Short Trip Report: Breakaway 12-day from 12/3 to 12/15

Questions welcome

Who:

Me and my wife (mid 50s) and daughter (18). Extended Balcony Minisuite cabin port side forward. Third time on Breakaway and 8th cruise overall for me.

Itinerary:

Original: San Juan, St. Thomas, Tortola, St. Maarten,Antigua, St. Kitts.

Revised after hurricanes:

Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Cay, Nassau, Costa Maya, Grand Cayman,Ocho Rios. Excursions were not available for 3 ports until a month before departure and for the remaining 3 were not available until aboard ship. This was a major disappointment as we booked this trip for the exciting different itinerary. We did PC/GSC/Nassau on Breakaway in 2015.Tried to go to Bermuda in 2016 but were diverted by hurricanes to PC and Nassau, where weather was foul and they were half closed from the hurricanes.So third time… well not the charm.

Ship:

We made the best of the trip since we were past final and could not rebook. We love the ship,especially the entertainment, and the highlights were Howl and the Moon (Tom,Steve, Rachel, and Rachel is on through early January), Soulful Pleasure (outstanding reggae with Leo as lead singer), and Rock of Ages, for which my daughter and I are super fans. We attended all four shows.

We love the food too, and for this trip we did about half buffet half dining room, with one meal at Margaritaville, and one at LeBistro. Margaritaville food is excellent,but that cover charge has to go as an appetizer, entrée and dessert is just too much food per person. Please NCL go back to a la carte.

Le Bistro was excellent – food and service. There were a few service breakdowns in the dining room but our best waiter was Ricardo, from Jamaica, in the Taste Dining room. And while I am at it, Craig is the best bartender, he can be found at the Waves pool bar by day and in Headliners at night.

We also attended some comedy shows and magic shows, and the crew talent show and they were all fun.

Ports, Weather and Diversion:

We had unusually nice weather the first day at sea for December, and seas were quite calm. Calm seas continued and we had slightly cooler than average days at Port Canaveral and Great Stirrup Cay, waves were abit rough for tendering but okay. Temps were high 70s. We stayed aboard ship forPC and shared a Cabana with a group on GSC.

Best day of the trip was Nassau with mid 80s and mostly sunny. My daughter and I did the Seahorse Snorkel and Sail. Not much sailing but it was a very good trip and I recommend it. Good price too. At the end they drop you at the city wharf so you can walk into town easily. We had snacks and drinks at Sharkeez. Kind of a chain but satisfying and pleasant with a view over the street and harbor.

Then the weather turned windy. Very windy. Seas got rough and temperatures started cooling off. Our day at sea was ok but not a perfect lay in the sun day. Had numerous showers and it felt cold whenever the sun went behind clouds. I noticed we were sailing west. Far west of Havana, instead of SW toward Costa Maya. Captain announced a few hours later we were sailing toward Cancun tomeet the Mexico Navy to transfer a sick patient and would miss Costa Maya (The only port new to us on the revised plan!) Instead we would dock in Cozumel and they were working on new excursions.

We docked in high winds… it took a long time and the call to go ashore was an hour late. It was seriously windy and threatening rain. The beach excursion we booked informed us all water activities were canceled and we elected to get a refund and went shopping. It poured rain for an hour. We leaned hard into the wind hiking back to the ship!

Rough seas continued. Barf back holders were emptied every evening. Luckily the motion does not bother us.

Coming in to Grand Cayman weexpected to cancel, but Captain announced we were going to an alternate anchorage on south side. Call to go ashore was nearly 2 hours late. Plus extra time to takes buses ($5 each way per person) into town or hook up with taxis and excursions was confusing. We went to the Turtle Center and Rum Cake store. Snorkeled with Turtles – very cool. Looked at the Tiki Bar where we were going to eat lunch and watched 10 foot waves crashing down onto the tables and deck! Then tried to get a taxi… or a bus.. took an hour and finally a bus came by. Took a windy tour of the NW partof the island and got back to Georgetown with an hour to spare, did a littleshopping but fewer than half the shops were open, because (pick one) Sunday, Rainy, No ship visible in harbor. Got the shuttle back to the ship. Overall an ok day but it was 3 hours short due to the changed anchorage and delay.

