Carnival Breeze short review August 5-12, 2018

This is the second time we cruised on the Breeze and as much as I looked forward to her, unfortunately I was disappointed in some aspects. I am just going to post a short rundown, no pictures.

Dining:

Chef's Table- Awesome experience, worth the money. Took about 3 hours. (A+)

Steakhouse-Awesome experience again, went on the first night. Was told we could only choose the 50% off wine option, no free bottle here the first night. ( still A+)

LIDO- Everything we ate off of Lido was great buffet style food. No one was displeased with the food here. The omelet station moved very quick in the back . Not many people were here for breakfast. (A)

Bonsai Sushi- Awesome food here again. Biggest drawback was that this is situated right next to Ocean Plaza and people seemed to smoke here a lot, even though smoking was supposed to be outside.I suppose some of the smoke could have been carry over from the casino right there, but seriously, people were smoking in Ocean Plaza and no staff said a word. ( A+ for the food)

Red Frog Pub- We ordered conch fritters. took about 10 minutes to get, but nice and hot and fresh. Every time we were here we had great service from the bar and wait staff . (A+)

Dining Room- All of the food we had here was great. The kiddos ordered a couple extra dishes to try throughout the week ( some that sounded interesting but ordered a "normal" dish in case it did not turn out good) and they said it was all delicious. The staff seemed strained keeping up with all of the tables, but we were fine. Dinner took about 1 1/2 hours here in anytime dining when we stayed for dessert. They were training new staff here, but all was good. (A)

Room Service- We ordered room service twice, all was good and arrived within 30 minutes. No problems/issues here. Tipped $2 each time. (A)

Guys Burgers- Awesome and delicious as usual. (A)

Blue Iguana- Awesome and delicious. (A)

The staff:

For the most part everyone was friendly and outgoing except our room steward this time. I don't know if he was seriously being overworked, having a bad week, or just not happy with his job. When we boarded our room was not ready at 1:30pm. At 2:30pm, we went into our room and out steward showed up to dust the room and tidy more but never told us his name or anything. We asked for a room to be serviced a certain way through the special needs department ( and confirmed twice), but it never was. We also had missing glasses from I suppose the previous room occupants, hand prints all over the mirrors, stuff on the balcony ( dirty cups - not the missing glasses though), dust in places that just should have been taken care of. Then we did not see the room steward again until about 9pm- no fun times, no turn down- just asking if we wanted morning or evening service. I told him both.

Have to say it was like this thru the cruise. Not too much of a biggie, but did start off on a wobbly foot here. The cleanliness of the room just lacked throughout here . (D)

The Smell:

Hopefully they got this fixed ASAP, but there was a nasty odor that crossed between human waste and sulfur gas and maybe rotten meat. It was gaggingly awful all week long on deck 8 AFT the whole back hallway. It came and went in waves throughout the week. Very unfortunate when you hit it right after you ate . ( No avoiding it when your room is smack in the middle of it). Asking staff, they said they are aware of it and in the process of fixing it. ( It did not happen by the time we debarked) This smell also happened sometimes on deck 4 and deck 5 after you came out of the AFT elevators.:eek::eek::eek::eek:

The Casino: Seemed to be paying out well for the slots the first couple of days, not so much towards the end. (C+)

The Arcade: There were a lot of games breaking on this trip compared to all of my last cruises it appeared. Lots of error codes on machines and machines not dispensing those silly cards that the kids were collecting. Each time, someone had to find casino services person to either get their money back or get a card that was stuck. The 2 Spongebob machines appeared to be the ones that broke down the most. We also tried the power hour one day where the games were supposed to be 50% off, but it never showed that way on my statement and I was there when one of my kids were playing. Just a heads up. ©

Build A Bear at Sea:

We were family # 12. You get a paper number and get called up when it is your family's turn. A family next to us was in the 60's. When we got up, there were only 2 stuffing machines and 3 animals to choose from. 2 bears and a cat in the hat. It cost $34 for a bear and a Carnival t-shirt. (needs improvement/variety. B)

medical emergencies:

The start of our cruise was a medical detour the first sea day to Cancun/Cozumel as there was a medical emergency on the ship and a passenger needed to go to a hospital.

We then went to a beach in Roatan and a gentleman had a medical emergency after stepping on a sea urchin with his bare feet in the water near shore.

I don't rememberwhat stop we were at, but another guest said a little kid on her tour was bit by a monkey and drew blood. The parents decided to bring her to a hospital.

Then in Cozumel, there was another medical emergency at the last port of call where the ambulance came to the ship.

( Not really an emergency- but it rained all week and seas were rough in patches. The ship, Roatan and Belize were all out of Bonine and Dramamine. Bring your own if at all possible you can be sea sick)

So, just something to keep in mind to expect the unexpected when it comes to medical issues when on a cruise- anything can happen.

Spa: AWESOME! The T-pool was working as it should with all of the bubbles. The heated loungers were nice and toasty. And the best time to go and have it all to yourself: port days :)

Pixels: Plenty of opportunity of picture taking and backdrops. Everything was all digital, no prints unless you asked for them. You can download on your phone or order prints/usb from the screens on deck. BUT, I preordered a package before it was discontinued and was missing some pictures.In the process of recovering those now. Great pictures and variety that I do have though. Mess following up after debarkation with USB. (you can only get your pictures the last night after 9pm or the debarkation morning).

All in all, there were more issues than this, but nothing that would really impact others. This cruise was just lacking compared to all of my other Carnival cruises.

Will we cruise Carnival again?

Yep- have one booked for next year.

Will we book again on the Breeze?

Probably not. We've been on her twice now, and one awesome stay and one no so great- just time to move on.

Would we recommend the Breeze?

Yes-but I would try a different deck for your room and just go with the flow instead of a firm structure. A lot of the issues could have happened on any ship.And be sure to try and find something to occupy your time outside of Ocean Plaza if you have an asthmatic in your group as this is where trivia and all games are played throughout the day and it just stays smoky/have people smoking here.

Forgot to mention Circle C ( 12-14 year olds):

Parents need to keep in mind that this is a pretty much free for all club like O-2 ( the 15-17 club). There is light structure and the counselor does not even show up for a lot of the events. A lot of things happen there that might need to be discussed at home. One big issue brought to mind is the children "stealing" unfinished drinks found around the area and daring each other to drink them. ( yes- adult beverages) . Just a thought.

I appreciate your taking the time to review your Breeze cruise. She is my favorite Carnival ship so I was saddened to read about the aspects that were disappointing.

The Chef's Table truly is an awesome experience. I'm not a sushi lover, but my cabin mate enjoyed it.

Thanks again for your review and happy sailing.

Thanks for the review.

We have cruise booked on the Breeze for January and was wondering where was your cabin located? Hopefully won’t have the same cabin steward. Thanks for the review.

My only complaint about the breeze was the smell emanating from the back of the ship. The last 2 days of our trip we could not use the aft pool or Sun deck/bar because the smell of sewage was overwhelming

Good to know about the wine issue - we were planning on booking the first night. 50% off isn't a great enough incentive to plan the day around and have to pre-pay before boarding. We'll now play it by ear when if we go. Thanks!

Thanks for taking the time to share you review.

We noticed a similar sewage smell on Deck 2 on the Breeze near the after elevators during our trip at the end of June. Fortunately our cabin (2290) was near the forward elevators and it didn't ever get that far. Wondering if they have an air handler issue that needs some work. We weren't near the after parts of Decks 5-9 to know if it was present there during our cruise.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience!