Carnival Breeze - Southern Carribean - Grand Turk, La Romana, Curacao, Aruba - Review

Been home for a few weeks now and finally getting back into the routine of real life again, so I thought I would dive back into the cruise world and remember the great time my family and friends had on our latest Carnival cruise aboard the Breeze.

With the winter we had, this cruise could not come fast enough, I believe our initial countdown started at over 400 days.

We travelled once again with our son who was 4 on this cruise, and thank goodness was just tall enough for the water slides, along with his friend from home and her father and grandparents, and 2 good friends of ours.

I'll try and get through this as I can, unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of our pre - cruise hotel

Pre Cruise

Having traveled for work very regularly I like to fly in the day before to avoid any unforeseen circumstances. We flew into FLL the day before and rented a car from Alamo, the biggest benefit to this is their free shuttle to the port, knowing the cab pfrices, paying 40 bucks for the day and having a free shuttle was well worth it.

We spent our night at the Sofitel Miami by the airport. I used united air miles, but I believe the regular room rate was 120 or so. The location, is fairly convenient if you have a car, close to CVS, Burger Kind, Office Depot etc. If you are not renting a car I would say the location is not ideal if you are looking to do some walking / shopping. The hotel restaurant is fairly typical, decent but overpriced.

I had read before that the pool was closed, but thankfully when we arrived it was just the waterfall feature that was closed, and the pool had opened.

The bed was comfy, and clean, and the staff was very friendly. All in all, given the choice / opportunity we'd stay here again, and would recommend as a pre cruise spot.

We woke up the next morning, went to breakfast at a diner nearby and stopped by CVS to get the wine, sunscreen and water for the room. Took the car back to MIA and were on board the shuttle by 11 AM.

Up next, our first sites of the ship...

Emarkation

We had purchased FTTF again, even without a tender port we found the fact that we could have our room ready to drop off the carry ons with the wine and water to be well worth it. It was sold out for most of our waiting time, but thanks to the roll call on CC somebody posted that slots had opened up, and we jumped at the chance.

We got to the port about 11:30 and were checked in and on board by 12:15. The security guard shook our water checking for booze, but was very pleasant about it, moved through the line on up to get our S&S cards for the week and were greeted with a smile and by name at each stop along the way to get into the FTTF line.

When we were in the waiting area at about 11:50 there was very limited lines, for both FTTF and regular check in and things moved very smoothly for both lines.

Our friends who flew in the same day said the same thing, as well as the group of 4. No problems from start to finish and one efficient boarding process.

All in all, this was probably the most efficient process we had been a part of in 8 cruises, with our last one including FTTF as well.

I hadn't taken my camera or phone out yet, I was more bogged down with carry ons and a 4 year old to take pictures of the terminal, so again I do apologize, but promise pics will be coming with this review :)

The Room

We have really only sailed the conquest class ships, with the exception of the Carnival Miracle in the past and were incredibly excited to see this new ship and layout.

We had one small concern and that was the privacy being in a balcony on deck 8. Well that came to rest as soon as we got on board. The only you could see the lanai was if you stood by the rail, and looked down. Other than that, the view of the ocean was as in any other balcony to us. Maybe that would be different on deck 6, but I think people are pretty cognizant of privacy and let you have it. That was just my observations from walking around.

Couple views from the balcony

Calm Sea Day

Red Frog Pub Outside Seating Area

Looking Straight Down

Sitting Down and looking out

Our Home For 8 Days

I want to do this itinerary so I am looking forward to your revue. We've been on the Breeze 2 times last year.

Just off the breeze as well. Well, our sailing was April 26th.. Awesome,awesome cruise!

Just off the breeze as well. Well, our sailing was April 26th.. Awesome,awesome cruise!

we were on the same cruise... unfortunately we didn't get to do any of the roll call things, but it was certainly active

Boozebabe I want to do this itinerary so I am looking forward to your revue. We've been on the Breeze 2 times last year.

it was a great itinerary... I'll get the rest up as soon as I can. we have already booked the Breeze for next May... what a ship:D

Looking forward to hearing about what you did in the ports!

The Waterpark

Well to say we spent alot of time at the water park would be an understatemen. The seating around the area was plenty for our group. From the water slides being accesible without burning your feet, to the kids slides they really did think of everything with the design.

