WeatherGeek

Thanks everyone! I'm glad y'all enjoyed!

Great review - thanks! As I wrote earlier I was suppose to be on this cruise - and I've been hoping for someone to make a review, so I'm really grateful that you did take the time to write and post it. And great photos!

 

Sorry for your lost, I hope you made the trip to Georgia without further delays.

 

/Helle

Thank you and I do hope your son is recovering well. So sorry you could not make it.

I wrote a review of the Seuss at Sea brunch: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2438919. Jump to post 45 for the start of it.

Camp will have a couple of family events usually like towel animal theater, build a bear, or a scavenger hunt. We put my daughter in camp for 1 or 2 hours at a time and then hung out with her the remaining times so she got a good balance of family time and camp time.

After Flick, we signed our daughter out of Camp Ocean for the last time. We also stopped for one last ice cream cone before debarkation....or would it be the last? Hmm.

I can't remember exactly what we did after this, but I did end up taking my daughter briefly to the Dive In Movie for one of our family favorites.

We only stuck around to watch the really funny parts, then we had to head back to the room to finish packing and get to bed because we had a 5:30am alarm set to ensure we had time to eat breakfast, get ready, finish packing all the stuff we'd use in the morning and get to the Ovation lounge by 7am.

Earlier during Christmas afternoon, I'd contacted my mother on Facebook to ask her to get me the weather forecast for Galveston. I'd been worried about the possibility of fog knowing it's that time of year for Galveston. If there was a possibility we'd be fogged out to sea, I wanted to a. mentally prepare myself for it and b. make sure my daughter knew it was a possibility because she doesn't do well with last minute changes. My mom relayed the forecast and I had a feeling that fog was a good possibility - Galveston and fog seem to go hand in hand right around the 65-75 degree temp range, which was exactly what the forecast called for. I reminded my family we could be delayed before we headed to bed.

It was around 4-4:30am when I felt the ship vibrating as it normally would when we're slowing to a stop. I wasn't sure if that was because we were approaching the channel to enter to dock or if we were stopping at sea. I didn't turn on the TV to see our location because I knew it would awaken my daughter and then no one would get back to sleep! My husband had awakened before the alarm and went outside and came back to report right after the alarm went off "wheeeeew! it's foggy out there!" and handed me a letter from the Captain stating we are delayed out at sea due to fog and enjoy a leisurely breakfast as there is no need to report anywhere at this time with the Port of Galveston closed.

Yep, we weren't going anywhere!

I happily went back to sleep. My husband and daughter eventually went up to the Lido for breakfast. I slept off and on all the way until 10am! The Captain came on once per hour to give us updates - unfortunately all of the updates were that the port remained closed, but they were optimistic it would open for us soon. Leigh kept us updated constantly about where entertainment was offered and what it was - movies in various lounges and on the Dive In Theater screen, trivia on the Promenade Deck. They really were doing the best they could.

After I awakened, I realized I needed to get in touch ASAP with the person boarding my dog for 2 reasons, one: to let her know if we were going back to San Antonio on this day, we wouldn't arrive until dark at the earliest and two: that we actually needed to drive to Georgia on that day if at all possible due to a death in the family and if she could watch our dog for another week while we were gone. I don't know if they opened the phone lines up for all guests with the delay, but we were never charged for this phone call.

The captain's final update came sometime during the 11 oclock hour to report that the Port was now open and we expected to be docked by 1pm.

We headed up to the Lido for lunch right around 11, but nothing was serving lunch yet. I overheard someone ask one of the crew tending to setting up the front buffet line when he expected the line to open and he said "any minute now - almost done" so we stuck around there to grab lunch as soon as they opened. We were proceeding up the channel outside of Galveston at this time and it was cool to pass by all the tankers in such close proximity to be able to see something, anything through the fog!

It wasn't until lunch, venturing up to the Lido Deck, that I realized the mood of my fellow passengers was dark. Very, very dark. All week, people had been friendly to each other; after all, we were all in the Christmas spirit, right? Not today! I saw a family wearing St. Louis Cardinals t-shirts, which is my favorite baseball team, and living in Texas, I rarely see people wearing my team and I always make it a point to say something. I gave my usual "Go Cardinals!" and they gave me an icy glare! OK, OK, I get it, they probably missed a flight back to St. Louis. That'll make anyone tense and stressed. But the more I walked around the ship, the more I realized people were fuming mad. It made me really grateful that we haven't had to fly to a port since we went on the Legend in 2007, because I do get stressed out easily and I wouldn't want to have to worry about last minute rescheduling of flights on top of trying to explain the last minute changes to my daughter.

Now it was time for the last ice cream of the trip!

After lunch, we grabbed our luggage and headed to the Ovation theater to debark. At exactly 1:10pm, they called us to debark, we were one of the lucky first ones out of the lounge. As we were standing at the door to the gangway waiting to scan our card, Leigh was apologizing over and over to everyone about the delay. I thanked him for an amazing Christmas cruise and he thanked me for not killing him over the delay. That made me feel so sad thinking about how he's away from his own family for Christmas and I'm sure some people are holding him personally responsible for mother nature and the port closing. The whole staff was great during the delay and really what more could they have done?

We got off the ship, zipped through customs and we were out the door of the terminal by 1:30pm. We went looking for our shuttle back to the Hilton but never found it - so we just grabbed a cab back. We were at our car by 1:45pm and back on the road thereafter. Thankfully our dog boarder could take our dog for one more week so instead of 4 hours back to San Antonio, it would now be 11 hours to Georgia, which wasn't doable in the time frame we had from debarking so late, so we scrambled at the last minute to get a place to stay overnight along the way. Thank goodness we had all of this amazing Honduran chocolate to snack on for the car ride!

We were so sad to leave the Breeze behind, but we made some great memories along the way. As I did back in 2011 when we did a Disney land & sea vacation, I am making a photo book filled with memories of the trip - my daughter still loves looking through that book to this day, and I can't wait to sit down together and make the new memory book with her.

If anyone has any questions or is looking for specific pictures of anything, please still feel free to let me know! Thank you for following along as I enjoyed reliving this adventure.

They brought out the cloth tablecloths like back in the old days for Christmas Dinner. This meal would be one of my favorites of the trip and I indulged probably more than I should have. They did a special fancy menu for it, but any photo I tried to take of it ended up blurry and I didn't realize this until I got home, so unfortunately I don't have one to post.

There were no appetizers that remotely interested me on this night, but I spied 2 entrees I wanted so I asked if I could have the zucchini fritters served during the appetizer course. They promptly brought me out a plate of fettuccine for my appetizer - they had the right idea, because this was actually another one of the entrees, but it was just the wrong one. I let them know right away of the mistake and waited for my zucchini fritters. My husband decided he'd try it since he likes fettuccine and ended up eating most of the plate, then put it back down in front of me and it looked as if I'd eaten it! This was funny because I'd go on to eat the other 2 entrees, so it looked like I ate 3 entrees and 2 desserts by the time all was said and done. Haha.

