NCL Newbie Review of Breakaway Western Caribbean 9/15/19-9/22/19

[Boston Mom]

Back to our Day #3 dinner at Taste.  Dinner that night was a little bit of a blur because there was an extended family group sitting a few tables away from us that had a toddler that was literally screaming his head off the entire time, and a preschool aged child that kept running around the restaurant.  At no point did the parents or grandparents take out the screaming toddler (Grandma kept bouncing him up and down on her knee which seemed to make him scream even louder) or try to get the preschooler to sit down and be quiet.  I just felt sorry for the parties sitting directly next to them, and even worse for the wait staff that were just trying to do their job and carry heavy trays of food while maneuvering around a little kid racing around.

 

There were basically no teenagers or middle schoolers on our sailing, probably because it was September and many people are reluctant to pull their kids out of school when school has just started.  But there were many families with kids ranging from newborn (we kept seeing a family that had a baby that looked to be about a month old) up through elementary school.  Our stateroom was located near the Splash Academy program for the younger kids and it was hopping all day long with people picking up and dropping off kids - and every time we walked by it sounded like the kids in the camp were having a wonderful time.  For the most part the kids we encountered were pretty well behaved, the exception being that night in Taste and a few other instances where the kids were obviously overtired and being kept up for a late dinner or show.

 

Back to our meal at Taste.  I started with a glass of wine and my husband with a beer while we perused our menus.  We both ordered the classic Caesar salad as it had been so yummy the previous evening, and my husband ordered the stuffed mushrooms which was one of the appetizer specials that evening.  All were delicious, as was my chicken and my husband's fettucine alfredo (evidently he enjoyed what he ate of mine the previous night because he ordered it again, hahaha).  The screaming baby was still screaming so we decided to skip dessert and went out for a walk on the decks.  We were tired after the snorkeling and, after making a quick pit stop at the Garden Grill to grab some dessert, we went back up to relax on our balcony and enjoy dessert (bread pudding with vanilla sauce for me and flan for my husband).  It was so peaceful to sit out there and just watch the ocean waves at night.

 

The middle of the night wasn't so peaceful however.  At 2 am we were jolted wide awake by someone running up and down our hallway, banging on doors and making weird bird noises.  I was pretty startled by someone pounding on our door like that.  After the guy ran up and down the hallway a few more times a guy from one of the cabins near ours went out and took care of the problem - we met the guy later in the week and he was about 6' 5" and built like a linebacker.  All became peaceful again and we fell back asleep until our alarm went off telling it was time to get up and get ready for our day in Belize.

[Boston Mom]

Day #4 - good morning Belize!  Because it was our 25th anniversary, and because we both love just chilling by the pool and beach, we decided to not do an excursion and to just relax and enjoy Harvest Caye.  Because we did not have an excursion and had all day to be in port we slept in a bit, rather than getting right off when we docked at 8 am.  We went back to our usual Moderno breakfast buffet and sat outside enjoying our breakfast while we watched the ship pull in, and other passengers disembarking.  They had smoked salmon on the buffet that morning which was a nice surprise, as I love smoked salmon on a bagel.  That, combined with fresh fruit and a hard boiled egg, made a yummy breakfast for me.  My husband also had the fruit, along with a cranberry chocolate muffin (unusual combination but he said it was really good) and a side of bacon.  We went back up to our stateroom to put on our swimsuits and were disembarking in Belize about 9:30 am.

 

It was extremely hot that day and I could see that many people were finding it a long walk from the ship over to the resort area.  We were prepared for it to be a walk, having read it on Cruise Critic prior to sailing.  The cruise line did have golf carts shuttling anyone that was having difficulty walking, and those looked to be running really efficiently.  When we got to the pool area we did have to hunt around a bit for two loungers, as there were towels on basically every chair.  We kept walking and managed to find two loungers in what to us was a perfect location - in the shade near the pool but with a perfect view of the beach.  It was so hot that we spent basically all day in either the pool or in the water at the beach, coming out to hang out on our loungers whenever we got too waterlogged.  Other people were doing the same thing, and although there were hundreds of people at the beach and pool the pool was large enough to not be crowded.  They had a LOT of lifeguards walking around the sides of the pool to make sure nobody was rough housing, or unruly, or bumping into each other.  At no point did I ever see anyone unruly, and for us it was a really peaceful and fun day at the beach and pool.  We stayed at Harvest Caye until 2:30 at which point we made our way back to the ship.

