MITSUGIRLY lets the BREEZE flow through her hair-Spring Break Review/Pictorial

[mitsugirly]

Ok, back to the review. Sakari's birthday is over, I'm finished with school for this semester, taxes are completed and it's time to get cracking on this thing.

 

 

Time for some water fun because water fun is good for everyone.

 

 

 

Now the Breeze is a big ship and with big ships comes big crowds plus add in Spring Break....whew.

 

It's almost impossible to find a seat on a sea day with this many people on the ship. But...we managed to find a spot up at the water park, so this is where we decided we'd spend some time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This water park was awesome...for both the kids and adults.

 

 

 

 

 

I loved getting caught under the bucket. I made it a point to never sit and watch it and if it happened to "dump" in the location I was, well so be it. That's what it was all about and having fun! You can get dumped on just about anywhere including the steps.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Since there's so many levels to this water park, you never know when someone is above you, ready to pound water on you, and that included us catching Sakari many times.

 

 

 

 

The thrill seekers at the park would wait for that moment of getting drenched.

 

 

 

 

Team work is what it's all about. I'll fill your bucket up, you dump the unsuspecting people below.

 

 

 

 

They had the "baby" slides for the youngsters who couldn't or wouldn't go on the big slides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Baby slides for the little ones? Well, sometimes I guess they were appropriate for the big kids too...especially when daddy wanted to race Sakari.

 

 

 

 

Just so you know, there's a glass wall that surrounds a portion of the water park and then chairs for people to sit in on all sides...you are NOT protected from the water and especially from the different hoses that you can squirt people with...just be warned...we became a pretty good shot from up on top to the front and sides. :D If you don't want to get wet, you probably shouldn't be at a water park. Just saying...

 

We spent hours here and had a blast. Sakari rode the water slides over and over and loved them (as she always does). I had a blast but man climbing those steps were gruesome for an overweight girl like me these days. Which, of course, gave me more incentive to continue to climb them and maybe work off some of those Guys Burgers I knew I would be consuming all week.

 

The water slides did go pretty quickly. There are two "lines" on the same set of steps, so make sure you are looking down and know which line you are in...people are not passing you up, they are simply in a different line than you.

 

 

We spent several hours here and Sakari decided she wanted to go to the pool and off we went. However, you have to remember that the pools are salt water and Sakari came to a screeching halt when she entered the water for the first time and you would have thought someone just took her favorite blankie away forever. She screamed bloody murder and the waterfalls of tears started pouring like Niagara Falls. I had no idea what was going on and of course I had already plummeted into the water, making the biggest tsunami wave possible. Could I have just thrown her out of the water and onto the edging like a beached whale?

 

Nope, that wasn't it. After calming her down and looking at her body language, because using the English language for her at this point was not working out too well, I discovered she was holding her belly. Once I peeled back her fighting hands, I found that she had several "rug burns". She had them on the back of her legs up toward her bottom, right below her bathing suit top, the top of her feet and her elbows...and they were red and raw. Oh just great! What type of flesh eating disease have you managed to catch on the ship this time???

 

Well, after bundling her up like a newborn child, I would finally reteach her the English language and convince her it was a good thing to communicate. She let us know that she had been running and sliding on her belly and bottom, up at the water park, over and over and over and over! She obviously managed to get some friction burns out of this great idea...and now she would have to suck it up and live with the burning sensation or not be able to go to the beach "tomorrow" because that was our first port day. Ohhhhh my goodness...bring on the cow tears again. Oh the thought of not going to the beach to morph into a mermaid was unbearable. She convinced me that she would be all better by tomorrow and today she would just have to forego the pools with salt water in them.

 

She settled for a Guys Burger and things were better.

 

 

 

 

I got me a pig patty and loaded it with everything and I was all better as well. All was good in the world for the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Back to the room, with our bellies full, I thought it would be a good idea to chill for awhile and deescalate the "burn" situation for a moment.

 

I would sit out on the deck and enjoy my view, far enough away to not hear any of the whimpers coming from inside, and just relax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ask Sakari several times, while we were at the water park, if she'd like to go to the Easter Party. She said no each time. I almost begged and really played it up about how great it was going to be and reminded her of the last party on the Pride for Easter and all the dancing involved. It didn't work. If you give her the choice between 1) Anything involving water and 2) a party 3) candy 4) dancing 5) a million dollars....she's going to pick the water related activity every time.

 

So now that the water activity had put a blemish on the day, I did ask her about going to the "Build a Bear" Beary Cuddly Workshop. She agreed that she would like to do that and I was relieved that I found something that would possibly let her forget that she was in pain still.

