Breakaway Review 15 - 22 Sep 24 Canada New England

[itsnotjustme]

My wife and I just returned from a 7-day Canada – New England cruise on Breakaway.  We are ~60-year-old frequent cruisers with 21 total, and 14 on NCL.  Below is my review of selected elements of the cruise covering the items we care most about.  The ship was at 100% capacity. 

 

Overview:

Accurate Itinerary:  A

Ship Condition:  B-

Ship Design/layout:  C-

Dining:  B+ (highly variable)

Entertainment:  C (highly variable)

Housekeeping:  A

Casino:  B

 

Details:

Accurate Itinerary:  A

After booking, there was one minor change to our itinerary, departing Halifax at 7PM instead of 8PM, announced weeks in advance.  During the trip our entry into Halifax was also delayed 1 hour from 8 AM to 9 AM due to harbor traffic.

 

Ship Condition:  B-

While the ship looked nice at a distance, closer examination showed a lot of wear and tear.  Carpets in the MDR heavily worn along main traffic routes and with frayed seamlines, furniture that had seat wear and substantial marring, and many leaking window seals resulting in fogged glass.  All the essential systems operated flawlessly, but both hot-tubs in Spice H2O were out of action all cruise long.  Not good with a ship at capacity.

 

The ship goes into a 3-week dry dock soon and this is likely to address many of the conditions I describe (along with other maintenance).

 

Ship Design/layout:  C-

Breakaway lacks adequate sized venues for the number of passengers.

 

She lacks a Spinnaker lounge on a top deck forward, with the area swallowed up by the Haven.  This meant many events that we have traditionally enjoyed in Spinnaker were held in the smaller crowded Atrium.  Trivia, gameshows, not so newlywed game, musical acts, etc.  There was far from adequate seating in the Atrium even when arriving 30 minutes in advance.  The chairs were all wide enough for all but the very largest of passengers making fewer seats available.  I don’t suggest tiny chairs, but a mix of medium and large seats would improve capacity.

 

Further, Syd Norman Pour House and Headliners (Howl at the Moon) were jam packed and cramped standing room only each time we tried to enter.  We ended up not staying in either the entire cruise.

 

In the 6/7/8 area, the openness is a drawback to what could be nicer venues.  Dining at La Cucina you expect a quiet restaurant, but we listened to the pounding beat from Syd Norman’s across the corridor.  Shanghai’s Noodle Bar was directly open to the casino noise and smoke, so we choose not to eat there.  At times, smoke from the casino could be smelled through other parts of 6/7/8.

 

The Breakaway has Starlink based internet service which worked very well.

 

Dining:  B+ (Sub-scores food quality A-, service and venues B-)

Breakfast (Buffet 5, MDR 2): 

Both the buffet and MDR had the standard variety and food quality was good.

 

Lunch (Buffet 5, O’Sheehan’s 1, American Diner 0): 

The buffet had very good pizza, hot out of a pizza oven.  Other food was also good with a reasonable variety.  Mexican food was scarce and Indian food plentiful.  Cookies were observed at the buffet. 

 

O’Sheehan’s food was good, but the service was poor.  We ordered two mains and an appetizer to split.  My main arrived first – my wife insisted I eat so it would not get cold.  About 10 minutes later, the appetizer arrived by a drive by – no stopping to ask if everything was alright – or to notice I was halfway done and my wife’s meal had not arrived.  When we finally caught our server’s attention, she brought the salad with no apology as if she did not even notice it was very late.

 

We never got to the American Diner despite four attempts.  First attempt day 3 it was closed all day.  Second attempt day 5 we arrived at 2:30 PM and they refused to seat us (“invited” us to dine elsewhere) because they were busy and closed in 30 minutes.  Third attempt on day 6 they were closed all day.  Fourth attempt on day 7 we arrived 90 minutes before scheduled closing – but they were closed due to the weather.

 

Dinner (Le Bistro 1, La Cucina 1, Cagney’s 1, Teppanyaki 1, MDR 3):

Le Bistro was very good.

 

La Cucina was mostly good.  The main course was very slow to arrive (the waiter apologized several times) and we had to listen to the pounding beat from Syd Norman’s Pour House.  Also, we were using a Latitude Reward voucher.  The direction on what was included from the hostess (2 soup/salad/starters, 1 second, 1 dessert) was different than from the waiter (1 soup/salad/starter and that pizza is a second, even though it is not listed on the menu as a second).

 

Cagney’s was very good.  Using a FAS dining package, they allowed 2 appetizers, 1 main, 2 sides, and 1 dessert.  Far more generous than in La Cucina.

 

Teppanyaki was mostly good.  My wife has a seafood allergy so they prepared her meal separately, which is good.  It came out 10 minutes ahead of the rest of us, and already only lukewarm.  I do not like seafood but am not allergic.  I was not happy watching the chef use the same spatula on shrimp one second, and chicken the next, without as much as a wipe off.  They only gave the grill a quick scrape between the seafood and steak, leaving some seafood taste on other foods.

 

MDR was very good.  Two nights in Taste and Savor we were given window seats, likely due to our Latitudes status.  The third night was with two ship’s officers in Manhattan.  The food was good, but the live music was too loud making conversation difficult.  The Safety Officer “Otto” second officer was directly across from us and pleasant to speak with when we could hear him.  He has 6 years on Breakaway, advancing through four positions.  The Lead Recreation Supervisor “Alberto” was further away and we had limited interaction with him other than discussing the Norwegian Dream.

 

Entertainment:  Average C, but ranged from A to F by venue

The comedians Jorge Marroquin and Quinn Patterson were terrible (Jorge) and so-so (Quinn).  Jorge was intentionally offensive for no reason.  Just saying rude words does not make it funny.  The audience was mostly 60 – 80 years old and it was a bust.  We never went to see them again.

 

We couldn’t get in to see Syd Norman’s or Howl at the Moon due to the crowds.

 

Burn the Floor was technically excellent with high energy fast paced dancing to modern music.  Many people raved about it, but it is not my style and started to drag after 30 minutes.

 

The Broadway Cabaret was well done, but I did not recognize most of the songs.  The highlight was clearly the rendition of “You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton.

 

Housekeeping:  A

The staff kept our cabin and the ship very clean.  Once a day room servicing was fine.

 

Casino:  B

The casino had a large variety or modern and classic slots.  (I do not play the table games thus cannot comment.)  Unfortunately, it allows smoking throughout.  Cough cough.

 

General: 

Unfortunately, some of the other passengers detracted from the cruise experience.  Most passengers were great, but with 3,900 passengers there are always a few bad apples.  Some were minor things like people who continued to yell out answers at trivia, despite the host repeatedly saying write them down – do not call them out.  Others took away from our experience by being loud and obnoxious on the excursion bus (6 ½ hours!), possibly still drunk from the night before.  It was not just my wife and I they bothered.  Other passengers in line to re-board the ship were also talking about how rude they were, when they and their concierge pushed ahead of us to board 30 seconds before us lowly non-Haven passengers.  If you are reading this, yes I am talking about you.  And another Haven passenger who would press the close button on the elevator as soon as the door opened even though there were people trying to board and it was not crowded.  I was stepping in right after the elevator arrived and was struck by the closing door.

 

Overall we really enjoyed the cruise, but a few things could have been better.

Arrival.pdf Attrium Crowd.pdf

Edited September 25 by itsnotjustme
Typos!

[LaCal]

Thanks for your review 

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for sharing