My fritters came out during the entree course. Definitely one of my favorite carnival entrees.

Followed immediately by the steak I'd ordered. I believe this was a NY strip, and way better than the leathery flat iron steak I'd gotten on night 1.

My husband ordered the traditional holiday meal with turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and who knows what else - he was glad he'd eaten the fettuccine after all because he kind of picked his way through this and would have probably still been hungry.

This dessert I ordered along with my chocolate melting cake was very good. It was a sort of raspberry mousse with raspberry sorbet.

Stuffed to the gills, I waddled out of there and back over to the photo op we'd wanted to get before we got in line early for dinner. We waited 45 minutes for the photographer to come back - the backdrop was so nice - but we ultimately did not like how we looked or how we were posed once we saw it on the photo so we skipped it.

We took our daughter up to Camp Ocean for one last visit, then headed back to the room to start the daunting task of packing. We always elect to do self assist debarkation when possible so we tried to pack everything as efficiently as possible so that everyone had 1 suitcase and 1 carry on.

Pretty soon we headed up to see Flick, one of the production shows. Flick is by far the best production show i've seen in 11 Carnival cruises. Though it was just a wee bit too long by maybe 5 to 10 minutes but of course, that's a personal preference. I will say that I can have a warped sense of humor and I found it hysterical that they included the theme song to Titanic. I think this is supposed to be Jack & Rose and see the icebergs in the background? Thank goodness there are no icebergs in the Caribbean!

I'm glad y'all are enjoying the review! Sadly, it'll be coming to an end soon since we've got less than 24 hours to go on the ship at the point where I last left off.

We headed to the Ovation theater around 2:30pm for the 3:00pm holiday show. The kids had been practicing all week in Camp Ocean to sing a song during it and we wanted a halfway decent seat for it, but more importantly, we needed to be able to get to the stage quickly if my daughter went into a meltdown while participating. She'd been having an OK day at that point so we let her do it, but we always need to be nearby just in case.

The holiday show opened with cruise director Leigh talking about the importance of a particular Carnival Breeze holiday ornament. Of course he was setting the stage for the Grinch to sneak out and steal the ornament straight out of his hand!

So of course, we had to show the Grinch what the holidays were really about so he would return the ornament. The production show singers and dancers came out and did a couple of numbers, Leigh read a story by the fireplace, the kids all got up on the stage and sang their various songs.

The Grinch realized that maybe Christmas did mean a little more after all and his heart grew 3 sizes and he returned the ornament to Leigh.

After that, we got ready for dinner early so we could get our elegant night photos done. My daughter was ecstatic it was her turn to come to elegant night because she'd brought a formal dress for her stuffed bunny as well - if you're familiar with the movie Frozen, you'll recognize the bunny's dress.

Around 5, we headed to the Promenade Deck to get our family portrait done.

We then wandered down to the atrium where we were going to see about getting another photo done, but the line for dinner was already wrapping around toward the elevators and it was only 5:15 at this point! We went ahead and got in the line and opted to do one more photo after dinner.

Just off the Breeze 3 weeks ago and it was the stationary. I swear nothing will ever top the Carnival baseball hat I got in 2013. I still wear that thing to this day. It's made of dri-fit material so it's perfect for going to the beach or the pool for keeping the sun off my face and dries out fast once you leave the water.

My daughter is getting a ton of use out of the stationary. She's really into writing letters and the box is cute for her to keep her small cruise keepsakes and memories in. I'm just glad someone is getting use out of it.

I can't say enough good things about this breakfast. Hands down the best, most fun Christmas breakfast I've ever had! They brought a few characters out - Thing 1 and Thing 2, The Cat in the Hat, Sam I Am and of course he had a prop-platter of green eggs and ham, and also the Grinch - they told us the Grinch only comes out for the sailings in December, so what a treat!

We got that cute picture frame to go with that picture - it was just $4 in the Pixels Gallery! What a steal.

They entertained us with a song of course.

We were so reluctant to leave, but it was eventually time. We went to go play a game of morning trivia, then we headed back to the room to change. There'd be a digital scavenger hunt at 10:45 and we didn't want to miss it. We didn't come anywhere near the winning spots for that, but it was a lot of fun trying to get people to cooperate for your photo - I guess the stress of Christmas with family was getting to some people, because I asked a huge group of people - probably 8-10 of them - all waiting in line for something if any of the guys would be willing to hold up my swimsuit top and let me take a photo of him with it and they all looked soooooo mad, like how dare I have the nerve! I wasn't asking them to wear it! Some nice lady voluntold her husband to do it and before he even knew what was happening, he had my tankini top and was demoing it for a picture. We had a lot of fun doing this scavenger hunt and it really makes you get out and see different parts of the ship.

After that, we dropped my daughter off at the kids club. With the huge breakfast she'd had, she wasn't hungry for lunch, so we let her stay through lunch. Not long after we dropped her off, we went to grab our own lunch and then I saw it:

Chocolate for as far as the eye could see on the buffet. I'm pretty sure on this day that my lunch was chocolate and my dessert was the 2 tacos I got from the Blue Iguana Cantina before I realized it was the Chocolate Extravaganza on the forward buffet lines.

I did show considerable restraint after the much larger than normal breakfast I'd had, but at some point I realized I was just eating because it tasted good, I wasn't hungry at all....and I was totally fine with that and kept eating haha!

I think there was one more trivia game we played after this before all kids had to be signed out of the kids club to get ready for the holiday show in the Ovation theater.

Breakfast is not a meal I generally eat much of. I'm usually good with a protein bar or a piece of fruit, so this breakfast was food overload for me. I do like breakfast foods, I just prefer to eat them for dinner....you know, brinner!

I ordered the french toast.

My daughter ordered the pancakes. We'd decided we'd each eat half of our meal and switch so we could both have pancakes and french toast.

We ordered a plate of green eggs and ham for the table to share, and by share I mean for my husband and daughter to try a few bites because I don't eat eggs and I don't eat ham! I definitely do not like them Sam I Am. I've tried them before and I said no more for I do not like eggs and I do not like ham so I do certainly do not like green eggs and ham, no sir I do not like them Sam I Am.

OK OK I'll stop.

My husband ordered a less festive breakfast, but it was certainly filling.

What's a meal on a cruise ship without dessert?

Day 8, our final full day of the cruise, was Christmas day spent at sea. Probably due to the late movie and late bedtime, my daughter only woke up with the help of our alarm - we weren't about to miss the Dr. Seuss breakfast on this morning! She awakened to find that Santa found our room and even wrapped her gifts in wrapping paper from her favorite movie of the moment, Trolls. Santa had also raided the candy shop on board and brought her a "stocking" (that's what the bag is - something she decorated in the kids club) full of candy.

My daughter never asks Santa for much - this year it was emoji jeans and legos. She was over the moon that Santa brought those jeans. Santa also brought the legos, but she was most looking forward to the jeans.

I'm pretty sure this may be her last year for Santa. The jig was up when she said "Awww thank you mommy! I love my emoji jeans!" I told her Santa brought them. She said "No mommy, you're Santa."

Well. This took a turn for the awkward.

Having been awake for all of 5 minutes, I was not coherent enough to muddle my way through that one, as unexpectedly as it'd come. It's probably my own fault, because I know she's going to be my innocent little girl forever and ever, right?!

Before we knew it, it was time to head to the Green Eggs and Ham brunch. At $5 per person this is a great value! I highly recommend it but make sure you get that reservation in on embarkation day and stay on top of it to make sure you're on the confirmed list!

The fun started outside of the dining room where some photo ops were set up, but when you walk in, it's just so well decorated. Very fun and festive!

We had the good fortune to have the Bitter & Blanc on the Breeze 3 weeks ago but that's because we did an 8-day cruise and they still serve it on those, but not the 7-days. It doesn't hurt to at least ask and see what they can do, but they may say no.

If you like the production shows and only see one, choose Flick. It was the best Carnival production show I've ever seen and we try to see them all on every ship - for me that means probably about 25 shows - I definitely rank it at #1.

If the Polaris string trio is still on board playing in the atrium, they are amazing. They play string versions of modern day songs from the 70s to now.

Neither of the main pools on the Lido Deck are covered - we felt every bit of the 30 degree wind chill as we were setting sail a few weeks ago! If it's too chilly, they move any scheduled deck parties inside.

This was my first time cruising with the American Table menu and I did find the food quality to be lesser than all of my previous cruises. It was still perfectly adequate, but it didn't blow me away like it has in the past. I mostly noticed the dessert selection was lacking. I am a 2-dessert kind of girl - I always get the melting cake plus something else to try - and many nights, I just stuck with melting cake as I didn't care for the other selections.

Have a wonderful time!

If anyone in your group is considering getting a clamshell, don't do it if the shade is important - we got a clamshell and would have been better off getting the free loungers behind the clamshells which were covered by shade trees.

As much as I loved our day in Roatan 9 years ago seeing the real island and would have loved a repeat, this time around when we went last month it was our 3rd port day in a row with an 8yo and we were all tired from the 2 previous port days. Mahongany Bay provided a really nice day of rest with it's beach that is easy to walk to and though it's nothing mind blowing, it really is adequate if you don't want to stray far from port.

After dinner, we headed straight to the atrium for Christmas caroling and Santa's arrival. I knew this was going to get packed fast, so we got there as early as possible after the last bite of food had been eaten to get a prime spot - and that we did! I don't like being in the middle of the giant crowd, but rather overlooking everyone and everything, so I was thrilled that this spot on the landing of the staircase between Deck 4 and Deck 5 was still open so we claimed it as our own and it was the perfect vantage point for everything!

The cruise director even spotted our hats at one point and said something about them and suddenly we realized everyone was looking at us! They also were passing out Santa hats that said Carnival on them as well as little jingle bell bracelets and caroling books.

There were tons of families in their matching Christmas pajamas sitting around the tree!

There was an ugly sweater contest!

There were what felt like 1000 of my closest cruising friends jam packed into that small area singing Christmas carols!

Then it was the moment all of the children on the ship had been waiting for - "SANTA! OH MY GOD!" That's a reference to the movie Elf for those who aren't aware ;)

This was honestly the most fun evening of the cruise. We had a great time at this event.

I'd spied one more great photo op for our Christmas jammies, so I made everyone go back to the room to change into them again and go back to the photo backdrop. There was a long line so I thought I'd go over to the guest services desk while we waited to take a moment to check on our reservation for the Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast. I'd gone to guest services on embarkation day and they'd sent off an e-mail requesting the reservation and then said we'd get an invitation to it, but we never did. It turned out we were never placed on the list. How disappointing. But not to worry! They saw that the request had been sent immediately on embarkation day and that it was not our fault for the oversight, so they went ahead and allowed our names to be added to the confirmed reservation list rather than the wait list which was a mile long at that point. Thank you guest services! My daughter would be so excited to wake up on Christmas morning and be able to go to this awesomely themed breakfast.

We went back over and did the photo op, then headed up to the Lido Deck to settle in to watch The Secret Life of Pets at the Dive In Movie. Finding 3 seats together for this proved to be rather difficult even though we got there as soon as the prior movie ended to try to grab seats from those leaving. I was starting to get annoyed and was ready to just scrap the entire thing, when the stars aligned and a woman flagged me down and offered her and her husband's seats to us as they were done - she said she'd seen me struggling, so thank you kind lady! It wasn't 3 seats, but it was 2 and we'd take it. Not long after that, a 3rd seat opened right next to us so we all had our own seat and settled in to watch the movie, which for some reason started 25 minutes late. It's one of my daughter's favorites, so we stuck out the wait.

After the movie it was almost 11:30 and we had to get to bed - after all, we had to get to sleep so Santa could find our room and bring my daughter her gifts!

On day 7, we awakened to Christmas Eve! Also, our first sea day after 4 port days and I wanted to have as relaxing of a day as possible. For me that doesn't mean spas, massages, lounging on the serenity deck getting a tan. Nope, for me that means playing our pokemon cards, playing trivia, working out, listening to Polaris, and of course eating!

We did wake up early to head up to the Lido for breakfast. We donned our Christmas jammies on this day for as long as we could stand before the heat and humidity forced us out of them - they are long sleeved with fleece bottoms after all. I was thrilled to see countless other families wearing their matching Christmas jammies as well! So festive!

After breakfast, we headed down to the Promenade deck to secure a table for trivia. By this point in the trip, we'd learned that if we didn't stake out a table early, we'd never get one. So we got there about 45 minutes before trivia started so we'd have time to nibble on a plate of 2nd breakfast (the Taste Bar area there always had a few items out at that time of day) and play a round of Pokemon cards. My husband was not very happy that my daughter's Articuno was beating up on his Moltres this morning.

I also want to say that if you ever do a Christmas cruise, buy some unique Santa hats at home and take them with you. We got compliments all week on our Disney themed hats, although only one person all week picked up on the fact that my daughter's hat was Stitch ears, not Eeyore or bunny ears.

