Review: Best Time on the Breeze 10/24/15-11/01/15

[BenjiRodney]

Just got home Sunday night/Monday morning from a wonderful 8 night cruise on the Carnival Breeze. Miami/Grand Turk/La Romana/Aruba and Curacao.

 

Still sorting and uploading pictures and I will have many of them to follow. Please ask questions and I will do my best to answer them for you.

 

Background: This was my 13th Carnival Cruise and 15th cruise overall. I have three more cruises booked for 2016, two on Carnival and one on Royal Caribbean. You can probably guess which cruise line I prefer.

 

We flew from Charleston WV to Washington DC to Miami on American one day prior. Booked Starlite Hotel on South Beach through hotels dot com for their rewards program. Hotel in right in the middle of everything and was perfect for a pre cruise stay. Patty at check in was amazing, gave us a few things to see or do while in Miami. She asked how we were getting to the port the next day, and I told her I booked through Top Shuttle Miami, had I waited, she could have saved my 20.00 off my ride. Oh well.

 

FYI in case you forgot anything or need your soda/wine, there are Walgreen's and CVS stores within walking distance. If you want to save some money on dinner, head over towards the Lincoln Road Mall area, food is cheaper there since you are not right on the beachfront.

[BenjiRodney]

I will start this up tomorrow with the first day and Grand Turk as the pictures are still uploading. This is a new laptop that I am still trying to figure out as I just turned it on and set it up last night.

[KenMo]

Looking forward to your review!

[kona_wahine]

We are doing this same cruise in April. Looking forward to your review, especially pictures of ports and the reviews of the ports. (Especially Curacao, as I have nothing planned there)

[mxmom]

So excited for this.. we will be on her over Thanksgiving!!

[kelkel2]

I am so excited for this review! Doing this same route in January!! Thanks for taking the time to share with us!

[mrpayroll]

Did this itinerary in September. Great ship with great ports. Looking forward to your review, :)

[BenjiRodney]

We got up in plenty of time to walk around South Beach and have breakfast before check out, which was early at 11 am. Shuttle was scheduled for 1115 am, they called at 1045 to confirm the pick up and advise they would be on time. A Halloween marathon was taking place that morning and it was neat watching people run in their costumes.

 

I was not in a hurry to get to the port just to sit, being Platinum is a perk so we can usually just go check in and walk right on.

 

From the time the shuttle picked us up, to dropping the bags, clearing security, checking in and walking on board, they had only just called zone 4. So not too bad. We were handed a letter stating that we would be leaving 3-4 hours late due to work that had to be done while the ship was in port. I do believe we pulled away from the pier at 710. It was nice to leave Miami at dark. This did not impact our arrival into Grand Turk , we were actually 1/2 hour early.

[BenjiRodney]

Disney, The Carnival Glory and Norwegian Getaway.

 

This was the Glory Docked behind us.

 

Edited November 5, 2015 by BenjiRodney

[BenjiRodney]

Our room, was a standard 8E balcony room on Lido deck 10 forward, 10228. I really like this location as it is close to all of the action and quiet at the same time, not a lot of foot traffic.

 

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Edited November 5, 2015 by BenjiRodney

[BenjiRodney]

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[BenjiRodney]

Sorry for the delays and slowness, trying to figure out this picture posting process.

[BenjiRodney]

I will say I only took about 1/2 as many pictures as I normally do, was having a great time, and this was such a different cruise from the one to Alaska we did in May. But I still got a lot of pictures. It was a little rocky on the way to Grand Turk, not sure if it was due to the Captain making up for our late departure. I am one that does not mind the rocking, I like to feel the motion and know that I am on a ship.

[BenjiRodney]

The excursions we booked for this trip, all of them through Carnival were:

 

Grand Turk: Coast to Coast Safari

 

La Romana: Altos de Chavon and River Boat Cruise

 

Aruba: Best of Aruba Island Tour

 

Curacao: Curacao Coastal County Drive

 

I was able to find a cheaper price for the Aruba tour, called Carnival and they honored the lower price, gave me 22.00 OBC for the difference.

[BenjiRodney]

This would only be the 2nd time to Grand Turk, last time was in 2010, and we never made it past Jimmy Buffet's place. So I wanted a tour first before stopping for eats/drinks. I had read up on the tour and what a great guide Rodney was. We were lucky to have him as our guide. He explained everything that we were seeing, he answered all of our questions. Each time that we stopped, he made sure the cooler was available to us, it was full of soda's and water. The next series of pictures will all be of Grand Turk and the things we saw on this tour.

[BenjiRodney]

First Views of Grand Turk:

 

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Edited November 5, 2015 by BenjiRodney

[BenjiRodney]

The famous Jack's Shack and Topher the dog are somewhere in this picture. We did not venture down there, maybe next time.

 

[BenjiRodney]

Replica of John Glenn's space capsule at the entrance to the airport on the Island. [/img]

[BenjiRodney]

This is the vehicle that took us on the tour, and one of the local stops for shopping and a few local food items.

 

[BenjiRodney]

Donkeys do freely roam all over the island.

 

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[BenjiRodney]

This was one of the beach areas that we stopped at, soon to be home to a new marina.

 

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[torwa]

Can't wait for the rest. We are doing this cruise in February.

[familyfuncruise]

Keep it coming!

[nh22]

Thanks for taking the time to do this! We are going on this cruise in January!

[BenjiRodney]

Here is the lighthouse that we stopped at. It is an extra $3.00 to enter the grounds and walk around. But you do get your $3.00 back on any purchase you make. Food/Drinks/T shirts etc.