A Carnival Pride review 7/14/06 - 7/23/06

[Icantdrv55]

I have finally gotten to the point where I can post a review of our trip on the Pride. My pictures are finally on the net and I will post a link to them below. Please bear with me as it may take me awhile to get reviews of each of the days finished. I am also including reviews of our days that we stayed in Long Beach as some people might be interested in our information about the Coast Hotel and other parts of Long Beach that we visited. Please enjoy, and if you have any comments or questions, feel free to share.

Link to Pictures:

http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j235/Icantdrv55/Cruise%20Trip%20July%2014th%20through%20July%2023rd%202006/

 

Day 1 – 7/14/06

We set out from our home in the early hours of Friday, July 14th. Our flight would take us from Rochester, NY to Chicago, IL. A nice porter at the Rochester airport helped us with our 5 suitcases, From Chicago we flew into LAX. During this flight and after it my wife(I will refer to her as Liz from now on) and I both came to the realization that it probably would have been easier to fly into Long Beach. If we do this trip again we probably will fly into Long Beach via Jet Blue. Anyway, we landed at LAX and got our luggage with relative ease. At this point we called our shuttle company, Karmel shuttle. The good news is that we had a 10 passenger van to ourselves for our trip to our hotel. The bad news would come later at the end of the trip regarding the shuttle. Basically not knowing how debarkation would work resulted in us getting off the ship about an hour earlier than our shuttle was scheduled to pick us up. I think if we would have used Super Shuttle or Prime Time Shuttle it would not have been a problem.

Anyhow, we arrived at the lovely Coast Hotel at around 1pm Pacific Time. Luckily our room was ready. We were in building 3, which is the building closest to the main building. We were in room 231. The only unfortunate thing was that our balcony faced the main building and not the waterfront. It was still a wonderful view and we enjoyed the balcony. A porter helped us with our bags once again. The room we were in was nice. It was a fairly large room and the bed was comfy. We settled into the room, ordered room service, and took a short nap. We then went for a swim in the pool at the hotel. We both really enjoyed the pool at The Coast. It had a beautiful view of the Long Beach area and was just really quite nice. The water was a comfortable temperature. I also noticed that you can order room service to the pool which is a nice feature. After some time at the pool we went back to the room and cleaned up. We had decided to explore the area a little bit and maybe get a bite to eat. We elected to use the Passport bus system to explore The Pike area of Long Beach area. If you want something to do in Long Beach while you are awaiting your cruise, go to this area. You will find something to do. There are restaurants, shops, a movie theatre, and an aquarium among other things. After walking through much of the area we decided to eat at Bubba Gump’s Restaurant. Normally we’d skip themed restaurants but we figured we’d give this one a shot. After a little bit of a wait our table was ready and we got called to be seated. The way they do it is they call your name and then put you in a line while they bus the tables. While in this line they play Forrest Gump trivia with you. We talked with the hostess who was very friendly and then got seated. We had decided on only having a few drinks and maybe a couple of appetizers then head back to the hotel to go to the bed because it was around 9pm local time or Midnight our time so we were on our last legs. I ordered a Mango-lada drink (think Pina-Colada except Mango flavored) and I think Liz had a Mai Tai. We both ordered appetizers although their regular food looked good. Liz’s food came out about 10-15 minutes after she ordered it. Mine followed maybe 5-10 minutes later. We really didn’t mind the short wait because we like to talk over dinner and we were recapping the day and our plans for the days following. It was at this point that our waitress came over and apologized profusely to us and said that she was going to comp my food for me. We told her we really didn’t mind but I think it just got her a little more worried. We both ordered a 2nd drink and started talking about how totally unnecessary the comping of my food was. It was a couple minutes after this that the manager of the restaurant came over to our table to apologize profusely for their service issues. Again we tried to reiterate that we didn’t mind the wait. She then informed us that she would comp our entire meal with the exception of the first two drinks that we ordered. We again told her that it was completely unnecessary. The more we said it though, the more we got the feeling that we thought that she thought we were complaining. A few minutes passed and our waitress came by and apologized again and wanted to check up on us. The manager stopped by once again to check back up on us. Finally the waitress brought us our check and apologized one final time. We then told her again that it was not necessary to do so. So what would have been about a $45-50 bill ended up being around $15. I paid the bill and tipped the waitress around $15.

We were ready to head back to the hotel after that experience. Not being too familiar with the bus system we decided to wait at the stop outside of the Aquarium. Unbeknownst to us the bus we needed to get back to the Coast does not make a stop there. One of the other drivers on a different route pointed this out and took us to a main stop where all the buses stop and pick up. We got the right bus there. A couple of tips about the buses.

1. The Hotel will provide you a map of the area with points of interest. This map was a little bit of help but did not really tell us where to pick the bus back up.

2. Pick up a map and bus schedule while on the bus, it is much more helpful and also has a schedule for the water taxi’s which are much easier to use during the day.

3. Note the letter on the electronic sign on the front of the bus. This will tell you the route that it goes. For instance the C bus, goes to the Queen Mary, The Coast Hotel, and a few other stops. Even though some of the data that you might get suggests that the color of the buses might also be a designation of which route they run on. This is NOT the case.

We got back to the hotel after midnight and fell fast asleep.

[Icantdrv55]

Day 2 – 7/15/06

We woke up somewhat early the next morning. I got washed up and waited for Liz to wash up. I sat on the balcony, listened to some music and read for about 30-40 minutes. After the debacle with the buses the night before we decided to use the water taxi’s to travel over to Shoreline village. The water taxi can be picked up right behind the hotel, near where the pool is. There is signage marking the entrance. Be careful though, the pier moves a little bit as you walk down it. We arrived at Shoreline Village sometime before 11am and found a little diner/restaurant called Kabo. We had breakfast, which was quite good. We walked around for awhile, looking in all the shops. It was quite warm out so we decided to head back to the hotel for a swim prior to our main activity for Day 2. We had about a 20 minute wait for the water taxi so we went in the hat shop. We looked around in there for awhile, but did not really find anything. We were about to give up when I found the Tilley hat stand. Tilley makes extremely durable hats. You’ll see me wearing mine in several of the pictures from the cruise. If anyone is interested I can provide you a link to their website. The other remarkable note about their hats is that they make them in larger sizes. The hats are fitted and I need a bit of a larger sized hat, an 8 ¾ to be exact.

