Pride September 9-16 ~ Our First Carnival Cruise

[stargate fan]

Don't trip coming down the gangway when you disembark, I don't plan on slowing down;).

 

Bring something to entertain yourself in the port building. You'll have to wait while we take our sweet time vacating the ship. :D

DS is picking us up; we plan on staying on board until the very last announcement.

[cruisecrazy82]

28 more days for us. First time on Pride. Thanks for taking the time to write a review - looking forward to the rest!

 

Hey we sail in 28 days too;)

 

Loving the review!!!!

[novinha]

42 days for us till we sail the Pride. I cannot wait!

[absolutely brilliant]

enjoying your review..Thanks!

[tcowgs21]

Bring something to entertain yourself in the port building. You'll have to wait while we take our sweet time vacating the ship. :D

DS is picking us up; we plan on staying on board until the very last announcement.

 

I agree stargate, I think I will wait until the very end also!!!

[Silent Penguin]

Day 3 - Uneventful but not boring day at sea

 

 

 

 

Morning - Has the once invasive species of chair hog become extinct?

• Breakfast – A repeat of yesterday's omelet, oatmeal and fruit breakfast except we skipped the nasty breakfast meats, bought coffee instead of drinking the free brew and each had a danish. I have no complaints about the freshness of the pastry or the texture of it, but it's another instance in which, in a blind taste test, I couldn't tell you what flavor the fruit filling was supposed to be.
  
• 
  
• A morning of “Serenity” - After breakfast, we would have been content to return to the same deck chairs as we occupied the day before, but after reading so much about Serenity, I had to find out what the fuss -for better and worse – was all about. After all, I had read that it's a hopping spot on at-sea day.
  

• 7:30-7:45am – If anyone's hopping, they're not doing it at Serenity. There are maybe 2 people in deck chairs, no one in the pool, and a couple of the hammocks are full. There are about 40 loungers in Serenity and none of the empty ones have stuff on them. Here's a picture of dh in which you can see the row of empty chairs.
  

• 8:00-8:15am – I look up from my Kindle (on which I have been reading A Brave New World) and notice a change. This is the Serenity I came to expect. Every seat is taken, it's shoulder to shoulder people around the pool and in the hot tub. Yet, for as crowded as it is, it's not loud at all. I figure it's just too early for the reveling to begin. I'll monitor the situation. At this rate, I expect the rowdiness should be starting by 9am and we'll have to move some place quieter.
  
• Noon – Spending the morning at Serenity has been truly serene, no rowdiness afterall, but we leave anyway since it's lunch time.
  

Afternoon

• lunch at Normandie – We asked for a table for 2 and got one right away.
  

  • Service - I was prepared for the service at lunch to be slow since it was kind of like anytime dining, but that wasn't case. We were seated, had ordered, and and were eating within five to 7 minutes. (I didn't time it, but I'm adept at guessing time). Dh's tea glass was never less than ¾ full, and we were offered bread at least twice.

    

    
     
     
    

• 
  
  • The food – soups – meh, entrees -delicious. Dh ordered spinach ravioli, I ordered fish and chips, and we split an order of ribs. I think the waiter gave me a look for ordering 2 entrees but that might have been my imagination or guilty conscience messing with me. All the food was served hot and tasted delicious. The fish and chips were not greasy, and the ribs were tender and not fatty. Dh loves bread pudding for dessert, so he tried that. He wished he had skipped it. He said it wasn't horrible, just not good.
    

• Cruise Critic meet & greet - I found this on the schedule for 1:30pm and wondered who set it up. No one from our roll call had arranged anything. Out of curiosity, dh and I strolled over to Beauties to see what it was all about. The club was empty. We took pictures (see below) and were about to leave when one lady from our roll call showed up. We were talking to her when a young couple popped in. They weren't actually from our roll call. They were just revisiting the wedding reception site from a cousin's marriage the year before. But, we all hung around for a while and talked about cruising. The couple shared with us how unromantic and rather disappointing her cousin's wedding was. In the nutshell, it sounds like a hurry up and wait experience in the port. There were several weddings in port that morning, so each wedding party was ushered to a spot to wait. Once the party was called forward, the ceremony was over in minutes and then they were hussled off to the reception at Beauties. Wherever it was that the wedding ceremony took place, it must not have been private. During the cousin's vows, another wedding couple walked in during it.
  

