Our family of five sailed the 8-day Southern Caribbean itinerary on the Carnival Breeze in February 2014. We have cruised on Carnival in the past, as well as other lines. Overall, we had a good experience and would sail with Carnival again. On the Breeze, there were some things that we liked better or didn't enjoy as much when compared to previous cruise vacations. Before I share our experience, it is important to note that the cruising experience can be very subjective, and vary a lot from family to family according to one's previous experiences, circumstances and expectations. Given this, the context of my comments are to provide an overall review of our particular experiences which readers can take with a grain of salt.

We flew in to Miami the night before the cruise and stayed at Miami Comfort Suites Airport North. We choose this hotel because the rooms would accommodate 5 people, which is not always easy to find, and because of value for money (the room rate included a shuttle from the airport, a hot/cold breakfast and a transfer to the Port of Miami). I would recommend this hotel.

We arrived at the port around noon on embarkation day. It took about an hour and a bit to get on the ship. We dropped our carry-on luggage in the cabins and headed on deck to the Lido Marketplace for lunch. Read more