amrgirl95

Thanks for sharing your trip with your mom. I enjoyed reading your review and the pictures were very nice.

Thank you!

That's OK, I just thought you might have a photo from the ship's photographer possibly taken on elegant night or some other time. Thank you for your detailed review . . . we have the same type cabin booked and it was nice to get details.

Oh no, I haven't had a ship's photographer take a picture of me in years. My mom had two taken of her this trip, one of which we couldn't find and the other we forgot to go back and consider buying. Have fun on your trip! If you need more pictures of the room, I definitely have those.

Enjoyed your review and your photos! We are going on our second cruise on the Pride in a couple of months - can't wait. Here's a request: can you post a photo of you and your mom just so we can put faces to your story? Thanks!

Thanks! Enjoy your trip! I only have a couple of pictures of my mom from this trip, since I generally don't take people pictures, and almost no pictures of me exist, but I can try to find a couple for you if you really want me to.

Thank you for posting all the wonderful pictures of your cruise. We are also in room 4150 sailing on April 1st! :)

I hope you enjoy your trip!

So here's my conclusion that's probably too long. It's just my final thoughts on everything, so you can skip it if you don't care.

Conclusion

Embarkation

Embarkation took forever. It was due to a variety of different factors. I don’t know if there was anything that could have been changed to help, except maybe us getting our room number earlier. If free water/drinks/snacks had been readily available, that may have made it better. The port staff worked as quickly as they could, given the circumstances.

Food

For the most part, the food was great. There were a couple of dishes that we weren’t impressed with, but it’s a cruise, so it’s not like we went hungry. We were super impressed with Blue Iguana Cantina. The tea time was a nice touch too. I actually never had lunch from the buffet, expect for one spring roll and a bunch of desserts. I had a sandwich from the deli that was really good. My mom enjoyed the pizza that she had. Brunch in the MDR didn’t do much for me, but my mom liked it. I liked my breakfast pastries in the buffet. The chocolate muffins are reason enough for us to cruise with Carnival again. The chocolate buffet was good too. While I wasn’t always thrilled with the food options in the MDR for dinner, I always found something to eat. We never waited too long for a table with YTD, expect for one night where our pager got messed up. We received great service each night in the MDR. We always had a table for two, and the service was always pretty quick. We had different wait staff on two nights, but then requested the same staff from the first night for the other nights. On RCCL, I like how you can make reservations for each night in the MDR, and they automatically try to seat you with the same wait staff each night. Those differences aren’t something that would deter us from sailing with Carnival again. The waiter we had the most nights, Vladimir, was adorable. All of the wait staff went above and beyond to help make sure that we were satisfied. My mom said that this was the best food overall she had had on a cruise in at least ten years.

Service

The service we received everywhere was great. We never had to go to guest services. My mom made friends with the woman who worked in Cherry on Top, and the other shop employees were really nice as well. I assume the service that my mom received whenever she went to any bars was good.

Cabin (4150)

The stateroom was a lot better than when expected that we would get when we booked an inside guarantee. It was bigger than the inside stateroom we had on Carnival Victory, and we had more than enough storage. I always bring my over-the-door-shoe organizer, with plans to split the space with my mom, but she never ends up using it. That happened again, so at least I had space for all of my little things. I didn’t bang any elbows in the bathroom, and the shower temperature was fine once I figured out how to work it. I think I couldn’t get the shower head to go high enough and stay at the right angle, so I had to step back closer to the wall than I would have preferred. I’m also 5’11”, so that wouldn’t be a problem for most people. We did hear the people in the room next to us on a couple of nights. I could also hear music when I was in the bathroom sometimes. I don’t know if it came from another cabin or a public area, but we could only hear it in the bathroom occasionally, so it wasn’t a problem. Even though there was basically no view from the French doors, it was still nice to have a bit of sunlight and fresh air when we needed it. The cabin could sleep four, probably comfortably, but the storage might be a bit tight. I lied down on the couch once, and I sort of hung off when I laid perfectly straight, so it might not fit a taller person. The cabin did have an old box TV, but I’ve heard that the stateroom that have the newer TVs are pretty random. We both thought that the beds were comfortable. Our room steward brought us ice each day, and we got a daily towel animal. We always saw him in the hall. He and all the other room stewards we walked by were always friendly. The fridge in the room kept my water bottles reasonably cold. The 12 pack of bottles I had pre-ordered were waiting in the room when we got there. We had no complaints with the room.

Entertainment

I didn’t go to many of the shows, but I liked the ones that I went to. The sound was just a bit too loud for me. I have earplugs that are moderately good quality, since I go to a lot of concerts, and I started carrying those around. I noticed that the vocals could have been turned up a bit more during one of the shows, but I was also wearing the earplugs. I really liked the comedy shows, but I wished that the lounge they were held in was bigger. I’m not much for organized activities on ships, but the ones I did go to were entertaining. Saffie, our cruise director, seemed nice. We just passed by her walking around, but she always looked put together and she was entertaining when she was on stage.