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• The Library experience – after the pitiful meet & greet, dh and I walked over to the Library to buy some internet time so I could get on Amazon and add Minesweeper to my Kindle Touch. Buying internet time is very easy, figuring out how to put Minesweeper on my Kindle was not. I chewed up $24.95 worth of internet time and to ask for help from the Library attendant twice only to learn my Kindle Touch doesn't load games.
  
  • Internet speed - We didn't think the internet speed was terribly slow. It wasn't as bad as the internet on Disney Cruise Line. Neither of us was expecting any important correspondence, so we didn't bother to check our email accounts.
    
  • Library attendant – the attendant was knowledgeable and helpful, more than I would have expected.
    
  • 
    

  

• The nap experience – The effects of an early morning, sun & fresh air, 2 glasses of Choco-vino (think adults-only Yoo Hoo) took their toll on us. At 4:00, we went back to our room and napped.
  

• Dinner – dinner, a show, and another no-show.
  

• 
  
  • Dinner – Tonight, I ordered sushi for my starter and dh had a cucumber bisque. The sushi was surprisingly good, but the soup-and this was starting to become a trend- was just okay. My entre -jerked pork loin, green beans and spicy rice was delicious! Dh gave the thumbs up on the penne pasta and seafood. I skipped dessert but ordered a coffee and a hot chocolate, a combination I make for myself at home all the time. This was effective for turning the lousy (in my opinion) coffee into a more than palatable hot beverage.
    

• 
  
  • show – Dancing waiters! Toward the end of the meal, the music started and the wait staff showed us how “low they could go”. Were they really having fun? If they weren't I couldn't tell.
    

• 
  
  • Another no-show – Once again, we had the table to ourselves. Sitting side-by-side facing the other diners in the room allowed us to study the other families and groups and the dining room staff, which is always very interesting.
    

• Evening entertainment – A pleasant evening with our new friends. We didn't make it to any shows this evening. When we returned to our room after dinner, there was an invitation from my new Scrabble buddy and her dh to meet for a game. Dh hates Scrabble, but he was willing to accompany me in order to meet my friend's husband, who, like my husband, is an engineer. To my relief, they had common interests and the other man was a good listener, so we were all content to pass the evening in each other's company.
  

 

End of Day 3

[Silent Penguin]

Great review so far! Just wanted to say we were on the Conquest the week before you and Rob Little was on our cruise. He was HILARIOUS. Never got a chance to see his all-ages show, but his adult shows were a trip. We got a chance to hang out with him before he got off our boat onto the Pride and he was one of the nicest guys ever.

 

 

As you know, it sounds like his career is really taking off. I doubt he'll be entertaining on cruise ships much longer.

[Bashlin]

Read every sentence and can't wait to continue the review.. Good job ;-)

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[garyf3]

Enjoying your review, my family and I sail on the Pride in 19 days on our first cruise!

[SMSACE6]

Very nice review. Well written and balanced, and entertaining! I look forward to reading more!:)

[silvercrikhix]

Thank you for sharing your cruise review.

I really was laughing at the bit about when you return from a cruise the people DON'T want to hear every detail....sad aren't they....sheeeeesh. :D

[sparks1093]

Thank you for sharing your cruise review.

I really was laughing at the bit about when you return from a cruise the people DON'T want to hear every detail....sad aren't they....sheeeeesh. :D

 

In my experience they are just jealous:cool:.

[Silent Penguin]

Day 4 – Grand Turk

 

 

 

 

Morning – Dh made plans to go scuba diving, and I made plans to...do nothing. If we had known it was possible for me to snorkel while dh dived, I would have went with him. As it was, I was fine going off on my own for the day.

• Breakfast via room service – Based on the promising feedback from other cruisers about the punctuality of delivery, I ordered a room service breakfast to be delivered between 7am and 7:30am. Dh needed to make his way to the dive shop as close to 8am as possible. At 7:25am, the food hadn't arrived and I was getting nervous so I called room service. It took a few tries to get through. As the woman on the phone was checking on our order, the food arrived. :)
  
• 
  
  • Our order
    
    • 2 Coffees - don't laugh, but I thought the coffee was served by the cup, so I indicated I wanted 2 coffees and a hot chocolate. Yes, coffee is delivered by the potful. Dh said it wasn't as bad as the dining room or buffet coffee. I mixed mine with hot chocolate, so I can't make a judgement.
      
