MITSUGIRLY BREAKAWAY's 1 last time for the year-review/pictorial

[sctexan]

Love your reviews! You must either have a stellar memory or you journal all of your trips. I can't remember what I had for breakfast most days let alone remember all of the detail like you do. You are awesome!

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[mitsugirly]

Here we would stand for awhile, taking pictures of the Breakaway sitting at the pier, waiting for Kendra & Kenny to arrive.

 

 

My youngest Kolin and his finance Courtney

 

 

 

Court and Sakari

 

 

 

Me, the hubs and Sakari

 

 

 

No, I did not know he was making a face or throwing up the fingers until we got home and I looked at the pictures. LOL

 

We waited around for awhile and never did see the kids pull up. Kendra finally text me to ask where I was and told me they were already inside the building. :p

 

We took one last picture of the Breakaway and in we went.

 

 

 

[jenseib]

We are going to NYC for Thanksgiving and thats my fear....the crazy drivers! I will try and walk most places. LOL

[njhorseman]

 

 

At 9:45am, I receive a phone call from Jin and Loux. They tell me they are the 2 drivers from Carmel and they are outside the hotel waiting on us. SAY WHAT?!? It's only 9:45am and our reservation is for 10am. Kendra and family and Kenny and family are still upstairs doing their last minute packing. :eek: Oh no!

 

It's normal for car services to be ready for you 15 minutes before your scheduled pick up time. It allows time to load the luggage and people and thrn depart by the scheduled time. The car service I normally use always arrives at my home about 15 minutes early, and I would be concerned if they didn't.

 

 

 

Now I swear everyone that works for Carmel is Asian and I'm not quite sure they even spoke English...just an observation from our drivers to the port and returning. Not 1 word from them. No conversation. No anything but a simple "yes" and "18" came out of their mouths.

 

The New York City metropolitan area has an extremely diverse population and always has. Immigrants from all over the world have made NY their first home in the US. You might want to stop at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island the next time you're in NY.

 

 

When I ask the driver if I could use the app to pay for the ride...I got a simple "yes". I ask how much for the tolls, I got a simple "18". So, I'm not sure about the $14 pricing shown on the sign. I assume that it's different pricing depending on the size of the vehicle or even the amount of people in the vehicle? But I was thinking that this was a little high since several people had quoted me "no more than $15" for a ride there.

 

You undoubtedly had to pay NJ Turnpike tolls to and from your hotel in addition to the Lincoln Tunnel tolls. I always give people an estimate of $20 so that they're not surprised.

 

My comments are inserted above in red.

[sunbird21]

As we came out of the tunnel, I notice that the traffic right directly outside the tunnel was stopped...I said it was STOPPED! OMG, DOES OUR DRIVER SEE THAT THE TRAFFIC IS STOPPED???? At the very last moment I let out a gasp and the driver slammed on his brakes coming within inches of the stopped traffic. Did he zone out? What the heck. From there on out...the driving was all down hill. Sigh

 

He started weaving in and out of traffic, cutting people off, making his own lane, even went on the opposite side onto oncoming traffic to go around cars that were stopped headed in our direction. YIKES! Did some demon possess his body as we entered New York?

 

At that point I could not wait to get out of the van. Kendra was laughing at me of course...since their driver was like that the entire time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now THAT was your official "Welcome to NYC". [emoji13]

 

I endure such cab rides on a daily basis

 

Stacey

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mitsugirly]

We had a super easy and quick security check in then on to check in with NCL. I did not see the normal "latitudes" check in line and even after asking, they just directed us into the line everyone else was in. No biggie, it was a short wait (15 minutes tops).

 

The weird thing about check in here was that you checked in at an area depending on what deck your room was located on. This would be a first for us.

 

As we were walking by some of the people directing us where to go, someone handed Kendra's bf a number with "20" on it. Then told us to keep heading on down for our "12th floor check in area".

 

Once we got to that area, we were handed a number "4" to board the ship, her bf quickly exchanged his number for the new number.

