Just off the Breeze

[cherbear4000]

I just returned home from an 8 day cruise on the Breeze to Grand Turk, La Romana, Curacao, and Aruba. As much as I love reading the minute by minute reviews with pictures that some of our fellow cruisers take the time to write I do not have the patience for it. I will be writing a brief review of my cruise though, including the ports.

 

A little background: My parents treat the family to a cruise every summer. This year there were 15 of us ages 23 months to 74 yrs. This was my 14th cruise, 7th with Carnival.

 

Overall, I would rate this cruise as average.

 

There was one major issue I had though. The sewage smell was out of control. The aft section on the upper decks especially. My cabin was 9th deck mid-aft and the cabin smelled the entire cruise of nasty sewage. The aft section of the Lido (where the aft pool and pizza are) was the worse. We were hanging out playing cards one night and the smell got so bad we had to leave. It was disgusting. I was talking to some other cruisers that complained. They were told there was a broken pump. Nothing could be done about it and no compensation was offered so I didn't bother complaining myself.

[cherbear4000]

Embarkation:

 

My husband and I recently moved to Port St Lucie, FL. It was an easy 90 minute drive down I-95 to the port of Miami. We arrived around 11am, dropped our luggage with the porter and parked in the parking garage at the port. Originally I planned on parking off site to save money, but after reading some posts about what a bad area those parking places are in, i decided to suck it up and pay the $20/day at the port. Although expensive, it was convenient. The terminal wasn't crowded at all. When we went through security, our carry-on with our 2 packs of soda and 2 bottles of wine was flagged and we had to step aside so they could go through the bag. The security person didn't even look at the wine but when through each can of soda, checking the bottoms to make sure they were real cans of soda. She told me that people buy fake cans with false bottoms to sneak drugs on board. After verifying that we did in fact have soda we went upstairs to get our cabin keys. We were given Zone 9 and were on the ship just before noon.

 

The cabins were supposed to be ready at 12:30pm. We went to our cabin around 12:45pm and our cabin steward told us that the cabin wouldn't be ready for at least another hour. No big deal, we just wanted to drop off the carry on anyways.

 

 

Debarkation:

 

We did the relaxed debarkation and had Zone 16. We were able to leave the ship around 8:45am. Typical debarkation, although the luggage area was a mad house. No lines at customs though.

[cherbear4000]

Cabin:

 

Some of our group had balcony cabins some had inside. DH and I had an inside cabin. Other than the sewage smell, I have no complaints about our cabin. The first night, we noticed 2 issues. The lock on the door did not work and the shower drain was backed up and the shower overflowed. We told our cabin steward the next morning ad both issues were taken care of immediately.

 

The steward, Leo, did a great job job of keeping the cabin clean. Of course, the cabin stewards always do a great job. The beds were so comfortable. I wish my bed at home was that comfy. On the Breeze, you are supposed to have to keep a card in the slot for the lights. In our cabin, we did not need to do that. The lights turned on without a card in the slot no problem. Also, for the first time ever on Carnival, our cabin fridge was actually cold!!!

 

My mom did seem to think that her balcony cabin on the Breeze had less storage than previous balcony cabins on other Carnival ships, including the Dream. Not sure if that is true or not.

[KPfromCT]

Bummer about the sewage smell. We did the 8 day in April, and NEVER smelled it. Hope they fixed it!!!! :)

[cherbear4000]

The food was fine. It wasn't gourmet by any means, but I am pretty sure I packed on a few pounds this week.

 

Comedy Brunch - This was my first experience with the comedy brunch. DH hates breakfast type foods, so it was nice that he could get some other options early in the morning. I had the chicken quesadilla and thought it was delicious. Everyone else in my group also liked their meal. The comedy was pointless but it didn't take away from the meal. I was able to get a free Long island with my VIFP coupon no problem.

 

Guy's Burgers - Very good. Way better that the old burgers Carnival used to have. Loved the topping bar.

 

Blue Iquana - Burittos and Tacos - Also really enjoyed the food here. I really liked the Salsa/Topping bar here as well.

 

Mongolian Walk - I had this once for lunch and it was so good! I would have ate it more, but the line was too long most days.

 

Dining Room - Please Carnival change up the menus!!!! It is the same menu cruise after cruise after cruise. I would love some new choices. The food we did have was decent. Again, not gourmet, but edible. The service was slow. The waiters have too many tables. I remember back when the guests could actually talk to and get to know their servers. Not anymore, they are just too busy.

