GAPearl's Big BREEZE Review! 8 Day Southern Itinerary 9/28/13.

[BDAN8V]

Subscribed! Looking forward to more of your review!

[gapearl]

YAY! Hi there my fellow ATLantan...:D

I LOVE your reviews and so excited to see you've started a Breeze review. I'll be sailing on her next month.

 

***Waving*** Thanks for reading! I hope this gets you excited for your cruise!

 

Saying hi from Conyers, Ga. I love your reviews. I am an oncology nurse. Thank you for supporting Breast Cancer awareness month.

 

***Waving to you too*** Thanks for reading! And it's my pleasure to support the cause, especially after losing a loved one to breast cancer 3 years ago.

 

Sailed this beautiful ship in August and have booked her again for July 2013 :) can't wait to read your review!!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

I really want to sail the Breeze again next year. Not sure when, but I have to make it happen!

 

Subscribed!

Been patiently waiting for your review :D

 

Will be doing this cruise in 19 days!!

 

Well here you go, enjoy! So close to single digits for you!

[MsMot]

After getting settled in the room, we headed to Dolphin Mall to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Dolphin Mall was only about 15 minutes away, and I'm sure we paid two tolls each way. Good grief Florida, what's up with all the tolls?

 

I worked at The Cheesecake Factory back in college and gained a ridiculous amount of weight those two years.

 

 

I had the Louisiana chicken pasta with a strawberry lemonade.

 

 

My mom had the Renee's special.

 

 

I was too full for dessert but got a slice of red velvet cheesecake to go. Don't even bother counting calories here. It's pointless.

 

 

Me with a full belly after a healthy meal. Haha, yeah right. :rolleyes:

 

 

We left the mall and headed to Publix so I could buy some sodas and wine for embarkation and made it back to the hotel around 6 pm. I accidentally dozed off til almost 10 pm, and woke up to do much of nothing. I tried hard to fall asleep but couldn't. I wasn't tired and my mom had the room really warm. Finally at 2:30 am, I took a melatonin. Zzzzzzzzzz, good night.

 

Up next: Hanging out in the Everglades!

 

 

Heyyy Kim! Bring it on! Where did you get that dress you're wearing in Aruba?

 

Renee's Special is near and dear to my heart. DH and I use to take my MIL out shopping and to the Factory for lunch every weekend and Renee's Special was her fav.

[gapearl]

I'm looking into my first carnival cruise on the Breeze and am very interested in your review. Thanks for posting

 

You would enjoy Carnival! I hope I can convince you! :)

 

Cant wait for the rest of your review. I just did the Valor in September' date=' and your review was very helpful in planning for that trip. Snorkeling with Neville was awesome! lol

 

Dont have a trip planned for the Breeze yet, but hopefully your review will convince me to get on it![/quote']

 

Thanks a bunch! LOL best snorkel trip ever, right? Definitely book the Breeze if you can.

 

I tried to hang it there but I don't watch mini series either. I'm sure you had fun.

 

I had fun indeed! Not sure I get the first part of your comment though. :confused:

 

Love the Breeze, can't wait to read your review.

 

Thanks! Sooooo much more to come!

[atinys]

yeahhhhh the highlight of my day.... I browse and your newest review is at the top of the page... settling back for a good story.....

 

ok im ready...

[pghsteelerfan]

Yay, another GAPearl review!!! Loving it so far and I'm definitely subscribed. I loved your Valor review (thanks for your help while we were planning ours) and looking forward to this one too. We were in Grand Turk on Glory in 2010, but have never been to the Dominican Republic, Aruba or Curacao, so I'm curious to see if this is an itinerary we would like to try in the future.

[gapearl]

I'm dying to do this itinerary! Can't wait for the rest of your pics / review. :)

 

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy!

 

Love your reviews! Looking forward to more! :D

 

Thanks for coming back again!

 

Subscribed! Looking forward to more of your review!

 

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

 

Heyyy Kim! Bring it on! Where did you get that dress you're wearing in Aruba?

 

Renee's Special is near and dear to my heart. DH and I use to take my MIL out shopping and to the Factory for lunch every weekend and Renee's Special was her fav.

 

I got that dress at Ross for only $16.99! I get most of my maxi dresses from Ross, TJ Maxx, and Marshalls. You have to dig through the racks, but can find some cute dresses for cheap. What a sweet story you shared!

