Our Breeze Review June 8, 2013 Sailing

[jsjjkelly]

Friday and Saturday

 

In our travel group was me(40), my husband Joe(42), my daughter Jeremy(13) and my son Jackson(9). Also in our extended group that flew in from Ohio was Grandma and Grandpa. Aunt and Uncle, and Brother in Law (Joe’s brother) 33 and fiancé. So 10 of us in total. We were on the Breeze setting sail June 8th and getting back on June 16th. And this is my review. I’m going to try and add pictures. I hope they come out. But I didn’t take as many nice ones as I’ve seen posted on here before. Sorry about that. So here goes Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, we were all packed but my kids had to finish their last day of school. Luckily for us it was a ½ day for them, so we picked up my daughter from middle school and hit I-75 around 1:30 headed to Miami. Once we reached the Everglades, it would pour, then it we’d have sunshine, then repeat those two for the rest of the trip. About 10 miles from our exit, there was an accident. We decided to get off and get something to eat, hoping that the rain and the accident would clear up by the time we were done. We stopped at a Lone Star right by the mall by Pines Road. It took us about 45 minutes going backroads to get to our hotel. We stayed at the Marriot Blue Lagoon location.

The rooms seemed a little dated, but were nice for the one night we were there. The cars are parked in a gated lot on the first floor, which was nice and gave us peace of mind our car would be OK. Our Ohio family stayed over in the Homewood Suites, but they didn’t have the covered parking there. Breakfast in the morning was typical, but we liked not having to worry about getting breakfast food the next day. The sleeper sofa in the living room was a TWIN!! I’ve never seen a twin pull out sofa before. The beds were doubles in the bedroom, and a twin in the living room. There was so much rain because of Andrea, when we got up on Saturday morning, the carpet by the window in the bedroom was soaked. We reported it to the front desk, but we just chalked it up to that this must just be an older hotel.

 

The shuttle in the morning to the port was relatively easy. We were signed up for the 11:05 shuttle, and he was a little early. The Liberty was also in port, but we were the first dropped off. It was about a 15 minute ride to the port from the hotel.

We were dropped off on the side where the rest of the shuttle busses parked. Check in was super easy and we were in Zone 17. But they were already calling the zones, so we only had to wait about 10 minutes before boarding the ship. What was nice was they had like 4 backdrops to take the Embarkation picture, so that moved smoothly too. We were pretty excited that we crossed over to Gold with this cruise!

Once on the ship, we headed up to the Lido. My kids and I stood in line for the Mongolian wok. We got the BBQ flavor, which was 1 chili according to the chart. We had already had the Mongolian Wok on the Splendor and used to get this sauce, but all 3 of ours was so hot we couldn’t eat it. We never did go back and retry it because the line was always long and didn’t move. They had 6 different woks going at the same time, but it was very slow.

At 1 we went down to our room, but for some reason I was expecting an announcement that we could now go to our rooms. I never did hear one. But we went down anyways at 1 and our rooms were ready. Some of our groups luggage was there, but not ours. We had 7415, Grandma and Grandpa had 7417 and Uncle and Aunt had 7423. We had 3 in a row and were excited to open our balcony doors. But there’s an inside door between 7417 and 7423. Their divider on the actual balcony is like ½ wall and ½ door. Where our partition between 7415 and 7417 just swung open and was held open by the door. But their ½ door arrangement really didn’t work out so well. We had high hopes of all 3 balconies being opened, but we ended up with 2. Something to think about when choosing the rooms next time. And all of our other experiences had the balconies over water. Our balcony looked over Deck 5 and the hot tub on the side. I know I should have checked beforehand, but I’m pretty sure I like looking at the water instead of a deck. It was a little disappointing. So that’ll be something we check on next time too.

Muster Drill was in the Blush restaurant and we never did have to go out to the Muster Stations. It was relatively painless and easy on everyone. We went back to our room and we STILL had no bags. Grandma next door had all hers, my brother in law had his, but we had none. My kids wanted to go up to the sky course, so I took them up there with a magazine in hand. They absolutely LOVED the sky course. I tried it once and that was about all the guts I had because I never did go back up there. But on the way back to the room, we saw 2 of our bags outside of someone elses room!! We grabbed them of course, but it made us wonder if the rest of our bags were in front of other rooms too!

We had the early seating in the Blush restaurant, and when it was time for dinner, we still only had the 2 bags we found. Those 2 bags didn’t have any clothes of consequence so we went to dinner in shorts and t-shirts. When dinner was over, we had all bags except for 1, which showed up right before we went to bed.

We were pretty tired, so after dinner we headed back up to our room to unpack and get ready for bed. We were in bed by 9:30…. Some in our partywent to the Welcome Aboard show, and they had nothing but good things to say about it.

 

Why does it say upload failed every time I try? Wondering what I'm doing wrong. They're all saved to my hard drive not a service...

