravioli. J had bruschetta and cheddar potato soup and C had Caesar salad and bruschetta.

minestrone soup - photo doesn’t do it justice 🙂

 

Soup really doesn’t photo well does it?

 

 

 

Our wine finally showed up around the time appetizers were finishing - we ordered glasses instead of a bottle tonight bc I wanted to try the champagne folks keep talking about (rose, not good) and Angie wanted the Riesling again.  I think they brought her the wrong one but I wasn’t paying close enough attention.

 

For the mains, I had the Almond-Crusted Barramundi with a side order portion of the shrimp fettuccine Alfredo.  Angie picked the  bang bang chicken and shrimp, Josh of course chose sirloin (now 5 out of 5 for steak at dinner) and Chelsie had a special order version of rigatoni due to the original having nuts in it.  Everyone enjoyed.

 

I liked the fish but there was a mustard flavor I didn’t expect with I was able to deal with but if it had been stronger I would have probably hated it.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

Dessert was a tough one tonight…..hard decisions on the menu:

 

 

On Carnival I pretty much order the melting cake every night plus anything else that looks good. Love that it’s on the menu every night on their ships.  So melting cake tonight was a given.

 

And bananas foster - it’s a fruit so it must be healthy right? The family was pretty aligned tonight on desserts so while there are only three pictures I believe we ordered seven desserts - so don’t panic that we suddenly bleed iced our nightly caloric intake!

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed the meal but the service tonight was probably the most challenging we have had.  But in general we were happy again with our meals.  We walked it off afterwards around the ship as we headed to Syd Normans (full) and then finally decided on comedy in the theater. 

 

[PaperSniper4]

8 hours ago, mexicobob said:

Did your Club Balcony come with robes and a coffee maker? If not, could you ask for them?
We look forward to our cruise on The Breakaway in February.

 

Really enjoying your review. Good words and pictures. Maybe you should start a blog and do this for a living. I will follow.

I'm enjoying his posts also, very informative. I think he ought to ignore his unappreciative wife's rolling of the eyes!😉

 

You asked about coffee in the cabin, which is important to us also. Nothing quite like sipping good coffee on the balcony watching the ocean roll by.

Here's something I clipped from another thread on CC somewhere concerning coffee on the Breakaway. I might be a year old:

 

==> COFFEE: We can ask the steward to bring us a Hamilton Beach coffee maker. “I think the coffee from the Hamilton Beach machines is pretty good. I generally bring some extra pods with me to avoid having to ask for extra pods every day - from Amazon etc. "Senseo coffee pods".

 

I have not decided if it's worth the hassle of asking for the coffee maker and perhaps getting some of those extra pods to bring with us. Coffee in the morning is super important for us, so we mainly use cabin service if available early (as in 0600), or I'll hike up to the lido deck with our insulated cups, or to the coffee bar is our cruise includes specialty coffees....we don't have that on this cruise; we have the "cheap seats" standard beverage package. Plus the $6 NCL charges for just coffee on their ships irritates me a bit.....I am so cheap I might always hike up to the lido for coffee every morning.....I wear cargo pants and carry insulated cups with lids...the croissants will fit into my cargo pants.....I've done it before!😎

 

 Doug

[PaperSniper4]

11 hours ago, HoosierShipmate said:

I agree with both of you on this topic.  I know they need somebody to coordinate the activities but a ‘big personality’ isn’t really important to me - like an emcee every night.  

Pet peeve of mine....I read the daily planner that was delivered to our cabin each evening, taking notes or highlighting events that interest me. So I know what's available the next day....then around breakfast time the CD proceeds to yak yak yak saying EXACTLY what was printed! I know I am a curmudgeon, but why? I dread the day we can no longer get that info in printed form the night before, and have to rely instead on our phone app or the yak yak from the CD! Can you tell I am an old fogey?😁

 

 Doug

[HoosierShipmate]

1 hour ago, PaperSniper4 said:

I'm enjoying his posts also, very informative. I think he ought to ignore his unappreciative wife's rolling of the eyes!😉

 

You asked about coffee in the cabin, which is important to us also. Nothing quite like sipping good coffee on the balcony watching the ocean roll by.

