Carnival Pride Trip Report January 17th – 24th 2010

[vacation barbie]

Very long trip report! I’m wordy!!

 

Stats: Husband and wife (age 38) (no kids) and no agenda or excursions planned for this trip! We just wanted to relax and wing it the whole week… celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary.

 

I really enjoyed Mark’s review and so did a lot of you so I will try to be as detailed so that you can get as much information as you can for your upcoming trip!!

 

I’m typing this while on the ship so that I can remember everything but won’t upload to the internet until we return. I brought my laptop so that I could have internet access but I’m actually enjoying being “disconnected”! I don’t even want access! So, I’m typing in Word and saving it to upload when I get home.

 

Where do I start? Well first off, today is day 3 (Tuesday). I just woke up, looked out of the window and caught the last of the sunrise! I grabbed the camera and went out on the balcony and the first thing I noticed was the warmer weather. I took the picture and looked back at my husband who was still in bed and said “oh, you’re using the balcony today for sure”!!

 

So, let’s backtrack to day 1 embarkation:

DAY ONE (Baltimore, MD 39 degrees and rain…)

We live about 20 minutes from the port so we headed out at noon. When we got there, there were tons of people already there. It was a dreary, rainy day but we were so excited we didn’t care! We paid cash for parking (per cruise critic member advice) and it was a breeze. Once you pay, you find your own parking spot in the area they will point out to you which was close to the door where you walk into the terminal. I suppose if you get there later you may have a little longer walk depending on where the other parking spots are but it’s still convenient to the terminal.

 

Ok, so we are off to the terminal! Suggestion: Have your passport and fun pass in hand because they will check it right at the door. Another suggestion: We were VIP because we bought a suite. I knew from reading here that we were checking in in another area but didn’t realize we also didn’t have to wait in the longer security line for non VIP travelers. We were waiting patiently in line when one of the attendants noticed the fun pass hanging from my husband’s hand (which had VIP typed on it) and directed us to the much shorter line! Sweet!! So, if you are VIP ask the first attendant you see to point you to the shorter line! At security we put our bags on the belt to run through the machine then you walk through the detector. I had a bottle of wine in my bag bubble wrapped. The screener asked if I had wine and I said yes. I had to pull it out to let them see that it was wine. I didn’t have to unwrap it since you could see the writing through the bubbles!

 

Ok, so we are past security when another attendant will direct you to a table so that you can complete the health questionnaire. That was no big deal, just answer yes/no to the two questions, sign and date. They had ink pens available, you will have to complete one for each person in your party. Next we were off to the VIP area to check in which was a little office with two attendants. There was one family ahead of us and two already sitting at the desk checking in so I would say we spent about 8 minutes tops waiting for our turn. Once we sat down they ask for our passport and the health questionnaire. They will also ask for your credit card at this point but we were using cash so we did not have to give her anything. You give the money to the purser on the ship. Once she was done checking us in she handed us a paper that says Zone 1 and walked us out of the office to point the way to the ship! There were attendants along the way to move us through the crowd. First stop is to take your first cruise picture and then the short walk to the ship! When you walk on the ship you are in the area where the purser’s desk is. We got right in the line, which at this point was not long at all. There were about 3 people behind the desk working so it does take some time. We had about 5 or 6 people ahead of us so we waited maybe 15 minutes…no problem, we’re on vacation! There was a musician singing and playing his keyboard to keep us entertained. Also the drink servers were making their rounds with the drink of the day!! We decided to wait until we took care of the money business before we got to the alcohol business! Once were done there we took the elevator up to our floor but the rooms were not ready yet. I think it was around 1:30pm. We headed up to the Lido deck for lunch! We briefly walked around the different food areas to see what was available (I concur with other reviewers that said this setup was a little annoying!) The stations are spread out instead of in one area. I suppose there was not much they could do with this design (slender ship) but that’s fine…you get a little exercise in!! I found us a booth while my husband ordered us two reubens. We saw someone with fries on their plate so we assumed they got them from the same place the reubens were being made but they weren’t so my husband went in search of the fries! He found them where the burgers and hotdogs were. We sat and enjoyed our food and couldn’t wait until the overhead announcer let us know our rooms were ready! After lunch we went out on the pool area of the Lido to get our first drink of the day!! There was a two-man show going on. The act is called “Cool Breeze”. One singer and one keyboard player... someone else on this board pointed out that there is no longer a live band…this appears to be one area Carnival has cut back in. These two sing and play along to piped in music! Lol We bellied up to the bar for our drink and 5 minutes later they were saying some of our rooms were ready. We waited a few and made our way to our suite!!

