Cozumel and Progresso - Family Vacay Disappointment
Carnival Breeze Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 26
5 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)
Sail date: August 01, 2022
Ship: Carnival Breeze
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 2 years ago
Review summary
I would not recommend families with small children. There are not enough activities for younger children. There were too many people and not enough staff in the right places. There was little organization in the embarking and disembarking at ports and activities for the number of people on the ship. The crew did not appear happy to be there.Embarkation
Follow the herd
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
If it were not for the fantastic wait staff in the formal restaurants, I would not have given but one star because it is required. The attendants on the Lido deck stood over you like vultures waiting for your used dishes. While most of the drink stations were without ice, and the bars with only one bartender. We were told that there were 5700 people on board. Although the ship is one of the larger ships, it was not organized to handle this many people. I thought since it was August, maybe the staff was burnt out, but COVID limited the cruises this year. Not sure what the excuse was. Maybe upper management not doing their job by hiring the best candidates. Maybe, just plain old burnout and the bartenders need to start looking for a new line of work. In either case, people pay way too much to cruise to be greeted with frowns and bartenders that do not want to be there.
Blush Dining Room
The food and wait staff were terrific. This was the best part of the cruise. They undoubtedly exceeded my expectations.
Onboard Activities
The outdoor activities were equipped with old gear that looked like it was purchased from a garage sale. Much less was in stock or had enough for everyone to participate simultaneously. More activities involved selling something than "activities" that would be considered more of a cruise activity. Unless your kids were part of the youth club that was only open at certain times, there were no activities to keep them busy. So most of them just ran around the ship during all-night hours. The places where they had activities like trivia were so packed and uncomfortable that not even the "fun crew" appeared to enjoy the activity.
Entertainment
The talent in the shows was probably the best part of the cruise. Although, my kids, 24, 21, 18, and 15, thought they were all cheesy and did not share the excitement. The comedy, however, was a joke! We tried both comedians, and one comedian could not get passed the children hecklers in the crowd. What can you expect from a 3-year-old sitting for more than 30 minutes listening to jokes he does not understand? Made the entire show unpleasant for those who did understand. If the comedian was going to do PG shows, he should be more prepared to deal with things like this or the cruise should have had a minimum age limit. Even if it was PG, you could not expect fourfour4 year old to be entertained. Why would you not put an age limit on the PG show? Another display of poor organization.
Children's Programs
The kids were walking away crying. Not because it was not fun, but because they would only allow 5-6 families with children to participate, which is unacceptable on a cruise ship with more than 5700 people. Either create more activities or change your activities to suit the large crowds. In one instance, we were standing in front of the daycare when a child outside the daycare was crying and eventually lost or something. The two workers continued to talk and ignore the child because the daycare was closed. When they were approached, they tried to put it off that they did not see the child, but I saw them look directly at the child. There is no way they did not see what was going on.
Service and Staff
The servers in the restaurants were fantastic—everything you would expect on a cruise. The room attendant was always right there when we needed him, and our room was always taken care of when we returned. I could not say enough great things about them.
Ship Quality
Again, I could not tell you why more people were cleaning per square inch and during the busiest times of the day. Some just walked with a towel wiping germs from one stair rail to another and never changing or using any cleaners or disinfecting cleaners.
Cabin / Stateroom
The ac was not self-controlled as advertised. They were hot with poor circulation. My kids had a separate room on floor one that smelled like sewage. We complained several times. On the third complaint, they sent someone, and it appeared to go away for a few hours but came back. We asked for twin beds for four kids, and they put them together and did not have the 4th bed ready. We had to request it twice before they took care of it.
Ship tip
If you have small children, consider a Disney cruise or a cruise that caters to small children.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We went 6 years ago, and everything was exactly how it was six years ago. We did the Passion Island excursion, and the crew was not happy to be there. Well, actually just the ones in charge. The younger ones appeared to be happy and dancing with guests. However, the ones in charge were more worried about making sure we all knew where to put the tips. We spent 30 mins of a 3 1/2 hour excursion discussing tips, and returning to the boat on time. Not including the 30 mins we spent lining up shoulder by shoulder and making a horseshoe just to get back on the boat. I can understand they did not want to leave anyone behind, but I believe everyone felt the same and were just as anxious to get back on the ship on time.
Terrifying. We waited for nearly two hours to take a shuttle to town in the blistering, hot sun. There were no taxis as the cruise ship had contracted with the shuttle company, the same company owned by the excursion company. There were no accommodations for people in wheelchairs, and they were also forced to wait in the hot sun for a shuttle. People were getting into fights, and children were crying as their parents argued with others because there was no organization, and you could not tell where the line began or ended. We did not do the shuttle because we wanted to go shopping. I do not recommend this as the locals are very anxious to sell their merchandise, and several followed us for a couple of blocks trying to get us to buy their stuff. Even after we said no thank you. The only good thing about this port was once we got on the shuttle, they had good AC.
Disembarkation
Scary. The elevators were full, people were fighting to get on or off the elevators. They were acting like the ship was sinking and their life was endanger. Again poor organization