We got back to the hotel shortly thereafter. The water taxi goes to different stops, so I managed to get a nice picture of the Queen Mary. When we got back to The Coast there was a wedding that was just starting. We went up to our room and changed into our swimsuits. It was kinda amusing to walk right by all these nicely dressed folks in our swimsuits, but what can you do. We hung out in the pool for around an hour or so and then got ready for the event that caused this trip in the first place. We had been invited to a wedding for a couple that we know from California. Liz knows them from an Internet site that she visits. Their marriage took place at a place called Sunsets on the Beach, which is located somewhere on E. Ocean Blvd. It was a beautiful ceremony and a fun reception. The Mai Tai’s were flowing and they had a Luau style wedding & reception complete with band and dancers. We had a lot of fun at the wedding. Check out the photos if you want to.

[Icantdrv55]

Day 3 – 7/16/06

We made it to the day of embarkation. I took a quick walk outside and saw the Pride for the first time. I took a picture or two from the grounds of the hotel as the morning haze began lifting off of Long Beach. We started out the morning by going to the hotel restaurant for breakfast buffet. The food was pretty good and we ate heartily. From what I recall there was scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, fruit, and some pastries. It was a good value and was filling. Afterwards we decided to inquire with the front desk about transportation to the cruise terminal. It was at this point that we found out that when we booked the hotel that we should have booked the stay & sail package which would have the transportation to the cruise terminal included. I had booked the hotel through an online service so I was not aware of that package. As luck would have it though, the woman at the desk directed us to speak to the guy running the shuttle. He kindly booked us on the shuttle to leave the hotel at around 12:30. We had a couple of hours prior to the shuttle departure so we relaxed in the room. I took some pictures of the room. We checked out of the hotel and took the shuttle over to the drop off point at cruise terminal. We waited a few minutes as a porter came over with a large cart and stacked our bags onto it. We walked through the drop-off area and settled into the line outside the building just before 1pm. The line outside moved swiftly and we quickly approached the dome building. We entered the building and soon discovered the lack of AC in this building. It was a sauna and was slightly uncomfortable. We were placed in another line, which was to go through security. The line moved slowly and most people seemed unprepared for the security check. We made it past the security and entered another line where we would essentially “check in” and arrange the payment for our sign & sail cards.

We made it through the first part of the gauntlet and the end was near. We posed for a horrible picture in front of faux Mexican scenery, which would have been nice except that we had just left the sauna bath in the security section of the building. We traveled up an escalator and soon were crossing a gangway to the ship. There was a 2nd photo op at the beginning of the gangway but we ducked around that and took our own embarkation photos. We got to the ship and they swiped our S&S cards for the first time. It’s at this point that they take a digital image of you to link you with your card. They directed people towards the left and the elevators and lunch on the 9th floor. We take in the view from the 3rd and 2nd floors of the atrium, the bar with jazz trio, and the trio of glass elevators. It is an amazing sight and one to behold. It is very impressive. We went to the purser’s desk to check about reservations at David’s. They told us just to call David’s from our room. We decide to first check out our home away from home for the week. Upon first glance the room is relatively nice. We really enjoyed the spaciousness of our room at The Coast and this is anything but that. However, the room is extremely functional. The rooms were still being worked and luggage was still being delivered on the stateroom floors so we dropped off my backpack and made our way up to the Lido deck in search of lunch.

I very much enjoyed the food that they had available on the Lido deck the entire cruise. Having heard so much about their pizza, I decided to give it a shot that first day. I decided on the Chevre pizza, which had mushrooms and goat cheese on it. Liz had a veggie type pizza that also was delicious. We tried out deserts from the desert station and they were quite good. During lunch a waiter came by with the first of the drinks of the day. The first one was red in color but I can not remember its name or what was in it. It was quite good though.

We sat at lunch 30-40 minutes and decided to head back down to the cabin to get settled. We unpacked our luggage which all had arrived by the time we finished lunch. We awaited the muster drill. Having never done one of these drills before, I did not really know what to expect. I know it’s a necessity to do but the life jackets were uncomfortable. It was over soon enough and Liz and I went back to the cabin to relax and await the ship’s sail away from Long Beach. The ship soon started moving while we were in the cabin and we had not even realized it at first. We then felt some movement and went out to the balcony. A curious moment occurred as we left the harbor. A man in a boat pulled along side the cruise ship. We were not sure why this was happening but this did not bother the Coast Guard. The boat got closer and closer to the side of the ship to the point that it was right next to the ship. A man then jumped from Deck A of the ship to the boat. I am not sure what the purpose of this was but it sure was dangerous. I’ve since been told that he was probably a harbor pilot. We explored the ship since we had some time before our late seating for dinner. We in particular found the Sunset Garden area very nice and relaxing. We checked out the pool decks and just kinda walked around to get an idea of how the ship was mapped out. We got ready for dinner and then went down to the Taj Mahal for the “Welcome Aboard Show”. It was okay, the performer’s are very talented. We went to dinner after the show and met two of our table mates for the week, John and Melanie. They were newlyweds and extremely friendly. It was a pleasure having them at the table with us. Our other table mates Dustin and Ashlynn were not seen by us until Thursday but they were equally nice and had extremely hearty appetites for dinner. After dinner we went to the Starry Nights lounge and Liz impressed all with her karaoke prowess. She sung Sweet Child Of Mine, the Sheryl Crow version and New York State of Mind, by Billy Joel. After the karaoke we turned in for the night as we both were exhausted.

