Bermuda on the Pride, Oct. 2-9, 2011

[I Luv Crusin]

Pride, Oct 2-9 to Bermuda

This was my 10th Carnival cruise and I sailed with my husband of 29 years. He has cruised 7 times and was disappointed that he didn’t get a platinum card!

We live in Northern VA and drove up to Baltimore after I got off work Saturday afternoon at 3pm. We met a couple from our roll-call at G&M Restaurant near Lithicum, MD. We had a nice crabcake dinner! We then drove up to the Fairfield Marriott Whitemarsh for a Cruise Package. I had forgotten that White Marsh was northeast of Baltimore but it worked out well. The hotel had a continental breakfast the next morning and the shuttle picked us up around 10am to head to the port.

 

Since I was VIP we walked to the VIP Lounge where they checked in us and 2 other couples and then escorted us to the VIP waiting area that was cordoned off from the mail area. I think we boarded around 12:30pm. We sent the guys up to Lido to snag a table and my friend and I went to the shore excursion desk to grab a brochure for Bermuda since they didn’t list the 2nd day excursions on the website. She booked the Behind the Fun tour for her husband’s present.

 

We went up to the Lido for lunch and my first DOD! They had a cute round DOD glass and I bought one but it was really hard to find a 2nd. Most of the bar staff had the normal hurricane style glasses. I finally found one! After lunch we went exploring and went to look at our cabin. It was around 1:30 by that time. They hadn’t opened the cabins yet but we ran into the supervisor and she said our cabin was ready and let us drop our stuff. We had an obstructed view cabin on Deck 5. It was great!

We continued to explore the ship and then went to dinner at David’s around 6pm. David’s was good as always and eating with friends made the time go by but there is a fine line between leisurely dining and feeling ignored. (More on that later.) After a filling dinner we wondered around a bit more then it was time for bed!

 

We were sailing from Sunday night to Wednesday morning. We saw a show on Monday, the elegant night. We are not partiers, nor do we gamble and so we spent a lot of time just relaxing. Tuesday evening we did the Chef’s Table. It was definitely a once in a life time experience. I was slightly disappointed that they no longer give a recipe book. It was interesting how the chef “owned” the recipes, personalizing his take on them. I understood that the menu was the same fleet wide but he made it sound like it was his menu.

 

Wednesday morning we booked a private guide, Duke Soares. He gave us a great tour and then to save time dropped us in Hamilton. That way we could spend more time sighting instead of backtracking on the same road back to the ship. We went from the dockyard to St. George’s and back to Hamilton in about 6 hours. Thursday was raining and overcast and we stayed in the dockyard just walking around looking at the stores, watching glassblowing and trying rum cakes. At 1:30 we had a Glass Bottom Boat tour. Unfortunately the weather was a bit rough and we couldn’t see very much but it was a good couple of (expensive) hours. Friday we planned on going to the museum at the Dockyard but realized that we probably didn’t have time to do it justice so we headed back to the ship by 11am. The weather was bad and we had some rough seas that evening. We did see the show Varoom, and a comedy show before bedtime. Saturday was a very pretty day and I snagged a round lounger on the Serenity Deck around 8:30a and we hung out there until lunch time. I was amazed at the towels and bags saving loungers. I think I’m going to take a piece of chalk with me next time and note the times. I know many of the lounges were empty for an hour or so.

 

Saturday evening my husband and I went back to David’s. The food was good as always but once again they slipped over the line of leisurely dining to not being attentive. My tea was left empty for too long and when they served our main dishes we had to wait for our sauces and sides. They should have come out together or at least right away, not 5 minutes later. I will do to David’s or any other steakhouse again but the time goes much faster with a group.

We were Zone 1 for disembarkation and were off the ship around 9:30a and back home to Virginia in time to make our Weight Watchers meeting at 11:30am!

 

More comments to come, later…………….

[MSRussell]

Thanks for the nice review. That is a good idea, being dropped off in Hamilton, I might just do that.

I'm going next month, can hardly wait.

Melanie

[wife2b]

Thanks for the review!

Bummer that they don't do the cookbooks anymore, I booked Chef's Table and that's one of the things I was looking forward to :(

Glad you had a good time :)