Knocked one off the bucket list: Cruisin' at Christmas - A Breeze review

They brought out the cloth tablecloths like back in the old days for Christmas Dinner. This meal would be one of my favorites of the trip and I indulged probably more than I should have. They did a special fancy menu for it, but any photo I tried to take of it ended up blurry and I didn't realize this until I got home, so unfortunately I don't have one to post.

There were no appetizers that remotely interested me on this night, but I spied 2 entrees I wanted so I asked if I could have the zucchini fritters served during the appetizer course. They promptly brought me out a plate of fettuccine for my appetizer - they had the right idea, because this was actually another one of the entrees, but it was just the wrong one. I let them know right away of the mistake and waited for my zucchini fritters. My husband decided he'd try it since he likes fettuccine and ended up eating most of the plate, then put it back down in front of me and it looked as if I'd eaten it! This was funny because I'd go on to eat the other 2 entrees, so it looked like I ate 3 entrees and 2 desserts by the time all was said and done. Haha.

My fritters came out during the entree course. Definitely one of my favorite carnival entrees.

Followed immediately by the steak I'd ordered. I believe this was a NY strip, and way better than the leathery flat iron steak I'd gotten on night 1.

My husband ordered the traditional holiday meal with turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and who knows what else - he was glad he'd eaten the fettuccine after all because he kind of picked his way through this and would have probably still been hungry.

This dessert I ordered along with my chocolate melting cake was very good. It was a sort of raspberry mousse with raspberry sorbet.

Stuffed to the gills, I waddled out of there and back over to the photo op we'd wanted to get before we got in line early for dinner. We waited 45 minutes for the photographer to come back - the backdrop was so nice - but we ultimately did not like how we looked or how we were posed once we saw it on the photo so we skipped it.

We took our daughter up to Camp Ocean for one last visit, then headed back to the room to start the daunting task of packing. We always elect to do self assist debarkation when possible so we tried to pack everything as efficiently as possible so that everyone had 1 suitcase and 1 carry on.

Pretty soon we headed up to see Flick, one of the production shows. Flick is by far the best production show i've seen in 11 Carnival cruises. Though it was just a wee bit too long by maybe 5 to 10 minutes but of course, that's a personal preference. I will say that I can have a warped sense of humor and I found it hysterical that they included the theme song to Titanic. I think this is supposed to be Jack & Rose and see the icebergs in the background? Thank goodness there are no icebergs in the Caribbean!

After Flick, we signed our daughter out of Camp Ocean for the last time. We also stopped for one last ice cream cone before debarkation....or would it be the last? Hmm.

I can't remember exactly what we did after this, but I did end up taking my daughter briefly to the Dive In Movie for one of our family favorites.

We only stuck around to watch the really funny parts, then we had to head back to the room to finish packing and get to bed because we had a 5:30am alarm set to ensure we had time to eat breakfast, get ready, finish packing all the stuff we'd use in the morning and get to the Ovation lounge by 7am.

Earlier during Christmas afternoon, I'd contacted my mother on Facebook to ask her to get me the weather forecast for Galveston. I'd been worried about the possibility of fog knowing it's that time of year for Galveston. If there was a possibility we'd be fogged out to sea, I wanted to a. mentally prepare myself for it and b. make sure my daughter knew it was a possibility because she doesn't do well with last minute changes. My mom relayed the forecast and I had a feeling that fog was a good possibility - Galveston and fog seem to go hand in hand right around the 65-75 degree temp range, which was exactly what the forecast called for. I reminded my family we could be delayed before we headed to bed.

It was around 4-4:30am when I felt the ship vibrating as it normally would when we're slowing to a stop. I wasn't sure if that was because we were approaching the channel to enter to dock or if we were stopping at sea. I didn't turn on the TV to see our location because I knew it would awaken my daughter and then no one would get back to sleep! My husband had awakened before the alarm and went outside and came back to report right after the alarm went off "wheeeeew! it's foggy out there!" and handed me a letter from the Captain stating we are delayed out at sea due to fog and enjoy a leisurely breakfast as there is no need to report anywhere at this time with the Port of Galveston closed.

