8 Days on the BREEZE: FlyingCruiserNJ's Southern Caribbean Vacation Review

Good afternoon folks! The time has come to show everyone what an awesome ship the Carnival Breeze is and what a great time I had on the 8-day southern Caribbean sailing this past week. Just a little background info about me and my reviews - this is my 4th CC ship review, the first being on the Ecstasy this past May (first time solo) and the Imagination and Sensation from late last year. I like to chronicle the entire vacation experience, pre-cruise to the trip home and I took well over a hundred photos of all aspects of the vacation. I almost always travel with my mother, usually a few times a year and I feel it is some of the best time we get to spend together as we both enjoy traveling and cruising. I hadn't been on a cruise longer than five days in a few years, since going on an eastern Caribbean cruise out of San Juan in September of 2012, so this was definitely long-anticipated. We planned this out months ahead of time and both said this was going to be an enjoyable and memorable vacation, and I think it surely was. We sailed with a cove balcony on Deck 2, midship and this was only the third time I had ever had a balcony on a cruise. We had originally booked an interline rate for an interior cabin, but the price dropped so much in July and August that I contacted our PVP to see what he could do and he put us into a cove balcony at no additional charge. Not bad at all. I had read many reviews of the Breeze on this very site over the last year or more, so that did help with my decision to sail on this ship over some others I was considering. I'm single with no kids, and I enjoy traveling in the early fall, as the prices are generally lower, the weather is usually better, and traveling to get to the cruise itself is easier most of the time. So, with that all out of the way, enjoy the upcoming review and here goes!

DAY 1: TRAVEL DAY

So, cruise time has finally arrived. I had spent a few weeks figuring out the best way to get to the cruise from suburban Philadelphia, and we finally settled on driving to and flying out of Baltimore (KBWI) on Friday morning, more than a full 24 hours before the scheduled departure. We obviously prepared beforehand with packing, planning excursions, paid our gratuities ahead of time, etc and were all ready to go. BWI is about a 2 hour drive from where I am on a good day, so we had to leave home early on Friday morning to get to the airport in time. We headed right down 95, little traffic and minor overnight highway construction and got to our parking site. We selected EconoPark, which is an off-site company located about a 10 minute shuttle ride from the terminals and pre-paid with their internet special rate of $74 for 10 days, taxes included. Very fair.

We got to the lot, parked, and the shuttle bus stops right behind your car and helps you load your bags into the bus for the ride to the terminal. No wait at all, which is awesome when you don't have a ton of time to mess around with early in the morning. The buses also have a little cooler with bottles of cold water for passengers which is a nice touch. I highly recommend these folks if you ever find yourself flying out of BWI and needing to leave your car for a while. My car required a jumpstart when we got back home also due to a tired battery, and they took care of that for me right away. Saved the day and we were very grateful for that, believe me. Saved us a call to AAA emergency road service.

So, we checked in for the flight to Fort Lauderdale (KFLL), got breakfast at McDonald's past security and it was fine. I do suggest however, if you have time, to try out some of the other stuff they have there; some sitdown places in that terminal do look pretty good. Anyway, we boarded, pushed back from the gate on time and were on our way early in the morning. Way too early for me, lol. Anyway, the flight was mostly smooth, but we did have some chop once within south Florida airspace due to a lot of everyday convective activity. So, we land close to on schedule and we are officially in Fort Lauderdale.

As I am sure most are aware of, this was also the day of the massive sabotage fire and chaos caused by a disgruntled FAA contractor at Chicago Center in Aurora, IL (ZAU). Immediately after getting off the plane, we saw the breaking news concerning the incident on the TVs at the bars in the concourse. Well, did we ever luck out big time. Airspace in basically the entire midwest was closed all day. Mass cancellations at KMDW, KORD and KMKE, among others. We were lucky enough to get a flight that made it to Florida before the proverbial you know what hit you know what. Lots of fellow cruisers were not so lucky however. We got our bags at baggage claim and called for our hotel shuttle.

We selected the Springhill Suites in Dania Beach, which isn't terribly far from the airport, and paid a very fair rate for the one-night stay prior to our cruise. Can't say enough for these people. The shuttle got us quickly, helped with our bags, and got us to the hotel before 1030. Nice. I didn't think we would have a room available so early but ours was ready for us already. VERY cool. It was a bedroom, a little mini living room, and a mini kitchenette with sink, microwave and fridge with two flat screen tvs all in one space.

