June 8, 2014 Breakaway Cruise to Bermuda with the Kids!

Ok everyone! I hope you are interested in a somewhat long, detailed review filled with lots of pictures! That’s what I like to do, so I hope you’ll join along!

First a bit of background…this was a somewhat last minute trip, we booked about 3 weeks ago. My family had been tossing around summer vacation plans for what seemed like months – do we go to the beach, do we try to get to an all-inclusive in Mexico? When do our schedules work out for vacation? Nothing seemed to come together just right. Why is it that winter weather seems to last forever but when you try to plan a week in the summer, the options are so slim? Well we narrowed our choices down to one week, June 8th! We didn’t want to risk going to the beach up where we live, which would be the MD, DE or Jersey beaches. Been there, done that and too much risk of rain or cold weather so early in the season. So we thought about heading south. We wanted to eliminate the cost of airfare because for 4 of us, that is more than half of the expense of a trip for a week. So a long drive to a warm location also didn’t appeal.

And so, the idea of cruising out of NYC came up! Only problem, my husband ended up not being able to go, which is actually just as well since he really isn’t crazy about cruising.

The kids and I were thrilled though. The three of us love to cruise. My son, Alex, is almost 15 – my daughter, Megan is almost 13 and I’m in my mid-40s. As you can see by my signature, we tend to sail based on itinerary and not based on cruise line. We’re pretty much willing to try any line. For us, just being on vacation is the important part.

However, that being said, we sailed last year on the Epic in the Western Mediterranean, and while we all wanted to really love it, we were left feeling a bit disappointed as compared to our other cruises. So we had some mixed feelings about sailing on the Breakaway. We were going with an open mind though. Just as an aside, if you want to know what we liked and didn’t like about the Epic, feel free to jump to my review from last year in my signature.

Ok, enough background. The day had come and we were ready to sail! We thought about driving to the port, but we live very close to an Amtrak station and the pricing as compared to paying for gas, tolls, and parking made it an easy decision. My husband took us to the train station on Sunday morning for an 8:00 am train, which would get us to NYC just a little after 10:30 am. Fantastic timing!

Ready to go, at the train station!

We used Amtrak twice for cruises. Loved not having to drive anywhere.

Our train ride was smooth, and we arrived at Penn Station right on time. We went out and got a taxi. The ride was slow, and hot. What should have been about a $12 taxi ride approached $20 due to traffic and construction, but it still beat dragging our luggage I suppose! The ship was in sight and we were ready to get on board! Of course we had to stop for some pictures first!

[/url]

We went through the security lines, which at first glance looked long, but moved very quickly. Then after a short wait, maybe 5 minutes or so, we were up at the counter checking in. We had our Sea Pass cards in hand, and we had boarding number 48 I believe. It was around 11:45 or so. We sat down to wait to be called. The terminal was busy, but not overly crowded. We waited for maybe 10 more minutes or so and were able to board.

There is nothing like that feeling of walking on board for the first time! Suddenly you’re officially on vacation!!!

Keep it coming!!!! ;)

Walking on the ship, we were brought right into O’Sheehan’s, and boy did that feel just like the Epic at first! But to be honest, even though there were many similar venues, other than that, the similarities for us ended about there. We walked through and knew we’d be able to drop off our carry on bags in our cabin, which was a standard balcony, all the way at the front of the ship, 13108. Made for lots of exercise for sure!

We passed through atrium area with the big chandelier and of course, had to take a picture!

[/url]

Then we made our way to our cabin. On the Epic we had a Family Mini-Suite and as compared to the standard balcony here, this was small. Very small. Even compared to other standard balconies I’ve sailed on other lines. We’d make do, it was just the three of us.

But honestly, I was really surprised at just how small the cabin felt. And I’m sure you’ve all heard just how small the standard balcony itself is. Well, it’s true. It’s small. But hey – it’s a balcony and you can still sit on it and we did!

While we were dropping off our carry on bags, we met our Cabin Steward, Richard. He was fantastic. We say him several times a day and he always greeted the three of us by our first names, and always with a smile. We asked him to split the bed and to set up the drop down bed so we could use the sofa to sit on. My son slept on the bunk, which being almost 15 and not small, he had no problems fitting up there.

As far as the cabin, other than being small, I thought there was a major lack of storage space. It would have been nice to have at least a drawer or two in the desk area. The little, and I do mean little, cabinets in the room itself were so narrow that you couldn’t fit much in them. And yes, the closet does have a good amount of shelving, but if you do use the bunk bed, the ladder makes it nearly impossible to get into the closet where the hangers are. Odd design.

