Chrissandra's Carnival Breeze US Inaugural B2B Review (11-22 thru 12-2)

[Anung Un Rama]

After the M&G, I stopped at the bar to watch some football while Cass went to do her hair since it was formal night (again, really missed having a sports bar). Planet Earth was in the Thrill Theater and we got there just before it started. We had to sit at the end of the front row and it was much less enjoyable. The sound was really low and I couldn’t hear it at all when the fans were going (which was often to give it that 'Arctic' feel). It was still cool but the experience could’ve been better.

Back to the room and got some good sunset pictures from our balcony.

 

 

 

 

[aggiecruiser05]

 

Some closing thoughts for this day 2 - while the Breeze is awesome, one upgrade that it's missing is the Alchemy Bar, which I don't think Carnival realized was going to be such a huge hit when they introduced it on the Liberty. However, the AWESOME bar staff at Piano Bar 88 knows how to make some of the delish drinks, and can serve them up if you ask them (they aren't on any menu) including the Spicy Chipotle Martini, and a Pineapple concoction I can't remember the name of. I asked about the Cucumber Sunrise, and Silviya said she could, but just asked if I could bring her some cucumbers from Lido deck.. they didn't have that monin syrup to make it there on site :(. They also made an AWESOME chocolatey concoction, but you'll have to wait for later in the cruise to see it ;)

 

I was really sad about seeing this when looking at the deck plan for the Breeze. We LOVED the Alchemy bar on the Liberty and spent a good amount of time there meeting some great people.

[Anung Un Rama]

We met up with some friends in the Casino Bar a little while later to watch the Saints/49ers game. I was happy to see they also had the Raven’s game on. Cass had gone to the Taste Bar and they had a delicious little app (seasoned pork in a roll). Butch stopped by to say hi and ended up chatting for about 15 minutes.

 

 

We had made plans to meet up with 3 other couples for dinner tonight at 7 so I had to leave the game to finish getting ready.

Hottie

 

As I made my way to the Red Frog Pub I stopped by the casino again to check the score and stayed there longer than I should as the Raven’s were driving to tie the game. I wanted to stay and watch overtime but I didn’t want to sleep on the couch so I sucked it up and left.

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

After the M&G, I stopped at the bar to watch some football while Cass went to do her hair since it was formal night (again, really missed having a sports bar). Planet Earth was in the Thrill Theater and we got there just before it started. We had to sit at the end of the front row and it was much less enjoyable. The sound was really low and I couldn’t hear it at all when the fans were going (which was often to give it that 'Arctic' feel). It was still cool but the experience could’ve been better.

Back to the room and got some good sunset pictures from our balcony.

 

 

Love this sunset pic! :)

[lovestocruise19]

Sunday – Sea Day – we woke up and realized that room service was late, which happens so we didn’t think too much about it. Fell asleep for another half hour and when it still hadn’t been delivered, Cass called. They said they had the tag and it was being prepared now. After another half hour we were getting angry. She called again and they said they couldn’t find the tag but if we told them what we wanted they’d get it right to us. Forget it! She got dressed and ran up to lido to grab us a few things so we could eat on the balcony. I will say that this is the only time we’ve EVER had an issue with getting room service in the morning and we do it quite often. We ordered through the tv (nice option) from then on and never had another problem.

 

I had a problem with room service on my last cruise on the Freedom. I had put the tag out, but the tag was still on the door in the morning. I think what had happened was that the tag got turned around because our Snoozin' tag was out there too. Do you know if you can order room service via the TV on the Liberty? For some reason, I though you couldn't order breakfast via the TV, only other items.

[celticd1]

Hi Debbie

 

Now I Really want to get on the Boat SOON. Our bet still on if its the Pack vs the Pats ????????

 

You better believe it! :)

 

(ummm...remind me...what was the bet??)

[JaniceB]

Wow, 2 ships on a stick, you guys are really good at trivia.

 

Sounds like ordering room service on the TV is not the way to go, thanks for the heads up.

[ardnassac79]

We also had an issue with room service on the first night. We ordered from RS after the PB. (I ordered through the tv). It said a 45 min wait. After an hour, I called and they said that it would be here shortly. An hour and a half later, I called back and they said that it was on the way. When I called back 2 hours later, they told me that it had been delivered. ***??? My roommate nancy called guest services to complain about the service. The next day, she got an apology from the hotel director. He told her not to use the tv, but to call it in instead.

 

We got a little apology note later that night (info coming :p ) and then used the TV from there on with no problems - until the last sea day it looked like they removed the option from the interactive TV part... so I'm sure they still have some kinks to work out with it!

[ardnassac79]

I was really sad about seeing this when looking at the deck plan for the Breeze. We LOVED the Alchemy bar on the Liberty and spent a good amount of time there meeting some great people.

