[Travelandtourism] Review of Norwegian Breakaway

Wed May 29 15:35:13 UTC 2013

Good morning all:
I had written a review for my Business Development Manager, Jackie Day, to send to Montrose Travel my host agency, since I was the only Agent from Montrose that went. I thought I would send you this review.
Also, the elevators are brailled and do talk. The public bathrooms on the ship are also now brailled.
The TV Description in the rooms for the customers to access to make reservations for dining, spa, etc.
We don't even use them, one they aren't not voice accessible. I think they need help in the design of this, Cathy is saying, but I recommend anyway, prior to cruising to everyone is that 45 days prior to cruising that you go to www.ncl.com and create your account with your confirmation which is assigned when you book your cruise. And make your excursion, dining and spa options, if you wait until you get on the cruise, then you may not get what you want.
The have the wall kiosks, there is a button with the handicapped accessible logo on it, but when you press it, nothing happens. These kiosks tell you what times shows are going on, where you can on the ship and how you can go to get to another area, like if you are on the deck where you room is and you want to go to the water park, it will tell you how to get there, but it doesn't talk, Cathy Vazquez is looking into this, because when I was on the EPIC, Breakaway's sister ship in 2010 they had the same thing, and she had indicated that this needs to work. So the whole team is having a conference on June 11th.
Camille Olivere, Vice President of Sales, said she will also have an answer for me about the donation for the National Auction for Cyber Monday.

Sincerely,
Cheryl Echevarria
Please read below.

Dear Andi;

I am sending you this review of Norwegian Breakaway from Cheryl Echevarria, who (as you well know) is a Home Based Agent for Montrose.  Cheryl is amazing, she
 has been in the industry for several years now, and has had a  positive impact on everyone she works with here at Norwegian!
Cheryl is blind, and was
named Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 of NY State.   She has been on the Norwegian
 Travel Agent Advisory Board for over a year now, and has been a tremendous advocate as far as our on board programming.   She has been helping us to get braille menus on board our ships, and has offered many other important suggestions that are being discussed
 and are in the implementation stages.   We are very lucky to have her ‘on our side’ as they say.

As an Advisory Board Member, Cheryl was able to sail on the two night cruise to nowhere on Norwegian Breakaway a few weeks back. 
 I asked her to share her feedback with her Montrose team members.  I am hoping that you will share this review with your other Home Based Agents, as well as your internal staff.     We have turned a corner with this innovative new ship, and I am hoping that
 ‘team Montrose’ will embrace this exciting new product!   

Thank you!

~Jackie

Jacqueline Day  |  Business Development Manager

jday at ncl.com

cell 805.341.0961 |  fax 786.336.5458

Norwegian Cruise Line
7665 Corporate Center Drive | Miami FL 33126

Freestyle Cruising
ncl.com

Review of the Norwegian Breakaway of Montrose Travel

By Cheryl Echevarria

I have been asked by Jackie Day, Business Development Manager, Norwegian Cruise Lines, who I met at spoke with on the Breakaway. She asked if I would give a full review of this beautiful, fabulous
 ship that is right in my backyard here in New York City.

First of all, this is not your grandmothers, Mothers, or even your Norwegian Cruise Line. Since CEO Kevin Sheehan, whom Nelson and I met on the ship, what a great guy he is as well, Oh yes before
 I go on, Kevin Sheehan doesn’t like any one referring to the company as “NCL”; that is a big No! No!, he feels it sounds like the “C” could stand for the word chicken, joking said by Andrew Stuart, Executive Vice President Global Sales and Passenger Services
 during one of the travel agent seminars that went on during the cruise, so that is why no more referring to Norwegian as “NCL”, anymore. 

