Tropical Contact Highs: Eight Breeze-y Nights in the Southern Caribbean (Part 8)featured

by Nicole on May 19, 2014

Sometimes, the thing you think you want the least turns out to be exactly what you need. In my case? I didn’t want rain. Or overcast skies. But a lazy day in my sweats? That’s exactly what I needed. Four ports in the past five days was quasi-exhausting. And if the sun were out, we’d have rushed through breakfast and up to sun and swim for hours. And that sounds incredibly blissful. It is incredibly blissful. But more restful? A lazy day with trivia, movies and cat naps. So there was no disappointment when we drew back the curtains to reveal some ominous looking skies.

By the time we headed up to the Lido marketplace for breakfast, the skies had opened up. We thought it might be packed for breakfast, but it seems most of the ship was sleeping in.

The Lido marketplace was filled with breakfast options – meats and pastries, made to order omelets and pancakes.

I only had eyes for one thing: arepas. Lets not even pretend this is a surprise anymore. Second to my beloved tiramisu cheesecake, this is amongst the best things served onboard the Breeze. The sweetness of the corn and the nuttiness of the cheese mingling with some tangy salsa verde? It’s cruise food nirvana.

After breakfast, we all headed down to Ocean Plaza, where we played (and lost) a few rousing rounds of trivia. They serve a continental breakfast at the Taste Bar during breakfast hours, so we grabbed some coffees and teas to keep us warm since it was getting a bit chilly.

We perused the shops, popped into and out of various activities and ultimately, ended up back in the room to watch Pitch Perfect. If the storm passed by the time the movie finished, we were going to change into our swimwear, grab a quick lunch on Lido and go swimming. If the clouds kept gray, we’d do brunch in the dining room for lunch.

Brunch it was.

It seemed many others had the same idea for lunch (or a very, very late breakfast since we were well into the afternoon hours at this point). Here’s what I can say for the seaday brunch: the food was decent (but there was some fruit loop French toast being noshed on at the next table that looked ahhhhmazing), the service was awful and I miss the Vacation Sundae they used to serve during lunch. The tables are spaced too close, so if you don’t care to share your meal with strangers, asking for a private table will get you one in name only because you will be seated inches from the party at the next table. The pacing was awful because it was so crowded and there were so many parties to serve – our entrees came on the heels of our appetizers, and we skipped dessert because it was taking too long to get dessert menus.

Since we’re Platinum cruisers, we each had a voucher for a free drink. There were bartenders making the rounds constantly throughout the meal asking if anyone had Platinum drink coupons. Two bellinis and a mimosa, please!

We weren’t that hungry – we only really came to brunch to redeem our drink vouchers – so we only nibbled. Mom’s blueberry pancakes weren’t much different from the pancakes served up on Lido (except for the two or three blueberries not so generously speckling each pancake) and Stephanie didn’t care much for her mac and cheese (which was drowning in an extraordinarily thin sauce), but man, my steak and eggs made me wish I were hungry. A petite filet was accentuated with a pair of perfectly fried eggs, the yolks blending with the accompanied béarnaise sauce perfectly when poked. I didn’t get further than a couple of bites, but it was a clear winner at our table.

Bread basket

Fresh Fruit Platter with Cottage Cheese

Fat Stack Pancakes

Mac n’ Cheese

Steak-n-Eggs

We skipped out on dessert and ran up to Lido to grab some green apples to bring back to the room since the seas were a little rough (green apples supposedly help with seasickness. Someone told us this on one of our Miracle cruises and now we can’t help but notice how there always seem to be green apples out on Lido). They had a tray of mini carrot cake cupcakes out for dessert. I can’t attest to how tasty they were since I don’t like carrot cake, but they were too cute to not take a picture of.

Back in the room, we got in an episode of Nancy Grace before deciding to head out to the hot tubs. It wasn’t sunny, but the rain stopped and in the cooler air, nothing felt better than a dip into a warm hot tub.

Once we were thoroughly pruney on our fingertips, we headed back to the room to change, shower and ponder one very important choice: afternoon tea…or Friends trivia. We love our afternoon tea, but Friends anything will win any time. We love Friends. A lot. Stephanie and I grew up with it. I marathon it every September. I remember where I was when Rachel got off the plane. To this day, I still consider it the greatest television show of my time. So we grabbed some tea up on Lido and brought it down to Ocean Plaza. And in the greatest stroke of shame to mar my life, we lost. Never again, friends. I will return. I will play. And I will win.

