Cool Breeze Cruiser

The restroom

We got on the ship & found out the ship’s doctor would not be in until 4 so we went to our cabin.

Since this was an unplanned vacation I did not want to spend a ton of money & wanted to try something different anyway. We usually get a balcony but booked a promenade cabin. OMG! I LOVED our Promenade cabin!!!

Did I say we absolutely LOVED our promenade cabin! Lol ! When we booked it the promenade cabins were less expensive than an inside cabin. Friends that had an inside said our room was a lot larger & we loved that it felt ‘open’. Other friends that had a balcony liked our cabin too & said they would book a promenade cabin next time. We enjoyed having two couches overlooking the promenade. It was nice to be able to people watch & see the parades from our bird’s eye view.

We were in cabin 7591 & you could hear some noise from below especially the bass from the music but it did not bother us. Our cabin was over the General Store & across from the Gravity Sports Bar. If I ever cruise on a ship where promenade cabins were available again I would definitely choose one.

These are pics of our cabin (taken later in the week).

Our door sign

A great place to 'sightsee'!

The view from our window

Plenty of storage

Ok. I think I got all the negatives of the whole trip out of the way already except for ending up in a wheelchair for the rest of the cruise & catching a cold. The rest of the trip was AMAZING!!!

The lines were craziness long when we got to the ship & we asked about getting a wheelchair since I could barely walk at that point. They had us bypass the luggage line & just put our luggage through. We told them we wanted to go see the ship’s doctor as soon as we got on-board & they called & we were told again to bypass the lines & go in. I really do not like to take advantage & felt bad ‘cutting’ line but I would have had a really hard time standing in that line & might have done even more damage to my knee.

This was our ist photo getting on the ship. Luckily you can not see I am only standing on one leg.

I do have pics from this cruise but unfortunately not nearly as many as usual since I am usually the photographer in the family & I was having a hard enough time getting around without dealing with a camera. I do have quite a few pics from our excursions that I will post.

Our trip started out wonderful! Our daughter dropped us off at the Nashville airport & we arrived in plenty of time to grab some breakfast & our bag was under the weight limit. :D We flew Delta & had a smooth flight. I love Richard Gere & there was a Richard Gere movie playing in route from Atlanta to San Juan. My husband asked me how much I had to pay them to play that movie. I thought it was a good omen!

We took a cab to the Comfort Inn in Condado. The staff at the Comfort Inn, especially the front desk staff is wonderful, the beds are comfy & the free breakfast is pretty good. The location is a short distance from the beach & there are restaurants & bars nearby. I would not stay there again though. The hotel definitely needs an upgrade. The walls in the rooms are paper thin so you can hear EVERYTHING going on in the other rooms & hallways, the elevators are antiquated & stop a little above or below the floors, the restrooms are tiny, we had two towels, one hand towel & one wash cloth for the two of us, etc. The rooms have a musty smell. They put us in room 211 post-cruise & the smell was so strong we had to change rooms . It was a nicer, bigger room than we had pre-cruise & it overlooked the pool but the musty odor seemed to be coming from the air conditioner & there was mold growing on the bathroom ceiling. :eek: It was fine for a one night stay but I would not want to stay any longer. The staff was very nice & accommodating though.

We walked up the street & checked out the beach then got an appetizer at a Mexican Restaurant to tide us over until dinner. Next we went by Walgreens to get wine & bottled water to take on the ship. Everything was going GREAT & we were so excited to be on vacation! It started drizzling. No big deal! It is the Caribbean!

We made our way back to the hotel with our purchases & this is where our cruise took a different direction than the one we had planned.

Going down this hill I slipped on the wet metal covering the sidewalk & fell, almost in slow motion.

Of course this photo was taken when it was dry. That thing turns nasty when wet! :eek: Definitely not my favorite spot in San Juan.

I wrenched my knee & twisted my foot. My husband asked if I was ok & I said I was not sure. I train horses so my body is used to some tough times but this hurt like he**. We had only been in San Juan about two hours at this point. Oh well, life happens!

