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

back on the Lido...

And an awesome addition....... Blinds that are pulled down to keep people from taking food before the buffet opens!

Wow, what a concept. But I actually did see one lady reach inside between the blinds to grab something. Geez...

After a nice breakfast, we decided to walk around and see the ship.

Wow...it was WINDY outside!

We wondered if leaving Galveston was going to affect our arrival time in Key West for Tuesday. No announcements yet, but this wind might be a factor.

Around 10am or Cruise Director Schwartz came on the intercom (thankyou for letting people sleep in a little) to say GOOD MORNING Carnival Cruisers! Our Captain has informed him that we are trying to make up time from our late departure from Galveston (ship didn't pull out until around 9pm instead of 4pm).

I forgot to mention that we had our Muster Drill shortly after everyone was onboard the ship, around 7pm. They made it fast for obvious reasons and since it is held inside on all Dream-class ships like the Breeze, it was totally forgetable. In the dining room, sit for 15 minutes, ding dong, bye.

More of the decor of the ship inside....

The Lobby is definitely unique... I had seen photos of it and thought I hated it. But after being on the ship, it kinda grew on me.

I particularly liked the artwork in all the stairwells....some were beach scenes, some were plants, and some were fish photos. Very nicely done.

...to be continued....

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It was President's Day.... so they hung a flag out in Lobby.

Palm trees everywhere!

By mid-day people were rolling out of bed and hitting the pools.

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Lunch.... DH hit Guys Burgers and I got buffet salad and roast turkey.

Tonight was Elegant night, and we were going to the Italian restaurant instead of the MDR, so we decided not to overdo lunch.

My lunch:

The turkey was fine, as was the salad, but someone in the kitchen needs lessons on how to make stuffing. This was a gooey mess and totally inedible. Ditto the corn muffin that had mac-n-cheese sitting on top. Yuck. This would be a theme we noticed for some buffet items all week - undercooked. I wonder if they are trying to undercook in order to keep things from drying out sitting on buffet? News flash - nothing is on buffet long enough, particularly at lunch to get dried out!

I didn't even get a photo of the Guys burger as everyone knows what that looks like. Amazingly, that was the only one he had all week. He said it tasted just like every other time, no issues there.

After eating, we went walking again.

I have a Fitbit and set my goals at 12,000 steps per day. He has a Garmin with 15,000 steps per day --- so this means, even Sea Days, we walk a lot. So off we went to walk, inside and outside.

As I said before --- it was WINDY and the ship did rock a little but not too bad as it was a head wind, not cross wind. It was slowing us down though and later we got the announcement that we might be arriving at Key West a half hour to hour late. No biggie.

More photos, yes, I took 900+ photos so....

...to be continued...

Nice relaxing day..... really nice. And the horror of the Fog in Galveston was left behind.

Soon enough, it was time to get dressed up for our Cucina del Capitano dinner. They had a new menu, which we were excited to try.

At 5:30pm we headed up, all dressed up.....it was Elegant night and that does apply to all restaurants. Some people didn't seem to care and showed up wearing shorts and t-shirts! Geez, people! It says the dress code for the restaurant is same as the MDR...cruise casual on cruise casual nights, elegant on elegant nights! Come on. I had planned to take more photos...

The Cucina is right above the Lido

they were just opening and we were the second group to arrive, us and that other group.

it is a beautiful venue.

The waitstaff is definitely a step above the MDR. Our waiter chatted with us for at least 5 minutes before taking our order. Then he brought out a bread plate, foccacia.

Appetizers;

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DH ordered the Arancini and I ordered the Arugula salad.

Wow....both were some of the best food we have had on a cruise. Similar quality to the Steakhouse, for sure.

Delicious!!!

Entree...

DH ordered the Captain's special and I ordered the Branzino.

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I ordered a side of potatoes, he a side of broccoli

everything was good except the bean mixture under my fish was a bit odd, mushy, and bland.

...dessert next!

Dessert...

I ordered the polenta cake with lemon sorbeto, he got the apple dumpling thing with ice cream. Both were very good but we were so full. So nice to finally get to try this place for dinner instead of just lunch occasionally.

