pscozz702

9 hours ago, coevan said:

you made this up, did not happen, the US in USVI means it is a US territory. I have lived on and off in St.Thomas for years, you are just simply mistaken. There is no customs at the ferry dock going from Red Hood to Cruz Bay, have done it 40+ times. However there is a customs dock for those arriving from BVI or another Caribbean island. Which would require a passport. 

I forgot you were right there with me and my family. Never said there was customs there. The operator would not sell tickets unless you showed your passport, they, the operator, did not accept any other ID. 

27 minutes ago, coevan said:

 

 

 

 

Absolute garbage, maybe "St. Johns, Antigua" not St. John, USVI, you do not even need a drivers license

Back I'm 2006 it was, not sure about now, but 12 years ago the ferry operator refused driver licenses only accepted passports to travel. So not garbage, that's how it was.

In 2006 we went from St Thomas to Trunk Bay on St Johns. Both are US territories. But you then needed a Passport to get on the ferry, people with US driver licenses were turned away.

It was a taxi from the ship to the ferry and then a taxi to the beach it will take some time for traveling but you can stay at the beach longer. It was a little cheaper then the ships excursion, but not by much, plus you didn't need a passport through the ship.

Not sure if it is still the same, that was 12 years ago and the ferry operator had signs up stating that passports only to board. 

My family and I were on the Carnival Legend in 2005  just got up to cruising speed and started to list about 14 degrees and glass started to fly off the shelves. The pool flooded half of the buffet and at least 1 passenger fell and injured himself. The CD not the Captain made an announcement that there was a glitch in the autopilot that caused the ship to turn left at 21 knots. They turned the autopilot off and sailed manually, throughout the night they made repairs to the system. We didn't receive any onboard credit or even a free drink, just taken as part of the adventure of life. My DW and I were in our starboard side balcony looking at nothing but sky and she said "this isn't right" I just laughed and didn't tell her that if we didn't stop we would go over. We went to check on our kids, they were fine as were everyone else except for that one injury. Sorry if I sound uncaring, I am far from that, but life is an adventure and they all lived, tell your stories - shock the people you tell them to and laugh, life is short enjoy it. Passengers were running around with life jackets saying "Titanic", that really irks me because the Titanic sank and over 1500 souls were lost, we didn't. 

Thank you both. This is helpful. We booked 8130. We are looking forward to the larger balcony.

 

What are the pros and cons of the location.

The only con was it was a long walk to the back of the ship. The pro was the walk helped burn calories.

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We stayed in 8130 and 8134 in July and January respectively. 2/3 of the balcony gets sun 1/3 is covered, there were 2 loungers and a full table with 2 chairs. A lot of storage room. No real tub, so you don't have to step 3 feet up to get into the shower. I cannot post either the pictures or video I have taken. The large balcony mini suite is the only way we will take when going on the Breakaway.

711 12th Ave, New York, NY 10019, mid town west side. Usually pier 88. I do not know about hotels because we live within 5 miles of the port. You may want to let everyone know if you are flying in or driving in, that would be helpful in where recommending the best location for you to stay.

I was on a cruise when the Costa Concordia sank. I woke up (somewhat bleary from the night before) and my husband had the news on and I was positive that was our ship on the news and we were sinking.

We were cruising on NCL at the time the Concordia sank also, the first thing I thought was glad it's not us.

We have a coupe of freak outs. The one we talk about the most is our 3rd cruise, first time on Carnival (the Legend). We were 2 hours out of Tortola back to NYC when the ship started to list. Ships speed was around 20 - 21 knots and the auto pilot decided to turn to port, HARD AND FAST. I believe it came to 14 degree list. We had a starboard side balcony room and as I sat on the bed looking out seeing nothing but sky I tried to stay calm as to not upset my DW.

Another was our first time cruising the Gulf of Mexico, smooth as glass the seas were, so we thought. The sea state waves were 4 feet or less the whole trip. One day my DW and I were waiting for the elevator and heard a couple of ladies complaining of how rough the seas were and that the ship keeps rocking badly. We chuckled to ourselves only to see we were spotted by a crew member he was laughing too. Asked him what was the worst he felt and he said 8 foot waves, our previous cruise we had 18 foot waves, he stopped laughing.

iConcierge works just fine, you will not use data because in order for the App to work you need to be on airplane mode and wifi on. It doesn't work well any other way. As for the internet use they are going to change their packages, not sure when (they just partnered with a new company), so I would call NCL and ask them which package would work. I saw that there will be 3 different types one for social media, one for email, and one for doing internet searches, don't know about combining packages so that's why I say call them to find out.

Bermuda isn't really feasible as winter destination from the Northeast because it's not warm - 60-70 degrees and cold Atlantic water. Beaches are out of the question, and while I love Bermuda, there's I don't really think there is enough to do in Bermuda when you take beaches out of the equation - at least from a mass market perspective. I will agree with this but not with the first part of this sentence.

