italianfemmy

Come back! Would love to read and see more pictures before we cruise on Sunday!

I will try my best to do an installment before then but even if I do, it won't come close to the whole thing. I heard some people left some messages that were deleted while I was away due to the impatience of waiting for my review. I am truly sorry but it has been the holidays and on top of that, I am swamped with clients right now. I am working 9am-2am most days right now trying to edit photos as fast as I can for my clients. So between spending the holidays with family and trying to work and occasionally sleep and eat, I just haven't had time to edit photos for the review. I haven't forgotten about it and will get to it as soon as I can. I should have waited to start it in hindsight but people started a thread asking me to start my review and I didn't want to disappoint anyone. Turns out I am doing that anyway so I am sorry. :-(

And all this time I thought you knew how good you are! I'm startled you don't have your own studio! You ARE truely an amazing photographer. I started a thread Year in Review asking what memorable posts people remembered and someone said reviews by you.

Awww, that means a lot to me that someone would say that. I don't have a physical studio because most of my work is in the wedding realm. And weddings have their own locations. I believe a studio would sit unused and would be a wasted expense on me. Occasionally, I do have a need to bring the clients to me but even then, I rarely wish for a studio... instead I take them somewhere glamorous.... I am not a backdrop kinda gal.... I like to create art and get inspired by new and interesting places.

Hey everyone! I will start adding more in the next couple of days. I haven't even been home for the last 10 days as it's been holiday season and we've been out of town working as well. Today is Latanya's birthday and then I will be at home more and able to do some review in the middle of editing images for clients. :-) HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Hi all!

 

Just finished this fantastic review today. Loved the pictures! I'm going on the Dream in April & looking soooo forward to it thanks in part to you Alicia.:D

 

~ Jo ~ :)

I hope you have a blast!!

Alicia.. Great review!! Can't wait to read the rest of it.. :D:D

Hey you! Thanks!! I am done for today. I am about to hop in the shower. Have a client coming at 7:30. Hoping I can get a little bit more done tomorrow and Saturday on the review. We have family coming in from out of state on Sunday for Christmas and they'll be here several days and we most likely won't be able to post anything during that time! If I don't talk to you again before then, happy holidays to you and your family.

WOW absolutely beautiful!!! After reading your dream review and the start of this one, I asked hubby for an online photo course for Christmas :D I only have a basic digital camera, but who knows.... my birthday is the day before our next cruise :p

 

ok you may continue...... :D

Aww that's awesome!! Just some additional recommendations...

- Hands on learning is always best. So, check the schedules at your local community colleges or google your city name with beginner photography courses. Unless you're able to watch tutorials and remember everything, it's best to take an in person class. Your motor memory will kick in if you've had to do it yourself and will be easier to remember which settings mean what and what they all do.

- Head out one evening to your nearest barnes n noble or borders and go to the photography section. I don't know what your skill level is but they have books from photography for dummies to more advanced books including photoshop help or picassa or... you name it. You can sit there and read without buying them and when you feel like a book is right for you, you can pick it up.

Light is the most important part of a photo and a book called "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson is a great book for beginners to start understanding the relationship between the settings on their camera and why they matter!

Best of luck to you!

I think the thing that I love about your reviews is that I feel like I was on the cruise with you.

 

I personally have never attempted a review like yours, I usually blog about it and then do a bullet point review and direct people there. lol. I know how long that takes me and appreciate the time you dedicate to providing us with your review.

 

I like the suspense of waiting.... but then again, that's just me. ;)

Thank you for that and for your patience. I always love seeing your posts pop up on mine and other peoples reviews. You seem like a good hearted person and I hope we meet one day!

Hi Alica

I read your Dream review and booked a Spa Cabin for Feb.:) I am now reading the Breeze review and will have to convince hubby to book this...;)

Looking forward to seeing the rest.

 

Cheers

Barb

Hey Barb! I encourage you to finish reading my review as I add more to it and to combine it with what you read on others to see what works best for you and if it's worth booking the Breeze. As for the Dream, you should have a fantastic time.

Thank you for posting this right now because it just goes to show that really what I am promoting is Carnival. They made a ton of money off of my last review.

And Cruise Critic themselves posted a link from their personal FB page today to my review to tell people to come check out the Breeze via my review.

I do these reviews because when I first cruised the Dream, all I could find was bad reviews and I wanted to share my amazing experience. I wasn't going to do a Breeze review, especially because other amazing reviewers were on my sailing but people asked me before I left to please do one and I'd already committed myself. Yesterday, I hung huge photos on my walls from my Dream cruise in my new home and I wouldn't have ever even had them edited if it weren't for that Dream review. They look beautiful and remind me of my travels. I've been on numerous cruises and never taken the time to do anything with any of my vacation photos until the Dream because of CC and the motivation to get them done for other people.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who supports my reviews. :)

After gobbling up our delicious strawberry treats, we decided to walk a bit more aft on the open deck (of deck 5.)

