NCL Breakaway March 3-10 from New Orleans semi-live

[boffoboffo]

3 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Get your you know what in the water!! We can wait til you're back to enjoy your trip! 

 

Thanks for the photos! 

But I don’t like the water. Or the hot. Or people. Or alcohol. Wait…..why do I like cruising?

[tcmagnum]

1 hour ago, boffoboffo said:

But I don’t like the water. Or the hot. Or people. Or alcohol. Wait…..why do I like cruising?

That's exactly why my husband won't cruise!!

So I'm looking at a transatlantic SOLO!!

[Qball714]

5 hours ago, boffoboffo said:

8am comes even faster when you forget to put your clock ahead an hour before going to bed. Set the alarm early enough that it didn’t really matter. 
 

Buffet for breakfast. Not overly crowded but that was one crunchy pancake. 

Breakfast with a view. 

Pulling into port with the Carnival Magic. 

MSC Divina at the other port. 

The Enchantment of the Seas beat us here. 

A crowded port gets more crowded when two ships got here on top of each other. 

Interesting. By the picture it looks like you are parked at the Royal Caribbean dock (red circle on this map). Our itinerary says we'll park at the Punta Langosta dock by the town (green circle). I'd prefer where you are, but we do need to be able to find our excursion!

 

[boffoboffo]

4 minutes ago, Qball714 said:

Interesting. By the picture it looks like you are parked at the Royal Caribbean dock (red circle on this map). Our itinerary says we'll park at the Punta Langosta dock by the town (green circle). I'd prefer where you are, but we do need to be able to find our excursion!

 

MSC is currently at the dock you circled in green. Enchantment of the Seas is on the land side of the dock you circled in red. Princess is beside it. We’re next at the left-most dock you didn’t circle and Carnival is last.

 

Our taxi driver said there’ll be 8 ships in port tomorrow including the Icon of the Seas. 

[Qball714]

3 minutes ago, boffoboffo said:

MSC is currently at the dock you circled in green. Enchantment of the Seas is on the land side of the dock you circled in red. Princess is beside it. We’re next at the left-most dock you didn’t circle and Carnival is last.

 

Our taxi driver said there’ll be 8 ships in port tomorrow including the Icon of the Seas. 

Wow! Busy day, but sounds like nothing like tomorrow. 8 ships plus the biggest? That is nuts!

[boffoboffo]

Finished up at Chankanaab with my wife wanting to get a picture from her manatee swim. They let you know that it’s $40 for one picture or $80 for all your pictures but they don’t tell until well after you pay for it that they don’t give you any physical pictures for that price. It just gives you access to download it at home. Bunch of taxis just sitting outside the park so we were back on board the ship just after 12. Even with the expensive “picture” it was still much cheaper than the NCL official excursion. 

We were in Cozumel. This sign says so. 

The two ships next pier over. The Princess whatever and the whatever of the Seas. 

Realized that we never saw much of the ship in New Orleans or when getting off the ship so this was actually the first chance we had to see the full ship. 

Lunch in the buffet overlooking the port. 

[boffoboffo]

After lunch went back to our room just to cool off. It was hot out there today. All aboard was 4:30 with sail away at 5 so we headed to the Waterfront to watch any pier runners and sail away. 

I guess when you’re wearing dress whites rules aren’t that important. 

4:45 and the pier was packed with people leisurely strolling back to the ship. Seems safe to assume it was an NCL excursion that ran late. 

Got tired of waiting for the ship to leave so we headed to Taste for supper at 5:15. No wait. 

Caesar salad

Rigatoni primavera with pesto. 

Forgot to take a picture of the desert menu but I got the sugar free vanilla cheesecake and fruit plate. 
 

A vegetarian entree and sugar free desert at the same meal? I must have got heat stroke or something today. 

[bluedevil1]

On 3/4/2024 at 2:55 PM, Qball714 said:

Awesome. And yes, Spring Break all across Dallas (certainly why we're going with our teen and pre-teen). We're part of a group of 45 from our church--all families with kids. Use the pool in the mornings! 🙂

We (my wife, 3 sons, and I) are driving in from Dallas for next week's cruise as well.  It will be a big Texas party!

 

@boffoboffo Thanks for the great trip report; it is super helpful as we finalize our trip preparations!

[James_Elmore]

Your doing an awesome live it's perfect and thanks so much for dailies and such!

[boffoboffo]

Not having much success with uploading photos right now, so day 4 Freestyle Dailies will have to wait. I’ll do a quick text summary and hopefully add pictures later. 
 

Played some basketball last night before bed. Not too busy, but busier than I’d expect as there were very strong winds and a bit of rain. 
 

Set my clock back an hour during supper so I wouldn’t make that mistake again. 
 

Set to dock at 8 this morning but got the all clear to get off the ship at 7:45. We went to O’Sheehan’s for breakfast but there was a 30-45 minute wait, so we went to Taste instead and got seated immediately. 
 

Had our excursion booked direct with Daniel Johnson Monkey and Sloth Hangout. Found them right outside the port and we had our own personal driver for the day with just the three of us. Joseph was great, by the way.

 

Started with an island tour stopping at the rum place, the chocolate place, the recycled arts and craft place and another random gift shop. About an hour and a half for that part. 
 

Then we got to Daniel Johnson’s and found all the other cruise ship people so there was a line but it went fairly quick. Saw the sloths, and monkeys, and the other monkeys, and some birds, and some cats that weren’t officially part of the tour. 
 

Then we went on a 5 minute boat ride over to their island beach. We could have spent two or three hours there if we had wanted but left after about 30 minutes. It was too hot out for the beach. 
 

Then Joseph drive us back to the port and dropped us off and we were back on the ship with plenty of time to spare around 1:30. 
 