 

Once we were done, there were no chairs at all to sit in and we were left just standing around after we had our family pictures done. At one point one of the guys came up to us and told us that we would need to find a seat in a very rude way and tone. When I said there wasn't any seats available, he told us to go to a different section (pretty far away) and find a seat. Once again, there are NO seats and then I also ask how we would hear them call our number if we were half way across the building in a different section (which happen to be the section that handed Kendra's bf the #20). He then said "follow me and I'll show you were you can stand and/or sit on the floor"...which we did. It was at the end of our section and the beginning of another where the ropes widened. No problem. I plopped my butt down and we waited and he rudely told us not to move. :rolleyes:

 

It was maybe 10 minutes after we sat down a very rude lady came up to us and said "You can't sit here, you need to move" I told her that we were just put here by another attendant. She actually said "no you weren't". :eek: Are you kidding me? Did you just basically call me a liar? Now you have managed to strike a nerve cord with me and that doesn't happen often. I said "Not only were we told to sit here, the guy actually WALKED US TO THIS SPOT FROM OUR SECTION AND PUT US HERE!!!" Once again, she said "that's a lie and no one told you to sit here." GASP! At that point my blood is boiling. How rude! She ask me what person and I pointed in the direction the guy was, having no clue EXACTLY where he was at the moment. She marched off in that direction, then came back and said "Like I said, he did not tell you that and you need to move." :eek: Obviously you didn't find the right guy that not only told us to sit here, but actually walked us down and placed us here. She said we would have to move again...then moved us even further away. Since she had been so rude to us, it was nothing but fair game for me after that...I not only got rude back with her, but also got loud and expressed my opinions of how we were being treated then of course added that she better not dare come back and tell us to move once again because it was not going to happen. She stated that she would go get us some chairs to sit in and of course we knew she would never return with said chairs...and we were right. We were officially pretty darn far from where we would even be able to hear when they called our numbers and I was pissed. My official opinion of this port in New York is that these people are rude and I really have no desire to cruise from here again. It's crowded, there's no place to sit, the employees are rude and well the beginning of my vacation has me 50 shades of red with fury at this point.

 

The only way we found out that they were starting to board was we seen others getting up from their seats and headed to the gangway. That was our cue since we had boarding number 4. If it wasn't our turn yet, we were going to at least take the seats of those getting up so we could hear.

 

Once we got up there, we found that they had called 0-10 and this was around 11:45am and away we went hoping this could only get better.

 

Sakari is always in a hurry to get on the ship and always in the lead. I am constantly reminding her to wait for us.

 

 

 

The kids are behind us having a good old time...

 

 

Yep, that's my family....the party has started back there and we haven't even hit the ship.

 

 

I just noticed all the girls had on holey jeans LOL

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Obviously Kolin was in a hurry to get to the ship too...pulling Courtney along.

 

 

 

 

Now that's excitement!

 

 

 

I'm not sure how Sakari allowed some of the family members to get around her, but I was able to stop her long enough for a picture.

 

 

 

...and onto the ship we went to explore. :D

[mitsugirly]

From here...I'm going to have to stop for awhile.

 

I'm going to get all the pictures together of the ship and give you a tour. But there's so many and (as most of you know) I always divide them up into the floors they are located on.

 

I'll try to continue as soon as I can. :)

[mitsugirly]

Stumbled on to this review. Pics are great. Family vacations are a blessing! However stealing suitcases is not a New York thing!!

 

Thanks for joining me. Yea, stealing suitcases is probably and "anywhere you go" thing. :p

 

Thank God for the Internet. I had to look up LFK, I never heard of it. First search I came up with Lawrence F***ing Kansas :confused:, then I came up with Light French Kissing. :eek: Finally I got Little French Key. I've been to Roatan too! Damn acronyms!:mad:

 

 

Glad you were able to figure out what it is. Sorry for typing in code. :o

[sunbird21]

Now, if you guys had been there at 845ish with me, you could've met my super duper friendly security guard and had the total experience of rudeness at that port.

 

It does make MIA look a lot more pleasant, doesn't it?

 

Ok, I'm done posting for today LOL

 

Stacey

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mitsugirly]

Hi there, Mitsugirly! Love your reviews. I'm looking forward to reading about your fams adventures and your Breakaway thoughts. :)

 

Thanks so much for the comments. I'm happy you enjoy them. :)

 

Love your reviews! You must either have a stellar memory or you journal all of your trips. I can't remember what I had for breakfast most days let alone remember all of the detail like you do. You are awesome!