Here's something I clipped from another thread on CC somewhere concerning coffee on the Breakaway. I might be a year old:

 

==> COFFEE: We can ask the steward to bring us a Hamilton Beach coffee maker. “I think the coffee from the Hamilton Beach machines is pretty good. I generally bring some extra pods with me to avoid having to ask for extra pods every day - from Amazon etc. "Senseo coffee pods".

 

I have not decided if it's worth the hassle of asking for the coffee maker and perhaps getting some of those extra pods to bring with us. Coffee in the morning is super important for us, so we mainly use cabin service if available early (as in 0600), or I'll hike up to the lido deck with our insulated cups, or to the coffee bar is our cruise includes specialty coffees....we don't have that on this cruise; we have the "cheap seats" standard beverage package. Plus the $6 NCL charges for just coffee on their ships irritates me a bit.....I am so cheap I might always hike up to the lido for coffee every morning.....I wear cargo pants and carry insulated cups with lids...the croissants will fit into my cargo pants.....I've done it before!😎

 

 Doug

Cargo pants for croissants is genius! I consider myself pretty frugal too and as I said earlier am usually happy with an inside cabin, basic plan, etc - this time the pricing was odd, which led to the balcony for almost the same price and after my spreadsheet of internet add ones, my average coffee consumption per day, likely drink choices and whatever I used for my vacation justification math ended up with the ‘drink everything eat everything all the time gluttony’ package.  That’s how they should market it.  I’m actually worried I have become a balcony person and when we book our next cruise it’s gonna hurt my pocketbook.

[HoosierShipmate]

Freestyle Daily - Norwegian Breakaway - Day 6 - December 22, 2023

 

Here are your dailies! And stay tuned to help pick my dinner tonight! Menu coming this morning.

 

 

 

 

[IamPEBJ]

8 hours ago, HoosierShipmate said:

then finally decided on comedy in the theater. 

 

 

How was it? My wife and I usually hit the comedy shows every time we can (I have heard that Carnival is usually better with comedy and that is what we are used to) and heard that sometimes w/ NCL it is hard to get in. What was your experience like with it? Also you mentioned Syd Normans - About what time do you think you would have to be there to get in and decent seating?

Edited December 22, 2023 by IamPEBJ

[HoosierShipmate]

6 minutes ago, IamPEBJ said:

 

How was it? My wife and I usually hit the comedy shows every time we can (I have heard that Carnical is usually better with comedy and that is what we are used to) and heard that sometimes w/ NCL it is hard to get in. What was your experience like with it? Also you mentioned Syd Normans - About what time do you think you would have to be there to get in and decent seating?

Two comedians this week - Quinn with a last name I can’t remember but have seen him on a ship before and Keith Bender.  Both are good. I think I laughed more at Quinn, but ‘liked’ Keith better. I’m having a hard time processing that myself.  They have had the shows in the main breakaway theater instead of headliners and both shows were full but not sold out.

 

Syd Normans was standing room only at 9pm for 9:30 performance - we made a choice not to stand but could have.  If we had walked in at 9:30 and had the option we might have.  Considering trying again tonight and grabbing seating an hour early if our dining and timing works.  It felt like we were almost early enough but not quite. There’s quite a love for that place so people may have been camping by the door to grab seats when it opened.

 

Will report back. Currently negotiating breakfast with the kids via text, primarily ‘get up I am awake and so too shall you be!’ 

Edited December 22, 2023 by HoosierShipmate

[HoosierShipmate]

Quick take: I have two ‘ship on a stick’ trophies from previous Carnival cruises that I covet like academy awards.  On NCL if I get every answer correct, beat out the full room of early risers and win this trivia contest I get….no trophy.  So obviously like NCL won the straw battle, Carnival wins for their ship on a stick trophies.

