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holiday cruising on the breeze 12/20 -12/28

Michigan Cruisers

By Michigan Cruisers,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Michigan Cruisers

Michigan Cruisers

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This was our 4th holiday cruise. The 3rd on Carnival and the first on the Breeze. We had a total of 7 people. Me, my wife, daughter (16), son (14), Sister in law, brother in law, and nephew (14). We previously spent holiday cruises on Royal Carribean Freedom of the Seas, Carnival Freedom and Carnival Liberty. We choose the Breeze because it was new and we really liked the 8 day itinerary.

 

Let me start by saying I hope those readers who have a positive cruise experience will post, as priro to my cruise I started to doubt whether we had made a good choice as so many posts out here tend to be very nagative. I heard from multiple people on our cruise how they were surprised at how differenttheir expereinces were from those posted on CC and many who no longer will use this site as it has become a dumping ground for negative comments.

 

Reservation process:

We used our PVP from Carnival. She does a great job and keeps us updated on upgrades. Originally we booked an inside deck 2 cabin. A week later we were upgraded at no cost to a cove balcony. three weeks later we were upgraded at a cost of $40 per cabin to Lido deck balcony cabins with connecting balconies. This upgrade was the best decision we ever made. We were incabins 10291 and 10287. these cabins are right next to the pool, fun hub and buffet areas. We read that we might not like all the noise and that it was too close to traffic. This was not true. There is a set of doors that seperate the cabins from the main foot traffic. We only saw two other people in our hall the entire trip. We nver had any noise issues with what was going on on deck, not even when we were on the balcony. Being able to go back and forth to our room from the Lido made a huge differnce in our trip.

 

Travel to Ship:

We flew in the day prior. for us, it was cheaper to fly to Fort Lauderdale. we stayed at the Gallery Doubletree. Hotel is on the intercoastal. Beach is a five minute walk. there is a mall with national stores and restaurants next store and a Publix across the street. A water taxi also stops at the hotel. rooms are suites and hotel was renovated two years ago. We enjoyed it. since hotel was not near airport, we used Howards Transportation from the airport and from hotel to Miami and Miami back. Howard was recommeded by SAS, because SAS does not drive from or to htoels further from airport. Howard was very personable and did a great job. He charged $10 from airport per person. $25 per person to port and then coming home it was $15 per person to the Best western Plus Airport hotel in Dania Beach. We were the only party in our van, however on the way to the port we did stop to pick up another family, who decided not to join us because they wanted their own private van. Howard picked us up at 10:45. We were at Port of Miami at 11:30. We made it thorugh all the lines by 12:00. We were boarding zone 10. They started boarding diamond at 11:45, Faster to Fun at 12, other zones at 12:10 and we were on board by 12:25. We were glad we did not get there earlier and also glad we did not pay extra for faster to the fun since we boarded shortly after them. we could be i n our rooms at 12:40. We decided to eat first.

 

On the Ship:

this was a full cruise. they said over 4600 passengers. We read the horror stories of lines and crowds and I must say we were pleasantly surprised. Im not sure if it is the size of the ship or the layout, but with the exception of the muster drill, we never encountered major lines or crowds and we often commented whether it was really a full cruise. There were days where there were decks of empty chairs and that we were some ofthe only people in line for omlettes or the buffett. They had over 1400 childern/teens on the cruise. We would not have known. Once we boarded we purchased our bubble cards and went to luch at the italian restaurant. We read to do this day one as the restaurant may be hard to get in to after day one. We enjoyed the design your own pasta, caeser salad and the lasagna was exceptional. We did go back throughout the week and never encountered any issues getting seated.

 

After lunch we went to our rooms and had the room steward open the divider between our balconies. Our bags had not arrived and we explored the ship until the muster drill. If you have been on the Liberty or Freedom, Breeze has a very similar layout, except it is bigger and has a few different offerings. the decor is very casual and relaxing. We liked it. My sister in law prefers the over the top flashiness found on the other ships. We have been on very formal cruises and we as a family preder Carnival becaue it is more relaxed. We dont mind 1-2 formal nights, but enjoy being able to relax the other days. although casual most days, carnival does enforce a dress code in dining rooms. We saw many people askedto remove hats or told they were not dressed for the dining room on formal night. I will say too that on thiscruise the formal dress on formal nights was much less formal than on any other cruise I have been on. I saw maybe 2-3 tuxedos, some suits, mostly sport coats and many dress shirts with or without ties. Its vacation and if people are comfrtable and enjoying themselves, thats what matters. If you prefer a more formal cruise, there are lines that cater specifically to that. At the same time, when I say casual , it is not the Walmart of the seas that Carnival gets so badly referred to often on these posts.

