!!! BREEZE !!! Western Caribbean ^_^ The Ultimate Review and Complete Pictorial Guide

[gambee]

I am working on some school work, but I will conclude the review by days end. I also have to write the scoring section and everything. It wont be long, almost done with this :).

 

 

[HammockDreamer]

I have been a silent fan for a while now. Your review of the Allure actually prompted my family to book our 1st cruise which was the May 18th sailing. And now it's all your fault - we are hooked on cruising! We are watching your Carnival videos and realize we may need to rethink our next booking! Thank you for all the hard work and time that you sacrifice to assist your fellow cruisers - you are amazing! I can only hope that someday my family will be able to cruise along with Gambee!!! :D

Laurie

[Meadet]

Thanks for the response Kybluecruiser!

 

Sent from my SM-T210 using Tapatalk

[TheCriuseDirector]

Congratulations on reaching 20 NCL Cruises:D

[TheTravelista]

It's cool, in a way I understand where they are coming from. Thank you for your comment and expressing your support. It is greatly appreciated. Also thank you for being a part of this great review :)

 

Its my pleasure! I love your reviews and have read them all.

 

We were actually supposed to be on the same Breeze sailing last year but you had to cancel. I look forward to meeting you on a cruise ship in the future and buying you a Long Island Iced Tea. Its okay if you spill it ;)

[tattoos]

Since I was on the same cruise with you, I really appreciated your point of view and LOVE the wonderful photos. As I mentioned earlier in this post, we had the best weather ever the entire week.

 

I finally saw my son-in-law in one of your photos standing in line for a pulled pork slider at Fat Jimmy's C-Side BBQ (an inventive offering by Carnival for lunch). We also tried the turkey wraps available at lunch time where they set up the Taste Bar in Ocean Plaza.

 

That drainpipe slide banged up my grandson pretty good, he only went down once.

 

The ropes course is something that should be tried on the first day while the Breeze is still in port and the weather is calm...when it gets real windy like our last day of sailing, I knew they would close it down.

 

We spent our day in Grand Cayman at Calico Jacks on 7 Mile Beach and swam and snorkeled in the beautiful water. You can rent chairs, umbrellas, and snorkel gear there...they also offer banana boat rides and wave runner rentals.

 

Our favorite Carnival ship before we sailed on the Breeze was the Liberty (just has good vibes). Now I can't wait to sail on the Breeze again, don't know if it was sailing with my family, the decor, the great service provided by staff, the abundance of different lounges and seating available inside and out, the beautiful, muted, decor of the buffet area, the weather...whatever contributed to our glorious vacation...it was a magical cruise and I wanted it to go on forever.

 

Thank you, thank you so much for your wonderful review, photos and great videos. You did a great job and managed to capture the magic!!

 

Rose

[gambee]

These pics make me sad. I'm not on the ship, but I feel like I'm on Day 6 with you. Can't wait until we're on her in November.

 

 

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I know tight, for is like a 3 week cruise is coming to an end. I guess it is time to get back to reality :/ lol

[gambee]

I have been a silent fan for a while now. Your review of the Allure actually prompted my family to book our 1st cruise which was the May 18th sailing. And now it's all your fault - we are hooked on cruising! We are watching your Carnival videos and realize we may need to rethink our next booking! Thank you for all the hard work and time that you sacrifice to assist your fellow cruisers - you are amazing! I can only hope that someday my family will be able to cruise along with Gambee!!! :D

Laurie

 

 

Well thank you for posting, it seems like you enjoyed your first cruise. Which ship were you planning on booking?

[gambee]

Its my pleasure! I love your reviews and have read them all.

 

We were actually supposed to be on the same Breeze sailing last year but you had to cancel. I look forward to meeting you on a cruise ship in the future and buying you a Long Island Iced Tea. Its okay if you spill it ;)

 

Oh I did not know that, I really did not get involved much on that roll call as I was really busy at the time. I will keep that Long Island in mind, although if I spill it I might need a new one ;)

[gambee]

Since I was on the same cruise with you, I really appreciated your point of view and LOVE the wonderful photos. As I mentioned earlier in this post, we had the best weather ever the entire week.

 

I finally saw my son-in-law in one of your photos standing in line for a pulled pork slider at Fat Jimmy's C-Side BBQ (an inventive offering by Carnival for lunch). We also tried the turkey wraps available at lunch time where they set up the Taste Bar in Ocean Plaza.

 

That drainpipe slide banged up my grandson pretty good, he only went down once.