Gray clouds and rough seas made way to blue skies and smooth waters, perfect for reading some Hunger Games out on the balcony.

In an effort to avoid confrontation over coveted vanity space, Stephanie and Mom left me out on the balcony to read while they got ready for formal night. Once we were all glammed up, we took our obligatory balcony pics and headed back out to Ocean Plaza.

Ocean Plaza always made for a fun place to grab a drink and take a stroll before dinner, and made for even more fun people watching on formal nights. We grabbed a couple of drinks and some snacks from the Taste Bar and listened to one of the bands play a set before heading to dinner.

Dinner this evening was a bit…uncomfortable. See, we’ve been enjoying Anytime Dining since the option opened up a few years back and this cruise was no different. Many times, the host staff will attempt to keep you with the same dining team throughout the cruise, but we’d experienced a few different teams on this cruise. The head waiter who served us the previous night glared at us throughout dinner, presumably for not requesting to be seated in his area again tonight. We felt this tug of war going on amongst dining teams (who I can imagine want repeat diners throughout the week in the hope of an extra tip at the end of the week, a la traditional dining) and it left an undercurrent of tension with our meal.

That aside, tonight’s dinner was decadent and delicious. If you’ve never tried the chateaubriand on Carnival, you’re missing out. The tender beef with the rich béarnaise, mingling with a savory au jus and a side of mashed potatoes speckled with coarse mustard grains…it rivals any meal we’ve ever had at sea.

Corn Chowder Maryland

Shrimp Cocktail

Penne Siciliana

Caesar Salad

Fried Vegetable Spring Rolls

Chilled Creamy Bing Cherry Soup

Grilled Jumbo Tiger Shrimps

Chateaubriand with Sauce Bearnaise

Baked Alaska

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

We walked around a bit after dinner, taking pictures and soaking it all in, especially since it was quickly drawing to a close.

We took a quick stop at the room to change our shoes before show time and we took a moment to check the next day’s Fun Times. Much to our disappointment, our favorite last night activity, Liars Club, was missing. It was one of the highlights of our Dream cruises and since our current Assistant Cruise Director, Brittany, was on both of those cruises and rocked the Liars Club, it was even more disappointing.

Showtime was quickly approaching and we knew the theater would fill in fast, so we didn’t wallow for long. Tonight’s show was Divas and while much better than The Brits, it still didn’t match the traditional production shows on other ships (across our cruises on Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Princess). The song selection was great and I thought there was a lot of potential in the show (especially as the electronic sets were used more tastefully), but the show felt underdeveloped in the sense that it was much shorter than traditional production shows – around 40 minutes to the usual 60. Additionally, half of the performers swayed in the background and moved the sets around and I thought it kind of defeated the purpose of having eight performers on stage who could sing and dance. I can’t help but think how fantastic this show would be with a dance troupe behind the singers and traditional sets.

We perused the shops a bit after the show, but even with the savings on sales tax, the prices in the perfume shop weren’t all that competitive with prices on land for many of the prestige brands.

Back in the room, we recharged with an episode of Shark Tank. Mom stayed in and retired for the evening while Stephanie and I headed out to the Library Bar.

The Library Bar is in, well, the library and predictably, it wasn’t crowded. We were the only ones in there (and I think the bartender was eager for some company by this hour). Instead of tasting one of her libations, though, we were there for the self serve wine machines. The prices were fantastic for the size of pour and we enjoyed having this kind of secret place to ourselves for a while.

After a few glasses of wine, we headed back to the room and sat on the balcony for a bit. We discussed how interesting it was that every cruise, we waited until the last sea day or two to do everything we really enjoy (like sitting on the balcony at night) because we always think we have more time instead of enjoying them on a daily basis.

We headed in to watch some Dr. Drew (we rarely watch HLN at home, but when we’re onboard, we binge watch). We were instructed to move our clocks back an hour before bed tonight (presumably instead of doing it the next night, when it could cause confusion with debarkation), so we headed to bed to enjoy an extra hour of sleep.

Tonight’s Lido Lunch Menus