DCCruiser1013

2 hours ago, pogoism9 said:

 

Same here. I get more optimistic every day. I wonder if Charleston and New Orleans cruisers have the same changes now

We are going out of Charleston in December 2021, Baltimore in April 2022. We just got our surveys for both today.

We cruised on the Pride for New Year's a couple years ago. It was a lot of fun. They had a party in the atrium at 11pm and a deck party at midnight. I did a review of that cruise (link in my signature). Christmas decor was still up for us, but we did board on December 26.

Hi Jeff!

Glad to see another one of your top-notch reviews is underway. You may recall that before our Sunshine cruise last summer, Ashley and I did the official "Jamman" tour of Somerset, New Jersey. Looks like you did a scaled-down version of a "DCCruiser" tour of Maryland. My half-sister lives about a half-mile from that Best Western in Elkridge. We have started leaving our car at her house when we go on the Pride (or fly anywhere out of BWI). About a month ago we visited her to help move some furniture, and we went to the Stained Glass Pub for dinner that night!

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your review, as "frequenters" of the Pride we've always been curious about Bermuda so this may help us decide whether to pull the trigger for a future cruise!

Thanks for the report! Hard to imagine our NYE Pride cruise was over a year ago. Sorry the weather wasn't ideal, but looks like you were able to make the best of it! Glad you had a fun trip!

We've eaten at David's during each of our four Pride cruises, and we loved it each time. The food was excellent and the service was even better. I vote you give it another shot.

I just wanted to thank you Matt & Ashley for sharing your cruise with us.

We will be taking this cruise on Monday. We are so excited from reading your posts.

 

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I'm late to responding so you are on this cruise now. I hope you're having a great time, and thanks for reading!

I haven't read past this post, but gotta say I love your packing buddy. Giant Eagle has one of the best gas perks around, wish we had one close to us (I grew up in Western PA, but now live in the East/Central part of the state). We used to live in MD and agree that Fredrick is beautiful.

Looking forward to the rest of your review. I enjoyed your pride review - we sail her in February - and will have a Princess cruise this October to Saint John/Halifax. We plan to kayak in NB and just walk around in NS so it will be nice to see a review that covers more of the town.

Thanks! He's cute but his suitcase antics get a little irritating. We do love our Giant Eagle, but they've revamped their rewards program in the last year so the gas perks have decreased pretty dramatically. They do offer an option to use discounts on groceries now, though. Enjoy the rest of the review, and thanks for following along. Kayaking in NB sounds fun, though it may be a bit chilly! Halifax is a great town to walk around in, but if you plan on heading away from the waterfront it gets quite hilly! Enjoy your cruise!

Wow great review! Cant wait to board her again this Saturday.

 

Cheers and happy cruising.

Thanks for reading! Have a great cruise!

Thanks for the great review and pics. Really enjoyed following along with you & Ashley on your Canadian cruise.

 

Megan

Thanks for reading!

Enjoyed reading your review and seeing photos since I never taken any!. I did the 5 day Canada on Sunshine last October and I'm doing the 7 day on 9/16.

 

I do wish Carnival had winter sailings from NY...I'd probably be on a few....

Thanks for reading! The 5 day cruise was fun, but I would have loved to see Portland too, so enjoy that little addition (and Boston)! I'm a little surprised Carnival doesn't do NYC sailings in the winter time, especially considering the size of the fleet. We'd love to be able to do winter cruises to take advantage of prices and relative lack of kids but Ashley's job as a teacher makes that extraordinarily difficult. Have a great cruise in September!

Thanks for the review.

Did you have to go through the fundy park and trail system to get to the sea caves?

 

Our up coming cruise visit St. John Oct 12th and they closed oct 9th.!

Don't want to step on your toes, Trippingpara, but I can take this question.

The sea caves are just before the Fundy Parkway starts, maybe a few miles before. So to answer your question, no, you don't have to go through Fundy's park and trail to get to the sea caves.

