Breeze 12/28/14 NYE sailing It's a family affair

It's a family affair Breeze 12/28/14 6 day sailing

This journey started in May of 2013 when we decided to take a cruise over the holidays. Of our past 29 cruises (26 on Carnival) we have mainly sailed on spring breaks on summer with an occasional February school break as well. Never had we sailed over the Christmas break, and it was something we always wanted to do.

First a little about us..... My wife and I are veteran cruisers with (previous to this sailing) 29 sailings on 3 lines, the vast majority on Carnival. We have five grown children who have grown up on family vacations and Carnival cruises as part of that. They are all married and have kids, we have 11 grandchildren ranging from 7 months to 6 years old. We live in Connecticut (two of our kids live in Long Island and we are lucky that they are the farthest away for us). We all keep in touch and pretty much all see each other regularly. My wife and I are both part time travel agents (we both have full time jobs as well) so we have a pretty good feel for travel in general and group travel in particular.

So back in May 2013 we asked everyone if they would like to do an entire family cruise. We almost always have at least one family or another traveling with us in our cruising history, but since they have become adults, we have only cruised all together once (a five day on the Inspiration out of Tampa. They all agreed, but with six different schedules it would be tough to coordinate.

My brother, his wife joined us and their two kids and their families as well. All together there was 35 of us. We decided to fly into Miami a day early (as is our normal process, especially in the winter months).

As the discussions progressed, my wife and I decided we wanted to give the cruise and airfare for everyone as a gift to our kids. (What was I thinking....). They had no problem with that plan and while discussions progressed, we looked for cruises that would work for everyone (schedule wise) and where they went and where they left from etc.. We quickly zeroed in on the Breeze (our favorite ship) and the six day over New Years, with stops in Cozumel, Ocho Rios, and Grand Caymen. Once that was all decided, we booked rooms, and waited till airfare became available.

Fast forward to April 2014 when airfare opened up for out time slot. We began looking for departures out of both CT and NY. We found a very reasonable fare (and direct) on US Airways (on an American flight) that I had a bunch of miles on. The wife and I normally fly Delta and I am always Gold Medallion on Delta so I was somewhat reserved to fly something else. The deal from USAirways (from hence I will call AA) was just to good to pass up and we booked it. In retrospect, we should have passed, but I will get into that later...... We found flights for the New York crew and we were all done except the waiting.

There were not any issues with the flights for the New York crew but cannot say the same for the flights on AA out of Hartford. Early in November, while at dinner, my phone began buzzing with incoming emails, when I checked I found out that our non-stop return flight scheduled for 1:10 pm on the Saturday we disembarked had been changed to an 7:55 pm flight (still non-stop) that got in at 11:35 pm. Long story short, when we called we were told that our return flight had been "dissolved" and there was nothing they could do. Having 11 small children under 7 flying a late night flight was not our preference but no matter how we approached it we could not get anything else.

Anxious to read your review. Always wanted to cruise over the holidays. Saw a photo of the lido deck during NYE this year and it looked like it was jam packed. Bet it was loads of fun! Also think it was a great idea to have your family together on a cruise! Hope to do the same one day:)

Anxious to read your review. Always wanted to cruise over the holidays. Saw a photo of the lido deck during NYE this year and it looked like it was jam packed. Bet it was loads of fun! Also think it was a great idea to have your family together on a cruise! Hope to do the same one day:)

Thanks! Lots more coming. Just doing some searching on posting pics. It's been a while.

Because we have a very early flight out of Hartford, we decided to stay over the night before at the Sheraton at Bradley. With this, there were no issues. Two days before flying, we got a call from AA who said there had been a technical issue and all the people flying out of Hartford no longer had seat assignments and because they flight was full, we had to wait till we got to the gate to get our seat assignments. We were assured many time that we did in fact have seat assignments and had nothing to worry about (which did turn out to be true).

We got up early the morning of our flight (4:45 am) and went down to the desk and did get our seats. The flight went off without a hitch until we landed (15 minutes early) and had to wait 45 minutes for a gate to open. Finally getting off the plane, we got our bags and went to Holiday Inn Port of Miami.

We spent a leisurely day around the hotel, including walking around Bayside which I always find to be an amazing place. We also scouted out a new hotel we had booked for a portion of a large group we are doing on April 5th aboard the Breeze (same intinerary as this one). That hotel was an older remodel of a place near the Holiday Inn called the B2. Upon checking it out, we found it 3 blocks away (to the south) and renamed to Hotel Yves. They did not have a room for us to look at but we were impressed with the lobby area.

