Back from the September 19th Breeze sailing

[crewsweeper]

Thanks for the review and the fabulous pictures! Nice to know the Breeze's Blue Iguana services it's breakfast burritos. They were so good on the Liberty, I had all my breakfasts there. So many options to eat on the ship! A thread next to yours asked about the 5 D Theater. Did you attend any of the showings? Or do you have any information on them, say from the Capers/Fun Times? Also do you have pictures of the gym's exercise equipment/layout other than just treadmills? Thanks for sharing your great cruise.

[tkotis]

Nice pictures, in the dining room do you know if there are any tables for 6 people?

[NYRsHOCKEY]

I did not visit the 5D theater. I can't even recall having walked by it.

They listed the theater showings in the Fun Times everyday.

I can check when I get home to let you know what details they printed daily.

I walked into the gym briefly to take a quick look while I was touring the spa. They have a lot of different equipment besides the treadmill and also have a separate small studio for yoga. I didn't take any pictures of this area.

 

 

Yes, there are definitely tables for 6. I sat at one in the Blush upper dining room.

[NYRsHOCKEY]

Love your pictures! We're cruising on the Sunshine next June, with many of the same ports. I'm really interested in what you did each day. Who did you book for shore excursions, and what advice do you have for "on your own" ports, like Monaco and Dubrovnik? Thanks for posting your review!

 

 

 

In Barcelona, we just walked around on our own the first day. We also took the cable car up to Montjuic. We then started to crash, so we spent the rest of our afternoon sitting at the hotel pool. We stayed at W Barcelona and loved it. It's not in the center but we really appreciated and peace and quiet. On day 2, I booked a 5 hour private tour with Barcelona Day Tours. Our driver/guide Christian was great. In addition to the typical tourist sites, we did visit 2 cemeteries, which may be weird to some. The statues are really beautiful. Christian picked us up right on time at the hotel and dropped us off at La Sagrada Familia as requested. When we were done with Sagrada Familia, we spent the rest of the evening walking around Las Ramblas.

 

 

 

 

In Monaco, I used Dream Tours. Again, our driver/guide was great. His name was Frederick. He was waiting for us when we got off the ship and the tour lasted about 8 hours. We visited Eze, Nice, St. Paul de Vence (amazing!), and wandered around Monte Carlo for a bit (and went inside the casino of course). There were 6 of us in total from the CC roll call.

It was really a beautiful day.

 

 

 

At the port of Livorno, my friend and I decided to tag along on a tour that someone else on the roll call had booked, so I can't recall the name of the company. Again, there were 6 of us. We made a 30 minute photo stop in Pisa and continued to Florence. We made a stop at Piazzale Michelangelo for some pictures and were then dropped off near the Ponte Vecchio for a few hours on our own. We had a scheduled meeting point and time.

 

My friend and I wandered around a bit but never made it to the Duomo or to any of the museums. We spent the day shopping for leather and had a nice lunch followed by some great gelato.

 

 

 

At Civitavecchia, I hired a private driver/guide once again. Maurizio from Touring in Rome picked us up at 8am and dropped off us at 7pm. There were 5 of us and we had a tiring but fabulous day. We visited most of the major tourist sites as well as Castel Sant'angelo, which is a place I love. We did not visit the Vatican and was something we all agreed upon prior to the tour.

 

 

Olbia was the one port I was slightly disappointed in but it's my own fault. I was unsure of what to do and eventually decided to join a group of 15. Mistake. I can't recall the name of the company, but I would not book with them again. The guide wasn't very good in my opinion. The highlight of my day was buying a beautiful necklace.

 

 

 

No guided tour in Dubrovnik. We took a taxi to the cable car and got there about 20 minutes before they opened (9am). The people who ran the car saw a few of us lining up and actually opened about 10 minutes early. After a beautiful ride, we were walking into Old Town by 9:30.

 

We wandered around for a bit and eventually ran into some friends and we decided to walk to the wall together. It was not the easiest walk but it was absolutely beautiful. After we finished with the wall, we sat down for some lunch and then did some shopping. We took a shuttle bus back to the port. I believe it was 5 Euros. Once we got back onto the ship, we ran straight to the spa to soak our aching feet and then watched a beautiful sunset.

 

 

 

I also did not book a guide in Venice. We were scheduled to dock at 2pm but were off the ship and walking towards the people mover by 1:20pm.