 

We are in suite 7298 which is an aft wrap suite. Let me tell you this…this is the way I want to cruise from here on out!! This room layout is like being in a hotel suite (just on a smaller scale). We have our sitting area which is separate from the bedroom, dressing area with a vanity and drawers and the two sink bathroom with Jacuzzi tub!! The whole back wall of the suite is all windows and the balcony door. We have a tv in the sitting area and a tv in the bedroom. There is a walk-in (or should I say step-in closet) with shelves and space to hand your clothes and store your shoes. Back to the dressing area…you women would love this space!! My husband hasn’t been interested in using the area really…he stands in front of the mirror to check out his clothes but hasn’t sat down on the bench and hasn’t stored any of his things in the drawers so it’s my personal vanity (like the one at home!!) I put all of my hair supplies and makeup supplies away in the drawers and sit to do my hair and play in makeup (for elegant night last night!)

 

A little more about the suite as far as the “heat” and bathroom are concerned…as others have stated on the boards…the air that blows out of the overhead vents is not heat. There is a dial in the bedroom that has “blue for cool and red for heat” but even with the dial all the way over to red it still blew out cool air. We asked our Cabin Steward Igusti to check on the heat and he said he would come to make sure the thermostat was set correctly. Since I already knew the deal on the “heat” I forewarned my husband that I heard there really wasn’t any. When we were in the bed under the covers it was fine but it was a little uncomfortable when we were up, but just on the first day. By day two it was comfortable. Oh, another thing about the cabin…there are two doors to close off the dressing area from the sitting area and bedroom. There is also a door to close the bedroom off from the sitting area. Now to the bathroom toilet smell. It smells pissy…like cometh from deep down in the commode pissy!! I chopped it up to cabin life…we brought our Lysol wipes and my husband gave the bathroom a good wipe down but the toilet smell remains. Not ruining our cabin time at all…

 

People always want to know how does the aft cabin feel…is it bumpy?...does it vibrate?…etc. Well you feel a little vibration and sway when you are lying in the bed. It is actually soothing to us. I feel like I am being rocked to sleep like when my mama held me when I was a baby!! :) It doesn’t bother me at all. It is slight, not a washing machine agitator kind of vibration…and no noise to it either.

 

As far as the balcony…in the winter months you won’t fully enjoy the balcony on day one and two. In our case it was raining on day 1 so the seats were wet. Even if you had dry weather you might go sit for a few but I doubt if you would lounge around out there. In the aft suites there are two chaise loungers, a table and two regular chairs.

Ok, that’s the story on the cabin…now to the dinner in the dining room…

We have “your time dining”. The first night is “come as you are” dress code since some people may not get their luggage before dinner. I had clothes “assigned” for the first dinner night but took advantage of not having to dress up!! We happened to get there between the two assigned dinner times so there was no wait for us. We walked right up to the booth at the entrance of the dining room, gave the person our room number, asked for a table for two and she immediately showed us to our seat. Our dinner consisted of:

Appetizer: Chicken fingers and honey mustard dipping sauce (I know, I know… J

Entrée: Grilled flat iron steak, mac and cheese, peas (with a sauce mixed in)

Dessert: Warm chocolate melting cake

Opinion: The food was pretty good…I enjoyed the steak prepared medium and (being a chocolate lover)…the melting cake was just “ok” to me. It tastes like my favorite hot breakfast cereal, Coco Wheat!! J

After dinner we walked around the ship for a while visiting the shops and trying to get the lay of the land. I forgot to pack contact lens solution so I had to pay $11.99 for a 4 oz. bottle of Carnival’s! Yeah…not thrilled but had no choice!! Husband said…deduct that from your spending money!!

Later on we ventured into the karaoke bar to listen for a few then made our way back to the cabin. We ordered 2 bottles of our favorite alcoholic beverage from the Bon Voyage department so we cracked open a bottle and chilled out for a while before heading to Beauties Lounge to listen to some music. We ordered a rum and coke, drank that and said why are we paying for alcohol when we have some in our room. We went back to the room, made us a drink in the glasses (already supplied in the room) and headed back to the lounge. There is an attendant at the door that doesn’t say anything about carrying glasses inside. People are constantly walking around the ship with drinks…they don’t know if you bought it at a bar or not…they way we look at it…carnival has already gotten $120 from us by buying liquor through Bon Voyage…

The lounge is in the Aft of the ship also so it’s no big deal for us to go back to the cabin...it’s an elevator ride up and a short walk to the cabin. We decorated our door so it was always easy for us to find!! We made the drinks strong enough that we only needed the one trip!! As far as the music genre, the first night was hip-hop, r & b and some pop music. It was not crowded. We enjoyed ourselves and danced a couple of times (not too much…needed to save my hair for elegant night pictures!!) We headed to the 24 hour pizzeria to soak up some of the alcohol then made it back to the cabin around 3 am.

Great first day!!

The bed is COMFORTABLE to us!!

Rise and shine day two at 8 am!! Too much excitement…can’t sleep the day away!!

