5 in OK

Is actually extremely difficult to navigate because it is quite crowded. Think of all the tankers and all you see during the day - and you see their lights at night. It is quite a site.

That's what we were confused about. ...surely the long navigation channel from NOLA to the Gulf is more difficult to navigate due to all of their tankers yet they go out in fog and Galveston is sidelined?

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With respect to Galveston / Houston fog.....

 

We just drove 4 hrs past Galveston last week to catch the Dream out of NOLA.

 

There was EXTREME fog on embark and Debark day. The ships transit to/from Gulf / NOLA is much longer and than Galveston and Bayport.... Yet the ship arrived and departed on time.

 

Wondering if there is something better about the land based navigation support systems in NOLA that the Texas ports are lacking?

 

Also in NOLA's favor is that there are no silly TX state imposed restrictions on what drinks are available in port and the Casino opened almost as soon as the ship left the dock.

 

We are proud Texans and have found the state to be especially business friendly, but it appears we have significant work to do to be on par with LA as a home of cruise departure ports.

 

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WOW!! That is good to know! We had heard other ships were sailing in their fog but had not heard any specifics! As we sat tethered to that dock in Galveston we were scratching our heads about why the latest technology couldn't get us out of that port. Especially when it is not extremely difficult to navigate?!?! I am afraid if Galveston continues to have fog issues they are going to lose passengers to NOLA - it isn't that much further for WAY more reliability.

My adult children were definitely saddened by the weird Texas alcohol laws - especially when it impacted them for more than just the normal one day.

Thanks for the info. We sailed from NOLA in December 2014 for our 25th anniversary cruise - if I recall it was a very user-friendly port! And those beignets - oh my goodness they were divine!

Ok I wondered when I started reading this review if you were the people I snorkeled with at Nachi! Sure enough!!! So hello....from the woman on the Magic that was Oh So Sad to have to leave so early! ;-) Great to read your review!!

Hello!! Yes!! I was so sad for you guys! Leaving so early! The Magic was a beautiful ship! If I recall Cozumel was your last day before you headed home. The end of the cruise seems to come so fast doesn't it?

Signing on to hear about Costa Maya. It became one of my favorite ports in Nov. when we ventured into town! What a charming place!

It is our new favorite port as well! We were so glad it wasn't canceled on this foggy cruise! Lovely, lovely place!

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Okay – Cozumel – Day 4 of our cruise (was supposed to be on Day 5 but the captain flipped the two remaining ports!). We docked around 8:15 a.m. and our family made our way down to deck 2 where they had roped off the stairwell. We were off of the ship by 8:45 a.m. and walking through Cozumel to the taxi stand by 9:00 a.m. We were all 6 able to get into one cab and we were headed to Nachi Cocom. We were in Cozumel earlier in 2016 and went to Nachi Cocom. We fell in love with the resort and decided to go back again. We checked in and were shown to a cabana umbrella with 3 chairs. We asked for two cabanas and they would not allow us to be together – one would be toward the back and one toward the front so we just crowded around one. No big deal – just felt different than before. We were quite relieved and indebted that they switched us from Friday to Thursday we did not argue and happily sat in our 6 chairs around the cabana. The reason we love Nachi is not so much for the beach or service….it is for the small (6-8 people), 2 hour snorkeling excursions we get to go on there – for $38.00!!! (Side note: we had done the Fury Snorkel and Beach Break through Carnival back in early 2015 and tried to snorkel with 100 people in the water at the same time – nightmare! Fins were flicking us in the face and guides were yelling to stay together. ) So, when we went to Nachi and there were 8 of us on a snorkel excursion we were pretty excited. Last time we swam with sea turtles – this time we weren’t quite as lucky but still swam with Nurse Sharks, lots of sting rays and other beautiful fish! We enjoyed a lovely lunch following our snorkel. Some of the choices were fajitas, fried grouper, and some other fish with French fries. Lots of choices for appetizers and delicious cheesecake for dessert! The price per person (around $55 I believe) includes all you can drink as well. There are hammocks in abundance all over the place, a giant sparkling clean pool with a swim up bar and a hot tub. The resort is beautiful and they have good service – but the snorkeling is top notch!!! My daughter and I signed up to go snorkeling again at 1:00 p.m. and it was just the two of us on our excursion. We only went out for about 90 minutes but they took us to a different spot – it was fantastic snorkeling – we felt like VIP’s with just the two of us to our guide! Made our day!

