Breakaway sailing review

[BuffetPantsPls]

Just got back from the breakaway to the bahamas and everything is still rocking!

 

Overview:

 

Hits: Staff, staff, staff. Whether it be events, concierge, server, waitstaff, just incredible. Meeting fellow travellers, glad everyone i met was having a good time. Buffet!

 

Misses: Specialty dining restaurants, Beef

 

 

It was a hectic first day as we got there a little late, unpacking the kids, luggage, the wife after locating the parking lot. I threw everyone over my shoulders and we headed down the elevator to the loading dock.

Greeted at the start of the line with teh standard "Tickets please", I get a nice response saying "oh this is for the haven line" and unfortunately followed by "oh, where's the 5th member of your party?"

Oops, I had the tickets for my aunt that was suppose to meet us but was no where to be found! A few frantic cell later, my cheerful aunt waves at me from an opening elevator door.

Off we go to the waiting room. A non eventful check in and finally onto the ship.

 

The amenities:

Plenty of things to do aboard the ship. You can smell the smoke if you linger near the casino, but not being a gambler, we mostly spent time on decks 15 and 16 and went across outside as the weather was beautiful.

 

The bar games were alot of fun and certainly a nice addition to most of the typical cruises. There were alot of drunken hoops at o'sheenans.

Lines were pretty short for the outdoor activities and moved along quickly.

 

The kiddie pools were surprisingly packed, but my kids certainly were able to get their play in. There were some concerns with a few of the older kids (12 yr olds playing with a bunch of 2-3 year olds) but they were respectful and had no issues yielding to the smaller kids which was a very pleasant surprise.

 

The activities certainly hit the marks, plenty of things to do. I do wish they had more "refined" activities, like arts and crafts type events as oppose to the big push for more aerobic activities. I mean, hey, it's ahuge ship and going from one end to the other is enough exercise for the day!

 

Burn the floor dancers were very impressive and definitely a worthwhile show to watch. Cirque show is also great for families, my 3 yr old loved the colors and lights, though, did get fussy towards the end so we had to leave the show a little early.

 

Drinks:

The drinks were nice and strong. I think i got buzzed on my 7:30am dark and stormy! (I justified it because it had ginger beer in it)

The hard liquor prices were very veyr good. Walker platinum for 10$! The reserve glenmorangie for not much more. Mixed drinks with top shelf liqour for 8-10$. Even though I packed 11 btls of wine to bring aboard, I only managed to finish 9 due to the great liqour prices. The wine prices unforunately, were not so nice. I only ordered the Ramey Chard, which was about 2x the cost at retail. Great chard, not so great mark ups.

 

Food:

Completely torn about this.

The pros. My best meal on the ship was in Savor and the buffet. The cons. The best meal on the ship was in savor and the buffet.

 

Dining Room:

Savor has a caesar salad with white anchovies. I absolutely LOVE anchovies, and white anchovies are an absolutely treat!. They ones they have on ncl are slightly briney, lemony and nice meaty texture. I could eat these every day! (and I did). Fish and chips were a huge hit. Dessert, the key lime mousse with a ginger cookie was just heavenly whispy on the outside with a nice tart and tangy slightly frozen middle. The cookie added some nice crunch as a contrast. Service was

impeccable.

 

Manhattan dining room was certainly classy. I love the openness around the stage area. The shows / music during dinner were a very nice touch and made meals fun / festive and very enjoyable. Food wise though, they could have used some help. I found the meals here a bit on the salty side, but that's probably more personal taste as i dont add much salt when i cook at home. I had the filet and even though i ordered medium it came out pretty much well done. I had to ask for a rare which came back medium. (a common occurrence unfortunately).

 

The haven restaurant has a nice quiet charm to it. Spot on service, with a very attentive staff. Crab cake benedict was fantastic. Perfectly poached egg on top of a crunchy crab cake on a warm toasted english muffin. The paella on seafood night was seasoned and cooked perfectly. Their filet was tender and seaoned right (the second time it came back as the first time it came out looking like rubber). The "lobster" tail was ... disappointing. I think oversized prawns would not do justice to oversized prawns. These were hard, salty, dry and small. A definite pass. The scallops though, plump, juicy, with a hint of sea water. Prepared with a nice thin crunchy char on the top and bottom and tender when split wiht a fork.

