Breakaway March 11-18

We have just returned from our fourth (or fifth, we're not sure) cruise on the BA from NY to Florida/Bahamas.

Room: We booked an inside guarantee but had the chance to bid up $65 pp Cdn for a spa balcony. It was a nice room, but with the March Break crowding, it was amazing to have the spa pass as the hot tubs and pools were too crowded to use on sea days..

Ports: We got off for a couple of hours in Port Canaveral, but stayed on during Nassau and GSC so as to have use of the ship. We enjoyed the sunny weather, pools and Spice H20 while everyone else was off the ship.

Food: We thought the food had improved greatly from the last time we were on BA, about three years ago. Everything was hot and fresh. We mostly ate in Taste and Savor and thought service was amazing, we were in and out each time within an hour. One time we waited 10 minutes for a seat, the rest of the time we walked in (times ranged from 5 pm to 10 pm, so really not time dependent). We mostly breakfasted at O'Sheehan's. Noodle bar twice (it was amazing). We mostly ate lunch from buffet, because it's easy to "pick". It is true that the variety of food available in buffet has gone way down, but if the trade off is things that are hot and fresh and well presented, I'm not sure that's a bad idea. The Indian food at lunch was great, I ate it every day. We never ate there for dinner. The only specialty we did was Cirque Dreams and as has been reported many times on the boards, it is NOT worth the $47.00 pp either for food or show. Food was surf and turf, just not our style.

The Sea: Usually, we take Bonine the first two sea days, this trip, we also took it the last two sea days. It was rougher than we remembered and colder too ... we really did only have three warm days, but in four or five trips, we just have to chalk it up to chance. The ship DID make GSC which I thought was amazing considering the rest of the weather we came through

The Kids aged 0-16: Yep. There were a lot. I have to say (I'm a teacher) that they were the best behaved group I remember seeing in all my years of March Break cruises. Sure, some of them made bad decisions, but when a parent said, "Cut it out," they did. I found the parents vigilant too, which isn't always the case.

The spring breakers (Aged 18-21). You know, they weren't bad. There were a lot of them. They kind of took over, but they were unfailingly polite and I didn't see too many over-indulge.

The drinks: We did not have UBP but we are going to have to think about it in future, as drinks have gone up to the point where you're at $15 per. US. Ouch. Martini /Tequila/ Whisky tastings still best deal on the ship. We had martini tasting final night, and they gave us an additional flight for free because they made "too much". Awesome. Honestly, when drinks were around $8 UBP (as a perq) didn't seem necessary, but I'm rethinking.

Entertainment: We thought Eric Buss (comedy and magic) was BAD. I fell asleep, the show moved so slow. We thought David Klein, comic, was ok. We thought the music was great. Shout-out to Melvin, the guitarist, amazing, we followed him all over the ship. Highway stars played in Fat Cats. They were okay, think covers of CCR and that era, but their sets were the SAME every night. Emily and Arvin .... I dunno. they didn't do it for me, but a lot of people liked them, the played about four times a day, also lots of great covers. There were two great piano players too, but I can't remember their names. Good DJ music on the deck on sea days, but again, a) packed b) cold, so I didn't see much.

Spa: You need a spa pass in March, I think.

Steward: Our Steward was Margarita and she was the BEST steward we've every had on NCL. She made up our room twice a day EVERY day. If we were there, she came back. That has never happened to us before.

Staff: We thought everyone was friendly, but professional and business like. They say hello, but they have a job to do, less schmoozing, which is fine with me.

All in all, we had a great time and met many amazing people, mostly Canadians because that's mostly who was on the ship. I always feel sorry for Americans on the ship at March Break, as they seem shocked at how many Canadians are on board, and really, how close we are to the border to take advantage. They're also surprised we don't speak French, lol.

Any questions, fire away.

Thanks for posting your review. Enjoyed reading it.

Question: That was a fantastic bid offer. Did you book directly with NCL to get an upgrade offer via bidding?

Although our cruise isn't til Feb 2019, thank you so much for the positive report!:D

Thank you for your detailed review/report.

Keith

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Will sail on Sunday, 3/25:)

We were on the same cruise but our opinions are vastly different when it comes to the food and service. We ate 2 times in the dining room and both times it took a really long time. Definitely over an hour for our meals. The second time we waited 40 minutes for our appetizers to arrive. We ate there at lunch though so maybe that was the difference.

We tired to eat at the buffet twice and both times it was terrible. The food, all the food, was luke warm at best and had zero taste.

Just goes to show that 2 people can be on the same ship and have 2 totally different experiences.

I did think that the college kids were not well behaved and they did get overly drunk. They would get in the elevators yelling and swearing "F this and F that" constantly. My 2 kids got a nice educating on foul language for sure!

We have never cruise during spring break though so maybe this is the norm and we were just out of sorts.

