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Live from the Carnival Pride repositioning cruise thru the Panama Canal

lnew1gd1

By lnew1gd1,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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lnew1gd1

lnew1gd1

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Hi all, having a great time. I know this is a few days late since we are on our second sea day. Here it is finally.

 

Live from the Carnival Pride Repositioning Cruise thru the Panama Canal.

Day 1.

Embarkation from Long Beach, Ca. was OK. We were delayed due to Homeland Security holding up the boarding process. We were very near to the front of the line after doing early check in at the Queen Mary. Still didn’t get on board until 1PM. A Wedding party was getting a little anxious due to the fact that they boarded late and it was cutting into their reception time.

The cabins weren’t quite ready but the stewards left us put our carry-ons in the cabin and we went to lunch in Mermaids Grill on the Lido deck. It was the usual embarkation day packed and tables were hard to find. After lunch we headed back to our cabin 7298 port aft wrap Cat 11 hoping (oh silly us) that luggage would have arrive. Nope, no such luck…finally came around 5:30.

Muster was scheduled for 3:30 with sail-away scheduled for 4:30. That too was delayed. Muster occurred about 4PM and we didn’t sail till 5PM. We were to have out meet and greet at the aft bar, Poseidon’s Bar, but it was so windy that the deck was closed so we moved to the Perfect Game Bar. Met most of our roll call there, passed out name tags and rules for our scavenger hunt.

After muster drill we resumed our meet and greet in the Perfect Game Bar for a while and then we headed back to our cabin. The luggage had arrived so it was time to unpack. We have late seating and our welcome aboard show was 7 PM, Forgot about it so we missed it.

Some activities for our boarding day was a Fun Ship tour, dancing in various locations, spa tour and raffle, bingo, and free liquor tasting.

We had to move the clocks ahead one hour tonight and will do that again on Wednesday, the 25th and Saturday, the 28th.

The Captain is Vito Giacalone and the CD is Mark Price.

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lnew1gd1

lnew1gd1

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Day 2, Monday March 23, 2009 Fun Day at Sea.

Today it’s a bit chilly and overcast but shorts were the order of the day. Being overcast and windy in the morning the main pool had the roof closed and many were enjoying the pools and the hot tubs. In the afternoon there was a question and answer time with the Captain and the evening entertainment was Edge, a juggling and comedy act that was quite entertaining. The adults only comedy show was held at 10:30 PM.

Dance classes, arts and crafts, scrapbooking, game board Jamboree and Bridge players meet were the scheduled activities along with the regularly scheduled trivia games.

Dinner ending up being very late tonight. For some reason early seating had to be "chased" out of the dining room and we didn't get in until 8:30 PM. We didn't get our entrees until 20 to 10!

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lnew1gd1

lnew1gd1

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Having a wonderful time....today is day 6, be back later to answer quetions. Off to breakfast now. Haivng our cabin crawl/poker run today.

 

Sorry I haven't been back sooner. Will try to catch up later!

 

Weather has been beautiful, sunny and hot! Seas have been pretty calm since that rough first night.

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lnew1gd1

lnew1gd1

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Tuesday March 24, 2009, day 3

Sunrise 6:25 AM, sunset 6:23 PM

Cruise Elegant night. Captain’s Reception in the Taj Mahal Lounge Deck 2 forward. 5pm for early seating and 7 pm for late seating.

Winner’s Club casino opened at 8 am and select tables at 10 AM. Now coin free slots. Texas Hold ‘em tournament today.

Bingo, Tanzanite and Diamond sale today. Walk and Talk on Deck 11, dance classes, board game jamboree, meet the entertainer Edge, Sodoku challenge, treasure hunt (clues in the Capers), trivia in multiple locations and at various times, creative fun such as arts and crafts, scrapbook making, Teddy Bear making.

Sweets and treats 3 to 5 pm Mermaids dk 9 mid ship….cookies and Sundaes, Tea time 3:30 to 4:30 Florentine Bar.

Love and Marriage show and the singles Matchmakers Game.

Music review “Crazy about Gershwin” and the production show, Wonderful World with the Carnival singers and dancers.

Show for late dinners was at 10:15 PM and early was at 8:30PM. Many of the shows are 7 pm for late seating and 9 pm for early seating.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Day 4

Manzanillo, Mexico. Do a tour, we walked around town and it was a waste of time. Got there about 8:30 AM. Nothing open yet. Bus to downtown was $4.00 per person round trip.

Today was the showing of the movie “The Longest Day” in the Taj Mahal at 2:30PM.