Casino

I forgot to mention this during the review, but I want to say something quick about the casino. We only walked through the casino I think twice. It wasn’t too smoky. Neither of us are gamblers, so we didn’t spend anytime here. At one point, we did find a penny slot machine. We had never tried gambling on a ship, and didn’t know what to do. We put my S&S card in the machine. It definitely read my card, since my name popped up, but we pressed a button and nothing happened. We took my card out and left. That was our experience with the casino on the trip.

Wi-Fi

I had pre-ordered the Wi-Fi package before getting on the ship, for about $71 for the Value package. As soon as I got on board, I was able to sign in to the Wi-Fi via the HUB app. I just had to enter I think my birthday and my folio number each time I wanted to log on. I would log on a couple of times a day on my laptop, so I had to log out from my phone each time I wanted to do that. I was able to get most sites to load well enough. I don’t think I had any problems messaging from Twitter, Facebook, or WhatsApp. I tried a couple of times to call my dad or brother via WhatsApp. I heard my brother say “hello” but then the call would drop before he could hear us say anything. I don't know if I wasn't supposed to make any voice calls, but at least I tried. The HUB app was pretty nice, since I could see the dinner menus a couple of days in advance for the MDR, see what was open, find out what was going on, and look a tour charge account. The charges would show up almost immediately after the card was scanned. I noticed that we were overcharged at the arcade one day, but it was fixed automatically. When we were sitting in the theater on the last day, my mom was kicked out of the app, since the cruise was over. Probably like half an hour later, I was kicked out of the app. I think I was able to use the Wi-Fi up until that point, but I’m not sure if I wasn’t able to use the Wi-Fi after that. My laptop is old and the Wi-Fi connectivity is basically shot on it, even with an adapter, so the Wi-Fi didn’t work all the time in my room on my laptop. I opened the door a couple of times and stood with my laptop near the hallway, and that helped. During breakfast the last few days, I took my laptop with us to the buffet. I sat at a booth right next to the deli area, because I noticed that there was a Wi-Fi router right there. That definitely helped. While the Wi-Fi obviously isn’t as good as what I can find on land, it wasn’t that bad.

Ports

Princess Cays was pretty nice. It’s a private island, so as long as the weather’s nice, there’s not much to complain about. The tender boat ride over to the island was pretty rough, but nothing too bad. We never do much in Nassau, but the shops right off the ship always give us something nice to look at. We had never been to Freeport before, but we found more than enough to do right off the ship. If you took an excursion, I’m sure there’d be even more to do. When we booked the cruise, we weren’t that excited about any of the ports, but I think we would definitely do this itinerary again.

The Ship

The ship was nice overall. Though she is a bit old, we had no problems with her. I actually prefer an older ship like this compared to a newer one. We didn’t notice any signs of age. They did do maintenance on the AC that one day, but we had no big issues with that. Like I mentioned, our room had the big box TV, and that was really the only thing I saw that dated the ship. I really liked the layout of the ship, and how you could get from one end of the ship to the other without having to go up or down a deck.

Disembarkation

Disembarkation is always really quick in Baltimore, at least for us. The line for customers only took about 15 minutes, and we didn’t have to declare our alcohol or anything. The agents just checked passports. I just hate disembarkation when the weather isn’t perfect, because they do kick you out of the cruise terminal and force you to wait in the cold. I feel like a lot of people live locally for cruises out of Baltimore, so they may get dropped off, so a better pick-up waiting area would be very nice.

Overall

We definitely had fun on this trip. It was really nice for something we booked something last minute. It was cold when we were leaving and coming back to Baltimore, but it wasn’t that bad for too long. We would have to think and weigh the pros and cons before booking another winter cruise out of Baltimore. We do like sailing out of a port so close to us, though I hate how they force us outside during disembarkation. While we haven’t cruise Carnival that much over the years, we would definitely book with them again. We would also consider doing the same itinerary, if the price and dates were right. There were no major issues on our trip. Overall, we enjoyed the cruise and had a lot of fun. Except for very minor stuff, I can’t think of anything that really could have been fixed.

So that’s about it for my trip. Please let me know if you have any questions or if you want me to post pictures of anything specific. Thanks so much for sticking with the review over the past couple of weeks!

No more declaration forms in Baltimore! Makes it easier for everyone

 

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It definitely does!

Thanks for the detailed review.

Your disembarkation experience was a lot quicker than mine and gives me hope for my November sailing!

Yes, like I said, it just seemed to take longer than it did. Based on when I texted my dad, we were only in line for about 15 minutes. I hope your trip goes smoothly!

Great review, thank you. We sail in 22 days...

Thanks! Enjoy your trip!

Loved the menorah lighting. And going again this coming December

 

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That's good, I hope you enjoy that trip just as much as this one!

