l2c4fun

On the Breeze. Left Cozumel last night. Headed towards Galveston.

I am "A" list on SWA, so I've flown them enough to know that only one person in your group actually has to pay the $12.50. Unless you have a huge party that is.

 

BTW, the $12.50 is going up on 3/14/16 to $15.00 pp.

Yup saving seats using an item like a coat or bag is how you can get away with buying only one. I do this all the time when I travel with my family or friends. If there are 3 of us, just 1 will buy it and save the seats for the other 2. If 4 or more of us, we'll buy two EB's.

I can tell you from personal experience that I will NEVER again purchase for only one person in our group. DH and I have tried this before and always have people upset with us and it makes the entire flight very uncomfortable.

If sitting together with the kids is that important to us then we will purchase EB for all of us or fly another airline.

I don't find myself getting that hungry when out in the sun so I'm normally ok. If I get hungry I will eat one of the prepackaged snacks I bring along or a box of cereal I grabbed off the breakfast buffet line :eek:

I told my room steward last week on the Dream that I wanted service both morning and night. He told me that I had to choose one on the form. He said we could get service the other time if we just called him to request it. :mad:

We ended up marking night on the form and put out the Cruisin sign after we left the room each morning. We would come back to our room made up.

So, I was unhappy right off the bat when I was told I could have it but only if I made a point of requesting it each day. I ended up being happy that the room steward did what we wanted him to do.

When we were new to cruising we booked on the Carnival Triumph out of Galveston because we could drive to the port and it was cheaper than the other ships. So it was price based.

We decided we liked cruising because of the value for our money. We have continued cruising and continue to choose Carnival because we enjoy it enough that we don't feel we need to spend more money to try another cruise line.

Old menu

We just got off the Sunshine yesterday.

Pros:

Large Serenity deck with a beautiful pool - always able to find chairs

Room on spa deck so we had access to the heated loungers in the spa

Never really had to wait for breakfast burritos at the Cantina.

Ship sailed smoothly.

Ji Ji's for lunch was really good.

Cons:

This was the first cruise that I've ever had to wait for more than a couple minutes to be seated for Your Time Dining. Two nights had long waits - the first time we waited over an hour for seating for 8 of us. The second time we threw in the towel after about 40 minutes and went to the buffet - I needed to eat due to blood sugar. It would have been nice if they could have given us some idea of how long the wait would be.

Wait Staff in dining room was hit or miss. One night the waiter mixed up every course with my DH and the other gentleman at the table. They told him and exchanged their plates in front of him and he continued doing it wrong for the rest of the meal. It was kind of funny after a while.

Elevators - only 2 elevators go to floor 11 spa rooms. One was broken on arriving - we expected it from reading reviews. Then one day the other elevator was also shut down. Not a huge deal to us because we normally take the stairs but we had a gentleman on the floor that used a motorized scooter. I believe both elevators were fixed when we left.

Musical entertainment - nothing really drew us in. We went to the pub one night to listen and there wasn't a soul in there. It was bizarre. On the Breeze last year that was the place everyone seemed to hang out.

Comedy Club - most nights they only offered one family friendly show and it was difficult to get seats. I have no idea how full the adult only shows were. I think the placement of the comedy club is better on the Sunshine (4) than it is on the Breeze.

All in all, we enjoyed our cruise. We don't cruise to be entertained. We cruise to relax and snorkel.

We just took our first spring break cruise - 8 days on the Breeze. A crew member told us that the 6 day before us had 1500 age 21 and under. Our 8 day had less than 500 age 21 and under. The largest age group on our cruise was 41-50.

We honestly didn't notice any more children than we did on our cruise in early May on the Triumph a few years ago.

It was rather humorous to listen to some people on the elevator complaining about all the children on our cruise and how they will never cruise over spring break again. I contemplated sharing the stats from the crew member but decided against it. ;)

Got off the Breeze yesterday and I was blown away by the talent of this band. Both of the lead singers, Devan Bolding and Andreece Williams, are extremely talented. There voices worked with each other so well. The bass player, guitarist, drummer and keyboardist were all great. These guys need to stay together once their contracts are up in May! The venues were always packed. They could easily have filled the Ovation Theater

They were not on my radar at all before the cruise, but we found them early in the trip and made a point of not missing any of their performances. They were one of the highlights of our trip!

Anyone else enjoy them?

Is there a way to get Carnival to keep this band on contract together?

I have the same question and we're cruising over spring break. DS is 11 with an anxiety disorder and will only consider going if he can be with DD who is 13 and nephew who is 14. DS is bigger than my nephew so definitely would pass as older but not sure I want to try to pull that stunt. Then again, I'm afraid to ask and be told no. :rolleyes:

So is this only available to passengers arriving on flights the day of the cruise?

We are driving in from Ft. Myers and will be turning our rental car in at the Miami airport. It would be nice to get checked in while we are there, before we take the shuttle to the port.