Live From Pride 9/19 - (eMed) Testing, Cruising, Vacationing!

[Clarasgrandma]

Thanks for sharing! We have the cheers package for the first time this December and I had wondered if those freshly squeezed specialty juices were included. Good to know they are not. 

[shark Fan]

5 hours ago, VaTech8912 said:

 

So, closer to 70% if you use the double occupancy rate of 2,100 vs max capacity.  A little disappointing it is that high compared to other Cruiselines.  Appreciate the information, have a great cruise

Really VaTeach8912?  🙄 

[IntrepidFromDC]

5 hours ago, Steelers0854 said:

DW and I were stuffed from brunch and skipped lunch. But later in the afternoon she wanted to kick the tires on the Blue Iguana. She got a chicken taco on a corn tortilla. They don’t advertise having corn tortillas but they do if you ask. She said it was good, hard to eat because the tortilla fell apart, but was good. she can eat any of the meats, corn, pico etc. 

 

 

Because she knew she was having a plain chicken breast tonight we snagged a small dish of Guys Bourbon BBQ sauce and kept it in our fridge, taking it with us to dinner tonight. 

 

MDR menu posted below. 
 

DW had a salad and a chicken breast with veggies. 
 

 

I had a pork slider, which was all bread, waaaay too much bread, and almost no meat. It was really terrible. And the escargot, which is my absolute favorite. While I still think Princess is the best this one was very good. 
 

 

 

I got the baked Ziti for my main. Every Italian, past and present, is rolling over at anyone calling this a baked Ziti. While it tasted good, it was very disappointing as this was absolutely not a baked ziti and I’m not sure how any chef could call it one. 
 

 

and for dessert DW had a fruit plate and I had the panacotta, which was delicious!

 

 

MDR Night 3.pdf 442.59 kB · 13 downloads

 

I don't often recommend things STRONGLY, but I STRONGLY recommend going back and getting another chicken taco, but this time add the ORANGE habanero sauce from the salsa bar.  It is delightful, bites you back but not too much and has beautiful habanero taste in addition to the heat.

[Steelers0854]

9 hours ago, IntrepidFromDC said:

This is not like last week at all.  At our poker table, only the 90-yr old man wore a mask.  In general around the ship indoors, I estimated 60% at most wearing masks.  But 100% in elevators and even outdoors at Freeport and Nassau.

We have walked through the casino several times, never late at night but it’s always been busy, I would say atleast 90% were wearing masks. Only a very small handful had them pulled down. 

[ChrisNCruiser]

7 hours ago, shark Fan said:

Really VaTeach8912?  🙄 

VaTeach, I got your back. I independently did the same math before VaTeach posted this 🙃. Some of us wanna know! I was on the Magic's third return sailing last month - it was at 55% double occupancy, 45% max capacity. We're on the Pride next week and we're hoping for numbers closer to our Magic sailing - it was glorious! Enough people for a vibe, but not enough for long lines...

[Mallow]

I was also hoping for lower than the 70% capacity but it is still 2 weeks on a ship.

[Steelers0854]

Welcome to beautiful Half Moon Cay. 
 

They started issuing tickets at 7:30 on deck 9 midship. They had a large board with all the zone numbers and the approximate times. We got there about 7:45 and Zone 1 was gone but all the others were there. They just announced they are starting operations just now, 8:15 and called Zone 1. 

[Steelers0854]

7 hours ago, IntrepidFromDC said:

I don't often recommend things STRONGLY, but I STRONGLY recommend going back and getting another chicken taco, but this time add the ORANGE habanero sauce from the salsa bar.  It is delightful, bites you back but not too much and has beautiful habanero taste in addition to the heat.

Sooooo I tried this with my breakfast burrito this morning. And while I do like spicy food this was just a bit beyond what I like. But to your point it did have a great flavor and I can see why you like it. 

[HxFx]

12 hours ago, Steelers0854 said:

They don’t advertise having corn tortillas but they do if you ask.

Dang, wish I knew that when I was on MG a few weeks ago!

[jenny368]

17 hours ago, jenny368 said:

I have enjoyed reading this.  Thank you for taking the time to do it.  We are on the Legend out of Baltimore on 11/21/21.  This is making me more excited.  I try to stay away from sugar/carbs for the most part.  Have you seen any White Claw or Truly seltzers at any of the bars?