 

More later....

[cliffd64]

Enjoying your review...  heading on the Breakaway from Canaveral in November!

[C cruise]

wow- that person running up the hallway and knocking on doors should have been reported to the staff.... glad your neighbor took care of it! 

[Greenpea2]

13 hours ago, Boston Mom said:

Back to our Day #3 dinner at Taste.  Dinner that night was a little bit of a blur because there was an extended family group sitting a few tables away from us that had a toddler that was literally screaming his head off the entire time, and a preschool aged child that kept running around the restaurant.  At no point did the parents or grandparents take out the screaming toddler (Grandma kept bouncing him up and down on her knee which seemed to make him scream even louder) or try to get the preschooler to sit down and be quiet.  I just felt sorry for the parties sitting directly next to them, and even worse for the wait staff that were just trying to do their job and carry heavy trays of food while maneuvering around a little kid racing around.

 

There were basically no teenagers or middle schoolers on our sailing, probably because it was September and many people are reluctant to pull their kids out of school when school has just started.  But there were many families with kids ranging from newborn (we kept seeing a family that had a baby that looked to be about a month old) up through elementary school.  Our stateroom was located near the Splash Academy program for the younger kids and it was hopping all day long with people picking up and dropping off kids - and every time we walked by it sounded like the kids in the camp were having a wonderful time.  For the most part the kids we encountered were pretty well behaved, the exception being that night in Taste and a few other instances where the kids were obviously overtired and being kept up for a late dinner or show.

 

Back to our meal at Taste.  I started with a glass of wine and my husband with a beer while we perused our menus.  We both ordered the classic Caesar salad as it had been so yummy the previous evening, and my husband ordered the stuffed mushrooms which was one of the appetizer specials that evening.  All were delicious, as was my chicken and my husband's fettucine alfredo (evidently he enjoyed what he ate of mine the previous night because he ordered it again, hahaha).  The screaming baby was still screaming so we decided to skip dessert and went out for a walk on the decks.  We were tired after the snorkeling and, after making a quick pit stop at the Garden Grill to grab some dessert, we went back up to relax on our balcony and enjoy dessert (bread pudding with vanilla sauce for me and flan for my husband).  It was so peaceful to sit out there and just watch the ocean waves at night.

 

The middle of the night wasn't so peaceful however.  At 2 am we were jolted wide awake by someone running up and down our hallway, banging on doors and making weird bird noises.  I was pretty startled by someone pounding on our door like that.  After the guy ran up and down the hallway a few more times a guy from one of the cabins near ours went out and took care of the problem - we met the guy later in the week and he was about 6' 5" and built like a linebacker.  All became peaceful again and we fell back asleep until our alarm went off telling it was time to get up and get ready for our day in Belize.

Thank you for your review--it's terrific and very fair. I have to say I am disappointed that the Maitre'D or restaurant manager could not have addressed the screaming baby issue. That's just not fair to all the other diners and it seems to me they should have made a polite but firm attempt to have someone take the baby out of the restaurant. Ugh.

[smplybcause]

14 hours ago, Boston Mom said:

newborn (we kept seeing a family that had a baby that looked to be about a month old)

 Must have been an itty bitty baby since they have to be at least 6 months to cruise!

[2Long2NxtCrz]

18 hours ago, Boston Mom said:

We love NOLA also, we have cruised out of there on Royal many years ago.

