Recently off the May 22-29 Breakaway Sailing ~ My thoughts and a few tips

[LisaLisa87]

1 hour ago, Jac199 said:

I love a good, detailed review. Great job bringing us along on your cruise! I look forward to your observations of GSC.

 

Thank you, @Jac199! I'm working on my GSC post now. 🙂

[fstuff1]

On 5/30/2022 at 8:21 PM, LisaLisa87 said:

• You can make reservations for the shows using the touch screens. Once I figured out how the card scanner worked, I was able book both Burn the Floor and Six in just a few minutes.
• I had booked the dining package add-on for DH and me, which gave us two additional dinners for $70.80/person (including tax).

 

2 dinner package now only costs $71/person?!

ncl says it's $89+tax (so $106.80):

https://www.ncl.com/onboard-packages/dining-packages

 

How did you manage to get $71?

 

[LisaLisa87]

33 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

 

2 dinner package now only costs $71/person?!

ncl says it's $89+tax (so $106.80):

https://www.ncl.com/onboard-packages/dining-packages

 

How did you manage to get $71?

 

 

There was a special offer in our planner in early March. It was intended as an add-on to the two "free" specialty dinners we got as a Free at Sea promotion. I was really happy to see the offer since we wanted to eat at 4 specialty restaurants and I hadn't seen a cost effective way to do that. I actually posted about the special offer when I saw it. I'll find that thread an link to it here in a moment...

 

ETA: Here's the link: 

 

Edited June 4, 2022 by LisaLisa87

[LisaLisa87]

Day 7: Great Stirrup Cay

I'll start with a fun fact: DH and I took our first cruise as adults (his first cruise ever) on the NCL Norway in February 2001. Does anyone remember that ship? It was the big blue one that had to tender in every port. I just went back through my photos from that cruise, and we stopped at Great Stirrup Cay! The island was very different then -- much less developed -- but we still had a great day there. Here's an interesting article about the Norway for anyone interested:

https://malcolmoliver.wordpress.com/z-industry-comment-the-end-of-the-ss-norway/ 

 

We slept in again since our arrival time at GSC wasn't until 10am. I went out on the balcony at around 8am and didn't see land ahead. It looked like it was going to be a nice day, although breezier than the day before. I roused the troops and we headed up to Garden Cafe for breakfast. What can I say... We're creatures of habit!

I had booked a studio Lagoon Villa at Silver Cove, so we did not need to get tender tickets. According to the Freestyle Daily on Day 6, anyone who wanted to go ashore before 1pm would need to get tickets via their in-room TV, using one of the touch screens around the ship, or at the box office. Those with excursions were exempt from this process. There's no mention of this in the Daily, but I'm pretty sure Haven guests and top loyalty tier members were exempt as well.

After breakfast we went back to the room to get ready for the day. At this point we could see land ahead, both GSC and RCCL's Coco Cay. Since we weren't familiar with the tendering process, we (incorrectly) assumed the first tender would depart at 10am. So we put on sunscreen, gathered up our stuff, and headed to the Atrium at around 9:30am. This was an area where the lack of communication was a real problem. There were tons of people swarming the atrium, and no one had a clue what the plan was. We were in Group A, but we didn't know where or when we were supposed to meet. There was finally an announcement right around 10am that Group A should meet in the theater. If we had just been told in advance that was the plan, things would have been so much easier!

It took awhile for everyone to gather in the theater, and then we sat and waited. And waited. And waited some more. They were finally ready to load the first tender at around 11am. We were the last three people on that tender, and we were so happy! The ride to the island was quick and easy. Once we got off the tender, we found our way to the check-in station for cabanas, villas, and the spa. We checked in and were given our wristbands, and then we were directed to an area close by (in the straw market) where there were large golf cards waiting to take us over to Silver Cove. I just checked my phone, and I took my first picture at Silver Cove at 11:20am.

