Carnival Pride Review- December 10th, 2017

[amrgirl95]

So I finished typing up day one! Please bear with me while I post it; this is my first time using Shutterfly and I want to make sure I get everything right.

 

Day 1

 

Before I go in to the first day, I want to post our cruise’s itinerary, since I haven’t done that already.

 

Sunday, Dec 10: Baltimore, Maryland- Depart at 5:00PM

Monday, Dec 11: At sea

Tuesday, Dec 12: At sea

Wednesday, Dec 13: Princess Cays, Bahamas- 8:00AM to 5:00PM (tender port)

Thursday, Dec 14: Nassau, Bahamas- 8:00AM to 5:00PM

Friday, Dec 15: Freeport, Bahamas- 7:00AM to 1:30PM

Saturday, Dec 16: At sea

Sunday, Dec 17: Baltimore, Maryland- Arrive at 10:00AM

 

So our check-in time was 2:30, which wasn’t bad for booking so late, since they started check-in at 2. The ship was scheduled to leave at Baltimore. Our plan was to leave the house around noon. My dad was going to drop us off at the port and pick us up the next Sunday. We live about an hour away from Baltimore, and I knew there wouldn’t be that much traffic since it was a Sunday. There’s an IHOP right off of 95 that my friends and I will stop at on the way to Baltimore for concerts, and we wanted to eat something there.If we left around 12 and stopped for food, we probably would get to the port around 2. That would give us enough time to leave our bags with the port and say goodbye to my dad and then we could be ready right at our check-in time.

 

That didn’t happen. Leaving on time rarely works for us. We did leave close to noon, if I recall correctly. Since it was early afternoon on a Sunday, versus the middle of a weekday like I normally go, the IHOP was a bit crowded. I think we waited about 10 minutes for a table. Service was fast as always.

 

Google Maps showed us we were slightly less than 20 minutes from the port at the IHOP. We ate quickly and left there around 2. We got back on 95 and got off at the port, which is right before the tunnel and then the toll. There was a really long line of cars waiting (I think I heard some people waited for like an hour) to I believe pay for parking, drop off their bags, and park. Since we were getting dropped off, my dad got to drive around the line, and right up to the porters, where no other cars were waiting. We got out of the car at 2:30, right on time. Sine we didn’t have a room number, the porter told us he would keep our bags to the side and we could go over to the port building and get our room number, then bring it back to him. That was different from what the person I booked the cruise with said, since he had made it seem like we wouldn’t have to do anything to get our room numbers to our bags, if that makes sense. We said goodbye to my dad, and made our way over to the port building.

 

Here's our first shot of the ship.

 

 

There were two entrances, and neither had much of a line until we showed up. The guy working the door would check your boarding pass and your passport, then send you in to wait in a long line to go through security. After security, you would wait in a longer line to get your S&S card and whatnot. You’d then pass by the ships photographers and wait in another line toget your card scanned. Then you were free to walk up the long ramps into the ship.

 

We explained to the door guy that we didn’t have a room number yet, and he shut the door to go inside to talk to somebody else about it. He would keep shutting the door, to wait for the line inside to get shorter before letting more people in, so you could get stuck waiting outside. It wasn’t as cold as it is now, but it was still definitely below 50 degrees outside that day, probably lower. It had snowed the day before, so that was everywhere, but it was melting. The guy came back out, and told us that we had to get the room number before we could leave our bags with the porters. So we basically had to go back, drag the heavy bags back to the door, then go inside and check in to get our number, then bring the bags back out. So we went and got the bags. I didn’t want to just walk up and cut the line, since we had already been there, and the other door had a shorter line, so we went there. We then had to explain our predicament again to that guy, who went inside to talk to somebody. He then said that one of us could go in and get our room number, while the other waited outside with the bags. He said this to my mom, probably because she’s the older one. I said that the reservation was under my name, and we all agreed that I should go in. I thought I was going to be doing the full check-in process, since everybody kept using the term “check-in.” The cruise was on my mom’s credit card, so I wanted that, just in case, along with both of our passports. Her card was in her little wallet inside of a little clutch, and we were holding up the line, so I just took the whole thing. Her phone ended up being in the clutch, which I didn’t realize until after I texted her. Whoops.

