*OFFICIAL* CC Group Cruise 02/15/2014 Cupid's IV Southern Caribbean - Carnival Breeze

[Cruisin Dave]

Heidi,

Sounds like you and Staci are having a blast. Have fun. Bettie and I cruise in 47 days.

[momofzeke]

WELCOME, ESTHER! Hope you decide to cruise with us! We are a fun group. The perks for group cruises are not what they used to be, but it's still lots of fun to cruise together. For this cruise, I think we are getting some onboard credit, maybe $100 per cabin. Carnival doesn't host a group party anymore, but we usually do our own informal meet-and-greet a few times. Last cruise, we did a meet-and-greet for sailaway; had a cabin crawl; and many of us met for drinks in the Atrium Lounge each evening for cocktails.

 

Heidi ~ so glad you are having a great time!

 

It did warm up here, thank goodness. Yesterday it got up in the '40's. Most of our snow that had been hanging around is gone. I'm glad, I was getting tired of it. I have these spike things that I put on my boots when it's snowy and slick, but I was still slipping around a bit when I take Callie out for our walk, nearly fell many times. It will be muddy now, but in a few days it will be a lot drier, unless we get more storm. Mud doesn't last long out here in Dry Gulch.

[De-Luxe08]

Sue - my husband wasn't very excited about getting Chip Kelly here. In fact, he thinks they shouldn't even being looking at college coaches. They already tried it and it didn't work. He said they need someone already in the NFL. I personally don't care either way. I'm a football fan I just don't get into it like he does.

 

Heidi - sounds like your vacation is going well. With everything you are doing, you might need a vacation to recoup from your vacation.

 

Esther - welcome. It would be nice to have you and your friends along. I'm sailing the Breeze in less than 10 days but the other itinerary. This ship sounds lovely and I can't wait to see it. I don't mind sailing it again since the Cupid's cruise has ports that we have never been to. This will be our 1st Cupid's cruise and I can't wait to meet everyone.

 

Weather here for the next few days will slowly go up -- looking at in the 50s over the weekend. Then according to one of our meteorologists, we are going to go into a cold spell, a very bitter cold spell - like zero with wind chills in the minuses. Okay by me since this is supposed to happen when we are gone. We've been pretty fortunate here for several years with temps above average. Since we live very close to Lake Erie, we should be having snow and bitter cold for at least 3 mos. My dream was to become a snow bird someday and get away from the snow and cold. If we don't have that, my husband might not want to go along with the plan. And if it was up to me, I would be living in FL now.

 

Have a great evening all, Donna

[Flick]

Donna you probably don't care that our temps here in Paradise aka Floriduh are supposed to be 10-15 degrees above average for the next several days. Yep, nothing but the 80s as far as you can see into the future........

We are going this afternoon to see Les Miz. We wanted to wait until after the crowded holidays to see the movie. Now, all the decorations including the tree are put away for another year. It is soooooo normal we even do backpacks this Friday am after having a two week Christmas break!!

Our "new" church is installing the pews and we will dedicate the building on Feb. 9th. It is one of the few churches in the US that will start without a mortgage. Completely paid for as built. Shouldn't be too great a surprise....our Christmas collection, thanks to the snowbirds, was $54,000.00!!!! Kay and I drive 52 miles round trip every Sunday to attend Mass and wouldn't consider any other, albeit much closer, church.

[Cruisin Dave]

You can put our cabin down as one of the stops.

[Cruisin Dave]

Here is some information that I found about Cove Balcony. Here is the link to the thread/topic:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1605648

 

Dave

[Flick]

Heidi I know you don't want to think about work but just to let you know the President of OG was terminated yesterday. His replacement begins on Monday.

I hope you are enjoying your beautiful weather on your cruise. We sure are enjoying it on the Sun Coast.

Went to see Les Miz yesterday...we were disappointed. It was too long and quite frankly too "dark" for our taste. Many of the sets looked fake so I imagine if you saw the play you would be just as happy. I also had a problem with the "French" little boy character who had such a British accent you couldn't understand him.

Oh well, we leave in a little while to go to the Food Bank to get bread to pack tomorrow. It's been nice having the two weeks off because school was closed but now we are ready to gear up again.