We played a round of trivia and had to head back to the room to change. We knew we'd lose our coveted trivia table, but not a big deal - there was always the floor to sit on if we needed haha. My husband eventually headed back for Game of Thrones trivia, which he was very excited about because he happened to bring his shirt that says "I Drink and I Know Things" which is so perfect for him because if there's 2 things he loves, it's GOT and trivia. GOT trivia was right up his alley. While he was at this, I dropped my daughter off at the Ovation Theater where Camp Ocean was meeting for Towel Animal Theater. She said she liked it a lot.

My husband and I then did some wandering and some gambling, eventually ending up on the Lido for lunch, which we did sign my daughter out of camp for so she could join us. I enjoyed my last Guy's burger of the trip and then something happened that we got a huge laugh out of.

My husband and daughter elected to eat off of the buffet - my husband actually just got one plate and piled it with enough food for the 2 of them, but I was about halfway through my burger when my daughter decided she wanted her own dedicated plate of food - 8 year olds can be so particular about things sometimes! So she and I got up and I took her through the buffet line so she could get her own dedicated plate with the exact same food that was on her dad's plate, haha.

We headed back to the table and I saw my husband was gone to who knows where. Thankful that the table with my delicious half eaten burger had not yet been cleared now that no one was sitting at it, I sat back down to chow down. I had just pulled my chair out when a crew member, Luis, came running over slightly panicked and informed me I could NOT sit there, that the family who was sitting there was not done with their food.

A little confused, knowing it was my table and my burger, I quizzically looked at him and just said "huh?" He explained that I could not eat that burger because it was someone else's and "the man said he would be right back and to not let anyone take their food."

At that point it became clear that my husband had let Luis know that we weren't done eating and to please not clear the table while he went wherever (to get dessert it turned out). Luis was guarding our table with his life at this point - he was determined to not let me sit down and continue eating some random person's half eaten burger! The table right next to us immediately caught on to what was happening and all at once, we all erupted with laughter knowing Luis thought a random person was trying to eat someone's half eaten food. I explained to Luis that this was my table - I even showed him my daughter's beloved Lido bear and the picture that was still on the table that she'd colored while in Camp Ocean - and made sure he knew that was my burger and I'd never sit down to eat any random person's half eaten burger. Luis sheepishly grinned and finally we got a giggle out of him and he said "ok, yes, you may proceed!" He came back by a while later when we were done to clear our plates and we all had another laugh about it. He gave us a cheerful "Merry Christmas" and went on his way.

After lunch, I dropped my daughter back off to Camp Ocean and got dressed in my workout clothes. I did a lot of walking around the ship and outside on the Promenade deck that circles the ship. It was such a gorgeous day to be out there!

Unfortunately, it was too crowded to keep a good pace, so I headed up to the gym and did a little weight lifting, then finished walking on the treadmill. Really, not a bad view from the cardio machines up there - yes you're inside, but you're overlooking the beautiful clear blue sky and wide open sea.

I'd headed back to the room to relax for a while and catch a catnap and my husband had said he was going to play more trivia and then get our daughter from the kids club - this was the only day she spent long chunks of time in there and while she has a blast, I also know she needs breaks from the chaos. One day while I was waiting to check her out of there, I counted up all of the name tags for the Stingrays (the 6-8 age range) and I know I miscounted by a couple, but I ended up with 126 name tags - SO MANY KIDS registered for the club! On the sea days, Camp Ocean was pure chaos.

Unfortunately, our parental instincts were a bit off this time - she'd needed a break sooner than we went for her. I had just gotten out of the shower when they called me to come get her because she was having a meltdown that she could not recover from. We decided to pull her out of the club for the rest of the day - we'd planned to send her back for dinner, but didn't want to risk another meltdown on the heels of that one - so she came with us again to dinner. Of course, we loved having her, so it was no loss for us.

I think dinner on this night was prime rib, which if I'm not mistaken they normally have on formal nights - there was some confusion whether Christmas Eve or Christmas would be formal night due to misprints in the fun times, but Leigh, the cruise director, came over the intercom earlier in the day and said it would be cruise casual this night and formal on Christmas night.

We were delighted to be sat with Christopher again at the exact same table, #157, without even requesting him. He'd remembered us from the night before and of course he remembered Lido the bear. He was just as wonderful on this night as he had been the night before. My daughter was excited that we were in there late enough for showtime (most nights we were long gone by showtime since we eat so early) and she happily waved her napkin around and danced along with the staff.

This is Mr. Christopher - if you are on the Breeze and you get in his section, he will take excellent care of you!

You are an excellent writer, Tonya! I'm savoring your review having just gotten off the Breeze (my new favorite ship) 4 days ago.

 

During the safety drill on our Jan 1 sailing, I was chatting with one of the Entertainment staff about the previous two cruises. I said it was my understanding that holiday cruises can be brutal for the crew because so many of the passengers are grumpy people who don't want to be with family over the holidays so they bring their grumpiness on board with them. He said, "ABSOLUTELY TRUE! It was pretty bad! But we can already tell a difference with the passengers on this cruise."

 

Obviously, he didn't talk to YOU, with your sunny and grateful disposition!

Oh no, I hate to hear that those cruises are the hardest for them - especially when they're away from their own families :(

And thank you for your kind words, but believe me, I had my moments of high stress and crankiness! My daughter can be very frustrating at times with some of her behaviors relating to her autism, and it puts us all in high stress mode and we can get tense. Overall, we had a great cruising experience and didn't let that stuff get us down too much.

However, I do always make a conscious effort to be polite and respectful to the crew regardless of whatever is going on within my own family. For goodness sake, they work for months and months away from their families so I can have this great cruise experience with mine and that hit me especially hard during this cruise, knowing they were all away for the holidays. Sometimes I felt outright guilty that here I was having a wonderful time with my family but they don't get to do that. My husband has been deployed during the holidays before and I unfortunately know what it's like to go through the holidays with nothing but spotty wifi service connecting you to your family.

It did sadden me to see cruise guests occasionally treating the crew like garbage. From yelling at the guest services desk to yelling at the cruise director about the fog on the last day (more on that adventure later!) to just blatant disregard for them - one guy on an elevator even referred to them as "the help" in what came across as a derogatory way....I just try to be kind to all of them, especially on the holiday cruise, because whether they want to be there or not, they have to come across like they're there to make our holiday experience a memorable one.

Thanks y'all!!

The Dream ported sometime around noon it seemed. Within the hour, the beach started getting very crowded, which was our cue to head out. We hadn't eaten yet, so we opted to head back on board for lunch. We grabbed a taxi back to the port for $2 per person, looked in a couple of shops there, but ultimately we were hungry and ready to get back on board. We grabbed lunch on the Lido - tacos for me of course - then I headed to drop off a load of laundry and hit the gym.

