Breakaway 3/22/2015 Sailing Pictorial Review, Dailies-FAQ/Tips-Extras- 10712 BD

Home again after a week on the Breakaway 3/22/2015 to 3/29/15 - a continuation of this semi-live thread posted - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2185755&page=5

Info here are both generic for most staterooms & balcony cabin (ours being in the "BD" category, 10712 - starboard, forward - 4th balcony from the most forward end of the long hallway, past the Studio Lounge/cabins. Ours overlooked the large (extended) balconies below us on deck 9, and the extended min-suites on deck 8, please refer to the deck plans for details & info not answered here.

Overall, we had a great time but didn't spend much on the smallish balcony, especially on the last sea day due to windy conditions & outdoor temp's in the 40's & large waves, motion was not a problem for us - YMMV.

We're dropped off just before 11 AM by our nephew, delayed by local traffic on the Ed Koch/59th Street Bridge coming in from Queens. Once thru security in about 10 minutes, we're directed to keep left to go to the back to the Haven area for priority check-in as Plantinum, only waited 1 minute for the next agent & got Zone 2 boarding #'s. Those with Cards A, B, C & D were the first to board, including those with special needs. Then it was Zone 2's turn & we made our way up the AFT gangway to Deck 7 & beelined to the MDR, almost 11:55 AM by then. NCL crew member attempted to steer everyone upstairs to the buffet but we insisted & pointed to the Dailies in our hand & he yielded the stairs to us.

(3) Pix inside the Haven check-in & waiting area, closest to the AFT gangway.

Popcorn shrimp & Cesar salad w. chicken - both good starter for a sit-down luncheon

Shrimp salad burger & salmon as entrees

Staterooms were ready shortly after 1 PM, announced over the ship's PA system - Sheehan's smiles can still be seen in a group photo of the BA's shipyard event, as seen here - and in the stateroom's interactive TV

P.S. Please kindly advise if the pix / images are not posting or linking properly.

Next - the FWD elevator area looking at the starboard side corridor

The narrow corridor looking toward the front of the ship (BA)

About 1/2 way toward the front of the ship is the keyed entry to the Studio Lounge

It's a long corridor, if you are new to these mega ships - good for daily walking exercises

Here it is - Balcony # 10712 - nothing unusal about it, except it's quite forward, starboard & the bed is next to the closet BUT the ship's floor plan showing it to the near the balcony.

Near the entry door on the wall is the slot for the keycard (any expired debit card or most hotel key card will work too) to keep the electricity on. The Do Not Disturb and Make Up Room buttons are higher up on the wall, flipping them on will enabled the lights outside above the door to alert the Steward.

View from inside 10712 - looking toward the entry door.

Full/Queen sized beds - notice tight spacing (15" max) against the sliding closet doors.

It's possible to move the narrow night stands with the open shelves to move the bed further away from the closet.

The room is otherwise, quite nice with the sofa-bed, 2 large drawers underneath it. Our mini-frigerator's minibar contents were bagged in a pillow case & stored by our Steward here by the first evening, extra sheets, pillow & comforters were stored in the other drawer.

View outside our balcony, look at the entrance to Pier 88's rooftop parking, with contract security's dog sniffing all vehicles before they are permitted to enter the lot & park there.

Written notice in our cabin, part of welcoming announcing that show times have been changed & no reservations needed ...

Also, as a new Message via the Interactive Stateroom TV - changes to ROA & BTF

Taken on Deck 7 FWD at the conclusion of the mandatory safety/life boat drills - where Guest Key Cards were scanned by crew members based on Assembly Stations ... more than a few hundreds trying to get into elevators afterward, we just waited & hanged out at O'Sheehans as the ship began backing out of the pier right on time.

Sunday night's dinner special at OSH -

Stateroom's digital IP telephone system - integrated VM (VoiceMail) system, no passcord needed and no remote access externally.

Staying in Touch - calling home from the stateroom @ $4.95 per min.

Breakaway's MB data used plan, 700 MB for $59 is the highest plan offered

Stateroom's "TV" channels - Fox News wasn't working & there's no cartoon channel on the Breakway, AFAIK ****

**** Stay tuned for my tips later on possible options, will explain later ...

Side note - law enforcement escort out of NY harbor ???