[ooulio]

We are booked on this ship in Feb this year. I called and checked the rates. They are doing a past passenger rate with a credit. It seems like they aren't offering too much for the group. All the rooms are really gone. They are only offering inside now.

5 -- 4b left and 7 - 4c all inside. No balconies at all. Carnival needs to step up and offer more balconies. This is crazy. No reduced deposits now. Full deposit. talked to our agent today from cruise critic. Erin is great. I thought we were going to still have a low deposit since it is still a year away. I told her to let me know when we get back from this cruise. No reduced rates for balconies. I am sorry but we could never do an inside room. Hoping Carnival wakes up and gives a litle more. I am just wondering why do I keep seeing posts from Travel agents saying Carnival is not offering much to them anymore. Wake up Carnival and give them something. You can make more by offering things. We aren't beginners on Carnival.

[HeidiHo]

Hi Everybody!

 

We're still having a great time. I would love to tell you all about it but internet is slow and i don't want to use up my free minutes. I can tell yo all about it when I get home. I still say that Princess isn't really much better than Carnival. some things Princess does better and some things Carnival does better. Princess does have better entertainment although we haven't seen a big show. they have a real pool band though and a guy with steel drums. I havn't heard live steel drums on Carnival for years and the pool band is really good. Princess also has fresh water pools but I did see a baby in the main pool today who was way to young to be potty trained. It's against the rules on Princess too but obviously they aren't enforcing the rule. food and service is about the same as Carnival.

 

Rick - interesting news about the President of OG. Hope I have a job when I come home. The last restaurant I worked at I went out of town and found out that the restaurant closed while I was away. :eek:

 

Welcome Esther.

 

Talk to you later.

[ooulio]

Can anyone tell what the sister companies are to Carnival.? I am waiting til we Come back from the Breeze next month before we decide what we are going to do. I want to see if the reduced deposits are back and the balcones are added. It is still a year and a month before the cruise. I love Carnival but why are the other companies giving so much more than Carnival. I have a friend who just booked Celebrity and paid less than what I paid for our breeze next month and is getting a free drink package for both of them. I want to stay with Carnival but I am not an idiot. On our last group cruise on Dream, it was new then. We got a good credit, few drinks party for 2 hours and a room that we had our own party for. We also did a slot tournament too.

[Cruisin Dave]

Can anyone tell what the sister companies are to Carnival.? I am waiting til we Come back from the Breeze next month before we decide what we are going to do. I want to see if the reduced deposits are back and the balcones are added. It is still a year and a month before the cruise. I love Carnival but why are the other companies giving so much more than Carnival. I have a friend who just booked Celebrity and paid less than what I paid for our breeze next month and is getting a free drink package for both of them. I want to stay with Carnival but I am not an idiot. On our last group cruise on Dream, it was new then. We got a good credit, few drinks party for 2 hours and a room that we had our own party for. We also did a slot tournament too.

 

Here's a few but probably not all of the sister companies :

Carnival

Princess

P&O

Cunard ie: QE2

Holland

There are more but I forget.

Dave

[De-Luxe08]

Just dropping in to say hi. Went to the RV show this evening and are contemplating trading in our motorhome for a new one. Saw one we really liked and the price and interest rate are excellent, but not making any decisions till we come back from vacation. I'm a believer in that if something is meant to be everything will fall into place and it will happen.

 

Weather here by Sat. will be in the high 50s low 60s but by the end of the week it will be back to 20s- crazy.

 

Hope everyone had a great day, Donna

[momofzeke]

Heidi, so glad you are having a great cruise!

 

Our snow melted off and it was a muddy mess with water everywhere cause the ground is too frozen to let water soak in. Yesterday we got 4" of new snow on top of it. Dave is having some trouble getting the truck through the muck out to the field to feed the cows. We may have to move them out of the meadow and into one of the drier fields.

 

Today, I've had my Callie dog for a month. I never thought I could love another dog as much as I loved Zeke, but I was wrong. She is wonderful, and thank goodness we found her to heal my broken heart. I still miss Zeke, but it sure helps to have another doggie friend to love!

[HeidiHo]

Good Evening!

