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

[hannahsmomtoo]

ok I simply can NOT work until I know the announcement !!!!!! :eek:

[All4fun&fun4all]

. (I was worthless as my alligator-length arms could barely touch water over the sides of the inner tube!)

 

I busted out laughing at this one. I have those arms too but I call mine my Cee-Lo arms.

 

Ex. "Will you help me reach this bowl off the top shelf? I cant quite reach it with these tiny little Cee-Lo arms" :D

[DEBnGAB]

Guess I know who we're teaming up with for the Quest in November!! :p

[ardnassac79]

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.

 

Yeah we just did our own thing in Nassau the first time we went in 2009, and Chris was also disappointed we couldn't get to the areas he went to for free way back in 2002.

 

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!

 

Feel free to nab some pictures! Glad we got Tim in some of them for you :D

[jabberjaw070596]

ok I simply can NOT work until I know the announcement !!!!!! :eek:

Me Either!! :)

[Jim&JaneFromWV]

Thanks for the great review. We're on the same cruise on 7/22.

We love leaving from Baltimore.

This our first time on the Pride.... Really looking forward to it!!!

 

Thanks again!

[cruisecrazy82]

LOVE your reviews!!!! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your memories!!! :D

[Anung Un Rama]

ok I simply can NOT work until I know the announcement !!!!!! :eek:

 

Don't worry, it's coming. If Cass can finish up tonight I'll be sure to post the surprise when she's done.

 

Guess I know who we're teaming up with for the Quest in November!! :p

 

Oh I don't know about that :o. I was glad we won so I wouldn't feel compelled to do it again.

[ardnassac79]

I busted out laughing at this one. I have those arms too but I call mine my Cee-Lo arms.

 

Ex. "Will you help me reach this bowl off the top shelf? I cant quite reach it with these tiny little Cee-Lo arms" :D

 

I have to do that all the time! We keep a pen on top of the fridge to add stuff to the grocery list throughout the week, and it's not unusual to first see my blindly groping around for it, followed by jumping up and down to figure out where it went. 'tis the life of a shorty :p

 

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.

 

Actually I think that's who got 1st among the three of them... he did pretty good waltzing around in those puppies too!

 

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

 

Hey Mary Jo!! Have fun in August!! You got that right about the addiction part!

[jnmcruise]

great review again! You both know how to tell a great story!

and yes Carnival needs to hire you to do travel review for them.

 

 

btw, does anyone know which month the Pride is going into drydock next year? we want to do the Pride again since we are only 2 1/2 hours away and had a blast last summer on her.!

[Anung Un Rama]

Our Let It Ride table was empty so we decided to kill some time with video poker in the sports bar (if you're wondering why we spend so much time in there instead of at slots at the casino, it's because there's no smoking in the sports bar). Chris and Lauren found us and since it was about a half hour before the first new comedian (they swapped in Nassau but there had been no comedy the previous 2 nights) we went down to Butterflies early. It was a good thing too because it was already crowded and the only seat for 4 we could find was off to the side. The first comedian, Jim Brick, was very funny. It was almost more improv than anything because he mainly just made fun of certain members of the audience (and why I refuse to sit up front for any comedy show).

We got a couple drinks (any drink over $10 gets a stamp for a 'match play' card from the casino, the same ones you get for the Carnival Classics anywhere on the ship), and went back to the casino until the late comedy show. We played Let It Ride for a bit (while I was at the table a woman won a BMW at the slots!!!) but Cass wasn't feeling it so she cashed in some receipts and we went to Roulette to play our cards. She did well and decided to try her luck at the table. While she waited to get her own colored chips she plopped down a $5 chip on 27 (my favorite number) which I told her was silly.......BAZINGA!!! 27 hits and she won a quick $175 and was as giddy as a school girl at a Twilight convention. I grabbed the winnings and cashed out while she played with the rest of her chips.

I saw Mike over at the Tower of Cash which is relatively new and it looked pretty easy :rolleyes:. I put in $9 and made it to the last ring 6 times (if you hit the last ring you can win $1000 or $500 and an iPad). Me and that machine were not done yet.

[Anung Un Rama]

great review again! You both know how to tell a great story!

and yes Carnival needs to hire you to do travel review for them.

 

 

btw, does anyone know which month the Pride is going into drydock next year? we want to do the Pride again since we are only 2 1/2 hours away and had a blast last summer on her.!

