Breeze review update

[luckybecky]

I did a full review of our last cruise on the Breeze with menus and photos, so I won't repeat all that here. But we just got back from another cruise on the Breeze with a similar itinerary, and have a few updates/tips about capacity, dining, DOU, happy hour, etc if you're interested. Here's sort of a random sample of things we noticed.

 

Cookie our cruise director said that we had "3,500 plus" passengers. I heard him make this comment twice, but he never gave a more specific number. Full capacity is 3,690, so clearly we are at or very near 100%. We really enjoyed cruising at reduced capacity. Well, it was fun while it lasted. We all knew they would get back to full capacity as soon as they could, and apparently they are now at that point.

 

Here's a comparison of the lido at sailaway in October, and now, taken at almost exactly the same time of day.

 

 

 

 

And here is the situation on the lido on a sea day. Pretty much back to normal. On our October cruise, you could easily get a lounger near the pool even at the busiest times. 

 

 

I mentioned in my last review that we never saw the Thrill Theater open. It turns out that it is being used as a staging area for bar service in the new, nonsmoking casino annex. Cookie confirmed that the thrill theater is closed and is going to be removed completely in the upcoming dry dock. The space is going to be made into a more permanent bar setup and to expand the casino annex.

 

When I was on the Breeze last October, we discovered Happy Hour in the Red Frog Pub on embarkation day. This is a great deal, so I was sorry to read here on CC that it is gone. I went to the Pub at embarkation just to check. It's true, there was no happy hour. But the bartender told me that now they are doing this during port day in Cozumel. Of course most people are going to be off the ship at this time. It would be much better if they did it on embarkation day. But if you really want one of those $35 fishbowl drinks, do it on this port day to get it half off.

[luckybecky]

We ate in the dining room for the first four nights of the cruise (we did Cucina del Capitano the last night). We had anytime dining. We went very early, around 5:30 each night, because we like to have plenty of time in the evening for the theater, casino, and comedy club. We had the same server every time, and the same table for 3 of the 4 nights - a nice private table by the window. This is the first time this has ever happened. We always do My Time dining and have never had the same server/table twice, even if we asked for them. I'm sure the fact that we went early helped. If we had showed up at a different time every night it would not have been possible, but obviously it was not random and Carnival is putting in some effort here. It was nice to have that consistency and a waiter who knew us.

 

Gift cards: I purchased several gift cards from AARP. These are offered at a 10% discount. So I was able to purchase gift cards worth $500, for only $450. I'm sure there has been much discussion about this so I don't need to go into detail. But I did have some trouble applying the cards on day 1. I went to the kiosk and tried to apply them myself. Got an error message. Stood in a long line at guest services. Two different agents there could also not apply them. They gave me a number to call Carnival customer service. Long story short, it took a good hour and a half of our first afternoon to get it done. 

 

On our last cruise, I mentioned in my review that the Drinks On Us package did not work the first night in the casino. I had to speak to a casino host to get the problem corrected. The same thing happened this time. We were supposed to have DOU as part of the rate we booked. DOU covers you while playing in the casino. But we also purchased Cheers so that we could enjoy drinks anytime.

 

The fact that we had both DOU and Cheers seems to create a glitch in the system.

 

So the way it works is weird for cruises going out of Texas. Cheers does not kick in until day two. But DOU should work right from the start. This confuses the computers I guess.

 

When I tried to order a drink under the DOU package on day 1, the bar waiters could not push through the charge. I had to go to a casino host to fix it. 

 

So if you have DOU, you can get free drinks while playing in the casino on day 1. But if you also purchased Cheers, you will have to speak to a casino host to get this done in the  computer system. 

[luckybecky]

In Progreso, we did a terrific tour with Yucatan Cenote. I highly recommend this company. We had a small group of just six people with a guide and a driver.

 

We went to see some Mayan ruins. On my last review, we saw some ruins near Cozumel, and someone asked if you could climb to the top. The answer there was no, but at this one you could climb the ruins.

