Breeze Review 1-19 through 1-27

Background: This was my 10th cruise & husband’s 7th. We are 31 & 39 respectively. We traveled with another couple in the same age range. My husband had no idea prior to the cruise that one of his best friends (and his girlfriend) would be joining us. Upon arrival at the Atrium Bar, his friend snuck up behind him & yelled surprise! Typically we cruise just the two of us, so it was nice to have others to hang out with onboard.

Bloggers Cruise 6 – We were signed up for the Bloggers Cruise with John Heald. We had no idea it was the Bloggers Cruise when I first signed up for the cruise. We did not attend any of the events for the group onboard. It was a very busy week and the timing never worked out right. I did get to meet John on the last day when we picked up our free T-shirts. He was happy to pose for a photograph (an action shot of him passing the T-shirt to me! Lol)

Stateroom: We were in Interior Stateroom 9470 on Deck 9. Typically we book an ocean view or balcony room, however this time we decided to try a cheaper option since we rarely spend much time in the room. The location was great (right under the Lido deck). We found it to be very convenient. Our stateroom steward (Dwi was his name) was wonderful! He went the extra mile to ensure the room was cleaned several times daily. We always had fresh towels. He made himself available for anything additional we wanted. Being that the Breeze was a new ship, the furniture and décor in our room was VERY nice. While the room was significantly smaller than the ocean view (no sofa or coffee table) we found the room to be totally adequate. Our friends who traveled with us were disappointed in the size of their comparable interior room. They were in stateroom number 6235 and complained of the noise in the evening. My husband was in their room one evening and confirmed the noise was intolerable. I’m not sure if this was from the music in the Atrium or what?

Embarkation:

Prior to the cruise I had received the email stating I should arrive until the 1-3 timeframe. We had flown into Ft. Lauderdale and our flight arrived just before 11am. As always, it was easy to find the Carnival representative and board the shuttle. They group those going to the Breeze & Liberty on the same shuttle. It took longer than we would have liked with the driver of the bus being the only one loading the luggage and of course we had to wait until the shuttle was full before heading to the port of Miami. Luckily, the shuttle stopped at the Breeze before the Liberty. The shuttle ride was about 30-40 minutes. Once there, we had to stay onboard the shuttle until all the luggage was taken off. Once inside it was a relatively quick embarkation process. Within minutes we were through the security line, then waiting for probably 15 minutes to receive our Sail n’ Sign card. Our room was ready immediately upon boarding the ship. Our luggage did not arrive until after the ship had debarked (probably about 5ish).

Ports of Call:

St. Thomas – This was our second time in St. Thomas. As a result, we booked the excursion through Carnival – ferry ride to St. John’s Trunk Bay Snorkel Trails. The ferry ride was approximately 40-45 minutes as stated. Apparently they were having issues with the water while we were there so the restrooms were not functioning at the time. There was a snack shop right by the snorkel site where you could get snacks & drinks. I recommend the Passion Fruit Daiquiri. All the snorkel gear was available for you to use through the excursion. They did not force you to wear a life jacket (which was nice). You snorkeled right off the beach to the area where the snorkel trails were located. I would say the snorkeling while there was just “ok” you could see a good amount of coral and a few schools of fish, however, we’ve had better snorkel excursions elsewhere. The beach of Trunks Bay itself was beautiful and made the excursion well worth it! We were at the beach for an appropriate amount of time. Afterwards, we were ferried back to St. Thomas. From there, we took a taxi to Magen’s Bay. The taxi charged us $9 per person each way. And there was a $4 entrance fee to the beach per person. We had visited Magen’s Bay on our last visit to St. Thomas and loved it. There was also a snack shop available there for food & drinks as well. Our group had both the pizza and chicken fingers. Both tasted very good, but service was not speedy. We had tipped our taxi driver a little extra to stick around and wait for us to taxi us back to the port. We didn’t want to chance the time so spent only an hour or so at Magen’s Bay. It’s also worth mentioning that when we got off the ship (around 8am) we discovered the shops at the port did not open until 9am. We were hoping to do some browsing at the shops before our excursion. Before we got back on the ship, we had some more time to browse the shops.

