Our week on the Pride! June 12-19

[rkacruiser]

Yes, tissues are provided in the cabin.

[rpmljm]

Yes, that's what I mean. Thanks so much for answering.

Laurie

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

This is going great so far. Very interested in hearing about the ports. The Pride is in our backyard practically but it is always more than we want to spend. We cruised the Miracle out of NYC for 8 days rather than 7 and it was still $500 less than Baltimore even with transportation costs. How did you luck into the Pack 'n Go rate? Did you just check the carnival website frequently?

 

It was definitely luck. The person at work was re-doing our schedule, and so it was a good time for me to go ahead and say I wanted the week off...since our kids were gone all week, I just checked one of the big websites to see if anything was going out of Norfolk or Baltimore...happened to find the Pride sailing Sun-Sun, which was perfect...and a PNG rate too...the rate for the balcony was basically the same as an interior and OV, so that's why we took it...sometimes you just stumble on a good deal.

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

Thank you for the pics of the Serenity deck. We've been on the Pride twice but not since they added that. Have to wait another 84 days and your pics aren't helping :D

 

Were there a lot of chair squatters in the Serenity area?

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Most days you could find a chair, but I did notice on the day we were in Freeport, I couldn't really find anything...and it was a day that I noticed lots of stuff everywhere, but people were no where to be found...that was really the only time I noticed the chair hogs in the Serenity area.

[CapsR1]

LOVE your review, I am so glad that you had a good time. We also loved David's when we ate there in May; I think that in the future, we may book two nights there instead of one!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review. The photos are gorgeous and truly capture vibrant colors!

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

On to Port Canaveral...I believe Carnival offers many excursions at this port...Disney is about $149pp through Carnival, or you can rent a car yourself and drive to Orlando...for the first time ever, we chose to stay on the ship while in port. There are shuttles to Cocoa Beach, but my DH doesn't really like just laying on the beach...and we wanted to relax anyway. We had discussed massages at the spa, and we waited impatiently for the spa special to be delivered with the Fun Times for the day at Port Canaveral. The spa special wasn't bad, but it just wasn't what we wanted. I called the spa and asked if there were any other specials. I was told no, but that we could get the "value price" listed by each of the services. The couples massage was value priced at $149 but an individual massage was $109 each, so I called and said we each wanted one. THey asked if we would do it in the couples room, just to free up space, so we ended up getting a couples massage for the single prices. The ladies doing the massage didn't know this, and at the end tried to charge us for a couples massage, but it was quickly straightened out.

 

Before going to our appointment, we went to Lido to get an early lunch. Breakfast was still being served - I think the lines changed over at 11:30, and it was right around 11am at this point. We each got pizza, which was fresh from the oven. It was delicious.

 

I know they try to sell you products in the spa, so we pretty much avoided this by not waiting in the room like they asked us to after our massages. I left to find the restroom, and DH went out to the front lobby area. The ladies came and found us and just handed us a piece of paper with the products they recommended ($180 worth)...it's funny...what are we supposed to do? Rub it on each other when we get home?!? So the massage was a good experience. I liked the technique my lady used...she used her whole arm rather than just her fingers. I think massages kind of hurt when the person runs their fingers along the muscle. This definitely worked the muscle, but without the kneading fingers.

 

After the massage we changed into our bathing suits and got into the "hot tub" in the spa area. I put that in quotes, because the hot tub was definitely not hot! It wasn't really cold, but not even close to warm. It was actually a very hot day though, so the coolness of the hot tub felt pretty good. THere are also showers, steam room and sauna in the spa area that can be used without purchasing anything in the spa. THe hot tub had a domed window above it that was right in the middle of the sports area...kind of funny, because people playing mini golf can look in on you in the hot tub.

 

After the spa, we went to play mini golf. There were very few people on board, and we were the only ones playing. It took us a while to find the guy with all the equipment...he's actually down a level and closer to mid ship. Once we found him, we played one game then went back to the room. It was very hot without the breeze blowing. I'm sure at this point I took another nap.