 

Our cruise is almost over. :( But we had a wonderful time. :D We were at Princess Cays today. Very nice private beach but not as nice has Half Moon Cay. All in all, I think I'd have to say that Princess is a little better than Carnival but not enough to make a difference. I would do either line in a heart beat. The differences are so slight. As far as I'm concerned my favorite cruuise line is whatever line I'm sailing on at the time. LOL. We will be home tomorrow afternoon. I will post details then. Now I must go pack. :(

[Cruisin Dave]

Heidi,

I agree with you. The only thing I find fault with Princess Cruises is that they employ more My Time Dining than CCL. It's tough for groups to dine together. Glad to hear you had a great cruise. We sail in 6 weeks.

Dave

[momofzeke]

MINUS 8 degrees here this morning. Ick.

 

Heidi, looking forward to hearing more about your cruise!

 

Mimi, count us in for the cabin crawl! I'm sure Heidi & Dave will be ok with "crawling" onto our double balcony.

 

Donna, hope the RV you like is still there after vacay.

[Flick]

MINUS 8 degrees here this morning. Ick.

 

Heidi, looking forward to hearing more about your cruise!

 

Mimi, count us in for the cabin crawl! I'm sure Heidi & Dave will be ok with "crawling" onto our double balcony.

 

Donna, hope the RV you like is still there after vacay.

 

Ditto to all the above with one HUGE exception.....we are breaking records with temps at 85 & 86 degrees (PLUS.) Supposed to be this way thru most of next week. Even us "long-timers" are amazed at the weather.....

[HeidiHo]

Good Evening!

 

We're home. We were lucky and didn't come home to severe weather. It was in the upper 40's which is quite warm for January. It still felt cold to us though but it was better than coming home to a blizzard or temps in the single digits or below zero.

 

I don't know where to begin as far as a review but lets see what I can think of right now. I think I will just do this as a comparison of the 2 lines.

 

Embarkation: Easy but we got to the port at 10:30 so there were no lines yet. Also, I have Elite status so we got to wait in the Elite lounge and board 1st. We did have to wait about 45 minutes till boarding started. If you are wondering why I have Elite status but had never sailed Princess before it's because I finished the Princess travel agent training program and that is a perk Princess give to their graduates. Anyway, on Princess cabins are ready when you board and they have the mid ship elevators open only for guests as they arrive. They have attendants there and they will ask what deck your cabin is on and will direct you to an elevator. No one else can use these elevators so getting an elevator to your cabin with your carry on is easy. On Carnival sometimes it's hard to get an elevator when you 1st board.

 

Cabin: Smaller than the regular balcony cabins on the Conquest and Spirit Class ships. When we first entered I thought it was really tiny and that we wouldn't like it but once we got unpacked it was just fine. It didn't seem small at all. We didn't have a sofa but had 2 chairs. This cabin did happen to be a quad though and I really can't imagine 4 people in there. The beds were super comfy. I heard that cabins on newer Princess ships a bigger though. The bathroom was a bit smaller too. Just like Carnival ships there a shelves on the side of the mirror in the bathroom but since it's smaller there were only 3 shelves on one side and none on the other. The shower head wasn't movable like on Carnival though. Our balcony was a good size though. It was deeper than the balconies on the Conquest Class ships. Probably closer in size to the extended size balconies on Spirit Class ships. We had 2 chairs and a small table out there, same as Carnival ships. The door was sliding too. We liked that much better than the swinging doors on Carnival. We often left the door open when we were in the cabin. The safe in the cabin was the push button type.

 

Food: About the same as Carnival.

 

Service: About the same as Carnival

 

Pools: Nicer and bigger than Carnival and they are fresh water. The one in the back of the ship is tiny though. There are 2 mid ship pools and one was covered at all times. It was very pleasant in there though. It was kept at a nice temperature. So often the area around covered pools is too warm and humid but not there. Around the main pools they have nice loungers, most with cushions but on all the other decks the loungers were crappy. They were the same that Carnival had on all the ships I have been on except the Freedom. The Freedom had better loungers so maybe all other Carnival ships have upgraded to better loungers. Princess should get rid of those crappy ones too. They are always breaking. I suppose there was some chair hogging going on but we weren't paying that much attention and were always able to find chairs, just not right by the pool but we didn't care. They do have a 30 minute policy (signs are posted) and claim that deck attendants will remove items after 30 minutes but I don't know how well they enforce it. I did see a table set up with a sign on it saying that's where the removed items would be. I also saw a baby in one of the main pools so apparently they don't enforce the no diapers or kids not potty trained in the pool.