Antigua – This was our second time in Antigua. On our last visit we had done the Carnival Snorkel & Catamaran tour so we decided to try something different. We had signed up for Carnival’s ATV adventure. I was a little nervous about this in advance due to my lack of experience with motorized vehicles. I had a 3-wheeler when I was a youth and took it over a hillside (my last memory of it). Anyhow, we were pleased to see that there were only 10 people on our tour. There was a short mini-bus ride over to the ATV location. About half of the group had experience ATVing before. The guy in charge of the excursion must have taken note of me closely paying attention to his every word during his instructional tutorial because he put me on the ATV right behind him (at the front of the line). Next he filtered my husband behind me (who’s had lots of motorcycling, dirt-biking, and ATV experience). The rest of the group was behind us, and another tour operator was at the very end. I’m still in shock of how much fun this excursion was! Not to toot my own horn, but I did great! My husband said I exceeded his expectations! The ATV tour took us all over the island. Mostly we were on trails but we were also on the roads at some points too. He took one stop about mid-way and were given bottles of water. Afterwards we were mini-bused back to the port. We went back onboard the ship to change clothes and grab something to eat for lunch. Once off the ship again, we contracted one of the taxi drivers to take us to a close beach. He took us to Dickenson Bay. The beach was really nice. It was right next to a Sandals resort. Again, he waited for us for an hour or so until we were done and took us back to the port. Afterwards we browsed some of the shops before getting back onboard.

Tortola – This was the only port we had yet to visit – which is why we had originally selected this cruise and respective itinerary. We signed up for the Carnival excursion to the Baths at Virgin Gorda. The ferry ride was approximately 45 minutes as the tour description had stated, followed by a 5 minute ride in safari vehicle. I had seen plenty of pictures beforehand and was anxious to see this for myself. It was beautiful! Like I had read on the message boards beforehand, the beach and cave areas were very overcrowded! Way more people than you would have liked to have been there at the same time! And also not enough time to really explore. Our tour leader had pushed back the departure time by one hour (I assume because there were so many people there) and even that still wasn’t long enough. It was definitely worth seeing though! On the ferry ride back, we sat on the ferry waiting for the final safari vehicles to return to the ferry for at least 30-45 minutes! It kills me that the whole ferry had to wait for people who can’t follow the timeframes given! If you’re not back on the bus on time, they should leave without you! Once back at the port, we walked to the few kiosks that were setup each appeared to sell the same junk. Maybe there was more shops but we couldn’t see any from the port and didn’t feel up to exploring more (after waiting for 45 minutes on the top deck of the ferry in sweltering heat – followed by the 45 minute ride back to port).

Nassau – The weather was not great this day. It was overcast and really didn’t seem like a beach day. This was our 3rd time in Nassau so this was the one port we didn’t book a Carnival excursion. Once off the ship, we were approached by someone named Ray who was offering an island tour for $25 per person by limo. The tour was approximately 2-2.5 hours. There was a stop at lookout by one of the beaches – we got out of the limo briefly for a photo op. From there he took us to the Queens Staircase & Ft. Fincastle where we had free time to explore on our own. The last stop was at Atlantis & then back to the port. While we had seen all of these stops before, the other couple that was sit us hadn’t so we went along anyways. In my opinion it was well worth the $25 to explore a bit of the island. Afterwards, we browsed the shops.

