Carnival Breeze 8 day May 9th - May 17th

[jlrn366419]

Precruise: Stayed at the Hampton Inn Downtown Brickell. It was a nice room and nice hotel. Walking distance to many restaurants and two Publix grocery stores.

 

Embarking: Arrived at the port around 10:15 and check in was fast. We had to sit in the waiting area until approximately 12:30 before our zone (zone 2) was called to board. If they didn't stop people for photos you could be on board a lot faster. Newbies take note, if you don't want a boarding photo you do not have to stop to allow them to photograph you.

 

Cabin: 2306 was a cove balcony that could sleep 4. Our 5 year old used the pullman bed which was great because it gave us more living/play space on the floor. Cabin was quiet except for wave noise if the seas were a bit rough. Our sailing had a lot of wind and a lot of movement. I did feel it in the cabin but it wasn't nearly as bad as it would have been had we been on a higher deck or extreme forward or aft. The air conditioning worked great.

 

Food: The dining room food was mediocre. None of us liked the American Table menu. The desserts were mostly bland. Thoroughly enjoyed the banana cream pie offered at seaday brunch and I also noticed it at the lido one day. The tacos and burgers were pretty good. The water stations in the Lido are awful. Small cups + slow flowing water from a single dispenser = long lines. Also not sanitary because every day we witnessed many many passengers sticking water bottles that touched their mouths up into the dispenser to refill which means their saliva was now touching the dispenser. People were refilling throwaway screw top water bottles. Not once did I see a crew member stop them. There isn't any signage either. The only sign I noticed was to use a clean cup each time.

 

Camp Ocean 3-5 year olds: My son had a pretty good experience. He wanted to stay a few times. We used it 2-4 hours each day in 2 hour increments. Kids were made to wash their hands immediately upon entry.

 

Grand Turk: We took a taxi $4pp each way to the area of Governor's beach where the ship is stuck on the beach. It is a beautiful beach, smooth bottom for the most part and calm water. There is shore snorkeling also. In October 2014 they offered chair rental but this time no one was renting chairs or selling drinks. There were picnic tables where you could put your belongings. We were there with one other family and we saw a few other visitors stop by but they didn't stay. There is a lot of sea glass to be found here if you enjoy collecting.

 

La Romana: We booked an excursion through Seavis tours to visit Saona Island. We didn't enjoy this excursion very much despite the great reviews. The beach wasn't very nice. It was very rocky and small with a lot of seaweed. The lunch was a typical excursion / beach type lunch. Stopping to see the starfish on the way back was the highlight of the tour.

 

Curacao: We took a taxi to Cabana beach and enjoyed our time there. The water was perfect for a preschool age child. This is a man made beach with food, drinks, various types of lounger rentals and a few places to shop. If we had better port times, we would have ventured to a better beach.

 

Aruba: We took a taxi to Palm Beach and rented chairs and an umbrella. Aruba is beautiful and the beaches are fantastic. The day we visited it was a bank holiday so most stores were not open. The shops in the port terminal were open.

 

Getting off the ship: We did self assist since we had an early flight out of FLL. We were among the first people off and it went pretty quickly.

[ddbaab53]

What time was your flight out of FLL. We are doing the same trip in Sept and wanted to know what time we should book our flight.

[jlrn366419]

11:45, we took a taxi to the airport.

[riclop]

Precruise: Stayed at the Hampton Inn Downtown Brickell. It was a nice room and nice hotel. Walking distance to many restaurants and two Publix grocery stores.

 

Embarking: Arrived at the port around 10:15 and check in was fast. We had to sit in the waiting area until approximately 12:30 before our zone (zone 2) was called to board. If they didn't stop people for photos you could be on board a lot faster. Newbies take note, if you don't want a boarding photo you do not have to stop to allow them to photograph you.

 

Cabin: 2306 was a cove balcony that could sleep 4. Our 5 year old used the pullman bed which was great because it gave us more living/play space on the floor. Cabin was quiet except for wave noise if the seas were a bit rough. Our sailing had a lot of wind and a lot of movement. I did feel it in the cabin but it wasn't nearly as bad as it would have been had we been on a higher deck or extreme forward or aft. The air conditioning worked great.

 

Food: The dining room food was mediocre. None of us liked the American Table menu. The desserts were mostly bland. Thoroughly enjoyed the banana cream pie offered at seaday brunch and I also noticed it at the lido one day. The tacos and burgers were pretty good. The water stations in the Lido are awful. Small cups + slow flowing water from a single dispenser = long lines. Also not sanitary because every day we witnessed many many passengers sticking water bottles that touched their mouths up into the dispenser to refill which means their saliva was now touching the dispenser. People were refilling throwaway screw top water bottles. Not once did I see a crew member stop them. There isn't any signage either. The only sign I noticed was to use a clean cup each time.

