Breeze - Feb 18th-25th...trip report, photos, and videos!

Hi all,

I finally have all my photos loaded up. I wanted to share a few things with everyone.

We flew into Houston on Southwest (we get lots of free trips as DH travels for his job) a day early, Saturday morning. Our plan was to meet with our son who lives in Houston and go to the Johnson Space Center.

Since DH job deals with the space industry and military, this was mostly meant for him. Our son was a member of the Young Astronauts club as a kid, met a space shuttle astronaut, etc so we knew he was excited too. I have to say, the space center was fantastic, we all enjoyed it. It isn't cheap, and lines were long. We opted to skip to long Tram tour (3 hours) which had a +1 hour line waiting, and do the shorter tour which had no line. We got there an hour after they opened, so if you plan to go there, do get there immediately after they open and go straight to the Tram tour line.

Right from the parking lot you get dazzled

Shorter tram

Most of the shorter tram tour is just a drive around where the tour guide tells you what goes on in each building. The ONLY place you stop is at the Rocket Museum. You are dropped off there and catch the next tour tram coming around to go back.

Get off the shuttle and go inside!

...to be continued...

Outside lots of rockets on display, but inside was the cherry on top!

Lots of displays inside with the incredible rocket as the centerpiece.

Back on the tram, we were taking back to the Main Space Center building. We spent about an hour walking around and enjoying all the displays. You could easily spend all day there.

There is a snack bar (yes, expensive) so we stopped for sodas before we went back to do another hour of walking around room after room of displays.

We took over 100 photos, so I won't bore you all with more. You can see all of them on our Smugmug account listed down with my signature.

It was a great afternoon, nice spending it with our son who is a paramedic in Houston and we don't see him as often as we want.

After saying goodbye to our son, we headed to check into our hotel near the airport.

We checked in to the Fairfield Inn, then asked front desk where to eat nearby. We saw a BBQ place a few blocks away and that is what the clerk recommended. Perfect. We headed immediately there for an early dinner.

..to be continued....

One more from the Space Center.

So....Dinner, Texas style BBQ.

This place was just a few blocks from our hotel, and parking lot was packed. That's always a good sign.

Holy cow. The menu was huge, the portions were huge and price was very reasonable. It is sorta like a cafeteria inside, but you tell them your order and they make it for you. I ordered the baked potato with smoked chicken and works. It was the size of a football! DH got a 3 pork sampler and it was gigantic, too.

after we ate, we went to the gas station to fill the rental car back up, and grab a 12-pk of sodas for the ship.

...to be continued....

Food looks delicious!!!

following! thanks for doing the review!

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.

Following along.

Beautiful photos and enjoying the narrative.

Keith

Following, we are on the Breeze April 15th, 2018.

Thanks everybody...

the adventure continues!

SUNDAY, Feb 18th

So....we had a rental car to return and a shuttle to catch at the airport. We were using the Carnival airport shuttle which we had used twice before to Galveston. Its just easy.

We got up, went downstairs for the free breakfast buffet, and ........... buzzz..... phone alert from Carnival.

Let me back up to say that we had received a few notices from Carnival in the 2-3 days prior saying FOG was going to be a problem and embarkation would be delayed. Our last notice said to arrive 2 hours later than scheduled.

So.........buzz......phone alert. Our phone buzzed, then another person in the breakfast area buzzed, then another. Yep, everyone at the hotel was going on a cruise.

We grabbed our phone and looked. FOG delay. Don't arrive until we let you know.

What?

We had to return a rental car by 10am or we would get charged for another day. Buzz..... repeat.

We finished breakfast and debated what to do. The rental car place was just a mile away from airport, so we decided it was better to just sit at the airport waiting on the shuttle and news than to add on another day with car, just for a few hours. Hopefully.

