My View: Our End-of-Summer Breakaway

[tampadee]

Thanks for the great review.  We are leaving Sunday on Breakaway.

 

Question:  Is it cold around the ship in the evening?  Some ships were others were not.  This will help with my packing!

 

 

[golf4me2010]

On 8/6/2024 at 6:26 PM, APDMOM said:

TIP: Keep an eye out for tender reservations.  We were able to make reservations on the public screens and in the app on the morning of day 5.  Unfortunately, there was a glitch in the system, and our reservations placed us on 2 different tenders…

 

HOWEVER, I had not realized that we did not need a tender reservation, as they have different directions for Latitudes Gold and up. You do not need a reservation if you have ‘priority tendering’ as latitudes benefit.

 

Thanks again for all this great info.

 

Is the priority for tenders for all Latitude levels? Curious thanks 

[Fredrik]

1 hour ago, golf4me2010 said:

Thanks again for all this great info.

 

Is the priority for tenders for all Latitude levels? Curious thanks 

Gold and up.

https://www.ncl.com/latitudes-rewards-program

 

-Fredrik

[APDMOM]

10 hours ago, tampadee said:

Thanks for the great review.  We are leaving Sunday on Breakaway.

 

Question:  Is it cold around the ship in the evening?  Some ships were others were not.  This will help with my packing!

 

 

Yes, Breakaway has powerful AC in the public spaces most of the time.  Enjoy your cruise!! 

[APDMOM]

Thanks for patiently waiting for me to recover from a bit of a grueling week at work.  I will try to wrap this up tomorrow with my view of our sea day and Great Stirrup Cay adventures. ❤️⛴️ 

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 6 - At Sea

 

[APDMOM]

Sea Day means lots of balcony time!

Since it was a cloudy day with a few sprinkles from time to time, the ship was extra crowded.  So, we spent most of the day on the balcony. We did venture out to the very crowded atrium and O'Sheehan's bar to watch a couple of events.

 

 How To Run a Cruise Ship:

 

Captain Ash telling us why he keeps coming back to work on a ship.  He really cares about his officers, staff and crew. 

 

 

 

Cake Wars aka Battle of the Cake - loved the entertainment!  

In this event, they have one passenger compete against the cruise director and assistant cruise director.  The assistant cruise director secured the help of the head pastry chef 😄

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Lunch Taste/Savor:

 

 

 

 

Sweet Corn Hush Puppies:  Excellent (some of the BEST we have ever tasted)

 

Philly Cheesesteak: Very good (DS) - not as good as Chili's

 

Turkey Cottage Pie - Good (we were a bit disappointed in the lack of spices.  Wish I had Tony's Cajun seasoning with me...)

 

Chicken Quesadilla: Good - not near as good as Chili's

 

Raspberry Chocolate Mousse (or something like that)... Excellent! One of the BEST desserts at sea.

[APDMOM]

After our traditional sea day nap and more time on the balcony... eat again. 🤣

 

We opted for an early dinner in O'Sheehan's with some of our usual orders.  I can't remember if I posted these yet, so here they are...

 

Pretzel Bites - Excellent

 

Artichoke and Spinach dip (Still loving the dip, but the chips are not as good as Chili's... maybe they should franchise a 'Chili's' on the ship for DS... LOL!)

 

Carrot Cake: Excellent 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Matthew... again.  Because it is like a free consert every night:

 

 

[APDMOM]

Late night (for us) snack in the buffet 

 

Flan - Good (had much better Flan on other cruises):

 

 

Mexican Chocolate Cake - Excellent (but very rich! A bit too rich fo DS, who did not feel good for a few hours after eating that)

[APDMOM]

My View: End of Day 6 - At Sea

 

Found my favorite martini - Rum Cake

[APDMOM]

Freestyle Daily: Day 6 - At Sea

 

 

 

 

 

[Oakman58]

I have to agree about Chili’s tortilla chips being so good and NCL’s artichoke and spinach dip is the best I’ve ever tasted.

 

HINT:  For tortilla chips at home, the brand Tostitos has a style of chip called Cantina thin and crispy. Almost like Chili's.

[APDMOM]

4 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

I have to agree about Chili’s tortilla chips being so good and NCL’s artichoke and spinach dip is the best I’ve ever tasted.

 

HINT:  For tortilla chips at home, the brand Tostitos has a style of chip called Cantina thin and crispy. Almost like Chili's.

@Oakman58, you made my day!  I will be looking for those Tostitos!  😄

 

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 7 - Great Stirrup Cay

[APDMOM]

A Few Arrival Views: No more beautiful mountains, but still lovely views

 

 

 

 

Docked at Coco Cay: Celebrity Reflexion - our Spring Break 2025 Ship and Allure of the Seas - my recent May girls getaway ship:

 

Coco Cay "Up and Away" in the distance:

Edited August 10 by APDMOM
clarify

[APDMOM]

The Tender Experience:

It was not until I re-checked what priority tender means that I realized I never needed to sign up for a tender in the app.  For priority tendering, I just went to the theater, showed my seapass Gold status, and was allowed to sit with other Latitudes members for priority tendering. 

 

Timeline: (Way better than our recent Belize experience on Enchanted Princess)

9:20 Sat down in theater

9:26 Escorted out of theater to tender

9:29 Seated on tender

9:38 Tender left the ship behind

9:50 First selfie on GSC!

[APDMOM]

You may notice the glaring absence of DS and DH... after too much rich chocolate cake and the consideration that both DS and DH are vestibularly challenged on smaller sea craft, they decided to stay on the ship.  I thoroughly enjoyed my 'me' time on the island, but hope they will join me when we return next year.

 

With my early arrival, there were still plenty of loungers open, including shaded spaces.  After being the first one on the swings in the water,

 

 

I was to swim in an almost empty bay for about 30 minutes to get some 'laps' in.  What a beautiful way to get exercise.  I could do this every day! 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Views around the island:

 

 

 

 

 

TIP:  An earlier tender is helpful on a hot day so that you can enjoy the island before it gets too muggy.  However, a later tender is not that bad, as there are plenty of loungers and areas for seating.

 

11:26 AM:  Even after a walk around the island, there were still plenty of seating at the first beach.  A later tender should not be a problem, as they seem to have taken care of providing loungers for all.

[APDMOM]

Speaking of muggy...

 

By 11:30 AM, I was getting very hot and that sun was stinging my skin.  Even for a Florida girl, this was too hot, so I started making my way back to the tenders.  

 

TIP: The view from the Bacardi Rum bar was my favorite, and you have the benefit of seating with umbrellas for shade:

I read many reviews and saw some videos of the long wait times for the tender back to the ship.  My solution was to enjoy the island early, then return early.  I was happy to see they added this shaded waiting area for later in the day when there really are lines to return.

 

 

 Of course, this early, I was one of 3 people on the tender returning to the ship.  A FULL tender still arrived at this time (11:40 AM): 

 

Until Next Summer, GSC 🙂

Edited August 10 by APDMOM
grammar

[APDMOM]

View of our ship from the tender:

 

Up and Away 😎

[APDMOM]

Balcony Fun:

We saw lots of sealife from our balcony in the afternoon.  Just could not capture the fast swimming creature too well - there was even a sea turtle, but it was cameral shy.

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Sail Away Views:

 

 

 

Sailing past Coco Cay:

[APDMOM]

We found our first and only duck on this last day:

 

TIP: If you don't like collecting ducks, give them to a crew member.  Apparently, many of them collect these creatures.  One told us they are treated like 'currency' by some of the crew...LOL!

 

We gave this one to our room steward, who was all too happy to give it to a co-worker who collects them.