 

Inside, I went up to a security guard who was checking passports, by passing the line. I explained what was going on again, and she checked the passenger manifest to see what room it has us listed on. Another woman came up behind me, and she was having the same issue as us. She said she had booked about a month and a half before the cruise, versus two weeks out, and she still didn’t have a room number. On the one passenger manifest, both the woman and I were listed as “TBA” with some number behind it. The security guard called over a couple of other guards to ask them. Eventually, they found another list of passengers, in the same packet as the first, and there we finally got our room number! I made my way back outside, wrote the room numberon the luggage tags with a Sharpie that I always carry around, and finally got to leave them with the porters. We made our way back and we both finally got to go inside, around 3, half an hour after we had gotten to the port.

[amrgirl95]

The line to go through security was actually pretty quick. Right after I got through, they stopped checking people’s passports/identification, so the main line to check in could get shorter. They had done this earlier,when I was trying to get our room number. It would have been fine, except I was literally the last one they let through. My mom was stuck waiting behind the people who check passports. I looked at her, then asked the guards if she could join me. They asked if I just had one other person in my group, and they let her through.

 

We waited for at least ten minutes. I can’t judge time and I normally look at the time stamp on my pictures, but I didn’t take any in here,so I’m just guessing. I wrote down some times on my phone, and one was 3:35, so I think we made it through security then. Fortunately, the couple in front of us was really nice, so we talked with them. We were also lucky that we stopped right by the metal detector, since we were able to place all of our bags on the table right in front of the scanner, instead of holding them while just standing there. After security, a port employee made sure we had our health forms filled out, and then we got in the main line. Before we did that, we saw a group with a bunch of bags heading out of the port building. My mom asked if they had just gotten off the ship. The employee sounded frustrated (with everything that had happened, not with my mom) and said “we’ve had issues since the ship got in this morning.” A security guard said that they were having issues making all of the S&S cards. We later heard that they didn’t get everybody off of the previous cruise until 2:00 that day.

 

Right after we got in the big line, I left my purse with my mom and took my backpack and camera case and ran to the bathroom. That was definitely a smart idea. The line had only moved a few feet in the time it took me to go. I should have bought a water bottle from the vending machine while I was there, since I did get a bit lightheaded later on. People were buying snacks from the vending machines as time went on, and I probably pulled candy out of my purse and ate some. The line ended up moving faster the closer we got to the end, and we got to a port employee (what are they called? I can’t think of a better name to describe the person who takes your picture and whatnot) at 4:45, over two hours from when we got to the port. We were done there at 4:50,and we walked around the ship’s photographers. We got in a very short line and they scanned our cards (I think there was only a line because one of the employee’s machines had stopped working for a minute and that slowed things down). We then walked up the ramp and took one last look at Baltimore, then stepped on board the Carnival Pride at 4:57.

 

When we were in line, I looked up our room number. We were assigned to room 4150. Carnival describes it as “Interior with French Door(obstructed view).” I had no idea what that meant and I didn’t feel like looking up pictures then, but I was pretty excited since it appeared to be at least facing the outside of the ship. I took this screenshot from Carnival’s website to show where the room was located. Please excuse the very bad arrow that I added to show which room we had. It was actually a great location, since the hallway was quiet and blocked off from noise from both the atrium and the theater. It was also almost exactly mid-ship. We were right by the mid-ship elevators and stairs, and the walk to either the forward or aft elevators was very quick and easy. I’ll post pictures of the room in just a bit, but we definitely lucked out with this room.

 

 

Since we got on basically at 5:00, two and a half hours after we got to Baltimore, the buffet was definitely closed. It was good we had eaten on the way to the port, since many people hadn’t and they were really hungry. We didn’t know when the muster drill would be, or when sailaway would be. The ship was originally scheduled to leave at 5:00, which didn’t happen, since there was still a long line behind us. We first went to our room to drop off all of our stuff and see what it looked like. Since I had looked at the deck plans a bit, I knew vaguely what direction to head in. I have a very good sense of direction, so once I figure out which way is forward and which was is aft, I can navigate pretty much any ship and not get lost. We entered on deck 2 mid-ship, and walked up two flights of stairs. Like I said, our room was just a quick jaunt down the hall, and there we were. We opened the door to see what lay inside.

