Just got back from a great cruise on the Breakaway

Just got home Sunday from another great cruise on the Breakaway!!

I want to thank the people who assured me that parking at the pier was the way to go; it was super easy. We pulled over just past the elevator in the baggage offloading area. We don't travel lightly, so DH went downstairs to get a porter. He said it wasn't easy because they were so busy but finally found one to take our luggage. This guy was great, he wouldn't even let us take the things out of the car ourselves. We gave him a generous tip and it was worth every penny to us.

After parking the car, we went down the escalator and around the corner to where the long line started for security. A woman who was directing people where to go led us over to a line with just a few people and pulled back the rope for us to enter. I'm not sure why she did that but I wasn't going to question it because it probably saved us 20 minutes.

We then moved on to the check in line, told the rep that we were with CAS and he led us over to that line and pulled back the rope to let us through. We were the only ones in that line and were immediately directed to an agent. Check in was really fast and we were on our way. Total time from the parking lot to stepping on the ship was approx. 15-20 minutes.

We then went the buffet; it was crowded but not unmanageable and the food was pretty good.

We had our first balcony cabin on this cruise, cabin #11840 with an angled balcony. We appreciated the extra room you get with the angle but there was a little less privacy with the next door cabin but our neighbor was very nice and we enjoyed chatting with her. We enjoyed sitting out there, sailing down the Hudson and past the Statue of Liberty without having to fight the crowds on the upper decks. Later in the week, we watched some spectacular sunsets from there.

We've only had inside cabins up to now and the bathroom was the exact same size but the extra room between the closet and the bed made the cabin very comfortable. It was nice to have a sofa to sit on instead of just the bed.The closet was also bigger and there was plenty of storage.

Later, I hit the casino and the drink service was a little slow at first but picked up as the night went on. I can't say enough good things about the servers in the casino. They take your room key when you order and most of them will call you by name when they hand it back to you. Then they remember your name for the rest of the cruise and call out to you when they go by to ask if you need anything. Excellent service!

I had a decent amount of luck throughout the cruise and came home with more than half of my gambling budget. I had made it to the "Hot" level by the end of the evaluation period on March31st. This was our first cruise since the evaluation period started over again on April 1st, so I was basically starting over on this cruise. I managed to get to "Golden" status but it doesn't seem like the benefits are that much better than "Hot". I need about 5,000 more points to make VIP but even then the benefits don't increase by much. Also, at the end of the cruise, it was a struggle just to get the points I had earned applied to my final bill. The internet and gift shop purchases cost you 2 reward credits for every dollar you spend and I had enough points to pay for them but it didn't get taken off the bill. I did get it resolved just before we left the ship.

The day after we left was a sea day and we received a message that our first grandchild, who wasn't due until December 29th, had been born almost 3 months premature. In a panic, we rushed to guest services to ask about how to call home. The rep told us it would be $5.00 per minute to call home or we could purchase an internet plan. We explained what had happened and that we needed to call our son to find out the condition of the baby and without hesitation, he picked up the phone and asked for our son's number. He then dialed and handed the phone to us. I will never forget this young man for the compassion that he showed when he realized the seriousness of the situation. We had a very tearful and emotional conversation with our son and miraculously, our grandson was doing remarkably well, he was 2 lbs. 14 oz. and breathing on his own. We thanked the rep profusely and spent the rest of the day in a bit of a fog. We filled out a vacation hero card for this rep and also mentioned him in the survey that they sent to us when we returned home.

The next day in Florida, we were finally able to get phone service and the entire day was consumed with getting updates on the baby's condition, pricing out flights in case we needed to fly back to NY to get the car and drive home and getting information on transportation from the ship to the airport and the airport to the pier. In the end, our son said that he was doing so well and the doctor's weren't expecting any problems, so he thought that we should continue with the cruise. We purchased the internet plan to keep in touch and we could fly out of Nassau if need be.

We hadn't planned a lot of things to do ahead of time for this cruise and just made our plans for the day based on what looked interesting in the dailies and it made for a very relaxing week. We saw Second City (I think they were having an off night), played Bingo, did the ropes course (it was so windy, it made it very challenging), saw the crew talent show (great show) and participated in the Beatle trivia.

On Sunday, we got off the ship and drove 5.5 hours straight to the hospital to see our grandson for the first time. He is so beautiful and I'm happy to report that he is making great strides every day.

We really enjoyed this cruise and are looking forward to our next one on the Breakaway on November 30th.

