Carnival Pride Review - July 11-18

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We recently arrived back from our trip on the Carnival Pride. We sailed July 11 – 18, 2010. To provide just a little background about us, we are both in our 40s and have cruised on Carnival 3 times (3 different ships) and Princess 3 times (2 different ships). We both love cruising and love to experience new ships. Although we do look for different itineraries and places to visit, ports-of-call are not always a determining factor. We consider the ship to be our destination. Also we are not beach people. Neither of us enjoys a day on the beach -- however, we do enjoy the solitude of the ship while everyone else is at the beach. J

 

Sunday, July 11 - Embarkation

 

We left our house in La Plata MD shortly after 9:00am for the hour long drive to the port. After stopping to grab something to eat along the way, we arrived at the parking area around 10:20am. Getting to the port is incredibly easy. It is well marked on the interstate and, since we were coming from Southern Maryland, it ended up being the very last exit before the Ft. McHenry Tunnel.

 

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DH, even though he was driving, had the privilege of spotting the ship first.

 

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We had to wait outside the parking area for about 10 minutes before they would let us park. $105 later, we were inside the gates and picking our spot for the week. We headed through security and now, like the airports, they don’t let opened liquids inside the port area. I had a camelbak water bottle and DH had a regular Dasani water with him. I was forced to dump the water (but not the ice) out of mine before being allowed to continue in. DH just threw his away.

 

We brought with us 2 bottles of wine, a six pack of diet coke and six pack of tonic water, along with various snacks (peanuts, pistachios, etc.). We ordered ahead of time, through the Bon Voyage, 1 liter of gin, 1 liter of bourbon and 1 bottle of wine. All of that was waiting for us in our stateroom. That served us well through the week. Port security was very thorough. They asked us to open our carry on case to make sure that all we brought was sodas and wine. In 6 cruises that was the first time that has happened. Apparently Carnival is getting serious about the crackdown on liquor smuggling. We did see several bottles of liquor confiscated.

 

Anyway, getting back… we were booked in an Ocean Suite (our first), so we had VIP embarkation privileges. After filling out our health questionnaires, we followed the signs to the VIP check in area. Which turned out to be a little room with 2 couches and 2 desks. Only one person was manning the check in and we had to wait for the couple in front of us to finish. Then we sat down in front of one of the desks and the lady took our health questionnaires, our credit card and handed us our sign and sail cards. She asked us if we had any questions and when we said no, she personally escorted us the VIP waiting area. This turned out to be a roped off area in the main waiting room. We were zone 2 boarding (with zone 1 being handicapped/special assistance) and at the front of the line with only a ½ dozen people in front of us. All in all, by the time we boarded, there were probably about 100 people in the roped off section. DH tried to take a picture inside the port around the waiting area, and one of the port workers followed him back to his seat and told him that pictures were strictly forbidden (Homeland Security) and that he was going to have to delete the picture while she watched to make sure it was deleted, or she was going to have to confiscate his camera. Hmmm… The funny thing was, he was standing next to a port security guard and the guard didn’t say anything to him. We saw no signs that photography wasn’t allowed. Then she went over to the people across from us and told them that they weren’t allowed to use their cell phones inside. Although, she completely ignored the teenagers doing their picture taking and texting.

(continued...)

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We boarded the ship by 12:30pm and headed straight to the buffet. Nobody in line!!! Wow, that was a first. We quickly found a seat in the outside area on the Lido deck by the pool and sat down to eat and wait. The cabins, they said wouldn’t be ready until 3:30pm. *groan* I hate toting my carry on bags around with me and trying to negotiate around crowds -- but there’s no point in complaining! We enjoyed lunch and our first DOD (The Fun Ship), then got up to give our table to someone else. We walked around for a little while and about 2:30pm decided to see if our cabin steward was nearby and if we could just leave our bags in the cabin. It turned out that our cabin was, in fact, ready and our steward (Nomer) told us we could just stay if we wanted to. So we settled in, took our drinks out on the balcony and waited for the muster drill. At 4pm the call for muster took us down to the Atlantic Deck (deck 3) for a hot and crowded briefing. I understand the need for the safety briefing, but I don’t understand the way Carnival does it. They line you up on the deck shoulder to shoulder sometimes 6 people deep. I am 5’2” and with six people in front of me there was no way I could even begin to see the demonstration. And while I know how to put on the lifejacket, if I didn’t, this briefing wouldn’t help at all. Here is my tip…linger and arrive to the briefing just a bit late. That way you’ll be some of the last to line up and in the front.