    • 3 Smoked Salmons (lox) – Since dining room portions are small, I ordered 3 smoked salmons for the two of us. Ooops! Each plate contains 2 healthy sized rosettes of tasty smoked salmon with tomato, lettuce and mild onion.
      
    • 2 bagels – What these bagels were NOT – hard, cold, crumbly. Thumbs up on those.
      
    • 2 sliced melon - More tasty melon, easy to eat because they take off the rind. :)
      
    • 2 Muffins – One plain and one chocolate. Moist and delicious. Fattening, I'm sure.
      
    • 2 Danish - (just in case the muffins were too dry to eat) One apple, one cherry. Fresh and tender but nothing special as far as flavor.
      

    [*]I had pictures of our bountiful breakfast spread, but I suspect dh, who thinks taking pictures of food is weird, deleted them.

Going Our Separate Ways

• Dh's Scuba excursion – His contribution to this report is as follows:
  
  • Grand Turk Diving – Excellent communication, fair prices, well-run and reliable. Professional but still small-island friendly and laid back. Very accommodating to cruise passengers.
    
  • Daniel – an expert on tropical sea life, a personable guy, a patient instructor, and a supremely competent dive master.
    
  • Pictures - Unfortunately, none. Someone's poorly secured air tank fell on dh's awesome, homemade, deep-water camera casing on his last diving trip and he never had the time to make a new one.
    

  [*]My morning -

  • Deciding not to spend the morning on the ship - Our room was forward on the port side, so after dh left our room, shortly before 8:00am, I stepped out onto our balcony to get a good look at all the places I had read so much about on Cruise Critic – Margaritaville and its pool, Jack's Shack, the Local Village Bar.
    
  • Already a voice from a loud speaker was beckoning cruise passengers to come to the Local Village Bar for the “cheapest drinks, the best island food , free beach chairs and free umbrellas!” Neither a beach frolic, a fruity drink poolside, or a plate of conch salad appealed to me at that time of the morning but neither did staying on the ship where I was sure I would wind up spending too much money at the spa or in the casino.
    
  • 
    

  [*]

  Speaking of spending money, it occurs to me I should check out the duty-free shop on the island to see how the liquor prices compare to those on the ship. Then, I'll take a taxi to Cockburn to visit a museum and see the local sites. Even though I was pretty sure Grand Turk wil look like just about every other Bahama or Eastern Caribbean island of its size I had visited, I decide it's worth the taxi fare to find out.

  [*]

  • Touring island –
    
    • The duty-free store is the gateway to the Cruise Center, so my first stop is the duty-free where I compare its prices with the price list from the ship's store and decide not to buy any liters of liquor in Grand Turk.
      
    • At the taxi pavilion, which is only a 30 second walk across the Cruise Center from the duty-free, I asked the taxi dispatcher for a cab to take me to town. After a minute of talking to the driver of the van idling next to us, she told me to get into the van, the driver would take me to town for $5.00. Once I entered the almost full van, the driver immediately left the Cruise Center area and began telling us about the island.
      
    • As it turned out, the driver was Cathy of Cathy and Jack's Taxi Service which I had read about on Travel Adviser as one of the best tour guides on the island. I ascertained that everyone else in the van was with her for a full island tour. When we reached Cockburn and everyone got out to spend a little time and money there, Cathy asked me if I wanted to continue on for the island tour. I did. When she herded her tour group back onto the van, I was with them.
      
    • Of course, the tour was informative. Cathy has lived on the island her whole life and has a lot to share. I think she would have shared a lot more if a certain passenger hadn't take to interrupting her with his “witty” questions and indelicate teasing. As it was, I got the sense that she was making a Herculean effort to stay focused and cheerful toward the end of the tour. I know he rankled me, and I was glad to get out of the van.
      