 

The room actually held up to four people. When we later met our room steward, he had expected a different family in the room, so he had the couch made into a bed and the upper berth was pulled down. I don’t know where that family went, but we did end up in their room. Here are some pictures of our room. Most of these pictures are from different days, so please excuse all of our crap around the room. I'll probably find more pictures to post later.

 

As you can see, the French doors in our room were interesting. They did open up all the way, so that was really nice to have somefresh air when we needed it. Unless you could get the left door to stay propped open against the bed, you had to hold the doors open. Looking straight out waslifeboat number 12. You could see a bit of the promenade deck if you looked down, and some water. There was a sheet of glass attached to our railing, and on the opposite side of that was sort of some metal scaffolding. I can’t think of a better word for it, but crew members probably walked around on it. It connected to the other staterooms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The room itself was actually bigger than I expected, since it had a full couch. It had more than enough storage. More hangers would have been useful, but then the room steward asked if we needed any and we said we didn’t. I just kept most of my dresses rolled up, except for the formal night ones. The TV was an outdated box TV, but that didn’t matter. I can’t think of any issues we had with the room, except for a temperature thing, but I’ll talk about that later in the review. I think our bags were outside when we got there, and we started unpacking a bit. I at least lifted the heavy bags up onto the beds to make them easier to reach.

 

I had heard that the muster drill would be outside, on the promenade deck, so we were prepared to wait in the cold. While we were first in the room, we heard an announcement telling crew that the muster drill locations would be inside. Since it sounded like the muster drill would be starting soon, we left our jackets hanging in the closets (there were two. My mom claimed one and I got the other) and went down one deck to deck 3, where the muster stations were. We were muster station B. There was a bit of a crowd milling around, so we went over to the photo gallery (is that what it’s called?) and looked down at the atrium. There was a Christmas tree lighting ceremony that evening at 7:00, and we planned on stopping by. We went back to the elevator bay and tried to stand as far out of the way as possible. They eventually started leading everybody outside. We were not prepared for this. I get super cold very easily, and if we were waiting outside, I was not beyond running back up to the room to grab my coat and gloves. My mom asked a crew member, who said that the muster drill would be inside. They just had us walk on the promenade deck to the forward doors, by the theater, for whatever reason. Maybe so we could see where the muster station would be. They didn’t explain that. While outside, I managed to get this picture, that I think came out pretty well. The crowd did bottleneck a bit while trying to get back inside, but soon we were away from the cold and in the theater.

 

 

 

We ended up on deck 3 in the theater. Muster station A was also there. They tried to keep the theater perfectly split with station A on the starboard side and station B on the port side, but there were way more people in station B than A, for whatever reason. My notes say that more people in station A came later. They mentioned that they also had the muster drill in the Butterflies lounge. I don’t know if that was for the other stations, or if that was for the overflow of passengers from the theater. The longest part of the drill was getting everybody in, but at least we had seats. The actual drill only lasted from 5:59-6:03, if my notes are correct. During the drill, there seemed to be a large focus on avoiding a fire at sea. I obviously understand why that’s important, but I thought it was interesting, since I didn’t remember any other ship’s drill talking that much about fire.

 

Like I said, the actual drill only lasted a few minutes. While we were there, they announced that the spa raffle drawing was going to be the next day at 4, since everything was getting a late start. As the drill was ending, I’m pretty sure I felt the ship’s engine turn on or start up or whatever you want to call it. We went back to our room and finished up our unpacking and got ready for dinner. While we were doing that, our room steward stopped by to introduce himself and see if we needed anything. He seemed surprised that we weren’t the family that was supposed to be in the room, so I really wonder where that family went. He offered to switch the room over to two people then, but I said we were about to head out for dinner, and he said he’d wait until then. He asked if we wanted morning or evening turndown service, and we selected morning. He did also offer to service our room twice a day, but for whatever reason my mom was fine with just the morning. We aren’t super messy, and my mom just needed ice delivered once a day. While we were in the room, we looked out the window and thought we saw the water moving, so we turned the TV to the channel that shows where the ship is and what not, and that said we were moving. I don’t think there was a big sailaway party anywhere, mainly because of the weather.

