Swodog's E. Caribbean Adventure: Carnival Pride 23-30 July 17

HMC (Cont.)

Next to the Pirate Bar is a hut where you can rent all sort of cool toys to play in the water, including masks and fins, floats, sailboats, and water tricycles.

My tour complete, I went back to the cabana, grabbed a float and headed for the water. And...amazing! Floating around the bright azure water, beer in hand with a clear blue sky above and the sun shining - it just doesn't get ay better. Now I see why folks are always raving about their day at HMC. I can't wait to come back!

HMC (Cont.)

After a few hours of playing around in the water and lounging in our cabana, we started to get hungry. Carnival brings lunch to the beach for you so you don't need to take a tender back to the ship to eat. It's a full cook out, including burgers, hot dogs and BBQ chicken. I wonder if this guy is on the menu?

I headed over to the picnic area to get our lunch. There are many covered areas with picnice tables.

There are any drink stations between the porticos, as well as a bar.

HMC (Cont.)

The crew works hard to make lunch for everyone.

HMC (Cont.)

The last tender back to the ship is scheduled for 4:15, so we had originally decided to start heading back around 3:30. But a long day in the sun really takes it out of you, even with a cabana, and when the crew started to break things down around 3:00, we decided to call it a day. We grabbed our stuff and headed up to the bus stop to catch a shuttle back to fleet landing.

After a few minutes a truck came a long and we climbed on.

A few hardy souls are still hanging on, but the place is quickly emptying out.

HMC (Cont.)

The RumRunners bar is the last bar before fleet landing a few folks were grabbing one for the road...errr, boat ride.

We went through security (i guess to make sure you're not bringing anything back with you on the tender?) and got in line.

It was hot in the sun, but luckily we were getting on the tender in a few minutes and we chose to sit on the lower level, which is protected from the sun.

A quick ride has us making a our approach to the ship withing a few minutes.

HMC (Cont.)

Soon the last tender from the island was making it's approach.

Shortly after 4:30 the ship weighed anchor and we got underway enroute to Freeport. We spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing in our stateroom. We had already decided that we were not going to eat in the MDR that night so we headed up to the Lido for dinner. It was fairly quiet up there, as I think many people were in the same boat as us...completely wiped out after an awesome but hot and sunny day at HMC. We both decided to get pizzas for dinner. The pizza on the ship is awesome. It is not some microwaved frozen hockey puck. The pizza guy takes your order, grabs a fresh ball of dough and spreads it out. Then he puts on fresh sauce and your toppings. Another guy takes the pizza into the back and puts it in the oven, and a few minutes later you get a hot, fresh pizza! My wife got the prosciutto pizza (with arrugula) and I got a run-of-the-mill pepperoni pizza. Both were delicious!

Fat, dumb and happy, we headed up to the Sun Deck to try and get some sunset pictures.

HMC (Cont.)

It was cloudy again, but I still managed to get a few cool shots.

Back in our room we found a new towel critter just hanging around. After a tiring but amazingly fun day, we turned in early. Tomrrow we would be in Freeport (yawn!).

Great review. HMC is on our upcoming trip. You've provided some great information. Thanks for sharing!

Great review. HMC is on our upcoming trip. You've provided some great information. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! Glad you found it helpful.

Great review, by any chance did you happen the take a pic or see a sign with prices for the rentals???

Great review, by any chance did you happen the take a pic or see a sign with prices for the rentals???

No, sorry, I didn't think to take a picture of that. Thanks for following along!

I hope you're coming back, Swodog! I have really enjoyed reading your review. =)

I hope you're coming back, Swodog! I have really enjoyed reading your review. =)

Hey folks, sorry I went sinker on ya! Work trip came up and then I got overcome by events. I'm going to try and wrap this up now.

Freeport

So this would be the second time in Freeport for us. The previous time (2013) we had headed over to Lucaya, done some shopping, eaten cracked conch and then came back early enough to do a walk through of the shops on the pier, plus a quick drink at Senor Frogs. As we approached this cruise, we were divided as to what we should do. My wife though we might try shopping again, and I thought I might not leave the ship at all. In HMC we talked it over and decided to split the baby...we would leave the ship, but just to do stuff on the pier. That would let us sleep in and have a mellow morning.

We slept until about 0900, and I got up and headed to the Lido, because I knew today was the Towel Animal Take-over and I wanted to get some good pictures. Sure enough, the crew had slaved throughout the night to create hundreds of towel animals, who then "take over" the pool area.

Freeport (Cont.)

Some of the towel animals were as simple as the critters they leave in your stateroom each night, but some are elaborate and huge!

Freeport (Cont.)

The reason Freeport is such a boring port is because the ship's berth is in an industrial area.

There is a bunch of shops and a couple of eating establishments that were built there at the pier just to support the cruise ships.