    • 
      

    [*]The Island Tour -

    • cost – 25.00
      
    • duration – about 1 -1/2 hour
      

    [*]stops /points of interest

    • Cockburn Town – 10 minutes – tiny shops with colorful things, food, drinks
      

    <a href="

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    • Lighthouse – 10 to 15 minutes – lovely scenery, concession stand (beer was $5.00), great place for
      
    • 
      
    • 
      

    photoshttp://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg259/yazee1/Carnival%20Cruise/IMG_4535.jpg

    • Salt Pond – 10 to 15 minutes – interesting museum, gift shop
      
    • Cathy's house, daughter's house, friend's house – drove by but didn't stop. ;)
      
    • Schools, the jail, other buildings of interest – drive by
      

 

• 
  
  • 
    
    • How cheap are the “cheapest drinks on the island” – At the end of the tour, Cathy dropped us off at the taxi pavilion at the Cruise Center. It was about noon. I wasn't hungry but I was thirsty. After browsing in a couple of the shops, I decided I to walk down the beach to the Local Village Bar and find out how cheap were the “cheapest drinks on the island”.
      
      • Answer – not that cheap! I got a rum and Coke. It was $8.00. But, it was worth it. Live island music playing , a tasty (and strong), cold libation in my hand, an umbrella shaded beach chair by the water's edge on a mostly empty Bahama beach. This unplanned stop might have topped Cathy's tour for most enjoyable Grand turk experience that day.
        

      [*]One more Stop – The Duty-Free – This time for easy to hide mini bottles.

      • What $8.00 will also buy you...
        
        • 4 mini bottles of Captain Morgan Coconut Rum – for the rum and cokes I planned to drink on Half Moon Cay
          
        • Another $8.00 will also buy you at least 3 Bailey minis (I think they were 2.50) to put in coffee when you meet up with friends after dinner.
          
        • Another $8.00 will buy you at least 3 Kahlua minis for those previously mentioned coffees
          
        • How to get them on-board without having them confiscated. They are minis. Even if anyone does look at the x-ray of my bag, they look like trial size bottles of just about anything. Also, I'm wearing a one piece bathing suit and a baggy sun dress; use your imagination.
          

  [*]One shout-outs for Carnival, an opinion about the burgers, and then an abrupt end to this day's report

  • Why? For some reason, my notes leave off at about 2:30pm and I can't remember what we did for the rest of the day. I do remember skipping dinner because we ate a really late lunch but later getting sushi, which was very good. I remember we went to bed early after having a bedtime snack of cakes from the buffet, which were dry and bland so we didn't finish them.
    
  • The Shout-out. Carnival does a Disney – By that I mean, they went the extra mile. When I got back on the ship about 1:15pm, dh was not in our room. Ten minutes later, when I got out of the shower, he still wasn't back. A call to guest services to see if he had been checked back in, confirmed that he had not. Well, I thought. This is going to be interesting. But, it wasn't. No more than 30 seconds later, the same man rang me back to let me know dh had just returned to the ship.
    
  • The burgers – I agree with everyone who says Carnival burgers are delicious! I know I haven't had much good to say about the buffet, but the burgers make up for it.
    

 

Not really the end of Day 4 but all I have for you.

[Silent Penguin]

Day 4 – Grand Turk

 

 

 

 

Morning – Dh made plans to go scuba diving, and I made plans to...do nothing. If we had known it was possible for me to snorkel while dh dived, I would have went with him. As it was, I was fine going off on my own for the day.

• Breakfast via room service – Based on the promising feedback from other cruisers about the punctuality of delivery, I ordered a room service breakfast to be delivered between 7am and 7:30am. Dh needed to make his way to the dive shop as close to 8am as possible. At 7:25am, the food hadn't arrived and I was getting nervous so I called room service. It took a few tries to get through. As the woman on the phone was checking on our order, the food arrived.
  
• 
  
• 
  
  • Our order
    
    • 2 Coffees - don't laugh, but I thought the coffee was served by the cup, so I indicated I wanted 2 coffees and a hot chocolate. Yes, coffee is delivered by the potful. Dh said it wasn't as bad as the dining room or buffet coffee. I mixed mine with hot chocolate, so I can't make a judgement.
      
    • 3 Smoked Salmons (lox) – Since dining room portions are small, I ordered 3 smoked salmons for the two of us. Ooops! Each plate contains 2 healthy sized rosettes of tasty smoked salmon with tomato, lettuce and mild onion.
      
    • 2 bagels – What these bagels were NOT – hard, cold, crumbly. Thumbs up on those.
      
    • 2 sliced melon - More tasty melon, easy to eat because they take off the rind.
      
    • 2 Muffins – One plain and one chocolate. Moist and delicious. Fattening, I'm sure.
      
    • 2 Danish - (just in case the muffins were too dry to eat) One apple, one cherry. Fresh and tender but nothing special as far as flavor.
      