[amrgirl95]

We went off to the Christmas tree lighting. We left after one song I think. After working in retail for three holiday seasons, I can’t stand Christmas music. The whole trip, Christmas music was piped in to the majority of the public spaces. Some just had regular music, but there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to which place had what. The Christmas music was more “Christmas-y” and religious than what was played at the store I worked at, which I guess tried to keep it more neutral. Anyway, at the Christmas tree lighting, they gave out song books and I think jingle bells and tried to get everybody to sing along to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” They lit the tree, but there wasn’t much fanfare involved.

 

 

 

 

 

We headed off to dinner. We had chosen YTD, which we had to be put on the waitlist for, but we got it. The port employee who checked us in made it seem like there would be a long line to get in each night, and she told us to go either really early and wait in line, or to go late. We went around 7:15 on the first night and encountered no wait. There was a bit of a wait around 8:20 that night, but there were always empty tables near us. I also noticed that everybody was dressed very informal, possibly because it was the first night of the cruise. I love dressing up and my mom likes it too, so we always dressed pretty nice.

 

For dinner, my mom had the shrimp cocktail and the strawberry bisque. I don’t have any other pictures off food that she ate that night, so that may have been it. We didn’t eat a lot this cruise for whatever reason. There were quite a few nights where one or both of us didn’t order an entrée. She said the shrimp cocktail was very good though. I had the chilled Vietnamese rolls for my appetizer. I think that’s what they were called. I didn’t take pictures of the full menus, just the port of call dishes, because “they’re all online and anybody can find them.” Now I’m struggling to find an accurate menu, so I’m sort of winging it on some of the names. They were better than they looked. I just couldn’t figure out how to eat them. I tried cutting them and all of the fillings came out. For my entrée I had the barbecued beef brisket from the port of call menu. It was actually pretty good. My mom had also ordered a side of a baked potato, and our waiter brought one out for me as well. My mom skipped dessert that night (I think she did that nearly every night) and I had the warm chocolate melting cake or whatever it’s called.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mom did order a drink off of the dessert menu most of the nights. This is the chocolate martini.

 

 

 

 

While we were at dinner, I set up the $5 chat feature on the Carnival Hub app on our phones. We used it to communicate between the two of us. While we had never done something like this on a cruise, it was actually pretty convenient. A couple of times it stopped working on my mom’s phone. I don’t think there was any particular reason why, but turning the WiFi off then on again worked. I’ll type up my thoughts on the WiFi package during another day of the review when I haven’t used so many words. I know this day is super long and wordy, but I’m almost done, I swear.

 

While in the app, I checked our S&S account. That was pretty convenient, and the charges showed up right away. Since the cruise was booked under my name, I was able to see my mom’s purchases, but she couldn’t check mine. I didn’t buy much though. While at dinner, I noticed that we both had a refund for $12.22. We figured it was because we got on so late and we missed lunch. We later heard that everybody had that credit, and it was for that reason, from what I gathered.

[amrgirl95]

Next on our schedule was the Welcome Aboard show. Dinner only took a bit over an hour. I forgot to mention it earlier but we sat by ourselves every night, and we never requested that. We walked down deck 3 and stepped outside for a minute. I think I was only able to take a few pictures before being forced back inside due to the cold and the wind. We went into the shops, and my mom bought a couple of things, and we got roped in to the jewelry store raffle drawing. It was sort of entertaining, but it took a while and I was wearing heels and really wanted to sit down. We made it to the show, which wasn’t that crowded, even 10 minutes before the start time. Our cruise director, Saffie, said that they were having “technical difficulties” so the dancers and singers weren’t able to perform that night. Earlier, there was an announcement welcoming aboard the new crew members, so I didn’t know if the performers were new and that had something to do with them not being able to go on that night. I don’t think the ship was rocking too much. Anyway, the entertainment staffed improvised (I think. I don’t know what Carnival normally does for their welcome aboard show) and brought two couples on stage, and also some kids. Saffie stated that they had a record number of honeymooning couples on the ship that week, at 69 couples.

 

This was on deck 3 I believe. It's the Via Veneto Upper Promenade (at least that's what the deck plans on Carnival's website say).

 

 

This was the Sunset Garden Interior Promenade.

 

 

 

 

This is the ceiling of the main theater.

 

 

A stairwell in the theater. The design and decoration was so pretty in here.

