It was a beautiful evening for a sailaway, and we were off at 5:30, which also just happened to be o

Our trip started out with a bit of a glitch. We had an uneventful florida vacation rentals drive to the pier, parked florida vacation rentals the car and gawked at the Breakaway from the parking lot. What an immense ship with very colorful (if somewhat odd) hull art by Peter Max. I know many aren't fans of the Breakaway's hull art, but I kinda like it. It certainly looks better in person. After a few photos we take the escalator downstairs and start going through the rope line for security. The workers were reminding everyone to get their Edocs and ID ready. It was at this point I see a look of sheer panic come across Amy's face. As she is frantically digging through her wallet, she realizes she has no picture ID with her, in fact, she had no ID at all. We pulled ourselves out of line and some of the pier workers came to inquire florida vacation rentals what was going on. We told them our dillema and they said she absolutley needed picture ID to board. I thought our embarkation was going to be delayed 3 hours so we could drive home to pick up some ID.
The port operations supervisor was called in and he advised us that he would accept a fax of the ID. I called my brother and he recruited a friend to help him scan and email the ID to the pier. After an hour's delay, we were finaly allowed to clear security and the port supervisor brought us up the the counter. 10 minutes later, we were walking up the gangway on to the Breakaway.
As soon as we walked onto the ship it hit us. New ship smell. I'm sure many of you have experienced new car smell, but this was new car smell taken to an entirely different level. We've never been on a ship this close to its release date and eberything was new, sparkly and clean. The decor on Breakaway is similar to the Epic with it's elegant muted browns and tans and a touch of color here and there. The bright, bold sometimes over the top colors of previous NCL ships were nowhere to be found. However, florida vacation rentals the fish still swim forward on the hallway carpeting.
As soon as we got onboard, we were told the rooms were open to drop off luggage. We immediately proceeded to the room and learned the doors open outward. Hmm, that's odd and even this last day I was pushing and pulling the door the wrong way. LOL The lights in the room also do not work until a keycard (or even a business card) is inserted into the slot by the door. This is similar to what we experienced at hotels in Europe. Our room, a regular balcony, was umm, cozy. Gone was the curved wall of the Epic's wave rooms, but the smallness of the cabin is the same. The balcony is also a fraction of those you find on the Jewel class ships. The room was fine for us (and the bathroom florida vacation rentals was actually bigger, or so it seemed), but it will be tough for a family of three or four to squeeze in.
We left the room and went to make dinner reservations before lunch. The ship has touchscreen navigation and reservation boards all over the place, but the system was not working. We had to go to the main desk in the Atrium to make our ressies. Between the delay due to the ID fiasco and the long lines in general, we were shut out of Amy's first choice, Ocean Blue. We had to 'settle' for ressies at Cagneys and Le Bistro.
First up on our tour was the Haven, NCL's exquisite luxury space on top of the ship. Because this was a cruise florida vacation rentals to showcase the ship for travel agents, the Haven was fully open both days. They had a few rooms open so we could tour them and drool. As soon as we walked into the Haven, Amy spotted Geoffrey Zakarian sitting at the bar talking with Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss. Not one to let an opportunity florida vacation rentals slip by, she told me to get my phone ready and walked right up to them and asked for a picture. florida vacation rentals That picture was immediately put up on FB. She also got an autograph from Buddy for Spencer and chatted with them both for a while. At this time, we also met Andy Stuart and his family. Amy won a chance to challenge florida vacation rentals Andy (along with about 10 others) in a special spin bike session at 7Am on Saturday morning, and a bit of trash talking ensued right there in the Haven. More to come on this...
We took the tour of a Deluxe Owner's Suite, regular OS, Penthouse and a family villa. All beautiful rooms that we may never be in again. LOL The Haven area also has its own bar, solarium with retractable roof and outside deckspace with plenty of chairs. Amy and I took advantage of this space and bar for a quite a few hours over these last two days. Hey, why not? It was quiet, uncrowded and did I mention the bar? The bartender remembered all the OGGs who has cruised on the transatlantic florida vacation rentals and we also chatted with Ruth, the concierge a bit.
While walking around in the Haven on the first day we spotted Kevin Sheehan, NCL's CEO lounging on a chair on the upper deck of the solarium. He looked to be napping and Amy was simply going to sit near him and I would snap a photo, afterall, he probably needed some rest after the past few whirlwind days. As we got near him, he opened his eyes, jumped up and greeted us. Amy got a picture with him, too, and it is also on FB. LOL What a nice down to earth guy.