    [*]I had pictures of our bountiful breakfast spread, but I suspect dh, who thinks taking pictures of food is weird, deleted them.

Going Our Separate Ways

• Dh's Scuba excursion – His contribution to this report is as follows:
  
  • Grand Turk Diving – Excellent communication, fair prices, well-run and reliable. Professional but still small-island friendly and laid back. Very accommodating to cruise passengers.
    
  • Daniel – an expert on tropical sea life, a personable guy, a patient instructor, and a supremely competent dive master.
    
  • Pictures - Unfortunately, none. Someone's poorly secured air tank fell on dh's awesome, homemade, deep-water camera casing on his last diving trip and he never had the time to make a new one.
    

  [*]My morning -

  • Deciding not to spend the morning on the ship - Our room was forward on the port side, so after dh left our room, shortly before 8:00am, I stepped out onto our balcony to get a good look at all the places I had read so much about on Cruise Critic – Margaritaville and its pool, Jack's Shack, the Local Bar
    
  • .
    
  • Already a voice from a loud speaker was beckoning cruise passengers to come to the Local Village Bar for the “cheapest drinks, the best island food , free beach chairs and free umbrellas!” Neither a beach frolic, a fruity drink poolside, or a plate of conch salad appealed to me at that time of the morning but neither did staying on the ship where I was sure I would wind up spending too much money at the spa or in the casino.
    

• 
  Speaking of spending money, it occurs to me I should check out the duty-free shop on the island to see how the liquor prices compare to those on the ship. Then, I'll take a taxi to Cockburn to visit a museum and see the local sites. Even though I was pretty sure Grand Turk wil look like just about every other Bahama or Eastern Caribbean island of its size I had visited, I decide it's worth the taxi fare to find out.
  

• Touring island –
  
• The duty-free store is the gateway to the Cruise Center, so my first stop is the duty-free where I compare its prices with the price list from the ship's store and decide not to buy any liters of liquor in Grand Turk.
  
• At the taxi pavilion, which is only a 30 second walk across the Cruise Center from the duty-free, I asked the taxi dispatcher for a cab to take me to town. After a minute of talking to the driver of the van idling next to us, she told me to get into the van, the driver would take me to town for $5.00. Once I entered the almost full van, the driver immediately left the Cruise Center area and began telling us about the island.
  
• As it turned out, the driver was Cathy of Cathy and Jack's Taxi Service which I had read about on Travel Adviser as one of the best tour guides on the island. I ascertained that everyone else in the van was with her for a full island tour. When we reached Cockburn and everyone got out to spend a little time and money there, Cathy asked me if I wanted to continue on for the island tour. I did. When she herded her tour group back onto the van, I was with them.
  
• Of course, the tour was informative. Cathy has lived on the island her whole life and has a lot to share. I think she would have shared a lot more if a certain passenger hadn't take to interrupting her with his “witty” questions and indelicate teasing. As it was, I got the sense that she was making a Herculean effort to stay focused and cheerful toward the end of the tour. I know he rankled me, and I was glad to get out of the van.
  

• The Island Tour -
  
  • cost – 25.00
    
  • duration – about 1 -1/2 hour
    

  [*]stops /points of interest

  • Cockburn Town – 10 minutes – tiny shops with colorful things, food, drinks
    

• 
  
  • Lighthouse – 10 to 15 minutes – lovely scenery, concession stand (beer was $5.00), great place for photos
    

  [*]

  

  [*]

  • Salt Pond – 10 to 15 minutes – interesting museum, gift shop
    
  • Cathy's house, daughter's house, friend's house – drove by but didn't stop. ;)
    
  • Schools, the jail, other buildings of interest – drive by
    

• How cheap are the “cheapest drinks on the island” – At the end of the tour, Cathy dropped us off at the taxi pavilion at the Cruise Center. It was about noon. I wasn't hungry but I was thirsty. After browsing in a couple of the shops, I decided I to walk down the beach to the Local Village Bar and find out how cheap were the “cheapest drinks on the island”.
  
• 
  
  • Answer – not that cheap! I got a rum and Coke. It was $8.00. But, it was worth it. Live island music playing , a tasty (and strong), cold libation in my hand, an umbrella shaded beach chair by the water's edge on a mostly empty Bahama beach. This unplanned stop might have topped Cathy's tour for most enjoyable Grand turk experience that day.
    