The laundries were packed on this trip. Not sure because it was an 8-day or what (we are more used to 4 and 5 night itineraries for nearly 10 years now), but there was never not a line for a washer. Thankfully, I was the first in line for a washer once it was freed up and it only took about 10 minutes. I dropped my stuff in and headed up to get in 30 minutes on the elliptical and when I returned to put my clothes in the dryer, it had exactly 1 minute left - great timing! The line had also grown considerably longer and was now out the door - that meant people were literally standing there for 2 hours waiting for a washer. Insanity! I did send off a bag of laundry through my platinum perks earlier in the trip, but I had so many clothes and I didn't want a lot of them thrown in with that, so I opted to just do one large load myself. You can only use your S&S card for these machines.

My husband had taken my daughter up to the ropes course and I was trying to get up there to snap some photos of them for our memory book, but they'd already finished and left. She wasn't too keen on the experience, so they did one small portion of it and she said no more!

While I was up there, I got a picture of the Dream docked next to us. It was really cool to see it from this angle.

Soon, we all returned back to the room for some quiet time and napping. We all showered and got ready for dinner and decided my kiddo would join us on this evening since she'd been at the kids club dinner all week. She also brought her new pal Lido. We were seated on this night at table 157 with Christopher. He turned out to be so wonderful! He could see how attached my daughter was to her brand new bear, so he gave the bear a little treat. He made a bow out of a napkin and placed it on it's head, then pulled out another napkin and like magic created this little swan out of it and placed it on the table. My daughter watched in wonder and was giddy with glee that Christopher had done that for her bear.

There was no dedicated kids menu and she is a picky eater so every night she had chicken nuggets and mac & cheese, plus tried new foods off of our plates. I have to say the mac & cheese was very good, it's the same one offered as a side on the regular menu and has bacon and a mix of different cheeses.

Tonight was my favorite night at dinner for no reason other than bitter & blanc: my favorite Carnival dessert.

My husband inhaled his bitter & blanc because he wanted to get up to the dive-in movie and get a seat. Captain America: Civil War was playing and he's a big fan of the Marvel movies. I took our daughter back to the room to get on her swimsuit and join him.

I did not join them, but I did grab them some items off the lido buffet to snack on while they'd watched the movie. And then I saw it. Bitter & Blanc on the dessert buffet. I knew I was probably in trouble and it was the first time I really lost my desire to keep my eating in check - I happily served myself another plate of it! I had immediate regret in the form of a stomachache, but YOLO or something, right?

While they were at the movie, I browsed the shops and settled in at the atrium to listen to Polaris play and I stayed parked there for probably an hour/hour and a half or so. I then headed up a deck to purchase our embarkation and Christmas jammies photos. After purchasing 1 photo, you get a free code to get a customized luggage tag from Shutterfly and a reward card to bring back every time you make a future photo purchase.

While up there, I spied this adorable photo frame. Such a perfect frame to commemorate a beach day. I resisted buying it this time, but knew I'd probably be taking one home by the end of the cruise.

After the movie was over, we wandered the ship for a while, then headed back to the room to settle in for the night. Tomorrow would be Christmas Eve and we were so excited to see what the atmosphere would be like on the ship. Everyone was already so festive and in the Christmas spirit, we knew the next 2 days would be incredible.

We docked in Costa Maya on day 6 - our final port day. Normally this would bum me out, but with Christmas Eve and Christmas being our last 2 sea days, the fun was really just beginning - and that says a lot considering we'd been having a blast up until now anyway. Not that we wouldn't have a blast in Costa Maya! It was not an exciting port day by any means - nothing like the excitement of the excursion we did in Belize - but it was my favorite beach day of the 3 beach days we did.

We were of course up early for breakfast and we were ready to head off the ship as soon as they made the announcement that we would go. No lines again to get off the ship - and we soon found out why. Thank goodness I'd packed a small, compact umbrella because we needed it! We felt the raindrops as soon as we stepped off the ship and they didn't let up until we were leaving the port. We knew the rain wouldn't last as we could see sun and blue sky all around, but it was definitely a morning with spotty showers.

We weaved our way through the port shop maze and bought tickets to the shuttle to town.

A short 5 or 6 minute ride was all it took before we hopped off and made our way to the walking path through town. This was our first time back to Costa Maya since our honeymoon in 2005 and the hurricane had happened since then - we were pleased to see that it had changed for the better after rebuilding, but still retained that small fishing village charm. I adore this port for the shops on one side and the beautiful beach on the other side.

We made a quick stop into a pharmacy for a bandaid - my daughter had gotten a boo-boo on her finger - and we grabbed one of our favorite things to drink, mexican coke out of a bottle. Not sure if it's the sugar or what, but it really is better than our coke bottled here in the US. Then we set off to find a quiet section of the beach to call our home for the morning. Along the way, we saw this cool bar with swings and dogs.

I'd made a mental note to come back later, but by the time we left, we were ready to just get back to the ship so unfortunately, we didn't. NEXT TIME!

We knew the farther south along the beachfront we walked, the less crowded it would be to start the morning off, so we'd walked quite a ways down and came to El Fuerte. We chose this place for literally no reason at all other than Juan, one of the beach attendants, wasn't as pushy about us using their beach as the other beach vendors were - they were relentless, but Juan wasn't and we value that!!

The view of the ship from the beach near the shuttle stop. You can see how it was still a bit rainy at this point, but it'd clear up before too much longer.

See?? Sun's out! I could really get used to this view on a daily basis.

We were then hammered by a string of beach vendors selling their goods, but a simple, polite "no thank you" would suffice. The wifi was free, the signal was strong, the drinks were huge and just $5, the bathrooms were clean, the massages were $25 for 30 minutes. My husband ordered a strawberry daiquiri and a pina colada. I stole sips of both and they were delicious. We just relaxed on the beach all morning, going back and forth from the water to the chair. Pretty soon, we noticed company was coming. It was the Dream!

Thanks everyone for the kind words! I hope y'all had a great weekend!

After the BAB workshop, we dropped our kiddo off at the Lido Deck with Camp Ocean for dinner and then headed down to our own meal in the Sapphire. One thing I noticed about YTD is that since we like to eat early, we usually arrived between 5:45 and 6:10 and the dining room was fairly empty, but within 10 more minutes, it's as if there's an influx of people and it'd rapidly fill up and go on a wait. Each night we left between 7 and 7:15 and they'd be dispensing pagers to folks showing up to eat since there weren't any open seating left.

After dinner, we'd been dying to have a drink and play a game of Pokemon cards (I TOLD y'all we're a little nerdy!), so we did just that. My one and only mixed drink of the trip, a Miami Vice.