I would take 60 degrees and rain over 30 degrees and sun in the winter any day. Also, we spent 5 days in Bermuda, 3 in Hamilton and 2 in St George, went to the beach 1 day. We were there this past July for 3 days and did not go to a single beach. There are things other than the beach in Bermuda but you are right the DW and I are the few that don't always do the beach thing. And the part about going in the winter was to watch the Onion drop instead of the Times Square Ball drop. I will tell you this the Atlantic in the winter is very unpredictable and your ride could be the roughest you'll ever feel.

I just wished the Bermuda cruises started a bit earlier in the year - winter is when I really need my cruise fix!

We love Bermuda, and since no cruises go in the winter, we are forced to go in the summer. My DW has a hard time with cabin pressure to fly. It would be something to see a year round cruise going there. Maybe a New Years cruise to see them drop the Onion at midnight, lol. To the OP 3 days are not long enough, but the ships have gotten bigger and can only have 2 at a time in the Dock Yard. Smaller ships are needed to dock at Hamilton and St. George so they can do longer calls.

The Gem will be leaving NYC and heading to New Orleans in 2018. I tried looking for a NCL cruise out of NYC for this summer and for all of next year. In the list was the Breakaway, Gem, Escape and Jade. I went to NCL's Media Center and found the 2018/2019 ship deployments.

This was published last month.

https://www.ncl.com/press-releases/norwegian-cruise-line-announces-2018-and-2019-deployment

Any article about the history of NCL is not complete without mentioning the Dream, Majesty, Dawn and Gem.

Love the Dawn and the Gem, not to big but big enough. Doing the Breakaway again after being on her in the summer, hoping the amount of people dwindle down a little. The one thing about the Dawn I really like is the stadium style sundeck, only ship I know that has that feature.

NCL born 8 days before I was born. Next week I celebrate my 50th on the Dawn.

 

I had no idea. Thanks for sharing!

 

 

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My DW was born the beginning of January of '66 so in July we did a celebtitory cruise, happy medium. Happy birthday to you.

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The Miami Herald wrote this interesting article hope you all enjoy it.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article121412013.html

I am researching cruises for next year with NCL, RCCL, and CCL, and every time I go on CCL's website within a day I get a phone message from a PCC, no emails. What gets me is I already use a PCC from them and these calls are not from him. Now with NCL and RCCL I receive neither a phone call or email, other than an email saying I haven't completed my purchase and it will be lost in 24 hours, then that's it no more contact.

I saw a shark once when leaving the Bahamas, Dolphin sailing along the east coast to Florida, flying fish a bunch of times. This summer I saw a whale for the first time after 12 cruises, it was dead and floating but a whale all the same. Just keep looking over the rails at the sea and you could see something at any time during the day. At night look up and you can catch shooting stars once in a while also.

Nice review. We are impressed with the size of the cabins on Carnival, the ship over all decor not so much. We did not have any issue with the food. It comes from a supplier that supplies all catering/wedding halls in this area, NY NJ MD Del. Conn. It is up to the chef to work magic with seasonings. Did the ship vibrate really bad during your cruise? It was bad for us, at one point glasses walked off an empty table at dinner one night.

Is anyone aware of any Hidden Costs to be aware of when Cruising on the Breakaway...I know they are offering the Free Picks like the Drink Pkg and Specialty Dining....Is there any Hidden Costs associated with these...Thanks in Advance

Had the drink package on the Breakaway in July, first time having a drink package. While in port in NYC you will be charged City taxes on your drinks. Once you are out of the city limits you no longer get charged...Hope that helps.

In terms of disembarking you have to be out of your room by 8:30. If you want to see the skyline as the ship comes into NY and up the Hudson you will be up at 6 or so. We were up, we watched the ship pull into the slip, went to the buffet for breakfast and then we anticipated leaving at 8:30 with our luggage but watching the gangway connect to the ship from our balcony, we began seeing people walk off at 7:30 so we hustled down to deck 7 and got on line. It moved quickly, customs took no time and we grabbed a cab and made it to Penn Station in time to be on a train heading home at 8:22.

We agree with getting off early, but the question asked was about taking luggage at a later time, which you could, we wouldn't, nor recommend it, the latter you wait to get off the more crowded it becomes and some one may take issue with luggage in the line.

Thanks for the review ... how was the pricing re: the massages ... did you notice any strong smoke smell due to the smoking in the casino ...

Our 50 minute couples message was $300 with auto gratuity, however we only get messages on ship. So don't really know a price comparison for land based spas.

There was a strong odor from the casino, we just stopped smoking 6 months ago, so we noticed it. Bad news is walking on 7 deck you go through the casino only way around it is one deck up or down. Also in Spice H2O smoking is allowed at the bar and some seating starboard side. The Waterfront

starboard side also allowed smoking, port side was smoke free. We saw a lot of people smoking on the Waterfront starboard, but then again there was very few places they could go.