 

Once we got to Silver Cove, we had to check in again at the reception center. We were offered a ride to our villa, but since it wasn't very far we decided to walk. The lagoon area is gorgeous. Very well manicured and tranquil. I could tell right away it was going to be a great day. We were in villa 133, which is one of the studio villas across the lagoon from the reception building. The villa was beautiful. It included a minibar with 6 cartons of water and an espresso machine with a bunch of pods as well as things to make tea. Not long after arriving, a fruit bowl and platter of chips & salsa were delivered. Shortly thereafter, a waiter stopped by to take our drink orders. Waiters stopped by regularly throughout the day. Maybe they're hoarding all the Bailey's on the island, because I was finally able to get my BBC! That's usually my first "I'm on vacation" drink on embarkation day, but better late than never!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We could see Coco Cay and the two RCCL ships docked there from the back door of our villa.

 

We spent the next hour swimming and lounging, and then we decided to head to lunch. We accepted a ride in one of the golf carts and were whisked over to the Silver Cove buffet. The buffet area wasn't very large, but it had plenty of space for the number of people using it. There was a seating area with plenty of shade and a bar, and we were happy to see our favorite bartender from Mixx there! The food was good, although pretty standard "private island buffet" fare. After lunch we headed back to the villa.

 

DH and I spent the next few hours swimming and lounging, and DD spent the time watching on-demand Marvel movies in the villa. Everyone was happy. At one point we all walked over the ocean villa area to check it out. It was pretty as well (although smaller). We would have been happy in either place, but I was glad that we had chosen a lagoon villa.

 

 

 

 

 

At about 5pm, DH and I went to the villa to shower and start getting ready to leave. DD was almost to the end of her second movie, and there didn't seem to be a big rush, so we took our time packing up. We called reception to ask for a ride to the tender, and it was only when we left the villa that we realized we were the last guests in the Silver Cove area!

 

 

DD, happily watching Venom 2.

We hopped in the golf cart and were whisked over to the tender dock, where a handful of other passengers were boarding. I just checked the timestamp of a photo I took of the tender, and it was 5:49 when we boarded. Apparently, ours ended up being the last tender. We did not experience the delays that others have reported getting back on the ship. Our tender was not full, and we were all able to disembark as soon as we were alongside the ship. We had no idea how lucky we were at the time! It had been a fantastic day, and we were really glad we had splurged on the villa.

 

After cleaning up in the room, we headed to Garden Cafe for dinner. The rest of the evening was spent playing games at O'Sheehan's, stopping at Shaker's for one last cocktail, and then the dreaded packing. We had decided to go with self-assist disembarkation, a first for us, so there was no rush for once. It was also nice not having to worry about accidentally packing something we would need the next day!

That's a wrap for the ports we visited. We had fun in all of them, but Tortola/Jost Van Dyke and GSC are tied as my two favorites. I'll cover disembarkation as well as my general thoughts about our room, the ship, and the service in my next post.

 

ETA: I've tried multiple times, and I can't delete the duplicate photos at the end of this post!

 

 

 

 

 

[LisaLisa87]

[HxFx]

17 minutes ago, LisaLisa87 said:

Since we weren't familiar with the tendering process, we (incorrectly) assumed the first tender would depart at 10am. So we put on sunscreen, gathered up our stuff, and headed to the Atrium at around 9:30am. This was an area where the lack of communication was a real problem.

I agree about the lack of communication. We had an excursion and the note accompanying the tickets said not to reserve a tender. It said nothing about any group/restrictions/etc. We had a zip line scheduled for 1PM (did you see us fly by in your awesome Villa!) We were a little worried they would say we didn’t need to get off right away (even though we were told not to make a reservation and wanted to get set up in a chair/eat lunch before). 

 

We went for Group B (especially since, like you, we did not know the procedure and waited for the first announcements). We also saw how long it took for the first passenger tender to leave after the initial announcement (great view from our balcony). We headed down with Group B and it was no problem getting in. With one ship in port it was also very easy to get a lounger but few with shade which we were able to score!