The Breakaway has a new concept called The Waterfront where numerous dining venues have seating out on the deck. We had early dinner ressies at Cagneys, so we got a chance to try both the Waterfront dining, as well as the new Cagneys menu. Both passed with flying colors.
florida vacation rentals It was a beautiful evening for a sailaway, and we were off at 5:30, which also just happened to be our ressie time at Cagneys. All specialty restaurants were fully booked both nights, so we grabbed what we could. As luck would have it, Cagneys is on the port side, so we were excited to be able to sit out on the Waterfront and watch the NYC skyline go by as we had wine and dinner. Can it get better than that? Alas, it almost didn't happen. The hostess told us the Waterfront wasn't florida vacation rentals open due to the weather. I said, there's blue skies, temps in the low 70s, what else could we want? We were seated inside, but immediately went to the Maitre'd and asked again if we could be outside. Second time was the charm. By the end of dinner, it was cool out and we were a bit chilly, however, this space will be absolutely florida vacation rentals awesome in Bermuda and on warm days out of NY. Wind was not a problem. The new menu was great, my bone-in ribeye was delicious and Amy's sea bass was very tasty.
Post-dinner we watched an old fave, the duo of Fire and Ice, in the Atrium and then went to the main event, Slam Allen in Fat Cats. Slam did not disappoint, he was just as good, if not better, than when we saw him on the Epic. Of course he immediately recognized Amy and later introduced her to the audience. For those that don't know, Amy and Slam went to school together while growing up. Amy cracked up the whole band by showing them a picture of Slam when he was back in high school.
A week or so before the cruise, NCL posted on their FB page that Andy Stuart florida vacation rentals was going to be hosting a special 7am spin class in the fitness center featuring the new Fly spinbikes. These bikes are interactive in that all performance data is tracked and then projected on a big screen florida vacation rentals in the room. So, if you do a sprint, you can actually see who wins. Andy told us he liked these bikes because you can't hide, everyone knows how you're doing. So, Amy gets to the class and there are 4 men including Andy, and 8 women. She took them all down. According to Andy, it wasn't even close. Later that night, we saw Andy and he jumped up from his chair, pointed at Amy, and said, "YOU, how did you do that? You were a beast on that bike." It was pretty funny.
We took it easy on Saturday morning after Amy's victory. We had breakfast at O'Sheehans and wandered around the ship some, eventually finding our way up to the Haven for the first of our two trips up there on Saturday.
Lunch was at the noodle bar. The food was good, Amy got some sort of noodles which were delicious, I got fried rice which was dry. If I go back, I'll get the noodles. After lunch we spent a few hours in the Haven relaxing in the solarium florida vacation rentals because it was kind of gray and rainy and not too nice by the regular pool. It was an interesting contrast to see the Cake Boss with his family and Zakarian and his family. Buddy and his wife were just hanging in the hot tub with friends (no word if their suits got bleached) and Zakarian was at the pool with his wife, twin daughters and their nanny; the kids were cute. The Haven was one of our favorite spots becasue it was so quiet, but I have a feeling that may not be the case once the ship really starts getting used.
Speaking of Zakarian, I previously mentioned we couldn't get a ressie for Ocean Blue. The place is so small (not even half of Cagneys), you wonder why they didn't make it bigger to handle the demand, it's clear that it will always be full, but a few extra tables would be nice. Zakarian himself said the same thing to us. He suggested we go to the Raw Bar which has no reservations and has an appetizer menu, sort of like tapas. florida vacation rentals These are ordered a la carte and there is no cover charge. Most of the items on the Raw Bar were under $5.00. I think people will either go there to get their appetizer before dinner at another restaurant, or will go there and just order a bunch of things and make that their dinner.
The chef at Raw Bar (she also oversees Ocean Blue) is a chef plucked from the ranks of NCL people, Erika Suarez. She was trained for months in NYC and it showed. florida vacation rentals We got to watch her work as we sat at the Raw Bar. I'm no fish guy, but I had the Black Bass ceviche and it was amazing. I could've eaten a few more servings. florida vacation rentals Amy had crab toast made with dungeness crab and loved it. We also shared a delicious tuna crudo. NCL will have to come up with a new system at the Raw Bar because it was chaos trying to get a seat. They were keeping a running list of people florida vacation rentals waiting for seats, but people were also cutting the line.
Ok, now where was I? Oh yeah, we had a quick snack at the Raw Bar and then headed to Le Bistro for our dinner reservation. Some cruisers may re