lovermonkey

Triumph

This is cool. Thanks for the review. I just booked it the other day. Can any suggest a good breakfast place that is in walking distance? Besides S & S diner. I heard is good but a bit far to walk.

What other things are there to do around the hotel? Thanks for the idea of the CVS. That helps when I buy my pop.

You are so right about the beds at the Hampton being queens not doubles. It can be hard to find a hotel with two queens rather then two doubles. Our group also just booked the Hampton for our pre cruise stay and have read nothing but positive reviews. Stayed at Fortune House this past November but we wanted a real hotel this time. I have stayed at the Holiday Inn before and for the money I would choose Hampton over Holiday Inn everytime.

Now you tell me after I just booked the hotel. Oh, well. I think we will be fine. It is just for one night.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! LadyA!!!! I booked this cruise 1 year ago, Feb 2013 before the Live concert line up was even an idea.

 

But I flew Southwest on their "Wanna Getaway" fare, which was $200 per person. Southwest doesn't fly into Miami. All other airfares were well over $300 so I toughed it up and bought a flight with a 40 minute layover in ATL-GA airport! I'd love to just fly into Miami, but financially, it was cheaper to fly into FLL.

 

We didn't get to Fort Lauderdale until 9pm the night before we embark so we didn't have time to do anything in Miami precruise.

Ok, I was scared there for a while. Yeah, I wish I had done that but the Girlfriend would have issue if I had to stop at another airport. But your ideas was better and smarter than mine. Wish I had done the same.

Thank you!

Hello Missyoua,

Love the review. I am going in nov, same thing as you. But we are seeing LadyA in concert.

Anyway, I have question. I was wondering why you didn't fly into the Miami airport? I am paranoid that I screwed up. Already bought airfare from Chicago to Miami and am staying at the Holiday Inn by the port. Wondered if you did anything in Miami?

We woke up Monday morning to gloomy skies and rough seas. I could feel the boat rolling before I even got out of bed. It was12ft swells. We spent most of the day in the ship, doing shopping, and eating and in the casino.

 

 

trying to win ship on a stick at Trivia.

 

 

We were on just before you. It was just as bad on Monday for us too. Oh, and we lost 10 bucks on that game. We gave up. LOL

Looking forward to your continuing review... :):):):)

Thank you.

Opps I forgot about that. I am so in the dog house for that.

Mark,

 

You seem to have forgotten MY FAVORITE PART of the trip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great review! Love all the pictures too! Thank you for taking the time to share your vacation with us!!

I should thank you for putting up with my type-os and pressing multiple keys while typing this review. So thank you. :D

And anyone I didn't thank personally, I thank you as well. My attention span really sucks. LOL

I had another type-o. I had said that our room was 7250 but it was 7240. Sorry again. Rushed the review too much.

So true! Al the pics are really good.

 

Have to add - We're leaving TODAY!!!

Bags are packed and ready to go!

The PRIDE is ours for the next 7 days!!! :)

Cant wait for your review. Pics please. Miss it already.

Great review! Loved the pictures! Don't mind if I ask, but what kind of camera do/did you use?

Thank you. No problem, I can do that.

Actually I used 4 cameras in this review. The first is a Nikon P510. (Has 42x zoom. Love it) The 2nd one I gave my step-daughter to take pics. It is a Sony DSC-H9. The 3rd is my HD Video camera. It takes pics too. It is a jvc gz-hm1su. The last one is my girlfriends it is a Song DSC-w330.

To give you an example, this is the different cameras I was using.

First one is my girlfriend's camera, the DSC-W330.

2nd one is her daughter's camera the DSC-H9

3rd is my main camera Nikon P510 with the 42x zoom. You can tell it gets close when I zoom. These pics I was very far from the subject.

Lastly, this is my HD camcorder's pics.

That parasailing picture should've been ME!!! We went in November (on Ecstasy), did the "Total Package" which included parasailing, but it was too windy and they canceled. :(

 

Oh well...just another reason to go back!!

 

Enjoying your review!

Thank you and maybe it will be you I taking pics of as you are parasailinh.

Great pics again! You can see the back of my bald head with my wife beside me in this photo. I think we missed around 5 of the famous people also. I remember we missed JK Rowling. We knew the broom was a clue but couldn't grasp the connection.

I think I have another one of you on the Universal bus.

Ok, Last ones!

And to make your day, More Photos.

More Photos! Or Cheese. Whichever.