While fuzzing around, I recalled previous sailings' report of police hilos for the BA leaving NY so kept my eyes out for them, and noticed once we passed the SOL that there was a small but fast boat tailing/following us starboard side - with a person standing on the front of the boat, look closer & realized s/he seemed to be behind a 50 cal. weapon with a long barrel (unless it was a fire hoze, unlikely ...) Took a # of pix zooming in as close as I could, totally unexpected - I supposed we should be feeling safe with law enforcement escort.

Once we sailed under the VZ Bridge, the boat slowed down & stopped as we continued moving out & away thru the Lower Bay.

Hairdryer - answer to questions raised earlier - it's rated at 1500 watts on 220 volts, with several adjustments for speed/temp's

* * * to be continued * * *

Great pix - thanks for posting - and again for your very thorough log!:)

Great report as usual.

Wish I wasn't at work.

Thanks!!!!

Good start. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Thanks so much for your very detailed and informative review. I am looking forward to continuing to read it!

Coffee tea-hot water maker, Mini-Frig. & Electrical ( applicable to most BA staterooms) - all of them run on 220 volts power.

The Hamilton Beach 1-cup Coffee Maker, using the filtered flat pod/coffee "CLS Roasters" brand (2 reg. & 2 decaf daily, along with the sugar & creamer setup) good for an acceptable 5 to 6 oz. cup in reasonable strength to our taste.

Both the mini-frigerator/cooler box and hair dryer are found under the desk/dresser, and there is about 4" or 5" of usable (18" square) storage space above the frigerator (with user-adjustable temperature control - rotary dial.) I put my slim Sony Viao notebook PC inside the cabinet, above the frigerator, safely out of sight when not in use.

Ship's full-sized dinner/meal plates will not fit inside, however - frig. is smaller than the "bigger" ones used in the Dawn/Jewel class ships. The SS Ice Bucket do fit and the ice will last much longer without melting.

There are 4 electrical outlets above the desk/dresser on the Breakaway - two for 220 volts (1 used for the coffee maker, my dual voltage Sony computer plugged into the 2nd. one with an inexpensive adapter - using the popular 2 prone round plugs) and two 110 volts 3 prone polarized plug. Belkin power cube with 2 usb charging port is plugged into one, a 2nd. hi-power USB fast charging plug is directly connected to #2. A 110 volts low-amp power outlet can be found inside the bathroom, high above the mirror next to the light - marked for shaver only. It can be used to plug in an USB charger, if the light switch is turned OFF, power is cut to the outlet.

Notice that the Big Blue Speaker (wireless bluetooth & wired) in use, along with a micro-sized dual LED night in use, that plug into one of the USB charging port (or USB charging plug) - sized of a fingernail, on eBay for as low as $1 shipped free.

Mini Safe & Interactive HDTV (Sole brand, 720 dpi)

The mini safe (blue LED lighted, when opened) inside the wall closet required setting user's own 4 digit passcode each time to lock/unlock. Interior size is about 10" by 8" by 5"H, an iPad2 with a slim holder will fit at a slated angle, compact DSLR or digital camera & of course, wallets & smartphone/tablets, etc.

Here, packing cubes (eBags branded) in L, S and Slim sizes transferred directly on the closet's open shelves (content of one 22" carry-on) 1-L, 1-S, and 3-Slim, keeping items clean, neat & organized - they've flown all over the world & carried lifetime warranty. Other brands are Eagle Creek, Rick Steves & inexpensive ones by Ikea.

Stateroom's 21" HDTV has a max resolution of 720 dpi (no 1080's) using HDMI-1 (2 other HDMI ports are firmware locked/blocked, ditto for RGB/VGA input, etc.) It's fine for watching news, ship info & navigation channel 21, etc. Settings will be displayed using the "Input" & "Menu" buttons on the TV's right side panel.

Day 1 - Dinner at 6:30 PM (pre-reserved) @ Savor, Deck 6 - MID

It's been a busy day, we each took a short afternoon nap & woke up in time to get ready for casual dining. Showed up & hostess had us seated at a good small table for 2 next to window as we sail slowly into the sunset (on the opposite side, however - sorry no pictures, except for food)

Crab cake was on today's menu as a Starter - good choice, nice size & enjoyed it. PASSED.

DW isn't into red meat at all, ordered Chicken w. (yellow) curry over rice, good presentation & tasted fine, not "spicy hot" & tender chunks of white meat. PASSED.

Ordered the Beef (Striploin ?) steak, medium - and it arrived with baked potato & sweet corn, with gravy/sauce (a bit heavier than my taste/preference, subjective opinion, of course) & relatively tender, better than the cuts served on the BA in 2014. PASSED.