Okay….we made our way back up to our balcony for sail away. A glass of wine in hand, we watched as the Pride made her way out of the Baltimore harbor, past Ft. McHenry and under the Key Bridge.

 

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As I said before this was our first suite. We originally booked a balcony room and about 3 weeks before departure, Carnival called and offered us an upgrade (upsell?) to an Ocean Suite for a very reasonable price. I was hesitant at first, but it was our anniversary and DH talked me into it. After spending a week in that cabin, we were both very happy that he did! We were on Empress Deck (deck 6), Cabin 6174.

 

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Our luggage arrived after sailaway and we unpacked and settled in for the week. We ended up going to dinner around 6pm and while we were eating, I noticed that we were approaching the Bay Bridges. I was somewhat disappointed, because I wanted to be on deck for that, but we both forgot. Just a note…it was a completely different experience sailing down the Chesapeake Bay. It was the first cruise I have ever been on where you can still see shoreline 6 hours into the cruise. It was also pretty cool when we passed several landmarks by us in So. Maryland, Calvert Cliffs, NAS Pax River (you could tell these two by the incredible amount of light that was generated) and Point Lookout (we could see the lighthouse light) around 10-10:30pm.

After a tiring day that started with a lot of excitement, we pretty much just ran out of steam and called it a night.

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Monday, July 12 – Sea day

Our first sea day started as we start everyday on our cruises -- woke up and called room service! We got coffee, danish, croissants and fruit. Went out on the balcony to enjoy the view with coffee in hand. Of course the view at this point was just amazing ocean. Gee…can I start every day in my life like that?!

Once showered and dressed we headed to the dining room for a more leisurely breakfast of eggs benedict (the room service is just a wake me up J ). After breakfast we planned trivia and bingo. I have to say, we played bingo several times during the cruise and we were never lucky! After the third time of plunking down $40 ($20 each for a triple card) to play, we both decided that it wasn’t worth it. This must be a big money maker for Carnival.

After bingo, we walked around the ship to get to know her. We went up on deck to the pool areas to see what was going on. This is the smallest ship I have been on (if you can call 2000 passengers small), and I have to say it is noticeable. Even at the height of midday there were still lounge chairs available around the pool. Granted it was the aft (adult) pool but regardless, there were some still available.

We had lunch in the main dining room, before going back to the cabin to read on the balcony. What a beautiful luxury!

Time for cocktails on the balcony and then getting ready for our first formal night. We had Your Time Dining and it worked out really well for us. Sometimes we were ready to eat early; sometimes we waited until later. Either way, Elegant night is the only time when the Your Time Dining becomes tricky. Based on past experience (but only on Princess’ Anytime Dining), I knew that the dining room is busy when everyone wants to dress up. I tried to get DH to eat early and he objected. So when we showed up around 6:30pm we were offered a table right in front (pretty much next to the hostess stand). DH said he would rather wait. We waited about 40 minutes in the Raphael Lounge outside the dining room, then went back. We were handed a beeper thing and waited some more. Finally, we got a table after about an hour and I got a “you were right” from DH. J

After dinner, we made a donation to the casino and then we went to the 9:45pm comedian, Al Ernst. He was pretty funny and it lasted about ½ hour/45 minutes (I can’t remember). Anyway, another quick donation to the casino J and then we walked around poking our nose in the other venues. Maybe it was because there were a large number of families on board who put kids to bed, but after 10:30pm the lounges were fairly empty, except the karaoke lounge (Starry Nights) which was hopping. I can’t comment on the disco (Beauties). I often wanted to go, but nothing started there until midnight * sigh * and I’m just not a night person. Around 11:30 it was off to the buffet for pizza and back to our room to enjoy the warm night air and a thunderstorm at sea! My very first experience for (1) rain on a cruise and (2) a thunderstorm. Quite a light show. I was very impressed.

