Pride Review (9-25 thru 10-2) (GT, HMC, and Freeport) lots of pics

[ardnassac79]

So glad we were able to find you in the restaurant to return your purse. I should have casually handed it to you so Chris would not have seen.;)

 

I did not know about the note and treat from Carnival. Because of a wait? That is really something. I would think that even though we never had a wait, the chance of a wait is expected with Anytime dining. Another thumbs up to Carnival from a newby like me.

 

Yeah, I was bummed I forgot to take a pic of it, but I was really impressed!

 

Ok, I'm "special" and I still haven't figured out how to post pictures.

 

But did any of you guys on our trip get this little guy?

 

We cannot, for the life of us, figure out what he's supposed to be! And we forgot to ask the room steward, so we may never know:eek:

 

I never figured out how to post using pics from FB :( I think you need to use some kind of online web-hosting albums. I know Chris uses Photobucket, and I think a lot of people use Webshots. I started using Picasa from Google, and like it, but it's kind of wonky to get the link to work.

 

And I'll go with .... Monkey? We had something similar last year, but I will agree that does kinda look like a bird bill/beak!

 

Awwww, I am at the hotel in Baltimore on the computer and your pics are not coming up. Boo Hoo. Oh well....since we will be on the Pride in a few hours, I'm good with it! :D

Enjoy your trip!!!

[ardnassac79]

Manda, I just figured out how to post from FB in here... :D

 

Open the pic up in FB. Right click it and say "Copy Image URL"

 

Then come here, and use the icon above that looks like a little box with a mountain and sun in it (Insert Image). Paste the URL into it.

 

It SHOULD work - the only problem is, I'm not sure if you have privacy setting son your pics in FB, if everyoen will be able to view?

 

[KruznKel]

I never figured out how to post using pics from FB :( I think you need to use some kind of online web-hosting albums. I know Chris uses Photobucket, and I think a lot of people use Webshots. I started using Picasa from Google, and like it, but it's kind of wonky to get the link to work.

 

To post pics from FB if you have them up all ready.. all you need to do once you have it opened up in the album....right click and select copy image URL... then come here and click the yellow envelope and paste that there and voila!!

[KruznKel]

Manda, I just figured out how to post from FB in here... :D

 

Open the pic up in FB. Right click it and say "Copy Image URL"

 

Then come here, and use the icon above that looks like a little box with a mountain and sun in it (Insert Image). Paste the URL into it.

 

It SHOULD work - the only problem is, I'm not sure if you have privacy setting son your pics in FB, if everyoen will be able to view?

 

 

LMAO I should have read further before posting!!!:D

[birdistasty]

I made sure all of my settings on Facebook were public, but no matter what I do - even when using the Bukkets - I can't get pictures to post. Maybe it's something wonky in Firefox? I could try IE later.. Or we could just stick with the "special" theory :p

 

Cass, we had a monkey hanging the one night. Maybe a gorilla? Someone on the Carnival forums had suggested a bat, but someone else said they make the bats fly, too.

 

It's a mutated duck, and I'm stickin' with it.

[Anung Un Rama]

Saturday (Fun Day at Sea) Last Day :(

 

I guess I should finish this thing up. We hadn't had a late night Friday so we were up pretty early and decided to do breakfast in the Mermaid Grill. I had a mix of different things from different stations and all were pretty good. Cass finally got her omelet.

 

 

We headed back to the room and got ready for our last chance at a Pride ship on a stick. There were several trivia and contests today since it was a sea day and the first was at 10 am. It was held in the Starry Night's Lounge and we did rather well, but not good enough.

 

 

[Anung Un Rama]

I wanted to get pictures of the gym since a lot of people as about it. We had a little trouble finding it but I know that we had used it.............once..............two years ago :o

 

 

 

 

[Anung Un Rama]

We went back to the Mermaid Grill for a light lunch. Not because we weren't hungry, but because the Chocolate Buffet for dessert :D We both had a grilled ham and cheese which was really good and really light.

 

 

 

 

I really wanted to get to the Chocolate Buffet but I have a meeting in 10 minutes I need to get ready for. Don't worry, I'll have it up before I go to lunch.

[Room Service!]

Chris, the meeting can wait!

We want our chocolate buffet, and we want it NOW! ;)

[Anung Un Rama]

Chris, the meeting can wait!

We want our chocolate buffet, and we want it NOW!

 

Well the meeting wasn't too bad and I hope the wait just served to wet your appetite for more :D

 

I'll say that I'm a chocoholic and was waiting for this all cruise. We tried a bit of everything and the cakes were all good. The chocolate cheesecake was just OK. The highlight for me was the mousse. It was easily the 2nd best dessert I had all week (behind WCMC of course).

 

 

 

 

[Anung Un Rama]

We went from the buffet to the main stage on the Lido Deck for a couple of contests. The first was a scavenger hunt but we were about 15 minutes late. I wish we had known that we still could've joined because there were only a few couples participating and everyone got a ship on a stick :mad:

 

Well we waited for Chloe to get started with the movie trivia (I knew we had a good shot at this one). I felt really good about going 22 for 25 but of course someone beat us by one. We went to thank Chloe and that we'd see her at the Sports Trivia (last one of the cruise) but she told us she wasn't going to be there. We thanked her for a great time during the trivia and gave us a participation award :D

 

 

Oh yeah!!! Chloe is awesome and I'm upset we didn't get any pictures with her. But we finally got our Pride ship on a stick and that made the rest of the day much more bearable.

