Diamond Cruise 4/5/15 aboard the Breeze

[jimbo5544]

While we sailed her (and reviewed the sailing here in a fairly lengthy and picture heavy review) over New Years Eve, we just completed another sailing (our third) on the Carnival Breeze. This cruise happened to be our the sailing that got us to Diamond status (just, as with this sailing, we reached 200 days).

 

This review will be shorter (we did just sail the Breeze four months prior) but I wanted to do it for a couple of reasons. First, it is our diamond cruise :D, and we worked hard to get here;), we also had our largest group we have ever sailed with and lastly, there were some new things I thought were worth commenting on.

[jimbo5544]

 

This was our 29th cruise aboard a Carnival ship and the 3rd sailing this year (still another one to come aboard the Sunshine this August). Our group was 35 cabins and 105 people, and was really based around some graduating seniors (in a couple of months) and their families sailing on spring break.

 

Our last two cruises on the Breeze, we stayed in Ocean suites on the 7th floor, this time we opted for an aft wrap on the 6th floor. Most of our group was on the 10th floor (we had a lot of rooms up there and I apologize to anyone up there who sailed with us:o).

[Jamman54]

Hey Jimbo! Congrats on reaching Diamond status. Looking forward to reading all about your latest cruise.

[jimbo5544]

We actually started planning for this last March when 3 couples stopped over on a snowy Saturday night, 4 pizza's, some beer and wine later, we had booked group space aboard the Breeze.

 

This week was Spring Break week, which means that airfare will be at a premium. We began watching for space on most of the airlines, around that magic 330 day mark.

 

We ended up with people flying from 4 different airports into three Florida airports. The vast majority of people flew in a day early, but there were some that flew in a couple of days early and even a few that flew in the day of.

[jimbo5544]

Hey Jimbo! Congrats on reaching Diamond status. Looking forward to reading all about your latest cruise.

Thanks Jeff! I did see (at least in my mind) you and your bride raising a glass in toast to Mary and I from the Pride!

[Jamman54]

Thanks Jeff! I did see (at least in my mind) you and your bride raising a glass in toast to Mary and I from the Pride!

 

You know we did!!

[jimbo5544]

Coordinating groups (and more specifically large groups) can be really.....shall we say interesting. We had people staying in 7 hotels between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. We arranged transfers from the airports to hotels and hotels to the POM on Sunday morning.

 

We normally stay at the Holiday Inn POM but we had decided to try a new hotel just down the street which at the time we booked it, it was call B2 (later, before we got there it had a name change to Yves).

 

We had the opportunity to check out the hotel when we were down in Miami (staying at the Holiday Inn for our December sailing on the Breeze. While we could see a room (they were all occupied at that time) the lobby and common areas looked fine. We had seen some reports from other cruisers that stayed there pre-cruise, talking about elevator issues (there are only two and are small) and small rooms, but we decided to give it a shot (it was reasonably priced).

[jimbo5544]

We finally got into our rooms at around 4pm (wow?!). This hotel is like a European hotel. Very small rooms (smaller than a cruise ship room) and paper thin walls. Getting up the next morning, we decided to go down for coffee a little after 8 and waited 15 minutes for an elevator and turned around and went back to get our bags and check out. We stored them downstairs until the 10 am pickup for the trip to the ship.

 

Because we mostly travel with groups, we are looking for economical places to stay. Holiday Inn POM has been a winner for reasonable prices and proximity. We had hoped that we could add Yves to the list, but sadly I cannot.

 

Once we were sure that all our cruisers from the 7 hotels in 3 cities were on their way to the port, we headed over to the port and got there around 11.

[jimbo5544]

Priority check in went fine (we were the only ones in the waiting room for check in) and then we headed upstairs to the Platinum/Diamond/FTTF waiting room. Getting our "white" card (yeah! - we did have one before when we did our milestone cruise) was something we had looked forward to. This is where the "went fine" ended fora long while.:( At around 12:15 they announced that they main hall was filled and they asked us to condense to half the space so they could use the remainder for "overflow" from the main room.

 

Finally around 12:45 we began boarding. Weaving us through the people in the main room I could detect people getting antsy...... wanting to board the ship. Once on the ship we headed down to our room and dropped our bags and went to go get something to eat.

 

Muster went as expected and the ship left about an hour or so late, the last to leave the chute. After muster I went to the meet and greet at the tides bar aft on lido. I only got meet a few people (Randy and Missy Bower!:)). The roll call here had slowed down some, in the weeks before the cruise. When I inquired on the roll call, I was told it was still going strong on FB, but I only stalk my wife's page :o and really had not known about the roll call there until just before the cruise. There was another roll call meet and greet where phunny (Andy and Michele) had arranged a paid cocktail hour in the nightclub from 2 to 3 the following day. More on that later.

 

Next up first nights dinner, and American Table........

[mommom of 7]

CONGRAT'S & WELCOME to our group.

It was a very exciting time for Larry & I also.

Loved the white card & of course the extra little bit of attention. ;)

Char

[jimbo5544]

CONGRAT'S & WELCOME to our group.

It was a very exciting time for Larry & I also.

Loved the white card & of course the extra little bit of attention. ;)

Char

 

Thanks for the welcome, the attention is a nice touch;).

[SFplusP]

We leave in a few days! Can't wait! Hoping to see a bit more of yours before we board lol

[kybluecruiser]

Congrats!!!!!!! I hope someday to get the fancy sail and sign card. Lol

[jimbo5544]

Congrats!!!!!!! I hope someday to get the fancy sail and sign card. Lol

Thanks! The most expensive card I have.;)

[jimbo5544]

Before I get on with my thoughts on American Table, here are some pics.

 

This is from our balcony before we set sail. Our old friend the Carnival Splendor which we have sailed three times on.

 

[jimbo5544]

I do love aft wraps, here are some of our balcony. This is the view to the right (port side of the ship, which we were on)

 

 

[jimbo5544]

As you can see the aft balconies are large.

Edited April 15, 2015 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

Here is the rest of the balcony, my bride is checking in with the kids and grand kids before we leave.

 

[jimbo5544]

We are lucky enough to have some friends in management positions (both on and off the ship) that sent us some bon voyage gifts. Here are the acknowledgements we got of these waiting for us in our cabin.

 

[jimbo5544]

Here are some from inside our room

 

[soccersharon]

Great start! Looking forward to the rest :). Congratulations on reaching Diamond!

[jimbo5544]

and another

 

 

[jimbo5544]

The aft wraps on the sixrth floor are the only floor on Dream class ships that have a couch.

 

[jimbo5544]

and one more

 

[jimbo5544]

Whule we did not have a long time to enjoy it due to our late leaving (and us going to early seating dinner) here are a couple of pics as we leave the chute.