Carnival Breeze Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,351 reviews

Thanksgiving cruise with the kids

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Breeze
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tammyjw305
6-10 Cruises • Age 20s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Nov 2017
Cabin: Deluxe Ocean View
Traveled with children

We are in our early 40s and went on the Thanksgiving cruise with our two kids, who were out of school with all the other kids :). Long, detailed – sorry. We have been on 9 other cruise (the kids – 1 had been on 2 others and the other 1 other), all on NCL (so review with comparisons). We selected Carnival, so that we could drive to Galveston and not have to buy 4 plane tickets. NCL has sailed from Houston before, but not now. I also wanted to go to Grand Cayman; this was the new port for us that I have wanted to visit. All the activities offered (water park, rope course, putt-putt golf, hot tubs off the side of the promenade, etc.) also looked exciting to entertain the kids and adults together. They were. This was the biggest ship we have been on. While on, we heard 4,700 people + crew sailing that week on a ship advertised for 3,800 passengers at two per room. We were not sure if we would like that many people together. Overall, it was not bad, and we did not mind walking it. We love to walk the promenade deck. Being on deck 1 and slow elevators did give us more stairs than I was good at handling. Though the most crowded place by far was the buffet…oh my.

Food:

To transition to food and start with the buffet, it is divided into two parts with a good length walk between both (a kitchen and some seating between, I believe), which was annoying when trying to find utensils (not on the tables like NCL’s), trying to find family members, or trying to find something that looked good. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, there were always lines. Except for the NCL’s hamburger/hot dog buffet start line, I’m used to jumping in and out of line based on what looks good. I’m not going to get in the buffet line and take everything or almost everything, so I hate to wait in line for everything. Going for breakfast one morning, I really thought we would not get any food. We did discover the hot chocolate machine in the buffet; it was awesome but not open the last day. The last day, we got to the buffet earlier, and it was not crowded. Just one more buffet note – the chocolate chip cookies are delicious on NCL; they were horrible on Carnival.

Cabin Review

Deluxe Ocean View

Cabin 6N

Our room steward took good care of us. She asked if we wanted service morning, evening, or both. We picked both. She asked if we had any special requests where the form had options like more hangers and I do not remember what else. Since we were shocked with no bucket or ice, I requested this. She wrote it out to the side and kept us in ice morning and night, including the first night, which was very nice.

We had two rooms on deck 1, deluxe ocean views with doors between them. It was nice that we could open them ourselves; on NCL, we had to wait for the room steward to come with a special key to open them. With it being Thanksgiving week, this was the lowest category of room that we could get with the connecting doors, and we booked almost 13 months in advance – you are warned . Now this is bad – we got locked out of one room. One of the room’s door (to the adult’s room) liked to let go of its catch and slam close…especially when I went into the kids room. It was hard to close and lock at other times; only worked well when it slammed shut unexpectantly. It was night, so we had our room locked with the physical lock. We had my key card in the light (to keep the lights on; you must put and keep a card in the slot. We brought and used other cards, but it was convenient to put it in right after unlocking the door and coming in the room.) and the kid’s card that worked with that room in that room. There is one adult per room when the room purchase is done. It would be nice if all key cards worked in both rooms, but I did not ask – I don’t if they can do that or not. We called our room steward with the number in the kids’ room. It is nice to have a number listed for your room steward; NCL used to provide it too and now does not, which is crazy. She came with her key with no luck…doh, the physical lock. The door between rooms did not have a handle on both sides, so could not be used. She called Maintenance, who called Security, who had the physical key. We were back in. Maintenance checked out the catch and called someone to fix it. He suggested that night, so I waited on my shower while my husband went to the gym. I finally just took a shower. They came when we out the next day. It was embarrassing and annoying, and we hated troubling so many people. They got us in quickly. The new latch did not have any issues.

Back to the cabin review – the fridge came empty, so we did not need to request a mini-bar empty. We brought sodas, so stocked the fridge with them. Our windows were dirty many days; they cleaned them once but they got dirty quickly again. Being on deck 1, it got splashed a lot. For pictures, I could pick the room that had the cleanest view for what I was taking a picture of. I saved the best part for last; the deluxe ocean view has 2 bathrooms – two showers, one toilet, and two sinks. This also always gave us enough towels for me to have a hair towel too. All the showers were very nice for everyone to shower at once when returning from shore or swimming.

Port Reviews

Montego Bay

We did not plan anything for this stop. My husband and I honeymooned in Ocho Rios and knew about the 2 hour bus rides. I did not want to try that with kids. We got out and shopped in the port area. The kids got a Jamaica soccer ball (futbol); we did not have one before. We did not mean to but did haggle. Our youngest was trying to want a fidget spinner instead. We were trying to get them to decide. The ball also had marks on it; I don’t like to buy new stuff that is dirty. This was taken as haggling, and she knocked the price down. In the terminal, they were helpful and told us how to walk to the Hard Rock for wi-fi. We had gotten an email from our tour guide in Grand Cayman about an earlier tour time before we left Galveston, so needed to check email again. When I saw the line of people at the gate ready to hassle us and it was starting to sprinkle, I ask that we head back. (We ended up buying expensive one day internet access from the ship.) Jamaica was pretty when we saw it before; if you want to do something, book it ahead of time. It ended up flooding that day, and the ship did not get to leave until right before 10pm, instead of 6pm, waiting for ship tours to make it back. They had to avoid flooded roads.

Cozumel

There were many ships and people in port the day we were there, and our ship had the latest scheduled arrival time. The dock the Breeze was at, I believe, is closer to Chankanaab – Puenta Maya. The taxi lines were long this day. They have a price list to the different locations, so you know the cost + tip. At Chankanaab (the kids have been one other time), we started with the Mayan ruins. Then we got ready to snorkel. We camped between a set of umbrellas and chairs; none left available at this point. The snorkeling was not as good as I remembered, but I did not go to all the sections. Youngest loved it again, noted he touched a fish. Hum…you are not supposed to touch them. They have snorkel gear from Christmas one year. We borrowed life jackets for youngest and myself (being lazy, and I don’t dive anyway) with a driver’s license for the id that they hold while you borrow the jackets. After snorkeling, we went to the sea lion show and then let the kids play in the pool. Then we decided that we should head back before it got closer to the Park’s closing time at 4pm when everyone would want to a taxi. We were put in a van taxi with another family. Based on this, we did not know the price. Husband asked. Chankanaab is very nice. They also have swim with dolphins and manatees and zip lining.

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