July 11 Pride Review - Part 3 Two Days at Sea

[SoccerMom#3]

Part 3 Sea Days Monday, July 12 and Tuesday, July 13

 

I really enjoy the Sea Days since I like sitting in the sun reading a book so I was looking forward to these two days. We woke up about 8:00 and went to Mermaid’s Grille for breakfast. They had at lease 4 stations set up with a person making made to order omelets or other types of eggs, as well as having a buffet style setup of hot cereal, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes or French toast, regular toast, and bagels. The cooks were pretty fast so the lines moved quickly. They also had another few stations with fresh fruit, yogurt, and cheeses as well as cereals and breakfast pastries. They had apple juice, orange juice, fruit punch, lemonade, coffee, and hot and iced tea. Also Servers walked around with pitchers of cold drinks and carafes of hot drinks. The Servers picked up your tray and dishes when you were done. They were so quick that I think at times I was taking my last bite and they were taking my tray. I never felt rushed. It was more that they were quite helpful.

 

After breakfast I found a deck chair by the pool. Even though it was about 9:30 many of the chairs were either taken or saved. My husband and daughter headed off to the port talk and my son headed off to find his friends from the night before. About an hour later my son and daughter showed up at the pool with a horse they had “won” in the horse auction. I was quite surprised but they were so excited that how could I not be excited for them.

 

To quickly explain the horse auction, each week they auction off 6 horses (think of the horse on a stick we all pretended to ride when we were about 5 years old). These horses are mounted on a small platform and those who “win” the horse auction decorate it and then carry it around with them all over the ship (but not off the ship) all week generating interest in their horse. On Saturday there is a horse race and the owner who gets the most money bet on their horse wins 30 % of the wagers. My kids named our horse Levi’s Pride after our dog Levi who they missed.

 

Once again I went back to reading my book and drinking my diet coke while my daughter and husband attended the port talk and my son went to the arcade. I told my son to meet my daughter and me at 3:00 at Bingo since we enjoy playing Bingo. My daughter, husband, and I agreed to meet for lunch at 1:00 in Mermaid’s Grille. My husband said the port talk was fine although he didn’t learn anything earth shattering. They repeat the port talk as well as all programs (except the dance and entertainment acts) on the cabin TVs all week so I was able to catch the port talk later.

 

After lunch I went back to my deck chair for a few hours till it was time for Bingo. Soon the cruise staff was getting the pool crowd to participate in a Survivor Game around the pool. It was quite funny to watch as two teams of 6 did some races around the pool and a scavenger hunt. Whichever team lost had to vote someone off their team. By the end of the competition, there were four left on each team and they participated in Survivor Part 2 the next day.

 

My daughter and I met my son at Bingo in the Taj Mahal Lounge which is where most of the activities take place. I did notice during the week that if there were back to back activities in the Taj Mahal, they tended to run late by about 10-15 minutes. I bought my son and daughter each a 3 part Bingo card for $20 each and we began a trend that continued all week. We never won a game. By the end of the cruise, I told my kids that if we won a game, we would maybe break even on our Bingo spending.

 

After Bingo we went to the cabins to get dressed for the formal dinner. Since we rarely if ever all get dressed up, I wanted us to get a picture taken of all 4 of us. They had about 5 locations set up in the Atrium area for formal portraits and we went to all of the locations. I figured it would increase our odds of getting a picture that we all looked good in. I ended up buying a picture of my two kids together but we (I should say “my daughter and I”) didn’t like any of our family formal pictures from this night so we took more formal pictures on Friday. We then went briefly to the formal cocktail party in the Taj Mahal where they were passing out drinks and appetizers. Greg, the Cruise Director, introduced the Captain and his staff.

 

Tonight they had lobster for dinner so I ordered that. Once again, the dinner was good but not great. My son’s friend was sitting at the table next to us so I introduced myself to his mother and we spent the rest of the cruise chatting at dinner and doing activities together.

 

After dinner the boys changed out of their formal clothes and back to their t-shirts and shorts and headed off to the arcade and to meet their other friends. Later they went to the hot tubs. My son had a walkie talkie and I told him to stay in touch and be home by midnight. My husband, daughter and I changed into less formal clothes and went off to the productions show called Wonderful World. The show was fantastic especially the numerous costumes.

 

After the show we grabbed some desserts and drinks at Mermaid’s Grille and headed off to bed. I still had the walkie talkie on and periodically my son would call me or I’d call him just to see where he was. He was home by midnight and we were all off to sleep.

 

When we all got up on Tuesday morning we noticed that the sky was a bit cloudy and the ship was rocking a bit. Well you can’t control the weather and some rocking of the ship is ok since that lets you know you’re on the water. All 4of us went to breakfast at Mermaid’s Grille and then I went find a deck chair since I wanted to lay in the sun again (even if there wasn’t too much sun.) I noticed today that there were more deck chairs taken or saved earlier than yesterday. I found a chair on the back of the Lido deck and set up shop with my book and a cup of coffee. My son headed off to the arcade and my daughter and husband went off to the shopping talk.

