Live from the NCL Breakaway May 6-16, 2023 – Spring in Italy, Greece, Malta and France Roundtrip from Rome

[Happycrafter123]

Saw a group heading off on the behind the scenes tour, today was for the higher latitudes level only, and apparently the only paid offering for lower latitudes levels was yesterday (first day of cruise.). I guess you snooze you lose on planning and booking things.  If you want to do this make sure to inquire and register on embarcation day.

[Happycrafter123]

Good news, we can change excursions.  Bad news, virtually everything is sold out.  Debating options with a ‘juice’ 😉 at vibe - the Vibe exclusive Dragonfly with NCL gin, Bacardi rum, passion fruit, dragon fruit and guava.

 

 

 

[Happycrafter123]

Got the app fixed at the internet desk, so here is todays daily

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Happycrafter123]

Tenders look easy to book in app 

see screen shots below, lower right hand option from main screen in app

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Happycrafter123

[LauraAnneC]

Thank you for sharing. I’m really enjoying your report. I’m going to be onboard in a few weeks! 

[jlandz09]

Thank you so much! Now to just figure out when that button comes available on the app. 😂

[Happycrafter123]

Lots of announcements from captain and cruise director to keep us informed of where we are.  12:30 and folks are gathering.

 

the Manhattan room is being used for the NCL excursions and it is packed.  There was a spot on the other side of the floor by the theatre where they were accepting higher level latitudes and those with the priority service.

 

Santorini is beautiful and we have perfect weather.  Sunny but not too warm and a light breeze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CCTES]

This is great, thank you so much for all the info!! 

[Sunsher28]

Thank you for taking us along on your trip. We will be there in September. 

[Happycrafter123]

Well, it was a challenging day.  Santorini is a very small space with limited ways to enter or exit.  There were 4 ships in port.  The guide said this was the first day they had this many people since 2019.  

 

If you choose to disembark be prepared for mass crowds and bottlenecks.

 

most importantly, be prepared for the problem that will be to get back to the ship.  

You must get to the ship tender spot via stairs, donkey, or gondolla.
 

 Gondolla takes 36 people at a time.  while they say it can take an hour to get down that would be in non-peak periods, you really want to allow closer to 2 hours if you plan to take the cable car down.  

 

The donkeys were looking mistreated and badly cared for and coated in sweat, they looked miserable.  I couldn’t bear to put them through more suffering.

 

 The stairs down are very slippery, there are no handrails, and you do not want to take the stairs if you have any physical limitations including fear of heights.

 

my review of the NCL excursion:  Santorini port:  Greek style celebration Opa!

 

- most importantly, they do not bring you back to the ship at the end of this excursion, they ditch you in the village, point you to the cable car, and wish you luck.  They left us there (with about 250-300 other people from the same tour) at 7:15 and last tender was at 8:30.  There was a very long line up like we see at ski mountains at peak time that was definitely over an hour.  Most of our group walked down the stairs as we felt we would certainly miss our ship if we waited for the cable car.  I normally book NCL excursions so I don’t have to worry about being stranded in a foreign port, but in this case they desert you and you are on your own to return.  This was an incredibly bad experience.  I thought I could do the walk and felt we had no choice as we would surely be stranded if we waited for the cable car.  But as we went I realized my fear of heights would be a problem, also I am clumsy on stairs and was worried about falling and injury.  I decided to take the donkey and sent my husband ahead walking as I felt it would be a safer option for me.  I gave the donkey keeper guy $10 euros and he told me to wait by the donkeys.  As I looked at them I knew I could not do that to them, they looked so sad and tired and sweaty and thirsty, like one more trip up and down might be their end, it seemed inhumane. So I let the guy keep my euros and started walking down alone.  Between fear of missing the ship, fear of slipping and falling, and fear of heights, I started to slip in to a panic attack about half way down.  I am so very very grateful that a kind family stopped to help and walk with me down, offering a hand to hold, it made all the difference.  

I think it is horrible that NCL does not take accountability to ensure our safe return to the ship.

