Die-hard Disney fan cruises the Breeze on 11/8/14 and LOVES it or HATES it???

[PBCruise]

This has been a great review! Thanks for sharing your trip and family with us.

[loveysbydesign]

So it is now a little after 4:30 and one of our group members comes over and tells us we need to get out and get changed asap so we can head back to the ship. We reluctantly agree and quick get changed in the bathrooms.

Then it's back on the van for the drive back to the ship. We are all a bit sad as we know this is our last official day of the cruise. :( Tomorrow we would be getting off the Breeze and heading home. Once back at the dock the we pay our leader who then pays the driver. All in all it was an interesting and fun day full of surprises, good and bad! It was a day I know none of us will forget!

We get back to the ship, shower and head to our last dinner with our fabulous servers! Frog legs were on the menu tonight and my older kids both ordered them and liked them!

 

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2015 by loveysbydesign

[jenseib]

I love the beach shots and the ones that have the hint of blue. They look like a post card. You should frame one of those!

 

Dinner sounds good....I like frog legs too!

[loveysbydesign]

I love the beach shots and the ones that have the hint of blue. They look like a post card. You should frame one of those!

 

Dinner sounds good....I like frog legs too!

Thanks! Next update coming shortly, it has been a rough week. We volunteered at an animal sanctuary over the weekend, then Mon. my kids had a 2 hour delay, Tues. they got out 2 hours early and Wed., Thurs. and today they have had snow days. So between my 3 kids being home and the 4 little ones that I babysit for it has been crazy here.

I really want to move to FL!

[loveysbydesign]

So it was our last night aboard the ship. Older kids went to their kids clubs for the farewell parties after dinner, they both said they'd really miss the friends they had made and the counselor.

Ryan just hung out with us for most of the evening, we played a final round of mini-golf and then he went to his kids club for his farewell party too.

 

Hubby and I hung out on the balcony for bit and then packed up the rest of our stuff and got everything ready to go for the morning. We planned to self disembark as we needed to be off early and drive to Sanford to catch the Autotrain. I was really worried about missing the train!

 

Then it was time for bed, next thing I know I am waking up a little after 6 so I went out on the balcony to see where we were and saw this.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2015 by loveysbydesign

[loveysbydesign]

We had arrived in Miami and were in line, a ship or 2 in front of us and one behind us!

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2015 by loveysbydesign

[emtnmare2]

Thanks! Next update coming shortly, it has been a rough week. We volunteered at an animal sanctuary over the weekend, then Mon. my kids had a 2 hour delay, Tues. they got out 2 hours early and Wed., Thurs. and today they have had snow days. So between my 3 kids being home and the 4 little ones that I babysit for it has been crazy here.

I really want to move to FL!

 

You've had a lot more snow days than we have had this year. Just cold here with a light snow very now and then. I have really enjoyed your review.

Edited March 6, 2015 by emtnmare2

[vicky3vicky]

Thanks! Next update coming shortly, it has been a rough week. We volunteered at an animal sanctuary over the weekend, then Mon. my kids had a 2 hour delay, Tues. they got out 2 hours early and Wed., Thurs. and today they have had snow days. So between my 3 kids being home and the 4 little ones that I babysit for it has been crazy here.

I really want to move to FL!

 

We should ALL move to Florida and start a "Cruising Commune." Kumbayah.

[vicky3vicky]

We could all work together, beading lanyards for our cruise cards, growing our own wheat for that small handful of flour needed to make chocolate melting cake. I am excited for our alligator farm so that we can eat alligator fritters after an exhausting evening of meditating on the true meaning of cruise art auctions. Oh Lord, kumbayah.

[loveysbydesign]

You've had a lot more snow days than we have had this year. Just cold here with a light snow very now and then. I have really enjoyed your review.

We sure have! This is their 5, 6 and 7th snowdays. So now they are down to only having off one day for Easter Break and the school year will be extended as the school district is adding days on at the end of the year.

Edited March 6, 2015 by loveysbydesign

[loveysbydesign]

We could all work together, beading lanyards for our cruise cards, growing our own wheat for that small handful of flour needed to make chocolate melting cake. I am excited for our alligator farm so that we can eat alligator fritters after an exhausting evening of meditating on the true meaning of cruise art auctions. Oh Lord, kumbayah.

Sounds good to me! LOL! Thanks for the chuckle! I am going crazy here.

[knbcruisers]

You mentioned taking the auto train.why did you choose this?Have you done it before? I am very intrigued by this option to go north.

[SFplusP]

Just waiting for the last little bit :)

[loveysbydesign]

You mentioned taking the auto train.why did you choose this?Have you done it before? I am very intrigued by this option to go north.

We wanted to take the train home instead of driving, we have driven home from FL to PA every year for the past 7 and needed break. The drive home can be brutal when we're tired and cranky! We were supposed to take the AT home a few years ago but Hurricane Sandy was hitting the east coast a and they shut down the railways as we were checking in at the station. We actually had to hit the road at 1 in the afternoon and beat the hurricane before it got to our house!

Most stressful drive ever!!!

My kids have been looking forward to it ever since then and this time it finally worked out for our budget!