On to Jamaica. Due in at 8am, watched as we approached… and circled. Went in circles about 4 times before the captain announced the waves and wind and shallow harbor were risky and he was still assessing. Then the pilot boat came out… looking like a toy boat in a pool, but we took on the pilot and managed to dock. Call to goa shore was made about 10am, 2 hours late. And our phone message light blinks. My wife was supposed to go toVIP Bamboo Beach, and my daughter and I to Aqua Tubing followed by VIP Bamboo Beach. But Aqua Tubing cancelled at the very last minute -- and so our two excursions were canceled. I managed to catch someone at the (closed!) excursion desk who said go to the pier and try to sign up for VIP Bamboo with my wife. They did not call for priority ashore, or separate those with excursions, except by yelling on the docks. We had to go into a tent that was like a livestock barn with everyone milling around trying to find their tour and get in a line. But we had to get an NCL person to stop yelling long enough to get us signed up and write us a booking ticket for VIP Bamboo. And we got in a line. But then a lady tells us there is no VIP today only regular. I hear NCL still calling for VIP and sending people in and I got their attention to tell them there is no VIP, did you know? No, they did not, and they had to rewrite our tickets for non-VIP. Meanwhile the tour guides for Bamboo Beach are arguing over who gets our little group of 3 to add to their group (they expect tips of course). Crazy. Oh and the ship forgot to lock off an elevator for mobilily priority so it took my wife and daughter nearly an hour to get off the ship. We were on our way to Bamboo Beach at 11:15. We would only get 3 hours there, and it would be showering for one hour, pouring rain for one hour,and ok for one hour. The shopping sto pon the way back was a joke. The food and music were good. Beach would be great if you could go in the water but you would have been smashed to pieces.

The next 3 days on the way home was more rough seas and rain and cold weather. I could sit out the first day for a little but it was chilly. The next two were frigid cold and all topside activities were canceled.

We returned to NYC early – about 5am – and disembarkation started quietly with no announcement before 7am. I went out to get some breakfast and saw it on the monitors. Turned back and got my family ready and they called the second color justafter 7am with a PA announcement. We walked off the ship with no crowd and no wait – very pleasant – and were in our car at 7:30am. (Penalty for early arrival - no porters to help with luggage!)

I should add that having the UBP made it a bit easier to swallow the persistent bad weather!

Also we had a great cabin Steward, his name was Menzy.

Also we had one of the largest Cruise Critic gatherings ever - the staff said it was the biggest they'd ever seen. More than 100 showed up, and we had over 200 total in our roll call. This sailing had many late bookings as they discounted it heavily in the last month, and a very high number of solo travelers who had good deals even for regular cabins.

Sounds like you made the best of a somewhat disappointing cruise. Thanks for posting.

Must have been some disappointments on your port and excursion experience. Costa Maya should have been a nice one. Appreciate your feedback.

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Sounds like you made the best of a somewhat disappointing cruise. Thanks for posting.

Yup, we were determined not to feel too bad about it. It wasn't what we planned and we didn't get our money's worth out of the trip but oh well... found things to enjoy and it wasn't a day at work, right!!!!

Thanks for the feedback.

It was an unusaul cruise but great for us. Sea sickness was an issue for awhile but okay/ I am grateful fr warmth and sun as we will be back on the Gem inFebruary

Nicely summarized & welcome home, still feel the floor moving below your feet a bit :p

Did they have nightly themed Buffet Specials like on the shorter 7 days - did you check out O'Sheehan's for sightings of prime ribs & other specials ?

The BA surely slipped quietly & super early back into NY last week ... was it a good & strong tail wind ? Didn't realized that they started the early walk-off so early and CBP was staffed and ready before 7 AM ... and porters were available, all that made for easy disembarkation for sure.

Nicely summarized & welcome home, still feel the floor moving below your feet a bit :p

 

Did they have nightly themed Buffet Specials like on the shorter 7 days - did you check out O'Sheehan's for sightings of prime ribs & other specials ?