As listed in Day 2's Dailies, O'Sheehans serving Spare Ribs for Day 2's dinner

During the week, we put our Nexus 5 smartphones (on T-Mobile) on airplane mode & used only BA's internet for its restricted WiFi (non-internet) access, with good latency & overlapping channel coverage. There are NEC routers/repeater (squarish box) w. antennas wall-mounted high above along the hallways to deliver strong signal. I always travel with a global smartphone/dumb phone setup that roam domestically in the US and elsewhere on AT&T and/or T-Mobile or partner network on quadband frequency with 2G to 4G HSPA+ coverage. This pix was taken later in the week, showing the Moto Atrix 4G switched off/charging & the prepaid Sim on the 5 years old LG "dumb" flip-phone, locked onto BTC (Bahamas) network with 3G (voice only) for incoming & outgoing voice calls - equivalent rates of $3 USD per minute, cheaper than ship's stateroom calling rates of $4.99 per min.

Back in our stateroom after depositing our "contributions" at the ship casino's "non-smoking" section for part of the evening - watching the almost empty Shanghai Noodles a la carte restaurant that had few paying customers at night, except for some of the higher ranked NCL crew members eating late there, we headed back to our cabin to rest for the night.

Time, however, to "play" with the possibilities of watch downloaded movies and concerts loaded in MP4 format on the 21" HDTV screen instead of using the smaller Sony's 11.6" LCD panel - with the help of my Google Stick & HDMI cable ... not recommended for the non-tech geeks, intended as a demo project & easy revert to its original settings. Although, we have 3 variants of the NCL iConcierge Apps running on both iOS and Android, so I have access to most info destined for the interactive TV menu system.

Day 2 at Sea - Breakfast, Lunch & the (newer ??) 24 Hour Room Service

Normally, the Breakfast Order Form is in the stateroom and also on BA's Interactive TV, both were M.I.A. and the latest info/changes posted live this week explained that, partially ... without getting into the ongoing "dialogues" here on its own thread. Here they are - it seemed to be same exact one used for the Suite, we ordered items off this menu without a service or delivery/convenient fee for mid-afternoon snack last week on the Breakaway.

The newest/enhanced 24 Hour Room Service menu is said to have more choices, these are the current ones offered - rather limited, IMO.

All Day Menu

Hearty Chicken Soup

Chicken Caesar Salad

Greek Salad

Fruit Plate

Assorted Sandwiches

BLT

Turkey on Whole Grain Hoagie

Tuna Salad Sandwich

Grilled Beef Burger

All Beef Hot Dog

For the Kids

Chicken Fingers w. BBQ Sauce

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Macaroni & Cheese

Peanut Butter & Jerry Sandwich

Choice of: Cookies, Brownies, Jello or Ice Cream

Dessert

NY Cheesecake

Strawberry Pound Cake

Chocolate Cake

Beverages

Fresh Coffee / Decaf Coffee

Assorted Teas / Iced Tea

Whole Milk, Low Fat Milk

Soft Drinks $2.25

Fresh & Freestyle - 16" Pizza $5.00

We woke up late, too late for the MDR breakfast & being a chilly morning, not particularly wanted to go up to the Garden Cafe or Uptown Bar & Grill, headed to the closest - O'Sheehans for breakfast, everything came out a bit on the slower side - and, hot - as its own kitchen is right there, with juice & coffee. Service was fine and it wasn't full nor very busy, so a little puzzled about it. Prime Rib was offered at OSH on Day 1 as Dinner Special -

Had we decided to sign-up & go to our free Platinum Behind The Scene tours of 3 areas (only, paid one is more extensive & longer) we would be rushing over at 10:30 AM on Day 2. We just take it easy - a short walk & up one deck is LaCucina, where the 11 AM Meet & Greet for CC'ers is scheduled, I got there just in time & signed in - I believed we had about 85 people signed up and about 60 showed up, a pretty good turnout. Signed-in on the attendance sheet (name, stateroom #, email address & CC screen name) done and grab a cup of coffee & 2 cookies before taking a seat toward the back.