DAY TWO

I have been taking ginger pills for a few days leading up to the cruise and each morning of the cruise. The water was not too choppy…you can tell you are on a ship but we are having no issues with the sailing. We got prepared for the day, dressed and headed up to the Lido deck for breakfast in the Mermaid Grill. We want to eat dinner in the dining room each evening (and David’s on Tuesday and possibly Thursday…they let us reserve a second day and said it’s ok if you want to cancel Thursday but it is better to book asap because spots fill up quickly…so we did. We made reservations online prior to the sailing and like others never received a confirmation, so on day 1 we walked up to check on the reservations and they were there. We had only planned to eat there once but the guy talked us into booking an additional day so we did. If we like it we will go again on Thursday…otherwise we will cancel. I’m sure we will like it but if it doesn’t “knock our socks off” we won’t pay an additional $60…we can just eat in the dining room at no additional cost!!)

 

Back to breakfast!! (I told you I am wordy!! I’m enjoying sharing our trip with you…it makes it so much easier if you want to take the time to type while on the ship day by day so that you can cover everything..) We had omelets and bacon…hubby had sausage too I think… anyway its breakfast food, nothing to complain about. My omelet was pretty good. Oh…we tried the regular coffee yesterday…it was a touch strong but was ok…at home we like to enjoy coffee together so I was contemplating buying the specialty coffee if the free coffee wasn’t to our liking…it was fine for us…keeping our coffee money for at home!! Still a little tired from our late night last night we decided to go back to the cabin to relax. Before we did that though, they were having a $10 sale in one of the gift shops on costume jewelry, purses, costume type watches, men’s ties (I think that’s what was in those boxes) so I bought a necklace I spotted the day before that I wanted. On day one they had the area roped off but you could still see what was available. There was a sign there that said “tomorrow, everything $10”. After that it was back to the cabin. We put the privacy please sign up so Igusti didn’t have to worry about cleaning our room. We lounged around a while, watched TV and I read my book. We had all the curtains pulled back so that we could see the water!! So nice! Some people have said they didn’t like having the two sea days…thought it was a bit much… being on water so long…we feel the opposite! I am enjoying the relaxation. The way we see it, Wednesday through Friday will be hustle and bustle since we will be in port and Saturday will be your last sea day to recover from those 3 previous busy days…then it’s off the ship Sunday and back to recover from vacation before heading off to work. So, we are going to enjoy the solitude. I forgot to mention at the outset that this is our 3rd cruise, but our first 7 day cruise.

After some time I decided to take a nap since we got up early and I was feeling kind of like that blanket that Lynus (from Charlie Brown) would drag around!! Hubby relaxed in the Jacuzzi tub. Nothing like an afternoon nap riding across the waves!! We are really enjoying ourselves! When I woke up Hubby was gone…he found the cheeseburgers and hot dogs!! I decided to order room service so I could check out the BLT that everyone raved about. I ordered the cheesecake too. Mmmm…me love bacon!! That was a good BLT. They pile the bacon on…sort of felt like they were trying to get rid of the bacon from breakfast, no complaints here!! Brought back memories of the bacon sandwiches my daddy used to make for him and me when I was little! The cheesecake was just ok…didn’t really taste like cheesecake, but the strawberry sauce and graham cracker crust made up for it.

The cabin stewards were milling around in and out of the cabins…throughout the day… working hard as others have said… They always have a smile and greet you whenever they see you. We told Igusti the tv in the bedroom did not work and it took until the evening for someone to come but he got it done. He called us on the room phone to ask if someone had come but they had not. He finally got someone to come (I guess while we were out doing the elegant night rounds). Prior to our elegant evening I wanted to take Hubby to Tea Time. He loves tea! We didn’t realize it was in the main dining room so we were feeling underdressed until we saw everyone else!! We were seated at table with other travelers…at first we were like “oh crap” but actually had a nice time chatting with our table mates! I say “oh crap” because we are the “keep to ourselves” kind of couple…want “table for two” type people!! (Really, it’s Hubby..sshhh!) We were seated with a young couple who have been dating for 5 years and enjoying their first cruise and 3 sisters from Philadelphia who were practicing their etiquette skills they learned prior to their cruise!! Cute group!!

