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Carnival Breeze - 6 Day Western Itinerary Review - January 26

goofytoo

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goofytoo

goofytoo

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The following is my review of my January 26th cruise on the Carnival Breeze. I am sorry to tell you that I do not know how to post pictures so there will not be any pictures included with my review.

 

Pre-Cruise:

My family took the 6 day western Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Breeze. There were four of us. My DH (61), my DD (16), my foreign exchange son (DS) (16) and myself (50). My husband and I are platinum, my DD is not platinum but was given a platinum card any way and our DS was given the blue card. (It was his first cruise)

 

On Saturday January 26, 2014 we drove to Milwaukee, WI. We parked our car at the Crowne Plaza and got a shuttle to the airport. Our flight to Chicago was nice and uneventful. We switched planes in Chicago. We had an opportunity to upgrade our flight to first class. I decided to treat our family and took the airline up on the offer. We were on a large airplane. I don't know the model of the plane but it was huge. There were 36 seats in the first class section. The seats were the kind that would convert into beds. For some reason the plane was not ready and we were stuck at the gate for an hour and ½. Our family was too busy taking pictures and playing with the seats to really notice that we were delayed that long. I told my daughter that it was a good thing that we were in first class, because if we were stuck in coach for 1 ½ hours, I would have been fuming. We finally took off and the rest of the flight was amazing. The drinks kept coming, the food was good and the seats were so comfortable. We all agreed that it was the best flight we ever had in our lives. My daughter kept saying that she was going to try harder in school, because she wanted to make enough money so she could fly first class from now on.

We got to Miami around 10:20 p.m. I found out that if we rented a car from Dollar, they would provide a free shuttle to the port. It was cheaper for our family to do this than it would be to pay for a taxi to take us to the port. We went to Dollar car rental to pick up our car. If you choose to do this you should get one of the luggage carts to transport your luggage to the car rental counter. The counter is a great distance from baggage claim. (We learned the hard way. Next time we will get a luggage cart.) There were only two people in front of me at the car rental counter and it still took a ½ hour for me to get to the counter. The man at the counter was not overly friendly. I told him where our hotel was and I told him, that I would not need the e-z pass. He insisted that I would drive through several toll booths and that I should get it. So I got the e-z pass option. I did not drive through any toll booths.

We finally got in the car and I set my GPS for the hotel address. We drove and drove and got in seedier and seedier neighborhoods. Finally we arrived at our destination. It was at an intersection that just had houses and no hotel to be seen. There were groups of young men drinking on almost every street corner. It never fails every time we are in Miami we get lost. We drove to a nearby Wendy's and I called the hotel. Apparently I entered NW 87th Ave. instead of NW 87th St. I reset my GPS for the correct address and we finally arrived at the hotel around 12:00 a.m.

We stayed at the Inter-Continental at Doral. I booked it using Hotwire. The hotel was nice, the rooms were clean and service was good. The desk clerk told us we could sit out by the pool, even though the pool was closed for the evening. I really enjoyed their court yard. They have huge palm trees and the lighting at night is beautiful. We sat outside for a little while and finally went to bed around 2:00 a.m.

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Embarkation Day.

I woke up around 9:00 a.m. I took a shower and woke the rest of the family up around 9:30 a.m. We packed our suit cases and went to Dunkin Donuts to get some breakfast. I sent my family in to place our order while I played with the GPS. After about 10 minutes, I went inside to find out what was taking so long. My family had placed their order but my husband was having trouble determining how much money he needed to give them. He is on quite a bit of medication and sometimes he gets confused. Anyway he had shorted them about 26 cents. So he grabbed their tip jar and started counting out 26 cents. I explained to him that that was their tip money that he was using. He apologized and put their money back plus a nice tip to make up for it.:D We ate our donuts and set off to the airport.

When I booked our car rental I booked a one way rental from the airport to the Miami cruise port. This was a less expensive option than taking a taxi to the port. I was under the impression that we would drop the car off at a rental center closer to the port and board a shuttle from that location to the cruise terminal. I was later told that I would just return the car to the airport and a shuttle would take us from the airport to the port. We returned the car and were lucky enough to get the last four seats on the shuttle. The people that arrived a few minutes after us were told to wait for the next shuttle.

