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

[IntrepidFromDC]

11 hours ago, jenny368 said:

  Half Moon Cay looks heavenly.  They changed our port to Princess Cays.  

If you've never been to HMC, Princess Cays will seem like a very nice beach.  But if you've been to both, you know how much more amazing HMC is.

[IntrepidFromDC]

Steelers, is the entire Serenity Deck still closed off after 815pm?

[Steelers0854]

Sorry for those future Pride cruisers but the Serenity deck is closed at 8:15 every night. Too bad. It’s a great place to relax at night. 

[IntrepidFromDC]

8 minutes ago, Steelers0854 said:

Sorry for those future Pride cruisers but the Serenity deck is closed at 8:15 every night. Too bad. It’s a great place to relax at night. 

The casino host said it "should only be for a few cruises".

[ChrisNCruiser]

18 minutes ago, Steelers0854 said:

Sorry for those future Pride cruisers but the Serenity deck is closed at 8:15 every night. Too bad. It’s a great place to relax at night. 

Thanks for confirming - on the plus side, it's nice to know they're providing the crew with a unique benefit...I can't feel too put out about it

[Jim and Monika]

On 9/21/2021 at 9:13 AM, Jim and Monika said:

Thank You for taking the time to post. We have been looking at the bar menus posted, but there is no mention of what Rum and Bourbon is available. Are there separate menus? I also see no mention of Ginger or Diet Ginger, are they available and not listed? It is disappointing to hear Serenity is closed to passengers after 8 pm. This is where we go in the evening to relax with our late night pizza. Even more disappointed that there is no Diet Coke. I have to avoid the frozen drinks because of all the sugar, Rum and Diet Pepsi just isn't right.  We are still considering booking the Pride next month, just haven't pulled the trigger.

Just in case you missed it, and Thank You for sharing your vacation.

[lilchuckie]

That egg story is wild. My ex sister in law is in her early 80s now but used to be a really respected doctor 20 years ago, lots of TV appearances etc. She is really a nice lady overall.

 

However, when one of my nieces (from my side) was at a function and politely asked about an allergen, SIL flew into a rage about how most food allergies are psychosomatic. I’ve heard her rant about it so many times since, it is the one issue that always gets her fired up. As far as she is concerned Gluten-free stuff is the ruination of western society. 
 

I’m not a doctor but I’d argue that even if it’s in your head, it’s still real. Maybe confronting it accidentally will open up eggs as something your wife won’t have to worry about. Really glad she didn’t get sick. I’m super allergic to poison ivy and I’d do anything to just be able to enioy the woods in the summer so I feel for people with allergies of all types!

[Steelers0854]

8 hours ago, Jim and Monika said:

Just in case you missed it, and Thank You for sharing your vacation.

Unfortunately haven’t seen a single menu with the individual liquors mentioned on it. By Ginger do you mean Ginger Ale or Ginger Beer, I know they have Ginger Beer for sure. 

[Steelers0854]

MDR menu below. 
 

Tonight was appetizer heavy for me, too many good sounding options. DW was rocking her salad and I went with the mozzarella sticks (kinda sad, not crispy but had good flavor), the meatballs (they were good, but I was expecting one large meatball), Ox Tongue (my first time having tongue, it was good it was tender but the consistency reminded me more of patte), and the mango soup (very Ginger forward so if you don’t like ginger you may want to pass, I thought it was delicious). 
 

 

 

 

 

DW and I both got the beef tenderloin. She said hers was cooked perfectly and with a little A1 sauce it was great. Mine was excellent, the sauce they served with it was delicious. 
 

 

 

The chef had prepared DW a special dessert for tonight. I forgot to grab a picture, sorry, but it was delicious and best described as a pana cotta. It’s too bad that it took them making a mistake for them to provide some variety, but also on us for not asking if they could. DW is one that doesn’t like to make a fuss but I try and tell her it’s not making a fuss and these people are literally here for this kind of stuff and you just have to ask. They will do it if they can and if they can’t atleast you asked. 
 

So In that spirit we headed to David’s as we are having dinner there tomorrow night. She asked if she could do French onion soup and they said they could make that for her and she was super excited. 
 

MDR Night 4.pdf

[Steelers0854]

It’s a beautiful morning, slight breeze and we seem to be crawling into port. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen us move this slowly. The water is as smooth as glass. 
 

PS, that’s the moon in the upper right part of the photo. 
 

[JaniceB]

This is a beautiful picture.

[crewsweeper]

11 hours ago, Steelers0854 said:

Sorry for those future Pride cruisers but the Serenity deck is closed at 8:15 every night. Too bad. It’s a great place to relax at night. 

On some ships, the Serenity deck at night becomes the "teenage lovers" lane deck.  So maybe they're just putting the kabosh on that.

[Steelers0854]

31 minutes ago, crewsweeper said:

On some ships, the Serenity deck at night becomes the "teenage lovers" lane deck.  So maybe they're just putting the kabosh on that.

this was definitely a hard close, I haven’t seen that in the activities either this trip. 

[Steelers0854]

Looks like we were coming in slowly this morning because the Scarlett Lady was just leaving. 
 

 

Hi Lucy!!

