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Swodog94's Eastern Caribbean Cruise on PRIDE 23-30 Oct 16: A Review and Pictures

swodog94

By swodog94,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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swodog94

swodog94

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BLUF: Swodog94 and Mrs. Swodog sailed to the Eastern Caribbean (Grand Turk/Half Moon Cay/ Freeport) on Carnival Pride out of Baltimore from 23-30 October 16. It was a great cruise!

 

A few years ago, when I was about to go on my first commercial cruise, I discovered Cruise Critic. It answered a lot of my questions and provided me with quite a few insights on what to do (and what not to do) on a cruise ship. I also found that folks wrote reviews about their cruises…and some folks really pulled the stops out and attached pictures and videos, and basically made you feel like you there with them as part of the family. This will be my first attempt at that type of review. I apologize in advance if it bores some of you. I also apologize for my pictures; I am not a professional photographer, nor am I an amateur who enjoys taking pictures. I’m just a guy with digital camera, and some of these shots may be out of focus, over bright, under-lighted, off center, or just plain bad. Sorry.

 

INTRO

 

So before we get started with the meat of the review, here’s a little bit about who we are. I am a career Surface Warfare Officer in the US Navy. I have spent my adult life going to sea on cruisers and destroyers and have experienced some of the best liberty ports the world has to offer (and a bunch of not-so-good ones, too). Sadly, my days of being “haze gray and underway” have come to end, and the only thing I’m driving now is a desk on the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, DC. Mrs. Swodog, aka The Wife, aka Wifey, aka Ye Olde Ball n Chain (I don’t really call her that and when she reads this she’s going to smack me!) is an event director for a large non-profit in Baltimore. Together, we’d been on three cruises in the past, and this would be our fourth. She’s susceptible to motion sickness, so I was pleasantly surprised when she took to cruising like a duck to water (provided she’s got her trusty scopalomine patch) .

 

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swodog94

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Pre-Cruise Planning

 

With full schedules through the summer and into the fall, we realized that this year we would have to wait until October to vacation. I’m a planner and spent the majority of my naval career in Operations, so if you ask me to “show me our vacation options” it’s second nature for me to build a Powerpoint presentation. I’m not going to bore you by attaching it here. We considered Disney World, Cancun, Atlantis, Vegas, and cruises. Suffice it to say that after sitting through my brilliant slide show, my wife decided she preferred a cruise! Lucky for me, that’s what I wanted, too.

 

Next I was tasked with picking a cruise. Back to the Powerpoint drawing board! As I stated earlier, we had cruised before, with all three cruises sailing out of Baltimore. We live between Baltimore and DC, so these cruises were very convenient for us. This time we decided to look further afield. The previous summer we had driven to Orlando for a Disney vacation, so we knew we could do that drive in a reasonable manner, and therefore we expanded our search to Port Canaveral. New York, Norfolk and Charleston were also options but were quickly eliminated due to various factors. So it was either Port Canaveral or our home port of Baltimore. That narrowed the choices to either Royal Caribbean (RCCL) or Carnival. The we looked at what ports we wanted to visit. We had previously done Bermuda, Port Canaveral, Nassau, and Freeport, so we didn’t necessarily want to repeat any of those. The wife had expressed interest in Cozumel and other places with pretty beaches and bright blue water. So after a bit of research, and several Powerpoint slides later, we had narrowed it down to two choices:

 

1. Carnival Magic (Port Canaveral)

- Sea Day

- Cozumel

- Belize

-Mahogany Bay

- Costa Maya

- Sea Day

 

2. Carnival Pride (Baltimore)

- Sea Day

- Sea Day

- Grand Turk

- Half Moon Cay

- Freeport

- Sea Day

 

Costs for the two cruises were pretty comparable, and I had enough air miles and hotel points to bring down the cost of flying or driving to FL to a pretty low level. That meant the only factor remaining was the 16 hours or so it would take to physically drive to PC. In the end, we decided to take the easy choice and just cruise out of Baltimore. Carnival Pride it was!

 

We had cruised on Pride twice before, but the previous time was three years prior. But Pride had undergone the Fun 2.0 upgrade in 2014, and we felt like it would be like cruising on a different ship. I was very excited to try Guy’s Burger Joint, the Blue Iguana Burrito’s, new water slides, Red Frog Pub, Alchemy Bar, and more! I called our PVP and booked our cruise!

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swodog94

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Waiting

 

Having booked the cruise about 60 days out, we now had two months of waiting ahead of us. Two months of checking Cruise Critic daily, reading reviews and trying to decide what we wanted to do on this cruise. We had never been to Grand Turk or Half Moon Cay, so I began to research things to do there. After reading some in depth reviews by folks like Jamman and Mitsugirly, I decided to book cabanas for both Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay. The cabana at GT was easy to book, but 60 days away from sailing, all the HMC cabanas were sold out. Drat! Freeport we had previously visited and we really didn’t care that much for it, so we planned on just playing it by ear…maybe beach, maybe shopping, maybe brewery.