Our ship didn’t leave until 6:30 (we were extremely happy with the extra time in Cozumel) so we stayed at Nachi until about 3:00 p.m. and then headed into town to shop. There are lots and lots of store fronts but not open-air markets (these are our favorite) so we shopped until about 5:30 and then went ahead and boarded to save having to stand in line! There were not pier runners that night – and if there were it was too dark to see them anyway. We did see a large group of people come down the long pier around 6:35 but they did not seem to be in panic mode or running so we figured it was a ship sponsored excursion. We were off and going by 6:45 p.m. and on our way to Costa Maya.

We all showered and ordered a snack from room service – this was our favorite thing to do when we came up to the room around 4:00 p.m. each day! (Our typical order: BLT with chips, veggie platter, cheesecake and chocolate cake – yum! Wish I had some right now!) We had reservations at Cacino Del Capitano (the Italian Restaurant) at 8:30 p.m. (I made the reservation late so we would have lots of time to come in from Cozumel and shower and get ready for dinner). We had snorkeled a LOT at Nachi and were getting pretty weary. The service at del Capitano’s was amazing (but we all agreed we missed Maya!!!). They are extremely attentive. Several of us ordered the steak and were not disappointed! They said the steak gets lots of compliments and comparisons to the steak house (at only $15 pp instead of $35). We had a nice time but we didn’t finish until about 9:45 and I was literally falling asleep at the table. We got back to our room – packed up a few things for Costa Maya and went to bed. We were scheduled to dock at 7:30 AM!!!!! That seemed really, really early!!! And the departure was set for 1:30 p.m. – that seemed really, really early too!!!

Day 5 Costa Maya coming soon!!! It was our BEST day of the cruise!!!!

THANK YOU!!!!

Your photos are gorgeous too by the way. :)

Thank you - I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the sunset pictures myself so I try to catch as many as possible when I get to cruise!!!

Thank you SO much for posting these!! :D I'm on the Breeze at the end of the month and I'm looking forward to sailing her.

 

One question: Who were the comedians? We like to go to the punchline club and I wasn't able to clearly see the names on my computer from the picture you posted. I just wanted to see if we've seen them before or at least check them out online before we go.

 

:D TIA!

Alrighty - during our week (December 26th - January 1) we had:

Lester Bibbs

Dennis Regan

Shows....Okay we aren't big "show" people. We usually don't hit too many shows. We did go to the Country one. It was a little silly but excellent vocals.

We did go to one on the last night called Flick. This was by far, hands down the best show we have ever been to on a cruise ship. The lasers, lighting and wind they used was just a delight for the senses! I highly recommend making sure you go to this show. Sit on Deck 4 (this is the 2nd story of the Ovations lounge - there are three) - two rows behind the sound guy to get the best view and experience. Go early - these seats fill up super fast! This one is Not to Be Missed for sure!

We missed the other shows as there were so many things going on we chose other events!!

So do the 2 different buffet areas have different foods? Or is it pretty much the same stuff, just a few more things added to the back buffet?

Right - mostly the same stuff with more items added in the back. The deli and the Wok were included in the front buffet. So - I guess there's more room in the back to add additional items. We found it to be way shorter lines as well.

Also - there is not an ice dispenser on the back by the pool (deck 10) where we ate breakfast and lunch each day. There is a drink station with the normal stuff but no ice. Kind of a pain but we enjoyed eating outside to much we just went inside to refill if needed. :)

Just some things we learned about the Breeze:

1. The elevators behind the water works kids park goes all the way to deck 12 (not all of the elevators made it that high up - we walked up a LOT of stairs before we figured this out)

2. Serenity deck (14) - get chairs and clam shells on the very back of the ship to avoid lots of noise from the hot tubs (placed on each side of the Serenity). Folks would gather there and drink and drink and drink and get quite loud. Lots of profanity on the days we were there. The area on the backside was the BEST - very quiet and peaceful!

