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LittleMissMagic's 2014 8-Day Carnival BREEZE S.Caribbean Cruise - A Photo Review!


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We settled on the second place we found which was LaBoca which had Argentinian cuisine.

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

It was Happy Hour, so we celebrated our arrival to Miami with martinis!

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

A Cosmopolitan

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

And Apple Martini

 

I'll let you guess who had which drink.... it's probably not your first guess. Because if it was your first guess, then I could probably just tell you! ;)

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

We both got sandwiches. Max took a bite into his and shook his head. "I'm disappointed." "Oh no, do you not like it? You can try mine." "...that we don't have one of these at home, so this is the last time this deliciousness will ever enter my mouth."

 

Yes, Max gives me the best quotes for my trip report.

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

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13388144434_226af27eaf_b.jpg

Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

After eating, we tried to find a grocery store to get some champagne from for the night. Siri found a Publix. We walked there to learn that it was a Publix Cafe, not a Publix grocery store. However, we had passed a 7-Eleven along the way where we were able to pick up some champagne for the night and a bottle of wine to bring on the cruise (Carnival allows one 750-ml bottle per guest 21 and over).

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

After returning to the room, I took a few long exposures from our balcony.

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

We then celebrated our very brief high life with the finest champagne...

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Hey, now - don't laugh! We're still on a student budget! :D

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My sisters and I splurged on booking a night at the Conrad Hilton in Chicago for New Years Eve one year. I'll never forget that marble bathroom...with heated tiles! Talk about the high life! LOL

 

What a beautiful room...and excellent way to begin your vacation!

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March 15, 2014 - Embarkation

 

I woke up that morning as the sun was rising and decided to take the opportunity to get a few more long exposures from our balcony.

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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Conrad Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

We noticed later that we could see the bow of the Norwegian Getaway.

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

We got ready and went downstairs for our complimentary breakfast as Diamond members.... or Diamond member guests, at least. The breakfast buffet was wonderful - definitely the best hotel breakfast I've ever had. Mainly because if I ever eat a hotel breakfast, it's probably free, and it usually sucks.

 

I actually didn't bring my D7100 to breakfast because I thought it might be a little embarrassing, but I couldn't resist an iPhone photo...

 

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Breakfast by vshingl, on Flickr

 

We were finishing up our breakfast when the check came. Opened it up.... $60 for the two of us. It was a good hotel breakfast, but it wasn't that good. Max decided that he was going to take the bill to the front desk to see what we were supposed to do about it.

 

Yeah, we were obviously new to this.

 

It turns out that the breakfast was complimentary for Diamond members, but they gave us a bill so that we could tip because the tip wasn't included. So our breakfast was covered, we just needed to tip extra. Phewww!

 

The guy at the front desk must have gotten a real kick out of us.

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Conrad Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

We finished packing and said good-bye to our fabulous room.

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Here we come, Carnival Breeze!

 

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Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

We were driving on this bridge, and I was taking this photo when the cab that was in front of us (in the previous photo) had its hood fly open. It was crazy. And I wasn't able to get a photo of it.

 

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Port of Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Hello, cruise ships!

 

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Port of Miami by vshingl, on Flickr

 

The Port of Miami is much different than Port Canaveral and Port Everglades. There aren't any security checkpoints before going in, which is a little concerning. So we were really just trying to follow the signs to see where to go, but the Carnival Breeze wasn't on any signs. We drove to the Norwegian Epic and asked a traffic officer there who sent us on to Terminal D.

 

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Carnival Breeze by vshingl, on Flickr

Edited by LittleMissMagic
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Love your review! We are sailing on the Breeze in August.. Can't wait. Not our 1st cruise, but 1st Carnival cruise.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

The Breeze is fabulous. We've sailed her twice last year and planning one for this year on her.

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WOW!!!! loving your review. I'm even going back and reading all of your other reviews. I really like your writing style and pics. I do have a question. We are also BIG Disney fans and tried to click on your WDW review but the link didn't work:mad: can you try and post the link again, would love to read it.

Thanks,

Scott

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WOW!!!! loving your review. I'm even going back and reading all of your other reviews. I really like your writing style and pics. I do have a question. We are also BIG Disney fans and tried to click on your WDW review but the link didn't work:mad: can you try and post the link again, would love to read it.

Thanks,

Scott

 

Thank you, Scott! Glad to meet another Disney fan!!

