Norwegian Breakaway Review
Norwegian Breakway: Rough start to a great cruise
Rating by category
Additional details
We chose this cruise for a number of reasons: The itinerary gave us 3 vacations in one: we had never been to New York City, we wanted sunshine and heat on our vacation, and we had never been to New Orleans. We had 2 full days in NYC before the cruise; the 14 days in the southern Caribbean had beautiful hot sunny weather and we had 2 days in New Orleans after the cruise was over. Also, we have chosen NCL for 9 of our 10 cruises over the past 15 years, and we had not sailed on the Breakaway before. Having been totally underwhelmed by the Epic on B2B Canary Islands/Western Med cruises in spring of 2017, we were hopeful that the Breakaway would be a better ship.
Embarkation: This was a bit of a mess. And while there were some improvements NCL could have made to the process at the time, the reasons for the problems were beyond their control. Embarkation was to be Saturday October 27, usual time, after 11:00 am or so. As we were staying in a private rental, we had to leave the premises by 11:00 am. The day before, Friday, at around noon, I received an email from our TA forwarding an email she received from NCL that the ship was going to be delayed in departing from NYC. (We did not receive such an email ourselves, although NCL had current, correct email addresses for both my husband and I in our account profiles.) On Saturday, when I turned on my cell phone (being from Canada, it is too costly to use cell phones outside of the country) there were some voice mail messages from NCL advising of this delay. However, an email from them to us should have been sent as well.
The email said that the departure time was not yet known, but luggage could be dropped off starting at 10:00 a.m. Also, our first stop at San Juan was to be cancelled. As it was simply pouring rain, we had no alternative but to stay at the pier for the day--as did most other people. There were announcements through the day that we should go out and explore the city, but with the weather and the carry-on baggage we had, that was not possible. There was a lot more inconvenience to this day, but suffice to say that the ship did not arrive at the pier until after 8:30 pm, and we did not finally get aboard until around 1:00 am on Sunday. There were some venues open to provide food, but then there was muster !!! at 2:15 a.m. We were exhausted and finally got to bed around 3:00. By all accounts, we didn't leave port until after 6:00 a.m.
Cabin Review
Spa Balcony Stateroom
I reviewed the cabin in my overall review, I will just repeat it here:
The cabin had sufficient storage space for 2 of us, and enough moving-around space. I missed having some drawers--there are only shelves behind doors. And the placement of the garment hanging area in the closet is somewhat awkward to reach into since the sofa is right there, and the doors are bypass sliding doors. The other configuration of the room would be reversed and have the bed there, so I don't think that would be any better. The bathroom was a very nice improvement as to size from other cruise ship bathrooms. It is a lot bigger than the NCL Sun and Jewel class ships. The shower was probably half again as big, and it is fully enclosed with a glass door, no shower curtain! There was storage under the sink, plus 3 shelves to place your articles. There is a hair dryer located under the vanity in the main room. The hair dryer was a step up from previous ones, and I actually used it. Next time, I can leave my own at home. Another improvement to the arrangement of the interior space was that the door to the cabin opened out into the hall, not into the room, so it was more space as you came into the room.
Port Reviews
New York (Manhattan)
We had 2 full days here and had not been before, so we simply wanted to "see" sights. One day we spent in Lower Manhattan, the second day in Mid-town. We stayed at a private rental in Brooklyn. We took the subway in and out of Manhattan each day. We took the Staten Island ferry (return). Walked to the 9/11 Memorial, and walked the Brooklyn Bridge Second day we walked Times Square and all the blocks around it. We walked up to Central Park and spent about half an hour in there. This city needs a lot more time spent!!
Tortola
Simply walked off the ship and into town. Found a nice outdoor bar that offered free wifi so we had 2 beer and sat there for awhile. Still lots of work being done because of the hurricane.
St. Maarten
Simply walked off the boat onto the pier and into town. It was a hot walk, about 15 minutes I would say. (Could have taken a little ferry for $4 each way, but there was a huge lineup.)
We stopped at a shop to purchase a couple of items and then found a coffee shop that offered free wifi. It was like stepping into a refrigerator. The place was very similar to coffee shops at home. Except we had beer here.
St. Lucia
Again, we just walked to the shops at the pier. I bought some duty free perfume, we had a beer at the pier that offered wifi, and that was it.
Curacao
As you walk off the ship, you enter an area of the usual expensive shops, and a Renaissance hotel, all built in and around the old fort walls. Good free wifi here from the Renaissance. We left that area and walked along the water to go into town. Outside the pier area are stalls with local wares. We took the pedestrian pontoon bridge over the water into the town. That walk was about 10 minutes. Took awhile to find wifi--found an outdoor bar in kind of a little courtyard a block off the water (in behind the main street). Beer was 2 for $5. I had a blue curacao frozen mojito which was delicious but USD $6 so not cheap. That was all we did here.
Aruba
We bought some jewellery here at a local souvenir place. Think the prices were decent. We were happy at the time, and deliberately never looked at similar jewellery anywhere else. Hard to find wifi available here. We had a drink at a place on the water called Lucy's, but it was quite expensive. Wifi was in and out.
Ocho Rios
This was a bit sketchy. Very aggressive people trying to get you to take taxi rides with them. We walked into the town, which was 15-20 minutes probably, and half the way in guys were still trying to get us to ride with them. It was hot. When we got into the town, there wasn't much to see--perhaps we needed to walk more but we were tired by then and couldn't see anything that we wanted to walk further to. Our minds had been made up beforehand that we might not even get off the boat here, but if you are there, you might as well be able to say you were on Jamaica. Found a bar on the main drag that had wifi. Then simply walked back to the ship.