I did have a few concerns, and mostly revolved around disinterested staff, most notably in the kids slide area. There was one particular worker who let everything go, and kids being kids it was chaos in minutes, head first, multi sliders etc. He always left 5 minutes before he was scheduled to as well.

There was also a few times the attendant didnt pay attention and kids were purposely stopping themselves on the drainpipe to be hit by their buddies

Oh and don't get me started on the teenagers that would stay by the hoses and try and get people outside the barriers wet.... saw them ruin a nice camera, if it was mine I'd be none too happy.

All and all, this happens at all water parks so no big deal, it was a great way to spend a day, in the fresh water, and cool down when needed by a splash from the big bucket.

I enjoyed the twister much more than the drainpipe, as did many as this line was always longer, but being in the right spot you could scope out the line, and go when it had died down a bit.

Some more From park

Around the Ship

Well, as many have noted in other reviews I too enjoyed the layout. For a ship with so many people on it, there was never a problem finding seating, and most seating was not just the usual loungers, it was patio furniture with cushions, umbrellas outside, and plenty of space to walk around.

The signage on the ship was also much better than what we have seen, everything was large, and visible.

I particularly liked the removal of the stadium seating that you would find on the Valor, Liberty etc. This made things seem easier to navigate and walk around. Deck 10 was deck 10 and there was no mistaking that.

The decor was cool, and casual, and very easy on the eyes.

I really enjoyed deck 5, and being able to walk around the lanai, and walk from one side of the ship to the other really simple. As usual most of your everyday needs were on this deck, but we found it very easy to find our way to everything.

Probably my favorite area was the red frog pub, the service here was great, and friendly. It was nice to enjoy many games while having a drink with friends, I believe we tried them all, from shuffle board to checkers.

I only tried the conch at the pub, but it was fantastic and served with many hot sauces.

We did a walk around once, and that was nice to see everything from the outside.

Personally, I didn't spend much time at the casino on this cruise, but again the decor was nice and easy on the eyes.

Same with the club, Liquid, but friends went a few times and they always had fun, from the cages to the outside seating area, again it was a well thought out design and layout.

I couldn't write about the ship without writing about the Piano Bar. Ben Gentry was right up their with our favorite piano bar players, he knew lots of songs, and was very good at getting the crowd involved. I don't know why more don't realize that a happy crowd tips well, but Ben did and was always the busiest area on the ship.

Can't say we saw a comedy show either, it wasn't for lack of effort, but lack of space. I don't know what Carnival can do to alleviate this problem, but Im sure they'd rather patrons at a bar or something, rather than lining up 45 minutes before a show to see a comedian. Don't know the fix, but there has to be some middle ground.

The one day I had my runners on, the ropes course was closed due to winds, but the sports square area was very well layed out as well. Golf course was multi leveled and Josh loved it. Hot dogs up here were very good too.

Aft Pool

Sports Square

Lobby Bar

Look down... way down

Ice Carving

Towel Animal Chair Hogs

Club from lanai

Cantilevered Whirlpool

Serenity Deck

Hairy Chest

Thought I'd get into some of the ports before going more through the ship and food etc... We chose this cruise, mostly for the itinerary originally, but was pretty much totally revamped to what we cruised. We hadn't done 3 of the 4 before so the change wasn't a big deal for us.

Port 1 - Grand Turk

After a day at sea, we arrived at Grand Turk super early at 7 AM and, it was a short day leaving at 2:00 but we've been to Grand Turk a few times so we were in no rush to get off the ship, so we had a leisurely breakfast and strolled off about 9 or so. We have done the golf cart rental and an excursion or two, but really just enjoy heading down to Jacks Shack and hanging out on the beach and waiting for the jerk chicken to be ready. It's super simple to get to, and the walk along that blue water is always enjoyable.

Overall, i'd say the walk takes 10-15 minutes max, and you are back on the ship.

While Jacks is always a nice place to stop, its not exactly 'cheap' if you are having some drinks and food. But, the service is always friendly, with a smile and a story, and the food excellent. They had added a few items to the menu since our last stop 2 years back, but I don't stray from the jerk chicken, its one of the best I have had.

The area has added a few more dogs, I don't believe they are Jacks, but rather island locals, but they were well behaved and just looking for some attention.

On our already booked cruise in 2015, we go back to Grand Turk, and we will most likely end up doing the same and visiting Jack again.

One day, I'd like to set up shop and do as Jack has done... living the cocktail movie in real life.