Great Review Matt and let's put this hockey thing to rest ok. Ever hear of a place called HOCKEYTOWN......GO WINGS!!!!!!!!

Thanks for following along! No comment on the team that knocked the Caps out of their only SCF appearance, though.

At one time I lived in Hampshire in Waldorf and now I live near Solomon's (Calvert). My DH feels the same way about the lack of a casino on Disney but I really didn't miss it. The shows were spectacular. The price has also gone up a lot since my cruise.

Ah ok. Solomon's is nice!

I'm sure Ashley will find a way to convince me to do a Disney cruise someday, but a lot of factors would have to be right.

Enjoyed your pictorial review. I am sailing on Sunshine in December and I loved all the ship pics. I have never been to NY so I enjoyed the sail away pics as well. Thanks.

Thanks for reading! Have a great cruise in December, and if you can make it up to NY for one of your future cruises I highly recommend it!

Thank you! Yeah, that's why I was surprised that I didn't blunder into any of your photos. When I was reading your review, I noticed that we always seemed to be in the same place at about the same time. I believe that you were right in front of us at Avis/Budget. When you showed a photo of your van, I remembered seeing it pull out as we waited for our Chrysler 300 to be pulled up. I believe this is your van parked on the right at the sea caves too.

 

Yep! That's the one. Funny how you managed to capture it since I don't think we were in this area for more than 10 minutes. I looked back through the pictures of the sea caves area that we didn't post, and I still don't think I see you in any of them, so you're safe for now!

These are great pictures of St. Martins and the sea caves. I'm fairly certain we must have been very close to each other this entire time because we were also among the first off the ship and made a bee-line for Avis and subsequently the St. Martins area.

The tides in this area are so impressive!

Awesome pictures and fantastic write-up! I do believe you may be off by a day on your headers though. The ship left on Monday, August 7th.

Awesome review and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Enjoy your NCL cruise. I like trying other lines too but always seem to come back to Carnival, next up for me is Celebrity. My favorite cruise so far was Disney and believe it or not they have awesome adult only areas.

Thank you Janice! I love making reviews like this because we can relive our vacations over and over, even if it's only virtually. Like I said earlier, it's a safe bet for Carnival that we'll be back, just not next year. :cool:

I've heard that about adult areas on Disney cruises and it makes a lot of sense to me. The two biggest issues for me with Disney are the price (though I hear you get what you pay for) and their lack of a casino (less of a limiting factor for me than it was a few years ago). It might be something that we take our niece (or potential future children) on.

If you don't mind me asking, and feel free to be as general as you wish if you answer, where in Southern Maryland are you located? I grew up in Hughesville and went to high school in Waldorf.

That is just too funny!!! When I first saw your pictures, I thought you pulled a prank on your cabin steward by leaving that under your bed but saw your cabin steward left that for you. On our last cruise in 2015, I left this under our bed for our cabin steward right before we headed to breakfast on the morning of our sea day. He actually saw both of us when we were leaving the cabin, so he knew we weren't in there. Either way, he said this scared him at first but then he realized it was a joke. After realizing it was a joke, he called in his assistant (scared him) and then they called their manager and she screamed. All three were our best ever, even their manager. She was working on cleaning cabins right along with them and all were so nice. Would love to see them again. They did warn us that they'd be getting back at us, which is what we were hoping for.

 

 

 

Two nights later, when we returned to the cabin after dinner to change, we found this in our bathroom. Priceless!!!

 

 

I just love, love, LOVE your sunrise pictures from the last sea day and your pictures sailing back into NYC that next morning. That one of the Statue of Liberty is just gorgeous! I love how it was getting light out, yet the lights were still shining on her.

 

 

I really enjoyed reading your review and seeing the beautiful pictures you got. Too bad we have to wait almost a year before you two cruise again, but if you do another review, I'll be sure to follow along. Thank you for taking the time to do a review.