 

The BA surely slipped quietly & super early back into NY last week ... was it a good & strong tail wind ? Didn't realized that they started the early walk-off so early and CBP was staffed and ready before 7 AM ... and porters were available, all that made for easy disembarkation for sure.

Yes to buffet themes - all the usual ones. Although I found the "theme" to be hard to find in more than 4 or 5 dishes some nights! I probably saw 4 of those as I was in the dining room half the nights. Prime Rib was in the dining room the last night, but sorry did not find out if it ever appeared in O'Sheehan's. I found O'Sheehan's late night menu lacking.. .just a half dozen things to eat.

We must have had a tail wind to go that fast in heavy seas - about 12-15 foot seas most of the trip home. Or maybe they just have a couple of hours play and all went well. There were NOT porters available when we got off at 7:30, I bet by union rules they show up at 8:00am sharp.

I forgot to mentioned we were an hour late getting to Port Canaveral. How many did we make on time, LOL?

The reason: We were delayed more than 2 hours leaving NYC and were told we were being held for a Coast Guard inspection. Now, if you are reading here often, you know Breakaway was held a couple of hours for a Coast Guard Inspection less than a month before this one. Twice in one month? Doubt it. I saw forklifts in action for quite some time. Call me suspicious but I think we were waiting for supplies we needed. At least one family that was late benefitted, I saw a family with luggage board an hour after hour sailing time! So I think we had about an hour leeway on the sail to Port Canaveral, and so we were an hour late.

Also we were all expecting to be at Terminal 1, The RCCL Terminal, which is next to the restaurants and bars and near the bus station. But we ended up at Terminal 2 or 3 - further in - so we could not walk to anything. That's why we stayed on the ship.

Thanks for the report.

Thanks for your review.

Enjoyed your review/report.

Keith

Here's a couple more things about our trip:

We bought a 1000MB plan, plus the Latitudes bonus of (wow!) 20MB. Managed to make it last all 12 days between my daughter and I. I checked in on news and email for about 15 minutes a day, she got about 20-30 minutes a day, we were both careful not to let video content creep in. We were able to avoid using it a few days; Port Canaveral and Mexico are included in our plan, and I bought the $10 per day roaming plan for two port days for each of us. So I figure we used about 100MB per day we used the ship plan.

We also bought the 20 picture package ahead of time, that was a very good deal compared to ship prices.

Fill out those hero cards for people on the ship who did a really good job for you. They make a difference. One waiter said it could help him go from his temporary job to permanent. One poor waitress started to get worried when we asked for her last name - "Is something wrong?" she asked. She almost cried when she found out we were putting in a card for her. She was super attentive in Headliners for the 8 nights we were there. I also out in cards for my favorite bartender, and the entertainers that we really enjoyed. I also thanked the Cruise Director and Director of Food & Beverage personally.

We were on the same cruise. I could not have said it better. Thank you.

We were on same cruise as well and your review is on POINT Bill! Nice meeting you and your family, we were in the cabana too :) -Amy & Johnnie

We were with you on the BA and Hurricane Matthew. Ship gets small inside with foul weather. Good to hear you had an enjoyable cruise!

Thanks for taking the time to write your review.

Great review. Its refreshing to read reviews from people who make the best of not so perfect conditions. Did the cruise have a lot of kids?

Who was the CD?

Going on the Breakaway next Friday (1/5/18).

Thanks.

Hi Jay! The CD was Alvin, the same one as last year when we sailed together. Have a great cruise! You really like these longer cruises! I'm booked on next year's 15-day Repo, NYC to New Orleans on the BA. 10-27-18. Say hello to Arzeena,, your M&G coordinator, she and I sailed a few time already on these repo's. Ted.

I had a great time on the cruise and actually enjoy rough sailing. :)

the Breakaway is a great ship will great service. I did jump over to the Jade on the 18th which had totally different weather- allowing me, 3 snorkel days, :) Pure chance what each cruise experiences with weather.

As for the late Breakaway departure, an issue could have also been a very high tide, with the full moon. I've experienced that prior with the Breakaway and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

We are on the Breakaway this Friday with a departure time of 3:00PM. I expect for some of the same reasons?

Cheers

Len