When we arrived at the port we had to drive by the terminal for the NCL ship that was in port that day. I think it was the Pearl but I could be wrong. Any way there were at least 100 people waiting outside in the sun. I was afraid that there may be a long wait to board the Breeze but there wasn't. We were dropped off, gave the porters our luggage and set off to board the ship.

I saw some men standing around with wheel chairs and asked them if it was ok if they gave my husband a lift. He uses canes to walk. They said sure and they took us in to the terminal. They walked right by the VIP lounge. I told them that we were Platinum and had priority boarding but we were told that they had a separate area for wheel chair boarding. We were the only people in the wheel chair boarding area. We went right up to the desk and got our keys. We were told our rooms should be ready and told to go ahead and board. There were still people sitting in the terminal waiting to board. We walked right by them and got on the ship. I think we got on the ship around 12:00.

We went right to our cabin, room 2258. We had a cove balcony cabin. The room was bigger than what I had imagined. The kids were excited and really liked the room. Although the room was a little bit cramped for four people we all managed to move around in it just fine. When we booked the cabin I specifically made sure that the bed request was for 2 twin beds and not a king bed. My husband I are sleep incompatible. We need our own space and blankets. Unfortunately, the steward did not take note of the request and had the beds set up as a king bed. My husband set off to find a steward to rectify the situation. He came back and told me that the steward told him that her shift had ended and she would be back at 3:00 to fix the beds. I am sorry I do not know the steward's name, as I was never introduced to her.

We finished unpacking our carry-ons and set off to explore the ship. However when we opened the door, we saw that our luggage was already delivered to our room. That was a nice surprise. We unpacked the rest of our luggage and went to get lunch.

On the way to lunch I saw the bottomless bubbles table and stopped to buy each of the kids a sticker. I grabbed a Guy's ringer burger on my way to meet my family. I read several reviews that the ringer was the best burger so I was anxious to try it. The burger was good. But I live in the Sauk Prairie area of Wisconsin. This is where the Culvers are from. It is my opinion that the Culver's butter cheeseburger with the works is better than the ringer, but that is just my opinion. My family was still in the buffet line, so I found a place to sit down and ordered a bucket of Foster's beer. It is cheaper to get a bucket of beer than it is to buy them individually. You don't have to drink them all in one day. We take any un-opened cans back to our cabin and then swap them out for cold ones when we are ready for another beer.

After lunch the kids and I went to explore the ship while my DH went back to the cabin. We started at our room and worked our way up, floor by floor. I think it took us about 1 and ½ hours to walk through the whole ship. By the time we got back to the room, they were already making announcements about the muster drill. We were assigned muster station 4B. We met in the 2nd floor of the Sapphire dining room. A ½ an hour to 40 minutes later we were set free to enjoy our cruise.

My husband and I are nappers. We enjoy a good afternoon nap when we are on vacation. We went back to our cabins anticipating a nice nap, only to find that our beds had not been separated yet. So my husband went off to hunt down the steward to ask her to separate our beds. She told him that we would have to wait until they turned down our rooms while we were at dinner. Now I was upset. I told my husband that I had specifically made sure that they knew we wanted twin beds when I booked the cruise. The steward had initially said she would separate the beds at 3:00. It was now after 4:00 and our beds were not separated. I did not see why we would have to skip our nap because the steward did not bother to read the notes about bed choices when she initially prepared the room. My husband went to hunt her down again and told her that I was upset. About 20 minutes later they came and separated the beds for us. The kids decided that they were also tired, so they lay down and took naps too.

When we woke up, I noticed that we still hadn't left port. Our cabin was located right above a gangway on deck 0. There were about 4 ship employees standing on the gangway. All of the sudden they started running towards the terminal. A family had come out of the terminal. The employees grabbed their luggage and ran back to the ship with it. The family then ran to the ship, got on the ship and our cruise began. So I guess it is safe to say that sometimes, the ship does wait for late passengers. The ships horn woke up the kids so they came outside to watch the ship set sail.

The kids had a great time watching the policeman in the boat that was in the canal between our ship and another ship that was still docked. He was leading a cheering session between the ships. He would point to one ship and make a motion for them to cheer loudly, then he would motion to the other ship that it was their turn. He then played some dance music on his PA system and did a little dance. It was quite amusing and we laughed a lot. Our DS was impressed when a police boat stopped some jet skiers from getting too close to the ship. We stayed on our balcony until the ship reached the ocean.

