Carnival Breeze 04/01 - 04/08

Hey there, we got off the Breeze April 8th and I thought I would do a quick recap of our trip. I do have some gripes this time but nothing that would affect my overall opinion of Carnival or change my cruising decisions much.

We flew in to Houston on Friday 03/30 and stayed 2 nights at the Staybridge Suites in Webster/NASA area. It was a nice hotel with a decent breakfast. The pool was a tad cold but we swam anyway. Free laundry and close proximity to NASA and other restaurants was great. We spent Saturday at NASA. Sunday we got up early and did our laundry and called for an Uber.

Our arrival time was 11:30 and we got the email to arrive an hour later but disregarded it. We arrived at 11:40ish and were on the ship before noon. It was the absolute fastest boarding process ever. We got the kids signed up for kids club, Cat in the Hat breakfast and double checked that they were able to accommodate our request for a table for 9 by the window. It took me a while to get through all of that because I could not navigate the ship yet. I kept going upstairs then over and down then up to find the restaurant entrances. By the third day I had figured it out but I do prefer the ships where you can walk from front to back without taking stairs.

Anyway, Sunday was Easter so after dinner they had a kids scavenger hunt. You had to find several locations throughout the ship, there was someone there who would give them a sticker and candy. Then once you filled out your card you were told the secret party place (Liquid Lounge). We were travelling with two youngsters and they each got a different map so we basically had to go to double the locations to get what they needed. The party at Liquid was great! They had a DJ and dance contests, a big cake and cookies for everyone. My daughter is STILL eating on the candy they gave them, it was a lot! The one thing I did notice was the staff was more interested in dancing and interacting with each other than with the kids. It didn't phase the kids though. They had a blast.

Monday was a sea day. Nothing of note but we did discover that if we arrived at our table right before 6pm (early dining time) we were served and done with dinner by 7:00ish. If we arrived at 6:01 then we were one of the last tables out of there and saw the next seating waiting for us to leave the tables so they could eat. The ship is crazy crowded on sea days. We played one round of mini golf and it took a long time because we had to wait and wait. There were lines everywhere. It was insane.

Tuesday was Cozumel. We got up and had breakfast then got off the ship and headed to our excursion. Chankanaab park and the Dolphin Discovery. It was super fun. I was shocked that for $70 we got to pet, kiss, shake hands, get pushed and pulled by a dolphin then a bit of extra time with a manatee too. It was a much longer experience than expected. The lunch they served was inedible. We ended up leaving and going back to the ship for the remainder of the day for lunch and relaxation (and a quiet ship)! Our friends stayed and had a great time on the beach.

Wednesday was Belize. We booked our tour through cavetubing.bz and it was amazing. They picked us up and drove us out to the area we would tube. We hiked through the rainforest and crossed the river 3 times. It was about 20-ish minutes. Then they tied our tubes together and we hopped in. I cannot describe how amazing it was to cave tube and see bats and beautiful rock formations. Once we were out of the cave we continued down the river for a while, it was so beautiful. After we were done they took us over to the zip lines. My 6-year-old didn't want to zipline so I stayed with her while everyone else went. It was about 30 minutes. Then we drove back to the owner's home and they served us a traditional Belize lunch of rice, beans, chicken and coleslaw. They also had rum punch and soda. It was very tasty. We were the first tender off the ship and one of the last back on. This excursion is ALL day but so worth it!

Thursday was Honduras. We spent the day at Little French Key. It was a quick van ride over there and a short boat ride. They walked us around the island and we picked a place to sit. We spend all day in the water. We paddleboarded, snorkeled, kayaked, ate and drank. The food was very good and we had a great beach day. There's not a ton of fish out that way but the water was very clear. On our way back we shopped through the port and they had some really neat places there.

Friday/Saturday were sea days. We spent the time playing trivia (when we could find a seat) and just hanging out. The two younger kids didn't love the kids club so they played in our room a while each day. They are a boy and a girl and apparently each time they went to the kids club, they would do a boy group activity and a girl group activity so they never really got to play together.

Debarkation was flawless. The longest wait was through customs, maybe 5 minutes? We walked right off with our luggage, got our Uber and were on our way in less than 20 minutes. We were many hours early for our flight.

Things of note (sorry for griping):

-I could not figure out where the smoking section was. I don't smoke and I try to avoid it but I swear that people were smoking on every deck outside. Even right outside the kids club. I noticed smoking on deck 11, deck 10 and deck 5.

-The hot tubs on deck 5 are where it's at! They are cold like a pool but with hardly anyone there.

-My hubby bought a couple spa pass for $219 but I only used it once. I went to the counter and asked if they would adjust my charges and they did but they hadn't actually had him down for the spa pass. He had been to the spa every day but there was no record of it (weird huh)? I even went with him and they still didn't show that we had ever gone. It was a little unorganized.

-Thanks to you all I knew that I could get a duplicate key for our rooms since we moved people around once on board. Unfortunately EIGHT keys later, none of them worked. Their key coder was down and it was never fixed the entire cruise. Hubby had to carry around our daughter's key card to get into our room.

-Our cruise director Lee was AMAZING. So charming. He sent over some treats for our kids and they were thrilled. Those treats though, came at 10:30 at night when we were dead asleep. Room service knocked once then walked in. Good thing I at least had something on when I was out of bed to answer the door!

-Ice cream machines were almost always out of cones or down. There were constant lines there and they are right in a walkway.

-Water slides were super fun!

-I enjoyed the ship but feel that it needs more resources. We also cruised on the Miracle. It has 2k less passengers but the same amount of ice cream machines, pizza places and pools etc. There were SO many people, they just didn't have anywhere to go. For Carnival, I may stick to the smaller ships in the future. In contrast we have cruised on Royal's Oasis of the Seas and it wasn't nearly as crowded as this ship seemed.

-The deli was the only place to get "regular" french fries. The line was always so long so I would just ask someone at the front to grab me a plate of fries. Everyone was pretty nice about it.

-Laundry was frustrating also. We were on deck 2 port side and our room steward had no idea where the laundry room was (it was on the starboard side). I eventually found it but both times I went to do a load, I waited in the room for others to finish. There were 3 washers and they were almost always full.

-We had our steward come in at night. He didn't do much other than leave a towel animal, empty trash and turn down our bed. In the past (and on the Miracle) they would do a little more. I'm sure our guy was busy.

-We did not go to any shows. Hubby did some comedy (he said they were really funny) but I had to stay with the kids since they wouldn't go to kids club.

We had nine of us - five adults and four kids (17, 12, 7, 6). The weather was absolutely gorgeous every single day except during dinner our last night heading back to Galveston. It rained and was cold but it was nighttime - whatever. All of the excursions we did (dolphins, cave tubing and LFK) were appropriate for all ages and we would not hesitate to book any of them again.

Hope that helps others. Again, sorry for the gripes. We did enjoy our cruise. I will book another Carnival cruise without hesitation. Please let me know if I can answer any questions.

Thanks for the review. I think it’s almost impossible to avoid crowds on vacation Easter week. Glad you enjoyed everything else.

Thanks for the review. I'm waiting patiently for July 15th.

Thanks for your review. I'm glad you had fun with your family and that a few inconveniences didn't spoil your cruise.

Thanks for the informative report.