Carnival Pride 5/23/09 Baltimore, MD

[RoninBear]

Anyone else going? Can't wait!;)

[rvcastle]

Hi,

We are also going on the May 23 cruise out of Baltimore. We are in 4 th floor rear.

We are from Boyds.

Hope to see you on the cruise.

Roy and Adam

[RoninBear]

WOW What a shock! At last! I just knew that we would not be alone on this cruise. Thanks for letting us know.

 

My partner (Tom) will be going with me, our first time out of Baltimore.

 

See you both (Roy & Adam) on board.

 

Best,

 

Ron :)

[rvcastle]

Hi Tom and Ron

We are in cabin 4232. What is your cabin number ?

You will really enjoy leaving out of Baltimore, is it so much less hassle that other ports we have cruised from.

Roy and Adam

[RoninBear]

Well as of the moment, we are scheduled to be in 6195.

 

No air, parking @ airport, hotel, food, drinks,...so we decided to upgrade!

 

 

When will you two be arriving at the Baltimore Port? It might be to early to ask that question.

 

We are only about 45-60 minutes from there.

 

Ron :)

[rvcastle]

We are about one hours drive to the port. We will probably try to be there 12:30-1PM.

My email is rvcastle@aol.com.

Roy and Adam

[RoninBear]

That sounds like the time we will arrive more or less, depending on traffic.

 

E-Mail: jrcullember@comcat.net

 

We have two email boxes, long story short. We both have the same health insurance carrier, but different health plans. They won't send information to one address, privacy issues. So I had to create one email box for myself.

 

Ron

[RoninBear]

One day I will learn to type:

 

 

jrcullember@comcast.net

[rvcastle]

Your suite looks like it is in a very nice location. You should really like the suite they are very nice with special lighting and I think a whirlpool tub in the bathroom.

Are you parking at the airport or at the pier ?

Roy

[RoninBear]

Your suite looks like it is in a very nice location. You should really like the suite they are very nice with special lighting and I think a whirlpool tub in the bathroom.

Are you parking at the airport or at the pier ?

Roy

 

We will be parking at the Port Authorty parking lot. It's between $13-$15 per day. I guess I should go to their site to see if the current amount is posted. I understand now they take credit cards, it use to be only cash when they first opened. I guess the demand for credit card payment was too much or they were waiting for the credit card hookup to be installed.

 

We are shower kind of guys anyway, its just a waste for us. Tom may go for it, it's just not my thing.

 

What's with the "Special Lighting" something new?

 

Now you have me curious, may need to look again and read this time! LOL

 

Ron :)

[days@sea]

Hey guys.. I was just at the Port of Baltimore (Locust Point Cruise Terminal) for a meeting with Royal Caribbean a couple of weekends ago. Parking has gone up, it is now $15 a day for cars.

 

Have either of you guys cruised on Carnival before? I haven't yet, and really curious how it will be for us gay guys. I LOVE not having to fly down to Florida($), and love that the Baltimore cruises have more sea days :-)

[RoninBear]

Hi, thanks for the heads up on the cost, someone had said it had gone up.

 

I like the idea of credit cards in case I get carried away on board and blow all my cash. Not hard to do!

 

We been on a number of Carnival Cruises (VIP member) for what it's worth. We mostly stay with Holland America, but what the heck, the port in almost in my back yard. Needless to say we are both looking forward to the cruise without all of the FFL/MIA hassel and expense.

 

We know of just one other couple on the cruise from Boyds, Maryland, so at least we won't be the only ones.

 

Gee, to bad you can't come along and join in all the fun we are expecting to have. Carnival isn't what it use to be by a long shot. We are very please that they have shed the of "Fun Ship" tag, even tho they are a fun ship, just not in the old way, if you know what I mean.

 

More later on what ships and so forth, just got back from dinner, just doing my usual check.

 

 

Ron "RoninBear" :)

[jimnbillnpa]

Hope you all have a great trip-we are Jim and Bill from Harrisburg, PA. We just returned from RSVP Eurodam Caribbean (well, not JUST returned, it was over a month ago). Our 5th gay cruise, but our first two were straight Princess and we loved those, particularly since on both cruises, like you guys, we met other gay couples on cruisecritic before boarding. We just did a similar intinerary on the Eurodam, although we went to St. John USVI, and San Juan PR in addition to Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay.

