Carnival Breeze 03/28 - 04/05 - Some Obervations

[applegam]

I've been researching this cruise on CC for over a year. Thought it only fair I return the favor and share some of our observations this past week on the Breeze.

 

Overall - The Breeze is beautiful ship. If/when we do another Carnival cruise, I'd be happy to choose this ship again. Very clean, the staff was very nice and outgoing. The CD - Matt, probably the best we have ever had. Really liked him. Great sense of humor. Our daughter made on stage for Hasbro the Game Show (10 years old). He was very nice to her and made her feel comfortable. On the sea days, we saw the chair hog police. :) Basically, they walk around and look for empty chairs. If no one is there - they place a sticker with a time noted. After 40 minutes, I guess they come back and take the towels. We saw lots of stickers, but no items actually collected.

 

Room - 2258. This was our first cove balcony. Wow, after doing this I'd never do a standard balcony again if available. It was so private, and nice to sit out at night and listen to the water. I'm sure that others that spent much more were right over Fat Jimmies' BBQ and had passengers looking right up at them. Big fan of the cove balcony!

 

Entertainment - yeah, it's pretty much what we expected after reading the reviews. It's basically okay. The same group of 6 or so singers doing Motown, Diva's or Britt invasion. Then, a couple of juggling acts. Nothing to write home about, but pretty much what was expected.

 

Food - another one that's spot on from the reviews we read. We tried as many locations as we could. Guy's burgers - yup. Very greasy and very good. I think I only had 2 on an 8 day cruise. Very good, and very long lines. The pizza pirate was honestly not that good. And trust me, I love pizza. The buffet, was the buffet. No big new there. Now for the MDR. This was quite a surprise. On an 8 night cruise - we had 4 different teams serving us. I've never seen that before. It was really hit or miss on the service. Seems like every night we had either a missing entre or received the wrong one. As far as the food quality - I was really a fan the new American table menu. Overall, the food quality was very good.

 

Drinks - I had to add this one in here. :) There are many threads out there on the best drinks. From what I've read, the best "bang for your buck" drink is the Long Island. I agree. In the 2nd the last night on the cruise I ordered one from the casino bar (VERY SMOKEY). The waitress asked me if I would like a floater? I'm like, "what's that?" It's an extra shot on the top for only $2.00. Pretty much every shot on the boat is over $7.00 so I thought this was quite a deal! Trust me, only a couple of these are all that are needed.

 

Ports:

 

Grand Turk - So disappointed here. We received notice that the ship tried dock early in the morning while were asleep and were unsuccessful. While we were there, a Holland America ship also tried to doc and could not. The captain determined it was unsafe to doc. Certainly not Carnival's fault, but still disappointed we missed this port.

 

La Romana Dominican Republic - We chose the speed boat to Saona Island, via Carnival. The reviews were quite good. I must say, this was one of the better excursions we took. On the way there, we stopped at a location that was waist deep, crystal clear water, and star fish scattered about. After 30 min there, we went to the island. It's very beautiful, awesome waters there. Now, please note here. Lunch is not included - but free booze on the boat and the island are. I'm sad to say there was a 17 year old girl there with her family that passed out on the beach and hand to be helped back on to the boat back to the ship. It's a 45 minute trip to the island and 45 min back. If you are not a drinker - the middle of the Caribbean on a Speed Boat is not the time to start. She spend the entire trip back with her head between her legs, and you can imagine the rest. I hope they brought her to medical when we returned.

 

Curacao - We chose the Beach Express by Boat. This was basically a boat ride to Sea-Quarium beach. Very nice beach - but don't be fooled by the pictures, it's very crowded. I will say, it was nice to swim out to the man-made rock wall that protects the beach from the ocean. Many good fish out there to see. One note here - this is a topless beach. Not too many - but something to consider if you are going there with children as we were.

 

Aruba - Ahh - if only I could go back there! We did the De Palm Island tour and really wish we could go back. It's a bit on the $$ side, but wow. They give you a good tour of the island and let you decide what to do. We did the snorkeling first - good choice! They have a couple set's of stairs that lead into the water. Now, this is funny - while sitting on the stairs to the water, a wave washed my face mask over. I had to ask one of the workers for another mask to find it. Once I got it one and went in - it was like going into an aquarium. Huge blue parrot fish, over a food long. Literally, you could not go anywhere and not see beautiful fish every where. This was one of the best excursions we have ever done in 4 cruises. Now - one note if you do this. They give a couple of wristbands. One, states non-alcoholic. So, here is the deal. This is an all-inclusive island. Lot's to drink and eat. But, if you do decide to have a drink - they cut off the non-alcoholic wrist band. That means you can keep drinking - but no more snorkeling. Good think for us, we had already had our fill. :)

 

Leaving the ship - we had an 11:30 AM flight out of Miami on Easter, so we did the self assist. Just make sure you get to the FWD lounge somewhat early. On the schedule, they had self assist leaving at 8:00. We got there at 7:30 after a breakfast on the Lito. Around 7:45 they close off deck 3 completely. They really did a god job on making sure those who arrived first, got off the ship first.

