Joaljoe

I'm doing this itinerary in a couple of weeks, so I enjoyed your review! I'm glad you gave me a heads-up about Butch no longer being onboard so I won't be disappointed:)

 

I had to laugh about the steel drums for your kids--do you remember where you got them? Were they really big? I'm always looking for unique gifts for my kids to bring home.

They weren't too big. They fit nicely in their carry on bags. I turned them upside down and stuffed all their little knick knacks they collected over the week in it, and then placed some socks on top to keep everything in place.

When I get some time later on, I'll try and take a photo of one and post it here for you.

If you walk down the main shopping street just outside of the port in Antigua you should bump into a man on the street corner. He's more towards the end of all the shopping, I think it was a grocery store he was in front of. Can't remember 100%. We didn't see him until after we purchased ours in the small straw market I mentioned earlier. I just went up to one of the ladies in there and asked if they had any. She told me to wait, came back a few minutes later with a nice steel drum for my daughter. Then my son decided he wanted one.... so we asked if she had anymore, she told us that she didn't think so but went to check anyway. A few minutes later, came back with a blue one for my son. Everything was so rushed that I didn't think to take a good look at it, she just packed it in a bag, we paid and left. On our way back to the ship is when we noticed the fellow on the street selling them. No biggie though, because we already had two of them! Well, when we got back to the room... my son took his out and we realized she sold us one that they've been using. And it wasn't just gently used... the paint was chipped at the back, it was rusty, the paint at the top that shows you the notes was pretty much rubbed off too. We were pretty disappointed that we weren't smarter, we never thought to inspect it! Just makes us smarter for next time!! LOL

Inspect your items before paying!!

Have a great time on your cruise! :)

Tonight, shortly after the game show, around 9pm, Butch came on the announcements and by the sound of his voice something was wrong. He announced that a passenger on board needed medical attention so the ship was going to stop in Puerto Rico in about 2 hours. We haven't been on many cruises.... this was only our 4th one, but we've never had to make a stop to get someone off the ship and on this cruise we did 2 of them. At the beginning of the week, I think it was our first night, the ship stopped off at Nassau to disembark someone off the ship due to medical reasons as well. I'm very glad that both times we were close enough to shore to get these people medical attention. I hope they are both doing well now!!

For this reason Butch had to be on the bridge, so tonight's deck party was hosted by Amy (6'3"). The party was a little late to start and I think I remember Butch coming on the announcement again informing us that we have arrived in San Juan but that unfortunately he couldn't be with us. Amy is great, I do really like her as well but the party was not the same. We actually didn't stay for the whole party because DS started not feeling too well.... guess he danced too much! LOL We just ended up taking him to the room and putting the kids to sleep while we enjoyed some quiet time on the balcony before we headed to bed as well.

The team preparing to entertain without Butch! :)

Originally when we were passing this ship we didn't see all the people hanging there at the top. I didn't notice them until I got home and was flipping through the photos. At first, I thought they were fake, until I saw that the people were in different positions in each pic I took. Must have been a fun excursion!

Yahtzee Bowling

I loved these!! (Looking down at the Atrium).

A few more photos from Tortola as we're sailing away.....

Yes, we fly Air Canada but we flew into West Palm and stayed at DH's nephew's townhouse in Stuart and then we rented a car after our 2nd cruise and spent 8 days in Fort Myers before flying home from there. i know, I know.....but you'll get all the time you want in about 30 years...lol. Something for you to look forward to...lol.:p::D

I'm definitely looking forward to it, but not in a rush at the same time. Gotta enjoy every minute with my kiddies.... the years are just flying by way too fast! It was nice that you were able to break up the winter that way. I bet it helps with all this snow.

I am loving your review and the pictures. I will be on the Breeze in 45 sleeps. Your review is getting me excited. Thank you for taking the time to do it.:D

Glad you are enjoying! It's too bad that Butch's schedule has changed and you won't have him on your cruise! He really knows how to entertain his guests! But I'm sure whoever is taking his place will be great as well. :)

Monker2001 and Warrior64, feel free to email me at joalro at rogers dot com

and I will send you what you are looking for. My photos are in different places so I would have to share a few links with you Warrior64. :)

Haven't seen ourselves in any of your pictures yet but did recognize someone we know by the souvenir area in Tortola.

I'm sure if you looked through ALL of my photos, you'd eventually find yourself somewhere. lol Did you fly out of Toronto?

Thank you jacksmom09! :)

Sorry, I was trying to reply to the person asking about the height requirements (new at this posting thing...)! Guess I was excited to have an answer to a poster's question, lol!

 

We had a wonderful time on the breeze, but definitely not happy about all the snow (but kids are loving it!)

 

Great review too!

