Incredibly Long Breeze NYE cruise review Dec. 30/12-Jan. 5/13.

[baylivin]

Loving your review! We leave on the Breeze a week from tomorrow.:)

[hockeyluver]

Enjoying your review, thank you! Did you get hit with that storm today? :eek:

[Smuckyjo]

Great Review so far! We are on the Breeze in March and cannot wait!!! Please give an honest opinion on the MDR food...we loved the food on the Breeze but so many reviews are negative. I love to eat but am not a gourmet by any means so maybe others are just really picky. I can't imagine it's as bad as people are saying. Thanks! :D

[bluenoser2]

hockeyluver - no storm for us - that was farther east - but DH did get the opportunity to continue digging out all the stuff that landed while we were away enjoying heat. When we came home our cars were buried under snow!

 

Smuckyjo - we too are not gourmets, and we had NO compalints about the MDR food. I mean, occasionally we ordered something that we just didn't like - but that wasn't the fault of the kitchen, we were just experimenting. When DD15 ordered the mango cream chilled soup, (which we would like better if they'd serve in a glass with a straw, like Princess does!) and Janelle noticed her not enjoying it, he came right over and asked her if she'd like something else instead - to which she replied "Ceasar Salad!" and he had it to her in no time. Everything was the right temperature and done the way we requested it. Mind you, when they warned the guys about the jerk pork being quite spicy, the guys didn't even notice any heat, but I imagine they have to give the warning for people who aren't used to any spice in their (culinary) lives!

[bluenoser2]

 

Our ship pulled in to Grand Turk around 7:00 a.m. and DH was up and about taking pictures as we came in to port – apparently we were not the only earlier to bed cruisers – there were plenty of people streaming off the ship as soon as it was permitted, to jockey for position on beach loungers I suppose. We chose to have a leisurely breakfast in the dining room. Our family has a tradition of Eggs Benny on New Year’s Day morning, so 4 of us ordered that. This was not an amazing treat for the palette. I do make better Eggs Benedict, but hey....did I have to clean up afterwards? No? Did I have to lift a finger in the prep? No. I dare not complain.

 

(my favourite signage)

 

By 8:30 we left the ship and toured the shops in port, securing our Grand Turk magnet (when one travels Carry-On only, one saves a lot of money and time not doing the souvenir route), and then, as we had been instructed on CC, we turned left (as one comes off the ship). On this side there were loads of loungers, loads of beautiful sandy beach, and tremendous loads of surf to enjoy. Swimming on this side wouldn’t be advised, but what a wonderful place to enjoy the heat of the sun, the sound and sights of the ocean, and the view of the ship.

 

x(Florence didn't even take her NY eve formal wear off for NY day - what a partier she is)

 

 

At this point in my writing, I must point out that no one, absolutely no one, was allowed to complain about heat, sun, or anything else that had to do with over 80 degree temperatures (see, I CAN do farhenheit!). After reading with just a touch of a smile, that blizzard conditions had prevailed back home, as we had boarded the ship in Miami, we were bound and determined to enjoy every single last drop of sun and heat we could get on this trip before going back to dig out.

 

 

DD15, with only 2 days notice of the trip, had only enough time to request one souvenir for the trip – a conch shell from Grand Turk, which after researching, I had ensured was legal to take home to Canada since it wasn’t a protected item of the country. This had been the reason for turning left in the first place, and the directions from CC were right on – we followed the beach, past the little fence, but alas! It was high tide, and cowardice got the best of DD15 and me, and it was later, that DH (aka SuperWalker) came to the rescue and procured her a selection of small conch shells to choose from. She was delighted with her choice of a small conch, and has it displayed now on her dresser!

 

The girls enjoyed snapping pics of the surf, and exploring – MY favourite moment was hearing my otherwise monosyllabic and very quiet offspring shriek loudly (and then look around with great embarrassment) as a rogue breaker crashed all over them when they were unprepared. DH andDD15 went off “to the right” to swim for a bit,DD17 and I went off to find a restroom, and having successfully managed that, visited a few more shops, before returning to the whole crew and relocating over on the swimming side where the 3 non-swimmers found shady loungers, and the other 3 of us found water. OK.....there is absolutely no graceful way I could think of to get in to the water. With all the wind of the previous days, and the strong undertow there, my previously well-dreamed images of me gracefully jogging into the surf with my long blonde hair swinging side to side (oh, I have short brunette hair...oops.) were completely dashed, as I stumbled, tottered, fell this way and that, and in the end was rescued by DH who piggybacked me in. Sigh. You’ll remember that part about our uncoordinated dysfunctional family – if you had any doubts, you now know where they get it from. Exiting the water was no prettier, I assure you. But fun? Absolutely.