 

There is a crew member on board, Lucy, that has a YouTube channel called Cruising as Crew. She is delightful to watch and really informative on becoming a crew member and what it’s like being a crew member. 

[pogoism9]

5 minutes ago, Steelers0854 said:

Looks like we were coming in slowly this morning because the Scarlett Lady was just leaving. 
 

 

Hi Lucy!!

 

There is a crew member on board, Lucy, that has a YouTube channel called Cruising as Crew. She is delightful to watch and really informative on becoming a crew member and what it’s like being a crew member. 

 

haha I have lost so many hours watching her channel...

[jenny368]

13 hours ago, IntrepidFromDC said:

If you've never been to HMC, Princess Cays will seem like a very nice beach.  But if you've been to both, you know how much more amazing HMC is.

I've been to HMC many times.  It's my favorite place.  This will be my first time to Princess Cays.  I will enjoy anyway 😉

 

[Steelers0854]

Welcome to Bimini

 

 

Another lazy morning today. We got up and worked out for a little while before heading to breakfast in the buffet. We timed everything perfect today. This morning it was cloudy and cool with a slight breeze. Perfect for our laps around the track. 
 

DW snagged the breakfast potatoes and sausage which were both safe for her to eat. I was stoked they had POG juice, my fav!  Who needs Cheers when I can grab this and lemonade?!?

 

 

We got ready for the day and headed to the spa. We had a bunch of OBC we needed to spend so DW got a massage and I got a shave. I was expecting a hot lather straight edge shave, got a double dose of Gillette instead. Don’t get me wrong the skin treatment and shaving cream they used left me super soft, just wasn’t what I was expecting. 

 

By now it’s pouring rain. It lasted about 30ish minutes then subsided leaving a perfectly cool morning. 
 

Afterwards we headed down and grabbed the tram. This open air tram circles the Resort World compound where the cruise port is. It’s it’s own little bubble on Bimini. They run continuously, for free all day. You never wait more than 5 min at any stop for the next one. 

 

The stops are:

1- Place to rent golf carts, get a taxi into town and 2 excursion starting points. 
2- Beach 360 (this is the paid excursion off the ship)

3- Resort World beach and pool 

4- Public beach

5- Hilton Hotel and Casino

6- Golf cart stop again. 
7- Back to dock

 

we rode it around and I think in total was 15-20 minutes. Nothing is very far. 

 

 

1) golf carts are $60 for a 4 seater, $90 for a 6 seater for the day. They had plenty of them. A taxi was $5pp to town. 

 

 

2) beach 360 looked nice but when we pulled up a couple was getting on that said it was terrible. Uncomfortable chairs and the water had about 3 feet before it dropped off like a cliff. Take it wraith a grain of salt but we heard a lot of complaints so far about this throughout the day. 
 

 

3) Didn’t see or hear much about the resort world stop. 
 

 

4) the public beach was free as were the chairs and umbrellas. This looked like the place to go. There was a small food and drink trailer that was open for guests to purchase items. 
 

 

5) Not much to see here at the hotel. But a bunch of people got off for the casino. 

 

 

 

7) back at the ship!

 

 

the waters here are soooo crystal clear!

 

 

after getting back we lounged around a bit and grabbed lunch. DW grabbed a guys burger and I got a pizza. DW of course said the burger was excellent, my pizza was so so. It’s no Alfredos from Princes. 
 

By now the heat and humidity have returned and anything resembling a breeze has left. So we headed down to deck 2 to relax. 
 

 

[Steelers0854]

Random facts about HMC that we learned from a gentlemen yesterday that did an excursion/tour of the island:

 

-there are 51 or 53 full time residents (I couldn’t remember which one he said)

 

-they live in very nice looking mobile homes on the other side of the island. 
 

-they can do basic medical care on site up to standard broken bones, anything more complex requires a 30 minute helicopter ride to Freeport which costs them $700. 

[Anung Un Rama]

Thanks for the Bimini info which seems rather limited so far.  We have the 360 beach excursion booked but may change that if there's a free beach with chairs and umbrellas along the tram route.

[jenny368]

Thanks for the Bimini review.  Never been there.

 

[Steelers0854]

@pogoism9 confirmed there is no smoking at the casino bar. 
 

[K&RCurt]

Just wanted to give a quick additional thanks for your reporting.  Great review!!!

[IntrepidFromDC]

42 minutes ago, Steelers0854 said:

@pogoism9 confirmed there is no smoking at the casino bar. 
 

I felt sorry for the casino bar bartender on the 9/12 cruise, the bar was empty most of the time (zero barstools occupied)

[Anung Un Rama]

@Steelers0854  Do you by any chance remember if there were bathrooms or other amenities at the free beach (stop #4)?  It looks like there may be something to the left of the food truck in the pic but it's hard to be sure.  TYIA 

[Steelers0854]

1 minute ago, Anung Un Rama said:

@Steelers0854  Do you by any chance remember if there were bathrooms or other amenities at the free beach (stop #4)?  It looks like there may be something to the left of the food truck in the pic but it's hard to be sure.  TYIA 

I noticed that as well but no I didnt see. My guess is no but I’ll see if I can find out.