 

The ropes course is something that should be tried on the first day while the Breeze is still in port and the weather is calm...when it gets real windy like our last day of sailing, I knew they would close it down.

 

We spent our day in Grand Cayman at Calico Jacks on 7 Mile Beach and swam and snorkeled in the beautiful water. You can rent chairs, umbrellas, and snorkel gear there...they also offer banana boat rides and wave runner rentals.

 

Our favorite Carnival ship before we sailed on the Breeze was the Liberty (just has good vibes). Now I can't wait to sail on the Breeze again, don't know if it was sailing with my family, the decor, the great service provided by staff, the abundance of different lounges and seating available inside and out, the beautiful, muted, decor of the buffet area, the weather...whatever contributed to our glorious vacation...it was a magical cruise and I wanted it to go on forever.

 

Thank you, thank you so much for your wonderful review, photos and great videos. You did a great job and managed to capture the magic!!

 

Rose

 

 

Thank you for the add on to the review Rose, it is greatly appreciated. I think our feelings for this cruise were pretty much the same across the board for most of us on the roll call. It was just a great cruise!

[HammockDreamer]

Well thank you for posting, it seems like you enjoyed your first cruise. Which ship were you planning on booking?

 

We actually booked while on board for the Brilliance of the Seas over Christmas. My husband uses a mobility scooter and they had one remaining accessible stateroom.

 

However, we are now considering a switch to Carnival --- since the $$ stretch a bit more, we could afford a suite even if an accessible cabin is not available. Any advice?

 

Laurie

[gambee]

So back to the story I went back to the jacuzzi for one last time.

 

 

There were a few of us there enjoyed the view and some bubbles. I basically blasted some good tunes and relaxed while the world passed by.

 

 

The Lanai can be a very relaxing area, I really enjoy being in jacuzzis so close to the water. This is a first.

 

 

I deserved that jacuzzi time after all the walking around the ship, I think I must of toured the entire ship about 3-4 times that day. Maybe that is why I don’t gain that much weight on my cruises, because I definitely eat a lot more than I do at home. Not to mention I drink a lot more as well.

 

After that I went upstairs and talked to my room steward, told him he was the very best I have ever had and gave him a little extra. One thing that got me thinking is that these solo sales, must really affect their income. But I think I at least matched his portion of it to make into a 2pp sailing, I forgot how much goes for the room steward.

 

 

 

Then I had to run to Guy’s, and GUESS WHAT?!?!!?!?

 

 

THIS IS THE VERY LAST BURGER THEY SERVED ON THAT CRUISE!!!!! :D

 

 

I was so happy that they served me, I got there 5 minutes late and they were already closed. I pretty much begged him for one last one, and he brought me one from inside. I was so grateful, again most of Carnival service was absolutely fantastic! I never go late to venues, I understand how tired people are and they just want to close and get it over with. But honestly there was a miscalculation of time and I thought they closed at 6:30, but in reality they closed at 6:00. I got there at 6:05, it was very nice of them to serve me.

 

 

[gambee]

We actually booked while on board for the Brilliance of the Seas over Christmas. My husband uses a mobility scooter and they had one remaining accessible stateroom.

 

However, we are now considering a switch to Carnival --- since the $$ stretch a bit more, we could afford a suite even if an accessible cabin is not available. Any advice?

 

Laurie

 

Would not be able to help you, I am not sure about accessible rooms. The suite might be larger on Carnival, but is it well chair friendly, like the bathroom and balcony? That is something that you have to talk to over with one of the reps.

[gambee]

 

I retreated to my balcony to enjoy my burger and spotted a ship in the distance.

 

 

Neat picture.

 

 

Bittersweet moments when you know the cruise is coming to end, but fortunately there will be many more.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

I got ready and headed down to our groups meeting place for one last dinner together.

 

There was a party going on in the atrium.

 

notice the lady with the cane on her head, she was great, and she was having a blast dancing for the crowds.

 

 

 

 

I met up with them, and then we headed towards the MDR. For some odd reason we got sat in the middle of the dinning room, don’t ask me why :D. But it was the perfect place to see all the waiters sing and dance later on.

 

It was a pretty large group and while everyone was sad that the cruise was ending, but it was ending on a great tone. Oh I forgot, we never waited more than 3 minutes to be sat in the MDR. May I need to remind you of the wait times of the MDR aboard Breakaway? give or take 30-60 minutes and even on the Allure the waits were 10-25. Carnival has something right here, and keep in mind we had anytime. Carnival shines in many areas that I was not expecting her to shine. As a matter of fact this was one of the things that I feared since there were so many negative reviews about wait times.

