Our Family Breakaway - April 17-24

[tripleboom]

Hi again to my fellow cruise lovers!  I hope you enjoy my review of the Breakaway! We had an incredible time as a family on this cruise, and I couldn't wait to get home and share our thoughts and review with you all!

 

First off, I always like to introduce our family a bit at the start of my reviews.  My wife and I reside in the great state of Iowa where we're raising two boys.  I'm employed in the insurance industry, while my wife, a Clinical Laboratory Scientist, runs the lab in a health clinic.  We've been married for 14+ years (15 in May!), and have enjoyed five NCL cruises prior to this one (Sky 2011, Sky 2015, Escape 2017, Breakaway 2019, Bliss 2021).  Pictured is a family photo from a Florida beach trip back in April of '21.

 

 

Because we're so far from any cruise port, we typically get to cruise about every 18 months or so if we're lucky.  But because of the craziest cruise cancellation (and that's a high bar in the age of global pandemics), we were able to book this cruise shortly after our November Bliss trip.  (reviewed here: 

 

Basically, we were supposed to sail on the Breakaway in May of 2020 (COVID cancelled), optimistically rescheduled for October of 2020 on the Joy (should have been a bit more pessimistic), and finally rescheduled for the Encore in November of 2021.  However, the Encore sailing was canceled at the last minute (four days prior to sailing) due to it being stuck on the wrong side of the Panama canal's bottle neck.  We were able to very quickly flip our entire itinerary around from Miami to L.A. to sail on the bliss, but because NCL gave us a full refund AND FCC worth 50% of the canceled cruise's value.  So rebooking last minute to the Bliss worked out great, and we had money to spend once we got home.  After quite a bit of research during the Black Friday sale, we landed on this April sailing for a family trip with the boys in tow this time around.  It coincided with Easter and Spring Break for the boys, so it was perfect!

 

We managed to keep it a secret from the boys until Christmas. They had noticed that there was really only one present under the tree, and it was to both of them, but didn't make any waves or complain. So when the time came to open their gift, things got pretty exciting pretty quickly! 

 

 

[tripleboom]

With the planning and reveal behind us, we slogged through the next few months until it was time to go! We booked air through NCL and were on pins and needles until it came through on March 2nd (46 days before sailing). We had Delta flights (connecting in Atlanta) that had us departing Omaha shortly after noon on Saturday, and arriving in MSY by 5:15 PM. That couldn't have been any better, really!  Our return was a different story, with our flight not departing on United (through Denver) until 5:48 PM.  But I was not about to complain given what we paid for airfare through NCL (with 2nd passenger free) vs. what it would have been if we booked independently.

 

With the week of upon us, we got ourselves and the boys packed. Nothing better than a neatly rolled pack job!

 

 

 

We headed to the airport on Saturday morning, the 16th, cleared security, and waited patiently for the time to board.

 

 

 

496 pages was going to be a challenge on a cruise with kids and no Splash Academy, but I had been waiting for time to read this one for a while!

 

 

Between the two flights, I think I knocked out the first 120 pages or so. Not bad!

Edited April 29, 2022 by tripleboom

[lexxfield]

I have enjoyed your previous reviews very much, and I am looking forward to reading this one.  You do a wonderful job.  The videos are among my favorite. 

[tripleboom]

Thanks for following along, and sorry for the delay! Isn't it always great to come home from vacation, only to be rudely welcomed back to the reality of life!

 

After touching down in Atlanta, and making our smooth connection to MSY, we headed down to the baggage carousel.  We were going to need to Uber or take a Lyft down to the hotel, and in the days leading up to our trip I was pricing out mock trips in both apps and found that they were averaging about $80-$90 for the XL we were going to need. So I researched some other options and found a car service through Viator instead. So for $79 (plus an 18% Rakuten rebate), we were able to have a driver meet us in baggage claim, help us with our luggage, and bring us to his very nice Suburban.  Ronald was THE man. I can highly recommend this service FOR SURE.

 

 

 

By about 7 PM we were safely dropped off at the Hampton Inn & Suites near the convention center.  We were able to walk right up to the counter and check-in.  I asked about the shuttle to the cruise port for the next morning, but was told that unless I had booked the cruise package, the shuttle is only available on a "space available" basis. I had booked this hotel stay on points, so it looked iffy at best to catch the shuttle.