 

apart from that, the tour was incredibly boring.  No headsets provided so you could not hear your guide, very little info on history or culture, it was like cattle being herded from one stop to the next, given two minutes for photos, then pushed along again.  Views are outstanding, but hard to see them over the heads of all the other people.  A private tour or even private cab would have led to a much better experience.
 

the buffet lunch sucked.  It was a large hall type venue where you might host a wedding.  They crammed about 250-300 of us in there from multiple busses at the same time.  Service was slow.  We were there a long long long time.  There were salads and bean stuff for vegetarians and being gluten free I felt there were safe looking options for me, but flavors were not great.  Wine was not palatable.  They were stingy with water.  In good news, there were clean bathrooms we did not have to pay extra to use.

 

all in all this excursion was a fail.  But Santorini is definitely beautiful.  The trick is figuring out how to best visit it.
 

My recommendation would be to skip this NCL tour, just go on your own, take cable car up and down, go sit in one of the gorgeous deck restaurants with a view, and go back down very early.  If you have time and like to shop there were many stores with nice looking things. Maybe hire a taxi to drive you around a bit, the land is interesting to see.

 

At dinner I spoke with folks who said the volcano tour was good and they got back with lots of time— that tour goes to a different island so avoids the cable car / stairs issue.  Another option to consider.
 

Next stop will be Athens with a small group tour with NCL, hopefully it will be better.

 

Will definitely be cancelling a couple of the planned excursions later this week.  

 

 

[Happycrafter123]

Some photos from Santorini 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Happycrafter123]

Dinner at Cagneys was a good experience.   We arrived late but they were accommodating.  Service was quick and food excellent.  
 

For those of you gluten free though, be aware the gluten free French onion soup is just onion soup.  I thought they would substitute the regular bread for gluten free bread and add on cheese like normal, but that was not the case.  And crème brulle was very liquidy.  If you are gluten free maybe try other options on the menu.

starters were good for both:

 

 

hubbys Onion soup looked amazing.  Mine made me feel sad and left out , no cheese, should have picked something else.

 

 

 

main courses were good though no green vegie garnishes for gluten free, nor any sauces available.  Meat was perfectly cooked.

 

 

hubby won on this one too.

hubby’s dessert looked amazing.  By this point I felt very jealous.

 

 

crème brûle looked good but had not been properly set and was very liquidy, I did not wind up eating it after the first bite.

 

 

in good news, wine selection was good.  There was an excellent red Sangiovese from the Tuscany region included in the plus package as well as they had the ice wine available for desert.

 

 

 

 

 

[southern reader]

Thank you so much @Happycrafter123.  Your info is such a great help!  Do you know if people got back to the ship on time in Santorini who were with you at 7:15, but chose to ride the Gondola down instead of walk?  Your walk down sounds like something we might want to avoid.

[Happycrafter123]

Our second port day in Athens - I’ll give a tour review later, but wanted to update in the onboarding process.

 

our tour was scheduled to end at 12:30 but just as with yesterday the NCL arranged tour brought us back over an hour late.  We got back to the parking lot at port at 1:33.  Ship was scheduled with a ‘all aboard’ time of 2:30z. Line to go through port security seemed huge and we cleared it at 2:14 after which we had to go through ship security.

 

We went to buffet and at 2:44 we noticed line was even bigger, about double the size than when we were in it.  See photos.

 

tip- make sure you are back a couple hours before all aboard!

 

so far yesterday and today the ship has seemed to accept that a large proportion will board late, there is no way to enforce an all aboard time when hundreds of people are in line to enter.

 

in this case it seems the NCL excursions were poorly staggered and all got back late and at once, and Greek port authority only has two X-ray machines so it is very slow to flow through there.

 

 

 

 

[jlandz09]

How much of this do you think could be attributed to it being Breakaway’s first itinerary in these ports? Just wondering if the process just is what it is or if it will have time to improve by late May-early June.

