Prelude to a Cruise

[Astronomer]

Prelude to a Cruise – Introduction – Carnival Pride sailing June 25 2006

Hello all.

I am known ( or not known ) on the Cruise Critics boards as Astronomer.

As I am planning a rather long and wordy review for those that enjoy such things I thought an introduction might be in order.

My wife and I are 50 years old… ok Im 51 and she is only 50 and I am a big mean cradle robber. We were married in June of 1990 and are celebrating our 15th anniversary a year late. My wife and I had both been married before, our previous practice marriages were rather extensive, my wife has three children from hers and I have one from mine.

As you can imagine, and some of you probably have first hand knowledge, a second marriage with 4 children from previous marriages is not an easy proposition from any perspective. But love conquers all, and we made it through those tough years, we had a celebration in Las Vegas when the youngest of our children had turned 21. It was sort of a coming of age party It also helped that we really do have 4 wonderful children and I would not change a thing about any of them.

My wife is a teacher, in the 1st grade, something I simply could not do. I work in the IT field, the supervisor of a specialized help desk. We are people of modest means, we are not rich by any stretch of the imagination, and when we finally pass on we have plans to divide our credit card debt amongst our children. Ok it is not quite that bad, but we are people of very modest means.

We had a small windfall under very sad circumstances last year which I really don’t want to go into in this report. I diligently took some of it and gave it to mywife to pay off some of our debt or use any way she wanted, I bought a couple of absolutely necessary to live items, a flat screen monitor for my PC and some new eyepieces for my telescope, and set the rest aside to take my wife on an adventure.

I should say that nothing gives me more pleasure in life than taking my wife on an adventure. She is a trooper, she does not complain no matter how rough things may get, she enjoys history, and doing new things and experiences that she treasures, we both love meeting people. She means everything to me and I wouldn’t trade her for a truck load of gold. As my life mate, being able to get away with her somewhere are the times in life that I most look forward to.

We have done a lot of things together, but one thing we had never done, our kids have, some of our bothers and sisters have, many of our friend have, but we have never ever been on a Cruise. I decided that was the adventure I would like to take my wife on.

We had to wait as my wife had a surgery and a rather lengthily recovery last year, so I decided to book the cruise on the following summer. After 2 months of study, becoming a member of Curisecritics.com, I finally selected a Cruise.

Due to the time of year we needed to do this ( summer vacation for a teacher ) and the direction we wanted to go ( my wife and I had our honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta and we have always sworn that we would return some day ) the choice became obvious.

Fortunately everything I had ever read about the Carnival Pride was positive to me. I do realize there are many negative reviews out there, but most of them seemed kind of silly.

Some folks have written a negative review because of the weather, as if that was something Carnival could control, or they were upset because some of the other people on the ship. Sometimes it seemed that it was almost a “class” thing, which only made me laugh, at the ones upset of course.

Classical art? Right, there are a lot of nudes in classical art, something that would not offend my wife or I. A statue of David I would expect to be nude. Now if a statue of David was not nude I might be offended.

Carnival ships are Vegas-like? My wife and I enjoy Vegas we have a lot of fun when we go there.

There were reports of the waiters singing and entertaining when all the cruisers wanted to do was eat dinner.

What!?!?! Fun?!?!? On a Carnival ship?!?!? WHAT AN OUTRAGE!!!!!!!!

So I gladly booked the cruise and have never worried even once about the Pride as a ship or Carnival as the cruise line. I have had several people mention negative things about Carnival, I just smile and nod, it is literally the very last thing I am worried about.

I booked the cruise directly on Carnival’s website, something I will never do again. The reason I will never do this again has to do with CruiseCritics, but I will get into that later.

After booking the cruise on-line I finally saw that one thing that I am sure everyone wants to see. Every time I log on, I see that wonderful message saying “We cant wait to welcome you aboard your “Fun Ship” and above that the all important message…….

“352 days before your Cruise!”

( sigh )

The only way I was ever going to get past 352 days was to get involved somewhere with topics about cruising. Hence CruiseCritics.com and that Astronomer guy that has all kinds of opinions even though he has never ever been on a cruise.

Thank you all for putting up with me.

There I met online… MrPeteLi, SableRose, Coolestwife, BigDuck, longleggedcruiser, Timmysmom, and a host of others. Coolestwife almost made me change my login to remonortsA. The people I have met on Cruisecritics.com I am proud to consider friends. You are folks that I will never forget.

