skittlebug83

Urghh....my long write-up on Bermuda just disappeared into thin air....so annoyed :mad:

Will retype and post more tomorrow

For now, here are a few scenery pics I took

Thank you. We'll be on the Breakaway soon and will use any pointer you can give us. Especially those that involve getting around in Bermuda.

I will try to post on Bermuda next. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. Not sure if I will have the answer, but you never know.

Really nice review so far....thank you so much for taking the time to do this!!

I've been on NCL twice, but have not been to Bermuda or sailed out of NY. I'm thinking about taking this cruise.

Out of curiosity, how much would it have cost to park and take the ferry vs. parking at the terminal??

Thank You!!

According to what I found on the East Coast departures board, parking at Port Imperial is $16/day. Factor in the additional fee to use the ferry of $9 per trip per person. So in the end it would have saved us $132 for the two of us.

Embarkation and Disembarkation:

Original plan was to park at Port Imperial, take the ferry across and walk to the cruise terminal but since the forecast was looking a bit iffy we decided to bite the bullet and just park right at the cruise terminal for $280.

Embarkation was busy, but I wouldn't say we had any excessively long waiting. We parked around 1130 and were on the boat by 1215-1230.

For disembarkation we chose the earliest time of the self-embarkation (pink tags) and were ready to get off the ship by 8 o'clock. Unfortunately by that time EVERY single elevator was full of people with the same idea. So we ended up lugging our luggages down from deck 13 to 7 (glad I packed relatively light!). There was a bit of delay with docking so they were advising people to stay clear of deck 7 because it was getting pretty congested. We were already on deck 7 at this point, so I don't feel too guilty about ignoring that. We were one of the first off the aft gangway (note that they were checking for your tags, so if you had a later time, be prepared to wait) and were heading through the Manhattan tunnel by 9 o'clock. Easy peasy! We had a long 6 hour drive back to Canada ahead so were very grateful that it went as smoothly as it did.

Stateroom:

We had a mid-ship inside cabin 13655 and it was very adequate for us! This was only my second cruise, the first time was also an inside room so maybe it's just a matter of me just not knowing any better. We found the location to be convenient, the second room in from the aft bank of elevators and I don't remember hearing any noises from the hallway or from other staterooms. We had a friendly steward Miguel and he was quick to help out with any issues/requests that we had and left us with a wide assortment of towel animals over the course of the week. I tried to brush up on my rusty Tagalog (a lot of the workers on the Breakaway were from the Philippines ) but sadly I didn't learn enough to begin with!

Spa:

One of our first orders of business once we boarded was to get our passes to the Thermal Suite for the week. This had been something I had been back and forth about pre-cruise but with the weather forecast for the week being what it was, it became a must for us. They add a sticker to your card and you hand it over every time you enter the thermal suite. It helps to remember what color your card is because when you exit they will have to go through the stacks to give yours back to you. In total I think we spent about 15 hours in there over the course of the week! There is a hot tub, pool, sanarium, sauna, salt room, steam room and rain showers. My fave was the pool, there was one area that I renamed the "Rumble Rapids", you push the white button and the jets started going like crazy! My DH was making fun of me because it looked like I almost fell asleep in there several times. They also have a station with flavoured water, water and tea. Only thing missing was it's own dedicated bar. The heated stone loungers were popular and usually "saved" with someone's towel or robe. I found the cushioned lounge chairs to be just as comfortable.

Here are a few pics:

Next up dining!

Our pre-cruise hotel was the Hotel Indigo in Newark, which we picked for it's close proximity to Manhattan. We really wanted to see Times Square and it was an easy trip from Newark Penn station to Penn Station.

I probably should have done a bit more research, the hotel itself was beautifully decorated and clean but the area surrounding it.... I would describe as a bit too sketchy for my taste. I dont think I would have felt safe to walk around at night without my DH.

Our room was also facing a church clock that chimed every hour lol. At least we didnt have to worry about sleeping in!

A few pics

https://s25.postimg.org/sadj2lanj/20170507_103237.jpg

https://s25.postimg.org/6ch28svn3/20170507_103101.jpg

https://s25.postimg.org/apk74ytrj/20170506_173210.jpg

https://s25.postimg.org/p7hecyl2n/20170506_213232.jpg

https://s25.postimg.org/mspisj4tr/20170506_230454.jpg

My alarm going off on Sunday at 7 am was a not so subtle reminder that it has been over a week since we came home from our cruise and a) I still hadn't reset my alarm for a NORMAL time to wake up on a Sunday and b) I still hadn't started posting my review of this cruise!!

I found Cruise Critic to be a very big help when planning out my vacay and thought I would add in my two cents on my experience since I learned a lot about what to expect on the Breakaway and in Bermuda from reading other reviews on here.

Pre-Cruise:

Things I did right: booking most of our dinners, Burn the Floor and Cirque Dreams in advance. You could totally do all these things on the boat, but I was happy to have that all out of the way before boarding.