  [*]

  • One more Stop – The Duty-Free – This time for easy to hide mini bottles.
    
    • What $8.00 will also buy you...
      
      • 4 mini bottles of Captain Morgan Coconut Rum – for the rum and cokes I planned to drink on Half Moon Cay
        
      • Another $8.00 will also buy you at least 3 Bailey minis (I think they were 2.50) to put in coffee when you meet up with friends after dinner.
        
      • Another $8.00 will buy you at least 3 Kahlua minis for those previously mentioned coffees
        
      • How to get them on-board without having them confiscated. They are minis. Even if anyone does look at the x-ray of my bag, they look like trial size bottles of just about anything. Also, I'm wearing a one piece bathing suit and a baggy sun dress; use your imagination.
        

  [*]One shout-outs for Carnival, an opinion about the burgers, and then an abrupt end to this day's report

• 
  
  • Why? For some reason, my notes leave off at about 2:30pm and I can't remember what we did for the rest of the day. I do remember skipping dinner because we ate a really late lunch but later getting sushi, which was very good. I remember we went to bed early after having a bedtime snack of cakes from the buffet, which were dry and bland so we didn't finish them.
    
  • The Shout-out. Carnival does a Disney – By that I mean, they went the extra mile. When I got back on the ship about 1:15pm, dh was not in our room. Ten minutes later, when I got out of the shower, he still wasn't back. A call to guest services to see if he had been checked back in, confirmed that he had not. Well, I thought. This is going to be interesting. But, it wasn't. No more than 30 seconds later, the same man rang me back to let me know dh had just returned to the ship.
    
  • The burgers – I agree with everyone who says Carnival burgers are delicious! I know I haven't had much good to say about the buffet, but the burgers make up for it.
    

Not really the end of Day 4 but all I have for you.

[Silent Penguin]

I'll be back later with Day 5. What's been bugging me is I can't figure out how to manipulate the picture sizes. I think I'm making progress. Here's a picture of the games cabinet in the library.

 

[Silent Penguin]

I'll be back later with Day 5. What's been bugging me is I can't figure out how to manipulate the picture sizes. I think I'm making progress. Here's a picture of the games cabinet in the library. It's way too big. I've tried resizing in Photobucket. Obviously, I have more learning to do.

 

 

 

[Silent Penguin]

A view of the beach from room 8126

 

[Silent Penguin]

I'm back. I was actually back last night, but I made the mistake of typing my report in the reply window and not on my notepad. By the time I finished carefully packaging a report of Day 5 and attaching the accompanying pictures, I had timed out! Of course, I hadn't saved or copied one bit of it. So, here's another shot at Day 5.

 

 

Day 5 – Half Moon Cay

 

 

 

Morning - Up early and what do we see out our balcony door?

 

An inviting blue ocean reflecting the sun's dazzling rays on the surface of the water's gentle swells? Not in the least! Instead heavy cloud cover blocked out all but gray morning light and a soaking rain bathed my face when I stepped outside to gauge whether the rain had just stopped or maybe had subsided to a drizzle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This unpromising start didn't dishearten us. As experienced hurricane season cruisers, we figured if the captain hadn't skipped HMC all together, there was a good chance the weather was expected to improve. Dh didn't care either way about HMC. While he loves scuba diving and snorkeling, which he wasn't planning to do at HMC, he doesn't really like hanging out on the beach. I'm not big on laying on the beach either, but what dh didn't know was that because I had a surprise waiting for him on the beach that I expected he would really like. I had rented us a cabana.

 

 

 

Breakfast – 8:30am - A repeat of yesterday's room service breakfast but with fewer portions of coffee and smoked salmon. LOL. The food arrived just as I was about to check on it. This was becoming a pattern. Note to self and others: Don't fret, food will arrive 1-2 minutes before it is officially late.

 

Over breakfast, I told him about the cabana. I was surprised how delighted he really was with this news. Rain or shine, he was ready to tender over to Half Moon Cay. We packed our beach bag and headed for the Taj Mahal to wait for a tender.

