jocko4279

they usually open bookings year and half before sail date. so around December/January you should be able find July 2008 sailing.

nice time traveling cruises! must be a real premium to pay on them ;) j/k I couldn't help myself

blecccch! horrible

why it's the FSS of course

86% I'm so ashamed!

I wish everyone would stop saying "meh" arrggghhh! :)

Great review.

 

Too bad about your Mojito chicken - we had it at late dining and it was great - you could really taste the lime and the mint. Was one of the best dishes we had.

 

And I agree - I really enjoy the American table menus.

Glad you had a good one & enjoyed it! maybe mine was last in line for seasoning :)

Agreed on the breakfast at BIC. I eat there every day. It is hard for me to eat anything else.

how true, besides the Seuss breakfast, I didn't go anywhere else for breakfast. good stuff, and pretty much no lines

We loved the Pride and plan to cruise on her in February 2017 providing we get another casino offer. We are trying the Magic for the first time in September 2016 hope we love it...the Breeze was fantastic and is the sister ship.

 

Cheers and happy cruising!

Same to you my friend!

Jerked pork loin & jambalaya

French onion soup

Steak & Eggs , Dr. Seuss brunch

Caesar salad

Stuffed mushrooms

Crab cake

Crab cake

The FOOD

Ok, I'm going to get very hungry writing this. Breakfast & lunch were awesome, I've always felt that way about all of my cruises. Maybe I'm just easy to please. I had breakfast burritos from BIC probably about 5 days, they are great. Also the heuvos rancheros is very good. We did the Dr. Seuss brunch the last sea day, I had the steak & eggs it is very good. Lunch time fare for me was usually Guy's (best darn burger ever) I had the chinese one day, it was very good, nice change up. Also shrimp burrito from BIC another winner.

Dinner to me was a huge area of improvement with the addition of American Table. I know that it's debatable among people as to whether it's better or not. In the past I felt that dinners were just OK with some hits, and more misses. With AT in my opinion you can find something that is good to great every night.

I can't recall each item I had but some hits at dinner were the Lobster, very tender and tasty, the Caribbean pepper steak (still dreaming about that one) and the jerked pork loin. Misses to me were the fish entrees. I had the sea bass and mahi-mahi, just dry-ish and no flavor really. Mojito chicken off of the Port-o-call menu one night was a big miss, just lacking any spice whatsoever.

The soups were very good as usual, that's one thing Carnival does extremely well. I do think their didja (or whatever they call it now) selections have suffered due to AT. I used to actually get a few of these things (alligator bites, etc). Now it's basically frog legs, snails & ox tongue....no thanks!

Desserts- hit & miss for the most part. CMC great as usual. the pie a la mode selections were fantastic. Blueberry was the big winner. I didn't try many other desserts.

Table clothes: I thought I wouldn't like not having them , possible messes. Honestly it had no effect either way.

Here are a few pics of the dinner items I snapped:

cream of mushroom soup

fried oysters

blackened pork tenderloin

spinach salad

my version of surf & turf Lobster & flat iron steak

tuna appetizer

I just booked the Pride for the third year in a row next summer. I agonized over it a bit (for about 18 hours). I was thinking I really wanted to try the Magic out of Orlando, different itinerary , different ship. But it really came down to the Pride is the perfect ship for us, not over the top crowded, within easy driving distance, nice enough amenities, food options. And I do love me some Grand Turk & HMC. I can see now why so many people do annual cruises on the Pride, she's tough to beat!

Towel Animal Day

Today was towel animal day up on lido as we arrived in Freeport. We were about to be invaded by about six hundred towel animals around the pool area. For the two stuffed animal freaks in my family it was almost like Christmas morning! My daughter actually set the alarm on her iPad and was up @ 6am with me. Here are some pics of the invasion force:

Freeport

Freeport , ah Freeport. The 7am-130pm stop on the cruise because logistically they couldn't figure out a way to make another port and return to Baltimore in 7 days time. And there's nothing "Free" about it, since basically all there is to do is shop in the surrounding village / port area, unless you book and early am excursion that are usualy 20-30 minutes away. Anyways....I awoke to some very interesting cloud formations this morning that made me think it was doomsday. And I must say I was not bothered in the least as I was on a cruise and could not think of a more fitting / happier end to my existence! :)

We arrived very early, so it was a great time to take some photos of the industrial port area in action with ships / coming in.

The lobster tails in the MDR are "okay" at best ... typically they are tough though. They are certainly NOT the highlight of my culinary experience on Carnival and I would not "rethink" a cruise based on not getting lobster. I say book the cruise and then plan on going to a nice lobster dinner AFTER your cruise ... will give you something to look forward to, in order to get rid of those post-cruise-blues :)

 

Cheers!