 

We had a fish taco from the taco stand and then ate at the main buffet. I have to say, I thought the food there was better than the buffet on the ship. If the taco stand had been closer I would have gotten more. It was all a really nice time until the tender back. For you, in addition to not having a full tender, I think they also opened up the aft tender by that time so there wasn’t a back up (the supply ship headed back around 4:15 and occupied that spot for quite a while). Also, the afternoon sun was starting to wane at that point (note to self…..)

[LisaLisa87]

Bonus Post: A few photos from our cruise on the Norway, 21 years ago!

 

The SS Norway, one of the last great ocean liners.

 

That's the Norway, way in back! She did come closer to shore for tendering.

 

Great Stirrup Cay!

 

Our ocean view cabin. Can you say "basic"??

 

Edited June 4, 2022 by LisaLisa87

[LisaLisa87]

29 minutes ago, HxFx said:

I agree about the lack of communication. We had an excursion and the note accompanying the tickets said not to reserve a tender. It said nothing about any group/restrictions/etc. We had a zip line scheduled for 1PM (did you see us fly by in your awesome Villa!) We were a little worried they would say we didn’t need to get off right away (even though we were told not to make a reservation and wanted to get set up in a chair/eat lunch before). 

 

We went for Group B (especially since, like you, we did not know the procedure and waited for the first announcements). We also saw how long it took for the first passenger tender to leave after the initial announcement (great view from our balcony). We headed down with Group B and it was no problem getting in. With one ship in port it was also very easy to get a lounger but few with shade which we were able to score!

 

We had a fish taco from the taco stand and then ate at the main buffet. I have to say, I thought the food there was better than the buffet on the ship. If the taco stand had been closer I would have gotten more. It was all a really nice time until the tender back. For you, in addition to not having a full tender, I think they also opened up the aft tender by that time so there wasn’t a back up (the supply ship headed back around 4:15 and occupied that spot for quite a while). Also, the afternoon sun was starting to wane at that point (note to self…..)

 

It sounds like the tendering process went more smoothly after that first group. I'm glad to hear it as people were really antsy to get to the island!

 

What did you think of the zip line? Did you do one or both? We had toyed with the idea, but I figured we'd spent enough money for one port! And how was the water where you were? The only negative to spending all day at Silver Cove is that we didn't get to experience much of the island. I wish we'd had an opportunity to try the taco stand. I was really craving tacos by the time we got off the ship! It would be nice if the Breakaway had a Mexican or Tex-Mex specialty restaurant, but I guess you can't have everything.

[fstuff1]

1 hour ago, LisaLisa87 said:

 

There was a special offer in our planner in early March. It was intended as an add-on to the two "free" specialty dinners we got as a Free at Sea promotion. I was really happy to see the offer since we wanted to eat at 4 specialty restaurants and I hadn't seen a cost effective way to do that. I actually posted about the special offer when I saw it. I'll find that thread an link to it here in a moment...

 

ETA: Here's the link: 

 

so you had to order it pre-cruise and pay with credit card?

can't use obc? 

[LisaLisa87]

7 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

 

so you had to order it pre-cruise and pay with credit card?

can't use obc? 

 

Sorry, @fstuff1, I missed this question earlier. Yes, I paid for the add-on before the cruise via credit card. My understanding is that was the only way to get the offer, and I didn't see or hear about this offer while on the ship. That doesn't mean it wasn't available, but I tend to doubt it since they were not having any trouble filling the specialty restaurants. I was really glad we took advantage of the offer, and purchasing it pre-cruise meant that I could make advance reservations for 4 restaurants.

[HxFx]

On 6/4/2022 at 11:28 AM, LisaLisa87 said:

 

It sounds like the tendering process went more smoothly after that first group. I'm glad to hear it as people were really antsy to get to the island!