On some random post, I have no idea how far back or who it was, the widow of a retired military man mentioned that the military discount applied to her. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but then someone else mentioned that you didn’t have to be retired, that if you served in the military at some point and had an honorable discharge that it also applied. I served in the US Coast Guard from 1975-1979.

I called Carnival and spoke with a PVP who I am forbidden to name here. This PVP had no advantage in helping me at all, she does not have credit for my booking, I tried to change that but it didn’t work out. She has been so tremendously helpful that I cannot say enough about her. Any further cruising on Carnival I do will be with this PVP.

Needless to say, because of the time of our cruising, and the limited number of ships that go there at this time of the year for a 7 day run, and my insistence on booking a balcony stateroom, our cruise was fairly expensive. Due to our modest means I am not sure if we would be able to do this again for many years to come.

The military discount was big, over 20% of the entire cost of the cruise. I owe that PVP and particularly cruisecritics.com. Not that I am going to send you any of it, but thanks!!!

:D

I have learned on Cruise Critics things to pack that you would not normally take on a vacation.

A multiple plug extension cord

A power strip

A clear plastic over the door shoe holder

A pair of high power walkie talkies

Many dollars in gold coin for tipping locals

A car style air freshener for the bathroom

Post-it notes

A bungie cord ( or 2 )

Items to hide in your suitcase ( cough cough )

A door sign for other cruisecritics folks to sign

When and how and especially, what excursions to book

Ete.etc.etc

We don’t like to have every moment planned on an adventure, we know people that plan everything, in every detail far in advance, they can tell you what they will be doing in any given 10 min period a week ahead of time. This is as foreign to us as the Russian language, we prefer to take things as they come and explore for ourselves. Just because someone else did a particular thing, does not mean we need to do the exact same thing.

However we did decide to book 2 excursions, each of us would book one. So after much research, and diligence, I booked Randi’s Happy Horses in Maztlan. My wife had me book the Dolphin Swim in Puerto Vallarta.

We were set, now we just needed to prepare to go… check the website….. 295 days until your cruise

( sigh )

We decided we wanted to go to Long Beach the day before the Cruise, I used to be very familiar with Long Beach as the Ice Breaker I spent 2 years on was stationed there, having an Ice breaker stationed in Long Beach sounds insane until you consider that it would make trips to both the Arctic and Antarctic each year. The USCGC Burton Island, I believe that ship has been scrapped and turned into razor blades by now.

So….. where to stay in Long Beach, many people do the Queen Mary thing, and we thought we would probably visit that ship, but we decided we would stay that night at the Long Beach Coast hotel, I booked the Stay and Sail package so we had our parking already taken care of and I booked us in a Bay View room so we could watch our ship come in that morning. ( I am a very early riser ) We planned to drive to Long beach, a 6 hour drive from our house.

Once I finally got all that taken care of we were just about ready to go! I checked the website….. 251 days until your cruise

( sigh )

I have not actually purchased a pair of Walkie Talkies yet. I know there is a loud minority of people that hate the idea of people taking walkie talkies on a cruise but there are 2 points to consider here.

Number one, my wife and I are not telephone people, our kids have cell phones surgically attached to the side of their heads, Our children are also dismayed that my wife will turn off her cell phone when she is busy, they cannot imagine ever being so busy as to not have their cell phone on. My wife will turn it off even when she is gardening.

My brother has 2 phones and a pager on him at all times, and he is often dismayed at some of the annoying calls he receives. I have stated the obvious solution many times but that is totally unfathomable to him. It is nearly impossible to engage him in an uninterrupted activity for any length of time.

All I am saying here is that my wife and I own our technology, it does not own us.

That said, we would only use the walkie talkies to let the other one know where we were if they were trying to find us. I wake up anywhere from 4:30 am to 6am at the very latest no matter how late I stay up, no matter how much I have had to drink, It is just who I am. My wife can sleep in later, 8am even 9:30 am or later on some days, my daughters used to get up at the crack of noon.

Number one We are not chatty telephone people

Number two Do I really care if others are offended by my saying into a walkie talkie, “Im on the sun deck enjoying the majestic view dear” ( while looking at the ladies in the lounge chairs )?

The answer is no, I don’t care.

So…I am going to buy a pair of walkie-talkies…. what to buy?