 

So, there you go. I hope you get one useful bit of info out of this. I've read so many before last week, I really hope you get something out of this. Time to start researching another cruise!

[cruisecraze96]

Good quick review, I will be on this same itinerary on June and having a heck of a time deciding what to do[emoji5]. Was on the Breeze in February and loved the ship ship, since we got some bounceback offers from the casino we decided to go back on her again this summer. This time I will have the kids so really looking forward to doing things with them.

[2boys2girls]

Thanks for the review! We will be cruising on the Breeze in June so really liked hearing your take on things. I guess my main question, which you already addressed, is cabin location. We have a cabin on Deck 7 on the starboard side and this is the 1st time being on a ship with that outside Promenade.

I have read so many different opinions on being on Deck 6 or 7 balcony cabins that I'm driving myself crazy! Some people say that unless you stand up and look over, you can't see Deck 5 and that it's not an issue and others say it ruins the privacy of your balcony and it can get loud.

Any other observations or opinions would be appreciated. I will of course enjoy my cruise regardless and can hardly wait but would just like to hear opinions from those that have cruised the Breeze recently...thanks!

[WAHMto5]

Thanks for the review! Sounds like you had a great time!

[mayesq]

We were on the 3/22 sailing of the Breeze and stayed in a Deck 6 Aft Balcony. We were about 4 rooms down from the back of the ship, where the promenade becomes very narrow. We were very happy with the location of our room. We could lean over and see the outside seating for Red Frog, but there was no noise. I will say that I would be furious if I had the balcony overlooking the hot tub. There is NO privacy at all in those balconies. Just my 2 cents. If I could figure out how to post a pic you would see the view from our room (6448 if anybody is interested).

[acceber32]

Thanks for the review! Can't wait to be on our cove balcony but must wait until October.

[croozlady]

We will be staying in 2259 on our next cruise in January....

 

A little concerned about noise from the show lounge... Did you hear any? Was it overly loud?

 

Thanks!

[rhcpchika1]

Thank you for the post!

19 days until we board ;0

[legion3]

Thank you for the post!

19 days until we board ;0

 

Us too!

[applegam]

We will be staying in 2259 on our next cruise in January....

 

A little concerned about noise from the show lounge... Did you hear any? Was it overly loud?

 

Thanks!

 

That's a good question. The room is right at the bottom of the stairs, and up one flight is the main lounge. We had early dining, which means we hit the late showing which always started at 8:15. There were a couple of shows we didn't really want to see, such as the Britt Invasion. I will say yes, you could hear some of it from our room. But, the late show was usually over by 9:00 or so. You would have to be going to bed pretty early for it to really bother you. I'd gladly stay in 2258 again.

[Cruznjuly]

That's a good question. The room is right at the bottom of the stairs, and up one flight is the main lounge. We had early dining, which means we hit the late showing which always started at 8:15. There were a couple of shows we didn't really want to see, such as the Britt Invasion. I will say yes, you could hear some of it from our room. But, the late show was usually over by 9:00 or so. You would have to be going to bed pretty early for it to really bother you. I'd gladly stay in 2258 again.

 

 

No noise from above, either??

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[evanAction]

Thanks for the review. Always wanted to try out the Breeze. We went to Aruba for a week on our honeymoon in 2013 and would love to check out Bonaire or Curaçao at some point, so maybe we'll do this in the future.

 

Maybe by the time the Vista comes out the prices will cool down a little more on the Breeze :) (pun intended)

[CatlinSTJ]

Thanks for the review! We will be cruising on the Breeze in June so really liked hearing your take on things. I guess my main question, which you already addressed, is cabin location. We have a cabin on Deck 7 on the starboard side and this is the 1st time being on a ship with that outside Promenade.

 

I have read so many different opinions on being on Deck 6 or 7 balcony cabins that I'm driving myself crazy! Some people say that unless you stand up and look over, you can't see Deck 5 and that it's not an issue and others say it ruins the privacy of your balcony and it can get loud.

 

Any other observations or opinions would be appreciated. I will of course enjoy my cruise regardless and can hardly wait but would just like to hear opinions from those that have cruised the Breeze recently...thanks!

 

 

We had a deck 7 aft balcony and no issues. Just avoid the hot tubs below on the promenade and it will be fine.

 

 

 

 

Next cruise: Carnival Vista - July 2016

[croozlady]

That's a good question. The room is right at the bottom of the stairs, and up one flight is the main lounge. We had early dining, which means we hit the late showing which always started at 8:15. There were a couple of shows we didn't really want to see, such as the Britt Invasion. I will say yes, you could hear some of it from our room. But, the late show was usually over by 9:00 or so. You would have to be going to bed pretty early for it to really bother you. I'd gladly stay in 2258 again.

 

 

Thank you! That's good to know. We should be fine then, and won't switch cabins!

[applegam]

No noise from above, either??

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

No noise to speak of from above at all. I think it's far enough forward that it's not under the galley on deck 3.