 

Buffet:

The curries at the buffet were top notch. The variety at the buffet was also very impressive. Fried fish was fresh, crispy, non greasy, flaky and hot. Breakfast at the grill on 16 was quiet as not many people knew about it but you could get an english muffin sandwich, some ham puff pastry, and a station that can whip eggs up any way you like em. Definitely top notch. Taco night, the taco shells were crunchy and fresh, the meat was well seasoned and the fixin's were fresh. Couldn't ask for a better taco. Other staples like mac and cheese were nicely hot and creamy. Soups were a miss though. Alot of them tasted like they were simply water and salt, absolutely no depth of character. Where's the broth!! There was so much veggies being served, they could at least made the soup with some veggie broth as a base!

There was also a hidden hotdog cart at spice 2 O on the back of the ship. This was fantastic.

 

Speciality restaurants:

We ate at teppanyaki, moderno and bistro. Man, what a disappointment.

 

I'd like to speak specifically about the meat and the prep aboard this ship. The beef that they bring aboard the breakaway, is probably only fit for braising or making ground beef. It is stringy, tough, devoid of any flavor. The "rare" filet was much like chewing on a hockey puck. The garlic beef and their signature sirloin at modern had that unfortunate taste of boiled beef. Typically happens when you cook beef at too low a temperature and the liquid steams in the inside. It gives it that "sandy" flavor. The lamb chops at both bistro and moderno were almost like chewing overcooked calamari the first time they came out. At moderno the second round of lamb chops were much better prepared and saved the meal. I ordered rare meats 6 times on the trip and only 1 time the meat came out medium. the other 5 times they were medium well, to well preps.

 

Teppanyaki was the standout. Chef was engaging, fun and very talented. Skip the sake, unless you like cheap sweet sake.

 

Le bistro. The escargot were big and plump. Salty buttered, these little pop ems were fun to eat. Entrees came out and in front of me was a great looking foursome of lamb chops. The smell was fantastic! Salivating at the thought of taking a bite of some juicy lamb, my knife got stuck trying to cut through it. Using a bit more force, I got through and now had a decent cut stuck to my fork. Initial burst of flavor was fantastic, but then the chew happened. Who the heck snuck in a piece of jerky onto my fork! Luckily one of the four chops was actually cooked tender so i quickly finished that up and moved on as the kids could no longer sit properly. Off the the buffet i go.

 

Moderno unfortunately suffered from the bad beef i was harping about.

 

Ocean blue takeout: Best single item on the ship, the lobster roll. Real north east lobster. Perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned wtih a light paprika mayo mix on a toasted buttered roll.

 

Overall, the staff made this trip as enjoyable as it was. The speciality restaurants though could use some serious work. It was easily a few steps down from the same exact specialty restaurants that NCL has its smaller ships. Where as I was impressed with the same exact restaurnants on the Star/Gem, I was very very disappointed with the restaurants on the breakaway.

[chefjellynow]

thanks for the review!, what room were you in?

[BuffetPantsPls]

thanks for the review!, what room were you in?

 

2 fam haven on the breakaway

 

deck 16

[Dave85]

Thanks for the review! We'll be on in a couple weeks, so definitely sorry to hear about the beef quality.

[meatball_nyc]

Thanks so much for the review. May I ask who your Captain was?

Enjoyed reading it very much.

Happy Sailing!

P.S. Good palates are a good thing. I appreciate your reviews of the food. Our steaks were cooked perfectly as per our requests this past July.

We only ate breakfast and lunch in the buffet, but plan on changing that up next year.

~Robin

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

Edited October 28, 2014 by meatball_nyc

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your report.

[BuffetPantsPls]

Thanks so much for the review. May I ask who your Captain was?

Enjoyed reading it very much.

Happy Sailing!

P.S. Good palates are a good thing. I appreciate your reviews of the food. Our steaks were cooked perfectly as per our requests this past July.

We only ate breakfast and lunch in the buffet, but plan on changing that up next year.

~Robin

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

 

unfortunately i dont remember who the captain was =(

 

I was very pleasantly surprised with teh buffet for dinner (and acutally went to the buffet after all the specialty restaurants), there were some hits and misses but because the options were so pretty plentiful, was actually easy to find something to like.

[foxfive5]

Hi thank you so much for the great review! !

I do have a question did you get charged a cork fee for each bottle of wine that you took on board?

Thank you

[BuffetPantsPls]

Hi thank you so much for the great review! !

I do have a question did you get charged a cork fee for each bottle of wine that you took on board?

Thank you

 

yes 165$ total corkage i paid

[antsnanny]

My daughter just got off the Breakaway as well and the captain was Captain Hakan Svendung..

[meatball_nyc]

My daughter just got off the Breakaway as well and the captain was Captain Hakan Svendung..

 

 

Thank you!

Hope she had a great cruise.

 

 

~Robin

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

Edited November 1, 2014 by meatball_nyc