A breeze of a Journey that was full of firsts

[jimbo5544]

Come join me in a review of our Carnival Breeze Journey cruise.  This 14 day sailing was something we had wanted to do for a very long time, so come aboard Matey as I recount our Journey cruise aboard the Carnival Breeze.

[jimbo5544]

This particular journey began some time ago, actually even before this sailing was available to book.  This was our 37th Carnival cruise, our Carnival journey if you will, began way back in 96 aboard the Celebration.  While we have cruised 4 other cruise lines, Carnival is our cruising home, and we up until this time, have taken our cruises in summer, spring breaks or around other school breaks.  

 

Since we retired earlier this year, we have had a pretty busy travel year, certainly not one we could sustain going forward but... it just worked out this way.  We chose the Journey aboard the Breeze for several reasons, not the least of which was that it was sailing in a totally different time then we normally sail and we expected the demographics to reflect that as well, which they did...but I am getting ahead of myself.

[jimbo5544]

Cabin selection is important to us, more so me then the better half.  We have sailed in almost every type of balcony Carnival has and for this cruise we chose one of my all time favorites an aft wrap on the 6th floor.  The Dream class is fairly unique on aft wraps in that as the slope of the ship goes up the cabins get smaller, with only the 6th floor having a couch, which we value.  

 

We booked the cabin the day the sailing was available and never regretted it.

[Joebucks]

Wow, 37th Carnival cruise. What is it about Carnival that keeps you coming back vs going to other brands?

[MzShae]

Following

[KmomChicago]

Looking forward to pics of that sweet cabin.

[jimbri]

Looking forward to your review and pictures.

[jimbo5544]

Roll call....  Roll calls have a life of their own, some flourish and some die on the vine.  Because we almost always book early, I find myself being the one to start the roll call here on CC.  I was a little late in getting to do that for this cruise and when I looked I found a thread already and shocked at how many members and posts there were already.  The same was true ove in FB land.  Kudos to those who did this.  It was the largest roll call I have participated in, and remained active the entire 14 months prior to the cruise.

[jimbo5544]

26 minutes ago, jimbri said:

Looking forward to your review and pictures.

Hope you enjoy the review, I have lots of pics but am traveling today and will not get to start posting them till tomorrow probably.

[mredandchis]

I love the journeys, and yes it is a little different even from  b2b.  I look forward to your perceptions.

 

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, mredandchis said:

I love the journeys, and yes it is a little different even from  b2b.  I look forward to your perceptions.

 

Thanks for following along.  Will be doing some traveling today, but will kick it in gear much more tomorrow.

[jimbo5544]

We almost always cruise leading a group, these can range from 8 cabins to well over 50 cabins (we have done one almost at 100 cabins but will never do that again....but that is another story for another time).  For this cruise, it was the wife and I and my brother and his wife (we try to vacation together at least once a year.  This was our 4th trip this year and third cruise (we led a group on the Horizon out of New York in July, we did an Azamara Med cruise in August and did a land based trip to Turks (stayed at Beaches and Club Med) in September.  So this would be a relaxation cruise.  This would be the longest cruise we have ever done (we did a 12 day med cruise aboard the Liberty back in 2006).

 

As I mentioned in the title, if was a cruise of firsts, so the first first (haha, pun intended) was that it was to be the longest cruise we have done (we do have some longer ones in the coming up category).  

 

[jimbo5544]

Another first was that it was the first cruise that we have done really outside of the normal "family" cruise time of year.  We are totally accustomed to lots of kids cruising and everything that goes along with that.  We have customers who told us sailing on Carnival is very different during other times and we were interested to see that play out.  

 

We also did not have to fly to get to the cruise, since moving to Florida allowed us to travel the "day of" eliminating all the pre and pos travel woes...what I call the hurry up and wait part of cruising.

[Jamman54]

Welcome home Jimbo!  Looking forward to your review. Journey cruises are great, and I can't wait until our next one in April. I must have missed it, when did you move to Florida?