No worries, don't be sorry. I'm glad you did because I gave wrong info. :)

Kids always love snow. We had a snow day today but my kids insisted in going to school so they can finish their fort in the school yard. They're lucky they didn't have to shovel this heavy stuff today. lol

When we started sailing, I noticed a fire far in the mountain.

Hopefully there were able to get it out quickly.

Beauty!

Pulling away from port.

Some ropes course photos.....

Tortola continued.....

After our showers we had lunch, DD and I went to the Mongolian Wok - AMAZING! Long wait, but well worth it!! DS had a fish taco from Blue Iguana Cantina - he really enjoyed that! And DH a Guys burger for the 2nd time - he really loved those burgers and fries!! We enjoyed the rest of our time playing some mini gold and today the kids did the ropes course over and over again. They were still doing it as we started sailing..... that was pretty cool. When they were done it was my time to have fun - camera time!! LOL It was the only island I would have in the whole week to actually take pics of when leaving. All the other Islands we were already at dinner and Nassau was just dark! When I was finally done we made our way to the room to relax on the balcony for a bit before getting ready for dinner.

After dinner we went to the Hasbro show again but sat at the back. We really loved the game show as we watch a lot of game shows at home. When Butch came out and asked a question, my DS immediately started jumping up and down as he knew the answer. He got it right and he made it up for a game of Yahtzee Bowling. We sat on the Blue Team side again and LOST!! haha It just wasn't meant to be! But it was really nice to see other families win big board game prizes and gift cards! They did hand out small versions of some of the games played so regardless, you were walking away with something. I personally really like this idea of doing a game show, I know a lot of people complain about it but it's sooo much fun!

I only took a photo of my plate! So good!!!

We just returned from our breeze cruise; height requirement for the ropes course is 48" (and they are strict about it). My 6-yr old wanted to try it but she was just shy of 48". For the water slides, I believe it's 42". Happy cruising!

Good to know about the ropes course... we thought they were both the same requirements. We didn't really need to pay too much attention because we knew both of our kids were over 55" and would have no problems.

Hope you had a great cruise and now enjoying all this wonderful snow we got!! :)

Loving your review :) We were actually on same cruise as you and we went to brewers bay. I was looking for us in your beautiful pictures, but didnt see us :) We were probably out snorkeling, as thats where we were most of the day. Amazing snorkeling there!!!!! It was the perfect day!!!

LOL... too funny! I wonder if I have you in any other photos, I have a lot of them!! It was definitely a perfect day! :)

You are soooo right as yours was a family vacation. That's part of the reason why we booked it b2b and i would have been upset to have missed Butch's activites because of the Blogger events. As it was, i was conflicted on which one to choose when they overlapped. I rationalized that I had seen it the week before...lol. That's how i missed out on seeing your DH and daughter participate in the Hasbro games.

Did you make it to the 3rd game show? Or any of the ones from the 6 day cruise? They were really fun! Read my next installment for 3rd game show news! LOL

Fantastic review, great pictures! Your family is beautiful. :)

Thank you very much! :)

The featured towel animals on deck on the 6 days cruise are different. If you'd like to see them, email me at marysfm at rogers dot com and I will forward them to you for the kids. Warning: they are no where near as nice as your photos though.:p

Definitely, I'll do that right now! My son is especially into the towel animals. He wants me to make them here at home....lol Sorry, can't!! The best I can do is a snake! ha ha!

Thanks! :)

Walking back to the ship.

We had one other ship in port with us on this day, the Thompson Dream. So tiny compared to the Breeze.

A different view of the ship.

LOVE the blue water here!!!

One of my favourite pics.

Loved this view around the beach. Reminded me a little of Magen's Bay Beach in St. Thomas.

Love the colourful house on this island as well.

Our awesome taxi driver stopped for a photo! Okay fine, she actually stopped to find her phone that kept ringing.... but she stopped in a perfect spot!

The little shopping area.

This brave boy went to Camp Carnival with our kids. He came right up to us and said "Look at this cute little crab I found over there by the rocks....he's biting my fingers just a little bit, but it's okay". Too cute! I would not hold that though!

We had to walk a little bit to get to the taxis. It's not a far walk and once you pass the gates there are taxi's all over waiting to take you anywhere you desire. There is also a very small shopping area right there where all the taxis are waiting. Perfect to pick up a couple of souvenirs. We found a taxi driver who was heading to Brewer's Bay Beach. We did a lot of research online before the cruise so we knew exactly where we wanted to go. We also asked our cab driver what the best beach is for kids and he confirmed that it was Brewer's Bay Beach. Perfect!! So we waited until he could find 2 more people to fill his van and off we went. It was a very nice drive over, he didn't talk very much so we had no clue on what was what, but at least he was a safe driver. LOL

The beach doesn't look like much when you first drive up to it.... actually, we were thinking we made a mistake. But once you actually get on the beach and enter the water, you realize how beautiful it actually is. The water is perfect for small children.... it's shallow and very calm. We saw people snorkeling towards the left of the beach, so you can do that if you wish. We only stayed here a couple of hours since we were leaving so early. It flew by way too fast, we wish we got much more time here. If you like to push your time, you can stay longer of course... there are taxis all over waiting to take you back. But because we don't like to risk it, we decided to leave 2 hours before sail time. You never know with traffic!! The lady who drove us back was very nice and pointed things out as we made our way back to the ship. She also told us to buy some land on the lsland and build a house! If only it were that easy!! Cab prices are pretty much the same as St. Thomas. $8 pp each way. She dropped us off with plenty of time left so we walked through the little shops they had there, bought some souvenirs and made our way back to the ship.

