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Breeze 5-4-19 review

paper1122

By paper1122,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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paper1122

paper1122

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I want to start out by saying this review will likely be a disjointed mess. My wife and I are in our mid thirties, we have two young boys. My wife handles all aspect of our day to day household operations and generally keeps the family in line and running smooth. I am an engineer and a project manager, I have a demanding job that has had me out of town for the last couple of years. This cruise was a much needed break from daily life and a chance for some time together. Our parents both offered to watch the boys for a night or so and my wife’s sister took the rest of the week in exchange for me doing a full brake job on her car and some other basic maintenance.

 

We typically try to cruise once a year. Last year we were on the Oasis and the year before we took the Empress to Cuba, prior to that was a string of Carnival cruises. I have higher status on Royal than Carnival but we typically book based on itinerary and schedule over a particular line. However, at this point we avoid fantasy class ships. I dislike the lack of outdoor space close to the water. This review will have some comparison to the Oasis.

 

We booked the cruise just after Christmas originally we had thought about booking the Oasis again, but there were several reasons why we didn’t. The itinerary had changed for the eastern route swapping labadee to Nassau, that is not a fair trade. Plus the Oasis was about to go in for dry dock and the prices were much higher than last year. We also considered trying Norwegian given the perks. Ultimately the best mix of value, itinerary, and schedule was the Breeze.

 

The itinerary included Amber Cove, St. Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk. AC and GT were new for me, ST plus GT and AC were new for the wife.

 

At over 120 days out it seemed like it would take forever but as the weeks went on the countdown went faster and faster. Suddenly the time was here.

 

I did the online check in fairly late so the only option was between 1 and 1:30. This really wasn’t an issue. We only live and hour from Port Canaveral so the morning of we were able to have breakfast with our boys and my in-laws plus install and new tonneau cover on my Fil’s truck.

 

We decided on this cruise that we were only going to bring a rolling carry on each plus I brought a back pack. This meant that the checkin time was convenient since we could take our bags straight to our stateroom. In the past we’ve brought more than we’ve needed. It does take some creativity, willingness to wear the same thing more than once, and means you are not bringing true formal wear.

 

I will typically go out of my way to save a buck, but when it comes to vacation to typically loosen up a bit. Port parking is one of those things. I like being able to pull up and walk into the terminal. I do not want to wait for a shuttle. 

 

Port Canal parking is easy and we were unloading the truck and washing the love bugs off the windshield around 12:45. We were at the on time line 2 minutes to 1. The next time I checked the time was when we stopped on deck 5 to find a restroom. It was 1:08. Yes, that’s right, 10 minutes. 

 

I’ll stop here for now, but as a teaser I may be gotten more than my allotted wine and possibly some bourbon on.

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Bostwick girl

Bostwick girl

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15 hours ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Following we leave in 2 weeks.  Question, the deck you embarked on is that the same deck you disembarked on and which deck was it?  

 

We were on this same cruise, had a great time! The layout is a little different so took me a while to get used to it.  We have mobility scooters in our traveling party so had to go up to gangway via the elevator.  Embarkation is on Deck 3 forward lobby.  Debark for us was the same deck, Diamonds and platinums met at 7:15 in Sapphire dining room, deck 3 with diamonds on port side and platinum on starboard. We arrived around 7, elevators are so crowded it took several tries plus 2 were blocked for special assist I think.  Right at 7:15 they called those who had #1 luggage tags, so off we went. Was on I95 north heading home a bit before 8:00. 

 

I believe self carry people people were allowed off starting around 6:45.

 

Edited by Bostwick girl
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paper1122

paper1122

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21 hours ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Following we leave in 2 weeks.  Question, the deck you embarked on is that the same deck you disembarked on and which deck was it?  

Yes, it was deck 5. For ports days however, you get on and off on deck 0.

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paper1122

paper1122

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18 hours ago, TheGirlNextDoor said:

Will be doing same cruise in July on Breeze. Looking forward to hearing more about ports and excursions you did.

 

I’ll definitely go into detail on the ports. If you have questions as I go along be sure to ask.

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paper1122

paper1122

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46 minutes ago, paper1122 said:

Yes, it was deck 5. For ports days however, you get on and off on deck 0.

 

22 hours ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Following we leave in 2 weeks.  Question, the deck you embarked on is that the same deck you disembarked on and which deck was it?  

 

Sorry, I misspoke, it is deck 3

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paper1122

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Ok, so let’s see where I left off. We just stepped foot on the ship. We made it on earlier than expected but we didn’t want to lug the luggage around so we just hung out waiting for the cabins to be ready. 

 

We encountered some people who didn’t think the 1:30 time applied to them as well as some people who were already well and good drunk. 

 

I’ll take a minute to address the first comparison between royal and carnival. I often get comments from people asking why we would sail carnival. My first response is that it doesn’t matter what line you sail, there will always be 1 star people, they may look different or act differently but rude people will be rude and obnoxious people will be obnoxious, it doesn’t matter how much money they have or where they live. Some cruises will attract different crowds, if you book a 3 day cruise during spring break it will be a party boat. In my mind there isn’t a huge difference here.