Thanks for your review. I will be on Breakaway in September, first time to Bermuda.

 

As for disembarking, if we want to take our own luggage off, do we have to walk off early or can we walk off up to a certain time to get off the ship. We would like to relax and then get off with our luggage.

Short answer is yes you can relax but on this ship my DW and I feel that wouldn't be easy to do. There were just so many people to deal with, so we just wanted off and wait for our SIL to pick us up. We usually wait a while to disembark on the smaller ships however seeing the amount of people lining up to walk off was what changed us from waiting. Again not to sure how many passengers there will be on your trip but there was approximately 5000 on ours. My brother had tagged his bags for 9:15 am he got off the ship at 10:30, he was on line at 9:00 am.

As for this being your first time to Bermuda, you'll like it. This was my 5th time there and DW's 6th. We did our own thing, nothing booked. Tokens for bus/ferry may be cheaper than a 2 day pass, depending how many trips you take. The locals are very friendly and will help you willingly. Bermuda is one of our favorite places. Enjoy your trip.

Might be that Carnival invested lots of money in Grand Turk and improved there pier. Mostly Carnival Corp ships call there. But I'm only formulating an observation.

Just booked the Breakaway for February 2017, will see about a difference between summer crowds and winter. We don't normally sail when kids are out of school. I think we did it three out of twelve times, when our kids were school age.

With regards to the recent tragedy on the Breakaway, the families of those involved and the crew themselves are in our thoughts and prayers.

Embarkation day went well. Arrived at the pier early, checked in under platinum latitudes for the first time. We were given a ticket #1 and sent to wait for boarding. Boarding started around 12:00. The ship is gorgeous and huge. Be ready to do a lot of walking. We went to check out our cabin, it wasn't ready yet but we were able to go in and take a peek. We had a mini suite with a large balcony. Cabin was average size with a large bathroom, double sink and a shower big enough for 2 with extra body jets...loved the shower. The balcony was one of the biggest balconies we ever had, however there was paint peeling off the deck. We went to lunch at Savor, service was good, food was also good, drinks were free with the UBP, however had to pay NYC port tax. The muster drill was way too long and crowded.

The next day DW went to use her own hairdryer and blew a fuse, issue was fixed in about an hour. Note use their hairdryer not your own. Air conditioning was not cool enough for us. Went to check out the pool and the crowd was about 6 deep to get into the main pool. We decided to go back later on and it was still packed. We went to Spice H2O and it was less crowded and we were able to get in a hot tub.

Day three, we ate at Cagney's for our anniversary and the wait staff sang to us and gave us a cake unfortunately dinner took longer and we missed the Rock of Ages show. The ship was very crowded and dinner took twice as long as we are used to. We now know to allow at least 2 hours for dinner.

Day four we arrived in Bermuda. Got a couples message which was very relaxing. We opted to stay on board and planned to go off ship later, so we went to the pool and it was like a ghost town. My DW and a few others were in the pool. That evening we took the ferry over to Front St for Harbour Nights, kind of disappointing, the were a lot of vendors and a group of dancers in the street.

Day five, we went to St George by ferry, then went to the Swizzle Inn by bus. Had a bunch of Rum Swizzles and then got back on the bust to Hamilton. We should have taken the ferry back to the Dockyard but took another bus instead. Big mistake there, we were in rush hour by then and the bus was packed. There was a motor vehicle accident on the route and that caused a major backup.

Day six, we stayed on board being that the area was crowded with all the cruise passengers between the 2 ships that were there. The pool was packed chairs were claimed by the chairhogs, so we spent most of our pool time at Spice H2O. As the bow and stern lines were being released we had 6 pier runners who made it, as we all cheered them on.

Day seven was a quiet day at sea. We made good use of our balcony. That night we watched a movie in the Atrium. We did not receive luggage tags and did not want to stand in the long line to get any, so we carried our luggage off.

Disembarkation day we ate at O'Sheehans at 6am and walked off at about 8am. My brother had a departure time of 9:15 and got off at about 10:30.

To summarize, this was our first time on a ship this size and the second time sailing in the summer. We felt that it was over crowded but the people were very civil. My DW and I decided to give the ship another chance and look to book a trip in February. All in all the ship was beautiful and the cabin was exceptional. The staff all over the ship were incredible, friendly, and outgoing. The crowds interfered with the enjoyment of the ship at times. The UBP was a plus. The only problem with the package is it did not cover specialty coffees, water and room service and mini bar sodas which are all under $10, so why the extra charge, NCL? Room service should not be charged extra and the extra charges on the Main Dining Room menus is a slap in the face...they should go to the specialty dining room menus.