 

With nothing else to do until the Sail Away party (never one to miss free booze), we saw that there was a Galley Tour in about 5 minutes so headed down to the MDR where it started.

[Anung Un Rama]

So the Galley tour was very cool (and free). It was great to see the kitchens and all the prep that goes into our food. I got a whole new appreciation for those poor folks that work like house elves below us to make sure our food is ready 3 times a day. We got a lot of pics so here you go.

 

 

 

 

 

[Anung Un Rama]

 

 

These escalaters move so fast! I don't know how these people get on them holding food and there aren't more accidents.

 

 

 

Pictures of what all the meals should look like

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Prepping the frog legs which was tonight's 'Did Ya Ever'..........we didn't.

 

 

 

The entire menu for the week

 

 

And this had my mouth watering even after the chocolate buffet

 

 

Once again, this was a very cool, very free little tour that gave us both some good insight into the workings that we never see.

[Anung Un Rama]

From here we went up to Serenity and chilled for a little bit. We were about to get a drink when we remembered the sail away party was only about a half hour away. It was a little chilly out on the deck since we were approaching the Bay but still nice

 

 

We finally remembered the sail away party this time and headed there for some free booze. Unlike the past guest party, there was no one serving apps but the drinks were plenty and did I mention free? Not much in the way of entertainment but some kids got up on stage and 'danced' to some music they've never heard (oldies).

 

 

 

After about 25-30 minutes we decided to get out of there and head back to the room. We had a message on the phone and it was our new friends Linda and Ron who asked us to their Aft balcony for drinks. We headed there and I got to try some Capt. Morgan Lime Bite which was better than I expected. There was a great sunset but we missed the sun from our view point

 

[Anung Un Rama]

A few pics from our last night on the balcony

 

 

 

It was a bit breezy but I really like this one

 

[Mad Capn Bob]

I hung out at that deck 9 forward area quite a lot last year. It was closed some times, but not all the time. I suspect the reason it was closed is because of high winds...even when it was open, it got pretty breezy out there...could barely walk in spots...a ship-borne wind tunnel, it were...

 

Since we hadn’t yet had any pizza yet (blasphemy!), and really wanted to try the new Red Frog pub beer with the nifty souvenir glasses they only sell in the Sports Bar, we had a plan to grab some pizza up on the Lido, bring our plates down to the Bar to enjoy some pizza and beer. Yeah, not so much. For some reason, the Sports Bar was closed. Bummer. :( So we ate our pizza out in the Piazza Café area, snapped a few more photos of this area of the ship, and went back up to the room.

 

Sorry the pic is a bit blurry - Piazza Cafe - this is where the Sushi Cart is every day starting 5:30pm - Yum!

 

 

 

This is the fountain in the Piazza area - or should I say it's usually a fountain. It wasn't turned on for the whole trip, and at least one side of the stairs on either side were closed off with wet floor signs every day. We assumed there was some kind of issue with the fountain and/or plumbing in the area.

 

Because we really didn’t get any pics of Freeport, and we love the sail away from here (the water is to die for around this area) we headed up to Deck 10 to get some photos and say goodbye to Freeport. And we waited. And waited. And… then an announcement from the captain: there was some kind of problem with one of the lifeboats, and our sail away would be delayed until around 2:45. Okie dokie. At that point, we realized there was an area on Deck 9 Forward that people were milling about on, which was normally closed off when the ship is sailing! We made our way to it, and were treated to some views that we hadn’t experienced in any of our past cruises – cool :cool:!

 

 

 

We also spied this area on deck 3 that we think is an area just for crew members – a hot tub and some lounge chairs, along with an anchor and huge propeller blades.

 

[ardnassac79]

After the sun went down, we got ready for dinner and headed down for one last night in the MDR. We usually check the menu outside of the MDR earlier in the day to see what we are in store for that night (it’s also on the TV, but we like looking person, don’t ask me why) and we knew we had some YUMMY things in store for our last meal.

 

We both follow John Heald on Facebook, so we knew the menus had changed, and there was one dish I couldn’t wait to try… the Bacon Mac n’ Cheese. Applewood smoked bacon, with aged cheddar cheese, topped with a grilled, marinated chicken breast. OMG. Yeah…. So it didn’t take too long to figure out what I wanted as my main dish, but Chris also wanted the Prime Rib that night – so he asked if he could have a smaller portion of the Mac and Cheese as his appetizer. The waiter said he would check, and lo and behold they were able to accommodate him! I got the New England Crab Cake as an app, and it was delicious!

 

 

 

Chris dug into his Mac and Cheese, and said he loved it – and that he knew I would not be disappointed with it as my main dish. He also was very pleased with his Prime Rib.

 

YUM. Hands down my favorite meal all week:

 

 

 

As for dessert, yes we topped off our last night with a final farewell to the classic, you know it and love it, the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake :D.