 

Lido Buffet - Mediocre. I liked the salad bar, but there was not enough food options. It seemed liked the same food all week.

[KPfromCT]

New menus should be out this fall. :D. I think we're ALL ready!!! Lol

[Jimmy Geegitz]

20 dollars a day to park is cheap. You should park at the NYC terminal. 35 bux a day.

[riclop]

The food was fine. It wasn't gourmet by any means, but I am pretty sure I packed on a few pounds this week.

 

Comedy Brunch - This was my first experience with the comedy brunch. DH hates breakfast type foods, so it was nice that he could get some other options early in the morning. I had the chicken quesadilla and thought it was delicious. Everyone else in my group also liked their meal. The comedy was pointless but it didn't take away from the meal. I was able to get a free Long island with my VIFP coupon no problem.

 

Guy's Burgers - Very good. Way better that the old burgers Carnival used to have. Loved the topping bar.

 

Blue Iquana - Burittos and Tacos - Also really enjoyed the food here. I really liked the Salsa/Topping bar here as well.

 

Mongolian Walk - I had this once for lunch and it was so good! I would have ate it more, but the line was too long most days.

 

Dining Room - Please Carnival change up the menus!!!! It is the same menu cruise after cruise after cruise. I would love some new choices. The food we did have was decent. Again, not gourmet, but edible. The service was slow. The waiters have too many tables. I remember back when the guests could actually talk to and get to know their servers. Not anymore, they are just too busy.

 

Lido Buffet - Mediocre. I liked the salad bar, but there was not enough food options. It seemed liked the same food all week.

The lido buffet has a different theme everyday for lunch, for dinner its pretty much what they have in the MDR and for breakfast how much can you change breakfast options.

[gapearl]

Thanks for the report! I leave next month and can't wait. :D Hopefully there won't be a sewage smell! :eek:

[LEXIpoo]

Thanks for taking the time to write this review. Sailing this itinerary in less than 3 weeks!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cherbear4000]

All 4 ports were new to us.

 

Grand Turk - There is a beach with lounge chairs right off the ship. There is also a Margaritaville with a very large pool at the port, along with some shops. Personally, I like to leave the port area and do an excursion. Since we were going to the beach in the other ports we decided to book the Dune Buggy excursion through Carnival. This was a lot of fun. You really got to see a lot of the island. Grand Turk is one of the poorer islands in the Turks and Caicos and all of the resorts are on a different island. I found this tour interesting since I like to see how people really live in other parts of the world and it was much more exciting exploring by dune buggy than a bus. There are wild donkeys all over the island. We had to stop a few times while they were just standing in the middle of the road.

 

La Romana - We booked the Carnival Sanoa Special through Seavis Tours. We took a speedboat to Sanoa Island where lunch and beverages, including beer and rum were included. The water was beautiful. It was crystal clear and had some decent snorkeling. We then went to the natural pool noted for it's Starfish.

 

I would recommend this tour but there were just a couple of things worth noting. First it was very confusing trying to find the taxi company contracted with Seavis to bring you to the tour. You have to leave the gated area to get to the taxis. I just kept telling people I was with Seavis until I found the right place. Also, when we arrived at the start of the tour where we got on the speedboat, we were harassed repeatedly to buy random items. Even after saying no we were followed and repeatedly begged. They were so aggressive that we were immediately turned off.

[cherbear4000]

Curacao - First of all I have been mispronouncing the name of this island for years! We were in this port late 2-11pm. We booked the East side tour with Irie. It is an open air bus that takes you around with a stop at the Curacao liquor factory and a beach. It was definitely worth the $20 especially since it includes beer, soda, and water. The island itself is beautiful. i loved all the colorful buildings. The beach they took us to was so crowed. I brought goggles and was saddened to see the the entire bottom of the ocean around this beach was littered with bottles, cans, and plastic cups. I saw people bring their drinks from the bar into the water and just through the cups into the ocean when they were done. Very sad. We were only at the beach for an hour and between the crowd and the litter i could have done without the beach time.

 

We got back from the excursion at around 6pm. We headed across the bridge into town and all of the stores were closed! I would have thought with a large cruise ship in port until 11pm, the stores would have stayed open later. Nope. So much for my DI charm from Curacao. There were some small stands and stores in the fort area that did stay open later. The restaurants in town were also opened later.