After Tea Time we headed back to the cabin for another lounging session!! I told you we were on this cruise to chill!! So, you can’t ask me how the hairy chest contest show was or what did they say at the shore excursion talk because we were not there!! There was a CSI New York marathon on so we watched a couple episodes before getting ready for elegant night!! We turned the tv off, turned our music on and I sat down to “my” vanity to start my pamper session. Oh…before Tea Time I checked out the Jacuzzi tub and read my book for a while too!! That actually started my pamper session… so I applied my makeup while singing along to Mary J. Blige “I feel good”… “I feel good, like the moon is shining just for me. Tonight I’m feeling so care free”. You see, this is my first time really dressing up! Hubby and I did not have a wedding (had a court house ceremony) so over these 13 years there was no other reason to dress formally so we were excited to play dress up for one day. He looked so handsome in his tuxedo and I felt so pretty in my gown!! We took pictures of ourselves in the cabin and felt great! After we were done we made our way down to the area where they were taking pictures. We thought it was a good idea to take picture before eating. Boy… were those areas crowded. The first couple of sets we went to we took about 4-5 poses…some together…some by ourselves…yeah that got old quick…my feet were killing me…I wanted to buy the “sexy, strappy” 3 inch heels (I think they were 3 inches) to go with my gown…so glad I brought another pair of “not as sexy but more my speed” heels as back up…back to the room I went after photo set # 2. Hubby was a trooper…he came back up with me…my feet hurt so bad I had to take those puppies off at the elevator on our floor and conveniently carry them in my hands down the corridor to our room. (by the way…some people keep their cabins junky as crap!) We walked by one room (achy feet and all, I noticed this) and a Cabin Steward was cleaning (or should I say wading through) a room with clothes all over the floor and bed) I thought maybe it was a kid’s room…I hope an adult is not that careless…how could they even find the doggone towel animal he would leave…!! Anyway…I changed my shoes and felt 100% better. We went back down and continued to take pictures. At this point Hubby would greet the photographer and say “only two poses together please”!! lol (Carrie: if you are reading this, we got the pose you and your man took!! The one I told you I liked where you are looking into each other’s eyes, yeah that one!!) I can’t wait to go see all the results!!

Once we were done making the picture rounds we headed to dinner which happened to be at the same time as the late seating…won’t do that again. It wasn’t bad but we had to wait about 15 minutes. When we walked up there was a huge line of people waiting for assigned late seating. We were getting (what I thought was curious looks) when we walked up to the desk. I told the lady we don’t mind waiting if we are supposed to…I didn’t want to feel like we were cutting in front of all those people. She gave us a buzzer and we waited, like I said 15 minutes but it was still before the assigned seaters were seated. The “your time” diners sit on one side and everyone else sits on the other. Before I get into the menu, I will talk about the way people were dressed. There were people dressed “all over the fashion map” as others on the board have said. Some really dressed up like us and some not. Everyone was in a festive mood, laughing, smiling, spending time with family… That is what I noticed…I was not looking for the person dressed in jeans or the girl with the flip-flops trying to get into the dining room to eat lobster with the people who followed the dress code suggestions!! They might have been there but I wasn’t looking for them. We weren’t focused on others, we were there to make our memories and enjoy ourselves and it looked like everyone else was too!

Now to the food!! Of course we had:

Appetizer: I had stuffed mushrooms (good) and Hubby had a little bowl of fruit

Entrée: Lobster tail and shrimp of course!! (I read Cruise Confidential), I ordered two entrees at the same time instead of waiting until I was done with one). The waiter said it is better to do it that way so that is what I did. The lobster tails are small so don’t feel like you are being a glutton for ordering two. I didn’t eat the sides on the second entrée…sorry food police. I also didn’t take pictures of the food…I devoured it as soon as it came…sorry!!

Dessert: we passed…they had the melting cake but as I said earlier I wasn’t really a fan so I didn’t get anything. I was interested in the Bitter and Blanc others have raved about…maybe Wednesday?!!

 

Oh yeah, as far as the wait staff, we were seated in a different section than the first night…if this is the pattern I guess whoever we are seated with on the last night gets the extra tip…speaking of extra tip…the Maitre’D came to the table the first night to say hello and moved on. During dinner we saw him snap at one of the workers for something…that was mean…we felt bad for the waiter…we already get the impression from reading Cruise Confidential that these people work long hours and work very hard…that left a bad taste in our mouth for the Maitre’D. He came to our table on this second night to ask how everything was and we said it was great. Those type of encounters in my opinion don’t warrant a tip to the Maitre’D on the last night.

After dinner we made our way back to the cabin to change into our “regular clothes”. After that we went to Beauties Lounge to check out the 70’s to 80’s music. Lot’s of people were there dancing and having fun. The DJ played all the disco tunes that were popular during that time. It was a 1 hour set…we ordered a drink of the day (We wanted the cup) and sat for about 20 minutes watching everyone have a great time. This one couple was cute…they came down the steps, drinks in hand and started dancing (there is a no drinks allowed on the dance floor policy) so immediately they were escorted off the dance floor. The wife smiled and said “do you know how hard I had to work to get him to dance with me”!! A little later she went upstairs and came down with an empty glass and handed it to him so that he could hold in his hand while dancing. Apparently he needed something to hold on to!! Too cute!! We grew tired of the flashback so we went back to the cabin to make us a drink in our souvenir cup. We sat for a while since the tv was on and something caught my husband’s eye. We made another drink “for the road” and proceeded back down to the lounge. It was after the disco hour but the music this night the DJ was playing we don’t really “party” to so we moved on. Everyone there looked to be having a great time though; it was more packed than the first night! We decided to get our music (hubby has a book bag with speakers) and find a quiet spot on the ship to chill and drink our drinks. (We had it turned down low) the few people that passed us didn’t appear to even notice) After that it was time to call it a night. We got to bed this time about 1:30am. Great night’s sleep. I woke up at 8:30 am and that is where I began this report!!

