Cruise to Nowhere: A Breakaway Review

[BritChickBN1]

We just returned from the 2 night cruise to nowhere on the Breakaway 1/31-2/2. This was our 7th cruise with NCL, 13th cruise overall. We are married ladies, late 30s with babies who stayed at home. YAY!

The billboard says “Norwegians have hot twin sisters.”

Embarkation was a bit of a nightmare with the breakaway sharing pier 88 with her sister “the Bud Light Hotel”. We received robo calls and emails in the days leading up to the cruise that check-in was from 10-4 and to be aware that traffic, street closures etc could be an issue due to the super bowl. We were to check-in at pier 90 and then board at pier 88.

We took public transportation to the ship and all went smooth. We arrived at pier 88 and grabbed the elevator to the 2nd fl for the walk over to pier 90. About 4 passengers from the previous cruise boarded the elevator with us and were grumbling and complaining that they would never go on the breakaway again. “There was a fire! A fire! Can you imagine? Never again.” Lots of head shakes and frowns. Uh oh.

We arrived at pier 90 at 10:30 and were stopped and redirected 4 or 5 times before we landed in a line to check-in. We waited about 15 mins in line and check-in was smooth. We were given number 15 and told to wait at pier 90. Shortly afterward they started calling numbers for the great migration over to pier 88. We walked over to pier 88 and waited for the ship to be cleared. Around noon there were still about 500 passengers from the previous cruise aboard the ship. What were they doing? Was 12 days not enough? We only have 2 days people. LOL

People were being aggressively rude in the waiting area and on line. It was really unnecessary. I won’t dwell on all that. Some people weren’t raised right, and it shows.

We finally heard the sweet number 15 around 1 pm. We made our way up the gangway consciously ignoring all the cutting in line and finally we were onboard.

WOW!

We boarded on deck 7 by the breakaway theatre and as we walked along that deck searching out the elevators I literally said “WOW!” The Breakaway is a BEAUTIFUL ship. I was really taken aback at how beautifully appointed every area of the ship was. We made our way up to deck 14, we had a spa balcony right at the forward elevators. (14146) We booked a year ago as an adults only weekend (Sorry kids. J) and as the price kept dropping and dropping we kept upgrading. We upgraded all the way to a mini suite with large balcony on deck 8 however I really wanted to try the spa so we “re-downgraded” slightly.

Our stateroom was very nice and clean. To me the long curved desk area seems to make the room smaller than usual. That could just be me. The balcony was miniscule as has been reported over & over. We kept tripping over the chairs just going in & out. I would be pretty unhappy on a warm weather cruise with that balcony. We didn’t meet our steward until Saturday evening. He said, “You guys are never in your room.” LOL I guess that was true, what with so much new to explore. Everything was fine with the cabin and steward service so we didn’t bother him.

Next up, Lunch. We always go to the main dining room after embarkation because our son & I both have a food allergy. NCL does an amazing job handling issues with special diets. Usually. Our ordinary procedure is to go to the main dining room and introduce ourselves to the crew member who handles special diets for the entire ship. Every day we would meet with this person and pre-order for the following day. I will order breakfast, lunch and dinner at dinner the previous night. Well, we got to Savor and sat down and I informed our waiter that I would like to speak to the person in charge of special diets please. A few mins later the assistant maître’ d approached the table and I discussed with him what I required. I won’t go into the whole conversation here but basically he told me to let the waiter know what I wanted. I asked him what could be modified to accommodate me and I pointed out a few things. He said yes, just speak to your waiter. This is not the usual process on NCL and so I questioned him on it. Usually all ordering, questions etc are dealt with by the special diets person. He just kept telling me to speak to my waiter and so I trusted him that things were different on this ship and all would be ok. Big mistake.

I didn’t feel comfortable placing my order for that evening with the waiter and decided to walk over to Le Bistro right after lunch and attempt to speak with someone. Luckily, the maitre’d for Le Bistro was right outside the restaurant and she was able to help me with the menu and placing my order for that night. I didn’t get to order my first choice because lunch took an hour and 45 mins and we got to le bistro too late to accommodate special requests but that’s ok. I’ll be more prepared for next time and book Le Bistro for night 2 instead.

About an hour and a half after lunch I became violently ill. I was angry with the assistant maître’ d for his unwillingness to take responsibility and at myself for not trusting my instincts and pushing the issue.

