miss tea

Final Thoughts and Ramblings.

 

I hope you enjoyed coming along with us on our Journeys cruise aboard the Carnival Pride. As always, we wanted you to feel as though you were on the cruise with us, and let you see what the Pride, and the ports of call we visited, was all about. I would like to think we accomplished that in a fun and informative way. What follows below are some of mine and Patti’s random thoughts about this cruise, not in any particular order or importance.

 

First off, let me say that this cruise ranked in the top three of all of the cruises that we have taken.

 

The Carnival Pride was, and still is, our favorite Carnival ship.

 

A big shoutout to all of our fellow roll call members, as it was a pleasure to meet so many of you. We’re so sorry that we did not get to meet everyone. Perhaps we will meet on another cruise at another time.

 

Thanks to Gingerma for arranging group rates for the hotel and shuttles in Tampa. Such hard work was greatly appreciated. We are so sorry that health issues kept you from enjoying most of the cruise.

 

Thanks to all those roll call members that arranged the slot pulls, pub crawls, cabin crawls, LCR, etc. It takes special people to want to do this!

 

Special thanks to those roll call members that stopped by during this review, and offered us their insights and experiences.

 

Prior to this cruise the longest cruise we had ever taken was nine days. Patti had some concerns that she wouldn’t like being on board a ship for fourteen days. This concerned me a little since we had two B2B cruises scheduled in the future. Let me just say that we both loved being aboard ship for fourteen days. On these longer cruises, if you feel like just going back to the cabin after dinner, which we did a few times, you don’t feel like you’re missing something. It’s just a more relaxed feeling. Patti loved the experience so much, that when we got home, she made me do something which I will tell you about a little later.

 

We enjoyed our dinners aboard the Pride, both at David’s Steakhouse, and the Normandie Restaurant.We both enjoyed the American Table and American Feast menus. In our fourteen days aboard the Pride, none of the menus were repeated.

 

Ken Byrne is Carnival’s best Maitre’d, hands down. He took very good care of us the whole cruise, and even before when I emailed him with my table request. And on top of that, the man can sing!

 

Our partial transit of the Panama Canal was one of the highlights of the cruise. We would love to do a full transit one day, but until then, the partial transit was awesome.

 

We were not impressed with Costa Rica, and to some extent, Bonaire. There just didn’t seem to be enough things that we like to do at those two ports that would make us want to go back there.

 

The other ports that we visited we have been to many times before. We tend to like doing all-inclusive resorts now, and the ones we visited were all very good, and would repeat.

 

My mind is going blank now, but I’m sure other things will pop into my head, and I’ll share them later.

 

Let’s talk about the future. Our next cruise will be in October aboard the Carnival Magic, a ship we have not sailed on before. We will be aboard her for fourteen days, doing B2B Eastern / Western cruises. Now here’s what Patti made me do. We will be getting off the Magic on October 21st, then drive up to Jacksonville to board the Elation the same day, another ship we haven’t been on. So now we will be aboard a ship for nineteen straight nights. I love my wife!!! Lol.

 

In 2018 we have booked the Paradise, a B2B on the Conquest, and a 14 day Journeys cruise on the Splendor to Hawaii. The Paradise and Conquest will be new to us. Yes, we would like to sail on every ship in the fleet at some point. Gives us something to shoot for! Lol.

 

We have nothing booked for 2019 yet, but the Pride will be one of them for sure.

 

Of course we will be doing reviews of all our cruises to share our experiences with all of you. If you have any questions at all, please post to this thread and I will do my best to answer them. So until next time, may you have clear skies and calm seas! Happy Sails!!!

How do you send an email to the maitre d. I would love to put in a table request for out B2B

Can't wait to read this one

So our B2B was very simple.

 

We woke up around 815, they do an announcement that runs into cabins so you can't sleep in later then that. haha.

 

Bring your sign and sail cards and your passports with you when you dress and leave the room

 

You will head down to the dining room (that's pretty standard on the 3 we have done)

 

We had to be there for 930

 

You will check in with a staff member, they had coffee/tea/juice/water and all sorts of pastries to snack on.

They will check you in, then give you your new sign and sail cards and take your new picture for the card.

