Just Off Carnival Breeze B2B Honeymoon 6/20/15 - 7/4/15

[RPS99SHO]

Hello! DW and I are just off the Breeze - Eastern Caribbean 8 day and Western Caribbean 7 day B2B. We got married in March and delayed the honeymoon; she's a schoolteacher so this made the most sense. I tried to take some notes as the cruise was going on. Some days weren't very noteworthy, so I won't have a whole lot to say. I do have tons of pictures to share, though! Enjoy.

 

Arrival in Miami

We arrived in Miami the day before. DW has a cousin who lives in Miami, and we wanted to check out Miami Beach.

 

Gotta love an exit row seat, especially at 6'2".

 

A very young, adorable cousin of hers.

[RPS99SHO]

First alcoholic drinks of the trip in the hotel bar.

 

We went to bed anxiously awaiting our transfer to the pier at 11am the next day.

 

Embarkation Day

We got everything packed at headed outside to catch our bus. I like how the bus was pulling a trailer for the luggage.

 

We arrived at the port around 11:30am. The place was a madhouse. We gave our bags to a porter, then headed inside to get checked in. The security line looked to be an hour long, but just as we walked in, a staff member opened a new line to a new agent. Lucky us! We got our S&S cards, breezed through security (we totally could have smuggled. They didn't bother to check our soda cases or wine bottles) and sat down to wait.

 

 

We chatted with some folks and got the impression that just about everybody received an email saying to not show up until 1pm. Very shortly after we sat down, boarding started and we were told that even if you received the message to come later, they would board you. We were on the ship before 1pm.

 

Embarkation selfie

 

First drink!

Edited July 6, 2015 by RPS99SHO

[RPS99SHO]

We found our room. Aft balcony.

 

The rooms on Breeze require a card to be put in a slot on the wall before lights will be allowed to be turned on. The ship staff will have you believe that your room key is required. Any card or card-shaped object will work. We found this in our slot.

 

We also found our room decked out in honeymoon decorations.

[RPS99SHO]

View off the balcony. Glory and NCL Getaway were with us in port.

 

We set up our home for the next two weeks.

Edited July 6, 2015 by RPS99SHO

[RPS99SHO]

We went out to explore and grab another drink.

 

Thirsty Frog arrggghhhhhhhh so good.

 

Muster was at 3:30pm, lasted about 30 minutes. We went into the Blush dining room as listened as the CD Dr. E narrated the staff showing us how to put on lifejackets. We then went to the sailaway party, which was a lot of shuffling and wobbling.

[RPS99SHO]

We went to our first dinner in the Sapphire dining room. We selected anytime dining. We fell in love with our waitstaff Corina, Nanang, and Coqui. We ended up going to dinner at 6pm each night and requested their section. They were awesome!

I didn't take many pictures of food, but I did take some.

 

Carnival's American Table Wine. Cab.

 

My vegetarian DW decided to eat some shrimp (she had shrimp every day after!)

 

I looooove the chilled fruit soups on the menu. I had them for desert every time they were offered.

 

After dinner we explored a bit more, drank a bit more, then went to bed.

 

Some things that I noted:

- The aft balcony dividers are disappointing. The slope of the aft section is responsible for this. You can stand at your balcony and without even trying, see into your neighbors balcony, and with the slightest lean you can see into their stateroom. This only became an issue once when we were "honeymooning" and we looked out our window and saw the back of our neighbors head. :eek:

- Some people have noticed vibrations in aft rooms. We noticed vibrations only during acceleration and deceleration maneuvers. At cruising speed, no vibrations were felt. We did feel motion, though. We felt an occasional "bump in the road," but nothing jarring. I did have an issue with noise. The toilets are LOUD, and we could hear our neighbors to side and above every time they flushed.

- We never noticed any soot buildup on the balcony furniture.

- The bed was a tad firmer than I recall from previous cruises, but not bad.

- There was no freebie basket in the bathroom. Not a big deal, since we came prepared, but still nice to fall back on.

- The temperature in the room, even though it was set at its coldest setting the whole trip, was still a tad warmer than we are comfortable with. We called for a fan but they were all out. Get your fans early.

- The luggage was slower than I have experienced in the past. It didn't get to our room until almost 7p.

- Beverage service on Lido deck was pretty good, borderline harassing the whole trip.

- Soon after we cleared Miami Beach into the ocean, there was a medical emergency. A passenger had to be transported off the ship via the pilot boat. I never heard anything else and I hope they turned out ok.

- The S&S cards come with holes pre-punched for a lanyard. If wearing them around your neck/wrist/arm is your thing and you didn't bring one, grab one for free at the casino. Don't pay $12 in the shop.

- Deck chairs on Lido were surprisingly easy to come by before 10a on sea days. From 10a - 3p, don't even try. The Lanai (deck 5) almost always had chairs open.

- The Lido Marketplace floors are VERY slippery when wet/damp/moist. I almost lost my bacon several times on the trip, though I always managed to remain upright. I did see some unfortunate falls, however. I did hear someone complain to a staff member.

- The breakfast in the Lido Marketplace was ok at best. There were virtually no lines to speak of before 8:30a. From then until around 10:30a, you could count on waiting in a decent line.

- The Hub app was actually quite useful. I only noticed it bog down twice. The first sea day on each leg, as many people were playing with it. Outside of that, the chat function was very useful and appreciated. The S&S account charges take a while to show up, however.

- Pizza Pirate was very disappointing. Bad pizza is still good pizza, but this pizza tested that theory.

Edited July 6, 2015 by RPS99SHO

[RPS99SHO]

Sea Day 1

We woke up and took in the view.

We decided we wanted Blue Iguana breakfast burritos, based on the rave reviews here.