[jsjjkelly]

Sunday – Sea Day

 

We were up pretty early, and went up to the Lido to have breakfast. We also made our way to the Thrill Theatre to buy our unlimited passes. It was $7.95 for a one time pass, or $14.95 for unlimited. The thing with the theater is they show one version of a movie for about 2 ½ hours, then show a different one during different times. It’s not open when the ship is in port. So like on a sea day, it’s 9:30-11, 1-3:30, 6:30-9. They start on the ½ hour (9:30, 10, 10:30, etc), and each show is only 15-18 minutes long. After the movie is over they go in an wipe down the seats, then open it for the next showing. There’s only 24 seats in the theatre (3 rows of 8). My kids really liked this, but learned pretty quickly to show up 20 minutes before show time to make sure they got seats. We’ve walked by at 10 minutes before it would start and saw 30 people in line. I’m pretty sure there were a lot of disappointed people who didn’t plan for the extra time to make sure they saw the movie.

My kids absolutely loved the sky course, but for a good bit of time on our cruise the sky course was closed due to high winds. After seeing it closed, they ‘d decide to go to the Waterworks, but when we’d get up there, they’d open the sky course. So it’d be back down, change clothes (you can’t be wet and need closed toed shoes), and it sure did seem like a big hastle. Then after like 20 minutes of being open, they’d close again due to high winds. Very Frustrating.

We were on the Ecstasy in November, and the Water works was at the back of the boat. There were tons of chairs for people who wanted to hold down the old home base so to speak, while their kids ran around in the Water Works. Behind the Water works on the Breeze was the Serenity area. I don’t know who thought of that, but it truly wasn’t very smart. For the amount of people and kids in the Water Works, there wasn’t enough spots for the parents to sit while the kids played. We did the slides on the first day, and it’s a good thing we did because by the last 2 sea days, the line was HUGE!!

Dinner was formal night, and we had reservations at Cucina de Capitano. It was nice, but no one in our party oohed and aahed over it. It was supposed to be family style (as it was explained to us), and the waiter even encouraged at least 2 people to order the same thing so we got big portions of it. So here we were thinking we’d get big platters to have everyone help themselves. When the food came out, each person got a huge plate put in front of them with more food than anyone could ever eat!! And no big spoons or extra plates to help yourself! I thought in concept it would have worked, but when the food came, it was just way confusing. We were supposed to get side dishes, and we never did. But considering how much food was put in front of us, we couldn’t have eaten it anyways.

[jsjjkelly]

Monday- Grand Turk

We didn’t have any excursions planned, so we just got off the boat and did a little shopping. Being we live in Florida, we can go to the beach here at home, so we really didn’t want to go to the beach at this port. We did eat our Cheeseburger in Paradise at Margaritaville though, so I was good. From reading reviews Margaritaville seemed like it got really crowded. The pool area did, but the restaurant wasn’t crowded at all. We were back on the boat with plenty of time to spare.

 

Tuesday – La Romana, Dominican Republic

We booked the Saona Special through Seavis. They gave specific directions on what cab company to take, and I just kept showing the printout of their email to make sure we were going to the right place. Our driver didn’t speak English, so that was a little uncomfortable to make sure we were going to the right place! But once we were there, we were OK…

After paying, we were told to go to Kirsten as she was our guide. As we were waiting for everyone else, they had these vendors that kept coming up to us to try and sell us their wares. They had disposable cameras for $25!! I just bought my kids real cameras (Nikons and Kodak Easy shots) at Walmart for $45 before we left!!! This one kept coming up to my brother in law and wanting him to buy a box of cigars for $100. Then it went down to $80, then $40, then any offer over $30!!! His last offer?? “Look, I’ll give you the box of cigars if you give me your shoes” They were old Nike flip flops!! We were all pretty shocked. After our tour, another guide had commented that they had to call the police to push them back because they were so aggressive. That part was a big turn off.

 

The boat ride to Saona was fun, and the beach they take you to was just OK. It was really pretty rocky that you need shoes. I have these big Nike water shoes that have the big waffle bottoms on them, and I was slipping and sliding all over the place. There’s an old dock that got washed away by a hurricane one too many times that was supposed to have some nice snorkeling around it. I was with my son, and because of all the rocks, it was pretty hard to get started. The boats kept coming in after ours, and the water became pretty cloudy because of all of the activity. We thought if they would let off on the other side of the dock, it would have made the snorkeling a bit nicer. As it was, you couldn’t see, and like Kirsten warned, there are sea urchins in the water, and 2 people in our party got stung on their feet (that was with shoes on).

After deciding it just wasn’t easy to snorkel, my son decided to give it up, so we went over to the portion that was roped off for swimming. Again, big huge rocks to contend with. Even as you made your way out, the rocks thinned out, but then you’d come up upon a big cement block here and there. It just wasn’t very nice for swimming either. But here again, we’re used to the niceties of Florida beaches….

 

The lunch was a buffet and it was nice. Be aware there was quite a bit of mosquitos and around and our party got quite bit up. I wish I would have known because we would have brought Off or something. There were vendors walking around trying to sell their jewelry. There was a guy who was selling hats made of palm tree leaves and they looked pretty cool. We didn’t buy one, but when we got off to go home, we saw a big stack of them confiscated at the Port of Miami. So be aware if you pick one up it may not be allowed back into the states.