 

[gambee]

Service that night was the fastest that I had experienced out of all our dinners. It was very good, but maybe too little too late. Really not sure why it was so slow the other nights, but like I said we were having a great time so it did not matter much. But I still have to point it out.

 

I got the crab cake. It was not bad, but not good either a little too creamy for my personal taste. Very little crab and a ton of creme, on normal circumstances I love cream, but not on my crab cakes. Give me a plate of pasta loaded with creme and I am in heaven!!!

 

 

I forgot what kind of soup it was, it was from another CC member.

 

 

I got the frog legs, they were pretty tasty. I think this item was the best out of all the things I ate in the MDR, well I lie, the chocolate melting cake wins by far. Another member got the legs, and she just stared at them for a minute or two. It was really funny, because she was not expecting to see legs. But she was a brave soul and tried them =). And just as expected she said they tasted like chicken, I think she only had that one bite though. Personally I will pretty much try anything, there are a lot of odd things that I have tried in the past. Some I liked and some I hated.

 

 

Mahi… What can I say here, Mahi in itself a fish hard to keep moist. This entree was overcooked and dry, plain and simple. On the bright side it did not taste fishy, for being the last day of the cruise. I took maybe 2 bites of it.

 

 

Prime Rib, most said it was much better on the nights before. I was actually sharing this with another CC member and she took some of my Mahi. I was not crazy about it. And a funny note is that about 4 of us got it that night, and they brought 3 of them with sauce and one without sauce... Did they ran out of it? lol, not sure.

 

The one thing that I wish I got, would be the loaded baked potato. I think I would had enjoyed that the most by far!

 

 

Again I think that maybe my expectations were too high for the MDR, by doing the Steakhouse at first. But if even if you compare it to the MDR of the other lines, the Carnival Breeze just lags behind them. But again, no cruise line comes close to the Breeze lunch selections, and that really makes up for the lousy experience I had in the MDR.

 

[gambee]

He was the one in charged of the MDR, he sang every night, but this was the first time I saw him sing. He had a very nice voice, and you could truly see the energy coming from him. He had a great positive attitude and energy.

 

 

Then the good bye shows started.

 

 

I have seen these shows numerous times on CC/youtube and I will just come out and say it. I am not a fan... Why you ask? Well, on a lot of videos that I have seen you can really tell that some of the staff really dislikes doing this. I am aware it's their job, however I am fully against making people do things that they do not want to do. It is just not nice to them, and specially considering their hard working life in a ship. I know I am going against the flow here since most CC members that I know off love the singings waiters. But I just happen to see the other side of the story.

 

That said, they sang two song. The first song got everyone pumped and we all had the napkins flying over our heads and just having a great time. At first I was flapping my napkin in the air, but then realized that I had stopped taking pictures. lol, So I stopped and started shooting pictures again.The second song, which is one of the two videos. Is actually kind of sad, I had seen a lot of videos, but never really sat and the lyrics. It is basically a goodbye song, I read people crying because of it. And while I did not cry, I did however know that the cruise was over. And unlike some very lucky CC members that were doing a B2B, I would be heading home the next day and right to work right after, lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the 2 videos of the songs.

 

This one is really energetic

 

 

 

 

 

And this one is just nostalgic, but fun.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETDdTQH0f8Y

 

 

 

 

Oh, I forgot. On day 2 in MDR the servers came to our table with a cake and were going to start singing Happy Birthday. But guess what? None of us had the Bday on that day, lol. So it turned into a Happy Anniversary for a happy couple in our group =). I am not even sure if it was their anniversary ;-). But hey it worked and they got an extra dessert, I think.

 

[cruisingis1]

I love the relationship you have with your Mom also. Love the support she gives you and love her cc name, GambeesMom. Hi GambeesMom! Hope you enjoy your next cruise together!

[Mogo0124]

Gambee - great review!! If I'm not mistaken, that Maitre'D was the Maitre'D (excuse my spelling) on the Dream. He does have a beautiful voice if it's the same man. And visited all the tables every night - making sure my son got his extra steak and extra chocolate melting cake every night. I have the recipe and they were close but I think you need to be on the ship. Looking forward to going on the Breeze in August for an 8 day.:cool:

[gambee]

After that they came around and gave us our dessert menus. The few times I heard comments of other dessert it was that they were just ok, so I saw no reason to venturing out of my ussual ;)

 

 

 

What did I get? :D. For some reason I got even more ice cream that day.