Yep, we weren't going anywhere!

I happily went back to sleep. My husband and daughter eventually went up to the Lido for breakfast. I slept off and on all the way until 10am! The Captain came on once per hour to give us updates - unfortunately all of the updates were that the port remained closed, but they were optimistic it would open for us soon. Leigh kept us updated constantly about where entertainment was offered and what it was - movies in various lounges and on the Dive In Theater screen, trivia on the Promenade Deck. They really were doing the best they could.

After I awakened, I realized I needed to get in touch ASAP with the person boarding my dog for 2 reasons, one: to let her know if we were going back to San Antonio on this day, we wouldn't arrive until dark at the earliest and two: that we actually needed to drive to Georgia on that day if at all possible due to a death in the family and if she could watch our dog for another week while we were gone. I don't know if they opened the phone lines up for all guests with the delay, but we were never charged for this phone call.

The captain's final update came sometime during the 11 oclock hour to report that the Port was now open and we expected to be docked by 1pm.

We headed up to the Lido for lunch right around 11, but nothing was serving lunch yet. I overheard someone ask one of the crew tending to setting up the front buffet line when he expected the line to open and he said "any minute now - almost done" so we stuck around there to grab lunch as soon as they opened. We were proceeding up the channel outside of Galveston at this time and it was cool to pass by all the tankers in such close proximity to be able to see something, anything through the fog!

It wasn't until lunch, venturing up to the Lido Deck, that I realized the mood of my fellow passengers was dark. Very, very dark. All week, people had been friendly to each other; after all, we were all in the Christmas spirit, right? Not today! I saw a family wearing St. Louis Cardinals t-shirts, which is my favorite baseball team, and living in Texas, I rarely see people wearing my team and I always make it a point to say something. I gave my usual "Go Cardinals!" and they gave me an icy glare! OK, OK, I get it, they probably missed a flight back to St. Louis. That'll make anyone tense and stressed. But the more I walked around the ship, the more I realized people were fuming mad. It made me really grateful that we haven't had to fly to a port since we went on the Legend in 2007, because I do get stressed out easily and I wouldn't want to have to worry about last minute rescheduling of flights on top of trying to explain the last minute changes to my daughter.

Now it was time for the last ice cream of the trip!

After lunch, we grabbed our luggage and headed to the Ovation theater to debark. At exactly 1:10pm, they called us to debark, we were one of the lucky first ones out of the lounge. As we were standing at the door to the gangway waiting to scan our card, Leigh was apologizing over and over to everyone about the delay. I thanked him for an amazing Christmas cruise and he thanked me for not killing him over the delay. That made me feel so sad thinking about how he's away from his own family for Christmas and I'm sure some people are holding him personally responsible for mother nature and the port closing. The whole staff was great during the delay and really what more could they have done?

We got off the ship, zipped through customs and we were out the door of the terminal by 1:30pm. We went looking for our shuttle back to the Hilton but never found it - so we just grabbed a cab back. We were at our car by 1:45pm and back on the road thereafter. Thankfully our dog boarder could take our dog for one more week so instead of 4 hours back to San Antonio, it would now be 11 hours to Georgia, which wasn't doable in the time frame we had from debarking so late, so we scrambled at the last minute to get a place to stay overnight along the way. Thank goodness we had all of this amazing Honduran chocolate to snack on for the car ride!

We were so sad to leave the Breeze behind, but we made some great memories along the way. As I did back in 2011 when we did a Disney land & sea vacation, I am making a photo book filled with memories of the trip - my daughter still loves looking through that book to this day, and I can't wait to sit down together and make the new memory book with her.

If anyone has any questions or is looking for specific pictures of anything, please still feel free to let me know! Thank you for following along as I enjoyed reliving this adventure.

Great review!!! Thanks, Tonya!

Great review - thanks! As I wrote earlier I was suppose to be on this cruise - and I've been hoping for someone to make a review, so I'm really grateful that you did take the time to write and post it. And great photos!

Sorry for your lost, I hope you made the trip to Georgia without further delays.

/Helle

Great review! Thanks for sharing!