The hours that the shops were open for the week

Soon after we got settled and found places for all of our bags, the staff up front said that the theater was closing and announcements wouldn’t be made there anymore. Right after that, an announcement came on the PA system asking everybody to leave the theater and go elsewhere. We grabbed all of our bags and moved to the Sunset Gardens area. They were calling the luggage tags numbers by now. My dad had to drop my brother off at work before heading up to Baltimore, and he was on the Beltway now, so he wasn’t too far, but he wasn’t super close yet either.

Looking off the port side of the ship. The ship had docked on her starboard side

We sat and read for a bit. I went to the bathroom again and, before long, our number was called to get off the ship. At 11:38, I texted my dad, saying we were about to get off. At 11:40, he said that Google Maps said he was 36 minutes away. We slowly gathered our things and walked over to the atrium. Fortunately, we were already on deck two, because I don’t know if I would have made it down a flight of stairs with all my bags. A long time ago, maybe when I was 8, we were coming back from a muster drill on a cruise. This was back when you had to wear life jackets to the drill. We were walking down a crowded stairwell, and little me totally wiped out down the stairs. I don’t think I was injured, but I’m definitely still traumatized by the fall.

One last Sunset Gardens shot. It was so pretty in here. I wonder if all of the tiles, like in this picture, were hand painted

Anyway, after one last walk through the atrium, we had our S&S cards scanned one last time, and we were officially done with our vacation, at 11:43. It had snowed the night before, and some of it was still on the ground, welcoming us back. Around 11:47, we got in line to go through customs. Last time we cruised out of Baltimore, there was no line for customs at all. This time, we waited a bit more than 15 minutes, but it felt much longer due to my heavy bags. Going through customs was really easy. We never got a declaration form in the cabin. I had the receipt for our rum and the paper they handed us when we got back on board handy, but nobody asked for it.The agents just looked at our passports, and we were on our way. Nobody asked about alcohol or any other purchases we had made.

Ew, snow. What a great welcome back home

All of the supplies being loaded on the ship. There was more not pictured here. It was an impressive amount

While getting off the ship in Baltimore is relatively quick and painless, I just really don’t like how it works once you get your luggage. The last time we got back in Baltimore on a Royal Caribbean cruise, it was 50 degrees and raining, and my mom had a broken foot. Once we got our bags, we were sort of just deposited at the pick-up waiting area. That was just a little bus shelter. We had to leave our bags out in the rain while we stood under the shelter for like an hour until my dad finally showed up. This trip, it was winter, so we were not expecting to be happy waiting. That’s why we told my dad to come at an earlier time (that didn’t happen). This time, we got our suitcases and I think we were slowly making our way outside, maybe hesitating before dragging the bags, and a port employee told us we had to go. I said we were waiting on a ride, and she said we had to wait outside. That could be fine, if we were in Florida and not Maryland in the winter. There are a ton of seats you pass on the way out, but I just hate how you’re forced outside in Baltimore. It happened to us on both cruise lines, and that’s my main issue with the port.

Anyway, we stopped in the hallway thing right before going outside, in order to put our jackets and gloves and everything on. We went outside at 12:11, and my dad said he was 8 minutes away. We didn’t want to go to the pick-up shelter area, so we stopped on a bench right outside the exit. I actually wasn’t freezing out with my three jackets on, so we settled in with our suitcases, and saw when my dad pulled up. By 12:26, we were pulling out of the parking lot and heading to Little Italy for take-out.

So that’s it for the review! I want to post a summary of my final thoughts of the trip, but if you have any questions, let me know. Thanks for reading!

I'm going to try to post day eight of the review before going to bed. I wrote this really quickly, so I apologize if I left something out. Also, the font on here is coming up weird for me, so sorry if the formatting is weird.

Day Eight

So here we are, at the end of our trip. We had received papers telling us two different times for when we had to be out of our room. One said 9:00, and the other said 9:30. We planned on getting up at 7:30, so we could be play it safe and be out of the room around 9:00. We ended up leaving our room a bit after 9:00. We checked the room, and I went with all of our bags out into the hallway while my mom checked everything. We said goodbye to our room steward and tipped him, and slowly made our way to breakfast in the buffet.

One last shot of our (messy) room

We were scheduled to get off the ship at 12:45, since we had luggage tag number 22. We told my dad to get there between 12:00 and 12:15, since he always runs late. As we were getting ready, I noticed that we had slowed down, going to 6 then 2 knots per hour (I think. I need to check my notes). I checked the navigation screen on the TV, and saw that we had come to a complete stop, before 9:00 I think. The self-disembark people were allowed off soon after, over an hour ahead of schedule. I was worried that we’d get off too early, so I called my dad and let him know.

When we were getting on the ship, I had my huge backpack on me, my camera bag looped over my neck one way, and my over-the-should purse on my other side (normally I can get it to fit in my backpack, but that didn’t happen this time). On our way off the ship, I had all of those bags on me, as well as a tote bag in my hand. I also had to carry my thick jacket and my leather jacket. I think I hung one of those over one bag, and the other draped over another bag. My mom just had her little clutch purse, a big tote bag, and her thick jacket. I was able to walk, but not as fast as I normally do.