I'd drank the wine in the steakhouse on the 2nd night, plus we brought 2 bottles of wine we opened and took with us to dinner on 2 other nights, but this was it for me and alcohol on board. I also only gained 1.5 lbs on this trip and this is the first time I've really made an effort to cut way back on drinking. Since my average weight gain is 6+ pounds per cruise, I don't think this was a coincidence! I didn't even miss the drinking all that much....my sail & sign bill thanked me.

I believe this was the evening we then went and hung out in the hot tub on the serenity deck. We happened to enter the serenity deck on the starboard side and there was a party of 4 sitting in the hot tub and as we were getting in they were getting out, so we had it to ourselves for a bit before another couple came and reported the port side hot tub was filled to the gills, so we lucked out picking the other side. We chatted with them and some other folks that got in about our days in port. We stayed til we were so wrinkly we couldn't stand it.

We checked our daughter out of the kids club and headed back to the room to put our Christmas jammies back on. I'd been wanting a picture of us in our jammies by the big tree in the atrium, but when we'd tried the night before, there was a music trivia game going on and a lot of people dancing in front of it so there was no room. I was determined to keep trying until we succeeded, and tonight would be the night!

While there, they had stationary and a mailbox set up so the kids could write letters to Santa. We listened to the Polaris string trio while my daughter wrote a full page letter to him. Here's a snippet of what we listened to every day. They are playing Green Day's Holiday in this one.

Once the letter was written, Lido helped mail it.

We'd stayed up a little later than normal on this night, so it was then time to retire for the evening. We had no real plans for Costa Maya the following morning, but nonetheless, we still wanted to be rested up for it.

Shortly after the last photo was taken of her pointing to the Lido Deck, the beach started getting really crowded and our stomachs were growling. We'd agreed that we'd spend the morning at the beach and then head back to the ship for the day. It was time to pack up and head back.

They again took the chair lift back and I walked, this time taking the "nature path" that a sign pointed to as an option to take. Curious, I headed in - it was actually a fairly decent workout, albeit a short one. Instead of taking the regular walking path, you can parallel it by taking a path through the trees between the regular path and the water next to the ship. What a delight that turned out to be, as I discovered many places like this - secret, tucked away where no one could see them, where you could just sit, enjoy the view, and watch people on the ship.

I navigated this in flip flops, which I don't really recommend! Also, there's a good bit of uphill and downhill, so if your knees are shot, stick to the regular walking trail. I met back up with my crew and we did some shopping at the port. This was the port we bought the most souvenirs at. We loved the open air market at the very far end of the port and bought all sorts of chocolates, treats, souvenirs.

Once back on board, we went to my daughter's MFD and grabbed some lunch off of the buffet, though I did sneak in a taco from the Blue Iguana Cantina. We took our daughter over to the water area to play on the slides and in the splash pad.

After this, we all took showers - can I just take a second to say how awesome the deluxe staterooms are with the double bathrooms?? We could all 3 have our showers completed in under 20 minutes time. It normally takes about 15 minutes each when we have to take turns in one shower. I loved the 2nd bathroom with a tub, with room to shave my legs and help my daughter with washing her hair without getting water sprayed all over me like in the original bathroom.

After our showers - and mine was just a quick rinse off from the salty sea water - I dropped my daughter at Camp Ocean while my husband went back ashore to the shops, then I headed up to the running track. I was determined to get my run in and suspected it'd be more empty at this time of day with everyone ashore. I was correct! I was able to easily get my 3 miles in, which is 21 laps total if anyone is wondering what the mileage works out to be. Only 2 other people were using the track, so I was able to get it done pretty quickly and I loved soaking in the views while I ran!

After I finished, I took a proper shower and signed my daughter out of the kids club. It was early sign out today because there was a Build A Bear party in the Limelight Lounge. The ships now have a partnership with Build A Bear for the real BAB experience onboard. It's just like going to the store where they have the machine with the fluff, there's a little ceremony to give your bear a nice, warm, fuzzy heart, there's a tiny shop with BAB clothes, there's a birth certificate. We attended - if you want to go, get there early as you get to shop in the order that you show up, so if you get there later, you have to wait for everyone to shop before you can shop - by the time we'd left, people had been waiting nearly one hour for their turn, so go early! They do provide refreshments. We had water, lemonade, chips, and these bear cookies.

My daughter chose the Carnival exclusive bear. It's a white bear with red and blue ears and the Carnival logo on the foot. It was $26 and she chose a santa outfit that cost $12 to dress her bear in. $38 wasn't too bad compared to BAB on land, especially considering the price of Star Wars, My Little Pony, etc. animals is pretty on par with the cost of this.

If you read my last entry about our morning, you'll understand why she named her bear what she did. Meet the newest member of her animal family: Lido.

Day 5, we awakened as we were porting in Roatan, Honduras. We slept in a bit and breakfast was more crowded than normal as a result - long lines and nowhere to sit unless you sniped a table as soon as you saw someone get up from it when they were finished. We headed off the ship around 10am with no line whatsoever. As we walked up the hill toward the port shops, we came across this awesome photo op.

Up the hill, we were able to easily locate the chair lift kiosk. We'd prepurchased tickets for 2 for the lift, a clamshell, and 2 water mats at Mahogany Bay beach. I'd suspected we'd all be a bit tired after our fun in Belize so I wanted to make sure we had a very laid back day in Roatan, even if that meant not venturing far from the ship.

This is what the whole area looks like from the top of the ship.

We decided my husband and daughter would ride the chair lift over and I'd walk. As the chair lift must be slow for safety reasons, I beat them by a good 10 minutes or so if not more. They loved riding the chairlift.

I was glad one of us was walking because I was able to snap this cool photo of them on the lift with the ship in the background.

We soon reconvened at the beach where we were shown to our clamshell. One thing I didn't like about the clamshell is that we were still basically in direct sunlight the entire time so it sort of defeated the purpose of having one. The lounge chairs that were free behind the clamshells were mostly in the shade and by the time I thought to move out of the clamshell into one of those, they had all long been claimed. Not a big deal, I just covered up with a towel when I wasn't in the water since I burn pretty easily, no matter how liberally I apply the sunscreen. I'm happy to report that none of us got a sunburn in the entire trip, which says a lot since we are all very fair skinned!

The water here got deep pretty quickly and since I don't like hanging out in water above my waist, I mostly floated on my mat any time I was in the water. It was so perfect - sunshine, warm water, gentle sea breeze. What a gorgeous morning to spend at the beach.

While at the beach, you have this nice view of the ship the whole time.

