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~~A review you might just BREEZE though! + over 300 ship pics!~~

eroller

By eroller,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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ooulio

ooulio

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We sailed on Breeze in Feb. Loved it. We also did the Cucina del Capitano a few times. Great Italian food. We did the Magic last year. It was pretty but not as nice as Breeze. Loved the colors. Guys Burgers were great. George Lopez's comediens shows were funny. We had a great time.

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celticd1

celticd1

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We sailed on the Breeze in early February and your experience pretty much mirrors ours. Loved the ship, the new 2.0 upgrades (Red Frog Pub, Guy's Burgers - who could believe they would really be THAT good?!) and the changes to the decor but felt the MDR food and the quality of service had gone seriously downhill. We did not see any of the shows or comedians so I can't comment from a personal perspective however; we did hear less than stellar reviews of the shows. Most people cited the same reasons that you did.

 

Great review and pics, thanks for posting. :)

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eroller Great Review Rare

eroller

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We sailed on the Breeze in early February and your experience pretty much mirrors ours. Loved the ship, the new 2.0 upgrades (Red Frog Pub, Guy's Burgers - who could believe they would really be THAT good?!) and the changes to the decor but felt the MDR food and the quality of service had gone seriously downhill. We did not see any of the shows or comedians so I can't comment from a personal perspective however; we did hear less than stellar reviews of the shows. Most people cited the same reasons that you did.

 

Great review and pics, thanks for posting. :)

 

 

 

Trust me you didn't miss anything by not seeing the so-called production shows. It was painful to sit through them and for once I was glad they were only 30 minutes. I don't think I could have endured anything longer than that! ;-) I did see a couple of the adult comedy shows and they were enjoyable. It's interesting because the two other largest mass-market lines, Royal Caribbean and NCL keep raising the bar on entertainment, and Carnival seems to be going in the opposite direction. If entertainment is important to you, and it is for many cruise passengers, I can no longer recommend Carnival. It's really a shame.

 

Ernie

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Cruising89143

Cruising89143

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Ernie, great job with the photos. I have been waiting for your review as I knew you were cruising on this ship. I was interested in your opinion. Unfortunately there is not much that would make me want to cruise on Carnival in the future. I hope that you enjoy the Sunshine but with Europe as your backdrop, you can't lose. :)

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eroller Great Review Rare

eroller

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Ernie, great job with the photos. I have been waiting for your review as I knew you were cruising on this ship. I was interested in your opinion. Unfortunately there is not much that would make me want to cruise on Carnival in the future. I hope that you enjoy the Sunshine but with Europe as your backdrop, you can't lose. :)

 

 

The BREEZE was really a lovely ship, and the fit and finish in all the public areas were a huge step up from the typical Carnival vessel. Some things were done so well, like the buffet and speciality restaurants. I loved the Serenity Deck, Sports Court, Carnival Waterworks, my cabin, and the Spa very much. Unfortunately the ship is high density so often times it did feel crowded (much more so than OASIS), and the decline in entertainment and the food/service in the MDR was really noticeable. It's a shame because those were two areas that Carnival always excelled in.

 

I do have the SUNSHINE booked and that is mainly because it was the only ship that offered the ports we wanted during a specific time frame. Chris is limited in his time off and when he can take vacation, and we really wanted to hit Venice and Croatia and the SUNSHINE met all the requirements. This cruise is very port intensive so we are looking at the ship mostly as a means of getting to all these great places. I'm not so concerned about the entertainment or how crowded the pool will be because we really plan to just eat and sleep on the ship. If the SUNSHINE turns out to be really great I'll be ecstatic, but I have my doubts. As you know they are adding a lot of cabins and removing public space. Not a good combination. At least the interiors will look more like the BREEZE and that is a good thing. The decor is very nice and inviting.

 

After the SUNSHINE I probably won't be back on Carnival until their brand new design comes out in a few years. I really curious if it will be a completely new design or yet another tweaked version of the Destiny/Conquest/Dream Class ... or perhaps a modified Royal Princess? Anyway there are just other lines that are better suited for me, but this is not to say Carnival isn't a good fit for a lot of people. It just depends on what your priorities are.

 

Ernie

 

ps - just off the OASIS about a month ago and it was pretty awesome. Not quite as great as the first time, but this was mainly do to the passenger mix. Huge groups of 15 year old girls from South America celebrating quinceanera that pretty much took over the ship. I always thought I could avoid the kids during a January cruise but not any more! LOL

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Cruising89143

Cruising89143

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The BREEZE was really a lovely ship, and the fit and finish in all the public areas were a huge step up from the typical Carnival vessel. Some things were done so well, like the buffet and speciality restaurants. I loved the Serenity Deck, Sports Court, Carnival Waterworks, my cabin, and the Spa very much. Unfortunately the ship is high density so often times it did feel crowded (much more so than OASIS), and the decline in entertainment and the food/service in the MDR was really noticeable. It's a shame because those were two areas that Carnival always excelled in.

 

I do have the SUNSHINE booked and that is mainly because it was the only ship that offered the ports we wanted during a specific time frame. Chris is limited in his time off and when he can take vacation, and we really wanted to hit Venice and Croatia and the SUNSHINE met all the requirements. This cruise is very port intensive so we are looking at the ship mostly as a means of getting to all these great places. I'm not so concerned about the entertainment or how crowded the pool will be because we really plan to just eat and sleep on the ship. If the SUNSHINE turns out to be really great I'll be ecstatic, but I have my doubts. As you know they are adding a lot of cabins and removing public space. Not a good combination. At least the interiors will look more like the BREEZE and that is a good thing. The decor is very nice and inviting.