Eventually, we made it to breakfast. We found a table right away, and condensed our stuff in case somebody wanted to join us. Somebody put their stuff on a chair for a few minutes then left, but we did have another man eat with us for a bit. The buffet was more crowded than normal, but not extremely full. I ate more pastries than normal today, since I love those raspberry ones but I can only find them on cruises now. We ate slowly, and went to the bathroom near the buffet. It only had three stalls, and had a bit of a line. Around 10:15, we got bored of the buffet, and moved to the theater, which I swear was supposed to be an organized waiting room. We passed a bunch of people sitting along the Via Veneto Upper Promenade.In the theater, there were two of the ship’s entertainment staff. They were relaying messages to the passengers. They also had something like America’s Funniest Home Videos showing on some projection screens to the side of the main stage.

In the buffet area by the drinks/desserts

My pastries

My mom's pastries

A window blind in the buffet

A fish in the buffet

As usual, your food pics are making me hungry :) Are kumquats ready to eat then, peel and all? Never had them but I'm up to trying new things.

 

I find the stairs often have cool artwork and it looks like the Pride will not be an exception.

 

Sorry to hear about your dehydration. I think it's very easy to happen on a ship - especially with how much extra sodium is in the food.

 

Thanks again for sharing your trip with us!

Yep, you just eat the whole thing. I put the whole kumquat in my mouth at once, so I didn't see what it looked like inside. They sort of popped in my mouth like a grape, if that makes sense. I liked them.

The artwork on ships is all so nice. Thank you! I found the water to taste weird on the ship this trip, so I also probably wasn't drinking enough too.

The is for The review. Was on this cruise with you and actually did the menorah lighting in the atrium most nights

 

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What did you think of the menorah lighting?

We got our pager, and sat on the couch right by the stairs leading down to the atrium. We ended up going into the photo gallery on the port side of the ship, to look for the two pictures that my mom was in. We found one, but couldn’t find her picture with the towel animal. It had been about 15 minutes at that point, and we were getting worried because our pager hadn’t gone off yet, and our wait hadn’t been this long on the trip before. We went back to the hostess, who said that we should have been fine in the photo gallery. We sat at the bar nearby for a few more minutes, and then the hostess came up to us. We were apparently paged right after we went up to her to see if it was working, and it ended up not working. Even though they only tell you to not go to deck 9, the casino, and your stateroom, the photo gallery ended up messing with the pager, maybe due to the metal detectors/sensors nearby. Those would randomly go off, even if people weren’t walking through them.

Anyway, we finally got our table after waiting close to half an hour. My mom ate a lot that day. She had the beef carpaccio (she doesn’t like raw meat, and was convinced that it wasn’t raw, but I’m pretty sure this dish is raw?) and the mango cream soup for appetizers. She had the ricotta ravioli (cute, striped raviolis) and the cinnamon pumpkin cheese pie for her entrees. The pumpkin thing was filled with “root vegetables,” according to the waiter, and had some fried things on the side. I think it was some sort of potato? Whatever they were, they were spicy, I think. I had one last shrimp cocktail and the flatbread, which had “bbq chicken, monterey jack cheese,” on it. The chicken tasted good, but my jaw hurt at this point in the trip (I still don’t know why it did that. I was really falling apart on this trip), and the bread was really hard, so I just ate the chicken. Of course the rolls we had also hurt my jaw, but I continued to eat them. For my entrée, I had the jerk pork loin off of the port of call menu. It tasted good, but I didn’t feel like eating much at this point. I had the carrot cake for dessert. The cake was pretty dry, but the icing was good. We said goodbye to our wait staff, tipped everybody, then headed off to the comedy show.

My mom's pumpkin thing, with the fried things on the side

My carrot cake

On both this night and the previous one, I got to the lounge right before previous show ended, about half an hour early. This was really the only way you could guarantee a seat for the next show, since they filled up fast.

After the comedy show, we went back to our room to finish packing. I’ve been using my dad’s oyster shell suitcase. I’m not sure if that’s what it’s called, but it’s the hard shell one. Because of this, I couldn’t shove any extra stuff inside, and I had to make sure it closed properly. Somehow, I ended up bringing lots more home with me than I started with. Maybe because my leather jacket ended up in my mom’s suitcase on the way there (I hid things in her suitcase that she didn’t find until she unpacked. She had tons of extra space). I’m also very bad with packing to go home. When I’m packing for a trip, I pack super neatly, rolling up all of my clothes. This time, I took it a step further and put a hair tie over all of my individual rolls, so they would stay rolled up. I also had a lot of extra hair ties when I got onboard, just in case. When I pack to go home, I just throw all of my dirty laundry in the suitcase, press it down, and put everything on top. To get everything off the ship, I ended up having to put some extra stuff in a tote bag I had brought. It wasn’t too bad, since I needed to put our bottle of rum in it. I wrapped the rum in the blanket I had brought with me, and put my other souvenirs on top of that, and that solved my packing problem. At 10:27, our bags were out in the hallway, ready to beat us off the ship.