We went and hit the gym for 30 minutes then came back and settled into lounge chairs for the better part of the day.

The chair hog police were out giving warnings (timestamps, actually). After 40 minutes of no-show, your stuff gets taken away and the chair freed up.

[RPS99SHO]

For lunch I went and grabbed a hot dog from the sky deck.

I went back to the cabin and mixed up a few drinks.

Then we lounged around a bit more on Lido.

And watched some rain try to invade us.

[RPS99SHO]

We went back to the cabin and got ready for our first elegant night.

 

My vegetarian DW decided she wanted to try lobster. She ate it again the following week.

[RPS99SHO]

Some pictures of us with Corina and Nanang.

 

The American Feast menu had lots of good options. I built my own surf and turf with the lobster and filet menu options. The mushroom soup appetizer is to die for. Best soup I have ever had, hands down.

 

We went back to the room for some great views.

 

Sea Day 2

The seas were a bit rougher today. The ship was doing some rolling and we got a bit of a rain.

It did nothing to put a damper on the party. I scrambled because I had some rain-sensitive items.

We tried some frozen drinks. She opted for the Hurrican Wave, and I opted for the Miami Vice. Both were very good.

 

We went and played some foosball. We got our butts kicked by a 12-year-old.

[RPS99SHO]

We checked out the casino. Sorry, no pictures. DW won $300 on slots, I lost $60 at craps (I would fix that later in the cruise). We deposited the cash into our S&S. We had a negative balance, even after all the drinks and prepaid grats. :D

We went back to the room and found that our GNC card had been taken (probably by accident by the room steward). So we made our own.

For dinner I tried the braised rabbit appetizer. I was unimpressed.

On the way back from dinner, we spotted this.

I wonder if they ever got their stuff back?

[RPS99SHO]

Saint Maarten

The ship was supposed to dock at 9a, but there was a slight delay. We were off at 9:15a. The problem is, our excursion (not booked with Carnival) started at 9:45a and the cab ride was about 30 minutes. DW was freaking out. I assured her that we were officially on island time and that there wouldn’t be a problem. Everything turned out fine, and we ended up waiting for another group from our ship to go.

We book a sail/snorkel/eat/drink boat trip on Random Wind. This excursion was great! It was light on the snorkeling and heavy on the eating, drinking, and swimming.

[RPS99SHO]

 

We cruised by Princess Julianna airport and watched a couple jumbos land.

[RPS99SHO]

 

I decided to do some diving.

 

And flipping from their tarzan swing.

 

The captain was throwing us beer while we were chilling in the water.

[RPS99SHO]

 

It’s back – alright!

[RPS99SHO]

St. Kitts

We DIYed this one. We walked around the port area for a bit.

 

Then we encountered a man and his monkeys. We put them on us and we had a ball with them, until I snapped a picture of them. Then he told me I owed him $10 for all the photos I wanted. I wasn’t about to cause a scene, so I mumbled, gave him a $10 bill and started snapping.

[RPS99SHO]

 

We caught a cab and headed to South Friars Bay Beach Club. It was a $16 cab ride through town and through some mountain roads.

[RPS99SHO]

We weren’t pleased that we had to pay $30 to use two lounge chairs and an umbrella, but we did anyways. To be fair, the loungers were VERY comfortable, and the umbrella was huge. The beer was good, and was only a tad less expensive than on the ship. The staff was not friendly at all. The beach was beautiful, but I won’t go back.

[RPS99SHO]

San Juan

We DIYed this stop, too. We got in at 7a and had a 1:30p all-aboard, which left very little time to do much of anything. We checked out old town and tried to stop at a place that had something like 200 mojito varieties. They were closed, so we went back down toward the pier area in search of a CVS to refill our liquor supply and pick up more sunscreen.

 

Then we headed to Senor Frogs. It was a lot of fun, but as you can imagine, way overpriced. A yard of beer cost $15. A yard of beer is 600ml. That’s a pint and some change. Ouch. We bought two. Double ouch.

 

But. We played a name that tune game with the DJ and he gave DW and I a bottle of rum punch for knowing who Talk Talk is. We touch a bunch of shots for ourselves, then passed out the rest to our neighbors.

 

I went to the bathroom.

 

Then the DJ announced a game a flipcup. DW and I ran up and were on opposing teams. We each got a free Coors. My team won, so we were awarded free shots at the bar. I chose kamkazes for our team. The bartended poured one for DW, as well.

 

So we paid $30 for what amounted to ~2.5 pints of Miller Lite. But we did drink a lot of other things for free, so not a complete loss.

[michigancruiser0715]

Great photos! We were on the 6/20 sailing as well, and I remember seeing both of you everywhere. lol. Seemed every line we were in, you were in front of us.

 

Looks like you guys had an awesome time! :)

[CocoCandy]

Great review! I am excited to sail the Breeze in August :)

 

Congratulations @RPS99SHO!

[RPS99SHO]

Great photos! We were on the 6/20 sailing as well, and I remember seeing both of you everywhere. lol. Seemed every line we were in, you were in front of us.

 

Looks like you guys had an awesome time! :)

 

Show yourself! We will probably recognize you too!

[fofita01]

Congrats on your wedding.

 

Loving the review. Looking forward to reading the rest.

[INCHARGE]

Congrats to you both! You all are such a cute couple. I am so enjoying your review, and love all of the pictures. I am so looking forward to more. Two weeks worth of review to look forward to. Thanks so much for sharing your honeymoon trip. :)

[KPfromCT]

Absolutely LOVING your review!!

Congratulations on your marriage/honeymoon!:D:D

You guys are WAY too cute!:D:D

Keep up the great work!!