Although we are not likely to use them for even 2 miles, I am barely wise enough to know the manufacturers are talking about 2 people standing on mountain peaks 2 miles apart with nothing in between them on days when there is no sun spot activity.

So, that means don’t get a cheeped out kids set, but I also don’t want to buy something complicated that will intimidate my wife into not using it.

I gravitated toward the Motorola talkabouts, and then gravitated away again. I settled on a pair of 49er communications 5 watt monsters for less than $100 for the set. Yes, it is true, I could have been Tim the tool man. “More power ugh!”

Then there is the reading of cruise reviews by others on Curisecritics.com. They are tasing me, I tell you they are teasing me on line, they know I still have a long time to wait, and they are teasing me!!!!

SableRose and ThatStangGuy appeared to have cherubs floating in front of them on their entire cruise throwing rose petals at their feet! The cruise line decided they were celebrities ( which they are in my heart ) and treated them as such. It is enough to drive you crazy.

What is even worse is when someone posts a review about having a great time on the Carnival Pride. ( Wennfred ) I take the words on the Carnival website to heart. It says “My Fun Ship”!!! These people are cruising on MY SHIP! Have they no decency?!?!?

Best thing to do is take another peak at the website – 214 days before your cruise.

( sigh )

For the last few months I have been sending my wife a Picture of the week via e-mail. Finding pictures turned out to be easy. I started by looking at Webshots, but later found that Google and Yahoo also had literally thousands of pictures of the Carnival Pride. I would copy and send her an occasional picture from people that posted them from Cruise critics.

I decided that Webshots was just too good of an idea, but I didn’t like their format very much. So I decided to look around at Picture Album services on the web. Many were free, but most of those had restrictions or expectations of those that posted there. I also wanted to allow people to make comments under pictures. I know a lot of people that use such services, Webshots, MyPhotoalbum, Shutterfly, even Kodak, and quite a few others. But I liked the format and versatility of Smugmug. So I have started arraigning our digital photos on-line. When we return I promise I will post our website and you will be able to see the picture there.

It is nice that now instead of printing hundreds of pictures for my family I can just point them to the website. I will also be posting the Cruise pictures there when I return. For small yearly fee I have our album site set up the way I like it.

Formal wear, I have gone back and forth on this in my mind a dozen times. I plan to attend both formal dinners on the Pride, I also plant to eat one evening at David’s which I will probably also wear formal ware t ( I realize it is not required, but it will make the occasion more special for my wife if I do, so I will )

I never understood the big deal with some guys about formal wear, I look forward to times when I will be dressing up to take my wife somewhere special.

So I own 1 nice dark suit, a couple of dress shirts and a few assorted ties. I also own a sports jacket but that just didn’t seem as appropriate.

I don’t mind wearing a Tux, my wife likes me wearing a tux, so … I am going to bring a Tux. Or…………….

Have a Tux waiting for me in my stateroom, Vito is going to be upset with me ( Vito is the guy I get my Tux’s from ) but that makes more sense to me. I don’t have to pack or unpack it, Just have a Tux waiting for me in the stateroom.

Sounds like a plan

Christmas has come and gone, had fun with the family, New years came and went, lost at our annual family poker night, but had fun anyway.

I own a video camera and I started playing around with a movie editing program on my computer, made a couple of DVD’s that had both stills and video. Bought a larger hard drive and started digitizing all the movies I have on MD tape from my video recorder.

My family has a history in film, my father had taught film and TV production at our local Jr college before he retired.

And idea has percolated into my brain about making a DVD of our adventure. I don’t want the recorder and camera to take up all my time, but I do want to take some video of the ship and of each other along with stills put in some titles and music and have a DVD that we can show ( or give ) to people about a first time cruise.

Looking forward to that.

I took a peek at the Carnival Website this morning. 151 days

This is all starting to feel real.

[momthecruisedirector]

Yowza.....what a great pre-cruise review! To fill your time while you are waiting for your cruise, you should start planning your next one....

[Astronomer]

Thanks

 

I am going to post Prelude part 2 about a week before the cruise, post a last prelude from the Pacific Coast Hotel.

 

We are really excited, and I love shareing stuff.

 

Been practicing on my PC to make better DVD's I want to do that up right when I return.

 

I had fun writting this so far, I just add to it every few weeks. :)

[SheilaInAL]

Wow! I really enjoyed reading that! With your attitude, you're going to have a blast on your cruise! Reading your review after you return from your cruise should be a hoot! I'm looking forward to it!

