NebraskaSatellite

The phone doesn't have to be activated on a cell network.  As long as it can connect to WiFi and you install the Hub app, it should work fine.  Maybe you can give him an old phone?

25 minutes ago, Diane5583 said:

The cruise is sold out, went and tried to change my dining and did not have that option....  That first night are you able to talk to the people in charge of the teen clubs before that 8pm mingle?    I would like to talk to someone about getting my daughter in the O2 club when we get on the boat.

We considered the same thing - my daughter was within 6 weeks of being in Club O2 and also didn't want to hang with "middle-schoolers".  It ended up being an absolute non-issue and she had a blast - most of her friend group was only a year or two younger.

I can't remember if we talked with the Circle C staff in the late afternoon, or right before/at 8.

10 minutes ago, shannonsherbine said:

Thanks, you are probably right!  We leave in 14 days for Texas and cruise in 16, but i see you are from Nebraska!  Us too, Bellevue, and I am so done with this snow!

Can't believe we were close to 80 this time last year, now we have a foot of snow on the ground.  We're hoping to go this summer, maybe July on the Vista to Jamaica/GC/Cozumel.  Driving to Galveston beats all the hassles of flying to the cruise port in my opinion.

9 minutes ago, shannonsherbine said:

I was just thinking the same thing, we have late dining.  But its my boys', 12 and 15, first time cruising.  I really want them to be go to the clubs and make friends, but i was really excited to show them how the MDR works, because they are so excited to be able to order whatever they want.  Well, i guess second night still works!

Our sample size is only N=1 cruise, but if we had chosen to eat late there would have been real conflicts between the kids getting together with friends and our eating dinner as a family.  As it was we didn't have any - I don't know if we got lucky that their friend group all had families who didn't do late dining or just what.  Normally by 7:30 they were itching to go see their friends.  It might be worth considering a switch to early or your-time dining.

3 hours ago, Methosage said:

Thank you for the fast reply! We have early dining so I was worried it would interfere with the MDR...but it looks like it should be ok. 

We ate as a family in the MDR, arriving between 6 and 6:30 and the latest we were done was about 7:45.  This worked out well for our kids as they usually met their friend group around 7:30 to 8.  

Our schedule was to eat breakfast together most mornings, everyone did their own thing for lunch, and we all met back in the cabin around 5:30 to get ready for dinner.  

On the Breeze out of Galveston, it was at 8pm.  We did your time dining in the MDR at 6 and finished in plenty of time to make that.  Look for the evening events by time in the Fun Times and it's listed as "Check Out Circle C" or "Check Out Club O2".

I use these at work along with a lanyard, and they worked great for the S&S card:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AO5L7Z2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The card is held firmly in place and doesn't come out until you pull it out.  

If the ship has it, Cuchina del Capitano.  Not busy because it's a little harder to find, great pasta.  We got there about 2:10 and the place was 1/3 full at best.  

Our rookie cruise was on the Breeze as well, our kids were 14 and 12 at the time.  Both were in Circle C and we made sure they went to the icebreaker on the first night.  They made friends right away that they hung out with the entire cruise, and they text each other even now seven months later.  Our kids did a fair amount of gaming in Circle C.

No curfew imposed by the ship, but we generally said they had to be back by midnight.  Having to be up somewhat early on port days tended to enforce this for us.  After the last port we let them stay out a bit longer. 

Using the Carnival app for messaging worked OK but was not 100% reliable.  Worth the fee to use it though.

We also did ports and evening dinner as a family, although we let them take off early from dinner if they didn't want dessert.  We did your time dining and ate at 6-6:30 most nights, which tended to fit well with what they wanted to do.  We also did brunch together on sea days.

56 minutes ago, Doug910 said:

We were in a Cove Balcony a few years ago on the Breeze Cabin was 2283. I highly suggest a cabin right off the Atrium. No noise at all. Here's a video I shot from our Cove Balcony. 

 

We were in 2290 - ditto on the lack of noise.  Loved being able to go right upstairs to the atrium and MDR entrance.  

Going aft, we tended to notice some odor in the hallway as we approached the aft elevators - this happened quite a bit to us as we would go back there to get a ride up to Lido and avoid having to walk through the pool area.

Thanks for posting the price list.  We weren't aware of this program on our first cruise, but will probably take advantage of it next time.  5-7 bottles of wine on a 7-day is more our speed than Cheers, and better than the per-glass pricing.

On 12/3/2018 at 2:41 PM, GUT2407 said:

I’ve never left that late, always tr6 to think of the poor crew needing to turn around and passengers waiting to get on. Latest I’ve ever been is walking off as the give “Last Call”.

On our cruise, "last call" was at 10:30.  We ate in the dining room about 7:30, got our carry-ons out of the room about 8:15, then waited for our number to be called near the Red Frog.  Non-priority pax didn't start getting called until almost 9.  This was on the Breeze in Galveston this July.

