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Carnival Breeze, Onboard Fun!

8/18/2014

The Carnival Breeze offers many activities you cannot find elsewhere on a cruise ship.

Sky Course
This ropes course at sea is a neat idea. I wasn't overly excited about it when we first boarded the ship. I was scared the first time I went around. By the end of the week I felt like I could do it with my eyes closed. I enjoyed this more than anything else onboard which surprises even myself!

Water Works
Carnival's signature onboard water park. On the Breeze there are two large waterslides, two small racers for young children, firing hoses, a dump bucket, etc. We found that it was nearly empty when we were in port. The Drainpipe (orange) hurt my back due to the places where the tubs connect and the Twister (yellow) made me very dizzy!! Check out the video clips below.

Thrill Theater
An exhilirating short-movie experience that includes 3-d visual effects, motion, and more. These short clips include all of your senses! They make you feel like you are actually there! We did not have the opportunity to try this out on our cruise, but I'd love to try it in the future.

Pools
There are two pools onboard, the Beach Pool located mid-ship. This is where the pool games and events take place. There are covered seating areas where you can soak your feet in the cool water on a hot day. The aft, Tides Pool, is located at the back of the ship on the same deck (10) as the beach pool. This location offered nice views of the wake of the ship with comfortable loungers and couches.

Seaside Theater
Located at the mid-ship Beach pool. Movies and concerts run night and day. Each evening there was a movie that recently left theaters. We found that seats filled up quickly. Popcorn is served in the evenings at the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar. We watched for 20 minutes on the final evening of the cruise when they played Rio. Our son was interested in the animated movie. It was a nice relaxing way to watch a movie after dinner.

Sports Deck
From basketball, ping pong, foosball, billiards, etc. There is plenty to do on the sports deck!

Bars
There are plenty of establishments on board to relax and have your favorite drink!

Serenity
The adults only retreat located on deck 14. Hot tubs, padded loungers, cool breezes, and more!

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Carnival Breeze- Dining

8/15/2014

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The Carnival Breeze offers numerous dining options onboard. We're going to focus on lunch and dinner because we find breakfast to be boring no matter what cruise ship you're on. We tried almost all of the dining venues, so here's the run down what what they serve, and what we thought!
Remember to click on the photos to view them larger.

Lido Buffet
The Carnival buffet varies greatly between lunch and dinner. During lunch time they offer many different options:

Tandoor- Indian cuisine. Located on the starboard (right) side of the ship just outside the back door to the buffet.
Pizza Pirate- Hand made pizza by-order. Located port side (left), just outside the back door to the buffet.
Deli- Typical deli style food from sandwiches, salads, to soups. Located central-back in the buffet.
Homestyle- Daily selections from chicken fingers, salads, fish, burgers, hot dogs, etc. Located central-front section of the buffet, close to the beach pool and elevators.
Mongolian Wok- Stir fry. You choose the ingredients, they fry it up!

Dinner hour was different, the front section of the buffet did not serve food, but was open for seating. If you intend to eat at the buffet for dinner you'll need to travel to the back section where they will have 3-4 options that might include a couple of items from the Main Dining Room.

Guy's Burger Joint
Found pool side and open daily until 6pm. Serving up some of the tastiest burgers I've ever had! You grab your burger at the counter, then head over the the topping bar to decorate it how you want! The fries are pretty darn good too. The napkins look like rags from a car garage.

Blue Iguana Cantina
Found pool side and open daily for breakfast and lunch. In the morning they make made-to-order breakfast burritos with all types of fillings. We enjoyed this breakfast because it changed it up a bit from the same old stuff. They also served arepas! For lunch they have burritos and tacos, also made-to-order.

Fat Jimmy's C-Side BBQ
Located on Deck 5-Promenade. This venue is only open during sea days. They had pork, chicken, and sausage along with beans, potato salad, corn bread, grilled vegetables, and more. I was warned that there would be a long wait, but it wasn't terrible. Ten minutes at the most! Click HERE to view the menu.

