6/10/07 Pride Review

[blkbrnfam]

My husband and I decided to go to Long Beach the day before and use the Park and Cruise package through Holiday Inn. Much cheaper than paying for parking for the parking garage for 7 days. Right after we left home, my MIL called from our home and told us there was a message from Carnival saying that our cruise was delayed. We decided to wait until we got to Long Beach to call them back. We called Carnival from our hotel room and were told that we couldn't start boarding the ship until about 7:30 p.m. and that the ship would leave Long Beach around midnight. I thought it really blew a hole in my plans for early check-in and wondered what we were going to do all day. Should we get a room for another night or should we go down there and wait all day? You know, questions you keep asking yourself.

We decided to go ahead and do early check-in at the Queen Mary. That way, whatever we decided to do, we would do without toting around all of our luggage. That part went according to plan. Did early check-in around 9:30 in the morning. The guy that checked us in thought he came in on the wrong day because the Pride wasn't there. He then told us that the ship would be there and we could start boarding by about 3:00 and that we would get a $50 OBC each. I could handle that.

[mcorrus]

Any idea what the delay was? We are set to cruise on the pride on the 22nd and I am seriously hoping there arn't any problems.

[blkbrnfam]

We went out to breakfast and did a little shopping before going back to the hotel to park our car. When we went out to wait for the shuttle, there were a few people already waiting to get on the shuttle. We were on the second shuttle to go to the cruise terminal. While we were there, many people asked why we didn't have luggage with us. We told them that we did early check-in so we wouldn't have to haul it all around. I'm telling you, there were alot of angry people. Angry because they didn't know that there was an early check-in. I only knew about it because I had read about it and asked a few questions on this board. I would diffinately use the early check in again.

Got to the ship and in line by 2:30 and were onboard by 3:00. Painless. The Carnival people did a great job keeping things going as smoothly as possible. We got to stand in a line that was just for early check-in so we got onboard very quickly.

My heart was pounding as we boarded. What a beautiful ship.

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The delay was a technical problem they were able to fix in about 3 hours while the ship was at sea

[blkbrnfam]

There were no other "technical problems" for our trip. Thank goodness

[Calicruiser101]

Hi, great review so far, we leave this Sunday. It will be our second time and my parent's and sister/family's first time. I can't wait. Only 3 more day.:D :D :D

[blkbrnfam]

I hed heard that Jeff Bronson was the Cruise Director but it was not the case. Tina Noble was our cruise director and had just started that day.

One of the first things we did was make a reservation for David's supper club and then head to the dining room to see what was for dinner. Sign said wouldn't be open for dinner tonight. What a bummer! Went back by a while later and a sign said they would be having dinner and it would be open seating. I was glad for that. Dinner was good. I had New York steak with 3 peppercorn sauce. I don't usually like things poured on my steak but it was good. My husband had the chocolate melting cake and it was really good. Had heard many people complimenting that dessert.

I had ordered champagne and chocolate covered strawberries from the Bon Voyage department and went to our room to check on them and they weren't there. I had wanted to surprise DH at sail away but didn't work out that way.

[blkbrnfam]

We talked to our room steward and he took care of getting our things delivered to our room. My DH did get to enjoy 2 Coronas on our balcony before dinner. We hadn't had a balcony before and we enjoyed it. I don't know if I ever want to go back to a room without a balcony. After checking out the ship, went up to watch sail away. We stood there for a while watching all of the food be loaded onto the ship. That takes a very long time. Seems Carnival was able to get everybody on board in a timely matter but there just can't be anything done to get the food on board any faster. Those guys driving the forklifts just could not go any faster than they were already going. As soon as all of the food was on, the ship was on it's way. It was about 10:00. After that, we went back to our room and went to bed. The people next to us slammed their balcony door until about 1 in the morning. I decided that I wouldn't be so quiet shutting our door when I got up at 5:30 the next morning.

[blkbrnfam]

Hi, great review so far, we leave this Sunday. It will be our second time and my parent's and sister/family's first time. I can't wait. Only 3 more day.:D :D :D

You should have a great time.;) We did

[blkbrnfam]

I gained close to 10 pound on our last two cruises but I was better prepared this time. I lost 10 pounds before the cruise and I had so much fun gaining it back!