 

Our first hiccup occurred once we got to our cabin. Our room was not properly cleaned when we got to it. There were shoes left from the previous guest, garbage on the floor, garbage in the toilet, and surfaces had not been wiped or dusted. This was the first time we’ve had this issue. We addressed it with the room steward later on in the day and he was fairly dismissive. We did escalate it to guest services and the excuse we got was that they are very busy on embarkation day. Our room steward did try hard the rest of the cruise but the room really didn’t get sufficiently cleaned until the end of the cruise.

 

We are tidy people but we did ask for twice daily service so we could get fresh towels (nothing dries in the bathroom) and ice. We also requested bath robes and were given them.

 

Our order of two packs of water was half there when we arrived, we had to go to guest services to get our second pack delivered. The mini fridge in the room took about a day to cool them down along with our champagne.

 

Speaking of champagne. We did get two bottles of red wine and a bottle of champagne on. It was in our carryon and there was no issue. I also got two 100ml bottles of bourbon in, in my pockets and had two 8oz rum runners in my backpack. Again, no issues. Before anyone gets bent out of shape, I did this mostly just to see if I could and also because they don’t have my brand of sipping bourbon on board. We still bought plenty of drinks onboard.

 

Let’s talk about the cabin and the location. We opted for a cove balcony. Ever since the dream class ships came out I wanted to try one. We booked fairly late and I happened to get the last one not under the galley. We were just aft of the forward elevators on the port side. We were under the atrium and we only had the back half of a life boat over us. The location was great. We had very minimal noise other than debarkation morning because the gangway was almost overhead. It is far enough back that sea spray isn’t a major issue. Being close to the forward elevators and stairs was perfect for port days. 

 

I really don’t know if I’d want another type of balcony on this ship all the others looked down on the deck 5 exterior promenade and there was often activity out there. The downside is that you don’t get nearly as much light in the cabin. It was nice that it was usually shaded so even when it was warm it was still comfortable out there. I observed at least one person smoking on their balcony, it is not allowed and it annoyed me, but it was only a couple of times. Our next door neighbor occasionally vaped on theirs. 

 

I will take a side bar into smoking. I personally think that people should be able to smoke if they want to, however, not around non-smokers. This was a big area that the ship design failed. The smoke smell from the casino was the worst I’ve ever experienced. You could smell it from the alchemy bar and from the atrium. It was so overwhelming in the casino that we would go down to deck 4 and then cross the ship to avoid it. I didn’t gamble at all because the smoke was overbearing. I don’t mind cigar or pipe tobacco smoke but cigarette smoke really bothers my sinuses. On the oasis it was just as bad but the way they had it positioned you never had to go through it unless you wanted to, on the breeze it was a main walkway.

 

Back to our program already in progress...

 

We dropped our luggage and went in search of food, actually we first were going to get a drink. We’d seen from a dream review that they were offering half price drinks in the casino on embarkation. We walked through and found no signs indicating this like on the dream so we gave up and went to guys pig and anchor bbq. It was closing in on 2 pm so they were running a bit low. We had to wait about 10 minutes for more smoked beef (it is not brisket, but it was good). The meats were good, they have a great rub with a great bark. The sides were mediocre. The slaw was the best side. There was ice water available in the ocean plaza.

 

After we filled our bellies we went back to the cabin to unpack our luggage. I watched the activity on the dock from the balcony for a while and then it was time for muster. 

 

Everyone must have been really excited for muster because we waited until they told us to proceed to our muster station and we were among the last to arrive, we were in the middle dining room upper level and got some of the last seats. The drill as painless as usual and the staff let us go before dismissal was announced.

 

We found our way to the front of the ship for sail away. It was sprinkling during sail away so we didn’t stay outside very long, instead we decided explore the ship. We were at the front of the ship so I wanted to checkout the surprise I booked for my wife. Pre cruise John Heald posted a discount for spa services, so I booked the week long thermal suite pass. So we went up to find out what we needed to do to redeem it. My wife was very surprised. 

 

After more exploring we went to the cabin and changed into swimsuits so we could use the thermal suites for the first time. It was a very relaxing experience, but the steam room was extreme even for a long time Florida resident. Using it all week really helped the pinched nerve in my neck though.

 

I’ll stop here for now, next up Cucina for dinner.

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Bostwick girl

Bostwick girl

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I have to disagree with paper1112 as to the smokiness of the casino. DH and I are non-smokers for many many years and he is a lot more sensitive to the smoke than I am. The casino was not particularly smoky to either of us any time we were in there. First thing in the morning is the best time to go and early evenings. We would go after dinner every night, and didn't notice it being too bad at all, maybe it was later on in the evening. We were usually gone by 9. Never smelled it at the Alchemy Bar area in the Ocean Plaza at all. Matter of fact, I mentioned to him a time or two the smoke not being as bad as it has been on a lot of the ships we've been on. 

 

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