Breakaway - March 2nd - Deluxe Owners Suite review

We were on the 3/2 thru 3/9 Breakaway cruise (yes the one with damage from the high seas) and we were in the Deluxe Owners Suite. First a little bit of background about us. I am 48 and my wife is 46. We have 3 grown children (28, 25 and 21) with a 4 year old granddaughter. We have lived in Montana for the last 28 years, moving here from Los Angeles. Many people live the life that Loverboy made popular (Working for the Weekend), we on the other hand live the life of working for the VACATION. This was our 7th cruise and 4th with Norwegian. Our other 3 cruises were on Carnival. On our 6th cruise (on the Pearl) we were paid a visit from the "upgrade fairy" and we were upgraded from a mini suite to the Owners Suite for a very reasonable fee. As many have said "once you try a suite you will never go back" certainly has applied to us. Will we ever sail in a non-suite again...............probably at some point, but we really like the suite life. We knew we were going to be in New York for business 16 months in advance and we knew we wanted to tie a cruise onto the business trip. The Breakaway being a new ship seemed like the perfect choice. We followed the making of the ship, her first sailing and we waited for every bit of information we could find on it. We finally booked the room just over a year out...........boy did that seem like a long time to wait.

Finally the wait was over and the trip was here. We arrived in New York on Thursday afternoon for our business meetings that were to take place on Friday and Saturday. This was our first trip to New York and we had a little free time so we went to a few shows (Phantom and Wicked), visited the Empire State Building and the 911 Memorial. We had a great time in New York but we were really looking forward to the cruise.

Sunday finally arrived and we arrived at the pier about 10am. Check in was a breeze as we were checked in immediately and waited in the Haven waiting room. While we were waiting and talking with the customer relations employee a gentleman came over and started complaining that they should start boarding right now, why are we waiting, get the show on the road and being pretty much an obnoxious jerk. He said he had cruised the Breakaway two weeks earlier and they were already on board by now. After reading on Cruise Critic about all the irate people and the complainers we both thought "here we go, it was all true". Fortunately this was really the only time we ever encountered one of them. We started boarding about 11:40am as they said there was one family that was having a hard time getting off the ship. We were the first passengers on the ship........Yahhh! We were escorted to the Haven lounge were we were met by Ruth, our Concierge, for a briefing of the suite life and what we could expect. Right after our discussion with Ruth we met a representative from the spa and the DW signed up for the spa pass immediately. Our room was all ready so we immediately headed to the room to check it out. What a room it was! The 16 months of saving and scrimping to pay for it all seemed worth while now.

It really was all we had hoped it would be. In addition to the room there was a huge balcony, and it was at the front of the ship.

Our balcony was at the upper right side of the ship (left side of the picture) directly under the two red umbrellas.

After checking out the room we left to go check out the ship for about an hour and then had lunch at the Haven restaurant. After lunch we had the muster drill that was very quick and orderly. We then went back out to the balcony to watch our trip down the river out to the Atlantic. What spectacular scenery of the New York skyline and Statue of Liberty. It was a fairly chilly day but not too bad, I did not even have my jacket on. That could have been from the fact that we are from Montana and we came to New York to warm up.....lol

We had a fairly early dinner scheduled at Teppanyaki. Research tip #1 - We purchased the UDP as we read many reviews about the slow service, wait lines and not so great food at the MDR's. We never set foot in an MDR and the food in the specialty restaurants was outstanding. I highly recommend the UDP and the specialty restaurants if you can swing it. Research tip #2 - We had made reservations for the Cirque Dreams Dinner for the first night as it is discounted 25%. We read the dinner at the show was not the greatest so we decided to eat at a specialty restaurant and skip the dinner at the show. The show itself was definitely worth the price of admission without the dinner and with the UDP it did not cost extra to eat a great meal before the show, bonus!

After the show we decided to call it a night as it had been a long day. I will end this for now and continue on in the near future.

Beautiful! Is Adrian no longer the concierge?

..... there was one family that was having a hard time getting off the ship ......

This is us. Regardless of line or vessel. Sorry to delay everyone. :D

Great start. Following.

Beautiful! Is Adrian no longer the concierge?

I heard Adrian left for a break a few weeks before our trip.

This is us. Regardless of line or vessel. Sorry to delay everyone.

 

It certainly did not bother us at all, we were just hoping everyone was ok.

Is there a curtain or door between main bedroom and bathroom?

Is there a curtain or door between main bedroom and bathroom?

There is a curtain between the main bedroom and bathroom, it is very thick and a room darkening material. Curtain closes beyond door frame so no light gets in the room from the bathroom area. You can see it briefly in the room tour we posted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zg1ZFR_FWA.

Off to a great start! I can't wait to read more!