So we dropped our stuff off in the room and I took a nice long nap, as the travel that early in the morning really tired me out quite a bit. I got up around 1600, and we referred to our area restaurants and shopping guide that the front desk gave us to figure out where to get dinner. I had done quite a bit of research beforehand and saw that there was a place called Miller's Ale House, in a shopping center located right across Route 1 (Federal Highway). It was a good 20 minute walk but it was worth it. I got wings and chicken jambalaya along with a sampling of 5 craft beers for $8.95, which only ran a total of about $30. Pretty good. I got Sam Adams Boston Lager, Sam Adams grapefruit brew, Angry Orchard hard cider, Hoegaarden beer and some other beer I can't remember off hand. I liked the Angry Orchard, Hoegaarden and regular Sam Adams the most. Here are a few pics of my meal and of the restaurant along with a pic of our room.

After dinner, we stopped at a local K-mart for snacks and supplies. We got one bottle of Barefoot Cabernet Sauvignon and one bottle of Barefoot white wine as part of our carryon allowance for ship. Each cost about $8.50 and we also got a corkscrew for $4.50. We also loaded up on a case of bottled water and snacks such as candy and pretzels. Doing this is much cheaper than buying this stuff once onboard the ship. Total was well below $50 whereas buying it all onboard would probably be three times that.

We walked back to the hotel and packed our goodies in our checked bags and I went downstairs to hang out in the pool and hot tub. The hot tub wasn't too hot but the pool was nice and I hung out there for a while. After getting back from the pool, I watched the news and read about the Chicago Center fire and went to sleep a little later on so I could get some rest for embarkation day.

So, that is it for day one. It was an exciting one, and I hope you are enjoying my storytelling so far. I can't wait to get some time later tonight or tomorrow to continue with our first day on the ship.

Great beginning!!!!

Thank you!!!!

Any chance you can put the actual pictures in, vs. the links to the pictures?:D:D

Thank you again.

We love the Breeze.

Sounds great so far, I am thinking of booking this ship, different itinerary for February

Great start! Looking forward to the rest! We are sailing on Breeze in 31 days!

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Great beginning!!!!

Thank you!!!!

 

Any chance you can put the actual pictures in, vs. the links to the pictures?:D:D

 

Thank you again.

We love the Breeze.

I went back and saw the photo formats were in links instead of the images and just deleted the links. I didn't have time to fix it then but I will get back sometime tonight and repost the pics. Thanks for the heads up about that.

Sounds great so far, I am thinking of booking this ship, different itinerary for February

Currently the Breeze goes on this itinerary, grand turk, Curacao, Aruba and the Dominican and rotates with a western 6 day itinerary but I'm not sure what it will be in February. Thanks for following and hopefully this helps you make your cruise decision.

Great start! Looking forward to the rest! We are sailing on Breeze in 31 days!

 

 

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Thanks for reading and as soon as I have an hour or so at a time to sit down and write, I will get to the next day. The ship is neat, it has so much stuff to choose from its overwhelming. It's almost impossible to experience everything the ship has to offer in just 8 days. Happy cruising!

Can't wait to read the rest of your review! We are on this same ship/itinerary but not for a long, long time...I need some great reviews to get me through the next 15 months!! :eek: We are also booking a cove balcony. What cabin were you in and how did you like it (unless that is coming later in the review)? I can't wait to see your pics!! THANK YOU for taking the time to write it.

Looking forward to your review! We've booked this itinerary on Breeze for next July. BTW, I'm a South Jersey native - been gone 30 years now, but still have family there.:)

Can't wait to read the rest of your review! We are on this same ship/itinerary but not for a long, long time...I need some great reviews to get me through the next 15 months!! :eek: We are also booking a cove balcony. What cabin were you in and how did you like it (unless that is coming later in the review)? I can't wait to see your pics!! THANK YOU for taking the time to write it.

I was in the 2500 range, even side, midship right near the crew gangway port side. It was a good room, large, comfortable and not terribly far from the elevators. I'm about to repost the pics from day one and post day two so be sure to check them out. I read a lot of great reviews of this ship and now I think it's my turn to get in on the action. Thanks for reading.