After lunch but before I started to feel ill we hit the gym for a short run on the treadmill. We then toured the spa and were very impressed and looked forward to spend time there on Saturday afternoon.

We went back to the cabin to freshen up and get ready for the life boat drill when it hit me. I was down for the count for the next 2 hours. We barely made it through the life boat drill and back to the cabin. I was miserable. Sail away was spent curled in a ball on the bed.

We had reservations for Rock of Ages at 7 and as much as I really wanted to stay in bed I wanted to experience as much of the ship as possible also. So, I rallied. We got to Rock of Ages at about 6:50 and found great seats. The show was great! Yes, it’s a little risqué. But they don’t keep that a secret. We did see 2 groups of people leave however 1 group looked like they really just wanted another beer asap. There was a woman who refused to stop filming with her ipad or kindle and was told repeatedly to stop until a crew member had to stand next to her seat and watch her. Right in our sight line.. LOL I don’t know why he didn’t kick her out. We repeatedly saw this woman all weekend and she was certainly strange. At one point she stopped the waiter from serving us our lunch to take pictures of our food. Really.

By the end of Rock of Ages I was feeling almost 100% again and we made our way to Le Bistro for our 9 pm reservation.

The service was impeccable, the food was delicious, it was exactly what we expected from Le Bistro. There were a few wrinkles though, the food was slow to arrive. We were there a total of 2 hrs and 30 mins. That’s too long for me. However, we did not complain. We weren’t cooking or cleaning up so we just enjoyed the atmosphere and people watched through the window. I cannot recommend the asparagus with orange hollandaise sauce enough, it was delicious. DW had the escargot, which was as always good. Me: “ I’ll take your word for it”. Lol Entrees were the lamb and beef and fondue for dessert. I ordered my steak medium rare and it came out well done but at that point 2 hrs into dinner I just wanted to eat and move on to our next destination so I ate most of it. When the waitress asked I told her that my steak was overcooked and showed her as well. She couldn’t have been more gracious, offering to bring me a new one repeatedly. I refused. I had already eaten most of what I had in front of me and didn’t want to wait any longer for a new plate or waste food. She insisted we at least accept a bottle of wine with apologies and we graciously accepted that. That’s what I love about ncl’s excellent service. They really go above & beyond to try to make things right when they do go wrong.

We made a quick stop at reception after dinner because I wanted to speak with someone regarding the issues at lunch. I wanted to let someone know that I had become ill because the maître ‘d would not take responsibility for making sure I was served safe food. My objective was to make sure no one else became ill in this situation, I didn’t want anything from them. I informed the officer of the situation and he asked if I would like to visit the medical center which I did not as I was quite recovered. He then offered to go over the menus for the next day and place my orders for me. He informed me that on the breakaway they do things differently and you are required to speak with someone at each restaurant for each meal. It makes sense in a way because of the sheer size of the ship and number of restaurants but it does make it more difficult to get the guests needs met. Maybe if we had more time on the ship I would have figured out a system that worked for me. Fully satisfied that everything was at hand for Saturday we made our way to the destination I had been day dreaming about for months. Howl at the moon.

And another in a long line of WOWs left my lips. The talent was amazing, and they knew such a broad range of genres and artists. We closed the place down. We kept saying one more song and then all of a sudden it was 5 songs later. Howl at the Moon has ruined me for regular bars for life. Honey drank martinis and I had my favorite cruise drink, the Rebellious fish. Sans fishbowl glass, which is ok because I own about 10 of the glass ones anyway.

At 1:30 they said goodnight and we went up to the buffet to check out that area for the first time,. It was nice, and closed. Oh well. Go to bed, we didn’t need the extra calories anyway. LOL

And that was day 1, and it was good.

Saturday

We got up around 8:30 to get ready, have breakfast and go to the meet & greet. We took our time getting ready and then headed down to Manhattan Room before the 9:30 cut off. We were seated right away and coffee, juice and fruit appeared quickly. Great. They had my special order and it was being prepared now. And then….we waited. And waited. Finally my order came out but it wasn’t what I ordered at all. “What’s going on on this ship?” I thought. The waitress was very nice and returned the plate with the promise to correct the issue asap. And the waiting began again. More than an hour after we arrived my breakfast was finally delivered. The meet and greet was missed. I was bummed.

