What happened!

Embarkation...This was a big failure that didn't have to be one. The day of the cruise came as an initial surprise that we would all be showing up at the port 2 hours later than scheduled. This turned out to be a terrible omen that would see most of us waiting outside the terminal for up to six hours with very few chairs and absolutely no water. This was due, of course, to the CDC needing to clear the ship after those cases showed up on the previous cruise. I assume nobody thought this would ever happen and nobody had a plan for crowd management in case something like this did ever happen. We began by finishing our Covid test around 1:30PM. It took awhile, but that was to be expected. From there we walked up to get in the terminal and were turned away. They told us the building was at capacity and would be taking more guests at 3pm. They asked us to come back. We almost left but knew what would happen. We would likely return to see a massive line. And we were right. We got in a line that began to form and were about ten people back as it grew. 3PM came and went and they allowed us to move the line to the door by wrapping it around the building. That's where we stood for the next four hours. We asked for chairs and they eventually brought some. We asked for water, and were promised some, but none ever came. Communication came every now and then but it was mostly about what to expect when we got in. As the dinner hour approached, all organization with the line broke down. We could see inside the building and there were about fifty to sixty older people sitting inside. We heard that there were some already checked in but waiting on the other side of the wall. When it came time to go in, there was a mad rush for the door after they allowed anyone in a wheelchair to go in first and then called for those in The Haven. It was around 8pm when we got on the boat, but here's the interesting part. They made an announcement stating that they were allowing people to cancel their cruise with full payment back due to the cases from the previous cruise, but if you still wanted to cruise, they would be missing the Costa Maya port, giving everyone $600 per stateroom back off their cruise fair and throwing in $400 stateroom credit for this cruise. That sounded pretty sweet to us. They did indicate we would have to agree that we would be aware of the risk by accepting a typed letter they were providing each of us. This letter also slowed down the process of boarding by about 30 minutes. It's like nobody had a clue this would ever happen. Anyway. We accepted their offer, but I understand about 400 people did not. The next bit of incompetence occured when they decided to open up another line and let people who were farther in the back go to the front of that line, feeding each line to an agent equally. It's like the 100 people behind us were rewarded by jumping to the front of the line. Why didn't they just use both lines to start with and feed people evenly through both lines? But I must end this con by giving you the sweetest part. Someone told us on our second day of the cruise we wouldn't be getting the $600 credit off our cruise. We went to guest services and they told us that was just a rumor. We spoke to several other cruisers and they remember that rumor over the loudspeaker as well. Maybe we all had a group illusion. We all did get the $400 per stateroom added on and that came in handy buying some great bottles of Scotch and other smaller ticket items.

