Carnival Breeze

The 3,690-passenger, 130,000-ton Carnival Breeze is the newest addition to the Carnival Cruise Line fleet. Launched in June 2012, she has many new features that past, present, and future Carnival cruise fans will love. The ship's decor is a little softer and more toned-down than many of the other 23 ships in the fleet, but the Carnival Breeze delivers the same fun-in-the-sun (and on the sea) memorable vacations.

The Carnival Breeze is a sister ship to the Carnival Dream and Carnival Magic, and the cruise line has continued many of the popular venues from these two ships. Carnival also incorporated some of the Carnival Fun Ship 2.0 enhancements the company is adding to its fleet. I enjoyed at taste of many of these changes on the newly-renovated Carnival Liberty.

Carnival has introduced 23 different branded experiences as part of the Fun Ship 2.0 enhancements. These experiences include new dining venues, entertainment, and bars. The RedFrog Pub was the first brand introduced, and it's become wildly popular. At bars, part of the branding experience is the addition of special drinks like the Ting Mojito, which is mixed with a popular Jamaican drink, or Thirsty Frog Red beer.

To help distinguish each brand, the staff uniforms are different and they have been specifically trained to work in the branded area. For example, the servers at the Tex-Mex BlueIguana Cantina were very familiar with the different salsas available on the salsa bar. Guests could tell that they hadn't just been randomly scheduled to work there for a few hours one day and then moved elsewhere the next. One of the bartenders at the Ocean Plaza Bar quickly learned my favorite drink and name, making a large ship experience seem much more personalized and intimate. I looked forward to seeing her each day since I felt she "knew" me. Our cabin steward also addressed me by name every time I saw him. When you think about the number of cabins they are responsible for, that's impressive!

Here's some interesting facts about the Carnival Breeze provided by Carnival Cruises.

Achievements in its first year of service:

Carnival Breeze's photographers will snap more than 1.5 million digital images and portraits. Guests will devour 242,000 servings of the cruise industry's most popular dessert, the Chocolate Melting Cake, along with 346,000 pizzas and 145,200 cappuccinos
Approximately 26,600 meals will be served in the Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse
Galley chefs will use roughly 22,000 pounds of flour
Guests will consume nearly 100 metric tons of pineapples, mostly in frothy tropical drinks
Stateroom stewards will place more than 2 million individual pieces of chocolate on guests' pillows and create more than 663,000 "towel animals"
Guests will indulge in 18,000-plus massages, nearly 9,000 facials, more than 6,000 slimming treatments, and some 2,000 personal fitness consultations in the Carnival Breeze's "Cloud 9 Spa"

The Carnival Breeze was constructed at the Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani, S.p.A. in Monfalcone, Italy at a cost of about $740 million. She's a little over 1,000 feet long and 122 feet wide and has a top speed of 22.5 knots. The ship carries an international crew of 1,386.