We decided to walk around and explore the ship deck by deck. We took the elevator all the way up and started our tour forward and aft on all decks but the stateroom only decks. The ship exceeded my expectations. She is just stunning. From the masculine elegance of Moderno, Cagneys, Prime Meridian to the gritty Greeenwich village vibe of Headliners this ship hit the nail on the head. I didn’t think as a new Yorker I would be blown away by a NY themed ship but I found myself feeling a pride for my city that has eluded me for a while. Well done NCL.

After our tour of the ship we wandered over to O’Sheehans to get a drink. It was packed. We saw the martini tasting offered on the menu and I thought I recalled reading about it. Not the organized tasting but the bartender making a few martinis to taste. We were told it was offered at the martini bar. Great! We made our way there but were side tracked by the Ice Bar. There was no line so we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to try it out. Friday and Saturday nights the line was 30 people long at least. We were able to walk right in at about 12:15 on Saturday. It’s no surprise how the ice bar gets its name. Good thing the polar vortex prepared us for the frigid temp. The vodka helped too.

Our next stop was Shakers, right next door to the Ice Bar. However, they do not offer the tasting on CTN’s. Boo. I settled for a chocolate martini. I hadn’t had one in years. It was delicious.

By then we were pushing time for the MDR so we went off to lunch. Service was much better and we were in and out under an hour. This was the lunch where the strange lady was sitting near us and kept taking pictures of our food. It was really odd but harmless so we were just curiously amused by her. She wouldn’t leave the poor waiter alone talking a blue streak when the poor guy was just trying to finish up his shift to go do something else no doubt.

Lunch done, we still had much to accomplish. Bathing suits were donned and we slipped into the heated tile loungers at the spa. Now, I really didn’t see the appeal of these loungers or think they really did much of anything….until 5 mins in when every muscle in my body simultaneously relaxed and I began to feel wonderfully drowsy. Oh, my. I love you beautiful blue loungers. We exceeded our allotted time by 10 mins. I’m sorry CC police. We didn’t mean to. We just couldn’t seem to rouse our muscles. We then tortured those muscles some more in the thalassotherapy pool and ended our spa excursion with a sit in the salt room. I was open to the experience; I wanted to be transformed by the salt room. Meh, it was relaxing but I didn’t feel any different. It sure is pretty in that spa though. And the lemon and orange water is a nice touch.

We went back to our room and lazed around a bit before packing up and getting ready for the evening. This is when we finally met our steward. He was very nice and did a lovely job with the cabin.

There was the dreaded “You’ll be leaving us soon” on the bed which prompted honey to say “They are so rude to remind us of this fact.” LOL

We wandered around looking for a drink and decided to try O’Sheehans again. We listened to the band playing in the atrium while I sampled another rebellious fish and then decided to go sit down in the comfy looking atrium chairs. We were having such a nice time we missed Friends of Dorothy and stayed for Band-eoke. That was a hoot. There were some really talented singers and some…ahem, others. The band was gracious and helped out those others. The atrium filled up quickly. I will be sure not to miss that on our next cruise.

Before we knew it the time was 7:45 pm. It was time to head to headliners and see the adults only Second city show. It was ok. It’s the exact same show that we saw on the gem 2 months ago and the jewel before that etc. They need a refresher, some new setups for sure. And the show was short. It was supposed to be 45 mins but was really only 35. No complaints, just observations. It was free and it was entertaining.

After the show we went back to our cabin for the bottle of wine we received the night before. We made our way to the prime meridian to await our 9:30 reservation at Cagney’s.

Cagney’s was everything we expected and more. The service was top notch, the food was delicious. Our waiter Jowel amazing. He even swooped in just as I was about to eat my wedge salad and said “Excuse me madam I want to make sure this is safe for you.” He carried my plate away and returned a minute later saying all was well. I was so touched by this wonderful service. I had pre-paid for our specialty restaurants and of course forgot to bring money so after dinner I ran back to the room and returned with a well-deserved tip for him. (Don’t forget your tip money if you pre-pay to avoid the mad dash.) I hope to meet him again in the future he was truly excellent.

I even enquired if he will be onboard for our next breakaway cruise and he will J.

