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Review: Breeze Southern 7/4-7/12

Gopherpharm

By Gopherpharm,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Jenner9

Jenner9

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Thank you, and oh my goodness the pictures are huge! I probably lost 90% of the readers due to sheer annoyance...new project today, resizing.

 

I think the pictures are fine! They are much easier to see when they are large. You didnt lose me! Looking forward to more!

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Gopherpharm

Gopherpharm

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I think the pictures are fine! They are much easier to see when they are large. You didnt lose me! Looking forward to more!

 

Aw thanks. I'm going to make a titch smaller for now...

 

Loving your review...you didn't lose me...keep the review coming :)...great pics too

 

Thank you!

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Gopherpharm

Gopherpharm

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Loving your review! Definitely subscribing :)

 

Thanks, great to have you reading along!

 

Thank you so much for doing this review! We will be on this cruise in January and it's nice to see someone else's perspective!

Congrats on finishing residency! It's got to feel wonderful!!

 

You're so welcome! You're going to have a great time. It does feel great to finally be done...I wouldn't be against celebrating again with another cruise though!!!

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Gopherpharm

Gopherpharm

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I'm looking forward to your review.

Do you happen to still have the fun times for your cruise to share?

 

Thanks, I hope you enjoy it! I do have the fun times, but not the inserts (I tore those out). I'll get to scanning them this week for ya.

 

Looking forward to your review

 

Yay, thanks for following along!

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Gopherpharm

Gopherpharm

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Sea Days mean reading, sun, and drinks!

 

I studied the ship deck plans pretty hard prior to the cruise and learned that there was a staircase and elevator from deck 11 to deck 15…essentially private Serenity Deck access. Here they are:

 

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Breakfast of champions! Cinnamon roll and mimosa, hold the orange juice:

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On Sunday we also checked out the Spa since we had access with our Spa cabin. We really enjoyed the Spa. It was never crowded and the Tepdarium was a great place to read when we had had enough sun. We had lunch at Jimmy’s C-Side BBQ which was excellent! The line wasn’t that long around 1:00 pm. The pulled pork was tender and I liked both of the BBQ sauces they had available. Later I tried out the waterslide (the non-toilet bowl one) which was fun. I had wanted to try on Saturday but the lines were very long – I waited about 10 minutes this time (there were probably 15 people ahead of me). Little was supposed to try to catch a picture of me at the end but was distracted by the Very Hairy Chest Contest. We don’t normally plan to watch these things but honestly…it was really funny. The three lady judges were assigned to judge the texture of the chest hair, the scent, and finally, the dance moves. The woman judging the texture had a voice similar to Maggie Wheeler as “Janice” on Friends. Her answers were hilarious:

 

Dr. E: What did it feel like?

Janice: A dog.

Dr. E: What kind of dog?

Janice: A Chihuahua.

 

Sometime Sunday we went to the champagne art auction. After learning the timeline for the event and knowing we weren’t actually going to bid on art, we took off. Yes, we are the people that would have come for the champagne and to look at some art, but mostly for the champagne. Just being honest.

 

Sunday was elegant night. We ate in the MDR and just let them seat us wherever…aaand learned that our original wait staff was awesome. It took 15 minutes for anyone to acknowledge our existence after being seated. Then, Little and I each ordered a bottle of wine, knowing the dining room would keep it for us for the next night. We like different kinds of wine, see…Little prefers hers to taste like juice (Riesling, White Zin) and I prefer to match something dry to my food (which meant Sauvignon Blanc and seafood most of the week). After some time, my wine showed up…”Lisa?” I signed for it. Appetizers were ordered and appeared…and the bar waiter was walking around another bottle of wine, looking baffled. We didn’t want to assume it was Little’s, so we didn’t accost him. Instead, Little tasted my wine, which confirmed she did not want to drink that. A while later the bar waiter returned, “Lisa?” and we confirmed we were both named Lisa, and we both ordered a bottle of wine. Not a big deal, but they were definitely confused! I had the lobster which was less rubbery than I remembered from my last new cruises.

 

After dinner, we tried Pub Trivia. Before trivia, Frontside Duo was playing in the RedFrog Pub, and they were excellent! It’s a singer/keyboard player and a steel drummer. They played on the Lido at other times as well and I really liked them. Trivia was fun (we did not win, even with the bartender helping us with one answer!). We would have stayed, but the next musical act…one of the Pub Guitars players…started right off using autotune. He was henceforth known as “autotune Travis”. Sorry, Travis. I’m sure you can play some great stuff without autotune, but I just can’t stomach that. First impressions are lasting, my friend.

 

We went to the first 18+ comedy show with Lucas Bohn. The Limelight Lounge wasn’t super crowded but we showed up about 20 minutes early. I like the layout of the Lounge. We always sat on the left side facing the stage on the long couch which had a good view. The show was funny, not enough for us to be itching to come back, but entertaining.

 

After comedy the Lisas retired.

 

Next up…Grand Turk!

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Lisl123

Lisl123

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Subscribed and looking forward to the rest of your review. We have a lido balcony over Christmas - no spa access. Are the spa areas worth the extra $149 add on in your opinion?

