ScratchTheRat

10 hours ago, candydane said:

Why is it your favorite?  We haven’t been on a ship with that bar yet so just curious what will make it special.

I like drinks that are a bit unique and have a flavour to them.

I don't drink beer and I'm bored of the normal cocktails, your woo-woo, your manhattan, your martini etc. Good Spirits at Sea have unique cocktails designed specifically for this bar and each is made by an expert mixologist and they make it a show as well showing you how they make it and how it was designed. 

At the end you get a collectable card to take home showing you how to make it yourself.

First post of the review will be up later today 🙂 Thanks for the patience.

5 hours ago, cruises42 said:

Was there a big line to get off when you left the ship? We're trying to schedule transportation and want to know what time we need to start getting off the ship if pickup is 8.

There was, but it went down fast. In fact, the biggest line we saw was actually the amount of B2B cruisers lined up to go into the lounge haha

6 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Did not know that. When did the price go up? I Just paid $39.00pp two weeks ago for my up coming cruise on the Liberty. Glad to hear it was a great meal. Must be doing the same as the 555. At $42.00 still worth it.

It went up for all bookings from new bookings only in May (all existing bookings retained old price)

6 hours ago, backbiter said:

Looking forward to reading it. We chatted to you in the Piano bar near the end of your cruise. My wife and I were the couple from near Cardiff.

We had a great time on the cruise, and loved the itinerary. We really liked the Pride, and the staff were all excellent. The guests were all exceptionally friendly, so there was a great atmosphere on board.

Like everyone, we were pretty startled by having to vacate our cabin by 6.15, but my wife helpfully left her phone on Norwegian time, so we got up at 5am UK time, and were outside the Normandie restaurant by 5.30 wondering why it wasn't yet open.

We didn't disembark until after 8, and the process was very smooth. The only issue was our car-parking service buses could barely cope with the numbers waiting for the shuttle bus, and we had to wait for well over half-an-hour. At least it wasn't raining, though. 

I remember our chat! Was lovely and nice to see such a happy couple! 🙂

I'm an early riser so Im always up before 6 anyway hah!

7 hours ago, prmssk said:

Good Spirits drinks this week are still $12 on the Caribbean Princess.  Last night QR codes starting updating with price increases for wine (although they don't appear to be charging those prices yet - it seems to be getting ready for Saturday).  Unfortunately, the Good Spirits menu actually doesn't list the price so the QR code still points to the old menu (which includes a lot of drinks they haven't offered in many months).  I'll try to see what I can find out.

 

The terms and conditions for both drink packages clearly state that you still just pay the difference.  If they were going to change that, the time to do it would have been with the introduction of the new drink package.

Thanks so much! It's our favourite bar!

7 hours ago, kelkel2 said:

Carnival does lunch venues really well. Guy’s Burgers are excellent (and free) with hand cut fries. They also have Blue Iguana which is like a chipotle style (watch them make your burrito/taco) and they’re really good. They even serve breakfast burritos and there’s a salsa bar (also free) 24 hr ice cream too.

As far as entertainment goes they don’t pre-book any of the shows so if it’s something like comedy there could potentially be people lined up to get in. But even with the line it’s usually possible to get a seat if you don’t line up. 
Carnival also offers a drink package that I personally think is reasonably priced. Covers milkshakes, bottled drinks, soda, energy drinks, specialty coffee, and alcohol (they cap alcohol at 15 a day for safety) but the other drinks are unlimited. So for sure check into that if you’re a drinker. We’re not heavy drinkers but would for sure do better than break even especially with the coffee included.

Depending on the rate you booked and the cabin category, if your cabin category isn’t sold out and you see a price drop they’ll match it for on board credit. 
I also agree with the suggestion for a meal in the steakhouse. If you go the first night you get a complementary bottle of wine to take with you or consume during dinner. 
We really do enjoy carnival and I hope you do too. Come back with more questions as you have them and we’ll try to answer them! I just threw in some info that I would want if I were a newbie.

Be aware the hand cut fries are currently not available 😞

12 hours ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Highly recommended by most every one. Farenheit555 steak house. If you book it the first day you get a free bottle of wine red or white or 50% off of your choice of wine. The food is awesome. Only $39.00 per person including the gratuity. Well worth it.

Pride doesn't have a Fahrenheit 555, it has an unbranded Steakhouse named "David's" after the statue and the price is now $42 per person.

It was excellent last week though, best cruise meal in years!

I just want the menu price XD

6 minutes ago, cruzin4us said:

I just got off the Ruby, and all drinks were at $12 or less.....but it sounds (according to bar tender, so take that as you will) the prices of these drinks will be going up.   It's "ok" if they go up $1-2 because I'd just pay the difference.  If they go up to $18, then I'll just go bar hopping everywhere else like I used to 🙂

Good spirits at sea is where we do all our drinking so hope it’s still included 😞

I’m already booked and have the drinks package included thanks to my Travel Agent. We did Princess Plus last year and this bar was included but with the addition of the Premier package which we definitely don’t need, I was wondering if the pricing of the drinks would be different.

can you confirm the cost of the drinks at Good Spirits? Are they $12 or under and still on the plus package?

6 hours ago, Amyracecar said:

Does anyone know what the usual time is to be out of the cabin for Pride sailings other than Dover? We're going to/from Civitaveccia. 