Stay tuned for Days 4 & 5, they'll be posted in the next couple of days.

[Icantdrv55]

Day 4 – 7/17/06

 

Monday on the ship was a pretty humdrum day for us. We had put out the room service tag the night before and our breakfast was delivered sometime around 8:30 or so. It was pretty good for standard continental breakfast fare. Afterwards we made our way up to Mermaid’s Grille for some hot breakfast food. We walked around for a while trying to decide if we wanted to participate in any of the activities. I thought about playing volleyball but thought better of it as I did not want to risk injury. I think we decided on just catching some sun and maybe testing the pool waters for the afternoon. The sun was nice but the pool water was quite cold and the children were constantly bouncing from pool to hot tub. We elected to explore a little bit after we had been out in the sun for an hour or so and found the hot tub in the gym totally vacant. We spent some time in there and chatted with some nice folks who ventured in from the frustrating experience of the two Mid Lido deck pools (The aft pool was closed til Friday). We went and got ready for formal night dinner shortly after leaving the gym.

We took our time getting ready and made it for the end of the Captain’s Cocktail Party. This event was in the Taj Mahal. It seemed to be a nice event. They invited folks to go up on the stage and dance to the band. This seemed kind of “Lawrence Welk-ish” but the people seemed to have a good time. The captain and his officers were introduced and then we were klnda dismissed to go to dinner. Dinner was, as always extremely good. During the two formal nights they had cameras setup between the Taj Mahal and the dining room. Most of them had backdrops where they would take pictures of you that you could later purchase. We elected to wait until the 2nd formal night to have any done. On both of the nights they also had cameramen roaming the dining room to take pictures of people.

Following dinner we made our way back up to our room. Where we discovered our first towel animal. We changed out of our formal clothes, into more comfortable attire and took in the Midnight comedy show featuring Stanley Ullman. He was somewhat amusing and provided us with some laughs. This closed out our day.

[Icantdrv55]

won't let me delete

[Icantdrv55]

Day 5 – 7/18/06

 

Was pretty much more of the same. It was kind of like Day 4 continued. We decided to mostly just play games and go to afternoon Tea. We played Scene It, which was a lot of fun and we helped our team to victory. We have the game at home so we are well schooled in how to play. Shortly thereafter we went to Tea, which was okay. The foods they served were good and I highly recommend the activity for someone who wants a relaxing activity. Shortly after that we went and played Win, Lose, or Draw. While this could have been a lot of fun, it turned out to be a complete and utter mess of a game. I think the problem occurred because it is meant for maybe like 6-8 people at most and we had 20.

For the rest of the day we lounged around and did not do much of anything until dinner. Dinner was at David’s on Tuesday evening. We had made our reservation almost immediately upon getting onto the ship. An envelope with our confirmation made it to our room on Monday. One noteworthy thing about the confirmation that we received. On it stated that the dress attire was casual for the evening. Upon arriving at David’s we discovered that this was not the case. We both were caught by surprise by this. We most certainly would have dressed up a little more than we had. To their credit the staff at David’s served us nonetheless. The dinner was nothing short of great and well worth the extra $60. For an appetizer I had the sushi, which was great. Liz had the ceviche appetizer. She had a Caesar salad and I had a mushroom and bacon salad. We both ordered the 24 oz steak, which was great. We both also had the trio of chocolate deserts. The menu at David’s reminded me very much of Les Halles, a steakhouse in New York. This was exemplified by the fact that they had a French onion soup modeled after the soup at Les Halles. The meal was wonderful though and I would recommend it to anyone as it is a step up from the already impressive dining that you encounter in normal dining room.

After dinner we took a short walk on the deck and found it to be slightly windy and cold. We decided at this point to turn in for the evening. We totally skipped out on any of the evening activities. Including the deck party and the comedy show that they had in the showroom. I guess for the most part, both of us were really anticipating our time in Puerto Vallarta and wanted to be well rested for our excursion the next morning.

[Icantdrv55]

Sorry for the delay, here's Day 6.

 

Day 6 – 7/19/06 – Puerto Vallarta

 

We had a fairly early start to our day in Puerto Vallarta. It really did not affect us all that much because we still felt as if we were on East Coast time. The excursion that we had decided on was the day sail & snorkel. This excursion was booked through the ship and we found the value of it to be well worth it. Just a quick note, our tickets for the excursion were left in our room a couple of days prior to arriving in PV. We disembarked and were put through the gauntlet of photographers that Carnival had setup on the pier. One amusing photo opportunity occurred with the live parrot that they had there. They would place the parrot on each persons shoulder and take a picture. The parrot though that my Tilley hat might be edible so, it tried take a bite out of the hat. Needless to say we had to buy those photos. I will eventually have to scan those in and post them with the rest of my photos.

After we made it through the photos we discovered where the excursions met up. There were people holding signs up for all of the different offered excursions through the ship. We simply had to find the person with the sign for ours and wait for everyone else on the excursion to show up for it. We had disembarked a little early so we to wait a little bit. On a little side note I decided not to bring my digital camera with me on this excursion because I feared that it might get wet. We did bring some waterproof single use cameras with us, but have not developed the film yet. We then walked around the marina area to a dock where a motorized boat was used as transport to transport us to the sailboat that we would be on for the day. We got onto the sailboat a short time later and used the engine to leave the port. For all of the morning the engine was in use because there was very little breeze to warrant the use of the sails. As we were motoring along and moved away from the port, the water became much clearer and we became able to see sea life in the water. The sailboat came up to what I imagine was a known dolphin feeding area and stopped and we were able to observe the dolphins as they fed. After a short time observing these dolphins they took us on to another location where more dolphins were feeding. We also observed one jump out of the water, which was pretty cool to see.

