4-27-13 8 day Breeze review- a bed, my birthday and leisure sickness

[alrichards4003]

thanks - we are going to be next to that.. shame they didn't let you stay!! I guess deck 7 is an upgrade but I want the cove.

 

not letting you stay in the cove for the sake of one bug?? that's very odd. either it didn't matter and you moving balanced out the numbers for the stewards (and I was offered an upgrade to a higher balcony a couple of weeks ago for $40 so its not too much of an upgrade in their eyes!!) or the problem was a little deeper than one bug that you brought on board and they needed to deep clean the room.

 

I think I'll do a little investigation when I get to the cabin :D.

as you say - one bug when living around here isn't going to bother anyone!!

 

thanks for the review - especially the pictures of the brunch - my and my eggs benedict breakfast are gonna get on just fine...

 

Yeah it seemed a little extreme for a dead bug, my sister in law said the same thing. We liked the cove before and would have been glad to stay there. The people who were in the room on 7 must have upgraded or not shown or something. I also don't know why they would have been in room between 4 and 5? I had a feeling the bug was pre-existing, but since I was cut off when I said it I gave it up, the only problem is we did not get to unpack and get settled in right away, which unpacking once is one of many of my favorite things about a cruise.

 

Eggs benedict are something I never have at home so they are a treat. Enjoy!

[alrichards4003]

Thanks for the review. We sail on the Breeze on Sept. 14, 2013. We have won the Super Trivia three day contest twice. If you by any chance might be on that cruise, please play with us. My DH is the good looking older man with a Georgia hat on..a lot. We have some moxie..some lucky star..something that it seems the best Trivia players in the world...either join our team...or we join with them. It is uncanny. Last time..a retired school teacher from Vermont, A computer tech from S.C. , A Florida recent Grad with her musican husband...that made our six. When the cruise was over..I felt like crying. We bonded..match after match..every day..What fun. Please...anyone who likes Trivia as much as you do..and we do..you would be at Home with us......Look for the Old Good looking man..Georgia Hat and his chubbette wife. Looking happy to be on the boat..playing trivai and not cooking for eight days. Hoo-Ray!!!

 

Wish I was going to be there. but you will enjoy all the trivia, the sessions last less the 30 minutes and they play for 3 hours at a time. Plus the taste bar, ocean plaza bar and coffee and pastry bar are all right there.

[3kids1dog]

You said you had $600.00 OBC...how low did you cove finally go? We are sailing in September and I am just wondering how hopeful I can be!

[EJPhilly]

i don't know, I didn't look closely, but did not appear to be a roach. Living in Florida and growing up in Florida, bugs don't really bother me. When I was growing up we would have spiders the size of your hand. And the big cockroaches, but this was not one of them, it looked small, maybe the size of a fly, but no wings.

Ick!! Glad it wasn't anything major!! I would've been sqeeved for a few days!!

[crewsweeper]

Reading your review as I enjoy reading what others thought of ships and itineraries I've done. I can usually also relax a bit and remember my cruise. Unfortunately, thus far, I'm left in a bit of a frantic state! :( It's as if your frantic week at work got pulled into the start of your cruise or your return to a frnatic work week carried over to the start of your review. Sure hope you, and the readers, get a chance to relax and enjoy the ship.:)

[4hunters]

i don't know, I didn't look closely, but did not appear to be a roach. Living in Florida and growing up in Florida, bugs don't really bother me. When I was growing up we would have spiders the size of your hand. And the big cockroaches, but this was not one of them, it looked small, maybe the size of a fly, but no wings.

 

Could have been a bed bug? Hence the reason why they took so many precautions like washing all your clothes?

[okgirl]

We were on the BREEZE in December for a 7 day Eastern Caribbean trip. Ship was beautiful and staff fantastic as always. But experience paled by comparison to previous cruises for the following reasons.

 

1. No adult pool. Kids cannonballing 24 x 7. Although there were adult jacuzzi's.....we are not jacuzzi people.

2. Some of the dining options had HORRIFFIC lines. The BBQ option was only open on "sea days". We waited in a single file line for over 35 minutes and it was the middle of the afternoon. Same thing for the Mongolian BBQ....over 30 minutes there.