 

The return back to La Romana was no big deal really. There was one duty free shop (Dufry’s) which reminded me more of a 7-11 than a souvenir shop. If you didn’t have an excursion, there’s nothing to do when you get off the boat. We were pretty surprised how under developed this port is.

[jsjjkelly]

Wednesday – Curacao

Being we were in port from 2 til 11, we all got to sleep in! We did Irie tours and it was nice. They did a great job of giving us a tour of the island, which we kind of felt there wasn’t much to this island. They had a 1 hour beach stop and being most of our party didn’t want to go to the beach, we just walked around until it was time to go. There was supposed to be an aquarium somewhere, but we didn’t see one. We figured maybe it was a coming soon type of thing. We were put back into the port area around 6:30, so we had already missed our dinner in the dining room. A few of us went to see the vendors on the way to the pontoon bridge, but my family of 4 chose to head back to the ship. I was contemplating buying a Swatch at the Swatch store, but decided against it. I did stop and buy some gouda cheese and edam cheese at the shop on the way back. Being we’re so used to doing things at home, my husband thought the cheese would be fine at room temperature as long as it was sealed in its wax casing. So 2 days later when our room was starting to smell, we figured out the cheese had gone bad. $30 wasted there. But in hind sight, I don’t know what I was thinking because on all the customs forms it asks if you’re bringing in any dairy products. I’m not entirely sure I could have brought it home anyways. We put the stinky cheese in a Ziploc bag and set it outside in the hall for the trash.

 

Thursday – Aruba

We were so excited for Aruba. Of all the ports, Aruba had the most fun things to choose from. We chose the Natural Pool off road adventure by ABC Jeep tours. They have a contract through Carnival, so we had to book through the ship. It was so much fun. What I didn’t realize was how dirty you got!! I wore a white shirt over my bathing suit, and it was literally brown when we were done! 2 of our party did the beach stop through Carnival too, and they had great things to say about it. In fact, they liked it so much better than the excursion through Seavis in La Romana. They got to snorkel and actually see things because the water was so nice.

 

Our tour was first thing, and we had to meet in the Ovation theater to be escorted off the ship. We were returned to the ship around noon, and we went up to shower really quick, then eat some lunch and go back out to get some shopping done. I asked one vendor if he would take $15 for the shirt he said was $17. His reply was “You don’t pay the TAXES on this shirt!!” Like somehow that was supposed to make me want to pay him more? In all of our travels, I’ve never been told about my not paying taxes. I walked away and bought the same shirt at another vendor for his offered price of $15. His loss I guess. We don’t go into all the jewelry shops, so we were just looking for the junk as we call it – tshirts, hats, magnets, etc. We truly enjoyed our time in Aruba.

[CruiserMiami]

Just came off this same sailing, it's interesting to see what others experiences aboard the ship and at the ports of call were. Thank you for sharing!

[jsjjkelly]

Friday and Saturday– Sea Days

 

We pretty much spent our Sea Days between the Water Works area and the Sky course area. We discovered our sons love of Foosball and how horrible Pool players we are! Saturday was sad because we had to start packing.

 

On the first sea day, I had signed up to do the Behind the Scenes tour. It was pretty nice! It lasted from 9 until after 1 oclock! Having never done it before I thought it was interesting, but not interesting enough to do it again…

 

Some things to note I guess. Laundry is $3.25 to wash, and $3.25 to dry and you use your sign and sail card to pay for it. We brought Tide Pods, but they had soap you could buy from a dispenser with your card. On the 7th floor, there was only 4 washers so we saw quite a bit of lines in that little area. We washed on Monday after our short stop in Grand Turk. It wasn’t as busy then, but I do think I just had some good timing.

 

Guys Burgers were as everyone says they are – they are fantastic! We ate there more often than not. My son, who seems to be very picky, ate a hamburger almost every day. We ate at the Blue Iguana, but not as frequently. Yes there were lines at Guys, but we never waited more than 5-10 minutes. Well worth the wait.

 

We did go see some of the shows – we saw Divas and the Brits. For the Brits, it was our first time with the screen… at the Behind the Scenes tour, the girl had said how awesome they now are because before you’d have 2 singers and 14 dancers. Now you have 8-10 dancers AND singers and how great was that? I didn’t like how at times no one was on the stage and you’re just watching the cartoon. We thought that maybe they didn’t have a male singer since he didn’t show up for the first 10 minutes of the Brits. But then his horrible wig made him look like Shaggy from Scooby Doo, so we had a chorus of “Ruh Ro’s” being passed back and forth between us…. Poor guy. But he did look like Shaggy!

 

We also saw the ventriloquist and we really thought he was pretty funny. They said he only flew in for that day. Whether he did or not, well does it really matter? We enjoyed it.

 

I'll be glad to answer any questions... I still have no idea how to get my pictures to post!! I didn't take any food porn, but I'll post whatever I did get! :-)

 

Hope someone enjoyed this! I certainly enjoyed the other reviews people posted when I was getting ready to go! We liked the Breeze.... well, we like every cruise we seem to go on!

 

Enjoy!

Shawn