Throughout the day we were continually offered food and beverages. To start the day we were given a fruit salad which was absolutely delicious. Cold beverages were also offered throughout the sail, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. A short time later, platters with tortilla chips and a couple of different salsa type dips were given out. Again the food was really good and enjoyed by most. [/size]

A short time later we pulled into the bay where we would spend a little bit of time swimming and snorkeling. The water was beautiful and full of sea life. We tried to take some pictures with the cameras we brought with us. I do not know if they will come out all that well, but we shall see. The beach area was slightly rocky so I didn’t explore all to much of it. I mostly just enjoyed the swim. When we would get back on the boat they would rinse the salt water off of us. I though it was a nice touch.

While we were swimming lunch had been prepared for us. It consisted of some salads, deli meats, and cheese. It was pretty tasty. We relaxed in the bay while having lunch. After having lunch, they pulled up anchor and prepared for using the sails. They set off for what remained of our time on the excursion. The rest of the time was so relaxing. They provided us with more beverages and we just took in the scenery and relaxed. They gave everyone the option of helping with the sailing (you could steer the ship if you wanted to). I preferred to just lay back and take it all in. It was probably one of the best times that I had on the vacation thus far. I know some people may question the thought of getting off the Pride and just getting onto another boat for the day. I questioned it too when I booked it (primarily it was because Liz really wanted to do it). At the end of day when I looked back on it and when I look back on it now, it was one of the best experiences that we had on the entire trip. The unfortunate portion of it was that it had to end. They got us back into port by around 3pm. We went back onto the ship got cleaned up and took a bit of a break.

Because the ship leaves PV at such a late time we decided to go out in the late afternoon and explore the town. We took a cab for $5 per person down to Malecon and walked the boardwalk for a while. We went into a lot of shops and just looked around. We didn’t really see anything that struck as something we wanted to purchase. We made it down to the end of the boardwalk near where Hooters is. They had a little flea market setup in the area below the Hooters. There really wasn’t much of anything there. He decided to walk back up the street and find a restaurant to eat at. We walked a couple of blocks up and found one that looked good. It was Las Palomas. We enjoyed the food and watched the sunset from our table inside the restaurant. A man with sombrero came by during our meal and offered to take pictures with us wearing the giant sombrero. A short time later he came back wanting to sell the photos to us. We were able to work him down to $10 for both. After we left the restaurant we walked up the street a little further. We had decided to get a cab back to the ship. While we were walking we came upon the Hard Rock. I went inside to see if I could find a T-shirt for my brother. They had one that I thought he would like (a Bruce Springsteen one) and made the purchase. We exited found a cab and went back to the ship.

We went back to the room and decided to take a swim in the pool. We changed into our suits and headed up to the ninth floor. The aft pool was still closed so were forced to swim with some kids. There was a slight threat of rain in the distance so we new our time in the pool was going to be short. However, kids being kids they kept getting out and then jumping in. Causing quite a lot of splashing, which was annoying due to water being of the salt variety. I decided to take the law into my own hands and teach the kids a valuable lesson. I got out of the pool myself and did my own cannonball back in. It caused a huge splash as well as a huge wake, which took the kids for a surprise. Needless to say they did not jump again while I was in the pool. A short time later we exited the pool due to the impending storm coming our way. I believe we got some soft serve and headed back to the room to hang out. By the time we got back to the room the rain was coming down in buckets. You could see the lightning in the distance and the thunder was booming. It was at about 9:15ish so the last of the stragglers were coming aboard. It was amusing to see them running along the pier to get back to the ship. I’m sure that was not a fun way for them to end their visit in PV. A short time later the ship moved away from the dock and started on its way to Mazatlan. Shortly after that we turned in for the evening anticipating the day that we would have in Mazatlan.

[ZanieOR]

Am enjoying your review and all its details, as will be cruising on the Pride in October. Hope you continue soon. Question: Did they say why the aft pool (the adult only one, isn't it) was closed?

[pacerzfan]

Thanks for the review Icantdrv.

[Icantdrv55]

Am enjoying your review and all its details, as will be cruising on the Pride in October. Hope you continue soon. Question: Did they say why the aft pool (the adult only one, isn't it) was closed?

 

I should have Mazatlan up in the next day or so.

 

The aft pool was closed at the time of our cruise because they were working on installing the new slide. They actually reopened the aft pool for us on 7/21/06. Unfortunately that was the only day we got any use out of it. The temperature dipped down quite a bit and made the pool cold. I believe everything, including the slide has opened back up on a permanent basis since our cruise.

[Icantdrv55]

Day 7 – 7/20/06 – Mazatlan

 

Mazatlan was a port that we were really looking forward to. After reading several positive reviews of one particular excursion, we decided to book the excursion. The excursion was with Mazatlan Frank. Before I say anything else, I want to say that he did not disappoint. The tour we went on with him was probably one of the best things we did on this entire trip. One note about this excursion, this was not booked through the cruise ship. We elected to use him after reading so many positive things about him on Cruise Critic. I know many people are concerned about booking things not affiliated with the cruise line but he really took good care of us and I never felt in any danger.

Because we were the first people to book with him on this date we were given the choice of which tour to take with him. We had initially chosen the City & Colonial tour. When a 2nd group wanted to book with him they informed him that they would prefer the City & Resort Tour. He contacted us and asked us if we would mind the changing the tour to this one instead. After much thought we decided to allow the change. Our thought in doing this was that doing the City tour would be more than enough and enjoying a relaxing afternoon at a Hotel resort might actually be nice. So on to the tour and the rest of our day.

We arrived into port and got ready for our day. The nice thing about Mazatlan is that you have plenty of time in the port without the pressure of leaving the ship too early. They open the port at 9:00am so it was kind of nice to relax. We got off the ship and went through the obligatory disembarkation photos. It’s at this point where you need to take a tram from where the ship docks to the port. The port of Mazatlan is actually a huge shipping port so they take you to where the actual port building is by tram. We walked through the port building, which is mainly a place for customs for when you get back on the ship and a few shops. Once we made it through that building we arrived into an open air market area. This is where all the tour people wait to greet their customers or try and solicit business for the day. Frank was waiting for us here with a sign that had our last name on it as well as two other family names. Just as a note since it is a popular tour, Randi from Randi’s Happy Horses is also waiting here for her customers. Since we were one of the first people off the ship we had a little bit of time to wait for the other groups to arrive. One showed shortly after we did and the other showed a short time later. In the meantime we looked around at some of the shops that lined this little marketplace. We found a handbag for my sister. The other group showed and we were off on our tour of Mazatlan with Frank.