Picture of Andrew Stuart at

Seminar on the Breakaway

At little past and present history; CEO, Kevin Sheehan, born and raised NY, and in his early days was an actual, NY City Taxi Driver, took over Norwegian Cruise Lines back in 2008, the line has
 improved dramatically, from going public on the NY Stock Exchanged and one of the fastest growing stock in the industry (NCLH) NYSE, to having Norwegian Cruise Lines one of the most accessible suppliers to the travel professionals in this business, as a side
 note, I sell primarily Norwegian, as my preferred cruise lines, because being someone who is disabled, they are the only ones who allow me to work directly with them to help improve in the area of people with disabilities.  Norwegian puts their money where
 their mouths are.

No other cruise lines offer this to me, and being a travel partner, who has a clientele of not only people with physically disabilities, but for those that don’t have a disability.

Being also a member of the NCL U Advisory Board – Elected in 2012 and they will be looking for new members in August 2014, they just added us for another year.  All 8 of us were asked to sail
 on the Breakaway.  It was free to us to attend.  No we weren’t on the day of the Christening, but it was wonderful all the same.

Even before stepping on the ship, we were all sent an app to use on the ship, I tested it out to make sure it is good for blind people as well, and there were a few bugs, but they are working
 them out. Don’t know if this is something that will be giving to all clients prior to their cruise. It allowed us to tweet and take pictures and post directly to facebook/twitter/linkedin, etc all the social media, we had free wifi, so we were able to do this.
 It also allowed us to view the itineraries that were set up for the Travel Partners that were on board what times, etc.

Breakaway is ported at Pier 88 in NY City on 12th Avenue right next to the USS Intrepid Air & Space Museum, which will be her home port, 52 weeks a year, she is dedicated to the City of NY and
 all her glory. I am very proud of this year. I feel she is also my baby. I said to Andy Stuart, I said, I love our ship. I was concerned, was I able to say our ship. He reassured me that, this is our ship.

She does Bermuda 7 day cruises from April through October, 7 days to Orlando and the Bahamas, a few 10 Day Caribbean Cruises and 2 day weekend cruises to nowhere in January 2014 and January/February
 2015.

The pictures that are online don’t do her any justice, standing outside taking pictures prior to going into the port area, we were in awe of her. Painted by Pop Artist, Peter Max, New Yorker.
 She is painted with the face of the Statue of Liberty on a blue background and it is signed above her the signature, Peter Maxx, also painted are stars and planets. I have posted some pictures here but to see more of them go to my facebook page Echevarria
 Travel to see them all.

Now to the nitty gritty of things

As soon as you walk on to the ship you are on deck 7 and have to take the elevator down one flight down to deck 6, which is the Atrium, there is what I call the videotron, if you have been on
 the EPIC in the past, some things have stayed the same and some things thank god are gone.  We are welcomed aboard by none other than BDM (Jackie Day and Meg Daly (Manager, BDM from the New York Area) I am so sorry I didn’t get a picture with Jackie but below
 is Meg. We love Meg, know her since the PhD at Sea, and whenever we see each other she always hugs us and makes us feel like family. Below is a picture of the both of us.

This is where the guest services desk is, the Atrium Bar, the excursion desk (which was being used by the all the BDMs from around the country and Canada, as well as, people from the groups department,
 we were able to book group space and also speak to the manager of the excursions department, they were also taken space for the “Getaway” as well and for the other ships.  Did you know you can actually earn commission or at least do a markup on excursions
 for groups?  Well you can!  Remember to study up at NCL University at bookncl.com.

Many people were signing up for the specialty restaurants and we were not alone on this cruise. The Katie Couric Show, a few months ago, had an audience of people that were badly affected by
 Hurricane Sandy from Staten Island, Long Island and New Jersey, and Norwegian paid for all these families to come aboard as well.

Very big spacious area.

If you think that Mega Ships are huge and not comfortable, think again. Breakaway is smaller than the Epic, but even when I was on the Epic, it didn’t feel like a mega ship. It was longer of
 course, but not overwhelming which I have found on some of the competitors.

Remember, Freestyling is not the food option of eating where ever and whenever you want, and if you are just focusing on that to sell to your clients, you are missing the big picture.