 

Then we swam in a cave cenote that was amazing, and almost deserted. It was reached by a narrow, bumpy dirt road that would be impossible for big tour buses so we had the place almost entirely to ourselves, just 3 or 4 other people there. The sun streaming into the water was stunning. This tour cost less than any similar Carnival excursions.

 

Here are the ruins.

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

 We also had homemade lunch in the very humble home of a native family. My only warning is that this particular cenote had 40+ rather rickety steps to reach it (or, if you are brave you can jump). Some of the older members of our group were challenged by it. If you have mobility issues, I would definitely recommend communicating with the company to see if they can do a tour to a more accessible cenote. 

 

 

 

 

The sunlight streaming through the crystal clear water was just stunning

 

 

 

[Saint Greg]

13 minutes ago, luckybecky said:

 

I mentioned in my last review that we never saw the Thrill Theater open. It turns out that it is being used as a staging area for bar service in the new, nonsmoking casino annex. Cookie confirmed that the thrill theater is closed and is going to be removed completely in the upcoming dry dock. The space is going to be made into a more permanent bar setup and to expand the casino annex.

 

Don't like that at all. I had a rainy sea day on Breeze and my first Vista cruise and I used the thrill theater those days. Nice thing to do on a rainy day that doesn't take up 2 hours of your time. It was closed on Vista in December as well. The removal of the Thrill Theater moves Magic even with Breeze in my ship rankings. 

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by Saint Greg

[luckybecky]

A few more photos. This was a highlight of our trip.

 

 

If you look carefully, you can see a guy taking the leap into the water from the top of the stairs.

 

 

Here is lunch:

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

2 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Don't like that at all. I had a rainy sea day on Breeze and my first Vista cruise and I used the thrill theater those days. Nice thing to do on a rainy day that doesn't take up 2 hours of your time. It was closed on Vista in December as well. The removal of the Thrill Theater moves Magic even with Breeze in my ship rankings. 

 

 

I know. I agree with you. We enjoyed the Thrill Theater on our first Breeze cruise a number of years ago.

 

I'm sure it all comes down to dollars. They are expanding the casino space and the casino undoubtedly draws in far more money than the theater. 

[luckybecky]

We also made a brief stop at this ancient church.

 

 

[luckybecky]

Books in library

 

I have never used the library much. But we did stop by a couple of times on this cruise. The wine sampling machines were not in use. I would assume this is a covid thing. I hope they bring it back at some point.
 
I always thought the library was kind of a book exchange. You might leave one, and take one. As such, you would find used books. I know you used to be able to find many different titles, hard and soft cover. Now, they have a selection of new paperback books. They had, I'm guessing, maybe 30-40 titles. They had a few of each title. So there would be a little stack of each title, all obviously new, never cracked. I guess these are available for the taking? I took two during our trip. There did not seem to be any way to check out or pay for these books. 

 

But this area was very little used, so most people don't seem to know the books are available.  

[luckybecky]

 

The Punchliner comedy club is a totally different story. Even arriving 30 minutes early is probably too late. Robby and other staff were doing a good job of crowd control, and trying valiantly to eliminate seat saving. If you want to go to Punchliner, your whole party needs to show up very early. Do not send one person to save a seat for everyone! The staff are really much more involved than they used to be (at least in my experience) trying to stop seat saving and get everyone seated. Go at least 30-45 mintues before showtime. 

 

The comedians were fantastic and definitely worth the wait.

 

Showtime in the main theater was very popular. Doors opened 30 minutes before the show, and there would be several people already lining up by that time to get the best seats.However, if you aren't too particular about sitting right up front, you could come much later and still get a seat. I don't think the theater was ever completely full. Seats in the balcony and to the side were always available. Aretha and Tony are the current lead singers, both new since I saw the shows in October, and they were both amazing. 

 

Here's a shot from the first night show. That's Tony in green.

