Reviewers Rating: 
Excellent
After having learned so much from the boards before I left, I feel obligated to post some info about my trip.We had a 12 night honeymoon at Breezes from 9/9-9/21. Like many others, I was a bit hesitant prior to the trip due to some negative comments, but my wife and I had a fantastic time!
Airport. We arrived at the airport in the afternoon and were greeted by the bright sun and a stiff breeze as we took the stairs to the tarmac. The Curacao airport has the longest strip (so we were told) in the Caribbean, so the landing was smooth because the pilot could use all the runway they wanted. We had gotten up for our trip at 3:30 am, so we slept the whole way down. Unfortunately, this meant that the airline crew decided not to give us immigration cards. We were first in line at customs, but with no cards, we ended up being dead last, searching frantically to find a card.
Airport Transportation. We were met by a Breezes Curacao rep (easily identifiable) just outside immigration. Since we were last through customs, we were last to board the taxi vans (there were two). Both vans were full, so the rep flagged a car taxi and my wife and I got to travel without being packed into a van. The car was faster than the vans, too, so we were first in line to check in at Breezes. So, the delay at immigration worked to our advantage.
Check In. Check in was fast. They gave us plastic wristbands to wear through the duration of our stay. They gave us the lock and key that you insert into your closet wall mounted safe. They said at the time they were at 100% capacity, but we doubted that during our stay. Felt more like 75% at most.
Accommodations. We stayed in 2318, the Royal Tower. We had a nice view of the ocean and were directly across from Baywatch (a bar/restaurant that neighbors Breezes but is not part of the property). We heard NOTHING from Baywatch during the entire stay, so I doubt they have dancing/disco of any sort. It's kind of neat, actually, Breezes dug a wide canal at the edge of the property and lined both sides with palm trees: kind of nicer than a fence or wall and just as effective.
Rooms. The room is equivalent to a Holiday Inn, only with tiled floors. There was a little musty smell on arrival, but it seemed to have disappeared after day 2. There is dresser with 6 drawers, two end tables, at TV cabinet, a closet with about 12 hangars (and a place to store suitcases overhead), and a small closet with 4 shelves behind the door. Plenty of space for our stuff during our stay. The bathrooms are big. There is a hair dryer attached to the wall, the kind with a hose attached. My wife disliked them because, though hot, there was not much air pressure, so it took her twice as long to dry her hair and the hose got very hot during the process (had to hold it with a face cloth).
Maid Service. The maid service always showed up to clean when we were gone, so that was nice. We had two complaints about the service. On day 8, we came home from a 6-hour trip into Willemstad to find that our door had been left wide open from the maid service. An inventory of our room showed that nothing had been taken, but we were quite upset about it. We contacted the manager and he expressed his regrets and asked us to tell him if we found anything missing. The other complaint was just a real hotel pet peeve of mine. They don’t use fitted sheets, and 11 of the 12 nights we were there, they short-sheeted the bed so that the bottom 2 feet of the bed was exposed to the bare mattress. So I had to reset the sheet. Just an inconvenience, though.
Food. There are 5 places to eat. Jimmy’s Buffet, Munahana, Pastafari, and 2 beach grills. We liked Pastafari (the Italian restaurant) the best. The service was fantastic, the food was good, and Everet on the piano was very good and added to a nice atmosphere. Munahana is an outdoor Japanese restaurant, with tables centered around the big grills. Good food, but I don’t eat sushi, and that’s one of the big experiences to be had there. We made multiple reservations at a time and they had no problem with that. For dinners, we ate at Pastafari 7 times, Muhahana 3 times, and Jimmy’s Buffet twice. Jimmy’s was okay, but a recent trip report comparing it to dorm food was a very good analogy. Jimmy’s for lunch was okay as well, but we preferred to eat at the beach grill as we spent most of our time on the beach and it was more convenient.
Beach. The beach has plenty of sand, plenty of lounge chairs (your standard poolside lounges with the plastic straps) and more than enough room. We didn’t feel crowded at all. There are thatched, fixed umbrellas scattered around to provide shade and there was never a problem finding a free one. The further you move from the pool and beach grill, the more deserted the beach was. Towels are free and can be checked out (any number you want) from the Towel Shack-they just need your room number. There is no drink service at the beach or at the pool. Furthest from the water it is regular sand, then becomes ground coral, then broken coral. It is tough to walk on barefoot. After 100 feet or so from the shore, there is a barrier of rocks to protect the swimming area, and this jetty covers the length of the Breezes shoreline. There is also a manmade island in the middle with a few palm trees on it. The water is turquoise, but gets dark real fast because it gets deep quickly and there’s little white sand on the bottom to reflect sunlight. We checked out snorkel equipment from the Towel Shack, just had to give our room number. Nothing to see, though, in the Breezes protected lagoon.
