Review: Breeze Southern 7/4-7/12

[Gopherpharm]

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!

 

You are going to have a terrific time in October! Thanks so much, what a great compliment!

[momof3cruisers]

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!

 

That's a great description. I agree. I can't find any other cruises on Breeze with my itinerary, but I am reading them all anyway.

[nybumpkin]

Hi Lisa - We were on the same sailing. Your snorkel tour in Grand Turk looks like a lot of fun. I'm enjoying your review!

[Gopherpharm]

That's a great description. I agree. I can't find any other cruises on Breeze with my itinerary, but I am reading them all anyway.

 

Thanks so much! Do you have a super secret itinerary? Do share!

 

Hi Lisa - We were on the same sailing. Your snorkel tour in Grand Turk looks like a lot of fun. I'm enjoying your review!

 

Awesome! We had a great time in Grand Turk. Glad to have you reading, thanks so much!

[Gopherpharm]

Hello DR! I had read quite a bit before our cruise (shocking, I know) and knew that La Romana was not a place we should “wing it”. I also read that some people disliked the port because there wasn’t anything to do there. However, this is the kind of port I tend to enjoy, because it’s easier to really see the destination and get to know a little about its people and culture. Little was hankering for a wild adventure day, so we decided to do the ATV Adventure through Carnival in La Romana. Since it was a later day, we decided to get dressed and eat on Lido. Meanwhile, we got to watch the Breeze pull into port.

 

Our view of the port from the ship, with my annotations:

 

Getting off the ship here was not as easy as it was for Grand Turk. We were scheduled to dock at 9:00 am, but I think we docked a few minutes late. Our tour was at 9:30 am so we left the Lido deck at 9:10 am. The stairwell was pretty packed and people were somewhat irked. It probably took 15 minutes to get off the ship and another 5 to get find the tour bus for our excursion. Our tour didn’t leave for another 20 minutes or so since plenty of people will still getting off the ship.

 

I really liked this excursion. The bus ride was about 15 minutes to get to Crazy Wheels, the tour company running this excursion. Once there, they divided up the group into the ATV riders and the Dune Buggy riders and set us up with our respective rides and helmets. I have not driven an ATV in the past but they made it really easy. It was a semi-automatic transmission but they leave it in 4th gear, so you don’t have to shift gears at all, just use the gas and brake. After a few loops around the driveway area, we set off on our adventure. The buggies and ATVs all go together in one long procession.

 

We first went through a village, where kids rans beside us and held out their hands for high fives and/or money. Little tapped the ATV in front of her when it decided to stop to high five a kid…luckily it was very minor contact and everyone was fine. We made our way out of the village and into the sugarcane fields. This was the fun part because you could leave some reasonable distance between you and the person in front of you and get some real speed going. Most of the time we were going ~35 mph but I was able to go faster for short distances…wheee! The scenery here is pretty – blue skies, small mountains in the distance. They might not have been mountains, but I’m from Illiinois, so to me, a sledding hill is a small mountain. We made a pit stop in the sugarcane fields for some pop, water, and to taste (gnaw?) sugarcane if you wanted. This is where the guide gave some background on the DR, sugarcane, and Haitian workers. We got back on the ATVs and rode a while longer, then arrived at a stop with a gift shop and bathroom. We were pretty filthy by then so I was glad to rinse off a little bit! They had water and fruit at this stop. I actually thought it was the end and we were just ending at a different location than where we started…I was wrong! Back on the ATVs, through the village, and to our starting spot. At the end they sell photos ($13) and video (not sure on the price). We didn’t buy anything.

 

Back at port, we quickly browsed the shops near the taxis/buses (not much selection) and stopped for a cold beer – El Presidente! This was a trivia answer we got wrong the previous night. We will never again forget the origin of El Presidente. In the duty free shop, we found some good souvenirs. Being pharmacists, we like to pick up mortar & pestles from our ports...and we found some great little ones that said "Rep Dom" on them for $5 a piece. We got back on the ship and took showers which were horribly necessary. We were so much dustier than we thought…3 Q-tips later we went to get some lunch. We lazed around until dinner, then did trivia at the RedFrog Pub again. We still didn’t win:

 

We watched the last hour or so of The Hunger Games and turned in.

 

Next up…Curacao!

[anewmac]

Loving your review, and seeing Grand Turk.. we didnt get to dock there so seeing what everyone else did there make me envious LOl. How awesome to cruise with the bestie too. Would love to do that some day!.

[Gopherpharm]

We didn’t make plans in advance for Curacao. I researched and found there were a few tours we could likely join, and some beaches we could taxi to.

The night before we talked about our options and decided to try to get spots on the East Side Tour with Irie Tours. Since we didn’t pre-purchase tickets, we opted to get off the ship close to docking time. Similar to La Romana, we encountered a bit of a wait (10 minutes) to get off the ship.