In the case of this tour we used a ten-person van, which was full to capacity. The van was fully air conditioned and Frank had it setup with a microphone system where he could talk while driving pointing various points of interest out to us. The first stop he took us to one of the highest points in the city. We could overlook the entire area. I actually got a nice picture of the Pride in port from here. Many people were also up here selling various souvenirs and whatnot. We actually found a nicely hand carved wood otter that we decided to purchase. We bargained with the guy and actually lowered his price down $10. It now sits in our living room and can be used as a weapon. One other note about this area, there was a gentleman with his pet iguana who was allowing pictures to be taken. He was kind enough to take a picture of us holding the iguana.

Our next stop was the Cathedral. The Cathedral is absolutely gorgeous. One noteworthy thing about it are the Star of David’s in all of the windows. Apparently the story goes that there was anonymous family that donated a huge sum of money to the church. As a tribute to them, the church put those stars in the windows. It was around this time that the heat started to get to me a little bit. We went down the street to a market and purchased some bottle water to try and help. After taking many pictures of the cathedral we got back into the van and headed for our next destination.

One of the featured tourist destinations of Mazatlan is the cliff divers. If you have looked at the pictures that I have included you can see where they dive. Essentially they will do this for any tour group that shows up. All they required from us was a dollar apiece. So the guy dove in for what amounted to $10. It was amazing to watch but I find it amazing that they do this. I snagged another bottle of water at this stop, which made me feel much better. My fluids were probably way down at this stage and drinking the amount of water I did helped immensely.

I do not remember the exact order of the next few things that we did but I will mention them. One of the things we did was a stop at a shopping area. Frank elected not to take us to the same shopping area that all of the other tours take the tourists to but instead took us a bit off the beaten path. The shops he took us to had a variety of merchandise, including jewelry, clothing, and breakable type items. We elected to buy some very cool Christmas ornaments that we had found. They are very unique to say the least.

One of the stops he took us to was Old Town Mazatlan. It is a very neat area. Essentially it is a part of Mazatlan that is being rebuilt after years of neglect. The neighborhood looks very arty and the area looked very peaceful and is definitely going through revitalization. One final area he took us to was the El Cid area. There are resorts and whatnot in the area, as well as some residences. It is a very beautiful area of Mazatlan with expensive real estate.

After the tour portion of the excursion was completed Frank took us to the Hotel Playa Mazatlan. It is a very beautiful Hotel that had no less than 3 swimming pools that I saw. It sits on the ocean and has a nice beach to relax on. Many people where down on the beach or swimming in the ocean. The first part of our visit there was to actually have lunch. The food there was great. Lunch consisted of two drinks, an appetizer, and an entrée. There was quite a bit of variety in the food. The kids that were on the tour mostly played it safe and stuck with chicken fingers and burgers and whatnot. There was the option to have Mexican fare though and the food was quite good. After the lunch we changed into our swimsuits and decided to try out one of the pools. Because the temperature of the air was so hot it reflected in the temperature of the pools being extremely warm. We stayed in the pool for a little while but really did not see much benefit in staying in there for too long. We definitely would have stayed in longer if the pools were not as warm. However, there is not much you could do to prevent that. Liz and I changed back into our regular clothes and hung out in an air-conditioned portion of the Hotel and just hung out for another 40 minutes or so.

The other families straggled back from their adventures and everyone seemed happy with their choice in excursion. We loaded back into the van for the ride back to the cruise ship. All the while Frank continued to point out little things about Mazatlan. I found their boardwalk to be neat. They had several sculptures on the boardwalk as tributes to certain people or events. It was very cool to see. Eventually we made it back to the port and it was a reminder that all good things must come to an end. We paid Frank for the wonderful tour, including a tip of course, and bade him farewell. He is a wonderful gentleman and cannot thank him enough for an awesome tour. We walked through the port area that now seemed more open that it did before. There was a bar that was open and music playing. It seemed like a fun place where people might just hang out after a tour or if they just made it this far off the ship.

We went back to the ship and realized that it was only 4pm. We were thankful that we elected for late seating for dinner. We took a little break and then headed up to the near empty Lido deck for a swim. We weren’t in the pool for too long when one of the kids that was in the pool wandered up to me and asked me to do another cannonball like the one I had done yesterday. Apparently I had grown a reputation. I declined because the pool was full of mostly adults who would not appreciate the cannonball. We spent a little bit of time in the hot tub with some other folks who were enjoying the near emptiness of the pool area until shortly before dinner. We went to dinner, had yet another wonderful meal and conversation with our table mates and then turned in for the evening. Cabo awaited us tomorrow.

[kuJhawk]

Was this the cruise that had a power loss on the way to Cabo?

 

I was on the 7/30 cruise on the Pride, it was a gerat experience! I can't wait to do it again!

 

When we were in Mazatlan, we did the Randy's happy horses, and she recomended mazatlan frank for a tour of the Pacifico Brewery, did Frank mention anythign about that tour?

[Icantdrv55]

Was this the cruise that had a power loss on the way to Cabo?

 

I was on the 7/30 cruise on the Pride, it was a gerat experience! I can't wait to do it again!

 

When we were in Mazatlan, we did the Randy's happy horses, and she recomended mazatlan frank for a tour of the Pacifico Brewery, did Frank mention anythign about that tour?

 

I did not notice a power loss on the way to Cabo. There was a huge Thunder and Lightning storm in PV but nothing on the way to Cabo.