DAY THREE

It is now 12:30pm and time to start my day!! I ordered room service (BLT of course and hubby had the hot pastrami…he said it was just ok) We ordered coffee and received a carafe. The coffee was good this time too. I’m all caught up now so from here on out I will type my report each evening so that it won’t take so much time!! Can’t wait to go downstairs to see if our pictures are ready!!

Side note: I am keeping all of the capers and plan to pdf them. I’ll let you know when I have them done.

Ok, it’s 10:00pm and we are in the cabin for an early night of relaxation. Today was an exciting day for me! After I finished typing earlier we readied ourselves for today’s activities and made our way down to the picture area to check out the results of our photo sessions!! We were so pleased with the way our pictures came out!! I am usually very critical of pictures taken of me but these pictures came out very nice!! We bought about 5 of the poses and ordered an oil canvas on our favorite pose!! After that we went to the Lido deck to take in some sunshine and a couple drink of the days!! Since we had reservations at David’s Steakhouse we didn’t eat anything else since room service. So glad we did…David’s was awesome just like many board members have said. The porterhouse steak was my highlight. It was cooked to my liking and was very good. The whole affair took about 2 hours. Although it was great we decided that we will cancel Thursday’s reservation only because of all the “pomp and circumstance”. Just don’t want to sit through another 2 hour affair!! I checked the menu in the main dining room to see if I missed the Bitter and Blanc and I did L Oh well…maybe tomorrow. After dinner we decided to take in a show…Jerry Goodspeed…the ventriloquist. He was great!! Had us laughing out loud…highly recommended. After the show we are back to room for the night…more tomorrow in Port Canaveral!!

 

DAY FOUR

We are half way through day four while I am writing this. Allow me to recap our day so far: When we woke up this morning around 8am we were docked in Port Canaveral. We didn’t linger around the cabin today because we were a tad anxious to get off the boat to see what we could see. We got ready for the day and ate our breakfast in the Mermaid Grill. Very uneventful…but we did see…(wait for it…) A robed man in his PJs getting breakfast with the rest of us!! LOL He walked past us with tray in hand. I said to my Hubby “maybe he will take it back to his cabin”…not. When we were leaving the dining room he was sitting at a table eating with the rest of us. Also later on after we came back from Cocoa Beach we ate lunch in the Grill…what did we see and hear…wait for it…a man blowing his nose INTO the cloth napkin. I kid you not on both of these…just like others have said on these boards!! My hubby said “ewhh he is blowing his nose in the napkin”. I just smiled to myself and said I’ll have to mention that in the report. So folks it does happen. Did it ruin our cruise? Absolutely not!!

On to our few hours at Cocoa Beach. As I stated earlier in my report we did not have anything pre-planned so when we walked out of the terminal the first person that greeted us was a rep from the Cocoa Beach Shuttle Co. For $16 each they took us round trip to the beach. They leave every hour from Port Canaveral Terminal and are scheduled to make trips back to the ship every 30 minutes. While at the beach we walked around in a couple of the stores…Ron Jon surf shop and another souvenir store. My husband wanted to sit on the beach and watch the beautiful water so we went to a little establishment right on the beach who were renting chairs, loungers, umbrellas and cabanas. We chose the cabana and two chairs, set up shop and just relaxed for a little over an hour. After that I was pretty much over the beach!! So we headed back to the bus to take us back to the ship. The little time we spent in the sun and heat (temperature was probably in the low 70s maybe but it was direct sun) tired us out so I saw none of the bus ride back. We were awakened by “ok folks we are back to the ship”. This is when we went to have lunch at the Mermaid Grill.

Ok, it’s 6:05 pm. I’m headed out on our balcony to see if I can see anyone running back to the ship!! Be back soon!!