It actually felt better when I walked on it so we met up with friends & went to dinner. I thought after a good night’s sleep (the beds at the Comfort Inn were very comfy) I would wake up good as new. Not so much. I barely slept & finally learned to move my leg by picking up the pillow it was lying on. Not a good sign.

The next morning we decided to go to the ER before we got on the cruise ship to get my knee checked out. Bad idea! After three hours waiting in the ER with everyone around us coughing (sorry I felt bad for them but did not want to catch their germs especially the day before a cruise) my husband finally went back & found the doctor. He was in his office on his laptop & said he could not see patients because he could not get his password to work on his computer! Really!?! We got our deposit back & left.

We booked our Adventure of the Seas cruise as kind of last minute (for us) getaway & to join our friends Robin & John who we met on our Spirit cruise three years ago. They were on the second week of a B2B.

This ended up being a very different cruise than what we had planned. My husband & I are usually very active but I ended up in a wheelchair & on crutches for the whole trip (except for the 1st two hours). I tried to stay very positive as sometimes ‘life happens’ & hopefully for me the wheelchair is only temporary.

We had a great cruise in spite of my 'injury'! It gave me a whole new perspective on life in a wheelchair, especially when you need to go to the restroom & cannot get there unassisted! You definitely have to limit the rum punch on unlimited rum punch catamarans as it is way too much trouble to get to the toilet! Luckily we had plenty of help from friends.

We definitely had to live by the 'when life gives you lemons make lemonade' on this cruise (especially when I caught a cold the last couple of days) but we really did have an amazing time & met a lot of new friends as we always do!

Don't finish this review Mike! Then our cruise will REALLY be over! :eek::p:D

Juli

I feel stupid, I remember you telling us about the sneakers for the rock climbing. I just asked Tracy and Arielle and they knew about it. :confused::confused:

lol! You were just having too much fun to notice it! :D:D:D

Juli

Wow, Juli, I didn't know they had that. I wonder why they didn't have it when we were there. Is it new or is it something they can set up in very little time, in other words, was is erected after we left that afternoon. I looked online and they have it included in their activities. Mike

You took pics of things we had never even seen on the ship & we have been on the Miracle twice but you did not see that huge trapeze? :eek:::p

Remember before we went to Breezes I told anybody that wanted to try it you have to have socks & be dry inside & out? I think it opened at 2 PM the day we were there & since we had to be back on-board by 3:30 that day we were definitely not dry 'inside' at 2! :D:D

I have 'great respect' for heights so I have not tried it but friends that went to Breezes with us in January did & they loved it! They took a great video. It is now on my bucketlist & I plan to do it next time we go to Breezes.

Juli

FUN TIMES! FUN TIMES!

This photo was taken right after I missed a great photo op, right Mike? :eek::p:D

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Time for a game

 

 

 

 

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I can't believe none of us tried this!

Guess we were not dry inside & out by the time it opened! :D

Juli

Can't wait to see what happens next! :D:p:D

When anyone asks about our cruise I tell them we had WAY too much fun!!! I want a DO-OVER too! :)

Give my Canadian 'sister' a hug!

Juli (AKA "the gang” organizer)

I KNOW you had a lot of fun on your cruise! :D:D:D Looking forward to your review!

Give Tracy & the kids a hug for us.

Juli & J.R.

That would be Peter Brenner, and many have felt the same way

I simply don't understand how he has managed to stay working

He definitely takes the 'fun' out of the funship!

Where do I get more info to book Breezes?

We rode the jitney to Breezes & bought a daypass for $60 at the front desk. We had a wonderful time there.

LAST DAY:

OMG! Our five days on the Fascination flew by!!! We had breakfast in the Coconut Grove Bar & Grill with our new friends & had planned to rent a car from Hertz since our flight was not till 5:10 PM & hanging out at the airport all day with luggage is not a great way to end your vacation. Hertz will pick you up at the cruise port & you can turn the rental car back in to the airport.

We planned to go to the zoo for the day. Our new friends had planned to drive to Savannah to spend the night but decided to spend the day with us. Yay!!! They had an SUV so there was plenty of room for all our stuff. Thanks so much Mary & Simon for spending the day with us!!! And it was Simons birthday!