Ship's CC coordinator started the informal welcome shortly and we met the key heads of various departments, and contact info cards with all of their phone ext. #'s were given out, encouraging us to speak to them with any issues & concerns instead of posting afterward on CC. It was/is the fastest & shortest CC gathering that I've attended onboard a NCL ship - last year, we're at least asked about any comments or questions. Not this time, they just finished up and left the room together. Oh, well ... not taking questions that they cannot answer as it has & needs to be dealt with at Miami HQ level.

Our next stop was the gaming area on deck 7 - the Casino, being DW's favorite "entertainment" spot while on vacation. It was smokey especially around the open atrium area, but not as bad as toward the back section designated as "non-smoking" although you can hardly tell the difference sitting near the Shanghai Noodles place.

For a light & leisure lunch, we strolled over to Taste & got ourselves another nice table for 2 nenxt to the window. DW got the Shrimp & Penne (pasta) and the Salmon for myself, and, the dessert of mango cheesecake was good - with coffee, of course.

Breakaway - Balcony ("BD") Category #10712 (Starboard side, Forward - 4th one from the front of the ship as viewed from the outside)

Our Balcony is directly on top of the large (extended) balconies below us on Deck 9, a small round table instead of a small square table w. 2 chairs. The mini-suites on Deck 8 have the loungers. These photos were taken around 6 PM on Day 2 as we're south of the Carolinas, a little warmer than earlier & sea being moderate at about 7 to 8 ft. waves.

During this cruise, a small number of pax with balconies left their "porch" lights on all day & night (see photo #2 above and this night one) - in fact, both next door "neighbors" to our left & right done it. We kept our curtains closed at night & didn't bother us as we sleep with the door closed & prefer the AC is be on.

Day 2 - Specialty dinner at LeBistro & Towel Animal w. chocolate mints w. evening turn-down service (w. photos)

Using the pre-downloaded & pre-installed free NCL App, iConcierge (for both iOS & Android devices) - I was able to register & activate access to our account while doing our embarkation lunch sitting in Savor, and, checked on availability - booked tonight's free/comp'd dinner for 2 w. our Platinum certificate plus a bottle of house wine. We arrived a few minutes earlier for our 7:45 PM slot, greeted by a friendly hostess & had a windowed table for 2, great for people watching.

Checked earlier for LeBistro availability & the App shown zero - but, all but 2 tables on the outside / sidewalk cafe remained unfilled or vacant up until the time we left @ 9:15 PM. Far fewer folks with the UDP sailing ??

Nevertheless, after the salad & starter came the escargots - very good.

Next, the entrees - her fish soup was good, my imported lamb was ... just okay, meat was a bit on the tough side (medium well) - in my subjective opinion, of course. Very skimpy on the "sides" Meanwhile, ship's photographer came around & took pictures among the diners.

Dessert & coffee (freshed prep'd w. French press) were the best. Our waiter, Mr. E. from the Philippine & his assistant were very attentive with services and handed us our bottle of house wine to take back to our cabin (one of our niece/nephew @ home is going to be appreciative of it)

Overall rating for this evening's meal - PASSING or Above Average, nothing exceptional.

We headed back to find a towel animal & 2 small chocolate mints plus Day 3's Dailies on our bed; and, the cabin refreshed & ready

Breakaway's swimming pool - adults & children's area & late night HD movie

BA's pool & hot tubs are on Deck 15, midship and no matter how you look at it - it is small, our friends in Long Island (NY) have a bigger family pool in their backyard, seriously. It's 5 ft. deep on one end and 3 ft. deep on the other end of the adults pool with a divider in between. How many swimmers can you fit into this giant "bathhouse" with anywhere from 4,000 to 4,800 on a full/sold-out weekly sailing ?? Not a lot but I'm sure NCL did their formula math calculations.

I went upstairs to checkout the buffet and realized it closed prompty at 11:30 PM and the pool was being drained empty with safety netting over it - and took some pix. With Spring break coming up, parents with children wanted to know & visualized what it's like, having read about the "difficulties" in watching their kids played in the pool, as there's no lifeguard on duty anytime.

At midnight, based on the latest info - Room Service delivery will carry a convenience charge of $7.95 ??? ****per order (instead of $3.95 ??? ****only between midnight & 5 AM on the BA) It was still free last week, except late night & Pizza delivery 24/7 for a $5 fee.

**** Prices & terms subject to change without notice, refer to NCL & your ship's sailing for details, changes & particulars. These are FYI only for planning purposes.

Back to our room, with limited TV channel options (except PPV) - time to turn on the Sony PC to cast and watch one of the several downloaded movie on "big" screen HDTV (via HDMI) - however, max resolution is 720 dpi only, good enough to watch a 2 hours concert. Cool.