Oh….we had a friend waiting for us upon our return:

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Tuesday, July 13 – Sea day

Our second sea day was very much like the first with the exception that it rained and thunder stormed on and off most of the day. We woke up a bit later than normal and ordered our coffee, etc. from room service (really like that service J ) then, showered, dressed and off to the dining room for breakfast. Then trivia and bingo (which always seemed to be held together (trivia and then bingo). They did laser tag in the show lounge which we poked our heads in to see. I’m sure this was an extra charge.

 

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We wandered up to the pool deck right when they were getting ready to start the Hairy Chest contest and then the sky opened up and they had to postpone the contest. We had lunch at the buffet (after the first day in the dining room, we opted for the buffet for lunch on subsequent days) and then back to the cabin for more reading and relaxing on the balcony.

This evening we did dinner in David’s steakhouse. This was probably the most uncomfortable evening I had -- mostly because of the sheer quantities of food we ate. I’m just not used to eating like that. J As it was I left half of my filet mignon on the plate.

The atmosphere was nice, as were the servers. We sat down and they brought over the little cart to explain the different cuts of meat and various items available for the main course on the menu. DH ordered the escargots, spinach salad and the surf & turf with filet and lobster tail; I ordered the soup (mushroom, I think), spinach salad and the filet. They served the main course, but then failed to come back and check on us. DH was not given butter for his lobster and by the time someone came back to the table we were nearly finished. DH asked at that time if the lobster should have been served with butter and the server was very apologetic. She offered him another lobster tail (this time served with butter). He told her it was fine and that he wouldn’t be able to eat another tail anyway because he was so full. As we were ordering dessert (I really couldn’t eat it, but really couldn’t turn it down either) the hostess brought out 4 little chocolate dipped strawberries – you know the ones that look like they’re wearing tuxedos! She said that they were sorry that dinner wasn’t perfect (right, we were so full we couldn’t move, it couldn’t have been that bad!) and please accept the strawberries as consolation. Well, we ended up taking both dessert and the strawberries back to the cabin for another day.

After dinner and some serious groaning back at the cabin, we changed and had basically the same lineup as the previous evening… casino and lounges (minus the pizza at 11:30pm) and collapse into bed.

Here was our towel friend tonight:

 

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Wednesday, July 14 – Port Canavarel

We woke to a beautiful sunny, hot morning in Port Canaveral and ordered coffee, etc. again. We had no plans to leave the ship today. As I mentioned above, we are not beach lovers so Cocoa Beach was not a lure, neither the amusement parks in Orlando. Well….except for the Harry Potter area in Universal Studios. I really wanted to rent a car to go over and see it, but all the reviews during the prior week had said that the lines to get in and see everything were exceptionally long and it was just too hot to spend the day standing in line. We were told later that the shuttle bus that takes you to Cocoa Beach and Ron Jon’s, also stops at the local Wal-Mart. Good to know if you forgot anything.

With not much to do in the port area, we opted to stay on the ship (as did many others it seemed). We puttered around and after breakfast went to spend some morning time in the pool, which was not as empty as I expected, but not bad.

After the pool, we returned to the cabin to get changed and decided not to go back out. We called room service and they delivered yummy Ruben sandwiches and Caesar salads and we spent the day reading. Now, I imagine that to most of you cruisers out there, spending the day in your cabin does not sound appealing. But I will say to you, it was one of the most relaxing and seemingly decadent days of my life. It was lovely! Since we were in port, there was not much going on and I felt like we missed nothing.

DH wanted to dress and have dinner early (as soon as the door opened at 5:45pm) because he wanted to see our departure from Port Canaveral at 7pm. So we hit the dining room and was seated immediately.

Just a note about our dinner experiences. The meal service was good, but the bar service was horrible. Most times we were never even approached to ask if we wanted any bar service and when we did order, it took a very long time to get drinks. If we ordered drinks it usually showed up towards the end of our second course (salad or soup) or right after the main dish was served. By the fourth night, we got in the habit of stopping at the bar outside the dining room, ordering our drinks and carrying them in. This worked much better. I felt bad for the bar servers in the dining room, they had to go out to one of the public area bars and order the drinks for the dining room (which is why it took so long).

Well, getting back…we finished dinner, ran up stairs to the cabin to change our clothes and to grab the camera. Then up to the Lido deck and our favorite viewing spot (shared by many) above the bridge. I do love the sailaway – I don’t care where I’m sailing away from! We got lots of pictures moving out of the harbor and then we were off to Nassau in the morning.

