electroguy

My wife and I were on the Norway in 1994 with a family group. It was our second cruise. It just so happens there were some former Green Bay Packers on that cruise. The pictures show a couple of us posing with Fuzzy Thurston and Jerry Kramer. We've been on a lot of cruises since, but that one holds a special place for us. Everything seemed a little more special back then.

You might be interested in my recent post about the Breakaway (link below). To me, the ship design is really important. More important than the size of the ship, I think the deck layout and general ship design makes a big difference. I have been on some of the biggest Royal Caribbean ships, and really liked them. In my experiences on Norwegian, I have preferred their smaller ships, though I have heard the opinion that the Encore's design is a big improvement over other large Norwegian ships. 

I think it's important that a ship has a reliable place to escape the very loud, crowded areas when you want to relax, read, socialize, have a cocktail, etc. Except early in the day, we could not find such a place on the Epic or the Breakaway. That was very frustrating and really detracted from the enjoyment of our cruise.

Although I agree with your comments about the amusements, they tend to be on the highest decks and seem easy to avoid, though they probably attract more families with kids.

We are not smokers and don't like smokey areas, but we really only noticed it when you actually walked through the casino (which you occasionally are likely to do). We never ate at Shanghai's Noodle Bar, so I can't say how noticeable it is there, but I would guess it might be. Even though the casino is open above to Shaker's Bar, we never noticed the smoke up there. It is also open to deck 6 below, but didn't notice it down there either. 

My wife and I just finished our 35th cruise, many of them on Norwegian (in fact we’re platinum). I know many discussions of the Breakaway cover the food, shows, staffing, ports, etc., but I want to focus mostly on the ship itself. First, we are retired, often travel with other family members, and admittedly are not looking for a loud party atmosphere. We’re more interested in having a relaxing time and enjoy being on the ship. We enjoy activities like trivia, the newlywed game, some of the music, having a drink and good conversation in a lounge, and going to dinner.

Besides the Breakaway, we have recently been on the Epic, and like many other cruisers, we didn’t like many things about the Epic. We were hoping the Breakaway was going to be an improvement, but much of it was very similar. One welcome improvement is that the Breakaway has traditional bathrooms, rather than the goofy split design found on the Epic. Another nice improvement is the Waterfront on deck 8, which makes the outside promenade a much more interesting and useful area, especially if you want to relax outside and avoid the pool deck.

 On the negative side though, there were several disappointments. First, the most popular (inside) area on the Breakaway is the atrium. NCL schedules almost constant activity there. Although at times it can be a nice place to hang-out, much of the time it is very overcrowded. Many of the activities there are very popular and the area is simply too small to accommodate them. As a result, unless you arrive early, (and hopefully during a pause in the activities) you may not get a seat. As a result, many people have to stand for popular activities and often find it difficult to get a good view. Rather than hold the more popular activities in a larger venue, so passengers can actually see and enjoy them, NCL must have decided it’s more important for the atrium to be the center of constant activity.

Along with this activity comes an incredible amount of noise, especially later in the day. Almost everything held there is LOUD; from the microphones used for everything (trivia, various games, dance instructions, etc.) to music. To make matters worse, the atrium is open above to O’Sheehan’s, so the entire area becomes one big noise zone. In fact, if you are trying to eat at O’Sheehan’s, you may need to yell to the person on the other side of the table so they can hear you.

The problem of very high noise levels extends to many other areas of the ship as well, and the noise often seems impossible to escape, especially in the evening. Although some of the specialty restaurants offer relief, La Cucina packs a lot of tables into the restaurant and is also open to adjacent areas. It was very noisy during our dinner. Teppanyaki can be extremely noisy, but I guess that’s part of the show there. If you’re looking for a reasonably quiet bar to have a drink, relax, and talk with others, it can be impossible to find in the late afternoon and evening. 

To us, the Breakaway also lacks enough windows where you can enjoy the view outside. On the lower decks, unless you’re in some select areas, you don’t have much connection with the ocean. Most disappointing, there is no upper deck observation lounge (like a Spinnakers) where you’re surrounded with large windows to the front. On some of Norwegian’s other ships, not only do you get a great view in those lounges, but much of the day they are a quiet place to relax, read, have a drink and enjoy conversation.

Lastly, this may seem like an odd complaint, but whoever picked out the chairs and couches throughout the ship, must think everyone is over six feet tall! Most of them are very deep and uncomfortable.

We did find the staff to be friendly and helpful and were very pleased with our room steward. There have been a lot of complaints regarding the difficulty of getting a drink at the bars. Although they are often very busy, and we did experience some problem with that, the bar staff generally hustle and do their best. Dinner service can be slow making for an almost two hour event.

Perhaps Norwegian isn’t the ideal cruise line for us, though we have had many enjoyable cruises with them. Have they changed? It may also be that their smaller, older ships appeal to us more.
 

I will be sailingwith the Classic Beverage Package. Since I’m not terribly fussyabout what brand of alcohol is used (within reason), I doubt that Ineed to upgrade to the Premium Package. However, I am wondering aboutmartinis. Will I be able to order martinis at most bars without anextra charge? What about the martini bar? Do all of their martinisexceed the classic package limit? Can you order other mixed drinksthere, or is it just martinis? Is it true that the martinis there arelarger than other bars?

Thanks for all the helpful replies!

My wife and I have been on a lot of cruises, but not on Celebrity. We have enjoyed the trivia offered on other cruises and wonder if Celebrity offers daily trivia. We also like the other various (non pool area) games on Princess, Norwegian, etc. How does Celebrity compare? We are interested in trying a cruise on the Silhouette, but don't know if they offer the kind of entertainment we enjoy. Any help is appreciated.

It's an automatic message generated when you click the "I'm sailing" button. Totally legit.

I was surprised to see a post from myself in a roll call, because all I've been doing is reading them. I don't believe I ever clicked on anything to join or confirm that I'm sailing. It's a little weird to see your own fake post.

I have read many reviews that mentioned the show Mama Mia on the Allure, and everyone seems to rave about it. However, one reviewer mentioned that it's 2 and 1/2 hours long. Can anyone confirm that? I'm not sure I'm up for a show that long.

Thanks to everyone for the very helpful information.

I booked a cruise on the Jewel that returns to Seattle on July 4th. The only good flight home leaves at 11:30 AM. Would it be risky to book that flight?

Hi!

 

I am booked on the Norwegian Epic in March. Does this ship stay on Miami or time or do you change your clocks at all during the cruise to match local time? I did call NCL and get an answer from them but wanted to double check with people that have been on recent cruises to be sure.

 

Thanks!

Soccer Mom

Cozumel is changing from the Central to the Eastern Time Zone on Feb. 1st 2015. You can find more information by searching for "Cozumel 4 You NEWS"