 

All aboard time was 6:30pm for a 7pm sail time, so we were at dinner during sailaway. Dinner that night I ordered a seafood dish that I really didn't care for...in fact, dinner choices this night were not high on my list. I can usually find something I like, but tonight nothing really looked great. THey have the stuff offered all the time, but I didn't really want the flat iron steak. I ended up ordering the vegetarian dish, which was a black bean and veggie burrito. It was delicious!!! And for dessert...bitter and blanc...another favorite of mine. I should mention that by this point I STILL have not had WCMC! I did get the cappucino the first two nights, but I started just ordering coffee. I had to put way too much Splenda in my cappucino...they make it strong!

 

The Mexican buffet and deck party was this night, but I was crashed by that point. We didn't go to the party. We also didn't go to the show, but it was called "Jazzin". There was no comedy show this night. Instead we went to play a few more games of mini golf...this time it was a bit more crowded, and with the ocean breeze, sometimes the ball went where ever it chose...definitely added another level of challenge to the game!

 

Next up...Nassau!

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

This was the only port we booked an excursion for. I used the ports of call board for Nassau and got some good recommendations. We decided on the ultimate snorkel excursion by Stuart Coves. You can book directly with them online, but they want 100% payment up front. Having never done an excursion with them, I really didn't want to pay everything up front. We ended up booking through Island Marketing, which is a third party...it was the same price, but we just paid the deposit at the time of booking. Now that I've been to Stuart Coves, I would be OK with paying up front.

 

We arrived in Nassau around 10:30am. We had eaten breakfast in the dining room today, and we sat at a big table near the window with several other people. Lots of people got the eggs benedict. I just got mine over easy with some turkey bacon and toast. THe french toast looked good too, but the waffle looked like it had been made a while.

 

We were to meet the Stuart Coves bus at 12:15 outside the pier area. It was a little confusing, but basically all the Carnival excursions meet in the "Festival Place" area inside the gates, but of course private booked excursions meet outside the gates. We were directed to the spot to wait. An air conditioned van picked us up first, then made its way to several hotels. It was kind of like getting a free tour of the island without the commentary. It was also interesting to see what different hotels looked like. We went by Beaches and Sandals...I would choose Sandals based on the way each looked, but I'm sure they are both nice.

 

It was a very hot day, so we were glad to have a water excursion. Before meeting up with the tour van, we walked down the street to the straw market. Some of the locals were a little rude. I know they are pushy, but some of them don't like it when you don't want to buy their products. At the straw market we happened to stop at the stall of a nice lady, so we bought a few things from her for the kids, and then we were done with shopping. It was SO HOT inside the straw market. There were a lot of straw bags with Dora, Hello Kitty and the princesses...I guess they keep up with the times!

 

While we were making our way back to meet the van, there were lots of people selling tours to Atlantis or island tours, and many people offering to rent you a motorcyle.

 

Next up...excursion!

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

The Ultimate Snorkel excursion:

 

After the van ride, which took about 45 minutes with all the stops, we finally arrived at Stuart Coves. Our paper work said we had to bring cash for the balance, but we found out we could have actually paid with a credit card...oh well. THey have a good operation there...a nice store too if you need to buy a cheap underwater camera. They also advertised a DVD and picture package of the excursion, but that was never pushed on us.

 

The excursion had three stops...two regular snorkel stops and one with sharks. It was $60pp and worth the money. We filled out the waivers on the van (you know the ones that said if we get eaten by a shark, they're not liable!), so once we paid, we got on the boat. Everyone picked out snorkel gear...I thought it was pretty nice equipment. THey had a list with all the names on it, and we each had to sign in after every stop (I guess they don't want another "Open Water" case:eek: ) It was necessary to have our confirmation with us, because it seemed they did not have record of whether we had already paid a deposit or not...I had it with me, so I just gave them a copy.