 

The same vibe was in the Piano Bar for us, with the addition of, of course, Ron and the entertainment! I tried to be cognizant of not chatting the entire time while Ron was performing... or at least tried to take conversations away from the bar right around the piano... just out of courtesy!

 

I had a problem with room service on my last cruise on the Freedom. I had put the tag out, but the tag was still on the door in the morning. I think what had happened was that the tag got turned around because our Snoozin' tag was out there too. Do you know if you can order room service via the TV on the Liberty? For some reason, I though you couldn't order breakfast via the TV, only other items.

 

I think the room service ordering from the interactive TV for breakfast was new - and as you can see, they had some issues with it. Hopefully the kinks are worked out soon :)

[ardnassac79]

Wow, 2 ships on a stick, you guys are really good at trivia.

 

Sounds like ordering room service on the TV is not the way to go, thanks for the heads up.

 

Oh we got more as you'll see... LOL.. lets just say we've heard a few repeat questions :p

[ardnassac79]

We all headed to Sapphire Dining on deck 3, which is where the Anytime Dining was held. A member of each "room" had to go give our reoom numbers, and we requested a table for 8 - they placed us front and center at a large round table, and well... I’m not sure what to say about dinner that night other than I’m surprised we didn’t get kicked out of the MDR... we must have been good with stifling our laughter (it didn't hurt that the night was winding down as well). The Photographer came around and we got some good dinner pictures...

 

 

This group shot is courtesy of Will (aka Deckchair Captain)

 

 

The Menu that night was the normal "Formal night" menu with Ribs and Lobster...

Chris got the alligator fritters as an app, and I got the ceaser salad (no Pic of the salad)... the fritters were a little more "fritter" than alligator...

 

 

 

I will say we also got a hilarious photo of the alligator fritters and one of Mikey's (the big teddy bear in the middle of the photo up there) eggrolls... but that is probably a little too "Food Porn" realistic for CC :o

 

Since I just had my lobster a few nights ago, I decided to try the ribs - of course Chris got them again too - they were really good, and relatively simple to eat with a fork and knife.. but really filling! Since we just had that photo a few pages back, I'll spare ya another view...:p

 

Chris declined dessert, but I got the diet Banana Cake... I actually really like this one - it's really light and the icing is nice and fluffy.

 

 

I also had one of the classic cocktails only on the MDR drink menu - the "Fresh Italian" - it's really good - but left my mouth really orange!

[Anung Un Rama]

Aww, where's the real 'food porn'?

[ardnassac79]

Afterwards we all stopped to take some ‘formal’ photos. Unfortunately we didn't buy any of them, but the photographers had no one else in line so they had fun with our antics.

 

After closing out the Piano Bar 3 nights in a row we decided to spend the rest of the night in the casino. First, back up to the room to grab some cash, and found another elephant waiting for us... I guess the 2-day sailing was a teaser for some repeat appearances.

 

 

We also found a covered dish waiting for us inside the cabin - some goodies! The truffles were great, and I love chocolate covered strawberries... too bad we were both still stuffed from dinner... they were accompanied with a note from Room Service apologizing for the mess up earlier that morning. We both appreciated it, and it helped make up for the mistake (without a complaint made!)

 

 

We both headed down to the Let it Ride table again, and I quickly lost some funds... Chris was doing a little better, so I headed to the room early. He came back about 30 mins later, and I was already almost zonked.... so we both called it a relatively early night since we had an early day in Grand Turk the next morning.

 

Chris made me promise if I did this part of the review, I had to include this pic... :rolleyes:

 

Ready for bed!!

 

 

 

 

That's it for our first full day at sea on the 8-day sailing... below is a link to the Fun Times - Enjoy!

 

FUN TIMES - 11/25/12 - 8-Day Breeze - Day 2 - Day at Sea

[ardnassac79]

Aww, where's the real 'food porn'?

 

 

Tee hee... ok ok.. (arm twist)

 

Just some alligator fritters and eggrolls here folks... nothing to see.. move along :p :D

 

[Anung Un Rama]

 

 

I love this picture of you. No wonder I hate getting out of bed in the morning

[italianfemmy]

I love this picture of you. No wonder I hate getting out of bed in the morning

 

Awwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!

[ferfoodle]

Tee hee... ok ok.. (arm twist)

 

Just some alligator fritters and eggrolls here folks... nothing to see.. move along :p :D

 

 

Ummm, the photo is blushing....;)

[Anung Un Rama]

Ummm, the photo is blushing....;)

 

They don't call it the 'Blush' dining room for nothing. Thank you, I'm here all week. Actually we were in the Saphire and the lighting in there did not go well with our 'food' setting on the camera.