Things I didn't do right: getting sucked into the guessing game that is the "Upgrade" bidding process! Not a nice feeling to be disappointed right before going on vacay. Of course I brought it upon myself, no one is forcing you to bid. It turns out I low-balled it too much and I received the "Unable to Confirm Your Upgrade request" email the Friday before we sailed. Perhaps if I had upped my bid when several on our Roll Call were celebrating their new staterooms on the Wednesday it could have been a different story. So Inside room it was for us (which is most likely better in the end given my irrational fear of falling overboard :o)

Another thing I missed the boat on were purchasing Spa passes in advance, we ended up paying $219 on board. (It was still soooo worth it though, more on this later!!!)

Will post more soon, and hopefully I will figure out how to post pics!

Just off the Breakaway and we saw this the Saturday night. We had the early show time. Dinner started as soon as we came in at 515 and then the show started at 6.

We just got back from Bermuda on Sunday.

I wanted to buy the three day wifi but was told it has been discontinued. Perhaps this was true only at Dockyard, but this is the only place I asked.

At the main visitors centre at dockyard you can log in and get 1 hour of free wifi.

Also if you purchase something for 5 dollars at the gift shop within the visitors centre (right outside where the ship is docked), they will type in their wifi password on your device and you can use that while in port. Note that the signal was only strong if you stayed within the building.

We also found free wifi at Washington Mall in Hamilton (across from the bus station).

At all these locations, the wifi signal was strong enough to make calls over Skype which is what we wanted.

I was also on your cruise, nice to read about a different perspective. You took great pictures!

Posting live is a good idea, only one day later and already the whole trip is meshing together in my head.

5 days until Breakaway to Bermuda!

Thanks so much!!! We are on the Breakaway next Sunday!

Would you happen to know what the fee for the wine and chocolate tasting is?

This is completely subjective - Where do you live? We live in Northern NH and the low 60s are warm enough for shorts and flip flops here. The full day at sea if the weather permits should be wonderful but again depends on what you re used to!

We live in Canada, you would think I would be more thick-skinned weather wise haha...

I guess this is what happens when you run out of things to plan, you start obsessing over weather!

I will be travelling on the Breakaway to Bermuda in 10 days!

Will I be able to be poolside/lounging on the sundecks on the first and last sea days (Monday and Saturday) or will it likely be too cold?

I know the weather can be very variable but ship course-wise, I am just wondering when I can expect warmer temps.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for your replies!

Hi,

I will be travelling to Bermuda in a few weeks. I am looking for options at the Dockyard for to-go lunches/sandwiches. I had read that there was food available at the Pharmacy, is that info still accurate?

Would like to pick something up before heading to Horseshoe Bay for the day.

They should create a dance called the "Bidding Room Shuffle." I think you have a great shot at a balcony cabin; did you bid on any minis? I'm not even sure if my current cabin, a spa mini, would be included with the minis, but if so, am wondering if it being sold out would somehow increase my chances of getting an upgrade. And if that's the case, you are more than welcome to enjoy my spa mini :D

Haha bidding room shuffle, I like it!

I was only given the option to bid on Oceanviews and Balconies, so no chance at a mini for me.

I didn't bother bidding on the Oceanview, it wasn't something that interested me.

I do wish they let you bid on the specific room type for the lower categories as well because I would have probably bid more if I knew it was specifically for the Spa Balcony or even the large balcony.

A spa mini sounds amazing, you are in a great room even if you don't get upgraded!

Thanks for posting this!

Will be in Bermuda in less than a month.

Does anyone know if the Historical Walk at the Dockyard is similar to the one offered in St. George?

Just not sure if it would be worthwhile to add both into my itinerary or not.

Hi Kattus, we are on the same roll call!

Finally bit the bullet this week and put a bid in. Am trying to move from an IA to a Balcony.

I definitely did not want to overbid, I know it would have cost around $500 total to just book a balcony in the first place so I tried to keep that in the back of my mind going into it. I guess we will see what happens, I think the odds of getting some kind of Balcony cabin seem pretty good since there are so many still showing. In a dream world I would get the Spa Balcony but I know the chances of that are slim.

I too have been monitoring the available cabins and I can't make head or tails of it.Thought it was strange that I had the option to bid on an Oceanview when that category was showing as sold out, and now mysteriously 4 rooms are showing. Also noticed that the BB category went from 15 to 5 overnight which made me think that they had already started a shuffle.

Appreciate the review!

Could you tell me a bit more about Port Imperial? How much is the parking there and how often does the ferry run?

The parking at the port is pretty steep (especially with our exchange rate:loudcry:) and I would like to avoid it if possible.

TIA

Another vote for Royston! We did a tour with him two weeks ago. Definitely was one of the highlights of our trip! He is very knowledgeable about his island and he took us to some very scenic spots, I wish my camera hadn't died on me. :(

Thanks for the instructions!! I printed these in prep for being there later this month! We will see if we actually use them, or just take the easy way out and grab a taxi.

Much appreciated.

Thanks for sharing your experience. We will probably take your advice and play it by ear once we get to the port.

Its ranked number 3 on the tours page of Tripadvisor, but Im not seeing any posts about them on here.

Does anyone have experience with this company?

Thanks in advance.