 

 

The show in the middle of the cruise had a glitch. Cookie said that a crucial stagehand had been slightly injured and they were unable to put on the full show without that person. But they didn't want to cancel the show entirely, so they just sang the songs but without all the sets and dancing. It was still amazing because they are such good singers.

 

This shot is from that show. That's Tony and Aretha in the center. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll be on your cruise. 

 

 

And now our cruise is almost over. Here's our view on the last night from dinner at Cucina del Capitano. It was so hard to leave this and return to near freezing temps in our hometown. 

 

[luckybecky]

One last photo. Here we are in Cozumel with the Mardi Gras in the background. We had a great time. I love the Breeze. Hopefully you'll get to sail on her one day 🙂

 

[Saint Greg]

18 minutes ago, luckybecky said:

 

The comedians were fantastic and definitely worth the wait.

 

Do you remember their names?

[luckybecky]

4 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Do you remember their names?

 

Carl Strong and Manny Oliveira. We enjoyed them both. Manny was very interactive with the audience. No one was safe because he didn't just stand on the stage and pick on people nearby. He walked all over the entire club. He was hilarious.

[Saint Greg]

Just now, luckybecky said:

 

Carl Strong and Manny Oliveira. We enjoyed them both. Manny was very interactive with the audience. No one was safe because he didn't just stand on the stage and pick on people nearby. He walked all over the entire club. He was hilarious.

 

Oh yeah. Manny is one of my favorites. I haven't seen Carl Strong yet.

[dan4182]

51 minutes ago, luckybecky said:

Books in library

 

I have never used the library much. But we did stop by a couple of times on this cruise. The wine sampling machines were not in use. I would assume this is a covid thing. I hope they bring it back at some point.
 
I always thought the library was kind of a book exchange. You might leave one, and take one. As such, you would find used books. I know you used to be able to find many different titles, hard and soft cover. Now, they have a selection of new paperback books. They had, I'm guessing, maybe 30-40 titles. They had a few of each title. So there would be a little stack of each title, all obviously new, never cracked. I guess these are available for the taking? I took two during our trip. There did not seem to be any way to check out or pay for these books. 

 

But this area was very little used, so most people don't seem to know the books are available.  

The new books vs used is probably Covid related also. The various cruise lines are trying to get away from paper anything (menus, fun times, etc) and go to using the hub app for practically everything.

[exarkkun]

What a refreshing and balanced review! This was a nice read for a rainy Sunday morning. Thanks for your review and pictures. 

[siggyg]

We were on this cruise, too!  We had a great time overall.  By far the biggest issue we had was Carnival's handling of our kids' vaccination status.  Originally we were booked for an October 2021 cruise, so we had requested vaccination exemptions for the kids.  We decided not to go and rebooked to this cruise.  Carnival somehow automatically carried over the exemption.  Well, our kids got vaccinated so we wouldn't have additional restrictions to deal with on the cruise.  When checking in online, I filled out the attestation forms that we were all vaccinated.

 

When checking in at the port, we used Verifly for all our documentation.  Things were going great until something flagged on our kids.  Turns out the Carnival system had them as unvaccinated, so that conflicted with Verifly.  Cue waiting as we turned over vaccination cards and passports for additional review.  Things were supposedly resolved, and we continued through security and the rest of check in.

 

On the ship, we couldn't get one of the kids into Camp Ocean.  He was showing up as unvaccinated.  We were told to take our documentation back to guest services for review.  Seeing the long lines, we decided to take care of this later.

 

When we tried to debark the ship in Cozumel, we were flagged yet again with the unvaccinated status for one kid and were unable to leave the ship.  At this point, we ran back to the room and grabbed all the documentation and thankfully there was no line at guest services.  Then we had to go to medical with the documents, and the medical staff applied the vaccination override.  We waited an additional 5 or 10 minutes back at security trying to debark while the computers synced the status.  Finally we got off the ship.

