June 8, 2014 Breakaway Cruise to Bermuda with the Kids!

[antsnanny]

Great review, what awesome pictures. That is the Celebrity Summit that did the Bermuda cruise with you...

[ShellDil]

Great review, what awesome pictures. That is the Celebrity Summit that did the Bermuda cruise with you...

 

Yup, you're right! The Summit!! :o Too many cruises on my mind lately!!! :D

[ilovewdw]

Loving your review so far. I did the Breakaway in February and ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! Can't wait to hear more so I can relive my trip. And see more pictures! :)

[Susie51]

Hopefully you'll have time to post more pics soon.

[LazyDays64]

Thank you! I have a Nikon D7000 - one of my hobbies is travel and landscape photography. I have a shop on Etsy - feel free to pop over to see some of my work! There's a link to it on my blog which is in my signature.

 

Thanks, I checked out your blog, you have some great photos. I have a Nikon D5000 and love to take photos.

 

Looking forward to more of your review. :)

[dizkids]

As previously mentioned GREAT PICTURES! Love the review:)

[ShellDil]

We all had a great night's sleep. I'm one of those people who loves sleeping on a cruise ship! I love being at sea, and to be a bit honest, I wished the ship had just a tiny bit of movement on the way to Bermuda, at least at night! But it was smooth sailing all the way.

 

I am always up early and enjoy a bit of time to myself sitting out on the balcony reading, with a cup of coffee. The cabins do have individual coffee makers in them, for those wondering!

 

For those wondering, this is what the cabin looks like with the bunk bed dropped down. See - it's plenty big to sleep in. And notice the bed is split for my daughter and I to have separate beds. But we're pretty darn close to one another, so I hope you're friendly with your cabin mate! But also notice that with the ladder down, and even just with the bed dropped down from the ceiling, just how difficult it is to get to the closet, the side with the hangers! We did it, but it just wasn't the best design!

 

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After I got the kids up, we decided to go to Taste for breakfast. We wanted to start with a nice calm morning. The food was fine, but the service was so slow. We don't mind a nice paced meal, but this was beyond paced....this was just plain slow. Close to an hour and a half for breakfast! All I kept thinking was that there was no way I was going to get a chair on any deck with sun!

 

We finally finished breakfast and my original plan was to go to our CC Meet and Greet, which was starting in about 20 minutes. But the kids wanted to try the ropes court. How could I say no to that! They got their gear on, there was virtually no line and off they went!

 

Megan is looking quite nervous isn't she?

 

 

 

I think they're planning their strategy here

 

 

Alex loved the ropes course! It was a breeze for him - he practically glided along it!

 

 

Megan was nervous at first, but got the hang of it quickly!

 

 

And if course - Alex had NO FEAR in doing the plank!

 

[ShellDil]

For those of you not familiar with "the plank", it's 18 decks above the sea! It hangs out totally over the ocean and is only about 4 inches wide! Sure, you're attached to the harness, but let me tell you, standing below watching - every time I saw someone go out there my heart skipped a beat! Then MY kid did it - holy cow! Megan wouldn't do it, and I wanted her to, but I also was glad she didn't do it!

 

The pictures don't quite do the whole thing justice because you can't really see just how high up they are...

 

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So, you go out there, stand on this white square and pull a string, which triggers the ship camera to take your picture.

 

The kids continued along and at the end is a zip line. I know I have some pictures of that, but they must be from a different day. So...zip line coming soon!

 

 

 

 

After the ropes course, the kids went on the slides, and I read...this was pretty much a perfect day in every way!

 

[ShellDil]

After our afternoon of relaxing, we got ready for dinner. As I mentioned at the beginning, we had prebooked most of our dinners and we had the Ultimate Dining Plan. Tonight was going to be Moderno.

 

Alex had an event at the Teen Club and would be meeting us there. Megan and I arrived a bit early and enjoyed the view of the sunset from the Waterfront. We really loved the concept of the Waterfront on the ship.

 

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[ShellDil]

 

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Dinner at Moderno, at an outside table on the Waterfront

 

 

After dinner, Alex left again...teen club called. See a pattern here? Yup, this would be his nightly thing and that was fine by me. I was thrilled that he had found something that he enjoyed so much!

 

Megan and I went to Howl at the Moon for a bit. That's always good for some entertainment.

 

And so, that ended our first full day at sea. We couldn't have asked for more!

 

 

And as I went to bed, I told myself that I would do that rope course, and I would get out there on that plank! How hard was it anyway! I had 2 more sea days to conquer it....would I do it????

 

[batman79]

 

At the Cirque show most tables are the long ones and you are seated with other families. I did see some smaller tables along the back wall, maybe that seated 4. You may be able to request those. Seating is first come, first served. I think the long tables, closest to the center, by the stage, have the best view.

 

 

Interesting. Thanks for responding.

 

And once again, this review is well done.

Edited June 22, 2014 by batman79

[michele swenson]

omg!! I can't wait to do the plank!! I'm 41 and have no fear!! Going on july 13th, so counting down the days!! Btw its an awesome picture!!

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your review and great photo's.

[pgharea]

Kudos for being out there making memories with your kids. The review is very good too.

 

 

• Sent from my screen to yours.

