Amanda's Birthday Family Cruise on the Pride, May 28-June 4: A Trip Report w/ Photos

Hello, everyone! This is my first attempt at a report/review. I think I would lean more toward calling this a report, rather than a review. To me, a review gives more of an objective overview of the entire trip, including the ship, food, ports, etc. While this was my original intention, mommy duties and family fun got in the way! What I am left with is just a tale of my own observations and experiences while onboard the Pride from May 28-June 4, 2017. Thus, please read on if you are interested in my trip report. I am happy to have you all along!:D

Background and Introduction

First, some background information about me. When I read reviews, I like to know as much as I can about the person writing because it helps me visualize the trip from his or her perspective. So, excuse my over-sharing here. My name is Amanda, as told by my screen name, and the original purpose of this trip was to celebrate my 30th birthday on June 6 of this year. The travel dates didn’t line up exactly, but it was close enough! I am an English teacher by trade, but I found out just weeks before the trip that I was chosen as the next assistant principal at a large elementary school in the district where I currently teach. Although this was exciting and welcome news and had been a long-term goal of mine to achieve, I was looking forward to the trip now more than ever! The day after we got home, I was approved by the school board and then jumped right in with meetings and duties for my new position.

Also traveling with me were my husband, Andy, who works in electrical sales and is 32, and our two sons: Drew (3) and AJ (1). This would be the second cruise for Drew, who traveled with us on the Enchantment of the Seas when he was 14 months old in March of 2015. Now at that same age, little brother AJ joined in on the fun this time around. Because we were celebrating my birthday, I wanted as many family members to come as possible. My parents, Tom and Kim, in their 60’s came along, as well as my brother, Tommy, who is 26. All of my family members have cruised many times. This was my husband’s third cruise. I proudly say that I married him and then forced him to become a cruise addict, like me. =) Unfortunately, due to some scheduling and logistics conflicts, none of my husband’s family cruised this time. None of them have cruised before, so I was really excited to introduce them to it, but it will have to wait until the next time.

So, why the Pride? That one is easy! My husband is not a big fan of flying (read: refuses to fly unless it’s an absolute necessity) and to be more budget conscious (read: to save money for our HMC cabana) we decided that driving to the port would be the best option for our family. Now, for anyone who has traveled with very young children, you know that containing them for long periods is akin to some form of torture. Baltimore is the closest port to our home in east central Indiana, and none of us had ever sailed from there, so it seemed like a good fit. The distance according to MapQuest was about 9.5 hours. I was still very nervous about the car ride with both kids, but (spoiler alert!) it ended up going better than any of us had imagined.

The itinerary isn’t the world’s greatest: we knew that going in. Half Moon Cay is paradise though and would make up for what Freeport was lacking. Grand Turk was a new stop for all of those in our party, so we were excited to call there as well. Well, except for one thing! Some of you might remember hearing about a man who was bitten by a barracuda in Grand Turk a few years back. That was Christian, my best friend’s husband. He is perfectly fine now, but that was a scary ordeal for them and I think it was in the back of our minds the whole time, although the likelihood of a similar incident is incredibly slim.

We booked this cruise in January of 2016 when the dates were first released. Yes, people, almost a year and a half out! I needed/wanted something to really look forward to and I assumed that the longer the planning/paying time, the more people we could convince to come along! As you already know, that didn’t pan out, but it turned out to be a good thing that we booked so early. At my last check, before rooms totally sold out a month or two before the cruise, the rate on our balcony room had gone up almost $250 and the interior almost as much. Plus, we had booked with $50 per room OBC. When factoring all of that in, we “saved” about $500 by not waiting around. We did book Early Saver, and there were no price drops, unfortunately, but hey, at least we felt we got a good value for our money. We did purchase trip insurance through another provider and added the “cancel for any reason” rider, just in case.

Another reason that we booked so early was because I wanted to grab one of the rare sets of connecting balcony/interior rooms that are available on the Spirit class ships. I believe there are only 6 (maybe even 4?) of these pairings available. We chose Deck 7, rooms 7106 and 7108. This way, the kids could have the interior room, and my husband and I would have the balcony room to ourselves. The sleeping arrangements didn’t exactly work out the way had planned, but having two rooms and all that space was incredible. The two bathrooms was a nice touch too! My parents were booked next to us, in 7110, but when my brother’s girlfriend ended up backing out, he needed to room with them, so they moved down the hall a bit to 7132, which can accommodate three. It was pretty cramped with three adults in their cabin, so my brother often came to our boys’ room to use the shower, etc.