CHEERS Program:

We purchased the CHEERS program immediately upon boarding the ship in the Atrium Bar. It took a while to get the bartenders attention and subsequently purchase the program. Once we did, he added the sticker to mine and my husband’s cards and then ran off without taking our drink order. This of course upset my husband. Who drops $790.28 on a drink package (for 8 nights) and doesn’t want a drink? Eventually he came back and gave us our first drink! We were anxious to try this package! Typically we would normally spend about this much on our bar tab anyways. The best part about this is that it gives you the flexibility to try new drinks and/or drink more than you might otherwise. Never during the week did you have to think about how much you were spending since the initial buy in was already charged. Did it save us any money? Probably not. Did we drink more than we normally would have without the CHEERS program? Absolutely! Before the cruise, I had posted on one of the Cheers threads that 15 drinks is not that much for someone who is a “drinker”. At the time, I fully expect my husband or his friend to be the first among our group to hit the 15 drink max. I didn’t expect to be the FIRST one of our group of 4 to hit the MAX! I did so on the second night (bear in mind I had begun drinking around noon that sea day at the pool). We were in the Red Frog Pub that evening when the bartender slid my card back to me and quietly said “You’re at your limit” lol. Then I grabbed my husband’s card for my next drink and maxed out his card on that drink. I had ordered one more on my husband’s friend’s card too. This brought my total to 17 drinks in one day – and I probably wouldn’t classify myself as a big drinker either. The only reason my husband and his friend didn’t hit their limit is because they have purchased 2 of the tubes (100+ ounces each) which we paid for separately ($29.12 each). So, will they allow you to purchase more alcohol after you hit the 15 alcoholic drink limits? Yes. Will you be able to use your roommate’s card to purchase drinks after you hit yours? Yes. For the most part, the program was full of Pros for us. Now, the cons we experienced: Each time someone in our party went to the bar to get drinks for us (all 4 of us purchased the CHEERS program) they had to take each of their cards with them. Luckily, each person did not have to physically be at the bar to get their drink. The bartenders told us that as long as there was ink on the X line it didn’t matter if one of us signed everyone’s receipt. The bad part of this is it takes forever for the bartender to ring up each drink separately, not to mention for you to sign and them to sort each receipt. Because of this, we noticed it would take substantially longer to get a drink on the ship. Also, once the bartenders saw that you had the sticker on your card, the service wasn’t exactly speedy. Since the package is charged the 15% gratuity (and not each individual drink) they don’t seem to have much motivation for good service. I will say that the few bar tenders we encountered that consistently gave us great service (there was only a few that come to mind) we had no problem giving them tips in cash each & every time. Also, the bartenders are able to check how many drinks you’ve had at any point. Once or twice I had inquired where I was in terms of my drink count and the bartender was happy to tell me. As far as I know, the sodas did not count toward your 15 drink max. My recommendation to Carnival: It would be nice if you could purchase multiple drinks on one card at a time. Doing so would be more convenient for the cruiser as well as the wait staff. After reviewing my sail n sail statement with both of our cards, below are the breakdown of total drinks per day for myself & husband combined.

Day 1 – 15 total

Day 2 – 30 total

Day 3 – 4 total

Day 4 – 9 total

Day 5 – 25 total

Day 6 – 6 total

Day 7 – 19 total

Day 8 – 1 total

Total drinks on 8 nights = 109 drinks for 2 people

Using the drink price range of $5 for beer & $8 for mixed/frozen drinks (plus 15% gratuity), this would have cost us between $627 (all beer) - $1003 (all mixed/frozen drinks). Knowing that we drank a mix of beer & mixed/frozen drinks between us, I’d guess we fell somewhere right in the middle which is what we paid for the total program ($790.28). Knowing this, the stats support our stance that we got our monies worth on the package, even though we don’t feel it especially “saved” us money. It’s evident that after nights of drinking the larger quantities, we were less inclined to indulge. Even being moderate drinkers, I give props to anyone who can consistently max out the drink card daily.

Guy’s Burger Joint: I can’t say enough about how good the burgers were! We had a burger shortly after arriving on the ship on embarkation day & went back SEVERAL times throughout the cruise! Luckily we never found there to be a line either!

