Live from the Breakaway March 17-31, 2024

YVRteacher · March 23

We set sail on a high speed catamaran from Harvest Caye to the Belizean mainland.

We had to slow to a crawl as we approached Malacate Marina due to this being a feeding and mating area of manatees. Manatees are protected here and if a boat hits one the captain gets fined

They told us on the boat that in Belize they save the water and drink the beer. You better Belize it!

Snack stands were set up in between the 40 minute boat transfer and the 1 hour bus transfer and people went crazy buying Coke, water, Cheetos and Pringles. That meant that those of us who weren’t buying anything had to wait on the rickety school bus, engine running, vibrating like crazy to get a minuscule waft of air conditioning. The buying frenzy was like what we saw at the start of the pandemic with toilet paper. Only when the provisions were gone did the various buses depart. Some people were doing river tubing, some were headed to the chocolate tasting and I am on the bus for the Mayan ruins and spice farm. I selected this excursion for the photography opportunities but last night accidentally pulled the charger out of the socket so my phone had a 3% charge this morning. When I came back from breakfast it was at 54% and I had to leave. I was hoping for a plug on the transfer boat but catamarans don’t have plugs and neither do school buses so I’m hoping for electricity at the Mayan ruins. They were a sophisticated, intelligent bunch.

Our bus driver is Ronnie and our tour guide is Nate the Great. The first village we pass through is Mango Creek and Independence. Two names, one village. Gas here is $12.07US per gallon. This is what I learned between the port and the spice farm.

We drove through the Belizean Savannah where birdwatching is popular and the Mexican pine trees grow. 600 species of birds live in this Savannah.

It’s a 6 hour drive to Belize City from where we are.

We zoomed by acres of coconut trees. Belize produces coconut oil for export.

The population of Belize is 430000.

If you want to take a bus ride, here is the bus stop for Bella Vista.

There are 21 banana farms here. Bananas are cut throughout the week and packed up once a week for export.

Education starts with preschool at age 4. Kids go to primary school (infants and standard) for 8 years then do 4 years of high school. Education is free for Kindergarten and primary school. High school is subsidized for the first two years and families need to pay $750 Belize dollars per year for the last two years.

Health care is free. The US embassy provides medical support and doctors come from other countries to work in hospitals here.

Tourism is making a significant impact in both the economy and the infrastructure. Nate didn’t say, but there are always both positive and negative aspects of tourism.

One US dollar will get you 16 bananas in Belize.

Agriculture includes coconuts, bananas, Valencia oranges (and frozen orange juice concentrate) as well as sugar cane.

After World War II mahogany was harvested from Belize and shipped to London to rebuild parts of England that were destroyed.

The hottest months in Belize are March, April and May. This is dry season.

The national bird is the toucan, the tapir (they call it mountain cow) is the national animal and it’s a vegetarian!!

Phew. That was the kind of bus ride where a sports bra would have been helpful. These are all photos taken from the bus as we drove to the southern part of Belize.

As we entered the Mayan village I saw women doing their laundry in the river.

Nate is 100% Mayan and he speaks with passion and pride about his culture and traditions. He told us that crops planted during the full moon grow better and fronds for roofs harvested during the new moon only last two years but fronds harvested during a full moon last 8-10 years.

The national dish is soup with turmeric, chicken, yucca and home made hot corn tortillas.

Nate’s dad has 200 cacao trees.

Once we arrive at the spice farm we are divided into two groups of 14 and we slide into the carriages pulled by tractors. We have a guide as well as a tractor driver/harvester named Wilbert.

Here is Wilbert harvesting lemongrass

Ylang ylang for Chanel 5

Cocoa pod

Cinnamon tree. This is a true cinnamon. See the bite I took?

This giant tree is a 64 year old mahogany.

Vanilla vines were planted here but they are getting sunburned so the farmers are relocating them.

Lotus flowers.

Vanilla beans. The flowers are hand pollinated with a toothpick. This is done daily for 99 days straight. Every vanilla bean pod has its own flower. It takes 11 months to get a vanilla been from seed to market so it is labour intensive.

They are having problems with squirrels and woodpeckers eating the cocoa pods during the day and monkeys steal the pods at night.

Black pepper vine. Green is mature but when it gets dried in the sun it turns black. Once the skin is removed it is white pepper. Black pepper and white pepper come from the same plant

That was the most unhygienic shore excursion ever. The plants were picked by Wilbert, then passed from the first person sitting in row one to the last person sitting in row 4 (me!) By the time I got handed the spices to taste 14 people had already touched it. I only tried the items where we were given our own (cocoa bean, cinnamon, pepper.)

