Quick review-Carnival Breeze 10/9-14

[Banditswife]

   We are platinum on CCL, but have been sailing Holland most frequently since the restart.  We have been trying to get our adult kids to sail with us for awhile & finally succeeded in getting them to book.  They chose this 5 day cruise out of Galveston & we just went along for the ride.  We had never done anything less than 7 days, so this was a 1st.  Our group included our daughter, son in law, 2 of their friends (all in their 30s,) my husband & I (over 65.) 3 of the 30ish had never cruised before, 1 had cruised once prior.  We were able to drive to the port from Missouri for them & Kansas for us-13 hour road trip with a few over night hotel stays.

   Parking-  After dropping off luggage, we parked near the port in "Lighthouse" parking lot #3.  Lighthouse shuttled us to/from the ship.  I would give Lighthouse parking a high rating, they were courteous, efficient & on time.  No complaints, even when returning to our cars with lots of luggage, everything went well.  

   Boarding- we arrived at the port around 11 AM & basically walked right onto the ship with our Platinum status & a 10AM check in time.  We had done our check in online, & with the photo recognition system we didn't even need to show ID.  The newbies had a bit of a wait, but were able to board around noon with no issues.  None of them had passports, but used enhanced drivers licenses & birth certificates.

   Food- we were pleasantly surprised by the food quality & service in MDR.  We had dinner in the Saphire dining room (anytime) every night.  On our previous Carnival cruise-Magic in Sept of 2022 we were a bit disappointed in service & quality of food in MDR.  But the Breeze exceeded our expectations on service, quality & selections available. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a table for 6, even though we had not previously linked our bookings.  The "Hub" app is required for making reservations for all dining room meals.  We had breakfast in the Blush dining room 3 of the 5 days- food was always as ordered & with great service too.  We didn't eat in Lido buffet very much, nor any of the specialty places, but most of our food was good or better wherever we dined.

   Entertainment-production shows were "88 Keys" & "Flick."  I am not sure if there was another production show, if so we missed it.  Both shows were great, exceeded our expectations on special effects & energy of the players.  We had seen both these shows on other cruises, but I think the Breeze cast did it better than previous players.  They had "deal or no deal" on one night, & B2B comedians on another night, but we did not attend these, so will not comment.  The younger people in our group loved the comedy shows in the Limelight lounge, but we didn't go.  We did play multiple games of trivia & enjoyed the music venues. There was a variety of music available, but I can't remember the names of the groups.

    Our cabin- we just had a lower deck inside cabin, it was fine with plenty of storage space, mini fridge, safe.  We had no real issues, except that our cabin steward was not as good as we've had previously.  I had put the large for a fee water bottles in our closet to get them out of the way, while we drank from our free water bottles that we kept in the min fridge.  So when our cabin steward saw the missing for a fee bottles, he charged us for them.  He was never available to show him that we hadn't drank them, so this required a couple of trips to guest services to have the charges taken off our account.  The other complaint I had with our cabin steward was that I tried to get him to take our free laundry on the 1st night, he wouldn't, said he would get it the next day during his cleaning.  This was not a huge problem, but we had been traveling for a few days & would have liked to have our laundry done sooner.  He was rarely anywhere to be found to ask for ice or clean towels.  He seemed a bit stingy with the towels.  I usually put a clean towel on the stool by the dressing table & leave it for the entire cruise- he took it away every time he cleaned & didn't supply 1 to replace it.  I have never had a cabin steward take the towel w/o giving an extra to replace it.  The other complaint is with Carnival- no bar soap, plus there is only the soap dispenser in the shower -so you have to reach into the shower for soap to wash your hands-inconvenient.  Luckily I have learned to pack my own bar soap.

   Ship over all- seemed to be in pretty good condition for her age.

   Ports- we just had stops in Cozumel & Costa Maya.  Both port days were extremely hot & humid.  I felt port time was a bit short on both days.  But getting off/on ship was easy & relatively quick.  We stayed on board in Cozumel, but the younguns enjoyed a beach day & shopping.  In Costa Maya we joined the youngun for a beach day & shopping- my biggest complaint here was the never ending vendors trying to sell their wares, it was difficult to enjoy the beach.  

     Over all we enjoyed this cruise, especially experiencing it with some 1st timers & our daughter.  Because of the timing & short cruise, there were quite a few children on board, but all seemed well behaved & didn't cause any trouble.

[mamiamjo]

Sounds like you had a great cruise! We'll be on the Breeze's next sailing 🙂

Do you recall who the current CD is? 

[princess76021]

Thanks for this!

I always liked the Breeze

Hugs from Texas!

[Banditswife]

14 hours ago, mamiamjo said:

Sounds like you had a great cruise! We'll be on the Breeze's next sailing 🙂

Do you recall who the current CD is? 

I can't remember his name, but he was good.  Visible & not obnoxious that we saw.  He made announcements, but short ones.  He was at the Plat/Diamond party & did a good job.

[Banditswife]

I forgot to add:  The ship was decorated for Halloween & several events having to do with that-costume judging for one.  This was a bit of a surprise to us, since it was early Oct.

[shiner6]

Thanks for the great review! We board her in early December for first time and have been wondering what to expect.

[marci4tony]

Great information here.  Thank you for taking the time to post.