 

 

Off we went to the workshop in hopes of having some fun.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by mitsugirly

[Bluemoon319]

Thank you :)

 

 

 

 

Thank you. I can't wait to get it over with. I'm pretty sure I will not be going for my masters. I have no desire to put such a degree to use. I will however, think long and hard about DNP or something along that line. :)

 

You'll need a master's to get into a DNP program, but there are MSN programs that offer nurse practitioner as a specialty.

[mitsugirly]

They hold the workshop at the kids club and the cost is around $25 to build your own stuffed animal. Sakari loves going to the Build-A-Bear here at home, but this is a "little" different. You actually get to stuff your own bear by hand. Of course at the shops here, they have a machine that does it for you and you just have to press on the foot pedal and it blows the stuffing in the animal. Sakari would tell me that she likes this much better. So, it looks like we have managed to find something that will become a ritual when cruising with Carnival.

 

 

She picked out an elephant animal that she would later name "Peanut".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had an entire closet full of animals waiting for new owners on the cruise.

 

 

 

 

It came complete with the "house" box, just like the stores have.

 

 

 

At the stores, you can put various things in it (for an additional price) such as a heart or a sound...and even a "smell". Included with the price of THIS animal on Carnival, you get 2 pieces that go inside, you know, to make them come alive and be functional and all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Sakari takes building her animals very seriously. She is hoping for all the greatness in Peanuts life to become a reality and that he would be happy with his new owner and lead a fulfilling life with her.

 

 

 

It also comes with a Carnival tee shirt. She dressed Peanut and it would probably be the only time Peanut has clothes on. I stopped buying her all the fancy dress-up items at the store because she strips them all and they end up hanging in her playroom closet gathering dust. Carnival also has the option to purchase extra clothes for them here as well. That was a definite "NO" for us, since they would never get used and Sakari will also say she doesn't want any clothes. She doesn't like clothes, so I guess she thinks her stuffed animals don't either. I guess I get off cheap with her.

 

 

 

 

 

At the stores, you get a certificate of "birth". With Carnival, Peanut needed a Passport! So a passport he got!

 

(Don't-cha just love her fancy writing? She does this all the time).

 

 

 

 

Now Peanut is ready for the road and Sakari had fun making it.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We headed up to the pool deck to relax for a little bit and Sakari would now have Peanut to entertain her for hours on end. She is VERY good at playing alone and can take a new toy and get so engulfed in acting out that I really believe sometimes she thinks it's real. But hey, it keeps her occupied and very quiet for hours.

 

 

 

 

Now...remember I showed you mine and Sakari's free water for sailing with Carnival again? The hubby's was missing right? For some reason they have him as a new cruiser this time around. I have no idea what happened, but he's been on every cruise with me so....I was going to make the best of this situation and use it to my full advantage...the.entire.cruise!

 

 

Aww would you look at that newbie Blue card? Isn't is purdy? hehe

 

Well....."Since you are a newbie on this cruise, it's time to initiate you because that's what newbies get". The hubby is looking at me like...oh geesh what now. "Well, I'm kinda thirsty after all that bear-building." He's looking around and says "Where is the closest bar?" I point in the direction of the steps, walk my fingers as if I'm going down the steps with them, then point to the opposite corner at the Blue Iguana bar. Off he went. heheh

 

There he is, waiting on our drinks.

 

 

 

 

And doing the walk of shame on his way back.

 

 

 

 

This would continue the rest of the cruise. If I can use it to my advantage, I'mma gonna. hehe. I told him multiple times to go down to Customer Service to get an updated card, but he said he didn't want the hassle and it didn't really matter to him. So-be-it, newbie for the rest of the cruise you are! You are at my command. :D

 

 

I will get you to pose for all the silly pictures during the cruise as well....just so you know what you are in store for newbie.

 

 

 

 

[Bluemoon319]

This would be the first time I have ever received anything like the following. It was in the mouth of one of our towel animals.

 

 

I'm not sure if this is something Carnival came up with to get the passengers to spend $$ or they only give this out to random people. Once again, I don't do the spa, so it had no value to me.

 

 

 

 

It's too bad they didn't let you give it to someone else who would have appreciated it.

[Bluemoon319]

After breakfast we decided to go down to Ocean Plaza/Red Frog and Sakari discovered the Foosball tables...where we would spend the next hour or so doing tournament after tournament. She just absolutely loved this game.

 

 

 

Daddy let his winnings be known to all of those around.

 

 

 

 

We played foosball until it was time for the scavenger hunt. Sakari was looking forward to this. Last year on the Pride they gave all the kids a paper and they had to hunt around the entire ship for the place by figuring out the clue. Once they found the place, they would receive some candy and a sticker and then on to the next clue. Once you made it to the end, there was an Easter party with cake and a dance. She loved it.

 

This was different and we wouldn't find out until after we were already knee-deep in the game. The had the "team leader" line up around a circle and we were given a list of items we had to run around the ship and take pictures of. For each picture you got, you get so many points. You had a total of 15 minutes to complete it and be back on the circle.