 

First two stops had tons of fish...thankfully they never really touch you...just big schools of fish that jet this way and that way but get close enough to look at. I loved the little zebra fish at the second stop. Jaws 4 was filmed at the second stop, so there was some wreckage on the ocean floor that was kind of cool to see. I didn't have an underwater camera, so I don't have any pics of the fish. At the first stop there was some coral, and on our stop in St. Thomas, I got some coral cuts, so I definitely didn't get too close. The second stop was much deeper, so there was no way to even get close to coral.

 

Third stop was with the sharks. We had to wear full snorkel gear and were not allowed to swim out in the water. We had to hold onto the rope line behind the boat, and just put our faces in the water to see the sharks. The guides dropped a bait box about 20 feet down to get the sharks attention...so we were in the water just looking down at them swimming around. After about 15 minutes we got back into the boat, and the guides took a fish head as bait to get the sharks up to the surface. We were able to get a few pics that way:

 

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

After the third stop we had about a 10 minute ride back to Stuart Coves, then the van ride back to the pier. Someone on the excursion was staying at Atlantis, so we hoped the van would go there first, but the driver dropped us off before going that way. Oh well. However, the people did ask a few others about their hotels, and said Atlantis was just very commercial, and they would probably prefer something quieter...so there are pluses and minuses to staying anywhere, I guess.

 

While we were still at the location, a bus departed immediately to get back to the pier for the NCL cruisers. Their ship was leaving at 6pm, and Stuart Cove made sure they made it back. We had a little more time, so I used the shower to wash off the salt water. We were back on board the Pride about 5:30 and watched the NCL ship sail away right at 6pm then headed down to dinner.

 

Tonight's dinner had many choices...Thai grilled chicken, fried cheese, filet mignon, and for dessert...finally WCMC!!! After dinner I went up to the top deck to take some evening pics of Nassau:

 

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

After setting sail at 10pm from Nassau, the Gender Showdown and Quest were the nightly activities. We were way too tired to take part, so we skipped these. Normally we go to all these activities, but this time we just lounged around for a week!

 

Around 11pm DH became ill...I think it was a combination of him diving down while snorkeling and drinking lots of water (not by choice, but it just happened when diving down) and then maybe something he ate. He was sick for about 12 hours and then fine, so I am really leaning towards the water being the problem.

 

His being sick meant I was on my own in Freeport. He stayed and watched TV while I took the taxi (with about 10 other people...$5 pp each way) to Port Lucaya for shopping. THere were several shops there with the normal stuff like t-shirts, jewelry and straw items. Let me tell you though, these ladies would not bargain with you much at all. I got a few dollars off a couple of things, but I tried at several vendors to get a tie dyed T-shirt for $10 and couldn't get anything below $13, and I didn't think it was worth $13. There were some vendors selling fresh fruit juices and fruit juices with rum. I stayed away, since they were rinsing their blenders in a tap, and I had no idea what the source of that water was.

 

There were many open air stalls but also some air conditioned shops. I actually found I liked the items better at the air conditioned shops. It was also very hot again, so the A/C made it worth a look around the shop. There was one shop, can't remember the name, that had very real looking knock off of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, etc. bags. The lady told me they don't have the copyright laws there, so they make the bags out of leather and high quality fabrics. THey did look very real. Prices were $200+ for these bags. There were several restaurants in the area, but again, I wasn't going to touch the food not knowing how it was prepared or the cleanliness. I know that might be too over protective, but with DH having some sort of stomach ailment, and the last time I had come to the Bahamas, I left with a bug that took a while to get over, I wasn't taking any chances.

 

Around noon I was ready to go back to the ship. I hate to wait about 15 minutes for the taxi van to fill up, then we were on our way back to the pier...about a 15 minute ride. Sail away was at 2pm, so everyone was to be back on board at 1:30. Once I got back, I checked on DH then went up to the Serenity deck. THis was the day of the chair hogs...I hadn't really seen them before on Serenity, but today there was lots of stuff around and not many people. I decided to sit in the shade, so I sat up near the bar in the couches and chairs offered. It was still really hot, since we hadn't sailed yet. I ate lunch then went back to my room to lay out on my balcony and read. I stayed there a few hours before getting ready for the second elegant night.