It goes from Sanford, FL to Lorton, VA and vice versa. I will talk more about it and have pics. at the end of my review :)

Edited March 7, 2015 by loveysbydesign

[dadof2boys]

Can. Not. Wait. For. Autotrain!!!

[CookiePie]

I'm loving your review! Thanks for taking the time to post! I can't wait to hear about auto train I have always been intrigued!

[Homosassa]

Having taken the auto train several times, I can offer the following advice: Pay for the sleeper cars. The coach is hell (uncomfortable seats, miserable food). The sleeper car kicks you up to purgatory. The food is somewhat better and sleeping is somewhat easier in the coffin size beds (has just about as much space).

 

Also be aware that sometimes your car is strapped down too tightly on the freight car. If one of your wheels is making noise after having the car returned to you, the wheel bearing is cracked. A waiver from this damage is included in the Auto-train contract.

 

Luckily for us, the car dealers in the Sanford area are aware of the problem and keep stocks of bearings for the various cars that they see come off the train.

[hartskys]

Great review - we are going on the same itinerary the end of April.

Question: do you happen to know why I can't see your pictures?

[loveysbydesign]

Great review - we are going on the same itinerary the end of April.

Question: do you happen to know why I can't see your pictures?

Hmmm, I'm not sure. Let me check into it!

[loveysbydesign]

Ugh, I had exceeded my bandwidth...oh well, paid $2.99 to restore it, not a big deal!

[loveysbydesign]

So we wake up the kids around 8:00 so we can grab a quick bite to eat and then head to the self disembark line after the call our deck, Deck 2. They are not happy to be woken up, apparently they did not get back to the cabin til after 1 a.m.!!!

We head down to the Lido and of course Dejan was waiting for us. We give him an envelope with extra tip in it since he treated us so wonderfully on the cruise. In hindsight I wish we could have exchanged addresses or emails with him so we could keep in touch with him :( We finish eating and I am feeling sad that we have to get off the Breeze.

 

We head back to the cabins, on our way there they called our deck #, they were running about 15 minutes ahead of time. So we grabbed our stuff and popped out to the hallway to the line at the elevators. After waiting about 10 minutes we finally get one and down we go. We had too much luggage to haul down the steps!

Going through customs was easy and next thing I knew we were headed out of the terminal and across the street to our car in the parking garage.

Even I am shocked that I did not take any pics. but we were in a hurry to hit the road for Sanford and the long awaited Autotrain!!!

We pay for the parking and hit the road, we hoped to get to Sanford by 1:00, check in and then go grab a late lunch before driving back to the station to await boarding. We were on our way!

 

 

Older two kiddos were wiped out!!

 

 

 

Not happy to be off the ship!

 

 

 

Saw this along the way, I found this so interesting as I thought they were only in PA, we have one near us in Kutztown, PA!

 

 

 

This park looked nice, so I snapped a pic. of the sign so I could remember it for our next trip to FL!

 

Edited March 9, 2015 by loveysbydesign

[loveysbydesign]

Having taken the auto train several times, I can offer the following advice: Pay for the sleeper cars. The coach is hell (uncomfortable seats, miserable food). The sleeper car kicks you up to purgatory. The food is somewhat better and sleeping is somewhat easier in the coffin size beds (has just about as much space).

 

Also be aware that sometimes your car is strapped down too tightly on the freight car. If one of your wheels is making noise after having the car returned to you, the wheel bearing is cracked. A waiver from this damage is included in the Auto-train contract.

 

Luckily for us, the car dealers in the Sanford area are aware of the problem and keep stocks of bearings for the various cars that they see come off the train.

 

Wow, thankful we did not have a bad time in coach...more on that to come later!

[Lori Dobson]

Really enjoying your review and happy you had a great time on the Breeze, I have sailed Carnival several times and enjoyed it each time. I'm not much of a Disney fan and don't have kids so I have never sailed on Disney.

I live in FL now, having moved here in 1997 from Pittsburgh, PA. I guess I am the strange one - I miss Pittsburgh terribly and would love to move back! The winters here are great - much nicer than bitter cold, snow and ice, which I don't like - but the summers here are hard for me to take (months of unrelenting heat and humidity) - extremes are never good, one way or another.

Thanks for posting all of the pcitures with your review - it's a pleasure to read. :)

[PurrSusan]

Loved reading your review! We will be in San Juan in a few weeks & plan to do an "on our own" walking tour that I have printed out. I volunteer at our local pound in the cat area and I REALLY want to visit the Save A Gato Sanctuary. Can you help guide me? After we go through the San Juan Gate where exactly do we go? I have directions to El Morro but I don't want to miss the Sanctuary on the way. You mentioned that it was behind another building--what bldg. should we look for? Thanks for your help :)

I hope your son is recovering well---I loved his expressions in your photos!

[ampc007]

wow what a great review! just curious about the YTD can you make a time reservation ahead like on RCCL MTD? what is the thrill theater pass you mentioned awhile back? looks like a great ship! we have our first family cruise booked this fall on RCCL freedom of the seas, and I am aniticapting that we will love it. I said I would never sail carnival after all the bad press they get, but there newer ships seem awesome for families and it seems they are trying hard to imrove?