 

What did you think of the zip line? Did you do one or both? We had toyed with the idea, but I figured we'd spent enough money for one port! And how was the water where you were? The only negative to spending all day at Silver Cove is that we didn't get to experience much of the island. I wish we'd had an opportunity to try the taco stand. I was really craving tacos by the time we got off the ship! It would be nice if the Breakaway had a Mexican or Tex-Mex specialty restaurant, but I guess you can't have everything.

I thought the zip line was fun. There seemed to really only be one one excursion. Just one line to check-in and suit up. That bums me out a little because we paid for the more expensive one! I will say the descriptions on the excursion site were a little confusing (and others commented on that as well).

 

Basically it is a round trip triangle with 3 zips. You take an elevator up to the first one (the lighthouse). After the first zip you cross a rope bridge to get to the next one. After that there is a rope tunnel climb up. The woman in front of me did not think she could make the climb so bailed out. It was a bit strenuous and she had a hard time with the rope bridge (but handled the zips fine!). I only note that so others know they don't have to go on if they don't want to.

 

At the top of the rope tunnel you could either cross another rope bride or climb up a rope wall to get to the final zip. This may be where the 2 excursions are supposed to be different but both zips looked close enough to the same to me. My husband was smoked from the rope tunnel so we both did the rope bridge (I thought there may be an obstacle at the end and more fun to do together). 

Edited June 5, 2022 by HxFx

[argyll1881]

On 6/4/2022 at 4:22 PM, LisaLisa87 said:

Bonus Post: A few photos from our cruise on the Norway, 21 years ago!

 

The SS Norway, one of the last great ocean liners.

 

That's the Norway, way in back! She did come closer to shore for tendering.

 

Great Stirrup Cay!

 

Our ocean view cabin. Can you say "basic"??

 

Great pictures.  Thanks for posting.

[suzieq2cruise]

Thank you so much for your comprehensive review.  We’re on Breakaway for a NE/Canada cruise in September, so I appreciated seeing the dailies and reading the activities.  I know it takes time to build a review like this and attach things!  So, again THANK YOU!!  We Cruised AK on Encore last August, 3rd NCL cruise out of Seattle -  seems that now, the activities and music are much more back to normal than they were back then…. (We were so happy to be on a vacation at that point, that we didn’t even think about what wasn’t happening on the boat…. Just enjoyed the fact that we could be cruising!…. )

[LisaLisa87]

I'm glad you've found it helpful, @suzieq2cruise! How was AK in August? I really want do an Alaskan cruise, and the Encore seems like a great ship for that itinerary.

[LisaLisa87]

3 hours ago, HxFx said:

I thought the zip line was fun. There seemed to really only be one one excursion. Just one line to check-in and suit up. That bums me out a little because we paid for the more expensive one! I will say the descriptions on the excursion site were a little confusing (and others commented on that as well).

 

Basically it is a round trip triangle with 3 zips. You take an elevator up to the first one (the lighthouse). After the first zip you cross a rope bridge to get to the next one. After that there is a rope tunnel climb up. The woman in front of me did not think she could make the climb so bailed out. It was a bit strenuous and she had a hard time with the rope bridge (but handled the zips fine!). I only note that so others know they don't have to go on if they don't want to.

 

At the top of the rope tunnel you could either cross another rope bride or climb up a rope wall to get to the final zip. This may be where the 2 excursions are supposed to be different but both zips looked close enough to the same to me. My husband was smoked from the rope tunnel so we both did the rope bridge (I thought there may be an obstacle at the end and more fun to do together). 

 

Thank you for the detailed description! We enjoy zip lines, so we'll have to give it a try if we make it back to GSC!

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by LisaLisa87

[wil e coyote]

On 6/4/2022 at 11:22 AM, LisaLisa87 said:

Bonus Post: A few photos from our cruise on the Norway, 21 years ago!

 

The SS Norway, one of the last great ocean liners.