Punch liner Comedy Brunch: We tried this on one of our sea days and loved the food! The coffee and orange juice was far superior to that offered on the Lido. You were given a basket upon arriving of fresh muffins, breads, croissants, etc. My husband and I both tried the Like posters on other boards have said, we could have done without the 5 minute comedy. The servers wouldn’t wait on you at this time either. Anyhow, we both had the huevos rancheros (with sides) & loved it! I just wish I would have saved room for churros! J

Red Frog Pub:

One of our favorite places on the ship! The appetizers were well worth the few dollars each! We had the conch fritters, pulled pork sliders & coconut shrimp! All were fantastic!

Blue Iguana: I loved the chicken & shrimp burritos! I just wish they would have been open longer! The salsa bar was also a nice addition. Some days they were only open until 2:30.

Bonsai Sushi: Let me start by saying I’m not a huge Sushi fan (but my husband is). We tried a bunch of different things from the menu & ate there twice. Everything was great! We had California roll, Spicy Tuna roll, Bonsai Triple E roll, & side salads. My favorite was the Wagyu Kakuni (slow braised short ribs, caramelized onion & teriyaki). Everything was well worth the nominal fees.

Cucina del Capitano: We had tried to make reservations one day for the next evening and all that was available was 9:30 at night. Luckily they had one opening for the last day at sea (which we took). My advice is to make reservations early in the week if you’d like to eat here. I tried both the Eggplant Parm & Calamari! For the entrée I had the Chicken Parm. I can’t remember what the other members of our group had. All the food we had was great! The portions are HUGE! No one even came close to finishing their meals. Luckily I saved room for the Tiramisu which was way better than what is normally served in main dining. Also worth noting is that we were able to use our CHEERs program here (we weren’t sure at the time) since they do not take your card or give you your bill until the very end when you’re ready to leave.

Pirate Pizza: We always enjoy the pizza onboard and this trip was no exception. On the Breeze, the pizza is made to order. The good side is that your pizza is always fresh. The bad side is that you normally have to wait for it (although only about 5 minutes or so)

Dive In Movies:

We enjoyed several Dive-In Movies on the Lido deck in the evenings! One new addition is that you can sign-out a fleece throw blanket at the towel hut! It was great for those chilly evenings without having to go back to your stateroom for a long-sleeve or jacket. They also popped fresh popcorn at the Red Frog Rum Bar on Lido.

One of the few disappointments of the cruise was the one night there was a deck party and the Fun Times noted the “Mexican Fiesta”. One of our favorite events onboard our cruise prior to this (on the Freedom in April of 2012) was the Mexican buffet the night of the deck party. We were pumped up for this and told our friends about it. That night, we were VERY disappointed when we discovered NO Mexican buffet on the Lido deck as we had encountered in the past. Instead, they had chips & the salsa bar open! That was it! Clearly there were others who were expecting more of the Mexican Fiesta because the Pizza line was overflowing at that time! Come to think of it…I never saw the Chocolate Buffet on the Lido like we had on our last Freedom cruise (perhaps I just missed it?)

Also worth noting – when the DJ played on the Lido deck, we found the volume to be WAY too loud! It was so loud you could barely hear the person next to you when they tried to talk to you. The live music on the Lido deck was greatly missed!

In terms of the issue of crowding discussed on the message boards, the only time I noticed it was on sea days when it was difficult to secure a lounger. I found the chair hogs to be worse on this cruise than any I have EVER been on. The only place I noticed the stickers was when we strolled through the Serenity Deck. I don’t remember seeing a sticker with chair times anywhere else. Normally I normally try to find a lounger away from the noise on the uppermost deck and don’t have a problem finding available chairs. This time, it was hard to find free chairs anywhere! Otherwise, I never found the volume of people to be an issue. Actually come to think of it, I never any lines of substance at any of the food establishments (more than a few people deep).