 

Camp Ocean 3-5 year olds: My son had a pretty good experience. He wanted to stay a few times. We used it 2-4 hours each day in 2 hour increments. Kids were made to wash their hands immediately upon entry.

 

Grand Turk: We took a taxi $4pp each way to the area of Governor's beach where the ship is stuck on the beach. It is a beautiful beach, smooth bottom for the most part and calm water. There is shore snorkeling also. In October 2014 they offered chair rental but this time no one was renting chairs or selling drinks. There were picnic tables where you could put your belongings. We were there with one other family and we saw a few other visitors stop by but they didn't stay. There is a lot of sea glass to be found here if you enjoy collecting.

 

La Romana: We booked an excursion through Seavis tours to visit Saona Island. We didn't enjoy this excursion very much despite the great reviews. The beach wasn't very nice. It was very rocky and small with a lot of seaweed. The lunch was a typical excursion / beach type lunch. Stopping to see the starfish on the way back was the highlight of the tour.

 

Curacao: We took a taxi to Cabana beach and enjoyed our time there. The water was perfect for a preschool age child. This is a man made beach with food, drinks, various types of lounger rentals and a few places to shop. If we had better port times, we would have ventured to a better beach.

 

Aruba: We took a taxi to Palm Beach and rented chairs and an umbrella. Aruba is beautiful and the beaches are fantastic. The day we visited it was a bank holiday so most stores were not open. The shops in the port terminal were open.

 

Getting off the ship: We did self assist since we had an early flight out of FLL. We were among the first people off and it went pretty quickly.

 

Thanks for the review.

[ddbaab53]

11:45, we took a taxi to the airport.

 

About what was the fare?

[jlrn366419]

I think it was around $80. There are more affordable options like shuttles that we heard others were using for early flights. I don't have the details though.

[FTLCruiseGal]

About what was the fare?

 

Use Uber. Depending on which service (which type of vehicle you want), it will be between $30 and $85 from port of Miami to Fort Lauderdale airport.

[Dule28]

We were on the same cruise. I thought Donald Waugh and his 7 string bass guitar was excellent.

[beachbum53]

We were on this same cruise. The band "Deja Vu" was excellent! For the most part, they played in the Ocean View lounge. Get there early, as seating is limited. Food in the MDR was pretty good for the most part, depending on what you order. As always, if you get something you don't like, just ask your waiter to bring something else. Can't say that I was overly impressed with the dessert menu. We had Anytime Dining, and, depending on where we were seated, service was either very good or incredibly slow. We too went on the Seavis tour to Saona Island, and were disappointed. I even said so in our review to them. Sorry Seavis, but I just can't give you a good recommendation. I had a lot of fun at the Waterworks, but we missed not having the "adults only" pool like they have on the Liberty. The Breeze is nice (loved the décor), but the Liberty is still our favorite.

[Tweinke]

We are looking at the Seavis tour to Saona Island too from LaRomana. I am worried, as the time coming back is awfully close to when the ship is scheduled to leave port again. Did you make it back okay, and were you worried at all about not making it back in the taxi? Also... if you were to go again, what would you do instead? Thanks!

[beachbum53]

We are looking at the Seavis tour to Saona Island too from LaRomana. I am worried, as the time coming back is awfully close to when the ship is scheduled to leave port again. Did you make it back okay, and were you worried at all about not making it back in the taxi? Also... if you were to go again, what would you do instead? Thanks!

 

No problems with getting back to the ship on time. Seavis doesn't want to lose business with the cruise lines, so they're going to make sure you get back in time, even if it means cutting the time short for certain things during the excursion. I'm sure that's why we had such a short time at the beach. On our next cruise, one of our stops is the Dominican Republic, but we'll be going to the new port, Amber Cove. It won't be until May of next year, so we'll have plenty of time to research excursions offered there. If we were to go back to LaRomana, which I doubt, we'd look into a beach excursion, such as Dreams Resort.

Edited June 11, 2015 by beachbum53

[DaisyGirl55]

My group went on Seavis a couple of years ago, and we had a blast. I will say, that even though they say it is kid-friendly, it may not be the best for small children. Like the OP said, the beach area where you stop for lunch is rocky and the surf can be rough. The speedboat part can be scary, and the sandbar may be over their heads.

 

But....if you are a group of adults (there were 30+ in our group - 2 boats worth), then it can be a very fun excursion.

 

Governor's Beach sounds like a lot of fun. I may look at doing this when we go their on the Breeze in October.