Does anyone like The Breakaway?

1000x better

 

 

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We LOVE the Gem, but we just cant do another Bahama trip (we have done that itinerary on Carnival Sunshine, Splendor, and NCL Gem) so we are branching out to try Breakaway to Bermuda in July. We figured we better find out if we like the ship since the Gem is moving *sounds of sobbing* to NOLA I believe. We do have a trip booked on Gem in December-11 nights. Probably our farewell trip.

We're getting ready to book our 7th cruise on an -away class ship. We love the ships. People who will wait in line for 10 minutes at McDonalds for a burger will come out with flaming, anonymous complaints about the Breakaway who has a 10 minute wait for a white tablecloth, sit down dinner.

 

People who will wait in line for an hour at Dinsneyworld for a ride will complain about a 10 minute wait for a water slide.

 

You come on here flaming the ship having never been on her.

 

We always have a great time on the -away class ships. ANd you will too.

If you read the threads he actually loved the ship! It's just that a lot of the reviews for the breakaway on here are bad. Also on their facebook. But it's one of those things where it's the longer cruise 14+ is a different climate than the 5 or 7 day cruises IMO.

Was on the Breakaway in May of 2014 and our family very much had a very enjoyable cruise. This was also our first NCL cruise as we had mainly cruised with Royal Caribbean. In fact, have booked a cruise on its sistership next year.

Were you on the Breakaway? We did the Jewel/Gem 2012 - 2016 and I can't remember it being as bad.. but we did have a stroller then so they gave us some priority with the line. Also there were a lot more foreigners on this 14 day Breakaway trip and lots of confusion as to where to go. People were blocking the way to 12th Avenue and then changing their mind and going back into the terminal.

yes i was on. 1st time was haven so of course no delays on or off

2nd time was with special needs so again we got our hands held. however getting to the BA theater for disembark was a nitemare. but partially our fault for how we tried getting through the casino

that being said, BECAUSE we saw first hand what the line was like to get off the ship. i can say it was nuts. i cannot imagine doing this like the regular folk do.

also the line when you first get in the port to go through security was insanely long at 930 in the morning. cant imagine going through that.

upon leaving though id always pay the porters. that was super easy and well worth it.

does that ship have the same amount of indoor area as anthem

The Grandeur is much smaller than the Anthem but they have a Solarium that I love .

The Grandeur is much smaller than the Anthem but they have a Solarium that I love .

and apparently more expensive. just did a look and got 2500 for balc on 5 nite bermuda trip. i know bermuda is more by nature but wow.

It's been non stop disaster after disaster of reviews for this ship and it's sister ships, complaints, crying, horror stories, and more. People waiting hours for tables at all the restaurants, no hot water in cabins, cold food, bad service, it's endless. Considering I am getting on in under two weeks I was wondering if anyone actually likes the BA or are people just sailing on it out of duty?

I have sailed the breakaway twice, and aside from the delays in getting on and off the ship, I have very few complaints about the ship itself. Our first cruise on the breakaway was in an aft facing mini-suite on deck 9. Our room was spacious (for a cruise ship) and our balcony was HUGE. We had no issues whatsoever with our cabin, and although we were able to hear the parties up on the top deck, and the bass from the music, it was hardly enough to complain about. It was something I knew I would have to deal with, and in all honesty, we maybe only had an issue once, when I was feeling under the weather and I just wanted to sleep. A simple solution would have been to close the balcony door and block some of the sounds, but I was enjoying the fresh sea air.

The second cruise on the breakaway was my elopement-honeymoon. We went to NYC, married on April fools day, and went on a cruise 2 days later. This time we sailed in a port facing mini suite with large balcony and again had no complaints with the room. This week turned out to be spring break for a lot of schools, so the ship was crowded with kids (we don't have any so we are kind of kid clueless). We never waited more than 5 minutes for a table, we never had any issues with bad service or timely service. Our food was always cooked well, served hot, etc. The worst part for us was the fact that kids had taken over the adult pool, and there were no lounge chairs available.

This year, we are cruising the haven, and I hope that we will not have any issues finding a lounge chair, or a spot to swim!

I wouldn't psych yourself out over this... I know plenty of people who have sailed the breakaway and have loved it!

This year, we are cruising the haven, and I hope that we will not have any issues finding a lounge chair, or a spot to swim!

 

We love the Breakaway but don't expect to be able to swim in the Haven. The pool is too small for that.

As a guy who grew up on Lawn Guy Land, and is now a M******* through and through (over a decade up here, including college), married to "bitch slap Barbie... from Connecticut"... I know full well what I'm getting into sailing out of the port of NY. DW and I are only rude if people are rude to us first, so we know how to handle some hothead trial lawyer from freaking Wantagh who think's he's hot **** because he once represented Tom Suozzi for a parking ticket who wants to fight us for a deck chair.

Ah, I am glad to see I am not the only Lawn Guy Land-er who moved north. Although I am not a m*******, I am a Mainer which is not AS bad.

I don't find the people on the Breakaway to be rude, however, I did find some to be totally clueless. While on vacation I don't expect to be waited on hand and foot, and I don't expect to be served with a golden spoon, however, I saw a lot of people who paid less than a thousand dollars for an interior cabin throw tantrums because they weren't being treated like Haven guests. Well, guess what buttercup, the Haven guests forked over the extra cash. I had a rude girl moment, and I told a woman to pony up and pay or stop your whining before I had even gotten on the ship because she was angry that Haven guests get priority boarding....

