Carnival Breeze - May 4th Eastern Caribbean Review - with Cheers!

[WorkerBee74]

Itinerary:

• Saturday, May 4th - Port Canaveral
• Sunday, May 5th - Sea Day
• Monday, May 6th - Amber Cove
• Tuesday, May 7th - St Thomas
• Wednesday, May 8th - San Juan
• Thursday, May 9th - Grand Turk
• Friday, May 10th - Sea Day
• Saturday, May 11th - Port Canaveral

 

I will be writing this review over the next week or so, hope you enjoy!  My husband and I are in our early 40s with no kids and spent a week at Disney prior (so this was our vacation from our vacation haha).  We did the Cheers package... was it worth it?  Stay tuned to find out!

 

 

 

[maybesomeday]

Cant wait to read! We leave on same ship/itinerary in 11 days!!!

[WorkerBee74]

Saturday, May 4th - Departure Day

 

Before the cruise, we arrived in Orlando on April 26th and spent the week at Disney with our extended family.  During that week we got into quite a few conversations with other travellers (as you do) at Disney about where we were from (Canada) and our plans for the trip etc, and nearly everyone asked "OOOO - A DISNEY CRUISE??" when we said we were continuing our trip with a cruise the following week (just the two of us).  My reply was always "no way, on Carnival.... do you think we can afford a Disney Cruise after a week at Disney?"  Haha.  Quite honestly though the idea of a Disney Cruise doesn't really appeal to us.  Without having kids (and especially after a week in parks full of them) we were OK to have our own 'adult' fun with Carnival - especially because we decided to splurge on the Cheers package this time.  This was our second cruise (the first to Mexico in May of 2017, also on Carnival).  What can I say, we've had fun on Carnival and we really love not being charged for all the extras.  I just booked a cruise on RC in the fall and yikes.... yeah.  I think Carnival will be my horse for a while.  😛

 

We got up and checked out of our Disney hotel and hopped an Uber over to the Dolphin Hotel to pick up our one-way car rental to Port Canaveral.  The Dolphin is on Disney property, we had a tip that it's way less crazy to rent a car there than it was at the big Disney Car Care Centre (which we've done, and it was definitely way easier and quicker).  Our one-way rental was under $70, so a cheap Uber trip to the rental place vs a more expensive one to MCO and then taking a bus for $35+ each was a no-brainer, especially because we could go at our own pace and not worry about being at MCO and having to adhere to the shuttle schedule in case we were running late.  We did have to pay the tolls but we were prepared for them (only about $6.75 I believe), and we were able to stop and have breakfast at our own pace too.  The drive is only about an hour and was really easy, no problems at all.

 

We dropped off the car at Enterprise on Mullet Rd so it was super convenient.  They had a shuttle waiting to take us to the cruise ship port and loaded our luggage into the trailer - super easy, I would definitely do it again vs. bus transport - it was great - we were dropped off right where we needed to be, our luggage was whisked away right there and we didn't have to lug it around at all.

We got FTTF again like we had on our first cruise (we are lowly Red VIFPs so wouldn't get the perks otherwise) - it's just great to us to be able to relax and have our cabin ready as soon as we board, especially with a busy week we had prior - and we also had a date with the water park at Universal the day we debarked, so wanted to get off the ship early too without having to do self-carry.  To us it is worth it, and when you look at the cost for a similar thing on Royal, it's a steal at the $70 we paid for the priority embark/debark and cabin being ready.  We pretty much walked onto the ship around 11:30, didn't have to wait in any lines and it was very easy and convenient.  Here's a pic I took of the Breeze atrium, gotta love those lanterns.
 

 

This time we'd chosen a Cloud 9 Spa Balcony - room 11209 - we loved the decor and the quiet location but I can't say we'd do it again, but only because we didn't use the spa facilities as much as we'd thought we would.  (I blame Cheers - but more on that later.)

 

Here are some pics of the spa cabin - I love how the beach bag my brother-in-law got me for Xmas as a cruise gift matched the cabin.  And yes, I sat on the bed before I remembered to take pics, it was nice and pretty when we got there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, speak of the devil, there's that expensive Disney Cruise right beside us at the port 😛

 

 

We chilled in the room for a while and unpacked - not pictured above were the magnetic hooks and over-the-door organizer I packed, both were great to have and I will always cruise with them now.  We felt like a drink and some food so we decided to hit up the Red Frog Pub, but first we walked around and took a few other pics around the ship before the crowds amassed.

 

Deck 15 - the Serenity Deck.  Ah, what a beautiful thing it is pre chair-hog.  We would never see it like this again, alas.

 

 

This next pic was taken from Deck 12 overlooking the Waterworks and Lido deck (our cabin was on Deck 11 which is the deck above the Lido Deck, but we were far enough away from the pool that our cabin was quiet, yet very convenient when we wanted to go there).  You can see deck 11 is the 'balcony' overlooking the Lido but this was one deck above it.  We didn't do the waterslide so I can't comment on it, but it looked pretty cool.