The Drinks were always great and the staff very good and bringing them.. But there's the Food... Food is high on our list of qualifiers for a good vacation. We live in Las Vegas and are used to quality restaurants. We don't expect that kind of quality, but we do want flavor, variety and a good effort. The Breakaway had little of either. Let me begin by saying we had a chance to talk to two of the restaurant chefs. When they get sent to your table, something didn't go quite right. Now, we don't get angry or even raise our voices when things don't go our way, but we do tell the waiter/waitress the truth when asked. I even try my best to understand they have to prepare meals for thousands of people each day. Let me just give you a few examples of what we encountered. We ate at Cagney's the second night. Remember from the embarkation review, the first night we didn't even get on the ship until 8pm after standing in line for hours. We would have enjoyed a medium rare horse's rear if they'd brought it out to us. But I digress. I ordered the filet, medium rare, as I usually do at a steakhouse. Michelle, my wife, went for the prime rib. It's a steakhouse and you can judge a good steakhouse by these two dishes. Let me first get this out of the way, though. I noticed this at every non-complimentary restaurant. There were several upcharges on various items if you had the meal package. I could have understood this if the item was far more expensive than the other choices. But what I would see, as an example, would be a shrimp cocktail priced at $19 right before a crab cake priced at an equal $19 unless you were using a meal package. A meal package upcharge of $5 would be added. What? I don't get it. What are they saying? Are they saying that if I walked in here paying for this meal that the two items are the same value, but if I had pre-paid with a dining package the crab cakes are worth $5 more? It was even more significant when I looked at trying to get Lobster at Le Bistro. That was a $19 upcharge when another plate was exactly the same price right below it. It wasn't like I could order five lobsters. I was only allowed one according to the package. IMO. I would find a way to eliminate this. This makes the customer who pays or receives the meal package ahead of time feel slighted. To me, this was chincy. But back to the food...The filet I got wasn't the finest cut I'd ever eaten, but it was good for a ship. The problem was it was absolutely rare in the center. I mean, dark red and I swear it was mooing. I sent it back and they brought it back with a suntan and still dark red in the center. I think it was wearing sunshades and sipping on a margarita right in front of me. I guess the heat lamps weren't working on high that night. Michelle's steak was a different matter. She's had prime rib you could cut with a fork. This one she got was unique. She asked for a chainsaw because I saw her trying to saw through it with her knife. Maybe I was hallucinating, but I thought I saw a lumberjack offer to take it down. Michelle's cream of spinach was an "interesting" surprise. Instead of cream, they used some sort of brown gravy that was simply awful. The manager said it was cream, but we'd never seen brown cream. The other sides were just not impressive, but it would be hard to impress us with side dishes after we'd eaten on the "City of New Orleans" riverboat I mentioned. Their mac and cheese was made with some type of Old Bay cajun spice and lobster bisque sauce that blew us away. The green beans had a touch of sugar and I could have just had them all night. I fell in love with a snap bean and we're running away to elope. I'm so happy I got their recipe book. But back to the brick of prime rib. We gave up and mentioned to the waiter they might want to check the temperatures on their steaks and look at the quality of their prime rib. The waiter had the manager come over and offer us another complimentary meal for another night. We kindly said that was nice of him but we'd given Cagney's three tries between two ships and were done. He did offer to remove the meal package charge and set us up to eat somewhere else the next night. As I was exiting, the chef met me and asked me about the problems. I think they automatically have to do that. I'm certain no chef is going to take advice from a guy with no culinary experience. The next night we took the free meal and ate at the Teppanyaki restaurant. It's always funny watching hispanic guys act like samurai warrior chefs and sing show tunes. This particular restaurant on both the Breakaway and the Bliss made the best filets on the ship. But there was a particular incident that happened there that really got under Michelle's skin and annoyed her the whole trip. She had ordered a moscato wine she'd enjoyed the night before. When it arrived she immediately noticed the change in color. After tasting it she'd decided the bottle had obviously turned and asked for another drink, an Old Fashioned. Instead of getting her one, the waitress argued with her and said it was the exact wine she'd ordered and had drank the night before. Michelle told her it may have been, but that bottle was not good. She continued to tell her there was nothing wrong with it and Michelle told her, regardless, she wanted something else. Our son, Steven, asked her and she returned the drink. Later, the manager came over and apologized to Steven, not Michelle, for the incident. It was if they disregarded her and only cared that Steven was upset. There is nothing that gets Michelle more upset than when she is not respected because she is a woman. Next...Le Bistro was our favorite restaurant on the Bliss and we were looking forward to it on the Breakaway. Sadly...It wasn't even close. I ordered a scallop soup as an appetizer that almost turned Michelle's stomach when she smelled it. We both knew that smell. We were both raised in fishing towns. It's that smell you get when you leave the clams and oysters out too long. I'm certain you've smelled it before on an excursion or two when you got near a fishing pier. Yup...These scallops had turned. Fortunately, they were so small they could only put off so much odor. I had the filet again and this time it was medium rare, just like I ordered. Unfortunately, it looked and tasted more like a top sirloin than a tenderloin. We mentioned it to the waiter, the manager came over and so did the chef. At this point I think we had been flagged because they offered nothing. The chef did seem concerned, though. Let me just say here that all desserts, although only one that was offensive, just seemed unimpressive but tasty. The dessert I had was very creative and I liked that it wasn't overly sweet. It reminded me of other desserts I'd had in Europe. Other bad dishes around the ship included a buffet banana/mango cobbler with some kind of vanilla sauce so bad that Michelle was asking the waiter if they had tried it. Taste had an omelet that Michelle found a glob of spinach inside instead of mixed in. O'Sheehan's was interesting. We had quite a few surprises there. I enjoyed a Reuben without any Thousand Island. I had to get it on the side. That restaurant is where I discovered you should never order an omelet anywhere except freshly made in the buffet. I just looked at it and prayed it would get better. The best incident in O'Sheehan's was when I ordered the nachos as a meal with a spinach and artichoke dip appetizer. Of course, they came at the same time, but I forgave them for that. What I couldn't get past were the stale nacho chips and the dip that was more a soup than a dip. The manager explained to me that the nachos were a newly opened bag. I explained to him the half life of a bag not opened yet that was well past its best by date. He then started to explain the soup like dip. And this is where it got fun. He said that the vat of dip, to keep the top consistent with the viscosity of a normal dip, required the bottom of the vat to be hotter and more soup-like and that I just happened to get a bowl of dip toward the bottom. I said...Wow...Imagine that. I guess I just got lucky the other 100 times I've eaten spinach and artichoke dip. Again, by this time, I think we'd been flagged. We were starting to get overly kind attention when we showed up to any restaurant. I believe they see your name and some notes come up with it. I could be wrong but it did seem to change. I know this was a long gripe, but we noticed quite a few others having issues. All this being said, I thought the food in the Manhattan Room was really done well. I had one of the best Chicken Cordon Bleu plates ever. Side Note...The Savor Restaurant was closed the entire time.

The best service came at the whiskey Bar. All the staff here were top notch.

Beautiful Ship, inside and out.

Really wish NCL cabins were a tad larger. I also wish they had as much storage as I find in Royal ships.