Chrissandra's 2012 Carnival Pride Review May 27 - June 3 (lots of pics)

[ardnassac79]

Feeling bummed out, we decided to head back to the ship to freshen up. We told our friends Chris and Lauren and Mike and Emily that we would meet them at Senior Frogs sometime in the early evening, since we didn’t have to be back on board until 9:30pm. It was just enough time for me to snag some sushi as a snack, us to get quick showers (and Chris to make and suck down quick drink) and head back off the boat and down to the end of the pier area to Senior Frogs. This was our 3rd time in Nassau, and the first time we ever went there. It's about a 15 minute walk from walking off the ship to the bar (less if you're in a hurry).

 

Sunset was close at hand on the way there:

 

 

This was the newly renovated Straw Market... it was closed up, but you can get an idea...

 

 

Almost there!

 

 

We have arrived!

 

 

Think Hailey Joel Osment in the movie The 6th Sense… “I see drunk people”. There was all kinds of shenanigans going on – shots, balloon hats, singing, dancing – everyone all having a good time… not to mention drinking age here is 18.

 

 

We saw Mike and Emily first, ordered some Yards, and chatted a bit. Emily had already been indoctrinated into the Froggy style:

 

 

Yards in hand!

[ardnassac79]

We then found Chris and Lauren and hung out some more.

 

 

The 2 Chris's and me:

 

 

Keep in mind what Lauren is wearing – perhaps you'll see it later!

 

 

 

By this time I knew we needed to get some food in us, so we got a table and ordered some DELISH chicken quesadillas.

 

 

 

The menu says it’s enough for 2 people, and they didn’t disappoint. That's actually 2 quesedillas stacked on top of each other:

 

 

 

At some point I was donned with the Flower Crown

 

[ardnassac79]

Chris noticed this disclaimer on the back of the yards and had to get a picture... priceless...

(it's funny 'cause it's true :D :p)

 

 

 

Nighttime snuck up on us...

 

 

 

We hung out till around 8:45, Chris bought a t-shirt from the gift shop, and the 6 of us made our way back to the ship (but not before being by asked by a local if we wanted some coke.. and not the soda.. obviously we just kept walking… wow talk about being bold!)

[ardnassac79]

...And now we come to the wordy (but entertaining) part of the day... please keep hanging in! Will it be worth it? ..you'll have to follow along and find out!

 

 

 

Mike and Emily were really interesting in doing The Quest later that night (an adults-only scavenger hunt type game) but it wasn’t for a few more hours, so we went to the Piano Bar for a bit.

 

As people were just getting back to the ship, it wasn’t too crowded, and we got what we thought was a good seat at the bar… then in comes a big crowd that had just gotten back from Senor Frogs as well (the yards and balloon hats were giveaways… not to mention we saw a few of them dancing on tables earlier). I’m all for people having a good time, don’t get me wrong – but when you are constantly bumping into me, and slurring, perhaps it’s time to say goodnight. One member of their group did just that and laid her head down right on the bar and fell asleep :rolleyes:.

 

But no, tequila shots were ordered all around and they kept the party going... “I see really drunk people.”

 

I got annoyed quick and left the bar area and took a seat a little further back, and Chris eventually joined me.

 

Then Lauren and the other Chris showed up and we all stayed a bit longer (and felt adventurous and grabbed seats at the bar again) till it got closer to the time for The Quest.

 

 

ROGER! (Seriously a great entertainer)

 

 

Lauren’s Chris wanted to hit up the blackjack tables, but Lauren decided to come with us (thankfully, as you’ll soon see!)

[ardnassac79]

The Quest was in the Butterflies Lounge (under the main stage Taj Mahal) and Emily and Mike were already there with seats in the front row. They know what they are doing J

 

 

Now, Chris and I had never done this before – we’ve read reviews where people have done it and heard it was a lot of fun, so we were willing to give it a try – and we came to find out there’s a good reason they make sure it’s 18 and older! The 3 of us joined up with Emily and Mike, and Gumby (and yet another Chris) from the Entertainment staff was there to host.