Anytime Dining: Since Carnival has offered this option, we’ve always gotten the anytime dining. We used it several times on this cruise. The other couple we were cruising with was assigned the 8:15 late seating. We had inquired at the entrance of the Sapphire Dining to see if there was any way they could join us for dinner. Carnival was happy to help. They were seated with us twice each time that we had asked. We did eat on the Lido deck several times as well. I thought the food was great in both places. Sometimes the Lido could have more variety of options, but we always found something when pressed.

We did not attend any shows or comedy shows while onboard. Typically we do both while onboard, but we just found ourselves so busy. Never got to try the Thrill Theater or see the Hasbro Game Show. We didn’t eat at Sea Dogs or Fat Jimmy’s.

Debarkation: Our ship docked in the port of Miami but we had a return flight home booked out of Ft. Lauderdale airport (because we were able to get a direct, cheap flight). The flight departed at 10:55am so we knew we would need to debark as soon as possible. The information provided to us stated the earliest debark of self-assist would begin at 7:00am once the ship was cleared by customs. As a result, we ensured that we were ready to leave our cabin by 6:30am. Shortly after, we left our room and started to make our way to Deck 3 Atrium knowing we would need to use the elevators. We use those on the mid of the ship and were able to cut through the Sapphire Dining room. Once there we noticed all the VIPs were herded into the theater. The Carnival crew in the Atrium stated that customs would not allow any guests in this area in order to be cleared. My husband was smart enough to know we didn’t want to be corralled into there so we headed back to the corridor between the Sapphire and the atrium. There was a hand sanitizer pump there that we milled at until the ship was cleared (my husband probably sanitized his hands 10 times!). Our plan worked out great; as soon as they opened the line we were literally the first self-assist guests to exit the ship. First in our customs line, and before we knew it we were off the ship at approximately 7:15am. As soon as we exited the terminal we were approached by someone coordinating independent shuttles to the airports. Once we had a group together to go to Ft. Lauderdale (10 per van) we headed out – it only cost us $20 per person for the shuttle. Approximately 30-40 minutes later we arrived at the airport. There were reasonable lines to check into our flight/check bags and then the security lines. We were settled in seats near our gates & I was buying us coffee & donuts at Dunkin well before 8:30am. We had plenty of time to spare. A little prudent planning and you’re able to take the earlier flights (even though people all over the message boards advise against it time & time again).

In conclusion: In terms of Carnival ships, the Breeze exceeded our expectations. My husband and I both agreed this was hands down the best Carnival ship we’ve been on! We loved the décor and 2.0 enhancements! My hope is that Carnival revamps their existing ships to have the same look, feel & 2.0 enhancements so that the other ships follow suit to the Breeze. I can’t say enough good things about all the additional food options on this ship! Any of the complaints listed above were considered minor – only areas where Carnival could improve. Another great Carnival cruise! For anyone who’s currently booked on the Breeze, don’t let any negative reviews or complaints get you down! Any questions, feel free to ask!

Thanks for sharing....we're on the Breeze 04/27 and I'm trying to read all I can about it. :o I'm glad you had fun!

Thanks! Great review and I am counting my days til we sail!

Thanks for the review! I'm so glad for your detailed Cheers information. We are going to try it and it's nice to see that we don't need to necessarily indulge every day in order for it to work. We aren't out to get the most out of it, just get the convenience and hopefully break about even.

Absolutely LOVED your review!!!!!!!! Hoping to be on her in April or June. The DH is such a pain in my arse.:D:D

I just emailed my husband a Word doc of my review. He thanked me for allowing him to relive his cruise. Also, added his two cents below (not sure how I could have forgotten to post these important tid-bits about the gym & NFL championship games??? Must have slipped my mind! lol)

Few points…

The gym/sauna/spa were bomb. The equipment was in great working order and had the proper mix of cardio vs weights. Ships usually undercut the amount of cardio machines required.