After the tour we could buy lunch, shop, explore the property and I could charge my phone. Nate watched my phone so I bought him a Sprite in a bottle while I enjoyed a Fanta Cream Soda, also in a bottle. Haven’t had one of those since I was 8 years in Parksville on Vancouver Island.

The spice farm is also a botanical garden. Heaven!

They are building cabins on the property so people will be able to stay overnight here.

Visitors can buy the spices harvested and dried at the spice farm. I bought white pepper and turmeric for my favourite red lentil carrot coconut soup made in a slow cooker.

Edited March 23 by YVRteacher

ceilidh1 · March 23

OK - enough with the new friends. You have plenty of old friends back home. #jealous #missingyou

YVRteacher · March 23

A few more photos from the spice farm

YVRteacher · March 23

Our second part of the tour in Belize was to the Lim Ni Punit Mayan ruins.

Lim Ni Punit means grandiose sombrero or big hat. The site is small but our guide is knowledgeable and passionate and made the ancient Mayans come to life with her stories and facts.
I took more photos of the trees and plants than I did of the ruins.

The Gumbolimbo tree was not sacred but it was important: the Mayans used this round tree for transporting heavy items through rolling. The kapok tree is sacred.

These are Mayan tombs for royalty and would have been filled with Jade.

Mayan tombs are small because Mayan men were 5’ tall and women 4’.

People returning to the bus after the tour and walk through the Mayan site were bedraggled and completely wilted. I think it was a disappointing selling day for the vendors displaying their hummingbird keychains, ceramic Mayan calendars, grass baskets and colourful table runners.

People were full on done with the heat and many were barely able to drag themselves up the stairs of the bus. I was fine but hot.

With 30 minutes to spare before all aboard time I quickly walked around Harvest Caye, browsing the shops, enjoying the plants, photographing butterflies and remembering how much better the animals used to be when Harvest Caye first opened. Oh well.

Back on board I was super hungry since I hadn’t eaten lunch. There was a fabulous make your own hoagie bar in the Garden Cafe so I had a sandwich with everything I like. While eating, I watched a woman take a whole pizza slice by slice and put the pieces in a take-out container she had brought from home. I guess her family is having pizza for lunch while in Costa Maya tomorrow. Part of me hopes there are sniffer dogs in port.

Departing from the long pier at Harvest Caye, we moved gracefully without horns or fanfare. We turned a full 180 so the sun is on the starboard side now. I am postside, grateful for the momentary shade.

I’m trying to dry my beach cover up which I washed in the sink so I need sun and switch to a different deck chair. People are inside after a day in the sunshine so many chairs are available. I notice my shadow stretches long and I remember the time in Dubrovnik when my dad and I walked across the deck of the ship, our shadows the longest I’ve ever seen. The wind seemed to scoop the coffee out of his mug. We laughed so hard! I remember that time, when my dad enjoyed the singers at the farmer’s house serenading us with Elvis songs because it was Elvis’ birthday. Someone on that shore excursion asked for traditional Croatian music. They played the national anthem while we savoured family grown olives and cheese in a brick farmhouse. A day I’ll always cherish.

Like me, the lifeguard has been out here for hours. I’ve been reading, pausing, daydreaming, feeling so at peace. Is he doing the same? Is he happy? Bored? Grateful? Lonely? His face is stoic, revealing nothing.

I watch the sunset, while sipping piña coladas and thinking about the sun. She’s not a traveler, the way the earth and the moon are. She doesn’t control the tides or the time to harvest the Mayan palm fronds. She appears to sink in the sky,

dimming until she loses her light. I turn around and there is the moon.

They cancelled the 80s Broadway show for tonight due to two of the singers having “voice strain.” These are the same singers that galavant all over the ship, blocking stairs, taking photos of themselves and chatting up a storm in the Garden Cafe.

I don’t have a dinner reservation. I just have time to be me and it feels glorious. I have settled into this vacation like my grandad sank into his ugly upholstered recliner that no one wanted when he died.

I have decided that the urge to twirl in the thalassotherapy pool comes from the piped in piano music. Another lady was in there twirling away to her heart’s content tonight. I almost said “nice twirling” but realized she was having a private moment. I wonder if security sits there and chuckles away at the spa twirlers on their camera feeds.