 

 

 

Grand marnière souffle from another CC member. It actually looked pretty good, but she could not eat because of her gluten intolerance. Now that I think about it, I am not even sure why I did not try it. It just sat there.

 

 

A funny story is that remember that I told you that some girls got escorted out of the Liquid night club the other day. Well that night near us was another table with only the guys of that group, and how do I put this mildly... The had a bunch of bottles of wine at the table, lol. Not sure why the girls were not there, but the guys seemed to be having a great time!

 

We said our good byes and headed our way. I believe they were going to meet in the piano bar later on, I headed to my room to pack. I am not a fan of saying goodbye, not sure why, but I have never been. Maybe a fear of not seeing that person again? So tend to avoid good byes and hope that I get to see them later on in the future, that goes for pretty much any situation. It's not good in several situations, but I guess it is simply the way it is for now.

 

 

Yup, not the best view.

 

 

[gambee]

In the distance another Carnival Ship? I tried getting this picture numerous times, but after 20 tries I gave up. Our ship was simply moving too much to get a clear shoot. This was the best result out of all of them.

 

 

 

And sadly this review comes to an end, what a great voyage! Carnival definitely gave me a great first impression. All those lousy reviews, and media coverage exaggerating everything were simply there to jade my view about the Company. They offer a great product at an unbeatable price! But more on this in the conclusion section.

 

 

I packed and headed to bed, I also remember starting to work on the pictures that night. The funny thing is that I say packed, but ummmmm, how do I put this lightly. I just threw everything in the bag :D. It was a good thing that my mom was still in Home, she would fly back to Colombia later the week after.

 

 

 

 

Day 6, End =(

 

 

[gambee]

Day 7, Disembarkation

 

 

I woke very early not sure why, decided to check my emails and catch up to my e-life. Then I went to take a few pictures of MSC Divina.

 

I noticed a forward facing room open and I took a picture of it. They are nice and large. I could actually see myself in one of these rooms for the right price. They have that forward balcony right there and look how spacious they are, but I guess I would still miss the ocean air coming into the room.

 

 

Here is MSC Divina, if everything goes as planned, mom and I will board her on August. I am really hoping that all the reviews are flawed, because I am ready to have another amazing cruise! Then again even if it is a bad cruise line, I am sure I can make a good cruise out of it. And at the prices offered, it just hard to let the opportunity pass by.

 

 

Since my mom was already on her way I decided to head out just in case the it would take long to go through customs.

 

I always bring my bag with me after Celebrity lost our bags on our silhouette cruise.

 

There was a short line, but it moved fast.

 

 

This ended up being one of the fastest disembarkation that I have ever done. It was so fast that I ended up waiting for my mom for 30 minutes outside, I was not planning on that.

 

The customs officer grilled me over why was I traveling alone, and if I traveled alone in the past and some other questions. He eventually let me go, but he asked about 10 questions. I am so tired of going through this process every time I enter the country. That is why stopped traveling to Colombia, entering the country takes on average 3-4 hours from a Colombian flight…. They just single me out and make me go through every extra process possible.

 

Anyway, other than the officer, everything was fast and very efficient.

 

 

Here is Bimini express, she does daily trips to Bimini island. Mom and I plan on sailing on her in August for quick getaway. Keep an eye for a review.

 

 

 

And the last picture of the review is a nasty accident that happened on I-95 on the way home.

 

 

Well that’s it folks, the review is over.

 

 

 

Next up scoring and conclusion ;)

 

[gambee]

I love the relationship you have with your Mom also. Love the support she gives you and love her cc name, GambeesMom. Hi GambeesMom! Hope you enjoy your next cruise together!

 

 

What better way to know who it is, but GambeesMom ;)

[gambee]

Gambee - great review!! If I'm not mistaken, that Maitre'D was the Maitre'D (excuse my spelling) on the Dream. He does have a beautiful voice if it's the same man. And visited all the tables every night - making sure my son got his extra steak and extra chocolate melting cake every night. I have the recipe and they were close but I think you need to be on the ship. Looking forward to going on the Breeze in August for an 8 day.:cool:

 

He was definitely really good at his job, although ill be honest and say that this was the first time I same him. Then again I only went to the MDR 3 times and never really looked around.

[KPfromCT]

You are INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!! Amazing review and pictures. So talented:D:D

Cannot wait to see the "scores":rolleyes:

Will we see them tonight?

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease say YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D