 

That's the Norway, way in back! She did come closer to shore for tendering.

 

Great Stirrup Cay!

 

Our ocean view cabin. Can you say "basic"??

 

Thanks for sharing these! We sailed on SS Norway in 1997, but all our photos of that cruise are old-fashioned 35mm photos and I haven't looked at them in years. That was a very elegant ship, but you're right, the cabins were pretty basic...

[cruiseny4life]

@LisaLisa87 thank you for such a detailed review and phenomenal photos of your trip! I have loved following along and especially appreciate the Silver Cove photos and description.

 

I am trying to figure out why one would choose Silver Cove over just getting an umbrella/chair on the beach. Was it really that much better? Did you stay in the villa the entire time? What did you miss by not hanging out on the beach? Was there a shower? Sorry for all the questions - I just like to be educated and I know our next cruise will likely have a GSC stop, so want to know if I'm stupid for not seeing the value in a villa over just hanging out on the island. 

[PTC DAWG]

On 5/31/2022 at 11:30 AM, argyll1881 said:

The pools on the Breakaway and Getaway are very small.  I couldn't imagine the ship in a hot climate at 100% capacity.  You'd never get in !

Standing in the shower on deck is a better way to cool off.  

[LisaLisa87]

2 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

@LisaLisa87 thank you for such a detailed review and phenomenal photos of your trip! I have loved following along and especially appreciate the Silver Cove photos and description.

 

I am trying to figure out why one would choose Silver Cove over just getting an umbrella/chair on the beach. Was it really that much better? Did you stay in the villa the entire time? What did you miss by not hanging out on the beach? Was there a shower? Sorry for all the questions - I just like to be educated and I know our next cruise will likely have a GSC stop, so want to know if I'm stupid for not seeing the value in a villa over just hanging out on the island. 

 

That's a great question, @cruiseny4life! We've been to private islands on 9 of our cruises, and this was only the second time we paid extra for an experience like this. The other time was on RCCL's Labadee where we rented a Bungalow at Columbus Cove. We have loved all our private island days, and on each cruise that day has been one of our favorites. We rented the Bungalow on Labadee because DH and I were celebrating our 20th anniversary and wanted a more elevated experience. This time, we splurged on a villa at Silver Cove as a treat to ourselves after having waited so long for this cruise to happen. Also, we paid for this cruise so long ago that it almost felt free! 😂

 

To answer your specific questions... DD spent a lot of time in the villa, but DH and I did not. After spending a little time there when we first arrived and enjoying some espresso and snacks, he and I spent most of our time in the water or on the beach. After 7 days on a fairly crowded ship, it was wonderful to have so much space! It looked like most of the villas weren't being utilized, so there weren't many people relative to the amount of space. It was incredibly peaceful, and having the extra level of service felt like a real luxury. I'm not sure what we missed by not just hanging out on the beach, although we almost certainly would have hit the zip lines in that case. There was a full bathroom with a large tub/shower in the villa. It felt great to be able to move around a little in there!

 

I'm going to take this opportunity to correct some photo issues from my GSC post. For whatever reason, I had all kinds of problems getting the photos to appear in the correct places! A couple of the photos were separated from their captions, and a photo of DH and me (one of my faves from the cruise) disappeared completely! Here they are:

 

We could see Coco Cay and the two RCCL ships docked there from the back door of our villa.

 

DD happily watching Venom 2.

 

A rare (non-selfie) photo of DH and me, and one of my favorites from the week!

