Just off Carnival Breeze - Full Review - 6 days - ship and excusions

[JFL789]

Below is Pre-Cruise Review link and then my Full Breeze Review below that. Ask any questions and I will answer as many as I can. I am not going to go on for days but wanted to get some information out to others who may find it useful and while still fresh in my mind. We took many, many pictures so I will add some later as it seems like a lot more work than I was hoping to upload and link, etc. Would love to be able to copy and paste photos easier then have to do for this forum so will do later.

 

Carnival Breeze

December 14-20

6-Day Eastern Caribbean (Miami, Sea Day, Jamaica, Grand Turk, Sea Day, Nassau, and back to Miami)

 

Link to my Pre-Cruise Review of the Breeze :

 

PRE-CRUISE PLANNING FOR FAMILY OF 5 - BOOKINGS, THINGS TO CONSIDER, AND OTHER STUFF COMPLETED PRIOR TO CRUISE

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2123460

 

FULL BREEZE REVIEW – FAMILY OF 5 (ADJOINING BALCONY ROOMS) PLUS 2 GRANDPARENTS (COVE BALCONY)

 

Pre-cruise Hotel :

 

Holiday Inn Port Of Miami – Downtown

 

• Great location to all Port activities

• Got upgraded to Port View Room, which is great bonus if you can get it or pay extra for as you can see the cruise ships in the port and we were able to watch our Breeze ship roll in the morning of our cruise. We were on 8th floor.

• Right across the road is the Bayside Mall.

 

PICTURES TO INSERT HERE

 

 

Going to Ship / Embarkation

 

• Even though we had Faster To The Fun (will talk about that more later), we are early risers so decided to have a quick breakfast around the corner at McDonalds (we like their coffee) and then head to cruise ship at 10:00am and arrive around 10:30am

• Hotel arranged shuttle for us (there was 7 of us our family of 5 and two grandparents) via KMC TransTour #2 (Isabel Grau 786-236-2085 migrau.27@gmail.com ). It was $5 per person, which was pretty reasonable, and we all got to go together. Isabel put in some great music to get us pumped up.

• Got the Terminal and then tagged our bags and gave to luggage person and headed into Terminal.

• I think we were through security and check points by 10:30ish.

• People were still coming on off the ship; not sure why but even around 11am they were still coming off so must have been some delay.

• Anyway around 11:30am they started boarding the Platinum guests, etc. and then we did shortly after as we had Faster To The Fun. When we were checking in with Carnival a couple agents said our luggage would be in our room before we got there with FTTF and with delay was sure that would be the case (more later).

 

Rooms :

 

• We got on ship and headed to our rooms however doors to rooms were closed as they were still cleaning them I guess but we snuck through them and headed to our room. Checked the rooms out (we had two adjoining rooms for our family of 5 -> Balcony Rooms 9284 and 9288 Port Side Mid Ship, however no luggage yet ….. but no worries.

• See cooler bag in photo, will talk about that later but it was great to have as I had them fill it with ice each day (have to ask though they do not bring us automatically anymore). We used the cooler bag as one of our carry ons. A couple of pics below are not from arrival but wanted to put them together to show rooms all together.

 

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• Note : Grandparents got a Cove Balcony room 2342 on Port Side Mid Ship. I did not take any pictures of their room but they LOVED IT. They talked about it the whole trip. In fact, when they got to their room, they got a call to be upgraded for free to Cloud 9 Spa Room but they declined as they liked where they were (being close to the water).

 

 

Faster To The Fun :

 

• This is my experience and impression of the FTTF program. Please don’t tell me how wrong we are with getting this, etc. Its up to you and I am providing my experience only for others who may want it.

• Luggage did not arrive in our room right away as people believe and we were told by Carnival but we were given a special phone number to Customer Service which came in handy right away as the regular phone number that I called was busy a lot then I noticed sheet about FTTF and the number to use and when I called it got through right away. This would be first bonus of program for us.

• I advised our luggage had not arrived yet and they said they would look right into it.

• After a bit our luggage did arrive and this was still a long time before others got theirs but some around us did get theirs before us who did not have FTTF.

• Several times, throughout cruise we wanted to get some information from Customer Service Desk and the line every time was very long. With FTTF we got to use Platinum Line and only ever had to wait one or two people. Second bonus of this program and we used it several times.

• That was basically our experience with FTTF. Was it worth $50 x 2 rooms, likely not. As others mentioned in my pre-cruise review, it likely would have been best to only have it for one room but we kept both. I would say if you can afford it and get one, you might find a couple things useful, but its not going to make or break the cruise if you don’t.

 

Fun Shops Room Purchases :

 

• We had pre-ordered a bottle of rum and some cokes, 4 bud light lime, and a couple bottles of wine. It was all in our rooms when we arrived.