[Susie51]

Looking forward to more of your review of your cruise with your kids.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Susie51

[ShellDil]

Continuing on!

 

So, today wasn't too much different from yesterday. Another sea day. However, a lesson learned from yesterday that I didn't mention, get those deck chairs earlier! I did say that yesterday we were a bit slow in the morning, going to the MDR for breakfast and then the ropes course. Well, yes we did finally find 3 chairs together. It took what seemed forever. And then by mid afternoon the music from the pool was just far too loud for me. We weren't even right by the pool either! I'm not one to mind some music or fun, but the chairs must have been in the direct line of the speakers and when you're trying to read, and relax in the sun, and have a conversation or two here or there, after a couple of hours, of just LOUD music - I had to move.

 

So, I ended up finding 3 chairs on the other side of the deck. Much better! This morning, that would be my plan. The kids slept in a bit, and I went out and got our chairs. I grabbed breakfast at the Uptown Grill and was all set. I pretty much didn't move the rest of the day.

 

The kids came and went. Spent some time sitting and reading in the sun, doing the ropes course again, doing the slides, hanging in the pool. Another perfect day.

 

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Tonight we had reservations at Teppanyaki.

 

 

Working on the origami from the menu

 

 

Our meal was good. Our chef was one of the best we've had, land or sea. There were a few minor issues with the actual meal, Megan was supposed to get noodles with her meal, they never came and Alex only got a small portion of filet when the diners with us at the table clearly got a double portion. He only ordered filet, and for example I ordered the filet and shrimp and he received less meat than I did, but the filet was was all he ordered. He should have had double the meat. However the other party at our table was giving our chef a difficult time about some issues and we did't want to contribute to it. Ours were very minor and we enjoyed our meal. We had plenty of food and saw no need to fluster him any more than he was already!

 

 

After dinner, as has become the routine, Alex left for the teen club. Megan and I had booked Rock of Ages. We couldn't wait! If I haven't mentioned it, Megan is a 100% theater kid. She loves to perform in shows, and loves to see them as well. And give me 80's hair band music and I'm in heaven! Now, I know the show has quite the bit of adult themes and is quite suggestive. Before making the decision to let my almost 13 year old see it, I did the appropriate research - discussed it with several of my friends who have seen the show, most are also heavily involved in theater, and I decided that at her age, she likely has seen/heard most of what was involved. After having seen the show, I felt fine with it. I'm not sure I would take a child much younger than her though.

 

Now for the show - we both LOVED it! I know it's a matter of personal taste, but for us, we found it incredibly high energy and we loved the music. Yes, even my 12 year old loved the music! It has a lot of humor in it and we now plan to go see it on Broadway to get comparison in a smaller venue, where I would imagine the crowd is a bit more actively involved in the show.

 

Here is a pretty bad picture with my phone, to get an idea of the stage.

 

 

[barcelo]

love to read your comments and nice pics

[Shacky316]

 

Megan and I went to Howl at the Moon for a bit. That's always good for some entertainment.

 

 

 

Hello. Do you remember who is performing at Howl these days? We are getting on this Sunday and we are hoping the same guys are there from our CTN in January.

 

Thanks.

[Kenlorz]

Enjoying the review. Your pictures are really good. What camera set up are you using?

[Amo57]

Did you guys use the concierge app to keep in touch with each other at all? I've heard mixed reviews on that part of the app.

[ShellDil]

Hello. Do you remember who is performing at Howl these days? We are getting on this Sunday and we are hoping the same guys are there from our CTN in January.

 

Thanks.

 

Hi there! I don't remember the names of the performers of Howl at the Moon. I can tell you that one of the men had an accent, and the woman was blonde. Not sure if that helps!

[ShellDil]

Enjoying the review. Your pictures are really good. What camera set up are you using?

 

Thank you! I have a Nikon D7000. I do minimal enhancing in either Picasa or Lightroom. Mainly adjust the contrast and saturation and sometimes just straightening the horizon.

[ShellDil]

Did you guys use the concierge app to keep in touch with each other at all? I've heard mixed reviews on that part of the app.

 

We didn't. I thought about using it, but my kid's didn't download the app before we left, and then the internet wasn't working for about the 1st 24 hours, so they couldn't get it right away even if they wanted it. By the time they could get it, we felt we didn't need it. My daughter and I were together most of the time, and my son was either at the teen club or with us. He checked in regularly. If we planned to meet him in the room and then decided to leave to go somewhere else, we just would leave a note in the room. It's a big ship, but we really didn't have a problem finding one another when we needed to.

[Amo57]

We didn't. I thought about using it, but my kid's didn't download the app before we left, and then the internet wasn't working for about the 1st 24 hours, so they couldn't get it right away even if they wanted it. By the time they could get it, we felt we didn't need it. My daughter and I were together most of the time, and my son was either at the teen club or with us. He checked in regularly. If we planned to meet him in the room and then decided to leave to go somewhere else, we just would leave a note in the room. It's a big ship, but we really didn't have a problem finding one another when we needed to.

 

Thanks for the response, enjoying your review so far while I wait for my turn. :D

[antsnanny]

Yup, you're right! The Summit!! :o Too many cruises on my mind lately!!! :D

 

 

Now that's a good thing!!!! Happy Sailing.

 

 

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