The sun was setting. On both sides of deck 5, there are hot tubs which many people somehow don't know about so they rarely have people in them.

As you can see, we're still in Miami!

To the right of the hot tub is a lounge area to sit or lay down. They have round bed loungers and they also have yin/yang couches.

As we continued to walk, I noticed something in the windows on the side of the ship so I had to stop and adjust my camera settings to take a photo. Latanya looks at me and says, "Alicia, those windows are really dark. Do you think you're going to be able to take a photo through them to see the inside?" Hehe.....

If you're curious... it is now 5:40pm and you guessed it, we're still in Miami, 1 hour and 40 minutes past departure time. And we're not leaving yet!

It's at this time that we looked down over the side of the ship towards the ground and saw tons and gobs of palettes filled with things like our food for the week that were still pending being put on the ship. So now we knew what part of the hold up was, not that I was complaining. I was happy just to be on the ship and officially have my cell phone and email turned off and knowing I'd be work free for 8 days!

..... So as I was saying, we're still in Miami and the ship still isn't moving and it's nearly 5pm so we are going to keep on wandering around in explorer mode. hehe. In order to go through deck 5 from forward to Aft, you must go through the casino. Otherwise, you can go down to deck 4, walk across and then take the elevators or stairs up 1 deck.

We decided to walk through the casino. With me being heavily asthmatic, I was concerned about the smoke smell but it wasn't bad on day 1 .. in fact it was barely noticeable as we passed through.

A view of the ceiling...

I love how they tie things together in their themed rooms and they don't forget about the ceilings! That's the inner geek within me.

We made it through the casino and now we're crossing through the Ocean Plaza area. I am a sucker for chocolate covered strawberries and they were out on display at the Ocean Plaza Cafe. So, I got a chocolate covered strawberry and Latanya got a strawberry cup which is a big cup (similar to a cupcake wrapper) made of chocolate with cream filled inside it and candied strawberries on top. We decided we wanted to sit outside so we went through the doors right across from the cafe and immediately fell in love with the outdoor seating area.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

. ........

Thanks for your "How to Subscribe for Dummies". I really appreciated that and am now subscribed!!!

:D

You're welcome! I figured not everyone knows how to! :-)

Chris and Cass - no problem, I don't mind.

Elevators - So, in the last segment, I showed an image of a lot of people waiting for the elevators. We're still on day 1 and we haven't left Miami yet. The porters are still locking some of the elevators down so they can use them to get everyone's luggage to them. It is to be expected that around embarkation time, the elevators will be slow for a few hours so that they can get your stuff to you.

On nearly every cruise I have ever taken, by dinner time on the first night, this problem dissolves and rarely re-occurs. However, on the Breeze, unless it was after midnight, we always found ourselves having to wait a very long time for elevators.

Let's say you have people on deck 3 that want to go to deck 11 (Like when we were all the way downstairs but needed to go to 11 to get to our stateroom). Or an elderly or wheelchair bound person needed to go up....

So the elevator is on deck 11 already and starts its way down. When it hits 9,8,7,6, etc., people that want to go to deck 10 (Lido) would get on the elevator and ride it down to deck 3 to go back up to 10. So by the time it got down to 3 or even 5, it was always full.... normally of able bodied people that could have walked 1-2 flights of stairs.

This happens on every cruise but I've never seen it happen to this extent. It could have been our particular sailing but we always needed a 15-20 minute cushion for elevator time. I couldn't handle 8 flights of stairs with my knees and back.

We headed for the elevators so that we could get a different vantage point of the atrium from deck 5. This is what the wait for an elevator looked like...

So, since we were only going up 2 decks, we opted for the stairs.

A closer shot of the pretty lanterns. They lit up although it was hard to see it during the daytime due to the natural light pouring in through the windows and such.

Oooooo my first time seeing a Cherry on Top on a ship! Too bad they're closed!

I did re-visit Cherry on Top later on in the cruise though! :-)

P.S. Time stamp on the last photo - 4:51pm

We're heading deck 5 mid ship for the next chapter.... still docked in Miami!

The Ovation theatre had cleared out and we had snapped a few shots inside. That's where we last left off. Sorry it's been so long since I was able to post anything!

Latanya and I decided that we should run around the ship and check it out. Our funnel funatics group was supposed to be meeting for a sail away party but the ship wasn't moving and it was now 4:29pm at the end of the muster when the theatre cleared out. So, even though our sail away party was said to be at 4pm, I figured they'd still be partying when the ship started to literally sail away and decided to take photos and explore meanwhile...

We started out on deck 3 forward.

The Fun Hub internet and ship computer station. There were a few of these on board.. this is the only one I took a photo of though.