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Thank you for taking the time to submit such a wonderful review. Glad you made such lasting memories.

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Thank You for this amazing review. It makes me even more anxious for Apr 2, if that is possible. :)

Awesome review! I loved your Star Wars shirts too!! ❤❤❤

Great review. I love the suspense on the early morning of your disembarkation.

Excellent review! Yours was the first where I've actually read every word. :) You made it easy. ;) I'm a huge STL Cards fan so I always have at least one (or three) Cards shirts with me, and I love to meet fellow fans!

I've always wanted to try the Breeze so when it was announced it was leaving Galveston in 2018, I booked a surprise cruise for hubby and myself. After your review, I am so excited even though it's a year and a half away!

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us. Enjoyed the YouTube videos too.

Thanks everyone! I'm glad y'all enjoyed!

Great review - thanks! As I wrote earlier I was suppose to be on this cruise - and I've been hoping for someone to make a review, so I'm really grateful that you did take the time to write and post it. And great photos!

 

Sorry for your lost, I hope you made the trip to Georgia without further delays.

 

/Helle

Thank you and I do hope your son is recovering well. So sorry you could not make it.

What a fantastic review! Love reading and seeing all your pictures! Looks like you all had the BEST time.. Thanks for sharing!:D

Thank you! It's so refreshing to read a review like this. I can't wait for our April cruise on the Breeze now! Happy New Year to you and your family!

What a nice review! We were just in San Antonio for Christmas! My daughter is there with my granddaughter.

One day I hope to get them on a cruise from Galveston!

Lesley

Please thank your husband for his service!

We brought a vinyl Christmas tree which my daughter was very excited to put up.

Where did you get the vinyl tree?

We enjoy cruising at Christmas. Have done it a few times some out of Galveston. Thanks for sharing.

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If you're interested in seeing pictures of Christmas cruises, you might like to visit my wife's website. She has slide shows of all of our cruises on the Travel Section that includes a Christmas Ice Show. Christmas is a great time to go on a cruise.

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Thanks everyone! I'm glad y'all enjoyed!

 

 

 

Thank you and I do hope your son is recovering well. So sorry you could not make it.

WeatherGeek,

It is SO lucky I found your review !!:D Last summer, I was checking out the CCL website and saw the Breeze was leaving on a Christmas cruise 12-22-18, out of (PC) and I had always heard her say that a Christmas cruise was her BIGGEST 'bucket list' cruise !! (originally, it had been Alaska, but we did that on the Carnival Spirit 6/2010) so I just knew I had to bring her to her attention ! Boy, was she excited, she immediately sat down made reservations for three ( My sis,who's two years younger than me (65) and a widow has joined us for our past 6 cruises, since she doesn't have anybody to cruise with, and hates going solo, joins us). a balcony cabin on the Ledo deck. We all are so excited !! While we've twelve Carnival cruises and three RCL, we've NEVER done an Xmas cruise NOR have we sailed on the Breeze!! Yipeeeeeeeee !! So this cruise this year, in Dec will be a 'FIRST' for all three of us !

Not sure IF you'll ever get to see this post but just wanted you to know just how much I appreciated it. As I stated above my sis has been on our past 6 CCL cruises and we've the steakhouse on every CC ship that had one, it's sorta of a tradition, and we ALL love them !! Once again, thanks for the GREAT review !!

Mac

In place of the pictures I get a message saying: Please update your account to enable third party hosting.

I looked in my settings and didn't see this option.

Any clue how I can do this?

Thanks in advance

I can't see any of your photos.

Hi WeatherGeek! My family and I are sailing on the Magic in April (which I'm told is identical to Breeze) and we too were assigned a portside Aft Deluxe Oceanview on the Riviera deck (room 1432 to be precise, which is pretty far aft). I'm concerned about how much noise there may be back there with it being so close to the propellers. and was hoping you could advise on how the noise level was in your cabin. I was in an Aft Riviera interior on Elation before and it wasn't too bad (only got loud when coming into port), but I wasn't sure about the Magic. I called Carnival and can switch to a midship cabin for only $30 more so I'm wondering if it's worth it or if the Aft cabin should be fine. Thanks in advance!