Carnival Breeze review: April 13-21, 2013

[k2excursion]

The evening of Day 4, we had a comedy juggling show in the main theater. The show was called The Evolution of Edge. I can't find the guy's name right now. It was an entertaining show. It's worth checking out. I like his style of humor. I've seen him on another cruise at some point, because I was remembering his bits as he went along. I always enjoy variety acts, and I'm glad to see that the Breeze is still doing a couple of those.

 

In Antigua, we had set up a tour through Lawrence of Antigua, not through Carnival. It was $40pp without a beach stop before tip, $45 with. Not a bad price! When we arrived at the island, the weather again was not looking too good. I was very much hoping that the clouds would go away as the day went on.

 

We found the spot where Lawrence of Antigua people were meeting. There were a lot of us that had signed up for this, and the owner of the company was being rude to people, including my family. We were very close to just walking away and taking a cab to a beach. But we stuck with it, and we finally headed off on our tour after the owner finally figured out where he wanted everyone to be.

 

It wasn't a good start, plus the dreary day wasn't helping spirits. There were a few other glitches with this tour, so I'm not sure if I would recommend them or not. You still get to see quite a bit of the island for a low price. It is not a personalized tour. We were in a few buses that hold quite a few people, so the tour is certainly not at the level as Victor Bodden in Roatan, Jim & Rose in St Kitts, or even Bernards in St. Maarten.

 

Our first big stop was at Devil's Bridge. It was really nice there, with how the waters were crashing up against the rocks. Some waves were bigger than others, and those would catch a few people by surprise. I would have enjoyed staying in this spot and just watching the waves crashing for awhile.

 

 

Sometimes, the waters crashing would spray some water up into the air on the other side of the bridge.

 

Our next main stop was along the south shores of the island. We went all around the English Harbour area, and to a couple of overlooks. Unfortunately, at the first overlook, this was when the looming storms decided to rain down on us. I tried to take some pictures under my umbrella. One of the glitches we had with this tour allowed us more time there after we thought we were leaving. The rain had stopped, allowing us to get some more clear shots. The next pic is at this area.

 

The next stop was at Shirley Heights, which overlooks the English Harbour. This was a very nice overlook, and it's a popular spot on the island.

 

 

Shirley Heights:

 

[k2excursion]

Our next stop on the tour was Nelsons Dockyard. This costs an extra $8pp. Because of the earlier glitches I mentioned, we were delayed in getting here. So we had very little time here. That was disappointing. We didn't really get a tour, plus we had to rush through everything on our own.

 

After that, we headed to the west shores for an optional drop off at Valley Church Beach. But of course it was raining almost the whole drive to the beach and at the beach. Nobody at all on the bus wanted to take the drop-off, but we did have a couple minutes to take a few pictures under an umbrella. Then we headed back to the port. It was barely raining there, but the rain that was at the beaches was heading our way. Very rainy day, and some disappointments on what could have been a very nice tour. It wasn't terrible though.

 

Valley Church Beach:

 

 

Back on the ship now. Today, when the rain would start up, they shut down the waterslides.

 

But the sun did come back out.

 

Looked very nice in the late afternoon.

[Georgiagolfer]

It's hard to say. When it was really busy on the waterslides (usually on sea days from about 11:00-3:00), the wait for a ride on the slides could be over 20 minutes. A couple times, I was halfway down the extra tower steps (heading up to the slide entrances) waiting in line, and I would guess that I waited about 10-12 minutes. Many times, I saw the line at the bottom of that tower. On our 7th day, which was a sea day, the line was still beyond the bottom of the tower, even passed 5:30. Most days, there was only a couple minutes wait from about 3:30 on. Before 10:00, there was usually a short line. The Twister was more popular than the Drainpipe on this sailing, so Drainpipe riders would usually get through faster.

 

The ropes course was tougher to see. But most of the time that I could see it, there was a pretty long line. However, they can put many people on it at the same time, so the line moves pretty fast. Maybe 15 minutes to get on it. If you get on the ship early, you can head up there right after grabbing some lunch, and there won't be much of a wait at all. In ports, before people start returning from excursions, there's not much if any wait.

 

Just what I needed, thanks.

[k2excursion]

Sorry I got distracted by a couple short trips this past weekend. Celtic Woman concerts are spectacular. The singing & the live music for their shows are beyond amazing!

 

Speaking of which, the night of Day 5 of this cruise was the night for our 2nd Playlist Productions show, with no live music. This one was the Divas. After dinner, we tried to find a seat, but the place was pretty packed, so I went to the Thrill Theater. We went back for the late show and got a good seat. This show was actually pretty good. I heard some complaints about it, but maybe because it uses songs that are more current. Some people don't like current music. I don't like that the show has no live music, but I did enjoy their choices of songs, including Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, etc. But make no mistake, although the show is enjoyable, it is nothing like a modern concert at all. And it's not nearly as good as the Carnival production shows that we're all used to, with the live music & more than double the stage performers. But if you like current music, you'll enjoy the show.

 

The morning of Day 6 was our arrival into Tortola of the British Virgin Islands. As I was getting breakfast & passing by the main pool, I noticed that they had put towel animals up around the main pool and on every single deck chair. Some of the towel animals around the main pool were made out of the beach towels, so they were huge. I have never seen this done before on any of my cruises.

 

 

 

Oops. I accidentally left out another pic from late in the afternoon in Antigua yesterday. I really like this one, because of the shadows on the mountains as the sun is starting to go down.

[cathyoo]

great review and wonderful pictures. Thank you for sharing.

[k2excursion]

This was our first time visiting Tortola. We considered just about every possible option here, dismissing one after another for several reasons. The Baths seemed like a good option, but we didn't have much time here at all, unfortunately. We had to be back on board by 3:00. Not enough to really get a feel for it, plus it sounded like there were a ton of people going over there. From what we later heard, it was quite crowded over there, and there wasn't much time.

 

We finally took the easy option, just taking a cab to Brewers Bay. Our van was the first group to arrive on the beach. It is a very beautiful beach. We rented beach chairs for $5 each. The cab was $8pp each way. So we didn't spend much for this stop. At the beginning of the day, there were several little crabs crawling around on the sand. More and more seemed to keep showing up. As more people arrived, the crabs hid away.

 

There is usually some decent snorkeling around here. I went out a little ways from where the cabs drop you off, but I stayed away from the rocks at the edge. There is probably a lot more to see around the rocks than what I saw, but it's also quite a bit more dangerous. You need to be very skilled to swim around those. Later in the day, my dad & I walked way down to the far end of the beach, where almost nobody is. There is some good snorkeling there, right off the shore in the shallow waters. The waves were a little rough, but it was pretty safe. Just watch out for the coral & rocks in the shallow area.

 

We had a nice time at the beach. It seems that all the Virgin Islands are spectacular & beautiful. It's too bad we didn't have more time at Tortola. If we could've just skipped Nassau as our last stop, we could've stayed at Tortola until dinnertime. Skipping Nassau wouldn't have bothered us at all. We left the beach at 1:00 & headed back to do some quick shopping & get back on the ship.

 

Coming into port:

 

At the beach. Early on, plenty of birds were diving into the water

 

Splashing into the water. The rocks at the left of the shot is where some experienced snorkelers were going.

 

 

Our little friend:

 

Walking further down the beach