Ava_Girls PRIDE August 15th-22nd Review!!!

[spacewoman]

WHEW when you said you joined the balcony club and you started showing balcony pictures I thought Cruise Critic boards were going to need parental controls:D:D:D:D

 

 

The "sea legs" usually disappear within days. I've had them anywhere from 4 days to 3 weeks so I'm hoping the earlier not the latter for you

 

Kathy

[DBBJR87]

love it so far, starting ot get sad soince it has been a month since i curised on her.

[ava_girl_123]

The AFT wrap next to us..

 

Bon Voyage liquor awaiting our arrival

 

 

 

 

[ava_girl_123]

WHEW when you said you joined the balcony club and you started showing balcony pictures I thought Cruise Critic boards were going to need parental controls:D:D:D:D

 

 

The "sea legs" usually disappear within days. I've had them anywhere from 4 days to 3 weeks so I'm hoping the earlier not the latter for you

 

Kathy

 

 

 

Lol.. if that was the case, I would charge an admission fee to see those.. HAHAHA!! (Any takers?) Lol.. :p

[pamjb]

Gail,

 

I am loving your review. We are sailing on the Pride 8/29 and I am sooo looking forward to it. We are in an extended balcony on deck 6. And I have all of the same thoughts running thru my mind that you did on the days leading up to the cruise.

[framerman]

Great start.....I have been looking forward to your review............I'm sure it won't disapoint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[spacewoman]

vacation is always over in a blink. I hope it was everything you anticipated and more!!!

 

Nice to re-live it for all of us, that way you're still on board (or at least your legs still think it is:D)

[ava_girl_123]

Gail,

 

I am loving your review. We are sailing on the Pride 8/29 and I am sooo looking forward to it. We are in an extended balcony on deck 6. And I have all of the same thoughts running thru my mind that you did on the days leading up to the cruise.

 

 

Yes, the extended balconies for us at least, felt larger. You will love them..

 

 

So, after some hanging out in the room waiting for sail away to begin, which did not happen until closer to 6:15 I believe and a few drinks later, our room steward Conrad came in to introduce himself. I am regretting not taking any pictures of him during our vacation. He was absolutely AMAZING! I swear his room was located across the hall from ours as when I called him at all during the week- it was a matter of 30 seconds and whatever we asked for was there. We tipped him all week long for everything he did or brought for us and this man and his helper Joey truely deserved every bit.. Hands down some of the best service from him.

Apparently I liked him so much, at one point during a "Captain Morgans invasion" (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) I told him "Conrad, I really love you" over the phone when I called him for something.. :p Tipped him $20 off the bat and all week long ice was always filled, drinks were always in fridge, unlimited amounts of towels and glasses.. We left a comment card with the very annoying (sorry to say) Assistant Cruise Director Jaime about him, and I hope he receives the appropriate recognition he deserves ..

 

Yes, I hate to say it but we found Jaime annoying. Kirk however is one funny dude. At some point during the cruise we went into the Taj-Mahal to see a couples show, which was soooooo funny, and we found him hysterical!

 

 

We found the cabin to have great space and storage. I thought that the bed was great, husband begs to differ though. Lighting was good.. Closet space and drawer space was great too.. TV channels were ok, but we only watched TV late at night after yet another "Captain Morgans invasion" and "Balcony club" attempt ..

 

The ship is showing it's wear however. Little things though. Some stains on the chairs in the lobby area by the sports bar. Scratched graffitti in the elevators done by teenagers, tiny though. Stains on the carpets in the hallways. Nothing major though at all. The ship is beautiful that is for sure. I am sure it going into dry dock in November will be the cure..

 

Didn't have our luggage by 6:30 or so and we were getting hungry so we decided to go down, wait,.... up to the Lido deck to have dinner. I just on the last day started to get to know the ship. I know this is the contrary to the Spirit class as they are the smallest ships, but damn, I was lost all week with or without the help or non help of Captain Morgans Rum so that had nothing to do with it. Gotta put this in there, with all of the excitement the first few hours, I missed our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. (Bad, bad girl Gail) I know, I know. But honestly, I was so overwhelmed and consumed it completely slipped my mind.. But I did however make it to our slot pull the next day. That was very cool meeting all of our roll call members.

Now, back to what BAYLIVIN said earlier about the way I spun the slot machine wheel.. There were 10 of us I believe. $10 bucks a piece. A cool $100 to play on the slots together. We were spinning, and spinning and spinning and the machine was relentless against us, paying out nothing, or close to nothing at least. At one point I believe we were all desperate for this thing to pay us some money, someone in our crowd mentioned for me to plop one of my size DD "boobages" onto the spin button. Now, I am thinking that the machine was a female as after I did so, she still paid us nothing..That B-I-O-T-C-H.. Lol..Gave her "boobage" and she gave me nothing back.. I felt cheap...

But non the less, we didn't win anything. But it was fun to meet everyone and put a face to the screen names here. All week long I ran into people from our roll call which was cool. I ran into Milton (HANDSOME) in the casino one evening and played a few hands of BlackJack with him. By the way, I donated, not won, but donated WAY to much money to the casino all week. I swear, dealers were hitting 21 on a 5 @ the BlackJack tables all week long.. $800 later, I decided I had enough..