 

 

A better view of the Lido - all the chairs weren't out yet and the CHOGS weren't yet in force:

 

 

To the aft of the Lido deck is the Tides Pool.  I managed to take a dip in this one after our day in St Thomas when it wasn't too crowded.  All in all there were probably less than 30 kids on this trip, but we did find overall that the ship seemed more crowded than our first cruise on the Miracle, the amenity/passenger ratio was just a bit higher.  Not the end of the world but you can definitely feel it, I see why people really love the Spirit class ships - the aft pool would have probably been deserted at 6pm on a port day.

 

 

Next.... our first trip to the Red Frog.... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2019 by WorkerBee74
Sorry - getting my deck numbers straight haha

[Palmetto Pilot]

looking forward to your review!

[grandmarnnurse]

1 hour ago, WorkerBee74 said:

Itinerary:

• Saturday, May 4th - Port Canaveral
• Sunday, May 5th - Sea Day
• Monday, May 6th - Amber Cove
• Tuesday, May 7th - St Thomas
• Wednesday, May 8th - San Juan
• Thursday, May 9th - Grand Turk
• Friday, May 10th - Sea Day
• Saturday, May 11th - Port Canaveral

 

I will be writing this review over the next week or so, hope you enjoy!  My husband and I are in our early 40s with no kids and spent a week at Disney prior (so this was our vacation from our vacation haha).  We did the Cheers package... was it worth it?  Stay tuned to find out!

 

 

 

This was the same itinerary I did on the Breeze in March! I loved the Breeze! I can’t wait to read your review! ❤️

[bunnyette]

Look forward to your cruise adventures 

[jbethel11]

Can't wait!

[Cruisegirl6]

Can't wait to hear more we leave saturday.

[SRQbeachgirl]

We'll be doing this same itinerary on the Breeze in July--will even be in a balcony cabin on Deck 11 as well. We loved the Magic, so I can't wait to sail on Breeze. Look forward to the rest of your review!

[nasellemom1]

Doing this cruise February 2020. Can't wait to read your full review.

[efuzz]

Following! We have this same one booked for February 2020. This is the third time on the same itinerary for us but always on a different ship (Dream, Magic, and now Breeze).

[Bourbonandhorses]

More please!

[JaniceB]

Great start to your review.  I love the Breeze.  I have sailed her twice and the Disney ship once.  I will say on Disney there are plenty of adult areas with no kids and not crowded at all since most parents are with their kids.  I would sail Disney without kids for sure but Carnival is my go to cruise line.

[mamiamjo]

Thanks for posting your review, Love the Breeze! I cant wait to read the rest of your review

[jesskuhmarie]

Following! We are doing this itinerary 5/9/2020 ... sooo far away.

[kyleg2949]

Following

[stellarose]

following. 

[clc9912]

Following. Leaving on this cruise/exact itinerary this Saturday.

[WorkerBee74]

I will be continuing this soon... hang tight!  I plan to do a bunch more tonight after work as I see there are a few of you who are wanting to see it before the weekend - I haven't forgotten, just got busy with life 😉

Edited May 29, 2019 by WorkerBee74

[maybesomeday]

1 hour ago, clc9912 said:

Following. Leaving on this cruise/exact itinerary this Saturday.

Me too!!!  

[zencruisers]

Following along. Thanks for sharing.

 

[stosto52]

Following.. Cruising in August

[RoperDK]

Following.  Thanks for the info!

[3smithboys]

Going on this cruise in August! Can’t wait to read more!

[nzdisneymom]

On 5/21/2019 at 5:46 PM, WorkerBee74 said:

Saturday, May 4th - Departure Day

We got FTTF again like we had on our first cruise (we are lowly Red VIFPs so wouldn't get the perks otherwise) - it's just great to us to be able to relax and have our cabin ready as soon as we board, especially with a busy week we had prior - and we also had a date with the water park at Universal the day we debarked, so wanted to get off the ship early too without having to do self-carry.  To us it is worth it, and when you look at the cost for a similar thing on Royal, it's a steal at the $70 we paid for the priority embark/debark and cabin being ready. 

 

 

And, speak of the devil, there's that expensive Disney Cruise right beside us at the port 😛

 

 

 

We were on the Disney Fantasy at the same time you were on the Carnival Breeze.  I took a picture of the Breeze like this one 😉  We are sailing on the Breeze in September.

 

We got FFTF for our September cruise, but I haven't figured out what it really means we get to do because of it.  Can you tell me about what happens at the cruise terminal and boarding with FFTF?  And once you're on board, you can really go directly to your cabin and it's ready?  What about other things onboard during the week?  And also about disembarking at the end?  We usually self-carry but if my bags will be waiting in the terminal for me AND we can disembark earlier in the morning, I will leave my bags out the night before.

 

Looking forward to reading your report.  We will stop in Grand Turk in Sept and have just booked an early 2021 on another cruiseline that goes to San Juan.