3. Serenity deck - only one hammock was hanging on the entire Serenity deck (and there were no other hammocks on the ship). Get there early if you want to lay on the hammock and sway in the sunshine.

4. Comedy Clubs - these filled up fast! Get in line early (they have a nice place to line up to keep everyone in order - aka keep those who want to cut at the last minute from doing so) and the PG or PG13 shows were really funny!! My boys (22 and 24) went to the Rated R one and said it was funny but really, really raunchy.

5. Buffet - there are two complete separate buffet areas on this ship and each area has 4 sections to it. This was WONDERFUL for crowds as the lines were very manageable! We felt the back buffet always had better choices.

6. Ice cream! What can I say - we had about 5 each day! They have vanilla, chocolate and chocolate swirl. On about day 4 of the cruise they brought out the strawberry!

7. Hot chocolate machines - these serve amazing hot chocolate. They are located all throughout the buffet between the coffee makers. We brought our own mini-marshmallows from home (we got the small snack size baggies and had just enough for a cup of hot chocolate in each one). People were asking us all week long where we got the marshmallows. Just makes hot chocolate more spectacular!

8. Beach towels. We always bring beach towels from home that are light weight (or getting old and thinner) for excursions because the Carnival towels become quite heavy when wet. We always put these towels on our loungers with clips (to keep them from blowing away). One sea day we were on the Serenity Deck and had all of our towels out (there were 6 of us so we had one clam shell, one bed and two loungers). At noon we ran down to eat - we were gone about 35 minutes (we are VERY careful not to be chair hogs and are only gone the minimum amount of time) and when we returned a lady had moved all of our stuff and was sitting in our clam shell. I politely asked her to please put our stuff back - she was quite rude stating we had been gone over an hour. I gave her the exact time we had left and when we returned and it was only 35 minutes. She didn't argue but grumbled something I couldn't understand - and moved to another area. I explained that we had been there since 8:00 a.m. to make sure we could all sit together for the sea day. I am guessing they just walked up and moved our stuff thinking we had been gone too long but when I pressed the issue she didn't argue. Totally rude! If we had been gone a long time I totally understand - but really! It was totally awkward from then on - made me sad.

9. Fans - we sleep with a fan on at home for white noise. Not something I would recommend anyone starting because it is very difficult to sleep without one! However, if you need a fan - go to guest services the moment you walk onboard and get on the list. They were really nice fans and very noisy!

10. Egg crate for the bed. We asked for an egg crate on day 2 and slept so much better after that. The beds were pretty comfortable - but add an egg crate to the top of the mattress and it was heavenly!

11. Faster to the Fun. I know this is debated a LOT on Cruise Critic, however, I have to say that we needed Guest Services more than normal on this cruise and there were literally 30 plus people in line almost every time and we were able to walk up the Diamond/Platinum/FTTF window and get help immediately.

12. Cruise Cams in Galveston. Okay - this was pretty fun! You can go to Deck 5 and walk to the front of the ship and wave to the Harbor House Hotel - there is a camera for the Galveston Webcam placed on top of that hotel and you can go online to galveston.com/webcams and see yourself. Kind of fun to screen shot!

13. My sons said if you are not heavy drinkers don't buy the Cheers package - it's not worth it. If you only drink 2-3 drinks each day (which seemed like plenty) then you are better off with just buying as you go.

14. Casino - both of my adult kids lost money on the slots but made money on the tables.

15. They also said the adult scavenger hunt was fun!

16. The Italian restaurant del Captinano....had amazing steaks!! When we complimented the server on the quality of our steak he said they often get complements that their steaks are as good if not better than the Steakhouse! And the cost to eat there is only $15.00 per person compared to the $35 at the steakhouse.

17. Dive in movies - we LOVE going to these every chance we get. Their popcorn is dry and tasteless though - so we bring our own salt and butter salt with us (Walmart - $2.00 each) - delicious!

18. Sunscreen. We recently switched back to lotion sunscreen for our cruises because when you spray on the sunscreen at sea most of it goes off the ship or onto the person behind you. It is really a better way to use sunscreen - not one person in our group burned this time!