Love the art on these buses....

Heading up the mountain.

Brewer's Bay Beach

Tortola -

Today we planned on a beach day as well. We were disappointed that the ship was leaving at 3:30pm. We woke up early, had a quick breakfast and headed off the ship. As we were crossing through the Lido Deck we saw towel animals everywhere, on every chair and around the pool!!! The kids were in heaven! LOL

Where does your mom live in Mississauga?

She is approx. 5 mins down the road from Square One. I actually grew up in Mississauga.... Cawthra and Lakeshore area.

Keep doing whatever you're doing. Your photos look so professional! Good job!

Thank you!! :)

LOL....you have to retire first and that's a long ways to go with you. We had to wait til DH retired before taking all our long cruises and b2b's.

 

LOL, that's what I keep saying to hubby, then the kids start yelling that they're still coming along! I'm sure they'll be singing a different tune when they're married with kids. ha ha!

 

You could have signed up for the Blogger events too even though you didn't book it as one. No extra charge.

 

We thought about it, but decided against it .... I really don't know how we would've managed doing everything. lol

Okay, on with my review finally........ :)

We were on this cruise too and wished I had met you. I read your amazing Dream review last time and enjoyed that one as much as I am enjoying this one. You do great reviews and if i remember correctly, had great pictures then but these of the Breeze are fabulous. Wow! I am quite happy with photos that I took but they do not compare to yours.

 

You are right. 8 days on the Breeze are not enough. We did a b2b, doing the 6 days one before this cruise. It was especially important since we had to skip ( you are right ) some of the ship's activities during Blogger events. Good thing we did them the first cruise. Sometimes it was abalancing act trying to get everything in. I would go back on the Breeze in a heartbeat!

 

We love Butch too and it was our 3rd time cruising with him. Amazing how he remembers everyone.

Oh yes, I definitely remember you. My hubby and I bring you up from time to time when we visit my mom in Mississauga. LOL It's too bad we didn't know you were going, I would've loved to have met you as well. :)

Glad you're enjoying my photos. On the last cruise, I had just bought my camera and used the "auto" function for everything. Last year I did a project on line that taught me something new every week about my camera. So because of this I learned how to use a lot of the functions in "Manual" settings. I still botched a lot of my photos... need a lot more practice! But I did take over 2000 pics, so I am happy with the ones that did turn out. :)

I wish we could've done the B2B... we've often talked about it, but getting that much time off work is hard. And the kids missing that much school would be tough on ME, trying to catch up on all that homework. Ha Ha!! But there is a B2B sometime in our future, that's for sure!!

Did you go on this cruise because of the Bloggers Cruise? We booked it before we even knew about that. I've heard of some people being annoyed that it was a Blogger's Cruise and if they had known, they would've picked a different week. I don't know why? It didn't seem to make our cruise any different. Yes, we saw some of the organized activities, and saw the group of "drunk" people walking around (lol), but didn't bother us one bit.

We had a cove balcony on the Dream and the Breeze. We had room 2326 on both ships. We liked that location because it was close to the mid elevators, which took us straight up to Camp Carnival, MDR, Casino and the Marketplace on the Lido deck.

We didn't remember hearing any noise on the Dream but this time I did notice some. Nothing major but depending on what time we were in the room, we could here them moving chairs around in the MDR, one night we heard them singing one of the songs during late seating. And on rough water nights I could here the life boats swinging or banging. No one else in my family could hear them though. LOL

It's so minor and it would not stop us from booking the Cove balcony in that location again.

If you were to look straight up, no, you can't see stars. But if you look out and up you could still see the sky and stars or moon. It's not the same as being on the upper decks course. :)

I am SO enjoying your review and the bonus is the pictures you took in Antigua. My husband has some mobility issues so I am always concerned about whether or not he can handle the distance from the ship to the port. What a relief to see how close the ship docks to the shopping area. (Not that he likes to shop.) LOL. I just showed him the picture so he can see that it is a doable port for him.YAY, what a relief.

 

Your pictures are wonderful as are the details you are providing. I'm glad that you found a way to pace yourself and still enjoy the port. MS is one of the many conditions that we all hope will be cured in the near future. It looks as if your children had a good time with the alternative plans.