Everyone made it back to the ship in time, in fact we left about 15 minutes early! After being on the balcony for a minute I decided it was nap time (aren’t vacation naps great?!). Shortly after the nap I headed down to a spot on deck two (Florentine Lounge) where I dubbed the chairs there “my favorite chairs” to read my book since hubby wasn’t ready to leave the cabin yet. A nice band was playing when I got there. Oh, also got me Tuesday’s drink of the day…something with coconut in it. It was great I had to get it on Wednesday!! I had a nice relaxing time reading my book with cool band music in the background. People were milling around to and from dinner. We decided there was nothing on the main dining room menu that we liked (except the bitter and blanc that I wanted to try) so we ate in the Mermaid Grill. It was close to 8:30pm by that time so we headed out to the Lido deck to get a good seat for the live band music by The Jafar Curry Band. We stayed out there until probably after Midnight!! We had a blast! This evening (Wednesday evening) is the Rockin under the stars deck party. Just like the cruise director and Gusti, our cabin steward said, this party is not to be missed!! We had a great time watching others dance and I even joined in on a couple of line dances!! They also have a mexican buffet at 11:15pm that had minimal selections but what I did get was pretty good. We ventured into Beauties Lounge after that but agreed that it was time to “hit the hay”. Great day # 4.

DAY FIVE

Almost to Nassau when we woke!! This day you get into Nassau at 11am so you should be up to see the port arrival. That was pretty cool. We got to see the boat move 180 degrees to back into port, putting our cabin on the side the pier was on!! We ate breakfast in the Mermaid Grill, let all the anxious people off the boat then made our way down. It takes about 30-45 minutes for the boat to clear customs so plan your excursions accordingly. The only thing we wanted to do in Nassau was visit Atlantis so we caught a taxi ($10 ride for both of us…no waiting for a group either). We were dropped off at the front door to the hotel and walked around the outside for a while looking at the shops. Hubby bought a few key chains for his coworkers. It was so hot outside that it was uncomfortable for us. We were “sweaty pigs”. We would dip in and out of stores with air conditioning!!

 

Finally we entered Atlantis, walked through the casino and lingered in the cool air. We looked down to see part of the Digs, and yes they did have people taking money to view the aquarium. I saw Mark’s pictures so I felt like I already took the tour!! No need to take it again!! At this point we decided we saw all of Atlantis we needed to see so we sought out a taxi at the front of the building again. There were some available but they wait until they have a full van before pulling out. Hubby was not going for it!! “I didn’t have to wait for a group when I came over here”…so we proceeded to walk out to the main street and found a taxi riding along that took us alone for $11 total.

 

We arrived back to the ship area but decided to walk around just for a little because it was so hot to us. Funny…we wanted to escape the cold only to finally want to escape the heat!! Some people you just can’t please!! We’ve been to Nassau before so it was no big deal for us to call it a day and head back to the ship after only being out for a little over 2 hours. We bought souvenirs the last time and it’s still the same stuff. This trip, for me has totally been about the ship!! I am still enjoying the suite and the ship on day 5. We headed to the Mermaid Grill for lunch. Today’s Taste of the Nations was Caribbean so lunch was great to me!! The jerk chicken was very good. I also had pepper pot beef that was tasty!!

 

Oh, speaking of food, I saw the melting cake in the Mermaid Grill yesterday so you don’t have to go to the main dining for it…at least not on Wednesday. After lunch I sat on our balcony for a while reading my book then you know what time it was!! Nap time! Hubby watched tv for majority of my nap so now that I am up he is now taking his nap as I type at 7:00pm. We are supposed to eat in the main dining room tonight so I will be waking him up shortly. I haven’t had a drink of the day yet either…I’m overdue!! We are also holding Igusti up from making our towel animal!! Be back soon!!

 

Well we decided to pass on the main dining room dinner. Again, nothing jumped out at us on the menu. Since Hubby was still lounging around in the cabin I took my book and headed out for a while. I ate dinner in the Mermaid Grill. They had at least one or two of the same dishes offered in the main dining room. I ate the chicken parmesan and it was decent. After that I headed back to the cabin and was in for the evening. We told the cabin steward we would pass on the towel animal and bed turn down. I channel surfed on the couch in the living area and hubby caught a marathon of the show Burn Notice that he was watching in the bedroom. While I was out he said he stood on our balcony to watch the fireworks show. He asked me if I saw them where I was but I did not. Had no idea there were any!! Later on after we watched us pull out of port he went out for hotdogs and a walk around the ship. That was our evening on day five.

 

DAY SIX

Sleeping peacefully this morning, we were jarred from our sleep by a feeling of being run ashore!! LOL we both hopped up to look out of the windows to discover we were pulling into Freeport. Since I was “up” I decided to go out on the balcony to watch the whole process. I watched as we made the 180 degree turn and the process of tying the anchors to the pier. This is an industrial port so I watched a big barge being filled with containers and other little ships pulling in. That was about as exciting as Freeport got for me (I would later come to find out). After that excitement I headed back to the sleep I was kicked out of!! Hubby stayed up and went to breakfast alone. We are on “different shifts” now!! I got up two hours later for breakfast and he was ready to take a nap!! After breakfast I decided to check out the port. Hubby didn’t want to get off, said he is relaxing all day. I spent about 10 minutes total out there. After seeing two of the stores selling the same stuff as in Nassau and at greater prices, the blatant price hikes turned me off and I headed back to the ship. In Nassau they were selling key chains for $1 each. The same key chains here in Freeport were $2.50 each. They know this is the last stop so for those that didn’t buy souvenirs in Nassau it’s all or nothing. So for now I am back in the cabin for another quiet afternoon of “suite relaxation”!!