19. Lido Deck balcony room was amazing and so close to everything!! We could dash back into our rooms for a bathroom break or to retrieve something we had forgotten fast - it was very, very convenient. Only one time could I hear noise from the lido from our balcony. And I never heard it from the room!

20. Room Steward. We had our very best room steward ever on this cruise. Her name was Korn - we called her Ms. Korn. We left her a $5.00 bill and a box of candy (the theater boxed candy at Walmart - perfect for traveling!) every evening to find when she came in and turned down our beds (we requested two cleanings per day). She thanked us over and over - I think she genuinely appreciated the gesture.

21. Post it notes came in very handy to leave messages for our boys across the hall who really, really enjoyed sleeping in in their black-out room (they had an interior). That way they could find us when they woke up.

22. Carnival Hub - this was handy, however, it would only let us connect with those who were staying in our room. It wouldn't let us connect with anyone else? We could have been doing something wrong but we finally just gave up and fell back on the post-it notes.:)

I'll post more later!

I want to thank you for yourvreview, I am sailing on the breeze in 11 days, and am getting a lot of good info from your review. Smiling with you, I can almost feel the sunshine.:D

The Breeze was wonderful! Never really felt crowded. They have two complete separate buffet areas with four stations at each area - really spread out the crowds. Just a side tip.....the back buffet always seemed to have better choices? Even for breakfast!

Loving the review keep it coming! How was the waters? Calm or rocky?!

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Loving the review keep it coming! How was the waters? Calm or rocky?!

Thanks!! On the waves.....coming out of Galveston was smooth until about 1/2 way to Cozumel - then the seas were pretty rough and we were rocking. The captain was pulling 22 knots with a 20 mile an hour wind so I'm sure that contributed. He was trying to make up time (we are guessing) and there were a few people getting motion sickness.

Between Cozumel and Costa Maya was super smooth and then on the return we had to look outside to see if we were still moving it was so calm! The sunsets are always so beautiful on when those waters are calm!! I'll post a pic!:)

Thank you SO much for posting these!! :D I'm on the Breeze at the end of the month and I'm looking forward to sailing her.

 

One question: Who were the comedians? We like to go to the punchline club and I wasn't able to clearly see the names on my computer from the picture you posted. I just wanted to see if we've seen them before or at least check them out online before we go.

 

:D TIA!

Yes!! They were awesome! I'll find out the names of the ones that are on the Breeze right now - those are at home. I'll post them this evening!

I want to thank you very much for posting these for me . :)

 

 

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Yay!! I'm so glad to do it! Anticipation is so much fun for us when we are waiting for our cruise date to arrive! Enjoy!!

Thanks for answers so far - very helpful.

5 in OK - hope your cruise improved after the Breeze finally left Galveston. So sorry for your delay!

Awww....thanks for that! It turned out to be a wonderful cruise but we lost Belize. That made us pretty sad as we had been to Mexico several times and were really looking forward to Belize. The weather in Costa Maya and Cozumel was absolutely picture perfect! We are hoping that was a complete fluke and no one else has to go through that!:)

Alrighty – our 3rd official day of the cruise was turned into a Sea Day since Belize was cancelled. We slept in until about 8:30 a.m. and then launched out of bed to check the weather – beautiful blue skies and sunshine! YAY!!!!

Our room was on Deck 10 (the Lido) and we splurged for a balcony for my husband, daughter and I and then inside rooms across the hall for the boys. We LOVED, LOVED, LOVED getting to be on the Lido – 100% convenient to get to our rooms and back without having to climb stairs or get on an elevator!!! We brought our over-the-door hanger – never had any trouble with using it. We also brought lots of magnets for the walls – very nice to keep everything organized! There was a lot of room for all of our things and plenty of room under the bed for our luggage! We were very pleased!!