 

 

 

Tendering to Half Moon Cay - about 9:00am – I thought it would be mob scene at the Taj Mahal but the crowd was orderly. Carnival had everything under control. Disney couldn't have handled it better. We were assigned tender 8. From the looks of it, passengers for tender 5 were still in the packed auditorium, so we found a seat near a couple we “knew” from the dining room and were prepared to wait a good while. After just a couple of minutes of chat with our neighbors, an announcement for Platinum members and cabana rentals was called. Oh! That's us, I thought. Off we went!

 

 

 

By the way, remember when I mentioned early in my report that a certain group of travelers grew rowdy in the port when they thought another traveling group “butted” the line? While dh and I, with our tender 8 stickers fixed to our chests, marched right past clusters of other passengers with lower tender numbers, I feared a repeat of this reaction. It didn't happen.

 

 

 

Reaching the beach- After a short hop across the water, we docked at the island. By now, the rain had stopped. Some people on the tender complained about having to tender, but I guess it's a matter of perspective. I would rather tender to Half Moon Cay and then have to walk a short distance to the beach than have to huff it down a really long pier to a tram station that then takes you to the beach as is the case at DCL's Castaway Cay. Of course, you don't have to take the tram, but it is a serious hike to the beach, and anyone with physical limitations or young children would sensibly opt for the tram ride.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see in the photos, the sky was clearing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arrival – Below is a picture of me sitting in our cabana before the attendants arrived to drop off our amenities and to make sure the fans, frig and AC were working properly .

 

 

 

 

 

The amenities arrived. Cabana rentals include provisions for up to four people. There were only two of us, but I arranged provisions for four in case we made some friends during the cruise.

• Soon after we arrived, a man showed up with the following:
  
  • picnic cooler full of ice
    
  • chips & salsa, guacamole & sour creme
     
    
  • veggies & dip
     
    
  • fruit platter
     
    
  • (?) oranges
     
    
  • 4 beach towels 4 sets of snorkel gear (different sizes) -a $60.00 value for 4 people
     
    
  • 4 floating mats – a $40.00 value for 4 people
     
    
  • 8 cold beverages - a $20.00 -36.00 (?) value for 4 people depending on whether you choose soda or liters of water.
     
    

 

Our Half Moon Cay Day – Except for going snorkeling together and my short trek to the barbecue to get our lunch, we didn't leave our little peace of heaven to explore the island at all. Therefore, I am not equipped to report on the bars, the shopping, the excursions, or anything except what it was like to spend almost the entire day relaxing on the beach.

 

• Snorkeling – After stowing the beverages in the refrigerator, the dips in the ice chest, and our few possessions in the storage cabinet, we sorted through the snorkel gear to find fins that fit. All four sets looked new – no signs of wear and tear.
  

• Our take on snorkeling from the beach – a waste of time, not much to see. If there is good snorkeling on HMC, I suspect it involves a boat ride. Dh wasn't interested in pursuing that, so we decided to enter the water at one end of the beach, head out to the far rope and swim along the rope. In the hour or more we stayed out there, we saw some fish (including the flounder in the picture below) and a crab or two (including the tiny one pictured below) but not much of anything.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doing nothing and enjoying it

 

After rinsing ourselves and the snorkel gear, we got down to the serious business of doing nothing at all.

• We read our Kindles.
  
• We watched a ghecko scamper around the floor after flies it never seemed to catch.
  
• We watched the rain clouds in the distance and speculated where it might be raining and whether it would rain on us.
  
• I swam in the ocean for a while while dh napped.
  
• About 1:30 or so, I hiked over to the barbecue to get us some lunch.
  

 

Lunch – Am I alone in thinking some of the best food of the cruise is the lunch on Half Moon Cay? I might have been happier if the menu included ribs and soft serve ice cream like Cookie's Barbecue at DCL's island does, but how happy does a person have to be to be happy enough?

 

• What I liked about the lunch:
  
  • short walk from beach to barbecue
    
  • small groupings of picnic tables instead of a few large pavilions with lots of tables (too noisy)
    
  • limited menu and lots of attendants means getting through the line faster
    
  • the food – I put a little bit of everything (except a hot dog and broccoli salad) -burger, jerk chicken, spicy rice, potato salad, cous cous, cole slaw, titi shrimp salad, grilled squash, banana rum cake, torte, cookie, and a brownie on two plates so we could try it all.
    
  • 
    

  [*]Trying it all – Maybe I forgot to tell dh that I was going to get our lunch, because when I came back with the lunches, he wasn't hungry. He had been eating the fruit, veggies and chips while I was gone.