 

When we booked our balcony we were able to get 3 "free" options in our package.  We chose the Unlimited Beverage Option, the Specialty Dining Option, and the Free Air option.  We definitely chose wisely, as we weren't bringing family and friends to sail free (it was our anniversary so it was just the two of us) and I did not want WIFI on the ship, as we are slaves to our phones at home and I wanted to just hang out.  We ended up getting a fourth perk "free" from our travel agent - $50 off per room for each excursion booked through NCL  but by the time we got that I already had our excursions booked and we did not end up using that.

 

With the Unlimited Beverage Option we basically got any and all drinks from any bar or restaurant on the ship completely free, up to $15 per drink.  If we got a drink over $15 we would be charged for the excess over the $15, but that didn't happen for as as we are not big drinkers and mostly had wine, beer, or the drink of the day.  It included wine by the glass, beer, mixed and frozen drinks, and sodas.  It did not include specialty coffee, although one night we made our own specialty coffee by getting shots of Bailey's and then pouring that into coffee we had gotten from the buffet.  Apparently there are also fresh squeezed juices that it does not include, but I never saw the juices anywhere.  The wine by the glass list was extensive and I was able to try some different things.  There is an upgrade available to a higher beverage package but since we aren't big drinkers it definitely was not worth it for us.  I was happy with my glasses of pinot grigio at dinner at dinner and the different frozen drinks I tried from the bar.

It does NOT include drinks at Harvest Caye; although that is operated by NCL the government of Belize apparently will not let them extend the drink package to the port.  Drinks in Belize seemed to be around $10.  When we ordered drinks the bartenders would just scan our ID cards to verify that we were who we said we were and that we did have the package.  At dinner the waiter checked the card when we sat down and it covered drinks for the rest of the meal.

 

With the Specialty Dining option we got to do 3 meals at the "specialty" restaurants that normally have an upcharge, instead of eating in the included MDR's or buffets.  The three we chose were Teppanyaki, Ocean Blue, and Cagney's.  Teppanyaki and Cagney's were completely free with our package, and Ocean Blue did have another upcharge even with the package (I think it was around $15 additional per person but it was awhile ago that I booked it so I don't remember the exact amount).  When we arrived our cards were scanned and the meals "deducted" from the three that were included in our package.  Had we not had the package we would have paid individually for everything we ordered (Ocean Blue and Cagney's), or paid a flat fee for dinner (I think Teppanyaki was a flat $39 per person, plus drinks if you didn't have the drink package).

 

I hope that helps

That does help!  So much!

 

I'd take the Majesty cruise because it's dirt cheap, but the affordable options are OV or Inside and hubby much prefers to have a balcony for the "just us" cruises.   And The Breakaway looks like a great ship, but it'd be "new" and "different" and it's just so much easier if I can set my husband's expectations.

 

I'm looking forward to more of your experiences and thanks again for sharing!

[smplybcause]

34 minutes ago, 2Long2NxtCrz said:

That does help!  So much!

 

I'd take the Majesty cruise because it's dirt cheap, but the affordable options are OV or Inside and hubby much prefers to have a balcony for the "just us" cruises.   And The Breakaway looks like a great ship, but it'd be "new" and "different" and it's just so much easier if I can set my husband's expectations.

 

I'm looking forward to more of your experiences and thanks again for sharing!

 

I've been on the Majesty. Twice. Both times for the 3 day weekend cruise. I (and my friends on the ship with me) hated the ship. It's such a weird blocky layout, the casino is right next to schooners (so it's filled with smoke half the time too). I would never want to be on it for that many days unless it was rock bottom practically paying me to go on it prices. The rooms are tiny too - we went to an OV on Majesty just to get the same size cabins as the insides we had on Enchantment. And there's no Solarium on it. 

 

That said, there are plenty on the Royal board that love her. I would take the Breakaway without a doubt and I haven't sailed on her yet, but I have on Getaway which is a near identical ship. 