 

 

After that, we made our way back to our room, which was a very short jaunt away from the theater. Like I said before, the location was pretty perfect. We probably went to bed by 12:30, hopefully. We may have stayed up later, but I hope we didn’t, since I know we got up at 9:30 the next morning. I am not a morning person, and I need a lot of sleep, so I always struggle with getting up on time on vacations, but generally I fix my sleep schedule by the end of the week.

 

So that’s the end of the first day of the trip. I’m sorry this took my so long, but I hope that this is the longest day out of all of them. After this, I swear there will be less words and more pictures. The embarkation just took a ridiculous amount of time, so writing about it was lengthy. I’ll start on day two tomorrow. I don’t think we did much that day, so hopefully it doesn’t take forever to write about. Thanks for reading!

[drsel]

Thanks for all of the comments! I'm working on the first day of the review, and it's coming out to be way more wordy than I expected. I'd prefer to have the whole day finished before I post it, so I'll try to get it done tonight.

 

We are sailing on the Pride out of Baltimore in April on a back-to-back. We are also from northern Virginia. Like you I've sailed on other lines. I have found Carnival's biggest weakness to be upkeep and maintenance on the ship compared to other lines. What was your opinion on how well-maintained or run-down and dated the ship looked? I am sure I will have fun no matter what, but I'm hoping for the former rather than the latter!

 

 

Sent from my TIT-AL00 using Forums mobile app

[TAPNKEGS]

Loving every word of it. Very well done. Count me in for the long haul :)

[pacruise804]

Great review! It may be "wordy" but it is very descriptive and helpful, plus easy to read.

 

I'm glad to hear they refunded lunch due to the late boarding. The ship looks lovely - not too gaudy like the first time we sailed in 2012.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the review and our turn at this cruise next month :)

[amrgirl95]

Loving every word of it. Very well done. Count me in for the long haul :)

 

Thank you!

 

Great review! It may be "wordy" but it is very descriptive and helpful, plus easy to read.

 

I'm glad to hear they refunded lunch due to the late boarding. The ship looks lovely - not too gaudy like the first time we sailed in 2012.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the review and our turn at this cruise next month :)

 

Thank you! Like I said in another comment, the decor around the ship was very nice. My mom thought it was one of the nicest decorated ships that she's been on in a while. I hope you enjoy your trip!

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

Really enjoying your review!! The Pride is my favorite Carnival ship. I don't think it is too wordy😀

[dogbert's mom]

Great start for your review. Looking forward for the rest. I have been on the Pride a couple of times and have always enjoyed her.

[mskaufman]

Interesting, we were on the 8th deck and had had a flat screen TV.

[lmy2525]

Nice review. 33 days and counting!

 

 

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[dfencecoach]

I’m at 33 days and counting also.

[amrgirl95]

Thanks for all of the comments! I'm working on day two of the review. I know I'll finish typing it today, but I'm not sure if I'll have the effort to post it tonight. I'll definitely have it up tomorrow though.

 

Interesting, we were on the 8th deck and had had a flat screen TV.

 

Huh, that is interesting. Maybe they're in the process of replacing all of the TVs, and hadn't gotten to our room yet?

[mskaufman]

Could be. I'll hunt through pictures and see if I have a full cabin picture.

[bunchesofun]

We cruised in April and had cabin 4150 for the first time. We really liked it's location mid ship. We had two in our party (two staterooms) with mobility scooters so didn't have to go down long hallways to get to our cabin. Our friends had 4152 and it had a flat screen tv by the way as opposed to the old style big box tv in ours. We didn't open the french doors often, but having the natural light was great.

[amrgirl95]

I have a bit of time before I had to go back to my training, so I'll try to post day two. If I don't finish it, I'll come back later and wrap it up.

 

Could be. I'll hunt through pictures and see if I have a full cabin picture.

 

Let me know what you find!

 

We cruised in April and had cabin 4150 for the first time. We really liked it's location mid ship. We had two in our party (two staterooms) with mobility scooters so didn't have to go down long hallways to get to our cabin. Our friends had 4152 and it had a flat screen tv by the way as opposed to the old style big box tv in ours. We didn't open the french doors often, but having the natural light was great.

 

Huh, the distribution of the TV styles is interesting. I agree with you about the room. Since you couldn't keep the doors open, they were a bit difficult to use, but the light was a nice benefit.