 

I went to dinner alone since DH just wanted to stay close to the room. Our tablemates were there, so I wasn't totally alone. :p I had broccoli cheese soup, shrimp cocktail and grilled tiger shrimp with cauliflower...now I am not normally a cauliflower person, but this had some sauce on it and it was really yummy. I had the WCMC again tonight. I was able to finish up and make it to the 7:30 family friendly comedy show with Darren D.S. Sanders and Chas Elstner. Both were really funny. THen to the show at 8:30 called "Vrooom"...kind of a history of rock and roll. I didn't think it was as good as the only other show I saw on the cruise. They male singer was great, but the female singer was off key, and sounded like she needed one of those ear pieces. She had a great voice, but it just wasn't happening at this show. I ended up leaving early to go check on DH. He was feeling better and had ordered some room service, and he decided to go to the late night comedy with me.

 

The first comedy show was Darren Sanders...he was funny but I liked his family friendly show better. We didn't make it up to see the 11:45 show with Chas.

 

The Freeport spa special was from 2pm-10pm and was $119 for back, neck and shoulder massage, a fully body brush exfoliation, frangipani scalp massage, hydra facial and a foot and ankle massage. So you could get a lot for $119. We didn't do this one since we'd already spent our money at the spa.

 

Next up...final sea day!

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

I mentioned at the beginning of the review that all the days except the final sea day we moved very slowly...well, after we left Freeport, the captain had the ship up to about 26 knots...we were definitely moving along! It still felt pretty smooth though, so no complaints.

 

We were up around 8:45 and had breakfast in the dining room again. This time we had a table right in center aft, so we got to look out at the ship's wake while eating. We stayed talking with the people we were seated with. Both couples had gone to Disney while in Port Canaveral...one said they rode a lot of stuff by getting the fast pass, so that's probably a good idea if going on the Disney excursion, especially since you really have to leave Orlando by about 5pm to get back to the ship by 6:30pm.

 

After breakfast we went back to the room, and I stayed out on the balcony until the sun was just too hot to stand. It was shady all morning then sunny in the afternoon. Our steward had brought luggage tags, and we were group 20, so we decided to do self-assist debarkation. Right before dinner we started getting packed up :(. I wish there were 2 sea days going home!

 

I don't remember what we had for dinner that night. I think we went to a comedy show. I guess I was in a state of depression knowing vacation was ending!

 

Around 10pm we were already at the Chesapeake Bay and knew it wouldn't take the rest of the night to get to Baltimore. I did wake up around 4am and looked outside...the ship seemed to be still in the water...I guess we were just hanging out until we could sail into Baltimore.

 

We arrived in Baltimore around 7am. We were up, got dressed and had a quick breakfast before they started calling for self-assist passengers. We were off this ship around 8:30. We called the hotel for the shuttle, and that took about 45 minutes. When the driver got there, he said he was the only shuttle driver that morning and apologized for the wait. This is another reason I'd probably skip the sleep/park/cruise deal next time. If our car had been right at the pier, we'd have been in it within about 10 minutes of getting off the ship (seriously, the customs and immigration guy didn't even open our passports when we presented them...just asked if we had any cigarettes or alcohol.)

 

Anyway, we were back in our car and headed home by 9:30 and home by noon.

 

Next up...a few more details about various things and some more pictures

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

Like I said, I really liked the size of this ship...very easy to get around and from one end to the other quickly. Usually before shows in the theatre you are subjected to several bingo games, but this cruise the bingo was held during the day in other locations.

 

The Cruise Director, Brent Mitchell was not my favorite. He made tons of announcements at all times of the day about upcoming events. Thank you, I can read the Fun Times for myself! Thankfully they aren't announced in the cabin, but they were still annoying.

 

I did get some cash on board from the ATM, and the fee was $6. Our bank refunds ATM fees, so this didn't end up costing me, but if you need cash, I would recommend bringing it all with you!