 

The cruise was great. I would probably do it again, but not during the summer months. It was way too hot for someone who is used to the cooler weather in the northeastern US.

 

I am aware of the Pacifico Brewery tour that he offers. I'm not sure entirely if he mentioned it. After sampling more than a few Pacificos I think we would probably enjoy the tour. We are planning on visiting Mazatlan again someday soon so that will definitely be in our plans. He did mention Pacifico and the history of the company. Per his website he offers a tour that also includes a hilights version of his city tour and the brewery.

[SunnieD]

On your tour of Mazatlan, did you encounter any breathtaking views of the coast or waterfalls, etc?? We are looking for a place to renew our vows here next March.:)

[Icantdrv55]

On your tour of Mazatlan, did you encounter any breathtaking views of the coast or waterfalls, etc?? We are looking for a place to renew our vows here next March.:)

 

I do not recall any waterfalls. Mazatlan is a very beautiful area. There were many breathtaking views of the coast. What I would do is maybe contact Mazatlan Frank in the Mazatlan information thread in the Mexican Riviera forum on this web board. He could probably recommend several places for you to renew your vows better than I could.

[candigirl41]

I am really enjoying your review. I was on the Pride in 2004 and loved it.

We did Randi's Happy Horses 3 years ina row. Glad you had a great cruise.

 

Candi

[Icantdrv55]

Day 8 – 7/21/06 – Cabo San Lucas

Cabo was really a port that I was looking forward to. If my screen name doesn’t clue you in, I am a big fan of Sammy Hagar. With his night club empire being based here I could not wait to experience Cabo. This port had the earliest arrival time of the 3 ports. We didn’t have any excursion plans set for this port so we took our time getting ready for the day. While waiting for Liz to get ready I took some photos of Lands End and the rest of the port from the ship. Once she was ready, which was maybe around 8:30 or 9ish we made our way to where they were loading the tender boats. There was virtually no wait for the tender so we began the short ride into the marina area.

We arrived into port and took the obligatory photos. Curiously enough one of them was with a stuffed animal iguana. We both found it ironic considering we had pictures taken with a real one the previous day. There was a short walk through some temporary stores that they setup specifically for the cruise tourists and then we were deluged by people offering all sorts of different tours. I had expressed an interest in taking a glass bottom boat tour to Lands End. We negotiated a $10 per person fare for a tour with one of the many groups offering such tours at the pier and they took us to the boat that we would take. While Carnival does not recommend participating in such excursions I didn’t find it that unsafe. We had to wait a little while for them to get a few more passengers for the boat. It was at this time that we discovered one problem with Cabo in July. It is incredibly hot and humid. It got to the point where it was actually uncomfortable. Eventually a group of 4 arrived. Luckily one of them was well versed in Spanish and asked the person running the tour to stop at a convenience store that is located in a different spot in the marina. It was here that I picked up a couple of large bottles of water.

We made our way out to Lands End. The water out this way was somewhat choppy and I can understand why the cruise line may try and dissuade people from these tours. However, this area is quite beautiful and has to be seen to be believed. The people on the boat with us had arranged to be dropped off at Lovers Beach for a morning of snorkeling. The water here is crystal clear and has to make for some awesome snorkeling. My wife and I had thought about doing this prior to leaving the cruise ship but elected not to. After seeing the Lovers Beach area we mildly regretted that decision. There were two things that made us feel good about our decision though. While the one group got off of the boat, a group that was on the beach got on. The amount of work that it took for them to get back on the ship was almost comical. It was very difficult for several of them to climb back aboard. The second factor was the heat. We determined we were better off going into the town, doing the tourist thing, and then getting back on board the comfortable cruise ship.

After picking up the family at Lovers Beach the glass bottom boat headed back into port. Just one quick note about the glass in the glass bottom boat, it was actually somewhat useful when we stopped in some locations. You could actually see the fishes swimming underneath the boat. I did realize though that I could also look over the side of the boat and see the same exact thing. The water was that clear. When we got back into port we actually docked into a different location than where we initially got on the boat. We were all headed into town, so the pilot actually was kind enough to let us off on a dock closer to the main portion of town.

One of our plans for Cabo was to pick up some T-shirts and such for our family. So we went to a couple of shops and found some stuff we thought they would like. One place that we checked out was the Del Sol store. While I was kind of opposed to actually visiting one of the Cruise line recommended shops I found that they had some really cool shirts and whatnot and we bought several gifts at their shop here. While walking around we went to a few other smaller shops off the beaten path and found some good bargains. After we were done with the shopping we made our way to the Cabo Wabo.

The visit to the Cabo Wabo was very nice. I think we arrived at a good time(sometime around 11 or 12). We had decided to eat lunch there and there were several tables available. We both ordered a Waborita and enjoyed them. Liz switched to Pacifico after the first Waborita simply because she prefers beer over tequila. I had one more Waborita and switched to Pacifico myself. On a hot day the beer was very refreshing. We ordered some shrimp that were just fantastic. We both order the Waburrito with chicken, which was very good but did not look pretty. See the pictures for what I am referring to. We found the service to be extremely friendly, attentive, and fun. There were a couple of birthdays being celebrated and they did shots where they poured the shots into the people’s mouths. Overall it was a good experience. On our way out of the dining area we overheard that the wait was nearly an hour for a table. It was definitely worth the wait. We went down to the souvenir shop, where Liz bought me a Cabo Wabo Hawaiian shirt. I bought myself a few t-shirts and mini bottle of their Resposado. This bottle was more for my collection than to drink. One unfortunate note about the shirts at the store, they had some really cool Cabo Wabo short sleeve button down shirts. They had two different ones available. One of them was black and the other red. They both had a trim of tequila bottles along the bottom. Unfortunately they had neither in a size that would even come close to fitting.