[amrgirl95]

Day 2

 

So day two. Our first sea day. Our plan was to get up at 9:30 and go to brunch, probably around 11:00, once we were ready. Brunch in the MDR ended at 1:00PM, if I recall correctly. After that, I had a mini ship tour planned for the two of us. On the first day, we had only gone on three decks,so we needed to explore everything else. There was the first Clue session at 1:15 in the theater. There was tea time in the MDR from 3:00-4:00 I think, and we wanted to head over there around 3:00. It was formal night, and we planned to head to dinner around 7:15.

 

My first picture of the day shows us leaving our room around 11:10. I think it took us a while to leave because my mom had to shower. I may have showered that morning before breakfast, so that was probably what took us so long. My mom took the first shower, and I tried to go in after her. I just could not get the water temperature to change from freezing, so of course my mom had to come in and adjust the water for me. I think she changed it to scalding, which I preferred to freezing. For the first few days, I would slightly adjust the water temperature before getting in, and it was always too hot. A couple of days in, I realized that if I didn’t touch the temperature dial and just left it where my mom left it, the water was actually tolerable. The shower curtain never clung to me, but I think we slightly flooded the bathroom a couple of times.

 

So off we went to brunch in the MDR. We were seated right away, at a table for two in the back of the room. We were asked if we wanted to sit alone and I said we did, since I am not a morning person and I am pretty grumpy until I’m fully awake. My mom asked if we could sit right next to a window overlooking the wake, and the person who sat us said those were for bigger groups, so we stuck with our table for two. When I was on Shiprocked (on Carnival Victory), we went to brunch once, and I ordered an omelet with just ham in it (I don’t eat cheese). When I moved it around on the plate, it left a trail of grease. On Carnival Pride, my ham omelet wasn’t as bad as that, but it was still greasier than I’d expected from something with no cheese in it. While I love breakfast food, my stomach can’t handle a lot of food in the morning, so not eating a lot wasn’t a big loss for me. My mom got the huevos rancheros, and really liked them. I think this was my second and last cup of coffee all trip (I’m more of a tea person, but I’ll still drink black coffee). I’ve never had any issue with ship coffee, and this was no exception. All coffee pretty much tastes the same to me though.

 

My mom's breakfast

 

 

At 12:03, the captain came on the intercom for his noon announcement. I don’t remember if I heard any of the other ones, since they weren’t played in our stateroom. We were about 625 nautical miles from Princess Cays. It was about 50 degree Fahrenheit or 10 degree Celsius outside (that’s what my notes say, so I hope the conversion is correct). I think when I checked the Carnival Hub app, it showed that it was 54 degrees Fahrenheit, so I’m not sure which was accurate. I think the temperature in the app was fairly accurate for most of the trip, but I feel like it didn’t get updated some on the last couple of days.

After breakfast, we started our self-guided ship tour. We started on deck one after. Our plan was to go across the deck, up a level, thena cross the next deck. We would be able to stop at the theater for CLUE, then continue on. Here are some pictures from around the ship.

 

Butterflies lounge

 

 

 

 

I think this was the Alchemy Bar

 

 

 

 

The lounge right outside of the MDR on deck 3

 

 

So the CLUE activity was pretty interesting. At this time, they gave the introduction to the game. There were four or five other times across the cruise where they would give clues to who the murderer was, what the murder weapon was, and where the murderer took place. These sort of roped you in to bingo. The first clue reveal session was about half an hour after the introductory session. The clue reveal sessions were all combined with the bingo sessions. In that half an hour, one of the Carnival dancers came out and taught a dance to “Thriller” by Michael Jackson, if I remember correctly. We sat around for a bit, but I didn’t want to sit through bingo, so we went off.

[amrgirl95]

This is the library. There was always one person in there and I didn't want to disturb them by taking pictures, so this was as far in as I went.

 

 

This is the floor in the entryway of the chapel.

 

 

This was by the Via Veneto indoor promenade, and I thought it was really cool.

 

 

We went walked through the Sunset Gardens, and went up the back stair case to the arcade. There, we found our new favorite game. It was a duck claw machine! It was $1 a play, and you played until you win. There was an obnoxiously loud song that played while you were playing the game. On the first day, we won three ducks, one of which was a unicorn duck (there will be a picture of all of our ducks later in the review). My mom loved the unicorn duck, and I told her she could have it, but she wanted us each to have our own, so we had to come back on another day to get her that duck. My pictures show that we went back to our room after that, but I’m not sure why. We had a new friend waiting for us though!