3. Main dining room options were very disappointing. Seemed more like college dorm food only with impressive names.

4. The thing we were most frustrated by was the "cocktail" program that we were not told about. It's no surprise that your cocktail expenses can be something that can get out of control before you even get a good buzz on. On day 3 we met someone at one of the smaller bars who took advantage of a new program Carnval was trying out. $40 per day with a few restrictions confirmed by our bartender. 25 cocktails per day. No closer than one drink in 5 minutes. I know....WHO CAN DRINK THAT MUCH? Having said that at $10-$14 per martini we spent far more than $40/day. When I went to guest services they said We both would have needed to prepay on the first day for each of our 7 days. I would have been happy to, if I had only known....but they refused.

5. Lastly, carnival changed their loyalty program this past year which had a negative impact on an upgrade that we should have been eligible for this year.

 

All in all....we have decided to forfeit our history with Carnival and start over with another cruise liner......

 

They don't really advertise very much regarding this program. I'm sure they would get slammed if they did. When I was on the Breeze in January there was no announcement in the Fun Times about the program but it was new to the Breeze at the time.

 

On the Conquest in April the Welcome Aboard Fun Times had the following advertisement.

 

CHEERS BEVERAGE PROGRAM

Buy now and enjoy the ease and convenience of paying one flat price for your spirited beverages (yep, that's with alcohol) all cruise long! At only $42.95 per day, this card is an amazing value "Prices are per day; Restrictions apply.

 

There has been so much discussion of the program on various social media sites I'm surprised that there are people that are still unaware of this being offerred.

[HeidiHo]

I'm confused a bit. Did I miss something? How did they even know about the bug if you didn't report finding a bug in your cabin? Did your cabin steward see it and report it?

[sonicbuffalo]

good review! brings back memories of our Breeze cruise!

[gobucks_43228]

I'm confused a bit. Did I miss something? How did they even know about the bug if you didn't report finding a bug in your cabin? Did your cabin steward see it and report it?

I'm wondering too!

[Crusin Karen]

I'm confused a bit. Did I miss something? How did they even know about the bug if you didn't report finding a bug in your cabin? Did your cabin steward see it and report it?

I was confused about this too. Kind of felt like I came in in the middle of the story. :confused::confused: Figured maybe it was bed bugs, but then why would they ask to see the clothes? Bugs creep me out. I don't care WHAT size they are! :(:o:(

[wmjrdn4ever]

Must have been one hell of a bug. You didn't see Will Smith hanging around the ship did you?

[alrichards4003]

I was confused about this too. Kind of felt like I came in in the middle of the story. :confused::confused: Figured maybe it was bed bugs, but then why would they ask to see the clothes? Bugs creep me out. I don't care WHAT size they are! :(:o:(

 

They said it came from my husband's carry on suitcase, but my question was how would they know that is where it came from. They insisted that it came from his luggage and it happened frequently where people would have a bug in their suitcase. Again how do they know?

[alrichards4003]

You said you had $600.00 OBC...how low did you cove finally go? We are sailing in September and I am just wondering how hopeful I can be!

 

I think it was $1049.

[alrichards4003]

When we were planning vacations, I knew I wanted to go on the Breeze, DH wanted to do this itinerary, because we had never been to any of the ports. I was looking forward to Aruba.

 

When we choose either ship excursions or are self directed excursions, we usually split them up. I picked Grand Turk and Aruba and he picked La Romana and Curacao.

 

We got up and had breakfast at Blue Iguana, I thought it was a great addition, much better than the buffet, especially on busy port days. I went several times and always had the same burrito, chicken sausage, has browns, onions, cheese and sour cream. I also always got an arepa, you could taste the sweetness of the corn.

 

I wanted to get a cabana at Margaritaville, by the time I went to book they were sold out, so we went to Margarittaville and got a table and spent the (short) day there.