Now the bathroom – I thought was very spacious. Plenty of shelving and under the sink had a great amount of space. The shower was a good size as well.

We decided to go have lunch, we went to the buffet. The selection was typical for a cruise buffet. Everyone found something to eat. The scooped ice cream was a big hit! Then we toured the ship for a bit.

I spent some time trying to figure out their internet package, but only found out that it currently wasn’t working and kept being told to come back later. I was a bit concerned because I do have to be in contact with my business when I travel, so internet is pretty much a must, and if it wasn’t going to work I was going to have a bit of a problem. They told me they hoped it would work by noon on Monday. Hope so! But the good news was they had just implemented a new payment program where you pay by the MB used instead of minutes. This turned out to be a great cost savings, once their internet was up and running!

So, while I was waiting at the Internet Center, the kids went to the library to wait. The library is pretty big, and decorated with old Rockette's costumes. There is also a game room with various board games that you can play. We played Trivial Persuit one night.

Our muster station was at O'Sheehan's and we were checked in with our Sea Pass card. The Muster Drill was quick and thorough. We were done in about 15 minutes. We went out to the Waterfront for the sailaway.

Next up....Sailing out of NYC!

Loving your review with photos...please keep it coming!! :)

Loving your review with photos...please keep it coming!! :)

Thank you! Hopefully I'll get a couple more posts in tonight!

My daughter and I are big fans of NYC, so sailing out with a view of the city was quite the site for us! We all enjoyed taking in the view from the port side. I’ll just take one moment to mention an often brought up topic though – smoking on the ship.

Our thoughts – I didn’t notice it much inside at all. My daughter is very sensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke and she said she did notice it around the atrium area. My son didn’t care, but didn’t notice it much. No one seemed to be smoking in any balconies around us. Where I did notice it the most was the Waterfront area. If you aren’t a smoker, it sort of does take away from the ambiance of strolling along outside or sitting there enjoying the view. However, if you are a smoker, I can see that as a nice place to go to enjoy being able to smoke with a drink. So, you can’t please everyone.

Megan, covering her mouth because the smoke bothered her so much – yes, she’s a bit dramatic at times!

[/url]

And we finally were ready to start moving!

I probably have about 30 pictures of the skyline....I'll try to limit what I post! :D

And a few more NYC pictures

[/url]

Once we passed by the Freedom Tower, we moved to the other side of the ship to see the Statue of Liberty.

Thanks for the report! We started our daughter cruising when she was young and she loves it as well.

Once we passed by the Statue of Liberty, we moved back to the port side to for the Verrazano Bridge. I think we got so lucky with the beautiful weather for our sail away!

Some pictures of the bridge.

[/url]

Once we were moving we got ready for dinner. I'll mention now that based on our past experience on Norwegian we knew going in that we would want to eat most of our dinners at the specialty restaurants. We knew that the main dining rooms weren't going to have the variety that appealed to us. Their menu doesn't change during the week and they only offer one or maybe two changing menu items each night. Taste, Savor and the Manhattan Room all have the same menu, so even though they are in three different spaces, there's no variety in the food.

Knowing we'd want to eat at the specialty restaurants we decided to purchase the Ultimate Dining Plan. For us, this definitely worked in our favor. If you plan to mainly eat in the main dining rooms, it may not benefit you.

So, with the UDP, the Cirque Dreams and Dinner Jungle Fantasy is free the first night. Now, Megan is 12, so she was not on the UDP. We had to pay for her. No big deal. At the specialty restaurants she is 1/2 price, so less expensive than the UDP anyway.

The other thing we learned from our past NCL cruise was that the specialty restaurants fill up quickly, so plan ahead. Even if you change your reservations later - make a plan! So we pre-booked dinners Sun - Thursday before we sailed. We left Friday and Saturday open to decide where we'd go once on board.

In a way, I think this sort of defeats the entire Freestyle concept, but this was one of the things I really disliked about our cruise on the Epic. We only pre-booked one meal and no shows. But every night when we'd try to see a show it was sold out and every night where we wanted to go for dinner was booked until 9:30 or 10:00 at night. Waits for the main dining rooms were nearly an hour. So, in order to avoid feeling a scramble to find where to go, we planned ahead and it worked like a charm for us.

