Breeze 1-5-2013 Southern Caribbean

[hihosilvers]

Just back from the Breeze 8-day southern Caribbean.

Not one for long reviews, but would like to post some quick points.

 

Embarkation:

Arrived at port around 12:30 - waited for some friends to arrive, and headed to check in. We were all amazed at how quick the whole process was. Security line was semi-long, but moved. Check-in line was quite long, but moved incredibly fast. Entire process was maybe 20 minutes, and we were boarding. Very well done Carnival! Staff was friendly as usual.

 

First impressions:

Ship looked better in person than all the pictures we've seen. Very, very nice looking ship. Loved the fact that it was so sparkling new and clean. Being on the Dream last year, we were familiar with the layout, but everything just looked that much nicer. Lobby/atrium was beautiful, as were the dining rooms. Our deluxe oceanview was nice, clean and spacious. My wife and I, along with our three (!) boys, somehow fit very comfortably. Lots of storage space, and everything is quite well designed, and makes sense.

 

Food:

As in the past, MDR food ranges from embarrassing (shrimp cocktail, chicken tenders app, etc.) to quite good (prime rib, lobster). Nothing surprised us, and we were all quite happy with our meals. As we all know, food is very subjective, so there's almost no point to give an opinion. Our group was all well aware of what cruise line we were on, and what we paid, so we were happy with what was offered.

We also tried La Cucina, and the steakhouse. La Cucina was very good, with the exception of one main dish that two people in our party had. It was some sort of braised short rib thing, and came out quite dry - almost inedible. The servers solution was to grab some sauce, and say "try it with that." Not the right resolution, but par for the course. Everything else was great. Everyone loved the eggplant appetizer, and the risotto balls. Overall, it was a great experience and well worth the price. I would even do it two times on a future cruise.

The steakhouse was also very, very good. My steak was amazing, and huge. Desserts were good, and overall it was a great night.

I also had the chance to try Guy's Burgers (several times) and really loved the burgers, the concept, look and layout of this new option. This is another win for Carnival. Lido Marketplace was the usual for breakfast. Decent selection, but nothing more than feeding animals at a trough. Just the basics, and low-quality at that. As others have mentioned, those fake scrambled eggs are inedible. We tried a few times, at different times/places, and just couldn't do it. Never had Lido for lunch or dinner, and was happy to avoid. Not that it's so bad, but I hate the lines, and fighting for food. There are so many options on this ship, that it's easy to grab something quick and easy at any time. Also had the pizza, which we all thought was very good. I'm surprised others have not liked it. I thought it was very NY style, and really good.

Never got to Fat Jimmy's, but wanted to....and never got to Tandoor, but have in the past, and it's great.....and never a line. I don't think enough of the Carnival crowd appreciates Indian food, and I'm quite surprised that Carnival has not yet replaced this with something else.

All things considered, I'd have to give the food on the Breeze an 8/10.

 

Entertainment:

I agree with other posters who have been disappointed at the new production shows in the main theater. There is now doubt that this is a cost-cut, and it shows. Sure there is a cool LED screen, and various lighting effects, and the shows look good, but there is really nothing much to them - just singing and dancing to different pre-recorded songs. Not much to see here. Very disappointed that the show band is gone. That was something that I loved to see on a ship (being a musician myself). I would suggest that you see one show, and then do something else with your evenings. We were happy that we had a fly-on hypnotist show one night. His show was very entertaining, and we were glad we went. Wish there were more shows of this type.

Never did get to the Hasbro show, but caught it on TV, and I really liked the concept.

There was a pretty decent band playing in the Ocean Plaza area; a solo guitar guy in the Red Frog Pub (love this place); another solo guitar guy who seemed to pop up in different places, including the Lido deck; a DJ on the Lido, and an awful duo in the lobby. We all know that Carnival has cut back big time here, but for some reason, it didn't bother me too much this time. If I had one wish, it would be to bring back a band for the Lido.

The one constant feeling on the Breeze was that there was a lot going on. You could not be bored. It was very exciting, but very civil at the same time.

The Waterworks area is amazing, and our kids spent a ton of time there. It helped that we had awesome weather for the entire cruise.

Love the Sports Square area.

The ropes course was closed for almost the entire cruise because of wind. Weird, but they need basically no wind for it to open. I can see this being close 80% of the time, because I've yet to see too many non-windy days on a cruise ship. Anyway, my son tried this out on our last day, and liked it.

 

Service:

OK, this is where I may lose a few of you.

Our cabin steward, Andre was great. Very friendly, and kept our cabin in great shape. Can't say enough about what these men and women do on a daily basis.

Other service, was......well.....varied. Since our first Carnival cruise a few years back, I have noticed a slight shift in staffing. I'm not going to generalize, or call out entire nations....or even name names here, at risk of offending, but it goes something like this:

At one point, it seemed that staff were mostly comprised of people from a few select nations from a particular corner of the world. These people were (and are) some of the happiest and friendliest people you could ever meet. Friendly at the dinner table; friendly at the bar; friendly in the hall; great with our kids (a big one); and excellent service always with a smile. Love it.

But nowwwwwww.......there seems to have been a shift. Much more of the staff is now comprised of people from another part of the world (not naming names). A part of the world that has a history much different, stricter, and tougher than we have had. A part of the world that breeds uptight, angry people (my observation). And most-importantly, a part of the world that does not place similar emphasis on service, or friendly social interaction with customers. End result? we encountered many, many, many miserable people all over the ship. From the room service delivery guy, to our head waiter (luck of the draw), to the bar tenders, to customer service, to the steakhouse servers, and so on. It's not like some of them don't try, but this level of service, and just being a "server" in general is just not in their nature, and not part of the culture I guess. Whatever it is, Carnival has a big problem on their hands (and I'm sure it's the same for much of the cruise industry). Now, I'm sure this is a dollars and cents issue, but I sure hope there's a way out. Now, don't get me wrong, we encountered many friendly people, but the ratio is wayyyyy off. Carnival either has to rethink the ratio, or offer much better training for these people - and police it in a much better way. Most people we encountered were of the "tell me what you want, shut up, and get out of my face" school of public service. I see this A LOT where I live, but you don't want to encounter it on vacation.

