Return to Cruise: Carnival Breeze – Day Two Recap

After a fifteen month hiatus, Carnival Breeze will sail her first cruise on July 15th from Galveston. Premier Custom Travel’s Chris Grum will be onboard and will chronicle the experience in our special blog series RETURN TO CRUISE: CARNIVAL BREEZE.

Today was our first of two “fun days” at sea. Here’s a look at the things we did and my thoughts on the overall vibe of the ship.

SEA DAY FUN

One of my favorite things to do on a sea day is visit the spa. We are sailing in a spa balcony stateroom, which means we have unlimited access during the cruise to the thermal suites and the thalassotherapy pool. We visited both of those in the afternoon, after enjoying a morning couples pedicure. I also visited in the afternoon for the gentleman’s shave package, my formal night staple. I hate shaving in general, and typically I visit the salon on the formal nights to let them do all the work. That package includes a shave, arm and neck massage, and a men’s facial treatment. It’s extremely relaxing.

We might be adults, but we love fun and I’m always looking for fun travel decor for my office. So today, we visited the onboard Build-a-Bear and created two cute souvenirs. My bear is on the left – he’s the captain now. My girlfriend Melissa’s bear is on the right. These are Carnival exclusive bears that can only be found on their ships.

Today for lunch, we did something that we’ve never done before – ate at the Mongolian Wok. This option at the Lido Marketplace (buffet) is extremely popular and always crowded, so we’ve always skipped it. Today, we were first in line when it opened and it was absolutely worth it.

You begin by filling your bowl with veggies and other mix-ins. Once you’re done, you select from three proteins of the day. Today’s options were chicken, pork, and mussels. Then, the chef prepares your dish and adds the final touch – your choice of sauces. The options are black bean, Thai BBQ, or my choice – spicy Szechuan. My bowl is pictured above and it was quite tasty.

Before dinner, we visited our favorite bar – the Alchemy Bar. It was absolutely packed with people enjoying its mixology creations. There was also a very talented duo performing in the adjoining Ocean Plaza. I could have sat and listened to them for hours.

Tonight was “Cruise Elegant” night so many people were dressed up. We enjoyed the “American Feast” menu – check our Facebook page for those selections. Afterwards, we went to the main showroom to see the first of two Playlist Production shows on this cruise – MOTOR CITY. The cast of four men and four women did an awesome job despite some sound issues (mainly their mics being two low and the lyrics difficult to hear). The show features many of the hits of Motown and more. Two nights from now, we’ll get the second show – 88 KEYS – a tribute to all the great piano players in music.

Before the show, I had a chance to snap a (not very well lit) photo with Cookie, our Cruise Director. He’s hilarious and quickly becoming one of my favorites from all my cruises.

After the show, we headed to the casino to enjoy some fun at the slots and tables. Carnival is trying something new on this cruise – a non-smoking casino (smaller but with a few tables and slots) on deck 4, one deck below the larger main casino. One thing that would’ve helped is some signs indicating that it was there. The only reason we knew about it was because of John Heald’s Facebook post. John, for those who don’t know, is the Brand Ambassador for Carnival.

LOTS OF HITS, BUT A FEW MISSES TOO

It is to be expected that the very first cruise back for any ship would have some hiccups, and today we experienced quite a few and because I want these blog posts to be as honest as possible, I’m including them as well.

Here are some of the troubling or frustrating things we encountered today:

One of the biggest disappointments of the day was the typically amazing SeaDay Brunch. It was one of the things we were most looking forward to, and unfortunately on this day it was not what we had hoped. We were seated at a table of 10 and despite ordering within a few minutes of being seated, nobody at our table received any food (except for one dish that was mistakenly delivered to us) for over 90 minutes. PCT’s Michelle McAlister ordered some juice and that didn’t arrive for nearly 90 minutes. One of the others at our table got up about 30 minutes into our wait to go find more coffee. We had no food or beverage service for the entire time. Other tables were getting food, so I suspect this was the fault of our waitstaff. When our food did arrive, it was severely undercooked. We left without eating anything other than a biscuit and a hash brown.

Dinner service has been mostly good, but not as attentive as in the past. We were never offered drinks tonight at all, which is surprising since this is a chance for Carnival to upsell. I was also a bit surprised that dishes like pasta were not offered parmesan cheese and other dishes were not offered fresh ground pepper or the other usual side service. It’s worth noting that typically a few employees at a time rotate in and out and this is an entirely brand new team. Some have worked with Carnival or other ships before, but they have not had the time to “gel” as a team and it is showing. Most of the passengers I’ve spoken with are understanding of this fact, but nonetheless they must solve these issues quickly. Carnival typically sets a high bar when it comes to the dining room experience and right now it is not up to par. They are also not as talkative or friendly as past wait teams in the dining room, but I attribute that to being overwhelmed. In the past, we’ve chatted with our waiters for a long time after dinner on several occasions. Right now they seem too busy to do anything but their jobs, which is a bit disappointing and not the typical experience.

There also seems to be some confusion onboard about various things that SHOULD be simple. We made spa reservations for our pedicure online prior to the cruise for 8:45am. The tickets we received yesterday said 8am. How does a mistake like that happen? What if we had picked that time for a specific reason and planned the rest of our day around it? If the online system tells me 8:45am (and I have an email to prove it) then that’s the time they should be ready for us. Luckily we were able to go at 8am, but imagine if we hadn’t known and wound up missing the time.

At the Build-a-Bear workshop, we were the first to arrive and they told us that because unvaccinated children would be present, we had to wear masks. They provided them since ours were in our cabin. I have no problem with this, but later we noticed half the room was not wearing them. If you’re going to have a policy, enforce it, especially when it has to do with health and the reason that we have been paused for 15 months.

I’ve never been to a casino that didn’t want to take your money, but I’m starting to think the one here on the Breeze isn’t really interested in having us gamble. A surprising number of the machines won’t accept cash or the room keys, and those that do have stuck buttons or are a challenge to get to work properly. I was also surprised that in two days onboard, I have not been approached once in the casino by someone trying to sell me a drink. Again, a lost revenue opportunity for a company that hasn’t had any in virtually a year and a half. I figured they’d be all over us.

Four years ago, we sailed this ship and were disappointed with the internet speed. I understand completely that ship wifi can be slow at times and sometimes not even connected, but everyone onboard is having the same experience. I have the premium package and Melissa has the standard and both of us have little to no service. I’m amazed I’m able to post this blog. Uploading the photos takes several attempts and a lot of time. If they’re going to charge a premium, they had better deliver a better product than the cheaper version.

Regardless of the small issues here and there, I’m delighted that cruising is back (or at least starting to come back) and the energy onboard is palpable. Everyone seems to be having a great time and overall the experience is very much like before. There are some visible rough edges that need to be addressed, but I’m confident that given some time, the rust will disappear and the experience will return to the typically great levels.

Before I wrap for tonight, here’s this evening’s towel animal left by our cabin steward Eka.

Have questions you want answered or topics you’d like to see me cover? Send me an email and I’d be happy to include them in future posts.

Tomorrow we visit our only port on this cruise – Cozumel, Mexico. I’ll have my daily recap plus what the rules are when you go ashore and the overall shore excursion experience in a COVID-19 world.