That is awesome! Good on your steward for his payback. The last sea day sunrise definitely made getting up as early as I did most days worth it, and I'm glad I woke up in time to get the Statue as we came in, especially since the weather wasn't quite as gorgeous on the way out.

Thanks for following along on the review! Our next cruise being a year away (literally, we'll be just leaving Cozumel back for Miami a year from right now) is a bit of a bummer but it allows for more planning time, which is just as much fun for me. Ashley and I were just talking today about where we want to stay in Miami, and for how long. We're looking forward to having you follow along in just over a year on the NCL boards!

Thank you for an AMAZING review! I did two seperate Canadian cruises, one being your exact itinerary but on the Glory in 2013, and then another 4 day on the Splendor in 2015 to Saint John. The Canadian Maritimes are very picturesque and definitely a beautiful region to cruise through. I told myself the next time I get to Saint John, I was going to rent a car again and go hiking, so your pictures were definitely interesting for me, and they were also very beautiful. You had amazing shots overall by the way! Thanks for taking the time to do such an extensive review, I enjoyed it! :D

Thanks for following along! I had seen reviews of the Glory cruises to Canada earlier. These cruises definitely bring you to beautiful locations. The Fundy Trail Parkway does have the Trail component, which I bet is gorgeous, but if the terrain is anything like the roads, be prepared for lots of hills!

Thank you for taking time out to write this review. We will be on the Sunshine in 2 weeks. I think we will take your idea and rent a car in CA. I like that idea very much. Also very cost effective.

Again, thank you!

No problem, have a great time! We recommend the Fundy Trail Parkway (just remember to bring cash, their credit card machine is a little out of whack), but just going to the St. Martin's Sea Caves would be worth it by itself.

If you recall, what was the address to the AVIS rental car. There appear to be 3 in St Johns and want to make sure I can walk to secure the car. Thanks again.

The Avis is at 4 Water Street. The walk is super easy, just a couple blocks from where you exit their cruise terminal. We walked right in and got the keys. The parking lot with the cars is right across Water Street from their office.

GREAT review and pics!!! Your experience pretty much mirrored ours. Though we enjoyed the Sunshine, we agree that on this run they should have a ship with at least one covered pool. especially for the September / October cruises. Hopefully these itineraries will be available again in 2019. We would like to do the 7 day cruise again.

Thanks for following along! We enjoyed not only the cruise but also the Official Jamman Tour of Somerset, NJ! :p

I've heard of people ordering two appetizers, especially if one is in lieu of a salad.

Just a quick FYI - The rules for when schools start in Maryland change this year, and a lot of school systems in the state are consequently cutting deep into spring break. My wife (a teacher) essentially doesn't have a spring break this year. Obviously this won't affect how many non-Maryland kids are on ship, but considering the ship does leave from Maryland I think that would cut into how many local kids are onboard.

Hey DCCruiser, thanks for popping on over here. Loved your review! I'm amazed that I didn't end up in any of your pictures. I have a strange way of doing that (mainly because I'm blissfully unaware of the world around me when I'm taking photos and inadvertently walk in front of other people). We were at a lot of the same places during the cruise right around the same time. We went to JiJi's on Thursday night after Halifax. Our reservation was for 8:30 pm so it was closing in on 11:30 by the time we walked out of there.

Aww thanks. Honestly I try to make an effort to not have people in my pictures. Not sure why, it's just one of my weird things. That's the partial reason for our interior ship tour pictures being taken at 7am on the first sea day. Sometimes that's not an option, though. I'll keep an eye out for myself in yours - I'm a pretty noticeable dude.

Yeah JiJi's wouldn't give us a table any later than 6pm on Wednesday, which I was disappointed in until we had been sitting there for 2 hours. Oh well.

Yes! I'm so excited to see this cruise from another perspective!

