Quick Breeze Review - January 5-13, 2013

[looneyric]

Just got back from 8 day Breeze Southern Caribbean. Here’s a quick synopsis:

 

Background: Wife and I have been on 4 cruises; two with Carnival, two with RCCL, including Oasis of Seas last year.

 

Cabin: We got Aft wrap 6501…..amazing views of sunrises and sunsets! Layout awesome. Absolutely worth the extra money. We spent a lot of late afternoons watching the sunset sipping on wine or Mai Tais! The only negative; it was above limelight lounge. On karaoke nights (maybe 2 in there), we could hear bass, but it wasn’t too bothersome and didn’t keep us up…but it may bother others. Kept tv on low and went right to sleep. On nights when there was comedy, you could hear nothing. Room steward was fantastic. Place was immaculately cleaned, twice per day.

 

Food: We decided to spoil ourselves as it was my 50th. For dinner, we ate at Steakhouse twice, Cucina twice and Chef’s table. We also ate at dining room on last night, lido another, and sushi. Each venue was fantastic. In fact, the meal we liked the least was in the dining room. Lido served same food each night and it was quick and delicious.

 

Steakhouse: Filet was phenomenal. Had it twice. Wife had filet/lobster. She said lobster was good, but not like New England lobster. Desserts were superb! Cheesecake was the best I ever had. Chocolate sampler another winner. What impressed us most was the presentation of each dish. The chef really puts a lot of attention to detail on the presentation.

 

Cucina. Best $12 we ever spent. Chicken parm and eggplant parm wonderful. The wait staff was superb. The sang songs every 45 minutes or so to the crowd. It was a nice touch. Again, the presentation of each plate was great. And the desserts were wonderful. House barrel wine wasn’t bad either!

 

Chef’s Table – It was unbelievable. The Chef on the Breeze clearly has a passion about his job and put the finishing touches on each dish he served us. It was our best night. The Chef talked about the lines at lunch at each of the venues and that most of the meals are made fresh so you wait a little, but we thought it was worth the wait. For instance, the tortillas are freshly made at Iguana, the pizzas are made fresh at Pizza Pirate (we loved that place), burgers cooked fresh at Guy’s, Master Wok hand cook the items of your choice, etc. Pastry Chef did a demonstration for us on making of the lava cake. They also brought a magician in for 10 minutes. Wonderful.

 

Sushi: The place was packed every night. We went one night for dinner; the night we were in Curacao. We got a sushi boat for 2; I think it was $15….couldn’t even finish it. Sushi was fresh and tasted great!

 

Guy’s – Line was long but only took us 5 minutes to get burger and fries. Good stuff! Had to keep myself away from there the rest of week! We actually got the fries only on last night as an appetizer while watching football game on big screen. Yummy.

 

Wok: Went there on first day with long line. Took about 10 minutes but worth the wait. You actually pick all the veggies and noodles that you want them to stir fry or steam and they cook it right there.

 

Blue Iguana: Freshly made tortillas and the tacos and burritos were great. Again, there was a line, but only took 5 minutes and again, well worth it.

 

Fat Jimmy – Long line all the way down the deck. But it went fast and took about 10 minutes. Don’t let the line deter you. Very enjoyable.

 

Entertainment: Hit most shows except Hasbro and all the comedians. We liked them. Not as grand as seeing Hairspray on the Oasis, but we liked the current music and the video backdrop. People have complained, but we liked it. We were out of every show in 30 minutes and we absolutely loved that! Solo singers at Red Frog were great as well as Soul Band. Comedians were funny. We were entertained.

 

Cheers Program: We didn’t do it. We brought on two bottles of wine, had free wine at Steakhouse on night one and Chef’s table. We also bought some fishbowls and specialty glasses. We debated this for two months before and the entire week we were there. We probably ended up a little less than what it would have cost us, but we got to drink our wine and try some different things that weren’t covered. And we had 4 port days and enjoyed each of those off the ship. Plus, DW was hung over a couple days and couldn't drink:) Heard bartender tell someone on first day 15 drinks max.

 

Gym: Hit the gym about 6 of 8 days. Surprised at how busy it was. Guess everyone was feeling guilty! Lots of cardio equipment. Nice place.

 

Overall: Best cruise and most relaxing cruise we’ve ever been on. It went by so fast. Oasis had more of a “wow” factor, but this cruise had the Caribbean feel for us. The Red Frog pub was a great relaxation place and the house beer was delicious! Bartenders were friendly and funny. Apps there were good. The staff everywhere on the ship was pleasant and friendly and everyone seemed to care. The Chef obviously sets the tone for the entire ship food-wise, as the food was phenomenal, better than RCCL in our opinion. Were there some negatives; yes. But we chose to ignore them and focus on the positives, which greatly outweighed the negatives. We are already thinking of booking Breeze 6 day to Key West, Grand Turk, and Nassau next January.