 

 

We needed teams of 6-8 people, so there was another couple close to us who we invited to make a group of 7. They handed out laminated team numbers to each group, we were Lucky Team #13 :D

 

The object was to be the fastest team up to the front with the required items – usually only one person from each team needed – the first, second, and third fastest teams got the most points respectively (I think 5, 4, and 3), then all the other teams all got the same lowest amount.

 

They also warn you to leave all your inhibitions at the door – luckily Chris did, and Mr. Competitive came out to play :p

 

The first round was for 4 Sail and Sign cards… easy peasy – Chris immediately took the lead man role and was our team “runner”. We were close to the stage and he got there first. Win!

 

The second item was for 2 belts – Chris didn’t have one, but luckily Mike and the guy from the other team (unfortunately we never caught their names) were Johnny on the Spot and we got first for that round as well.

 

By this point, I remembered from a previous review (Mike and Tracy's I believe) something about women’s bras, so I gave a head's up to Lauren and Emily, and we prepared just in case… and hey! Round 3 asked for 3 bras – woo hoo – they were off quicker than a wink and Chris dutifully ran up with 3 bras in hand. First again!

 

 

By this point, we were cracking up, and I have to admit I forget some of the questions now. I know one was for 2 male team members holding hands and skipping, and Gumby ran all over the lounge and made all the teams skip-to-my-lou after Gumby – unfortunately we certainly didn’t first or even second for that one.

 

Other ones we got pretty quickly were 2 pairs of men’s shorts – Chris and our other guy immediately ran up while taking off their shorts and we got first in that as well. (Gumby told them as they got up there that he just wanted the shorts – they didn’t need removed – haha! I’m sure Gumby loved it all the same.)

 

Our 2 boxer-champions:

 

 

One of the rounds was for a Tramp Stamp, and Lauren immediately took the reins and ran up for the team – she was even so excited to get first place that she didn’t have time to untuck her shirt – she just turned around and pulled up her skirt to show Gumby – that’s our girl! First again! :D He told her she had really cute undies, btw, lol!

 

One round was for a man wearing girl’s shoes – I gave Chris my slide sandals, yeah he enjoyed trying to shove his size 12’s into a women’s 6.5, but we still got either 1st or 2nd on that one too!

 

Another question we got unexpectedly was for a form of birth control – none of us had anything, and then the other girl on our team had an idea, took the team number card, and ran up… we still have no idea what she told Gumby, but we got points for it! Score!

 

Finally the last one I remember was a female doing the worm – I took one for the team and got up there and did the worm, poorly, but it counted for 2nd place. :p

[ardnassac79]

Of all the questions, there were 2 we didn’t even get a point for – a man doing a split was one – all guys flat out refused, even Chris. None of these guys are flexible, I tell ya…

 

The other one was for a piercing below the neck. Out of all of us, no one had even a navel ring. Of course we were all joking we could go up and say we had a piercing in a place we couldn’t show – but none of us were that brave.

 

 

Then it came time for the big round…

 

A man in women’s clothes and a woman in man’s clothes – obviously from the same team.

 

Chris and Lauren immediately hopped up and began stripping down to undies and swapping – hilarious! (And may I add I was relieved Lauren was there who had no qualms about it!) Luckily both their clothes were easy to take off and put back on quickly, and they made it up there either first or second…

 

Unfortunately I don't have any shots of them both lined up there next to each other, but I love this one

 

 

Then came time for the finale… the girls in men’s clothes had to go back to their teams and leave the men up on stage… and each team was given 2 minutes to “accessorize” their man as best they could… we added purses, shoes, watches, Emily slathered some lip gloss on, I surrendered my engagement ring which he could barely fit on his pinky (thought some bling would help), my tiny feet shoes again, and my wristlet purse. To top it all off, we handed him a Bud Light. LOL.

 

 

Love those legs!

 

 

 

 

Then as if that mortification wasn’t enough, each guy had to do a catwalk across the stage and show off their goods. We were cheering the loudest for my baby!

