Earlier this month we were invited by Carnival Cruise Line to cruise for the first time, aboard the Carnival Breeze. We decided to schedule our trip right after school ended as a way to celebrate and to have a fun vacation with the big kids before they left for the summer with their dad. We flew to Miami, checked into our hotel for the night, and ordered Chinese takeout. The next day was boarding day, so we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the dock. Walking onto the ship was so exciting knowing that this would be our “home” for the next week.
We had two state rooms next to each other and although there wasn’t a connecting door in-between, we were able to open the divider on our balconies, sharing one large deck. Aubrey and I shared one room with Birdie and Sailor, while Julian and Plum lived it up in their own teenage-dream pad next door. Since we were going to be living on the ship for the next 6-days, we decided to move right in, unpack, and tuck our suitcases under the beds to make it feel like home.
We spent the first two days at sea exploring all the ship had to offer. It literally had every thing you could possibly imagine, from an Imax movie theater to an Internet Cafe, and a beauty salon to a candy store! One of our favorite discoveries was the Bonsai Sushi restaurant onboard. Plum, Birdie, and I ate there four times during our trip. The sushi was really good and it was nice to have a spot just for us girls to go. After the little kids were in bed, Julian was sweet enough to stay in the room with them, playing video games and watching t.v, while Aubrey and I snuck off for some alone time. We hit up the casino one night and I won $70! We caught an onboard couples gameshow (kind of like The Newlywed Game) one night, which was hilarious. Most nights, we sipped wine under the stars at the front of the ship, away from the commotion, and it was lovely.
We, of course, spent a day at the waterpark on the top of the boat. The kids loved it! We laid out our towels, slathered on sunscreen, hit the waterslides, got soaked, and spent some time in the pools. There were also some hot tubs that we wanted to hit up at night. As a fan of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, I was excited to see Guy Fieri’s Burger Joint next to the pool. We had fun building our own burgers, which were really good, and made ice cream a daily must-have.
I think across the board, we all found the highlight of the trip to be our family dinners in the Dining Room. Every night, we had the same table with the same waiters (who were amazing) located at the back of the ship with a beautiful window view. We were able to spend a good two hours enjoying lobster, filet, duck, and other fancy dishes and talk about our days. Aubrey and I also loved getting a couples massage at the ship’s Cloud 9 Spa. We soaked in the tub for thirty minutes before getting an hour rub-down and it was incredible.
We spent our last day at sea playing mini-golf, eating hotdogs from the hotdog stand Seadogs, and exploring the ship even more. There was a video arcade, which the kids loved, and we spent many nights after dinner there before heading back to our rooms to get ready for bed.
It’s started raining like crazy during our mini-golf game, which turned out to be pretty fun because everyone scattered indoors and we played in the rain and got soaked.
We made three stops on our trip—Jamaica, The Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico. It ended up pouring rain the entire time we were docked in the Cayman Islands, so we spent that day on the ship, but we had a blast in Jamaica and Mexico, which I will be sharing images of soon! xx
This post was created for Away We Go with Carnival, the destination for getting in the getaway state of mind.