[Aoumd]

Glad you had a great cruise! I've noticed that after some negative reviews last month, things appear to be getting better in the past few Breeze sailings (when taking all of the reviews from the past few sailings as a whole).

 

Good to hear about the lines, people mentioned they were long but not how fast they went.

 

Counting down the days until DW and I get to try her out!

[Pauser]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review! Glad you had a nice time. :)

[re-re]

Thanks for your review, glad you had a good cruise.:)

[Merc]

Thanks for the review Sounds like you had a great time. Any pics of your room and balcony we booked 6470 the opposite aft wrap..

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report.

[jesseiam2]

Thank you for your review, we fly out Friday for our cruise on the Breeze and I can't wait!

[looneyric]

Thanks for the review Sounds like you had a great time. Any pics of your room and balcony we booked 6470 the opposite aft wrap..

 

Sorry. I didn't download pictures yet. Come to think of it, I don't think I took any of the room; only towel animals. Here is a picture of the balcony (hope attachment works). Picture doesn't do it justice. My room steward got me another lounger. We had 2 chairs, two loungers and a table. Still plenty of room!

[Merc]

Sorry. I didn't download pictures yet. Come to think of it, I don't think I took any of the room; only towel animals. Here is a picture of the balcony (hope attachment works). Picture doesn't do it justice. My room steward got me another lounger. We had 2 chairs, two loungers and a table. Still plenty of room!

 

Awesome thanks so much for the picture!

[tracyvansmith]

What night was the Chef’s Table on?

 

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to our feb-mar. b2b.

[happy cruzin]

Sounds great! We too are in 6501 - glad to hear you enjoyed the cabin. We do love LOVE the aft-wrap balconies!! ;) :D

 

Did you try the Brunch on any of the Sea days? I've heard such mixed reviews - not sure if we are going to give it a try or not. :o

[cruisin_rn]

Great review! Can't wait for our turn on the Breezw!

[chipq]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[looneyric]

What night was the Chef’s Table on?

 

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to our feb-mar. b2b.

 

We were kicking ourselves for not doing b2b!

 

Chef's table was on Tuesday night, while leaving Dominican Republic. It worked out great as we could sleep in next day as we landed in Curacao around 1pm. I think they only had 1 Chef table that cruise, but I am not certain.

[looneyric]

Sounds great! We too are in 6501 - glad to hear you enjoyed the cabin. We do love LOVE the aft-wrap balconies!! ;) :D

 

Did you try the Brunch on any of the Sea days? I've heard such mixed reviews - not sure if we are going to give it a try or not. :o

 

Bring some ear plugs as the bass noise from below may bother you a couple nights. Couple Mai Tais and I hardly heard it :)

 

Sorry, we did not do brunch. It didn't appeal to us, but you may like it? What was neat we did one day was the salad type bar on deck 5 Plaza for lunch. You pick all the ingredients and the staff member made the salad and mixed it all up for you. They also had a couple soup choices as well. We also found continental breakfast there to be good too at the Plaza. Never busy in the morning.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!

[PathfinderEss]

Thank you for the review and glad you had a good time.

[Scrap'n Grandma]

Thanks for the review, we sail on Feb 16. I am so looking forward to this cruise. We are aft on the starboard side right before the wrap cabin.

[jolyroger]

Great review!!! Can't wait to sail on that big beauty come April!! Once again, thanks so much for a great review!

[cruiseclues]

A remarkably positive review...you must be a writer...even though it was a quick, relatively short one, you used more adjectives than I remember seeing in any other review...and rarely repeated any...only used the word negative once...but at the end you used the plural, negatives...wondering what the other negatives were...we like all the facts. :)

 

We're looking forward to our 2/24/2013 cruise on the Carnival Breeze, and we always have a phenomenal time...cruising is the best kind of vacation for us. :)

[Gazzacruiser17]

Great Review.

 

My Wife and i did a 12 day Mediteranian cruise on the Breeze in Spetember 12. We were joined by my in-laws and all had an amazing time.

 

It was my first cruise so i do not have anything to compare it with but my wife and in-laws have been on several cruises and said it was the best they had been on.

[battchief1]

Great review..thanks

[campdaan]

Great review...

 

Just curious... Have they finally ditched The Legends Show ?

[HappySailing3]

We were on the cruise with you and met you and your wife on the first day - we were in 6505 and our friends were in 6503 right next to you, we opened up the connecting balcony. Our only downfall was I was sick with the flu for 4 of the eight days and hubby came down with it the last 2 days so we didn't get to do everything we planned as we spent a lot of time in the room. But we agree, the Breeze was great and we hope to go again.

[luvmygoldens]

On the aft wrap 6501 it doesn't appear to have an over hang? Also on 6505 does that have an over hang?

[looneyric]

On the aft wrap 6501 it doesn't appear to have an over hang? Also on 6505 does that have an over hang?

 

Sorry, lost track of my review! 6501 does not have an over hang....lots of sun!! I don't know about 6505 but I assume it is the same.