 

After dinner, we decided to head down to the Casino to cash out our slot money from the Sail and Sign cards (you would be hard pressed to forget to do this – we had 3 messages on our phone from the Casino that day, plus they announced it about every 15 mins in the casino that night). And we did one last go-round at the Let it Ride table. Neither of us did too bad – didn’t lose ALL the money we brought to play with, but definitely left with less than we came with. Hey, we consider that our “entertainment” for the week and budget it in – we responsibly manage our vices :p

[ardnassac79]

Speaking of vices, when we got back to the room that night, we had our gift shop purchases delivered. We figured this year we would really take advantage of the low priced and duty free alcohol, even if we did exceed our customs limit because we wouldn’t be back on a cruise that didn’t require a flight for a few years. We were also responsible citizens and declared all our bottles (or I can just say I’m a scaredy cat as well :o). When we went through the line the next day during debarkation, we were taken back to a little room and all we had to do was pay an additional $20 total (cash only!) for a total of 9 bottles. They were a bit slow – it took about 20 minutes to stand there and wait while they got the paperwork in order, but not bad really.

 

So I guess that brings us to debarkation the next day. We have always done the self-debark since it’s just the 2 of us, and we have always sailed so far during football season (need to get home to set those Fantasy rosters! :p) and we followed suit this time as well. Room Service was delivered around 6:45, as I like to have already claimed our seats to wait in Raphael’s on Deck 3 Aft by 8am at the latest. I’m glad I did – it filled up pretty quick, and we have a good view of the ship coming into the bay and docking when it gets into Baltimore.

 

We waited until they started calling a few decks before us for the self-assist, and headed down to the Casino to get a closer spot until our deck was called (because the line is snaked through the casino). As always, painless – hop in line, our sail and sign cards get dinged through for the last time, and out into Baltimore we go. They have a new ramp from the ground to the ship that is less steep, but more twists (and fully enclosed) now, which will help with the cold and those guests that have difficulty with steeper inclines. Customs was painless as well, just the 20 minute detour to pay our customs fees that we were already prepared to do.

 

If you’re interested in our haul for the week, I don’t think we did too bad :cool:

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that’s it!! I hope you enjoyed our review, and thank you for hanging in with us till the end!!

 

We had a great time, the Pride is a wonderful ship, and hopefully the next time we sail on her, it will be to tie the knot!

 

I'll leave you with our final towel "animal" of the cruise... fitting ;)

 

 

 

Also, we planned on scanning in all our Fun Times, and I also saved a lot of the daily flyers for things like Spa Specials and the maps of the ports for the places we stopped at. I will get those up in the next day or 2 in case anyone is interested.

 

Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions!

[megansdad1]

great review. Thanks for the time you both put in to write it. Nice collection of sports jerseys. How does one become a ravens,black kawks and red sox fan?

[Danacat222]

Cass & Chris,

 

Congratulations on your engagement! Your tandom review is great, really enjoyed the prior cruise excursions from Freeport, too! Happy sailing:o

 

Dana

[ardnassac79]

great review. Thanks for the time you both put in to write it. Nice collection of sports jerseys. How does one become a ravens,black kawks and red sox fan?

 

What can I say, he's original! I'll let Chris answer that one!

 

Cass & Chris,

 

Congratulations on your engagement! Your tandom review is great, really enjoyed the prior cruise excursions from Freeport, too! Happy sailing:o

 

Dana

 

Thanks Dana, happy sailing to you too! :D

[ready2cruzagain]

Thanks guys for the great review. I will definitely be looking into booking the Pride now since we love to sail out of Baltimore.

 

Will see you next year on the Breeze.

[Biff Cruizer]

We went from the buffet to the main stage on the Lido Deck for a couple of contests. The first was a scavenger hunt but we were about 15 minutes late. I wish we had known that we still could've joined because there were only a few couples participating and everyone got a ship on a stick :mad:

 

Well we waited for Chloe to get started with the movie trivia (I knew we had a good shot at this one). I felt really good about going 22 for 25 but of course someone beat us by one. We went to thank Chloe and that we'd see her at the Sports Trivia (last one of the cruise) but she told us she wasn't going to be there. We thanked her for a great time during the trivia and gave us a participation award :D

 

 

Oh yeah!!! Chloe is awesome and I'm upset we didn't get any pictures with her. But we finally got our Pride ship on a stick and that made the rest of the day much more bearable.

 

 

Congrats on finally getting a ship on a stick. I either forgot about the movie trivia or it conflicted with another event.

 

I'm glad you liked the Thirsty Frog beer. I enjoyed enough of it all week. I believe they ran out of it on Saturday.

 

Also, Chloe is awesome. She told us that she is engaged to Chris, one of the dancers on the Pride. They are getting married in August 2012.

[Cold Beach]

These pictures are a little creepy. Kind of like out of an episode of CSI Miami. Lol. It would (and actually does now) bother me just wondering what happened to the people who were on this boat. Probably nothing, but you never know.

 

Enjoying your review. We don't sail on her until next year, but I am still excited!!

 

 

That boat is leaking oil/fuel.