 

The walk from the ship to the people mover was a good 7 minutes. After paying the 1 Euro, we took the short ride and started walking. Venice is a great place to just walk around and 'get lost'. We eventually decided to hop on a vaporetto and head over to the island of Murano. I bought a 24 hour pass. After spending some money on Murano, we headed back to Venice for more wandering around and then dinner. You must walk through St. Mark's Square in the evening when everything is lit up and there are musicians playing.

 

On day 2 in Venice, we took the secret itineraries tour at the Doge's Palace, did some more shopping, had an amazing lunch, and then climbed the St. Mark's Clock Tower (not the campanile), which was amazing.

 

There were 3 ships in port that day and things were very crowded, so we had a tough time getting on a vaporetto. It took us a full hour to get from St. Mark's back to the ship, so I can understand why this seems to be a port where people end up missing the ship if they don't watch their time carefully.

 

 

 

In Messina, we once again joined a tour booked by another in our roll call. There were 6 of us. The company was Sicily with Mario and we visited Mt. Etna (which was awesome) and Taormina, where we had the best pizza of the trip. We then wandered around Messina on our own for a bit, but most shops were closed for siesta. My friend and I did find a nice little pastry shop and bought some fresh cannolis and biscotti.

 

 

 

The one Carnival excursion we booked was on the day of debarkation. We took a tour to Montserrat and then got dropped off at the Renaissance Airport Hotel. Montserrat is beautiful and definitely worth a visit if you have the extra time in Barcelona. The hotel offered a shuttle to Las Ramblas (free at certain times and 5 euros at other times, which is still a bargain) and so we went back into town for our final dinner of tapas, paella, and sangria. The hotel also offered a free shuttle to the airport.

[NYRsHOCKEY]

Mt. Etna, Taormina, Messina-

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NYRsHOCKEY]

 

 

[NYRsHOCKEY]

Rome-

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[NYRsHOCKEY]

 

 

[moore4220]

Wow, your pictures are phenomenal. I am so excited about our Breeze Cruises in Jan/Feb 2012 to varius Caribbean ports, but after viewing your photos, I will need to save up for a Mediterranean adventure.

[NYRsHOCKEY]

 

 

 

 

 

[NYRsHOCKEY]

Too cute-

 

 

 

 

And here I am on Murano-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NYRsHOCKEY]

St Mark's flooded due to high tide-

 

 

 

 

View from St. Mark's Clock Tower-

 

 

Inside the clock tower-

 

 

 

[NYRsHOCKEY]

Farewell to Venice-

 

 

[termdev01]

Unbelievable pictures and you have 5000 of them? Can you comment on the quality and type of shows on the Breeze? We are cruising on her on the 25th.

[NYRsHOCKEY]

Unbelievable pictures and you have 5000 of them? Can you comment on the quality and type of shows on the Breeze? We are cruising on her on the 25th.

 

 

Thank you. Yes, about 5200. I know it's crazy.

I can't really say much about the shows. I am not a fan in general of those 'production' type shows. My friend and I watched 2 of them for about 5 minutes but they were not for us, so we got up and left. Most of the people I met said they liked them. There were 4 shows in rotation on the 12 day sailing. We enjoyed the comedy club. They had family shows at 7:45 and 8:45 and then adult comedy at 9:45 and 10:45. There was a juggler one night who was amusing to watch. There were some other shows but we just never made it. After sitting for nearly 2 hours at dinner, we liked to walk around the ship and enjoy the evening.

[momtotwins14]

Fantastic review and pictures. We are doing the same cruise on Oct 25. I have a Nikon (not the 7000), what settings did you use for the pictures, one of the automatic settings or did you control the aperture, speed, shutter, etc? Want to make sure I get great pictures as well as you did.

Thanks

Chris

[Ron_L]

The pictures of the ports are good enough to make me want to visit them :) But I would miss the tropical beaches of the Caribbean :)

[TeamAguilar]

Thank you. Yes, about 5200. I know it's crazy.

I can't really say much about the shows. I am not a fan in general of those 'production' type shows. My friend and I watched 2 of them for about 5 minutes but they were not for us, so we got up and left. Most of the people I met said they liked them. There were 4 shows in rotation on the 12 day sailing. We enjoyed the comedy club. They had family shows at 7:45 and 8:45 and then adult comedy at 9:45 and 10:45. There was a juggler one night who was amusing to watch. There were some other shows but we just never made it. After sitting for nearly 2 hours at dinner, we liked to walk around the ship and enjoy the evening.