 

Ok I jumped ahead a bit, back to the first evenings dinner.. Now, I know this may shock some of you, and I am all about shock factor, but we found the food in the Lido buffet better than the Main dining room most evenings.. :eek: Weird, maybe- but that is what all 4 of us thought. Anytime dining to us seemed a mess. Our waiters every evening were spotty at best. The food seemed sub par at best also. Don't get me wrong, we did have some good items. The Veal Parm was awesome. The Flat Iron steak was also good. Fettucini Carbonara was spot on. Ceasar salad was good some evenings and fishy on others.

 

FLAME ME NOW LOVERS- But I am not getting the love with the Chocolate melting cake thing? Lol.. I LOVE chocolate too but that was WAY to rich for me.. But non the less, we gave the MDR a chance every evening. I think next time around we will do an assigned seating also. It took most of our waiters at least 10 minutes after we sat to get to us. They seemed very overwhelmed. Rightfully so, I was a waitress for many years and the stations they had were huge so we never complained at all, but every evening we felt.. I don't know, ignored maybe is the word I am looking for. Not once did any of them come back to check on us until they came to ask if we wanted dessert..

 

We did eat at Davids steakhouse one evening and that place was worth it's weight in gold. The food was amazing. Will eat there more the next time around..

 

While I am on the subject of the Main dining room, I have to admit that before we left for the cruise, while reading some peoples views of the dining room attire that should be worn in the Main Dining Room, I will have to admit that I found some people on this board a bit "snobbish" in the way that they felt people should be dressed, but I would like to retract those feelings. We were dissapointed in what Carnival allowed into the MDR.. Men were in flip flops, wife beaters and hats. I seen booty shorts on some women too. These people were not at the least bit embarrassed. Our husbands went into the dining room every evening dressed awesome. Kahki pants, nice shoes and button down tops. Me and my friend wore heels, skirts, dresses, and nice jewlery. But some people looked like slobs. At the end of the week I just had to ask the hostess why they were seating "Yo boys" with graffitti hats and sneakers at tables and she just said it was not her. There were two groups from what I seen. The groups that enjoyed getting a little dressed up or the ones that came in looking like they just came from the pool.. That is cool if you don't want to dress up, I am all for that, but for us personally, we would have felt out of place, just for us though..

Some food porn pictures and pictures of the dining room, not much though as I kept forgetting my camera when we went to dinner..So this review will not be filled with food porn..(Bad, bad girl Gail)

 

 

 

[Handsome58]

It was great meeting you, had a ball on the cruise.....the weather and smooth sailing were great all week. I LOVE your review...keep it up!!!!!!

[capndinghy]

Gail,

Thank you for posting such a great review. I am looking forward to the rest of it!

[PA2CRUISE]

Great review so far!

 

I'll be sailing on my first cruise in a couple of weeks and I keep having that "Oh no - I missed the ship" nightmare too. LOL.

[ava_girl_123]

It was great meeting you, had a ball on the cruise.....the weather and smooth sailing were great all week. I LOVE your review...keep it up!!!!!!

 

 

You too Milton! Wish we ran into eachother more! Next time!

[crewsweeper]

WooHoo!!!I'm sailing on the Pride with Ava_Girl (virtually at least:))

 

Love the review, keep it coming Gail!!

[saw1953]

Gail, been waiting on your review and love it. Welcome Home. Isn't reality a drag.

[ava_girl_123]

Great review so far!

 

I'll be sailing on my first cruise in a couple of weeks and I keep having that "Oh no - I missed the ship" nightmare too. LOL.

 

 

Yea, the night before was my first one.. Crazy! :eek:

[Handsome58]

our roll call is still "rolling", check it out.

[Meyer2]

Your review so far is great Gail! I am really enjoying reading along & the pictures. I can relate on lots of levels, so very enjoyable. Also, I have kiddos almost exact same ages as yours, mine are 12, 7 & 4 & I watch a little boy (During the school year) 3 times a week. It's been a long time coming for hubby & I to take our 1st cruise this October.

 

Can't wait to read more!

[ChampionCruiser]

YAY! I'm glad you finally get your turn! (Even if that means coming home and whatnot). Looking forward to the rest :)

[ava_girl_123]

So, the first evenings dinner came and went. Went back to our cabins to change.. We decided that we would go into some lounge, forgot the name, oh, Butterfly lounge, to go see the comedy show. That was pretty good. We walked around a little to explore the ship some more. Headed in around midnight exhausted from a very long, very exciting and much anticipated day..

 

A few things that I have to note..

 

We loved our cruise. Had a blast. But, I have to say we are not sure if it is for us. Would we do another? Yes, without a doubt. But, we would look for something that had longer port times. I found 2 days out of the week my alarm was set for 5:30 a.m. as we got into Grand Turk and Freeport by 7. We felt rushed, rushed, rushed and scared to death to miss the boat. So, Bermuda hands down is something that we would look into. Sorry to say Bermuda Bound Pirates, October is a no go for us next year. I need to look into something that goes out during the summer. I am thinking none of the Carnival ships do, may have to try another line. In any case, that is what we would be looking for. Something that either docks overnight or something that has longer port times, any suggestions are welcome.

