BREEZEing through the Mediterranean 6/27 - 7/9/12

[luckybecky]

Thank you for the great tips! Can you expand a bit about the aerobus? Do you take all your luggage on board with you? Or is it stored somewhere where you can'tsee it? Will it be hard to make your way to the hotel pulling luggage? We have read so much about watching for thieves that we don't know how we will fare especially after a tiring flight!Maybe we should grab a cab from Placa Catalunya to the hotel (we are staying at the other Continental)?Or is that not a problem?

 

Hi Ray and Pam!

 

Here's a website which has lots of details about transportation from the airport.

http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/airport/barcelona-airport-transport.html

In fact, this website is a good resource about visiting Barcelona in general.

 

Your hotel is very close to the Plaza. It would not be worth the trouble to hail a cab. You can walk there in 5 minutes. And, as RainorShine pointed out, there are lots of people with luggage. Just print out a map of your hotel location and have it handy so when you step off the bus you'll know where to go.

 

I bought Borch brand maps for several of our ports on Amazon. They were about $7 each and are made of a laminated paper that is very durable and we used them constantly.

 

The bus was not too crowded when we rode it (no one had to stand). The luggage rack is located in the center of the bus and it was easy to keep an eye on your luggage.

 

I also had heard that pickpockets are a huge problem. We did not have any trouble but we did take precautions and stayed vigilant.

 

Enjoy your trip! :)

[luckybecky]

 

 

Here's the thallasotherapy pool. It looked great, I would have liked to try it.

 

 

 

 

Ladies' locker room:

 

[luckybecky]

 

 

Couples massage room. Does this look great, or what?!

 

 

 

 

 

Single massage room:

 

 

 

Here's an inside massage room:

 

[luckybecky]

The gym

 

 

 

 

 

Sauna

 

 

This is the hallway with massage rooms on either side. There were a lot of them!

 

[luckybecky]

All those spa pictures were taken before sailaway. They have the spa open doing tours. I dodged the tour (sales pitch!) and just wandered around on my own. After sailing, the spa is not accessible to just walk in, you have to pay for access to most areas. I think the gym and sauna are free to use.

 

Here are more ship photos that I took that afternoon:

 

Ovation theater

 

 

Breeze Bar in the atrium

 

 

Sapphire dining room (sorry, I missed getting photos of the Blush dining room)

 

 

[luckybecky]

Arcade

 

 

 

Outside area of Red Frog Rum Bar

 

 

Limelight Lounge (this is where the Punchliner Comedy Club happens in the evenings)

 

[luckybecky]

So back to our story:

 

 

 

 

Sailaway was delayed a bit, first because they were still loading supplies, and then there was something about having to wait for a ferry to go by. We were scheduled to depart at 5:00pm but didn’t start backing away from the pier until 6:30pm, and then it took awhile to get turned around. This was disappointing for us because we had Steakhouse reservations at 7:00, so if there was a sail-away party, we missed it. The lido deck had been cleared of chairs, but nothing was happening yet when we left for the Steakhouse. Here are some shots as we pulled out of the port. As you can see, the Barcelona port is industrial and not very picturesque.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the ping pong table on (I think) deck 11 near the forward elevators. It was popular, people were always playing there.

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

The Steakhouse was good. Whether it is worth the extra cost, well I guess that just depends on the individual. I think it was, but I would not do it every night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For starters, we each were presented with a small appetizer (both different), mine was an excellent chilled tomato soup and some little thing on a spoon – I don’t know what it was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a choice of focaccia or brioche, which were served with butter, some sort of eggplant thing kind of like a chutney, and a tomato confit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had french onion soup which was out of this world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then a spinach salad without the mushrooms which was excellent, Paul had a Caesar salad.

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Main course was a strip steak (cooked perfectly) with wasabi mashed potatoes and roasted garlic. Sorry about the poor quality of my photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul tried the steak and lobster combo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had the chocolate sampler for dessert. This was to die for! The sampler alone was almost worth the price of admission if you are a chocolate lover!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't remember what Paul had for dessert -- I was too busy swooning over the chocolate sampler. Because we went on the first night, we also got a free bottle of wine with our meal. You can choose a white or red Santa Carolina. We arrived at 7:00, were out at 8:30.

[GRAMMYTAN]

From your steakhouse pictures, it appears that everyone is dressed very casually. You said you went on the first night, so is that why or is it always that casual? I was also surprised that there were no tablecloths on the tables. The food, however, looked great!

[luckybecky]

From your steakhouse pictures, it appears that everyone is dressed very casually. You said you went on the first night, so is that why or is it always that casual? I was also surprised that there were no tablecloths on the tables. The food, however, looked great!