 

[LisaLisa87]

p.s. I'm working on my wrap-up and hope to post it later today. 🙂

[cruiseny4life]

2 minutes ago, LisaLisa87 said:

 

That's a great question, @cruiseny4life! We've been to private islands on 9 of our cruises, and this was only the second time we paid extra for an experience like this. The other time was on RCCL's Labadee where we rented a Bungalow at Columbus Cove. We have loved all our private island days, and on each cruise that day has been one of our favorites. We rented the Bungalow on Labadee because DH and I were celebrating our 20th anniversary and wanted a more elevated experience. This time, we splurged on a villa at Silver Cove as a treat to ourselves after having waited so long for this cruise to happen. Also, we paid for this cruise so long ago that it almost felt free! 😂

 

To answer your specific questions... DD spent a lot of time in the villa, but DH and I did not. After spending a little time there when we first arrived and enjoying some espresso and snacks, he and I spent most of our time in the water or on the beach. After 7 days on a fairly crowded ship, it was wonderful to have so much space! It looked like most of the villas weren't being utilized, so there weren't many people relative to the amount of space. It was incredibly peaceful, and having the extra level of service felt like a real luxury. I'm not sure what we missed by not just hanging out on the beach, although we almost certainly would have hit the zip lines in that case. There was a full bathroom with a large tub/shower in the villa. It felt great to be able to move around a little in there!

 

I'm going to take this opportunity to correct some photo issues from my GSC post. For whatever reason, I had all kinds of problems getting the photos to appear in the correct places! A couple of the photos were separated from their captions, and a photo of DH and me (one of my faves from the cruise) disappeared completely! Here they are:

 

We could see Coco Cay and the two RCCL ships docked there from the back door of our villa.

 

DD happily watching Venom 2.

 

A rare (non-selfie) photo of DH and me, and one of my favorites from the week!

 

Thank you, thank you! I so appreciate you responding to my many questions...I'm in HR - I ask questions constantly. 🙂 

 

Sounds like Silver Cove might be a good option, especially when there are a couple of full ships docked in future times!

 

I'm so glad you all had such a wonderful time on GSC and your cruise!! The photos are great! 

[fstuff1]

20 minutes ago, LisaLisa87 said:

 

That's a great question, @cruiseny4life! We've been to private islands on 9 of our cruises, and this was only the second time we paid extra for an experience like this. The other time was on RCCL's Labadee where we rented a Bungalow at Columbus Cove. We have loved all our private island days, and on each cruise that day has been one of our favorites. We rented the Bungalow on Labadee because DH and I were celebrating our 20th anniversary and wanted a more elevated experience. This time, we splurged on a villa at Silver Cove as a treat to ourselves after having waited so long for this cruise to happen. Also, we paid for this cruise so long ago that it almost felt free! 😂

 

To answer your specific questions... DD spent a lot of time in the villa, but DH and I did not. After spending a little time there when we first arrived and enjoying some espresso and snacks, he and I spent most of our time in the water or on the beach. After 7 days on a fairly crowded ship, it was wonderful to have so much space! It looked like most of the villas weren't being utilized, so there weren't many people relative to the amount of space. It was incredibly peaceful, and having the extra level of service felt like a real luxury. I'm not sure what we missed by not just hanging out on the beach, although we almost certainly would have hit the zip lines in that case. There was a full bathroom with a large tub/shower in the villa. It felt great to be able to move around a little in there!

 

I'm going to take this opportunity to correct some photo issues from my GSC post. For whatever reason, I had all kinds of problems getting the photos to appear in the correct places! A couple of the photos were separated from their captions, and a photo of DH and me (one of my faves from the cruise) disappeared completely! Here they are:

 

We could see Coco Cay and the two RCCL ships docked there from the back door of our villa.

 

DD happily watching Venom 2.

 

A rare (non-selfie) photo of DH and me, and one of my favorites from the week!

 

 

your daughter spent the time in the villa watching 2 movies?!

she could have done that at home.

 

Did she not like the private island?

 

[LisaLisa87]

8 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

 

your daughter spent the time in the villa watching 2 movies?!

she could have done that at home.

 

Did she not like the private island?

 

 

Yup. She's 18 and has a full time job that is physically demanding. She spent some time on the front porch of the villa (in the shade) and went to lunch with us, but chose to spend the majority of her time in the villa. At that point we had been on the go for much of the cruise, so DH and I had no problem with the way she chose to spend her day.