We packed, loaded up the car, and headed to the rental car agency. It only took 10 minutes to return car, then wait for a shuttle to pick us up and drop us off at the Hobby terminal. The cruise ship pickups are from the luggage area of the terminal, and there was also a RC ship going out...or should I say....supposed to go out. Announcements were going off at the airport saying that NO flights were coming in due to FOG. Wow. They weren't even landing now the fog was so bad. We sat and started chatting with all the other Carnival cruisers. And sat, and sat.... buzz.... more texts from Carnival. Buzz... stay tuned, more information i n 15 minutes. Buzz.... it went on for over an hour.

Planes started landing and we hoped that meant that the fog had cleared. Ha. Hundreds of people were standing around at the terminal. Everyone pacing.

Then our Carnival shuttle checkin crew announced..... Let's line up. Bus is here. What? Does that mean the ship is in? Does that mean we are going to Galveston now? We all lined up and onto the shuttle bus we went, headed to Galveston.

....to be continued....

We at sailing on the Breeze in July 2018 - looking forward to the rest of your review!

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We arrive in Galveston to this......

Yeah.... lovely.

The bus pulled up to the terminal and we could tell there were no cruise ships in.

A guy gets on the bus and says... I guess you all know that we have FOG and the ships are anchored outside of the harbor. The harbormaster has closed the port until the fog lifts. We were told to get off ship and they would take us inside the terminal and give us a number for boarding, but we should consider going somewhere for lunch after that, as it was going to be several hours.

They unloaded all the luggage, we all verified our bags were there, and a guard was stationed with them while we all went inside. We were briefed by a Carnival dude with a fancy nametag saying that it would be 1pm at the earliest. Totally depended on getting the ship in and everyone off. He also said the passengers already on the Breeze were having to deal with missing flights, so we might want to clear out of the terminal as they were going to be crazy when they got off. Good point. They were in worse shape than us.

Most people took the Priority boarding cards, and headed into town with just their carryon bags. We decided to walk around and come back at 1pm.

Lots of people....since there were 3000+ people x2 cruise ships waiting to get onboard. Restaurants on the strip were filling up.

I must say, there are quite a few places all along this street. Never realized it before as we usually just get on the ship. We might have to come in a day early just to hang out sometime. Just today I was CRANKY. Dang it. Hot and cranky.

We walked around, up and down the street....for hours. It seemed like an eternity.

And then....

to be continued.....

We thought this was good news. But realized first that was the RC ship, as they had to turn around in the harbor, so had to come in first. The Breeze was waiting for this, then would come in.

We went back down to our terminal, and by now all 3000 passengers for the Breeze were standing around clammering to get in.

It took F-O-R-E-V-E-R..... then the ship came in. Then they had to start unloading. Another hour passed.

Then the passengers started flooding out of the doors getting off the ship.

And another hour passed.

Then they allowed us, all the Priority guests, FTTF, etc to come inside and check in to the waiting area.

And wait...

and wait some more....

It was 4 pm before embarkation started with the Diamond people.

And there were hundreds of them.

Then the Platinum people.

hundreds and hundreds of them.

then FTTF people....another couple of hundreds.

So another hour had passed.

Then the returning Back-to-back people.

Then finally Group 1....so much for getting priority boarding. LOL

It was almost 6pm when we got onboard.

....to be continued...

Announcement.... food venues on Lido would still be serving lunch and the main dining room would be open for dinner. Good news as some people in terminal were on the verge of fainting. All rooms would be ready....geez, you think? It was freaking 5pm.

By the time they let us on the ship, EVERYONE was cranky, and hungry, and sweaty for sitting out in the Galveston 100% humidity.

We had a reservation for the Cucina del Capitano for the first night..... for 5:30pm. It was already past that now. We went up to the restaurant and told them we were sorry, but paying for a fancy dinner was not going to happen. We postponed to the following night our reservations and they said that was perfectly fine. We then went downstairs and out to the aft pool area. YEAH.... the Tandoor was still open!

Finally real food other than crackers and sodas.