 

Here are my two latest reviews -

 

2013/2014 New Year's Eve at Disney (actually tagged onto our Royal Princess cruise)

 

2013 Food & Wine Festival

 

And then these are a bit older -

 

2013 Disneyland Paris

 

2012 Saratoga Springs Food & Wine

 

2012 Beach Club

 

2012 Polynesian Spring Break

 

2011 Grand Floridian Fourth of July

 

And there's even more after that, but they start to get a little bad because I was a teenager. I started writing trip reports in 2008!

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Now this ship looks like fun.....

 

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Max had asked me to please stop messing with my camera and help him read the signs. But of course, I was paying too much attention to my camera and too little to the signage that I caught the sign to Terminal D too late. "I thought we were going to park?" "We have to drop off our bags first!" "Why can't we just carry our bags?" "Because we have too many to carry! They are too heavy!" "They're on wheels!" "No, Max, just circle back around." "I'm parking." "No! You'll regret it! Circle back around!" "Why can't we just carry them?" And then the truth comes out.... "Because I don't want to get all sweaty!"

 

It turns out that circling back around was no big deal. The porter unloaded our bags and we headed to park. "Wait - we just gave him our bags. How does he know where they go?" "I put bag tags on them. They'll bring them to our room." "Oh, okay, you're really on top of this." I mean... I try.....

 

The parking garage was packed out. The only place we could find a spot was on the top level. We arrived at the port around 11:30 which I thought was rather early considering Carnival sent us an email asking us to not arrive until 1:00 PM. I wonder what the people who couldn't find a place in the parking garage did....

 

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We did not get Faster To The Fun because by the time I realized what "FTTF" meant, it was already sold out. I wasn't really bummed because we didn't have any tender ports, and I've never really had any problems with embarkation.

 

Carnival's embarkation is a little different than what I'm used to. We first entered a line and got to these little temporary carts where our passports were scanned. We were told that we'd complete our check-in and get our keys after we went through security.

 

Security was possibly the quickest part.

 

The check-in line wasn't too bad, though. We were told that our rooms would be ready at 12:30, but it was 12:15 when we finished taking our embarkation picture. So the entire process of embarkation (crazed parking and luggage argument included) was approximately 45 minutes. Not too bad. I didn't feel like I missed out at all not having Faster to the Fun.

 

FINALLY! We made it! (Almost)

 

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Also, this was the only photo I bought, and it was a very last-minute decision. I never even bothered looking for our other photos.

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We entered the ship in the atrium, and I was a little surprised to see that the bar was already surrounded by people trying to get drinks! It was rather chaotic. We decided to head on to our room since it was almost 12:30. The cabin stewards were in the halls scurrying to get everything ready, and I felt a bit obtrusive. When we found our room, the door was propped open, and I expressed my concern to Max that it might not be ready. He was ready to ditch the bags, though. We asked one of the cabin stewards in the hall if it was okay for us to enter, and she said that it was fine and un-propped the door for us.

 

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Max is rather accustomed to my photo reviews, now. He knows not to run and jump on the bed as soon as he gets in the room...... naturally, he opted to sit in the window.

 

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My first impression was that the room was really bland. Perhaps I was too adjusted to the more contemporary and plush rooms on the Royal Princess and Norwegian Epic. The decor on the Breeze is very plain and basic. I was no fan of the brown pleather they used on the couch, but I did have a good idea of what our room would look like already (and already knew that I would not like the couch) from other CCer's photo reviews.

 

What we did have was outstanding storage space. We had four closets, and between the two of us, we only used three (hanging space for each of us and we shared the closet with the shelves). There was a spot for everything, and we even had leftover storage. I believe this is the cleanest I have ever kept a stateroom, and I give credit to the fabulous amount of storage. And perhaps Max is just easier to pick up after than Rachel....

 

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It was a spacious cabin and I believe larger in square footage than our deluxe balcony cabin on the Royal Princess.

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And the other wonderful (yet completely unnecessary for two people) thing about our cabin was that we had split bathrooms - with two showers! Yes, Max and I each had our own shower! It didn't make that much of a difference for us because Max doesn't take as long as me to get ready, so being able to shower at the same time and each have our own sink didn't really speed up our preparation time. However, this would be a wonderful thing to have when sharing a room with my sister, and it would also be really helpful for families with children because not only are there two bathrooms, but one bathroom has a bathtub.

 

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I took the bathroom with the tub.

 

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And the other bathroom had the typical cruise ship shower with a toilet and larger vanity.

 

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Edited by LittleMissMagic
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