When I had the thalassotherapy pool to myself I swam and swam and swam. I swam so much I became dizzy and had to swim in the opposite direction to undizzy myself.

I ventured into the steam room tonight and it smells like the ocean gone wrong. Made a quick exit and inhaled the enveloping heat in the sauna instead. I may have filled up the wooden bucket with water and may have pretended to be the Swedish Chef from the Muppets as I waved the big ladle about.

The hot tub in the spa is filled to the brim so the moment you slide in you get to experience Archimedes’ principle as you flood that whole section of the spa. It’s a Sisyphean task for the washy washy moppy moppy team to keep the floor dry.

Howl at the Moon is on tonight from 10:30pm-12:30am. Like a runner preparing for a marathon, I recognize and respect the need to nourish and prepare for such an endeavour so I go to Maltings for whiskey-based Honey Lemonade. Those have been my go-to drink this cruise.

I have run out of superlative adjectives to describe Howl at the Moon. Jen and Alisa were on fire tonight! I’m pretty tired of Kyle doing Neil Diamond songs though. He is in two Neil Diamond impersonator shows and everything he does sounds the same. He isn’t funny and he doesn’t bring any personality to the show. Jen said that every Howl at the Moon is always mixed gender, so two women and a man or two men and a woman.

Just realized I had two piña coladas for dinner tonight. Not with dinner. For dinner.

This vacation is going very, very well.

KACTravels · March 23

20 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

The officers were John from Ireland

Bailey and I had Dinner with John on the NCL Getaway Rome to Lisbon last August. Tell him we said hello!

AKR2011 · March 24

It sounds like you enjoyed your excursion. I did that exact one years ago and remember the bus ride being so long. I took a very long nap on the way ba k to the port. However, the spice farm was a big highlight. Ruins were meh to me, only because I had seen amazing ones the day before in Costa Maya.

laudergayle · March 24

7 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

The Gumbolimbo tree was not sacred but it was important: the Mayans used this round tree for transporting heavy items through rolling

Seriously, it blows my mind the ingenuity those before us used to accomplish daily tasks. God help us all once AI takes over. I’m relieved I am in my senior years.

Texas_Traveler. · March 24

Nice to see this thread about Norwegian Breakaway from New Orleans.

I'm sailing solo on Norwegian Breakaway in May (from Miami).

I'm sailing from New Orleans in October (on Brilliance of the Seas).

If you're willing to answer my questions:

Have you seen solo travelers hang out in the studio lounge, or does it stay empty?

Have you seen solo travelers make plans to do things together like dinner or shore excursions?

YVRteacher · March 24

Yes, many solo travellers hang out in the studio lounge. Often they are already friends who have booked solo cabins. There are hosted solo get togethers every evening and dinner plans are made there.

YVRteacher · March 24

@www3traveler Hi Mandy

I said hi to Charlin from you on Thursday morning and her face absolutely lit up! She wants to know how you are doing.

That afternoon when I arrived back at the cabin this was waiting for me:

YVRteacher · March 24

Day 6

Costa Maya

Yesterday when I was looking for the marina for my shore excursion on Harvest Caye I asked the shore ex rep if I could cancel my shore excursion for Costa Maya. He said it had to be done 48 hours in advance. I told him I tried to come the day before but I had dinner with the officers and just couldn’t leave. He said they wouldn’t let me cancel but maybe I could switch to a different excursion.

The reason I wanted to cancel is when I booked the Segway excursion I selected the 9:30am time slot. My time was changed to 7:15am and this was on a day where we had to put clocks forward an hour, making it the equivalent of a 6:15 meeting time and a 5:15am wake up. All this on the night after Howl at the Moon!

As you can imagine, I was overjoyed when I returned to the cabin and saw this:

Since I was up until 2:00am and was quite seasick today I slept through a lot of Costa Maya (one of the few times I have stayed on the ship instead of going ashore) then moseyed up to American Diner for lunch. They told me I couldn’t have a veggie burger so I thoroughly enjoyed the Grecian salad and nachos. I did enjoy watching a little boy swirl his entire bowl of pasta on his fork, wave it around like he was proudly carrying the flag for a cause in which he deeply believed then eat the pasta off the fork while dangling it into his mouth. There’s good entertainment on this ship for sure!

Portions were small, service was slow and without a smile but the food was good. The table next to me had a young man who ordered a glass of milk and when the waitress walked away they burst out laughing at the scathing look she gave him for ordering a glass of milk.