 

The muster drill went smoothly, but there was a lot of confgestion and a wait on the elevators as most were being used to transfer luggage to the rooms. This was the only time we really had to wait more than 2-3 minutes for an elevator.

 

 

We selected anytime dining in Sapphire 3. We prefer to eat at 5:45 to ensure we could make all the shows or evening activities. One thing to note. On the breeze the main shows and comedy are repeated on more than one night. If you miss Mowtown, Divas, or the Latin show, they will be repeated on another night. When we got down to level 3 we were shocked to see a long line. It was long because they dining room had not yet opened. Once it opened , everyone was seated very quickly.

The first night we were seated at table 266 with Dejan and his assistant Enrique. They did a great job. A couple people in our party joined us late and this threw off the timing for our meal a bit , so this night was the only one where it took a bit longer to get everything. This was our fault though and not the servers. A couple of things that helped us on this trip when it came to dinner: You can look at the menu for the week on the TV. This will help you decide what you might want to order, depending if something might not be offered again on the cruise. Our waiters told us that the first two-three items offered in each section ofthe menu are most likely only goingto be offered that night ofthe cruise, so if it is appealling ,you should order it. When we could not make up our mind, the wait team was more than willingto bring us two options to sample. While they have bar staff in the dining room, if you have the bubbles card, your wait staff can now get your soda for you, so you no longer have to wait for the bar staff to come around to get your order. The wait staff tend to do their show each evening around 7:20 in the Sapphire dining room. There tended to be a line after the first group of people were seated at 5:45, but after 7:00 the line went down or there was no line at all.

 

We did not eat at any of the specialty restaurants. People who did really enjoyed them, but we felt that the dining room had enough offerings that we didnt need to do the other venues. My family has tried a veriety of cruise lines. When it comes to family cruises, we all feel Carnival beats Royal carribean and NCL sevice wise and food quality. They also have a good variety.

 

After dinner we explored the ship. Deck 5 havs all the shops and bars. One thingto note, on the first two nights, the shops offer an additional 15% off regular and sale prices on all items. They only offer this the first two nights. If you plan to buy anything in the shops, buy it these two nights. Watches marked 25% off are 40% off when you add the 15% discount.

 

After the shops isthe casino. We are not big gamblers. The nice thing on the breeze is that the split the casino up on two sides , so you do not walk through the casino in order to get around, the casino also dod not appear as smokey as some ofthe other ships. We did not gamble, but people who did won free cruises for playing during the cruise.

 

There is lots more to write about, so stay tuned and I will share more when I have a chance to write more.

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cruisecraze96

cruisecraze96

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Sounds good ☺ we will be on the Breeze in February and decided to do anytime dining so we are not set to a specific time depending on activities we want to do.

 

We did the Dream this past March and the first night it took 45 plus minutes for a table but a had a pager and was no big deal. They sent every room in our group a little dessert tray saying sorry for the wait. Was a nice touch and we never complained.

 

 

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Relayer

Relayer

Posted
Posted
Love hearing your review. We sail jan 11th. Very excited to go.

 

Right there with you on the 11th.....but whose counting days?:eek:

 

Always nice to read about someone having a great cruise. This will be our 3rd cruise on the Breeze and it is one awesome ship.

 

Sun, decks, napping and lots of Guys Burgers!

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ILCruzr

ILCruzr

Posted
Posted (edited)
This was our 4th holiday cruise. The 3rd on Carnival and the first on the Breeze. We had a total of 7 people. Me, my wife, daughter (16), son (14), Sister in law, brother in law, and nephew (14). We previously spent holiday cruises on Royal Carribean Freedom of the Seas, Carnival Freedom and Carnival Liberty. We choose the Breeze because it was new and we really liked the 8 day itinerary.