I chose to pay to be in the Haven so that I don't have to deal with crowds or waiting on the embark/disembark lines. Talk about a north end snob.....

I would assume that people who book suites or The Haven get better service than those of us who book outside or inside cabins.

I would assume that people who book suites or The Haven get better service than those of us who book outside or inside cabins.

with respect to what? i really hope that when you go in a specialty restaurant they dont look at your card and decide not to serve you well because you arent haven. if you mean room stewards i guess that is possible

Oh please that is the reason all the cards are different colors!!!

Every time you give your card to get into a dining venue they know what type of pax you are and what cabin class you are.

That's not saying they purposely treat you differently but if you are paying $10000 for a cabin versus $1000 it certainly doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the waiter may treat you differently

The funny thing is that when it was me dh and the kids at le bistro we were treated like royalty. Ocean view cabin btw and when it was just me and dd we were practically ignored Inside cabin

Btw I'm the big tipper in my family so when it was me and just dd the waiter lost out on the $20 cash in hand I was planning to give him. Lol

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It's been non stop disaster after disaster of reviews for this ship and it's sister ships, complaints, crying, horror stories, and more. People waiting hours for tables at all the restaurants, no hot water in cabins, cold food, bad service, it's endless.

 

Considering I am getting on in under two weeks I was wondering if anyone actually likes the BA or are people just sailing on it out of duty?

I've sailed on the Breakaway three times and the last time was a 14-day cruise right after Thanksgiving last year. That ship has gone downhill fast. I took it on the shake down Trans-Atlantic to NYC and had an ok time. Nothing to scream about one way or the other. When I took the ship to Bermuda a year later, the ship was amazing and the service was amazing and the food was too! The last time in November into December 2016, good service was exceedingly difficult to find. The stateroom shorted out my electric shaver and blew out the outlet with no compensation from NCL. The in-cabin outlet sparked when I plugged in my re-chargeable battery for my camera. The cabin steward wanted to talk but never do his job and constantly forgot things. Dining room service was hideously slow forcing long waits for those who didn't get there early enough. Food was mediocre at best and the new menus were so salt laden you had to drink a ton of water for the rest of the night to quench your thirst. Good luck OP on your sailing. I hope you encounter better!

when i was on in OCT i was haven so of course i got good service. however in december i received virtually the same service from my balcony steward. cagneys was fantastic, oceanblue very good and they treated the kids well, and they let one kid go behind to the teppanyaki grill. i dont see what anyone could have done better relative to the color of my card. also we got very excellent handholding for a special needs passenger at the appropriate times. especially in the terminal. i was impressed .

all meals in taste/savor MDR were 90 to 120 minutes but i dont know if i when i had my haven card if that would have been cut down. some of the buffet food was better than i thought.

BA is not a winter ship. indoor bad weather days with the kids werent that fun but we made do. we did pay lower december prices. thats obviously why . but we enjoyed the angled balcony on the warmer days.

We love the Breakaway but don't expect to be able to swim in the Haven. The pool is too small for that.

Oh I know. All of the pools on board are really too small for "Swimming" but they are good for floating up and down and a quick cool off.

Was on Breakaway in May 2014 from NYC to Bermuda. I remember reading all the terrible write ups before we left.

Anyways, we had a FANTASTIC cruise!! Food, service, and entertainment were all excellent.

Enjoy your cruise! The Getaways in November 2015 was great too!!!

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I think my expectations were really low, but I had a fantastic cruise!! Better than anthem of the seas, which frankly surprised me-- but there it is.

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Just got off the Breakaway on Sunday and out of my past cruises (about 10) this may have been the most enjoyable one. The only issue I can think of the whole week was the tendering process at GSC and that was all weather related so had nothing to do with NCL. For a boat that was at full capacity and had 1600 kids really at no point did I feel crowded or overwhelmed. It took us about 30 minutes from the time we disembarked to getting through customs.

Just got off the Breakaway on Sunday and out of my past cruises (about 10) this may have been the most enjoyable one. The only issue I can think of the whole week was the tendering process at GSC and that was all weather related so had nothing to do with NCL. For a boat that was at full capacity and had 1600 kids really at no point did I feel crowded or overwhelmed. It took us about 30 minutes from the time we disembarked to getting through customs.

Glad you had a great time!! Just curious did you buy the spa pass? I was thinking about it in case it was crowded but since it didn't feel that way I'm thinking about waiting ..

I have a 4 and a 2 year old so no spa pass for me

Glad you had a great time!! Just curious did you buy the spa pass? I was thinking about it in case it was crowded but since it didn't feel that way I'm thinking about waiting ..

I didn't buy a spa pass. I went to spice for free-- adults only. Lovely. Wasn't crowded on port days.

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Been on breakaway 3 times with my 4th coming up march 12th. Never had a bad experience after the first one when she was only 2 weeks old. Smooth sailing (pun intended) ever since. And with Dan Dan as the CD I'm sure it's only going to be better then the last.

Been on breakaway 3 times with my 4th coming up march 12th. Never had a bad experience after the first one when she was only 2 weeks old. Smooth sailing (pun intended) ever since. And with Dan Dan as the CD I'm sure it's only going to be better then the last.

DanDan was great!

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DanDan was great!

 

 

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DanDan was our CD on our last trip! He was sooo much fun!

I don't know who the CD will be in Nov/Dec for our upcoming trip, but I am sure they will be great!

U can't imagine it being any more crowded than Epic on a rainy day. The only real problems we had was waiting for a table in Osheehan's ad very slow service in the dining room at lunch. Can't wait to sail the Breakaway in 4 plus weeks.