The woman at the table next to me was giving her (somewhat) disinterested husband a run down on the state of the royal family which showed thorough obsession and analysis.

Would definitely eat here again but next time I’ll do BYOB: bring your own (veggie) burger. The Bread Pudding with Caramel Whiskey Sauce inspired me to seek out a whiskey-based drink.

The Waterfront called and I made a cozy afternoon nest with an extra pillow and a footrest and read my book and wrote. I haven’t done any trivias, gameshows or crafts this cruise. Instead I’m just doing whatever I feel like doing in any given moment and it is wonderful! My life is very scheduled so to have this kind of freedom feels amazing. I do need to do deck laps today to get some exercise in though. I was a little disappointed to miss Sail and Sustain which was scheduled while we were in port yesterday (Belize.) I have written a very kind note to the GM requesting not to hold this latitudes benefit during port time. I missed Wines Around the World today because I was so very busy relaxing.

Today’s un-schedule went like this:

Slept in late

Had lunch

Relaxed on the Waterfront

Spent time at Maltings Bar

Went to the Extraordinary Cruises presentation which was lacking in extraordinaryness

Went to dinner at Wasabi

Spent the whole evening in the spa

Shout out to my favourite bartender, Joy, at Maltings.

Dinner was fantastic! I used a Latitudes voucher so could order 8 items. There was a family of three from Arizona next to me and they were having appetizers before their 10:30 reservation at Teppanyaki so I shared the voucher with them. Wonderful service, wonderful food, wonderful conversation. I asked the waiter if I could have a dessert off the Raw Bar menu and since Ocean Blue, Raw Bar and Wasabi all share space they said yes and I indulged in my favourite NCL dessert which is Vanilla Cheesecake in a Jar.

Oh crap. I just realized I didn’t even do deck laps today.

The long evening in the spa was amazing. They dim the lights so it’s like a cave of goodness.

Edited March 24 by YVRteacher

YVRteacher · March 24

There weren’t any early morning announcements today! Yay! The captain came on at 9:30, called us darlings and told how special the Gulf of Mexico is. It may be special but it’s also windy and rough.

For the first time this cruise I had a sit-down restaurant breakfast. When I arrived at O’Sheehan’s at 9:50am all the tables were occupied except a two top for me!! These servers and cooks are hustling like crazy. They brought coffee before I could say no so this is also the first coffee I’ve had this cruise. It was on par with New Orleans swamp water so I ordered a Painkiller instead.

Breakfast was pretty bad. I ordered the vegetable omelette with cheese. What I got was the vegetable omelette with no cheese and no flavour. It was watery. They hadn’t sautéed the veggies first so the veggies were raw. Imagine watery eggs with raw peppers and that was what was on the plate. The breakfast potatoes were, well, breakfast potatoes and who wants those when the memory of delicious hash browns lingers in the not-so-distant past.

Basically the Painkiller and the bagel were good, the coffee, the omelette and the potatoes were crummy. At no time did the server come back to check on me.

At the How to Run a Cruise Ship Q&A session some Australian old guy asked over and over and over again about the size of the building where the ship was built. None of the officers on board were involved with that process and he kept telling them about buildings in Australia that were built in 44 days. Dude, no one but you cares.

Someone asked what the favourite itinerary is for each of the officers. Captain said Alaska, chief engineer said Alaska in the summer, French Polynesia in the winter, GM said Australia where he is from.

A question was asked about the galleys. I won’t give the whole answer but Bir said 34000 meals are produced on the Breakaway each day. I hope 33999 are better than the meal I had this morning.

Having 2.5 hours before Burn the Floor, I picked up towels and went outside where I was promptly blown about by the wind. The ocean is roiling and the wind is whipping and cruise newbies are getting their dresses blown above their heads. The bartenders look extra cheerful today.

Wow! This is incredible. Security and all the deck hands are putting away every unoccupied deck chair for safety. I went up to deck 18 where there is a little sundeck overlooking the Vibe and had to hang on tight. There were only 2 people in the Vibe. Fortunately I found a space behind a glass wall on deck 17 and was able to read and write in windy comfort. The white caps are blowing in all directions! Everyone who left items unattended just had their stuff blown away. There is a family doing an outdoor portrait session in formal clothes and their hair and dresses are all sideways. Perseverance is good, but so are sensible decisions.

The wind just knocked all the dirty dishes out of the dirty dishes area near the garbage cans. Big crash!

