Breezed thru our second cruise July 27

[mom2mnem]

I love to read the posts , especially the reviews. I don't "talk" much , but I appreciate everyones tips, comments, reviews ( the positive and the negative).

 

I will try and write a little about our cruise-and even a little about how it compares to RCI Allure. I don't have a lot of pictures. Dh has more than I can count between his camera, his GoPro, the camera he brought along for my daughter to use ( she's 13 so, sadly, those picture are mostly about her), and all of the iPhones ( 5 of us). Dh recently chose which small sampling of pictures to share with family so, that being the easiest for me to use, I just uploaded all that he shared. I haven't added pictures to my posts before so forgive me if I mess up. This will be a test run:

( how do I make these smaller?)

 

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[fourkittys]

Don't change a thing....your picture size is perfect. On with the show, lol!

[mom2mnem]

Let me introduce myself. My name is Lisa and my Dh is Joe. We have 3 kids- Michael ( 17), Nicholas(15) and Emily(13).

 

Last year we took our first cruise on RCI Allure. The kids had so much fun they begged for another cruise. ( ok, the boys. not so much my daughter-she isn't a fan of meeting new people) I explained how we had saved a long time for that cruise , but they begged me to find something that would fit in our budget ( ok so I stretched the budget a bit, but we did it!).

 

When I booked our cruise last year, I went thru a travel agent-mostly for the OBC. I had gotten recommendations for a site that would allow several travel agents to give me quotes. I chose this agent because she was the only one who wouldn't give me a quote right away. She asked questions about my preferences and then presented me with options. She answered my many questions within 24 hours or less. When I decided to book our next cruise ,I presented this travel agent with my choices and she came back with prices. Based on her quotes, nothing was going to work. Finally I found Carnival Breeze 6 day cruise going to Key West, Cozumel, and Grand Cayman. All places we haven't been to ( although we had been to Cancun about 15 yrs ago and my husband dove in Cozumel) I contacted the travel agent once again. Well, that didn't work out too well. She told me that she doesn't really book Carnival cruises. She is not a fan of them ( as an agent and as a passenger) , but would book it for me "if I knew what I was getting into" Ok. I had already done my research. I read the good, the bad, and the really ugly. I exhausted my friends who had taken Carnival cruises with my many questions. I was ready. So I contacted another online travel agent as recommended by a friend ( again for OBC). She was wonderful and very helpful. I was concerned about the possibility of getting my room moved because we were getting 2 rooms -one for me and DH and one for the kids. We decided on Ocean Suites since we were unable to get connecting balconies. She made a call to Carnival to make sure the rooms she was booking for me would be least likely to get me any room changes.

 

I did more research, I read all reviews and I made my choices.

We flew into Ft Lauderdale and took SAS transport to our hotel. They were quick ( less than 10 min wait from when I called them) and friendly.

 

I chose Intercontinental Miami for our hotel. We needed accommodations for 5 and the Intercontinental had suites available with 2 double beds and a sofa bed. Perfect! The website would not let me book for 5, so I called to verify it would be OK. I was told the rooms were only meant for 4, but if I could get an available suite I could take my chances. Well, it was perfect! My kids couldn't believe how nice the hotel was and that we would only be staying for the night. I couldn't believe it cost less than one night in Manhattan in a hotel that isn't nearly as nice

. Loved the hotel from check-in to check out. It was beautiful and everyone was so pleasant to deal with. We walked to Bayside Marketplace and had some dinner at Latin America restaurant. By the time we were ready to get back to the room everyone was cranky from all the heat. The only problem we had was trying to get out of the hotel the next day. My plan was to leave by 10. It took us over 15 min to get an elevator. We finally got an empty elevator that was going up in order to get back down!

 

Finally we were out of the hotel and ready to get a cab to the port! They call over a van and we go to get our luggage in ( 7 suitcases!) The cab driver couldn't figure out how to put down the back seat so we could get our stuff in. He said he couldn't take us and took the next family. We were told we would need 2 cabs. Nah. We know how to pack a van. So, another taxi van was called over for us. We had to wait about 10 min. The van came, my husband sprang into action and we had the van expertly packed with our luggage. And our kids. Off we went!