We had to be up early the next day, and tried to go to bed early, but I think this was the night we stayed up late reading. Eventually, we were off to sleep for our last night on vacation.

So that was our last sea day! I just have our disembarkation day left, then I’ll do a conclusion post. Thanks for reading!

After that, we finished up our shopping in the shops on board, then went back to the room. I assumed we did some packing. My mom went to do her own thing, and I finally took that shower, since I didn’t feel that lightheaded anymore (I always have slightly low blood pressure and I get dehydrated really easily). I then wanted to walk down all of the stairwells to take pictures of all the artwork. Right when I left the room, I realized the sun was setting. I ran up to deck 10 to take pictures. I thought that this night’s sunset was the prettiest all trip, but it was way too cold to stay out on the open deck for more than a couple of minutes. I noticed a few ships in the distance. After freezing, I went to work on my photo walk. That actually didn’t take that long, about half an hour. I then went back to the room and got ready for dinner.

A ship in the distance

Another one

One of the vase-like things displayed in a lot of the stairwells

A hallway on deck 1

Some of what I ate

The towel animal character in the background

My mom and I then split up once we finished eating. I think she may have gone on a pool deck to relax, and she later told me that it was a bit too chilly out to do much of that. I found a spot to sit and read. I was in some of the seats by the atrium on deck 2, off to the side. There was a super cute winter scene set up off to the side, across from the restrooms. I took some pictures of that, and went up to deck 9 to grab another taco.

The winter scene display

After that, I went to the theater for the CLUE reveal and the Q & A with Saffie. Even though I just went to the initial CLUE activity, and none of the subsequent CLUE hints, I still had an idea of who it was, and I was completely wrong. I sat up on the balcony of the theater, and only a few other people were up there. The Q & A was rather interesting. My mom didn’t go, but she later told me that she wished she had joined me for it. Now I’m going to include some possibly interesting but probably boring facts that I learned at the Q & A. I apologize in advance for all of the words that I am about to post. Feel free to skip the next (really long) paragraph.

The crew has the same Wi-Fi packages as the passengers, but theirs is just slower and a lower bandwith, but it’s cheaper. The food that crew members eat is on a 21 day rotation, but breakfast is the same. They’ll have special food nights, like sushi, crepes, ice cream, and tacos. The captain has a large cabin, but Saffie said that hers is also large, since her office is in there. The cabins get better as the crew member’s rank increases. If there’s an emergency on the ship, the life boats take everybody to land if it’s nearby. If land isn’t close, the life boats go further away from the ship and get picked up by another ship. Crew members don’t get days off, but they get hours off when they are in port. They only get sick days if they are contagious or they can’t stand up. They do work on holidays. I believe that Saffie said that her contract had her working for six months, then she had six weeks off. I can’t remember if that was a typical contract for everybody, or just the cruise director or entertainment staff. They try to keep management on the same ship for two years. Saffie did say that she will be back on Carnival Pride for her next contract. The dancers and singers are on board for six months as a group. This cast was new, and they hadn’t worked together before. They train for four to six weeks in the studio in Miami, then there is a two week transition period with both the old and new casts on a ship. Crew members can get mail. You have to send it to Carnival’s head office in Miami, and you need to know what ship they’re on, their full name, and their crew ID number. Saffie said that she worked on the ships for three years before becoming a cruise director. She previously worked in hotels and had hospitality experience. The amount of time it takes to get hired can depend on different things. It will generally take a few months from somebody’s interview. You have to wait on a medical exam, visas, and a spot on a ship. There are random drug tests on the ship. Once on the ship, a crew member generally stays at the same job until promoted.

Just as I was about to leave the theater, I noticed my mom standing in the entrance to the theater on the third floor. I had messaged her where I was, but she didn’t see the message, and still found me. We went over to the MDR for tea time. On the first sea day, they pushed a cart around with a bunch of different pastries. On this sea day and the second one, they just came around with a few different pastries on plates. They were still good. It was a nice snack, especially since I don’t think my mom had lunch that day.

So I'm back with day seven! This day is going to have a lot more words than pictures, so I apologize about that.

Day Seven

So on our last day, we didn’t really have any plans. We wanted to relax, eat, win more ducks, and pack up to go home. There was also “Q& Awesome with Saffie” at 3:00 in the theater, and the final CLUE reveal at the same time and place. The main show that evening was the lip sync battle, but it was around the time we normally went to dinner. We planned on going to one last comedy show at 9:15. We also had the chocolate buffet and one last tea party.