We went to the Jacksonville Zoo & Botanical Gardens. I think it was one of my favorite zoos. The Botanical Gardens were gorgeous. We had a great lunch there & it was very reasonable. The animals looked well cared for & I even got to feed the giraffes.:D I have never seen giraffes where you can get so close to them. We had such an amazing (& once again perfect weather) day at the zoo & it was so nice to spend our final day with some of our new friends.

We had such a great time on the Fascination!!! Of course we bought a Future Cruise Certificate for our next cruise!

I stood in line with all the little kids :o to get plants to feed the giraffes. It was really cool!

I can never resist buying the Elegant Night pictures (actually 2 or 3 of them)! I think the photographers see me coming & think here is an easy sale!

I always buy this one too! lol! Helps me remember what ship & when we went!

More pics from Breezes in Nassau (Thanks Simon for taking this pic! We had so much fun that day!!!)

Simon & Mary at the beach at Breezes

We loved the Fascination!!!

Photo Op

Wish we were there now!

One of our favorite parts of a cruise is making new friends!

J.R. thought he could be a 'Piano Man'! :D

WEATHER:

It was a little chilly the day we boarded the ship but we had PERFECT weather the rest of the week which is incredible for February. We had really smooth sailing until the last sea day when the ship was rocking a bit & some people looked a little green. Made me sleep like a baby! :D

The waterworks area

We loved this deck. A great view & we could hear the music from the Lido deck.

Passage of India

The Beanbag Toss (Cornhole) J.R. was not on his game that day & the lovely lady beside him kicked his butt! :D

Hi Juli,

It was nice to meet you and JR. It was good to read about your port days, since we only had a couple minutes to hear about it at debark, and it really sounded like fun. So glad you wrote a review. Amy and I will definitely look at doing these next time.

David

Hi David,

We enjoyed meeting you & Amy too!

Sorry we didn't ever get to hear Amy sing. During our breakfast Annette said she is really good! Hopefully next time! :D

There was just so much to do on the ship we kept running out of time to do all the thing we wanted to do. And I meant for this to be a relaxing trip!!! :p J.R. knows me well so he knew better!

I wish y'all had joined us in the Piano Bar. We had so much fun there (even though I REALLY can't sing)!!!

I would highly recommend Breezes in Nassau & Our Lucaya Resort in Freeport. They were both wonderful & we will definitely go back to both of them when we go back to the Bahamas!

Juli

no worries on the fun times, i was just curious. my dd is 14 and her bff, also 14, are going. they want to do the teen clubs, but are a little anxious about it. ;)

 

where did you get the info on the breezes resort? would love to check into it.

They will have a great time!!! My kids are now 21 & 24 but they always loved to cruise & came home with so many new friends.

I think birdy who was on our cruise scanned the funtimes & is going to post them in her review & she had teens with her so you might ask her.

I got all the info on Breezes in the Ports of Call forums & googled Breezes in Nassau. I pulled this off their site: Breezes Bahamas welcomes singles, couples and families, 14 years and older.

We absolutely loved our day at Breezes but I don't recall seeing many teens there so your girls might have more fun somewhere else.

Juli

We love the Fascination and agree about the Lido deck water - its too....sulphury for us. Typical FL water, lol!

I am not usually that picky about water (DH is) but I didn't even like it. We ran out of bottled water the last day & refilled our botlles on the Lido & I had to make myself drink it. Maybe it was just the week we cruised?

Hi neighbor! We will be on the Fascination in just over a week. We too booked the great southwest deal!!!! Would you mind scanning the fun times? I would like to check out the teen clubs and let my girls know so they will be more up for it.

 

thanks!

I will try. No promises though. Computers are not my thing! :eek:

I don't think the kids & teens things are on the Fun Times but I have been known to be wrong before! :D I think they will get their own agendas.

How old are your girls? My DD was 15 on one cruise & had a blast. She made a lot of new friends that she stayed in contact with.

Don't you love Southwest?!? I want to go back!!!