 

After the SUNSHINE I probably won't be back on Carnival until their brand new design comes out in a few years. I really curious if it will be a completely new design or yet another tweaked version of the Destiny/Conquest/Dream Class ... or perhaps a modified Royal Princess? Anyway there are just other lines that are better suited for me, but this is not to say Carnival isn't a good fit for a lot of people. It just depends on what your priorities are.

 

Ernie

 

ps - just off the OASIS about a month ago and it was pretty awesome. Not quite as great as the first time, but this was mainly do to the passenger mix. Huge groups of 15 year old girls from South America celebrating quinceanera that pretty much took over the ship. I always thought I could avoid the kids during a January cruise but not any more! LOL

 

 

I will be interested in your comments on Venice and Dubrovnik. We will be there in June on the Splendour. I hope that you and Chris have a great cruise.

 

I read about all of the large groups from South America on both Allure and Oasis. We had that two years ago on the Allure B2B.

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eroller Great Review Rare

eroller

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I read about all of the large groups from South America on both Allure and Oasis. We had that two years ago on the Allure B2B.

 

 

Looks like in the future I'm going to not only have to check school holidays in the US but South America too before I book a cruise!

 

I'll be interested in your impressions of the "revitalized" SPLENDOUR. Can you believe I have never been on a Vision Class ship? One of these days.

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Cruising89143

Cruising89143

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Looks like in the future I'm going to not only have to check school holidays in the US but South America too before I book a cruise!

 

I'll be interested in your impressions of the "revitalized" SPLENDOUR. Can you believe I have never been on a Vision Class ship? One of these days.

 

I plan to post a review. First time for us on a Vision class. Should be fun.

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DiamondBill102

DiamondBill102

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Eroller Thanks for the review...We also sailed the Breeze early Feb and you hit everything right on the head. This was our 6th cruise all with Carnival...Always had a great time but I do have to say this was by far the worse dinning room experience we had. Our assistance waiter was good but the waiter just seemed "lost"...our food was "ok"...nothing with a WOW factor. If it wasn't for the great company at the table I would have eaten at the buffet.

 

The shows were beyond bad...They reminded me of my daughters dance recitals when she was young...REAL young...

 

I'm not sure if I just missed it in your review but did you get to see Ron Pass in the piano bar? He was the funniest thing on the ship. LOVED listening to him every night.

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Jemery

Jemery

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Hi Ernie,

Great review of the Breeze, not least because it largely agrees with DW's and my observations based on our Med cruise aboard her. The cabins and the ship decor we agree, although I flat out did not like the art in the stairwells; it looked to me like something bought on sale at Hobby Lobby and then nicely framed. An oddity about the locker rooms, which we think were much better on the Conquest, if you are changing at the lockers and someone opens the door, the folks in the lobby get a free shot. Disconcerting to say the least, and horrifying to the unsuspecting passengers passing by and looking in, as we all do when we see an open door.

 

You were spot on about the entertainment being painful; it was physically painful to the point that we had to leave one show because the volume was so high it hurt our ears. We've always enjoyed Carnival entertainment in the past, but we searched out other venues on the Breeze, because we didn't find it in the main showroom. Entertainment was not well done, although the other venues were nice, but not big shows.

 

We disagree on the MDR; our service was excellent, and the food was fine; if we ordered something new that we didn't like, we sent it back, and it was always served hot. Standard foods were always, with one exception to one person at our table, well done. It helped a lot that we had an extremely convivial table. We really enjoyed afternoon tea, which was great since we had three more sea days than we planned for.

 

Thanks, -John

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eroller Great Review Rare

eroller

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We disagree on the MDR; our service was excellent, and the food was fine; if we ordered something new that we didn't like, we sent it back, and it was always served hot. Standard foods were always, with one exception to one person at our table, well done. It helped a lot that we had an extremely convivial table. We really enjoyed afternoon tea, which was great since we had three more sea days than we planned for.

 

Thanks, -John

 

Hi John,

I'm glad your MDR experience was better than ours. We had a great table for 11 and made lots of new friends, which is why we stuck it out and didn't eat in the buffet every night. Most of our table mates were Carnival veterans and all of us were rather disappointed and surprised at the level of service and food. Just not the same as we all remembered. None the less we still managed to really enjoy our time together. It's quite possible that other tables had an excellent experience. I can only speak for what we personally experienced and it wasn't good.

 

Ernie

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FlaParrotHead

FlaParrotHead

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@eroller, wow - a detailed review that I have only just started to digest, as well as what looks like a great grouping of pictures.

 

Darn You!!! :)

 

We are still ~200 days away from our first B2B on The Breeze and will be directly below your cabin on deck 11.

 

Thanks Again for great details and photos.

 

B&B

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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eroller Great Review Rare

eroller

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Can you tell me which restraunts you had to pay for on the this ship?

Also was the Alcohol cards available?

 

 

I don't know about the alcohol cards although I believe Carnival has a few beverages packages available depending on the ship.

 

There are really only four restaurants/cafes you had to pay for on CARNIVAL BREEZE.

 

1. Cucina del Capitano - free for lunch (pasta bar) and $15 for dinner which was a really good deal.

 

2. Fahrenheit 555 - I believe it was $35 which we thought was a little steep for a Carnival speciality restaurant. We didn't eat here this trip.

 

3. Bonsai Sushi Bar - a la carte pricing depending on what you order

 

4. Plaza Cafe - speciality coffees, pastries, ice cream, and shakes

 

The only other thing is the Red Frog Pub. I think you can order some bar snacks here that you have to pay for, but I'm not totally sure about that.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Ernie

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