About the Carnival Breeze Review Series

Over the course of the next few posts on Off the Tour, I will provide the most in depth review of the Carnival Breeze cruise you will venture to find on the net. I will include drink menus, restaurant menus, sample sea days, sample sales and reviews on all activities and entertainment on board and off. We had so much trouble finding this type of information before our Carnival Breeze voyage last month, that I set out to gather as much information as I could to make it easily available for others. I hope to help others plan and budget accordingly with all the information.

We arrived at the port of Miami around noon and by 12:30p we were boarding the Carnival Breeze. We were advised to wait until 1:30p to go to our staterooms, but we didn’t care, we just wanted to be on board and get our vacation started! The first thing you will notice boarding the Carnival Breeze, is that the design is completely different from their other cruise ships. As soon as you walk into the lobby you find a fresh, modern appeal with bright colored lanterns hanging in the atrium and a DJ setting up to play on the first level of the staircase above the heavily populated bar. After grabbing a couple of drinks at the Breeze bar, we made our way to the Lido.

The Lido deck was already lively with most of the bright blue beach chairs taken up and  full of people ready for an afternoon sea day. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who wanted to get this vacation going. The DJ was already playing current Top 20 hits. The day was beautiful; warm with no clouds in the sky and a light breeze as you walked on deck. Having spent most of the morning packing, we missed breakfast and wasted no time getting over to the raved about Guy’s Burger Joint. After a late brunch, we made our way to our stateroom.

Our stateroom on the Carnival Breeze was an interior and surprisingly spacious. The bathroom actually had room enough for the both of us to stand in there together unlike past experiences on cruise ships bathrooms. They provide a few samples of toothpaste, hand soap and turtle chocolates. The shower has a shampoo and body wash dispenser and there is a huge mirror with great lighting in there. The linen shower curtain does little to prevent the water from seeping all over the bathroom floor; we had to always use extra towels to make sure we didn’t slip. The twin converted king bed was very hard and lead to many restless nights. It was only slightly more comfortable than sleeping on a carpeted floor might be. Storage in the cabin was plentiful with a hall full of closet space, 4 drawers in the desk provided and some minimal cabinet space beneath the tv where the mini bar was. The Carnival Breeze was already looking like a better ship than past sailings on other Carnival cruises; as well it should be being the newest, biggest and brightest addition to Carnival Cruise Lines.

Before 5 minutes had passed of us exploring our stateroom, there was a knock on the door. It was our steward Dwi from Indonesia. He was very polite, greeting us by name and introducing himself explaining what his responsibilities were to us during our stay. We would see a lot of Dwi on our trip in the halls and he would always greet us by name and a courteous salutation. He always seemed very careful with his words as if certain dialog were prohibited, never letting his concierge-like persona falter. Jason being a chatter box, would try to get him to loosen up with jokes or by asking him about Indonesia, but he always spun the conversation back to his service to us as passengers. Nevertheless, he was an amazing steward all trip providing excellent service and even taking towel animal requests.

Our bags arrived shortly after we were allowed into the room which we felt was pretty fast having dropped them off only about two hours before. Previous cruise experiences have seen bags arriving as late as after dinner. After making sure everything was there, we set out to explore the ship some more before setting sail at 4:00p. The ship continues its modern look throughout the ship with vibrant solid colored cushions on the furnishings and no tropical patterns in sight as was the standard design and textile for cruises of the past. The Breeze was living up to the hype of the many reviews, YouTube videos and visits to Carnival.com were creating for us. At 4:00p we made our way on deck to say Bon Voyage to Miami and embark on an 8 day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Breeze.

Stay tuned for Part II of our in depth review!