 

While I had directions I had looked up in advance to find Irie tours, it turned out to be exceptionally easy to find them. There was an Irie tour employee holding up a sign near the shopping kiosks. We asked if there was room on the East Side Tour and she said yes! We got stickers and headed to our open-air school bus. Once on the bus, I had little go grab us a few beers:

 

 

Within about 15 minutes our bus filled up and headed out. The tour guides introduced themselves – a driver and a “bartender” named Roofie. Basically, they asked you to raise your hand if you wanted a pop or beer and they’d bring it to you. Yes, pop…I’m originally from Illinois :)

 

The tour was great and I took a ton of photos. We learned about the pontoon bridge, drove through the old Jewish neighborhood, and crossed the Queen Juliana Bridge. Everything was going swimmingly up until we crossed the Queen Juliana Bridge. Two women 3ish rows ahead of us were having a heated “discussion”with Roofie. I’m wondering what their beef was. Sunny day? Good. Unlimited beer? Good. Curacao? Gooood.

 

The part I overheard was “this was supposed to be our beach day!” and “we were supposed to be on the beach tour” and “they told us to get on this bus”. Awkward:

 

I think some people let things ruin their day pretty easily, I’ll leave it at that. The bus clapped when the two women disembarked. Sadly, Roofie went with them (probably to help them get transport to wherever they wanted to go) meaning we were without a bartender!

 

Soon we arrived at the Blue Curacao distillery. The exhibits were fine (ok, I needed to use the facilities after 3 beers, so I didn’t really stop to appreciate). There was a short line to taste 4-5 of the flavors. After tasting I thought I’d grab a fancy cocktail or something. They had a small café, but the line moved soooo slow. After 10 minutes (with only 4 people ahead of me) I decided bus beer was gonna work! As we left, we saw the tasting line had grown quite a bit. Looked like other tours had arrived soon after us.

Back on the bus, we sat a few minutes before heading to an area with residences (ranging from public/subsidized housing to retired orthodontist vacation homes). The tour ended at Seaquarium beach. We had the option to stay about 1 hour or 2 hours – just be back at the parking lot at one of the designated times.

 

I had read that this beach was man made, pretty commercial, but had lots of food options. Upon arrival, we were pretty hungry. We plopped down at the first establishment we saw, and waited. And when a waitress finally came by, I asked for a drink/cocktail list and she said “we don’t have one”. I asked for a food menu which she said she’d bring back. 10 minutes later, we’re still waiting. The couple next to us stormed out after the gentleman’s fish arrived and was a not a whole fish, which we explained to anyone who would listen he had specifically asked about. The service did not impress me – at all – so we decided to find a new source of food. We headed upstairs (the whole place looks like a strip mall) and chose The Green House. Service was fine there and I had a mussel salad which was pretty good. After eating we headed back downstairs and towards the beach. I had read that the beach chairs had a fee, but we saw no evidence of this. It’s probably because it was close to 5 pm at this point. We hopped in the ocean for a second, then found chairs in the shade and read for a bit. I grabbed a Strawberry Daiquiri for Little and a beer for me.

 

We got back on the bus at 5:45 pm and paid for our tour. The tour ended at the circle drive near the Rif Fort and not far from the ship. We were in the perfect location to pick up a couple souvenirs near the pontoon bridge. We decided to explore a bit, and crossed the pontoon bridge. We went a few blocks before confirming that indeed, the local shops close at 6 pm. Back near the pontoon bridge we decided to grab a drink and a snack and watch the pontoon bridge before heading back to the ship. The menu had some items we weren’t familiar with, so we asked the waitress, and she explained them both as “meatballs”. What the heck, we ordered them. Bitterballen and another one – something with a K. Both were good:

 

Meanwhile the sun set and we saw the pontoon bridge in action, and light up:

 

Next we headed back towards the ship. I picked up some Curacao liquor on the way – which sadly, was more expensive than it had been at the distillery! Oh well.

 

Back on the ship we lamented the fact that this was the night we would have won Pub Trivia if we were meant to win due to sheer probability. It didn’t keep us from sleeping. Curacao was really neat. Not the most beautiful landscape in my opinion, but tons of personality. I would definitely return.

[Gopherpharm]

Aruba!

 

We booked the Ultimate Snorkeling Adventure through Carnival this day.

Upon exiting the ship, we headed to a kiosk within the terminal to sign waivers and get wristbands. We were then directed to wait inside or outside until our wristband color was called. We waited outside. Two young women waiting near us were loudly complaining that this was the worst cruise they had ever been on…we made sure we weren’t by them once we boarded our boat. In typical cruiseline excursion fashion, things took a while and we had to wait in big groups. We eventually boarded our boat which was pretty packed. It looked like everyone got a place to sit, but shade was at a premium! They handed out snorkel gear and gave us some background of Aruba.

