ONBOARD THE CARNIVAL BREEZE — The most interesting thing about the Carnival Breeze may well be its lack of a unifying design theme.
Anybody who is familiar with Carnival Cruise Lines will know what I mean. For the past 30 years its chief designer, Joe Farcus, has created ornate and individual interior design themes for each ship, a concept so well known that it acquired its own name: Farchitecture.
The Breeze is the first ship in the current Carnival fleet where Farcus was not the lead designer (although he did design two public rooms, and those who know his work will recognize his hand in the Breeze's casino and main theater).
For example: 10 years ago I spent a week on the Carnival Pride. The theme of the Pride was "Icons of Beauty," and the ship's decor included, among other things, a replica of Michelangelo's David, the Taj Mahal theater, the Starry Nights lounge and a winged Venus by the pool.
On the 2004-built Carnival Valor (theme: heroes), the atrium features the faces of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and other famous American historical figures, bathed in pink and purple lights.
The atrium on the Carnival Breeze, by contrast, features a soothing mural of white clouds in a blue sky, pale yellow walls and dozens of brightly colored pendants hanging from the ceiling (at embarkation, a DJ was spinning upbeat tunes from a console overlooking the atrium's Breeze Bar).
Carnival CEO and President Gerry Cahill called the Breeze "a little more contemporary."
"We had something we were trying to accomplish," he said. "We wanted it to be a little more contemporary, a little more tropical. Judge for yourself, but I think we've accomplished that."
He later added: "We looked at a lot of land-based resorts, touring around the world, looking at different resorts in Las Vegas and New York, and looked to see where trends were going.
"And we thought, who are we? We already know we're fun, and clearly our decor before was fun. But we also thought we're very much Caribbean-centric. … We wanted our look and feel to reflect where we're sailing."
The result is a light and airy vessel that's maximizing its outdoor space to the hilt. Farchitecture fans might feel that something's missing from the Carnival Breeze, or that it's not staying true to the line's reputation for over-the-top design. Others might say the Breeze, the first Carnival ship to debut all of its branded FunShip 2.0 initiatives, is firmly in step with the times.
Still, Cahill said that cruisers never emailed him to talk about the ship designs. "We're not selling hardware," he said. "We're selling vacation experiences."
Branded experiences
The term "experiences" came up a lot in conversations with Carnival executives onboard the Breeze.
Instead of focusing on the ship as part of the line's history of "entertainment architecture," the emphasis on the Breeze is on its individual parts: its bars, lounges, restaurants and activities and each of their specific, branded experiences, which can be deployed to other ships in the fleet.
It's part of the FunShip 2.0 program, which began on the Carnival Magic.
Take, for example, the RedFrog Pub, a friendly, casual, Caribbean-themed bar on the Breeze, which made its first showing on the Magic. The plan will be to "roll back" brands like the RedFrog to other ships in the Carnival fleet. Ostensibly, any client who cruises on a Carnival ship and stops in at the RedFrog will know the brand once they step on another Carnival ship.
The idea of branded spaces on ships isn't new to the cruise industry, but it's a new direction for Carnival. The line's use of a similar footprint across most of its ships helped ensure that repeaters would be familiar with the ship's deck plans and restaurant and lounge locations. But that's a little different from integrating specific onboard brands across its fleet.
Cahill said that the Breeze includes 23 branded "experiences," from RedFrog to Guy's Burger Joint (in partnership with Food Network star Guy Fieri) to the George Lopez Punchliner Comedy Club to the Serenity adults-only space.
Many of the branded spaces that I saw on the Breeze are already on other Carnival ships or will be added to other vessels in some form or another.
And the Breeze may well indicate the Carnival of the future: Cahill said that over time the line would redecorate its older ships.
Still Carnival fun
Despite the changes in its hardware and themes, Carnival is still devoted to fun in all forms. During this cruise, people were dancing during a late-night party in the atrium; dangling from a challenging ropes course; knocking back outsize margaritas from the BlueIguana Tequila Bar; chuckling along with cruise director extroardinaire John Heald; and laughing during the R-rated comedy sessions.
During the cruise, Cahill pointed out more than once the ship's use of outdoor space, and on this cloudless Mediterranean cruise, the Breeze showed its open decks to full advantage.
The impressive, vertically designed Waterworks featured two water slides that attracted kids and adults, and in the Serenity adults-only section, populated with faux-wicker loungers and hammocks, there was not a spare chair to be had.
Tables and gliders on the "lanai" on Deck 5 (created by building over the lifeboat deck) were being put to full use by patrons of the RedFrog Pub.
Foosball, billiards and the ropes course were just a few of the offerings on the top decks, as well as the more traditional pasttimes of lounging and swimming.
"The outer decks is something we've been working hard on," Cahill said. "To me, being outside is where you want to be when you're on a cruise.
"So what we've tried to do with the outer decks is create a lot of different [spaces]. A lot of spaces are very high-energy, family-oriented. But then there are spaces that are quiet, relaxing."