On that note, I must correct myself as there was one time that we found an area overly crowded. On the first sea day, most of the outdoor events were brought inside. For some reason, BINGO which was normally played in the Liquid Lounge was moved to Ocean Plaza which was clearly not designed for that large of a crowd. Every single chair and open space was occupied in Ocean Plaza, the Alchemy Bar and the Taste Bar for that event. Even JiJi, the young lady that ran BINGO made jokes about how tight it was there. That was the only time, and all other BINGO sessions were held in the Liquid Lounge.

This was so insane. Ashley and I came down to do the trivia that followed Bingo, saw the crowd, and got the hell out of there. I have no idea why they did that. I looked at the FunTimes and the only thing I saw was that the Dr. Suess thing started in the Liquid Lounge an hour earlier than Bingo. I'm sure there's an explanation but I have no idea what it could be.

JiJi's Asian - ...We spent over 3 hours in there and wasted the entire evening with the majority of it just sitting there waiting.

Yep! We were there for almost 2 and a half hours. The food was great for us, but the wait was just insane! If you don't mind posting a spoiler, what night were you there?

This is a fantaastic photo! Thanks for getting up so early to take the early-morning photos. I've enjoyed your review - we did 7 Canada cruises out of NYC with Carnival and hope they schuedule them again for 2019.

Thanks! It's one of my favorites too.

Great review! did you sample any of the bites from the Havana Bar? - delish!

We also checked off some of our bucket list last year going on the Canada/New England cruise. I highly recommend trying the seven day. It may be a little harder with Ashley being a teacher and I am not sure if they are all after school starts. Manhattan is amazing to sail out of.

I hate to hear that your JiJi experience stunk - I loved it - DH not so much.

I also would recommend one of the Spa insides - I never book insides because I am a bit of a balcony snob but if you love the Serenity Area - it is just a hop skip and jump out there which since we had no kids with us - it was perfect.

Thank you again for taking the time to review - we love the Sunshine.

Now that you mention it, on the first sea day when we were waiting for our pasta Ashley walked over to the Havana Bar and got us some treats. I don't remember what they were, but they were very good!

We'd love to try the 7 day because Maine is on our "states to-visit" list, but that just wasn't an option this summer.

I wouldn't go so far as to say JiJi's stunk. The food was excellent, but it took forever. We also had a couple seated next to us that was having serious communication issues with the wait staff and made things awkward. That made the time go by even slower.

Great review! Loved all the pics, menus & Fun Times. Getting psyched for our cruise in September and "sharing" the same aft wrap! Hope we have your great steward!

 

 

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It's been great having you follow along! Have a great time in that room, it was very nice having such a great place to retreat to when other places got crowded or the ship was light on activities that interested us. If Rery is still there please tell her Matt & Ashley said hi!

Great review!

Thanks for following along!

General Thoughts

• We loved this cruise. The ports were great and we would love to visit them again, whether it be via cruise ship or not. Hopefully Carnival releases more Canada/New England itineraries for 2019 and beyond, but if not we recommend these itineraries on other lines. We also really enjoyed the Sunshine. It was a little crowded at times but we followed sort of a “go where they ain’t” mentality and it worked out for us. That may not be as effective for cruises to the Caribbean, but for this trip to Canada it was perfect.

• If there’s an upside to the fact that this cruise was shorter than what we are used to, it’s that we were able to have full weekends before and after the cruise. This allowed us to get up to the departure port on our own time, and we had time to unwind at home afterwards before we had to go back to work. Of course, not all 5 day cruises are Monday through Friday, so we were lucky.

• The crew was about as friendly as we’ve experienced on any cruise, despite the fact they were obviously overwhelmed. It was actually a let down when we got home and went to the grocery store and I nearly got run down by an employee stocking the produce section. Back to the real world…

• We loved the itinerary and the ship independently of each other, but honestly this was sort of a weird ship for Canada cruises. The Lido deck might see more action if it could be covered, like on the Pride. Maybe Carnival will do a little dance with the Spirit-class ships and bring one to New York.