Anyway, I woke my husband up and made him go up top and run the track with me. It was so cold and windy that it gave me an earache. There was an older man walking around the ship. I think he did that every morning.He nodded to us every time he saw us.

We had filled out the room service card the night before and breakfast got there when we had asked. It left me wanting more to eat but we liked having it delivered and eating on the balcony. We saw a whale while on the balcony. Cool. I had heard that the blow dryer only blows cold air but mine worked just fine. DH tidied up room while I curled my hair. I was in the way and would rather have been able to do that in the bathroom. He had to step around that stool everytime he walked by me. My husband had received his garment the night before but everything was in a pile at the bottom of the bag. We brought the Downey wrinkle reoleaser. Works good.

I hoped it would warm upoutside. It didn't. It was cold all day. I went to the gift shop to find a sweatshirt or something. Brrr. While at the gift shop, somebody tapped my shoulder. I turned around and it was a girl that I went to school with. We had still been friends since but hadn't talked in a few months. While we had planned this cruise for about a year and a half, she had booked only 3 months prior. It was just so weird to run into somebody like that. I got her room number and told her we would call later. Muster drill was suppose to be at 9:30 that morning. They usually do that before the ship leaves but because it was so late the night before, they were having it the next day. Went to our room about 20 minutes before and waited and waited..... At 9:45, the CD came on and said it would be another 20 min before it would start so we waited some more. Felt like I was wasting time just sitting there waiting. I have to say that I wanted to go explore the ship so I didn't want to just sit and wait.

Did muster drill aned got back to room at 10:25. Those stinky lifevests make me cringe. I guess it was a good thing that it wasn't any warmer

[blkbrnfam]

I froze diring the muster drill in my stinky life vest. :eek: I hid behind a big guy in front of me so the wind wasn't as bad is it could have been. I heard some teenage girls complaining about having to wake up for the drill and I wondered to myself if they were the ones slamming the balcony door all night.

Explored the ship until it was time to get ready for formal dinner. Went to dinner at 5:45. The sevice this night was aweful. Met our table matel Regina and Ty from Phoenix. Down to earthe poeple. They shared their anniversary cake with us. Chocolate cake. Yummy. I had a Caesar salad that tasted fishy. I also had Pumpkin soup and Prime Rib. Both were delicious. For dessert, I had Carmelized apples on puff pastry. Always amazed at how dessert looks when it comes. Very creative and very tasty.

Went to the show after dinner. Pretty good. The main singers reminded me of the singers we saw on the Paradise the year before. I woudered if they were the same people. Her voice is much better that his. Their names were Penny Gold and Jon Williams. The dancing was very good. We met up with our friends for the comedy show. Funny but could be offensive to some. Early bedtime tonight.

 

TUESDAY

Up at 8:00. Much warmer. The sun finally came out which made me happy. At 10:00 the chair hogging began. Not for me. Had breakfast at the buffet. Blah. Cold hash browns and stale bagel. Bacon was hot though. I can't eat eggs or anything else that you would want in the morning so not interested in eating in the dining room. Can't eat pancakes or waffles. I'm not sure why but they kill my stomach. I miss those things so much.

Had pizza and salad for lunch. Pizza was good but need some garlic. After lunch I went out on deck to lay out while DH went to the gym. I burned a little and I wasn't out there that long.

Went to David's for dinner. The filet minon was very tender. Everything was presented superbly. I had a very interesting dessert. It came in three different shaped bowels that were stuck to a rectangular platter. Flourless chocolate cake with homemade ice cream was very good and the other two were good also. One was a mousse and I can't remember what the third one was. I would tell everybody that they should try this place at least once. It's a very different dining experience compared with the dining room. Even if I didn't like everything that was served, I still enjoyed the atmosphere. While we were eating, the ship was really moving back and forth. I felt like I was a pendulum. Made my head feel kind of funny. Like you're drunk but you haven't been drinking.

Went to the casino where my friends husband tried to teach me how to play Craps. I'm not a gambler so this was different for me. He put down a $5 chip for me so that I would have to play. I stayed for a few minutes and won $10 so I gave him back his $5 chip and decided I would rather watch and learn more than to play.

Went to the Butterflied lounge. Music wasn't good at all. The "Breeze" was playing country music. Hung out with our friends for a while before heading back to our room. Went out on balcony and it was very muggy:eek: There was condensation and the door and ceiling of the balcony.