Supposedly Carnival is building a new pier and cruise center (similar to Grand Turk's) for thier ships, but that was just announced this year and is only in the planning stages. Who knows when that will be ready.

Freeport (Cont.)

I scanned the shopping area and immediately sighted something new (to me anyway) - Fat Tuesday!

Oh I am going there for sure! And of course, I'll swing by Senor Frog's for a tshirt and a drink.

There are all sorts of shops here, from jewelry stores to souvenir shops.

There are also lines of taxis, vans and buses to take people to the beach, Lucaya shopping center and other places on the island.

Ok, time to get some breakfast before heading out to the pier for our abreviated shopping trip. Hmmm...what should I have for breakfast? Just kidding...you know I'm getting a burrito!

Freeport (Cont.)

I'm going to take another opportunity to praise Pride's fine crew. While we were sleeping, lounging by the pool or headed out into Freeport to eat, shop and get our drink on...they were training and running an abandon ship drill. ["We'll lay off their largest cities and listen to their rock'n'roll...while we conduct...drills."] Sorry, couldn't resist the obscure quote...if you "heard" it in a certain accent, you know where it came from. Anyway, the crew spent the good part of an hour walking through the drill.

These stairs are only open during emergencys. Also, these lights coem on in the halls to guide you in case the lights go out.

Passengers were invited to participate and few did.

Plus, while all this was going on, some of the Deck crew was hard at work painting the sides (any BM's who remember doing this while the rest of the crew went on liberty?).

Freeport (Cont.)

We headed off the ship and out into the port area. We walked through a few shops and did a little shopping for gifts.

There was a band playing and we headed over to Fat Tuesday for an adult slushy!

While we were finishing our drinks we met one of the denizens of the island.

I decided to head over to Senor Frog's and my wife went back to the ship.

Freeport (Cont.)

You can't go anywhere in the Caribbean and not find a Senor Frog's. I went in to buy a tshirt and decided to grab one of the local beers - Sands is brewed right there on the island.

The Frog is a favorite of college students (and high schoolers on spring break, for that matter!), but it seems to really be working to attract a younger demographic!

I guess it's never too early to start them off right!

Freeport (Cont.)

I soon headed back to the ship because I didn't want to get caught it the mad rush at the end to get on board. Folks are supposed to be back at 1pm for a 1:30 sailaway. Last time we were here, some folks didn't show up until 1:45! But this time it went pretty smooth. The line to get back on was pretty long at 1:00.

Carnival had a crewmember posted by the taxi stand to help herd people back to the ship.

Sadly, this is required becasue some folks, despite cutting it close getting back, would get off buses and taxis and head into the shops!

But the crew did a great job of pushing folks out and on to the ship, and by 1:30, everyone was accounted for, the cat-herder followed her flock onto the ship, and we could get underway.

Freeport (Cont.)

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading. We skipped lunch and just had a snack mid afternoon because we had reservations that night at David's!

Every cruise, I like to have dinner at the steakhouse at least once. While it costs and extra $35pp, it is totally worth it, in my opinion. For your $$ you get and appetizer, a salad, an entree and dessert. Plus the wine list is superb! The steakhouse is named after Michaelangelo's famous statue of David...and there is a reproduction of that work of art in the restaurant!

Now, many of you will note that it is not a true reprodution...Carnival has added a fig leaf to protect his modesty. Before the dry docking in 2014, David did not have a fig leaf and his...errr..."meat" was on display in the steakhouse. I guess some prudish, puritanical, stick-up-butt types took exception, and since we can't have anything "trigger" people in this day and age, Carnival caved.

Tonight was the second Elegant Night, and while we dressed up a little, we didn't put on our formal duds again.

I picked a decent Italian red to go with our dinner.

The chef sent out an amuse bouche - bisque in a hollowed out baked potato.

Freeport (Cont.)

I had the french onion soup as an appetizer, but my wife chose to skip that course. We both passed on the salad, although I've had their caesar salad in the past and it is fantastic (they make the dressing fresh).

When it comes to our entrees, we are creatures of habit when we dine at David's...I always get the Kona coffe rubbed strip steak, and my wife gets the lobster tail.

For some reason I didn't photograph them, but we ordered the whipped potatoes and creamed spinach as sides. It was a lot of food, and we were stuffed and considering asking for our desserts to go. But Carnival knew it was our anniversary, and they sent over a special dessert with their complimets.

Wow! It was delicious and we ate every bite. We still asked to take our desserts to go and the staff was kind enough to wrap up two huge slices of New York Style cheesecake, which we put in our fridge for later. When we got to our room we found this guy waiting for us.

We stayed up for as long as we could to try and digest some of that huge meal. I probably smoked a cigar and then went to casino...but I'm not sure. Tomorrow would be our last sea day.

Absolutely loved your review!! We're sailing the Pride the end of Oct (after our sailing on the Breeze was cancelled last week) and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her and seeing your pics. Thank you!!