Great post - we cruised out of Galveston this summer on the Breeze and had experiences similar to yours with the port and the fellow cruisers (who seemed to be mostly Texans and unfailingly a friendly and happy bunch).  Good to hear about your experiences on the smaller ships, we are considering cruising the Freedom next summer.  

1) If you have teens, have them go to the Club O2/Circle C ice breaker the first night.

2) The Cuchina del Capitano restaurant is uncrowded for lunch on embarkation day and has really good food, but get there before it closes (was 2:30 on the Breeze out of Galveston).  Good light to medium pasta dishes.

I was able to get unsweet tea in both the MDR and the Lido on the Breeze this summer without any trouble. 

Our daughter and son (14 and 12 at the time) did Circle C on our first cruise this past summer.  Both enjoyed it very much.  I had them go the first night to do the icebreaker activities and they quickly found a group of friends that they still text with months later.  Mostly they used Circle C as a place to meet.  If you think you might want to hang out with other teens instead of being with family the whole cruise, definitely go to the ice breaker the first night - it will be much harder to break into the groups that get formed that first night.

During the cruise they hung out with their Circle C friends most of the day on sea days.  We ate dinner as a family each night about 6, they they met up with their friends again around 7:30.  On port days we did excursions as a family during the day, ate dinner together, then they met their friends again later.

Not all of the wind felt on the deck is from the ship's forward motion.  The surface wind can add or subtract from that depending on direction.  The wind speeds in the Atlantic are generally stronger than in the Caribbean, at least outside of tropical storms.

Seas will also be higher in the Atlantic, so ship motion is more likely to be felt.

I don't think I'll like this change.  The French toast was my favorite sea day brunch item!  They had really good pancakes as well - I didn't see those.  I didn't see anything on the new menu that would keep me from going to the Lido instead, or foregoing breakfast and hitting Guy's when they open for the day.

We had a cove for our first cruise on the Breeze this summer.  Really enjoyed it, being just above the water was great and I liked having it be more shaded.  I didn't find it all that inconvenient for getting around the ship.  We were in 2290, which was convenient for going up one flight up to the atrium and the Sapphire MDR for Your Time Dining.  Also was nice not to need an elevator for embarkation and coming back from the excursions.  If I wanted to go up to the promenade, three flights wasn't too bad.  

On the Breeze this summer out of Galveston, we had to be out of the room by 8:30am.  We went to the MDR for breakfast about 7:20 (opened at 6:30) and IIRC we had pancakes, french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage and probably more available.  Service was fast and we had little wait.  We got back to the room by 8:20 to get all our carry-on stuff (checked luggage was out the night before) and found a table outside the Red Frog Pub to camp out.  

You can see our debark instructions here, but this may not apply to other ships.

Self-assist/early-flight wasn't called to debark until about 9, don't know how Diamond/Platinum/FTTF worked.  We got off the ship at 10:30 with the 'everybody go home now' group.  It was 11:30 before we cleared baggage/customs and we were on the road by noon.

On 10/21/2018 at 10:49 AM, jsglow said:

  There is no substitute for a good wristwatch set to ship time during the week. 

Absolutely true.  I bought a $9 Casio waterproof watch before I left and wore it all week, and I had not worn a watch since getting my first cell phone almost 20 years ago.  Nice to be able to keep track of the time while snorkeling, etc., to make sure you stay on schedule, and not have to worry about local networks syncing your phone to an undesired time zone.

Our kids did Circle C on our first cruise this summer. Both loved it, not for the organized activities but instead to hang out with their new friends. Be sure to have him go to the icebreaker on the first night - the kids rapidly sort themselves into groups and it'll be hard to break into that later in the cruise. They still e-mail and text with those friends three months later. They would hang out in the Circle C lounge to play video games when it was open, otherwise they'd wander the ship, spend time in the pool, etc.

On sea days they met up after breakfast and we didn't see them until evening. We ate as a family in the MDR at 6 and they disappeared again afterwards until 11-12 pm.

We sailed on the Breeze in June in a cove balcony (deck 2 only), about a dozen doors aft of the forward elevators. Very convenient to go up by stairs to deck 3 and the Sapphire (MDR for anytime dining), or to use the atrium elevators to go on up. Also liked the shade for the balcony, and the closeness to the water.

For our first-ever cruise (Carnival Breeze in June in the western Caribbean), we booked non-Carnival excursions after some extensive reading on TripAdvisor and CC boards. Our Roatan tour operator did not require advance payment, and our Cozumel operator required about half but was refundable if we cancelled far enough in advance or if the ship did not make it to Cozumel. Both had high marks from TripAdvisor and we read enough to request specific drivers in advance which worked out great for us. Both were "driver for a day" deals that were much more flexible than any of the Carnival offerings and were simple, low-delay-risk tours.

If we were opting for something with more complexity (esp. longer bus-ride distances like the cave tubing/city tour in Belize), we might have chosen a Carnival tour for the guarantee aspect.

We had Korn for our room steward on the Breeze on deck 2 a couple months ago, she earned an extra tip from us too.