 

WEDNESDAY

Arrived and watched the ship doce at 7:30 in Puerto Vallarta. There were people watching from the shore. It was kind of weird. I learned later that Carnival is the only cruiseline to go there during this time of year (rainy season) so people there are starved for money. I can see why they would be waiting.

OH MY GOSH. It was soo hot and muggy. I'm from California high desert area and am more use to dry heat than all of that mugginess. We did the room service because we had to be off for our excursion at 8:15. We did the Jeep Safari and beach adventure. I would have to say that it wasn't really either of those things. They don't tell you that you have to share your jeep with other people. We thought we would have our own jeep and would follow other jeeps. You can drive either there or back. We didn't really safari. We drove around to some Mexican villages and looked around. We went to a tequila factory where they explained the process of making tequila. That was cool. They fed us there and the food wasn't very good. Dona Engracia was what the tequila was called. The first time I took a shot of tequila, I thought I was going to hurl but this stuff was very smooth. Bought a bottle of tequila there after tasting a few samples. While we were eating, a few of the vendors were pestering us to buy something. They kept bring things to our table. I thought it was rude. We were going to be walking back by their tables after eating.

When we left the tequila factory, we crossed a river and our tour quide got a little squirrelly in the water. We took pictures of the locals swimming in the river and even saw as iguana crossing the dirt road. Other than that, we saw lots of skinny cows and dogs. There were dogs everywhere! Although it was interesting seeing locals in their environment, it wasn't a safari through the jungle. Our guide said it was because it was rainy season. It wasn't raining on this day. Once back in PV, we went to a place that was for members only. We were served juice for free and you could buy food or other drinks. It was on a beach but the water looked weird. Our guide said it was from the water coming into the ocean from the rivers. Decided not to go swimming there.:eek: A few of the people in our group did parasailing. That was fun to watch. They took you right off the beach into the air and you landed right back on the beach. Interesting. We left there after about an hour and headed back to the ship. It was so hot that we decided to take a dip in the pool while there were so few people on the ship at that time. We watched the people partying on the pirate ship. It looked like a lot of fun but too hot for me. We didn't get back off the ship but I had thought about it a few times. Every time I went out on the balcony, I always changed my mind. Early dinner. There were a lot less people in the dining room and our server spent more time with us. Our server made me a ring from a dollar bill. It had the $1 on top and he told me it was 1 carat and had a five year guarantee. Very funny. It was the first time he interacted that much with us. Made me think that he must be very busy otherwise. We were tired from all of the sun so we decided to hang out in our room. I got burned again this day.

About 9:00, we heard loud booms outside. Went out on the balcony and saw fireworks coming from the Pirate ship. Everybody looked like they were having a great time but it was still too muggy for me.

[blkbrnfam]

When we were leaving PV that night, the locals were yelling for us to come back and that they loved us. They said they would be waiting for us to come back. A lot of people were yelling back to them from the ship saying that they loved Puerto Vallarta and would miss them. It was kind of neat. You could see flashes from cameras from the hotels that were all around the area. My husband missed all of that. I went back inside and told him what was going on and he was sad that he missed it. Touching experience.;)

 

THURSDAY

We didn't have anything planned for Mazatlan but were up early and off the ship. We went to the Golden Zone and were dropped off in front of Diamonds International. Most of the places around there were like that. We decided to walk around and look for something else to do. Taxis kept stopping and asking if we needed a ride somewhere. We kept telling them no until one taxi driver stopped and told us that he could take us somewhere that we would enjoy better. He said he would show us around Old Mazatlan for thirty bucks for an hour. We decided to do that. He showed us a lot of places. He took us shopping and waited for us. Whenever we stopped, he carried our bags and took pictures of us. That was cool. He took us to see the Cliff Diver and he told us funny jokes. He showed us a beautiful house way above Mazatlan. My husband said "Presidente"? He said, "No, American Dentist". I think he was serious. We had a lot of fun and I think it was probably better than doing a sightseeing excursion. We got to see so much. When we were done, we had him drive us back to the ship. When we got back to the ship, we realized we had been with Julio for 5 hours. Ouch. $150. I had mentioned to my DH a few times that I thought we were paying him to wait for us and we were but I think the whole tour was worth it. We learned a lot and we had a lot of fun.