 

 

We returned to the ship earlier than most, for showers and a chance to try Guy’s Burgers. We were not disappointed – DD17 and I shared one. I think I could be quite happy just taking a plateful of the toppings. DH and I found the Serenity Deck with a vacant clamshell and while he pondered what he had left in the room that would be nice to have, I fell asleep. DH, who has trouble sitting still midday, was off taking pics and I was off in la-la land when the ship’s horn blew. Serenity knows no peace when the horn blows. Ah, the irony. We began to notice many people looking longingly at our secluded spot as they trudged by, so we vacated and went in search of one of the “secret” decks, where we happily watched our sailaway from Grand Turk.

 

 

Now that my directions on board weren’t so ....er...challenged, DD17 proceeded to ask me something regarding “the lower part of the Aviation Room....”?????? Oh, the Ovation Theatre. Right.

 

Dinner was loads of fun with our new-found best waiters ever, and The Son ordered Sushi for the first time off the Didja Ever part of the menu. When I asked him if he had any wasabi, he shrugged, and then I noticed him finishing off his plate, and scraping the paste all into his mouth. Where’s the video when you need it? THERE were some facial expressions we would have paid the roving photographers for if they had interrupted our dinner at that point! The girls were just plain ecstatic to find meatloaf and mashed potatoes on the menu, and enjoyed their dinner immensely. Dancing waiters followed our main course, and after melting cake, we headed off to Hasbro Game Show for our evening entertainment.

 

DH and I took a turn out on the Promenade deck – note to self: Bring flashlight. I didn’t know there were absolutely NO lights at the front of the ship on deck 5! Fortunately, that night there were no loungers out to trip over, but the next night DH decorated his leg with quite a bruise from bashing into one. Back inside we couldn’t find the others in our group, but when in doubt head for the self-serve ice-cream station, and sure enough, we all met up again. Tonight we got to try some pizza as there were no lineups, and it was good, very good.

[terri-eddie]

terri-eddie: so will we - it was the lure of saving hundreds of dollars in airfare that made us do it!

 

Next installment coming right up.....

 

 

The airfare is what lured us in...Delta is the cheapest. But I think the inconvenience of having to re-do arrangements for flights has out-weighed the price, and we're now willing to pay a little more for another carrier!

[pkrchkr]

very nice review with pick Blue noser.... there seems to be quite a few of us from god's country here.. Where is everyone from? we are in the Valley..

[bluenoser2]

very nice review with pick Blue noser.... there seems to be quite a few of us from god's country here.. Where is everyone from? we are in the Valley..

We're in Springhill...Anne Murray country. Lived in Middleton at one time, and Halifax.....and....don't get me started.

[ON THE VERGE]

:):):)GREAT REVIEW:rolleyes::rolleyes;)

[4me-itstheC]

Amazing review!!! So excited to be sailng on the Breeze in 2 weeks!!!

 

 

 

Carmel

[bluenoser2]

Yah mon. The ship wasn’t docking in Ocho Rios until 11:00 a.m., so after First Breakfast in the MDR at 8:00 we second breakfasted with pizza just before getting off the ship! Funny, how there are no lineups for pizza at 10:30 in the morning.....what’s wrong with these people? I was expecting getting off the ship to be a lengthy process, but was pleasantly surprised to find it very quick getting off, even with having to have one’s picture taken with the fake dreadlocked Jamaican...who incredibly seemed a better alternative than the scary large towel animal of the other gangway. I know, I know, we didn’t HAVE to have the pics taken, but that’s our entertainment on the last sea day, laughing over our terrible photos.