 

Ducks!

 

 

Our first towel animal!

 

 

A hallway. They were color coded. Deck 4 was dusty blue, deck 1 was pink, and deck 5 was yellow. One of them was green, but I don't remember which.

 

 

I have to go back to work now, but I'll post the rest when I get a chance. Thanks for reading!

[amrgirl95]

These door handles were all around the ship.

 

 

We continued walking. Some of the decks (5, 6, 7, and 8)only had staterooms on them, so we just stopped to take pictures of the atrium from each level. We finally made our way up to deck 9. By this point, I actually wasn’t freezing when I was outside. This was around 2:30/3:00 on the first sea day when leaving Baltimore. We were sort of blocked from the all of the wind, so it was tolerable when we were in the sun. We stepped into the spa so my mom could book a Swedish massage for when we were in Nassau. Every cruise, I say that I’m going to go to the gym, but this was as close as I got.

 

This is my obligatory picture of David.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking down the atrium

 

[amrgirl95]

More pool deck pictures

 

 

 

 

 

We then made our way back down to the MDR for tea time. This was on deck 3, while brunch was on deck 2. We were seated at a table for two, against the railing overlooking the lower deck. We were first given some of the little sandwiches. Our choices were cucumber or salmon. I don’t eat fish and my mom isn’t a big fish fan, so we both had cucumber. I think we got two sandwiches then, and another one later. We were counting on this to be our lunch, and it was a very light lunch. We were each given our own pot of hot water, about two cups worth. A waiter came and first offered us the tea bags that were an additional charge, then they came around with the Lipton, which we both chose. They then brought around the pastries on a cart. Each day they had different desserts. Today I had some sort of apple crumble and a lemon cake slice, which was really good. I think my mom had a slice of chocolate cake, butI can’t find a picture of what she ate. The chocolate cake was good, but very rich. They also had fresh strawberries, which they didn’t have any other day, at least from what I saw. We also got little scones and clotted cream, which were also good. Overall, the tea was nice, and something we’d go out of our way to go to, but it definitely wasn’t a full meal (at least for us).

 

 

[amrgirl95]

 

After tea, we went and got my one and only alcoholic drink on the ship. I’m not a big drinker, and I mainly just get drinks when they’re cheap. We went to Red Frog Rum Bar on the lido deck. I wanted some frozen drink, and I don’t like piña colada flavoring (I really like both coconut and pineapple, so it’s weird), so my choices were limited. I got a red drink and my mom got a yellow/orange drink. I have a not-so-good picture of the menu, and I think mine was Red’s Strawberry Daiquiri, and hers was Mango Magic. Hers tasted good and so did mine. I don’t like the taste of alcohol, and mine wasn’t too bad in that way. I’m a lightweight and I was definitely feeling the drink a bit as I drank it. For whatever reason, I wanted to go back to the room and drink mine (I may have been cold), so I left my mom at the bar.

 

 

I was in the room for a bit then I took some pictures of the sun right after it set. I thought I watched the sun set every night, but I guess I missed this first one. I met up with my mom and we walked around for a bit, then got ready for formal night. We got to the MDR around 7:15 and had to wait for a couple of minutes to give our room number. The hostess said that we would wait about 15-20 minutes, and gave us a pager for when they were ready for us. The pager wouldn’t work on deck 9, in the casino, or in the staterooms. We made our way over to the atrium and sat for a few minutes, then were called after only waiting 11 minutes.

 

 

Some decorations around the ship (in the bar outside of the MDR on deck 3 I think)

 

 

For dinner, my mom had a shrimp cocktail and the “root vegetables in a pie crust.” I think she liked the entrée okay. We had no complaints on this trip about our food. I had the shrimp cocktail and the “tart with braised kale, blackened pork tenderloin.” I’m not sure what the pork thing was exactly, but it was really good and warm and I should have ordered another serving. I had the vegetarian Indian for my entrée. It came with a ton of food. I’m still not sure exactly what it all was. It was very flavorful and authentic. I didn’t edit any of my pictures of this entrée, but if you want to see it, let me know. I took pictures of basically everything I ate, so I can always post them if you want to see something in particular. My mom skipped dessert again and I had the warm chocolate melting cake.

