Awesome November Mediterranean Cruise!
Norwegian Breakaway Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
First Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 7
Helpful Votes: 231
10 Night Greek Isles: Santorini Athens & Florence (Rome Roundtrip)
Sail date: November 02, 2023
Ship: Norwegian Breakaway
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: 5204
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
We worried about the weather doing a med cruise in November and we are extremely pleased with the outcome. I'd definitely do it again mainly missing all the heat and the crowds was worth it even if we did miss a couple of ports. Great times on a great ship. ❤️🚢Embarkation
Embarkation was fast and painless. We were off the bus and to our muster drill in no time!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
First we hit the Garden Cafe. The food and the choices were awesome even a bar at the back which was included in our free at sea package, best buffet we've had at sea but seating could be a challenge there. The included restaurants were all awesome as well. Taste and Savor always had an awesome breakfast and dinner for us. We particularly enjoyed the Manhattan Room that had a great view aft and great light jazz entertainment every evening. O'Sheehan's was awesome, open 24/7 and really helped me get over jet lag the first couple of nights! 😊 We did two of the specialty restaurants even though only one was in our package as they were a bit pricey. Teppanyaki was fun and tasty and Wasabi was really good with great service and choices. I gained a couple of pounds on this cruise but don't regret it at all!
Onboard Activities
We hung out at the Madera Spa as much as we could, certainly worth the upcharge. I did use the fitness center on sea days as well. Definitely helped on those longer excursions. The pools on the lido were actually a good temp and really appreciated how deep it was at 6'8" it was the deepest I've seen on a ship.
Entertainment
Really appreciated that we were able to pick a date and time before the cruise to see "Burn the Floor" and "Six". We just walked right in at our scheduled time and enjoyed the shows immensely. I wish they could have done the same for shows at Syd Normans as it was always packed as well. Howl at the Moon was a hoot, fun dueling piano sing-a-longs and story telling. Shakers was awesome for not only martinis but piano and guitar favorites as well.
Service and Staff
Really great service and staff as well. The first night the toilet in our cabin backed up and called housekeeping. We went to dinner came back and all was good and had no more troubles the rest of the cruise. All the staff were very helpful as this was our first Norwegian cruise and had lots of questions. We just miss coming back from excursions and not having a towel animals on the bed! 😊
Ship Quality
Clean and well maintained this ships layout is different but once I got used to all the different areas especially the subdivided lido it actually was better and easier to find a cool place to lay out on sea days. Lot of bars up there as well, when one was packed I could always find a seat at another.
Cabin / Stateroom
Our cabin was really good being an ocean view. Really big window you could almost sleep in and having the glass door instead of a shower curtain was really 👍. They only need to a have USB or outlet by the bedside to make it perfect.
Ship tip
Book everything you can (except Internet packages) ahead of time pre boarding or on the app, kiosks and service desks. All of the open and closed times are on the Free Style daily. Don't preorder the Internet package, it gets cheaper once you're at sea! Definitely bring Euro coins in Europe for the bathrooms!
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
My wife booked a photoshoot in Oia and we had prebooked the second tender off the ship to Thira. We got to port early and the water taxis from Thira to Oia didn't start for a couple of hours yet so we decided take the 600 steps to top of the caldera at Thira and shared a cab to Oia. The steps weren't as bad as the stories you hear. The smell of the mules walking up and down reminded me of being at the county fair and they are more like long slabs going up than steps. Oia is amazing and surrealistic as if it was a dream. We were blessed again with pleasant weather in the 70's and being November it wasn't crowded at all. After the photoshoot we walked the narrow scenic walkways, took lots of videos and pictures and relaxed at rooftop restaurants and bars and shopped for souvenirs. In the evening we took the bus back to Thira for only a euro and sat at rooftop bar there, talked and watched the sunset. Amazing experience! We strolled a long enjoying the lights at night and then took the cable back to the port and the tender to the ship. Another amazing day! 💙🇬🇷
Valletta was off the radar for me but it is on the center of the map now. No excursions here but another awesome day. We walked up the winding streets and enjoyed the parks till we got to the top of an old fort and witnessed the canon fire at noon.This reminded me a lot of Havana as they do the same thing only at night. Beautiful place. Again we took lots of pictures and really enjoyed eating at the restaurants inclined right on the cobblestone streets. I'm not a sandwich fan but the breads and everything is awesome in Valletta. Lots of history here as well. We must come back. ♥️🇲🇹
Another awesome port. Very diverse and so much to do to Sicily. We choose to do a Toarmina excursion and we're completely amazed by the geography and the history. Mount Aetna is the prominent feature on the horizon and greenery is all around. Ancient churches, Roman, Greek and Muslim architecture and forts all around and ampitheater originally built by the Greeks and rebuilt by the Romans. Enjoyed in particular the medieval city square overlooking the sea and got to enjoy some canoli at the birthplace of the canoli. ♥️ Sicily 🇮🇹
We did a Pompeii excursion and walked through downtown Naples and the Galleria here but as our guide told us Naples is in Florida, welcome to Napoli which goes back to Greek times. Probably the most amazing and shocking thing to see is Pompeii. I was surprised at the work that is going on. Many of the frescos, art and pottery has survived the Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD. Pompeii is really a large town and more is being uncovered every day. The only thing that freaked me out a bit was the plaster casts of the bodies of men women and children as they met their end. Definitely a learning experience. After Pompeii we walked through the streets of Napoli enjoying the history and Architecture. The Galleria Principe di Napoli is a must see and an amazing place to walk through. We were hungry at that point and wanted to have something that was invented in Napoli so we had some authentic Pizza Margherita sitting at a table with a giant picture of Sophia Loren on the wall! It doesn't get much more Italian than that! Love this place, got to come back and explore more! ♥️🇮🇹
Awesome day at Mykonos, the weather and everything were great. We did the Delos Island 3D tour using the iPads to see how the sites including the amphitheater and birthplace of Apollo looked in the past. So much work is being done here and really appreciated the guide for the history lessons, afterwards we sailed back and walked through the streets in Mykonos and were amazed with all the byways, businesses and churches. We found our way to the old windmills and rested on the benches and really took in the sites. We meandered our way down to the beach and found a really cool restaurant there where we people watched, drank Greek wine and feasted on a leg of lamb and octopus. Really enjoyed the brand new museum there too. Lots of ancient art, pottery, statues and relics that they find underwater and on neighboring islands are kept there. Definitely a must see! We stayed for an awesome sunset and went back to ship and relaxed at the Madera afterwards. 💙🇬🇷
Disembarkation
We had a Red 2 tag so we were getting off the ship and on the bus to Rome in 30 minutes!