Breakaway 10/27-11/3

[skeeter195]

Backround on us

-we are 47(me) and 48(my wife)

-11 cruises, 7 with NCL(gold lattitudes)

-We both work full time and I also am a personal chef part time

-We have stayed in insides to Garden villas, mostly balconies though

Embarking

-We were casino guests and it was painless

-We arrived at 10:50 and were on the gangway at 11:25

Our room

-We had an aft balcony which was awsome, our first time on the back. The room itself was the same size as other balconies, but the balcony was 150ish sq. 2 loungers, 2 chairs and 2 small tables

-Rarely saw our room steward, but he was very nice and did an excellent job

Food

-We found the food to be as we expected

-We ate at the buffet for breakfast, mostly uptown grill, which was fine. The main buffet was crazy with plenty of rude people pushing and such. 1 breakfast in Savor, which was good.

-Lunch was very dissapointing. On port days the only place to eat lunch was the buffet or O'sheenans, no other restaurants. On sea days, we ate at Wasabi 3 times($12-18 for two), which was very good.

Dinners

-Day 1 Cirque show, good app and filet and OK shrimp

-Day 2 Teppanyaki, very good as usual, except a little salty and overcooked lobster

-Day 3 Le bistro, best meal of the week, from bread to desert. My wife had the filet and I had the duck, both excellent.

-Day 4 Wings and Mozz sticks at O'sheenans, good for what it was. BTW the wings at the bar were great, the wings in dining section of O'sheenans were actually bad, 2 seperate kitchens I think.

-Day 5 Moderno, very good, I can eat alot, but wanted to try everything, so I only got one small piece of all of the meats and was stuffed and could not eat dessert. The salad bar was basic, but had a small ceviche cup which was good

-Day 6 Wasabi, there was no Hamachi again this week, but we made due and asked the chef to make us some custom rolls, which he no problem doing throughout the week

-Day 7, mixed up reservation at La cucina, so we ate at Manhattan room. It was nice, the food was good, I had the lamb and my wife the beef stroganoff.

Desserts

-the desserts were dissapointing this trip. Only the creme brule in Le Bistro wowed us this time, usually there are 4 or 5 that wow us. I am sure that we missed the good ones

Drinks

-We had drink cards for the casino, which was centrally located for us, so we would go there before dinner and have a drink or two, nice perk. There was also one server who became what seemed like my personal server after a $10 tip the first night for a beer. He would spot me anywhere in the casino and was bringing me 2 or 3 drinks at a time. We were cutting through the casino on our way to Rock of ages and did not have time to stop. He said hi, and asked where we were going and we told him. When we were on line at the theatre for Rock of ages, here he comes with 2 Peronis for me and a bahama mama for my wife(our usual drinks), we were in shock as no drinks, not to mention servers were supposed to leave the casino with the free drink card.

-other drinks around the ship were good and reasonable

-the ice bar drinks were more like shots which were good

Shows

-Cirque show, excellent

-Rock of Ages, excellent standing ovation from most everyone

-Magician, good

-dualling pianos, very good

-second city, excellent the first time, good the last night

-burn the floor and fat cats we missed

Casino

-most staff were very friendly

-the hosts were cold most of the time

-very smokey at times, your clothes would stink when back in your room. Othere times not so bad

Overall

-very nice ship

-very nice crew

-elevators almost always crowded

-food was very good, but you had to pay for it

 

We are going back in Jan or Feb

[susea4000]

Thanks for the review! I think when you said the casino was smoky sometimes, and sometimes okay, it helps me to make sense of the various reviews before yours. Maybe I'll bring some Febreze for my clothes. Sounds like you had a good time!

[Tyskie]

Great review, we'll be on the BA in less than 4 weeks. We also will be CAS guests so it was nice to hear about the waiter and maybe not so nice to hear about the "cold" casino hosts. Our first few encounters with the casino hosts in the past were excellent. Not so much on our last cruise and we wondering about this one. "We shall see" ! :)