Theme dance music in Beauties, the disco. (almost no one is frequenting this dance club). DJ Brent is spinning the disks.

Show time was impressionist Ken Block.

The Breeze plays nightly in Starry Nights lounge. Jim is the guitarist in the casino bar area and Don is playing in the piano bar.

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lnew1gd1

lnew1gd1

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Thursday, March 26, 2009, Day 5, at sea.

Cooking demonstration in David’s Steak house.

Music concert with the Pride show band Lido Deck 9, Glamorous Granny and Men’s knobby knees contest in the Taj Mahal, Show time was with our CD, Mark Price. Mark is a certified hypnotist and was the show entertainment for tonight.

Casual dining.

Late night snacks every night 11:30 to 1:00 Am Mermaids Grill.

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lnew1gd1

lnew1gd1

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Could you tell me the names and styles of the bands in the lounges....?

 

Thanks

Mike

 

 

In Starry Nights Breeze is playing, they play everything from 50s, 60s, country. Very good but the problem with this cruise is that they are a lot of very senior citizsens on board and the cruise line has compensated for the elderly population by scheduling everything very early. The band plays from 5 to 11:45PM. We are no spring chickens but we are no where ready for the grave yet!! The average age on board is 62 according to the cruise director but that is messed up by the young ones (about 10 or 15 of them) that pulls the average down. If you leave them off I would say the average age is about 75. We spoke to the CD yesterday and asked him to please change the schedule of Breeze and let them play later.

 

In Beauties, the disco, the DJ has been playing modern music but everytime we are in there the place is totally empty...we were the only ones in there last night.

 

Ivory bar piano is older dinner type music.

 

Anything in particular that you are interested in??

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lnew1gd1

lnew1gd1

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Quick post, just got back from Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Great day!

 

Weather is beautiful.

 

Wanted to tell you all that yesterday, while on our balcony we saw a ton of turtles, a pod (??) of dolphins and Mackeral jumping out of the water....what a sight! Awesome!

 

Any questions about the ship ??

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lnew1gd1

lnew1gd1

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Put the Panama Canal transit on your bucket list! What a great day!!

 

Last night about midnight, went on the balcony after getting back to our cabin, saw the phenomenon where the water glows ---bright blue/green ribbons of florescent color in the water! Seeing things this cruise that most people only read/dream about!

 

Pics won't be uploaded till we are home because it takes to long with this Internet connection. Tomorrow, Cartagena, Columbia.

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lnew1gd1

lnew1gd1

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Sorry there hasn't been any updates since day 4, we have been so busy then crashing about 1 AM every night. Last night I just couldn't do it anymore and fell asleep 11 PM.

 

Takes to long to upload pics so that has to wait till we are home. Canal crossing was wonderful, what an engineering wonder!

 

Food is just so so but most is edible. New menus are a bit disappointing.

Still have that wonderful Chocolate melting cake!

 

Ship is nice but it is showing it's age in some areas.

 

Today was Cartagena, Columbia. Hot, hot, hot....but then, we are in Central America. Sun is burning hot! 50 SPF suncreen and you really need it!

 

I will try to catch up on the activities later.

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  • 3 weeks later...
lnew1gd1

lnew1gd1

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3 link is only pics of the Pride, door decorating contest and cabin 7298, post side aft wrap.

 

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/570...O?vhost=travel

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/570...Q?vhost=travel

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/570...p?vhost=travel

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/570...n?vhost=travel

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/570...u?vhost=travel

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Luckysll

Luckysll

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My girlfriends and I will be sailing on the Pride on May 3rd and we were wondering where you got your scavenger hunt from? And if you had a copy that you could share?

 

We actually had two scavenger hunts - a regular one and a photo one. I did the regular one and just thought up a list of items that included things that people might have brought with them, or could find on the ship, or could find in the ports. Some of the items were specific to a Panama Canal cruise, but here are some of the other things:

 

50 spf or higher sunscreen

The cruise director’s autograph

A battery operated fan

Any item with a non-Carnival cruise line logo on it

Binoculars

Bingo card

Carnival key chain

Yellow foo foo drink umbrella

Lock and key

Trivia game questions

Pink hi-lite marking pen

Sea shell

Anything with a dolphin on it.

Scuba diving brochure

Carnival ship-on-a-stick

Sail and sign card from a past cruise

 

The photo hunt was done by Lynn. Before the cruise, on the roll call, she posted a list of pictures that people had to take. There were pictures specific to each port of call and general pictures that could be taken around the ship.

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