 

 

15 minutes went by QUICK!! And this is not anything I can see a young child doing. Here's momma duck racing around getting these items and pictures and dragging my pour family with me. We made it back with about 10 seconds to spare and stood on the line. There were only 3 families back. Um ok...so much for the "rules" They waited and waited and had I known that, I would have managed to take more time and get more items myself.

 

In the end a family of 3 young teenage girls won I believe with some outrageous amount of points, which I can't see how, but we had just wasted about 1 hour of our time doing something we thought was going to be an actual Easter Egg hunt. It left me wondering what happened to the Easter Hunt.

 

Well sad and depressed that Mr Bunny wasn't going to present himself as we expected, we decided we would cheer Sakari up by heading to the water park because water makes everything better!

 

 

 

 

Love the look on Sakari's face

 

 

Sorry about the scavenger hunt :mad:

[Bluemoon319]

So it has been a crazy busy day today. Sakari turned 8 today, BUT NOT before everyone could come over and sing Happy Birthday to her. She told everyone that she's "about to be 8 as soon as you sing Happy Birthday too me."

 

I surprised her with this cake...

 

 

 

 

 

 

And she got her a mermaid blanket, which she is now sleeping in. THIS was a shock to her since she had never even seem them yet...even though they came from the same company that makes her mermaid tails. HA! I pulled one over on her...FINALLY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

She had a great day of family and friends over, a cookout, riding her new pro Haro bike, then going to the trampoline jump place and then out to dinner. She was so tired I had to threaten her just to get her into the shower tonight instead of going straight to bed. :p Now THAT'S how you wear out an 8 year old. :D

 

So I would say that she had a great year being 7 with 4 cruises under her belt just during the age of 7. Yep, what more could any child ask for? Oh yea, another cruise, I forgot. :eek: And ask she did!

 

 

Great job on the Cake! And I'm glad Sakari had such a great birthday.

[mitsugirly]

I would like to say that today was the ONLY day that anyone ever came up to me because they knew who I was from here "Mitsugirly". They ask just how many times I had already been spotted on the cruise and believe it or not, she was the only one that spotted me for the entire cruise. (I think more people know me and can spot me on the NCL boards because I'm over there more often I guess).

 

But it was real nice talking to her and I hope I didn't give the impression that I hated that she approached me and recognized me (I think I joked about being incognito). I love talking to people that recognize me during the cruise. The problem is, everyone knows me from my reviews but I don't know anyone else...leaving it up to them to say something. But normally I'll run into people that recognize me and they'll come up and talk and I'll continue to run into them again throughout the cruise. I love getting to know people like that. I never did run into her (or anyone else) again that cruise. So if you are here, and reading my review, stop in and say hello again. :D

 

 

Now one thing that I really like about Carnival is that they have a "Kids Dinner" where you can drop your child off at the buffet area to eat with them. NCL only offers this "lunch" if it's a port day and your child is staying with them while you are off in port and they charge you $6 for the meal...you know, the meal that is free to eat had you been there.

 

Well Sakari loved going and eating with her friends. We tried to make it a habit to do this every day that we could (except for port days of course...we weren't able to make it most of the time). But every day at 6pm, we headed to the buffet for them to eat. At least we knew she was getting fed right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed to the casino to try our luck, which didn't work out too good for us so we went to check out our pictures taken by the ship photographer.

 

 

They managed to find us out on the water park deck and took a picture. I would later realize that almost every female on this ship would have some form of blue and white striped, cruising-looking cover-up for their bathing suit or just a shirt. When it came time to find us in pictures, we quickly learned that simply looking for a person with blue and white stripes on would not point us in the direction of OUR picture, but usually someone else. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Then back to our room to put everything away and capture a few moments of the beautiful ocean and clouds before sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did a little packing for tomorrow, since it was our first port day and we were super excited.

 

When it was time to pick Sakari up from the kids club, we headed up to the floor to get her only to find a short line for pick up, which was awesome. Carnival has you pick up the kids by 10pm. NCL is at 10:30pm.

 

At least she was able to create herself a mask tonight. She was super excited about it. She would wear it most of the rest of the night. I had to laugh because the rubberband that held it to her face was pretty tight and the eye holes that were cut out was close together...it made her eyes looks super funny. But, she insisted on wearing it and I wasn't about to stop her.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Time for me to head out to see my patients now. I will return in a few hours and try to get more of the review done. If I'm unable to return directly after work, just know that it's in the 80's today, Sakari got a new pool for her birthday, and she has already informed me that she wants to go swimming right after she gets home from school. So, I will probably be forced to be outside with her for several hours and then I will definitely be back for sure tonight. :D

 

Everyone enjoy their day. :)

[mykindaparty]

Wish Sakari a very happy birthday even though it's a little late and I am jelous of her mermaid blanket. Lol! Loving the review...

