Joaljoe

We usually pay the deposit and then save up the rest in our savings account until closer to the due date. Although, this year we got a very good tax return so we just paid the whole thing at once and now don't have to worry about it. We are also doing Disney for a few days prior to the cruise. Can't wait!! It's going to be a GREAT vacation! :)

I'm happy to hear that deck 5 cabins have the ability to control the temperature. :)

I took the kids to Bonsai Sushi one day on the Breeze and we loved it. It was much better than the free stuff they served. It was good to get a sushi fix but I can live without it. I don't mind paying for it! We'll be going on the Sunshine next year and we'll go back to Bonsai for sure! :)

Gators everywhere!

Done! On our way to do a little shopping and off to the airport. Nice way to kill a few hours!

Baby Snappy

Banana Tree!!

For $3 per person, you can take a photo with Snappy.

After the airboat ride, we got to see an alligator show.

There's another airboat!

Wish I could take this tree home, for my backyard! lol

So much fun riding through this!

Sawgrass.... this can cut you if you run your fingers downwards.

They passed around a piece of saw grass to touch, but only running your fingers upwards.

Someone's being lazy! LOL

These are the air boats you ride....keep in mind, if you sit at the front, you may get wet.

Debarkation -

This was very stress free considering we had an excursion planned prior to going to the airport. We chose to have Carnival take care of our luggage. All we had to do was place the luggage with tags outside of our door the night before we leave and it magically appeared at the luggage carousel. LOL It's hard pulling all that luggage and making sure you have both kids and all of their belongings. After having a quick breakfast we went to the Ovation Theater to wait until they called our zone. Once we were called, getting off the ship was a breeze! We chose to do the Everglades excursion with transportation to Miami Airport. The bus was waiting for us once we got our luggage. They loaded up our luggage based on airline and we went to the Everglades.

The price for this excursion is $40 for adults and $36 for children. It's 3.5 hours long and they'll drop you off at your terminal. We really enjoyed the bus ride there, it was approx. 45 mins, they kept us entertained the whole time with lots of great information about Miami. After your ride through the Everglades, you have some time to shop and have lunch before taking off to the airport. We had a great time on this excursion and would do it again. Sure beats sitting around the airport for 5 hours.

Coming up.... lots of photos from the Everglades! I would recommend doing this at least once, especially if you have kids. My kids loved this experience :)

Here is a couple of photos that we purchased....

DH with the kids and his mom

Thank you Mary! I'm sorry I never wrote back to your last email. Things got a little crazy here. :)

That is definitely a great photo of Butch and DD. It's making our photo book that's for sure! lol

I will post photos tomorrow of the Everglades in Miami. We didn't want to wait at the airport forever so booked one last excursion before heading home! Great times!

Have a good night all!

What cabin were you in??

We leave Sunday!!! So excited :D

We were in cabin 2326, on this cruise and the Dream! We love this cabin! LOL The location is perfect for us. :)

tocruzagain - HAVE AN AMAZING TIME ON YOUR CRUISE! :D

A hug for DD and MIL too...

On our way back to the ship we pass celebrity homes. I can't remember who's is who though.

The white one on the left I believe is Oprah's house.

Atlantis

Few ships left in port...

DH and kids feeling the dolphin.

DS dancing with the dolphin.

DD feeding....

A hug for DH!

And a little kiss.... LOVE the kids faces in this shot!

A hug for DS.

Thank you Sonicbuffalo and Coolcruise 02! :)

Nassau -

Today we decided to book an excursion through Carnival to Blue Lagoon and do the Dolphin swim. Two of us weren't doing the dolphin encounter and we still paid $80 to go to the island. The Island was really nice, it's perfect for families with little children. Unfortunately, it was a colder day so we weren't all rushing to go into the water. LOL We also wished we had more time on this Island... by the time you get off the ship and walk to the ferry that takes you there, and then I think it was another 15-20 mins to get there, we probably just had over an hour on the beach before we had to go and get ready for the dolphin encounter. First you watch an orientation, and then you go in by groups. The encounter took about 10mins per group.... by the time it was all done, and everyone changed...we were rushing back to the ferry. Everything seemed rushed to us, but in the end... we have great memories and we're happy we did it. We'd like to go back to Blue Lagoon one day when we have more time in port.... and maybe not do it through Carnival?

Blue Lagoon Beach - The play area costs extra! But if you walk down a bit, there is plenty of shallow water to play in.

Pretty little seashells all over the beach.

Bridge that leads you to the dolphins.

Kids are ready to go in!

I know I'm late on this, but I took the pic so I'm going to just post it. There was a previous poster who asked about the steel drums we purchased in Antigua. Here is a photo of what it looks like. :)

Waiting for popcorn at the bar...

Beautiful hallways...

Goodnight! :)

The water was pretty rough today, the weather wasn't the greatest and it was making me feel nauseous. A lot of the outside stuff was cancelled, including the BBQ we were so looking forward to. In the afternoon we participated in a scavenger hunt as a family. It was tons of fun and had us running all over the place for 20 mins. We didn't win but still had a great time!

Tonight was the DIVAS show! We stayed for the whole thing but we were somewhat disappointed. The first 15 mins or so, is what they showed us on the first night. My daughter really loved it though, she just enjoyed listening to all the songs she knew and enjoys. After the show she got to talk to Butch again, so that made her night. She memorized his favourite quote from the back of the photo he gave her on the Dream. When she recited it to him, he was in shock. He told her that he always has something to say back to people but that he was so surprised he was speechless. LOL

After the show we just enjoyed the Lido Deck for a bit. Walked around the ship and just took everything in for the last time as we knew tomorrow night we'd be busy packing after a long day in Nassau. We stood in line for popcorn tonight....a whole 30 mins! ha ha Not worth it if you ask me, but it was very exciting for the kids. Once they were done their popcorn, we took the long way back to our room and headed for bed.

Mid day snack

Staff doing a great job pushing the water away that was spilling from the pool.

Rough Waters

Last Sea Day -

Today was a take it easy kind of day. We slept in a little, took our time getting ready and headed to the Punchliner Comedy Brunch again. This time we did not miss the "show". We got a 10 minutes full of laughter. The kids had a little trouble following along but once we explained the jokes to them they loved them!

I didn't take many photos today, we were trying to get in everything we haven't had time for. We took the kids to the arcade for a bit, enjoyed the chocolate buffet, packed some stuff, lounged around and enjoyed some fries from Jimmy's. Kids went to Camp for a bit too....

We also saw a show at the Thrill Theater, Happy Feel and Bamboo Express. I must say, we all really enjoyed it. And the staff there were amazing! We asked them at the window if there was motionless seating, they told me to just take a chair from the waiting area and bring it in with me. They told us to make sure to take the last 3 seats in any row so I could put my chair beside the family. We were pretty much at the back of the crowd so I wasn't sure how all of this was going to work out. I told my family, that worse case, just grab seats anywhere and I'll sit off to the side. Just before we got called in to go, one of the staff members came out from behind the door and called on the family of four who needed one motionless seat. She waved us in, set us up so that we were all sitting together and then called in the rest of the crowd. I thanked her over and over again, she really didn't have to do that, but went the extra mile for us. I really appreciated that! :)

Here's a photo of my daughter's Funny French Toast from the Punchliner Brunch. She had hers dipped in Corn Flakes.

Thanks you very much for that wonderful review! GREAT pictures! As I said before my wife and I sail in 38 days and your information will be very helpful!:D

Thank you! You're probably on the cruise right now! Hope you're having a GREAT time! :)

Just joined Cruise Critic today and yours is the first thread I have read. So much more liking these forums compared to Carnival's own. Due pretty much to your excellent postings and pictures. Thank you so much for posting. I am so geeked about our cruise in November now. Normally I wouldnt want to rush summer to come and go but now its hard not to thanks to you. lol:D

 

Hope everything is ok with your family.

Thank you, I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying my review. :) Hope your summer doesn't drag too long... haha

Loved, loved, loved your pics and review...we are heading on the Breeze May 5 - 11 and have 3 children 18, 15 and 13. So looking forward to it now that I have seen you post and pics!!!

Have an AMAZING time on your cruise! :)

I just got a Canon EOS Rebel T3 and I'm still using the "auto" function but would like to learn to do more before we are on the Breeze in 33 days! What was this project you did??

 

Also - our granddaughter is cruising with us this year - she's 8. I'm assuming your kids loved camp?? This will be her first time cruising!