 

We had booked the day with Peat Taylor after seeing great reviews about him and his company on CC. We were not disappointed. As the long line of cruisers made their way to the end of the pier, the people directing us, asked what we wanted, we said “Peat Taylor” and were immediately taken out of the crowd, and over to the busses and vans where the Peat Taylor drivers were. After clearing up some confusion about our group size – we had inadvertently booked twice online, cancelled one, and had it all cleared up, but they still had us down twice. “No problem” though, once they realized there were only 6 of us and not 12, they filled up the small bus with a group from Russia (who Papa had great fun talking to since, of course, he’s been there...) who were going to the beach. We were going to Dunns River Falls first and were dropped off there, with the guide taking us right to where we needed to go, making sure we knew who our guide for the falls was, and making sure we knew the time and place for meeting after we were done. Very professional, and very reassuring. Well. Dunns River Falls. This may be the scariest thing I’ve ever done voluntarily in my rather sheltered and cowardly life! I’ve done ziplining, skied black diamond runs in BC, but this looked daunting. Or was that just because I had to wear my bathing suit with so many others around. Fortunately everyone is more interested in their own appearance (i.e. staying upright) than in mine, so I need not have worried.

 

 

 

(brave little DD15 doing the slide)

 

There is a lovely pathway one can take beside the falls where great shots can be taken of the people actually climbing the falls. Of course, DD17, the one with the nice camera, who had put it in the locker for safekeeping on the way to the falls, decided she couldn’t do the climb, didn’t have her camera, but she took pics with The Son’s duct-taped camera along the way anyway. Most of these will not be posted here. I thought there was an enormous amount of people winding their way up the falls when we got there, but being in our small group of 15 or so, we never felt rushed, or unsafe. The guide took our little cameras and obligingly took pics of us along the way at appropriate points. There are a few spots where one could leave the walk up the falls and get onto LAND...and you KNOW I thought seriously about exiting at all of them, but DD15’s grip on my hand was pretty tight, and I decided to tough it out. I was so glad I did because getting to the top was a personal victory, and there were no scratches, bumps or scrapes in our group. Shaky knees, yes, scraped knees, no. We tipped our guide, declined the $40 DVD that was also being filmed of our group, and THEN saw the HUGER THAN ENORMOUS line-up of people waiting to go to the Falls! We were so glad to have gotten there when we did – after learning that these were the Cruise groups from Falmouth and there were 4 ships in Jamaica that day, ALL of them going to the Falls!

 

 

Our Peat Taylor guide was waiting for us and after driving out and about, rather than wasting our time by getting the Russian group from the beach, it was decided that we would switch vehicles and get our own driver. This turned out to be Oneal Taylor, Peat Taylor’s son, and we enjoyed this SO much! He sang, he chatted, and he entertained us all the way to the White River Tubing place we were heading to. Everyone enjoyed the ride there, and once there, he took care of ensuring we were in the right spot, letting us know it would unfortunately be a bit of a wait, since they were having to wait for the truck to return with the tubes from the bottom, which was fine. The walk with the tube was a short and easy walk down a well-marked path – they were even offering to take the tubes for DD15 who looked little, and The Son, who they thought was blind (visually impaired, yes, blind, no....but hey....what service we got!). Hearing the shrieks of the groups before us, I was starting to get that butterfly in the pit of my stomach feeling again, wondering if I had chosen the right path after already using up my bravery quotient for 2013 on the falls. No worries. We were well taken care of by our two guides and 3 darling little boys who swam along with our group, and a dog. The girls and I held hands just to stay together, DH and The Son kept connected and Papa commented later “I would have been fine, if the guide had just let me go on my own, but I kept being backwards because of all the help given me!”. As I recall, there were no shrieks from our group, just sighs of happiness as we enjoyed the lush scenery from our in-river view. What a great way to spend a hot (but I’m not complaining) day – in all that nice cool water.

 

Oneal was waiting for us at the bottom, and got us back to the port promptly. Which was good. Some of us badly needed a pitstop....having declined to use the washroom at the Falls, there was no facililty at the tubing, and with all that running water....well, I’m sure some of you understand. We changed, and DH and I headed back on shore to obtain a Jamaica magnet and some trinkets for the kids. We are not good at the whole name your price thing, but we gave it our best shot, and came back with a few things. One bracelet for DD17, certainly not worth the handsome price of $3 paid, turned out to be worth it in the entertainment provided. We gave it to her; she went out on the balcony where it promptly came undone in that broken kind of way, and dropped straight to the promenade deck. She and DH hurried down and of course, all the beads had come off, and she picked up pretty much all of them, much to the confusion I’m sure of the person in the lounge chair that she was crouching behind. She enjoyed the adventure more than the bracelet.....ah, Diamonds International, eat your heart out.