 

Thank you :o

 

I'm pretty sure it goes into dry dock late Oct/early November. There should be a 2 week window with no cruises in that time frame. We were thinking of doing a late November cruise for her birthday next year if airfare remains so high.

[Crusin Karen]

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!

 

First, forgive me. I usually don't BARGE IN on reviews so much :o:o but "I invented" a really great coffee drink a very long time ago :p Grab a tall plastic glass from the bar on Lido and a straw. Go to the coffee machine and put a bit of ice in a regular juice glass. Fill the tall glass about 1/3-1/2 with coffee, take it to the ice cream station and put some vanilla soft serve in and swirl it around so it melts most of the way, then put the ice cubes in and top with chocolate soft serve. Swirl it all together for a delish coffee drink. Course, if you happened to have a thimblefull of Kahlua, Amaretta or Baileys with you, the experience would be all the better. :D ENJOY! :)

[Anung Un Rama]

We went back to Butterflies Lounge 20 minutes before the last show and wow, standing room only. We were fortunate and good a good spot at the back with a drink rail that we could lean on.

 

 

 

Larry Omaha was the 2nd comedian tonight...........................................................................

Sorry, I was taught that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. He wasn't funny. He wasn't crude or f bombing all over the place to make some people uncomfortable. He just wasn't funny. Kind of disappointing but whatever, they can't all be good.

 

We hung around in the casino for a bit (stupid Tower of Cash :mad:) before calling it a night around 1:30.

[Anung Un Rama]

First, forgive me. I usually don't BARGE IN on reviews so much :o:o but "I invented" a really great coffee drink a very long time ago :p Grab a tall plastic glass from the bar on Lido and a straw. Go to the coffee machine and put a bit of ice in a regular juice glass. Fill the tall glass about 1/3-1/2 with coffee, take it to the ice cream station and put some vanilla soft serve in and swirl it around so it melts most of the way, then put the ice cubes in and top with chocolate soft serve. Swirl it all together for a delish coffee drink. Course, if you happened to have a thimblefull of Kahlua, Amaretta or Baileys with you, the experience would be all the better. :D ENJOY! :)

 

OK, yours sounds much better :D

[jeschwartz82]

this is a great review! thank you so much for taking the time to post it.

 

i will be cruising on the pride in 115 days, and your review just makes me all the more impatient! :)

[silvercrikhix]

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

Great idea, you heady couple! JK, I think you'd be a lovely couple to represent the whole package Carnival offers. That is if you two could still fit your giant heads through all the doorways! LOL

[Anung Un Rama]

Great idea, you heady couple! JK, I think you'd be a lovely couple to represent the whole package Carnival offers. That is if you two could still fit your giant heads through all the doorways! LOL

 

Honestly, it would probably suck all the fun out of cruising. If it felt like a job I don't know that I'd be able to enjoy the experience.

 

I just know that the 10 day Breeze review is sounding daunting already. Talk about picture heavy (especially with 3 new ports for us). But that's why I have my Fire, for taking notes :D

[Anung Un Rama]

Saturday - Fun Day at Sea

Well I'm going to get started on the last day so Cass has less to do tonight (I'm kind of bored at work anyway :o). This day is always bitter sweet. You know it's the last day on board but you don't want to be down and let it ruin 1/7th of the vacation.

We slept in til around 9 and went to Lido for breakfast. We never hit the MDR for breakfast because what's the point? It's basically the same food without the masses of people. We never had a problem finding a spot to sit and eat so it wasn't a big deal to us. We could tell that today was going to be bright and sunny and the Serenity area was already packed. Glad to say virtually no chair hogs. I'm assuming the few chairs that had just towels belonged to those in the pool or hot tub.

Still a little too early to sun for us so I stopped in the gift shop and got my 2 bottles of Captain Morgan Private Stock. We noticed a Sci-Fi Trivia in the Fun Times and thought I might do ok. Jaime walked by us and Bruce gave her a hard time for not announcing trivia. She was on the intercom a few minutes later and gave us all a shout out which I'm sure most of the people on the ship thought was weird. I didn't do so good on the trivia (I guess I'm not a big a dork as I thought :o).

Went back to the room and then made our way to the top deck that we love. Deserted once again :D. More people ended up finding their way up there closer to noon but it was still pretty quiet. I was quite surprised to see our very own CD, Jaime, come up there for some quiet sunning time. It was nice to know that she at least gets a half hour during the day to relax. We actually ran into her an hour later and she came up to us and introduced herself. I was kind of sad that we didn't have a chance to interact with her more because she seems like a really nice lady and is probably my 2nd favorite CD so far (Karl with a K #1).