If you are still with me, you are a trooper! Ha ha! I can tend to be a bit long-winded as you can tell, but I will try to be more succinct with my next installments. I will jump in with the drive from Indiana to Baltimore next time. Please be patient with me! I am currently in the process of packing up my entire classroom, moving into my new office, and attending administration meetings for my new position. I won’t forget about you all, I promise!:D:D:D

Great start! Looking forward to your review of one of my FAVORITE ships!

Day One: Saturday, May 27: Traveling to Baltimore

After many, many months of counting down, the big day had finally arrived: travel day! Yayyyyyyyyy! (Insert eye roll here) Honestly, I was dreading this part of the trip. My three-year-old is now content to watch movies on the iPad and I really wasn’t too worried about him, but I knew from experience that at one, being strapped into a seat wouldn’t be fun! I had just finished up the school year on Thursday, so that left Friday to do all of the things that have to be done before a cruise: manicure, pedicure, shop, pack snacks and drinks, pack suitcases, wash the car, get gas, go to the bank, yadda yadda yadda. I am NOT a last-minute person by nature, at all. I just had not had a spare minute to prepare for this trip! So, I spent Friday running around like a chicken with its head cut off while my kids went to the sitter and hubby was at work. Luckily, I got everything done in plenty of time. We decided to leave early Saturday morning rather than drive through the night. I can’t say I was a fan of this plan at first. When we cruised out of Port Canaveral when my oldest was 1, we drove all night so he could sleep for most of the trip. That was great. Having two kids wide awake all day while we drove wasn’t my cup of tea, but my husband wanted a good night’s sleep before we left so he could enjoy Baltimore too, and not just be exhausted and behind on sleep. I figured he deserved that much, so off we went at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning.

My parents and brother were in vehicle #2, and we swung by their house to caravan on out together. We grabbed a quick bite of breakfast at McDonald’s and were on the road just a few minutes after 7. Traffic was smooth and we made it all the way to Columbus, OH before needing a stop for snacks, gas, and fresh diaper/pull up changes. Oh, and a change of clothes for the baby because milk + bumpy car ride = spit up central. After that stop, my youngest (AJ) napped awhile and Drew happily watched Toy Story and Cars for the 7, 938, 201st time. Once everyone was good and hangry, we decided to stop in Morgantown, WV for lunch at a KFC. Hubby likes to top off the gas at each stop rather than having to stop when we are totally out, so we did that again too. I was pleased to see (ok, beyond excited) a Dunkin Donuts at our exit, so I grabbed a cold brew to keep Mama sane for the last leg of our drive. We don’t have a DD near us, only Starbucks. I love Starbucks, but DD is one of those vacation novelties to me, you know?

And that was it, folks! I couldn’t believe it, but we made it to our hotel in Inner Harbor by a little after 4:30. It was just over 9 hours even with two stops! The hubby and I were borderline giddy. Pardon my language, but I fully expected the car ride to be ab.so.lute. hell! I should have trusted the hub’s judgment because it went quite smoothly.

Let’s back up for a moment and talk about the hotel that we selected. After a lot of research, changing our minds, and negotiating, we ended up with the Holiday Inn Express at the Stadiums, in downtown Baltimore, the Inner Harbor area. When contemplated staying in a suburb, like Fredericksburg, then driving to the port Sunday morning, and then paying to park at the port. By the time we calculated the cost of doing that for two rooms and two vehicles, we decided that it would be more cost effective for us to stay at a hotel near the port with a park n’ cruise option. I wanted to be as close to the port as possible to cut down time on a shuttle with two kids who should really be in car seats. It made me nervous to consider one of the park n’ cruise options in Elkridge or Glen Burnie because the shuttle rides were upwards of 15 minutes. The quoted shuttle time for our hotel was 5 minutes. It may have been slightly over that, but I was happy with the amount of time that the kids had to spend in the shuttle van. When we looked at prices on the Holiday Inn website, the hotel was going for well over $200 for the cruise package. My dad ended up booking for us through a discount third-party site for only $149 per room. We were both a little suspicious of this price and whether or not we could trust that our reservation would actually show up, but he called shortly after reserving the rooms and the HIE did have a record of our reservation and all of the information was correct. Score!