 

At this point you have finished your first cruise and are kinda in limbo so to speak. The next cruise hasn't started but the last cruise is over. So you have no wifi or internet, you have no folio number and no drink package or account to charge things to. ( this lasted awhile, I'd say about 2 hours after we were allowed back on the ship to start the next leg of the trip. It was somewhat frustrating because we were thristy and hot and wanted to use our wifi to play on FB and what not but we had no access)

 

Once the ship is down to 25 passengers, they will have you go take a B2B photo with the director and the rest of the group. Then you will exit the ship, walk down to customs, walk past an agent who just glances at your passport and back you go to the ship. They will use your new card to "ding" you back on and you are left alone to play alllll by your self till they start general boarding around noon.

 

We went and reserved deck chairs on the 11th floor to watch the sail away party but also have seats in the shade to relax at. We also went and ate at the Italian restaurant instead of the buffet since we had already had that food for a week. It was quiet and relaxed and the food was excellent.

 

Just remember that the two cruises are in fact separate. So pay up the bills, make sure you've tipped everyone and are all ready to enjoy the last night of the first cruise and the turn around day which are when you will really really really love a B2B

** we were approached by the staff in the dining room on the second last day of the first week to see where we wanted to be seated and what time we wanted to eat for the second week, this has never happened before but Carnival really was wonderful with our B2B. I found them to be the most attentive to the fact that we had decided to stay on and keep traveling with them. ***

 

Hope that helps to answer any questions you have... please let me know if I can help with anything else.

Thank you this helped alot

This is my review of our most recent cruise: back-to-back Eastern & Western Caribbean cruises on the Carnival Glory during the last week of April and the first week of May, 2014.

 

Our ports of call included Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman, Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk.

 

Almost all of the pictures and videos were shot with a Canon EOS 70D camera, with the exception of the time-lapse videos and underwater videos.

 

I'll get things started by sharing a few of my favorite pictures from the cruise...

 

 

One of the best days of my entire life!

Relaxing in a private cabana at Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.

 

 

 



One of my favorite cruise destinations: Grand Turk

 

 

 



From the balcony of our cabin, we had a beautiful view of the ship's wake

and quite often some beautiful sunsets and sunrises

 

 

 



My favorite place on the ship: the aft swimming pool and Jacuzzis.

In 2 weeks, we had three afternoon rain showers where they closed the dome over the aft pool.

Of course, at all other times it was open to take advantage of the warm Caribbean atmosphere.

 

We are taking are first B2B next summer. Can't wait to read your review

This will be our first b2b Cruise. I am a gold member I will be on the same ship and the same cabin. Does anybody have any information on how this works being this is our first one, I was curious.:cool:

I loved Dr E also, he is one of my favorites. My question is this is our first B2B and I was just wondering if you can tell me a few things about it. I am a gold member we will be on the same ship and the same cabin can you tell me what the routine for that would be and anything else you can tell me. I would greatly appreciate it thank you

We are doing are first b2b in June. Can't wait to finish reading your posts

How much was Galveston express

Saturday, February 25th, 2017

Embark day! I sprang out of bed, opened the curtains and started singing.* Finally, the day had arrived that we were boarding the Carnival Freedom! We got ourselves presentable (I put on the classiest t-shirt in my suitcase: “Oklahoma: Teabagging Texas since 1907”) and we headed downstairs. Being from Oklahoma, biscuits and gravy is practically a food group. I make them from scratch quite often. I remembered from our stay at this hotel in 2014 that they not only served biscuits and gravy, but they also had salsa packets to go with it. I stepped into the dining area, and as I did, wind started blowing, and Adele started playing: “Hello…..it’s me.....” Then everything went south. I glanced over at the counter and realized they no longer served biscuits and gravy. Everything then started happening in slow motion. (No it didn’t.) My knees buckled, and I started a slow descent to the ground. (That never happened.) C had to rush to my side and dramatically save me from crashing to the floor. (No he didn’t.) I somehow made my way to a table. As an act of rebellion, I decided not to eat anything for breakfast. I pouted while C ate his sad little eggs and toast. I decided that as soon as I got home, I was taking this missing biscuits and gravy issue all the way to Corporate. (Not really.)