We then got ready for dinner and went to dinner. We had any time dining. I think it was close to 7:00 when we went to eat. We did not have to wait for our table. I am sorry to say that I can't remember what we ordered for dinner other than everybody liked it. Service was a little slow but not too bad.

My DD and I left dinner before desert because we wanted to go to the Red Frog Pub to see what the adult trivia game was like. It was a lot of fun. The prize was a free tube of beer or a fish bowl to share with your teammates. Our team came in last place, we only got one question right. My DD daughter and I enjoyed it so much that we decided we would try to go every night. We never did make it back there.

We then went to see what was happening at Karaoke. There was a large group there. A couple was singing Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe". They were hilarious. We did not want to leave but we told the boys we would meet them for the invisible movie trivia. So we went to the ovation theatre to meet them. The trivia game was fun, but I really did not know any of the scenes. My DD and DS knew a few of them

After that the kids wanted to get a club O2 schedule. So we went to the club to get the schedule and there were already kids in the club. My kids were deeply engrossed in conversations with new friends so I told them to check in with me at midnight and left to find my DH at karaoke. The group of people that were there earlier had left and the other singers were not as fun. So we decided to go back to the room. On the way back to the room we walked by the Ocean Plaza and heard the band, # Rhythm Nation (?). The singing was fairly good, and the song choices they made were wonderful. We stayed and listened to them through their final set.

We went back to the room to look for the kids. You guessed it, no kids!! So I set out to track them down. Where does one start to look for 2 teenagers? Think pizza!! Yep I found them with their friends eating pizza. I explained to them both in a fairly loud voice how I expected them to follow instructions. I told them they could hang out with their friends but they had to be in the cabin by 2:00 a.m.

My husband and I ordered pizza, walked around the ship and then went back to the room around 1:30 a.m. The kids came in around 1:45 and we sat on the balcony until about 3:00 a.m. and then went to bed.

I read on here that we should bring bungee cords to hold the cabin door open. I propped the door open and we fell asleep to the sound of waves. It was wonderful. We all slept soundly that night.

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QtbuggMom

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Embarkation Day.

I woke up around 9:00 a.m. I took a shower and woke the rest of the family up around 9:30 a.m. We packed our suit cases and went to Dunkin Donuts to get some breakfast. I sent my family in to place our order while I played with the GPS. After about 10 minutes, I went inside to find out what was taking so long. My family had placed their order but my husband was having trouble determining how much money he needed to give them. He is on quite a bit of medication and sometimes he gets confused. Anyway he had shorted them about 26 cents. So he grabbed their tip jar and started counting out 26 cents. I explained to him that that was their tip money that he was using. He apologized and put their money back plus a nice tip to make up for it.:D We ate our donuts and set off to the airport.

When I booked our car rental I booked a one way rental from the airport to the Miami cruise port. This was a less expensive option than taking a taxi to the port. I was under the impression that we would drop the car off at a rental center closer to the port and board a shuttle from that location to the cruise terminal. I was later told that I would just return the car to the airport and a shuttle would take us from the airport to the port. We returned the car and were lucky enough to get the last four seats on the shuttle. The people that arrived a few minutes after us were told to wait for the next shuttle.

When we arrived at the port we had to drive by the terminal for the NCL ship that was in port that day. I think it was the Pearl but I could be wrong. Any way there were at least 100 people waiting outside in the sun. I was afraid that there may be a long wait to board the Breeze but there wasn't. We were dropped off, gave the porters our luggage and set off to board the ship.

I saw some men standing around with wheel chairs and asked them if it was ok if they gave my husband a lift. He uses canes to walk. They said sure and they took us in to the terminal. They walked right by the VIP lounge. I told them that we were Platinum and had priority boarding but we were told that they had a separate area for wheel chair boarding. We were the only people in the wheel chair boarding area. We went right up to the desk and got our keys. We were told our rooms should be ready and told to go ahead and board. There were still people sitting in the terminal waiting to board. We walked right by them and got on the ship. I think we got on the ship around 12:00.