Apparenlty we weren't allowed to climb this as once we got to the top we were waved down (where else were we supposed to go) it was a tough climb but fun all the same.

Gotta love the crystal clear water

Great review. Looking forward to reading the rest. We did this itinerary this past Christmas and loved the 8 day. I would have done it again this year but hubby didn't like being away at Christmas so we are doing the 6 day for New Years. I can't believe how calm the water was. I would so love that!!

Thanks!

Great review. Looking forward to reading the rest. We did this itinerary this past Christmas and loved the 8 day. I would have done it again this year but hubby didn't like being away at Christmas so we are doing the 6 day for New Years. I can't believe how calm the water was. I would so love that!!

 

Thanks!

We have looked at holiday cruises as well, but have the same feelings as your hubby. April and May work out well for us after the long Canadian winters

We had some rough waters as we tried to make it from La Romana to Curacao, but other than that it was smooth as glass, probably the smoothest I've been on.

Love Jack's Shack. Still the best jerk chicken ever! Interesting that more dogs are there now. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

La Romana - 9 AM - 4 PM

Next up was La Romana. To me, as the planner, this was the most troublesome port to choose what to do. I had originally booked through Sevis Tours a trip to Saona island and beach break. In the weeks leading up to the cruise, I always had this unsettled feeling about the taxi situation on the island, and the timing of the excursion. We had details on how to handle the situation and give them a code from Sevis, but not speaking spanish and trusting to get to where we needed to go on time left me unsettled. Add to that, the excursion was originally scheduled to return at 3:15, and with a 4:00 departure, again it led to uneasiness... of course vacation isn't about stress so we decided to bail on Sevis and instead spend the day at Dreams with a day pass reserved real easy through their concierge.

As we pulled in, it is a very industrial type port. Don't expect to find much shopping right off the ship, there is a small duty free and a place to grab a presidente, but that's all. You can see many baseball diamonds right at the port exit. One great thing about the DR is the highway system, we had been to Samana this past October and were impressed at that time as well with the highways.

Regarding the taxi situation, we had to wait in line with a crowd of people, for what I would say 30 minutes. Luckily one in our group decided to join us, and he is fluent in spanish, so it was much easier to get what we wanted. But he was saying, the guys at the gate were trying to upsell people on more expensive places, and as a larger group to make more money. We ended up with a taxi driver who was fantastic, we saw the countryside on the 20-25 minute drive to dreams and for the 5 of us including a tip for the driver was 5o US. We arranged for him to pick us up at 2:45 and he was there waiting.

Dreams was an amazing place to spend the day for us. With 2 kids in tow, they absolutely loved the pools. There is one pool right after the lobby that has the pizza bar (which was fantastic) but no swim up bar, then around the corner is the main pool with the swim up bar. For 60 dollars an adult, and 30 for each child we were treated to all the amenities a regular guest would have, save for access to the 'privilege' members beach. The food was excellent, and plentiful (burgers, hot dogs, pizza, buffet lunch, fruits). If I had one minor complaint was that the drink service was fairly slow, but whatever it was by no means a deal breaker and they were cerrtainly kept busy. The lobby staff and concierge was amazing as well, check in was smooth and we were given a map of the facilities, and off we went to enjoy.

We were able to find seats no problem for us around the swim up bar pool, and set up shop there for the day. Around lunch time we headed to the beach. This was a whole lot more busy than the pool areas, but that would be due to the actual sandy beach area limited in size. The water was a bit murky today, not sure about regular days so I won't say its always like that, but we didn't spend much time there.

There was a few toys in the water for kids only, an iceberg and a trampoline, so the kids enjoyed that for a few minutes then it was back to the pool. After that it was back to the pool for some more swimming. It was getting fairly busy, but we still had our spots.

Again, we left at 2:45 and had a Presidente back at the ship in the duty free shop before heading back on board. It was very neat actually, as we were departing the port security and staff sent us off with a dance, and song. I guess they do this regularly, but it was a nice enthusiastic treat IMO.

This is the night we went to Cuccina, but I will cover that later on. It deserves a post of it's own.

Others in our group either didn't get off the ship or went to Altos De Chavon which they raved about. Maybe next time there we will do that.

Coming in

Pool outside the lobby

Swim up bar pool

beach area

Water Toys

Water

La Romana Cont'd

Duty Free Area

I think he had a good day

The Send Off

Panorama test

Baseball Practice

Love Jack's Shack. Still the best jerk chicken ever! Interesting that more dogs are there now. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Thought so too... its always just been Topher. I meant to talk to Jack about it, but got caught up in not wanting to leave the ocean:D

Thanks for sharing your review. I am enjoying this itinerary through your eyes. Looking forward to more.