• Yes it was expensive but we enjoyed it as we liked having a couple drinks on the balcony after long day or before heading to dinner, etc.

 

Communication on the Ship and Around the World :

 

• Again not looking for a debate by many on this information, just providing it to those who may find it useful to make decisions for themselves.

 

FRS Walkie Talkies :

 

• We took 3 Motorola FRS Walkie Talkies with us. Two for us and One for the Grandparents. We only took one charger and just swapped them around as batteries went down. These are older ones but have always worked really well and they did not disappoint on this cruise. They worked honestly really well in my opinion. We had little interruption from others and I guess being on same side of the ship we could communicate with grandparents 7 floors below pretty clearly.

• My son would take one with him up on sports deck while we sat at pool or wandered around and they worked pretty good. Never had any issue with people being annoyed or bothered by them. We kept the communication to a reasonable amount basically just once and awhile when needed.

 

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Carnival Hub App :

 

• All of us downloaded the Carnival Hub App prior to cruise that we found in another forum and it was also advertised on cruise as soon as we got on.

• Great little app. We used it daily to find out what was going on every minute opposed to have to keep the Fun Times sheet with us.

• You can also CHAT with other guests and we got the Cruise Director’s ID and could ask him questions throughout cruise, however we never did that.

• The app was free to use but it is a trial so there is some conversations it may be a paid app / use down the road? Maybe download the app now from other links while it’s free?

• There are a few changes I would suggest and some tweaks needed but its kinda cool app and could be even better in the future.

 

WIFI Packages :

 

• Breeze had the new WIFI packages available as many other forums have referenced.

• My two daughters both got the Social package $5 / day ($25 for cruise) allowing them to communicate with their friends back home. You cannot share the WIFI but you can use it on multiple devices but have to log out of one before logging in with another. They were not really wanting to share the plan so they each paid for one themselves.

 

 

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• I actually got the Value Plan which was $60 for the cruise but allowed my to be able to search internet and emails as well which Social would not allow.

• The internet was useful from time to time in preparing for ports / excursions / checking weather, etc.

• This is up to you and your family but I found this WIFI worked fairly well overall. Kids enjoyed it and that was good for me Ha!

• Impressions – my girls never mentioned any issues with their plans so I assume they must have worked fine and I know they snap chatted etc. so the upload must have been okay. My plan worked pretty good overall. I was impressed as I had seen many say the speed was horrible. Internet was good, however I will say for some reason email downloading was always a problem? Not sure why.

 

 

FOOD :

 

I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about the food as there are hundreds of forums on this and in my opinion everyone has different tastes and expectations but I will give some of our experiences and you can take it from there.

 

• I had sent an email a few weeks before cruise to Maitre’d asking for a table for the 7 of us on upper level over looking staircase and not sure if that helped or not but that was exactly what we got. It was nice table in the Sapphire Dining Room, which we could see all the shows the servers did throughout cruise.

 

 

• Food in MDR was great in our opinion. Perhaps not perfect or the top of the line but it was what we hoped and for the most part it was very good. There were a few dished not as good and the odd one a bit cold, etc. but again its what you expect. If you want Fancy book a fancier cruise.

• We ate every night in MDR as we all enjoyed it and that was our time to talk about our days.

• Great wait staff.

• The menus for the 6 day were basically what you will find if you search 6 day breeze menus on other forums.

• We all tried Guys Burgers (a few times). I will be honest, they were good but not something I craved to get each day. Kids liked the fries and a couple days just got a plate of Guys fries without burgers.

• We all tried the Tacos and they were good and we had many of them.

• Wife and oldest daughter tried the Sushi Restaurant one day and liked it.

• We ate breakfast in Blush Restaurant one morning just to try a MDR breakfast and the fact it was in different MDR than ours was good to do. It was typical and good.

• Most days we went to Lido Market Place for breakfast.

• We tried most things at Lido Market Place throughout cruise and again its what you expect. We all thought it was very good and what we expected for money we paid.

• Great desserts as well including the Chocolate Extravaganza

 

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• Lineups were sometimes long but many times people didn’t realize there were same stations further back or another lineup around the corner so we always went a bit further and lineups were never bad in our opinion.

• Ask questions if you want but again, not going to spend tons of time about food as it is personal opinion and expectations.

 

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ENTERTAINMENT :

 

Kind of same as Food, its what you expect and we enjoyed it all. Not going to go into lots of details but ask any questions and I will respond as I can.

• We went to Family Comedy Show with kids one night and Adult one just the two of us another night.

• Did all the Sports deck stuff and water slides, etc. All very good in our opinion.

• We went to several shows and they were good and we enjoyed them.