 

Tonight is the second elegant night and we decided to get dressed up so that we could participate. We did not wear tux and gown this go around, just a blouse and pant set for me and a suit and tie for hubby. Dinner in the main dining room was pretty good. Hubby had the Mahi Mahi and I had the Chateaubriand with sauce Béarnaise. It was a beef dish. The highlight of the dinner for me was the amaretto cake! Way better than the melting cake!! After dinner we went to the gift shop to buy candy for my office mates and then came back to the room to drink the bottle of Riesling we brought. It was in or refrigerator for weeks so bringing it back home was not an option!! It was very good. I’m glad we cracked it open. The name of it is called Relax. It is in a royal blue bottle. Beauties was having a Motown hour from 10pm to 11pm so we went to check it out. It turned out to be a “Motown era” hour because the DJ hardly played actual “Motown” music. He wasn’t actually in the booth so it was a pre-recorded disc. We enjoyed watching others dance and had another round of drinks before heading back to the cabin. We have been full speed ahead every since we left Freeport…I kept telling my hubby “someone needed to tell the Captain today is not Saturday and we still have one more day on the ship”!! We were already to Cape Canaveral by late evening. The ship was a little bouncy in the back since he was going so fast. We were rocked to sleep!!

DAY SEVEN

Whoa…talk about rocked to sleep. I am up at 730am this morning because I needed to see why the heck we are tossing about at the back of this ship. At one point I heard the deck chair move outside. We are still going the same speed as last night only now we are in choppier waters. The cabin is creaking and the glasses on the wall were clinging a little so I put a hand towel in front of them so they wouldn’t fall over and break. I’m sitting here typing on the couch looking out of the window at a cloudy day with rough waters. We had pizza late last night so I ate the crust this morning just so that I could take my ginger pills with food. I don’t feel sick but I just wanted to prevent it from happening. I’m sure it is probably worst back here. I may just order room service for breakfast just so that I don’t have to worry about wobbling around with a bunch of people on the lido deck!! I hope things clear up later on today or this will make for a semi crappy day!! I stuck my head out of the balcony door to check the temperature and its cooler. We are definitely heading back up north. I’ll check back in later to tell how the rest of the day went.

 

Well, today’s weather did not improve. We stayed in our cabin until dinner time: 6pm. I was getting a little hungry and frankly tired of bobbing up and down all day. We did order room service for breakfast and just laid low in the cabin. The water was extra rough today…all day. Neither of us got sick but we did hear a few people say they were or family members were. They had to cancel the Carnival Legends performance, which is the passenger performance due to liability reasons. They did not want them falling down in the musician pit and suing Carnival!! We still enjoyed the day as much as we could…however I did not get to take my daily nap. I think I fell asleep for a few minutes after laying there for a while. I was eventually awakened though by the dressing room door which kept opening and closing depending on which way the ship swayed. I hope we will get some decent sleep.

 

Later on in the evening as we approached Norfolk Virginia the waters calmed down and we were able to get a restful night sleep.

 

All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our 7 days of Carnival Pride fun and relaxation. Yes the last day was not ideal but it goes with the territory of sailing in the winter time. I loved our aft wrap suite, cabin 7298. This is the way I want to cruise from now on…if I can’t get one of these on a given date, well I’ll just have to check another one!!

 

Our cabin stewards Igusti and Ahndy were great! Although we did not need them for much…just some occasional ice and maybe, maybe not a room turn down in the evening they were always smiling and greeted us when we were in the hallways.

 

We ate dinner in the main dining room three times out of the seven and only two of the times did we get the same waiters. Last night the young lady remembered me asking about the Bitter and Blanc on day two. They had it on the day we went to David’s. She asked me if I was able to get it but I had not. I was amazed though that she remembered!!

 

Sunday morning (day of debarkation) we chose to debark with the general debarkment group, as opposed to self assist. We had too many bags . Since we were in a suite we were given zone 1 however they called zone 1 through 5 so if we weren’t close by the door to get off we could have easily got caught up in a huge crowd. So, really there is no “VIP” treatment there! They started letting folks off at 930am and we were off by about 11:15am.

 

They really do not get a break even between cruises. One load gets off and another is coming shortly thereafter!

 

We really enjoyed our vacation and would recommend the Carnival Pride!!

[stay_or_go]

Thanks for the review, sounds like you had a great cruise.

[DBBJR87]

great review, glade to see you had a great time

[disneylynn]

Thanks Barbie

 

I have been waiting all week for your review, So glad to hear your review was mostly positive. I plan on taking ginger pills. Thanks for the warning.