[Winterstale]

OMG I am laughing out loud that you found that dress at Ross! I was JUST saying to a friend this morning that I get SO annoyed when the "Ross Dress Event" starts advertising on TV because I can NEVER find anything that even remotely resembles the dresses in the ads....and there you are telling me you got that great dress at....Ross....LMAO!

[irie0518]

Looking forward to this review. Loved your Valor review and got lots of info for our trip on the Valor this past July. We're going on the Sunshine in April and going to Aruba and Curacao for the first time so looking forward to seeing what you did in these ports.

 

Your Mom is so cute!!:D

[MsMot]

OMG I am laughing out loud that you found that dress at Ross! I was JUST saying to a friend this morning that I get SO annoyed when the "Ross Dress Event" starts advertising on TV because I can NEVER find anything that even remotely resembles the dresses in the ads....and there you are telling me you got that great dress at....Ross....LMAO!

 

Totally agree with you. I have never, never been able to find anything in Ross.

[smeck]

Thursday, 9/26

 

It was an early morning. My mom flew in the day before and spent the night with me. I was up early at 6:20 am, showered, loaded the dishwasher, made sure everything was turned off, typical I'm leaving for vacation today craziness. For those of you that fly out of ATL, I parked my car at Park n Fly on Camp Creek. I prepaid online the night before, and it was only $4.95 a day. It's $7.95 a day regular price, so prepay to save some money if you can.

 

At check in, my big suitcase was 8 pounds overweight, so there I was rearranging my stuff into my other bag and my mom's bag as well. Packing light? What's that? :confused: Security was a breeze (BREEZE, haha :)) and we were at our gate 30 minutes before boarding. It was "Throwback Thursday" on Facebook, and I thought it would be fun to post a picture from my first cruise 6 years ago.

 

You wanna see that, don't you?

 

It was the Carnival Paradise, 4 days from Long Beach to Catalina Island and Ensenada. I can't believe I'm almost up to 10 now! Crazy!

 

The flight from ATL-FLL is about an hour and a half. I had a two day car rental booked at National. I always book the cheapest economy car because I always get upgraded a class or two. We got a Ford Fusion and it was a 30 minute drive to Miami.

 

Me on the plane, ready to enjoy my yogurt and a Bailey's & coffee.

 

We stayed at the Comfort Suites Miami Airport North. I prepaid for our room here as well and saved 30%. My total for the two nights was $172.

 

 

 

Surprised a flight attendant by trade would have overweight bags. LOL

[gapearl]

Friday, 9/27

 

I was up by 8 am, out by 9 am. I had a fun day planned today. We were headed to Gator Park in the Everglades to take an airboat ride and look for alligators! The ride from our hotel was 40 minutes. There's a lot of road construction going on and it's a two lane road to get there, so we were slightly delayed throughout the drive.

 

I printed a coupon from Gator Park's website for buy one, get one free admission if you arrive before 10 am. It was $23 plus tax for the two of us. I highly recommend getting there this early to beat the extreme heat and the crowds.

 

You'll see this when you arrive.

 

 

Hey fellas!

 

 

The gift shop with all things gators for sale.

 

 

 

The boat we were in.

 

 

And we're off!

 

[gapearl]

The ride was about 45 minutes and we had a very knowledgeable guide. He told us The Everglades is 60 miles wide and 120 miles long and is actually a river. It's the main source of water for the south Florida area. If there's an extended period where there's not a lot of rain here, some areas can get so dry to the point you could walk through and your shoes won't get wet.

 

 

 

 

There are lots of snakes here from people releasing them into the wild and they've been eating lots of the wildlife.

 

 

The tall grass we saw is called sawgrass. 90% of the grass in The Everglades is sawgrass.

 

 

There's a turtle.

 

[abisha]

For some reason, I cannot see your photos..getting red "X's"..the only photos showing up are the first few you posted of the ship and Grand Turk. Not sure why ????:confused::(

[gapearl]

Awwww, how cute! A baby alligator!

 

 

He's got the best seat in the house. I want that chair!

 

 

Can you spot him?

 

 

There are 1.5 million gators in Florida. They mostly come out at night. Also they're more black in color than green like we think.

 

 

[nyladym]

Woohoo! My favorite reviewer is at it again! Love it so far! :D

[JerseyshoreBruce]

OMG i love your reviews...thank you....i love the Breeze too!

