My review of our cruise on the Norwegian Breakaway (Nov 2-12, 2023)

[DCGuy64]

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=708903

 

Here's my review of our recent Breakaway cruise, just published today.

[Sand and Seas]

2 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=708903

 

Here's my review of our recent Breakaway cruise, just published today.

Thank you for sharing your review with us! 

We love Shanghai's too and will take note to get there early for a pager.  

[DCGuy64]

Here's the text of the review, in case anyone doesn't want to follow the link.

 

We chose this cruise largely due to the great itinerary (Italy, Greece and Malta) and the price (November is low season and prices were good, but more on that later). We embarked on November 2 and disembarked November 12. The ship is very, very large, and was much more crowded than we expected, given that fewer ships sail the Mediterranean in November than, say, summertime. We did a combination of included restaurants and specialty dining. La Cucina was the best of them: we had outside seating on a lovely evening and the food was delicious, although service was sometimes slow. We felt our server had too many tables. The ship was LOUD, again because of the many passengers. Sadly, we only ate at O'Sheehan's once, because every time we stopped by, it was wall-to-wall people and extremely loud. Worse, there would be a line of people with pagers waiting for their tables because they were at capacity. We usually ate breakfast in the Garden Café. Once we tried a sit-down breakfast at Taste, which was a disaster. Service was extremely slow, it probably took 1/2 an hour to get our food and they forgot several things in the process. Cagney's and Moderno were fine, and Le Bistro was good, but again, the place was jam packed and not quiet. Our steward was great, I enjoyed speaking Portuguese and Dutch with him. The room was nice, but there were no drawers. We did love the bathroom, it had lots of space, two sinks, and a fantastic shower with multiple jets. The bed was very, very comfortable. I had offered to host a Meet & Mingle and, as a result, we kept getting unexpected free perks like special snacks (fruit, wine, canapés, cheese, cookies) and things like tickets to the Captain's reception in The Haven, priority tendering, priority disembarkation, and other things. Thanks go to Mariah and Errol, the Assistant General Manager and General Manager, respectively. The ports we visited were really wonderful. We especially loved seeing Mykonos and Santorini, they are both beautiful islands, with Santorini being the standout due to those lovely whitewashed villas with blue roofs. Going in November meant fewer crowds, but also windy weather, and sometimes stores would be shut for the season. The time of the cruise also meant rougher seas, and we ended up skipping both Athens and Livorno, much to the irritation of our fellow passengers. Fortunately, we were able to get our prepaid excursions (booked independently) refunded. Speaking of excursions, I have to point out the debacle at Santorini. The excursions booked with NCL were due to disembark at the New Port, but seas were choppy that morning so they were cancelled, which meant having to share the tender boats with all of the passengers with cancelled NCL excursions. That also created a huge bottleneck at the Old Port, and the cable car line took us 2 hours to get to the top. These wait times are normal for summertime when 6 ships may dock there simultaneously, but with only 1 other ship calling there the same day as us, we were disappointed, not least because we were late for our own excursion and missed about an hour of it. Naples and Messina were really fun, we went on a tour of the Amalfi coast with mostly sunny weather (there was sporadic rain, too), but again, some shops and restaurants were closed. Messina was the only port we didn’t have an arranged itinerary, so it was nice to walk around on our own. In Malta we did an NCL-arranged tour of paleolithic ruins, which was excellent. We loved the Waterfront concept on Breakaway, and it was nice not only to take walks out there, but stop at a couple of the bars for a drink. We enjoyed the use of the Thermal Spa, but were sad when we got on board and were told it would be closed for the last 4 days. We only received a measly credit of $30 each, which should have been more like $100 since the daily cost breakdown was about $33 per person. Overall, we had a nice time, but service is clearly slipping. Wait times were sometimes unreasonable, bars frequently had only 1 person working them when there were 40 people having drinks. The Shanghai Noodle Bar, which we love because the food is fresh and hot, but also free, was a madhouse. We were turned away one night because we got there at 8:45 and were told they were booked until 9:30, which is closing time. The next night, we got there at 7:30 and got a pager and a promise of an 8:45 dinner time. 1:15 waiting time is crazy for a cruise ship, in my view. I didn’t like the fact that you had to go to certain bars for certain drinks (you can’t get the Lavender Patch anyplace but the Martini Bar, for example), and again, the bars were frequently very full. I will say that the crew was very sweet, hardworking (sometimes the exhaustion on their faces was unmistakable), and the ship was sparking clean. We enjoyed the water slides, but it was cold due to the brisk November wind. I would personally not recommend going in November if you like lounging by the pool all day, it’s just too cold and windy for that. We saw one show called Six, about King Henry VIII's wives, and it was terrific! We did meet some truly wonderful guests on board, and have stayed in touch with some of them. In summary, it was a solid cruise in many ways, but there were disappointments, as well.

[destar]

Thank you for sharing your review.  Other than the slow service and overcrowding, looks like you had a great cruise.

[DCGuy64]

22 hours ago, destar said:

Thank you for sharing your review.  Other than the slow service and overcrowding, looks like you had a great cruise.

Anytime I have unlimited food and drink just steps from my bedroom is a good cruise! 😄 My review was already pretty long, so I didn't mention that I thought the food in the Garden Café was pretty decent, especially things like the pizza, Indian and Chinese food, carving station, and more. Drinks were consistently tasty, if occasionally weak in the alcohol department. The food in the free restaurants at dinner was quite good. We have another, shorter cruise in about 6 weeks and I'm already looking forward to that one! (not with NCL, however, next one is on MSC)

[destar]

1 hour ago, DCGuy64 said:

Anytime I have unlimited food and drink just steps from my bedroom is a good cruise!

Exact same feelings, warm weather and hot tub/pool are extra icing on the cake.

[schmoopie17]

We had a Greek Isles cruise scheduled for next September but ended up canceling and scheduling a "regular" Mediterranean cruise. One reason was the cable car/donkey path in Santorini seemed like such a hassle. (That wasn't the only reason, but it was up there. Maybe we'll get there some day).

 

Since you didn't mention them, I assume you did not track down the elusive hash browns. 

[DCGuy64]

16 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

One reason was the cable car/donkey path in Santorini seemed like such a hassle.

Well, hindsight is 20/20. Given how long we waited for the cable car, walking up the path actually would've been faster. One person I met on the cruise said she made it up hill in 30 minutes. That's much faster than the 2 hours it took us using the cable car (and walking is free!).

 

16 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

Since you didn't mention them, I assume you did not track down the elusive hash browns. 

I'm not a big fan of hash browns. I'll eat them if they're already part of a breakfast dish, but I don't seek them out. My wife asked at the Garden Café and was told they didn't have them. We didn't starve. 😉

[insidecabin]

This trend of NCL to "feature" bars with limited options is not going to be popular with customers.

 

Had the issue on Viva, limited beer selections throughout the ship even before they started running out.