Just off Breakaway (7/2-7/9 sailing)

[Clarea]

Thanks for the review.

[uneamie]

We cruised on the BA last July and had such a great time (without the Haven experience) we are going again this Sunday. Hopefully we will have just as much fun this year. I sometimes wonder about people's expectations because I read the same reviews last year and was very concerned. Upon boarding we never waited for anything including tables for dinner, and we were 6 people. Didn't notice over served people except 1 night at Dueling Pianos and then staff took care of the situation. Keeping fingers crossed this trip will be like last years.

I sure hope so. We are not fussy people and we never had any complaints when cruising NCL. But we are booked for the Breakaway in Jan for 14 days so reading some of these negative reviews has me concerned. Also...about the "over served" drunks. Perhaps they did not have the free UBP bonus the last time you went. You may see a difference now. We got that package as I am sure many others have as well..........but we don't plan on spending our vacation in a coma so it won't be us walking around looking for our next drink. ha! Enjoy your cruise and thanks for the "ray of hope" with your positive comment.

[LrgPizza]

Since you weren't on the same trip, you have no idea what the lines were like or the clientele was on this particular sailing. You could even have been on the same trip but at a different bar and would have no idea if people were fighting for drinks somewhere else.

When we sailed at the end of May there were plenty of people jostling or pushing in to get service at certain bars, Maltings was especially bad. The Atrium bar wasn't as bad, unless during a show when the whole area was crowded.

Take time to read my post you quoted again. I didn't say it didn't happen to him. I shared my experience to show others that the waits are not always going to be the case. My experience isn't going to be identical to everyone else's, but neither is his. I think most people understood that. I hope I've clarified it for you.

 

I did say the poster was doing it wrong. You verified this by hinting that long waits might not be the case at all bars. If there is a huge wait and people fighting for drinks, walk 30 seconds to a different bar. Good point you made there without even meaning to!

[mimb1]

Hi Uneamie, We are just off BA and had an awesome cruise. About the only thing I would agree with the OP is that the ships pool and deck are over- crowded. We were a group of 11 and made a standing reservation for 7:30 each night in the Manhattan room and were seated promptly. The wait staff could not have been more attentive to us our waiters name was Bam Bang from Indonesia (request him if he is still on board) he was the best waiter we have ever had to date. Dinners were very good. A tip; if you have the dining package you can use it at the Ocean Blue raw bar for pre-dinner apps and eat like a king and queen starting at 5:30 with no res. We ended up cancelling our reservations at Le Bistro and Mederno for this option instead. You can order unlimited amounts of oysters, jumbo shrimp, stone crabs, lobsters, crap legs, clams etc. Honestly my favorite part of the trip. Every night we met at Shakers for a pre-dinner drinks the bartender Urma was a real sweetheart. After dinner, we would head up to H2O for the evening’s entertainment. If you get there before 9:45 there are four great high tables at the back next to the bar that are elevated above the dance floor IMO best seats in the house. The cocktail waiter we had was Andre and he never let our glasses go empty. He was also our daytime server at H2O. We did Rock of Ages on Wednesday great show, but theatre seats are the most uncomfortable seats at sea. Embarkation was a breeze we arrive around 9am boarded 11:20 group 7 (we are silver latitudes) sadly Vibe was sold out already. We had it last time on BA well worth the extra $. Disembarkation was the fastest we have ever experienced we did the 8am walk off option and were off the ship and cleared customs by 8:20. For an excursion I would recommend contacting Capt. Caleb@ SailBermuda.com for a private catamaran snorkel trip it was about 110pp plus drinks. Boat was brand new and perfect for up to 30 people. We were out most nights till 2am and did not see anyone who was drunk enough to take notice of, however did see a lot of people having a great time dancing the night away. Last tip is to give tips to the staff you spent a small fortune to be on board. Don’t hurt your experience by thinking the staff is tipped enough already with the pre-paid gratuities. Money is a very strong motivator for the staff and the reason I believe we experienced the best from them. We tipped our room Stewart $20 day one-per room, our waiter $40 day one, $20 day four and $40 last day. Urma at Shakers and Andre at H2O we tipped approx $10 per day. Wishing you the best on your cruise.

