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Carnival Breeze - Southern Caribbean

The Breeze ports in Miami and does several different itineries.  We chose an 8-day, which included Curacao, La Romana, Grand Turk, and Aruba.

Parking in Miami

Premier Cruise Parking (premiercruisepark@bellsouth.net), 1415 NE 2nd Ave. Parking Garage
$8 per day, including tax.  Free shuttle to port.  The wait for the arrival of the shuttle at the parking garage going to port can be a little long, but it's worth it to us.  We've used this garage twice and will use it again.  I believe that it is better to prepay so you don't have to do it there.

The Food

The steakhouse is very much the same as any of the other Carnival steakhouses, but still very good. We also ate dinner in Cucina del Capitano - excellent food and service!  Highly recommend!  We also made use of Guy Fieri's Burgers several times - hello yumminess!  Tandoor Indian cuisine (aft pool location) and Blue Iguana burritos were also amazing.  We did not starve on this trip!

The Ports

Curacao
We did a sunset sail through Smallfield Adventures ($42 pp) since were docked from 2pm-11pm. Carlos, Esperanza, and Garret crewed our boat, and they were all awesome.  We had a great time and highly recommend this excursion.  Our group "leader" had arranged for pick-up right outside the port area, and the taxi service was included in the $42.  Wear clothes you will be comfortable in sitting and standing on a boat.  Unless it's raining, you likely won't get wet.



The RIF Fort Bar had come highly recommended to us from other cruising friends, but part of our group had a horrible experience there and will likely be writing up that review on Trip Advisor.  We will never go back due to how poorly they were treated by the manager and the staff.

La Romana
While in the DR, we booked the Soana Island excursion through Seavis Tours.  Total was $74pp including the taxi.  The tour we took was specifically for cruise passengers.  Pick-up is a short walk from the docking area with a van ride to the beach check-in area.  We boarded our speedboat and went to Soana Island for snorkeling, beach, and lunch.  After time was up, we loaded up and went to a sandbar to visit with some resident starfish.  What an incredible experience!

 


Grand Turk
This was a lazy day for us so we grabbed some free beach chairs as soon as we walked off the pier.  The water was beautiful, and it was really convenient to have Margaritaville right behind us.  Next time we might try an excursion, but the relaxing day was great for us.

Aruba
  • Snorkeling at Catalina Cove via Boca Catalina: From the port, take the number 10 bus going to Arashi.  Get off at Boca Catalina ($2.30 each way, per person - double check prices!  They give change in their Netherlands currency so use exact US money).  You can enter the softer sand here and snorkel just a little northwest (to your right when entering the water) to the Cove. This area is exactly where the snorkeling tours drop off so we were glad we got there early in the morning.  There are NO facilities in this area so bring water to drink.
  • After snorkeling, we waited a little bit for the 10 bus to come back from Arashi, waved them down, paid our $2.30 and went on our way to Eagle Beach.  There's not much to do there, but the sand is powder soft, and the water is amazing.
  • A tip on catching the bus from the pier: Walk off the pier, through the entry gates, past all of the waiting taxi vans, and across the busy 4 lane road to the bus depot.  It will be slightly to your right - big yellow building.
Map Adapted from: http://mappery.com/map-of/Aruba-Tourist-Map


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Comments

  1. Susan and Bobby GreeneMay 20, 2013 at 6:34 PM

    Let's us know the next time you head out...we leave Monday, just a 4 day this time, truly enjoyed the blog...miss you guys...luv Bobby and Susan

    ReplyDelete

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