 

 

(Hated is a bit of a strong word as I would still rather be on a ship then at work, and I did voluntarily go on her a second time - but the weekend including drink package was $300 and over Labor Day so no vacation time used so we were talking rock bottom prices)

Edited September 30, 2019 by smplybcause

[Boston Mom]

1 hour ago, smplybcause said:

16 hours ago, Boston Mom said:

newborn (we kept seeing a family that had a baby that looked to be about a month old)

 Must have been an itty bitty baby since they have to be at least 6 months to cruise!

Oh wow, must have been a real preemie when she was born because she was super tiny and still in one of those front carrier swaddler things that I only used when my kids were newborns.  But then again my two boys were big babies.  She was adorable and they also had a 2-3 year old that was super well behaved.

[Boston Mom]

2 hours ago, Greenpea2 said:

Thank you for your review--it's terrific and very fair. I have to say I am disappointed that the Maitre'D or restaurant manager could not have addressed the screaming baby issue. That's just not fair to all the other diners and it seems to me they should have made a polite but firm attempt to have someone take the baby out of the restaurant. Ugh.

I was kind of disappointed also; they were seated kind of diagonal from me and I didn't see any senior restaurant staff go over to the table, other than their own wait staff who I am sure were getting frustrated with it.  Although I was kind of trying to not keep looking over there and to focus on enjoying my meal and talking to my husband.  Fortunately for us we weren't right next to it.

 

I have three kids really close in age and when mine were little we usually just got good takeout after they were in bed to prevent the crying or bickering in restaurants issue.  And if someone did start acting up one of us would just go for a walk with the child.  With these people it looked like the grandparents thought it was cute.

[FLAHAM]

On 9/29/2019 at 8:37 AM, Boston Mom said:

We basically always do too - although for some reason the Breakaway didn't have a lot of lunch options open that first day.  Our choices were Savor (a smaller MDR), the big buffet, or O'Sheehan's.  We figured Savor would be packed since it's so small and the only MDR open for lunch, and my husband wanted to watch the football game that they had playing in O'Sheehan's.  He did get to watch his game but neither of us got to eat, LOL.  Unfortunately no themed lunch at Moderno on our sailing.  If they had had one we definitely would have tried it as we loved Moderno for breakfast.

 

My experience has been that the open MDR has not been crowded for lunch on embarkation day regardless of my time of arrival.  It seems most just can't wait to get at the buffet.  

[smplybcause]

3 minutes ago, FLAHAM said:

 

My experience has been that the open MDR has not been crowded for lunch on embarkation day regardless of my time of arrival.  It seems most just can't wait to get at the buffet.  

 

I agree. I also think another factor is there's other lines where it's not open on embarkation day on other lines. So anyone who has sailed another line won't think it's available. 

[kydesperado]

Thanks for the review! Following as we will be on our first Norwegian cruise on the Breakaway in just 13 days, same itinerary!

[2Long2NxtCrz]

2 hours ago, smplybcause said:

 

I've been on the Majesty. Twice. Both times for the 3 day weekend cruise. I (and my friends on the ship with me) hated the ship. It's such a weird blocky layout, the casino is right next to schooners (so it's filled with smoke half the time too). I would never want to be on it for that many days unless it was rock bottom practically paying me to go on it prices. The rooms are tiny too - we went to an OV on Majesty just to get the same size cabins as the insides we had on Enchantment. And there's no Solarium on it. 

 

That said, there are plenty on the Royal board that love her. I would take the Breakaway without a doubt and I haven't sailed on her yet, but I have on Getaway which is a near identical ship. 

 

 

(Hated is a bit of a strong word as I would still rather be on a ship then at work, and I did voluntarily go on her a second time - but the weekend including drink package was $300 and over Labor Day so no vacation time used so we were talking rock bottom prices)

Not having a Solarium would be a problem for me.  I love the Solarium (well, except I didn't enjoy the one on Harmony because it was too windy and far too hot) and would miss it.

 

I think you and the OP have convinced me to give the Breakaway a try.  Thank you for sharing your experience on the Majesty.  I don't really understand why Royal doesn't put a Radiance class ship back in New Orleans.  Taking the Serenade out of there right after Mardi Gras was one of the best cruises we've been on.