That evening we all split up for dinner and the DW and I along with four of my kids and families ended up eating at an Italian restaurant in Bayside called Lombardi's. Coming from a part of the country that is rich with Italian heritage and great Italian restaurants, I was somewhat reticent to try Italian food in a tourist area in Miami. Suffice it to say. It was just ok.

OMG!!! Drama! Out of Bradley? Keep it coming!!!!:D:D

Hoping it all worked out well.

It happens when you live in the one of the SMALLEST states in the country.

LOL, I know. Bottom line was we got there. Embarkation day coming tomorrow. Just took me an hour for a refresher course in posting pics.

Enjoying your report, looking forward to more.

Hi jimbo5544, can't wait to read your review.

Enjoying your report, looking forward to more.

Thanks, lots more coming. Got a little off track last night trying to remember how to post pictures.

Hi jimbo5544, can't wait to read your review.

The actual cruise part is coming....lol

After dinner, we wandered around Bayside for a while. It was very crowded, more so than I remember from past cruises, maybe due to the time of year? Passed a small shop selling popcorn (I am a popcorn addict) and bought two bags for the smaller subset of our dinner group that was still with us. Sticker shock set in as it was $10 for two small bags. :eek:

Started having thoughts of what I could do when I retire..... :rolleyes:

Meandered our way back to the Holiday Inn POM and some went to bed and some stayed down at the bar for a nightcap ....or two. Our group was spread all over the hotel, so we made plans to huddle up in the lobby by 10 as we had arranged our transfers for 10:30.

Embarkation day 12/28/14

We awoke to a beautiful sunrise (our room faced bayside) and we showered and went down to the lobby. We ended up taking some of the grand kids for a long walk while the parents got themselves ready. Then had breakfast and got ready to make our way to the Breeze.

The lobby (and much more so the elevators) at the Holiday Inn get really busy around 9:30 or so. This is typical of what we experience at any pre-cruise hotel. Knowing this we had made arrangements with our transfer provider to park on the side so as to get around all the extra commotion that happens around the front entrance.

They were there right on time. We started moving bags out through the side door and to the back of the bus (22 person) where the driver loaded them in. We had two trips but got over to the port just fine.

Great start Jimbo, looking forward to the rest

Great start Jimbo, looking forward to the rest

Thanks, hopefully it will get better as we get into the actual cruise.

As we came over the bridge, I snapped a pic of the Breeze as she awaited us.

Most of our group was Platinum, but we split up, gave our bags to the porter and headed inside. By now it was 10:45. We got through security and headed over to the VIP area. It was already pretty crowded and we checked in and began the wait. I am not sure of the reason, I never asked, but embarkation was delayed. I don't thin we actually got on till 11:50.

We had previously decided that we would do some flip flopping of people in room. Instead of my wife and I, we had at time of booking thought we would do Cheers (at least for me), so we put my son in with my and our daughter in law and grand daughter with my wife. We ended up deciding not to do the cheers...we were never really committed to it and the breakeven was a stretch for us. It would also prevent me (on my card at least) from buying a round or two or three or..... Our poor room steward Gabriel had to switch the beds back but he was a trooper and did so in good order.

My brother had surprised everyone in our group with tshirts with our family cruise info on them which all wore on the ship. After dropping our bags off we headed upstairs for something to eat. We were surprised they were handling out free champagne as you got to lido.

To be continued......

Hey Jimbo!! Really looking forward to this review. Thanks for sharing!!

Hey Jimbo!! Really looking forward to this review. Thanks for sharing!!

Hey Jeff! It will pale in comparison to yours, but I do enjoy reliving through the review. It was a great cruise.

Cant wait to read more!! I would love to have had shirts made up for our upcoming cruise, but I know my youngest and her boyfriend would not wear them!!

I have to say how amazing are you and the wife to gift so, much. How fun to cruise with such a large group too. Can't wait to read more.

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Cant wait to read more!! I would love to have had shirts made up for our upcoming cruise, but I know my youngest and her boyfriend would not wear them!!

Thanks for the positive feedback! We had a couple of son in laws who were somewhat less excited than the rest of us. They did come down the morning of embarkation with them on though as you shall see when it post the group picture.

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I have to say how amazing are you and the wife to gift so, much. How fun to cruise with such a large group too. Can't wait to read more.

 

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Thanks! To be honest, it (the cost) grew and grew. This was a one shot deal for us, as we are approaching retirement and the income well dries up some. We covered airfare and an inside room. They all upgraded at their own cost to balcony, Ocean suites, and one a grand suite. We are very happy that we could do this, and the entire family being with us was "our" dream come true.

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