We were on the same cruise but our opinions are vastly different when it comes to the food and service. We ate 2 times in the dining room and both times it took a really long time. Definitely over an hour for our meals. The second time we waited 40 minutes for our appetizers to arrive. We ate there at lunch though so maybe that was the difference.

 

We tired to eat at the buffet twice and both times it was terrible. The food, all the food, was luke warm at best and had zero taste.

 

Just goes to show that 2 people can be on the same ship and have 2 totally different experiences.

 

I did think that the college kids were not well behaved and they did get overly drunk. They would get in the elevators yelling and swearing "F this and F that" constantly. My 2 kids got a nice educating on foul language for sure!

 

We have never cruise during spring break though so maybe this is the norm and we were just out of sorts.

Maybe. I always have to cruise on spring break, because I'm a teacher, and I found it mild.

I wonder if having more people makes the dining room take longer (we were only two....)

Also, you don't say what dining room. We avoid Manhattan, because we've never been out of there in less than two, so we gave it up.

Thanks for posting your review. Enjoyed reading it.

Question: That was a fantastic bid offer. Did you book directly with NCL to get an upgrade offer via bidding?

No, I booked with my regular TA (used to be my kids' babysitter when she was a teenager, so I feel old.). She can get me cheaper deals than I can get myself, her price was $200 cheaper pp than the best thing I could find online myself. NCL forwards the bid offer to her and she forwards to me and then I take it from there. So some people might say just book yourself, but again, she seems to get me better deals - she seems to be in some portal where she can get me the price posted in US dollars in Canadian dollars...

Maybe. I always have to cruise on spring break, because I'm a teacher, and I found it mild.

 

I wonder if having more people makes the dining room take longer (we were only two....)

 

Also, you don't say what dining room. We avoid Manhattan, because we've never been out of there in less than two, so we gave it up.

Sorry - I did forget to post that. We ate one meal in Taste and the other in Savor. We never ate in the Manhattan Room. Maybe it was because we had 4 people. At the first lunch my son ordered a bacon cheeseburger with just cheese and bacon. Half hour later they brought out his plate and it was a bun with cheese on one side and bacon on the other. No hamburger patty. We all got a chuckle out of that one. LOL

We were also on this cruise, weather was nice after Monday. One dinner in the Manhattan, one at Cagneys and the rest in either Taste or Savor. All were good, probably our last in the Manhattan, it just takes too long. Little kids were fine and well behaved, spring breakers were fun and surprisingly well behaved. They’re blowing off steam and a long winter, weren’t we all alittle bit?!?! Room steward Nilo was great, never needed for anything. Bar service was good, especially from Bryant whom we first met at the spice h2o bar. It’s surprising how far a few dollar tip here and there goes. Booked a large cabana at GSC, what a fun time we had!!! Definetly worth it for us, drink service was on point; they were constantly checking on us for whatever we wanted. Disappointed that sketch comedy troop is no longer there, the comedians were just ok. All in all a great vacation, sorry to hijack your thread!!!!

I’m glad you enjoyed your vacation! I, too, thought the college students and the children onboard were very well behaved!

I love reading your review as it gives me hope for NCL. I was on the same sailing as you, and had a very different experience. I’m interested to read all the reviews that come out from this week, as I expect it will be a wide spectrum of opinions.

My wife and I were also on this cruise. It is interesting to hear different peoples perspectives on food, service, and other services.

I had one incident with a group of spring breakers at Dueling Pianos one night. This one guy had diarrhea of the mouth while the guys were playing, so I finally turned on them and told them to move their conversation outside as the rest of us in the area were there for the music and not to listen to them. He did apologize and the group of them moved to the back wall of the club (then left 10 minutes later).

Thank you for the review. Much appreciated!

No, I booked with my regular TA (used to be my kids' babysitter when she was a teenager, so I feel old.). She can get me cheaper deals than I can get myself, her price was $200 cheaper pp than the best thing I could find online myself. NCL forwards the bid offer to her and she forwards to me and then I take it from there. So some people might say just book yourself, but again, she seems to get me better deals - she seems to be in some portal where she can get me the price posted in US dollars in Canadian dollars...

Thank you.

We were on this cruise as well with 4 kids (6, 8, 8, 10). We were worried the ship would be over run with kids but actually thought there were fewer than expected. There were a lot of teens and college kids but we never noticed any problems.

We ate once in Manhattan and it is a lot slower than others. We mostly ate at Taste and for a family of 6, service was always reasonably fast and good. My only complaint would be they need more variety from day to day.

Weather wasn’t great but sail away out of NYC on a sunny day is pretty great. We also made it to GSC and did the Ardastra Zoo in Nassau which was small but fun and quiet and made for a good day.

My biggest complaint is on sea days they need to have everything open all day instead of some stuff open in the morning then closed rest of day and other stuff only open in the afternoon.