I hear you met a particularly awesome dude on this voyage. :)

I hear you met a particularly awesome dude on this voyage.

Don't try to jump ahead in the story, that part is coming;).

There is a curtain between the main bedroom and bathroom, it is very thick and a room darkening material. Curtain closes beyond door frame so no light gets in the room from the bathroom area. You can see it briefly in the room tour we posted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zg1ZFR_FWA.

Thanks

How was Ruth?

Who were steward and butler and how were they?

Thx for the pics of the DOS! We were just on the Breakaway in the Haven but we booked late and both of the DOS were sold out but we want to do this next time and take the 3 cabins(dos, os, and ph) and make it like a mini GV.

It looks great! How awesome was the balcony?

Thanks

 

How was Ruth?

 

Who were steward and butler and how were they?

I sailed in this suite in July. The (absolutely amazing) butler was Lanie and we had Ruth as concierge.

Ruth was perfectly fine, and she helped tons with a potential disaster with a private boat charter in Bermuda...but I think concierges on the mega ships really aren't able to be as present as we had on the smaller NCL ships. She seemed a little distant, and we only saw her at her desk other than when we went to Cirque and disembarked. Overall, very different than seeing the concierge at nearly every restaurant and at every nightly show at on the smaller ships.

If you have Lanie you are in for excellent service!

Sorry, I don't remember the steward's name, but he got a nice extra tip and our room was always perfect!

Have a great time! :)

Are you really as close to the Haven courtyard as the deck plans make it seem?

The DOS is all the way forward. To get to the first door into the Haven, you probably have to walk 10-20 steps down the hall. You have to go down the entire hallway to get to the lounge/restaurant. I never, ever, heard hallway noise of any kind.

Are you really as close to the Haven courtyard as the deck plans make it seem?

Courtyard on Breakaway is glassed in so even if your cabin is across there is a buffer.

How was Ruth?

 

Who were steward and butler and how were they?

Ruth was fine and very efficient. What I really liked about the location of the room is anytime we left the Haven we had to walk by the concierge desk. When we were on the Pearl, with the concierge desk on a different floor, we rarely used the concierge. This cruise we used them a ton. We did not see Ruth at any restaurants as we did with Anoop on the Pearl but that was not a big deal to us.

Our butler was Fernando and he was very good. We did not use him as much as we used our butler on the Pearl but he was very pleasant, always had a smile on his face and did everything we asked of him very well.

Our cabin steward was Cecillio (spelling?) and he was very good also, no complaints from anyone in the Haven area:).

Holy incredible Suite!

Thx for the pics of the DOS! We were just on the Breakaway in the Haven but we booked late and both of the DOS were sold out but we want to do this next time and take the 3 cabins(dos, os, and ph) and make it like a mini GV.

 

It looks great! How awesome was the balcony?

We loved the balcony when we were sailing into port and while we were in port. It was very windy on most days while we were sailing so we did not use it much at all while at sea. I wish they would have put a removable divider between the front of the balcony and the side of the balcony to block the wind while at sea. You would then be able to use the portion of the balcony on the side of the ship while sailing.

I think combining the DOS, OS and PH would be fantastic. It would really open up the DOS and OS as they would combine the living rooms of both into a large living area. They can also combine the balconies of both to make an enormous balcony. The PH would still seem like a separated suite as there is just a door between the PH and DOS, the balconies do not combine at all. It would certainly be a great suite complex to have all 3.

looking forward to this review. thanks for posting. :)

Just quickly before I get into day 2 I thought I would post a couple of pictures of the Haven area in case anyone had not seen them.

The Haven lounge area.

The Haven Courtyard.

Upper level of the Haven Courtyard.

The Haven sundeck.

Day two started out with some very dense fog in the morning. The ship sounded off its horn many times throughout the morning. When the fog started to clear it was very pretty as it was coming off the water.

We started our morning with breakfast in the Haven restaurant. Our opinion of the Haven restaurant was it was very nice, the service was fantastic and everyone was very friendly. We found the food to be just ok, nothing great. We ended up only eating at the restaurant for 1 breakfast and 2 lunches. Portions were fairly small for the meals we ordered. I had the french dip once (very small) I could have eaten 3 of them easily. I had the french toast for a breakfast, again very small portion and a steak for another lunch. I thought the steak was just ok, but after eating filet mignon at the specialty restaurants it was bound to be a let down. My DW had the chicken breast for one lunch, ham and cheese omelet for a breakfast and french dip for her other lunch. She did not touch her french dip as she started feeling a little queasy so I ate it in addition to my steak.