  • Not interested in the plate of food I brought him, I fixed him a big, icy rum and Coke instead. This was another surprise because he didn't know about me smuggling the mini bottles on the boat.
    
  • I fixed me a big rum and Coke too and started plowing through both dishes of barbecue. I didn't intend to, but I finished all the food I had brought from the barbecue except the cakes and brownie. They were good but kind of dry.
    

 

• Nature's way of saying, “It's time to go” - I think it was about 2:30 when a light rain began to fall. Dh and I moved the table and a couple of chairs to the deck of the cabana and dragged the loungers to the sheltered area.
  
• 
  
  • Everyone not in a cabana left the beach except for an older lady who stayed with her family's things that were on a beach chair beneath the coconut trees. She was only several yards from our cabana, so I asked her if she wanted to wait out the rain in the cabana. She declined my offer, but we chatted for a while and I learned that her daughter and granddaughter were both homeschooling parents like me. Soon the rain stopped and her daughter returned. We talked “shop” for a while
    
  • 
    

  [*]It's easy to lose track of time, so I don't know what time it was but shortly after the rain stopped, the Carnival employees came by to clear out the cabana. We packed out bag, taking the extra beverages with us, and headed to the tender station.

A cranky crowd waiting for the tender could have sullied an otherwise perfect day, but the crowd waiting for the tender was not cranky. Probably, the weather had something to do with that. It wasn't broiling hot outside, and it wasn't pouring down rain. Also, most of the people waiting for the tender were adult couples and groups with more patience than children tend to have and more patience than parents traveling with little children seem to have. Or maybe, it was the effects of rum and Coke that made me oblivious to any ill tempers around me? I only had one, probably not. People were just nice and relaxed. As much as I love DCL, relaxed is not a word I associate with returning to the ship from Castaway Cay.

 

 

 

The Cabana - Our little piece of paradise - I can't put a price on what it means to see my husband so completely enjoying himself, but it must be higher than $219.00 because I feel the cabana experience was worth every penny and more. Some people will agree and others won't. It's like the discussion as to whether a balcony room is worth the extra money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Perfect Evening follows a Perfect Day – to be continued

[Silent Penguin]

If anyone has any suggestions on how to post pictures that aren't either HUGE or thumbnail small, please tell me them. I've been reading here and there, but obviously, I'm not getting it!

 

Thanks.

[092306]

Really enjoying your review! The Pride is on our short list of future cruises. How did you like the location of cabana #10? Was it crowded around you? We will be there in a couple of weeks and were thinking of cabana #11 or 12 to avoid crowds. Thanks!

[absolutely brilliant]

I'm contemplating surprising my husband with a cabana in May when we are traveling on the Splendour. How far were you from the barbecue & restrooms in cabana #10? I know he thinks it's ridiculous to spend the money for the cabana since you can always find a chaise lounge on the beach but we were on HMC 2 years ago & there were no shady spots like there are on castaway cay. It looks wonderful to me & I think in the end he would probably agree...after the fact that is..lol

[4hunters]

I like the larger pictures. Patiently waiting for more - thanks!

[Silent Penguin]

Is Cabana 10 far from the food? Not in my opinion. I'm not good with distance in terms of yards, but I can tell you this. I was able to fill our plates, walk back to the cabana and the grilled food was still warm when I ate it. I didn't break a sweat getting there and back, and neither my feet nor my back ached from the effort. I thought Castaway Cay was a lot more spread out.

 

Is it crowded with people near cabana 10? It definitely was not when we were there. There were rows of chairs near our cabana (15 feet? away) and a hammock or two but hardly anyone chose to come down that far.

 

The idea of renting a cabana would never have occured to my husband either, and I'm not sure he would have agreed to it if I had told him ahead of time, but after 23 years of vacationing with him, I know what he likes, and I was 90% sure he would thank me for it later, and he did, multiple times. I suspect you know what makes your husband happy, too.

[CruzerDeb]

Thanks for the great review! I'm looking forward to the rest.

[Silent Penguin]

Thanks for the great review! I'm looking forward to the rest.

 

 

Thank you for reading my review so far. I think I'm going to cry. I just typed up "Day 5 - part 2", forgot about the "time-out" feature, and hit return. Gone! No part 2. Well, I'll be back tomorrow - I mean later today - to try again.