[sabrefan15]

1 hour ago, kydesperado said:

Thanks for the review! Following as we will be on our first Norwegian cruise on the Breakaway in just 13 days, same itinerary!

I was on Breakaway 9/15-9/22. If you like classic rock from the 80's make sure you go to Syd Normans pour house in the evening. The house band was very good and by the end of the week you had to get there 45 minutes before they started if you wanted a seat. Also on Wednesday and Friday nights they had a Bruce Springsteen tribute band that wasn't bad either.

[AGards]

On 9/28/2019 at 2:16 PM, Boston Mom said:

 

After dinner we went over to the main theater for the welcome aboard show, which I thought was well done.  We met our cruise director Clay, the assistant cruise director Malina, and the rest of the entertainment staff.  Both Clay and Malina, as well as the rest of their staff, were very friendly, upbeat, and very visible throughout our sailing, and I thought they did a terrific job.  The welcome aboard show consisted of "previews" of the two main shows on our sailing (Burn the Floor and Rock of Ages) as well as the comedians and magician that would be performing throughout the cruise.  I enjoyed the show.  Afterward we wandered around the main areas of the ship some more (I quickly learned to avoid the casino area on Deck 7 as it was already smoky on the first night and smelled strongly of smoke throughout the cruise) and then went up to bed after a long and busy day.

 

 

 

Can you tell me when the welcome aboard show started?  I want to book reservations for the teppanyaki restaurant and want to make sure I have time to make this show.

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by AGard
I was not finished

[sabrefan15]

1 hour ago, AGard said:

 

 

Can you tell me when the welcome aboard show started?  I want to book reservations for the teppanyaki restaurant and want to make sure I have time to make this show.

 

8:30 it started, here is a link to the dailies for 9/15 cruise.

[Pat.D]

23 hours ago, Boston Mom said:

There were basically no teenagers or middle schoolers on our sailing, probably because it was September and many people are reluctant to pull their kids out of school when school has just started.

 

I was also on the Sept 15 sailing and LOVED that there were almost no kids/teens on the ship.

 

51 minutes ago, sabrefan15 said:

8:30 it started, here is a link to the dailies for 9/15 cruise.

 

Glad to see I did not scan my Dailies for nothing  🙂 

 

Pat

 

[newmexicoNita]

 

the review is very objective and quite informative. We will be on her in 12 days and it will be our second time on her. i am a bit concerned as we are near the kids club so there may be some noise. it will be fall break for some schools throughout the country. The last time we cruised the Breakaway was spring break. AWFUL; not only some of the kids out of control, their parents were worse: Absolutely no attempt to keep the kids in line. 

 

I am sorry about your experience with O'Sheehan's  Regardless of what ship we are on; we always have our first lunch there. yes, the service is up to par but we think the food is just what we expect: typical pub food, not bad. I would add, we tried them for dinner one time our last cruise as we wanted to get to a show early; for dinner it was BAD.

[Boston Mom]

On 9/30/2019 at 6:43 PM, AGard said:

Can you tell me when the welcome aboard show started?  I want to book reservations for the teppanyaki restaurant and want to make sure I have time to make this show.

I am pretty sure it was 8:30.  We had a 6 pm reservation at Teppanyaki and had time in between dinner and the show.

[Boston Mom]

On 10/1/2019 at 7:25 AM, newmexicoNita said:

the review is very objective and quite informative. We will be on her in 12 days and it will be our second time on her. i am a bit concerned as we are near the kids club so there may be some noise. it will be fall break for some schools throughout the country. The last time we cruised the Breakaway was spring break. AWFUL; not only some of the kids out of control, their parents were worse: Absolutely no attempt to keep the kids in line.

