A breeze of a Journey that was full of firsts

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, beachbum6264 said:

 

Enjoying your review, from all the way over the bridge in Cape Coral.

That is an awfully long way .....

[Hogladyrider]

Following along.....as we were also on the cruise, sorry we never got to meet up!  I was very active on the roll call and I did make it to the 2:00-2:30 Red Frog M&G.  It was very confusing as there were groups all over inside Red Frog.  So much for one RC group, there were FB groups, RC groups you name it.  We did meet a couple over from the CC RC a lovely couple from Australia.

 

Couldn't find a "LIKE" button for your comment on the muster drill.  That was absolutely insane.  We were muster station C4 and we were packed in like sardines and some even smelled like sardines, if you know what I mean.  It went on so long and there was no place to sit and crowded.  Those who follow the rules were punished for those who didn't follow the rules.

 

We also enjoyed sail away from our cove balcony.  One thing I did enjoy was not turning our clocks back until when we left San Juan.

 

This was a very different cruise experience for us, first time getting sick while on a ship, not fun!  My partner came down with the bronchial "thing" that was going around on the 10th and spent the next 7 days in our cabin.  Being a male he refused to go to the medical clinic.  I was able to get some meds while in San Juan at Walgreen's that started helping him.  When we got home he started antibiotics and took his last one today Thanksgiving day.  

 

The weather was amazing and overall we had a good time.  Looking forward to reading your review!

Susan

[Hogladyrider]

Thanks for my LOL moment after a lovely Thanksgiving dinner......I too took a pic of that M&G card we all received in our cabin.  I had to do a double take looking at it!  Seriously a big company like this can't get the info correct and who on earth had the "logic" of 9 am!

 

Looking forward to your comments regarding this as well.

Susan

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, Hogladyrider said:

Following along.....as we were also on the cruise, sorry we never got to meet up!  I was very active on the roll call and I did make it to the 2:00-2:30 Red Frog M&G.  It was very confusing as there were groups all over inside Red Frog.  So much for one RC group, there were FB groups, RC groups you name it.  We did meet a couple over from the CC RC a lovely couple from Australia.

 

Couldn't find a "LIKE" button for your comment on the muster drill.  That was absolutely insane.  We were muster station C4 and we were packed in like sardines and some even smelled like sardines, if you know what I mean.  It went on so long and there was no place to sit and crowded.  Those who follow the rules were punished for those who didn't follow the rules.

 

We also enjoyed sail away from our cove balcony.  One thing I did enjoy was not turning our clocks back until when we left San Juan.

 

This was a very different cruise experience for us, first time getting sick while on a ship, not fun!  My partner came down with the bronchial "thing" that was going around on the 10th and spent the next 7 days in our cabin.  Being a male he refused to go to the medical clinic.  I was able to get some meds while in San Juan at Walgreen's that started helping him.  When we got home he started antibiotics and took his last one today Thanksgiving day.  

 

The weather was amazing and overall we had a good time.  Looking forward to reading your review!

Susan

I wish we had met as well, I had your pic from here and was looking for you from time to time.  I will have some comments on the meet and greet tomorrow.  This was the first cruise where I had a medical issue as well, will address that coming up as well.  Much more coming....

[luvcruzing]

I agree about the musters. Having cruised exclusively on NCL for the last ten years, we were used to having musters indoors. On our first Carnival cruise last January, muster was held out on deck in the heat. We arrived early for the 3:30 muster. It didn’t start until 3:45 when everything was accounted for. When the instructions and demonstrations were over, we tried to leave, but were not allowed to by a “guard” at the door. I told the crew member that my friend (78 at the time) was feeling weak (small fib) and had trouble standing, and he let us go. I agree that anyone who is more than five minutes late for muster should be fined. Or just start the damn thing on time, and let the offenders spend part of their next day making up the muster drill and don’t start it until every single person has arrived, no matter how late.

 

 

[jimbo5544]

So we have gone back and forth in which dining we have done, sometimes driven by who we cruise with.  As we normally cruise in groups, we usually have conversations (mostly emails, but sometimes calls) with the Maitre'd or sometimes other s on tables and seating.

 

For this cruise, we diced for late dining (it was just the four of us), I have some comments on dining times, but I will hold that off till later.  We also decided to just see where we got placed for table placement.  So we got a couple of surprises, the first was when we got our sign and sail cards we noticed we were in the Sapphire dining room.  We had expected the Blush in the aft of the ship and had been in the Blush our last three times.  The Sapphire was also where they do YTD (lower level), not necessarily bad, but just surprised.  The second surprise was our table was in a back corner, and to be honest, I was not sure I wanted to sit there.  At the end of the day we decided to just stay with what we had.  It was a good decision, we had one of the best serving teams we have ever had.