Many of the complaints that I saw online were about the hotel’s location being in a noisy and busy area. Yes, that is true- it is right in the heart of the city. However, we found it to be clean, contemporary, and the staff was all very courteous to us. After getting checked in and cleaning up a bit, my husband got a bee in his bonnet about driving down to D.C. just to see the sights. We have been there before, but it had been awhile for him, so he figured if we were this close, why not take a drive through tour? That’s exactly what he and my brother did! After they left a little after 5, my parents and I took the boys to find some supper. We ended up at a Chili’s about 10-15 minutes from the hotel. The service was slow, and our food arrived cold. The waitress was very nice, and she offered to speak to the manager. He took the food off of our bill and offered us a free dessert! Score again! Everyone was beyond exhausted at this point, so we packed it in for the night. Tommy (brother) and Andy (hubs) got back around 8:30 or 9 and said that they had a great time exploring through the windows of the car, bah-hahahahaha.

Next up: Boarding the beautiful Pride!

Ok folks, I need help! I am having a horrible time with my photos. I uploaded them to a Photobcuket album, which I thought was standard protocol. I cannot get them to post for the life of me. I have tried copying and pasting the URL in the manage attachments menu on CC, tried uploading them right from my laptop, tried inserting an image from the toolbar at the top of the text box area...all with the same results! Invalid URL or file is too large. Do I have to resize all my photos by hand?! Help! :eek:

Yes, I did fashion a sling-type item with Andy's sweatshirt to hold Drew's head up, lol.

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Looking forward to reading your report on our favorite ship!! :cool:

Looking forward to reading your report and how your kids react to it. I am just getting into cruising and a little nervous how my son ,who will be 4 at the time of our first cruise, will react.

My husband and I were on this cruise with you and I remember being in the elevator with your family. Y'all were wearing matching shirts and I remember you because we have a daughter named Amanda. Looking forward to reading more of your review.

And congratulations on your promotion!

Great start to your review!!!! Patiently waiting for more!!!!:')

Thanks for the report.

Day Two: Sunday, May 28: Embarkation (Part One)

When we travel, free breakfast at the hotel is a must for us. We aren’t picky, and we found the breakfast at the HIE to be quite nice. After getting up and dressed, we headed down at around 8. There were some other families there to board the Pride, but it wasn’t overly busy. Another note: this hotel was very up to date and contemporary in style. We enjoyed the décor a lot.

Back to the food: the breakfast buffet offered yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, cold cereal, oatmeal, bagels, muffins, toast, biscuits, sausage gravy, cheese omelettes, a pancake making machine, and beverages (milk, apple and orange juice, and coffee.) Everything was restocked, warm, and tasty. We definitely got our bellies filled up!

Before we move on to the shuttle process, I should mention that when we checked into the hotel the night before, the girl at the desk didn’t mention the shuttle at all. I inquired about how to sign up for a specific time, and she pulled out a list on a clipboard. There were quite a few names written already, and she informed me that the only remaining spot was 12:00. On one hand, I thought that would be perfect since our chosen check-in time was 12:30, but on the other hand, check-out time at the hotel was 11:00. We simply asked if we could have an additional hour in the room, and the manager said that would be fine. Problem solved!

We still had quite a bit of time to kill, so we headed over to a Wal-Mart about 10 minutes away. What is it about vacations and stopping at Wal-Mart? Maybe that’s just us! We wandered around a little bit, I bought some more snacks and supplies for the kids, and my parents bought a small fan for the cabin. I had told them over and over to get one so they would have some background noise to sleep by (we all sleep with fans at home) but they never got around to getting one. My brother finally insisted…partly based on the fact that my dad can be quite the snore-er, lol! We had already brought along our carry-on bottles of wine, and my parents had Diet Dr. Pepper as well. At about 11:00 we headed back to the hotel to finish packing up and head to the lobby to await our shuttle driver.