 

Leaving from Baltimore is VERY enticing. Have to admit-FLL is a bit hectic w/o some planning. But I learned this year that late Saturday afternoon flights out of FLL are NOT a bad thing. Fortunately we have a lot of friends down there that we can hit up, err... I mean, invite to lunch before our flight ;)

 

Anxious to hear about your experience. We've never really considered Carnival, mainly becuase we've heard about homophobic horror stories, particularly on 3 and 4 days out of Florida. RoninBear-with your VIP experience what is your take on that? Very curious, because we do see other Carnival cruisers posting on the gay boards.

[cookspencer]

hey guys,

my bf and i will be taking the same cruise out of baltimore on july 17. i've been on 50 cruises (all of the lines) and i want to tell you that the carnival spirit class ships are really first rate. i'm anxious to hear about your experiences on this cruise, so please post a review when you return.

ciao

[rvcastle]

We didn't visit wiith friends after we got off the ship in Ft Lauderdale and waiting for a later place. We went to the Club Ft Lauderdale. It was great and a wonderful end to a vacation.

Roy

[rvcastle]

With Carnival we have found that the Supper Club is absolutely the best place to eat on any ship. On a 7 night cruise we have eaten there 3-4 times. The food and the service are stunning. It outdoes first class on QE2 and Britannia class on QM2.

Roy

And an additional note: the steam and sauna are not co ed. Nice for relaxing sessions.

[RoninBear]

Glad to see others are joining the cruise. Maybe the group will expand as we get closer. Stay tuned.

 

Now if we could only twist the arms of Jim 'n Bill to join us.

 

Ron "RoninBear"

[RoninBear]

hey guys,

my bf and i will be taking the same cruise out of baltimore on july 17. i've been on 50 cruises (all of the lines) and i want to tell you that the carnival spirit class ships are really first rate. i'm anxious to hear about your experiences on this cruise, so please post a review when you return.

ciao

 

Oh no, I read the post wrong, they are not sailing until July! :(

 

Sorry, I just go carried away, thinking another couple had joined the group.

 

Will be glad to relay our impressions of the Pride, when we return.

 

Ron "RoninBear"

[jimnbillnpa]

Gentlemen! Time has slipped away from me-we're into AUGUST already!! How was experience out of Baltimore? Hope you're still up on this thread!

 

Jim

[RoninBear]

Gentlemen! Time has slipped away from me-we're into AUGUST already!! How was experience out of Baltimore? Hope you're still up on this thread!

Jim

 

Hi Jim,

 

Sorry for the delay in getting back. I was just looking around today and found this. (Sort of new to this kind of thing.)

 

The cruise went smooth. We (my partner) had someone else from work on board along with a guest (we had drinks.) We meet up with RVCASTLE and his partner and had lunch one day.

 

Going out of Baltimore was a breeze to say the least. Parking $15.00 per day, no flights ($$) no hotel, etc.

 

We are going again out of Baltimore on Aug 22, 09 (Grandeur of the Seas - 5 day'r to Bermuda and back) to get away. Tom said just this morning, as he was leaving for work - - "Please, Dear Lord, only 8 days to go." I got a laugh out of that.

 

Ship was kind of weird for me. (Kind of dark) Not like all of the other Carnival Ships I have been on. It grew on me as the days progressed, and it didn't bother me. We had dinner in the Super Club one evening, the food was great!!! Dinning room was good as well. We had to change our table after the first night, long story, but we would have not gotten along with the two women traveling together. We also had a married couple join us (total of 6 at the table) she proceeded to give herself a shot in the waist at the dinner table. OH PLEASE, that's why you have a cabin, or pass several ladies rooms on your way to the dinning room, you just don't do this at the dinner table! We were seated at a table with a very young couple. They turned out to be very understanding and a delight to be around, we even invited them to join us at the cabana on Half Moon that we had rented. They stopped by and had some of the drink and food that was provided. (They were definitely into the snorkeling thing!)

 

We have another cruise booked for December 1-10, 09 out of Ft Lauderdale. HAL Noordam if maybe you guys want to join the fun.

 

Best to you both.

 

Ron (RoninBear)

[jimnbillnpa]

Well, once again time has flown by as Thanksgiving comes tomorrow and we careen toward Christmas. You'll be packing, I'm sure, for your Tuesday departure. We are on the RSVP cruise in February, Eurodam to Aruba and Curacao, departing FLL on Feb 13. Would be nice to meet some day-either on a ship or perhaps Rehoboth. Stay in touch!!

 

Jim