We went right to our cabin, room 2258. We had a cove balcony cabin. The room was bigger than what I had imagined. The kids were excited and really liked the room. Although the room was a little bit cramped for four people we all managed to move around in it just fine. When we booked the cabin I specifically made sure that the bed request was for 2 twin beds and not a king bed. My husband I are sleep incompatible. We need our own space and blankets. Unfortunately, the steward did not take note of the request and had the beds set up as a king bed. My husband set off to find a steward to rectify the situation. He came back and told me that the steward told him that her shift had ended and she would be back at 3:00 to fix the beds. I am sorry I do not know the steward's name, as I was never introduced to her.

We finished unpacking our carry-ons and set off to explore the ship. However when we opened the door, we saw that our luggage was already delivered to our room. That was a nice surprise. We unpacked the rest of our luggage and went to get lunch.

On the way to lunch I saw the bottomless bubbles table and stopped to buy each of the kids a sticker. I grabbed a Guy's ringer burger on my way to meet my family. I read several reviews that the ringer was the best burger so I was anxious to try it. The burger was good. But I live in the Sauk Prairie area of Wisconsin. This is where the Culvers are from. It is my opinion that the Culver's butter cheeseburger with the works is better than the ringer, but that is just my opinion. My family was still in the buffet line, so I found a place to sit down and ordered a bucket of Foster's beer. It is cheaper to get a bucket of beer than it is to buy them individually. You don't have to drink them all in one day. We take any un-opened cans back to our cabin and then swap them out for cold ones when we are ready for another beer.

After lunch the kids and I went to explore the ship while my DH went back to the cabin. We started at our room and worked our way up, floor by floor. I think it took us about 1 and ½ hours to walk through the whole ship. By the time we got back to the room, they were already making announcements about the muster drill. We were assigned muster station 4B. We met in the 2nd floor of the Sapphire dining room. A ½ an hour to 40 minutes later we were set free to enjoy our cruise.

My husband and I are nappers. We enjoy a good afternoon nap when we are on vacation. We went back to our cabins anticipating a nice nap, only to find that our beds had not been separated yet. So my husband went off to hunt down the steward to ask her to separate our beds. She told him that we would have to wait until they turned down our rooms while we were at dinner. Now I was upset. I told my husband that I had specifically made sure that they knew we wanted twin beds when I booked the cruise. The steward had initially said she would separate the beds at 3:00. It was now after 4:00 and our beds were not separated. I did not see why we would have to skip our nap because the steward did not bother to read the notes about bed choices when she initially prepared the room. My husband went to hunt her down again and told her that I was upset. About 20 minutes later they came and separated the beds for us. The kids decided that they were also tired, so they lay down and took naps too.

When we woke up, I noticed that we still hadn't left port. Our cabin was located right above a gangway on deck 0. There were about 4 ship employees standing on the gangway. All of the sudden they started running towards the terminal. A family had come out of the terminal. The employees grabbed their luggage and ran back to the ship with it. The family then ran to the ship, got on the ship and our cruise began. So I guess it is safe to say that sometimes, the ship does wait for late passengers. The ships horn woke up the kids so they came outside to watch the ship set sail.

The kids had a great time watching the policeman in the boat that was in the canal between our ship and another ship that was still docked. He was leading a cheering session between the ships. He would point to one ship and make a motion for them to cheer loudly, then he would motion to the other ship that it was their turn. He then played some dance music on his PA system and did a little dance. It was quite amusing and we laughed a lot. Our DS was impressed when a police boat stopped some jet skiers from getting too close to the ship. We stayed on our balcony until the ship reached the ocean.

We then got ready for dinner and went to dinner. We had any time dining. I think it was close to 7:00 when we went to eat. We did not have to wait for our table. I am sorry to say that I can't remember what we ordered for dinner other than everybody liked it. Service was a little slow but not too bad.

My DD and I left dinner before desert because we wanted to go to the Red Frog Pub to see what the adult trivia game was like. It was a lot of fun. The prize was a free tube of beer or a fish bowl to share with your teammates. Our team came in last place, we only got one question right. My DD daughter and I enjoyed it so much that we decided we would try to go every night. We never did make it back there.

We then went to see what was happening at Karaoke. There was a large group there. A couple was singing Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe". They were hilarious. We did not want to leave but we told the boys we would meet them for the invisible movie trivia. So we went to the ovation theatre to meet them. The trivia game was fun, but I really did not know any of the scenes. My DD and DS knew a few of them

After that the kids wanted to get a club O2 schedule. So we went to the club to get the schedule and there were already kids in the club. My kids were deeply engrossed in conversations with new friends so I told them to check in with me at midnight and left to find my DH at karaoke. The group of people that were there earlier had left and the other singers were not as fun. So we decided to go back to the room. On the way back to the room we walked by the Ocean Plaza and heard the band, # Rhythm Nation (?). The singing was fairly good, and the song choices they made were wonderful. We stayed and listened to them through their final set.