 

Also, have to say I won't miss the tablecloths either - and not to run the risk of objectifying anyone, but physically accosting bar waiters might be one of the highlights of some of our cruises ... soooo .... :D:p:eek:

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pusywillow

pusywillow

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I will have to wait until March 2016 to sail the Breeze, but look forward to your review.

 

The pics are way too big for me and it is annoying to keep going scrolling back and forth to read your review. Just being honest.

 

Sue

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Gopherpharm

Gopherpharm

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Subscribed and looking forward to the rest of your review. We have a lido balcony over Christmas - no spa access. Are the spa areas worth the extra $149 add on in your opinion?

 

Also, have to say I won't miss the tablecloths either - and not to run the risk of objectifying anyone, but physically accosting bar waiters might be one of the highlights of some of our cruises ... soooo .... :D:p:eek:

 

Prior to this cruise, I hadn't spent time in the spa previously. When we went to book, the spa interior cabin was only $100 more total for the cruise compared to a lido or deck 9 interior...so we went for it. I probably wouldn't spend $149 to add the spa unless I had enough sea days to really use it.

 

When it comes to bar waiters you do what you have to do! :D

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Gopherpharm

Gopherpharm

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I will have to wait until March 2016 to sail the Breeze, but look forward to your review.

 

The pics are way too big for me and it is annoying to keep going scrolling back and forth to read your review. Just being honest.

 

Sue

 

Yeah, that was annoying me too - the following pages shouldn't have that problem since I made them a little smaller.

 

Great review. Love the pictures, usually they are so small I can't see them.

 

We will be sailing on the Breeze in February and really enjoying the information.

 

Great to have you reading! You're going to love the Breeze!

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Gopherpharm

Gopherpharm

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Grand Turk day started with room service breakfast, which came promptly at 7:00 am. We docked at Grand Turk at 7:00 am, and needed to be at Blue Water Divers at 8:30 am, so we left the cabin at 8:00 am. Luckily, since we docked on time, the crowds had already gone so getting off the ship only took about 10 minutes.

 

Happy to be here, and see the outside of our ship up close:

 

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We walked off the ship and across the port area where there were people ready to help with taxis. The rates are posted so you don’t have to worry about that. We waited 5-7 minutes for a van, piled in with some other people from the ship going to other locations, and made our way out of port. The driver was great, giving us information about the areas we passed on our way to Cockburn Town. The ride to Blue Water Divers was about 10 minutes. We checked in with Vicki, got fitted for snorkel fins, and were given the option to grab coffee next door or head across the street to the beach and wait for the rest of our snorkel group.

 

We waited on a quiet beach while the guides readied 2 boats for scuba and 1 for snorkeling. There was a wedding ceremony set up next door:

 

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We had a fantastic time snorkeling with Blue Water Divers! We found them on Trip Advisor. We contacted them months ahead with interest since our cruise ship was stopping in Grand Turk for the day. They put us on a wait list and we reached out to our Roll Call with no takers. They got in touch a couple weeks before our cruise to let us know another group was interested in snorkeling, so we could book our trip! We were able to cancel our snorkel excursion through Carnival and book with Blue Water Divers.

 

We had a small group, 7 snorkelers and had a great time. They really look their time to make sure we went to a spot with good visibility. The reef was beautiful and they pointed out a barracuda to us! We was tough to photograph but I did get him…you have to look close, so I circled him for you:

 

qoyip3.jpg

 

Next we went to "the wall" which was really neat as well. I saw a sea turtle there, swimming far below me, and some triggerfish which I had never seen before.

 

We have snorkeled before but it's been a few years, so the instruction was great. Chris and Kingdry were helpful and friendly. We would not hesitate to snorkel with Blue Water again and highly recommend them. The cost of this trip was similar the one Carnival offered, and our experience was so great - worlds different from the crowded excursion you'll get through I normally experience through the cruise line. I hope to be back and would love to try scuba with them as well!

 

Blue Water Divers called us a cab when we got back. It was getting close to 12:30 pm. I had wanted to try Jack’s Shack if we had time, but we had massages scheduled for 2:30 pm, so we decided to head back to port and grab something to eat at Margaritaville. Food and drinks were better than I thought at Margaritaville, service was good, and we were happy to be seated away from the main pool…it looked like underage spring break when we first walked in!

 

We left Margaritaville by 2:00 pm, waited 10 minutes to get back on the ship, and headed to our Swedish Massages (Little’s wedding shower gift to me)! My massage was great. I haven’t had one in two years and felt so relaxed afterward. We spent time in the trepidarium afterwards. Next we got ready for dinner (MDR again), did Pub trivia (still no win!), lounged in the hammock on the Serenity deck for a while, and went to bed to rest up for our ATV adventure in La Romana the next day.

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DaisyGirl55

DaisyGirl55

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Sailing on the Breeze in October, and I have been reading all of the reviews I can find! Love your style of writing! I feel like we are sitting down together, enjoying a drink, looking at photos and just talking about your cruise!

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