[thistimeplease]

I sure hope so. We are not fussy people and we never had any complaints when cruising NCL. But we are booked for the Breakaway in Jan for 14 days so reading some of these negative reviews has me concerned. Also...about the "over served" drunks. Perhaps they did not have the free UBP bonus the last time you went. You may see a difference now. We got that package as I am sure many others have as well..........but we don't plan on spending our vacation in a coma so it won't be us walking around looking for our next drink. ha! Enjoy your cruise and thanks for the "ray of hope" with your positive comment.

 

Thanks and yes they did have the UBP then. We were worried about being able to get drinks and the dining but thankfully during our cruise it was never a issue. Will let everyone know when we return but I'm not anticipating any problems. We are very easy going people and when on vacations nothing really bothers us.

[thistimeplease]

Hi Uneamie, We are just off BA and had an awesome cruise. About the only thing I would agree with the OP is that the ships pool and deck are over- crowded. We were a group of 11 and made a standing reservation for 7:30 each night in the Manhattan room and were seated promptly. The wait staff could not have been more attentive to us our waiters name was Bam Bang from Indonesia (request him if he is still on board) he was the best waiter we have ever had to date. Dinners were very good. A tip; if you have the dining package you can use it at the Ocean Blue raw bar for pre-dinner apps and eat like a king and queen starting at 5:30 with no res. We ended up cancelling our reservations at Le Bistro and Mederno for this option instead. You can order unlimited amounts of oysters, jumbo shrimp, stone crabs, lobsters, crap legs, clams etc. Honestly my favorite part of the trip. Every night we met at Shakers for a pre-dinner drinks the bartender Urma was a real sweetheart. After dinner, we would head up to H2O for the evening’s entertainment. If you get there before 9:45 there are four great high tables at the back next to the bar that are elevated above the dance floor IMO best seats in the house. The cocktail waiter we had was Andre and he never let our glasses go empty. He was also our daytime server at H2O. We did Rock of Ages on Wednesday great show, but theatre seats are the most uncomfortable seats at sea. Embarkation was a breeze we arrive around 9am boarded 11:20 group 7 (we are silver latitudes) sadly Vibe was sold out already. We had it last time on BA well worth the extra $. Disembarkation was the fastest we have ever experienced we did the 8am walk off option and were off the ship and cleared customs by 8:20. For an excursion I would recommend contacting Capt. Caleb@ SailBermuda.com for a private catamaran snorkel trip it was about 110pp plus drinks. Boat was brand new and perfect for up to 30 people. We were out most nights till 2am and did not see anyone who was drunk enough to take notice of, however did see a lot of people having a great time dancing the night away. Last tip is to give tips to the staff you spent a small fortune to be on board. Don’t hurt your experience by thinking the staff is tipped enough already with the pre-paid gratuities. Money is a very strong motivator for the staff and the reason I believe we experienced the best from them. We tipped our room Stewart $20 day one-per room, our waiter $40 day one, $20 day four and $40 last day. Urma at Shakers and Andre at H2O we tipped approx $10 per day. Wishing you the best on your cruise.

 

This could have been my review from last year. Looking forward to my cruise this Sunday.

[mimb1]

This could have been my review from last year. Looking forward to my cruise this Sunday.

Jealous!!! Have a great cruise!!!

[brightonguys]

Who was the cruise director?

 

 

 

Someone named Dan Dan.

 

 

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[uneamie]