After breakfast it was time for our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet and Slot Pull. This was our first cruise were we had been involved with Cruise Critic. What a great experience and a great group of people. Once there, we started mingling with everyone and all we kept hearing from them was "Where is Richard/Tralfie, I need to meet him, his posts are hilarious". He was definitely the talk of the group. We had a presentation from most of the officers but the captain did not make it. The meet and greet was actually over very quickly and then it was off to the slot pull. We actually made money on the slot pull (amazing because I never win on slot machines). I guess my bad karma was overpowered by another's good karma....lol. We each came away with $4.00 more than we started with. After the slot pull, while everyone was waiting for their cash to come back, I noticed a group of people talking with Richard/Tralfie. This was our first chance we had to get to talk with him. We made our way over and hit it off with Richard right away. After collecting our winnings we went to a bar and had some great conversation for about an hour or so. Richard was a blast and every bit as funny in real life as he was on his posts. This was just the first of many run ins we had with Richard throughout the cruise.

After our get together with Richard, my DW spent the next few hours in the spa and I wanted to try the ropes course and slides. I could not get my wedding ring off (finally got it off on day 4) so I decided I would hang out in the casino. My DW really liked the spa but she liked the spa on the Pearl a bit more. It was not very crowded and she was easily able to get a heated chair and anything else she wanted. I had a good time in the casino but ended up losing a little. I like to play blackjack and the dealers were great. All were a lot of fun and very engaging.

Time was flying by as we had early reservations at Cagney's for dinner before our social with the captain. Dinner at Cagney's was phenomenal! I had the potato soup, 8oz filet mignon (garlic butter), lobster and gratin potatoes. It was one of the best steaks I have ever had (we have really good steak in Montana). My DW had the potato soup, 5oz filet mignon (butterflied) and gratin potatoes. She loved her meal also. Cagney's was our favorite restaurant on board as we would eat here a total of 3 times. We missed desert as we ran out of time to make the social.

The Captain's social was in the Haven and there was a fair amount of people there. We talked with the captain for about 10 minutes and had a very good discussion, he was very pleasant. We saw Richard at this event also but we had to run as we remembered we had reservations for Burn the Floor that was to start in 10 minutes.

For all the shows in the theatre there are special seats saved for all Haven guests, we never used them. They are about 1/3 of the way from the front, on the side. We sat in the front row on the side isle seats. The seats were good and the show was very good. We definitely like the other shows better but it was certainly worth our time to watch the show. The dancers are very talented and have a ton of energy.

After the show we went to get some pictures taken from their photographers and went to Howl at the Moon. It was a good time and a good show. We have seen the Dueling Pianos in Las Vegas many times and they are a bit better than the Breakaway players, but it was still a lot of fun.

After another long day we decided to call it a night again. It was a great day!:D

Day 3 - Our first Port.

View while coming into port.

The only time we ever saw sea life on the cruise. There were about 6 dolphin that swam near the front of the ship.

Lots of different types of seagulls and I have an affection for shooting pictures of birds.

Sorry about the birds but I really did not take many pictures of anything else at this port.

I promise this is the last one!

Port Canaveral is our first port for the cruise and not the most exciting of ports. We probably would have stayed on the ship other than my natural father lives in Orlando and we decided to drive to Orlando and spend the day with him. I had reserved a car through Thrifty, by way of Hotwire, as they were much less than the other companies in the area (we would soon find out why). We wanted to get an early start so we met our concierge for the express path to exit the ship. She escorted us through the back workings of the ship and we came out just before the podiums to swipe your ship cards. This is really one of the great perks you get with your Haven room. We were off the ship in about 2 - 3 minutes. We headed over to the rental car shuttle bus area (we were one of the first people there) and most of the other agencies had their buses waiting already, but no Thrifty bus. About 30 minutes later our bus finally arrived. A mass of people hurried to the bus, as we also did, to make sure we were able to get on this bus. We were all packed in like sardines but I think we all made it. It was a short 10 minute ride to the rental agency. We all got out of the shuttle and got in line at the counter. There were about 8 separate groups wanting to rent a car and they had all of 1 agent at the counter. We waited another 50 minutes for our turn to get with the agent and rent our car. So, 1 1/2 hours after we got off the ship we were on our way to Orlando. The trip to Orlando was very easy as the road the agency is on is the same road that you take to Orlando. We had a very nice visit and headed back to the ship about 5pm. We returned the car after the agency had closed. They make an arrangement with a taxi company to be waiting right there to return passengers to the ship once they return their car, it worked out rather well.

Once back on the ship we had dinner reservations at La Cucina. Neither one of us enjoyed this dinner much and it was the worse dinner of our cruise. We have eaten at La Cucina on other Norwegian ships and really enjoyed it. I think it was just what we ordered. I had the lobster fettuccine as I figured I would never order this at any other restaurant. I was right as I will never order this again at any restaurant. My DW ordered the lasagna and she thought it was just ok. It did seem to have a strange flavor to it that we could not tell what it was. After dinner we headed back to the room to watch us sail away.