 

I left my sunglasses at home even though they were on my list, so we stopped to buy sunglasses in the port. Then we went to get a table for the day.

 

 

There were a lot of kids splashing, but I did not care, the water was great.

 

 

I think swim up bars are the greatest thing. You swim and you drink. A fruity drink:

 

 

After a while I ordered spinach and shrimp dip.

 

 

Towards noon, the dj came out (they played music the whole time) and started line dances (electric slide etc.) that most people did in the pool. Shortly afterwards a woman in a bikini came out and danced suggestively (this come up later), I figure as long as everyone is safe and having a good time. The dj came out and they started playing various adult games.

 

I heard that there would be a long line to get back on the ship, and it was supposed to be all aboard at 1:30, so about 12:30 we headed back, and hardly any line at all.

[alrichards4003]

Reading your review as I enjoy reading what others thought of ships and itineraries I've done. I can usually also relax a bit and remember my cruise. Unfortunately, thus far, I'm left in a bit of a frantic state! :( It's as if your frantic week at work got pulled into the start of your cruise or your return to a frnatic work week carried over to the start of your review. Sure hope you, and the readers, get a chance to relax and enjoy the ship.:)

 

Why I thought about not doing a review and it is almost a month after I got back, bu decided to do it anyway.

[alrichards4003]

I got back to the room to change and we are still missing clothes and my suitcase. I called guest services and they called the laundry and thought I wanted the imperfect clothes and suitcase with a broken wheel discarded. Still didn't explain my husband's suit which had no damage, and AACK I can see me carrying all my clothes off the ship in plastic bags. So no don't discard the clothes and the suitcase. They said they would be delivered by 5. Then Rosa in guest services called and asked if we were ok with the room, I told her everything was fine, but told her about the clothes, she made sure they were delivered within the hour.

 

Rosa was great and checked in with us several times during the week, and once we had a room and all the clothes we were fine. I don't know if the were expecting us to complain, but it is not really who we are.

 

 

After the clothes were put away, I went to Ocean plaza and played trivia for a while.

 

 

 

 

After trivia was over, there was an extended family. They had small children that ran around and the cocktail servers did there best to avoid them and the other patrons had to step over them when they lay on the floor. After trivia one of the mothers complained about Margaritaville how upset they were about the suggestive dancing, how she did not know how to explain it to the children, and how upset she was. During this time two of the smallest children kept running around in front of the stage, until you guessed, head on collision. It was one of those times when they were screaming bloody murder, but when they first opened their mouths and no noise came out, then the shrieks. Ok time to leave, off to the Pub, and DH was there. Aaah.

 

Listened to the guitar player for a while, then the casino, then dinner. I did not see a drink server until dessert, so I had water. I had the French onion soup, the penne with seafood and warm chocolate melting cake. The pasta:

 

 

There was a long line at the comedy show, so I went to piano bar and casino. The back to the room.

 

I love my towel animals:

 

 

Another picture of the room:

 

[sjcruiser]

Thanks for posting the review, and the photos. I can't wait to get onboard in August.

[alrichards4003]

Picture of hot tubs on 5 from our balcony on 7:

 

 

 

Our balcony:

 

 

Our room:

 

 

[alrichards4003]

Thanks for posting the review, and the photos. I can't wait to get onboard in August.

 

Enjoy the ship. I see you are from Philly area, hope everything is fine there, from building collapse.

[alrichards4003]

I wake up and log into my emails and have e-cards from both my sisters (one I am close with, one I am not) and my father and emails from every company who has my email address.

 

I am getting my breakfast burrito and arepa:

 

 

Pictures of La Romana from the balcony:

 

 

 

 

The night before we received spa port specials they had a $99 manicure and pedicure, I signed up for the 5:00 appointment, we had dinner at 7 at La Cucina, but first we were doing the cave excursion that my husband picked out.

[alrichards4003]

We were on the bus, waiting to leave. I made a comment to my husband "you know its my birthday, even Colleen sent me an e-card." He started about how offended, he was, he knew it was my birthday... Then I noticed, I forgot my ipad- no pictures today.