 

Entertainment: didn't go to any of the main shows so can't comment there. Saw 2 comedians and they were good. Piano bar guy was good and they still have a 4 person live band in the pool area. They were very good plus they sometimes played in other areas on the ship. There was also a guy with steel drums plus other musicians around the ship. Princess is definitely better in this area.

 

There are a couple of other things that Princess does better than Carnival IF you are willing to pay for it. I didn't see any suites but I know they have bigger, better suites than Carnival but of course they will cost you. Princess also has a very nice adults only area called the Sanctuary but you have to pay to use the area. You can reserve a lounger in there for the whole week,for a fee, otherwise it's $10.00 for a half day a on a first come 1st serve basis. We didn't go there but got a glimpse of it and it looked very nice.

 

Miscellaneous observations:

 

We only got one tiny towel animal, one night.

 

Our plexiglass under the balcony railing was dirty but finally cleaned on the last day. Our sliding glass door was dirty all week too. None of this bothered me though. I'm just commenting because so many people say that other cruise lines are so much better than Carnival and I just want to show that other cruise lines aren't perfect either.

 

We never experienced lines in the buffet area except at breakfast on our first sea day and even then the line moved quickly. We did tend to sleep late and eat late though so maybe that's why we didn't see lines.

 

In the buffet area you don't have to get your own drinks/coffee/juice. A server will come to your table once you sit down and take a drink order so no trying to juggle your food and coffee, etc. Buffet food was probably a bit better than on Carnival.

 

Dave is right about there being more Anytime dining than traditional. Traditional dining is is only in the smaller aft dining room. Anytime is in the mid ship dining rooms. We did traditional at 8:00 PM but I think the next time I do a cruise that isn't with a group we will do anytime dining. We had a table for 8 but only 6 people showed up on the 1st night (2 never showed all week). The other 4 were a family, parents with their daughter and her fiance. The daughter and fiance never came to dinner after the 1st night so now there were 4 of us at an 8 top. Then on the last night it was just Staci and me. It really felt awkward to be the only 2 at an 8 top. We had great servers though.

 

This ship was kind of hard to navigate. Like the Conquest Class ships, you can't walk from on e end to the other on decks 5 and 6 due to the dining rooms and galley. Also, not all elevators went to all floors so it was confusing.

 

In San Juan we did the Bio Bay night kayaking which was pretty cool but not as impressive as I thought it would be. The organisms in the water are supposed to glow and I guess I expected them to glow more but it wasn;t like that. It was really cool kayaking in the dark though. We really enjoyed it.

 

In St. Maarten we went shopping then did a horseback riding excursion. The 1st half of the ride the views were spectacular but on the 2nd half we had a view of the power plant and it wasn't pretty. The best part though was taking the horsed into the water at the end. That was really cool. We went pretty deep too and got wet.

 

In St. Thomas we did a private tour with Sunny Liston. We did a 2 hour island tour and then 2 hours at Sapphire Beach. Sunny is a great tour guide and was lots of fun.

 

The last day was Princess Cays. It's anice, private beach but not as nice as Half Moon Cay. It was a great day though. We just laid in loungers all afternoon. They have sooooo many loungers that finding a lounger would never be a problem.

 

That's about all I can think of now but I'll post more if I think of anything.

 

Tonight we are going to be watching the Miss America pageant since a friend of Staci's is competing. She (Merriebeth) is Miss Indiana. Dave and also know her parents real well. The girls were in cheerleading together in high school and we sat with Merriebeth's parents for every football game, basketball game and cheerleading competition.

 

Have a good night. :)

[De-Luxe08]

Sue -- OMG -8; our temp today was in the 60s but back to the 30s by end of week. I was actually hoping for colder weather next weekend and the week after that, so much nicer to be gone to warmer weather when all my family and friends are freezing. lol.