Our dinner at Cirque....we found the food to be fine. I'm not sure what the complaint is with filet and shrimp, but there was plenty to eat. My son doesn't like shrimp, so we asked for no shrimp and double meat and he was accommodated. There was a caprese salad to start and a dessert trio to finish. The show was good. However sometime after dessert was served there was a technical difficulty and they had to cut the performance short. I'd guess it had to be towards the end of the show since they were already onto coffee. They refunded all paid tickets, so my daughter received a refund and we were told we could make a reservation for another night. We decided what we saw was fine, and we didn't need to come back. We were all glad we went, we enjoyed the meal and the show. I'd recommend going for sure!

You can't take pictures during the show, so I don't have any, other than the kids in the crazy mirrors outside the theater!

One other comment regarding meal plans and such - the drink plans.

I would have liked to have gotten the beverage package since there were quite a few sea days. I probably would have lost money on it, but it would have been nice to not have to think about the money spent on each drink I did get. I also do like a lot of coffee drinks from the cafe, so they would have been included. I understand the concept that each adult in the cabin has to get the package, but I was the only adult. I have a problem with forcing my kids to get a soda package if I choose to get a beverage package. Neither of my kids drinks soda. I feel that I shouldn't have to pay for a package they won't touch if I want to get a package for myself. Obviously I am not sharing alcoholic drinks with them, so why do they have to get a soda package? Their packages don't include coffee drinks, bottled water or sparkling water - so I think this is a bit ridiculous. Well, actually, maybe the teen package does include extras, but my son doesn't drink any of that - my daughter would, but her package wouldn't include the extras since hers would be the basic soda package. That honestly is my only real complaint about the cruise - I think. But I think it's pretty valid. ;)

Thank you for the review. I am enjoying reading it. My sister and her family were on the same cruise with you and they loved it.

enjoying your review and pcitures!

Love the review so far.

I have a question about the seating at the Cirque show. Can you choose your seats? I keep seeing pics of long tables and wonder are you stuck sitting at these tables with folks you don't know? Can you get a table for 2?

Love the review so far.

 

I have a question about the seating at the Cirque show. Can you choose your seats? I keep seeing pics of long tables and wonder are you stuck sitting at these tables with folks you don't know? Can you get a table for 2?

Thanks!

At the Cirque show most tables are the long ones and you are seated with other families. I did see some smaller tables along the back wall, maybe that seated 4. You may be able to request those. Seating is first come, first served. I think the long tables, closest to the center, by the stage, have the best view.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

After our dinner we walked around the ship a bit. The kids played mini-golf and I took some pictures.

[/url]

It was a bit windy up there!

The kiddie pool area

Then we walked to Spice H20 to check out the sunset

[/url]

The big screen, where during the cruise they would have some movies

Celebrity Silhouette, we could pretty much always see it beside us, especially on the way to Bermuda.

Then we moved all the way to the front of the ship for a bit! Yes, we got a TON of exercise this cruise! A nice view from here!

About this time, Alex left to go to the Teen Club and that was his nightly thing. Dinner with us and then the teen club. That's one thing that he really loves about cruises. He gets to spend some time with his family but then time on his own with new friends. He gets his space.

Megan on the other hand didn't go once to her age group. She's 12 and went to the sign up for her age and wouldn't go back. She wanted so badly to be in the teen club. Her birthday is in about a month and felt like she would be in the "baby" group. Trying to explain that I'm sure there would be kids her age to her just wasn't going to fly. Again, likely a result of the cruise on the Epic last year when they grouped the 10-12 year old's with kids as young as 5 and 6 year's old and she really felt babied.

However, she and I had a fantastic time at night. She's a theater kid and she loved the shows on board! More on that later!

Absolutely loving your review and your pictures! I am sailing in September, and your review is very interesting with lots of good tips!

Thank you for taking the time to post, I can't wait to read more!

You have a lovely family, by the way!

J

Looking forward to more of your review and pics. Thanks for sharing.

Great job! Excited for more pix!

Great review so far! Beautiful photos, what kind of camera do you have?

Beautiful Photos! Curious about camera used also!

Great review so far! Beautiful photos, what kind of camera do you have?

Beautiful Photos! Curious about camera used also!

Thank you! I have a Nikon D7000 - one of my hobbies is travel and landscape photography. I have a shop on Etsy - feel free to pop over to see some of my work! There's a link to it on my blog which is in my signature.

Loving your review. Can't wait to read more.

I have never sailed NCL (only RCI). But I'm considering for next summer.

Sent from my iPhone