Looking forward to your review! We've booked this itinerary on Breeze for next July. BTW, I'm a South Jersey native - been gone 30 years now, but still have family there.:)

It really is a nice itinerary considering I have been to most Caribbean islands already, haha and there isn't much there I haven't seen yet. I am from SNJ, although I have lived in other areas of the country, I found my way back here again. Thanks for checking out my review!

So, here are the pics I didn't get to post yesterday from DAY 1: TRAVEL DAY.

This is my flight down to FLL:

Once in FLL, this was our hotel room at the Springhill Suites, Dania Beach. Roomy, spacious, two flat screen tvs and even a sink, fridge and microwave. Not a bad view of the Fort Lauderdale area either from our room. Good, friendly service from the staff and more than worth it for a pre-cruise stay.

My dinner and drinks at the Miller's Ale House, in the shopping center on the other side of US 1:

I didn't get a pic of the hotel pool and I should have. Oh well. DAY 2: EMBARKATION DAY is up shortly.

DAY 2: EMBARKATION DAY

So, after a nice restful evening, we were ready to go come Saturday morning. The hotel had a nice breakfast buffet with bacon, sausage, pancakes, powdered eggs, etc and was more than enough to get us through until lunchtime on the ship.

We had previously made plans with SAS Transportation for our shuttle to the port of Miami and this costs $15 each way, per person not including tips for the driver of course. We arranged to be picked up at 1100 from the hotel, as SAS offers this service which is awesome. We stopped at a few other area hotels and before you know it, the van was completely packed with happy people on their way to cruises. A few people on my van almost didn't make the cruise, due to the mass cancellations from the day before and had to do some interesting things to get a flight out of wherever, USA and make it to Florida in time. Everybody shared their travel stories and it was fun. Along the way, the driver gave us a fun and informative tour of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area as seen from I-95. Haha. He took us through the brand new tunnel that takes you from 95 to the port, awesome. It drops 200 feet below ground within 1/8 of a mile and bypasses the old setup of having to go over the congested bridge from downtown to get to the port. Modern technologial marvels, man.

Before you knew it, were at the port of MIA and it was cruise time. We were leaving along with the Carnival Glory and the MSC Divina. Our driver said this is low season in MIA/FLL, as MIA only had three ships today and FLL only had two I think. During high season each will have at least a half dozen at a time. Anyway, we paid our driver, made return plans and were on our way to the terminal. Note that it is best to plan your trip back to the airport with SAS then, as they go full on debark day and you might not get a seat if you wait until then to flag them down. Also note if you have a MIA area hotel, they will not pick you up. Only FLL hotels and airport. Also, they do not service Fort Lauderdale cruise port. He said due to the setup of the port area, it is just not feasible for them to offer trips to that port.

So, we go to check in three suitcases with the POM porter and proceed to the priority/platinum line where we are thru security in a breeze (lol). It is nice not having to wait in line with everybody else. So, we get our water, wine and carryons cleared and go to the captain's lounge to await our turn to get our sail and sign cards. Five minutes later we have our s/s cards and are on our way. They began boarding at about 1200 and platinums/fttf/diamonds were allowed to board while everybody else had to wait their turn. We got the obligatory embarkation day photo taken before heading to the gangway and there we were. Nice little European-style glass jetway thing they have there also, but it is steep and if you have a hard time walking, it is a struggle to make it all the way thru without assistance.

Anyway, BING goes the machine when security scans our cards and we are offically on the BREEZE. The atrium is nice, cooler mood lighting in the atrium than most Carnival ships and we check out our ship layout diagrams that we received at checkin. First, we go to the cabin to see if it is ready and yes, it is. We dropped our stuff off and headed up to the lido for lunch. It is another nice platinum perk to have a cabin ready when you board instead of having to wait until after 1300 to go and get stuff put away.

So, we are up on lido and of course I go to the Mongolian wok first. I have raved about the wok on other ships and this was pretty good also. On this ship they two separate lines, with 6 woks going at any given time. Never more than a 15 minute or so wait all cruise long. I got mei fun, chicken and beef and peas and corn with spicy szechuan sauce, stir fried to order. I also proceeded to get a Guy's pig patty burger along with fries. Not bad. A pig patty is a burger patty with 3 or 4 pieces of crispy bacon right on top of the burger patty. No wait at all at Guy's today. My mom got some stuff from the regular buffet line, who knows what the theme was today - I surely don't remember. Maybe it was Italian but I cannot remember.