 

As for the motorhome, we will decide when we get back but we did apply for financing so we could lock in the low interest rate. They can't actually sell you anything at these shows, which also means they can't take a deposit. Makes it nice so you are not obligated to anything.

 

Heidi -- glad you had a great time. Nice to hear an honest opinion about another cruiseline. I've only sailed Carnival but we have talked about trying something different, but I do like Carnival.

 

Taking my daughter and granddaughter to Disney on Ice tomorrow. This has been a girls afternoon out since my granddaughter was born. Haven't missed a show in 10 yrs. I do believe my daughter would be the unhappy one if we missed, at 31 she still loves Ariel and Belle.

 

I started pulling out what clothes I plan to take but haven't gotten much further than that. I'm not a person who can pack too early. My packing usually takes place the night before we leave. At times, I was up till the wee hours. I don't mind cause I'm usually too excited to sleep anyway. I look at as, I'll just sleep on the plane. I do need to get a move out it, going to be a busy week for me.

 

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

 

Donna

[Manatee Mom]

Here is a funny video of our recent New Years 6 day sailing on the Breeze. Great ship and fun....

 

[TriciaEMTB]

Looks interesting. I may consider this cruise...

[Cruisin Dave]

Here is a funny video of our recent New Years 6 day sailing on the Breeze. Great ship and fun....

 

 

Definitely wacky! Looks like someone had some fun.

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

Woke up this morning to see ice coating everything. Sure wish I was back on the cruise. Staci will leave sometime today to go back to school. She will be taking her car with her this time so we won't have to drive her. Hopefully the roads will be fine. They look fine now. It's only the cars and our driveway and sidewalks have some ice.

 

I feel a bit light headed today. Kind of like I'm still on the ship. Sometimes I feel this way for up to a week after a cruise, especially if there was quite a bit of movement on the ship and we could definitely feel it on this one. One day was bad enough that Staci didn't feel real well. I was fine but once while I was in one of the shops it kind of felt like the ship had actually hit something and I thought things were going to fall off the shelves. It seemed like it was more rough than high swells. It just didn't feel like the ship was going up and down that much, it would just kind of feel like we hit something once and a while, like how it might feel if the shipped bumped a pier when docking even though we weren't docking.

 

Tonight we are going to be watching the Miss America pageant since a friend of Staci's is competing. She (Merriebeth) is Miss Indiana. Dave and also know her parents real well. The girls were in cheerleading together in high school and we sat with Merriebeth's parents for every football game, basketball game and cheerleading competition.

 

 

MerrieBeth made it to the top 12! It was so cool seeing her compete for Miss America. We saw her parents on TV once too because they show the parents whenever they announce a contestant is moving on. I just wish she had made it to the talent portion. She got knowcked out right before that. only 10 made it to the talent portion. Even Dave was watching. LOL. He had a football game on in the family room but sat in the living room watching Miss America with me and Staci but ran back to the family room during commercials. Once MerrieBeth was knocked out he went back to watching the game.

 

Looks interesting. I may consider this cruise...

 

Welcome Tricia. I hope you book with our group.

 

Have a great day. :D

[momofzeke]

Welcome, Trisha! Hope you decide to book with us. We have a lot of fun together & are happy to welcome new friends! :D

 

Heidi, sounds like a wonderful cruise! I enjoyed reading the comparison of Carnival vs Princess. Doesn't sound like there are too many differences. Welcome home.

 

Rick & Donna, you are killin me! I would love some 60 or 80 degree weather right now!

 

Another COLD morning here..... -10 degrees. Yesterday, it only got up to 15 degrees. I guess I should feel lucky though....in town it was -20. :rolleyes:

[HeidiHo]

Another thing I wanted to mention. The pizza available up on the Lido deck by the pools tasted like it came from a box. If you want good Pizza, the Grand has a pizza restaurant on deck 5 called Alfredo's and that pizza was very good. Other Princess ship has Alfredo's too but I don't know if all of them do. Alfredo's was a later additon though and when they added it, they did away with sushi which Staci was disappointed with (not me, I am not a sushi fan).