I have never seen as many kids as there were on our cruise! Over 700!!! I don't know if there were so many because we cruised over President's Day? They were not a problem though & seemed to be very well behaved. Camp Carnival was definitely busy!!!

I have a few pics of the ship & the waterworks area I will post soon. I didn't take as many as usual because we had already been on this ship before.

I don't think I mentioned Breezes in Nassau is adult only. I think I read it is 14 & up & 18 & up during spring break.

Juli

More fuzzy pics

Pool volleyball (the water was really cold)

The swim up pool bar

The trapeze (you have to have socks to try this & be dry inside & out as they put it, no drinking before you do this)

The Rock Climbing wall

Part of the resort

Fuzzy pics from Breezes

The Horseshoe Tournament

DH came in 3rd!!! (some of my only pics with the gorgeous white sand)

The sailboat

Check out that (fuzzy) gorgeous smile!

Nassau

We planned on getting a day pass at the Sheraton but decided to go to an All-inclusive resort in Nassau since food & drinks were so expensive in Freeport & I am sooo glad we chose to go to Breezes!!! :)

We caught the jitney bus for $1.25 each (you need exact change) to Breezes & we LOVED it there!

It was $60 & included food & all drinks from 10 AM till 6 PM. What a DEAL!!! We tried a lot of different drinks. The Dirty Monkey was really good as was the rum punch. They even have a big daiquiri/pina colada machine with a bottle of rum beside it to make your own. The food was good. They have an outdoor grill & we had burgers & hot dogs & fish sticks & chicken sandwiches & great salads. (We are not pigs, there were six of us! :D)

The beach is beautiful with gorgeous white sand. There was some seaweed when we were there but it was still incredible! There are lounge chairs at the beach & pool & towels are available.

We even lucked up & had perfect weather again!

They have kayaks, paddle boats, a little sailboat like thing (sorry I don't know what they are called), a rock climbing wall, a huge trapeze thing, & a lot of pool activities all included. We played volleyball in the pool. My DH played in a Horseshoe & Ladderball tournament . They have ping pong & pool tables inside & I am not sure what else because we ran out of time.

Our favorite part of the day was going out on the sailboat. My DH asked the young man (again my horrible name memory) & he said he gave lessons earlier in the day but he would take us out if we wanted to go. He took us way out & he was soooo charming (but I still forgot his name :o). He was 20 years old & we were really impressed with his maturity. He had the most gorgeous smile. I asked if he had braces & he said his mother told him those beautiful (my word not his) teeth came from eating so many vegetables. He had grown up in Nassau & had never left the island & said his goal was to visit the states & see skyscrapers, etc. We laughed & said most people would kill for his job! We had a really great conversation with him.

The atmosphere when we were at Breezes was tons of fun but not over the top partying.

The staff & the people staying at Breezes were all really friendly. We had so much fun we actually checked on going back for a few days.

I can't believe I did not take any pictures of the lobby. :eek: It was really cool looking. We asked to see a room but they didn't have any vacant since they were at full occupancy but the pool/beach area was not horribly crowded.

We left at 6 PM & the jitney bus had already stopped running for the day so we had to take a cab back. The cab fare was $5 each.

We ran in Senor Frogs for a few minutes before we headed back to the ship.

My water camera was having 'issues' the day we were at Breezes so a lot of my pics are really fuzzy. Sorry. I took some at the beach but they are to fuzzy to post. I hope our friends have some because I would love to have them as a memory of our great day there.

We will DEFINITELY go back to Breezezs next time we are in Nassau.

Photo Op at the Port

We just got off the Fascination & LOVED the Piano Bar on this cruise. Milburn Dumas was WONDERFUL & played such a huge variety of songs. He is quite the character & kept us all entertained with his antics. The Piano Bar on our last cruise on the Miracle was such a disappointment because the Piano Man took himself way to seriously but Milburn really encouraged us to all sing along (& believe me I can not sing)! He played everything we requested & seemed to have as good a time as we did. He is a man of many hats & let us borrow some of his props for this Kodak moment! :D