Welcome home and congrats on being grandparents!

Glad you had a great cruise.

~Robin

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

Welcome home and congrats on being grandparents!

Glad you had a great cruise.

 

 

 

~Robin

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

Thank you :)

Oh, congrats. My hubby was a 3 month early preemie back 40 yrs ago and he is a big, strong, great man now. Congrats on your new little man and I know you'll see him getting stronger every day!

Thanks for taking the time to post a review.

Oh, congrats. My hubby was a 3 month early preemie back 40 yrs ago and he is a big, strong, great man now. Congrats on your new little man and I know you'll see him getting stronger every day!

 

Thanks for taking the time to post a review.

Thank you. He's tiny but he's strong and all the reports from the doctors are very positive!

Glad to hear your grandson is doing well. How scary that must have been. God bless him!!!!

Congrats!! Glad to hear the baby is doing well. It's great to hear That the NCL rep was helpful and it really comes down to human kindness.

Would love to hear more about the casino........... What did you play/win?

Are they making changes to the casino program? I hope not but have heard on the boards they are and not for the good?

Glad to hear your grandson is doing well. How scary that must have been. God bless him!!!!

Thank you!

Congrats!! Glad to hear the baby is doing well. It's great to hear That the NCL rep was helpful and it really comes down to human kindness.

 

Would love to hear more about the casino........... What did you play/win?

 

Are they making changes to the casino program? I hope not but have heard on the boards they are and not for the good?

Thank you.

I played lots of different games, there is a good selection in the casino and a lot of the machines have multiple games that you can play. There is one that has Pompeii (SP?), Buffalo and 2 other games that I can't remember the names. You can play up to 4 screens at a time and you can choose any combination of games on those screens. I played mostly Buffalo on all 4 screens and was up by over a thousand dollars on the first night. On the last night I was playing a Mystical Unicorn machine and the entire screen filled with unicorns.. I was playing $2.00 a spin and won a thousand dollars on just that spin. There is also a Sumatran Tiger game near the tables that I had some luck with the bonuses.

This was only my third cruise on NCL, the first being last December, so I'm not sure what the program was like before, but I'm not impressed with the benefits available for Golden and VIP. I don't feel that they are much better than Hot (at least it's not things that would appeal to me). Priority tendering, priority seating at the shows and priority disembarkation are things I probably won't use. I bring money with me so I don't care about the fees. I already had the specialty dinner at the Hot level. I just don't think there's much advantage to being a higher level player.

Glad you did well in the casino that's great! Thank you or the report on the tier levels :)

Glad you had a great time and happier that your grandson is doing okay...congratulations grandma!

Just got home Sunday from another great cruise on the Breakaway!!

 

I want to thank the people who assured me that parking at the pier was the way to go; it was super easy. We pulled over just past the elevator in the baggage offloading area. We don't travel lightly, so DH went downstairs to get a porter. He said it wasn't easy because they were so busy but finally found one to take our luggage. This guy was great, he wouldn't even let us take the things out of the car ourselves. We gave him a generous tip and it was worth every penny to us.

 

After parking the car, we went down the escalator and around the corner to where the long line started for security. A woman who was directing people where to go led us over to a line with just a few people and pulled back the rope for us to enter. I'm not sure why she did that but I wasn't going to question it because it probably saved us 20 minutes.

We then moved on to the check in line, told the rep that we were with CAS and he led us over to that line and pulled back the rope to let us through. We were the only ones in that line and were immediately directed to an agent. Check in was really fast and we were on our way. Total time from the parking lot to stepping on the ship was approx. 15-20 minutes.

 

We then went the buffet; it was crowded but not unmanageable and the food was pretty good.

 

We had our first balcony cabin on this cruise, cabin #11840 with an angled balcony. We appreciated the extra room you get with the angle but there was a little less privacy with the next door cabin but our neighbor was very nice and we enjoyed chatting with her. We enjoyed sitting out there, sailing down the Hudson and past the Statue of Liberty without having to fight the crowds on the upper decks. Later in the week, we watched some spectacular sunsets from there.

We've only had inside cabins up to now and the bathroom was the exact same size but the extra room between the closet and the bed made the cabin very comfortable. It was nice to have a sofa to sit on instead of just the bed.The closet was also bigger and there was plenty of storage.