 

There was at least one other family with this problem, and they were pretty pissed.  I don't know why Carnival automatically requested or carried over the exemption, but that threw a wrench into things.  

 

If you have kids that originally had a vaccine exemption, but then got vaccinated be prepared to potentially have to jump through additional hoops to get on the ship.  And then double check everything on board to avoid the additional issues we experienced.

[hmwende]

On 2/26/2022 at 4:11 PM, luckybecky said:

In Progreso, we did a terrific tour with Yucatan Cenote. I highly recommend this company. We had a small group of just six people with a guide and a driver.

 

We went to see some Mayan ruins. On my last review, we saw some ruins near Cozumel, and someone asked if you could climb to the top. The answer there was no, but at this one you could climb the ruins.

 

Then we swam in a cave cenote that was amazing, and almost deserted. It was reached by a narrow, bumpy dirt road that would be impossible for big tour buses so we had the place almost entirely to ourselves, just 3 or 4 other people there. The sun streaming into the water was stunning. This tour cost less than any similar Carnival excursions.

 

Here are the ruins.

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Becky,do you know the name of these ruins?

[luckybecky]

6 hours ago, hmwende said:

Hello Becky,do you know the name of these ruins?

 

I didn't , but my phone does. LOL. It gives the location of my photos as El Templo de los Nichos Pintados. And that does appear correct when I look it up on Google maps.

[HarborHermit]

On 2/26/2022 at 3:23 PM, luckybecky said:

But this area was very little used, so most people don't seem to know the books are available.

 

I think I was on the same cruise. The library did get used by some people playing cards and for the Friends of Bill W meetings. 

 

You are right about there being a lot more people on board. I cruised in December and February, and embarkation in December was stress free. Embarkation in February was way too crowded. Made me wonder what happened to the appointment times.

[MalleyCat]

We found out an hour ago. We’re booked in August of next year. We went from a 4J to a balcony. Needless to say, we are pleasantly surprised. After all the cancelled cruises the last two years, it’s about time something positive happened!

[wikoffclan]

On 2/26/2022 at 3:05 PM, luckybecky said:

 

When I was on the Breeze last October, we discovered Happy Hour in the Red Frog Pub on embarkation day. This is a great deal, so I was sorry to read here on CC that it is gone. I went to the Pub at embarkation just to check. It's true, there was no happy hour. But the bartender told me that now they are doing this during port day in Cozumel. Of course most people are going to be off the ship at this time. It would be much better if they did it on embarkation day. But if you really want one of those $35 fishbowl drinks, do it on this port day to get it half off.

Just off the Valor 3/3 cruise out of New Orleans and the 1/2 price fishbowl at Embarkation Day Happy  Hour was in full force. So popular that they ran out of fishbowls and were serving in pitchers! $12.50 plus tax (since we were still on the river) plus tip. Great deal and lots of fun folks to meet.

[arctickitty]

Luckybecky what were your favorite foods you had on board?

[luckybecky]

On 3/12/2022 at 10:03 PM, arctickitty said:

Luckybecky what were your favorite foods you had on board?

 

Sorry, Arctickitty, I was on vacation for several days and didn't see  your post until just now. 

 

One night they served a beef tenderloin in the dining room that was really exceptional. Overall, the food in the MDR is good, but pretty average -- not spectacular. But that tenderloin was really good. Also the famous chocolate melting cake is superb. There is a cheese plate on the dessert menu that we really enjoy, and you can ask for it as an appetizer if  you wish. 

 

Everything in Cucina del Capitano is outstanding. They serve an amazing pork chop, and very good chicken parmesan. The grilled veggies (broccoli and cauliflower) are excellent. They also have a mixed salad with beets that is terrific.  I enjoyed all the salads, they always had very fresh delicious ingredients.

[scorpioncrawl]

How does Carnival handle their Muster Drills now? Just off NCL-Encore. Was directed over to a staff member, who showed us our muster station on a ship map, checked off our names/cabin # and that was it!