Worst example of this was at Camp Carnival, where there were 5 "tough" people for every one "nice" person. The four kids in our group all complained at different times that the counselors were mean - and unfortunately we knew just what they meant. Think Ivan Drago, and say "QUIET! Vee vill do crahft now!! You must stop crying! You must get your brother to dance. He must dance!" and you'll get the idea.

Now, having been on several cruises, we can look the other way on all this, but I can see many people being really turned off. I don't know how they fix the problem, or if it even can be fixed - but it would be really nice.

 

Camp Carnival:

Aside from the issues mentioned above, the kids went a few times, and had fun. My 11-year-old was really bored, and I don't blame him. This is my kids' fourth experience with Camp Carnival, and it gets a bit tired after a while. When you read the schedule it sounds like a lot of fun, but then you realize that they just have different names for basically the same thing. It boils down to games (we're talking things like freeze tag and simon says - that sort of thing), crafts, and video games. That makes up 90% of the activities. This may be fine for some kids, and not fine for others. My 5- and 8-year-olds had fun, as did the 7-year-old in our group. Good but not great. Room for improvement here, and not hard to improve.

 

Overall:

If I sound more negative than positive, then that's not accurate. We all loved the ship, and had a great time. Actually, we're already talking about doing the exact same cruise next year. You cannot get a better cruise at this price point, and we were all very happy. Carnival can definitely make some improvements, but overall, they are doing great. I didn't hear too many people complaining on board.

We will sail Carnival again.

 

Any questions, just ask.

[jaixrx]

Thanks for the review! I am determined to try Tandoor next week...I always say I will and don't.

 

I had to laugh at the camp carnival description. My kids went one time to "build a volcano"....they came back with a drawing of one! We had a good laugh about it.

[bucks724]

We sailed with you and I would say your review is VERY accurate. However, I still would go again. In a heartbeat! :)

 

LOVED the cruise. LOL at the craft bit!

[hihosilvers]

Forgot to mention that we did the sushi place a couple times, and it was very good.

[crewsweeper]

Hiho....thanks for the short review of your cruise. I'd be interested in hearing on your experiences at the various ports. Grand Turk reembarking lines, did you get to La Romana (we missed it in November), Curacao on the later arrival, Aruba.

 

You certainly missed the good stuff at the Tandoori, and if you select your options at Fat Jimmy's then head for the salad bar at Tastes, you get a great lunch. But I can understand not getting to all the food options on the ship. There are many. IMO, people complaining about the scrambled eggs either need to hit the omelet stations (there one in the aft Lido too) where they can get eggs anystyle to order or go to the Blue Iguana where the Mexican eggs are fantastic and the plain scramled eggs don't look too bad but you can get huevos rancheros with eggs over medium (reduces the juice, but extra tortillas for over easy can work). did you do the "comedy" brunch?

 

We never had problems getting into the early comedy club act, as we had late dining. Did you go to any of the comedy shows? Impressions on the other entertainment aboard?

[hihosilvers]

Hiho....thanks for the short review of your cruise. I'd be interested in hearing on your experiences at the various ports. Grand Turk reembarking lines, did you get to La Romana (we missed it in November), Curacao on the later arrival, Aruba.

 

You certainly missed the good stuff at the Tandoori, and if you select your options at Fat Jimmy's then head for the salad bar at Tastes, you get a great lunch. But I can understand not getting to all the food options on the ship. There are many. IMO, people complaining about the scrambled eggs either need to hit the omelet stations (there one in the aft Lido too) where they can get eggs anystyle to order or go to the Blue Iguana where the Mexican eggs are fantastic and the plain scramled eggs don't look too bad but you can get huevos rancheros with eggs over medium (reduces the juice, but extra tortillas for over easy can work). did you do the "comedy" brunch?

 

We never had problems getting into the early comedy club act, as we had late dining. Did you go to any of the comedy shows? Impressions on the other entertainment aboard?

 

Grand Turk was great. Got off the ship and headed for the beach, then spent some time at Margaritaville. Getting back on board was a breeze (ya, I know).

 

The general consensus about La Romana is that you'd better do your research, and book an excursion. Otherwise, you don't want to go into town, and there's nothing there anyway. We (like many many others) stepped off the ship, and got back on.

 

Loved Curacao and Aruba. Did beaches at both. For Curacao, we were able to get off the ship, walk around town a bit, grab a cab to the beach (Cabana something, I think. Awesome place) and head back on the ship for a quick dinner. Then a couple of people in our group got back off the ship to do some exploring around the port. I thought the port time was awesome. We did Eagle beach in Aruba, which is beautiful, with that soft, white sand!

 

I've had the Tandoor before, and loved it. I'm aware of the omelet station, but I just can't wait in that line.

 

I did like the menu options at the comedy brunch. I had the steak and eggs one day (forgettable) and the huevos rancheros another, which was really good. They're trying some good ideas here, however, the comedy brunch idea, as many others have mentioned, is awful. I give it six more months. There is absolutely no point to having a comedian enter a huge dining room to die on stage for 3-5 minutes. Some Carnival execs said yes to an idea they shouldn't have.

 

Went to the comedy club on the last night, and there was no line, and lots of empty seats. As always, it was OK. You gotta be lucky with the comedian, but that goes without saying.

 

Overall, I thought entertainment options were great.