We went back to the room to look for the kids. You guessed it, no kids!! So I set out to track them down. Where does one start to look for 2 teenagers? Think pizza!! Yep I found them with their friends eating pizza. I explained to them both in a fairly loud voice how I expected them to follow instructions. I told them they could hang out with their friends but they had to be in the cabin by 2:00 a.m.

My husband and I ordered pizza, walked around the ship and then went back to the room around 1:30 a.m. The kids came in around 1:45 and we sat on the balcony until about 3:00 a.m. and then went to bed.

I read on here that we should bring bungee cords to hold the cabin door open. I propped the door open and we fell asleep to the sound of waves. It was wonderful. We all slept soundly that night.

 

We are doing the 6 day Western Itinerary in march and I'm looking forward to the rest of your review!

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goofytoo

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I'm glad you made it through that bad area and there are a few of them down there. I like your review. We are on the Breeze March 1st.:cool:

 

Thanks, I must admit I was more than a little worried. I did not want to stop the car to call the hotel until I was in a well lit area.

 

Hope you have fun on your cruise. The Breeze is a beautiful ship.

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Day 1 – Sea Day

Everyone in our family is a night owl. We like to stay up late and then sleep in. I was the first one awake around 11:00 a.m. By the time I finished with my shower the kids were awake. My DD was going to meet her new friends at the miniature golf course so she got dressed and went to the Lido deck for a quick snack. I had read so much about the barbeque on sea days and I really wanted to try it. So my DS and I went to eat there. The line was really long. We waited for about ½ an hour before we got our food. The wait was worth it. The food was delicious.

We went back to the room right as my DH was waking up. (He takes a lot of medication and sleeps about 14 hours a day.) I told him about the barbeque and he decided that he would like to try it. My DH saw the steward and asked her if she would be cleaning our room. She told him that her shift was over for the morning so they would not be cleaning our room. (This was not a problem for us). We went to the barbeque and the line was super long. My DH did not feel that he would be able to stand for that long to get food. So we went to the dining room. The brunch was still going on so he ordered breakfast. I read a lot of rave reviews about the bagel and salmon so I decided to try it. I am not much of a fish eater, so I ended up giving the bagel to my husband. He said it was wonderful.

After brunch we bought our Cheers program stickers and decided to go play some trivia. The first game was a Beetles cover song trivia game. I did not know many of the songs or artists except for John Denver. We then played food and wine trivia. I really don't know much about food and wine but they had a lot of multiple choice questions. I have always been a really good guesser. So I ended up winning a ship on a stick. The next trivia game was 70's songs. My DH had a clear head that day and knew most of the songs and the artists that sang the song. So he won a ship on a stick. There were quite a few people who knew the songs but they did not hear the directions that they should name the artist too, so they were a bit upset. The next game was sports trivia. We do not know anything about sports so we left. I never did make it back to trivia games after that.

We went back to the room. The kids were there, we sat on the balcony for a while and then we all took long naps. There is nothing like the sound of waves to lull you to sleep. We all slept for 3 hours, even the kids. When we got up it was time for dinner.

This was formal night so we all dressed up and went to dinner. This was prime rib and lobster night. I was disappointed they did not have escargot. I ordered the alligator fritters and made my DS and DD taste them. They said they were ok. The prime rib was a little cold but delicious. My DS had the lobster and said it was wonderful. We ordered desert. Our waiter showed up with a candle in the cake and sang a happy anniversary song to us. When I originally booked a cruise I booked a February cruise. Later on I switched the booking to this cruise. I must have forgotten to change the celebration information. I did not have the heart to tell the waiter it was not our anniversary, so we played along.

When we left the dining room there must have been about 75 people waiting in line to get into the dining room. I don't remember what time we went to the dining room but apparently it was the right time. We did not have to wait for a table.