Freestyle, which I have found on Norwegian and not the other cruise lines, is it a resort vacation without the land resort, or when I put it to my clients that way, I tell them you have the resort
 of the hotel and when you get to the place you are going to you can visit another resort in Orlando or the Bahamas, etc for the day as well, or you will have your beach day at Great Stirrup Cay.

Freestyle is a resort vacation at sea.

Anyway, getting back to my review of the Breakaway.

We went to our room right away. We had a Balcony! All of us TAs had them.  You will be happy to know that Norwegian is listening to us. They got rid of the frosted glass shower stalls and put
 back the sinks back in the bathrooms, bigger and wider sinks.

The TVs have a service that you can check your account, check when entertainment is, make dining reservations if you have not done so already, make a spa reservation or a gym class reservation.

Beautiful bed, etc.

After dropping of our luggage, which was carryon only. We went out exploring the ship.

FYI, I had my guide dog, Maxx, with us. If you are asking, there is a company that works with all the cruise lines that is called Special Needs Group, I know the CEO, Andrew Garnett, his company
 does all the relief boxes for the ships, and now especially for Norwegian Cruise Lines with all my working with them, Braille Menus on all sailings, so when you are working with your clients and you know they are blind, ask them if they read Braille, if they
 do. They can request it from the access department once reservations are made for their cruise. I am very proud of doing that with them. My guide dog Maxx was the 1st to Sail on the Breakaway.

The ship is amazing.

18 decks which includes:

World’s Fastest Water Slide (no we didn’t do this) and water park

First ever Rope Obstacle Course which include being in a safety harness, of course, a zipline area and able to walk the plank, and yes it is a plank. You can have your picture taken on the plank.
 They do not do this while you are sailing, this is done while the ship is in port, my husband was going to do it, but we got so busy.

They have the kids Nickelodeon Water Splash Area, which is behind the family pool area, that has fountains coming from everywhere, Patrick Starfish has a statue with water coming from his belly
 spraying and other water coming from Spongebob, and statue of Sandy Squirrel, and more. It was hot and I would have gone and played with the kids it was so inviting for all the families with the kids.

The Family Area has 2 pools, hot tubs, band area. Nicely designed 

Plus they also have beside this the Climbing wall, Spa Thermal Suites, Pulse Fitness Center (which now includes Zumba Classes, Spin Classes, also special classes designed with Rockette themes
 since they are the godmother of the ship, and yes they were onboard and I will get to them later. But heads up, 2 Rockettes will be on the 1st Sailing of the month on the Breakaway.

They also know have a Salt Room – which I am just going to describe here. I didn’t see it.

Salt Room

Our Salt Room mimics natural salt caves found in Eastern Europe. The noninvasive treatment, halotherapy, is relaxing, natural and scientifically proven to improve respiratory and skin ailments
 and aid in overall wellness.

The hub of the ship is 678 Ocean Place, which includes decks 6, 7 and 8 that flows and connects three decks of daytime and nighttime amusements.

Example Deck 6, has Headliners Comedy Club (where Second City has there nightly shows, the Spiegel Tent where Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy is and Breakaway Theater where they show Rock of Ages
 and Burn the Floor as well as other entertainment. Also 2 Complimentary Dining Restaurants Savor and Taste, as well as 2 specialty dining options Teppanyaki and Le Bistro.  It is nice to walk these areas and not feel rushed getting some where.

Deck 7 they have the Manhattan Room which comes also from the Epic, O’Sheehan’s Bar and Lounge both of these dining options offer complimentary dining, as well as the Casino, which they got it
 right, they put the non-smoking area of the casino at a totally different area of the Casino, same tables etc if you want to play the table games, much better, we love to play Black Jack and on the Epic you couldn’t get away from the smoke, but here you would
 never know there was a smoking area.