 

Just to add to the shows, the 4 productions shows were ok. They seemed popular with the guests and were entertaining but I don't think more than two people in the show could sang and even those two...... We sat in the 3rd row for the first show and several of the singers couldn't keep their lips moving to the words on time. Great dancing, sets, lights and backdrops but not much for real singing.

 

The comedians were all good, we went to all of the adult shows. There were 6 comedians for the 12 days. Only two on the boat at a time. The two in the middle from the UK were interesting. The first comedian Austin Knight was very good. The only reason we came back for his second show was because he told everyone he was going to have all new material the following night. He ended up doing the exact same show. We felt bad but half the audience including ourselves got up and walked out.

 

Before Austin, Tom Pepper performed. He was hilarious the first night but painful to watch the 2nd night. His 2nd show was new material but he ended the show with 10 minutes of reading a Cinderella story backwards from a children's book. I don't think I have ever seen someone do so well one night and fall completely on his ass the 2nd. He was the only one laughing. Felt bad for him. I love going to the Improv in Vegas and San Diego and all the comedians were solid especially with their first night of material. I would suggest just going to one adult / family show for each set of comedians.

 

The comedy brunch was a bit awkward. We went once and the guy we saw perform was hilarious in the club but telling jokes to a half full dining room that is trying to eat their eggs benedict isn't the best environment for comedy.

 

There was a Nat King Cole singer who was really good. He could sing!

 

Pool games, hairy t-shirt contest was a bit weak.

 

Piano Bar guy was great!

 

DJ's in the pool and club were good.

 

Nightclub was fun and I believe the crew bar stops serving alcohol at 1:30am so that is when the club would really fill up especially on formal nights. It was fun to meet some of the younger officers from Italy. All nice people. I could only imagine the **** that goes on down below. It's probably the "Love Boat" down there!

 

Guitar player by the pool was excellent although I tend to prefer some steelpans around the pool when I'm on vacation.

 

Overall the itinerary was why we chose this cruise. I still think Carnival offers great value and my wife and I had an amazing time. Cruising in general has changed a lot in the last 10-20 years just like everything else. People want rock bottom prices so that effects things like entertainment etc. I will continue cruising with Carnival and other cruise lines. I love cruising! :)

[TeamAguilar]

Yeah, great pictures! :D

[vacation_junkie]

Deck 7 aft elevator bank, aft wrap cabin 7458, and me on our long balcony.

 

We are 2 down from your room in 7462 on our January sailing!

How did you find the location of the room?

How was the noise above and below?

Any tips on getting from our room to the Lido deck or any other parts of the ship?

thanks so much!

[NYRsHOCKEY]

Since we were constantly moving, I actually used auto settings on the camera. I kept the flash off most of the time and also used some of the pre-set settings for sunset or dawn.

 

As for the location of our cabin, I liked it. Yes, there is some shuddering when the ship is docking, but we were always awake by that time, so it didn't bother us at all.

The location was convenient for the blush dining room and parts of the lido. The noise you hear will depend on who your next door and upstairs neighbors are. The most noise we heard were other toilets flushing and of course, some door slamming. We thankfully had good neighbors though, so zero complaints from me.

I would say deck 5 is one of the easiest ways to cross from one end of the ship to the other. We would also walk all the way forward on deck 7 and then up to the spa or down to the gangway. The spa and serenity are all the way forward. It's a pretty long walk from one end to the other.

[vacation_junkie]

Since we were constantly moving, I actually used auto settings on the camera. I kept the flash off most of the time and also used some of the pre-set settings for sunset or dawn.

 

As for the location of our cabin, I liked it. Yes, there is some shuddering when the ship is docking, but we were always awake by that time, so it didn't bother us at all.

The location was convenient for the blush dining room and parts of the lido. The noise you hear will depend on who your next door and upstairs neighbors are. The most noise we heard were other toilets flushing and of course, some door slamming. We thankfully had good neighbors though, so zero complaints from me.

I would say deck 5 is one of the easiest ways to cross from one end of the ship to the other. We would also walk all the way forward on deck 7 and then up to the spa or down to the gangway. The spa and serenity are all the way forward. It's a pretty long walk from one end to the other.

 

We usually book a room on the spa deck so we are use to being at the far end of the ship..this time we are at the back end :) We are on vacation and can use the walk to wear of some of the food we consume.

I am looking forward to watching the sunset from our balcony. Could you use the balcony light at night?

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Great job ..

[HarpHarp]

Those pictures are just torture. I don't think I can make it though this week:D