 

We arrived at the port by 1045 or so despite the letter and the phone call from Carnival advising us against this ( routine maintenance, blah blah blah...). The port was packed with departing passengers. We had FTTF ( for the Grand Cayman Tender and getting to the room early ), but didn't need it for the ship as we had priority for the suites.

 

Well, it turns out that Carnival wasn't kidding this time. We checked in quickly and settled into the waiting room. Nothing. No Boarding. Finally they made an announcement that they hoped to board by 1pm. At around 1240 pm they started the boarding. It was exciting, but a bit of a hold up because of the obligatory picture ( Yes, we do them. My husband like the memory) Here is the difference with RCI. They take the picture when you check in so the lines don't back up when actually getting on the ship.

 

 

Lisa

Edited August 10, 2014 by mom2mnem

[mom2mnem]

I knew that the first place I wanted to go was guest services. Having FTTF was great for bypassing those lines. I needed to switch keys. When I booked the cruise my daughter was 12 and I had to book with one adult in each room because of the balcony. At guest services I was going to just get a spare key, but now that she was 13 they made a complete switch and put her in the room with the boys and my husband with me. Hardly took any time at all. We did get a spare key to the kids rooms so we could pop in at anytime. We kept the spare key in the light activator thingy so we wouldn't forget to grab ours on the way out.

 

I would have preferred to have connecting cabins, but I wasn't able to get them when I booked. Another Allure note: Plenty of connecting cabins when I booked that cruise ( both cruises were booked the Aug prior to cruising.) I think they just have more connecting options in general.

 

I spoke to my kids beforehand and discussed the soda package. We all had it on the Allure ( love those soda machines). My kids decided they would be satisfied with the lemonade /iced tea/hot cocoa with an occasional soda or "fancy drink". It worked out well for us and I learned that my kids really could live on lemonade ( me too actually). We did not do any cheers package as we don't drink all that much. Honestly , when I am on vacation, by day 3 or so I am sick of food and I can't tolerate another drink. I also happen to have Crohns disease so I have to be careful especially if I want to be ok for the excursions.

 

Afterwards we had all agreed to go to Cucina del Capitano for lunch. (lets make it a tradition the kids said since we had italian on our first day on the Allure for lunch) We sat down and were handed the menus with our choices. We made our choices and hardly had a wait. 3 of us had pasta with alfredo sauce, one had the basic tomato sauce and one the meat sauce. I added garlic shrimp to mine as did my husband. We all had salads and bread. The food was delish! We all agreed on that and everyone also agreed that the alfredo was the best of all of them . My family couldn't believe it was no additional charge! We did hear some banging around and I realized it was the basketball courts we were hearing. Nick ( 15 yr old) just couldn't wait.

 

After we filled our bellies we headed to our room. We had 2 ocean suites on deck 7 and they were perfect. Just roomy enough for all of us to hang out together when we wanted to. We did overlook the C-side BBQ, but it really wasn't an issue and didn't bother us at all. You really had to lean over and look down to see it. 2 of our suitcases were in - my daughters and my husbands. They are the 2 OCD ones in our group who just can't look at a suitcase without unpacking and organizing. We had a meeting on the lido deck Red Frog Rum Bar at 230 with some members of our roll call, so I wanted to start exploring the ship ending with a stop at the roll call meeting. My 2 OCD unpackers prevailed. I let them finish before we headed out. Less time to explore-but hey-we had 6 days to explore!

 

As we were about to head out we met our cabin steward. Daniel from the Dominican Republic. He was awesome! As soon as he saw us he came over to introduce himself. He had a big, warm smile and a super happy personalty. He asked what he could do for us. The only request I had was to change the beds as they had the kids set up as one bed and ours as 2 beds. I also asked him if the balcony divider could be opened ( as we did on Allure). He said absolutely yes. That made it really easy for us as we just entered each others rooms right from the balconies ( and we had a nice big balcony too!). Daniel was also going around with a big cart full of ice buckets that were full of ice and replenished daily. ( not something we had on the Allure unless you made a specific request- and a nice feature)

 

We did a quick tour of the ship. Explored all the food options and the kids fun areas. We went to our meet up and met some really nice people from our roll call. One couple in particular ,Shay and Everton, we run into again later in the cruise.

 

It's finally time for muster. Ours was in one of the kids clubs. It was quick and went smoothly. As per cruise critic, I herded my group up to deck 7 and thru the secret doors for a quiet place for sail away.