 

Then the crowd had to cheer for each person in turn – and the top 3 were chosen by Chris, the entertainment staffer (too many Chris’s!) My Chris was selected 1st (He swears it's because he showed some leg LOL)

 

 

But alas, out of the top three, the final vote came down to the crowd, and the two other teams came in first – we still got points for 3rd place. Chris just couldn’t channel his inner RuPaul as well as the other 2 (which is probably a good thing)…

 

I'm sorry, I still think he's a hottie

[ardnassac79]

After everyone was settled down, clothes returned to the proper people, and the points were all tallied, it was time for the big reveal.

 

We had a feeling we at least placed, but were worried about the questions we took zeros on – plus we definitely didn’t come in first for everything.

 

The prize for 3rd place was one bottle of champagne. We held our breath… and it wasn’t us.

 

 

Ok down to 2nd. Prizes up for grabs were another single bottle of champagne, plus Carnival medals for each member of the team (which for anyone who hasn’t seen the medals yet – they aren’t for each ship like the Ships on Sticks – they just say Carnival – so don’t worry for all you collectors out there, there isn’t something else you have to worry about winning on each cruise). ....…and not us!!

 

 

Ok, by this point we were all looking at each other half-worried, half-hopeful. There was no way we didn’t at least place – right?! The first place prize was 4 bottles of champagne and the Carnival medals…..

 

 

 

 

……drumroll…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEAM 13!!!!!! Woooo!!! WINNER WINNER CHAMPAGNE DINNER! Looks like lack of inhibition and Chris’s uber-competitiveness paid off!

 

 

 

We all floated out of there giddy off our win, and decided what to do next. We went with Lauren to find her Chris, but he wasn’t in the casino, so she left to her room to find him.

 

I decided to go back to the room to make another drink and said I’d meet Chris back in the Piano Bar. When I got there, there was still a decent crowd there, but Chris was sitting down in one of the loungers with an irritated look on his face… I sat down and couldn’t miss the show going on in front of me – directly in front of the piano and Roger the Piano Man… one of the earlier crowd was there with a “new found boyfriend” and let’s just say some people really need to know when enough is enough (and I've got nothing against kissing, or normal public displays of affection). Like take advantage of one of the 2000+ rooms on board, or at least a dark secluded corner. Not smack dab in the middle of where the Piano is in the PIANO BAR... in the words of the ESPN football analysts.... 'cmon MAN!

 

 

 

We got up and left, and unfortunately the whole thing just turned us off from the piano bar for the rest of the trip – not due to anything Roger did (which I felt really bad for not going back and giving him our support) but purely out of knowing that group would likely be in there… and honestly I wouldn’t have been able to look at some of them (and of course I kept seeing certain people for the rest of the trip in random places on the ship). Luckily it didn’t turn us off from all Piano Bars completely, and we are really looking forward to frequenting it on our next sailing.

 

 

At this point it was getting late, but we weren’t quite ready to head back to the room so we went up to Serenity and laid on a hammock for a while. Then stopped to grab some waters from Mermaid grill and saw Emily and Mike, so sat down and chatted with them (and relived our impressive Quest win) before heading back to the room and bedtime around 1am.

 

[ardnassac79]

So thanks for hanging in there with me for that long-winded day!! Chris has already fallen asleep on the couch :o

 

He's got a boss-free day tomorrow and is hoping to get in the next installment at some point, but if not, we'll be back tomorrow evening with Day 5 - Freeport.

 

Also, I wanted to mention, as previously stated, this was our 4th Pride cruise, 3rd of which was on this itinerary... We didn't try our hands at reviews until our 3rd one, but in that one we also posted info about other excursions we took in various ports. Our first cruise in 2009 we did the Wildlife Pontoon Boat Ride offered at Port Canaveral through Carnival and it was great - at the end of this review I'll add a mini-review of that excursion in case anyone is interested.

 

Also, in Freeport we did a Dolphin Swim and a Catamaran Snorkel in 2009 and 2010, respectively - those are both highlighted with mini-reviews in our 2011 Pride review if you're interested (links in both our siggies).

 

Well I'm signing off for the night - TTFN!

