Oh, Island in the Sun: Breeze-ing Back to the Southern Caribbean (Part Four)featured

by Nicole on December 8, 2014

One of the best parts of the Breeze’s Southern Caribbean route is the way the itinerary is broken up: day at sea, four days in port, two more days at sea.

We have trouble sleeping in on cruises. We were up and out of the room by 8:30 am, the view out our balcony of clear skies and smooth seas a promising reassurance of a relaxing day ahead.

We headed up to breakfast on the Lido deck, and I said a silent prayer that the Blue Iguana taco man wasn’t working the morning shift, because only one thing would do for my first on-board breakfast…

Warm, cheese-laden arepas. Perfectly melted, nutty cheese sandwiched in between two slightly sweet corn cakes, and a side of salsa verde from the toppings bar. With a cup of coffee, it is the perfect breakfast. My favorite breakfast. Just as good as I had remembered it to be.

Mom and Stephanie grabbed more traditional fare from the Marketplace and much to our relief, lines were low and tables were easy to find, a welcome change from the Valor.

When we were done with breakfast and fully caffeinated, we headed aft for some QT time in the sun. We always head aft because in our experience, the midship pool and deck fill up the quickest, the usual stomping grounds for the chair hogs. On this particular trip, it was the aft that filled up: it was crowded when we arrived after breakfast, but within an hour (by 10:30), it was full.

Despite the sunny weather, the ship started rocking quite a bit and continued to roll throughout the day. That wouldn’t stop us, though. We soaked in some vitamin D. We swam (though the pool was unusually warm while the hot tubs ran cold). When small children started piling into the pool and babies in swim diapers started making their appearances (not making an appearance to control that: deck security. Minus two, Carnival), we took it as our cue to get out and get on with our day.

After drying off and changing, we headed to the Shore Excursion desk to book our activities for our four ports: we left Grand Turk open, booked a beach excursion for the Dominican Republic, a sunset boat ride for Curacao and a catamaran for Aruba. While we typically book our excursions before we leave, we held off in favor of ensuring the weather would hold up this time. With three water/beach related excursions and our trip taking place in the tail end of hurricane season (and a tropical storm brewing to the west), we wanted to make sure any activities we booked were weather-appropriate.

As lunch time approached, we headed out to the Lanai, where a line was forming for Fat Jimmy’s C-Side BBQ nearly ten minutes before it actually opened. Last year, Stephanie and Mom were insistent on dining at Fat Jimmy’s while I rallied for tacos at the Blue Iguana. Once we tried it, our roles reversed: Mom and Stephanie thought it was unremarkably good while I thought it was the second best lunch option (behind the tacos, naturally). It didn’t disappoint this time, either. Despite the long lines, the food is solid – full of flavor and well-prepared.

It was getting too hot to finish our meal outside, so we headed in. You’d miss it if you didn’t know it was there, but if none of the barbecue, tacos, burgers, comfort food, regional cuisine, pasta, tandoor, deli, brunch offerings or pizza appeal to you, Carnival has one more option for lunch that’s just as good (and in some cases, even better), but takes some effort to discover: the salad bar.

In the Taste Bar during sea day lunch hours, they set up a decently expansive salad bar where one of the cooks will toss you a salad to order. It’s not the Tutti salad bar on Royal Caribbean, but it’s offerings are much more diverse than those available up on Lido, and they offer turkey wraps and soup alongside.

While we were finishing up our lunch, TV Theme Song Trivia began. We didn’t play officially – just went along in our heads. But we should have played because we would have won! We had more right than anyone else playing.

Being our first sea day of a four port/four sea day trip, we didn’t want to over-do the sun and end up with sunburns that would make us miserable on our beach excursions, we headed back to the room to relax. When we got there, we found a surprise on our vanity desk.

With the first day at sea usually being the first formal night, a plate of treats isn’t a surprise – it’s one of the few Platinum perks that haven’t been taken away since we turned Platinum in 2011 – but we’ve always gotten one plate per cabin, not one per person!

The treats made for excellent snacks while we watched a constant loop of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Hours passed by in a blur of napping, balcony lounging and Matthew McConaughey, and before we knew it, it was time to get ready for formal night.

We took a round of obligatory balcony photos and then headed out towards Ocean Plaza.

Not all of the ships in Carnival’s fleet have Ocean Plaza (the Dream and the Breeze do. I’m assuming the other newer ships do, as well, but older ships do not). It’s a larger, more expansive promenade that lends itself to gatherings. It’s a nice place to just…be. There’s live music beginning in the early evening (and the Taste Bar on most nights, offering small tastes from the specialty restaurants). There are open areas to sit and people watch or read, and there are plenty of bars and servers. The first formal night is the Captains Celebration, which used to mean live music and free drinks in the theater. Now it means $1 off drinks. We grabbed a bite at the Taste Bar and took in some of the live music.

A watch sale was taking place outside the jewelry store facing the atrium, and I’m pretty sure everyone who wasn’t participating in formal night was shopping at this sale.

We grabbed a drink in the atrium before heading to dinner. There was a pretty lengthy line to get into the dining room but it passed by quickly. We were seated at window-facing table with a nice view of the water.

Dinner was unremarkable. Mom thought the lobster was just okay. The prime rib was slightly chewier than I would have liked. My Cherries Jubilee dessert had a whopping three cherry portion (which could have been because I ordered it with a Warm Chocolate Melting Cake because mixing the two together brings a new level of decadence, but Mom and Stephanie’s portion was a slightly more generous four cherries).

Baked Stuffed White Mushrooms

Greek Farmer Salad

Spaghetti Carbonara (Starter Portion)

Broiled Maine Lobster Tail and Jumbo Black Tiger Shrimp

Tender Roasted Prime Rib of American Beef Au Jus

Cherries Jubilee

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

Warm Chocolate Cherries Jubilee

After dinner, we made a stop at the room so I could change out of my heels and into some flip flops, and keeping our towel creature du jour company were our pins, invites to the past guest party and our Platinum gift: a toiletry bag (which I’ll find good use for – it’s a nice one!).

With some time to kill before Divas and the boat rocking pretty hard, we stayed in with some more Matty McConaughey before heading down to the Ovation for showtime.

Here’s the thing about Divas: it could be a great show. With proper sets and a full dance crew, this could have been the kind of show that had been missing in Carnival’s show rotation prior to the 2.0 changes. The set list ties together older classics with contemporary hits. It’s a show you dance along in your seat to. But the size of the troupe is too small to carry the show as it is, and the lack of sets (and overuse of the animatronics) takes away from the experience.

(Pro tip: Diva’s has a T-shaped catwalk extending from the stage. The best seats are not the seats in the front of the theater, but rather the seats in front of the catwalk).

After a quick pit stop at the room to change out of the lace and into some comfy sweats, we made our way upstairs for The Fault in Our Stars at Movie’s Under the Stars. I knew the premise of the movie but hadn’t actually seen it before this cruise and while it’s a typical young adult romantic angst movie, it’s incredibly depressing. Watching it in the best of surroundings, with a cool ocean breeze and millions of stars overhead provided a temporary distraction from the fact that this movie was written to make people hate themselves for watching said movie.