• We went to one 4D Thrill move and it was cool. Not sure good enough for $8 per person but it was a good experience.

• We watched a couple movies up on Lido deck under the stars. That was neat and fun and many nights you had to get there a bit early as it was popular by many.

• We took part in scavenger hunts, dances, etc. Lots to do or not do depending on how you felt.

• I got question right to be part of the Hasbro Game Show so that was fun but my son was not happy as he was the one that really wanted to get on the show.

 

 

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WORKOUT ROOM / SPA :

 

• We didn’t do any spa stuff but we all worked out a couple days. My son loved it and I ran a couple days. Good selection of workout equipment.

• As questions if needed.

 

A FEW RANDOM PICS (then will do excursions at end)

 

 

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Water was soooooo Blue throughout entire cruise

 

 

The Sunrises and Sunsets were Amazing. We were pretty lucky to see both most days.

 

 

EXCURSIONS :

 

JAMAICA :

 

Well this was a tough start to port days as it was pouring in Jamaica, however we are pretty “go with it people” and as most were down at Tour Desk cancelling their excursions, we just went with it. We had planned to go to Dunn’s Falls so we were going to get wet anyway so in the end best day to rain.

 

I had booked a private excursion just for our family via Marvin’s Paradise Tours. They were awesome to deal with throughout. Good communication emails back and forth, right there waiting for us, toured us around, etc. Would definitely recommend them and likely why they are #1 on Trip Advisor I believe.

 

We went to Dunn’s Falls, then toured around a bit, then went and had authentic Jamaican lunch with Red Stripe Beers of course , then some shopping. We were supposed to go to Blue Hole Beach too but it was so muddy from rain we couldn’t do that.

 

Even with rain / weather , it was great time.

 

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GRAND TURK :

 

No excursion here just typical walk off the ship and head to beach right at port. Family walked around port area a bit but again for most part just relaxed on beach right there.

 

 

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NASSAU :

 

Beautiful day in Nassau. We toured around port on our own then went to our private excursion that we had booked with Blue Water Sports. It was a 2 hour snorkel trip which was amazing as they water was not wavy at all and tons of fish to see and then a tour of the marina area to see all the big yachts and homes. Great day and Blue Water Sports were awesome.

 

After excursion we went to Senor Frogs for some fun with kids and then back on ship to enjoy the beautiful day and the ship for last day.

 

 

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[legion3]

Glad you had a good time and for the review. We sail on Breeze in April and have FTTF so are glad to get some feed back on that. We can afford $50 so we want to give it a try.

[Earl Colby Pottinger]

I did the same cruise as a solo in cabin 6389.

 

Two things I noted, my cabin was right besides the elevators and I barely could hear them operating. This ship has the most quiet elevators I ever not hear. :)

 

The ship left after dark at Grand Turk and was very pretty in the way it was lit up, I had one of the ship photos of me done on the dock with the ship in the background. When I asked later all the other members at my table had done the same thing.

 

 

And yes the Sun and Sand was perfect.

[hockeyluver]

Ahhh just what I was needing!! A Breeze fix!! Thank you 💕👣🍻

[Perini3]

This is the review I have been waiting for . WE go in Feb with the same itinerary so Will be watching for rest of review. Thank you

[45014]

We are sailing the Breeze 2/28/15, and when we booked, the agent told my husband that there is no YTD. Is this true?

[2 cruzen]

We are sailing the Breeze 2/28/15, and when we booked, the agent told my husband that there is no YTD. Is this true?

 

YTD is offered but it may be too late for your booking so it wouldn't be available. You could try to get on the wait list.

[Sherryleea]

Thanks for reviewing!

[granny0h]

My family was on this same cruise, my first on the Carnival Line. My thoughts... bed was uncomfortable (inside cabin size was comfortable), main dining room food was so-so, entertainment was okay, Guys Burger Joint..loved the hamburgers, pizza looked liked what you would get in a convenience store, and tasted like it as well...buffets were similar to what you would find at a Golden Corral. Breeze was very clean, the staff were always busy cleaning something. Very nice folks. I wondered if the staff thought cruisers were wasteful people, judging by the amount of food that was left on plates that they cleaned. Ports were not all that enjoyable. Poured down rain in Jamaica, canceled the Mystic Mountain excursion and took a bus tour. Poverty was bad, trash and burned out vehicles...not much to see really. Grand Turk, did the beach. Nassau, most of the shops had the same type merchandise, had lunch at Senor Frogs, fun place, but lunch was over $200.00 for the 8 of us...a bit pricey for the atmosphere. Carnival Lines are geared for the younger set, my family enjoyed their experience and have sailed Carnival several times, but for me, I rather like the Royal Caribbean more.