RWK1952

Notice just received that the NCL Breakaway 10 day cruise from Southampton to Barcelona, departing March 28, 2025, has been cancelled due to scheduled dock renovations in March now due to be completed ahead of schedule. Supposedly, we will know the exact rescheduled cruise specifics, and be able to rebook, beginning on May 20th. The notice I received indicated that the cruise would likely be a 14 day cruise, instead of a 10 day. That makes sense if the renovations will be completed earlier than expected. In the meantime, what do you suppose might happen? Since no other Breakaway 2025 cruises have been cancelled to my knowledge, it makes sense to me that the basic one-way itinerary ending in Barcelona on April 7, 2025 will remain unchanged. It would seem likely that they will just be adjusting the initial part of the itinerary. What changes do you think might happen? I certainly hope that the basic one-way cruise to Barcelona remains intact. I have found no other cruise line with a comparable itinerary in 2025, or certainly with a comparable price, sailing one-way to Barcelona. The closest I have found is the cruise leaving in May 2025 on the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas. I priced that RC cruise out. That is an 8 day cruise, and the base price for those 8 days on Brilliance of the Seas, is somewhat more than for what a comparable cabin would have been on the Breakaway for a 10 day cruise. My total fare on the 10 day Breakaway cruise that I had previously booked, also included their Free at Sea package for soft drinks, non-premium alcohol, basic internet, a $50 day per port shore excursion credit, and 2 specialty dinings. In addition, I added 2 more specialty dinings. prepaid gratuities and Priority Access. Whereas the RC comparable cabin price did not include ANY of those extras. Add those RC packages in and the total 8 day cruise on RC would have been close to $2000 or more than the NCL 10 day cruise. I am hoping that if they just add 4 more days to the NCL Breakaway cruise, especially since they are offering a 10% credit to people who were booked on the cancelled cruise, I’m guessing a 14 day cruise on NCL might still be less than that RC 8 day cruise, in addition to having more varied shore excursion options. Here is what I am hoping the NCL Breakaway changes may include. · Still leaving from Southampton, just 4 days earlier. I have found airfare from Boston to Southampton to have significantly less expensive options for Premium Economy seating than for itineraries leaving FROM other U.S. cities, or TO other major European cities. Check out Virgin Airlines flying from Boston Logan to Heathrow if you have not done so already. · One additional port stop in France. The old itinerary had only one stop in Le Havre (Paris). Bordeaux France has some identified shore excursions. · One or two port stops in northern Spain. The old itinerary originally had only one stop in Vigo Spain, but that port was eliminated even before the cruise itself was cancelled. A Coruna and Bilbao Spain each have some identified NCL shore excursions. · One additional port stop in Portugal. The old itinerary only included one stop in Lisbon. Perhaps add Oporto or Portimao Portugal. Both of those have identified NCL shore excursions. · A port stop in Agadir, Morocco. This would be a personal favorite for me since I would not at all mind adding a stop in Morocco. Agadir has some identified NCL shore excursions. Since the cruise already passes through the Strait of Gibraltar, this is not all that far out of the way – certainly only a night of cruising. Between all of the suggestions I have listed above, they could easily be added to a new, longer itinerary for this NCL cruise. As noted above, there are many existing NCL shore excursions available for those possible port stops. What other suggestions might you have?

Cancel and reprice is not the same as what I was able to do, since there is no guarantee that when you cancel a booking, you will then be able to get the same or even a similar cabin when you rebook, assuming one is still even available. The bottom line, it is apparently still my responsibility to identify these price drops on my own, and to then notify NCL. It is very nice to know at least that this CAN be done without having to cancel and rebook. The Unlimited Price Drops guarantee which I was told about by my cruise consultant seems to be something quite different from the "courtesy" you describe that takes effect only once final payment is made.