[Anung Un Rama]

We went to the Lido grill for lunch and contemplated doing The Hunt is On game. Last year only 2 couples did it and we could've easily won our ship on a stick but we found a good table and decided we'd be spectators for this one. So this game is pretty funny to watch, it's kind of a PG rated The Quest with teams of 2.

 

 

Chris from the entertainment staff was hosting and when he saw me he asked why we weren't playing. I said there wasn't enough cross dressing to get me interested :p

 

Cass wanted to do the final slot tournament of the week but since finals were set for 10 minutes before the final round of Super Trivia, I passed. Her machine was not lucky.....at all. In fact it was so bad that Bunnie (Casino Host) laughed when she saw her score. Bunnie had been a dealer, a great dealer in fact, on our 2010 Pride cruise. We had said hi to her earlier in the week and were always greeted with a smile whenever she saw us. So feeling bad for Cass, Bunnie hailed a waited and told him that we could order anything we wanted from the bar. I wasn't quite ready for a drink but who am I to turn down free booze?

 

 

I put another $5 into The Tower of Cash and got close 3 more times.

 

My white whale

 

[Anung Un Rama]

So it was finally time for our 4th and final round of Super Trivia. We had a decent lead of 20 but I know there's always some sort of bonus the last day (I was expecting every roll to be doubled like on the Liberty). We got our first 3 questions right and the ladies could only get points from free rolls. Before I knew it we upped our lead to 40. It didn't get any better for them and by the time all was said and done, we had won by a resounding 49 points :D.

 

 

This is where I was actually disappointed. Only the team captain got a prize. That seems pretty crappy to me as there were several guys that had shown up for all 4 rounds. I gave the bottle of champagne to our History buff Dave and the ship on a stick to our new friend Chris. The bragging rights for the next 6 months was enough of a prize for me ;)

 

We stayed for 80's trivia and me and Lauren ended up with a 5 way tie for first. There was a 5 question bonus round and one guy got 4 points while me and Lauren actually tied for 2nd with only 2. We then had a bonus question for 2nd and it was very close but the crowd sided with her because.......well she's quite pretty. I couldn't fault them becuase I would've done the same thing :o

[ardnassac79]

We stayed for 80's trivia and me and Lauren ended up with a 5 way tie for first. There was a 5 question bonus round and one guy got 4 points while me and Lauren actually tied for 2nd with only 2. We then had a bonus question for 2nd and it was very close but the crowd sided with her because.......well she's quite pretty. I couldn't fault them becuase I would've done the same thing :o

 

It could also be the crowd sided with her because she clearly slapped Uncle Brucie's (the entertainment guy) hand first :rolleyes: :p ;)

[Anung Un Rama]

Now we hadn't seen anything earlier in the week about the Fun Farewell Party (yep you know where this is going) but there was something in the Fun Times called 'Farewell Set with Showband' at 5pm. I wasn't sure what this was but it was the closest thing and figured they just changed the name. We all know that isn't what happened and they have in fact cancelled the Fun Farewell Party and free drinks that go along with it. I won't lie, it's pretty disappointing.

 

So we made our way down to the Sushi bar and I grabbed us all seats since I don't do sea food.

 

 

As Lauren is going for one of the sauces, the entire side tray collapses and everything goes everywhere. It was rather funny from where I was but as Cass and Lauren were right there, they were a little more startled. We parted ways to get ready for dinner and meet up with them for a table for four at 6:45.

 

 

All week we had been asked if we wanted to sit together with another couple instead of waiting so we figured we'd have no problem with a table for 4. Wrong, another long wait and we were finally seated around 7:10. I was ready and waiting for some Bacon Macaroni and Cheese!!!! Cass got the Crabcake app and a small portion of the BMC. I skipped an app and got the regular sized BMC.

 

 

 

 

As you can see, my portion wasn't much bigger than the smaller on but that's OK because I forgot how filling it is and it kept me from over eating. But this is the one time I have to complain about the food and I hate that it was the BMC. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't exactly warm. Seriously, 15 seconds in the microwave and it would've been fine. A little let down for one of my favorite dishes but again, the only complaint in a weeks worth of MDR meals.

[Anung Un Rama]

It could also be the crowd sided with her because she clearly slapped Uncle Brucie's (the entertainment guy) hand first :rolleyes: :p ;)

 

Don't bother me with details :p

[luv2gocruzin]

Chris, WHAT is that on top of the macaroni, besides the bacon slice???