Mongolian wok:

So, after wandering the ship a little and checking out some of the lido deck stuff, I went and got my bottomless bubbles unlimited soda card and we headed back to the cabin to unpack our carryons and meet the room steward. Note that out of POM now, they only charge you for the soda program and 15 percent gratuity and not tax like they used to. They only charge you 13 cents tax on any soda purchased while the ship is still in US waters. The girl at the desk clearly explained this to everyone who bought the card and I like that idea personally. They also had tervis tumblers on sale for like 5 bucks but I have enough of them at home and didn't buy one. I do have to mention that when we checked outside our door, our bags had arrived before 1300. Unreal. Can't say enough for the baggage delivery system and the guys who are good at what they do on this ship. Earliest I ever got my bags at the cabin on a cruise.

This is the system they have set up and now think how awesome it was to get our stuff so early - bag room screening, load bags in cages, forklift probably a hundred or more cages to ship throughout day:

Only thing I don't like about embark day is the serious pressure selling the spa, art, cheers program people try to do everywhere you go. I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested in a spa package, lol. I wasn't interested in cheers or the wine package this time either although if you drink a ton of wine the wine package might be worth it to you. Cheers is a 15-drink a day, variably-priced, prepaid for the entire cruise, program that everyone in a booked cabin must purchase even if they are not planning to drink on a cruise. Again if you are in a cabin with people who can put them back, go for it but if you're not, it's not worth it at all.

So, at about 1530 we head up to the muster station, which was in the ship's conference room. OK......never had a muster station here before but whatever. At least we got nice comfy chairs and didn't have to stand the whole time. Anyway, the drill didn't begin until nearly 1600 due to late arriving passengers who guess what, got stuck in the ZAU meltdown from the day before and just barely had time to get to the ship. Here, we were introduced to our Captain, and I cannot remember his name but he was Italian, as were his first officer and most of the bridge crew. We also got the welcome speech from cruise director, Matt Mitcham. His style of cruise directing is interesting, to say the least. Not bad or good, just different. More on that later.

So, horn sounds and muster is over. I head back up to lido just to chill and be part of the sailaway party. Usually we leave at 1600 but there were still hundreds of people and their bags checking in up until 1700, guess why. I assume everyone finally got on by about 1715 and we were on our way.

The Glory left before us, up the channel, turned around near the old Miami Herald building (looks like a fire or something, does anyone know what destroyed that place?) and sailed out before us. We turned in the channel, and ships always get a police escort until they are clear of land. Some dude in a little red rubber boat got too close to us as we were turning and the Miami police boat had to quickly scurry over there to save him from becoming a propellor ornament on our ship. He moved and we were soon on our way. Of course everyone on South Beach and its neighboring island waved to us as we headed out. Vacation has begun! Put my phone into cruise ship mode (airplane mode the rest of the time) and walked around some.

Glory leaving before us and a shot of South Beach:

So, that excitement was over and I went to get a soda at the atrium bar, but we hadn't left US waters yet so I still had to pay 13 cents tax which was no problem. Only time I had to do that all cruise long. I headed back to the cabin to finish unpacking after 1800 and we met our room steward, Mariusz before we headed to dinner. Dinner on the first night is always kind of informal as nobody really gets dressed up or anything. We had late seating, Blush dining room, deck 3 aft. Wayyyy aft lol, all the way at the back of the ship looking out the window at the ship's wake. We were seated at a 6-top, but unfortunately the people assigned to sit next to us never showed, not even one night. Sad but what can you do but eat their share of the food? That sounds good.

We met our servers, Ikawumi(spelling) and I forgot the other guy's name but they were good at their jobs. They don't have dedicated bar service in the mdr anymore, so the table servers take care of drink orders and they always made sure I had a coca-cola with no ice waiting for me when I got seated every night. Nice. I have to say the mdr was only maybe 2/3 occupied this night, if that. I ordered two entrees as always, and a few apps and they were good. I think the first night was brisket and some sweet and sour fried shrimp and fried rice. I also got my warm chocolate melting cake, with two ice creams and my mom got some black forest cake, which I sampled. All was good.

Dinner:

After dinner at about 2200, I went to the hot tub for a while, in the aft section and hung out there for a while. Not too hot but soothing to sore muscles. There is also a pool, a bar and a pizzeria here, along with late night hotdogs some nights. About 2300, I went back to the cabin and went to sleep as I was tired from an exciting first day. I checked out funtimes for the first sea day and off to sleep.