 

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We donated some more to the casino (my limit was $20 per night, which I could, and did, usually play for a couple of hours). After that we stopped to listen to the Pride band, who was playing in Florentine’s outside the dining room. Then….our ritual….pizza and cabin to enjoy the night sea air.

Oh, our towel this night was a...

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Thursday, July 15 -- Nassau

 

We noticed that as the week went on, we slept a little later each morning. J (making it harder to adjust back to real life when we returned) Once again we awoke to sunny skies and hot, humid temps. Coffee and croissants on the balcony, then we were ready to go out to breakfast. After breakfast and a quick loss at bingo (our last), the cruise director announced that we were approaching Nassau and everyone could go up on deck to watch.

 

We headed back to our cabin to watch and take pictures. I was amazed at the size of the Atlantis resort. That is one damn big structure!

 

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We could see that there were two other Carnival ships in port. We were keeping company with the Fantasy and Miracle.

 

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We made it into the harbor and the captain apparently decided he wanted to back into the pier. He performed this amazing 360 degree turn, pivoting in one spot until he could back right into the pier.

 

The Miracle performed the same turn as she left that evening. Backing out of the pier then pivoting around to head out of the harbor. I’m amazed that these ships (as large as they are) are so graceful and able to maneuver like that.

 

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We had nothing planned for Nassau and decided to get off and walk around the downtown area. It was so HOT. We walked through the port area and into town. It was somewhat disappointing. Nassau has the same shops as you find in most Caribbean ports (jewelry stores and duty free liquor stores), several of the upscale retail stores (Coach, Gucci) and, of course, Del Sol. Not that I was expecting much more. We walked around and took some pictures of the town. Apparently we missed the Bahamas Independence celebration by just 2 days.

 

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Around 1:30pm, we were hot and tired and decided to stop in this little restaurant called Bahamian Kitchen. DH wanted to find a restaurant with authentic Bahamian food. I’m sure this fit the bill, however since I don’t eat seafood (there was a lot of conch, shellfish, fish and turtle), there wasn’t much on the menu for me, aside from chicken fingers which I wasn’t interested in. So we ordered Bahama Mama’s and sat in the AC to cool down a bit. The owner of the restaurant came up and started chatting with us. He was really friendly and made it a point to stop at everyone’s table to introduce himself and see if everything was satisfactory. Since we only had drinks, we weren’t in there long, but I’m glad we went in.

 

More walking around and then we headed back to the ship for food and a nap. We had lunch at the buffet and a dip in the pool then back to the cabin for what my DH called his “3 o’clocker” (only it was a bit later than that). Retirees call this “watching the game”. I call it a nap.

 

Nassau is the first port we’ve been to where the ship didn’t leave by dinner time. Consequently, when we went to the MDR for dinner, both of us felt it was sort of odd that we weren’t moving. We spent most of this evening in the casino, but went up on deck as we left Nassau. There was some kind of party going on at a bar called Senior Frogs. We could hear the music and laughter as we sailed by. We briefly thought about going to watch open mic in the comedy club, but by the time 11pm came around, we were tired. So back to the cabin we went, with a quick side trip for pizza which had become routine, out on the balcony to admire the ocean and enjoy the sea breeze, then once again collapse into bed.

 

This relaxing vacation is exhausting! J

[family cruisers]

Great review so far . Brings back memories from last fall.

We love the pride, going back on for halloween .

[cbpanda]

Friday, July 16 – Freeport

 

We woke up and….well, it was sunny, hot and humid and we were in Freeport. J Coffee, croissants on the balcony, then shower and breakfast (no wonder we gained weight on this cruise). We decided to try the buffet for breakfast, but was disappointed. I really prefer breakfast in the MDR. It’s a much more relaxing atmosphere. We went up on deck to get some pictures of the port area, because the view from our balcony was very industrial – not much to see on that side. But up on deck we could view the island and the other ships in port. We were there with the Bahamas Celebration. Someone told us that this ship leaves W. Palm Beach to Freeport carrying passengers who are either staying on the island or just visiting for the day. Also while we were on deck another Carnival ship approached. This time it was Fascination who we shared the port with.