After dinner the kids went to meet their friends. My DH and I went to Motor City. It was ok. My back was bothering me so we left the show early. We stopped at the Ocean Plaza bar and listened to the band until they were finished. We then went to get some pizza. We ran into the kids and I reminded them that they had to get up early the next day, so they may not want to stay out too late. We then went back to the room and sat on the balcony until the kids came back. We went to bed around 2:00 a.m.

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goofytoo

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Enjoying your review.

 

Thank you for taking the time to post.:o

 

Thanks, I am pretty sure that most people will skip it since I do not have pictures. Writing a review is a nice way to relive the cruise.

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Loving your review:D:D

 

Nothing better than propping open the balcony door and listening to the ocean to put you to sleep......ahhhhhhhh

 

Ok. You may continue now......:o

 

You said it. I can still hear the waves and smell the fresh air.

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Day 2- Jamaica

This is the day we booked an excursion to the Blue Hole with a group from our cruise critic roll call. Bob was nice enough to handle this booking. Thank you Bob.

I asked for a 7:15 wake up call. The kids were a little slow getting out of bed. I reminded them that I had warned them the night before that they had to get up early and I did not want to hear any complaining. They finally got out of bed and we headed up to the Lido for some breakfast. The Lido was packed. There were long lines at every station. We only had about ½ hour left before we had to meet our group. We decided to try the breakfast burritos at the Blue Iguana as they had the shortest line. You could customize your burrito by telling the cooks exactly what you wanted on the burrito. I did not make good choices, but I managed to finish the burrito so it must not have been too bad.

We met the group at 8:45. We left the ship and headed off to the Blue Hole. Bob booked the excursion with Yardi tours. We had 21 people on the excursion. They took us on the scenic route and told us a little about Ocho Rios. We arrived at the Blue Hole and I must admit that my initial reaction was disappointment. The first view of the falls was the large water fall that we jump off of. I thought that that was all we were going to do, so I was wishing we booked Dunn's River Falls again. Any way we all decided to use the facilities before we started our adventure. This took quite a while. Think 21 people and 1 toilet.

We started off on our adventure. I started towards the big waterfall and I was thinking to myself that this was going to be a disappointment. However instead of having us jump off the fall they told us to keep walking up stream. Now my disappointment turned into joy. We were going to be able to climb up the falls before the big jump. The falls were beautiful. They had about 4 separate areas where the pools below the falls were deep enough so we could actually jump off the falls into the pools. Dunn's River Falls are too shallow for you do to this. The kids and I had a great time and the group was a fun group to be around. There was a cave that you could swim through if you chose to. Towards the end of the excursion they started hurrying people along, so we did not get to drop into the cave behind the big fall. I was a little disappointed but we certainly had a wonderful time.

I want everyone to know that I am 50 years old, fat and have bad knees. I did not have any problems climbing up the falls. I was worried about the big jump because I was afraid me knees might give out on the steep climb down to the jumping off point. Two guides helped me down the rock and I jumped. If I can do it, anybody can do it. They have life vests available for non-swimmers.

When we left, the tour guide said she was going to take us to a shopping center. This was not part of the original plan. I did not bring adequate clothing or money to stop for lunch or go shopping and was quite adamant that I did not want to go shopping. So the tour dropped the people that wanted to go shopping off at the Taj Mahal and brought the rest of us back to the ship.

We had a wonderful time and I would like to thank Bob for booking this excursion for us.

When we got back to the ship the stewards were in the middle of cleaning our room. Apparently my DH had just woken up and went to find some food. We took showers and changed our clothes. We got off the ship and walked to the shopping center that had Magarittaville. I was surprised to see so many boarded up stores. We shopped for about an hour, stopped in Margarittaville, it was pretty dead. We were back on the ship about a ½ hour before we debarked.

I wanted to let people know that there were some changes made to the port in Jamaica since the last time we were there. This time we docked right next to Margarittaville, last time we were about 3 blocks away. There were a few vendors in the taxi area. The crowds of vendors that we had experienced in the past were non-existent. Only 2 people approached us to sell us something while we walked to the shopping center.

We got back on the ship. We ordered room service and sat on our balcony. After we ate we all took a nap, yes even the kids. We did not wake up from our nap until 8:45 p.m. We went to dinner, I can't remember what we had, but it was good. We had Roberto as a server. He was very friendly and had time to talk to us.

