Breeze 12/28/14 NYE sailing It's a family affair

[jimbo5544]

[quote name='Jenner9']Thank you for taking the time to write your review. I am enjoying it as well as the pics! I love looking at pics!![/QUOTE]


Trust me, it is my pleasure. Thanks for the kind words. Have a bunch of pics to choose from (only about 850 or so) the only thing I have never done is take pics of food porn at dinner. My stomach is in high gear and my brain (with the logic telling to take pictures of the food) is in neutral.....


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[happy cruzin]

[quote name='jimbo5544']My brother had surprised everyone in our group with tshirts with our family cruise info on them which all wore on the ship. After dropping our bags off we headed upstairs for something to eat. [COLOR=red][B]We were surprised they were handling out free champagne as you got to lido.[/B][/COLOR]

To be continued......[/quote]

[SIZE=3]I heard about that! Haven't heard about anything like that in a LONG time. Was is just because it was a NYE cruise??[/SIZE]

[happy cruzin]

[quote name='jimbo5544']Thanks! To be honest, it (the cost) grew and grew. This was a one shot deal for us, as we are approaching retirement and the income well dries up some. We covered airfare and an inside room. They all upgraded at their own cost to balcony, Ocean suites, and one a grand suite. [COLOR=red][B]We are very happy that we could do this, and the entire family being with us was "our" dream come true. [/B][/COLOR]


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[SIZE=3]I am sure it was magical! :D[/SIZE]

[happy cruzin]

[quote name='jimbo5544']After lunch there were 3 things that were on the close in agenda. These were: find a spot for our group pic and take it, attend the first CC meet and greet, and ahve some fun before muster drill.

We usually hang out in the aft section of ship, for sail away and at the aft pool during sea days. As we went out and looked around, we decided to go up to 11 and stand by the rail and find someone to take our group pic. One of the wait staff was more than happy to oblige and here is the result.

[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/2znz6v4.jpg[/IMG][/quote]

Love...love...LOVE it!!! :D :) :D

[jimbo5544]

Thanks, I am enjoying doing it again and reliving it. Not only was there free champagne during sail away, it was really flowing on NYE (but I am jumping ahead, but trust me it was one of the highlights of our cruise).

[jimbo5544]

Because we usually travel in groups, we have some input during the booking process to select where we dine (both in terms of the restaurant we sit in and also have input as to where we sit). This is because we talk to the group coordinator and submit table requests.

The DW (as do I) enjoy the entertainment that Carnival does in the MDR and because of that, we like to be on the lower floor and usually front and center as you walk in the MDR. The Blush dining room on the Breeze is the aft dining room. As you walk in on the first night, there is staff there, asking to see your sign and sail cards to direct you to your table. We had four tables with our group and were straight in and to the right.

We have sailed Carnival enough so that I really don't need to read the menu, I know for each night what will be on the menu. The first night (food wise) is not my favorite, but that being said, have never had a meal we have not enjoyed. After an enjoyable meal, we headed out to have some more fun.

One of the flaws (in my mind) that Carnival has in their design is that I feel pretty strongly is that they need another set of two elevators in front of the aft dining room. The other thing (much more minor from my perspective) is you have to go up a floor (two on other ships) before going forward.

[jimbo5544]

The main walkway front to back is on deck 5 is called the promenade and we spent some time walking it that first night. From the aft we spent a little time in the Limelight Lounge which had some Kareoke going on and the Piano bar (more on that later in the review. As we moved forward to different areas and seeing the entertainment that was going on, I had a flash in my mind of something that occurs on every cruise. When doing the walk thru, I am always amazed that you hear a bad or singers performing and then as you move away into another area, that sound disappears and the new sound come on strong. The don't blend together, one stops and another begins.

We are not big gamblers, but we stopped in the casino to see how some of our group was doing. Around 10 we decided to call it an early night and
headed back to our room. A ritual for me before retiring for the night is to spend some time out on the balcony enjoying the ocean, the ship movements and the serenity of it all.

Next up day two, a relaxing day at sea

To be continued.....

[BenjiRodney]

Looking forward to more I just booked this week for October on the Breeze.

[jimbo5544]

[quote name='BenjiRodney']Looking forward to more I just booked this week for October on the Breeze.[/QUOTE]


More coming later today. Lots of pics as well. You will love the Breeze!


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[jimbo5544]

December 29 Day2 a relaxing day at sea

One of the things I enjoy about cruising is both sunsets and sunrises. As we awoke on this morning, this was the what we were presented with as we opened the balcony door.
[IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/2444l1j.jpg[/IMG]

[jimbo5544]

While that looked a little ominus, it turned out to be a great day. Having 11 grand children meant that most nights we had guests. This was the one from last night.

[IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/2crkj9e.jpg[/IMG]

Sleepovers are one of the joys of being a grandparent. Edited January 13, 2015 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

After breakfast, we headed up to the aft pool. I have to be honest,we kind of took it over (at least to some degree) :)

[IMG]http://i60.tinypic.com/2czzzp0.jpg[/IMG] Edited January 13, 2015 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

and the hot tubs......

[IMG]http://i60.tinypic.com/2s19ljo.jpg[/IMG]

[jimbo5544]

and the pool.........

[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/5xim9f.jpg[/IMG]

[jimbo5544]

and the pool again....

[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/wchd2q.jpg[/IMG]

[jimbo5544]

And the hot tubs again......



[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/2gulfts.jpg[/IMG]

[jimbo5544]

After lunch I headed up for the second M&G at the Red Frog pub at 2 pm. Thankfully, there was about 8 people thre and we all talked and discussed our cruise so far. Meet and greets, and roll calls here are funny things. They seem to have a life of their own, some very vibrant and outgoing and some....less so. The largest M&G by far was on the Breeze two years ago. We had a two hour open bar (back at the old rates) and it was held in the night club. There were over 150 people on hand for that one. Made for a long evening tho........

Around 3:30, I headed down to the cabin to relax before dinner. I really enjoy sitting out on the balcony at times like this. To make this even better, we had the partitions for four of our cabins which were all in a row (What a coincidence...huh?);)

[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/2hdmx4p.jpg[/IMG] Edited January 13, 2015 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

Dinner was another great meal and everyone in our group was having a great cruise. I could see that they were becoming used to the wait staff (and the wait staff with them as well).

After dinner, we let the kids (my kids, not the grand kids) spena night out and we took the grand kids around the ship, to the arcade (that was an expensive stop) and even up to the Dine in Movie for awhile (I needed a fix of popcorn as well;)).

Then we brought them all down to the rooms and watched them (we were spread a little thin) while their parents enjoyed an evening out and about. After they all had returned, th wife and I headed back to our cabin (we ended up with another couple of stow aways as well that evening). Cruising can be tiring......;):D

[jimbo5544]

Coming up 12/30/14 day 3 Jamaica mon......


To be continued...... Edited January 13, 2015 by jimbo5544

[erewhon]

Enjoying your review.

Super family group photo.

[jimbo5544]

[quote name='erewhon']Enjoying your review.

Super family group photo.[/quote]
thanks

[nycchic12]

absolutely LOVE the group photo! I am going to do this with my group :)

[jimbo5544]

[quote name='nycchic12']absolutely LOVE the group photo! I am going to do this with my group :)[/QUOTE]


Thanks! We had decided we wanted to do one but were really up in the air as to where and when. Should we wait till formal night, or in our shirts. The idea to use the crescent of the aft pool area of the ship (where we mostly hang out) just popped into my head.

I am cropping one of these pics down and it will be printed and added to our cruise wall of fame. This is a wall in our house which has pictures of our cruises (mostly formal night pics but not all).










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[mum2bradley]

[quote name='jimbo5544']Having already gotten the first cocktail of the cruise when we vboarded, I was undecided on whether the first meal would be from Guys or from the deli. Taste won out over sense, and I headed back up to Guy's Burger Bar. Shockingly, there was only about 3 people in line ahead of me and soon enough I was back at our nrmal spot enjoying a smothered delicous burger.

There were several of that had one and my brother's son inlaw said that he had heard from someone that a fully packed Guy's burger was well over 2,000 calories.:confused: I amnot sure if that is truw, but hearing it before the first bite was somewhat disconcerting. Guess what, it disappeared anyway.;)[/QUOTE]

We would have boarded just after you with FTTF. We walked right up to Guy's and grabbed our burgers and many glasses of champagne!!

[mum2bradley]

[quote name='jimbo5544']Sorry for the size, but for some reason I could not re-size that pic. After completing that, I had another drink and it was then time to go to the first meet and greet.

M&G are finicky things, I had attended some really large ones and some that were...shall we say smaller than really large. There had been dome discussion on whther or not to have a M&G on Embarkation day, or on the first sea day. There was a fair amount of people from CC, some from FB and some from the Carnival site.

At any rate I went to where I thought the M&G was supposed to be (the bar on aft Lido) and waited a while and did not see anyone. I hung around for about 15 minutes and then headed back over to pool where the most of my group was.

Later on I discovered that while we said the aft area, no particuar mention was made of exactly where (my bad by the way). The good news is the M&G the next day was much better attended. A little while later on when we went back to the room just before the Muster drill, I saw on my phone that some had in fact tried to meet and said where they were (tables in the aft) and had posted looking for others.

Our group was in three separate muster areas, ours was the Ovation Lounge (lower area), and we meandered down there ahead of the alarm sounding. It went OK, with the only weird thing being there was a fairly long silence before Matt the CD ended the drill. Some epeople tried to leave and were I think stopped from doing so.[/QUOTE]

I went to the first one and no one was there. Totally forgot about the 2nd one..too many drinks that afternoon!!