 

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DH and I got off to walk around the port area for about an hour. Not much here, just a few shops with the same crummy souvenirs you find everywhere. Apparently, the shopping area and the beaches are a cab ride away. So, we went back to the ship and spent the late morning at the pool with our books. Maybe there is more to this stop, but we were surprised at how industrial the port was. Constant noise from container ships getting loaded. This is where the dry dock is located that will spruce up Glory.

We departed Freeport at 2pm and watched from our balcony as we said goodbye to the last island on our trip. We were now enroute to Baltimore and the end or our cruise was in sight. L

After we sailed and after DH’s “3 o’clocker”, we went down to the Fun Shops to look around. DH decided to bring back some duty free liquor, so we purchased that and some small mementos to bring home.

Then, back up to the cabin to get ready for our second formal night. We dressed and headed down to the MDR early again (so we didn’t have to wait). The ship had sailed into some high winds and it was really swaying tonight. Fortunately, neither of us suffer from seasickness and I felt badly for anyone that did. My guess is that there were some really sick passengers that night. We asked our waiter what was the worst weather he’d experienced on a ship and he said Hurricane Katrina. Funny enough, the same answer came from our cabin steward as well. After dinner, we sat in Raphael’s to listen to the Jazz & Cocktail Piano with Alison and enjoyed an after dinner drink – also to admire everyone heading to dinner in their formal wear.

We went to the comedy club that evening to watch the new comedians that arrived in Nassau. The early show was packed and we got there late, so we had to stand in the back. The comedian didn’t seem to be as funny and we quickly got bored. So we headed out of there and stopped in the karaoke lounge (Starry Nights). That was a good choice, because the karaoke host, Jay, was hysterical and it seemed like everybody enjoyed performing or watching the karaoke. We stayed there for a while to watch. DH mentioned something in passing about singing and…no way was I doing that!! J I like to watch others, but…nope not going to sing.

We left karaoke and stopped at the casino briefly (for about an hour or so) then pizza (again) and back to the cabin. Another towel creation was waiting for us…

A very cool looking… Honestly, I’m not sure what it is.

 

 

Closed the day again watching the sea. I could do this every day of my life!

[baylivin]

Enjoying your review! We leave 8/15 on the Pride, our second time as we took her last summer also.

[cbpanda]

Saturday, July 17 – Sea day

Our last day at sea started with sleeping in. What a luxury! We slept in so late that coffee, croissants and fruit brought by room service was our breakfast this morning. No matter, it was a leisurely meal out on the balcony. The ship, we noticed, was moving very quickly this morning.

We went up to the pool area for a while to read and enjoy the late morning. We wanted to attend the Ships Q & A with the cruise directors so at 1:30 or so, went down to change and then to the Starry Nights lounge. This was interesting. The CD Kirk and ACD Jamie answered questions about what it’s like to live and work on board a cruise ship. They were funny and engaging.

After the Q&A we went to the cabin to begin packing. I had wanted to get most of it done before dinner so that it would be easier to put out our bags after dinner. DH wasn’t happy and kept calling me a drill sergeant. Apparently, packing is tiring work because as soon as we finished (at least as much as I wanted) DH grabbed one of his “3 o’clockers” and I read my book.

Cocktails on the balcony then getting ready for dinner. After dinner we went up to finish packing the suitcases so they could be put out in the hallway. Then back down to listen to the Pride Showband who were playing in Florentine’s Lounge. It’s a great spot right around 8pm or so to watch all the people as they line up for the late seating. Maybe it was me, but it seemed like there was not much going on that evening. We hit the casino one last time and then cashed out there. Came out $17.50 ahead for the week. Wahoo! After that we stopped in the Piano bar to listen to Max for a while. His sing-a-long was fun, but DH quickly got bored. We left there to enjoy the rest of the evening on the balcony.

When we got back to the cabin, our last little towel animal was waiting for us.

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We had collected quite the zoo over the week!!

[cbpanda]

Enjoying your review! We leave 8/15 on the Pride, our second time as we took her last summer also.

 

Thanks, it took a while to compile everything! But it was worth it to relive our trip.