[whiskygirl96]

Awesome review! We are coming up on our first cruise (October) and I love reading reviews. Your retelling of the scavenger hunt had me laughing!

[ardnassac79]

Okay, so either you're going to elope on Friday or you are going on ANOTHER CRUISE! :eek: WTH, you wouldn't even have to unpack from this one! :D

 

LMBO! Ok I just read this after sitting here for 4 hours and realizing a bathroom break was in order... almost peed myself laughing!

 

No, no eloping or another cruise (I'm down to 1/2 a day vacation lol). You'll just have to wait! Needless to say, Chris is super-excited :D

[crewsweeper]

Re the 2 of U and your posse in Nassau:

Channeling Jannell Wheeler on the Breeze: OMG!:p

and Commander Cody: TOO MUCH FUN!:D:D

Guess being a guy, with thinning hair to boot, I don't get the fascination with the hair braiding in Nassau. I thought it was ugly on Bo Derek 33 years ago:p

Cass, keep writing!

[rtw68]

Great review! :)

 

Chris is definitely braver than I am! Of course liquid courage would help me out. :p

 

Can't wait to see what happens on the Breeze! :D

[Anung Un Rama]

I gave Cass full reign to post whatever pictures she wanted to last night. I'm almost scared to go back and see what she posted :o. I'm hoping to work on Friday (Freeport) today as it won't be nearly as long as the last two days.

[silvercrikhix]

Thanks for another review! Looks like you two have lots of fun!

Carnival should have picked you two instead of that Lauren Connell to speak for them!

Much more fun! LOL

Those eels gave me the creeps, those guys are mega creepy...eewwww.

Keep up the great review, love it!

Thanks for the suspense of Friday!

Hmmmmm??? I like a good mystery...

[Crusin Karen]

LMBO! Ok I just read this after sitting here for 4 hours and realizing a bathroom break was in order... almost peed myself laughing!

 

No, no eloping or another cruise (I'm down to 1/2 a day vacation lol). You'll just have to wait! Needless to say, Chris is super-excited :D

Okay, I have a feeling I know what it is then! :cool: I am a HUGE CHICKEN when it comes to "rides" and such....you couldn't pay me a $million to go on a roller coaster. I liked the river thing at Atlantis, tho, so for curiosity sake, and thinking MAYBE I could do something like that, I pulled it up on YouTube. NO WAY JOSE! Looks like so much fun, but I would be the one with the camera! THOROUGHLY enjoyed this review. Chris resembles Mike of Mike and Tracey a bit too! :rolleyes: Have been to Nassau/Atlantis many times, but we just went thru the "public areas" that USED TO BE FREE that they are charging for now :mad: so it was nice to see how beautiful it is.

[ladytonya]

OMG, LOVE the pictures of Quest! You got Tim in a few of them so thank you. Hope you don't mind if I borrow one to post on Facebook to tag him, at least I didn't have any lipstick in my purse and I wasn't wearing a skirt, although a skirt wouldn't have involved me stripping to my underwear. :D

 

Now that I have seen your Atlantis pics, we have to go there next cruise. We were trying to keep excursions on the cheap so we opted for just a day of shopping on Bay St. in Nassau which is exactly what we did last time we were there. Next trip, I want to ride those slides!

 

And about the casino, I was wondering what all those VIP things were, didn't realize it was a group from a casino. That definitely explains the smoke. We normally drop a few in the casino but this trip didn't because of the smoke, but it would make more sense if it were kept to one side of the casino and away from the walkway, especially since every ship we've been on there is no way around the casino! Yes, it is at least better than it used to be before the new smoking regulations. Smoke really bothers me because of allergies so definitely didn't enjoy walking through there to get to certain areas.

 

Really enjoying your review! Can't wait to see what you guys did on our wonderful rainy day in Freeport. We were VERY glad that we hadn't booked an excursion, of course it did help that they were offering refunds because of the weather. I've never seen them do that before so that was nice. Looking forward to the rest of your review!

[Anung Un Rama]

Carnival should have picked you two instead of that Lauren Connell to speak for them!

