fer

Aug 16-23 2015 Pride to Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay & Freeport

Before we begin, I feel I would be remiss in my reporting duties if I did not mention that this will NOT be a review including fantastic and totally amazeballs pictures of the ship here. We did not use the gym, main pool, camp Carnival, or the spa.

If you wanna read some really awesome reviews of Pride with ship pictures and food porn, you need to check out these reviews.

Jamman54

ProfCruise

Mitsugirly

But… If you want to check out my subpar wordy yet mildly entertaining review, stick around

Cast of characters

There’s me. Your narrator for this rambling ride. The one, the only Fer. It’s short for Jennifer. My family and friends have called me Fer my whole life. Yes, I know it’s a weird nickname, but if you met me, you would totally understand, I am just a little weird. I am a labor and delivery nurse at a hospital in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Traveling with me is my husband, Cory. A retired Army soldier who indulges my cruise bug as long as it isn’t during hunting or fishing season. I also have a small window when the Packers are playing as well. This is my 5th cruise and his 4th. All with Carnival. We have 2 lovely spawn, I mean children. Ages 18 and 20. We left them at home to take care of our furry kids. And hoped they didn’t plans to throw a massive party.

To make sure I really earned my vacation, my last day at work was a 12 hour shift that was mandated (read that as forced to at scalpel point) to a 24 hour shift due to unforeseen circumstances and the fact that I was the only one available with my particular skill set. Awesome. At least I got to sleep a few hours in the on call room. But man, I looked like hammered horse poop.

Is this not the face of someone in dire need of a vacation?!?

I was on Pride 8/16-8/23.

Green slide closed all week except for embarkation day.

I used the $25 social media package. Was fantastic! Never had any trouble with it. I used imessage, facebook, snapchat, and instagram. Well worth the money I thought.

CD was Steve Kinsey (?) he was more subdued than most CDs I have come in contact with but very nice. And he seemed to be everywhere.

Not cruising until Jan 2016. Really hoping someone out there has experience with this company that the would like to share.

SoCal Gal trapped in the frozen tundra in dire need of some sunshine

We had FTTF we breezed right thru and were on the ship at 1:27p.

SoCal Gal trapped in the frozen tundra in dire need of some sunshine

The social media package was really great. I paid $25 for the whole cruise and made my friends and family positively green with jealousy while posting pictures on Facebook. The package gave me access to iMessage on my iPhone as well as Facebook, Instagram, snapchat apps.

When you get on the ship, put your phone in airplane mode. Then turn on wifi and you can either surf to a webpage or go to login.com. You will get this page. Buy the package you want and you will log in with your folio number and the month and date of birth for the person attached to that folio.

If you don't want to buy the package, there are some free sites available.

SoCal Gal trapped in the frozen tundra in dire need of some sunshine

Regarding the Comfort Inn & Suites BWI shuttle... getting from the airport to the hotel was no problem. Getting to the cruise port is where we ran into trouble. We actually got on the shuttle almost right after I posted last. Turns out, they shared a shuttle with the neighboring Best Western hotel. We got on the shuttle at 12:47pm and we were standing in line at the port at 1:13pm.

The shuttle driver said we needed to call the hotel to get a confirmation number for a ride back after we cleared customs. But because of the huge wait we had in getting to the cruise port, we didn't bother with their shuttle and ended up taking a cab from the cruise port to the airport.

The hotel was nice enough. The room was clean and everything was in working order. The staff was professional, polite, and friendly.

We walked to a chinese take out place across the street for dinner and brought it back to the hotel. There is a liquor store across the street where we got cokes and wine and there was also a Shell gas station. There is a free continental breakfast from 6-9am but the hubs wanted Dunkin Dounuts, which is across the street.

Would I recommend this hotel? Sure, if you don't mind playing shuttle roulette...

It's almost 3 hrs after we signed up for the shuttle and still nada. Gonna call a cab at 1pm if no one gets us. I'm gonna chalk this up as a not good for shuttle transport.

Awesome sauce! Thanks!

Coming to you live from the lobby of the Comfort Inn & Suites.

There are 2 shuttles. An airport one and the cruise port one. The airport shuttle runs 24/7. It picks up at BWI at doors 1 & 15. Takes about 30/45 mins for it to make a round trip. When you get to the front desk you can reserve a shuttle time back to the airport. But not the cruise port.

To get the cruise shuttle, you have to check out and tell them you want a shuttle to cruise port. We checked out at 10:00am and were behind two huge parties. It's 11:24 and we should be on the next shuttle. Crossing my fingers here.

For what it's worth, the girl at the front desk says it isn't usually like this. Turns out the power outages and computer glitches that affected the Eastern Seaboard yesterday that caused many flights to be cancelled. Stranding many in Baltimore. So all the shuttles in the city are all backed up trying to get the airport passengers to the airport.

Gotta ask... Is the green slide up and running?

I will be heading to Baltimore in a couple of days. I'll give you a report when I return. Keep your crossables crossed for me that the shuttle lives up to the advertising.

SoCal Gal trapped in the frozen tundra in dire need of some sunshine

and our complimentary drink coupons for the use during last night of the cruise after 5 p.m. for a beverage under $9 when there’s a lunar eclipse and Channing Tatum joins me in the Beauties lounge for a dance while small rabid kittens take over the world

I laughed so hard, coffee came out of my nose! Excellent review! I'll be on Pride in 44 days!