[cbpanda]

Sunday, July 18 – Disembarkation

I woke up early on Sunday morning, while DH slept a while longer. I took my room service coffee outside on the balcony and watched as the shores of the Chesapeake Bay rolled by. It was beautiful and made me wish we lived on the coast near the water. Just a little after 7:30am we passed under the Annapolis Bay Bridge. I was happy since I missed it earlier in the week. At 8am DH got up and joined me outside. After coffee and croissants, we showered, dressed and finished our packing. By 9am we were ready to vacate the cabin. The instructions told us we could wait for disembarkation anywhere on Lido deck (deck 9), Atlantic deck (deck 3) or in the Taj Mahal show lounge. We opted for deck 3 for two reasons 1) because I hate the crowds in the buffet area during this time and 2) because it has the outside promenade deck. We were still pulling into the harbor at this point and we were able to watch. After docking, we went to find a place to wait since it would be around 11am before they called our zone. I think one of the best kept secrets was this area of the ship:

 

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It was practically empty. People were everywhere in the hallways on deck 3 including sitting on the stairwells. We went down in this area (which is located in the front of the ship on deck 3) and found many tables empty. It was a really nice place to wait for them to tell us it was time to end our vacation. We finally disembarked around noon time, easy process through customs/immigration, picked up our luggage and off to find the car (which wasn’t very happy about spending a week in the sun and heat).

All in all, it was a great time, great ship and I would definitely do it again. The CD said that Carnival has contracted to put another ship in Baltimore. This is good news…. We really liked the ease of not having to fly to the port.

Feel free to ask any questions. I do have all the Fun Times and hopefully, I’ll get around to scanning them soon if anybody wants to see them.

[cbpanda]

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Just a couple of random notes:

 

- We didn’t book this cruise for the ports. We booked it as getaway for just the two of us during the same week our son was spending the week at Grandma’s. So shore excursions and running around to see the ports of call were not a priority – relaxing and doing as little as possible was at the top of the list.

 

- I enjoyed the ship, but sort of felt that the Renaissance Art décor was a bit over the top. Did it have to be on every flat surface?

 

- I think that bar service on this ship was lacking. Aside from the dining room service, there were several times I sat in the casino for over an hour and not one server approached me. I was fine, but if someone was willing to bring it to me, I would have ordered a glass of wine. Also, we spent one night in the Karaoke lounge and for almost 45 minutes the servers passed by me and didn’t ask if I wanted a refill on the empty glass sitting in front of me. Finally when they offered to bring me another glass, she came back 10 minutes later to tell me they didn’t have the kind of wine I asked for which the other bars had. Even at David’s restaurant it took them a long time to ask if we wanted another. Not that we are boozers. It’s just good service.

 

- For those of you who were worried about the state of the ship for your cruises prior to dry dock – aside from some areas of carpet and upholstery fraying and a little vandalism on the artwork in the elevators , the ship seems to be in great condition! That said, dry dock will do it wonders with all the refurbishing that goes on!

 

- I’m glad that we experienced the steakhouse this time. It was really nice and the food excellent, but I don’t think we will do it again. When we dine in the MDR, I don’t feel the need to eat everything. If I don’t finish, I’m okay with that. In the steakhouse, since we put out another $60 to eat there, I felt the need to try and eat as much as I can, and as a result felt bloated and uncomfortable the rest of the evening. Personally, I can’t eat enough to justify the extra expense. And the portion sizes are over the top. Who needs a slice of cheesecake that is ¼ of the pie? It must have been six inches thick.

 

- Also, my entire photo album is linked in my signature. Feel free to browse through it if you wish.

[cbpanda]

Great review so far . Brings back memories from last fall.

We love the pride, going back on for halloween .

 

Thanks! We had a great time. I'd go again, definitely.

[rrraydon]

Great review, can't wait until I get back on her!!!

[family cruisers]

Too bad you didn't go to our lucaya in freeport.

Freeport was our favorite port on this Itinerary.

 

We looked at freeport as the suburbs of the bahamas and nassau as the city.

There was more to freeport than just what you saw while docked.

OH well.

