swodog94

I am really enjoying your review. I love your writing style. We were on the Pride for this exact itinerary in May, loved it so much, we're going again next year. I love reading about other cruiser's experiences. Thank you! Looking forward to more posts.

Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it! I hope you enjoyed Pride as much as we've come to love that ship. More to come!

That is lovely to hear Canadian veterans are recognized- there may have been some on the cruise but may not have attended the event thinking it was for US only.

 

 

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That's a very good point. On my previous cruise, the CD had been a Canuck, and I thought the Canadian slide was in because of him, but I guess they recognize them every time.

My best friend and I started collecting those ducks when we were on the Triumph last October. She got so many that we started leaving them around the ship for kids to find and play with (neither of us have kids). I think I ended up bringing 2 home and letting my cat play with them. :)

:'):'):'):'):')

Enjoying the photos.

Thank you!

Loving your review swodog94. Boarding the Pride in 2 weeks and this is helping pass the time as it seems the closer we get' date=' the slower the hands on the clock move. Thank you! And keep it coming!

 

 

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Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it. I'll post more later today, as I'm stuck at work now. Have fun on Pride!

Just cruised on Pride last month and wore Dinner Dress Whites for Elegant Night. The wife and I had our picture taken with the Captain. I've worn my Dinner Dress uniform every cruise, and have seen folks wearing their uniforms as well. I only saw one other guy this time, a Navy Senior Chief in his Dress Whites (aka Choker Whites). And yes, I was asked questions about the ship, the schedule and other technical questions by other guests who mistakenly assumed I was one of the ship's officers. :')

Grand Turk (Cont.)

Carnival has built a cruise center at Grand Turk to support all their ships. This includes a large pier capable of mooring two cruise ships at a time. Luckily, today we're the only ship in Grand Turk. Last time we were here we moored on the outboard side of the pier; today, we're going to the in board side.

Line handlers are standing by to take Pride's mooring lines and place them on the bollards.

Grand Turk (Cont.)

Grand Turk (Cont.)

Heading aft from the kid's area on deck three is one of the least know places on Pride: the Sunset Garden. It's a quiet area with benches and some small table and chairs where you can go to enjoy reading a book or just quietly contemplate life and watch the sea go by through the portholes.

By now Grand Turk was starting to come in to view. It's always exciting to me when you're about to get to a port of call, regardless of whether you've been there before or not.

Grand Turk (Cont.)

Also located in the forward part of the ship, right by the Camp Ocean area is a video arcade. I wasn't sure people still went to video arcades, but apparently they do while at sea. There were some shoot-'em-up type games, skee-ball, air hockey, and many skill games where you keep pouring money into the machine in the hopes of snagging a prize with a claw, or some such contraption. I won a few small rubber ducks this way, but my wife tried playing for bigger things like an iPad, and she managed to entertain herself for hours while giving Carnival some of her hard earned $$$. Even exchange, I guess.

In case you doubt my ability as a hunter/gatherer, here are the rubber ducks I won!

Grand Turk (Cont.)

The Circle C are is for teens aged 12-14yo. This area was open so I poked my head in. I'm not sure it looks like someplace kids that age would choose to hang out, but maybe.

Grand Turk (Cont.)

I headed forward to the kid's area, called Camp Ocean. The kids are split into three groups, grouped by age: Penguins (2-5yo), StingRays (6-8yo), and Sharks (9-11yo). The door to the actual play area was closed and I didn't go in - folks tend to frown on a grown man lurking around a kids area by himself! :eek:

Grand Turk

Wednesday morning dawned bright and beautiful. I didn't mean to get up around sunrise, but I did and we were still a couple of hours away from mooring in Grand Turk, so I decided to go walking around the ship while I had it pretty much to myself.

Being child-free, I tend to ignore most of the family oriented activities and facilities on board, so I took advantage of the free time this morning to document a few things for those of you who have procreated. First of all, the pool has flotation vests for the kids who don't swim very well (or not at all). This way you don't have to rely of a pair of WalMart water wings to keep your kiddos safe. They have all sizes so you can find one to fit your child regardless of age.

Swodog94, I am thoroughly enjoying your review. Can't wait to read more! :)

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

Good for you!

Thanks for posting. We are cruising next month. This will be our first time on the Pride!!!