Deck 8 they also brought over from the Epic the Ice Bar, all the ice sculptures represent the Empire State Building Statue of Liberty and of course 1 World Trade Center. Fat Cats is also here,
 Slam Allan Blues Band plays here, he moved from the Epic, since he is from NY so they moved him here. It was the first time we heard him, since on the Epic, we didn’t have time to. He is great, plays all kinds of music, talks to us, hangs out with everyone.
 Just wonderful.  I highly recommend seeing him to your clients. Here is Slam below. Also there is the Humidor Cigar lounge, and more bars and lounges. 

Also the first at sea is the Waterfront, this is my kind of cruise, nice and relaxing

Deck 8 The Waterfront, now this is great for when you are leaving NY City, and having a glass or wine or something soft, and watching the Statue of Liberty sail by in front of you or when you
 come back from your excursion in Bermuda where you have 3 days in Bermuda, to sit there and enjoy the sights and relax.

It reminds me of Long Island where I live during the summer and the restaurants on the piers and you sitting there eating and drinking and enjoying the day.

They have Bar and Restaurants outside on the Waterfront some of your options are Moderno, Cagney’s Restaurant, La Cucina and Ocean Blu (restaurant by Geoffrey Zakarian), as well as bars and lounges
 all along the deck.

They have some of the features of the old and implemented a lot of the news.

Spiegel Tent was also included on the Breakaway from the Epic, which this cruise does Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy. This is $35.00 per person to see since it is a food venue.  

Broadway Show – Rock of Ages, which is the full length show and not parts of it. The characters also interact with the audience. It is a little edgy so if you are bringing the kids just be warned
 of language etc. Included on your cruise. I have seen the movie but not the show. It was awesome.

Burn the Floor which is in the Manhattan Room free dining optons at 9PM most nights and alternates with Rock of Ages in the Breakaway Theater.

Burn the Floor is a sizzling and sexy show based on the world-renowned Broadway performance, it is a 45-minute show on the 7 day and longer cruises, on the 2 day they are in the Manhattan Room,
 Cagney’s and Moderno actually have windows overlooking the Manhattan Room and if you are eating dinner around 9pm, which we were the 1st night we saw them dancing. If you love Dancing with the Stars you will love this

It is a non-stop display of pop variations on classic styles, performed with precision and polish from Harlem’s Hot Night at The Savoy, where the Lindy, Foxtrot and Charleston were born, to the
 Latin Quarter, where the Cha-Cha, Rumba and Salsa steamed up the stage, experience the passion of many popular dance styles. You may even be asked to step up and show off your best moves. And if you want to brush up on your Rumba, dance and exercise classes
 are offered throughout your cruise by the amazing dancers.

Again included on your cruise. 

What else can we say. Oh yes the Haven Suites. Well let me tell you they are even better than on the Epic, Norwegian out did themselves here.

Including a large outside bar and lounge bigger space for the pool area, dining room just for Haven Guests, and so much more.

Last but not least of the trip on your last day of the cruise or in our case it was the last day. Normally, on other Norwegian Ships you have the “White Hot” party. They finally listened to us,
 they got a party for us that rocked the 80s. They have the 80s Party at Fire Island H2O, it is the Spice H2O, but they named it Fire Island for Long Island. Many areas of the ship have signs and pictures from around the NY area.

Music and dancing from the 80s, also the last night is Fireworks. Unfortunately, we had a thunderstorm, which you never knew we were on a ship, because it was just so smooth, so the party was
 moved to the Atrium dance Floor on Deck 6. We had a great time the whole time. There is much more to the Breakaway.

Highlights: Dedicated ship to New York itself, Sabrett Hot Dog chart pushed around the ship. Names and locations of NY highlighted. 3 Broadway shows (Rock of Ages, Burn the Floor and Cirque Dream
 Jungle Cruise.

So it was just wonderful

Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 of NY State

Leading the Way in Independent Travel!

Cheryl Echevarria, Owner

http://www.echevarriatravel.com

631-456-5394

reservations at echevarriatravel.com

http://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com

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