After dinner we went back to the room. It was not clean. Mike found our steward and asked if they were going to clean the room. They told him that since we had the Snoozin card up until 8:45 they did not have time to clean the room. Their shift was over and they were done cleaning. My husband rounded up the dirty towels and switched them out for clean towels. The kids went to find their friends and we went to the Ocean Plaza to listen to our favorite band. There was a deck party that night so the band was finished playing by 11:00 p.m. We left the ocean Plaza and went to see what was happening at the deck party. We thought we would see the kids there but there were only adults there. We went to the pizza place to get pizza and found the kids. I reminded our DS that he was going to have to get up early for his excursion in the morning. We took pizza back to our room and sat on the balcony. The kids came in around 1:30 a.m. we talked until about 2:00 and then we went to bed.

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goofytoo

goofytoo

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Day 3 – Grand Cayman

I booked my DH and DS a scuba diving excursion through the ship. We hardly ever book excursions through the ship. I tried to book a diving excursion on line but most vendors wanted about $130 for a two tank dive and extra money if you did not bring your own equipment. The ship offered a 2 tank dive with equipment for $100. So I booked with the ship. My DD and I have been to Grand Cayman numerous times. My daughter does not enjoy swimming where there are fish, so Sting Ray City was out of the question. We decided to stay on the ship.

My DH and DS had to meet their excursion at 7:45 so we had a 6:15 a.m. wake up call. I made sure they actually got out of bed and then went back to bed. I woke up around 9:30 and went to the Lido deck to get coffee and rolls to bring back to my balcony.

I was looking forward to relaxing on the balcony and enjoying the beautiful view of the island in peace and quiet. I opened the balcony door to be greeted by the sound of idling tender motors. Yep I was lucky enough to have the room right above the gang way for the tenders. So much for peace and quiet. After a while I got used to the hum of the motors and really enjoyed relaxing on my balcony.

My DD woke up around 10:30 a.m. and decided to just stay in bed and read her books. I had the balcony door propped open and the ocean breeze felt nice. We really enjoyed our morning. Any time I wanted a drink I would go to the atrium bar get a drink and bring it back to the balcony.

Around 1:00 p.m. we decided to venture out to the Italian restaurant. It took us awhile to find the restaurant, but we finally found it. While we were walking around, I was surprised at how hot it was on the deck. Even in the shade it seemed to be 10 to 15 degrees hotter than it was on my balcony. We entered the restaurant through the back door on deck 11. I had the lasagna, it was ok, not the best, not the worst. My DD had the pene pasta with alfredo sauce. She loved it. We went back to the room.

The boys came back around 2:30 p.m. We ordered room service and sat on the balcony and watched the tenders unload and the ship depart.

We took a nap until around 7:00 p.m. We got up and went to dinner. I do not remember what we had that night. Service was really slow. I don't think we finished dinner until 9:30. We stopped at the atrium bar and had a couple of drinks and went back to the room. The room was not clean. My husband called housekeeping and the steward said since we had the Snoozin card up all day they did not clean the room. This was not true. We actually made sure the card said Cruisin when we left at 7:00 and it still said Cruisin when we got back to the room. Any way the steward told my husband that their shift had ended and they would not clean our room that night. Whatever, we can manage.

We went to listen to our favorite band but they had already finished for the night. We went to the red frog pub and stayed there until it closed. It also closed early for some reason. So we made our way to the pizza place. We passed the piano bar on the way. The piano player was still playing. He had quite a crowd and they were all having a great time. We sat and listened to him. He really played to his audience. His voice was hoarse so I don't know if that was the reason he chose to talk more than sing. Anyway he was not afraid to throw around the f-bomb and other curse words. I am not a prude, he was hilarious and we had a good time. I just want to warn people who are easily offended, you should not go to the piano bar late at night. We ordered pizza and went back to our balcony. The kids came in around 2:00 and we stayed up talking until about 4:00 a.m.

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combatboots2jimmychoos

combatboots2jimmychoos

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I'm really enjoying your review!

 

We'll be on the Breeze May 4th in a cove Balcony 2305 So I was really excited to hear how you enjoyed your balcony. What cabin did you have?

 

 

Also a lot of people will still read your review without pictures because we are going on the same ship and are interested in the things you enjoyed and didn't enjoy.

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goofytoo

goofytoo

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I'm really enjoying your review!

 

We'll be on the Breeze May 4th in a cove Balcony 2305 So I was really excited to hear how you enjoyed your balcony. What cabin did you have?