I want to point out that my daughter is not pointing to the ship. She specifically said she was pointing to the Lido Deck. Side story: My daughter is autistic and sometimes when something interests her, she will develop an obsessive interest in it. For this trip, it was the Lido Deck. In our cabin, she'd turn on the food channel, click on the Lido Deck, and go through the menus, reading and re-reading the restaurant descriptions to us. Then she'd excitedly recite from memory what each restaurant had and what it's name was. The Lido Deck just fascinated her! And one morning early in the cruise, she said to me "Mom...do you know what MFD is?" I confusedly said no. She exclaimed "It's My Favorite Deck! Do you know what My Favorite Deck is??" I laughed and said "Yes sweetie, everyone on the ship knows what your favorite deck is!"

We would get on elevators and she would get SO excited if someone pushed the button for the Lido Deck. Then she would tell them the Lido Deck was her favorite because it had the Lido Deck Marketplace. Most people would humor her and engage in the conversation and you could tell no one had ever seen enthusiasm for the Lido Deck quite like what she had!

Love this, you did both the excursion that I want to do.

 

I am confused about the Sharks and Rays excursion. I thought they took you right from the boat. Was this a mix up or normal?

It seemed normal - all 3 of the excursion times for our particular tour got on a tender to the mainland with other tour groups mixed in and then once at the pier, we were to all find our respective excursion hosts holding signs with the names of our tours. Once all of the 9:30am departures were present, we departed from the mainland in a water taxi to Caye Caulker. The 9:30 departure time turned into 10:30 by the time everyone arrived, so we were an hour late leaving and an hour late getting back.

It was much more disorganized and stressful than the last Belize excursion we took, which took us straight from the ship to Bannister island without having to tender to the mainland.

We headed back to the boat and were waiting to leave when they called out our family name. "Yes, right here!" we shouted - to which they shouted "You didn't pay your lunch bill and we can't leave until you do!"

OMG! *Facepalm* How could we forget?? We just genuinely forgot! And we hadn't been drinking or anything!! We sheepishly paid our bill, apologized about 1000 times, and we were all preparing to head back to the tender port when they asked everyone on the boat if we wanted a treat - of course!

We motored around to the other side of the island where there were giant tarpon jumping out of the water. All we had to do was dangle a fish over the side of the boat and they'd pop right out and grab it. It was really fun to watch!

After that we settled in for the 50 minute commute back. I think I slept part of the way. So much sun and sand and salty sea breeze and warmth....lulled me right to sleep as soon as the boat started rocking gently with the waves.

We got back one hour late, at exactly the time the last tender was reported to be leaving, so we didn't take the time to shop or get souvenirs, plus we were so tired, we just wanted to get back on the Breeze and be done.

Only one other tender after ours came to drop off at the ship and we pulled up the anchor and set sail immediately.

We showered and got ready for dinner - we dropped our daughter off with the kids club for dinner on the Lido Deck and we headed into the Sapphire for YTD around 6:15. Dinner was running pretty slowly tonight and we were very tired - too tired actually - so we ended up letting them know we were leaving and finished out dinner on the Lido Deck. My husband took our kiddo back to the room for an early bedtime and I went and threw away $20 to a slot machine! On the way back, I spotted something I'd been waiting the whole cruise for - the perfect backdrop for our matching Christmas jammies picture! I asked the photographer how late she'd be there and she said until 10:30pm. I checked my phone and it was 8:55pm - perfect!! I told her I'd be back in a bit. I messaged my husband to see if my daughter had fallen asleep yet and she hadn't. So we all changed into our matching Christmas jammies and headed back to the photo op.

Except it was dark. What she'd failed to mention was that it would be closed from 9 to 9:30! So we just sat and waited for her to come back because I was determined to get this picture! And it was so worth it. I adore it.

We all were so tired after our day in the sun and we headed to bed pretty early after packing our bag for Roatan the next day. One thing I was quickly discovering was that I like to have a sea day in the middle of my port days! Mama was tired!

Pretty soon everyone was back on board and we took the short 5 minute ride back to Caye Caulker, where lunch was waiting for us (we'd all placed our order on the ride over). The food was basic - chicken tenders and french fries for us - but my goodness. The views.

We sat on a swing with our feet in the sand while we ate.

We acquired a new friend.

There were so many stray dogs on the island and they all appeared to be well cared for and friendly.

After lunch, we only had about 20 minutes before we had to be back on board so we took a quick walk down the road, browsed some shops, took pics by the water, then headed back.

Like I said I'd absolutely love to spend more time on this island, rent a golf cart, drive around, meet more of the locals. I find the shop owners in most ports to be pushy - I always give a polite "no thank you" and move on but sometimes they can be very overbearing. Not here - not at all. The locals wanted to talk to you, get to know you, show you their beautiful island. They pat you on the back, they call you their family, and they do it in a way that is so genuine. It doesn't come across as pushy or overbearing at all. What an amazing little island.

Day 4, we dropped anchor off the coast of Belize. Ahhhh Belize. Be still my heart, as frustrating of a port as you may be to get into and out of. I hate the tendering process, but both of the port days I've spent in Belize in my lifetime have been so beautiful.

Months prior, we'd hemmed and hawed about what type of excursion we wanted to do here. Since it's a tender port, our personal policy is to do a ship sponsored excursion - it's all fun and games when it's just my husband and I and we miss the ship (and thankfully we never have, given that we so rarely take ship excursions), but missing the ship with our daughter in tow - not worth the risk, even if minimal, as I know the private tour companies do everything they can to get you back to the tender in time.

Should we go cave tubing? Well, our kiddo is easily scared sometimes and we thought that might be something that could turn into a nightmare for her. Visit the zoo? Nah. City tour? Meh. Snorkeling with a shark & stingray encounter? What, are we trying to terrify the poor child?

We thought about it for a few days and went back and forth but ultimately decided on the Shark, Rays, Barrier Reef Snorkel & Island Escape. We decided that if she were scared to try snorkeling she didn't have to and if the shark & stingray encounter was too much, the boat would be just a few feet away for retreat. We talked to her about this tour and hyped it up and by the time it was time to set sail, she was excited to try snorkeling ("I am so brave!" she proudly proclaimed) and swim with the sharks & rays.

As usual, we were up early for breakfast on the Lido and had reason to be since we had to meet for the tender at 9am in the Ovation theater. I've only ported in Belize one time and Carnival gave our excursion our own dedicated tender over to what was then known as Bannister Island, so I was surprised that wasn't how it worked this time around. There was also some confusion about whether our tour or another similarly named tour (Shark, Rays & Island Getaway) had been called to the tender to take over to the mainland. My husband went to ask to clarify the confusion and found out that they were actually boarding our tour even though no one announced it in the lounge.

As a direct result of this, we ended up sitting in the water taxi for our excursion once we reached the mainland for an additional 35 minutes while waiting for the rest of our tour to arrive - about half of us had boarded the tender ashore before they announced we could even though they told us to go ahead and board and now we had to wait for the other half to arrive - they arrived very late and I suspect there was additional confusion back on the ship as to whether this tour was ever announced to leave - we ended up departing 1 full hour after the time we were supposed to. At this point, I was very glad that it was a ship excursion as I knew we'd be arriving back later than planned.