 

[LisaLisa87]

Disembarkation and Final Thoughts

As I mentioned earlier, this was our first time doing self-assist disembarkation. We moved to Florida last summer, so we were able to drive to the port. In the past, we'd always had to fly in, and letting the cruise line deal with getting our luggage off the ship seemed like the way to go -- especially in the instances where they also handled getting our bags to the airport. We decided to skip breakfast that morning and headed out of our room at about 7:35am. We weren't sure exactly where to go, so we went to the atrium first, where another passenger told us we needed to be on deck 7.

When we got to deck 7 (via the aft stairs), we saw a line of people with luggage but were told to join the line heading forward through the casino on the starboard side of the ship. At that time, the end of the line was at the entrance to the casino and the line had not started moving yet. Once it did start moving, it moved at a decent pace with occasional pauses. We were able to see the line heading aft a couple of times, and it looked shorter than the line we were in. By the time the announcement was made at 8am for self-assist passengers to go to deck 7 for disembarkation, the two lines were very long but moving steadily. In retrospect, it might have been better to just wait about 15 minutes after the announcement to head down.

As previously mentioned, some of the people in our line were redirected to the other line after we had passed through the casino. We stayed in the original line and were off the ship about 10 minutes later. From there, we walked right off the ship and over to the parking garage. We were in our car by about 8:30am. So all in all, not a bad process.

Now on to general thoughts about the cruise. I'll separate this into categories so there's some organization. And just as a reminder, these are my opinions, which are based in part on my preferences and priorities and in part on past experiences with NCL and other cruise lines. As always, YMMV.

Our Room

For the most part, we felt that our room was a pretty standard balcony cabin. The decor was so-so: it didn't look brand new, but it didn't look really dated either. The color scheme was fine but a little bland (shades of brown and tan). It felt a little small to us, so when I got home I checked cruisedeckplans.com (my go-to for cabin info and deck plans) for some data points. It turns out that our room and balcony on Breakaway were on the smaller side, but the cabin was not our smallest to date. That honor goes to our balcony cabin on Pride of America (although in fairness, our balcony was bigger on PoA). I'm thinking all of the furniture must have been scaled down a bit on PoA, because I don't remember it feeling significantly smaller.

Initially, I was concerned that storage would be a problem, but we ended up managing just fine. For folded clothes, DH and I used the shelves on one side and at the top of the closet, and DD used the cabinet next to the mini fridge. We also put some things in the really shallow cabinet next to that one, and sadly we forgot about that one when we packed up to leave. There was a small cube under the desk that could be used for storage, but it had a removable wood cover that made it kind of a pain. All three of our suitcases fit under the bed, which was very helpful. There were two hooks on the wall near the entry door, which was great. I do think it would have been helpful to have a couple more, so next time I would bring a couple of magnetic hooks with me. There were the expected outlets above the desk, but unless I missed them (and I really looked) there were no outlets or USB ports on either side of the bed. I found that odd, but we made do. Did I miss them somehow??

The bathroom was about what we expected -- on the small side, but I think they used the space well. There was plenty of room for storing all our toiletries, sunscreens, etc. The shower was pretty good. Not spacious but the shower head was adjustable (6'4" DH did not have to crouch to fit under it), the pressure was great, and it was easy to control the water temperature. We had no issues with water leaking out, which we've had on a couple of other ships. Towels were only replaced if you indicated you wanted them to be.

The balcony was very small -- the smallest we've had on a cruise. We stood out there a few times each day, and DH occasionally sat in one of the chairs, but I don't think there were ever two of us out there at the same time. It would have been challenging for more than one person to try to eat out there. Still, I have no regrets about booking a balcony cabin instead of an ocean view.

This is getting long, so I'm going to stop here for now. Later, I'll share my thoughts about the ship, the service, and a couple of miscellaneous items (like WiFi).

[toohod]

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