Watching the nfl championship games on the big screen was totally cool & it was neat that carnival made their own little deck party out of it.

Thanks for the report!

TY for the wonderful review! I am so excited about our upcoming cruise! I am loving

reading all the reviews!

I have a question about Cucina del Capitano. We are hoping to

eat there on the 1st night. That always seemed like the night

I didn't care for the menu. It may of changed but I don't know.

when you finish your meal, they bring you your bill...do you pay

with your card then? Never ate here but dying to try it out. Just

hope they have reservations for the 1st night!

Thank you for the review.

Thanks so much for your review. I found it very helpful! Sounds like we are gonna have fun in May! :D

Purplehaze21 - Yes, at the end of the meal in Cucina you pay with your Sail n' Sign Card ($12 per person). We had a reservation for our party of 4 under my name & at the end of the meal, the wait staff was happy to charge 2 (each couple) separately. I didn't see anywhere online to request the reservations onboard in advance.

On the back of the Fun Times it gives the phone number of Cucina to request reservations - I would do this when you first board the ship to reserve a spot for the first day (if this is when you'd like it). Or, I believe they're open for lunch that day, I'm sure you can request reservations in person. It's located at the aft of the ship - deck above the Lido.

Thanks for sharing....we're on the Breeze 04/27 and I'm trying to read all I can about it. :o I'm glad you had fun!

CrimsonQueen - My wife and I are on Breeze 4-27 as well.

Thanks for the great review! We sail on 4-27 and your write up was very helpful!

Very nice review! We're on the Breeze May 25 and always love to hear about everyone's experiences. :)

thanks for the review. Can't wait to be on the ship. So glad I am doing a B2B to get even more fun out of the ship.

Thanks for the review.

Yea!! So glad to be reading more positive reviews lately! We are on the Breeze in one month and can't hardly wait! :p

Great review! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for a great review sounds like they are getting a lot of things worked out on this ship. Early reviews on new ships are usually a little on the not so good side. Will be cruising on the breeze feb. 2/13 and am really looking forward to it now, thanks again for the great review.

I'm wondering if our room will be noisy. We are in 6284. It looks like your friend were above the theater where we are above the atrium. Not sure how loud the atrium can get.

CrimsonQueen - My wife and I are on Breeze 4-27 as well.

I know! I remarked on one of your posts on the Roll Call. I have friends coming from upstate New York....we hope to meet you!:)

Great review, thanks for taking the time to post, we will be on board in just over two weeks.

Our family is looking forward to the movies at night, can you tell us what they were showing?

Thank you for this review. I'll be on the Breeze in October this year.

I can't wait to experience her. I'll have a different itinerary though. I'll be visiting Curacao, Aruba, La Romana, and Grand Turk.

I'm glad you had a wonderful time.

Thanks for the review. After years of RCCL cruising, we are going to give Carnival another try. Reviews like yours are very helpful!!

Looks like I've narrowed down my ship choices to the Breeze or the Dream.

thanks for the great review - will be on the Breeze this SATURDAY!!!!!!:D:D:D:D

...OP, You took the words right out of my mouth. We were on the Breeze the week before you, and I can second every word you said! My wife and I have both sailed over 20 times with Carnival, and can honestly say that this particular cruise definitely rated in our top two cruises!

...We thought Guy's Burgers and fries were excellent as was the pasta upstairs in the Cucina de Capitano and even the pizza. Service in the staterooms and the Blush Dining Room was top notch. After reading past reviews, I expected to wait in some lines for food. I can honesty say, that except for omelets in the morning, there were no lines anywhere!

...The only thing I noticed that you may have forgot to mention is Ron Pass in the Piano Bar. In a word, outstanding! Spent many nights laughing, singing and drinking with him. Place was packed every night. I think Ron is there until the end of March. If there are any future Breeze cruisers reading this, this guy is not to be missed!

...OP, again, thanks for taking the time to write your review. Oh man, I wish I was on board again....