 

 

Also a lot of people will still read your review without pictures because we are going on the same ship and are interested in the things you enjoyed and didn't enjoy.

 

Thanks. We had cabin 2258. We were right under the atrium. We loved this location because all we had to do was go up 1 flight of stairs to get a drink at the bar.

 

I hope you enjoy your balcony as much as we did.

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goofytoo

goofytoo

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Day 4 – Cozumel

Today the kids got to sleep in until 9:00 a.m. We planned on going to Mr. Sancho's. I told the kids that if there were a lot of ships in port, we would just go straight to Mr. Sancho's. If there were not a lot of ships then we would eat breakfast first and then go. I guess it would have been helpful if I read the Compass before I told them this. Apparently we were not scheduled to arrive into port until 10:00 a.m.. Oh well we were up at 9:00, so we went to eat. This is the first time that we went to breakfast that we did not experience any long lines. We ate a leisurely breakfast and then got off the ship.

We got a taxi and headed to Mr. Sancho's. I chose Mr. Sancho's instead of Nachi Cocum because they had water toys the kids could play on. We bought the all-inclusive pass, the total for 2 adults and 2 kids was $190.00. Edgar showed us the around the facilities. I was kind of surprised how small it was. I was thinking it would be larger. After our little tour we were shown to our table by the beach. Roman was our waiter. He was very efficient and brought our drinks and food in a timely manner. He did not seem too happy with us for some reason, but we did not have any complaints about him. Just a different personality I guess. Anyway he seemed to perk up once he got his tip. Maybe we were supposed to tip ahead of time?

Our DD went horseback riding. ($35) She was the only one on the ride, it was just her and the guide. She loved it. If you do plan on going horseback riding, be sure to bring bug spray. She had several bug bites when she returned.

My DS and I snorkeled. There were not many fish. The fish we found were hiding by the ocean playground.

The kids and I went swimming in the pool. The water was the perfect temperature. Not too hot and not too cold. The kids decide not to use the water toys.

We initially planned to leave around 2:30 to give the kids time to shop when we were back at port. We were having such a good time, we decided to stay longer and did not leave until around 3:45 p.m. All in all we really enjoyed our day and agreed that we would return if we were ever in Cozumel again.

We returned to the port. My DH and I parked our butts at Fat Tuesday's, gave the kids some money and told them they had 45 minutes to shop. The kids returned from their shopping on time and we went back to the boat.

We returned to our room and went on our balcony to watch for pier runners. The ferry from the mainland was a little late so I think most of the would be pier runners mixed in with the ferry crowd. So we did not see that many runners. One family with two babies came meandering up the pier. The father yelled to the people clapping that he knew he was late but he had extra luggage so it was ok. You would think if you had little kids with you, that you would make sure you made it back to the ship on time. To each their own I guess. The ship stayed in port for another 20 minutes and the ships officers were watching the pier as if looking for more people. Finally at 6:15 they pulled in the gang way and we left. So I am guessing some people were left behind.

We sat on the balcony and watched the sun set. Then we took a late nap. We did not wake up until 9:30. The kids got up and went to find their friends. My DH and I went to the dining room but I did not feel comfortable eating when it was so late, so I left. I stopped at the atrium bar and ordered a drink.

While I was there, the dancers from the Latin show came into the atrium and started dancing. All of the teenagers were close behind. I saw my DD and she was having the time of her life dancing with the dancers. It was a lot of fun watching everybody dance.

I went to the casino and managed to lose some money. Not as much as I usually lose so I was happy. While I was in the casino the ship started to rock.

I went to my room around 2:00 a.m. I went on the balcony and OMG. The waves were huge. We were in the perfect room for watching the rough sea. The front of the ship would hit a wave and the spray would be higher than the life boats. But the spray always seemed to either dissipate right before it reached our cabin or fly right on by. I did not get wet at all, even when it was raining. My DS had permission to stay out until 3:00 a.m. so when he came back to the cabin we sat and watched the waves until about 4:00 a.m. I was contemplating staying up until sunrise, but I decided to go to bed.

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goofytoo

goofytoo

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How do you do this? What do you attach the bungee cords to?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Cove balconies are divided by steel doors that are shut during rough weather. The doors had screws on them. So I hooked one end of he bungee cord to a screw on the steel door and the other end to the balcony door handle.

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