 

 

15 hours ago, Steelers0854 said:

Yup, it’s all Truly and it’s available at most bars I’ve seen. 

Thank you for checking into this for me.  Glad they have that option.  Half Moon Cay looks heavenly.  They changed our port to Princess Cays.  

[Anung Un Rama]

I'm excited to see/hear how crowded (or hopefully not) HMC seems with limited capacity on an already small ship.  We snagged a cabana for our sailing next week.  

 

I know Cheers doesn't work on the island (for reasons I will not complain about here) but that they were offering a drink package on the island for around $30/pp.  Can you confirm this is an option?  TYIA and enjoy HMC!

[pogoism9]

4 minutes ago, Anung Un Rama said:

I'm excited to see/hear how crowded (or hopefully not) HMC seems with limited capacity on an already small ship.  We snagged a cabana for our sailing next week.  

 

I know Cheers doesn't work on the island (for reasons I will not complain about here) but that they were offering a drink package on the island for around $30/pp.  Can you confirm this is an option?  TYIA and enjoy HMC!

I'm pretty sure that Holland America. I have never seen a drink package offered by Carnival at HMC

[Steelers0854]

Food Allergy Update:  we were at breakfast and DW let them know she had ordered in advance. They confirmed her allergies and brought out her French toast, hash browns and bacon. But also brought 2 hard boiled eggs. We told them she was allergic to eggs and they showed us a slip of paper with her allergies printed by the computer as gluten and dairy and had egg handwritten in from this morning. They thought that meant she wanted an egg. We asked them to check with the chef that she could eat what was served. They went back and checked and came back and said she cannot eat the packages or the French toast.
 

Wait. What?!? She ate both yesterday for breakfast and now it’s not ok????

 

Maybe her allergy to egg has improved over time because she didn’t get sick yesterday. Thankfully her allergies aren’t  severe when they do occur but she usually gets very sick, but thankfully not life threatening. We post about this stuff not for us but for those that are, we want people to know what we experience to protect them. 
 

they apologized, I think the wait staff was besides themselves, they kept coming over and apologizing even though they had done nothing wrong, they only followed what had been provided to them. We spoke with a supervisor who also apologized and said he would ensure this didn’t happen going forward. We felt terrible because their waitstaff were taking this so personally and we kept expressing that it wasn’t their fault and they actually helped us discover the error. They are just wonderful people and very caring. 
 

they brought DW fresh hash browns, bacon and same bread they have been giving her but they made her a blueberry and nut compote that she said was very good but very sweet. 
 

so what’s the learning lesson here, ask to see the printout with your allergy on it so you can ensure they have it documented correctly. 
 

[sgttami]

On 9/18/2021 at 11:19 AM, newpherchris said:

hi! I'm looking at a last-minute booking on the Pride next Sunday, the 26th. Does anyone happen to recall the boarding time-frame windows? I believe the earliest is 1 PM, which we wouldn't get or need at this point. Does anyone recall the LAST boarding window time? Thanks in advance 🙂

 

On 9/18/2021 at 11:19 AM, newpherchris said:

hi! I'm looking at a last-minute booking on the Pride next Sunday, the 26th. Does anyone happen to recall the boarding time-frame windows? I believe the earliest is 1 PM, which we wouldn't get or need at this point. Does anyone recall the LAST boarding window time? Thanks in advance 🙂

The last boarding time for 9/26 is 5:30-6:00 since the Pride is currently leaving at 7:00 pm these days.  There's a few people who booked this week last minute.

[jenny368]

59 minutes ago, Steelers0854 said:

Food Allergy Update:  we were at breakfast and DW let them know she had ordered in advance. They confirmed her allergies and brought out her French toast, hash browns and bacon. But also brought 2 hard boiled eggs. We told them she was allergic to eggs and they showed us a slip of paper with her allergies printed by the computer as gluten and dairy and had egg handwritten in from this morning. They thought that meant she wanted an egg. We asked them to check with the chef that she could eat what was served. They went back and checked and came back and said she cannot eat the packages or the French toast.
 

Wait. What?!? She ate both yesterday for breakfast and now it’s not ok????