Leaving Belize via water taxi.

We got underway, heading to Caye Caulker, which was a 50 minute ride by water taxi. Caye Caulker is a place I'd love to go back and spend more time. Tiny island, no cars, dirt roads for golf carts, the absolute friendliest people I'd ever met of any Caribbean port of call I've ever traveled to. We arrived at the island and approximately 50 of us were directed to 2 restrooms to change and use the bathroom - and they gave us 15 minutes to do this. Ha!! About 30 minutes later, most people were done with the restroom so we were delayed a bit. I snapped this photo on our way back to the water taxi - it's my favorite photo of the entire trip!

After everyone received their snorkel gear, we were off to the reef.

Confession for me - I don't snorkel - I don't like doing anything more than wading in waist deep water in the ocean - I certainly don't like being in water with a strong current. So why did I like this excursion so much? Watching my family have fun doing it, of course! My daughter bravely donned her snorkeling gear and jumped right into the water with no fear and had a blast!

Her mask didn't fit very well so she didn't get a true snorkeling experience with her face in the water, but she absolutely loved being out in the water with her dad and the water was so crystal clear she could see everything in it anyway from up above.

It was just the captain, me, and one other woman who stayed behind on the water taxi while everyone else snorkeled at the reef. I totally didn't mind hanging back because hellooooo, this view!!!

Soon everyone was back on board and we motored over to another spot with a sandbar where we'd have our shark & ray encounter. Against my better judgment I did jump into the water here - it was chest high with a current, well outside of my comfort zone and I spent a total of maybe 60 seconds in there, and had zero encounters with sharks or rays as my only concern was getting back to the boat and out of the water. Again, my husband and daughter loved this and had a blast watching the feeding and feeling them swimming around them under the surface.

Day 3 was a port day in Cozumel, which we chose ahead of time to spend at Nachi Cocum. I had been to Nachi Cocum with my mother when I sailed with her in 2013 and it was one of the best port days of all of the cruises I'd been on. I was hoping for a repeat! In September, I put down the $27 deposit to reserve our spots and that was that.

The morning we docked in Cozumel, we woke up pretty early, but not early enough to avoid the lines at the Lido breakfast buffet. They still weren't too terrible and we finished breakfast in a reasonable amount of time. Still, we were to get to Nachi Cocum at our leisure, so we didn't need to be a part of the mad rush to get off the ship, which I was content with. As we were heading back to our room to put on swimsuits and get sunscreened up, they announced that the floodgates were open and we were free to exit the ship.

We headed down toward the forward gangway on deck 0 about 20 minutes after that and the line was backed up to about midship on Deck 1 - at least we didn't have far to walk since we were aft on Deck 1! The line crept forward and then suddenly just started flowing freely and we were off the ship in no time. We got through the port shops without really stopping for anything other than a pair of sunglasses for my husband and we were in a cab to the beach pretty quick.

$17 later, we pulled up to the beach club. With 2 other ships docking in port before we did, there were plenty of other cruise passengers already there - too bad we didn't get a front row, unobstructed view of the water like I did when I went in 2013, but who cares! The alternative was being back in Texas in the 30 degree polar vortex and no thank you! I will gladly take my 3rd row view of the water in the 80 degree sunshine day that Cozumel had waiting for us!

We got settled in and met our server, Jose. Last time I was at Nachi Cocum, the service was lightning fast and I am sorry to say that this time, it was not. It was mediocre at best, but I do think Jose was overwhelmed with too many guests he was responsible for taking care of. I feel like he was doing the best he could. I never saw him just standing around or anything like that, he was always working his tail off - I just think there were too many of us and only one of him.

I am not a big drinker, so while the open bar was more important to my husband, it wasn't important to me - what was more important was paying for access to a beach where only a limited amount of people could go to every day. I am happy to pay a premium for a less crowded beach and this place does the job. Nachi Cocum does not have any beach toys included in the price so if that's important to you if you have children, it might be a deal breaker. My kiddo is content to just play in the sand so it wasn't a big deal for us.

For hours, we played in the pool, we lazed around in the hammocks, we waded in the water, we lounged under the palalpas. We also used their internet, which only worked from my lounger if I was sitting in a specific spot. Jose did not charge me for internet access, so no complaints! When it worked, it worked just fine.

For lunch, I just snacked on chips & guac. I think my husband and kiddo got some sandwiches and maybe another appetizer of some sort. We all skipped dessert, but it was included, as well an another entree for me, which I did not order - having had that huge meal at the steakhouse the night before, I didn't feel like eating heavily.

Before long, it was time to pack up our stuff and head back to port. Goodbye Nachi Cocum. Your beach is so beautiful.

We hit a few shops just outside the port, but I can't handle the pushy sales pitch for too long, so we headed back inside the port and back to our ship.

We headed back to the room for showers and some quiet time for my daughter- I showered just enough to get the salty water off of me because I was heading up to the gym to get a workout in. On my way back I realized the sun was about to set, so I gathered my crew and steered them to the Promenade to watch it go down - I'm glad I did this because it turned out to be the only sunset we'd see the entire trip! We either forgot, were napping, or doing something else.

A couple who had gotten married on board were on the back of the Promenade deck getting wedding photos done with the sun setting on the background. How absolutely stunning do you think those pictures have turned out to be??

I honestly can't recall what we did on this night, but it probably involved some combination of early dinner, listening to the string trio, shopping, gambling....these seemed to be the things we did on a nightly basis! I don't have any pictures from this night, so it must not have been anything too enticing, but the best of the cruise was yet to come...so stay tuned! Tomorrow is Belize and it was my favorite port day even though I did not participate much in the excursion we did.

That's a great idea - paying the tab of a couple with a uniform! We're heading to Cabo next month, I will be sure to do that if I see a service person in uniform. Thanks to you and your family for all your service.

Thank YOU for thinking about doing this on your next trip! We were so grateful, I just wish we could have thanked the person, but I understand wanting to keep a low profile. With any luck, they are reading this review and they know how thankful we are.

Love your review so far...

 

Excited to see the pictures of the Breeze! Do you by chance have any of the ship from the starboard (right side) showing the bridge area? I've been trying to find pics of the area our balcony cabin will be in but no luck so far!

While I have many photos of the ship docked in port on the Port side, the only ones I have from even the slightest starboard angle are taken from nearly straight on and show very little cabin approximation detail due to the distance - if this is helpful at all, this is what I have. If you were port side, I'd probably have ya covered since that was usually the angle of the ship we had a view of while in port!