 

After sail away we went back to our rooms and did the final unpacking. The kids ( boys really) wanted to explore so we let them go. My daughter sticks to my side. We finally got out and did our own exploring and ran into Nick having some pizza. He had already met a few boys playing basketball, but now the court was closed( closes at 530). The pizza looked good so my daughter decided have a white slice ( a picky eater , but she was happy with the pizza varieties). Ok so DH and I started drooling and went to grab a slice of our own. Then another. My daughter grabbed a regular slice to try. In all we had about 3 slices each. Maybe more for my son. Again, a winner. The pizza was great ( we live in NY so pizza is important to us). My picky daughter loved it and I can assure you it wasn't the only time we had pizza. Carnival beat RCI with the pizza.

 

I told the kids they had to go to their respective clubs in the evening just to meet some kids. My boys agreed to stop in but weren't promising to stay. It wasn't their scene-especially Nick. Too many lights , loud music. Nick prefers basketball and the courts were opening later on again. My daughter isn't one to make new friends and didn't want to go to the club. We left her in there any way. we peeked in and saw her sitting with some girls. Success!!??? We left and went to have a drink. We went to go back to our room and who comes walking out of her room--yes, my daughter. A very short lived success, but not totally unexpected. She said she talked to some girls who seemed "normal" ( yeah she's picky about people too.)She say she got a headache ( she does get frequent headaches-and also has a history of having a day or 2 every vacation that she feel off or gets a fever) and said she was shaky. She told the girls she had to get back to the room and said she ran out looking for someplace to grab a soda and tried to find the room. she got a little lost , but made it. She took her Motrin and got into her PJs and made herself comfy. During the cruise the boys would sometimes go back to the club to meet up with their new friends. Mostly Mike would. Nick really wasn't into that scene and refused to go back in. Some days he would hang out with no one because his friends went into the club. I think he was disappointed because last year on the Allure he was 14 and couldn't hang out with the older basketball friends he made since the club was 12-14 from 10pm to 12 am 15-17 from 12am to 2 pm. He was looking forward to being in the older group, but not in a disco type setting. My daughter never went back again she said it was boring to just sit around and do nothing and the other club looked more fun.

 

Asessment: the rooms were great. plenty spacious and more than enough room to put all of our stuff--even with the 3 kids together. They all loved the bigger bathrooms. Biggest issue I had was the tub was high ( ok , I am short) and a few times I banged a foot or leg trying to get in and out of the shower. On the Allure we had a balcony. It was similar to the ocean Suite, just a tiny bit smaller, but definitely needed more storage for the 3 kids. The Carnival rooms were more to our liking and cost us much less. On the Allure when you enter your room there is a card ( almost like a business card) with the name of your cabin steward. I liked that. So far the food was great. Mike ( 17 yr old) was surprised the clubs were separated. He like Allure better it was quieter in the club and he he liked the 12am-2pm thing. Nick ended up being disappointed with the basketball courts. On Allure there was plexiglass surrounding the courts. Blocked the wind. On Breeze it was open links surrounding the courts ( like a chain link look). Not only was it windy , but he said the courts were very wet in the evenings-assuming from the humidity. He found it to be dangerous. He was also disappointed that the courts closed at 530 so there was limited playing time and when the courts were open they had so many other things going on ( tournaments and such for 18+) that there wasn't much time for basketball.

 

our room

 

 

lunch with a the drink of the day

 

Ok. Off to bed. I came back from vacation to having to fill in for another vacationer at work. Sunday to Sunday with only Tuesday off. Tomorrow is the final 5 hours of my 60 hour work week ( usually its and 18-26 hr week for me)

 

Lisa

[GreytRacer]

Doing this itinerary next month! Enjoying your review! 😃

[Kel040]

Thank you for sharing your vacation with us, looking forward to the rest of your review ! We too, are doing this same cruise next month !!! :D :)

[Seago2]

Wow, beautiful big room, looks like a hotel room! Signing on for the review :)

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[silvercrikhix]

Great start, looking forward to more!

Very nice pictures, too :D

[bar10der421]

Enjoying your review. Looking forward to more! Great pics.