[Happycrafter123]

7 hours ago, southern reader said:

Thank you so much @Happycrafter123.  Your info is such a great help!  Do you know if people got back to the ship on time in Santorini who were with you at 7:15, but chose to ride the Gondola down instead of walk?  Your walk down sounds like something we might want to avoid.

Other folks assumed the boat would not leave without them, and waited for the cable car.  They were right, the ship did wait, but it is a bit risky.  
 

right now it is 3:08 and there is a huge line still of people waiting to go through Greek port security, so clearly they will not be sticking with the posted all aboard time.

[Happycrafter123]

3 minutes ago, jlandz09 said:

How much of this do you think could be attributed to it being Breakaway’s first itinerary in these ports? Just wondering if the process just is what it is or if it will have time to improve by late May-early June.

It is hard to say.  Right now there is only 1 ship in port, it would be worst if there were more.  Also our sailing is not full, I have heard someone say we are less than 4K passengers (but have not validated that).

 

make sure you have water and a hat when you go off the ship.

[Happycrafter123]

Decided to cancel several of our NCL tours given the last two days which were not enjoyable.  We would  rather spend more time on the ship than go through the hassle of what has been experienced so far.  Open bar, a pool and hot tubs… maybe we will try out some napkin folding seminars lol!

 

The line for the excursion desk is very long, and not moving fast.  I notice no one has lined up for cruise next.  The excursion desk has extremely limited hours.  They opened at 5 and I made mistake of arriving late at 5:12.  Looks like I will be late for my dinner reservation…..

 

 

 

[DCGuy64]

Thanks so much for this review! We are booked on the Breakaway for Nov 2 on a very similar itinerary.

[DCGuy64]

On 4/16/2023 at 2:11 AM, smillerholmes said:

I'm on a back to back.  November 2-12th and then November 12-26th.  I plan to start working on that one when I get back from my Panama Canal cruise in May.  It will be my first time on the Breakaway.

We're on the first leg of that. Wish we had time to a B2B but I want to have a job when I get home, LOL. We also learned the hard way not to travel too close to Thanksgiving! Anyway, hopefully we'll bump into you on the Nov 2-12 part. 😀

[southern reader]

@Happycrafter123 Did you walk up to the top of the Acropolis to see the Parthenon?  If so, how was it?  Any idea how long it took to walk it?  And did you go into the museum?  If so, any comments on how much time you spent in there?  Finally what else did the excursion take you to see in Athens?

Thanks

[southern reader]

@Happycrafter123 hi there, me again.  I just heard about something special on Breakaway called "Glow Night".  Can you enlighten me?  Also, are there any other "special" events goin on during the day at sea or other?  Thanks

 

[eileeshb]

44 minutes ago, southern reader said:

@Happycrafter123 hi there, me again.  I just heard about something special on Breakaway called "Glow Night".  Can you enlighten me?  Also, are there any other "special" events goin on during the day at sea or other?  Thanks

 

Glow night is what used to be the “white hot” party, it’s basically a night club with UV lights so everyone wears white or fluorescent colours . On a warm weather cruise on the big ships it takes place in Spice H2O  if the weather allows.  The first few hours are open to the kids but it switches to adults only at 11pm I think. I’m not a fan of the night club music played at the 2 I’ve experienced. 

[insidecabin]

Thanks.

 

following as thinking about a June trip, we did Getaway Athens late 2021 and organisation was not great but there was at port covid testing then.

 

Our rule is get to the ship/tender before the all aboard cut off,

if a big line they have to accommodate everyone.

 

Had the issue of loads of tour buses dumping a couple of hundred with 5mins to go more than once.

 

Ports where there is a suitable refreshment stop where you can see the line can avoid standing.

 

 

 

[southern reader]

7 minutes ago, eileeshb said:

Glow night is what used to be the “white hot” party, it’s basically a night club with UV lights so everyone wears white or fluorescent colours . On a warm weather cruise on the big ships it takes place in Spice H2O  if the weather allows.  The first few hours are open to the kids but it switches to adults only at 11pm I think. I’m not a fan of the night club music played at the 2 I’ve experienced. 

Okay, thank you