[Oldgoat61]

Mitsu.....as usual I am enjoying your review! I discovered this review about midway thru your Jade review (a week ago). Hope you neutered your cabin steward in your post cruise survey.:D

[mamater815]

That was the best birthday cake, ever! I am also going to surprise my daughter with the mermaid tail blanket (even though she's 20). She still reminds me that she never received a mermaid hooded towel when she was younger, so this should even the score. Thank you so much for your reviews, they are such great reading.

[Bluemoon319]

 

Now...remember I showed you mine and Sakari's free water for sailing with Carnival again? The hubby's was missing right? For some reason they have him as a new cruiser this time around. I have no idea what happened, but he's been on every cruise with me so....I was going to make the best of this situation and use it to my full advantage...the.entire.cruise!

 

I realize it didn't make much of a difference, but if you think you will be cruising with Carnival more, it makes a difference regarding the Loyalty Program. My son & I had a cruise that we didn't get credited for once, but it was an easy fix. If you go to "Manage, then VIFP Club, then My Cruises, there is a spot near the bottom of the page to file a claim for any missing cruises not listed. Our missing cruise never did show up on My Cruise, but the number of VIFP points shows up, which is all that matters to me.

[Riley's Mom]

Thank you for taking the time to post the pics of your beautiful family (your little one is gorgeous!) and writing such an informative review.

 

Our first time o the Breeze is in 5 more weeks. She looks like a beautiful ship.

No matter how many times I cruise, I am still so excited!!!

 

I do have a questions -- Do you remember if the Pixels gallery offered the photo package? The Magic offered a package where you can pick any 10 or 20 photos for a specific price? I took full advantage. We buy tons of cruise pics.

 

Thank you !

[chris153]

I would like to say that today was the ONLY day that anyone ever came up to me because they knew who I was from here "Mitsugirly". They ask just how many times I had already been spotted on the cruise and believe it or not, she was the only one that spotted me for the entire cruise. (I think more people know me and can spot me on the NCL boards because I'm over there more often I guess).

 

But it was real nice talking to her and I hope I didn't give the impression that I hated that she approached me and recognized me (I think I joked about being incognito). I love talking to people that recognize me during the cruise. The problem is, everyone knows me from my reviews but I don't know anyone else...leaving it up to them to say something. But normally I'll run into people that recognize me and they'll come up and talk and I'll continue to run into them again throughout the cruise. I love getting to know people like that. I never did run into her (or anyone else) again that cruise. So if you are here, and reading my review, stop in and say hello again. :D

 

 

Now one thing that I really like about Carnival is that they have a "Kids Dinner" where you can drop your child off at the buffet area to eat with them. NCL only offers this "lunch" if it's a port day and your child is staying with them while you are off in port and they charge you $6 for the meal...you know, the meal that is free to eat had you been there.

 

Well Sakari loved going and eating with her friends. We tried to make it a habit to do this every day that we could (except for port days of course...we weren't able to make it most of the time). But every day at 6pm, we headed to the buffet for them to eat. At least we knew she was getting fed right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed to the casino to try our luck, which didn't work out too good for us so we went to check out our pictures taken by the ship photographer.

 

 

They managed to find us out on the water park deck and took a picture. I would later realize that almost every female on this ship would have some form of blue and white striped, cruising-looking cover-up for their bathing suit or just a shirt. When it came time to find us in pictures, we quickly learned that simply looking for a person with blue and white stripes on would not point us in the direction of OUR picture, but usually someone else. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Kim, That was me that recognized you. You definitely did not give off a negative impression. I did see you a few other times, but they were at a distance. We had a great cruise. I am loving reliving it through you review. Great job, as always!!!!

[gadawg02]

Thanks for the comments and the birthday wishes. How did you like the places you decided to go on the Dawn? Hopefully they turned out good.

 

 

We did! Goff's Caye is the clearest water I've ever seen! My parents are on the Dawn now & are doing Little French Key tomorrow & Goffs Caye the next day.

[mdchicktxnathrt]

How exciting to be on your first cruise. Will it be on the Breeze or just in general? I hope the family enjoys their cruise and happy anniversary to your parents. What a great way to celebrate.

 

 

 

Thanks for joining me. Aren't the cove balconies just wonderful? I just wish I would have had a better location.

 

Yes, the cruise will be on the Breeze. 14 of us total, all family, along with my mother's maid-of-honor from 50 years ago and her husband.

[rguy123]

Thank you for another great review!

[DawnDit]

That's my deck! First pics I've seen of it. Thanks for posting it.

 

I turned 50 in January and will be cruising with 5 close friends and a larger group of about 35. Five of us are celebrating our 50th.

 

We have 34 days to go! Can't wait to read more of your review!

[wheresthebeach0327]

Great Review!!!

 

 

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