All in all, a great dinner. We both recommend the Cucina del Capitano if you sail on the Breeze, Magic, and Vista. Worth the $15pp for sure.

And yes, we did dress up.

I rarely dress up, I volunteer as a nature/hiking guide in the mountains, so my usual apparel is hiking boots, shorts and jacket. LOL

DH has to dress up for work every day so he really hates Elegant nights unless it is a special thing like this dinner splurge.

I didn't even bring a dress this time though...LOL

..... to be continued....

We headed back to our room and changed clothes, off to the theatre for the Playlist Production show "Motor City" at 8:15pm.

The show was good, not our favorite though. Singers were all pretty good and we understood that this group just boarded the ship this week, so all shows were their first time performing on a cruise. We'll give them a bit of a pass for that alone. I am sure they will get some chemistry together over the coming weeks, for now it was just okay.

After dinner, we walked up to the Lido to fill up our water bottles for the night, and walked around the Lobby to enjoy some music, then off to bed. Key West tomorrow!

...to be continued....

I'm following. We sail this December on her and CAN'T WAIT!!!! Thank you for the pictures and everything. The last cruise I did was on the Sunshine with my niece and nephew. I put together a little recap video and can't wait to do the same on the Breeze.

I looked at your photo album and noticed that you found the coin. Where is it???

I looked at your photo album and noticed that you found the coin. Where is it???

hahahaha..... we always look for and find the ship's coin. Let me just say it is in the same place that we found it on the Magic. ;)

I’m loving your review, and can’t wait to read more [emoji16]

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Really enjoying your review. We have a B2B on the Breeze coming up.

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Awesome review! Thank you. We leave March 25 on the Breeze super excited to see the rest of your review.

Enjoying your review and photos!

Following. Thanks for your review .

THANKS everyone! I am going to continue now....

Tuesday, Feb 20th.......... KEY WEST

We were scheduled to arrive at port at 10am, but of course all that head wind, plus leaving Galveston late didn't make it possible. Announcement - we would arrive at Key West an hour late, so 11am, but we would stay and hour late, so 7 pm departure instead of 6pm. No biggie for us, we had not booked any excursions.

The port was not a new one for me as growing up in NC, my family visited Fla every summer on vacation for 2 weeks. We always went down to the Keys for a few days, usually staying at a hotel in Marathon, so we could zip down to Key West for a day. This was 50 yrs ago, but I really didn't expect Key West to have changed much. My DH had never been there, to Key West at least. We had done a dive trip to Key Largo a decade ago, but that was his only trip to south Fla and we didn't really travel much, just dive dive eat sleep for a week. He was very excited about going to Key West and just walking around to see the local culture and sites. I really hadn't planned anything other than walking around, and definitely eating some conch fritters (a childhood favorite for me), and maybe seeing the Hemingway House. As a kid we always went to the Ripley's museum and stuff like that, which were cheesy even back then. Not happening this time! Just a casual walking tour day, maybe grab a bus if we got tired.

The ship pulled into Key West very slowly and it was WINDY again. There was already a ship docked, the Victory, but no other cruise ships in sight. Not long after docking we were walking down the pier towards town. Wow, it was crazy windy!

My guess was that a lot of excursions were going to be cancelled due to this wind.

Hmmm, this place looks cool. Wish we had stopped back by there on the way back to ship. Totally forgot about it as we looped around and came at the pier from a different angle. Oh well, maybe next time there.

There is a LOT of walking in Key West, even to get where all the trolleys are located. Be prepared, and make sure you have good walking shoes.

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We did see a few buldings with obvious hurricane damage, but only a few.

We had heard that there was a FREE shuttle bus in this area, that we could catch to take to the Southernmost Point. Our plan, loosely scheduled plan, was to catch that bus there, then walk back stopping at Hemingway house and lunch.

Since we had ported late, and it was almost 11:30am, we were already starving, so lunch would be first stop. Conch fritters were calling my name. Aha.... jackpot!

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We were looking for a little shop/restaurant to sit and eat and people watch for awhile. Bingo... found one!

We ordered and sat down outside on the stools located in the alley on the side. Perfect. They made them fresh to order, so it took about 15 minutes, but well worth it. Sodas and fritters. Hello Key West!