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

Well...I wouldn't say I have anywhere close to a stellar memory. I do however try to jot down things here and there at the end of each day. However, this cruise would be a little different since there were so many of us on it, and we had connecting rooms, which didn't allow a lot of "me" time during the evenings when I normally try to write reminders down. I also forgot to bring a little notebook to jot things down, therefore I was forced to use Sakari's drawing notebook she brought...which is hard to take it from her clenched fist each night because she's busy drawing.

 

For the most part, I try to rely on my pictures...since I ALWAYS have one on me and constantly snapping pictures, it sometimes recalls the events in which we do them. :D

 

BTW, I don't remember what I did the day before either...but ask me about something that happened 10 years ago and I'll recall it like it was today. :p

[mitsugirly]

We are going to NYC for Thanksgiving and thats my fear....the crazy drivers! I will try and walk most places. LOL

 

Yea, they were pretty crazy. :eek:

 

My comments are inserted above in red.

 

Thanks for the comments.

[mitsugirly]

Now THAT was your official "Welcome to NYC". [emoji13]

 

I endure such cab rides on a daily basis

 

Stacey

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

I.would.die! (If I had to do that every day)

 

I think the older I get the more "careful" and "aware" I am when driving. I have gotten to the point where I don't like anyone driving me places and if we go somewhere, I always volunteer to drive. Even if the hubby goes, I insist on driving my car otherwise I'm digging my fingers into the dash and leaving imprints. :p

 

I just didn't understand WHY he drove so differently in NJ and then it was a complete 360 in NY. :confused:

[Cruzinnana47]

We've sailed out of NY several times and never had the experience you just described. Yes, rude people we definitely encountered - but MOST of them were other passengers! I found the day of disembarkation much worse--especially going down to claim your luggage -what a nightmare - especially when we got off the Breakaway.

 

Not saying we didn't meet some impatient & annoyed terminal employees, but not anywhere as rude as you experienced. Sorry you and your family had to go through all that.

 

We can attest to the CRAZY driving in NY. :eek:

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Thanks for all your hard work!

[luvcruzing]

Since you always have your camera ready, too bad you didn't take the first (male) attendant's picture. You could have then shown it to the second attendant when she asked who it was that told you to sit there. And, too bad you didn't take her picture. Then, you could have . . . well, that would be up to you.

[perfect match]

Kim, adventures really do seem to follow you everywhere! Even the ride from your hotel to the cruise port is an adventure.

 

I was looking at your list of Carnival ships you want to sail, and saw the Sunshine was on your list. We saw her sail this afternoon from Port Canaveral along with Carnival Sensation and Freedom OTS. We were at Fishlips where the webcam is located for a meet with some of our fellow cruisers on the Oasis next year. The Sunshine is a pretty ship, and if she is still in PC when you decide to sail her, maybe we will use that as an excuse to come down and see you off. Actually, we could do that for any ship sailing out of PC. :D

[janpo]

Love waking up and seeing another installment!!

[CamaCama]

Yay!! Excited that I have this to review to read to hold me over until our Escape cruise in 1 month!! You've definitely helped my decision to write a pictorial review after... hard to find reviews with younger kids! :)

[Laszlo]

Hiya Laszlo! :)

 

Hope your doing well, I love your reviews!!!

[mitsugirly]

We've sailed out of NY several times and never had the experience you just described. Yes' date=' rude people we definitely encountered - but MOST of them were other passengers! I found the day of disembarkation much worse--especially going down to claim your luggage -what a nightmare - especially when we got off the Breakaway.

 

Not saying we didn't meet some impatient & annoyed terminal employees, but not anywhere as rude as you experienced. Sorry you and your family had to go through all that.

 

We can attest to the CRAZY driving in NY. :eek:

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Thanks for all your hard work![/quote']

 

I hope that no one ever has to experience the rudeness we did. I was just speachless at first...then annoyed, then pissed. I have never had any of the port employees speak to me in such a way. I was really caught off guard with this one. :(

 

Since you always have your camera ready, too bad you didn't take the first (male) attendant's picture. You could have then shown it to the second attendant when she asked who it was that told you to sit there. And, too bad you didn't take her picture. Then, you could have . . . well, that would be up to you.

 

Trust me I would have...if you were allowed. You are not supposed to take any pictures within the terminal. Some places (although we have never seen the issues) like Boston (or was it Baltimore? I can't remember), not only if they catch you with your camera out, they will take it from you. We did have one experience years ago in one of the terminals (maybe Miami or NOLA) that I was standing inside the terminal after checking and took a few pictures of the ship sitting there (looking out the window) and they told me it was a no-no to have a camera or take pictures within the terminal and made me erase them. :eek: From then on, I knew it was something that was not allowed and I follow the rules to the best of my ability.

[mitsugirly]

Kim, adventures really do seem to follow you everywhere! Even the ride from your hotel to the cruise port is an adventure.

 

I was looking at your list of Carnival ships you want to sail, and saw the Sunshine was on your list. We saw her sail this afternoon from Port Canaveral along with Carnival Sensation and Freedom OTS. We were at Fishlips where the webcam is located for a meet with some of our fellow cruisers on the Oasis next year. The Sunshine is a pretty ship, and if she is still in PC when you decide to sail her, maybe we will use that as an excuse to come down and see you off. Actually, we could do that for any ship sailing out of PC. :D

 

I do love the way the Sunshines looks after they redid it. The only thing that has been keeping me from sailing so far has been the multiple reports after the refurb of it being too small of a ship for the amount of people on it and lots of complaints about the over crowding. However, I feel the same way about any of the bigger ships. The bigger ships=more people and crowding. But this was kinda a different "gripe" from passengers. Although I'm usually not one to go with what others say (obviously, or I would have never even sailed Carnival to begin with after all the "warnings" :rolleyes:) and will form my own opinion. BUT, the pricing they've had on that ship for any time I was searching for a cruise has been OUTRAGEOUS!

 

Just so you know...I'm SERIOUSLY contemplating the Epic November 12th next year when she arrives in PC. :D That's the only ship I have considered sailing for a second time in the fleet. It's the only one that Sakari did not go on with us and the only ship she talks about non-stop. We have "parked" beside the Epic several times and Sakari just talks non-stop about wanting to go on it...and well, it is still my favorite ship to date. :p

 

Love waking up and seeing another installment!!

 

 

Thank you.

[mitsugirly]

Yay!! Excited that I have this to review to read to hold me over until our Escape cruise in 1 month!! You've definitely helped my decision to write a pictorial review after... hard to find reviews with younger kids! :)

 

I hope you have a wonderful time on the Escape. She's a beauty!

 

Make sure you come back and post a link to your Escape pictorial. I can't wait to read it. :)

 

Hope your doing well, I love your reviews!!!

 

Doing great. Hope you are doing good as well. :)

[njmomof2]

Kim, enjoying your report of your recent BA cruise.

 

I can attest to the NJ/NY driving. I grew up in NY and learned to drive there. Now live in NJ. When I'm driving at home (or most places around NJ), I'm a pretty reasonable driver. However, once I'm over the bridge or through the tunnel, all bets are off!

 

Seat position changes, mirrors are adjusted, window down, and the aggressive driving takes over. I've been known to get within thisclosetothecarinfrontofme when driving in NYC. It's just a different way of thinking and maneuvering when you're in the city.

 

I'm sorry that your first impressions of the city were not favorable. I was horrified at the attempted theft of your bag at the airport, and then the rude employees at the pier. The driving, however....pretty standard for me LOL!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Oh, BTW, I remember from one of your prior reports you talking about the specific slot machines that you've always had luck playing on NCL. I sailed in August on Royal and while in the casino tried to remember the type and find it for my mom, but was not successful. So, when you get to the casino part (and I'm sure you will LOL!), can you again discuss the name of the machine and if you possibly have a picture, I'd love to see it. Sailing on Anthem for Christmas and I'd like to see if I can find it (and take mom to the casinos in Pennsylvania every once in a while so I'll look there too).

 

Thanks!!

[ourfamilylovescruising]

Love your reviews!! so excited to see a new one

[Mikkar]

I'm really enjoying your review!! We were on the same cruise and it's bringing it all back for me and also, it's fun to see it through someone else's eyes!! We've sailed from NY quite a few times but we usually arrive late and don't have to wait to board. I don't understand why everyone has to be seated and why it's handled in such a militant way!! I don't blame you for being angry for the way you were treated. I'm sure that there is a need for organization with that many people, but the way it was handled seemed harsh.