We got up at 9:00, and went to breakfast a bit after 10:00. We stuck with the buffet again, even though we had nowhere to be, because we both liked the food there and the MDR brunch was probably too much food for me to eat. After eating, we went back to the room. I was going to shower, but of ourse I was dehydrated, and kept getting lightheaded when I stood up. Normally it isn’t that bad, but I felt like I couldn’t shower for whatever reason. I had noticed that the coffee shop on deck 2 had Powerade for sale, so we planned on heading there to get some.

We went and finished up our duck winning in the arcade. They had put more ducks in the machine sometime since we were there on the previous day. We then stopped by the coffee shop. I got a Powerade for something like $2.25 or $2.95. It was less than $3. My mom also got a cute chocolate covered strawberry. We went back to our room and found our last towel friend. Once we dropped off our ducks, we went to sit in the Sunset Gardens for a bit. We tried reading, but there were some people nearby that were a bit too loud for my mom.

The carrot cake you could buy at the coffee shop

My mom's chocolate covered strawberry

Our last towel animal

All of our ducks in a row

Once we finished, we went up to deck 9 for the chocolate buffet! This was really the only time we saw the buffet crowded all trip. I got in line while my mom scouted for a table. When I was first in line, a couple of people in front of me grabbed two plates, instead of one. I did that, and I think it helped keeping everything separated, so that’s something to keep in mind. I got some fruit, some fondue, a few little things, and a couple of slices of cake. The “little things” were found in one section in little bowls. They consisted of those sugared jelly cubes (the sign says they’re “jujubs”), chocolate covered orange peel (not as good as our last Carnival cruise. It wasn’t candied right this time), flavored marshmallows, and what was basically lumps of sugar. There was no chocolate sushi that I saw, which I had last trip and really liked. I think I got chocolate cheesecake then maybe chocolate lemon cake. I sat down and started to eat (after messaging a picture of my food to my dad), while my mom got her food. When we were wrapping up, the towel animal character came into the buffet and took pictures with people.

The fruit in the chocolate buffet. Those little orange things up top by the watermelon are called kumquats I think. They were pretty good

Some chocolate cakes that were available

Your pictures are getting me so ready for our cruise! Enjoying them all, but especially the sunsets.

 

Thank you for the comprehensive review of Freeport. I haven't seen much about it besides "stay on the ship" or "it's just a warehouse area." We probably won't have time to explore the shops with our excursion, but it does look like there would be plenty to do for a few hours just browsing the shops and entertainment. I would agree that it is more industrial than most ports, but it doesn't look as bad as other posters made it out to be.

Thank you! Yeah, I haven't noticed many reviews of Freeport where the reviewer does much. We spent a couple of hours in port, and we rushed, so you can definitely spend more time just in that area right off the ship. My mom said that next time we're there, we'll have to look at doing an excursion, so we can get beyond the shops and bars right off the ship. I hope you enjoy your trip!

We waited six minutes for our table that night. For dinner, my mom had the Chesapeake crab cake (beautifully prepared) and possibly a shrimp cocktail. For her entrée, she had the “Dual of Filet Mignon and Short Rib.” I think she liked it well enough. I’m pretty sure she said the filet was good. I had the shrimp cocktail and the four season salad for my appetizers. I had some vinaigrette on the side as the dressing on the salad, but it was really heavy and I didn’t like the taste. I also thought the lettuce tasted weird, but I ate the other vegetables on the salad. I had the grilled jumbo shrimp for my entrée. Every cruise, I hit a point where I don’t seem to want to eat much food that’s very flavorful (so basically I’m craving plain carbs, i.e. bread). I hit that point tonight. I ate some of the shrimp, but didn’t want much of it. I probably ate a couple of rolls. For dessert, I had some chocolate thing, maybe Amaretto Cake. I really regret not photographing all the menus. I don’t remember the cake, but I assume it was good. My mom had the grand mariner soufflé, and I’m pretty sure she said that the consistency was off. That could have been on another cruise though, so I’m not positive if she liked this one.

These silver shells were on some of the tables on the formal nights. I immediately recognized them as something my mom would love, and I was surprised that none of them ended up coming home with us

My salad

After dinner, my mom went to the show, which was “80s Pop To The Max”. I went to the comedy show. It was good, but it was standing room only. I do wish that Carnival had a bigger venue for the comedy shows. This one lasted 25 minutes. I went back to the room and met up with my mom, then we went to bed.

So I’m finally done with day six! I just have the last sea day and then the disembarkation day left. I’ll try to get everything done by the end of this upcoming weekend. Thanks for reading!