 

Lynn

[sophiecruiser]

Thanks for the great review! 6 weeks until I get a chance to enjoy the Pride - can't wait! I love desserts but haven't heard of Bitter and Blanc...what is it?

Sophie

[Duckie26]

Welcome back! Great review!! I'm glad you had a great cruise! IGusti was our room steward when I was on the Pride a couple weeks ago and we thought he was great. :)

 

Your cruise sounds a lot like ours! LOL Naps, few shows, little time spent in the main dining room... just total relaxation. :)

[Brenlou69]

Great review...Thanks! I am on the 1/31 sailing and I CANNOT WAIT!!

[MrsP_29]

We're taking that cruise on Mar 21 so I really enjoyed your review. I have a feeling our cruise will be alot like yours - relaxation, TV, and books. The amaretto cake sounds yummy to me. I'm going to gain weight just because of the desserts!:eek:

[Smithkids5521]

So glad to hear you had a great time!!! I hope you and your hubby get back onto the same schedule soon! LOL!!! ( I think that is how me and my DH will be- while I am napping he'll be in the casino!:))

 

Sounds like the suite is the way to go!!!! Welcome back and thanks for the great review!!

 

Take care,

Diana :)

[wone3]

Sounds great and I can't wait until August to go! We have a different set of ports though except for Freeport.

 

Glad you enjoyed it!

[yogimax]

Wow - what a detailed review! Thanks!

[vacation barbie]

Thanks for the great review! 6 weeks until I get a chance to enjoy the Pride - can't wait! I love desserts but haven't heard of Bitter and Blanc...what is it?

Sophie

 

 

It's some type of chocolate bread pudding. I heard about it on this board! Maybe you will get to try it!

[vacation barbie]

Here is the price list for renting chairs, loungers, umbrellas, etc from the beach in Cocoa Beach Florida (behind Ron Jon's surf shop)

 

 

 

[vacation barbie]

Will have to practice on how to get a full size picture to appear in the post!

[SweetpeaOne]

Thanks for sharing your review. Glad you guys had a great time. We were on the Pride a year ago and reading your review brought back good memories.

[bonstersd]

Here is the price list for renting chairs, loungers, umbrellas, etc from the beach in Cocoa Beach Florida (behind Ron Jon's surf shop)

 

Vacation Barbie (I love your user name!), do you have pictures of Cocoa Beach? Is it really worth going to for a few hours?

[vacation barbie]

I would say it is worth going for a person that loves the beach. From what we saw there were only sovenior shops, the surf shop, a grocery store, pharmacy, a few eateries and the beach. We only stayed within a block or two of the parking lot the tour bus dropped us off. Here are a few pictures:

 

 

 

[Kaboochi]

Vacation Barbie, I love when someone gives a descriptive review about a cruise I will be going on. Thank you. Just curious, do you know how far south the ship sailed by the morning of the second day? We are cruising 4/18 and I am wondering if it will be warm. We have an ocen view suite, our first, but the aft sounds like it was wonderful. 10 degrees here tonight - counting the days. Thanks again for the review

[liberty8809]

Thank You for the great review. Sounds like a very relaxing vacation ! We are travelling on the Pride 2/14 and can not wait !

[bonstersd]

Thanks for the pictures of the Cocoa beach... I guess we'll have to go there (and buy a Ron Jon Surf Shop for my surfer husband!)

[poetzmuse]

Hi!

Really enjoyed your 'tale' aboard the Pride! You gave lots of detail and it was fun and interesting!

We are going to be on the Pride 2/7/10 and cant wait! Second visit! I thought the ship was beautiful-old world charm and beautiful paintings and surroundings. I was very impressed when we entered last year.

Our room was balcony on 5th floor and it was very clean and comfortable.

We had first seating dinner and were upper level with Santos and Yeng who were very friendly and fun as our waiters. Very nice time there every night we went and we loved the beautiful Mermaid Grille although the layout was difficult till we got used to it.

There was a good singer/guitarst in the casino who sang some Buffett(huge fan!) and songs similiar which was pleasant. We didnt like all the smoke from ciggerette smokers but they have to have their spots...

Another good singer was in the main area by the desks and he sang blues. I have the names of these singers on the Carnival Capers-have to look later...

Had great fun going down the twister slide--what a blast for this 50+..!

Take care and hope to hear from you and other happy Pride sailors!

[NYMac4]

Our room was balcony on 5th floor and it was very clean and comfortable.

 

Do you mind my asking which room? We're going on the Pride 2/14 and we're in room 5217 ... thanks :)

[poetzmuse]

We had room 5129 last year.

[NYMac4]

We had room 5129 last year.

 

Was it a balcony room for 4? That's what we will have ... I guess it has one upper bunk and a sofa that makes into a bed plus the twins pushed together to form a king ..