Review of Feb 4-9, 23 Breeze Sailing and FTTF

[Eli_6]

My husband and I had a good time on this cruise.  We were glad to see after our disastrous Pride sailing that not too much has changed with Carnival and, at least, we can depend on our cruises out of Galveston for a reliable “fun” time.

 

CABIN:

This stayed in cabin 2260.  This was the first time we stayed in a Coves Balcony and I really liked being so close to the water. I would recommend it for anyone.  I would NOT however, recommend the location of this specific cabin because it was too close to a large elevator bank which made it difficult to sleep in or take a nap during the day.  The noise was never a problem at night fortunately, but we could hear a lot of what was going on during the day.  I would have chosen a Coves balcony more towards the middle or the aft of the ship.  I actually liked being on floor 2 as well because there wasn’t as much movement to the ship and we only had to go up 1 to 3 floors for most of the activities.

 

FOOD:

The buffet food, deli, sea-day brunch, and pizza were all decent. In the MDR on the first night was really bad and we noticed after that first night that the MDR was never more than half full again at dinner.  It was only slightly better the third night.  The second night we went to the steakhouse.  I have to say I can’t really leave much of a review because I started feeling sick from the boat rocking and left after my appetizer.  My husband, however, said his steak was excellent.  The last night of the cruise we did the MDR again and it was just okay—not anything to write home about, but not terrible. The only two things I had on the ship that were really tasty was the Bitters and Blanc dessert in the MDR and Guy’s Burger.

 

WIFI:

We purchased the best wifi package we could and it was slow and hit-or-miss.  I hope this isn’t the new Starlink system because, if it is, it isn’t any better than the old.

 

STAFF AND FELLOW PASSENGERS:

I loved the crowd we cruised with. This was a 5 day, Sat-Thurs sailing and IMO.  Very few kids or 20-somethings.  Most were active, middle-aged adults like ourselves. It also seemed like most everyone was from Texas and surrounding states – Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, etc.  Everyone was very friendly and nice.  No rudeness from fellow passengers or nasty remarks or sarcastic comments like I have at times experienced on other cruises. 

The staff was also excellent…we never had a single issue with anyone.  Unlike on our Pride sailing, our room was SUPER clean and the attendant very friendly and always willing to help. 

 

SHIP:

The ship also was in good shape and easy to get around on.  I think she went in to dry dock about a year or so ago and she felt like a relatively new ship to me…at least compared to my last sailing on the Pride.  (Although, the Breeze is much newer than the Pride even apart from her recent dry dock.)  One of my favorite things was the new non-smoking casino.  We loved it and spent more time in the casino than we ever have before.

 

ITINERARY:

We didn’t end up doing anything in Cozumel because I was still recovering from my seasickness the night before. 

We also went to Progresso for the first time and took a Blue Hole Cenote Swim excursion.  Our group was the only group in the cenote park and it was excellent.  We greatly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.  We got to swim in both an underground cenote and an above ground cenote and then enjoyed a Mayan dinner with entertainment (dancing).  Our guides also gave us a little history lesson on the Mayan culture which I enjoyed.   Following that we had an alcohol tasting and then loaded back on the bus to return home. 

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

We didn’t take in any of the theatre shows, although they did announce there was a new one.  The comedians were great, though, and they also had a magician doing a morning show as well.  They had some violin players who were also great.  I also am happy to report that they DO have TCM on this ship. And HGTV.  Much better than the pride which had neither.

 

FTTF/BOARDING:

The only thing I will say that was slightly negative is that I felt like I didn’t really get what I was paying for with FTTF.  We had arranged for my kids to stay first with my mother and then with my in-laws during the cruise. However, the morning of our departure, my Mother called and said she was sick so instead of driving my kids 1 mile away, we had to drive them an hour away to my sister-in-law’s house so she could watch them. This ended up with us arriving to the port about 10:30-10:45 and right when it seemed like EVERYONE was arriving. 

 

No one was checking boarding ticket times at all at Galveston port. In fact, there was no one even outside and the signage was unclear.  At one point, I got screamed at by a very rude port worker because I was apparently in the wrong place and he made me get out-of-line and go around a rope about the length of a football field and re-stand in the line after I had already been standing in another line.  It was so unnecessary and the guy was not even polite about it but acted like a complete ***** and like I was purposefully doing something wrong when that wasn’t the case at all.  I had followed unclear signage.    