A few more sunset pictures

And the wake

We went to Blue Iguana Cantina (there’s a concert venue somewhat near me with the word ‘Cantina’ in its name, and I keep wanting to call Blue Iguana Cantina something else, so if I type something really wrong, that’s why. This is very off topic but it was announced a couple of hours ago that Drake Bell is coming to that venue in March so 8-year-old me is super excited). My mom got one pork taco, and I got two shrimp tacos and one pork. I think this was the time that the ice machine on the pool deck wasn’t giving us ice, so my mom went into the buffet and brought back a cup of ice that we shared. So in the picture of my tacos, the darkest sauce was the Salsa Roja, if I recall correctly, with pork. That was my favorite that I tried. The taco in the foreground on the left was shrimp with the Arbol Chili sauce, which was okay. The taco with the shrimp on the right had the Habanero sauce. I mentioned that I like spicy food, and I’m always fine with anything spicy that I eat. This sauce finally did me in. I guess I put too much on, and, after a few bites, I had to give up. I proceeded to drink a cup and a half of water, and then I went inside to the buffet for dessert. I came back with some of those sugar-coated jelly cubes that they have on Carnival (I can’t remember the name), some Napoleon pastry thing that was pretty good, and a spring roll from Chopsticks. The spring roll was good, and of course I got chili vinegar to dip it in. That’s supposed to be spicy, but this one wasn’t nearly as spicy as the chili vinegar I get from a Thai place near us.

My tacos

My mom's pork taco

Outside a window near where we were sitting

While in the buffet, I noticed an employee pushing around a cart with cookies and drinks, including water and lemonade, I guess so people didn’t have to get up to get that stuff. During breakfast, the same cart went around, but with breakfast pastries and other drinks like coffee and hot tea.

After lunch, based on my pictures, it looks like I walked around a bit. I think I tried to sit on deck 10 and read some, but it was windy and I was too cold. Some people next to me were asleep, so maybe only I was cold. At some point, we went to the “Name That Rock Tune” trivia. Neither of us had been to a trivia session on any cruise ship before, and it was pretty entertaining, even though we didn’t do too well.

By the Red Frog Pub

Once the ship was sailing, I noticed that the seas were a lot smoother compared to our two earlier sea days. The TV channel that showed the ships position also said we were going faster, about 22 to 24 knots per hour, versus 12 to 16 knots per hour that I noticed a few days prior to this.

Once trivia was over, we then went to win more ducks from the arcade! There, we met another family playing the game. They had two little kids, probably both under the age of 5 (I can’t tell age). The kids loved the game. They had won upwards of 18 ducks on this trip, and more on another cruise. So actual kids do like this game! Like I had mentioned before, my mom really wanted her own unicorn duck. I slid my card and on the first try, I was able to get her the unicorn duck. We kept playing, and probably won maybe 6 more ducks that day. We ended up with another unicorn duck, which we decided was for one of my friends. I also got a black horse duck. I have a picture of all of our ducks that I’ll post during day 7.

Once we shoved our loot in my bag, we went out on the promenade deck to watch the sunset. We also spent time watching the wake. After the sunset, we got ready for dinner. It was our second formal night that night.

I have no idea why these pictures are more grey than the rest. I don't think it was cloudy out

After we watched enough of sail away, my mom wanted to try out the water slide. My brother was fascinated with the green slide and would have tried it if he was with us, but my mom was not getting on that. She went on the yellow one twice and liked it. I took pictures of her going down. There wasn’t a line at all when we went. I think the green slide was closed at this time. Once my mom dried off, I took a couple more pictures and we went to get lunch.

Some more ships

We started moving at 1:32. I noticed that the water in Freeport was very blue-green, and I thought it was the prettiest that I saw all trip. We watched our progression away from the island. I saw the pilot get off of our ship and onto his boat again. This time, two of them left our ship. They honked their horn and waved.

A helicopter overhead. When you zoom in, you can see that it's a US Coast Guard helicopter, so I wonder what it was doing in the Bahamas

That ferry I mentioned earlier

MailBoat

The other section of shops that we went to. I wonder who all those cars in the background belong to. People who take the ferries places?

This was a building nearby. I thought the artwork was pretty

The HAL ship in dry dock

Another ship in the distance

I know my last post had a lot of text in it, but my next few are probably going to end up just being pictures, so I apologize in advance for that

You can see the layout of the shops here

The line to get on at 1:08

The HAL ship in the distance

The ship peeking out over the shops

There was a store selling those embroidered linens, and my mom bought some there. The shopkeeper said that most of the linens came from I think St Thomas and China. There was also a liquor store. When we went on Shiprocked last year, my dad asked if we could get him Havana Club rum. We couldn’t find it on the ship, nor on Grand Turk. On the first night of our trip this year, we were in the shops on the ship, and I messaged him and asked if he wanted anything in particular. He asked for the same type of rum, and, yet again, they still didn’t have it onboard. We went into this liquor shop in Freeport, and actually found it! There were two types, and the employee working explained the difference to us. They were two different prices as well. I took a picture to try to send to my dad to see which he wanted, and we said we would come back.