That is it for embarkation day. Hope you enjoyed

Great start to your review, thank you for taking the time to share with us all! We are leaving for our first Carnival cruise on the 19th! On the Breeze and we have a cove balcony!

I have also reserved SAS for our transportation. I'm glad you had a good experience with them. :D

I was on this cruise as well. I am looking forward to your review.

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Enjoying your review!! We are leaving on the Breeze on 12/06/14 and it will be our first time as Diamond members (26th Carnival cruise). We are also doing 2nd late seating in the Blush dining room. Do you happen to remember the name of the senior Maitre D'?? I want to send him an e-mail for our table choice. We love tables for 2. Many thanks and keep posting your pictures and review!! John & Priscilla :)

Following this one but that light blue text has to go or I am going to be blind before this one is over. :)

We had previously made plans with SAS Transportation for our shuttle to the port of Miami and this costs $15 each way, per person not including tips for the driver of course.

Thanks! I'm also booked on the Breeze in December and I just booked SAS Transportation. I've been trying to figure out the best way to get from FLL to POM and it sounds like this works out very well.

John and Priscilla, see you on the Breeze on 12/6! :)

I'm glad your back and thanks for posting the pictures! On one of my cruises I also used SAS and did not have a good experience. On the way to the hotel...no problems but picking us up after the cruise - they never showed up....after many, many phone calls they still did not show. Us and another couple had to take a taxi to FLL as they were about to miss their flight!

Can't wait to see more pics and read more of your review!

Great start to your review !! I will be following along !

We loved the Breeze and can't wait to sail on her again.... that reminds me -- I better get back to my review and get it finished ! :D

Thanks for the review! Did you happen to use the internet while on the Breeze?

Great start to your review, thank you for taking the time to share with us all! We are leaving for our first Carnival cruise on the 19th! On the Breeze and we have a cove balcony!

I have also reserved SAS for our transportation. I'm glad you had a good experience with them. :D

Thanks for checking out my review. I love writing these and I know people enjoy reading about others' vacations. This was my 12th Carnival cruise in about eight years and my 14th overall. The cove balconies are really cool. Never felt too close to the water but very comfortable, private and convienently located on the ship. I will explain later about why I was kinda freaked out about the locations of some of the balconies elsewhere on the ship. This was my second time using SAS, I also used them in May on a solo cruise out of MIA and they really are a good company. They have a fleet of like 9 vans and never a long wait to get a shuttle from them, either at the airport, hotel or cruise port. They actually picked us up before they were scheduled to at the hotel on embarkation day.

Enjoying your review!! We are leaving on the Breeze on 12/06/14 and it will be our first time as Diamond members (26th Carnival cruise). We are also doing 2nd late seating in the Blush dining room. Do you happen to remember the name of the senior Maitre D'?? I want to send him an e-mail for our table choice. We love tables for 2. Many thanks and keep posting your pictures and review!! John & Priscilla :)

Good for you on the achievement of Diamond status. I might make it to that point somewhere down the line. I do not remember his name but I do remember he was entertaining and made our dinners more enjoyable for sure. He was Italian I believe. lol :) He had a sort of unique style and had a good natured, not over-the-top humor style. I liked that he always made sure that he praised the wait staff and kitchen staff for the work they do everyday and everybody just takes for granted. You could probably get in contact with him if you contact guest services but not sure about that. I suspect this sailing I was on was not full as a lot of tables were empty every single night of the cruise so I figure changing tables once onboard wouldn't be too hard. People were switching tables from an assigned two-top to a ten-top next door that wasn't full and back again so they could enjoy dinner with some new friends they met. LOL. We were told by our waiters when we asked that the people assigned to our table didn't want to be at a table with others and so they were assigned a two-top before even being seated the first night. I know I have asked to be moved before and was accomodated right away so you shouldn't have a problem with getting the seating you want. I like the late dining however, only problem is that sometimes you miss evening activities if you are in the mdr until after 10 PM.

May I ask why you flew into FLL instead of Miami?

Thank you for doing this review:)

Following this one but that light blue text has to go or I am going to be blind before this one is over. :)

Not a problem at all. I was experimenting with font colors and sizes, I will try something different for day 3. I figured the light blue would work for Caribbean but yeah, it does look kind of bad when I look back at it myself.