Main Dining Rooms- Blush & Sapphire
The main dining rooms are both open for dinner each night. We were assigned the Blush, the first photo below, second level. All of the food was very good. They are still using what many refer to as the "old menus" which I like. We tried the "new menus" back in December and were less than impressed. Blush is located at the aft (back) of the ship, whereas Sapphire is located mid-ship right off the atrium. Both are on decks 3 & 4. Guests are assigned to a specific dining room for dinner. Click HERE for a sample from one evening's offerings.

Taste Bar
Located on deck 5 in Ocean Plaza (mid-ship). For lunch they offer salads and soups. At dinner time they have samples from the specialty restaurants. A nice way to sample some yummy food before making a reservation for the extra cost restaurants.

Sea Dogs
The hot dog stand is located on the Sports Deck (12), under the Sky Course. It is open during lunch hours daily 11am-4pm.

Bonsai Sushi
Located on deck 5 on the Promenade, this a la carte ($$) location serves up sushi. Every time we walked past it they were filled to the max! I don't east sushi so I can't comment on the quality. By the looks of how busy it was, I'd say it must have been yummy! Click HERE to view the menu.

Cucina del Capitano
Located on deck, just above the Lido Buffet. They offer a complimentary pasta bar at lunch. At lunch they also offer lasagna and salads as well. All pasta dishes are made to order. Dinner is $15 per person and includes a more extensive menu. We enjoyed a delicious lunch there one day. The pasta and sauces were fabulous! I'm Italian and I approve ;) Click HERE to view the menu.

Red Frog Pub
Located on deck 5, Promenade. This venue offers pub/ bar food for a small cost ($) and has an extensive bar offering of beers and mixed drinks. Indoor and outdoor seating available. Games do not have a cost. We saw many people playing with the corn hole game after dinner each night. On a few nights there was live music inside. Click HERE to view the menu.

Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse
Located on deck 5, aft. This steak house has a $35 per person fee. It serves up a variety of steak seafood, and other gourmet entrees. It always receives wonderful reviews. We didn't personally eat here on this trip, but we would consider it in the future. Click HERE to view the menu.

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Carnival Breeze, Toddler Friendly?

8/14/2014

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Well, my family is back from another cruise. Yes, we did it again... The good news is that it's all for your benefit!

In this post I will cover the toddler and baby friendliness of the ship. I will publish some additional posts on other aspects of the ship like dining and activities after.

For some background info, this was my son's 3rd cruise. Previously he went on a 7-day Carnival Glory cruise at 9-months old and a 3-day Enchantment of the Seas cruise at 14-months old.

Travel Gear
For this trip we didn't bring many extras like we have in the past. My suggestion, if you like to travel, is to invest in a good umbrella-style stroller. We used to have The First Years Ignite, but since upgraded to the Chicco Liteway. I actually prefer it over my full-sized stroller these days! The Chicco fit great in the back corner of our stateroom. We saw parents will full-sized strollers struggling to get around in the ship. We did not bring a pack n play this time because they provided us with a crib. However you cannot request the crib in advance on Carnival.

Chicco Liteway in Category 6M on Carnival Breeze

I had to call Guest Services once onboard to request it. Their policy, apparently, is to deliver it during evening turn down service. We had to wait until 7:30pm for it to arrive in our room. Not cool when you have a 16-month old who needs an afternoon nap and does not sleep on a bed! My son is sleep trained a little too well and cannot sleep with us in the room, but we have a simple solution. A dark colored shower curtain and some magnetic hooks for the ceiling! As you can see below there was plenty of room in the stateroom, even with the crib.

Stateroom
On the previous two cruises I lucked out with balcony cabins. I do mean lucked out, as we rarely pay for a balcony. Both were free upgrades. This time I booked a category 6M Oceanview stateroom, no upgrade- but in the end I was very thankful. Carnival has been offering these nice "family" staterooms on their newer ships (Dream, Magic, and Breeze). So you're probably thinking what is so special? I'll show you :)

Yes, a bathtub, a window seat, and four closets! Those three things are rare on a cruise ship. All of them came in handy for traveling with a 16 month old. There were two bathrooms in the room. One was the regular toilet, sink, and shower combo. The other was a tub/shower and sink. The two bathrooms have separate water heaters as well. The tub was a life saver each night. We were able to keep a regular routine with bath before bed time each night. The window seat was great when we were in port because he could people watch. He actually loved it when we were at sea as well because he was fascinated with the water and waves. Finally, the closet space. We never even used the last closet. We each took one to store our clothes, the last one was where we kept the third suitcase, the other two were under the bed.