[mom2mnem]

Thank you for the kind comments, all. I wasn't planning on such a review! My plan was to pop on and give a quick impression of our trip. Once I got started , my thoughts just kept rambling on-LOL. I don't have it all organized so As I remember things I will insert them. My memory is also shot and I know I will forget some details.

 

One thing I forgot to mention on Sunday was that DH and I took Emily to the Thrill Theater. Couldn't convince the boys to go, but finally mid-week Nick joined us. We bought the unlimited passes. On Sunday we saw Planet Earth. Every night after that ( except one), we went back for the last showing of the evening at 10pm. We saw almost all of the different features. We missed out on the Thursday showing as it was filled to capacity when we arrived and it was the last showing.( first time that happened all week) The last night we were there ( Friday) we got there early (820) and they were going to start the 830 show early because it was already full so the 9pm show would also start early. There is a waiting area with some seating. There were 3 little girls in there ( and by little I mean 6-7 yrs old). Alone. No parents. And they were jumping off the seats, yelling, rolling on the floors etc..No supervision at all. Too young, in my opinion, to be left like that. In fact there was a report this week that a mom left her young son to play in the Lego store at a local mall while she went shopping in the mall. Yeah--she was arrested. So anyway, we are waiting and a staff member walks into the electrical room where we are. Then another staff member. Turns out the seats stopped working properly and they were trying to fix it. We wait and about 850pm they let us in. The 3 little girls wanted to sit up front but all seats were taken. 3 teen girls saw them looking for front row seats and were so nice -they got up and told the little girls they could have their seats. Unfortunately a dad and his son got up and grabbed the front row seats first. Just at that moment a mom walked in and told the little ones that it was time for dinner and they couldn't be in there watching a movie. They protested. There was bit of a delay while the mom tried getting them to leave. Finally the show starts and the seats really aren't doing much. After about 10min they stop the movie and escort us back into the waiting area while they work on the problem. We waited about 5 min then decided to leave. Dh was getting hungry and it was already late for us to be eating since we had to be up early to disembark the next day.

 

Final thoughts on the thrill theater--It was really fun! Even Nick, who didn't want to go in the first place, started to look forward to going.

 

Ok. I will have to stop again for a bit. I believe, after my crazy work week, I am being taken out to dinner!

 

Lisa

Edited August 10, 2014 by mom2mnem

[mom2mnem]

I managed to pull some more pictures from my husbands dropbox and got them onto photo bucket. Let's see if I did ok with these:

 

This is our room steward Daniel:

 

 

 

Here are 2 of my kids with Matt the cruise director. We kept running into him so finally they stopped him and asked to take a picture. This is Nick (15) and Emily (13)

 

 

Lisa

[WiscoGirl32]

Love your review! Keep up the hard work! It is much appreciated! Crusing the breeze in 2 months!

[mom2mnem]

Monday was Key West day. We tried to keep this a relaxing cruise and let the kids sleep a little later. The only day with an early time would be Grand Cayman day.

 

The ship docked at 8am.

We decided to have breakfast before we left the ship and went down to the buffet. DH and the boys went for the omelets. My daughter and I went to the regular buffet line. The lines were surprisingly long. I thought for sure everyone would be off the ship by the time we got down there ( around 9:00). Breakfast was pretty good. They had some cereal topping such as cranberries and nuts. I put a small amount in a bowl and grabbed a yogurt to mix them into. I also had some fruit, skillet potatoes and a piece of french toast. My daughter had the french toast, bacon, pancakes and her favorite (mine too)--the skillet potatoes. I think we had the potatoes every day.

 

For Key West, I booked the City View Trolley. I purchased the tickets online with a discount. We had to go to their ticket booth to validate the tickets then wait on line for the bus. It was a short wait and we were off. First stop was Southernmost Point. The line was long to get a picture so we had the kids just sit on the ledge and snap it from there. A quick walk back to the trolley stop area brought us to the butterfly museum. We decided to go in. It didn't take us long to get through it, but it was a nice stop. We got back on the trolley and headed to the stop that would take us to Ernest Hemmingway's House. The kids just had to see the cats!

 

It was so hot and humid in Key West (something we are used to here in NY) and it ended up raining tho for only a short time. Everyone was getting cranky fast.

