RWK1952

Since our cruise next March currently only includes one French stop at Le Havre, I thought maybe another French port might also be a possibility. Bordeaux is one that other ships stop at I know.

It appears that NCL is removing the Vigo Spain port stop from their itineraries. Any ideas which port they might be replacing it with?

My sincere hope is that while we are on our cruise next year, the particular time of day, at any given time, will be mostly irrelevant. 🙂 Except, of course, when returning to the ship from a port excursion!!

This is the first time I have posted about FAS+, so it must have been someone else you are thinking about. But the more I learn, the more I think that i will just purchase the 2 extra specialty dinners separately before we board. . The only other option I am still not sure about is the Priority Access add-on. Without that add-on, do you know if you can still check your big bags during initial checkin, and then have them delivered directly to your room while you wait for your room to be ready?

We will be sailing on a 10 day cruise around the Iberian peninsula on the NCL Breakaway. FAS+ would cost us $490pp ($980 total). The premium drink upgrade and the unlimited internet are not a big deal for us. We will be taking probably 6, shore excursions, so that is $300 since we already have 1, $50 credit per port. The extra 2 meals, which I saw somewhere would be $82pp after a tip, or another $164. So for us, I just don't see FAS+ being worth it. By the way, is the 150 minute internet inclusion limit with standard FAS per guest, or per cabin? Did you get the Priority Access add-on? If so, do you think it was worth it? I have read that it only affects shore excursions where there is a tender required, and all of our ports will be docked. I am trying to find out if you get any benefit at all from it on a shore excursion without a tender. Thanks.

My very best to you on all of your future travels. I can't imagine ever being quite so detailed as you have been, but reading your blog has inspired me to perhaps do the same during our cruise on the Breakaway.

Thank you. I appreciate your honest opinions and also the fact that you obviously have many years of experience doing cruising on many different cruise lines. Clearly, we are newbies, what with the Celebrity Millennium being our only other experience so far. But that was a good experience and the responses I have received to my posts on Cruise Critic make us confident we will enjoy the NCL Breakaway as well.

Thank you so much for posting this blog. We will be cruising on the NCL Breakaway around the Iberian peninsula around this time next year. I know that you are on the Bliss, but I have heard very good things about the Breakaway as well. What you have said speaks well for Norwegian in general, I believe.

Thanks for sharing your opinion of the FAS Plus. For us, premium alcohol is not a big deal. When we were on Celebrity, we actually found their standard, sparkling wine to be excellent. No problem with mixed drinks either. We are also not coffee drinkers, hence Starbucks is not of interest. Given those factors, we think the regular FAS will suit us just fine. Would you agree based upon your experience? Also, forgive me for not knowing, but what is MDR? You seemed to enjoy the food from there. The Priority Access option only affected port stops if they required a tender, correct? Would you say the Priority Access pass was worth it for the initial boarding process, and the final disembarkation process alone?

I am definitely leaning with staying on the Breakaway. Just too many factors in their favor, IMO. The BLU on Celebrity is likely a bit of an acquired taste. Obviously, there are not many options for the various dinner courses. But we never found us not liking at least one of the four options for each course, I believe. It was also extremely easy to just walk in without a reservation and get a table. I don't believe that we ever waited more than about 15 minutes, and most of the time we were seated immediately. Since it was also a much smaller venue, and we ate there at least four, maybe five times during the 7 day cruise. We came to know some of the other cruisers. We also greatly enjoyed the Celebrity buffet every morning so it's not like we have to dine elegantly in order to be satisfied. I am quite certain we will find many good food options on NCL. One other specialty option we tried and enjoyed on Celebrity was Le Petit Chef. That was a unique experience. We also found out that it was much less expensive on ship than it is if you were to go to one of their land restaurants, of which there are many all around the world.

Correct. The Breakaway is a huge Norwegian ship.

Thanks for some very useful background on all both of the ships I am considering now, as well as apparently having personal knowledge of the Celebrity AquaClass experience . I don't expect that either cabin would rival not just the AquaClass suite on Celebrity, but also the AquaClass perks, of which the BLU was the most notable by far for us. But on balance, I feel much more comfortable now staying with the RCL Breakaway for a number of factors, only one of which is overall price. The Breakaway, combined with the Free at Sea package, and the up front inclusion of all service charges and gratuities, makes me very comfortable with my decision. You can drive yourself crazy thinking of all of the what-ifs, and hoping to compare apples to apples, but in the end, go with your gut, right? Like I told one other commenter, how could I not go wrong with paying a $250 fully refundable down payment to hold my NCL cabin, and having until November to decide if I want to pay the balance?

I absolutely know there is a difference in size, and in the number of passengers. I did not realize until the comments on this post how old much older a ship the Brilliance is, and that the larger size of the RC stateroom does not compensate for a number of other factors.

You provided a lot of very useful information. Thank you. I actually have that Family Club Balcony booked with NCL. How could I not at least book it when it only cost a $250 fully refundable deposit, and i have until November to pay the balance?! That's a lot of time for no cost second thoughts if it ever comes to that. I actually like the NCL itinerary better than the RC even though they both go from Southampton to Barcelona. I also like the fact that the NCL cruise is in late March, as opposed to the RC cruise which is in May. My only hesitation about the Breakaway is that it is SUCH a huge ship, and has so many more potential passengers than than the Brilliance of the Sea. But my post on the Cruise Critic NCL forum got almost universally positive comments about the Breakaway, including from someone who is blogging while currently on the Breakaway.

Another poster mentioned internet as well and I forgot to mention it in my OP. That is another negative with the Junior Suite room on RC. Internet is NOT included, whereas with NCL, a Junior Suite with Free at Sea includes 150 minutes of wi-fi per person. I believe the RC agent estimated a significant additional amount for internet access as well, and since we definitely want at least some internet access, that would jack up the cost for RC as well compared to NCL.