 

Have a great cruise (and I'm sure you will!)

[christinasreadytocruise]

That was such a good read. My husband is in the United States Coast Guard, and we are stationed up in "no mans land" in calais maine! iright smack on the Canadian border. Its not a cutter, but just a station. We've already been here for 3 1/2 years so we should only be here for another year or so and then he has to look into, and expect to get put on a cutter so he can get his sea time. Anyways, i didnt know about military discounts. We booked through travelocity which im not sure was a good thing or bad thing, so far all has gone smoothly but we'll see. And our final payment is coming out mid February, I may call Carnival and see if the discount applies to us still. Thanks for the great read. Hope you have an amazing cruise, we're counting down for our first one ever in May. The honeymoon we never got to have since hes was in A-school when we got married.

[habby]

What a perfect way to start my lunch hour! This was a great post. Looking forward to reading more.

 

Another poster has asked, "Why cruise?" After reading all the various answers, the best I saw was "You'll see!"

 

Best wishes

[coolestwife]

remonortsA!!!! I've been wondering where the heck you were!!!

Even though you were kind enough to send me a preview of your pre-review (???:p ), I still thouroughly enjoyed re-reading it. You have a way with words (like SableRose), that makes me feel like I'm experiencing your pre-cruise excitement right along with you guys.

Thank you!!!!:D

 

(look...116 days for me!!)

[bjr928]

Thank you for a terrific read!!! It was just what I needed to perk me up today! :) I can't wait to read more from you!

 

You are going to have the adventure of a lifetime! :D

[Astronomer]

Christinasreadytocruise

Drop what you are doing right this second..... sprint I tell you.... SPRINT to the nearest phone and call Carnival!!!!!

I called them after I had made a payment and got over 20% off, I don’t know how long this is available and .... here is the kicker.

I was told there are only a certain number of military discounts available for any given cruise, so the sooner you call them, the more likely you are to receive a discount. I have heard stories of up to 50% off the price, I only got around 20% but I am as happy as I could be about that. I called them 9 months before the cruise and got the discount.

To everyone else, I had a lot of fun writing this, and I am still writing it. I have been busy the last couple of months so have not posted a lot ( sorry coolestwife ) but I still browse the boards. But I am glad you enjoyed it, I plan to be just as wordy with the actual review.

My wife and I really are excited, we can hardly wait. She is a lot of fun to take to interesting places.

[Timmys_mom]

That was a great chapter 1! You realize that our expectations have now been set extremely high for the rest of the story.

 

I had no idea that CC was a hang-out for literary talents. Must be the new spell check. Give our best to your wife.

[christinasreadytocruise]

Christinasreadytocruise

 

Drop what you are doing right this second..... sprint I tell you.... SPRINT to the nearest phone and call Carnival!!!!!

 

I called them after I had made a payment and got over 20% off, I don’t know how long this is available and .... here is the kicker.

 

I was told there are only a certain number of military discounts available for any given cruise, so the sooner you call them, the more likely you are to receive a discount. I have heard stories of up to 50% off the price, I only got around 20% but I am as happy as I could be about that. I called them 9 months before the cruise and got the discount.

 

To everyone else, I had a lot of fun writing this, and I am still writing it. I have been busy the last couple of months so have not posted a lot ( sorry coolestwife ) but I still browse the boards. But I am glad you enjoyed it, I plan to be just as wordy with the actual review.

 

My wife and I really are excited, we can hardly wait. She is a lot of fun to take to interesting places.

 

:eek: looks like i posted a new thread on this for no reason!!! im getting right on it!! thanks sooo much!!

[Margienj]

Astronomer, I throughly enjoyed and can identify with you preview. I booked our cruise for this year about 1 month after last years cruise (same time of year). I have been counting down the days since then. I can't believe we are now at the 45 day mark. We did not book through Carnival but I still get the countdown welcome on their website. You just have to put in your booking number. We too are people of modest means. We have been on two cruises so far with Carnival (the Victory and the Legend). We are booked now on the Triumph. We too had a tragedy in our immediate family that has enabled us to afford these cruises. We are calling it our "family therapy". It's a means for us to redefine our family unit. Enjoy your trip and we look forward to future Pre-, Re-, and Post reviews. :)

[Astronomer]

Christinasreddytocruise

Post back here and let us know how it went. I had to fax them my drivers licence and my DD214 ( discharge papers ) I am sure they will have you send his drivers license and military ID as he is still in the service.