After eating, we headed off again and spotted Sloppy Joes bar.

Did we go inside? But of course we did!

Gotta say, it worked out perfectly. As we walked in, another couple left the bar, two stools for us! The place was packed.

yup...

just a little refreshments before we start the hunt for the free bus...

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I would highly recommend you get there early, or just be patient and a spot will open up. It was packed at noon.

After our refreshments, we were off walking again.

and walking...

and walking....

no free bus in sight.... were we on the right road? So confused and the map they gave us leaving the ship wasn't much help. I had printed out a map that someone had posted from a link for the free bus.... aha, wrong street. We walked a few blocks over, but then we saw the Hemingway House was just ahead. Oh well.

CASH only.

You go inside the main house, and wait for a group tour guide to come and take you around....or you just wander around on your own. We decided to just do the walk around on our own.

And yes, cats were everywhere!

We sorta eavesdropped on the tour going around, and heard lots of tidbits of info, so you can also do that.

The place was packed, but we were able to tour the whole house, as well as the gardens outside, and the cat cemetary, pool, etc.

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out in the garden, by the pet cemetary, is a restroom and vending machine with water and sodas. Yeah!

It is not a huge house, but it had a nice second level verandah, overlooking the area and lighthouse.

If you are a Hemingway fan, this place is a must. If you are just a fan of the Key West history and culture, this is a must.

By this time it was mid-afternoon, we wanted some Key Lime Pie, and the area is FULL of sweet shops of all kinds. Cookies and Ice Cream, Key Lime pie on a stick....yes, please!

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oooh fun! we'll be there in a few weeks on the victory!

Don't remember the name of this place, but we had to go inside and have more refreshments...soda for me, beer for you-know-who.

lots of people eating here, food must be good.

but there are a hundred restaurants at least on the island, and it seemed ALL of them were packed with people.

We made a stop back at Sloppy Joes to get DH a t-shirt, they do take credit cards there...most other places are cash only so be prepared! From what the locals told us, many places are just getting back to normal now as far as tourism and sales. Most shops had exactly the same t-shirts and prices were wide ranging for the same thing...so make sure you shop around. You could find the same thing cheaper across the street!

We expected to use our debit card at the shops but were shocked most had signs saying cash only. I would have brought more with us off the ship if I had realized. Oh well. We got him a t-shirt at Sloppy Joes, food, and toured Hemingway house, lots of refreshments along the way - that was a great day all in all.

Soon enough we were back to the square.

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We were back at the ship at 3:20pm, absolutely pooped. We never did find any Free bus. And we never made it down to the Southernmost point. Oh well. It was HOT and HUMID and WINDY all day. I just wanted to get a snack up on Lido and take a shower before dinner.

Tonight was going to be our first night eating dinner in the MDR. Amazing. Night one was so late embarkation we ate on Lido. Second night was the Italian restaurant. Tonight though...the MDR and since we had YTD, we planned to be there early. Doors opened at 5:45pm and we were hungry!

We went up to the Lido after our showers, to take some photos.

As you can see....it was still very WINDY. It was hard to stand next to the rail. We headed down to the MDR, and wow....there was a LINE. There was a girl walking around with a tablet thingy that was giving everyone tickets. Soon the doors opened, we waited maybe 10 minutes, and everyone in line filed in. The waiters were ready by the doors and took everyone right to tables.

I didn't take any photos of the menu most nights, shame on me, I usually do that. Key West "Port of Call" was a croquette & empanada for appetizer and seafood paella for entree. I ordered both of those and they were both a bit disappointing. The apps were just okay, but the paella was not paella at all. It was rice in a bowl with a seafood sauce poured over top. Who things that is a paella? Not me. It tasted okay but I was really expecting something different. DH got the mahi mahi, which was a good call. Dessert - of course he got the chocolate melty cake (he talks about this thing every cruise and inbetween cruises) and I got the fruit plate.

Service was fine, people all seemed very tired and hungry so I am sure the waiters were happy to be this busy. The place filled up pretty fast. I doubt too many people stayed out until the Back-on-board time of 6:30pm.

We went back to the room to look at packing for the next day's port - Freeport. We were both so excited about that port and our excursion.

...to be continued...