Hi Uneamie, We are just off BA and had an awesome cruise. About the only thing I would agree with the OP is that the ships pool and deck are over- crowded. We were a group of 11 and made a standing reservation for 7:30 each night in the Manhattan room and were seated promptly. The wait staff could not have been more attentive to us our waiters name was Bam Bang from Indonesia (request him if he is still on board) he was the best waiter we have ever had to date. Dinners were very good. A tip; if you have the dining package you can use it at the Ocean Blue raw bar for pre-dinner apps and eat like a king and queen starting at 5:30 with no res. We ended up cancelling our reservations at Le Bistro and Mederno for this option instead. You can order unlimited amounts of oysters, jumbo shrimp, stone crabs, lobsters, crap legs, clams etc. Honestly my favorite part of the trip. Every night we met at Shakers for a pre-dinner drinks the bartender Urma was a real sweetheart. After dinner, we would head up to H2O for the evening’s entertainment. If you get there before 9:45 there are four great high tables at the back next to the bar that are elevated above the dance floor IMO best seats in the house. The cocktail waiter we had was Andre and he never let our glasses go empty. He was also our daytime server at H2O. We did Rock of Ages on Wednesday great show, but theatre seats are the most uncomfortable seats at sea. Embarkation was a breeze we arrive around 9am boarded 11:20 group 7 (we are silver latitudes) sadly Vibe was sold out already. We had it last time on BA well worth the extra $. Disembarkation was the fastest we have ever experienced we did the 8am walk off option and were off the ship and cleared customs by 8:20. For an excursion I would recommend contacting Capt. Caleb@ SailBermuda.com for a private catamaran snorkel trip it was about 110pp plus drinks. Boat was brand new and perfect for up to 30 people. We were out most nights till 2am and did not see anyone who was drunk enough to take notice of, however did see a lot of people having a great time dancing the night away. Last tip is to give tips to the staff you spent a small fortune to be on board. Don’t hurt your experience by thinking the staff is tipped enough already with the pre-paid gratuities. Money is a very strong motivator for the staff and the reason I believe we experienced the best from them. We tipped our room Stewart $20 day one-per room, our waiter $40 day one, $20 day four and $40 last day. Urma at Shakers and Andre at H2O we tipped approx $10 per day. Wishing you the best on your cruise.

Thank you so much....this is very reassuring! I appreciate all the tips too. Going to the Ocean Blue for all you can eat apps? I didn't know it was all you can eat for those. I will check that out because we do have the SDP so I guess we could use one of the 4 for that one. And we also tip our room steward and others but not $20 per day. We have a 14 day cruise so I think we already broke the bank on this trip. LOL

[HelenaCruiser2012]

Hi Uneamie, We are just off BA and had an awesome cruise. About the only thing I would agree with the OP is that the ships pool and deck are over- crowded. We were a group of 11 and made a standing reservation for 7:30 each night in the Manhattan room and were seated promptly. The wait staff could not have been more attentive to us our waiters name was Bam Bang from Indonesia (request him if he is still on board) he was the best waiter we have ever had to date. Dinners were very good. A tip; if you have the dining package you can use it at the Ocean Blue raw bar for pre-dinner apps and eat like a king and queen starting at 5:30 with no res. We ended up cancelling our reservations at Le Bistro and Mederno for this option instead. You can order unlimited amounts of oysters, jumbo shrimp, stone crabs, lobsters, crap legs, clams etc. Honestly my favorite part of the trip. Every night we met at Shakers for a pre-dinner drinks the bartender Urma was a real sweetheart. After dinner, we would head up to H2O for the evening’s entertainment. If you get there before 9:45 there are four great high tables at the back next to the bar that are elevated above the dance floor IMO best seats in the house. The cocktail waiter we had was Andre and he never let our glasses go empty. He was also our daytime server at H2O. We did Rock of Ages on Wednesday great show, but theatre seats are the most uncomfortable seats at sea. Embarkation was a breeze we arrive around 9am boarded 11:20 group 7 (we are silver latitudes) sadly Vibe was sold out already. We had it last time on BA well worth the extra $. Disembarkation was the fastest we have ever experienced we did the 8am walk off option and were off the ship and cleared customs by 8:20. For an excursion I would recommend contacting Capt. Caleb@ SailBermuda.com for a private catamaran snorkel trip it was about 110pp plus drinks. Boat was brand new and perfect for up to 30 people. We were out most nights till 2am and did not see anyone who was drunk enough to take notice of, however did see a lot of people having a great time dancing the night away. Last tip is to give tips to the staff you spent a small fortune to be on board. Don’t hurt your experience by thinking the staff is tipped enough already with the pre-paid gratuities. Money is a very strong motivator for the staff and the reason I believe we experienced the best from them. We tipped our room Stewart $20 day one-per room, our waiter $40 day one, $20 day four and $40 last day. Urma at Shakers and Andre at H2O we tipped approx $10 per day. Wishing you the best on your cruise.

 

Thank you so much for your input! Great tips and great attitude. It's a vacation, on a beautiful ship, with three days in Bermuda, how bad can it be? I believe it's like the rest of life, it's all in how you approach it. :)

[andychris]

Thanks for the review

Where do you go to try to get the vibe beach pass?

Thanks

[Stick93]

Thank you so much for your input! Great tips and great attitude. It's a vacation, on a beautiful ship, with three days in Bermuda, how bad can it be? I believe it's like the rest of life, it's all in how you approach it. :)

 

 

 

You have to be there at the crack of dawn to get a low boarding number and then run on the ship to guest service to buy it. Good luck as it goes right away. An other perk of the Norwegian experience - run and compete to get it all in. If you don't you will have plenty of people to commiserate with on the ship while you search for your lounge chair and notice how people leave one article of clothing on each chair to reserve it. Take extra clothing and you can get a new chairs if you want to wake up real early.

 

 

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[Stick93]

You have to be there at the crack of dawn to get a low boarding number and then run on the ship to guest service to buy it. Good luck as it goes right away. An other perk of the Norwegian experience - run and compete to get it all in. If you don't you will have plenty of people to commiserate with on the ship while you search for your lounge chair and notice how people leave one article of clothing on each chair to reserve it. Take extra clothing and you can get a new chairs if you want to wake up real early.

 

 

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That was meant for the vibe question

 

 

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[luvtheships]

The BA is not only a disappointment to me but is actually an embarrassment to ncl IMHO.

 

They really need to look into the issues on this ship

 

Fwiw...I just spent $10,000 on a wonderful land based European 2 week trip and that price included everything for 3 people plus no worries about losing money as we paid hotels etc the end...not months in advance.

 

Of course initially We had planned to give some of that to ncl for either a Baltic or Greek isle cruise but decided not to

 

We loved doing land based this year

 

 

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[Fred Quimby]

everything you mentioned about the breakaway is True but we love it,,,why? it is only a 20 minute drive for us from home, we barely see our 2 teen kids during the week,,,lol,,we get the drink package plus this November we got $250 OBC, 1st two guest gratuities paid, $100 casino credit, the 100 minute wifi, unlimited state room calls, 10 photo package, another $50 casino credit, case of water, bottle of wine and chocolate strawberries in our room and a $50 dining credit, all for $1950 total

[sharonann24]

We also sail on BA on Sunday and I have read various reviews from different sources about the ship. It is July after all, prime summer vacation time and school is out. We (DH and I) are doing this trip alone as our kids are grown. We did a extended family cruise with my parents, kids and significant others on RC and that was also crowded but still managed to find deck chairs, quiet corners, etc. I am looking forward to this trip because we don't have to fly (not looking forward to the drive in from CT, but it is what it is!), we have 3 days at sea and on land. It seems to me from what I have read that this is the experience you sign up for when cruising NCL. This will be our first NCL cruise and I am anxious to see the difference. One of my colleagues is cruising NCL the following week to Alaska so I will be comparing notes with her as well! Happy cruising!

[thistimeplease]

We also sail on BA on Sunday and I have read various reviews from different sources about the ship. It is July after all, prime summer vacation time and school is out. We (DH and I) are doing this trip alone as our kids are grown. We did a extended family cruise with my parents, kids and significant others on RC and that was also crowded but still managed to find deck chairs, quiet corners, etc. I am looking forward to this trip because we don't have to fly (not looking forward to the drive in from CT, but it is what it is!), we have 3 days at sea and on land. It seems to me from what I have read that this is the experience you sign up for when cruising NCL. This will be our first NCL cruise and I am anxious to see the difference. One of my colleagues is cruising NCL the following week to Alaska so I will be comparing notes with her as well! Happy cruising!

 

With no kids H20 is the place to go. We never had a problem getting chairs or drinks while we were there.