We got to the lobby a little early, and there were 6 other people waiting. Clearly, the 13 of us and all the luggage were not fitting into one van, so we were happy to hear that there would be two shuttles coming to get us. Our driver was running a little late and didn’t get there until 12:20. Then, after we were all loaded and ready to go, he asks us if he can take a bathroom break. Ummmmmm, sure? That was awkward, but not as awkward as when he was gone for over ten minutes! At that point, my stress level was going up. My two cabins did have FTTF but I still wanted to get on board ASAP to choose our HMC cabana and get my gift cards loaded onto my account. A few side notes here:

· I snatched up FTTF right when they were released, sometime in the summer of 2016. My parents weren’t that interested. I thought that with two small kids, the fewer lines, the better!

· I did buy our gift cards through Verizon for the 10% discount. I also opened a Carnival Mastercard and used it just for the perks, because they were running a special sign-up bonus and it got us $200 in OBC. Easy peasy.

· We received an email a few days before sailing that the terminal would not even open for check-in until 12:30, and boarding would begin at 2:00. That did not prove to be true.

The ride to the terminal really wasn’t too bad, and we arrived at 12:45. We breezed right in after handing our luggage over and tipping the porter. There literally was no line for FTTF and we walked right to the counter. My parents and brother did get in line, but it wasn’t very long and they ended up on board 5-10 minutes after us. So far, FTTF was of little use to us! After getting all four of us checked in and photographed, we were informed that boarding had already begun (hmmmmm) and to head on across the gangway. So, we did! I had two cranky, hungry kids in strollers and a hubby lagging behind with carry-on bags, but by golly, I was going to hightail it to the excursions desk! I wanted cabana between numbers 6 and 10, and low and behold, 8 was still available. I snatched it right up! Another score! Next, over to guest services: FTTF to the rescue- I got to bypass the line (it wasn’t THAT long) and load all of our gift cards with no issue. After these tasks were completed, I checked my watch. It was 1:15 p.m. My three men were starting to meltdown, so I knew that food was needed ASAP! I spotted my family boarding, and we caught up with them and headed right up for our first Guy’s burger of many. Y'all- so, so, soooooooo yummy! Seriously. Worth the hype and then some, in our opinion anyway. :cool:

Next up: Embarkation, Part Two!

Our room at the HIE at the Stadiums

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The breakfast area at the HIE

Patiently waiting for the shuttle.

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The burgers are great but you guys, THE FRIES! [emoji7]

We made it! The Hoosier Cruisers have arrived! [emoji924]

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Can't wait to read all about your adventures! Have 2 boys also....but they are grown and 1 has 3 boys and the other 2 girls and a boy now! ;p But have many special memories of cruises with them! You have a lovely family!

Enjoying your review and photos!

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Great review...and wonderful pictures....thanks for sharing:):):)

Enjoying your review. I don't have kids but I am always super amazed at the organization it takes to cruise with them.

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You're the Hoosier Cruisers! I saw your shirts and really liked them. I live in NWI.

Great review so far. Our last cruise was on the Pride for my 30th birthday with my 15 month old, husband, and my parents doing the same itinerary. Too funny.

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What an adorable family!!

Aren't Birthday Cruises the Best!?

Congrats on your promotion and Happy Birthday!

Can you explain the cabana? Is that for HMC or the ship? I too booked waaaaay early. booked in april 2017 for a june 2018 cruise

Happy Birthday!!! :D

Enjoy the cruise and especially the cabana.

Great review! We love Pride and we're cruising on her again in July...can't wait! Question: We booked late and there are no HMC cabanas being sold anymore. When you got to the excursion desk to pick your cabana, did they mention if there were any available that day? We did this last time too, and got ourselves on a standyby list when we got on board, and lo and behold the next day we were told that we had gotten cabana #4. Unfortunately, the weather was bad and we skipped HMC...really looking fwd to going this time.

Looking forward to reading your report and how your kids react to it. I am just getting into cruising and a little nervous how my son ,who will be 4 at the time of our first cruise, will react.

I think he will love it! My 3.5 year old sure did. [emoji4]

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