 

I have to admit, I had kind of forgotten just how relaxed a pace there is in New Orleans. By the time the front desk associate had finished our check-in, explained breakfast, the shuttle, how to find our room, etc., there was quite a bit of a building line behind me. But his pace, even slow by Midwest standards, never changed.  Not really a complaint here, just an observation.  We then headed up to our room to catch out breath from the busy travel day. Not a bad view from up on the 6th floor.

 

 

After a full day of travel, we were tired, but also a little hungry. So we walked the couple of blocks down to Tommy G's Coal Fired pizza.  The place had a nice, laid back vibe with a pianist playing some standards in the corner. Stacy and I split the Pollo Parmigiano, a pizza with breaded chicken, ricotta, and shaved parmesan. Pretty tasty!

 

 

With full bellies, we headed back to the hotel, and attempted to crash for the night. It took the boys quite a while to settle in ("I can't sleep, I'm too excited!"), but we all got there eventually. Tomorrow was going to be a great day!

[tripleboom]

Stacy wanted no part of the madhouse that was likely to be taking place in the free breakfast bar downstairs, so the boys and I braved it together. The staff at the hotel were definitely doing the best they could to keep up with the peak traffic, but holy cow it was busy! I'd wager that in the 20-30 minutes I was down there were probably about 200-250 people that made their way through the line.  Once the boys were done, I made Stacy and I a STRONG coffee, and headed back to the room to get us repacked and ready to go.

 

When I went down for breakfast I checked on the status of the shuttle. The front desk associate said that the valet staff that run the shuttle had taken the registration book, so she wasn't able to even tell me how busy they were. So I swung by the valet stand where no one could be found. There was a healthy line up of cruise passengers that appeared to be waiting as well, so that was looking like a less and less likely option.

 

So we could either hoof it for a 15 minute walk down to the cruise terminal, or I could check Uber.  Fortunately, I found a Lyft for less than $12, and that was worth every penny vs. the prospect of dragging five bags, two kids, and a wife for the jaunt down to the terminal.

 

James arrived at the curb in about 10-12 minutes after I confirmed, we loaded our bags into his van, and we headed to the port, with a few jealous glares from folks still waiting on the shuttle. Oh well!

 

We arrived at the terminal within a handful of minutes and headed into the terminal to begin everyone's favorite game, "Just How Long Is This Line?" 

 

 

Seriously, the way the building winds around through the various checkpoints makes it difficult to get a sense of just how much of a wait you have in front of you.  After about 10-15 minutes we make it to checkpoint #1 which verifies that we have our COVID-19 vaccination cards and passports, Check point #2 verifies that I have our eDocs (the first time I can remember actually being asked for them at the port), we then wind around a wall to find Line #3 which is a bit longer as we wind our way through to the security checkpoint, and after passing through there we go behind another wall for another ~30 minutes before we reach the checkpoint to enter the line to get to a check-in counter.  After another 15 minutes or so we finally make our way to an available agent, complete the remainder of the check in process, and get our stateroom cards.

 

When we entered the building boarding had not yet begun, and by the time we cleared all the checkpoints the pre-boarding holding area was completely emptied.  The ship actually wound up departing quite a bit later than scheduled because of backups at the port. As I understand it, this was the last NCL cruise of the season out of New Orleans before the ship repositioned to Miami, so a good number of the non-NCL port staff just no-call, no-showed for the last day creating considerable obstacles. Not NCL's fault, but we heard from many others during the sailing that it took up to 3+ hours from arrival to boarding for those that arrived after us.

 

After getting our customary boarding photo taken...

 

 

We were finally headed to ship! 

 

 

What's the first thing you MUST do on the ship right after boarding?  Well, if it's after an hour or two in line to board, I'm guessing it's what the rest of my family wanted to do first.

 

Go to the bathroom.

 

While they tended to that, I kept myself amused.

 

 

[cmecruise1962]

So excited to read this!  I'm leaving on Sunday out of Miami on the Breakaway!  I loved your last review!