Gotta say, I love the Tandoor, so that made me a little less cranky, although I was so sweaty and uncomfortable, I ate fast then headed for the room to unpack.

I think I got some chicken curry, rice, and veggies, but I was so tired I don't think I tasted any of it. It was Indian, and very very good.

My DH doesn't really love Indian food but he even said it was fantastic. Nice.

We then both went inside to the Buffet desserts....mmmm....tiramisu. Sold.

after we unpacked, we walked around the ship for an hour or so, then went back to room. We were both too tired to even go see a show. I love the Welcome Show but it was not to happen this cruise.

...to be continued...

Seeing your pic of rain in Galveston made me realize that every single time we drive in to cruise it has been raining and we have gone at different times.

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Following along :)

Seeing your pic of rain in Galveston made me realize that every single time we drive in to cruise it has been raining and we have gone at different times.

 

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Yeah, with our son living in Houston, we get to hear about the lousy weather there all the time. He hates that it rains every day, and the fog is an issue at the coast.

.

That night.....

No kidding....it was really quiet everywhere. I think everyone was pooped after that horrible day.

.....we were in bed asleep by 10pm. What a day....

Luckily....the rest of the cruise was AWESOME!!!

....to be continued....

Tough start to your cruise, but a GREAT start to your review! :cool:

Following!

Looking forward to reading your review in its entirety. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the review.

Great review so far. We had family that cruised a couple of weeks ago and did not board until 8pm. Fog is a big deal this time of the year. Glad you got on. You ate at pappas bbq and they are part of a chain, they have Pappadeaux, Cajun seafood , pappasitos which is Mexican food. And pappas which is seafood. Also pappas steakhouse. We eat regularly at the bbq and seafood. Occasionally at the Mexican rest. We are on the breeze in August, where fog shouldn’t be a problem. I like the text alerts but hard when you live an hour from the port and already head that way . My sister lives right off of airport blvd , hobby airport, in case we need to stop and sit a while before heading to Galveston. Looking forward to hearing more. We cruised on the breeze in 2016 and excited to go again.

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Just wanted to say hi from the 505. :)

Great review so far. We had family that cruised a couple of weeks ago and did not board until 8pm. Fog is a big deal this time of the year. Glad you got on. You ate at pappas bbq and they are part of a chain, they have Pappadeaux, Cajun seafood , pappasitos which is Mexican food. And pappas which is seafood. Also pappas steakhouse. We eat regularly at the bbq and seafood. Occasionally at the Mexican rest. We are on the breeze in August, where fog shouldn’t be a problem. I like the text alerts but hard when you live an hour from the port and already head that way . My sister lives right off of airport blvd , hobby airport, in case we need to stop and sit a while before heading to Galveston. Looking forward to hearing more. We cruised on the breeze in 2016 and excited to go again.

 

 

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Thanks, I didn't know they were part of a chain.

Just wanted to say hi from the 505. :)

Hi fellow New Mexican! Do we know you?

ON WITH THE ADVENTURE!

MONDAY, Sea Day

Normally, on Embarkation day, we walk around the whole ship, top to bottom, check everything out, take tons of photos. Not this time obviously.

So Monday morning we got up, a little late for us, 6:15am. LOL Off to the gym went DH, just like back home he does a full workout every morning before work. Well, cruises aren't work, but he knows he will be eating like a pig all week so better to burn a little calories before putting on the feed bag. I took my time, still feeling the effects of the day before, got dressed, went up to Lido and got a cup of hot tea, then back to the room same time he got back for his shower. We then went back up to Lido buffet for breakfast.

The decor of the BREEZE is very different from all our previous Carnival cruises as it was not designed by Farcus. No wild designs here - in fact, the decor is definitely "Beach" theme. Cabanas and palm trees. Even the carpet is either blue or tan (water and sand) throughout the whole ship. It seemed a bit cluttered at first up on Lido in particular, but then it started to grow on us.

hallways....all ocean and wall art all beach and cabana designs

...more....