Seabourn Pride 12/16 - 12/23

Just returned from the Pride this afternoon and what a wonderful week we had! As we had done the same cruise last year, I was surprised by the number of familiar passengers on board.

Got to meet many CC'ers and they are all great people ... even met a nice lurker;)

The weather was nice with sunshine in each of our ports. The Beach Barbeque at Virgin Gorda was a big hit and participation with the beach games and watersports was better this year than last. "Rock the Boat" was moved from Thursday to Friday due to too much "rocking" on Thursday and that suited many of us - it made for a grand finale and we could enjoy the open air in "casual" attire. Since we waited to turn the clock back until Friday night as well, the early wake-up call this morning wasn't all that early. Captain GA was a very personable man - heard someone calling my name on the pier in St. Thomas and it was none other than the captain on his bicycle! Jan and David E. were on board and joined this year by the lovely Marla of AL. They kept trivia entertaining and they entertained very well themselves. The guest pianist was excellent, the restaurant and bar staff seemed to be about 80% the same and many of them recognized us at the pier in Bridgetown. It was like coming home.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

johnny

Who is envious of Martita ... she gets to stay on for two more weeks.

Johnny:

Sounds like you had a delightful week aboard the Pride (as I did earlier!)! :)

We must simply try not to think about Ms. M....! No doubt she'll be stirring up enough fun on board to distract staff, crew & passengers alike over the holidays!!

Welcome home...and happy holidays to you! ;)

Paul

looking forward to the Virgin Gorda BBQ in March on the Legend....!:D

Yipes,,, Hope you got out of Fort Lauderdale OK...

From a Press Release....

PORT EVERGLADES TO SET NEW WORLD RECORD

WITH 46,000+ PASSENGERS IN A SINGLE DAY, DEC. 23

Besting the world record it set three years ago, Port Everglades

expects more than 46,000 passengers to sail to and from the Port in a

single day on Dec. 23, 2006. That is enough cruise passengers to fill

one-hundred 747 jumbo jets and is equivalent to approximately

one-quarter of the population of Fort Lauderdale, FL, the main city in

Broward County where the port is located.

..cut..

The cruise ships that will be in port on Dec. 23 include: Carnival

Cruise Lines‚ Carnival Liberty, Costa Cruises‚ Costa Magica, Cunard

Line‚s QM2, Discovery Cruise Line‚s Discovery Sun, Holland America

Line‚s Volendam and Zuiderdam, Imperial Majesty Cruise Line‚s Regal

Empress, Princess Cruises‚ Sea Princess and Star Princess, Royal

Caribbean International‚s Enchantment of the Seas and Radiance of the

Seas, and Seabourn Cruise Line‚s Seabourn Pride. In addition,

SeaEscape Cruises‚ Island Adventure will sail in the evening on a

cruise to nowhere.

..........

Also I hope Pinkie did not get lost in that crowd...... :eek:

Disembarkation was the smoothest I have ever experienced. The vast majority of passengers had booked transfers with Seabourn. Those without pre-arranged transfers were allowed to leave anytime after the ship was cleared. We were supposed to be cleared at 8:30 but it ended up being about 8:50. We walked down the gangway shortly before 9:00 and had passed through customs and arrived at the airport by 9:20. Could have actually made the 10:00 flight to Atlanta (barely), but had no problems getting the 11:00. Megaships were everywhere. The QM2 was right next to us (pulled the curtains in the morning to see the leviathan 50 yards away:eek: ) and that was quite a contrast. More cabins on one deck than on the whole Pride! And so long it was hard to see the entire length from Deck 8. If you didn't want to wait for a taxi at the Seabourn terminal, you could walk 20 paces to the right and hop in the last taxi in the LONG cabbie queue waiting to get into the QM2 terminal. The cab driver was very helpful with our heavy luggage and it only cost $20 including a generous tip.

I will say from the Seabourn perspective Port Everglades really had it together (even though we arrived at the very last terminal from the entrance). There was a lot of activity, around the Seabourn terminal but it seemed to be organized chaos. It really helps being on a ship which can disembark its entire quota of passengers in 20 minutes! However, I overheard some gripes at the airport from people from other ships who said their disembarkation was a circus. That said, they made the 11:00 flight too.

A sidebar about "inspections:" I'm wondering if the US government received a "tip" about our sailing. Not only did we seem to be extra scrutinized in Port Everglades (saw over a dozen inspectors milling around for only 150 departing passengers), but many of the suites on Deck Six were "raided" during the Border Control check at St. Thomas (which was a breeze) last Wednesday morning, complete with sniffer dogs!

As we are sailing at this same time next year I was wondering if you could tell me if there were manychildren on board.

Hey johnnycruise, I'm glad you had a great time. Why would you think Seabourn would be under extra scrutiny? That sort of interested me. I'm glad, with all the zillions of people at the port, you came out of it okay!

Jane :)

The crowd this year was slightly younger than last. Probably 30 people under age 40 including one well-behaved youngster (4-5 years) and a couple of nice teenagers. There were no activities geared toward these passengers but they never appeared bored. I think they enjoyed having the undivided attention of their parents.

As earlier mentioned, the water sports were much more popular this year perhaps due to the lower median age. You had to put your name on a list and come back about 15 minutes later. Last year we walked up and down the beach soliciting people so there would be enough to take out the banana boat! Met a lot of people doing that.

The captain told us we were randomly picked for the "sniffer" search in St. Thomas. I didn't notice any "early departing passengers" when it was all done:D

With the large number of ships in port at Port Everglades I was surprised by the extra scrutiny there ... unless Border Control/Customs brought in extra manpower for the crush and ended up being overstaffed. We didn't have a passport check in Port Everglades because we got that out of the way in St. Thomas. We got a chuckle from the St. Thomas passport check bulletin - Proper Attire Required (i.e. no bathrobes). Really the searches were more of something to talk about at the Sky Bar than a major inconvenience (that comes from someone staying on Deck Four who wasn't disturbed).

johnny