After my cousin’s wedding in Fort Lauderdale, my family and I boarded a cruise to Ocho Rios Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel aboard the Carnival Breeze. My parents, my brother and his girlfriend, and my grandpa all came along for the six-day adventure.

Carnival Breeze

Beach Pool

The Breeze is a massive ship, capable of carrying 3,690 passengers. This was quite a change from the only other cruise I’ve taken, which was aboard Royal Carribean’s Brilliance of the Seas (2,501 passengers). My wife and I took this cruise for our honeymoon for 12 nights through the Mediterranean. The amazing thing was that we actually saw the Brilliance again in two of our ports during this trip.

Brilliance of the Seas

Mixmaster Tim

My brother participated and won a drink making competition the first full day of the cruise. For the rest of the cruise all passengers were able to purchase his drink from the rum bar adjacent to the big pool. Our cruise happened to fall during the college football national championship game. The game was shown on the massive seaside theatre screen above the big pool. Other nights movies were played for families to enjoy.

National Championship

Carnival WaterWorks

My kids (along with the hundreds of others onboard) loved all the amenities available, especially the WaterWorks splash zone and the putt putt course. I know I played at least a dozen rounds with my four-year old son.

9 Holes of Putt Putt

Sunset

We had a great trip with a solid mix of relaxing and adventurous days. I’ll have more posts in the future detailing each of our stops as I start to sort through all the videos and photos that I have.