After dinner we made our way to Fat Cats because I have heard so much made of Slam Allen that I had to see for myself and those 3 little letters slipped past my lips again. WOW! They were playing to a standing room only crowd and everyone was so into the music, it was entrancing. We stayed there past midnight and I hated to leave but I wanted to have a little more time with my new obsession the dueling piano bar. We stayed until they finished for the night and then drifted up to deck 14 on the bars of music floating in our heads.

We slept, very little. And woke to our dismay to the port parking lot right off our balcony. Boo.

Our trip ended as it began with a meal in Savor. About 20 people waited around Mixx bar for a table. We waited only about 3 minutes and then were served very quickly. A quick trip to the cabin for our bags and before I knew it we were on line on deck 7 awaiting disembarkation. The line was a little long but moved quickly. Of course there were the rude people who cut the line and had my blood boiling but what can you do. I decided to not let it get to me and then when I passed them on the deck outside I passively-aggressively called them a rude word. It made me feel better. We were through customs, and in a cab home in less than 10 mins.

Yes, there were some bumps in the road but we never let those ruin our trip. There are some things we would do differently next time. The elevators took forever and were crowded. We would choose a cabin more centrally located so we could do the stairs more often. The crowds were crazy, everywhere. I’m not sure if that’s because of the CTN or what.

All in all a great trip and we can’t wait to spend more time on the Breakaway.

[BritChickBN1]

snails. Eww

 

 

 

-Ginger

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[BritChickBN1]

 

Le bistro pics

 

 

-Ginger

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[BritChickBN1]

 

Cagneys pics

 

 

-Ginger

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[mizLORInj]

Agree the weekend cruise was lots of fun. We booked last year as well (= we overpaid) and got the upgrade to deck 8 mini with large balcony. LOVE LOVE that balcony and got to spend some time on it during that lovely Saturday sea day.

Slam Allen and Howl at the Moon didn't disappoint. Agree about Second City--they need new material--I'm bored. Even their "Presumed Murdered" luncheon didn't do much for me.

We enjoyed NCL's various non-upcharge dining venues. All good meals. Love the Asian station in the buffet. And soft ice cream and pretzel rolls! YUM!

 

I'm part of the roll call wanting to book this one again for next January. :)

Edited February 5, 2014 by mizlorinj

[jdvmd]

Thanks for sharing!

[Dave85]

Thanks for the review, I enjoyed reading it!

[newmexicoNita]

Thanks for sharing, and glad you had a good time. often the short 2 day cruises to nowhere leave a lot to be desired. It sounds like this one did not.

[Babyrocko1908]

We just returned from the 2 night cruise to nowhere on the Breakaway 1/31-2/2. This was our 7th cruise with NCL, 13th cruise overall. We are married ladies, late 30s with babies who stayed at home. YAY!

The billboard says “Norwegians have hot twin sisters.”

 

Embarkation was a bit of a nightmare with the breakaway sharing pier 88 with her sister “the Bud Light Hotel”. We received robo calls and emails in the days leading up to the cruise that check-in was from 10-4 and to be aware that traffic, street closures etc could be an issue due to the super bowl. We were to check-in at pier 90 and then board at pier 88.

We took public transportation to the ship and all went smooth. We arrived at pier 88 and grabbed the elevator to the 2nd fl for the walk over to pier 90. About 4 passengers from the previous cruise boarded the elevator with us and were grumbling and complaining that they would never go on the breakaway again. “There was a fire! A fire! Can you imagine? Never again.” Lots of head shakes and frowns. Uh oh.

We arrived at pier 90 at 10:30 and were stopped and redirected 4 or 5 times before we landed in a line to check-in. We waited about 15 mins in line and check-in was smooth. We were given number 15 and told to wait at pier 90. Shortly afterward they started calling numbers for the great migration over to pier 88. We walked over to pier 88 and waited for the ship to be cleared. Around noon there were still about 500 passengers from the previous cruise aboard the ship. What were they doing? Was 12 days not enough? We only have 2 days people. LOL

People were being aggressively rude in the waiting area and on line. It was really unnecessary. I won’t dwell on all that. Some people weren’t raised right, and it shows.

We finally heard the sweet number 15 around 1 pm. We made our way up the gangway consciously ignoring all the cutting in line and finally we were onboard.

WOW!