 

It was assumed we’d be at good ol’ table 281 again this night, and we really enjoyed being there at the beginning of the evening, when all the staff is relaxed, and they are able to chat with us. Everyone called us by name by now, knew what we liked, (Hendro didn’t even give Papa a dessert menu anymore) and didn’t raise their eyebrows anymore when DD15 ordered chicken for appetizer, AND for main course. 3 of us had Oyster Rockefeller for apps, more Rockefeller than Oyster, but I love the garlic toast that comes with it. Everything was yummy – the lasagna, the filet mignon.....ahhh..

 

We attended the production show in the Aviation...I mean the Ovation Theatre – it was an early show 7:00 – no problem getting seats even though we were a few minutes late. I forgot to mention that we also attended “Divas” the other night – again, no problem getting seats, and we weren’t crazy early. I did not like Divas at all – it made me feel old, saying things like, “can’t hear the words”, “just a bunch of noise”......my DDs rolled their eyes at me. Imagine! Teen daughters rolling their eyes at me! The mother who not only birthed them, but helped plan for this awesome trip.....anyway, I didn’t like Divas. That should do it. “Brits” was much more enjoyable – here’s where someone is bound to be thinking – ah, she likes the sounds of the sixties....she IS old.” Whatever. The stage design, costumes, and music were just better in my humble opinion. The singing still left a little to be desired, but hey, it’s a cruise, I do not have to direct the show or manage the singers, I will not complain. I might nod off occasionally during a performance, but I will not complain. Not much anyway. (Is this the part where I give my opinion that the entertainment on the whole left much to be desired on this trip? I only have one other Carnival experience to compare it with, but I missed the smaller acts in the big theatre, like jugglers, or magicians, and the comedy shows were only 2 nights.....there, that’s done.)

[MYRN1]

Great review! We leave a week from today and I hope I can finish reading it before then :)

[JXR]

We're in Springhill...Anne Murray country. Lived in Middleton at one time, and Halifax.....and....don't get me started.

 

What a small world! Just did the Breeze 2&8-day US Inaugural. I live in Moncton but work in Springhill. Glad you had a great time.

Joanne

[Merc]

great review just got all caught up. cant wait for more!!

[cruisegirl29]

Awesome review & I love your humor!

I'm sailing is two weeks on the breeze!

[kjunea]

Really enjoying this! You have a great wit! I'll be on the Breeze a little over 2 months!

[cruisecluestoo]

Great review.! You make it very entertaining and fun to read . We will be on the Breeze in Feb. Can't wait. Hope we have as much fun as you had.

[beachbride91011]

Loving your review! Subscribed. We will be Breezing in May.

[Manatee Mom]

We were on this sailing with you.. Here is a funny video supplement to your detailed review. Looking forward to the rest of your review..

 

[cruiseclues]

Great Review. Lots of Fun. Thanks for the method of payment info on the self service laundry. :)

 

Here’s a Carnival Breeze Laundry room locator Deck Plan…click on launderettes…then one of the launderette decks and the deck plan will show it to you with a red square having a black dot in it.

 

You can move the deck plan with the mouse.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your nice review and great pictures.

[bluenoser2]

We were on this sailing with you.. Here is a funny video supplement to your detailed review. Looking forward to the rest of your review..

 

Great video! DH actually laughed out loud - and that takes something - he's jealous of your video editing talents! What do you use?

[Mrs.C05]

I love your humor and writing skills. Hilarious! Will you be posting pictures of you and your family?

[Manatee Mom]

Great video! DH actually laughed out loud - and that takes something - he's jealous of your video editing talents! What do you use?

THanks! My DH uses a Sony HD video camera and edits using Cyberlink PowerDirector. For this video he made a makeshift "GreenScreen" from green cloth I bought at Wal-Mart! He uploaded to YouTube in full HD quality.

[mama_2_boys]

Loving your review!