 

Dinner went smooth, and before we knew it, we headed out to enjoy the rest of the evening.....  Just after dinner we ran into John Heald walking around and we said hi and exchanged pleasantries.  

 

[jimbo5544]

We are early risers and we woke up early as usual for our morning walk.  One of the best features (for us anyway) is the walkway all around the 5th floor on the Dream class.  I know some do not like the sight lines from balconies above, but we loved the walking on that floor.  This was the first of two sea days.  We did our five laps and met the other couple up on Lido for coffee and breakfast afterwards.

 

The night before, we had received a cruise critic card stating there was a meet and great on November 4th Monday at 9:30..... Sunday was November 4th Monday was the 5th.  I went anyway, there were about 20 people there, no setups and no Carnival employees.  I can only assume there was some mixup.  We talked for a bit and then left.

 

This was also the day of the Diamond event, actually there were events due to the extremely large number of Diamonds on the ship (420).  This was a galley tour and then lunch in the Sapphire dining room.  

 

I have a controlled version of Asthma, and week before the cruise I felt the pressure in my chest building and the need to use rescue inhalers more frequently.  The first night n the cruise was worse, not terrible, but in hindsight, I with I had addressed t then.

 

We had a good day at sea, here are some pics.....

 

The last one is a ranking of dining staff from reviews.... I have never seen that before.

 

 

[jimbo5544]

....and some more......

 

 

[grandmarnnurse]

Following along. I will be sailing the Breeze in March, and super excited!

[jimbo5544]

6 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

Following along. I will be sailing the Breeze in March, and super excited!

Thanks for coming along, will have a lot more tomorrow.

[jimbo5544]

10 hours ago, fyree39 said:

Which photo hosting site are you using.  Very nice photos. 🙂

Thanks, it is something new for me.  In the past I used Tinypic for pics I wanted to load here.  Now I am using Google photos.  Took me a good while to figure out how to do it.

[jimbo5544]

So for the 2nd sea day in a row, I did not go to see whether the meet and greet was really for Monday or not, if anyone following along was on our cruise and can opine, I would love to hear.  There were two special activities on this day however, tied to the Journey concept.  The first was that John Heald did a Q&A in the main show room.  This was an open session and VERY well attended.  John sat on the stage supported by Calvin (a one time side lick of John and current Entertainment Director on the Breeze) and Schwartz (our CD).  John mentioned he would answer all questions (or try to) and did just that.  

 

Several topics that were noteworthy came up that I will mention.  The first was smoking, with someone asking if Carnival would go back to at least one smoke free ship.  John's reply was that they tried this (with the Paradise) and it failed miserably.  Ac couple of editorial comments from me on this one.  This cruise was BY FAR the worst cruise we have ever done in regards to smokers.  The casino was almost impassable and many (and I mean many) cruisers smoked on their balconies.  Ido not bring it up as a point of debate, these were just facts.  Interestingly enough, after the cruise, Carnival came out with a tougher smoking policy.  I wonder f John and Carnival have it right tho, when they tried the Paradise as a smoke free ship it was long ago and before the significantly enhanced smoke free areas we now have.

 

Another was tipping, with one seasoned cruiser saying it should be included in the cruise fare.  John again gave a strong statement this would not happen and his reasons why.  The discussion then morphed into a discussion on removing tips (my all time pet peace I might add) and John discussed how Carnival should consider finding a way to challenge people removing tips at GS and stated some in the room at the time (including Diamonds and Plats) were part of the minority that removed tips.

[jimbo5544]

There were some lighter questions and some humor as well.  Sometimes these things solve trivial problems and this was the case as well.  Someone asked why there were so few salt shakers on Lido (this was true) and John had no idea, but it was addressed during the session and sure enough was not an issue for the rest of the cruise.

 

John also came out later in the session in a chicken outfit and led everyone in a chicken dance that he said was for losing a bet. This was filmed and later used for the Shaq chicken announcement that happened later that week.  John again mentioned that Europe would be in sailings and again referenced the need for a loyalty program overhaul and his thoughts on this.

[jimbo5544]

The other event was that the Carnival expert photographer Mr Radu gave a talk on his photographs and styles and his process.  It was very interesting.  Here are some pics from the day.....