We moved on from the Cabo Wabo and a bought a few more gifts for family. After that we elected to finish our extremely hot day in Cabo. We walked back to the marina and hopped back onto the tender. Several other people were also headed back early from their day in Cabo. It seemed like the heat got to them. It was quite the relief to get back onto the ship and feel the comforting air conditioning. Liz and I went back to the room and relaxed for a little while. She decided to take a bit of a nap so I went and did some exploring. Earlier prior to going to Cabo I had discovered that there was a Jacuzzi on what looked like the 3rd or 4th deck all the way to the front of the ship. I walked around on those floors seeing if there was some sort of entrance to this area. I could not find any and can only guess that the Jacuzzi and deck area is for some of the crew only. In the rest of my travels around the ship I discovered that the aft pool deck was finally open. There were already a few people hanging out here and most of them had a sense of relief that they could hang out in the pool or whatnot without having to worry about the kids.

Shortly thereafter I arrived back in the cabin to let Liz know of the wonderful news about the aft pool. Needless to say we finished out our time in Cabo hanging out in the pool with a bunch of other adults who were very happy about being able to swim in peace. It was a great way to close out part of the day.

The second major activity of the day was the 2nd formal night of the cruise. For one of many times on this cruise we were thankful to have the late dinner seating. It afforded us to have many relaxing hours prior to getting ready. We had decided that we would get several formal pictures done, since we had skipped out on doing this on the first formal night. We ended up buying 3 or 4 of the ones we had done. We had yet another great dinner with our dining companions.

After dinner we elected to change into more casual attire. We were kind of undecided on what activities we would participate in for the late evening. One possibility was a late night comedy show. The other option was to view the late night gala buffet prior to consumption. We elected to walk through the dining room and view all the different foods they had prepared for the buffet. The buffet was impressive and looked good. The walk through the dining room also afforded me the opportunity to take some more detailed photos of the dining room. We had finished walking through the buffet and sat down in the lounge area. There was still around 40 minutes prior to when they would allow us in to eat the buffet. It was this amount of time coupled with the fact that we had just finished dinner and the fact that we were exhausted from our day in Cabo that we skipped eating at the buffet and went to bed instead.

[SunnieD]

Great Review!! It makes me look forward to it even more! Only 187 more days;) !

[Icantdrv55]

Great Review!! It makes me look forward to it even more! Only 187 more days;) !

 

Thanks. I still have the last two days of our trip left and I'll try and get those done soon. I know the travel home day isn't that important but there are a few tidbits that I'd like to mention about that and the aftermath of our cruise. I will include some little bits of info that didn't really fit into my review on that last day.

[tickles]

All this is really great as I will be on the Pride the end of November and we are sooo looking forward to it. I am sure the weather will not be as hot but still pretty warm at least once we get there. Can't wait to hear some more!!;)

[Icantdrv55]

Day 9 – 7/22/06

Our final day at sea was a mostly relaxing day. We actually slept in somewhat due to the late night that we had the night before. I did forget one detail about the previous evening. We did actually go see the Vroom show at the showroom. My wife really liked it, while I found it to be fairly typical. That coupled with my wife not feeling all that well made for a somewhat quiet day at sea. We went for breakfast up at the Mermaid Grille. Afterwards my wife made her way back down to her room and I went on a bit of exploration of the ship.

The first stop was at the aft pool deck. I wanted to check and see how the water was in the pool since it was so beautiful the previous day. Needless to say, the temperature had dipped quite significantly and the water was very much too cold to be in. Several people were frequenting the hot tub but I really was not up for the hot tub.

I went to check out our formal pictures and found that I really liked quite a few of them. When Liz was able to we would come back later and possibly purchase some of them. I walked through the whole gallery looking at many of the photos that we had elected to pass on earlier. I still didn’t find any of them worth buying. The formal ones were nice, but I wanted Liz to see them before we made a decision on them.

After walking through the gallery I went to the debarkation meeting. They started it out by playing a video of some of the people, places, and events that occurred on the cruise. I think it amounted to a commercial to entice folks to buy the cruise video. I wasn’t all that interested in it, as they played the highlights of it on the TV nearly every day and I never saw us at any of the events that they videotaped. I was able to make a video out of the pictures I took though after the cruise. I put them onto a DVD, set music to them, and was able to play it for my family who actually enjoyed seeing our vacation this way.

Back to the meeting, in a nice touch they introduced some of the behind the scenes crew that you would rarely see. This included room stewards, dining room staff, and various other people you’d never notice. Chris, the cruise director then began explaining the disembarkation process. He went over the customs forms and how to fill them out. He also discussed early disembarkation. Basically they allowed anyone with a flight prior to 2pm to disembark early. The only thing you needed to do was to go to the purser’s desk and show them proof of your early flight. An itinerary printout sufficed. The person at the desk gave me enough tags to put on all of our luggage and exchange for the ones we received with our tickets for the cruise. Everyone would be required to put their luggage outside their door between 8pm and 11pm so the handlers could get it off the ship in a timely manner. If you wanted to walk off the ship with your luggage you also had that option.

The meeting finished and I went to the purser’s desk to get the replacement tags for the luggage. I received those took them back up to the room. Liz was still napping so I elected to grab a book I was reading and my discman. I went to the aft pool deck and read for awhile but it was still a bit chilly up there so I found an indoor place to sit and read.

A short time later I came back to the room and we commenced packing. It was a bit of arduous process but it felt good to get it done well ahead of time and not have to worry about it right before or right after dinner. We really just relaxed for the rest of the day. At some point we headed back down to look at the formal pictures. We decided to buy 3 or 4 of the ones that we were really happy with. I took some detailed pictures of the room and its features. Then it was finally time for dinner.

We were short one couple for dinner on the final day at sea. One of the couples we sat with elected to eat at David’s. I’m sure they had a good time with it. Nonetheless, dinner was still fantastic. On this night it seemed like everyone in the dining room was much more casual than any of the previous evenings. The dinner was great as usual, but also kind of sad in a way. We were able to get a nice picture with our wait staff, Carmelo & Plamena who were absolutely phenomenal. The dining room staff performed a final song for us and with that dinner was over with.