[mimb1]

Thanks for the review

Where do you go to try to get the vibe beach pass?

Thanks

Just to the left of the guest service line will be a separate line for Vibe passes. We were boarding group 7 and just missed out. Have a great cruise!!

[brightonguys]

With no kids H20 is the place to go. We never had a problem getting chairs or drinks while we were there.

 

 

 

What time did you get there to get chairs? We tried on each of the three sea days and there was not a chair to be had, much less two together. As others have posted, the chair hog phenomenon (which is not unique to NCL or the Breakaway) was rampant on our cruise. More clothes, towels and flip flops in chairs than people.

 

 

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[mimb1]

With no kids H20 is the place to go. We never had a problem getting chairs or drinks while we were there.

H20 is the place if you miss out on Vibe passes love the water curtain for cooling down, wish they played music during the day.

[LrgPizza]

What time did you get there to get chairs? We tried on each of the three sea days and there was not a chair to be had, much less two together. As others have posted, the chair hog phenomenon (which is not unique to NCL or the Breakaway) was rampant on our cruise. More clothes, towels and flip flops in chairs than people.

 

 

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The early bird gets the worm. My husband and I get up and go sit ourselves in seats at an early hour. Then we listen to people who made a choice to sleep in complain that the chairs are all full. I have little sympathy. I've even been accused of being a chair hog because my ass is in a seat. Ha!

[Kryssa]

What time did you get there to get chairs? We tried on each of the three sea days and there was not a chair to be had, much less two together. As others have posted, the chair hog phenomenon (which is not unique to NCL or the Breakaway) was rampant on our cruise. More clothes, towels and flip flops in chairs than people.

 

 

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I have put up my hate shield to say this, but I have no problem moving towels to sit in a chair.

 

I watch for around 10-15 minutes to make sure it see it wasn't a quick dip in a pool or a bathroom trip, but I just fold the towel, put it underneath the chair, and sit down. If someone comes, I move to another chair nearby that has been empty for awhile. Most of the time nobody comes.

 

 

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[Two Wheels Only]

I have put up my hate shield to say this, but I have no problem moving towels to sit in a chair.

 

I watch for around 10-15 minutes to make sure it see it wasn't a quick dip in a pool or a bathroom trip, but I just fold the towel, put it underneath the chair, and sit down. If someone comes, I move to another chair nearby that has been empty for awhile. Most of the time nobody comes.

 

You won't need a full "shield" but you will need a small one. ;)

Although I don't believe that moving other people's items is correct and (as per NCL dailies) a person can leave their items on a chair for 1 hour, not "10-15 minutes", I won't go into full attack mode.

 

The fact that you will get up if the person returns is a plus. Most people who admit to moving items just stay there if the person returns even if the person was only gone for 10 minutes. THAT is clearly 100% wrong.

[Two Wheels Only]

So let me start off by saying none of the 24 cruises we've been on have been bad cruises, including this one. We've been on some fantastic ones, some really good ones, a few average ones … and, frankly, this very disappointing one. We've been on almost all the mainstream lines at this point, plus Cunard and Azamara, but Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are our favorite and most frequent choices.

 

So as I said, we found ways to enjoy this cruise, too, but we are agreed that NCL's freestyle dining, problems with understaffing, too many drunken passengers, and way too crowded conditions, mean this was our last NCL experience.

I think that with your past cruises and preferences, NCL's Haven or MSC's Yacht Club would be excellent choices.

[Kryssa]

You won't need a full "shield" but you will need a small one. ;)

 

Although I don't believe that moving other people's items is correct and (as per NCL dailies) a person can leave their items on a chair for 1 hour, not "10-15 minutes", I won't go into full attack mode.

 

 

 

The fact that you will get up if the person returns is a plus. Most people who admit to moving items just stay there if the person returns even if the person was only gone for 10 minutes. THAT is clearly 100% wrong.

 

 

 

I only move towels - sometimes people have actually left for day and are just too lazy to put their towel away. I don't move hats or books or flip flops.

 

If they come back I just say "oh I thought you had left."

 

 

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