 

That's a good question. Paul wore slacks and a polo shirt. I don't remember what I wore, but I'm sure I didn't change into a dress. Probably some capri pants and blouse. This is the only time we've ever been to the Steakhouse on any ship, so I can't say how this night compares to others. I would not consider wearing shorts, but yes it was casual.

 

One other thing about the Steakhouse, regarding timing. I know there has been discussion here on CC about the meals in the MDR taking too long. Our meal at the steakhouse took an hour and half. Service was very attentive, dishes were removed promptly when we were finished, etc. However, I almost would not have minded if the meal had taken a bit longer. I tend to be a slow eater anyway, and with this much food and several courses, 2 hours would not have been too long.

 

We will probably do the Steakhouse again on a future cruise. But with so many choices (most of them free), I can't say I'd do it all the time. Still, we enjoyed it very much and the quality of the food and service was excellent.

[luckybecky]

To finish off our first day on the Breeze, we went to the Welcome Aboard Show at 10:00pm with John. He had the entire audience in hysterics. I was laughing so hard I was crying. I don’t know if John sets up his jokes with plants in the audience or not, but either way, he is very funny. There was a Motown show after John did his bit. It was good but we left before it ended because it was getting late and we had an early excursion in the morning.

It was a great first day! The next day, we would awake in Marseilles, France.

[GRAMMYTAN]

Like!

[jonbgd]

Enjoying the Review. Its nice to see the post Farcus muted decor.

 

While it might be a few years for the Breeze, we are looking at the same intinerary for 2014, just not sure what ship will be doing it.

 

Did you have the added Euro tax on everything on board??

[luckybecky]

Enjoying the Review. Its nice to see the post Farcus muted decor.

 

While it might be a few years for the Breeze, we are looking at the same intinerary for 2014, just not sure what ship will be doing it.

 

Did you have the added Euro tax on everything on board??

 

Hmmm... not sure about that. There was a tax at the Steakhouse. We had reserved it at the old price of $30 each, and there was a tax of $4.80 added to our $60 tab.

 

Other than drinks, we actually bought almost nothing on board. I am almost certain the drinks had only the 15% gratuity added, no tax.

 

I made one small purchase in the gift shop near the end of the cruise, just a little pin and a postcard. Not sure if tax was added or not.

 

We did not purchase anything else, no photos, nothing from the shops. Nada. Oh wait, we did buy a pass to the thrill theater. There was no tax on that.

 

We did use our S&S card to put cash on the machines in the casino (it's all electronic, you don't even have to feed money in the machine anymore). This was just charged even money, no service fees or added charges of any kind.

 

Sorry, don't know if that fully answers your question.

 

I agree with you about the decor, by the way. It was very nice. Our only other cruise was on the Ecstasy which was all neon and glitz. I liked the Breeze much better.

[remharri]

Thanks for the review! You are bringing back a ton of memories of our Med cruise last year and also loving the pics of the Breeze, can't wait to sail her in November.

[luckybecky]

Thursday June 29, our first full day on the Breeze, and we hit the ground running. Remember I said this is a very port-intensive itinerary. On our 12 day cruise, we had just 3 sea days – 9 days in port. Today we arrived in Marseille, France. I had found a tour guide in France and hooked up with 3 other couples from our Cruise Critic roll call to take a tour of Aix en Provence.

 

 

 

Joining our roll call was one of the best things I did to prepare for this cruise. We did not do any Carnival excursions. We did three privately booked excursions with other CC members. These were considerably cheaper than comparable excursions would have been through Carnival, plus we had small groups and personalized service. However, you do need to research the tour companies you choose to be sure you get a good one. More on that later.

 

 

 

We had agreed to meet our group in the lobby by the Breeze Bar at 7:30am. Since we had such an early start, we put our the door hanger the night before to pre-order room service breakfast. Here’s a tip I learned here on CC: although bacon is not offered on the door hanger card, you can write it in. Here’s how: order a BLT no mayo. You’ll have bacon and toast for breakfast! Make sure you check off butter and jelly if you want them for the toast. We also ordered some fruit, yogurt and juice. We did this a couple of times when we had early excursions. We had asked for delivery between 6:30 and 6:45am, but they showed up at 6:20. That was OK, we were up.

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

We had no trouble finding our CC group in the lobby as planned, though this was the first time we had ever met in person. We met our guide, Catherine, who was right outside when we disembarked. One problem: Carnival would not let Catherine drive up to the parking area near the ship. Although there appeared to be plenty of room, they said they were reserving that lot for Carnival buses. The result was that we had a brisk 10 minute walk to get to the next lot, where she was allowed to park. This struck me as kind of petty on the part of Carnival, to unnecessarily create this inconvenience. Fortunately no one in our group had mobility issues. (When we returned later that afternoon, she was allowed to pull into that same lot right up next to the ship, no problem.)