[tripleboom]

As per usual, we went to the Taste/Savor area down on Deck 6 and had our relaxed, post-embarkation lunch there. Service was a bit more sluggish than normal, with a long delay between main entrées and dessert, but we're never in a tremendous rush after having boarded. That's the time we like to finally settle in a breathe in & out for a bit.

 

During lunch they did make the announcement that rooms were ready, but the boys wanted to check out the ship for a bit. So we headed to the top deck and checked out the views!

 

 

Like so many other families, we received formal notice that Splash Academy would not be open a few weeks before the cruise. The boys were pretty bummed to miss out (and their parents were too, to be honest), but the $100 in arcade credit per kid got them pretty excited, so we had to check that out fairly early.

 

A good number of the games, like the motorcycle game they're playing below, were $1.80/play, and they each had a fairly significant playtime.

 

 

Some others cost quite a bit more, like these VR ride-on games that were more than $8/swipe, but at that price two people were able to ride at once.  Stacy tried one of them and immediately got motion sick. Oops!

 

 

It's worth noting that the $100 arcade package can only be used for games with green swipes. Those with orange swiped are the ones that produce tickets or win you prizes, and those games are specifically excluded from the package. Just something to be aware of as you use the $100/kid.

 

Also, I kept on top of the charges through the app, and while we first started by having each kid swipe their own stateroom card, it was quickly apparent that the charges were just being applied to the stateoom as a whole and not separately tracked. This kind of made it a hassle to keep totaling up their purchases to date and recalculating about how much each kid had spent. Really it was pure guess work as to which kid had how much left by the end of the cruise week.

[tripleboom]

38 minutes ago, cmecruise1962 said:

So excited to read this!  I'm leaving on Sunday out of Miami on the Breakaway!  I loved your last review!

 

So excited for you! Nothing like a cruise countdown that drops to single digits!!

[tripleboom]

On 4/29/2022 at 11:48 AM, lexxfield said:

I have enjoyed your previous reviews very much, and I am looking forward to reading this one.  You do a wonderful job.  The videos are among my favorite. 

 

Thanks so much for following along! There's some pretty epic videos on the way!

[tripleboom]

After the arcade, the boys wanted to go check out the rock climbing wall and golf course. Now I normally research like crazy before a cruise, but somehow I missed that those items had been removed. The boys loved them both a lot back in 2019, and Landon was nearly in tears when he found out. When we got home, I checked the website and noticed that they were no longer listed as part of the sports complex. Guess I should have paid better attention, but this was a pretty big 1-2 punch between Splash Academy and the scaled back sports complex.

 

Landon bucked up once he saw the improved ropes course though. It was definitely considerably larger than in 2019, so both boys suited up and headed up to walk the plank!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tripleboom]

Carnival Glory left port right around the time we should have been, 4:00 PM.

 

 

I have to admit, the Carnival ships do look a LOT better with the updated livery.  Dream was looking a lot worse for wear back in 2019.

 

 

Finally, by 5:20 we had pushed off and headed back St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square.

 

 

It was good to be underway and headed toward to the Gulf!

 

 

For whatever reason, I noticed I didn't have any more photos from the first night of the cruise! A good chunk of it was spent getting the room organized. Sleeping four people in a cabin is a little bit of a challenge, but the ships are well designed to provide lots of nooks and crannies for storage options.  After a long, exhausting day of getting on the ship, we called it an early night and headed off to bed. Tomorrow would be a sea day, and we wanted to make the most of it!

[FM]

A well written trip report to date.

 

Returning to these boards, noticed how more 'disagreeable' some can be with their replies to other posters and their opinions opposite of theirs, so it is  refreshing to read about how much fun one can have in getting back into cruising with their loved ones, the planning and anticipation, despite the rocky road back to 'sailing the seven seas.'  

 

Kudos. 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2022 by FM

[tripleboom]

2 hours ago, FM said:

Returning to these boards, noticed how more 'disagreeable' some can be with their replies to other posters and their opinions opposite of theirs, so it is  refreshing to read about how much fun one can have in getting back into cruising with their loved ones, the planning and anticipation, despite the rocky road back to 'sailing the seven seas.'  

 

Kudos. 