[Banditswife]

3 hours ago, shiner6 said:

Thanks for the great review! We board her in early December for first time and have been wondering what to expect.

I would think by early Dec, she will be decorated for Christmas, enjoy your cruise.

[momof3cruisers]

3 hours ago, shiner6 said:

Thanks for the great review! We board her in early December for first time and have been wondering what to expect.

Very pretty ship with a nice layout. The only thing I don’t like is the location of the Alchemy bar even though I love the ocean plaza area that is right there. Lots of outdoor seating options especially on deck 5 so be sure to explore there. Guy’s BBQ will be open on boarding day so check that out (also on deck 5). Not many realize it’s open so there is rarely a line.

[Banditswife]

15 minutes ago, momof3cruisers said:

Very pretty ship with a nice layout. The only thing I don’t like is the location of the Alchemy bar even though I love the ocean plaza area that is right there. Lots of outdoor seating options especially on deck 5 so be sure to explore there. Guy’s BBQ will be open on boarding day so check that out (also on deck 5). Not many realize it’s open so there is rarely a line.

About deck 5: yes, "pig & anchor" - Guy's BBQ place was open on sea days & embarkation day-yummy.  It was even open on a late port day, well worth a try.  Ocean's plaza on deck 5 was always busy with the for a fee coffee being sold there, always a big line until mid afternoon.  The Alchemy bar never seemed to have any crew stationed there, at least when we were in Ocean's plaza doing trivia.  Smoking is permitted on deck 5-outside on the opposite side of the BBQ place.

[Butterbean1000]

Great review!  The Breeze is my favorite ship.  It's been a couple of years since we cruised (pre-pandemic). I didn't know bar soap was no longer.  We always bring our own antibacterial liquid soap to wash our hands.  But I am sure if  you asked for bar soap, the stewards would bring you some.

[Banditswife]

8 minutes ago, Butterbean1000 said:

Great review!  The Breeze is my favorite ship.  It's been a couple of years since we cruised (pre-pandemic). I didn't know bar soap was no longer.  We always bring our own antibacterial liquid soap to wash our hands.  But I am sure if  you asked for bar soap, the stewards would bring you some.

Yes, others have said they have gotten bar soap.  We might just have had a poor cabin steward.  He was definitely not up to the service caliber we have come to expect from CCL.  Our cabin steward was the worst we have ever experienced on CCL, HAL or RCI.  

[cynt]

@Banditswife thank you for the review. We board her in 25 days. We're seasoned cruisers, however We're cruising with 5 newbies in their 40s. I can't wait to see the ship thru their eyes and their experiences. 

[princess76021]

2 hours ago, Banditswife said:

Yes, others have said they have gotten bar soap.  We might just have had a poor cabin steward.  He was definitely not up to the service caliber we have come to expect from CCL.  Our cabin steward was the worst we have ever experienced on CCL, HAL or RCI.  

That definitely deserves the "oh crap" button!! The cabin steward can make or break you cruise.

Hugs

[Rudyard]

Sorry you had a steward like that. I wonder if he was near the end of his contract and was just burned out. We love the Breeze and will be back onboard in early December for the third time. We've also started bringing a bar of hand soap as well as we're just not fans of the soap they use in the shower. 

 

Also glad to hear the food was good. Last CCL cruise on Vista the food was a major disappointment outside of the specialty restaurants. Did they have the new menus yet? From what I've heard they're supposed to have them before my next cruise. 

[Banditswife]

12 hours ago, Rudyard said:

Sorry you had a steward like that. I wonder if he was near the end of his contract and was just burned out. We love the Breeze and will be back onboard in early December for the third time. We've also started bringing a bar of hand soap as well as we're just not fans of the soap they use in the shower. 

 

Also glad to hear the food was good. Last CCL cruise on Vista the food was a major disappointment outside of the specialty restaurants. Did they have the new menus yet? From what I've heard they're supposed to have them before my next cruise. 

Yes, luckily I had packed a bar of our favorite soap.  But usually that is for the shower because we don't like their liquid soap, but had to use it at the sink this time as well as the shower.  

• Menus seemed new to me.  As stated before, last CCL cruise was Sept of 23.  The food & service was definitely better than we experienced on the Magic in 23.  Everyone in our group enjoyed the food.  We ordered frog legs for an app on our last night, I don't remember seeing those before.  The Everday menu included a sirloin steak & chicken breast & of course chocolate melting cake.

 

 

[slavigne5577]

Can anyone compare the spa on Breeze to the spa on Dream. We lived the Dream spa so we are curious about Breeze's spa.

[ninjacat123]

On 10/17/2023 at 9:19 AM, Banditswife said:

Yes, luckily I had packed a bar of our favorite soap.  But usually that is for the shower because we don't like their liquid soap, but had to use it at the sink this time as well as the shower.  

• Menus seemed new to me.  As stated before, last CCL cruise was Sept of 23.  The food & service was definitely better than we experienced on the Magic in 23.  Everyone in our group enjoyed the food.  We ordered frog legs for an app on our last night, I don't remember seeing those before.  The Everday menu included a sirloin steak & chicken breast & of course chocolate melting cake.

 

 

My DDs have enjoyed frog legs on Carnival for years. They call it “jumpy chicken “😁