Friday, July 16 – Freeport

 

 

We woke up and….well, it was sunny, hot and humid and we were in Freeport. J Coffee, croissants on the balcony, then shower and breakfast (no wonder we gained weight on this cruise). We decided to try the buffet for breakfast, but was disappointed. I really prefer breakfast in the MDR. It’s a much more relaxing atmosphere. We went up on deck to get some pictures of the port area, because the view from our balcony was very industrial – not much to see on that side. But up on deck we could view the island and the other ships in port. We were there with the Bahamas Celebration. Someone told us that this ship leaves W. Palm Beach to Freeport carrying passengers who are either staying on the island or just visiting for the day. Also while we were on deck another Carnival ship approached. This time it was Fascination who we shared the port with.

 

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DH and I got off to walk around the port area for about an hour. Not much here, just a few shops with the same crummy souvenirs you find everywhere. Apparently, the shopping area and the beaches are a cab ride away. So, we went back to the ship and spent the late morning at the pool with our books. Maybe there is more to this stop, but we were surprised at how industrial the port was. Constant noise from container ships getting loaded. This is where the dry dock is located that will spruce up Glory.

 

We departed Freeport at 2pm and watched from our balcony as we said goodbye to the last island on our trip. We were now enroute to Baltimore and the end or our cruise was in sight. L

 

After we sailed and after DH’s “3 o’clocker”, we went down to the Fun Shops to look around. DH decided to bring back some duty free liquor, so we purchased that and some small mementos to bring home.

 

Then, back up to the cabin to get ready for our second formal night. We dressed and headed down to the MDR early again (so we didn’t have to wait). The ship had sailed into some high winds and it was really swaying tonight. Fortunately, neither of us suffer from seasickness and I felt badly for anyone that did. My guess is that there were some really sick passengers that night. We asked our waiter what was the worst weather he’d experienced on a ship and he said Hurricane Katrina. Funny enough, the same answer came from our cabin steward as well. After dinner, we sat in Raphael’s to listen to the Jazz & Cocktail Piano with Alison and enjoyed an after dinner drink – also to admire everyone heading to dinner in their formal wear.

 

We went to the comedy club that evening to watch the new comedians that arrived in Nassau. The early show was packed and we got there late, so we had to stand in the back. The comedian didn’t seem to be as funny and we quickly got bored. So we headed out of there and stopped in the karaoke lounge (Starry Nights). That was a good choice, because the karaoke host, Jay, was hysterical and it seemed like everybody enjoyed performing or watching the karaoke. We stayed there for a while to watch. DH mentioned something in passing about singing and…no way was I doing that!! J I like to watch others, but…nope not going to sing.

 

We left karaoke and stopped at the casino briefly (for about an hour or so) then pizza (again) and back to the cabin. Another towel creation was waiting for us…

 

A very cool looking… Honestly, I’m not sure what it is.

 

 

Closed the day again watching the sea. I could do this every day of my life!

[littlesnit]

Hi Claire,

 

Loved your review, well-written and nonjudgmental.

 

Please be kind enough to post the Fun Times for us. Did you only play slots, or did you play table games also?

 

Can hardly wait to get back on her in October.

[djhsolara]

Great review...and I love your pics. So glad you had a great time!!

 

This makes me even more excited...just over a month away for us!! :) :)

[cbpanda]

Too bad you didn't go to our lucaya in freeport.

Freeport was our favorite port on this Itinerary.

 

We looked at freeport as the suburbs of the bahamas and nassau as the city.

There was more to freeport than just what you saw while docked.

OH well.

 

I'm absolutely sure there was more than just the port. The best part is I'm also sure that we'll return and get other opportunities to see more.

[cbpanda]

Hi Claire,

 

Loved your review, well-written and nonjudgmental.

 

Please be kind enough to post the Fun Times for us. Did you only play slots, or did you play table games also?

 

Can hardly wait to get back on her in October.

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

I will scan the Fun Times this weekend and post them.

 

I only play Blackjack. For me slots are very much like bingo -- never lucky! I tried once in Charlestown at the racetrack...I put $20 in the machine and 10 minutes later was done. My mother-in-law, however, could play for hours and actually always came out ahead.

[sciencegal]

Thanks for sharing! We were on the Pride last August and are getting ready to leave this Sunday!!! Can't wait!:)

[cbpanda]

Thanks for sharing! We were on the Pride last August and are getting ready to leave this Sunday!!! Can't wait!:)

 

Ooooh... very jealous! I have a friend who is taking the Pride next Sunday and man I envy her.

[Jugador30]

Did you play on a $5 table?