 

This isn't the best picture but this was my pork appetizer thing

 

[amrgirl95]

There was a Playlist Production show that night, called “Heart of Soul.” I’m not into the production shows on ships, and I generally skip most of them. I know I didn’t go to the show that night, but I’m not positive that my mom did. I don’t think she did. I know that we did go to the comedy show that night. For whatever reason, my mom made us get there ridiculously early, like 45-60 minutes before the show started. Butterflies Lounge was pretty empty then. I ran back to the room to grab my book to entertain myself with. About 15 minutes before the show started, the lounge got busy. It was standing room only. The other comedy shows I went to were packed as well. This lounge was cute and a nice, intimate area for comedy shows, but it’d almost work better if the comedians performed in a larger club. The shows each night weren’t that long, only about 30-45 minutes each. Once it was over, we called it a night and went back to our room to go to bed.

 

The hallway leading to our room

 

 

Butterflies Lounge

 

 

 

So that’s day two. The next day will probably be shorter than this. At one point, I said that I’d have this done by Thursday, since I’m going out of town for two nights for a concert. That is definitely not happening. I’ll see if I can get the third day of this written before I leave tomorrow, and I'll try to post it Friday if I have time. Thanks for reading!

[amrgirl95]

I'm back with Day Three! Bear with me while I get this up please; I'll try to get it all up tonight.

 

Day Three

 

So this day got off to an unusual start. We had planned on doing basically the same thing we had on the previous day, basically basing our schedule around food. We wanted to get up at 9:30, go to brunch around 11, eat lunch at Blue Iguana Cantina whenever we were hungry, go to tea time between 3:00 and 4:00, and eat dinner around 7:15. There was a Hanukkah menorah lighting in the atrium at 5:00, and “Let It Snow” at 5:45. There was “pre-show fun” in the theater at 9:00, and the show at 9:30.

 

That didn’t exactly happen. I woke up around 2:00 AM and was seasick. I felt sick getting to sleep that night and the previous night. It didn’t feel like I had a stomach virus. The other option was that I was seasick but,in 14 (I think) cruises, I had never been seasick before. I’d been on cruises that were in some fairly rough seas, but I was always fine, and even enjoyed the ship rocking. The ship was moving quite a bit this trip. I was getting over a cold when I started this vacation, and that was messing with my ears, so maybe that contributed. I guess seasickness can appear at any time, even if you have never had it before. That happened to my brother a few years ago. But we were pretty confident that it was seasickness. I did happen to bring a travel bottle of Lysol, and we sprayed that some around the room. The French doors came in handy here, since we could air out the room.

 

We decided that we wanted to get some more sleep, so I turned off my alarm. I used the alarm on my phone, but I also brought a small alarm clock. It has a snooze button that you can press that lights the clock up, so that would give us the time and some light overnight if we didn’t want to use a phone. Anyway, I think we ended up getting up around 11:00. My mom showered and got dressed, then went out scouting for food. She left me in bed with my laptop, a book, the TV remote, and a mini bag of animal crackers that I had brought with us. The chat feature of the HUB app came in handy here, since I could let my mom know if I needed anything while she was gone. It would have been nice if we could call over it, but I can see why that wouldn’t be logical. I also wished that we could send pictures over the app, but, if that existed, I couldn’t figure out how to do that.

 

My mom got herself lunch from the buffet. I think that was the only lunch or dinner that either of us actually got from the buffet. I don’t remember what she said she got, but she enjoyed it. She ate there then brought me back a bland meal of white rice, white bread, and plain sugar cookies. She also grabbed a couple of green apples too. At that point, I was feeling fine, but just hungry. I ate then showered. We still wanted to go to tea time, since that food was pretty bland too. I finally left the room around 3:20 that day.

 

I took it easy at tea that day. I just had a slice of gingercake and one cucumber sandwich. I’m pretty sure I switched to decaf tea that day. After we ate, I did some more exploring by myself. I finally went up to the open decks on deck 10 and up. It was windy, but not terribly so. The wind did blow some water from the water slides around, so I had to be careful walking past with my camera.

 

 

 

 

 

This was looking in to David's Steakhouse

 

 

[amrgirl95]

 

 

 

These steps were going down from deck 10 to deck 9