It was overcast and the lights looked very cool reflecting off the clouds.

After we set sail we just walked around exploring the ship some more, stopped in and watched Slam Allen, had more pictures taken and just had a relaxing night.

Great review and pictures. Can't wait to read more:)

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Awesome review and love the pics!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

We were on the 3/2 thru 3/9 Breakaway cruise (yes the one with damage from the high seas) and we were in the Deluxe Owners Suite. First a little bit of background about us. I am 48 and my wife is 46. We have 3 grown children (28, 25 and 21) with a 4 year old granddaughter. We have lived in Montana for the last 28 years, moving here from Los Angeles. Many people live the life that Loverboy made popular (Working for the Weekend), we on the other hand live the life of working for the VACATION. This was our 7th cruise and 4th with Norwegian. Our other 3 cruises were on Carnival. On our 6th cruise (on the Pearl) we were paid a visit from the "upgrade fairy" and we were upgraded from a mini suite to the Owners Suite for a very reasonable fee. As many have said "once you try a suite you will never go back" certainly has applied to us. Will we ever sail in a non-suite again...............probably at some point, but we really like the suite life. We knew we were going to be in New York for business 16 months in advance and we knew we wanted to tie a cruise onto the business trip. The Breakaway being a new ship seemed like the perfect choice. We followed the making of the ship, her first sailing and we waited for every bit of information we could find on it. We finally booked the room just over a year out...........boy did that seem like a long time to wait.

 

Finally the wait was over and the trip was here. We arrived in New York on Thursday afternoon for our business meetings that were to take place on Friday and Saturday. This was our first trip to New York and we had a little free time so we went to a few shows (Phantom and Wicked), visited the Empire State Building and the 911 Memorial. We had a great time in New York but we were really looking forward to the cruise.

 

Sunday finally arrived and we arrived at the pier about 10am. Check in was a breeze as we were checked in immediately and waited in the Haven waiting room. While we were waiting and talking with the customer relations employee a gentleman came over and started complaining that they should start boarding right now, why are we waiting, get the show on the road and being pretty much an obnoxious jerk. He said he had cruised the Breakaway two weeks earlier and they were already on board by now. After reading on Cruise Critic about all the irate people and the complainers we both thought "here we go, it was all true". Fortunately this was really the only time we ever encountered one of them. We started boarding about 11:40am as they said there was one family that was having a hard time getting off the ship. We were the first passengers on the ship........Yahhh! We were escorted to the Haven lounge were we were met by Ruth, our Concierge, for a briefing of the suite life and what we could expect. Right after our discussion with Ruth we met a representative from the spa and the DW signed up for the spa pass immediately. Our room was all ready so we immediately headed to the room to check it out. What a room it was! The 16 months of saving and scrimping to pay for it all seemed worth while now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It really was all we had hoped it would be. In addition to the room there was a huge balcony, and it was at the front of the ship.

 

Our balcony was at the upper right side of the ship (left side of the picture) directly under the two red umbrellas.

 

After checking out the room we left to go check out the ship for about an hour and then had lunch at the Haven restaurant. After lunch we had the muster drill that was very quick and orderly. We then went back out to the balcony to watch our trip down the river out to the Atlantic. What spectacular scenery of the New York skyline and Statue of Liberty. It was a fairly chilly day but not too bad, I did not even have my jacket on. That could have been from the fact that we are from Montana and we came to New York to warm up.....lol

 

We had a fairly early dinner scheduled at Teppanyaki. Research tip #1 - We purchased the UDP as we read many reviews about the slow service, wait lines and not so great food at the MDR's. We never set foot in an MDR and the food in the specialty restaurants was outstanding. I highly recommend the UDP and the specialty restaurants if you can swing it. Research tip #2 - We had made reservations for the Cirque Dreams Dinner for the first night as it is discounted 25%. We read the dinner at the show was not the greatest so we decided to eat at a specialty restaurant and skip the dinner at the show. The show itself was definitely worth the price of admission without the dinner and with the UDP it did not cost extra to eat a great meal before the show, bonus!

 

After the show we decided to call it a night as it had been a long day. I will end this for now and continue on in the near future.

What is UDP?

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What is UDP?

UDP is the Unlimited Dining Package. On a 7 day cruise it is $119 per person for unlimited dining at the specialty restaurants. On our trip we would have paid $180 each for the specialty restaurants we ate at. It was definitely worth it for us.

Love your photos!

Thanks for sharing with us.

Robin

Norwegian Breakaway July 2014

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day