Tell him Semper Paratus! for me :D

( of course my wife thinks I mean something totally different than the Coast Guard means by that slogan ) :rolleyes:

[coolestwife]

Tell him Semper Paratus! for me :D

 

( of course my wife thinks I mean something totally different than the Coast Guard means by that slogan ) :rolleyes:

 

hmmmm.....your wife may be on to something:p ...

[christinasreadytocruise]

Christinasreadytocruise

 

Drop what you are doing right this second..... sprint I tell you.... SPRINT to the nearest phone and call Carnival!!!!!

 

I called them after I had made a payment and got over 20% off, I don’t know how long this is available and .... here is the kicker.

 

I was told there are only a certain number of military discounts available for any given cruise, so the sooner you call them, the more likely you are to receive a discount. I have heard stories of up to 50% off the price, I only got around 20% but I am as happy as I could be about that. I called them 9 months before the cruise and got the discount.

 

To everyone else, I had a lot of fun writing this, and I am still writing it. I have been busy the last couple of months so have not posted a lot ( sorry coolestwife ) but I still browse the boards. But I am glad you enjoyed it, I plan to be just as wordy with the actual review.

 

My wife and I really are excited, we can hardly wait. She is a lot of fun to take to interesting places.

 

well, unfortunately for me, you were right about them only having so many available discounts for each cruise. There were none left for my cruising date. No worries though, i'll just have to remember that for my next cruise. Aaanndd that can be used to convince my husband of spending the money to go on another.....you know, cuz of the awesome saving we're entitled to and all. lol i think once hes experienced his first cruise though he'll be hooked! And on the bright side, I got my workout in for the day during my sprint to the phone to call carnival, as per your instructions. :p so thanks much for the advice.

[Astronomer]

( sigh )

 

I am sorry, I do hope you have a great time though, and you kow we all want to hear about it when you get back :)

[Astronomer]

So Coolest wife. I see you figured out what Semper Paratus means :D

[Timmys_mom]

So Coolest wife. I see you figured out what Semper Paratus means :D

 

You're a man - goes without saying.

 

http://www.uscg.mil/sounds/sempara.html

[Astronomer]

So is Sable still around at all? Mr Pete Li?

 

I am really gald to be chatting with you two again.

[Timmys_mom]

Rosie is out there and reappears when called upon. She is really busy with work and "family expansion projects." Mr. Pete is still active. I see him pop into threads all the time.

 

I feel your pain - my countdown clock seems to be moving in the wrong direction. This cruise is just for my mom, my sister and me. A celebration of the start of a new phase of my life. Gotta look on the positive side of life, ya know!

[Sablerose]

*looks both ways*

 

Did someone say my name three times? :D

 

Hey Astronomer, that was a FABBO read and I can't wait to read part II and eventually the cruise review! I've got all the anticipation right along with you -- an awesome accomplishment.

 

Thank you so much for sharing all of that and for the kind mention. I can't wait to see/read more from you!!

[Astronomer]

Good to hear :D

Expansion projects eh? good for them!

I am thinking about what to write about over the next 4 months of waiting. thinking about covering my trepidations over the stateroom I selected and such. Still worried if I made the right choice or not. The last month will be fun as we gather stuff to get ready.

We have been doing pretty good, work has gotten crazy but looking forward to this Cruise keep us excited.

Still missing around with that DVD movie maker program, it is pretty powerful! What used to take us weeks to do in an editing room in film, I can do in an evening on the PC.

I’m anoyed at CoolestWife cause hers is a shorter wait than mine. She owes me a full report!!!!

I made a Roll Call post.. figured it was time to start that.

I can hardly wait.

[Astronomer]

LOL Speak fo the devil! There she is... congratulations, and thanks!

[jrmende63]

WOW! A nice pre-review! I am Julie ( jrmende63) I am going to Alaska in May for our 25th wedding anniversary. I have 106 days left...but after reading your pre- review it seems closer than ever! Esp since I have already started packing some things! I like the idea of renting a tux there on the ship. Will have to talk to hubster about that!

[Astronomer]

Thanks, my Brother did the Alsaka Cruise and had a great time!

 

I over pack, people will just have to get over it, but.. I do like the idea that I dont need to pack a Tux.

 

Down to 145 days now, we can hardly wait.

 

I have been having a lot of fun writting this.