 

Let me start by saying I hope those readers who have a positive cruise experience will post, as priro to my cruise I started to doubt whether we had made a good choice as so many posts out here tend to be very nagative. I heard from multiple people on our cruise how they were surprised at how differenttheir expereinces were from those posted on CC and many who no longer will use this site as it has become a dumping ground for negative comments.

 

Reservation process:

We used our PVP from Carnival. She does a great job and keeps us updated on upgrades. Originally we booked an inside deck 2 cabin. A week later we were upgraded at no cost to a cove balcony. three weeks later we were upgraded at a cost of $40 per cabin to Lido deck balcony cabins with connecting balconies. This upgrade was the best decision we ever made. We were incabins 10291 and 10287. these cabins are right next to the pool, fun hub and buffet areas. We read that we might not like all the noise and that it was too close to traffic. This was not true. There is a set of doors that seperate the cabins from the main foot traffic. We only saw two other people in our hall the entire trip. We nver had any noise issues with what was going on on deck, not even when we were on the balcony. Being able to go back and forth to our room from the Lido made a huge differnce in our trip.

 

Travel to Ship:

We flew in the day prior. for us, it was cheaper to fly to Fort Lauderdale. we stayed at the Gallery Doubletree. Hotel is on the intercoastal. Beach is a five minute walk. there is a mall with national stores and restaurants next store and a Publix across the street. A water taxi also stops at the hotel. rooms are suites and hotel was renovated two years ago. We enjoyed it. since hotel was not near airport, we used Howards Transportation from the airport and from hotel to Miami and Miami back. Howard was recommeded by SAS, because SAS does not drive from or to htoels further from airport. Howard was very personable and did a great job. He charged $10 from airport per person. $25 per person to port and then coming home it was $15 per person to the Best western Plus Airport hotel in Dania Beach. We were the only party in our van, however on the way to the port we did stop to pick up another family, who decided not to join us because they wanted their own private van. Howard picked us up at 10:45. We were at Port of Miami at 11:30. We made it thorugh all the lines by 12:00. We were boarding zone 10. They started boarding diamond at 11:45, Faster to Fun at 12, other zones at 12:10 and we were on board by 12:25. We were glad we did not get there earlier and also glad we did not pay extra for faster to the fun since we boarded shortly after them. we could be i n our rooms at 12:40. We decided to eat first.

 

On the Ship:

this was a full cruise. they said over 4600 passengers. We read the horror stories of lines and crowds and I must say we were pleasantly surprised. Im not sure if it is the size of the ship or the layout, but with the exception of the muster drill, we never encountered major lines or crowds and we often commented whether it was really a full cruise. There were days where there were decks of empty chairs and that we were some ofthe only people in line for omlettes or the buffett. They had over 1400 childern/teens on the cruise. We would not have known. Once we boarded we purchased our bubble cards and went to luch at the italian restaurant. We read to do this day one as the restaurant may be hard to get in to after day one. We enjoyed the design your own pasta, caeser salad and the lasagna was exceptional. We did go back throughout the week and never encountered any issues getting seated.

 

After lunch we went to our rooms and had the room steward open the divider between our balconies. Our bags had not arrived and we explored the ship until the muster drill. If you have been on the Liberty or Freedom, Breeze has a very similar layout, except it is bigger and has a few different offerings. the decor is very casual and relaxing. We liked it. My sister in law prefers the over the top flashiness found on the other ships. We have been on very formal cruises and we as a family preder Carnival becaue it is more relaxed. We dont mind 1-2 formal nights, but enjoy being able to relax the other days. although casual most days, carnival does enforce a dress code in dining rooms. We saw many people askedto remove hats or told they were not dressed for the dining room on formal night. I will say too that on thiscruise the formal dress on formal nights was much less formal than on any other cruise I have been on. I saw maybe 2-3 tuxedos, some suits, mostly sport coats and many dress shirts with or without ties. Its vacation and if people are comfrtable and enjoying themselves, thats what matters. If you prefer a more formal cruise, there are lines that cater specifically to that. At the same time, when I say casual , it is not the Walmart of the seas that Carnival gets so badly referred to often on these posts.