The atrium winding staircase and those neat lanterns that I grew to love..

A view of it from the other side...

We took a sneak peek into our assigned dining room for our Any Time dining. (The Sapphire Dining Room)

And when we started to walk back around, we noticed there was already a line of people at the Purser's desk or (guest services) whichever you prefer.

Follow the yellow brick road, the yellow brick road.... okay not brick and not entirely yellow but... hehe...

You know I enjoy it too reading the review and reading other people's comments here and there!!

Quick question for you , I read on another review the same cruise you were on someone mentioned the bartender Alex///And chance you have a pic of him?? We had a bartender named Alex on our miracle cruise in April and I was just curious if its the same one..My youngest took quite the liking to him!!!

I don't think so as I don't drink so I was never at a bar.... lol. Sorry.. :-( I have a photo of DJ Alex though. I think there was a bartender Alex, DJ Alex and piano player, Alex!

it would be REALLY COOL if folks could let you finish the review before asking questions. Sure would make it easier to read and enjoy. Views alone show that we are interested..but the comments make the flow miserable and frustrating.

I personally like that people occasionally drop in and ask questions or say they're enjoying the review. It puts a more personal touch into it and I like to connect with people. :-)

Plus, it's not making a difference in my ability to get photos edited for the next chapter. Yesterday, I woke up at 4am and started working and didn't get finished working until 5am this morning. It's just a crazy, busy time right now. Everyone has put in photo and print orders for the holidays and we've been rushing them out non stop. Plus, I am trying to get shots done for 2 magazines and that doesn't even touch the surface of the nearly 20 other clients waiting on photos. I did poll CC and said I was very busy right now but could start the review and it would take a long time to finish. Or that I could start posting when I was able to do more each day and the viewers voted for me to start now. So, I did. :-)

Hopefully.... after the new year, I'll be able to really sink my teeth in even harder! :-)

Thanks everyone for your patience.

Subscribed :)

 

I love that I get credit for this shot... of course, Kim and I "blocked" the shot and I was handed the camera and told, "just push the button." They were, of course. respectful enough to not say, "just try and keep us in the middle of the shot."

 

We had an inside too (so don't feel so bad).

Welcome back. I am emailing you about that. :) Try not to spoil too many things before I have a chance to actually add to this review. I am editing 2 client shoots today!

We did this a couple weeks ago. Just want to say the menu has changed and the chef said it changes every year to year-1/2.

It actually depends on the ship as they will occasionally rotate the menus. I would never have my heart set on any menu several months out though... :)

Thanks for sharing this. Your pictures were wonderful.

Thanks!!

We're doing the chef's table now one whichever cruise we can. THANK YOU for the awesome review and pictures. Simply amazing!

You're welcome! Did I inspire you to make photo film strips on the bottom of your signature. :-)

We have been together for almost 13 years!!

 

Thanks for the tip at the monkey adventure. We are going with Victor Bodden. I also want to snorkle out at the West Bay beach but will definitely allow plenty of time with the monkeys.

 

I remember reading some where that you were from NC. Where about? We are in Durham but are both transplants. I am originally from Canada and Jen is from East TN.

Email me so we don't hijack the thread too, too much! :) PureEmotionsPhotography @ gmail dot com

Enjoying your amazing pictures of the Breeze and can't wait for more of your review.

 

Your picture of your cabin makes me wonder how anyone in a wheelchair could move in the room, what were the designers thinking? The bathroom seems big enough but nothing else does.

I honestly think they would have barely had room to wheel in. It was very tight quarters. I was shocked honestly but the ship was at full capacity so there was no need for me to even think about complaining. I pretty much got over it immediately and moved on.

You can definitely see the impact your Dream review has had on everyone. This thread already has over 20,000 views and we have barely made it past the muster drill!!

 

I too loved your Dream review and of course your photo's and can't wait to read the rest of this one as well.

 

My partner and I are sailing on the Conquest in Feb and I hope I can't get some good pictures with the monkey's in Roatan!! That looked like so much fun. I have loved monkeys since I was a kid so to be able to get that close and interact with them like that is definitely going to be a highlight of this cruise for sure. :D

 

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to post these great reviews.:)

It has over 20,000 views already? Seriously? Wow. I am done with the muster drill! lol. I have had so many things come up in the last couple days and the next chapter is going to have lots of photos so I can't write anything until I have time to edit the pictures!!

How long have you and your partner been together?

You will love the monkey adventure if you go to Victor Bodden's. Just make sure you tell them you want to spend more time with the monkeys. And don't feel rushed. Take your time. It's incredible!!

eh.

eh.?

Hey everyone! I will try my best to get a chapter or two done this evening. I have barely even been home for the last couple of days as we've had back to back events and festivities going on!

Thank you all for subscribing as well as for your thoughtful and sweet words!