Excellent Cruise to S. Carribean

Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 81

Overall rating:

5 out of 5
Norwegian Breakaway

14 Night Southern Caribbean (New York Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 31, 2016

Ship: Norwegian Breakaway

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 11898

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

It is our third time on the NCL Breakaway and we enjoyed it each time. The itinerary is great and we had wonderful weather at each port. The food and service at the specialty restaurants (particularly on Cagney's, Wasabi and Le Bistro) are very good. If you like dining at the specialty restaurants, you should get the dining package that, after NCL changes the prices, would be less expensive. The food at the MDR and buffet are also good. Except for the first couple days, it is easy to get a table for 2 at most dining rooms after 7pm since most passengers prefer eating between 5-7pm so that they can go to the 7pm show. The thermal suite is among the best on all cruise ships. Overall, the entertainment are decent. Rock of Ages is a show that either you hate it or like it. There are many excursion choices and they are very well organized.

 

For this particular cruise, we ran into stormy weather the last 2 sea days coming back to NY and the ship was delayed for a little less than 2 hours. The captain did an excellent job keeping us informed. But the problem is that many passengers who normally would let NCL handling their luggage bags during disembarkation, now chose to take the easy walk off approach. Many cruisers that are (by all measures) physically unfitted and had ways too many bags to handle them themselves, not only created an unusual long "easy walk off" line waiting to get off, blocked the hall ways on the ship and jammed up the gangway and the waiting areas near the elevators and escalators at the Custom building. They actually did not get out any faster than they would have if they let NCL take care of their luggage bags. Fortunately, no one got hurt but the easy walk off is neither easy nor quick. I would sincerely pledge to these fellow cruisers not to do it again since they may get hurt or get someone hurt if one of their giant sized luggage bags fell and rolled down the escalator and hit another cruiser. We will appreciate and thank them for their consideration.

 

Overall, it was an excellent cruise and we will do it again soon.       

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
The room is located at the back of the ship and it is very convenient to get to the dining rooms and sport deck. However, this location may not be ideal for light sleepers when the ship is at full speed during the first and last couple of sea days. They would feel the vibration from the ship's engine. Other than that, the room is very quiet and comfortable.

Ship tip

Please see my comments in the review section.

Ports of call

San Juan, Puerto Rico

1 out of 5
We skipped this port due to a medical emergency on board which needs the ship to change course and helicopter evacuation.

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5
Great shopping and snorkeling.

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

3 out of 5
If you are on your own, please keep an eye on the travel time back to the ship. The traffic near the pier is terrible. We got off a mile from the pier and walked back to the ship faster than those staying on the bus.

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

5 out of 5
Great shopping.

Roseau, Dominica

5 out of 5
We ran into the Mari Gras celebration. It is interesting.

Bridgetown, Barbados

3 out of 5
Not much to do other than visiting the Cave.

Fort-De-France, Martinique

5 out of 5
We ran into the Mari Gras celebration. It is interesting and a lot of fun.

St. John's, Antigua

5 out of 5
Beautiful.
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