We boarded on deck 7 by the breakaway theatre and as we walked along that deck searching out the elevators I literally said “WOW!” The Breakaway is a BEAUTIFUL ship. I was really taken aback at how beautifully appointed every area of the ship was. We made our way up to deck 14, we had a spa balcony right at the forward elevators. (14146) We booked a year ago as an adults only weekend (Sorry kids. J) and as the price kept dropping and dropping we kept upgrading. We upgraded all the way to a mini suite with large balcony on deck 8 however I really wanted to try the spa so we “re-downgraded” slightly.

Our stateroom was very nice and clean. To me the long curved desk area seems to make the room smaller than usual. That could just be me. The balcony was miniscule as has been reported over & over. We kept tripping over the chairs just going in & out. I would be pretty unhappy on a warm weather cruise with that balcony. We didn’t meet our steward until Saturday evening. He said, “You guys are never in your room.” LOL I guess that was true, what with so much new to explore. Everything was fine with the cabin and steward service so we didn’t bother him.

Next up, Lunch. We always go to the main dining room after embarkation because our son & I both have a food allergy. NCL does an amazing job handling issues with special diets. Usually. Our ordinary procedure is to go to the main dining room and introduce ourselves to the crew member who handles special diets for the entire ship. Every day we would meet with this person and pre-order for the following day. I will order breakfast, lunch and dinner at dinner the previous night. Well, we got to Savor and sat down and I informed our waiter that I would like to speak to the person in charge of special diets please. A few mins later the assistant maître’ d approached the table and I discussed with him what I required. I won’t go into the whole conversation here but basically he told me to let the waiter know what I wanted. I asked him what could be modified to accommodate me and I pointed out a few things. He said yes, just speak to your waiter. This is not the usual process on NCL and so I questioned him on it. Usually all ordering, questions etc are dealt with by the special diets person. He just kept telling me to speak to my waiter and so I trusted him that things were different on this ship and all would be ok. Big mistake.

I didn’t feel comfortable placing my order for that evening with the waiter and decided to walk over to Le Bistro right after lunch and attempt to speak with someone. Luckily, the maitre’d for Le Bistro was right outside the restaurant and she was able to help me with the menu and placing my order for that night. I didn’t get to order my first choice because lunch took an hour and 45 mins and we got to le bistro too late to accommodate special requests but that’s ok. I’ll be more prepared for next time and book Le Bistro for night 2 instead.

About an hour and a half after lunch I became violently ill. I was angry with the assistant maître’ d for his unwillingness to take responsibility and at myself for not trusting my instincts and pushing the issue.

After lunch but before I started to feel ill we hit the gym for a short run on the treadmill. We then toured the spa and were very impressed and looked forward to spend time there on Saturday afternoon.

We went back to the cabin to freshen up and get ready for the life boat drill when it hit me. I was down for the count for the next 2 hours. We barely made it through the life boat drill and back to the cabin. I was miserable. Sail away was spent curled in a ball on the bed.

We had reservations for Rock of Ages at 7 and as much as I really wanted to stay in bed I wanted to experience as much of the ship as possible also. So, I rallied. We got to Rock of Ages at about 6:50 and found great seats. The show was great! Yes, it’s a little risqué. But they don’t keep that a secret. We did see 2 groups of people leave however 1 group looked like they really just wanted another beer asap. There was a woman who refused to stop filming with her ipad or kindle and was told repeatedly to stop until a crew member had to stand next to her seat and watch her. Right in our sight line.. LOL I don’t know why he didn’t kick her out. We repeatedly saw this woman all weekend and she was certainly strange. At one point she stopped the waiter from serving us our lunch to take pictures of our food. Really.

By the end of Rock of Ages I was feeling almost 100% again and we made our way to Le Bistro for our 9 pm reservation.

The service was impeccable, the food was delicious, it was exactly what we expected from Le Bistro. There were a few wrinkles though, the food was slow to arrive. We were there a total of 2 hrs and 30 mins. That’s too long for me. However, we did not complain. We weren’t cooking or cleaning up so we just enjoyed the atmosphere and people watched through the window. I cannot recommend the asparagus with orange hollandaise sauce enough, it was delicious. DW had the escargot, which was as always good. Me: “ I’ll take your word for it”. Lol Entrees were the lamb and beef and fondue for dessert. I ordered my steak medium rare and it came out well done but at that point 2 hrs into dinner I just wanted to eat and move on to our next destination so I ate most of it. When the waitress asked I told her that my steak was overcooked and showed her as well. She couldn’t have been more gracious, offering to bring me a new one repeatedly. I refused. I had already eaten most of what I had in front of me and didn’t want to wait any longer for a new plate or waste food. She insisted we at least accept a bottle of wine with apologies and we graciously accepted that. That’s what I love about ncl’s excellent service. They really go above & beyond to try to make things right when they do go wrong.