 

Thanks for an awesome review!!

Cheryl, thanks for emailing me... glad I could help you. Hopefully all the info I sent you wasn't too overwhelming. :)

My kids did love going to Camp Carnival. They both make friends very easily and just enjoy meeting kids from other parts of the world. My daughter met a girl from Argentina, one from Germany, and all over the States....even two sisters from our own city. She keeps in contact with some of them through email. It's also nice for them to get a break from their parents. ha ha!

Hello Everyone! I'm back and VERY sorry for taking such a long break before finishing my review. I had a MS relapse that gave me double vision back in February. It cleared up for a bit and returned. But finally I am now back to normal vision and feeling like my old self again! So glad we got that cruise in before all of this happened!!!! LOL In the midst of everything we purchased a new home. We are very excited and can't wait to move it. Cruising will be put on the back burner for a little bit.

Before I continue my review (which I hope to have finished up by this weekend), I just want to quickly write some of you back. I'm sorry if I don't get to everyone. But I am glad you're all enjoying my photos and review. Also, thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes on here and through email, I really appreciate it. :)

I love your photos. What program do you use to add your special effects? Lightroom intimidates me.

I use a few different programs, mainly Paint Shop Pro X2. But there are a couple that I use online as well. Google PicMonkey and Befunky. Those two should keep you entertained. :)

How did you like the Cove balcony? Do you feel a lot more motion being so close to the water? Is it really noisy and does it get very wet being so close? We usually stay in higher decks, but those look interesting. What cabin were you in?

We were in cabin 2326, we like this cabin because we were close to the elevators which took us everywhere we needed to go. Dining Room, Camp Carnival, Casino, Lido Deck.... We've only ever stayed down low so I'm not sure if you feel more motion compared to the higher decks, but the motion we do feel isn't that bad for us. Only one day, our last sea day, is when we got some water on our balcony. The waters were rough, the waves went a little higher but it also rained on and off. The only noise I heard was chairs being moved around in the dining room since we were right beneath it and we could here the waiters singing during the late seating dinner. But we were only in our room for 5 minutes so it was no biggie. When the winds were worse, I could here the life boats.... kept me up here and there but overall it wasn't that bad. We would definitely do a cove balcony again.

Love the review! My family ages when we sail DD 7, DD 5, DS 2, oh and da wife will be sailing the 8 day southern Nov 9th. I am beside myself excited we don't plan on telling the kids until we get to the ship.... Not sure how I am ever going to keep this a secret. We will be traveling with my sister & brother with thier families and grandpa is coming along as well 14 people in all ages of kids 2-12. I have gone thru your review like 3 times I even read your dream review. Love your pictures! My wife thinks I am nuts with all the time I spend reading different reviews. I did the same thing before we sailed the Allure last year and she loved the fact that I was an expert about everything Allure.

 

Funny thing the picture of yours that sticks out the most is the picture of Cherry on Top, I can't wait to see the look on DD 5 when she walks in that place she is obsessed with candy. Maybe as much as I am with cruise planning...

That's an AMAZING surprise for the kids!! I remember when we surprised our kids with Disney, it was SO HARD to keep it a secret! Good luck with that! LOL Hope you all have an amazing time!

We are set to dock in St. Thomas on July 8th and wanted to do a tour. What time were you picked up when you chose Package #1?

If I remember correctly, our pick up time was 10am right outside the ship. :)

great review so far! cant wait to read the rest. do you have any other cruises planned? i'll def subscribe to those reviews as well:p

 

 

hope all is well with your family.

Thank you! :) We don't have anything planned as of right now. We keep looking at different cruises but will be putting it off for a year or two. We hope to do a B2B next time! We'll see about that. lol

Your pictures and your family are beautiful! Thanks for taking the time to do this great review.

Thank you so much! :)

Thank you for your reply. I have attempted to email you, but it has bounced back for some reason. Can you try to email me perhaps? Monker2001 at Yahoo dot com. Thank you so much for a great review

Sorry about that, I got your emails... just checked them this morning. You should have a response waiting for you. :)

Hi everyone, I just wanted to quickly stop by and let you all know that something has come up in our family and I will be away for a week. I will unfortunately have to finish my review next week.

My apologies!! :)