More Photos

After Freeport we started to get more involved with ship activities. (I know at the last possible moment.) We decided to check out all the shops and load up on stuff. We had bought a few things when they had the 10 dollar sale, but this time we filled our suite cases with t-shirt, post cards, etc. I don’t know why we always had to do things at the last minute but what I can say. Next, we went the question and answer session organized by Eric (The voice from above) and his 2nd in command Kevin. (Kevin is the one with the rose in his mouth that I posted earlier) I always thought of Eric as a roaster because he had this Mohawk. Very nice and funny guy. He did a really good at answering all the questions everyone had. I even had to chime in and ask if the ship was attacked by pirates, does the ship have the ability to thwart them off. (From his answer, no) Eric gave a prize out to anyone who could give him a cute pet name. I guess each cruise he gives a prize out for the best name given to him by a passenger. This time the winning entry was “Cool Whip.” This was Eric’s last Pride cruise, and to my understanding he would next be going on the Miracle next.

We moved on to the “guess who is in the photo” game. Was held in the theater. Girlfriend did pretty good at guessing what famous person’s face it was. I think she missed 5 out of 30(or 35) photos. (I think) Next they had the family feud, and a game where they asked you to do something stupid. Like put a quarter up your butt and drop it in a bucket 20 ft way. Kevin was in charge of these two games, and I must say it was funny all the way to the end.

(What else did we do?) Oh yes, also got to see another show in the theater (Which was really good) and finally made it to the dinning room the last day. We got to hear them sing the final good-bye song, which was cool. But I like it when they are dancing better than singing the final good-bye song. We didn’t get to see them dance because we were always at the buffet.

After all that it was finally time to leave the ship. As many others, we decided to do the self embark. Mainly because we needed to be off the ship and on the Amtrak train before 12:30pm. So I was concerned we wouldn’t make it. We got the Baltimore port around 9am. The disembark process didn’t go as plan. (Get ready for me to complain) They started calling out deck numbers, but stopped on the first one. Everyone and their brother decided to get in line when they called the first deck. People around us started noticing people’s suite cases listing their decks being 7, 8, etc and they were still on the 1st deck. People started to get frustrated. About an hour later and still the announcer still had not announce any other deck besides deck one, someone finally went to guest services. Guest services told them basically “everyone is on their own.” At least Carnival could have done was announce that on the PA for people who were abiding by the rules. Anyway, we got up and jumped in line. Like the many people who were waiting to have their numbers called.

Luckily for us we made it off the ship in time to check in our hotel by BWI airport, and have time enough to get to the train. We stayed at the Homewood suites by Hilton, close to the BWI airport. It cost around 169 and I had 4 people. The cool thing about the room I got was that it had two rooms and even a kitchen. So even though we had enough beds for everyone, the teenager called dibs on the couch. Because each room had their own tv and technically its own room, so she was in heaven. Another cool feature of this hotel is that they have free shuttle service to where ever you wanted to go within 5 miles. That meant they would take us to Amtrak for free. Just had to tip the driver. So after grabbing new clothes we rushed to the shuttle where they took us to Amtrak. Oh, I forgot that they had free wi-fi too. The Marriott in the inner harbor you had to pay for. Thank God for 4G.

Initially we were going to hit Washington DC when we first flew in from Chicago. I had decided that it would be in our best interest (so we wouldn’t be worn out the first day) to take another day off to check out DC. I am glad we did. We took the Amtrak train into Washington’s Union station. We had also bought trolley tickets for Washington DC. We bought on line but got our main tickets from inside union station, right outside the exit. The trolley was another good idea because they took us to all the good spots in DC. Also explained a lot of stuff too. Like many roads are named after the states. Didn’t know that. The best thing about the Trolley was that we didn’t have as much walking. Love the trolley. We had about until 6 o’clock to stay in DC since the trolley end for the day before 6pm. MY favorite thing in DC is seeing the Lincoln memorial and Arlington cemetery. Have pics below. After a big day we went back to Union station. And because I didn’t realize how bad the line would get I wasn’t prepared for what followed. We found ourselves in a very long line to get back to Baltimore. It was then a lady at the counter came down the long line looking for people in biz class, that’s when our luck changed. Not because we were in biz class but because they also were looking for anyone with kids 12 and under so they can sit together. I have to give Washington DC’s union station kudos for that. Thanks DC! It really helped. And thank you Nanna for being 9. That helped too. LOL.

Well, this is where my story ends. After a good night’s sleep, and buying tasty kakes at the 7/11, we headed back to Chicago. Only hopeful and wishing we were on our next cruise. I only wish we were there now. I can taste the Pastrami on rye now from the Carnival deli. Already looking at cruise prices now. Now the only question is, which ship do we do next.

Does the pride have the faster to the fun?

I read that they already have it on the Pride but I didn't sign up. Sorry.

Great review and pictures, Monkey!

Thank you much! Going to wrap up the cruise and then show pics of dc right after the cruise.

Here is the Freeport Senor Frog video. Get ready to sing along. I know I did. (It might not be ready, give it a few minutes if it doesn't come up.)

Yep more photos.

And yep, you guessed it. More photos.

MOre photos!!!