 

We bought the Carnival cooler that came with some sodas, a hat and a mug to use during the week. In the morning Conrad had it filled with ice for us. We took our sports mugs and filled those with some good ole' Captain Morgans, stuck some bottled sodas that we brought with us in the cooler and headed to the Lido Pools in the afternoon. Asked a bartender for a glass with ice and made our own drinks. Even though between our 2 cabins we had 6 bottles of liquor, we got bored of some of the drinks we were making and still managed to have a $400 bar bill by the end of the week. The DOD's were good..

 

 

Bought a dress from the gift shop. Jewlery on the last day as the sales are sooooo much better then. Watch sets and purses too..

The kids pools believe it or not looked cleaner than the adult pool. There was a grimey film floating in the adult pool daily come 5 pm. The pool dude said it was sunblock.. The kids pool didn't have it when we were there.. Hubby said the pee in that pool must of killed it off.. Lol..We tried the slide. That was cool. Didn't know that it was salt water until we landed in it and it went straight up our noses..

 

 

Here are some random pictures of the ship..

The view looking up from our balcony..

　

　

　

　

[spacewoman]

Gail

 

Bermuda is in my opinion the BEST island of all we've been to. Our first cruise was Pride out of NYC for 7 days to Bermuda. We were docked for 2 1/2 days. I loved it. No worries the first two days about the ship leaving you!

 

The Miracle (the Pride's sister ship) is running some Bermuda trips next year out of NYC. I saw a September sailing (the time when we usually go on cruises) am thinking maybe they might be running Bermuda during the summer months as well. I know NCL GEM will be in NYC next year to do Bermuda cruises. Longer drive for you folks and I think parking is $25 or $30 a day but if you split that cost with another couple it would bring down the cost.

 

I thought the Pride was doing some as well but maybe not during the summer months?

 

I'm trying to get hubby to do just Bermuda next year. He's griping about being there too long:mad: Go figure. We love that island and I'd do this itinerary again in a heartbeat.

 

Kathy

[DBBJR87]

Yes, the extended balconies for us at least, felt larger. You will love them..

 

Yes, I hate to say it but we found Jaime annoying. Kirk however is one funny dude.

 

i do not know that if you found this out but them to are dating

[lexusangel]

Loving this review, 6 days untl we sail on pride. Hope you can get it finished by then!!!???

[ava_girl_123]

Gail

 

Bermuda is in my opinion the BEST island of all we've been to. Our first cruise was Pride out of NYC for 7 days to Bermuda. We were docked for 2 1/2 days. I loved it. No worries the first two days about the ship leaving you!

 

The Miracle (the Pride's sister ship) is running some Bermuda trips next year out of NYC. I saw a September sailing (the time when we usually go on cruises) am thinking maybe they might be running Bermuda during the summer months as well. I know NCL GEM will be in NYC next year to do Bermuda cruises. Longer drive for you folks and I think parking is $25 or $30 a day but if you split that cost with another couple it would bring down the cost.

 

I thought the Pride was doing some as well but maybe not during the summer months?

 

I'm trying to get hubby to do just Bermuda next year. He's griping about being there too long:mad: Go figure. We love that island and I'd do this itinerary again in a heartbeat.

 

Kathy

 

 

Yes, my Aunt was telling me this morning about doing Bermuda. My Mother in law can really only watch the kids during the summer months. I was going to book the CC group cruise to Bermuda but the September dates won't work for us..:(

But yes, I was thinking Bermuda just so we can dock there a few nights.. I have only done land all inclusives before this. Those felt more laid back to us without the rushing. But I would also like to look into going out of Miami as those port times look to be somewhat longer then what we had..

Had a blast though, hands down a great time on a beautiful ship.. I read someones review today about the ship seeming to dark. We did not think so but again we have nothing else to compare it to. And some people seemed offended at the "naked" statues and pictures for their kids. Come on, they are paintings. And if someone did the research about the ship which I am sure they do when you book something they would know that is what is on the ship.. :rolleyes:

 

i do not know that if you found this out but them to are dating

 

Really? They are dating? He too seemed annoyed with her in the morning shows they were on.. Hmmm.. maybe they were in a fight and she wasn't giving it up? :rolleyes: Lol...

 

 

Hey can anyone suggest a good FREE picture web hosting site other than Photo Bucket? They are horrible. Taking forever to upload pics.. It is driving me nuts!!

[DBBJR87]

 

Really? They are dating? He too seemed annoyed with her in the morning shows they were on.. Hmmm.. maybe they were in a fight and she wasn't giving it up? :rolleyes: Lol...

 

Yeah i found out during the FAQ on the last day. They must have been fighting because the way i remember them, they were cool with each other.

[ava_girl_123]

Yeah i found out during the FAQ on the last day. They must have been fighting because the way i remember them, they were cool with each other.

 

 

 

How funny.. What an odd couple. They have alot in common at least. What was that? The FAQ thing? Was that where they answered anything about life on the ship?