A very nice excursion for only $40 per person and would highly recommend it to anyone. Now trying to get cooled off. 

[boffoboffo]

[boffoboffo]

Breakfast at Taste. 

Most of a bakery selection plate. 

Ham and cheese omelette with bacon and toast on the side. 

[boffoboffo]

Some random Roatan pictures. 

Harmony of the Seas greeted us here and the Enchantment of the Seas followed us later from Cozumel. 

View from the rum place. 

This is a sloth. 

This is a capuchin monkey. 

Some birds. 

Not actually a part of the tour. 

I went in the water. 

[boffoboffo]

Decided to play a game of bowling to burn through some of our OBC that we’ve barely touched. 

But we broke the machine part way through the game and now have to attempt to get our money back as customer service said to wait until after 5 when they can fix the game. 
 

Filled up a gold perks half price bag of laundry today. Bag seems bigger than previous cruises as we easily fit 6 days of clothes in it. 

A standard sized backpack for reference. 

Some pictures of Roatan from the ship. 

[Felixsnana]

On 3/4/2024 at 11:32 AM, Qball714 said:

Excellent! So are we.

 

Looks like you've been on a few cruises... 🙂

Us too!!

[boffoboffo]

Freestyle Daily day 5:

[boffoboffo]

All aboard was at 4:30 with sail away at 5 so we went out to the deck 7 promenade to watch. Everyone was actually on board by 4:38 and we pulled away from the dock at 4:58.

 

Headed down to Savor for dinner which opened at 5. We got down there around 5:15 and there was a line. Took about 10 minutes and then we got seated right away. 

Cheesy mashed potato croquettes. 

Roma tomato salad. 

New York strip steak

Fruit plate. 

Cannoli. 

[boffoboffo]

After two straight nights of time changes it’ll be nice to stay in this time zone tonight. Especially since I guess we’ll be switching back to eastern time tomorrow night and then back to central time on Friday night then back to daylight savings time on Saturday night then back to eastern time on Monday night. I’m lost just trying to read that let alone figure out if I have the right time or not. 
 

It took talking to 3 different service desks but we’re supposed to be getting refunded back our money for bowling. More trouble than it needed to be but it’s hopefully taken care of.

 

Just sitting around relaxing in our room tonight. It was a very hot and humid day and the heat just wore us out. Harvest Caye tomorrow morning at 8 so another early start especially with an excursion at 8:15. 

[adidreh1234]

On 3/5/2024 at 11:45 AM, slavens_09 said:

Flying in from Kansas City.

🙂 safe travels!

[adidreh1234]

On 3/4/2024 at 3:05 PM, Qball714 said:

We're in Dallas. Driving on Saturday.

How long of a drive is that?  Safe travels!

[boffoboffo]

Image downloading is too slow again right now, so I’m going text only and will add pictures when able. My 150 minutes of free internet are gone and I’ve got about 100 of my mom’s minutes left. Cruise critic has just not been working as well for uploading pictures quickly like other social media outlets are. 
 

Got up a bit early this morning and did a couple laps of the Waterfront. Must have rained overnight as everything outside was very wet. The sun was just coming up and it was obvious we were in for yet another day filled with sunshine and intense heat.

 

Went to the buffet for breakfast since we were scheduled to dock at 8 and we had an excursion for 8:15. Took advantage of our deck 5 cabin by waiting just around the corner from the exit and merged into the line as it started coming down. 
 

Made it to the marina by 8:10 and sat there for 30 minutes until we finally got started. We did the Placencia lagoon wildlife and mangroves excursion. About an hour and a half in length and starts pretty much around the corner from the island. There were a bunch of manatees in the water poking their noses and occasionally tails out of the water. Taking pictures of them is pretty much impossible. In the mangroves we saw plenty of birds. My wife may eventually post pictures of them from her real camera. Past the mangroves there were some dolphins out in the open water. Once again pictures weren’t going to happen. It was an enjoyable excursion that I’d recommend if you’re eager to see some native wildlife in their natural habitat. 
 

Spent a bit of time on the island checking out the shops and wildlife encounter and beach and were back on the ship around 11:30. Once again, it was just too hot to be at the beach. And we got back too early that they didn’t have the cold wash cloth station set up outside the ship yet. A cold wash cloth would have been so nice right about then. 
 

Went to O’Sheehan’s for a quick lunch and it was surprisingly busy. We were seated right away but it was nearly full. 
 

After that we walked the Waterfront for a bit. In a telling sign of how hot it was there was no one sitting on the sunny side of the ship and almost every seat on the shady side was full, defying traditional ship passenger logic.

 

Spent the next couple hours just relaxing and cooling off from the day before going to watch sail away from the deck 7 promenade. Everyone was back on board within 10 minutes of all aboard and we were pulling away from the pier a few minutes before our scheduled 4:30 departure.

 

Next we got in line for the Manhattan Room for supper. A lengthy line and we got seated around 5:15. Turns out it was the Burn the Floor performance tonight. Wait staff was flying at impressive speeds as we were out of there in about an hour. Don’t think we’ve ever had a MDR meal that fast before. 
 

And that pretty much ends the part of the day where we’ll be doing anything. Costa Maya tomorrow, set to arrive at 7. We’ll be in no rush as we have nothing planned beyond wandering the port and then probably hiding from the uncomfortable heat. 

[Qball714]

Just now, adidreh1234 said:

How long of a drive is that?  Safe travels!

We're north Dallas (Frisco/Plano) so it's a solid 8.5 hrs. Thanks!

[Felixsnana]

One more day and a wake up.. and we will be on our way to NOLA for our week of fun! Cannot wai!!

[James_Elmore]

Well they're bad Internet gonna make me break my refresh key

[boffoboffo]