 

We went to the town market, I bought a necklace and my husband bought a mask and a shot glass (he collects both and had gotten a shot glass in Grand Turk). I understand it is a poor country, but you are bombarded with requests to buy, just to look, and they did not want you to leave their stall until you bought something. We left and headed to the caves, on the way you saw all the baseball fields, where several MLB clubs have facilities.

 

We went to the caves, the DR mosquitos make the Florida ones seem docile. I tried to knock one away, and he wasn't going anywhere. It was humid, but I was expecting it. We were told at the beginning no pictures were to be taken either with or without flash, as there was potential to damage the drawings in the caves. Ok, it is a pet peeve of mine, people who think the rules apply to everyone else except them, and we had plenty of these people. We stopped several times for the guides to repeat, no pictures and people kept on taking them. I felt like we were guests in the cave and in the DR and if they request you not to take pictures, you should comply.

 

I enjoyed the caves and they were interesting. There were motion sensors for some of the lights and it was slippery, so you had to be careful. There were a lot of stairs down and the walk up was a lot. There were some complaints, the carnival website described the excursion, but with all of the steps, I thought they might want to indicate it was more strenuous than moderate. There were people who said they were told there were elevators to get back to the top, but the guides indicated they were not working.

 

The sweat is dripping off of me, when we get back to the bus, our guide had bottled water waiting for us. Hooray. The ride back was fine, but we stopped for a while, I did not see it, but the people in front said the driver hit a parked moped, no one was on it, but they stopped for a few minutes. However, a few minutes later the bus was going around the corner and a sign hit the window and the entire window was cracked, this was the window directly across from us, the ladies closed the curtain, in case the glass fell out of the window.

 

We were back, we had guys burgers for lunch. Played trivia. After a while it was time for manicure and pedicure. DH and I planned on meeting in the casino bar at 6:45 to go to dinner.

 

I had the manicure and pedicure, but added the shellac since it dried quickly, it was $25, for each, so my $99 mani/pedi was now $150, then I bought some of the lime scrub they used on my hands, how much could it be? $62. Ok now spending an hour in the casino seemed like the deal. The woman was very nice and was from England, the best part was when you had the pedicure, the chair had massage rollers, aaah.

 

It was time to meet DH. At the bar I got my cosmo, and the bartender sang happy birthday to me, since DH told her it was my birthday.

 

 

 

Now to La Cucina.

[alrichards4003]

One of the things I really enjoy on NCL are the specialty restaurants. I understand how some people can feel nickel and dimed to death and feel they shouldn't to have to pay extra for dinner, I like the options, I eat in the MDR but also enjoy the different restaurants. I think the steakhouse, but having an Italian restaurant made me happy and I felt the $12, was well worth it, also one of my favorite foods is fried calamari.

 

My peach bellini:

 

 

 

The bruschetta, with creamy ricotta and the roasted garlic, wonderful:

 

 

My fried calamari:

 

 

My husband had the caprese salad, I tasted it, good too.

 

 

Then the wait staff and hostess sang, we were having a great time. Then we had entrees I had eggplant parmesean and DH had chicken parmesean, no pictures, too much into the food. We did not finish even though it was very good saving room for dessert.

 

They brought the cannolis and sang happy birthday:

 

 

 

What a great meal and a good time. A steal for $12.

[alrichards4003]

I uploaded bruschetta twice instead of calamari:

 

[alreadypacked]

I'm confused a bit. Did I miss something? How did they even know about the bug if you didn't report finding a bug in your cabin? Did your cabin steward see it and report it?

 

That's what I'm wondering as well.

 

Did they somehow know there was a "bug" problem in that room (maybe from the previous sailing) and sought to relocate the OP without quite letting on what was realling going on?

 

I'm thinking bed bugs were discovered when the steward was turning the room after the previous guest vacated.

 

Perhaps they try to pass it off as just "a (nondescript) bug found in your suitcase" and just get you out of there ASAP and give you free laundry service so you can't blame the cruise line if the room really did have bedbugs.