 

Then, my husband and I got put in two separate lines at security.  (And since I had just been screamed at and sent to the back of the line by one port worker, I wasn’t about to not do exactly what they said or protest that I wanted to stay with my husband.)  This resulted in us being separated. He got hung up first because he was searched for having a multi-tool in his suitcase.  Even though it literally said on the outside it was TSA approved, they took it from him.  He has flown all over the world with this tool and taken it on a good 10+ cruises, but he said he wasn’t about to argue with them and then have to return it to his truck and go back through the line...especially not what happened with the other guy due to unclear signage. Then he got searched again over my Dr. Pepper. (He was carrying it. I had the wine in my bag and was in a different line, but didn't get searched.  He had no alcohol but was searched over Dr. Pepper--so weird!)   They also did a terrible job at putting the Dr. Pepper container back together again after they had to break into it and it was busted by the time he was on the ship resulting in us having a bunch of loose Dr. Pepper Zeros.

 

There was not a different line for FTTF until you go to the very end. And, since I arrived about 20 minutes before my husband due to the two searches they did on him, the FTTF gave us no benefit at all.  Even if we had arrived at the same time, there was only about 10 people in the regular line versus 2 or 3 in the FTTF.  Same with boarding…they were already well into boarding and past the point of calling FTTF and there was a SUPER long line to board…which, of course, we had to stand in.  There was no “priority” line to go to the front of the pack for FTTF.  Then, when we finally got on board and got done with muster (between about 12:30 and 1), we went to our room assuming it would be ready.  Our cabin door was open, so we stepped inside.  Within a couple of minutes, our room steward politely told us our room was not ready. (It looked clean to me.)  We left our luggage and left.  So, while we got to drop off our things, we didn’t get access to our room any sooner.  

 

For debark, FTTF, suites, and diamonds/plats were all given a letter to meet in the dining room. We got there 45 minutes early to try to be first off after diamond, suites, and platinum so my husband could work a full day.  He is a physician with his own practice and had patients scheduled so we were hoping to get off the boat asap. The annoying thing was that even though we were the second in the FttF group there, other people coming in after us would put their suitcases in front of ours and the other people who were there early and the guy running FTTF did nothing to stop it even though he was standing there watching them do it.  One group of people came in and put their suitcases at the front of the line and they arrived literally an hour after we did. 

 

However, the even more annoying part is Carnival started letting people who were just camped down in the lobby off the ship in a different line and debark at the same time as platinums, diamonds, suites, and FTTF.  So, we literally got off LATER than if we had simply STAYED IN THE LOBBY when we initially came down at 6:30 am (there was only one family there at that time) than we did by waiting in the FTTF area.  So…lesson learned.  Not paying for FTTF again as I feel as though I got almost no value for the money--didn't get on the ship earlier, didn't get off the ship earlier, and didn't get access to my room earlier.  Only "value" I got was being able to drop off my luggage "early" but that isn't worth $90 to me because we don't travel with much luggage anyway.  

 

So, in sum, I greatly enjoyed my 5-day cruise on the Breeze.  2 thumbs up to the staff. 2 thumps up for the ship condition and layout. 2 thumbs up for the nonsmoking casino.  2 thumbs up on my Carnival excursion to the Blue Hole Cenotes.   1 thumb up/1 down on the internet and food.  2 thumbs down for FTTF.

 

 

[Jamman54]

Thanks for posting your review! 

[Eli_6]

One thing I will say that I forgot about is I can see the FTTF being worth it for guest services.  The line for GS on the last day of the cruise was ABSURD.  

[LatinaInTexas]

Had an issue at Galveston last time we cruised from there also. Like you said no signage so everyone was in one line, we were about 10 minutes early. Worker finally shows up and starts yelling and moving people around. He tells a bunch of us to get out of line and to get into which by now is a much longer line and ignores us when we ask why. When his back is turned most people just move back to the original line because this line isn't moving and the other line is now empty. When he gets close by again we ask why we had to move and he tells us because we are early. We look at the time and yes we are one minute early at this point. Sounds like the same guy lol.

[bury me at sea]

Thanks for your review.  I enjoyed our cruises on the Breeze, and like you, really liked the cove balconies.

[CruiseBro16]

Thank You for your review. The Breeze has been a favorite of mine since the restart. 

[TravelGirlinDallas]

On 2/10/2023 at 1:28 PM, Eli_6 said:

This stayed in cabin 2260.  This was the first time we stayed in a Coves Balcony and I really liked being so close to the water.

Was there a lot of noise from the deck above (since it isn't cabins)?