[jimbo5544]

5 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Welcome home Jimbo!  Looking forward to your review. Journey cruises are great, and I can't wait until our next one in April. I must have missed it, when did you move to Florida?

Hey Jeff, been following along on your review as well.  We had a great time, we would do another one in a heartbeat.  We both retired at the end of June and moved to Ft Myers in the end of September (we have had a place there for a while ).  We still have our place back In CT.  

[13cheermom]

Small world, we were in cabin 6460 on this cruise, just around the corner from you.  We also have a favorite cabin and enjoy the double balcony at the rear of the ship and 2 large windows. 😁 Actually we already booked the 14-day Journeys cruise next November on the Breeze with same type of cabin. This is our normal time of the year to cruise, as we enjoy the demographics of passengers that you mentioned. It was a great cruise for us with beautiful new ports to enjoy!  Can't wait to read the rest of your review and hear others opinions on their Journey's cruise.  

[smitty89]

Following along!  Headed on a Journeys cruise in 11 days!

[jimbo5544]

6 hours ago, 13cheermom said:

Small world, we were in cabin 6460 on this cruise, just around the corner from you.  We also have a favorite cabin and enjoy the double balcony at the rear of the ship and 2 large windows. 😁 Actually we already booked the 14-day Journeys cruise next November on the Breeze with same type of cabin. This is our normal time of the year to cruise, as we enjoy the demographics of passengers that you mentioned. It was a great cruise for us with beautiful new ports to enjoy!  Can't wait to read the rest of your review and hear others opinions on their Journey's cruise.  

ou really were just around the corner.  Thanks for following along, getting into the rest as we speak.  Feel free to jump in at any tome and comment.

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, smitty89 said:

Following along!  Headed on a Journeys cruise in 11 days!

You will have a wonderful time.  Thanks for joining us on the review.

[jimbo5544]

Because we now live on the west coast of Florida, getting to the ship had a totally different flavor.  We were sailing with my brother and sister in law (we had the 6th floor starboard aft wrap and they had the aft wrap directly above us on 7).  They live about two hours north of us outside Tampa so we drove up to their place n Friday afternoon.  Spent the rest of the day with them and headed over to Port Canaveral Saturday morning.

[BoDidly]

Dang , I love pre cruise parties . Interesting review so far ,curious of how you responded to all those smoker rule breakers. Sailed her the week before you and you wouldn't believe all the Plats Dias that were doing a back to back ,most of those were smokers as well.

[LMaxwell]

On 11/19/2018 at 1:14 PM, jimbo5544 said:

 

 

We also did not have to fly to get to the cruise, since moving to Florida 

 

Welcome, neighbor 

[jimbo5544]

The car packing was somewhat difficult for 4, but we got it all in.  A note for anyone considering a Journey, you really do not need a ton more clothes.  That is certainly something I would have done differently.  More from that perspective later on.

 

We, like everyone else on the sailing had gotten the word that due to the large number of Diamonds and Plats on this sailing, cabin access would be at 1:30 for the Diamonds, Plats and FTTF and 2:30 for everyone else.  This made our decision about when to head over a no brainer (for us).  We started out around 9 and stopped for a late breakfast, arriving at the port at about 11:30.  

 

We also had decided to park at the parking garage (it is pricey, especially for a 14 day cruise), but again, it was an easy decision especially since we were splitting the cost which made it much more affordable.

[jimbo5544]

4 minutes ago, BoDidly said:

Dang , I love pre cruise parties . Interesting review so far ,curious of how you responded to all those smoker rule breakers. Sailed her the week before you and you wouldn't believe all the Plats Dias that were doing a back to back ,most of those were smokers as well.

To be honest, I did miss the whole fly down the day before, go out with everyone, imbibe in some cocktails thinking about the voyage ahead.  More to come on the smokers.....  I met MANY people who were doing a back to back (some with the cruiser before and some on the sailing after).  Sorry to have missed you Bo.  

[jimbo5544]

3 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

 

Welcome, neighbor 

I had forgotten you live in Florida, where abouts?