 

*Disclaimer: That is a complete fabrication. I looked more like this as I dragged myself out of bed:

 

C finished up his poor excuse for breakfast, and we headed outside to grab the hotel shuttle back to the airport. We (I) decided to use Galveston Express this time, because I’m basically the female, 2017 version of Ebeneezer Scrooge, and we would save $20 round trip by using GE vs the Carnival Shuttle. We get back to Hobby and make our way to the shuttle. It’s 95% full, so C and I have to sit apart. We had a brief Jack and Rose moment, and I promised him I'd never let go. We sat there in the parking lot for what seemed like forever, apparently waiting for another couple. I was trying to figure out where in the world they would put these people. Strap them to the top of the van? Were they gonna sit on our lap? Ride in the back with the luggage? Anyway, our driver eventually gave up waiting on them, and we were finally Galveston bound. Traffic was fairly light, so we got to port in about 45 minutes. The whole mood on the shuttle shifted when this hot chick came into our view:

 

By 10:00, we had dropped our luggage with the porters, and found a bench to wait for our 10:30 check-in time. Eventually, we made our way to check-in, and were seated in the terminal by 10:45. Apparently, the ship was 30 minutes late getting back to port that morning, and had also visited Belize, which equals extra clearance time for the coast guard. We didn’t start boarding until after 12:00. But, by 12:30, we were onboard and in line for a Guy’s Burger. We find the food on Carnival to be mostly inedible, but we do love us a Guy's Burger. We had one every single day of the cruise. By day 3, I asked C if he would go ahead and contact TLC and ask them if I could audition for "My 600 Lb Life." I'm a certified Zumba instructor, ya'll, so I know better. But I can't help myself when it comes to Guy's Burgers. I bring shame to my family name. But that didn't stop me from shoving this into my mouth on the daily:

 

After we had consumed all 38948594385 calories fr***** that burger, we decided to keep with our cruise tradition (in case you haven't caught on by now, we are not the poster children for good decisions) of getting a FunShip from the Atrium bar and people watching. (Side note-We do not cruise without the Cheers package. One major downfall of cruising out of Galveston is that you cannot start using Cheers until day 2. This is a major turn-off for us, and I'll touch on that more later.) Well, hello, gorgeous:

 

I don't know about ya'll, but we love to sit in the lobby on embark day and watch our fellow passengers board:

 

 

To be continued....

Can you tell me how much it was for Galveston Express

Loving this:):cool:

This would be my first time on a back-to-back cruise we have the same cabin on both ships. My question is do I have to check out and check back in or can I stay in my room? If anybody has any information on how this works I would greatly appreciate any info.

Thanks

Is it cheaper to stay in Houston rather than Galveston. We are flying in the night before our cruise. I just need a place to sleep. This will be in June.

Thanks for any help I can get.

Do you know what documents are needed if you live in the United States but you are a Mexican citizen? Has anybody actually been in this position and knows for sure?

Looking for a good Mexican restaurant in Cabo. Don't want to go to far from the pier if possible. Looking for some good fish tacos. Can anybody help with suggestions. Thanks

Wow! That is really surprising. I can't imagine anyone paying for a whale watching excursion in July. What ship will you be sailing on?

I'm on the miracle out of Los Angeles and they do have an excursion. I didn't pay for it because I thought they were all gone by then. Just wanted to make sure.

Could you tell me if they have the new menu amerucan table with this 2.0 or did they stay with the old one

Can you tell me what is in a twilight zone. Looks good

They do have it in July as an excursion. I did take the one in Alaska and I remember them saying the whales go from Mexico to Alaska for summer. I figured they would all be gone but I saw the excursion for my cruise in July. Thanks for the info

.

I want to take this ship so I'm excited to read this.

Can't wait to hear more.

Has anyone done the whale watching in Cabo in July. I was wondering if you see them in the summer because all the reviews are Dec -March.

Keep an eye out for my review that should start posting Sunday or Monday. There will be a ton of pics.

Looking forward to it. We go in July. Still bumped there are no movies on deck.

Does anybody know if the miracle will get a movie screen on deck after its done in dry dock

we are going to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo. Wanted to know what there is to do there close by or should we take excursions

I do not expect any real changes to the deck plans with the upgrades. They will probably just use existing spaces and rename them. For example, the new sports bar will use the same area as the current one called Maguires.

 

We are sailing on the Miracle in April and I will be posting a lengthy review when we return and point out the changes from the supposed upgrade. We sailed on the Miracle in 2012, so we are interested in the differences.

I will be lokking forward to it.