 

The first snorkel stop was the shipwreck. There were lots of other boats around, similar to Stringray alley in Grand Cayman. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this stop! The waves were huge and I didn’t see anything…not fish, not a shipwreck. I was getting pretty exhausted when my snorkel mask broke! It was the one I brought from home – nothing fancy, I’ve just had since my Legend cruise and found it useful for snorkeling right off the beach. Well. With big waves and needing to hold my snorkel since the mask was no longer functional (the lens was dislodged) I couldn’t take off my flippers…so I swam awkwardly back to the boat. By the time I got back I was seriously wiped out. Little didn’t see anything at that stop either. I elected to stay on the boat at the next stop, which was much shallower and calmer, and Little saw tons of fish there. On the boat, they were handing out rum punch. I don’t care for OJ so I asked for rum and Coke, which they gave me…although the bartender, who *might* have been 21, asked if I had ID! Kids these days…

 

We docked at a restaurant and had lunch – BBQ chicken and some other things. It was OK. Next we were told we could walk the beach, etc. and meet at a designated area in 1-1.5 hours or so. We had made appointments for repeat massages the night before…so we swam in the ocean for a bit then walked to the Holiday Inn (very close) and grabbed a cab back to the ship. Overall, I wouldn’t do this excursion again. Perhaps I was spoiled by our private snorkel trip in Grand Turk, but in any case, I don’t think I’m going to book any more cruiseline snorkel trips. They’re just too crowded and I think you get better information from the guides and possibly better stops with a smaller group.

 

The beach:

 

Back on board we changed and headed to the spa. We checked in, Little went for her massage, and I waited. It was about 10 minutes or so after my appointment was scheduled to start that someone came and asked me who I was…turns out they didn’t check me in properly or something, so my massage therapist didn’t know I had arrived. She assured me I’d get the entire treatment since I did arrive on time, the error was on their end! I had a nice massage again and did have to be somewhat insistent that I wasn’t going to buy more products.

 

Back on board we got ready for dinner and grabbed a drink:

 

After dinner we went to the hypnotist show. It was alright…I remember laughing really hard when a hypnotist came to campus in undergrad, and I wonder if the show would have been funnier if it was adults only. It was also probably bad luck that only a few of the participants really followed directions at all. Not a total loss! We were ready for some Sea Days before saying goodbye to the Breeze.

 

I'll be back soon with highlights of our final days and parting thoughts on the ship, itinerary, etc.

[Gopherpharm]

Thanks to all who read along! It was great to relive my awesome trip.

 

In summary, there were a few things I thought could be improved:

-Definitely observed some chair hogs on Serenity. There was a guy walking around who appeared to me monitoring, but I saw several clamshells that were empty from 9am-12pm on sea days.

-Limelight Lounge is definitely not big enough for comedy shows. If moving to another space is not an option, maybe there should be a way to reserve tickets ahead of time? I don't mean prior to sailing, but maybe the day of to avoid the need to line up so early.

-The reports of the slippery floors in the Lido Marketplace are true! I haven't noticed this on other ships, I'm not sure what the etiology of the slipperiness is.

-I love the outdoor space on deck 5. However, it seems like a lot of it was a smoking area. We were able to enjoy this space without other people around, but it was just interesting that they devoted so much space as smoking space.

 

And some things I was impressed by:

-The ship is very clean and the crew is pretty great.

-The decor is relaxing and a nice change.

-Loved the Blue Iguana Cantina and Guy's Burgers.

-This was the largest ship I have been on, but it didn't seem bigger than Freedom or Legend in terms of crowds for the most part.

-I would return to any of the ports on this itinerary! I did miss seeing more hilly landscapes a la USVI and BVI, but that's just personal preference.

 

In the future, would I sail on the Breeze? Definitely. :D

 

Would I do a spa interior cabin again? Definitely, if I was sailing with one other person. :D

 

Has the Breeze "ruined" all other Carnival ships for me? No. It is a great ship, but the itinerary is very important to me, so I'm flexible. If the itinerary I wanted was on the Breeze and another ship, I would have to consider the price differential.

 

I'm happy to answer any questions, don't be shy!:cool:

[BenjiRodney]

Thanks for sharing, doing this trip Oct 24th as well. We get Aruba at night instead of Curacao.

[momof3cruisers]

Thanks so much! Do you have a super secret itinerary? Do share!

 

 

 

h!

 

Lol, not that I know of, but it doesn't seem to be a frequent one. It's an 8 day, stopping at St Thomas, St Maarten, Antigua and Amber Cove with three sea days. We are really excited about it, but I never see reviews with that same itinerary.

 

 

Curious if you went to school in MN...Gophers at the U.

[Gopherpharm]

Thanks for sharing, doing this trip Oct 24th as well. We get Aruba at night instead of Curacao.

 

 

It seems like there's lots to do in Aruba! You will have a great trip!

[Gopherpharm]

Lol, not that I know of, but it doesn't seem to be a frequent one. It's an 8 day, stopping at St Thomas, St Maarten, Antigua and Amber Cove with three sea days. We are really excited about it, but I never see reviews with that same itinerary.

 

 

 

 

 

Curious if you went to school in MN...Gophers at the U.

 

 

Nice! I would love to do that itinerary! St. Thomas is the way I went to St. John, which I think is the most beautiful place I've ever been. I really want to go to St. Martin!

 

I'm originally from Illinois, but I attended U of M for pharmacy school :)