We decided to turn in for the evening at this point and skip the “talent show”. We had a long day ahead of us and needed the rest.

[Icantdrv55]

Day 10 – 7/23/06 – The final day

I woke up this final day on the ship and ventured out to our balcony to watch us come back into port in Long Beach on a hazy Sunday morning. I grabbed the camera and took a couple of pictures before the battery died on the camera (unfortunately I forgot to charge it). I got washed up and took a final walk around the ship which already seemed like a ghost town. There were a few maintenance workers prepping areas of the ship for the next group of passengers, but it was mostly void of passengers. I went up to deck 10 and watched as many trucks came to the port to deliver the next weeks worth of food to the ship for consumption.

I headed back down to the cabin to await going to the Taj Mahal showroom for early disembarkation. Liz and I took one last look around the room to make sure we had everything and left 6186 for the final time on this cruise. We took the elevator down to the 2nd floor and took some final pictures of the atrium area. With very few people around and some nice lighting I finally got some decent photos of this area.

We went to the Taj Mahal and awaited the sign that we could leave. After awhile they took us to the exit and swiped our S&S cards for the last time. We went through customs with very little effort and headed downstairs to find our bags. The bags were found easily and I called our shuttle service to let them know we were off the ship. This was probably one instance where we made a mistake and probably should have used one company instead of another. The company we chose was extremely strict about the times on the reservations. If we had chosen a different one, I do not think we would have had this problem. The shuttle company we booked had us scheduled to be picked up at 9:30am and would not show up early. We were off the ship by 8am. All the while other shuttle company’s like Primetime and Supershuttle had multiple shuttles at the terminal and just seemed like they had a master sheet of people on their list that they would put on a shuttle based on when the people arrived. I think the volume of the shuttles they had available for return to LAX made both of these companies look more attractive than the one we used. After waiting an hour and a half (not exaggerating) our shuttle finally showed up. We had a 1pm flight home and made it back home just before midnight, eastern time. The trip was over and we slept very well.

The Aftermath

We had quite a adventure after our cruise. Liz started getting sick towards the end of the cruise and I must have caught what she had shortly afterwards. The Monday after our cruise we woke up and both of us felt horrible. Both of us had stomach issues and fevers that actually took us to the emergency room. My stomach did not feel right until maybe 2-3 weeks after the cruise. I am guessing that we caught some sort of virus while onboard. The one thing it does do for me after the fact is that it reinforces the idea behind preventative maintenance. If I learned anything it is to wash your hands regularly and use hand sanitizer regularly. You can control your environment and keep yourself clean. However, you can not control the cleanliness of the environment, the food handlers, or your fellow passengers. Also be sure to drink plenty of fluids while on board. You do not want to become dehydrated.

Some final notes

These notes didn’t really fit into my review so I’ll put them here.

• In documenting our trip I wanted to take a lot of pictures of the ship. I found good times to do this were in the mornings while Liz was getting ready for the day or when we had just got back from a port. It seemed like during these times much of the ship goes into an almost sleep mode where there isn’t a lot going on and I didn’t have to worry about people getting in the way of my pictures.
  
• I also felt like that the late seating for dinner was the best choice for us. It allowed us to come back from some of the ports and relax prior to getting ready for dinner. The pools were often open and void of anybody during these times.
  
• The hot tub in the gym is not used a lot. I walked by it several times and there was never anybody using it.
  
• I’m sure this occurs on every cruise itinerary but I wish the “shopping expert” would feature more than just jewelry in his discussions about shopping in port. By the end of the cruise I was sick of hearing how great the same diamond & tanzanite stores are in each of the ports. Did I forget to mention they play his shopping talk on repeat on the television? We like to shop, but we would have preferred to hear about some unique stores to shop at. Thankfully Mazatlan Frank took us to a shopping area that gave us the best of all worlds.
  
• For this particular cruise I would probably look into flying into Long Beach instead if it is possible. In speaking with many people it seems like it is easier than flying in and out of LAX.
  
• While I enjoyed the ports on this cruise I found that I didn’t like being on the ship for so long at the beginning of the cruise. In particular the almost 2.5 days prior to arriving in Puerto Vallarta seemed to be a bit much to me. I think it might just be the kind of person I am, in that I don’t generally drink a lot and that I don’t gamble that maybe caused this. We did participate in some of the activities but I didn’t find that too many of them piqued my interest. I don’t really think that there is a fix for this particular cruise though. Considering the distance between Long Beach and the ports there probably is not much you could do for this. I suppose if they had the cruise out of San Diego instead it would not be this way and they could likely add in one more port to boot.
  
• One thing that surprised me was the movement of the ship. People have often told me that on a cruise ship you do not feel the movement at all. I found this not to be true. I pretty much felt it throughout the cruise, especially on the lower decks of the ship. I did feel it on the higher decks though too. Speaking with several other people on the ship they felt the same thing. My only thought on this is that it might possibly be a Pacific Ocean thing.
  
• I would not recommend doing this cruise in July unless your schedule dictates a necessity to travel only during the summer. The temperatures between November and April are more than warm enough according to several people. July was extremely hot and humid.
  
• Do not let Carnival or anyone else cause you to be fearful of using other excursion sources than theirs. Use this web board as a resource to find excursions that fit your needs. Yes we did do a Carnival excursion and it was wonderful. However, our other excursions were not made through the cruise line. We used recommendations from here to make our best judgment on those other excursions.
  
• One more thought. I have to hand it to the crew of this ship. They did a wonderful job and overall I was happy with the cruise. Our room steward and dining room attendants were phenomenal and extremely attendant to our needs. Yes, there are some things that I didn’t like or things that occurred after the cruise that weren’t pleasant, but overall this cruise was great. I enjoyed it and would definitely do it again. We are even considering visiting Mazatlan again, as it was our favorite of the ports