• Emma was a great Cruise Director. She was very pleasant to listen to. Like I said earlier, she was especially great with kids. She’s pretty young so I’m not sure if she had a career before she got into the cruise industry, but if I had to guess I’d say she was a teacher. Her staff also seemed really upbeat all the time, which we think is probably a reflection of the entertainment and cruise directors. We’ve been on cruises where the staff just seemed beat to death and miserable, this was not one of them.

• This cruise checked off two cruise bucket-list items for us. First was the New York sailaway. This was a fantastic experience, and we’re glad we weren’t on a ship that left from Brooklyn or Bayonne. Second was our aft-wrap. This was a bit of an expensive treat but it was worth every penny. It was especially great to combine the two bucket-list items so we could run around the balcony and see so much as we sailed away.

• You may have noticed the weather seemed to be all over the place. We could have clear skies one minute then be enveloped on fog the next. Definitely something to consider as a possibility as you plan a cruise like this.

• We still love the product that Carnival offers, and they can bet on us coming back (especially as long as the Pride is in Baltimore), but we are looking forward to venturing out and seeing what another cruise line has in store for us next year.

Folks, thank you again for reading along and for all your kind words. Ashley and I hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as we enjoyed reliving and writing it.

If you have questions about things we didn’t address, please feel free to ask and we’ll be happy to answer if we can.

Otherwise we wish everyone a lifetime of happy cruising, and we look forward to reviewing the Getaway on the NCL boards in August!

After swinging by the Wendy’s by our house to bring lunch home, we arrived at our house at 12:30pm, which is pretty great timing.

We introduced our Sunshine magnet to its new friends…

…And we started the countdown for our next cruise

…and onto 46th Street in Manhattan. We made a right onto 11th Avenue and made the turn for the Lincoln Tunnel.

We then hopped onto the New Jersey Turnpike.

The drive home was fairly smooth. We ran into a bit of traffic as we approached the toll plaza after crossing the Delaware River (there was some construction just ahead of it), and we stopped at a Wawa in Wilmington for gas. Shortly after that we were heading through Baltimore and down the home-stretch.

We were off the ship, back on the pier by 7:40. We cleared customs easily and were back in the parking lot just before 8:00. Here’s the Sunshine one last time.

And for good measure, the Norwegian Gem. Fun fact: Our Norwegian Getaway cruise is exactly 1 year from the day we disembarked the Sunshine, so it was nice to see another Norwegian ship today.

And at 8:00 we were loading my car. I love how close we were able to park to the ship!

Ashley got one more shot of the Gem as we crossed in front of it.

And we also spotted Regal’s Seven Seas Navigator on the other side of the Gem! It was in the middle of a month-long voyage from San Francisco to Montreal.

A few twists and turns (seriously) later we were heading past the Intrepid…

There’s the George Washington Bridge.

And we are just about docked.

Off to our starboard side we could see the aft of the Norwegian Gem, unloading and embarking passengers for its 8 day Florida & Bahamas cruise.

Having purchased FTTF, we were allowed to be among the first to debark (if we opted to carry off our own luggage – if we checked luggage the night before we would have needed to wait a little longer). We were directed to meet in the Liquid Lounge at 7:30. We left the room and took the elevators down to deck 4 and immediately saw throngs of people leaving the Liquid Lounge with all of their luggage. We joined the crowd and headed down the stairs to deck 3 to walk off the ship.

I stepped back into the room to take a shower. Afterwards we went up to Lido to get breakfast (no burritos for us this time) and by the time we came back to the room to eat on the balcony we were starting to approach our pier.

Way off in the distance (you may need to squint!) the RCI Anthem of the Seas was starting to pull in to Bayonne. It was unloading passengers from its 10 day Bermuda and Caribbean cruise and loading up for a 6 day Bermuda cruise.

Docked at the Intrepid is the USCGC Eagle, which is a training cutter for future US Coast Guard officers. This ship is a very cool piece of history. It was actually built by Germany in 1936 to train German sailors. At the end of World War II the U.S. took it as part of war reparations.

The weather was much nicer today than it was when we embarked.

And now we are starting to turn into the pier.