Dailies - Overview, 7 Days At A Glance, Key Ship Contacts, Disembarkation Info

The Latitude/Cruise Consultant Manager is Martin Visser

Platinum members - Concierge Services is available upon request, by calling Ext. 216212 on the ship for restaurant reservations & shore-ex (cannot rate - did not use the designated concierge)

** The Godvia chocolate is now a smaller 4 pc. box instead of last year's 8 pc. box.

Other Key NCL officers in charge of key areas for our sailing -

The Welcome Info/Overview of what's open/available, mostly for disembarkation day -

7 Days at a Glance - "key" times, events & locations, etc.

3 page guide - NY's Disembarkation (7 days later - following Sunday morning) including color tags for luggage (Gold & Platinum - go to CC Desk, deck 6 Fwd during posted hours)

* * * To Be Continued * * *

Wow, this is great so far. So much detail! Keep em coming :-) Just an FYI, I think the 7 days at a glance is a duplicate of the welcome aboard page. Thanks!

... oops, late nite editing without coffee. Fixed, should be easier to view without need to rotate your browser/tablet/ipad, etc. Enjoy reading / planning

Welcome Abroad - rotated 90 deg. easier to read

Dailies - 7 Days at a Glance

These are now "old" ?? Shore Excursion prices for the Breakaway's Port Canaveral, GSC & Nassau 7 days itinerary, prices & terms subject to changes by NCL with or without advance notices, use these 4 pages as a template for planning & references only - YMMV with applicable charges.

This was the BA's 3/22/2015 MDR Embarkation Lunch Menu - and repeated on several days, there is at least one variant, however. We did not dine there on all days so ...

Use this as your guide since ... changes upon and without advance notices.

Day 3 - Port Canaveral today, 12 noon to 9 PM. Food pix

Although we went to sleep late, we woke up early enough to not miss a full sit-down breakfast in the MDR and made our way down to Deck 6 before 9:30 AM.

Fresh fruits, Eggs Benedict w. smoked salmon, French toast, O.J. & coffee, etc.

It's all good sitting next to the window, watching the calm seas - weather has warmed up to around 70+ degree, cloudy and wearing shorts. Per Capt's report from the bridge yesterday, we will be docking at the new cruise terminal and a tugboat will be escorting the ship into the channel.

Next, we decided to checkout the outdoors on Deck 7 below the Waterfront, here - near the Main Theater entrance @FWD elevators & stairs, starboard side

Port side, still no land in sight but the tugboat is in front of us so we are getting very close ...

Docking at the new Port Canaveral Cruise Terminal - staying on the ship & watching the actions below. Weather forecast is cloudy & chance of showers.

In the unlikely case of MOB/POB, these are the fast/rescue boat likely launched quickly into the water as the ship turned around to start SAR

These are regular & oversized lifeboats or tenders with high pax capacity and fully enclosed.

Finally, we docked at the new cruise terminal a little after 11 AM and the Captain did cautioned we might need extra time to setup for going ashore & getting cleared, etc. ... using 2 enclosed gangways. Disney tours completely sold out, but still got spaces for Epcot & other popular tourist traps (I meant, sites) - done there, done those, in our younger days.

Watching all these on our own balcony, we noticed at least 2 dozen people getting off the BA first, via the Deck 4 gangway, everyone of them with a roller/spinner and backpacks or oversized personal bags, etc. At first, we thought they might be cruise pax. getting off but then we realized they must be crew members - as they were going into the main terminal building directly, but walking outside on the open pier area - orderely, and, that there's another group of dozens waiting by the fenced security gates, with bags & luggages - vacation/contract turnovers, or whatever it's called.

Our balcony is up there on deck 10 FWD, almost directly under the bridge extension out the side. Now that we are getting a good T-Mobile cellular signal, the Sony PC started up & tethering for internet access, catching up on the latest ... including CC news.

Things were a little behind schedule but by 12:15 to 12:30 PM, the ones on NCL tours with tickets were walking up & down the gangway into the terminal for transportation. Good, we get to enjoy the ship with far fewer crowds & do lunch somewhere - and, watch the afternoon movie (served with free popcorns, LOL) - it's "Godzilla"

Thank you so much for the review...getting excited to get on the breakaway in 12 days!

Great photos and info. Thank you. Looking forward to more :)