We recently got back from our cruise on the Breakaway, 7/7-14. My wife and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and had our 17 yr old son with us. We had previously been on 10 cruises (RCI 3, NCL 2, Disney 2, Carnival 2, and Celebrity 1) First I want to thank those who had done early, extensive reviews, in particular Sliceoflife, Xenagurl, and gambee, they proved to be a great help in our planning and our cruise. I would also like to thank whenisthemidnightbuffet for organizing the meet and greet. That event turned out to be a wonderful experience for us, both because of the people we met and the opportunity to meet and talk with several of the Managers . We had a small issue with the UBP and a concern about our 17 yr old son who has a severe peanut and tree nut allergy. We had a great cruise and hopefully I can point out a few issues not previously addressed. By the way, there is something very special about sailing out of NYC, the skyline, Statue of Liberty, going under the Verrazano bridge, and seeing the Freedom Tower.

With the UBP, my wife was disappointed to find she could not get her favorite chardonnay, Clos Du Bois, by the glass. It was available by the bottle and we mistakenly presumed she could order it by the glass. We addressed this disappointment with one of the beverage managers, Jose Contreras, at the meet and greet. He took down our name and cabin number and explained it was only available by the bottle in the dining rooms. Later that day we returned to our cabin to find two small bottles of my wife’s favorite wine! That is great customer service. With regards to the UBP, while we made out fine cost wise, for us it was a little restrictive. My wife is a wine drinker, and was not thrilled with what was available by the glass, and I am primarily a beer drinker, the limited choices have already been covered. I found Brooklyn Lager in the uptown grill, but was disappointed to find it is not covered by the UBP, in addition, draft beer comes in small (12oz) and large (16oz), large drafts are also not covered, I found that a little ridiculous. I could get a double absolute and tonic and the bartender would count it as two so it was covered by the UBP, but a large draft is charged. End of the week I found three large draft charges from the beginning of the week. I went to On Board Credit desk, explained the bartender knew I had the UBP, and the charges were immediately removed without discussion!

With our son and his allergy, we had a great experience. I had always viewed Disney as the gold standard for dealing with food allergies, this experience surpassed them. We love cruising, but we always have concerns about cross contamination and language problems. Free style adds the wrinkle of dealing with new people each meal. Not to worry, the day we boarded we got a letter to meet with one of the restaurant managers. Our son was in the system, when possible they asked us to pre-order his dinner earlier in the day because it was prepared separately from the other food. When we were not able to do this we only had to wait an extra 5 minutes or so, not a problem at all. At almost every meal one of the managers came to our table to check on our son’s (and our) meal. This was greatly appreciated and gave us great piece of mind. Read more