We made a quick stop at reception after dinner because I wanted to speak with someone regarding the issues at lunch. I wanted to let someone know that I had become ill because the maître ‘d would not take responsibility for making sure I was served safe food. My objective was to make sure no one else became ill in this situation, I didn’t want anything from them. I informed the officer of the situation and he asked if I would like to visit the medical center which I did not as I was quite recovered. He then offered to go over the menus for the next day and place my orders for me. He informed me that on the breakaway they do things differently and you are required to speak with someone at each restaurant for each meal. It makes sense in a way because of the sheer size of the ship and number of restaurants but it does make it more difficult to get the guests needs met. Maybe if we had more time on the ship I would have figured out a system that worked for me. Fully satisfied that everything was at hand for Saturday we made our way to the destination I had been day dreaming about for months. Howl at the moon.

And another in a long line of WOWs left my lips. The talent was amazing, and they knew such a broad range of genres and artists. We closed the place down. We kept saying one more song and then all of a sudden it was 5 songs later. Howl at the Moon has ruined me for regular bars for life. Honey drank martinis and I had my favorite cruise drink, the Rebellious fish. Sans fishbowl glass, which is ok because I own about 10 of the glass ones anyway.

At 1:30 they said goodnight and we went up to the buffet to check out that area for the first time,. It was nice, and closed. Oh well. Go to bed, we didn’t need the extra calories anyway. LOL

And that was day 1, and it was good.

Saturday

We got up around 8:30 to get ready, have breakfast and go to the meet & greet. We took our time getting ready and then headed down to Manhattan Room before the 9:30 cut off. We were seated right away and coffee, juice and fruit appeared quickly. Great. They had my special order and it was being prepared now. And then….we waited. And waited. Finally my order came out but it wasn’t what I ordered at all. “What’s going on on this ship?” I thought. The waitress was very nice and returned the plate with the promise to correct the issue asap. And the waiting began again. More than an hour after we arrived my breakfast was finally delivered. The meet and greet was missed. I was bummed.

We decided to walk around and explore the ship deck by deck. We took the elevator all the way up and started our tour forward and aft on all decks but the stateroom only decks. The ship exceeded my expectations. She is just stunning. From the masculine elegance of Moderno, Cagneys, Prime Meridian to the gritty Greeenwich village vibe of Headliners this ship hit the nail on the head. I didn’t think as a new Yorker I would be blown away by a NY themed ship but I found myself feeling a pride for my city that has eluded me for a while. Well done NCL.

After our tour of the ship we wandered over to O’Sheehans to get a drink. It was packed. We saw the martini tasting offered on the menu and I thought I recalled reading about it. Not the organized tasting but the bartender making a few martinis to taste. We were told it was offered at the martini bar. Great! We made our way there but were side tracked by the Ice Bar. There was no line so we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to try it out. Friday and Saturday nights the line was 30 people long at least. We were able to walk right in at about 12:15 on Saturday. It’s no surprise how the ice bar gets its name. Good thing the polar vortex prepared us for the frigid temp. The vodka helped too.

Our next stop was Shakers, right next door to the Ice Bar. However, they do not offer the tasting on CTN’s. Boo. I settled for a chocolate martini. I hadn’t had one in years. It was delicious.

By then we were pushing time for the MDR so we went off to lunch. Service was much better and we were in and out under an hour. This was the lunch where the strange lady was sitting near us and kept taking pictures of our food. It was really odd but harmless so we were just curiously amused by her. She wouldn’t leave the poor waiter alone talking a blue streak when the poor guy was just trying to finish up his shift to go do something else no doubt.

Lunch done, we still had much to accomplish. Bathing suits were donned and we slipped into the heated tile loungers at the spa. Now, I really didn’t see the appeal of these loungers or think they really did much of anything….until 5 mins in when every muscle in my body simultaneously relaxed and I began to feel wonderfully drowsy. Oh, my. I love you beautiful blue loungers. We exceeded our allotted time by 10 mins. I’m sorry CC police. We didn’t mean to. We just couldn’t seem to rouse our muscles. We then tortured those muscles some more in the thalassotherapy pool and ended our spa excursion with a sit in the salt room. I was open to the experience; I wanted to be transformed by the salt room. Meh, it was relaxing but I didn’t feel any different. It sure is pretty in that spa though. And the lemon and orange water is a nice touch.