Much more fun! LOL

 

You see, it's comments like this that give us delusions of grandure and get our hopes up that JH or someone from Carnival might recognize us and pay us to cruise and write reviews :o. I know that's a pipe dream but these people on travel channel have to start somewhere right? :D

[Anung Un Rama]

OMG, LOVE the pictures of Quest! You got Tim in a few of them so thank you. Hope you don't mind if I borrow one to post on Facebook to tag him, at least I didn't have any lipstick in my purse and I wasn't wearing a skirt, although a skirt wouldn't have involved me stripping to my underwear. :D

 

Now that I have seen your Atlantis pics, we have to go there next cruise. We were trying to keep excursions on the cheap so we opted for just a day of shopping on Bay St. in Nassau which is exactly what we did last time we were there. Next trip, I want to ride those slides!

 

And about the casino, I was wondering what all those VIP things were, didn't realize it was a group from a casino. That definitely explains the smoke. We normally drop a few in the casino but this trip didn't because of the smoke, but it would make more sense if it were kept to one side of the casino and away from the walkway, especially since every ship we've been on there is no way around the casino! Yes, it is at least better than it used to be before the new smoking regulations. Smoke really bothers me because of allergies so definitely didn't enjoy walking through there to get to certain areas.

 

Really enjoying your review! Can't wait to see what you guys did on our wonderful rainy day in Freeport. We were VERY glad that we hadn't booked an excursion, of course it did help that they were offering refunds because of the weather. I've never seen them do that before so that was nice. Looking forward to the rest of your review!

 

So long as you don't tag me in them, feel free to share :D. We decided that we wanted to do Atlantis because we loved it last time and when we're there on the Breeze, it'll be the day after Thanksgiving and almost certainly packed. Now we can just hang out on the ship or do some shopping that we didn't get to do this time.

 

And yes, the Quest is quite hilarious. I'm glad we won so I NEVER have to do it again but I think I might go as a spectator so I can enjoy others embarassing themselves instead.

[Anung Un Rama]

Friday - Freeport

 

This was our 4th trip to Freeport and my 5th. As you all know there isn't much to do right off the ship and you need to book an excursion or take a cab to Port Lucaya for anything good. We planned on taking advantage of people getting off the ship and getting a spot in Serenity. Mother Nature was not as accomodating. Shortly after we woke up we heard Jaime come over the speaker and mention liquid sunshine. We left our towels and went up to Lido for a small breakfast.

 

It was pouring! Haven't really experienced rain like this on a cruise before so I guess we were do and if it's going to rain on a port day, may as well be Freeport.

 

 

 

Since we knew we wouldn't get any sun, we headed back to the room to grab some cash and check out the shops since we didn't get a chance in Nassau.

 

 

 

 

Waste of time. We were back on board 15 minutes later.

[Anung Un Rama]

We took our books back up to Serenity and I decided to finally try something I had read about on CC, make my own frap. I grabbed a cup and put a few ounces of coffee in it, then went to the soft serve machine. I filled the rest of the cup with chocolate yogurt (didn't realize it was yogurt and not ice cream at the time :o). Stirred it up a bit and YUM!!! I'm going to do this all the time on the Breeze. So simple, yet so good!

 

We spotted Lauren and Chris in the covered area of Serenity and sat with them until the days first Trivia Challenge on the Lido stage. Fortunately the deck cover was closed but there were still a few spots that were leaking onto tables. We grabbed pencil and paper and set up at some lounge chairs in front of the stage. I got 16 of 20 and ended up tied for first (really wanted to earn that ship on a stick) so there was a bonus question. I honestly can't even remember the question, just that the answer was croquet. I heard someone shout out the answer and just repeated it to Bruce for the win. The other guy didn't know it either so I didn't feel bad. FINALLY!!!

 

 

We were pleasantly surprised to see our seats still available in Serenity and relaxed there with a turkey and cheese sandwhich from the Deli (surprisingly good).