Well, I can only relate my recent experience exactly as it happened. My final payment, other than my initial $250 deposit, was not due until Nov 28th, 2024 since the cruise was not set to sail until March 28th, 2025. When I became aware of two separate $100 price decreases on the cost of my cabin over the course of about a 3 week period, I contacted my cruise consultant and on each occasion, I was issued new invoices reflecting the lower cost. If this is in fact a "courtesy", and not a written policy, then it would seem that the onus is on me to notify them, and not vice versa. But I can tell you from experience, it is not a one time thing, and it is available before final payment is made.

Considering that when I contacted my cruise consultant, he not only told me about the policy, he also issued me two new invoices ... twice ... to reflect two recent $100 price decreases, I would hardly call that irrelevant.

Just looked at my notes. I was told very specifically that the policy is called "Unlimited Price Drops".

NCL has a price drop guarantee on their cruises. Maybe it's not my cruise consultant's job to notify me, but I am curious how it gets done otherwise without me notifying them first?

I hope you enjoy whatever new trip you are able to book. I am sorry that we may not have been able to meet aboard an NCL cruise. My mother and grandmother were Swedish - Burquist. Since you mentioned that you were able to monitor price drops on CruisePlum, I was wondering whether you caught those latest two price drops on the NCL Iberian cruise? I saw them on the NCL website. I contacted my cruise consultant and he issued new invoices reflecting the price drops. But I wondered whether those would have been caught automatically by NCL if I had not first brought them up?

My mistake. It is our March 28th cruise that was cancelled.

Well, it is Thurs AM and I just got the email from NCL telling me that the Breakaway cruise starting May 28, 2025 has been cancelled. I looked online for other articles about this and found that a number of NCL vessels are having their 2025 schedules redone, and a number of cruises have been cancelled. Interestingly, the articles I saw listed about 8 other NCL ships, but NOT the Breakaway. The email I got said that one of the factors for the cancellation is that the drydock for the Breakaway, scheduled for the period just before the cruise was scheduled to depart, is now due to be finished earlier. I wonder if they are going to try and fit in an earlier cruise? The email also said that the Mediterranean cruise for the 28th would be rescheduled as a later, 14 day cruise. Sounds like cruises will be able to start to be rebooked on about May 20th. It also said anyone having a cruise cancelled will be able to get a 10% discount on any cruise leaving before Dec 1, 2025. I thought we were getting a pretty good deal on the May 28th, 10 day cruise, so it will be interesting to see how any new cruise compares. Here is a tip I heard about from another person on Cruise Critic. There is a really comprehensive cruise search site called CruisePlum.com. It provides a lot of really detailed search capability. That may even be how I first identified the NCL Iberian cruise. I will certainly be using that once again to find a replacement cruise, but then going to the individual cruise line's website to actually make the reservation. That seems to be the way to make the best deal. I hope that we can find something at least very similar to the May 28th cruise. I have already done lots of research, in particular about Barcelona and the east coast of Spain where we had planned to spend time after the completion of the cruise. I will post back here with what I find out. Since it appears that you may have been planning to take that same Iberian cruise, perhaps we can can communicate more directly. If we eventually end up booking the same cruise once again, it might be fun to at least know someone ahead of time a bit more personally among the 4000 or so guests who board the cruise ship. Just a thought.

I just spoke with my cruise consultant earlier today. He confirmed that he also could not see it on the NCL cruise search. However, he said he was able to check on the number of rooms booked on the cruise and he saw that there were still plenty of rooms available in each category of stateroom, including the Haven. When I also asked him about the fact that I had seen that the Vigo Spain port stop had been removed from the itinerary, he confirmed that it had been removed. That also may explain why the cruise is not currently searchable. NCL may be redoing the web pages for that cruise to reflect the change in itinerary so as not to mislead new people looking to book that cruise. He said since that cruise is still about eleven months away from departing, Vigo will more likely than not be replaced with another port stop.

I have added the Priority Boarding to our reservation for the March 2025 Iberian cruise to Barcelona. I did it ahead of time by just asking my NCL Cruise Consultant to add it to the invoice that will be due in November.

I just noticed that yesterday as well. I sent a message to my NCL consultant and am waiting to hear back. Does seem a bit strange that it might already be full.

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.