If it's Splash Academy you're near, they must have very good sound proofing because we heard basically no noise, just some happy laughter if we happened to be at the elevators right near the pick up and drop off area.  I am thinking you should be okay.  And I am totally with you about not understanding why parents feel it's okay to let their kids run around wild on vacation.  Luckily we didn't run into much of that on our sailing, other than that one night in Taste, and the most annoying child in the world that was on our shuttle from the hotel to the port (and who thank God was sailing on Carnival, LOL).

[Boston Mom]

Sorry for the hiatus, it has been a crazy busy week at work.  Back to my review, picking up where I left off which was Day 4, Belize.

 

We got back onto the ship hot and tired after a fun beach and pool day at Harvest Caye.  We were also starving, as by the time we got back on board it was 3 pm and we hadn't had lunch.  Since it was so late in the day we decided to head up to the Garden Grill buffet and get a little snack to tide us over until our 6:30 reservation at Ocean Blue.  Once we got up to Deck 15 our appetites kicked in and our "little snack" turned out to be sharing a plate of made to order pasta.  We hadn't really been eating at the buffet other than a couple of quick salads or ice cream cones and hadn't noticed the made to order pasta station until Wednesday.  We shared a yummy concoction of fresh garlic, red pepper, chicken, and mushrooms, tossed in a mix of marinara and alfredo sauces with parmesean cheese on the top, and it was wonderful.  If we weren't so close to dinnertime we would have polished off another bowl, along with the mixed green salad that we assembled and shared.  After lunch we went back up to our stateroom to relax a bit and to change for dinner.

[Boston Mom]

We arrived at Ocean Blue a little before our 6:30 reservation and enjoyed a drink at the bar (glass of prosecco for me and a beer for my husband).  We were then given a choice of eating inside our outside, and being an absolutely gorgeous night we chose an outside table for two.  The service throughout our meal was impeccable; our waitress brought over another prosecco and beer for us right away as we started perusing the menu, and remained extremely attentive throughout our meal.  We both started off with the iceberg wedge salad, which was extremely fresh and beautifully presented.  We then both had the shrimp cocktail - three absolutely enormous shrimp with a very nice tasting cocktail sauce.  We hardly ever get the same thing as we like to try each other's appetizers and salads, but we were both so happy with what we ordered.  For our main course I opted for the grouper, accompanied by a fruit salsa, potatoes au gratin, and asparagus.  I am drawing a blank on the exact name of what my husband ordered because I didn't have my little notebook with me that night, but it was like a seafood paella - scallops, shrimp, and calamari in a red sauce.  We both polished off every bite of our meals.

 

As we were debating whether or not we were too full for dessert, our server returned with a beautiful chocolate mousse cake, in honor of our anniversary.  I was really impressed that the dining services manager that we had met on Monday night at the Manhattan Room followed through to find out where we would be dining on Wednesday night and sent over the beautiful cake.  We ended up sharing the cake with another couple that we had met on the cruise that were also dining at Ocean Blue at night, as the cake was really large for two people that had just eaten such a large meal.

 

We did MANY laps around the deck to walk off all that we had eaten, and as we passed Syd Norman's we heard some familiar music.  We both love Bruce Springsteen and wandered into Syd Norman's to listen to the tribute band for awhile.  Solid entertainment and I loved the variety of music playing on the ship.

[PelicanBill]

On 9/30/2019 at 8:52 PM, Pat.D said:

 

Glad to see I did not scan my Dailies for nothing  🙂 

 

Pat

 

 

A lot of us on the Oct. 13 sailing have made use of them, thank you!  

 

Boston Mom, loving your review.  Oct 13 is my 5th sailing on Breakaway. I love the ship. I have to agree with you on O'Sheehan's... I am usually disappointed by the food and it got worse when they cut back the lat night menu to a few items.

 

[daninwi]

Really enjoying the review.  We are heading out Oct 13th for my 2nd time on the Breakaway but the first for my wife and son.  Disappointed to hear about O'Sheehan's (first thing my wife picked out of the review) as it was a very easy and enjoyable go to spot for me last November.   We seem to working a similar track - we have reservations for Ocean Blue on Wednesday of our cruise as well!