We went back to our room and lazed around a bit before packing up and getting ready for the evening. This is when we finally met our steward. He was very nice and did a lovely job with the cabin.

There was the dreaded “You’ll be leaving us soon” on the bed which prompted honey to say “They are so rude to remind us of this fact.” LOL

We wandered around looking for a drink and decided to try O’Sheehans again. We listened to the band playing in the atrium while I sampled another rebellious fish and then decided to go sit down in the comfy looking atrium chairs. We were having such a nice time we missed Friends of Dorothy and stayed for Band-eoke. That was a hoot. There were some really talented singers and some…ahem, others. The band was gracious and helped out those others. The atrium filled up quickly. I will be sure not to miss that on our next cruise.

Before we knew it the time was 7:45 pm. It was time to head to headliners and see the adults only Second city show. It was ok. It’s the exact same show that we saw on the gem 2 months ago and the jewel before that etc. They need a refresher, some new setups for sure. And the show was short. It was supposed to be 45 mins but was really only 35. No complaints, just observations. It was free and it was entertaining.

After the show we went back to our cabin for the bottle of wine we received the night before. We made our way to the prime meridian to await our 9:30 reservation at Cagney’s.

Cagney’s was everything we expected and more. The service was top notch, the food was delicious. Our waiter Jowel amazing. He even swooped in just as I was about to eat my wedge salad and said “Excuse me madam I want to make sure this is safe for you.” He carried my plate away and returned a minute later saying all was well. I was so touched by this wonderful service. I had pre-paid for our specialty restaurants and of course forgot to bring money so after dinner I ran back to the room and returned with a well-deserved tip for him. (Don’t forget your tip money if you pre-pay to avoid the mad dash.) I hope to meet him again in the future he was truly excellent.

I even enquired if he will be onboard for our next breakaway cruise and he will J.

After dinner we made our way to Fat Cats because I have heard so much made of Slam Allen that I had to see for myself and those 3 little letters slipped past my lips again. WOW! They were playing to a standing room only crowd and everyone was so into the music, it was entrancing. We stayed there past midnight and I hated to leave but I wanted to have a little more time with my new obsession the dueling piano bar. We stayed until they finished for the night and then drifted up to deck 14 on the bars of music floating in our heads.

We slept, very little. And woke to our dismay to the port parking lot right off our balcony. Boo.

Our trip ended as it began with a meal in Savor. About 20 people waited around Mixx bar for a table. We waited only about 3 minutes and then were served very quickly. A quick trip to the cabin for our bags and before I knew it we were on line on deck 7 awaiting disembarkation. The line was a little long but moved quickly. Of course there were the rude people who cut the line and had my blood boiling but what can you do. I decided to not let it get to me and then when I passed them on the deck outside I passively-aggressively called them a rude word. It made me feel better. We were through customs, and in a cab home in less than 10 mins.

Yes, there were some bumps in the road but we never let those ruin our trip. There are some things we would do differently next time. The elevators took forever and were crowded. We would choose a cabin more centrally located so we could do the stairs more often. The crowds were crazy, everywhere. I’m not sure if that’s because of the CTN or what.

All in all a great trip and we can’t wait to spend more time on the Breakaway.

 

Now I understand why you two missed the M&G that I worked so hard on. I forgive you! :D

[Babyrocko1908]

Agree the weekend cruise was lots of fun. We booked last year as well (= we overpaid) and got the upgrade to deck 8 mini with large balcony. LOVE LOVE that balcony and got to spend some time on it during that lovely Saturday sea day.

Slam Allen and Howl at the Moon didn't disappoint. Agree about Second City--they need new material--I'm bored. Even their "Presumed Murdered" luncheon didn't do much for me.

We enjoyed NCL's various non-upcharge dining venues. All good meals. Love the Asian station in the buffet. And soft ice cream and pretzel rolls! YUM!

 

I'm part of the roll call wanting to book this one again for next January. :)

 

Have you started the official roll call thread yet?

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 using forums app

Edited February 7, 2014 by Babyrocko1908