Congrats! I hope you enjoy the ship as much as we do.

The military appreciation gathering is really becoming a nice event. My last one was on the Breeze and the place was packed!

I'm glad that Carnival does this so that all our veteran's feel the love. As a country we didn't really treat our vets too well for a time (especially the Vietnam guys). This doesn't make up for that sad treatment, but it does give us an opportunity to show them that we care.

2nd Sea Day (Cont.)

Entrees looked good, too. I went with the lamb shank while my wife decided on the tilapia.

The lamb shank was really good! Dessert was probably good too, but whatever we picked, I didn't take a picture of it, so it's lost to posterity.

After dinner we spent a little more time at the casino but after about an hour we called it quits. We knew we would be getting to Grand Turk early in the morning, so we decided to call it an early night. We headed back to the stateroom, where we found our latest towel companion.

2nd Sea Day (Cont.)

After the Meet & Mingle we headed to the casino, but it was just as fruitless an endeavor as always, After losing a few more bucks, I gave up. Eventually it was time for dinner.

I chose the Navy bean soup while my wife got the greek salad. We decided to also split the flatbread, just to try it out.

2nd Sea Day (Cont.)

After a much needed nap, we headed off to the official Meet and Mingle. It was held in the Captain's Club, which is a small dining room located just forward of the Alchemy Bar. Prior to sailing, one of the folks on the Roll Call set up a gift exchange. Anybody who wanted to participate should bring a gift of $10 or less that was emblematic of their region/city/state. We decided to participate so we brought our gift bag with us. Turned everybody who attended decided to participate so we had a really fun time. The M&M was hosted by Britney (Entertainment Director) and Saffie. Usually the Captain attends but he was busy and not available. Some basic refreshments were provided. It took less than an hour but was well worth it.

2nd Sea Day (Cont.)

After the hairy chest contest we walked around the ship for a bit. With the wind having died down since the day before, lots of things were open, but the mini-golf on deck 11 and the green slide were still closed.

However, the other slide was open, as well as the kids Splashzone. Everyone seemed to be having a great time!

2nd Sea Day (Cont.)

[Note: Sorry for the delay, I was overcome by other commitments. Back to the review!]

After the Military Appreciation Gathering I met back up with my wife and we headed up to the Lido for the Hairy Chest Contest. It was hilarious! Saffie really did a great job of running it. First she asked for three female volunteers to be judges. Then she asked for six guys to participate as contestants.

The judges were each given a duty: one lady had to feel the chest hair, one lady had to judge the contestant's dance moves, and one had to give them the "sniff test". They all carried out their duties superbly!

The judges quickly eliminated three of the contestants, and the last three guys left standing were now subjected to a series of questions.

After some funny questions...and equally funny answers...the contestants were whittled down to the final two!

It was then left up to the audience to decide who was the winner. This was done by forming two conga lines, and folks picked who they supported by joining that guy's conga line. The winner was unanimously acclaimed!

What nights are the formal nights on? Thanks

 

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Usually the night of the first full sea day and then again on the next to last night. So for our Sunday to Sunday cruise, Elegant nights were on Monday and Friday.

Great pictures.....is that your YouTube Carnival Pride Ocean Suite video on YouTube?

 

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Thanks! Yes, I have several Pride OS videos on YouTube.

Hi -

 

Thanks for answering so many questions! How was the debarkation process? What time did you get off the ship? Any guesstimates on what time those of us without FTTF are able to get off the ship?

 

Thanks!!

If you want to get off first, you hold on to ALL your luggage and walk off with it...this is called Self Serve. Or you can put your luggage outside the door by 11pm the night before and they'll offload it for you. Instructions and luggage tags will be left in your mailbox the day before telling you what to do. If you choose self serve, you will be the first folks off the ship; they will call you to debark by deck number. Once the self serve folks are done, they'll start with the second group. They will call these folks by group number. You luggage tags will denote your group number, and your instructions will tell you where to gather to wait for your group to be called. FTTF and suites will have a low number (1-3) and will gather in the Red Frog Pub.

The ship moored before 0900 and self serve folks were getting off by 0913. We put our luggage out the night before and were in Group 2. We went to the Red Frog Pub a little after 1000 and were walking off at 1028. We cleared customs, picked up our luggage and were headed to our car by 1044 and were driving off the lot by 1048.