 

Later, I hit the casino and the drink service was a little slow at first but picked up as the night went on. I can't say enough good things about the servers in the casino. They take your room key when you order and most of them will call you by name when they hand it back to you. Then they remember your name for the rest of the cruise and call out to you when they go by to ask if you need anything. Excellent service!

I had a decent amount of luck throughout the cruise and came home with more than half of my gambling budget. I had made it to the "Hot" level by the end of the evaluation period on March31st. This was our first cruise since the evaluation period started over again on April 1st, so I was basically starting over on this cruise. I managed to get to "Golden" status but it doesn't seem like the benefits are that much better than "Hot". I need about 5,000 more points to make VIP but even then the benefits don't increase by much. Also, at the end of the cruise, it was a struggle just to get the points I had earned applied to my final bill. The internet and gift shop purchases cost you 2 reward credits for every dollar you spend and I had enough points to pay for them but it didn't get taken off the bill. I did get it resolved just before we left the ship.

 

The day after we left was a sea day and we received a message that our first grandchild, who wasn't due until December 29th, had been born almost 3 months premature. In a panic, we rushed to guest services to ask about how to call home. The rep told us it would be $5.00 per minute to call home or we could purchase an internet plan. We explained what had happened and that we needed to call our son to find out the condition of the baby and without hesitation, he picked up the phone and asked for our son's number. He then dialed and handed the phone to us. I will never forget this young man for the compassion that he showed when he realized the seriousness of the situation. We had a very tearful and emotional conversation with our son and miraculously, our grandson was doing remarkably well, he was 2 lbs. 14 oz. and breathing on his own. We thanked the rep profusely and spent the rest of the day in a bit of a fog. We filled out a vacation hero card for this rep and also mentioned him in the survey that they sent to us when we returned home.

 

The next day in Florida, we were finally able to get phone service and the entire day was consumed with getting updates on the baby's condition, pricing out flights in case we needed to fly back to NY to get the car and drive home and getting information on transportation from the ship to the airport and the airport to the pier. In the end, our son said that he was doing so well and the doctor's weren't expecting any problems, so he thought that we should continue with the cruise. We purchased the internet plan to keep in touch and we could fly out of Nassau if need be.

 

We hadn't planned a lot of things to do ahead of time for this cruise and just made our plans for the day based on what looked interesting in the dailies and it made for a very relaxing week. We saw Second City (I think they were having an off night), played Bingo, did the ropes course (it was so windy, it made it very challenging), saw the crew talent show (great show) and participated in the Beatle trivia.

 

On Sunday, we got off the ship and drove 5.5 hours straight to the hospital to see our grandson for the first time. He is so beautiful and I'm happy to report that he is making great strides every day.

 

We really enjoyed this cruise and are looking forward to our next one on the Breakaway on November 30th.

Congratulations on your grandson.

Glad you did well in the casino that's great! Thank you or the report on the tier levels :)

You're welcome

Glad you had a great time and happier that your grandson is doing okay...congratulations grandma!

Thank you!

Congratulations on your grandson.

Thank you!

Congratulations on your grandchild and so glad to hear he is doing well!:)

Congratulations on your grandchild and so glad to hear he is doing well!:)

Thank you:)

Congratulations on the birth of your first grandchild.Glad he is doing well.

Also glad you enjoyed the cruise.

Congratulations on the birth of your first grandchild.Glad he is doing well.

 

Also glad you enjoyed the cruise.

Thank you:)

Happy to hear that your new grandson is doing so well, and of the kindness of the Guest Services Clerk.

Happy to hear that your new grandson is doing so well, and of the kindness of the Guest Services Clerk.

Thank you!

Thank goodness your grandson is doing so well, and major kudos to that guest services representative for what he did. When all settles down maybe a letter to someone, aside from the surveys, might be a nice thing to do; it might be placed in his permanent file and help him with promotions!

Thank goodness your grandson is doing so well, and major kudos to that guest services representative for what he did. When all settles down maybe a letter to someone, aside from the surveys, might be a nice thing to do; it might be placed in his permanent file and help him with promotions!

Ditto what they said.

~Robin

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

I'm so happy you had a great cruise, but I am most happy that your grandchild is doing so well. As I read about him, tears filled my eyes and I choked up. I can't possibly imagine how you must have felt being on a ship, unable to run to help your child. I was on the cruise with you and hope to one day meet you and give you a big hug. Please keep us updated on your miracle grandbaby.

Congratulations on your first grandchild. I am so glad he is doing well and hope he continues to make great strides. :)