[billfish]

You better believe it! :)

 

(ummm...remind me...what was the bet??)

 

 

Had something to do with an unsigned peice of mail fom a city where you don't know anyone that contained a SI article predicting the winner of the Superbowl.

 

 

Ring a Bell??????? This is a Super Review. Can't wait to see Ron Pass

[ferfoodle]

They don't call it the 'Blush' dining room for nothing. Thank you, I'm here all week. Actually we were in the Saphire and the lighting in there did not go well with our 'food' setting on the camera.

 

 

LOL. I of course, could not resist the comment...

 

But I do know what the lighting in MDRs can do to the food shots, regardless of the camera setting. I could not for anything get a decent picture of the food in the dining room on the Caribbean Princess - tried everything, but ultimately every shot was shrouded with some shade of green. :o

[ardnassac79]

Monday - 11/26/12 – Grand Turk – After the whole room service debacle the day before we decided to set the alarm for 7 to order room service through the tv (our previous botched attempt was with the door tag). The "planned" debark for this port was around this time, and we had some friends that were planning to head to Jack's Shack early... but since we had no excursions planned, we decided to make it a later start. The TV order told us it would be about 45 mins, and it came on time in about 30 mins. So far so good!

 

We got off the boat around 9, and realized the Holland America boat had already pulled in next to us (we previously researched and knew another ship was supposed to be in port with us) - we use this site:

http://www.cruisereport.com/crPortList.aspx#Hlist

Beach from the pier:

 

 

 

Instead of heading directly to Jacks, we wanted to go to the conch graveyard which is in the opposite direction. At the end of the pier, head to your right.. it's just a direct right out of the shops you have to pass through. There are some good photo ops, and we stopped and got a few pictures as well.

 

This is off to the right of the ship - this beach area doesn't seem to fill up as quickly as the left side of the ship...

 

 

There was a cute gazebo we stopped at to take some pics...

 

The sun was too bright!! (Chris was calling me a Mogwai - bright light! bright light!)

 

 

I made him give me a countdown on this one so I could keep my eyes closed till go time...

 

 

 

My baby <3

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2012 by ardnassac79

[ardnassac79]

We kept going to our right, and it looked like the area was blocked off by a fence, but I saw the sand by the water wasn't fenced off, and some people were walking that way, so we followed...

We're getting there!

 

 

 

 

 

I'm seriously in love with the water here...

 

 

...and not too much farther along, we came to it! We were surprised to see so many conch shells. It was also a much shorter walk than we expected as well.

 

 

 

 

Another great shot of the ships side by side...

 

 

[ardnassac79]

After finding a good souvenir, we walked back the way we came through the port shops towards Jack’s Shack.

 

...side note on our conch (it was pretty big, at least a couple lbs heavy too - it's in my hand in the pic below...)... I was worried about bringing it home via air travel. We tried to get as much sand out of it as we could in the stateroom.. sorry to Yovanni our steward for the sand in the shower!.. and I decided the best way to take it was wrapped in a tee shirt in my carry on... I was a little worried about it going through the scanners (are shells considered agriculture??) but it made it home safe and sound and has a great home on our "cruise" shelf next to our Ships on Sticks, monkey heads, and pictures!

 

 

 

We could definitely tell that there were more people in port this time compared to the first visit on the Pride.

 

The shops area:

 

 

The entrance to Margaritaville is off to the left of the main shopping area.

 

 

 

We didn't go through Margaritaville, rather headed to the beach and walked along the water... this is the first "next stop" after Margaritaville.

 

 

There was still plenty of room if you walked down the beach. Personally though - if we stopped at Grand Turk and just wanted a relaxing beach day without all the entertainment, and less crowds, I would probably want to stay back close to the area where the conch graveyard was...

 

On our previous trip to Grand Turk last year, the area of beach in between Margaritaville and Jack's Shack was ho hum at best... it appears developers are trying to build it up and there was already a casino open for business, with another one right next door that said "Coming Soon". I declined stopping.. I'd already lost too much for my taste, and besides, our buddies were already having fun at Jack's!

 

 

We made it to Jack's! Topher!

 

 

[MisterMom]

Tee hee... ok ok.. (arm twist)

 

Just some alligator fritters and eggrolls here folks... nothing to see.. move along :p :D

 

 

Inappropriate. Where's the moderator when you need one?

 

LOL!!!!! :D

[NHNEV2003]

We were in Grand Turk the week after you on the Liberty-- we spent the day at Jack's-- got to talk to him, his wife, and his step-daughter, and got to spend some good quality time with Topher as well! :)

 

What a great day it was--the beach, the area, and the people--all awesome!!