Back to day 3….We got dressed and ate the buffet breakfast. Be sure to get an omelette – totally worth the wait – absolutely delicious! They really struggle with biscuits and gravy but do a great job with the pancakes and waffles! The scrambled eggs were pretty gross (definitely from powder) but the fresh fruit was abundant!!! After breakfast my husband and daughter did the Thessalotherapy (still no idea how to spell that) pool in the spa. And my boys and I (22 and 24 year olds) went to the casino. I had promised them last year that I would play $50.00 with them on the black jack table (way, way out of my comfort zone as I do not gamble and am very bad at it!). We played for about 45 minutes before I finally lost my money (lasted longer than I expected and with one of them on either side of me it was hilarious as I had to wait until I had the info before moving forward – the other people at the table were extremely patient! It was 10:00 a.m. so we were pretty comfortable going at that time!).

We all met back up on the deck and found some out of the way loungers on deck 11 and planned to hang out there for several hours. The noise was incredibly loud on the lido so we chose another area (and there were ZERO chairs open on the Lido at 11:00 a.m.) so this worked out good for us. Chair hogs were abundant on the Lido – but there were lots of other options if the sitting on the Lido isn’t on your bucket list. If you want a chair on the Lido you will need to wake up early and stake out your spot by 7:30-7:45 a.m.

We could hear the hairy chest contest and the ice carving activities going on on the Lido deck – there were so many people vying for a spot. But lots and lots of stuff going on if you want to be a part of it!

We seemed to be hungry all of the time! Every single time we walked by the ice cream station we stopped to get a cone (or two!)!! So, since it was noon we all decided time for some more food and headed to the buffet! The lunch selection was pretty good – my daughter and I stood in line for the Wok place. It was okay – just not what we had expected. We were thinking more along the lines of Genghis Grill. Lots of people were eating it and seemed to enjoy – just a bit too spicy for us.

Side Note: At the beginning of the cruise for our very first meal on board we staked out some really nice tables at the back of the ship on the Lido (deck 10) by Tandoor. That way any time any of us were eating breakfast or lunch we checked that spot and most of the time someone from our group would be sitting there! (= It was a good meeting spot AND it was open air – something we all enjoyed! I highly suggest this for groups – just too hard to coordinate each meal on when and where. This made it a bit easier.

Back up on Deck 11….By 4:00 we were all getting toasty (both in temperature and we were getting a LOT of sunshine – just so happy to see the sun!!!) so we all went in to rest and change for dinner! We lined up for dinner and were the first group in. We were seated in Maya’s area (tables 14 & 16) and enjoyed a delicious dinner. We talked about the fun coming up in Cozumel the next day. (We reserved a spot at Nachi Cocom -this was our 2nd time to go there.) Following dinner some of our group went to the Country Show in the Ovations Theater and the others went to Red Frog Bar and to another comedy show. The Country Show was okay – kind of corny but some great vocals. After the show we did some shopping onboard and then went in to get all of our snorkel equipment and beach bags ready for Cozumel.

Day 4 in Beautiful Cozumel coming soon!!!

Ok great!! There are a few of us that have been looking for the Funtimes for the Breeze.

Thank you very much!!

 

 

 

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They are posted - if you can't read them let me know. I also included the "Good to Know" page - we tape it to the mirror for the whole week.

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Do you remember the Maitre D's name?

I do not remember his name - would that be on any of my paperwork?

Okay – I’ll pick up where I left off just before we set sail. I have to compliment most of the passengers on our cruise – only a very few were grumbling – most people were just so happy that we were able to finally sail!!

We were sitting on the Serenity deck in the big clam shells and loungers when the announcement came on that we were leaving and everyone began cheering! We could also hear the cheers from the Lido deck – everyone was just pretty relieved not to spend another night on the ship connected to the dock in foggy Galveston. Then when the captain blew that horn and we began moving - mass celebration!! It was a good moment!

They had the casinos opened within about 30 minutes from sailing (we tried to estimate how much revenue Carnival lost by not being able to open the casino!!!) and then the shops opened not too long afterwards. We were running almost 24 hours late on leaving Galveston. We knew our itinerary would be altered – we just had no idea what it would look like. Most passengers we visited with were hoping Costa Maya would be cancelled as many had already been there (or close to it as most cruises go to Mexico).