Loving your review. I love the Magic, been on her twice and planning a third trip. Your face during the Tropical Storm Bill video was priceless. And I'll admit, I laughed out loud of your description of your mom praying to Jesus during the storm. Not laughing AT her... Laughing WITH her :) I bet your personality and demeanor would calm and entertain even the most nervous and stoic of flight passengers.

I have a question, would you happen to know if they shut the storm doors on the cove balconies during all that rocking and rolling during the storm?

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

Has anyone taken the Taste of Cayman tour through Discount Excursions dot com? Or any experience with this vendor?

I was looking into this tour. Seems like it would be fun. $60 for transportation and entry to Seven Fathoms Rum Distillery, the Caybrew Brewery, Tortuga Rum Cake Factory, the Bikini House & Smith Cove.

Any reviews would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance!

very cool thanks for sharing :)

There was a lot more room than I expected and we were able to comfortably stash all our clothes and toiletries, despite my wife bringing our entire bathroom.

I was looking for ships that had their Serenity areas on the aft of the ship. I remember how much I enjoyed the child free joy of watching the wake go by when I was on the Ecstasy. When I'm not traveling with my own kids, I like to find a place where I can escape others as well.

Anywho, here's the location of the Serenity areas for the fleet as of 5/28/15:

Carnival Vista

Serenity is located in a secluded forward section of Serenity Deck 15. The Carnival Vista has two whirlpools, two massage huts and a complimentary chopped salad station.

Carnival Dream / Carnival Magic / Carnival Breeze

Serenity is located in a secluded forward section of Serenity Deck 15 on the Carnival Magic and Carnival Breeze and the forward section of Sun Deck 14 and Sky Deck 15 on the Carnival Dream. Each ship has two whirlpools.

Carnival Splendor

Serenity is located in a secluded forward section of Sun Deck 12. The Carnival Splendor does not have whirlpools in the Serenity location.

Carnival Glory / Carnival Liberty / Carnival Valor / Carnival Freedom

Serenity is located in a secluded forward section of Sun Deck 12 and Sky Deck 14. Each ship has two whirlpools.

Carnival Victory

Serenity is located in a secluded forward section of Sun Deck 12 and Sky Deck 14. The Carnival Victory has two whirlpools.

Carnival Sunshine

Serenity is located in a secluded midship section of Deck 11, Deck 12 and Deck 14. This private area has a cascading waterfall, pool and whirlpool.

Carnival Pride / Carnival Legend / Carnival Spirit / Carnival Miracle

Serenity is located in a secluded aft section of Lido Deck 9. Each ship has a swimming pool and one whirlpool.

Carnival Ecstasy / Carnival Elation / Carnival Fantasy / Carnival Fascination

Carnival Imagination / Carnival Inspiration / Carnival Paradise / Carnival Sensation

Serenity is located in a secluded aft section of Promenade Deck 9. Each ship has two whirlpools.

It looks like a pretty good deal. $50 all you can drink frozen margaritas, rum, vodka & gin plus one entree (from a small selection). If you want more info, they have been answering questions on their facebook page. I will be there in August and hopefully they will still have this. But looks like you pay your $, get a wristband and a cup, and they fill the cup as you empty it.

I am really hoping that once the Pride returns to Baltimore (at the end of March) we will get more reviews of people's experiences in Baltimore prior to their cruises.

I am wondering about something similar and will probably ask closer to our cruise, but we are going on B2B cruise and wondered if anyone has ever done this and brought 2 bottles/pp for both the cruises at the beginning. So I don't have to debark the ship in between and go to a liquor store and get another bottle. We were originally going to park at the pier and I would have left another bottle in my car to "restock" but decided to stay at a park and cruise the night before instead.

As far as I know. I let them (Trinity) know that I did not require parking and only needed shuttle from airport to hotel, from hotel to cruise port and from cruise port to airport (or to hotel then airport). They charged me $106 for a king bed. But there was 2 double bed rooms as well. I know your trip is before mine and therefore you are now my guinea pig and for that I thank you :) Keep me posted if you go this route. I'm curious to know if it will work out as smoothly as I am imagining in my head lol.

Your plans sound almost identical to mine. We are going out in August. I booked the BWI Comfort Inn and Suites thru Trinity for $106. There's a shuttle to/from airport and to/from cruise port. There is a restaurant and a couple of fast food places and a liquor store and gas station to buy soda & water that look like walking distance from hotel (according to Google Earth). I also read that the hotel has a shuttle that will take you around town as well. Not sure if there is a cost. Hope this helps.

Try going to the weddings and honeymoon section, they might have some contacts for you. Good luck and congratulations

If we go to Cayman again, I'd love to do a snorkel trip using those jet skis. That looked like a blast.

We did this in GC. It was really awesome. $70 per person for my husband and I to ride on 1 jetski. We were in a group of 6 jetskis and had 2 tour guides with us. I had so much freakin fun! We went through Island Marketing Ltd and I would do it again. Sorry to interrupt your review. But I thought I'd toss that info there. Great review!

try using Carnival's Fare Viewer to search for your cabin category