 

Maybe her allergy to egg has improved over time because she didn’t get sick yesterday. Thankfully her allergies aren’t  severe when they do occur but she usually gets very sick, but thankfully not life threatening. We post about this stuff not for us but for those that are, we want people to know what we experience to protect them. 
 

they apologized, I think the wait staff was besides themselves, they kept coming over and apologizing even though they had done nothing wrong, they only followed what had been provided to them. We spoke with a supervisor who also apologized and said he would ensure this didn’t happen going forward. We felt terrible because their waitstaff were taking this so personally and we kept expressing that it wasn’t their fault and they actually helped us discover the error. They are just wonderful people and very caring. 
 

they brought DW fresh hash browns, bacon and same bread they have been giving her but they made her a blueberry and nut compote that she said was very good but very sweet. 
 

so what’s the learning lesson here, ask to see the printout with your allergy on it so you can ensure they have it documented correctly. 
 

How scary!  Glad that you picked up on this early into your cruise.  I wonder how the breading on the hash browns doesn't have gluten in it. ??

 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by jenny368

[ChrisNCruiser]

1 hour ago, sgttami said:

 

The last boarding time for 9/26 is 5:30-6:00 since the Pride is currently leaving at 7:00 pm these days.  There's a few people who booked this week last minute.

hi! I ended up booking on Monday, and to my surprise we were still able to get a 2:30 boarding time. Not bad for less than a week away, and hopefully an indicator of how many passengers will be sailing.

[ChrisNCruiser]

@Steelers0854 - are they still restricting the Serenity area after 8 PM for the crew on your sailing as they did last week? 

[Steelers0854]

1 hour ago, newpherchris said:

@Steelers0854 - are they still restricting the Serenity area after 8 PM for the crew on your sailing as they did last week? 

 

I keep forgetting to go by, ill try and stop by tonight.

[Steelers0854]

Oh boy it was a hot one out there today!  Almost no breeze to speak of.  

 

Here are some photos.  @Anung Un Rama there was no all you can drink package, photos of the bar menu (same one for all the bars attached below).

 

 

 

The beach closest to their ship was of course very crowded (photo below), but as you progressed down, it got more and more open.  It is disappointing at the lack of shade here, if you don’t buy a cabana or one fo the clamshells in advance (confirmed you cant buy on on the beach, we tried lol), then your re SOL and its full sun for you.  The sun and I do not get along and thus we didn’t spend all day out here liked we had hoped.  The lack of breeze and heat contributed to that decision.

 

 

 

 

Lunch was the typical cookout food, the jerk chicken was excellent.  DW thought Guys burger was better, but I thought it had good flavor.

 

After a couple hours and lunch we headed back in to the ship.  The pools were fairly busy onboard so we showered and got ready.

 

Our cabin steward forgot to do our room, ran into him in the hall, he apologized and said he would get to it this afternoon after his break.  No big deal this actually worked out better for us in the end.

 

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Thank you so much for the info and pics.  We got a cabana so my 70+ year old parents could have some shade and a place to cool off.  We usually like to get 14/15 but may settle for a little closer with less people.  I'm very excited to be going back to HMC after several years.

[pogoism9]

@Steelers0854 Can you verify that the casino bar is in fact open? I know when they announced the changes for 9/11, it said the casino bar would be closed. Now it says this:

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by pogoism9

[JaniceB]

Thank you so much for doing a live review.  Great pictures and information.  Looking forward to more.

[Steelers0854]

2 hours ago, pogoism9 said:

@Steelers0854 Can you verify that the casino bar is in fact open? I know when they announced the changes for 9/11, it said the casino bar would be closed. Now it says this:

 

it’s definitely open. Can’t confirm whether or not it’s non smoking. 

[Bearsthatsail]

I really enjoyed reading the comments from your Sept. 12 and 19 cruises on the Pride.  We were booked for the 12th (5 of us) and had to cancel because the US-Canada border is closed and we couldn't drive to Baltimore.   Booked on the Legend for January and February.  Everyone sounds excited to be cruising and I bet Carnival and crew missed the cruisers too. Baltimore is closer than FL for these cruise ships. 

[DontTreadOnMe]

Also interested to hear about Serenity's status in the evenings.

 

Thanks for the great reporting!