[sjcruiser]

Thanks for the review!!!!

[Noel182002]

Hope that smell is gone in six weeks... Sorry about that issue

[MrFunInTheSun]

Thanks for sharing!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Please excuse any typographical errors.

[coachpete]

I was on the sailing with you. The smell was bad in places. We were on Deck 1 inside, as it was a last minute shot. Food was ok. They definately need a sports pub like on NCL.

[jolyroger]

sorry to hear about the sewage smell and the other problems you encountered on your cruise...we thankfully never had anything to complain about when we cruised this past April...In fact we loved the breeze so much so we"re crusing again next april!

[lbfluffy]

Thanks for the review. We are going November 9. Hope the MDR menus ar changed by th time we sale,

[cherbear4000]

Aruba - We booked the Kukoo Kunuku through Carnival last minute. Nice tour of the island in an open air bus. The bus was fun with loud music and maracas to shake. It also included 2 hours of beach time.

[cherbear4000]

Just some thoughts/observations. Our last cruise was on the Dream, so we were already familiar with the layout. I liked the decor of this ship.

 

I thought the red frog pub was really cool. It was a great place to hang out at night. There was usually a musician playing. We also attended the adult comedy show a couple of times. I really wish the lounge they did the show in was bigger. It is impossible to get a seat unless you show up 30 mins prior.

 

Most of my group spent their time in the casino. My dad qualified for free drinks in the casino about halfway through the cruise. He does not drink alcohol at all and rarely drinks soda, but he did get a couple of drinks here and there for others in our group. I personally dont gamble, but everyone in my family that does won quite a bit overall. They usually lose, so that was a nice change

 

There was a lot of trivia. I love trivia but only attended a couple of games. I did win Michael Jackson trivia! My prize was a coveted ship on a stick.

 

The kids really liked the SkyCourse. I hate heights so I did not enjoy it as much but did it at my nieces/nephews insistence. I don't care how old you are those water slides are fun!

 

I really liked the taste bar. We only were able to make it a couple of nights since we had early dining.

 

Overall, it was a fun cruise. I hope the sewage smell is taken care of soon for any of you getting ready to sail the Breeze!

[dst]

Thanks for a great review, sorry about the sewer smell. We sail in January and sailed the Dream this past January; can I ask what differences you noticed between the two.

What type of dining did you have?

 

Where did you hang out on sea days, did it feel crowded?

 

I know I have a lot of questions :)

 

Thanks

[cherbear4000]

Thanks for a great review, sorry about the sewer smell. We sail in January and sailed the Dream this past January; can I ask what differences you noticed between the two.

What type of dining did you have?

 

Where did you hang out on sea days, did it feel crowded?

 

I know I have a lot of questions :)

 

Thanks

 

I sailed the Dream prior to its dry dock and 2.0 upgrades. The layout was the same. The Breeze had more food choices. When I sailed the Dream, it did not have Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana, Red Frog Pub, or the Taste Bar. The Breeze also had the SkyCourse rope course, which the Dream did not.

 

We had early dining in the Blush Dining Room. We ate there everyday but the day we were in Curacao.

 

The Lido deck near the main pool was very crowded the first sea day, but not so much the 2nd and 3rd sea day. I think people had enough of the sun by then. The casino got really crowded after dinner. Other than that, we really didn't notice crowds. We hung out all over the ship.

[dst]

I sailed the Dream prior to its dry dock and 2.0 upgrades. The layout was the same. The Breeze had more food choices. When I sailed the Dream, it did not have Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana, Red Frog Pub, or the Taste Bar. The Breeze also had the SkyCourse rope course, which the Dream did not.

 

We had early dining in the Blush Dining Room. We ate there everyday but the day we were in Curacao.

 

The Lido deck near the main pool was very crowded the first sea day, but not so much the 2nd and 3rd sea day. I think people had enough of the sun by then. The casino got really crowded after dinner. Other than that, we really didn't notice crowds. We hung out all over the ship.

 

Thanks - I'm so excited to try this ship

 

Thanks for your reply

[Topo Gigio]

What was the name of the beach in Curacao?

[coachpete]

We felt the ship was generally crowded when not in port. We stayed on the ship in the DR, and it was awesome having her to ourselves. A lot of rowdy kids this past week, and it seems not enough people to control them. My wife got hit in the arm by some kids throwing the ping pong paddles around on the golf deck.

 

I will never cruise in the summer time again, long story.