Day 7,
We woke up rather early to a very rocky Norwegian Breakaway, and a new for us a rumbling kind of moment. I decided to look at the TV and check at the wave size, they were 8.5 feet at that time. I was actually very intrigued, considering that Silly braved much bigger waves and the movement were considerably less. Through the day we would encounter much bigger waves, I think at some point the TV reported waves of 23ft. The odd thing is that for some reason the movement of the ship only change slightly throughout the day. While some might say that I got adjusted to it, I would beg to differ.
Much of the Norwegian Breakaway would be sick that day, including my mom. The Norwegian Breakaway was fairly empty in the common areas, and I also noticed a lot of do not disturb lights on throughout the day.
Another interesting thing that I noticed is that on that last day two other options for the internet appeared. I think one was a 15 minute plan for $8.25 and another one. Both offered some savings, my guess is that they want to sell the most they can before the end of the cruise.
I also have a note for that day, I think the night before at some point I had a conversation with one person. She told me that the wine list was rather weak on the Norwegian Breakaway. I think actually I have the wine menu from Blue to post today.
So anyway I woke up and headed towards the balcony. I love when ships are going at full speed, specially when you are on the aft of the ship. You can just feel the power of the vessel at it’s max!
The weather had an overall poor look to it.
If I may also add that those aft cabins are perfectly sheltered from the wind. While the rest of the Norwegian Breakaway was getting battered our room was still nice and comfortable.
Video Tour! Please watch it!
I then decided that since I had gotten up so early I might as well take advantage and go do a Norwegian Breakaway tour with the fisheye lens.
I am very proud of this tour! I would dare to say that my review is not complete unless you take the time to watch these videos.
They are much more than just a tour, I would like to say that they are a summary of the entire review.
So please watch these videos,
Breakaway Tour/Review Part 1
Breakaway Tour/Review Part 2
Breakaway Tour/Review Part 3
Breakaway Tour/Review Part 4
Breakaway Tour/Review Part 5
By the way ignore the comment of me not reviewing ships any more. I still plan on reviewing ships, but just in a much more relaxed way, while still having tons of info.
Ok I really hope you all like the videos. That is it for today, I will try to finish day 7 tomorrow.
Tipping
Ok so let me start with tipping since it was brought up by another member. If you know me, you know that I tend to over tip pretty much everywhere. However this trip was a special one, I never made it to the MDR for dinner. So I ended up tipping a lot more. I usually just tipped 20% on the bill for the specialty restaurants.
Here is something very interesting, while RCCL and X claim that they include the extra gratuities in the cover charge. NCL does not, I approached two servers and asked them if any tip was included in the cover charge of the food. They both told me no, that other than the daily tip that you pay they do not get anything more from the cover of the food that NCL charges. Then again I thought the prices of NCL are slightly lower than the ones in X and RCCL, so I guess you can count the little extra into the tipping area.
I also tipped more in Teppa as we tipped the chef independently from the server, and I actually think we way over tipped there. But we had an amazing time, it was well deserved money.
But again, tipping is a personal thing. I was talking to a European couple, and they refused to tip more. They said that they were paying so much in tips already, and there was no way that would give more. I think the topic came because I was talking to the server and he saw my extra tip.
But I think this concept works great for me, I loved the bar food so much that I think my next times on NCL I will spend most of my dinners eating in wasabi, the noodle bar and the raw bar. I absolutely love all the eating options that NCL offers, I think this is possibly one of the biggest selling points of NCL in my book. But I can see how this is not for all.
I also heard people leave a few bucks in Oshehaan’s, but the one time I was there I had no cash on me.
Please understand that this is how I choose to tip, I am by no means telling you to tip like that.
Anyway lets keep on going with the story, this day was a very lazy day. I really did not anything other than eat and spend time in the jacuzzi.
After I got back to the room, and found mom getting ready. I did the same, and we decided to head out for breakfast in Oshehaan’s, I think this was the first time that we actually made it there.
May i remind you that the Norwegian Breakaway was rocking pretty good by now.
So we got to Oshehaan’s and sat down. The server was in such a hurry, and we had no idea what we wanted. We told him to give us a few minutes, soon enough we decided, and he came back. But again he was in such a hurry that he got most of the order wrong, he brought us 3 breakfast platters and two of the were wrong. But in all honestly I was not going to complain, I just ate some and left. Mom was not feeling very good, so she did not eat that much at all.
He brought two of these, both wrong, we never ordered that. Why did he bring 3 breakfasts? anyway…
And this one, you might noticed that the food was all the same for all venues. It is not like you’re getting anything different because you come here vs the buffet or MDR. The only one different was the Uptown Grill.
So yeah, we ate very fast and left.
I took these on the way to the room.
This bar is right by the casino,
Norwegian Breakaway Bar 21
Once by the room I took pictures of the lights that indicate the steward, if the room is occupied or not.
Do not disturb.
Please make up the room.
Mom then deiced to relax in the bed a little, I think her biggest mistake was that she lost of her seaband bracelets. Good thing I found an extra band, but I was a bit too late. She was already sick by then.
She told me to go do my thing, and she would just relax for a bit in bed. I really did not want to do much, I was petrified of getting sick, and my mom has a better tolerance that I have for sea sickness.
I decided to play it safe and go to the jacuzzi. One thing that I have noticed is that Jacuzzis help me alleviate nausea, I think it is because of the bubbles. So I changed and headed up stairs. I felt really bad that my mom was sick, I just hated seeing her that way, but there was nothing I could do. I gave her all the medicine before I left.
Once I got up there, I found out that the place was empty! and it was freezing and windy as hell.
My jacuzzi calling my name, that day that jacuzzi was entirely mine.
You could also really feel the movement of the ship up there, I mean the Norwegian Breakaway was rocking A LOT!!!
I made my way towards the Jacuzzi. They turn off the waterfall when it is windy, so you don’t have water flaying everywhere.
I took my towel off and got into the water really fast, it was sooooo cold. The first thing I noticed was how dirty the jacuzzi was, and I was possibly the first person to use them that day. They really need to pick up on the maintenance! Also notice the different levels of the water from the movement of the ship.
So dirty!
I also noticed that adding to the movement of the ship, we were also permanently inclined starboard side. Maybe it was the wind?
I took a video trying to show the movement and weather, but that is always hard to do.
Here is another not so good video.