Curacao

Probably one of the most exciting stops on this cruise, and brand new for us was hitting 2 of the ABC Islands. Curacao from reading other reviews was one I was looking forward to the most as it was very colourful and I was looking forward to the pontoon bridge, and just seeing the water and the island itself.

For that reason we chose a bus tour on Irie Tours of the east side tour. For the cost alone it was well worth it for me. 25 dollars and that got your transportation for the day, in an open window bus, a tour guide, a stop at the curacao distillery, a scenic overlook for photos, and all the beer / water / soda you could want (self served).

If I had one thing to say, it was that we unfortunately were part of the second bus, and for that reason we had to wait while the staff tried to round up others to fill up the bus. Not a big deal, we had a few beers "Polar" and enjoyed each others company, but with 2 five year old's it took a while and a lot of patience on their part.

We learned through our roll call that the day we were in part was "Kings Day" on the island, basically a huge festival to celebrate the Kings birthday. It is a dutch holiday, so the island was pretty much orange from its people, to flags. It was very neat to see. Today was also a day that they allow almost a free for all to street vendors so the streets were packed. For the reason of the holiday, it took a long time for us to get to the Queen Juliana Bridge (The highest bridge in the Caribbean) and really on our way.

Along the way we saw some amazing houses, from both the low end to the high end of the price ranges. Unfortunately we didn't get to stop along at some of the houses but our guide was very knowledgeable on pricing, and values and showed a true passion for his island.

Next up was the Curacao distillery. During regular days this is a fully operational facility, but today being a holiday we didn't get to see it in action. We did get some samplers of I believe 4 types of curacao. Pretty neat, but again the kids weren't really that excited... they wanted the beach.

Next up was some look out where we could take some pictures. Spent 10-15 minutes here, was mostly for group photos etc... just a delay to get to the beach.

The beach stop was very nice, there was a mall with stores, plenty of bars and places to grab a bite to eat. A little lap pool for the fresh water people, and plenty of chairs. Again with the holiday it seemed a bit busier than it would be on a normal port day, but it was a great way to finish up the tour before the drive back to Rif Fort. Hi-lite was when I asked a bartender for the bathroom and he corrected me in a snooty voice "Do you mean the restroom?" "ya, sure, the restroom, where is it, my 5 year old needs to go to the bathroom":D

We got about an hour here, which was plenty for the kids to get wet and to get some pictures, then we headed back to the bus for the drive back. We were dropped off at Fort Rif, and kind of walked around the street vendors for a bit and watched the bridge go back and forth, our guide had explained the flag system to us so we were prepared.

Now, when we came to cross the bridge for a bite to eat it became a bit scary. Due to the large amount of congestion of pedestrians the bridge became quite busy... now when the buzzer goes, if you don't want to be on the bridge there is a mad rush to the gate, and we literally saw a kid almost get crushed by the gate, we had to pull it off him. So rest assured we waited our time and stayed clear come the buzzer.

So it was off to dinner on the waterfront after walking around for a little bit. I wasn't too prepared for a good spot, so we ended up at Iguana Cafe. It was pretty good, nothing to write home about, but it hit the spot. It was fun to see the pontoon bridge lit up at night, and the lights of the ship in the distance.

The walk back was through Rif Fort and we ended up back on the ship to put the kids to bed about 9 or so. All in all, this was a great day.

Our home for the day

Queen Juliana Bridge

Baseball field turned parking lot for the holiday

Drink for the day

Curaco Continued

Lookout Spot

More Curacao

The drive back wasn't through the nicest areas, but its part of the culture of the island so I appreciated it

Wedding Cake House

Bye Bridge

Street Fest

Busy Bridge

Lit up

Thanks for sharing your review. I am enjoying this itinerary through your eyes. Looking forward to more.

my pleasure, glad you are enjoying it:)

I'm really liking this review so far. Excited to see the completed version. I have seen other reviews of the breeze but this seems to show some other parts that haven't been covered in other reviews. I am actually planning my fall cruise adventure and am seriously considering the breeze in addition to the getaway and the breakaway. Obviously the prices are higher but it seems with all the amenities this thing has and the ports it visits, it is worth it. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together and share with us.