 

Jeff aka Recovery Dude

I wouldn't book or not book a cruise based on Lobster either, but my most recent cruise the lobster on formal night was outstanding, not tough at all

Half Moon Cay

Definitely always the highlight of this cruise! This time we rented a two story villa. It was amazing , and I must say one of the most relaxing days of my life. The villa comes equipped with it's own private bathroom. They also stock it with fresh fruit, chips & guacamole, drinks of your choice, mats for floating & snorkel gear. You pick out your villa when you board, just go to the shore excursions desk and select the villa letter and your choice of soft drinks. The only thing slightly negative I'd mention here is they had one person working the shore excursions desk & I waited in line about twenty minutes even though there were only about 3 people ahead of me. I'll let the pics do the rest of the reviewing of Half Moon Cay, they sum it all up!

We were next door to you in cabana 7 at Margaritaville. Would definitely do the cabana again, good location and it was nice having a place to store your stuff and to take a break from the heat.

Hey neighbor! Definitely agree with you. I'm already planning my next trip there :)

After some time at Jack's Shack we walked back and went to Margaritaville.

This was our first time there. We rented a poolside cabana. The cabana was a nice break if you needed to get out of the heat (air conditioned) and a place to store your things. It had a button on the inside to call for bar service. We mostly hung by the pool, it was a lot of fun swimming with the kiddos , doing laps of the pool and going under the bridges. It was a little raucous here by the main stage with twerking competitions and stuff, but if you stayed away from that area you could put it out of your head. My friend and I stayed behind after the family went back to the ship and were in the last line to get back on board. We had to try a margarita (since we were in Margaritaville!) I have to say it was a little disappointing , strong as heck, but not very tasty. Needless to say we struggled on our way back.

Cabana

pool

If you go to find Topher at Jack's Shack. Call him over. Once he comes to you start digging a hole in the sand, and he will gladly help you out. My buddy and I ordered some drinks from the shack, about $9 for a 16oz cup of whatever your choice of poison is. A little pricey, but good. It was very relaxing sitting at the bar area, and Janet is very nice to talk to. Some pics of our time there:

Topher

Here's a short video of me chasing a fish in Grand Turk

Grand Turk

This would be our 4th visit to Grand Turk. This time around we added some things that we had never done before (Jacks's Shack, Margaritaville) to mix things up a little. We got off the ship, and my wife stayed in the beach area nearest the ship. Me & the kids took the walk up the beach to Jack's Shack to find Topher the digging dog. If you've been to Grand Turk and you've never ventured past the beach closest to the ship, I highly suggest you do so. The beach further up is much nicer, no rocks in the water, and no seaweed. Just absolutely gorgeous clear water, a lot of room away from the crowds, and awesome views of the ship.

view from the ship

on the pier

Enjoying your review. We were on Pride last August, so your pictures are bringing back good memories.

Thanks! it's a great ship, already planning....scheming for my next one :)

First two sea days

Not much to report here! Just some excellent weather, nice and sunny with calm flat seas. We spent a lot of time at the pool, slides & splash park. The thing I did make note of was a lack of bar waiters roaming around...I mean like none :) I know back in the day the bordered on annoying, but it would've been nice to have one cruising past every 30 mins or so to grab some libation. I did make use of a collapsible cooler I had packed and freezer zip lock bags. I would fill the bags with ice from lido & the cooler with beer I had purchased through bon voyage, and be set on beverages for a good amount of time.

Check out my YouTube video of some Green Thunder action! We had it all to our selves one day.

You're fine. I just did this at HMC on our July 10th Pride cruise. I had a collapsible cooler in my checked luggage and filled it with beer I purchased through bon voyage, and ice from the ice machine on lido that I placed into freezer bags I brought along. Worked like a charm

Steakhouse first night

We decided early on before we sailed to try the steakhouse with....don't kill me...the kids ( I know this is controversial) ! They had the kids menu with selections priced at $10 for them. Chicken fingers, sliders & such. I figured this was the best night to try it with them since they are generally behaved at dinner and if we went early on the first night (7pm) there probably would not be that many people in there. Well I was right, it was not crowded at all, and the kiddos stayed pretty tame. We had a party of seven. The service was outstanding as usual. I had the tuna appetizer , lobster bisque & cowboy steak. Tuna & lobster were amazing. The steak was great, but I have to say I was a little disappointed in the fact that there were large portions of it that were inedible due to fat, and what felt like tendons when I tried to process them lol. Maybe it was the cut of meat, I don't know much about that sort of thing, next time I'll go with a different selection. We got the free bottle of wine, and when we squared up for the bill the waiter gave us a another free bottle to go...I thought that was a really nice gesture.