 

The muster drill went smoothly, but there was a lot of confgestion and a wait on the elevators as most were being used to transfer luggage to the rooms. This was the only time we really had to wait more than 2-3 minutes for an elevator.

 

 

We selected anytime dining in Sapphire 3. We prefer to eat at 5:45 to ensure we could make all the shows or evening activities. One thing to note. On the breeze the main shows and comedy are repeated on more than one night. If you miss Mowtown, Divas, or the Latin show, they will be repeated on another night. When we got down to level 3 we were shocked to see a long line. It was long because they dining room had not yet opened. Once it opened , everyone was seated very quickly.

The first night we were seated at table 266 with Dejan and his assistant Enrique. They did a great job. A couple people in our party joined us late and this threw off the timing for our meal a bit , so this night was the only one where it took a bit longer to get everything. This was our fault though and not the servers. A couple of things that helped us on this trip when it came to dinner: You can look at the menu for the week on the TV. This will help you decide what you might want to order, depending if something might not be offered again on the cruise. Our waiters told us that the first two-three items offered in each section ofthe menu are most likely only goingto be offered that night ofthe cruise, so if it is appealling ,you should order it. When we could not make up our mind, the wait team was more than willingto bring us two options to sample. While they have bar staff in the dining room, if you have the bubbles card, your wait staff can now get your soda for you, so you no longer have to wait for the bar staff to come around to get your order. The wait staff tend to do their show each evening around 7:20 in the Sapphire dining room. There tended to be a line after the first group of people were seated at 5:45, but after 7:00 the line went down or there was no line at all.

 

We did not eat at any of the specialty restaurants. People who did really enjoyed them, but we felt that the dining room had enough offerings that we didnt need to do the other venues. My family has tried a veriety of cruise lines. When it comes to family cruises, we all feel Carnival beats Royal carribean and NCL sevice wise and food quality. They also have a good variety.

 

After dinner we explored the ship. Deck 5 havs all the shops and bars. One thingto note, on the first two nights, the shops offer an additional 15% off regular and sale prices on all items. They only offer this the first two nights. If you plan to buy anything in the shops, buy it these two nights. Watches marked 25% off are 40% off when you add the 15% discount.

 

After the shops isthe casino. We are not big gamblers. The nice thing on the breeze is that the split the casino up on two sides , so you do not walk through the casino in order to get around, the casino also dod not appear as smokey as some ofthe other ships. We did not gamble, but people who did won free cruises for playing during the cruise.

 

There is lots more to write about, so stay tuned and I will share more when I have a chance to write more.

 

Yes, SAS is annoying in that regard. Last December when I was on the Victory, I decided to stay at the Hampton Inn in Plantation by the Broward Mall. It was a great hotel and location. There was a Target in the parking lot which was walkable from the hotel, where I got wine. But there is a free airport shuttle from FLL and free port shuttle to Port Everglades. I will be staying there next March when I sail from FLL. But with SAS, I took the airport shuttle back to FLL and waited for SAS to pick me up from the aiport. It was a hassle and extra trip to the port of miami, but the hotel itself was worth it :)

Edited by ILCruzr
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AltaEMT

AltaEMT

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Posted
We will have Early Seating on our upcoming Breeze cruise. Does that mean that we will have the Blush Dining Room, since you said that anytime dining was in the Sapphire?

 

 

Sapphire 3 had the any time dining. There was scheduled divining was in Blush 3 and 4 as well as Sapphire 4.

 

 

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AltaEMT

AltaEMT

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Was also on this sailing and our family had a great time. The ship is very well laid out and we did not feel that the ship was overly crowded. The only disappointment for us was the Dining room. We also did any time dining and was disappointed with the temperature of our food on almost every evening, the cold food was not cold and the hot food was only warm. Most disappointing was the first night when my fried shrimp were soggy.

 

Guys Burger place and the Tandoori place were excellent and the line always moved very quickly.

 

If you like Mexican the Blue Iguana was ok but had very limited hours.

 

 

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soccersharon

soccersharon

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Thank you for the great review.

 

Can tell me more about the main dining room menu? Was it the old menu or the newer "American Table" ?

 

Thank you

 

 

Was on the Breeze in September and it was the old menu.

 

 

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