 

Then, three weeks before our cruise, disaster struck! Hurricane Matthew plowed through the Caribbean and passed right over the Bahamas. Freeport in particular took a vicious hit, and we soon learned that ships would not be going there for a few weeks at least, maybe even months! In the meantime, cruises up and down the east coast were affected. We watched Pride sail north instead of south for a couple of weeks, but as our sailing date of 23 October got closer, Pride resumed normal service. However, Freeport was still out of service, and we received an email a couple days before we sailed informing us that we would not go to there; instead, we would have an extra sea. Fine with me, I just needed to budget more money for my bar tab!

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swodog94

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Embarkation Day

 

The day has finally come! Embarkation Day! We live in Odenton, MD, which is located between Baltimore and Washington, DC. This means that we are 25-30 minutes from the cruise terminal. Baltimore went to the Staggered Check In system a few months ago, so I picked the 11:30-12:00 window. This way we could get on board early, have a leisurely lunch on the Lido before most people are on board and then unpack and settle in to our cabin. We left home at 10:45 and all was on track…until the wife told me we had to stop and buy bug spray (Zika? What Zika?) and sunscreen. Really? Now? Well, there was no choice, but luckily there’s a Harris Teeter grocery store right across from the cruise terminal. Easy, I’ll just run in, buy the stuff, and we’ll be there in plenty of time, right? Not so fast, my friend! Harris Teeter is packed full of Sunday shoppers and Pride crewmembers using the free WiFi. So we don’t get into the line of traffic waiting to go into the cruise terminal area until almost noon. But now we’re almost there and can see the ship!

 

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As we get in to the parking lot and wait to offload our luggage we can see the new water slides!

 

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Check In Process

 

As I mentioned earlier, Baltimore uses Staggered Check In. Our slot was supposed to be 11:30-12:00, but we didn’t get to the port until almost Noon! However, that turned out to be less of a problem than we thought! We got in the line of cars and waited to drop off our luggage. The porters will unload your bags from your car and put them on the luggage trolleys that will take them to the ship. While it’s not “required”, make sure you tip them, it will be appreciated (our two bags were very heavy, so I gave the guys $5). After you drop your luggage off you now drive and get in line to pay for parking. They take cash and credit cards, but I recommend bringing cash (have exact change!) because that will speed things up. Once you pay you go find a parking spot and walk to the terminal building. We booked an Ocean Suite so we had Priority Boarding and Faster to the Fun, so when we walked up to Security I asked the attendant there if there was a Priority line through Security; there was! We got in a very short line and were quickly going through the screening process. Carnival allows each adult in the stateroom to bring a 750ml bottle of wine, so we had one apiece. We also had eight small cans of soda. All of these passed through Security with no issues.

 

Once we cleared Security we looked for the Priority Check In area. In 2013, it had been its own separate room, but this time it was just the last two desks along the long check in counter. The very nice lady there quickly got us checked in, gave us our Sail and Sign cards, and directed us to the boarding area. By the time we walked up, the first group was boarding (folks in wheelchairs, scooters, walkers and others who need extra time and assistance). And then it was our turn!

 

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A few months ago Pride ran into the boarding gantry, rendering it inoperable. It’s still not working. To board, they have put together a series of CONEX boxes to form a tunnel. You walk down this “tunnel” and board the ship via the hatch onto A Deck.

 

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We are officially on board! Our vacation has officially begun!:D

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Embarkation (Cont.)

 

Well, now that we are finally on board, we go looking for our stateroom. We're in Ocean Suite 6203, which is located on the starboard side. We find our cabin, and it's ready! We drop off our carry on's and head to the Lido for lunch. All this activity has left me parched, and I grab the first waiter I find carrying a tray of Drink's of the Day. It doesn't feel like the cruise has really started until I have an umbrella drink in my hand!:D

 

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Ever since I booked this cruise I have been looking forward to having my first Guy's burger. We get in line for my appointment with deliciousness.

 

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Aaaah! Decisions, decisions! They all look good.

 

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I decide to go with the "Straight Up" burger and fries. It is yummy and everything I'd hoped for. It will not be the last of these I have this cruise!

 

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swodog94

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Thank you for your service! My son just contracted as EOD and leaves soon. As you can tell we are just a little proud! We wanted SEAL, we lost... EOD it is :o

 

I'd give you the standard line about "I'd trade places with him in a minute"... but those EOD guys are crazy! Best of luck to him!

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YazzyJ

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Ok folks, it's almost 1:00am, I've watched the Cubs achieve their historic victory, and I'm tired. I'll continue this review tomorrow. I hope you're enjoying it so far. Next up: Stateroom Tour and Sailaway!

 

 

Great Win for the Cubs, I stayed out celebrating past 2am and now I'm very tired at work!!

Cant wait for the rest of your review I will be on the pride on Dec 11th.

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Adge01

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We leave this Sunday out of Baltimore on the Pride. Thanks for the pics and description of embarkation, I was curious of the process with the gangway out of commission. Looking forward to reading more of your cruise.

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swodog94

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We leave this Sunday out of Baltimore on the Pride. Thanks for the pics and description of embarkation, I was curious of the process with the gangway out of commission. Looking forward to reading more of your cruise.

 

You're welcome! One thing I forgot to mention was that the entire process - from when we got in line to enter the port until we stepped on the ship - was about one hour. Let me know if you have any other specific questions about check in.

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