Carnival Breeze Ocean View Balcony 6468 with Cruise Deets in the description

This was a Spring Break girls' cruise with two in an L-shaped cabin at the back (port side) of the ship. *Arrival: We arrived to the terminal to drop off our bags and were surprised to find the traffic going in the opposite direction. Weird, but it took just minutes to drop the bags and head to our parking at Galveston Park-N-Cruise across the street. We arrived to the priority line at 9:40AM with about 20 people already in line for our 10-10:30 pre-scheduled arrival time. The line started moving for check-in exactly at 10AM. *Embarkation: Check in was fast and we were aboard the ship by 10:30 AM. We took care of muster then headed to Red Frog Pub until we got hungry for lunch. Lunch was at the buffet then we got access to our cabin around 1:15PM. *Cabin: The best thing about this cabin is the longer balcony that includes a chaise. It was super quiet and we slept well despite the cabin being warmer than we like. The worst thing about this cabin is that it is near a crew service door that leads to their smoking area, so the smell of smoke was constant when coming and going from the cabin. We even smelled it in our cabin & on the balcony sometimes. We reported the issue and staff showed up with apologies and a spray bottle to cover the smell (didn't last, of course). We were told the crew smoking area is through the service door on deck 4, but the smell is so strong that it was like someone was smoking on the other side of the door the entire cruise. If you are sensitive to cigarette smoke, do not book this cabin. We were annoyed by a creaky bathroom door and some stains on the mirror above the desk that I was able to get rid of myself. I really wish the housekeeping staff would put more effort into wall and furniture stains. If I can make them better, so could Carnival...and they SHOULD. *Food: We found the food to be inconsistent. The first sea day brunch was fabulous, with a Voyage Burger that was so good I ordered it at the 2nd sea day brunch, but it was served on a wet bun with fries so salty there was more salt than fries, so it went back to the kitchen. The 2nd one came out partially raw and still saturated in salt, so just a huge disappointment. The pizza was good both times we had it, but there is never pizza ready, so everyone has to wait too long for the pizza. The buffets were sub par compared to what we have seen in the past due to limited selections and desserts that had me wondering who pissed off the pastry chef. The drink stations were a total mystery given the drink solutions were never diluted. It was like drinking mega concentrate whether it was juice or tea. The coffee was better than usual, though. The deli was amazing and serves a fabulous buffalo chicken sandwich. In the MDR, we enjoyed the Hawaiian shrimp poke, tiramisu, prime rib and the beef rib. However, service was super slow, iced tea was difficult to get and the food lacked attention to details, such as pasta fagioli soup served with no cannellini beans & broccoli cheese soup served w/out croutons despite what menu said. *Casino: Bar service was actually great IF they returned with your drink. Several times my drink never arrived, leaving me frustrated with the casino offers of free drinks while gambling. Some cocktails were good and strong while other bartenders served watered down versions. And, if you like fruit or cherries in your cocktails, ask for them. Otherwise, you will get no garnish. Slots wise, we missed some of our favorites that were replaced. We witnessed a 10K slot winner and several 1-2K jackpot winners. *Entertainment: Um! No real comment here. I was not entertained by anything but the sun, sea and casino. *Cozumel: We walked to Del Mar Latino Beach Club and had a perfect day. *Progreso: We did not bother to get off the ship and enjoyed a more peaceful day on board. Debarkation: Carnival now has you reserve your debarkation time in the HUB APP, so do not forget to do that on day 2 or 3 when it opens up for reservations. They announced it on the Dream but not on the Breeze, so keep your eyes out. You open your planner and click on debarkation day to choose a time to depart. If you wait too long, you could lose the opportunity to have your bags carried off the ship for you, so do not forget this new process. We woke at 7AM and went to breakfast then headed to our debarkation area. We were able to depart before the time we reserved, so we made our way off the ship, grabbed our bags then went through facial recognition (no need to show your passport on the way out with this process). We were driving back home by 9:00AM. I'm not sure if this is for all ports or just Galveston, but we love the new debarkation process. Overall we had a great cruise. This was a spring break cruise but other than unsupervised children running amuck and a group of idiots standing on the walking track blocking anyone trying to use it, we saw that most were amiable and having a great time.