[HoosierShipmate]

@IamPEBJi just looked and Syds is family karaoke tonight so I will be staying far far away.  Will try tomorrow 🙂

[IamPEBJ]

Being just over a week away with the same itinerary, Thanks for giving me a looking glass! Any suggestions for my week would be appreciated.

 

We have a 3rd party excursion scheduled for Roatan, Have an idea of what we are doing in Costa Maya - Just going to check out the port in Cozumel since it is our first in the non Carnival one and then go back to the ship there and no idea of what we are going to do on Harvest Caye.

[PaperSniper4]

1 hour ago, HoosierShipmate said:

........  I’m actually worried I have become a balcony person and when we book our next cruise it’s gonna hurt my pocketbook.

We've had 42 cruises....first two were inside...then 2 ocean views....all the rest have been balconies. It's impossible for my wife to go back to a lesser category. I, of course, yield to her wishes....I don't fight for a lesser category anymore!😉

 

 Doug

[HoosierShipmate]

29 minutes ago, IamPEBJ said:

Being just over a week away with the same itinerary, Thanks for giving me a looking glass! Any suggestions for my week would be appreciated.

 

We have a 3rd party excursion scheduled for Roatan, Have an idea of what we are doing in Costa Maya - Just going to check out the port in Cozumel since it is our first in the non Carnival one and then go back to the ship there and no idea of what we are going to do on Harvest Caye.

We love roatan and did 3rd party in the past with Victor Bodden tours and it was amazing and so much cheaper than whatever cruise we were on!

[HoosierShipmate]

7 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

We've had 42 cruises....first two were inside...then 2 ocean views....all the rest have been balconies. It's impossible for my wife to go back to a lesser category. I, of course, yield to her wishes....I don't fight for a lesser category anymore!😉

 

 Doug

Yielding to her wishes is smart @PaperSniper4  - and I strive to reach 42 as soon as my kids are both out of college!  And yet at the top of this page you were suggesting I ignore my unappreciative wife!? Are you trying to get me thrown overboard???!!! LOL

Edited December 22, 2023 by HoosierShipmate

[www3traveler]

40 minutes ago, IamPEBJ said:

Being just over a week away with the same itinerary, Thanks for giving me a looking glass! Any suggestions for my week would be appreciated.

 

We have a 3rd party excursion scheduled for Roatan, Have an idea of what we are doing in Costa Maya - Just going to check out the port in Cozumel since it is our first in the non Carnival one and then go back to the ship there and no idea of what we are going to do on Harvest Caye.

I have a suggestion for Costa Maya.  Get off the ship as fast as possible and head for the plaza area at the end of the walkway.  You will see a very tall pole with a ring at the top.  A group of men will climb the pole with a drummer.  As the drummer does his thing, the other men will attach themselves to long cables and dance their way to the ground.  As I understand it, this is a very old ritual.  Very fun to watch and of course they would like a donation.

[HoosierShipmate]

Breakfast at O’Sheehans - by the time the kids were awake it was that or buffet. A repeat so no real commentary other than my latte had foam art for the first time - must have been a slow morning for the barista!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HoosierShipmate]

Early morning photos of the pool area before the people arrive and a view of Costa Maya from deck 15…we won’t get off the ship today but will enjoy the silence. It’s overcast but warm and not raining. Need to enjoy the weather before returning to snowy Indiana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RocketMan275]

2 minutes ago, HoosierShipmate said:

Breakfast at O’Sheehans - by the time the kids were awake it was that or buffet. A repeat so no real commentary other than my latte had foam art for the first time - must have been a slow morning for the barista!

...

 

 

 

I would have sent those eggs back.  I want my eggs over easy.  This AM while frying eggs I broke a yoke which went into the dogs bowl.

[IamPEBJ]

@HoosierShipmate Have you noticed any difference in the crowd density between the normal pool area and Spice H2O?

[HoosierShipmate]

8 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

I would have sent those eggs back.  I want my eggs over easy.  This AM while frying eggs I broke a yoke which went into the dogs bowl.

HahahHa I ordered over medium which is always a coin flip as to what they’ll bring at almost any restaurant I visit.