Finally, around 4:00 p.m. the captain came on the public address system and told everyone that due to the time constraints and how far Belize was that we were not going to be able to go to Belize. That was harsh news – we kind of all knew big changes were coming but that was just so sad. Our family went on this cruise specifically for Belize - but we were determined to make the best of it! Then – the captain really shocked everyone. He said, “we are also making some additional changes – we will have to change Cozumel from Friday to Thursday and we will be visiting Costa Maya on Friday instead of Thursday.” (Basically he dropped Belize and then flipped the other two ports as well.) (He also announced that we would just have a Sea Day on Wednesday instead of a port visit.) This TOTALLY threw everyone into a tail spin and the excursions desk line went from 1-2 people to about 500 instantly. Cruise Director Leigh came over the intercom and asked for everyone to give the excursions desk a while to contact all of the vendors in Cozumel and Costa Maya and see if everything could be changed around. Those of us who had excursions that were not ship sponsored excursions immediately went into panic mode and rushed to the nearest computers – paid the $25.00 for 24 hours of internet service (Carnival definitely recouped some of the Casino loss for all the internet plans that were sold within minutes of that announcement) and emailed our vendors to see if we could be switched to the new days. The key here was something we did not know – how many ships were in the ports on the new days we were visiting now. Turns out there were 6 ships in port at Cozumel now (compared to 7 that were originally scheduled) and we would be the only ship in Costa Maya that day (can’t recall how many were going to be there on our original day). We were lucky as both of our vendors (Maya Chan in Costa Maya – MUCH more on them later – they were AMAZING!!! – and Nachi Cocom in Cozumel) were able to accommodate us and move our reservations and deposits to the new day. We heard many say their vendors could not accommodate due to so many ships already in port on the day we moved to in Cozumel. So sad. It was a very, very stressful 2 hours trying to get everything changed over and waiting to hear back. You should never have to incur that much stress on a cruise ship. Probably wouldn’t have been as bad had we not had such a crazy 24 hours trying to get on the boat and then getting fogged in and then waking up to even more fog and then finally getting to sail away. Just a lot of stress. We were joking that the spa filled many massage spots due to so much stress!!

The excursions desk put out a publication (it was a blue sheet of paper) that indicated all of the excursions that were able to transfer over to the new date and all of the ones that were not said “CANCELLED” next to them. Those are the people that had to go back to the excursions desk and line up to make changes as they were not taking any phone calls – someone from your party had to go down and get in line if changes were needed. That was sad too.

By now all of the shops were opened as well as the casino. Drink packages were being honored and there was a much more “normal” feel to the cruise. Except for the fog. We still couldn’t see much – the fog was so thick. The captain was blowing the horn every four minutes or so and it was starting to get dark. We were all – 100% of us praying to not have any fog when we woke up the next day. The temperature was getting warmer – we were optimistic that things were starting to take a positive turn.

We had My Time Dining so we got dressed at 5:15 and went down to get in line at 5:30 for the 5:45 opening of the Sapphire Dining Room. It was absolutely lovely – beautifully decorated – lots of window tables. Very nice. We were the 2nd group in line and when they opened (5:45) they happily honored our request and seated us next to a large window. (We had 6 in our group.) We sat at tables 14 and 16 (they pushed them together for us) and had Maya and her team. She was wonderful – we had 5 adult children with us ranging in ages from 20 – 24 and she totally catered to them! They LOVED her so much! Just made our cruise so much fun and made everyone want to show up to dinner each night (my only request of a mandatory activity was that we had dinner together each evening!) . The food was good – not awesome but good – lots of choices! We were completely finished with everything including dessert (Carnival Molten Lava Chocolate Cake with ice cream) in about an hour and were on our way to a fun evening on the ship.

We went up at 7:00 for the Dive in Movie (the guys went to the bar to watch football) – it was “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” – a bit strange but pretty good. Then we went to the comedy club with our group – funny stuff – we were off to a great start! Us older ones hit the sack early on that second night – it had been a very stressful day – we were ready for some relaxation!

I’ll write more soon! Day 3 – Sea Day

Do you have a copy of the Fun Times? I'll be going in 2 weeks

 

 

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Yes!!!! I think I have them all! I'll find them in the still packed suitcase and take pics and post them for you!