 

Started pulling out of Freeport right on time and I took some photos despite the rain because it really is a beautiful sail away

 

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Since we didn't eat in the MDR the previous 2 nights I promised Cass she could get all dolled up and we'd do the second formal night. We had the 3rd round of Super Trivia at 4 so she went to the room to get a jump start on getting ready. I went to the Perfect Game sports bar and lost a quick $20 in video poker. We went to Rapheal's a little before 4 and had to part ways since we were on different teams.

Now the guys were up about 31 going into today but Friday was all about the ladies. We got some of the most ridiculous questions imaginable and the girls (with the help of their Google searches) got a quick 10 points on us. They continued to close the gap and thankfully our History buff Dave, helped us out as they were within 11. We got the last 9 points to get it back to 20 but I knew something was going to be up the last day so I wasn't as confident as I had been.

Made my first drink back in the room and then went to Sports Trivia in the Piano Bar. Talk about obscure questions :eek:. I think I only got 11 right and came no where near winning. Went back to the room to get ready for dinner and fortunately had no wait tonight (it sounded like the Steak House was a popular choice this evening)

[MsMot]

Of all the questions, there were 2 we didn’t even get a point for – a man doing a split was one – all guys flat out refused, even Chris. None of these guys are flexible, I tell ya…

 

The other one was for a piercing below the neck. Out of all of us, no one had even a navel ring. Of course we were all joking we could go up and say we had a piercing in a place we couldn’t show – but none of us were that brave.

 

 

Then it came time for the big round…

 

A man in women’s clothes and a woman in man’s clothes – obviously from the same team.

 

Chris and Lauren immediately hopped up and began stripping down to undies and swapping – hilarious! (And may I add I was relieved Lauren was there who had no qualms about it!) Luckily both their clothes were easy to take off and put back on quickly, and they made it up there either first or second…

 

Unfortunately I don't have any shots of them both lined up there next to each other, but I love this one

 

 

Then came time for the finale… the girls in men’s clothes had to go back to their teams and leave the men up on stage… and each team was given 2 minutes to “accessorize” their man as best they could… we added purses, shoes, watches, Emily slathered some lip gloss on, I surrendered my engagement ring which he could barely fit on his pinky (thought some bling would help), my tiny feet shoes again, and my wristlet purse. To top it all off, we handed him a Bud Light. LOL.

 

 

Love those legs!

 

 

 

 

Then as if that mortification wasn’t enough, each guy had to do a catwalk across the stage and show off their goods. We were cheering the loudest for my baby!

 

Then the crowd had to cheer for each person in turn – and the top 3 were chosen by Chris, the entertainment staffer (too many Chris’s!) My Chris was selected 1st (He swears it's because he showed some leg LOL)

 

 

But alas, out of the top three, the final vote came down to the crowd, and the two other teams came in first – we still got points for 3rd place. Chris just couldn’t channel his inner RuPaul as well as the other 2 (which is probably a good thing)…

 

I'm sorry, I still think he's a hottie

OMG!!! I am at my desk laughing so hard that I have tears coming down my face. Bravo Chris!!! Honoarble mention, the guy who is rocking those black high heels.

[Anung Un Rama]

In place of the Didja Ever Escargo (due to the world wide shortage.....or so I'm told because I'd never touch that stuff) Cass started with the Ceviche marinated in lime juice (which we said was much better than snails :p)

 

 

Her main dish was the Chateaubriand with sauce Bearnaise. I had the Flat Iron Stake (looks like I should've ordered 2). Both were very good and I honestly wasn't that hungry so it worked out well.

 

 

 

I skipped dessert while she had the Diet New York Cheesecake. Sorry no picture for some reason.

 

Back to the room to get ready for the rest of the evening and found Froggy McNasty waiting for us. (I don't expect anyone to get that reference as it's from a punk band that even Cass hates)

 

[emjay]

Hey Cass and Chris, we are doing the same cruise in August. Love reading your reviews, great job, as always:) This is just such an addiction!!

Mary Jo

[Anung Un Rama]

Hey Cass and Chris, we are doing the same cruise in August. Love reading your reviews, great job, as always:) This is just such an addiction!!

 

Mary Jo

 

 

Thank you MJ:D

 

OK, I'm starving so I'm going to eat before finishing up. Be back later.