Drinks. Lots of call brands: Bailey’s, Kaluha, Malibu, Galiano, Jack Daniels, etc. All are displayed prominently, not hidden. All bartenders were very friendly. We followed the advice about bringing the insulated mugs: best advice we followed. Lots of people eyed our mugs with jealousy. The alternative to mugs is their standard, 10 oz plastic cup.
Activities Staff. Wonderful! They’re all very friendly. Several of them took the time to learn our names. On day 10, walking past Jimmy’s someone started calling my name. Looking to see who it was, it was Nick, the Entertainment Manager, taking a break at one of the tables. He just wanted to say hello and make sure we were having a good time.
Gym. Surprisingly well stocked for a resort gym. There is one Lifestep stair climber, a Star Trac recumbrant cycle, two Star Trac motorized treadmills, and one Lifecycle upright cycle (but it didn’t work). There is a good selection of dumbbells (1 of each 5 pound increment from5 pounds through 100 pounds), some bar weights, a number of nautilus machines (older, but work fine), some floor mats, a cabled Smith press, some benches, and a cable machine. There are towels and a radio in the gym. The gym was never crowded. I went almost everyday for at least an hour and the largest number of people at any time was 4. The exercise machines are up against a window that faces the beach, so it was a great view while exercising.
Resort. There is a large chess patio (with chess pieces about 2-3 feet high), several game tables (checkers, chess, etc), a TV room, two shuffleboard courts, a circus (trampoline and trapeze), and an faux-ice skating rink. There are 4 Hobie Cats (easy to use catamarans that seat 1-4 adults), some sea kayaks, and three paddleboats. There are a number of large cages in the garden area that have parrots, macaws, and turtles. Some of the parrots can say “Hello” and will converse with you. There are three hammocks in the garden area, but you don’t want to use them because they are dirty and have little ground clearance. There are two shops in the check in area, one is like a convenience store/souvenir shop and the other is a Breezes logo shop.
Scuba. We don’t dive or care to, so I don’t know squat about it. About 4 people per day seemed to take advantage of the learn to scuba program in the pool.
Evening Activities. Breezes works on a weekly schedule, so each week they repeat the same activities. Activities start around 9pm. I don’t remember which evening was which, but they included:
Dance contest
Karaoke
Circus
Dance troupe
Steel band
Battle of the sexes
Beach party
For the most part, they are entertaining. But on week 2, they were repeats for us. The Hurricanes Disco had sumo wrestling nights that I heard were funny, but I never got to see it. It didn’t appear that a lot of people went to the disco at night.
Tours. We took three tours.
Peter Trips Island Tour. 8:30-4:30. Recommend this tour. Peter takes you all over the island and is good at what he does. $50 per person. Lunch at Jaanchies on the west side of the island is nice, but we paid $35 US for our meal, which was pretty darned steep for a lunch. At least it was good and there was a lot of food.
Bounty Taste of Curacao. The Bounty is a sailing ship and the Taste of Curacao is one of their three offerings. Went snorkeling at a shallow small tugboat wreck. Very cool. Good food was served for lunch and plenty of it. They had an open bar, but since we had drank too much the day before, we were not in the mood to even look at alcohol. It was $50 also.
Hato Caves and Ostrich Farm. A three or four hour tour that goes to the Hato underground caves and an ostrich farm. $25/person. I’d pass on this, but I do have pictures of my wife riding an ostrich, so that made it worthwhile.
Day Passes. There was a lot of talk about this on the boards. On the weekends, I saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. If any day passes were sold, we certainly didn’t notice it. It was like any other weekday. All of the children there were well behaved and we had no incidents of any sort.
Willemstad. We took the free Breezes shuttle into town for 3.5 hours. Went to Punda and Otrabanda. There’s a neat hotel in Otrabanda, just on the other side of the floating bridge, that’s worth checking out just to see it: Hotel Kaluha or something. Look for the museum that’s there. We checked out some stores in Punda, but didn’t see any big bargains to be had. We just enjoyed walking around and seeing what was to be seen.
Casino. We are risk averse, so we never stepped foot inside.
Well, that’s all I can think of right now. Post questions if you have any.
In all, I give the resort a solid three stars and, given what we paid, a fantastic bargain. It is great for honeymooners (we weren’t the only newlyweds there). Due to our long stay and having exhausted the things we felt we could do their, we’re not sure if we’ll go back (though we get 12 free days if we want to go back within the next year) because we might want to try something different.
Jeff
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