 

 

 

Catherine spoke excellent English and had a comfortable van for us. She had a microphone so those in the back could hear her as she drove and gave us some commentary. It took us about an hour to reach Aix. She took us on a walking tour of about an hour, explaining about the architecture and history of the area, and gave us an extensive tour of the cathedral in Aix. Then, Catherine let us go our own way to explore the markets and we agreed upon a time to meet back up.

 

 

 

Here's part of the Cathedral



 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are with our roll call group

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was market day in Aix and we had two hours to look around the markets. We enjoyed the markets, but we all agreed later that an hour or so would have been enough time. Paul and I stopped with another couple in our group to have a drink at a sidewalk café while we passed the time. My glass of wine was cheaper than the cokes ordered by the others! Here are some photos of the markets. The soaps make a great souvenir or gift for folks back home, only about 3 dollars each.

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

After meeting up with our group and guide, we had lunch at Le Terminus restaurant. This is located at the top of the main avenue where the main markets are held. Catherine ate with us and helped us decipher the menu. I had a delicious quiche Lorraine, which was served with a baked potato, small salad, and a side dish of ratatouille. Cost was 12.50 euro (roughly $16) for a very filling meal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are on the main street where the market is held.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, Catherine drove us to a scenic spot where painter Paul Cezanne had worked, with beautiful views of one of his favorite subjects, Mt. St. Victoire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we had a driving tour of the area around the mountain with scenic views of the Provencal countryside before returning to the ship around 3pm (back on board time was 3:30).

 

 

 

Here is the contact info for Catherine if you’d like to book her services. She was very knowledgable and gave us a great tour. The cost was 520 euro, which came to 65 euro per person for our roughly 8 hour tour. She will personalize the itinerary as you wish.

 

 

 

Catherine D'Antuono, Certified Lecturer Guide

Sarl Tour Designer in Provence

tour.designer@provence-travel.com

www.provence-travel.com

www.shore-excursions-marseille.com

Tel. : 00 33 (0)6 17 94 69 61

[luckybecky]

We had previously arranged a Meet and Greet for our CC roll call. We decided to do the M&G at 4:30pm after returning from Marseille. This time worked well because everyone was back on board, yet early enough to not interfere with anyone’s dinner plans. Here’s what we did: after agreeing upon the date and time, I kept a head count of who wanted to attend. A few weeks before sailing, I contacted John Heald through his facebook page and asked him to set us up with a location at the time we had selected.

 

 

He wrote back and asked me to remind him again later, which I did. He needs a head count so he knows how much space you’ll need. You won’t know the location in advance. John will make sure it is printed in the Fun Times so everyone in your group needs to look there. We had 125 who said they would attend. They scheduled us in the Limelight Lounge, where the Punchliner Comedy Club is located.



 

 

Carnival does not provide any services for your meet & greet, other than helping you arrange a location. I know some people think they should provide food, drink, or gifts, but they do not. You can pay a fixed per-person fee if you want these things provided, but that can be a hassle. Someone in your group will have to be in charge of collecting the money, and the cost will go on one person’s sign and sail account. We didn’t want to bother with all this money handling, so we just asked John to make sure bar service was available, and it was.



 

 

Not all 125 people showed up, but we still had a good sized crowd. It was really fun to meet all these folks that we’d been chatting and planning with for all these months. The only trouble was that with meeting 50 or 60 people at once, I had trouble remembering everyone. We became friends with several couples, but I’m sorry to say that there were others who we saw only a few times, or not at all, for the rest of the cruise. Here are just a few shots from our M&G.



 

 





 

 





 

 





 

 



 

 



The M&G started breaking up after about an hour and we went back to our room to change for supper. We had slept for only a few hours the night before so we decided to take a short rest. Next thing we knew, we were waking up at 10:00pm! Obviously we had missed dinner, so we went to the lido deck looking for food, but pizza seemed to be the only available option and didn’t appeal to us. We went back to our room and ordered room service. It arrived in just 20 minutes! Our sandwiches were just OK, nothing special, but the chocolate cake was outstanding!

 

 

 

 

 

 



Next stop: Livorno!

[luckybecky]

Here's the room service menu

 

 

 

[weary traveler]

enjoying very much your report both ashore and onboard. I'm hoping to see some casino pics and other nooks and crannys... thank you for taking the time to do so

[divergirl63]

Thanks for such an amazing review, we sail her in November!!

[flgatormom29]

Serenity deck:

 

 

I can't wait to lay on one of those hammocks!

 

And nice note about the connecting rooms...I just went onlint to look at my room and I am in a connecting room!!! :eek: I think I may email my PVP and ask to be moved!

[lifeisgoodPat]

enjoying very much your report both ashore and onboard. I'm hoping to see some casino pics and other nooks and crannys... thank you for taking the time to do so

 

This is a fantastic review. Thank you so much. We will be sailing on the 10/1/12. It is so good of you to fill us in.