Dining Room
We ate in the Main Dining Room, Blush, on 5 of the 6 nights. We chose to eat in the buffet on the second formal night because we didn't feel like dressing up. Service was adequate, our waiter made some napkin animals on a few nights to help entertain the little guy. We requested a high chair on the first evening and it was automatically there on subsequent nights. The first ten minutes were challenging each night because we had to order a fruit plate for my son, to keep him occupied. On another cruise we took they would bring fruit as soon as we sat to help keep him busy.

Camp Carnival
Carnival's childrens' programming does not begin until age 2. At two, you can send your child to Camp Carnival and enjoy your day on your own! The only thing offered for the under-2 crowd is Open Play in the mornings on sea days and "group babysitting" on port days. Both are limited to about 3 hours each time. If you want to leave your little one, it is $6.25 an hour plus tip. We attempted to leave our son there on one occasion so we could go on the water slides without having to take turns. My son wouldn't have it. He cried for 30 minutes straight. He used to be so good about going to daycare, but he's now out of that routine. We used the open play once for my son and he enjoyed the variety of toys available.

Suess at Sea
Carnival recently partnered with Dr Suess to provide onboard activities and entertainment. It is being rolled out on various ships right now. On the Carnival Breeze they offered green eggs & ham breakfast ($5 per person), story time, and a parade. We were able to catch both storytime and the parade on the afternoon of being in Key West. It was cute, although you could tell it was a new program as there were not very many people in attendance. The parade began in Liquid Nightclub. Entertainment staff handed out props to hold and introduced the characters with music and cheering. The Cat in the Hat was supposed to come out last but didn't so the parade was actually an "adventure hide & seek." We marched through the ship until we reached the theater where the Cat in the Hat was hiding! This led in to the story time, which was really nice for slightly older kids. They invited all the kids on stage and had some kids and parents participate in the story telling adventure. My son was watching for 10 minutes then wanted to run around on the stage, so we left!

Overall
We felt the ship was okay with young toddlers and babies. As a parent you have to be willing to spend all of your time with your child unless you bring along a grandparent or babysitter. We're okay with that because we travel so frequently. I did find Royal Caribbean to be more accommodating to families with very young children.

For more information on the programs offered onboard and to book your next family vacation, please contact [email protected] or 561-702-2096

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Cruise Line Tipping Policies

8/4/2014

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My family just got back from 6 days on the beautiful Carnival Breeze. As with life- you always learn something new. We found out that children under the age of 2 do not have to pay for gratuities on Carnival. We thought there was a mistake on our bill but we found out that we didn't have to pay those tips. So here is a run down of each cruise line's most recent tipping policy!

Carnival
$12 per person, per day is added to the onboard account beginning October 9, 2014.
Passenger under the age of 2 do not pay gratuities.
15% is automatically added to bar bills.

Celebrity
$12 per person, per day is added to the onboard account.
$12.50 per person, per day in Concierge & AquaClass accomodations.
$3.50 per person, per day for the Butler in suites.
Celebrity Select Dining requires pre-payment of tips.
15% is automatically added to bar bills.

Disney Cruise Line
$12 per person, per day is added to the onboard account.
15% is automatically added to bar bills (including coffee).

Holland America
$11.50 per person, per day is added to the onboard account.
$12 per person, per day for staying in a suite.
15% is automatically added to bar bills.

Norwegian Cruise Line
$12 per person, per day is added to the onboard account as a service charge.
Passengers under the age of 3 do not pay gratuities.
15% is automatically added to bar bills.
18% is automatically added to spa services.

Princess
$11.50 per person, per day is added to the onboard account.
$12 per person, per day for guests in a mini-suite or suite.
15% is automatically added to bar bills.

Royal Caribbean
$12 per person, per day is added to the onboard account.
$14.25 per person, per day for suite guests.
My Time Dining must prepay gratuities.
15% is automatically added to bar, spa, and mini-bar services.

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Carnival Breeze, Onboard Fun!

Carnival Breeze- Dining

Carnival Breeze, Toddler Friendly?

Cruise Line Tipping Policies

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