Ate in the dining room that night and service was much better. After dinner, went to casino and did very little gambling. I just don't like to lose money. I watched my friend Diann win and lose money left and right. She would win $400 at the slot machines then go over to the blackjack table and place a minimum of $25 bets until it was gone:eek: She even went to the $100 blackjack table on a couple of occasions. That would make me sick to lose that much money. She said that it didn't bother her at all. I guess that's why I'm not a gambler.:D

We went back to our room for a while and Diann called. She aked what excursion we were doing in Cabo. We didn't have anything planned so she wanted to know if we wanted to do a sail and snorkel with her and her husband. I talked my husband into it. He didn't want to do it at first because I'm afraid to get into the water. I thought the sailing part would be fun. We went down to the excursion desk and booked it. We bought our own snorkel at the desk for $5. Went to bed about 10:00.

 

[blkbrnfam]

FRIDAY

 

We had to be off the ship early so we headed down to the tenders. I think we were one of the first off the ship. Painless really. We headed to where we were suppose to meet and were told to come back in 20 min. I used that time to use the restroom and I bought un underwater camera. I think it was twice as much as the ones they were selling on the ship. Headed back to our line. We boarded a catamaran and waited for the others to arrive. I noticed a Carnival funship films guy got on the catamaran and pointed him out to my husband. After everybody else boarded, we sailed away. We sailed for about an hour. So Beautiful. We stopped at a place called Santa Maria Cove. After a short lesson, they started chumming the water. EWWW:eek: You could see the fish eating what they were throwing in. I was going to get off the back of the boat until they started chumming there. I headed to the front of the boat and was followed by my friend. She wanted to make sure I was going to get in the water. I was ready to jump when they started chumming at the front of the boat. OMG. I was already jumping in. I then realized that I couldn't do it. I didn't want to look at the fish. I wanted to get out of the water. The water was really cold but it wasn't the cold that bothered me. I don't like swimming with the fish! I told my husband that I had to get out but to do that, I had to swim to the back of the boat. You could only get on from the back. Then I noticed to camera guy filming right where we were. I tried to smile like I was having fun but I had the ladder in my sights and I WAS GETTING OUT. I climbed out and sat down and watched every body else. Now that was more like it. My husband took pictures underwater and I took pictures of him and our friends snorkeling. I enjoyed just being on the catamaran. After time was up, everybody got back on the boat and some of them talked to the Carnival camera guy. My husband talked to him also. On the way back to Cabo, they had tuna sandwiches and chips and salsa. Beers and mixed drinks were also included. We had a great time hanging out and talking on the way back. My husband said it was his favorite excursion. I enjoyed myself too. I would do another sail and snorkel just to be on the catamaran. After we got back, we went to Cabo Wabo. The food was okay there but we didn't really go there for the food. It was kind of a neat place to visit. Lots of pictures of other rockers on the walls. While walking back to the tender area, we bought a few things but things tended to cost more there than the other places we visited. We got back to the ship and I noticed that I got burned again. We didn't eat in the dining room this night. After being in the sun, we just wanted to relax. It was also formal night again. I knew that after eating as much as we had been that the dress I bought would be tighter. Really just didn't want to mess with it this night. Hung out with our friends instead. They had a different dinner seating than we did.

The rest of the time on the ship, we hung out with our friends. On the last night, we went to the hot tub and hung out there. It was cold again so everybody was inside. We bought some things from the gift shop for people. We bought some of those Tortuga rum cakes that I had heard about. They are really good.

[blkbrnfam]

We decided to do self debarking. It went smoothly and we were off the ship at about 9:30. We called the hotel and the shuttle came and picked us up. It took about 40 min for the shuttle because they were also going to San Pedro that day. We got back to our car and went home sad that the cruise had ended.

I would do this cruise again. There are a few things that I would do differently but all in all, I loved every minute of it. You try to soak it all in. We had a blast. We are now looking for our next cruise. I'm not sure where we'll go but I would love to sail on the Pride again.

A note on cell phones; we have Verizon and our cell phones worked while the ship was at sea. I didn't realize at first but they didn't work well in our balcony room. All I had to do was step out into the hall to get better reception. It costs more than using your phone at home but not as much as the ship's phone. I think we spent about a hundred dollars more but my kids were at home so the cost wasn't bad for the peace of mind it gave me to be able to talk to them.;)