[gapearl]

After the ride, we were given a little 15 minute show. Keep your entry ticket close by. You'll need it to gain entry to the show area. I had to dig through my purse for 5 minutes to find mine.

 

This is Esmerelda, an African emperor scorpion.

 

 

A feisty baby gator. The gender of an alligator is determined by the temperature of it's egg, not a chromosome.

 

 

 

 

Oh God, I hope he's not about to lose his hand! :eek:

 

[gapearl]

We also learned that alligators can't see behind them. You can put your hand in his mouth and as long as you don't touch the inside, he won't bite. Don't know why I'd want to test that theory, though. :eek: An alligator has 80 teeth, and will have 5,000 in his lifetime.

 

 

 

[gapearl]

Can you believe I did this? This baby gator was 15 pounds.

 

 

Can I keep him? He's kind of cute!

 

 

FEARLESS!!!! This big rascal was 65 pounds and like 3 years old. Nobody panic, the one behind me is NOT real. LOL

 

 

A high five at the end.

 

 

We walked around a little bit at the end of the show.

 

 

It was $3 to hold the little one and $5 to hold the big one.

 

Overall, it was a great morning here. Again, definitely try to come before 10 am with the buy one get one free coupon. It was definitely worth the $25 we paid for the two of us, but I don't think it would have been worth $50.

[gapearl]

I found out that there was a memorial about 6 miles away for the victims of ValuJet flight #592 that went down in The Everglades 17 years ago. Since we were so close, I had to go see it.

 

 

Each block represents one of the victims that perished.

 

 

Looking out to the exact area where the doomed plane went down.

 

 

 

It was hard not to get emotional here, but I managed to hold back my tears. God bless the souls of everyone that was lost.

 

 

View of the memorial from the street.

 

[MrFunInTheSun]

Wahoo!! Thanks for bringing us along on the Breeze with you! Super pictures!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - Please excuse any errors.

[Delta Dear]

Yippee, Skippy, Kim. You win the prize for posting your review so quickly. I JUST told my son and daughter-in-law that you were back and hoped you would start your review soon since they are Breezing on Oct. 26.

 

Since Carnival kicked you off of the ship, I guess the next best way to feel you are still there is to write your review. I'm looking forward to it for myself, even if my son and dil weren't going soon.

 

I'm glad to get to know your mom through your review this time, too. Ok, stop reading this and keep typing in pink. (Thank you for that. There is no such thing as being too aware. )

[Gil40]

You're the best reviewer! :) following the reading of your Valor, don't know if you will remember my comment, but I changed my cruise from the Dream to the Valor....leaving in 13 days ! :) Porto Rico, here I come! Almost doing the "single digit" dance lol

[gapearl]

After spending 10 minutes at the memorial, we headed back towards Miami. It was still very early in the day and I didn't have anything else planned for us. We ended up going back to Dolphin Mall for a bit. After leaving we stopped at McDonals's to grab something to eat, headed back to the hotel, and I was out for a nap until 6 pm. When I woke, I was really, really hot, yet my mom was under the covers. Ok, now I'm not quite at "that age" yet, but I might as well be. We might not get along the next few days if she's insisting on keeping it hot the whole trip. I got up and went to the gym for 30 minutes, showered, repacked my bags, and settled in for the night with a good book just watched the news.

 

LOL Yeah right. It's a Friday night and I'm in Miami!

 

I met up with a friend/coworker that lives in Miami. We started at Bongos Cuban Cafe (the one on Biscayne by the American Airlines Arena). On Friday nights they have live music and salsa dancing. I thought I read on trip advisor that ladies get in free before 11 pm. Not true! It was $15 for ladies, $20 for guys, and that includes one free drink.

 

 

 

Playing the bongos at Bongos.

 

 

It was ok. Not sure I'd go back. We only stayed a couple of hours. We headed to South Beach next.

 

He treated me to a really strong espresso at this little random place.

 

Then he took me to a couple of gay bars, LOL. The first was Mova Lounge, where I had a glass of wine and enjoyed the company of a drag queen. Then we went to Twist, which is #1 on trip advisor in terms of nightlife. We didn't stay too long. I'd had enough to drink and was ready for some sleep!

 

 

I'll be back in 10 short hours!

 

 

Up next: Keep calm, it's cruising time! Who am I kidding, I can't keep calm. I'm ready for the Breeze!