 

[jimbo5544]

...and a few more...the last is from our balcony of the chop churn.... love it and hope it works here on CC

[jimbo5544]

Next up St Thomas.....

[blarko]

On 11/22/2018 at 4:31 PM, jimbo5544 said:

Muster Drills.  This would have been a fairly painless process except for the morons who think that they either are immure from rules or lacking on the intelligence department.  These people make the process (which got better when they started scanning sign and sail cards) a LOT worse by their lack of compliance.  The waiting for them went on for a good 15 minutes.  Carnival needs to address this, the only way I know how is punitive fines.  I would love to hear ideas on the topic if someone has a better idea.

 

This is a great idea. They could easily hand every passenger a card/paper at the port check in informing them about the time of Muster and making it clear that there would be a charge posted to the S & S account of any person(s) who are not accounted for at the time of the drill. They could also put it in the cruise contract so that said morons would not have a leg to stand on when they argue the charge (which they will definitely argue).

[vicky3vicky]

I am so loving this review so far! Thank you so much! Could you please tell me the 80s' dances they taught on the cruise, and if possible the 50's ones as well. Also, is there room for dancing at the piano bar?

[PhillyFan33579]

10 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

 Several topics that were noteworthy came up that I will mention.  The first was smoking, with someone asking if Carnival would go back to at least one smoke free ship.  John's reply was that they tried this (with the Paradise) and it failed miserably.  Ac couple of editorial comments from me on this one.  This cruise was BY FAR the worst cruise we have ever done in regards to smokers.  The casino was almost impassable and many (and I mean many) cruisers smoked on their balconies.  Ido not bring it up as a point of debate, these were just facts.  Interestingly enough, after the cruise, Carnival came out with a tougher smoking policy.  I wonder f John and Carnival have it right tho, when they tried the Paradise as a smoke free ship it was long ago and before the significantly enhanced smoke free areas we now have.

 

 

We just got back from a quick 3 day cruise on Liberty. This was the first cruise as far as we can remember that neither my wife or I saw anyone smoking on their balcony during the cruise.  It may just be a coincidence, but this was our first cruise since the smoking fine increased to $500. 

[jimbo5544]

4 hours ago, vicky3vicky said:

I am so loving this review so far! Thank you so much! Could you please tell me the 80s' dances they taught on the cruise, and if possible the 50's ones as well. Also, is there room for dancing at the piano bar?

Thanks for the kind words and for following along.  We missed the dance lessons (actually walked by at the very end) for the 80’s, I overheard of some others but cannot talk to details, sorry.  I also heard from someone that the nightclub had different decades of music, but I did not see that with for myself.  One other thing I will mention now, the band on board Six O’clock Dock was GREAT.  They at times played with the brass band and others in the Oceans Plaza.

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

We just got back from a quick 3 day cruise on Liberty. This was the first cruise as far as we can remember that neither my wife or I saw anyone smoking on their balcony during the cruise.  It may just be a coincidence, but this was our first cruise since the smoking fine increased to $500. 

Hope springs eternal, I hope that is the reason.  While we have def seen (or should I say smelled) smokers on balconies before, this was a whole new level.  The port day where they were bunkering they basically took over the other side of the ship.....

[Kendra51]

I could see your Dream review the way you presented. The old reviews used to be under your signature and were so easy to just hit on it and start reading if you made reference to something. Thank you for your response. I hope you have a great trip. 

[jimbo5544]

14 hours ago, fyree39 said:

Jimbo, I'm curious of you'll be giving a review of your Azamara sailing.  I'd be interested in your thoughts. 

You know, I was going to do one and went to their site and did not see any (at least of substance) so I decided not to.  That said, you are the second person to ask in the last week.  Let me see when I finish up here and whether I can do one.  It was a VERY different cruse, but we were def not disappointed.

Edited November 26, 2018 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

When I awoke the next morning,we were pulling into St Thomas....and I felt lousy.  I had to sleep on the sofa sitting up and got about 3 hours sleep.  No walking for me this morning.  At 8 I headed down to the med center....a first for me.  After a visit there, I go a nebulizer treatment (2 more to follow for the next two days) and a script for an oral steroid (3 days worth as well).  I felt marginally better and since we were doing nothing that day, took a nap before just getting off the ship and walking around the port area.

 

Not many pics this day, just a sail away and a pic of the better half at dinner.  Our waiter June had somehow found out she did not like carrots and brought a bigger and bigger bowl of cooked carrots each evening.  

[jimbo5544]

Here are a couple of pics.....