Breakaway (or similar) from NY in winter?

My husband just texted me to tell me to look at Thanksgiving cruises from New York (we live about an hour outside of NYC). Yes, I know the prices won't be great. But a quick look shows me one of the options is the Breakaway. We have never sailed NCL before (have done Royal, Celebrity and MSC). We would be traveling with our 8 year old daughter and want to make sure she would be entertained on the colder days. I gather that there is no indoor pool (outside of the Haven). Are the pools at least heated to a comfortable temperature? What about the water slides? Will our daughter have enough to do, or should we look at Anthem of the Seas, which has an indoor pool?

Thanks in advance for the help. I know I could do more research on my own, but I just don't have the time and this just got dropped in my lap!

If you're looking at doing the Bahamas itinerary that goes to Port Canaveral most likely it will be warm enough by your second day for your daughter to go in the pool. And your daughter will have plenty to do on At Sea days, especially if you sign her up for Kids Club. When we took our daughter she never wanted to leave the Kids Club, we had to pull her out for lunch and dinner.

We have done this sailing in January. It was pretty cold the day we boarded. Frankly, I don't care how warm the pools were I wasn't about to get in. November may be considerably more mild. There were a handful of die-hards in the hot tubs. By the next morning it was much nicer and it was jeans and sweater weather. By afternoon it was t-shirt weather and this was January. I would stick with Breakaway, personally. There was PLENTY to do indoors. Anthem's indoor pool is going to be shoulder to shoulder I would imagine.

Either way, we loved sailing out of the northeast and would highly recommend it!

We did a family vacation on Breakaway Dec 7 2014. It was our kids & grandkids 1st cruise. Altho the weather wasn't real cold yet when we left, I expected the first & last sea day to be warmer. It only got warm when we were almost at Cape Canaveral. It turned off my kids to cruising.

End of November shouldn't be that bad weather wise so don't think it really matters that much. I would give the advantage to the Anthem during the true winter months since there are two large covered areas and would always book over the Breakaway during this period.

Hello. I did a Breakaway cruise this past February to Bahamas. Its was icy and cold when we boarded but by the second day the weather was warming up and the pools were packed after that. It turned out to be a really nice cruise and we all had a great time. If you are sailing with kids I would say Breakaway kids club is pretty good and they will have a great time (the Gem kids club is terrible they limit it to 20 kids). My kids just came off the Breakaway last week and the program was good except the Breakaway is now also starting to limit how many children are allowed in the program at one time so be prepared to get there early if they definitely want in. I don't know why but NCL is not putting much effort into the kids club lately. We have sailed the Breakaway many times and this last cruise was the first time that the kids club started turning kids away just like the Gem. It only happened 3x over the entire week but my children were disappointed those times. If you can live with maybe not getting a spot everyday in the kids club you will have a great time the Breakaway is awesome!

My husband just texted me to tell me to look at Thanksgiving cruises from New York (we live about an hour outside of NYC). Yes, I know the prices won't be great. But a quick look shows me one of the options is the Breakaway. We have never sailed NCL before (have done Royal, Celebrity and MSC). We would be traveling with our 8 year old daughter and want to make sure she would be entertained on the colder days. I gather that there is no indoor pool (outside of the Haven). Are the pools at least heated to a comfortable temperature? What about the water slides? Will our daughter have enough to do, or should we look at Anthem of the Seas, which has an indoor pool?

 

Thanks in advance for the help. I know I could do more research on my own, but I just don't have the time and this just got dropped in my lap!

Sailed on both the Anthem and Breakaway

I always recommend Anthem for cold months and Breakaway for summer months especially for kids. The Anthem was designed for the colder climates with indoor spaces. You will be losing on using the outdoor space on the Breakaway on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 7 coming back.

On the Anthem, There are 2 indoor areas for the pools. One is for the adults only solarium and the other is for everyone. So it wont be as crowded as someone mentioned. There is also a area called the Seaplex which has a indoor basketball court, xbox rooms, bumper cars, roller skating, etc. The surfing flow rider machine and rockwall will be the outside activities that the weather may affect on the Anthem.

The pools are probably warm enough but if it's too windy they might be closed.

The pool and hot tubs in the courtyard were closed the first days on our Breakaway cruise because it was so windy. (And that's inside when the roof is closed.)

last december i went on BA with 8 year olds. 1st day sailaway obviously no one cares about the cold snowy weather because of the excitement. but day 2 was 50 and rainy and we had nothing to do inside. kids dont do the kids clubs. i felt so squeezed in on such a large ship. like nowhere to go. then we had day 6 and 7 have not so great weather either. we made the best of it and it was a decent price so i guess we got what we paid for but i wouldnt take the same kids on this ship in the cold anymore. the BA is built around outside activities. we did enjoy late nite hot tubbing though.

id go on anthem which is more built for cold weather with the indoor activities.

Sailed on both the Anthem and Breakaway

I always recommend Anthem for cold months and Breakaway for summer months especially for kids. The Anthem was designed for the colder climates with indoor spaces. You will be losing on using the outdoor space on the Breakaway on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 7 coming back.

On the Anthem, There are 2 indoor areas for the pools. One is for the adults only solarium and the other is for everyone. So it wont be as crowded as someone mentioned. There is also a area called the Seaplex which has a indoor basketball court, xbox rooms, bumper cars, roller skating, etc. The surfing flow rider machine and rockwall will be the outside activities that the weather may affect on the Anthem.

Thank you for the thoughtful comparison. If we are able to go (hoping to figure that out today), it sounds like Anthem would be a better choice for the colder weather!

last december i went on BA with 8 year olds. 1st day sailaway obviously no one cares about the cold snowy weather because of the excitement. but day 2 was 50 and rainy and we had nothing to do inside. kids dont do the kids clubs. i felt so squeezed in on such a large ship. like nowhere to go. then we had day 6 and 7 have not so great weather either. we made the best of it and it was a decent price so i guess we got what we paid for but i wouldnt take the same kids on this ship in the cold anymore. the BA is built around outside activities. we did enjoy late nite hot tubbing though.

 

id go on anthem which is more built for cold weather with the indoor activities.

Our daughter is also not a fan of the kids clubs, so your response is extremely helpful. I definitely think Anthem would be the way to go if we can make this happen. Thank you!

i monitor prices on anthem and even around thanksgiving they arent tooooo bad.just no kids sail free on holiday weeks. of course they have the pesky refundable/no refund deposit thing but my guess is you are going to go for sure once you make your reservations.