 

Well by about 10:00 the clouds really rolled in and it started to drizzle. A few of us diehard sun-worshippers decided a little bit of rain wasn’t bad and maybe this would blow over. Also who wants to give up their prime deck location? Well just a few minutes later the rain got harder and the wind picked up so I gathered up my belongings and headed to the Taj Mahal to find my family. I went first to our room to leave a note since I had left my deck location. (An aside here…Based on a recommendation from these boards we had taken Post It notes which was a great way to communicate with one another.)

 

As I was just about to leave the room, my son showed up saying he wasn’t feeling too good. He was in the arcade which is at the front of the ship and started to feel queasy. I had some Bonine so gave him a tablet. He laid down and I was off to the shopping talk which was now about over. I caught my husband and daughter as they were leaving so we went back to the rooms to see if my son was feeling better which he wasn’t.

 

The rain and wind were really picking up by now and the rocking on the ship was getting worse. The Captain came on over the intercom and told us that we had sailed through a tropical storm the night before and were still picking up the tail end of the storm. He said it would be better by the time we got to Puerto Vallarta the next day.

 

My husband, daughter, and I headed off to lunch and left my son sleeping in the room. By 2:30 or so my son was feeling better so off to Bingo we went. I noticed that they had paper bags like on airplanes pinned up around the ship for those who were not going to make it to a bathroom in time. Well once again we didn’t win at Bingo. After Bingo, Cameron who was the Comedian/Magician from the first night was giving a talk about his magic and sharing some of his magic tricks. My son loves magic so he and I stayed for this. Cameron was quite informative however my son knew a number of his magic tricks already so he wasn’t as impressed as I was.

 

After this we went back to the room. My son started feeling worse again and in fact fell asleep. As we were getting ready for dinner, I woke him up to see if he wanted to go with us but he didn’t so I left him sleeping in the room while we went off to dinner.

 

The Dining Room was quite empty tonight probably due to a number of folks feeling lousy. My son’s friend had slept the day away also. He made it to dinner where the dining staff was kind enough to make him butter noodles for dinner. I asked our Waiter if I could get Macaroni and Cheese to take to my son in the room. He brought it to me just a few minutes later. This was so kind of them since this wasn’t even on the menu.

 

I brought it to my son who ate a little of it. Did he not eat it because he wasn’t feeling well or was it because it wasn’t Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with fake powdered cheese like he has at home? Who knows?

 

He still wasn't feeling too good and I was feeling a bit queasy. We turned on the TV and the baseball All-Star game was on. It had the audio from ESPN but the video was from the Spanish version of ESPN so sometimes what you saw on TV didn't follow what you heard but I'm a baseball fan so it was still fun to watch. We allwent to bed early and hoped that tomorrow in Puerto Vallarta the weather would be better and the ship wouldn’t be rocking as much.

 

 

Elise

[tinydancer21]

Thank you so much for the review's! I'm eating it up! Keep them coming! ;)

 

Only 44 more days till I'm on the Pride! Yeah! :D

[wwakla]

I have a lot more days, but am also enjoying every tidbit about the Pride.

Keep up the great review!!

Kris

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

I was on the Pride three years ago when it first came out. You brought back all my memories. I remember the taj mahal lounge. Well, thanks for the review.

[SoccerMom#3]

Thanks for the nice comments. I'll try to write more today. It is taking me a lot longer than I thought it would but I know how I hung on every word of reviews that others wrote before I went on my cruise.

 

Again, thanks,

 

Elise

[lighthouse1492]

Do you think the Pride is sanatised after every trip?

[Cruise lover 01010]

Thank you so much for the review's! I'm eating it up! Keep them coming! ;)

 

Only 44 more days till I'm on the Pride! Yeah! :D

Me too but I'm starting to think that this may be the biggest mistake of my life.

[Cruise lover 01010]

Do you think the Pride is sanatised after every trip?

I certainly hope so after all we have heard!

[sbnuggie]

Hello,

 

I was on the Pride in Mid May and I'm a morning person, even on vacation. Most days I was up to watch the sunrise or the ship coming into a port at 5:30 to 6:00 in the morning. EVERY morning that I was up there were dozens of people cleaining everything. And the cleaner was some pretty strong smelling stuff I'll tell ya'. They were washing handrails and pictures and walls. I asked one of the crew once while we were in an elevator if that was an everyday cleaining ritual and he told me yes. With Cruise Ships and the viruses that can easily outbreak on ship they have dedicated cleaning crews that work all night cleaning every bit of the ship. So yes, that is one clean ship.