 

 

 

I've certainly got a few areas where I'll be critical of NCL during the review, but overall I tried to look at everything through the lens of a company and industry that's trying their darndest to bounce back from a blow that hit them like no other industry. One has to look at the positives and negatives of any given situation with nuance and understanding, but I'm afraid both of those are in short supply in today's world. So I'll try to impart at least a little bit of both in my life and in this review. 

 

Thanks for following along!

[lexxfield]

Tripleboom's reviews are always upbeat and interesting to read. While following his narrative, I often get flashbacks from my previous cruises.  

 

I agree, FM, that posters can be unnecessarily harsh and unforgiving at times.  

[acct1975]

Thanks so much for this review. We'll be on the Breakaway in June and it's lovely to read a review which spotlights the positives even after encountering some negatives. Bummed that the golf course is gone though. Was looking forward to teaching my 8 yr old how to play a little putt putt.

[Warm Breezes]

We were on this cruise with you.  We were also disappointed when we couldn’t find a mini golf course.  We ended up finding the shuffle board court and playing that.  I’m too afraid of heights to do the ropes course😊.

[tripleboom]

Day 2 - Day at Sea

 

I always love Days at Sea following embarkation as they allow for some much needed extra rest following a couple of hectic days. So we started with a later breakfast at O'Sheehan's.

 

 

I had the breakfast sandwich a couple of times during our Bliss sailing, and it was just as good as I remembered!  Stacy ordered the french toast and requested the hashbrowns, but we were told they were not available for this sailing.  Bummer, but the breakfast potatoes were a good alternative (save for the onions, unless you like that sorta thing 😉).

 

After breakfast we had to get down to the Waterfront as we hadn't checked it out yet. I still think this area is one of the greatest strokes of genius NCL had had with the Breakaway, Breakaway+, and now Leonardo class of ships. There's no better place to take in a sunset, sunrise, port departure, etc.

 

 

 

The boys loved the little transparent sections toward the aft on The Waterfront.

 

 

Naturally Stacy needed a pic that showed off her new sandals and fresh polish.

 

 

Landon decided that he needed to go check out the ropes course again, so we needed to head back to the room.  I told Connor he could lead us because I was curious if he could navigate the ship already.  Sure enough, he took us from the portside, aft end of Deck 8 at the Waterfront to our cabin on Deck 9, portside forward without any issue.  I had to take video just to prove to our Bliss travel companions that the 12 y/o could figure out the ship faster than she could. And Landon was not far behind Connor on figuring out the ship. Poor Sandi took almost the full week to get the hang of it when we were on the Bliss. 😄

 

 

[dwr777]

Loving your review and perspective so far.  So positive!

[vuildog]

No checking of covid tests, at embarkation?

[tripleboom]

5 minutes ago, vuildog said:

No checking of covid tests, at embarkation?

I failed to mention that. Yes! The very first checkpoint we went through included a check for passports, vaccine cards, AND negative COVID screens within the past 48 hours.

[tripleboom]

After navigating back to the room, the boys changed into their tennis shoes (closed toed and closed heel shoes and shirts with sleeves are required) and headed back to the ropes course. On prior cruises the ropes course was frequently shut down due to high winds, but on this day, a sea day no less, it was open!  The winds were remarkably calm for a sea day which was just great!

 

I accompanied Landon back up to see that he got suited up ok.

 

 

But then Stacy and I split up to take a couple of photos. from different spots on the ship. 

 

Stacy took a photo of Landon from just a couple of decks below the plank...

 

 

 

But I hauled tail all the way down to The Waterfront to take a picture of Landon from there. You don't really appreciated just how far up the plank is until you're standing on Deck 8 and looking up to take a picture!

 

 

Yup, that's really him all the way up there!

 

 

 

[cmecruise1962]

My legs are shaking just looking at this!!  OMG!  And you are right!  Perspective is everything...

[Warm Breezes]

I loved the breakfast sandwich at O'Sheehans too.  I went there twice for it.

 

[AKR2011]

Inalwsys enjoy your reviews. Your boys seem so excited and appreciative of the experience. Keep up the great work!

 

❤⚓ Ashley 

[vacation44]

Another fan of your trip reviews and looking forward to reading this one.