The time was getting away from us (we left the ship closer to 10 am and it was already getting to be almost 2 pm) and we decided to head back to the port area and grab lunch. I was leaning towards Sloppy Joes. No one want to walk anymore so when we exited the Trolley, we headed to whatever was right in front of our eyes. We ended up at the Conch Republic Seafood Company. Decent food.

 

After our lunch we walked right across the street to Kermit's for some Key Lime pie. They also had so many samples of their products to taste. Everything was yummy and we ended up buying some cookies in addition to our pie slices.

 

We headed back to the ship to relax a bit and get ready for elegant night. We had anytime dining-which we needed. After a big lunch , dinner would need to be a bit later. The line to get back on the ship was pretty long at about 3 pm. I was surprised there was only one entry point. From what I remember, Allure had more than one entry point and , despite the large number of passengers, the lines were pretty short. The wait time to get back on really wasn't that bad tho. Lines moved fast.

 

I forgot to mention that on Sunday we went to the Taste Bar and had the meatball and the bread with ricotta from Cucina. Key west day we sampled the short rib croquet and pumpkin soup from Fareinheit 555 steak house. Emily was with us for these tastings, and picky as she is, she loved it ( not the pumpkin soup)

 

My memory is pretty foggy for the rest of Key West day. We showered and got ready for elegant night.

 

Elegant night was fun. We took our pictures then went to eat. I feel bad that I can't remember our Head Waiters name, but he and his associates were great. Never a long wait and always prompt attention.

 

Dh had Shrimp Cocktail and alligator fritters as his appetizer and for dinner ordered the lobster entree as well as the flatiron steak

Both boys ordered the ribs and my oldest tried the alligator fritters. My daughter had the farmers salad and the fried chicken. I had the lobster tail as well and the strawberry bisque. Everything was good. Considering the amount of food they crank out and all the people they feed, I can't complain about the food.

 

For dessert,of course, I told my family about WCMC. My daughter ordered the fruits the rest of us went with my suggestion. With out even asking, it was brought to us with 2 ice creams and as the assistant presented it she exclaimed "I brought you your WCMC Mickey Mouse Style!" My daughter saw it and wished she had ordered it. I split mine with her as I knew I was too full to finish it anyway. Everyone agreed it was yummy!

 

I wasn't sure how long the shows were so we skipped the 715 show and by the time we finished dinner we missed the 915 show. I feel that there weren't enough time choices for the shows. For some reason I think that Allure had more times to choose from. Of course, we did have one extra sea day on Allure. We did head to thrill theater for our 10pm show then went back to the room and fell asleep. LOL

 

Overall I think we had a great day!

I liked the port of Key West. I liked that when you got off the ship you had a museum right there. It was a quaint town. I didn't realize how many literary greats spent their time in Key West ( the City View Trolley drivers were full of interesting information)

 

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[mom2mnem]

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[mom2mnem]

 

 

 

[mom2mnem]

 

 

 

[mom2mnem]

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[beamqueen]

Great review so far!! Looks like you guys had a good time!

[cruise pup]

I guess you figured out or someone told you that the basketball court shuts down at 5:00 pm so the diners at Cucina del Captiano aren't disturbed. They are paying a surcharge so I guess it they'd be p.o.'d by the noise. Carnival really knows how to plan things well, don'tcha think? You have a very nice family. The shot at the Southern Most Point came out brilliantly. It was a good idea to have the kids sit in front of it. Just standing right next to it is kind of boring.

 

Do you remember if the Thrill Theater unlimited pass is still $14.95?

Edited August 11, 2014 by cruise pup

[anewmac]

loving your review! Kids are adorable!

[SummerXU]

I've been reading along. Can't wait for you to post more! I'm doing this same itinerary next month.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[ch27088]

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us via your review. The pictures are just wonderful, and the family pictures came out excellent! Glad you had a good time on Carnival. I took my first cruise on Royal, and then did Carnival. I will never go back to Royal unless they have a GOOD SALE. I just found that Carnival caters to everyone, and I had a wonderful time. Our next cruise is in October and I can't wait!!! Thanks again for sharing your cruise with us.

[Carnival Cutie]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. I am also sailing on the Breeze in September.

[loveysbydesign]

Loving your tr! We're sailing on Carnival for the 1st time in Nov., on the Breeze, my kiddos will be 15, 12 and 7 when we sail!

Thanks for sharing!

Edited August 11, 2014 by loveysbydesign