 

If you don't mind me asking, what is the price range for the king size sheets? I looked at the website. I was not at all familiar with the company.

 

Looking forward to your next post. We have not been to Tortola so I can't wait to see what that port is like. I do know that Nassau is a terribly long distance, but they do have a bus that runs on the pier for those who can not walk it. I hope it is still in service.

Oh yes, my kids are very easy to please.... they just go with it! Whatever we throw at them on vacation, they're good with. I'm with you on the MS thing, I pray there will be a cure one day. I was only diagnosed 3 years ago... but I really feel for everyone who's been living with this condition for many years. We will do our part again this year in the MS Walk and hope that one year they are able to find a cure! ♥

The King size sheets were $200. There is a $25 off coupon you can get if you go to the "Shopping Talk" they have on the ship. We didn't go to it, but someone over heard us talking on the Sunny Liston bus when we were leaving the ship.... so she gave us her coupon since she wasn't planning on shopping there. That was very nice of her. :)

If it's in your budget, I would definitely recommend them. My in laws bought a set as well after we made it such a big thing and they LOVE them. They have samples of sheets hanging in their store so you can see the difference between their sheets and other companies. You really do feel a big difference.

Hopefully the bus still runs in Nassau. Unfortunately I can't help you out with that port because we booked an excursion and went straight on a Ferry which took us to Blue Lagoon Island. We wish we had more time there to do some shopping. There's always next time.... lol

Thanks so much for all the work you're putting into this review. We're thinking of taking our 2 kids (DS-2.5, DD-5.5) on an April cruise. Do you happen to remember the height requirements on the waterpark slides/ropes course? I can't seem to find the info anywhere.

I just spoke with DH, we both believe that it was 42" for the water slides. Not 100% sure though. Can't remember for the ropes course.... I think it would be around the same. :)

More pics!! Awesome...thanks for sharing! Can't wait to go on the Breeze!

You have a beautiful family:)

Thank you very much! :)

When my husband saw the view of the port from your balcony, he said. " I hope we are on the same side they were on." We're in 7340, where were you ?

We were in 2326, so you'll be on the same side for sure. You'll have a beautiful view from up there. :)

your review make me wanna try the breeze. We didn't like the dream, but the breeze seem different!

The Breeze is different in a lot of ways. I feel like there was more stuff to do, and loved the pool area. Just sitting there anytime of day dipping your feet in the shallow area under those cabanas was great! I did like the shows better on the Dream but those did not make or break my vacation. I also like the decor better on the Breeze. I can go on and on....I think you just need to go! You won't be disappointed! LOL

LOL! My sons are in this pic on the ropes course...one is on the far left and the other is on the right (both have white tanks on)....we had a great cruise! Loved the Breeze!

What a small world! That course was great for the kids! We loved the Breeze too.... we feel we didn't have enough time to do everything we wanted to do. A great reason to go back on! LOL

Tonight we went to Cucina Del Capitano. It was a last minute decision....when we called them, they actually had 2 more spots open. A 5:30pm and a 9pm seating....we definitely lucked out! We took the 5:30pm....if I eat too late, I can't sleep all night! It was a very nice experience, the waiters were amazing in there. Very friendly and knowledgeable on the food. The waiters ended up singing as well, they weren't that great but they tried. LOL The food was awesome, we all enjoyed our meals. I only got a photo of mine unfortunately but if I remember correctly, almost all of us had the same dish. I got a dish called Nonna's Linguini and Meatballs.... I do recommend it to everyone! It was deelish. They seated us at a window which was perfect for sailing. We sailed at 6pm and had a beautiful view of the sunset.... just completed our experience!! We were in here for a good 2 hours so after dinner we slowly made our way to the Ovation theater for the Latin Nights show.

I was REALLY looking forward to this show but left feeling a little disappointed. I just thought as a whole it would be better. But nonetheless, we still made the best of it and enjoyed it for what it was. Our son had no interest in seeing this show, so he went to Camp Carnival and stayed until 10pm. DD enjoyed her alone time with us! After the show we split up with my in-laws... I think they headed to bed and we just lounged on the Lido Deck until it was time to get DS from Camp and head to bed.

Our beautiful sunset from tonight!!

Nonna's Linguini and Meatballs!

Crostata Di Mele Coppetta -

A slow baked Italian apple tart topped with a hazelnut streusel. It was AMAZING!!

Preparing for the Latin Show!

Tonight's animal!

A few more "around the ship" photos....

Ropes course from the other side view. My bad, I mentioned above that the kids did the ropes today. I'm getting my days mixed up.... they did the course when we came back on the ship in Tortola. Oops! I should have kept a journal. LOL

I know I posted a similar photo already but the background is different. Ha Ha Ha!!

Towel Hut