 

Our waiters and steward were really good, so we tipped them extra at the end. I did see people in line on the last day and were asking to remove tips. I hate this, but I know that's for another thread, another day!

 

There are some nice quiet area on the ship to sit and relax. A nice quiet area right beside the Taj Mahal theatre.

 

I can't think of anything else right now. I hope you've enjoyed the review. Again, if anyone has questions, let me know! I'll post some more pics.

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

Freeport:

 

Port Lucaya:

 

Fascination in Freeport:

 

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

 

 

kiddie pool:

 

water slide:

 

 

Thanks for reading my review!!

[cruisenanny]

Loved your review & pics, awesome job! Thank you:)

[serene56]

thanks for the review

[Room Service!]

THANK YOU for writing it! I've ONLY got 118 days to go. :(

As others have said pics were great.

[jbhcw]

Great review...loved the pictures! We were on the Pride in April to Bermuda...love the Spirit class..and she still looks good! Son and DIL saw our pictures and booked the same week you were sailing...they had a great time...and looks like you all did too:):):)

[ardnassac79]

This is going great so far. Very interested in hearing about the ports. The Pride is in our backyard practically but it is always more than we want to spend. We cruised the Miracle out of NYC for 8 days rather than 7 and it was still $500 less than Baltimore even with transportation costs. How did you luck into the Pack 'n Go rate? Did you just check the carnival website frequently?

 

Really? I guess it depends on the time of year. I find the Pride prices during Sept-Nov to be excellent, but we always book really early so we get the Early Saver rates too. (Sorry to thread hijack!!)

[jbhcw]

We had been wanting to go to Bermuda for years..but not a 5 or 6 day..and not out of New York...I thought the prices for Bermuda on the Pride (7) day were great...haven't really checked other Pride itineraries on this ship though...

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

Really? I guess it depends on the time of year. I find the Pride prices during Sept-Nov to be excellent, but we always book really early so we get the Early Saver rates too. (Sorry to thread hijack!!)

 

We loved this ship so much that I did look up prices for the whole family to cruise the other itinerary next year (HMC, Grand Turk, Freeport)...and there were some great prices during certain weeks when the kids are IN school, but they are pretty high when they are out of school (which is usual), but I did find one week next August that isn't too bad, if we can go ahead and get ES rates. So still thinking about booking that one...we want the whole extended family to go, so that takes a bit of planning.

 

I haven't checked the rates to Bermuda.

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

Which Sleep Inn? Downtown or airport?

 

I'm not sure...probably airport. We were not downtown.

[ardnassac79]

We loved this ship so much that I did look up prices for the whole family to cruise the other itinerary next year (HMC, Grand Turk, Freeport)...and there were some great prices during certain weeks when the kids are IN school, but they are pretty high when they are out of school (which is usual), but I did find one week next August that isn't too bad, if we can go ahead and get ES rates. So still thinking about booking that one...we want the whole extended family to go, so that takes a bit of planning.

 

I haven't checked the rates to Bermuda.

 

As you can see from my siggie, we love the Pride, been on it 2x on the itinerary you just did, but we are doing the HMC/GT/Freeport one coming up in September - I can't wait for HMC, from everything I've read on here, it sounds like pure paradise! I think we booked the Sept one sometime in Feb, and they still had the obstructed view balconies too, so that also helps with the cost. We live about 25 mins from the port, so it's a no brainer to take advantage of it! We've looked at the Bermuda ones, but we like to frequent the casino in the evenings, and unfortunately, it's closed during the entire time the ship is docked in Bermuda (3 daysIi think) so that one is probably not in our future...

 

Good luck planning for the whole fam!! You're right, that does take some time!

 

Great review btw, I can't wait to be back on this ship, especially to see the new Serenity area! That was added during her dry-dock, which was a month or 2 after our last cruise.

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

The couples massage was value priced at $149 but an individual massage was $109 each

 

Sorry! This should be $249 for couples massage and $109 for individual.