Now they are roping off outside decks where they have completely cleared all the deck chairs. This was a swift response to the mighty wind. Bar servers are carrying drinks by hand since drinks on trays would be swept away. Wonderful bar waiter from Headliners came by to take drink orders and he stopped to chat about tattoos. He is fully tattooed with stunning designs and I asked him about his blackout sleeve. He said it didn’t hurt as much as the underarms and he showed me those. I can not imagine the pain of an underarm tattoo! NCL used to have a company policy where tattoos needed to be covered but this no longer seems to be the case, which I love. I’ll ask him later to confirm. Maybe one day NCL will go the way of Virgin Voyages and have a tattoo shop on board. @ceilidh1 we would need to do this!!! I’m thinking the Bliss would be the right ship to test the tattoo waters.

I have a reservation for Le Bistro that I need to cancel for tonight so someone else can have the table. I’m going back to Wasabi!!!

Someone just came up trying to find a place to sit and declared “it’s pretty breezy up here.” They hightailed away and a Canadian couple came and took those seats.

I suspect the ropes course won’t be open today. I think I may try it out next week! @fstuff1 want to join?? You’re adventurous!

They have closed all of deck 16 and announced that Burn the Floor is canceled for 1:30pm. This now gives me an entirely free day until Howl at the Moon. If you’re keeping track, this is two canceled shows this cruise.

Like a homing pigeon returning to the roost I made my way to the thermal spa.

Note: do not leave the spa and return with an egg and cheese panini. They will say no food allowed, but they allowed the lady with the big plate of fries last night. If you make a rule, keep it consistent.

With tears streaming down my cheeks, I finished my book today. I remember all the books I’ve read on cruises and those combined reading/travel memories are rich.

Since I had $100 of shareholder credit and the only item I bought this week was the spa package it worked out to $199 for the thermal spa this week. I kept track of the hours I spent there (24.5) so it averaged $8.12 per hour.

# worthit

My employer should pay this because this is what it took for me to recover from The Incident.

#cheaperthantherapywouldhavebeen

Dinner was fabulous at Wasabi. Same food as last night.

Vanilla cheesecake in a jar two nights in a row=happy me.

I had to eat quickly to get to Howl at the Moon on time. I was meeting new friend who will never be as amazing and wonderful and fun as @ceilidh1

Howl at the Moon was as fabulous as fabulous as @ceilidh1 These musicians are incredibly talented. I lost track of the songs and just watched them improvise and play. Kyle gets pretty crude though which isn’t my jam.

Tonight is the bartender in Headliner’s last night of his nine month contract and bartenders were coming in all night to give him hugs and pats on the back. It was special to see. The crowd was generous tonight with both drinks and dollars for Howl at the Moon! Look at these tip containers!! It was raining money at one point.

schmoopie17 · March 24

15 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

I did enjoy watching a little boy swirl his entire bowl of pasta on his fork, wave it around like he was proudly carrying the flag for a cause in which he deeply believed then eat the pasta off the fork while dangling it into his mouth. There’s good entertainment on this ship for sure!

And people say NCL is cutting back on entertainment. They should book that kid to perform in the theater.

YVRteacher · March 24

Forget stolen luggage.

Someone stole the tv from Headliners. I await the Cruise Critic post seeking compassion.

YVRteacher · March 24

Turn around day for me, disembarkation or embarkation day for many. In all my cruises with NCL I have never seen anything like this. An announcement was made at 6:30am for people to stop congregating on stairwells and elevator landings. Repeated announcements were made for the next couple of hours that we were not ready to disembark and to please avoid congregating.

When I tried to get down to guest services to get my new key card I could not get down the staircases. People were shouting at each other and would not move out of the way for anything. I squeezed by a man and he slapped me on the back.

People who were doing self assist were lined up along deck 7 and 8, wound around the casino, all down the forward staircases and were just stuck in a non moving line up. Finally at 9:00am they started to move and the yellow luggage tag holders were called but there was absolutely no space for them to line up. At 9:20 they called yellow, red and grey.

This is why you don’t book early flights! Things happen.

As a Back to Back guest I needed to be in Syd Norman’s at 9:15am. There are 5 passengers and 4 musicians who need to do the facial recognition check with customs. A woman who tells us she “does back to back all the time” hasn’t bothered to get her new card and thought she could do so once back on board. The air conditioning is blasting in here and it’s dark. What a crappy way to treat repeat guests. Do better, NCL.

We have now been waiting in a dark room for 45 minutes. They better give me a free drink for my suffering.