We went to the other section of stands, which was sort of across the road. My mom and I got a few little things from there. I kept seeing the coconut piggy bank, but the lowest price was $10, which was more than the other shop. My mom and I probably could have gotten somebody to drop the price, but we’re both really bad at bargaining. After we finished there, we went over to the open area near the bars. There were a bunch of food trucks that looked good, but we were in a rush and not that hungry. There was also a band playing that was pretty good. I think they did a cover of a Jimmy Buffett song. There were also more stands sort of next to Señor Frogs, but we didn’t have time to make it that far. We were planning on going to Señor Frogs, but the party atmosphere didn’t appeal to us. We also just wanted a quick drink, so we went to Fat Tuesdays and were served immediately. We both got mixed drinks. I gotthe smaller size of a Sex on a Beach, and my mom got a larger size of something. I didn’t take a picture of the menu. We also got cups of water, and my mom exchanged a couple of US dollar bills for Bahamian bills. She always tries to get coins from different countries while there, and I think these were the first bills she had gotten from the Bahamas.

The open area. The food trucks were to the right of this picture, just out of sight

The back of the pavilion where the band was

While at the bar, I tried really hard to connect to the Wi-Fi, but it just wasn’t working. There was Wi-Fi at the shops right off the ship, but I forgot to try it until we were walking away. I finished drinking faster than my mom, since my drink was smaller, and went back to the shops to get the last few items I needed. I got the coconut piggy bank, and was charged tax in the store, so it came to like $0.30 less than $10. Oh well. I tried connecting to the Wi-Fi, and was able to send my dad the picture over WhatsApp. He didn’t reply immediately, so I tried calling him over the app. It kept ringing, and my mom had found me and wanted to show me a shop closer to the bars, so I lost the signal and the call ended. We went back and ended up getting the cheaper bottle of rum, and that was what my dad wanted! I noticed a few crew members using the Wi-Fi in the port while we were there.

After we finished all of our purchases, we headed back to the ship, around 12:40. Somebody from the ship (entertainment staff?) had brought out a boom box and was playing music. The guard checking everybody’s IDs was dancing along as well. I’m pretty sure my mom ended up dancing with him for a second, but I had continued to walk and my back was to them. I brought a water bottle off the ship with me each day, and I had forgotten to finish this one, so I chugged it while we waited a couple of minutes to get on the ship. I didn’t see a trash can so I shoved the empty bottle back in my bag, assuming that security would tell me to toss it if they cared. Nobody said anything. Once we got all our purchases through security, we had to go check the alcohol. We had never done this before, but it was fairly easily. We gave the bottle, still in the bag, over to the woman working the table. We gave our room number and possibly our folio number, and she gave us a piece of paper explaining we would get the bottle delivered in our stateroom after 7:00 PM on the last night of the cruise, which was the next day. The paper told us to keep it handy, as well as the receipt for the alcohol, for going through customs.

We went back up to our cabin, and we had a new friend waiting for us. We dropped off our stuff and went up to deck 10. I grabbed my other lens and took pictures of the island while my mom relaxed. There’s a dry dock in Freeport, and you could see Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam in it, which I thought was pretty cool. You could also see the yellow and blue “MailBoat.” There was one just like it in Nassau, so I’m not sure if it’s the same exact one. I saw the Baleària ship, which ferries people back and forth from Fort Lauderdale to Freeport, I believe. Around 1:15, I went to go check for pier runners. There was still a long line to get on. I saw a van drop people off outside of the shops, and they all slowly made their way to the line. The ship blew the horn twice while people were in line.

You can see Senor Frogs and the shops sort of next to and behind it

Day Six

So on day six of our trip, we were in Freeport, Bahamas. I didn’t think I had ever been before, and my mom said she had probably been a while back. Honestly, nobody in my family is exactly sure where we went on cruises before like 2009. I know we went to Bermuda on our one NCL cruise, but nobody remembers the other islands we went to. I doubt my parents could figure out where they went on cruises before I was born. Anyway, we had to be back on board that day at 1:00. I believe we got up around 8:00 that day, and made it to breakfast a bit after 9:00. I had my usual plate of pastries again.

My mom put her beads on our new buddy

While at breakfast, we could hear a crew drill going on. I believe that it started while we were in our stateroom as well, and we could hear the announcements there as well. I guess it was because of this that the emergency lights were lit up along the floor. They were also fueling the ship on the port side. After eating, we went back to the cabin to grab our stuff, then got off the ship. We were on land at 10:33 A.M.

Fueling the ship

The little emergency lights were on, and they normally weren't

And we were off the ship

Our plan for the day was to do some shopping right off the ship, and maybe get a drink, since I heard a Señor Frogs was close by. My mom asked some of the shop keepers, and heard there was another craft market nearby, so we would be going to that one as well. In one of the shops, I saw a piggy bank (shaped like a pig) made out of coconut. I thought it was pretty cute, so I went on a quest to get the cheapest one I could find. There was one store that had it for $9 I think, but I wanted to see if I could find it cheaper in the other shopping area. In most of the stores, we made our purchases the first time we went in, but for some stores we came back once we had finished. I made a mental note of what we needed to get later.

A map of the shops

These flamingos were scattered around the shopping area