It will be port specific but I've sailed Civitavecchia a few times and if I recall, it was vacate by 8am, latest off ship 9:30ish

Anyone on Princess now able to share the prices of the Good Spirits at Sea bar menu? Their cocktails are amazing and I wanna see which package I'd need.

9 hours ago, showingdiva said:

Thanks for the photo memories.  I, too, was on this cruise and also loved every minute.   Your afternoon tea photo contains my absolute favourite MSC dessert .. the raspberry panna cotta in the black tea cup.   Wouldn't expect any less on an Italian ship.   

 

 

Oh it was delicious yeah, my only issue with the afternoon tea on MSC was the way it was served at a buffet rather than to your table as I felt it was less an Afternoon Tea and more of a "tea time" themed buffet,

Not a big issue though as the scones were beautiful 😄

9 hours ago, debsjc said:

Thanks for all the great information. Are masks mandatory anywhere on board now? 

 

I am still in shock at being out of cabins by 6.30am, that's really strange. 

Yes, it's a Dover requirement for transportation reasons. As Dover is mainly used for ferries and not cruise ships, they require the taxis etc to be serving their ferry customers too so ask cruises to disembark before 9am.

9 hours ago, debsjc said:

You had to be out of your rooms by 6.15am?  We are on the Pride in a couple of weeks, and that is shocking! Never been asked to be out the cabin before 8am before

Yes, it's a Dover requirement for transportation reasons. As Dover is mainly used for ferries and not cruise ships, they require the taxis etc to be serving their ferry customers too so ask cruises to disembark before 9am.

My first blog post here will be up tomorrow, I was straight back to work the day after the cruise so have had a lot of catching up to do!

DAY THREE: CHERBOURG, FRANCE

We arrived into Cherbourg at 12pm, a much later arrival than we were used to for a port and we knew sadly that no shops in Cherbourg opened on a Sunday, so with no excursions planned or any real desire to venture out, we chose to just have a casual explore of the town and see what it had to offer.

As we arrived in the afternoon, we took the opportunity to enjoy a lovely Main Dining Room Lunch while we waited for the lines for disembarkation to slow. The menu was rather good!

For starters, we ordered the Marinated Braesaola and the Country Salad.

For Main Course (Entree) we ordered the Hunter's Chicken (with no rice!) and the Seafood option. Both arrived at the right temperature and packed with flavour! Anyone who says MSC does bad food is clearly just not used to Mediterranean food as we had some amazing food this cruise.

We also had the Apple Crumble Pie and a Sundae for dessert. Why not? 😄

After lunch, we headed to the Promenade to disembark the ship with just a backpack with our camera equipment and a goal to find an open french bakery!

The port of Cherbourg was absolutely beautiful and we loved just seeing the sights and enjoying the beauty of the town.

On our walks beyond the port, we found a lovely public garden with a public greenhouse to visit and see some of the lovely plants nearby, the weather was beautiful and really made us feel welcome and excited to be in such a magnificent location.

We FINALLY found the local bakery and WOW what a selection! I was very proud of myself for ordering our cakes and drinks in fluent French (which was a bit rusty from my school days) but went super well and god the cake was delightful!

Soon enough, it was time to head back to the ship for a final dinner before we headed full steam ahead back to Southampton. This was the first ever cruise we'd been on with ZERO sea days and though it felt busy, we loved every second.

When back onboard the buffet was offering Afternoon Tea! Don't mind if we do!

We had a lovely meal in the MDR for dinner but I forgot to take pictures as we were SO tired!

Before we knew it was time for bed and back to Southampton. 

Tune in for the final post on my final thoughts and review!

On 6/20/2022 at 2:40 AM, cruises42 said:

What time did they make you get off the ship today?

We had to be out of our rooms by 06:15 and then there were three options:

1. Self Assist which was between 5am-7:30am

2. Early Disembarking: 07:30-08:00

3. Late Disembarking: 08:00-08:30

We left our room at 6am, went to Lido for a coffee and a "goodbye" to the ship, then checked in on the app for MDR breakfast at 7, left the ship at 8am 🙂

Embarkation was incredibly easy! We arrived to Dover Port at 10am and were onboard at Guy's Burgers at 10:45!!!! Never had such a quick embarkation in my life. VeriFly helped massively as no documents needed to be checked except passports then BOOM, straight onto the ship!

Disembarkation just as quick. We chose late debarkation and left the ship at 8am after a lovely main dining room breakfast. We got to our car at 09:00 and were home later that day 🙂

On 6/11/2022 at 8:10 AM, SeaSwirl66 said:

 

Great write up! Will you be posting a video on your YouTube of this trip?

 

Were the tapas in the sky lounge included/free?

Yes full video tours, daily vlogs and such are in editing and will be online in the coming weeks 🙂

Tapas stuff was indeed free and delicious.

Sorry for the delay! What was supposed to be "LIVE" will in fact now be a review. I will post reports of each day as we go, starting tomorrow! 

I didn't end up getting the wi-fi package and so I just took a LOT of notes and content for YouTube! 🙂

UPDATE TWO: 24 Hours before Embarkation.

We got our negative test certificates and headed to IKEA for Meatballs for lunch! Now just had a lovely bubble bath and going to be heading out in an hour to drive to our first stop, a big shopping mall in Bristol called Cribbs Causeway where we will do some shopping and have dinner!

UPDATE ONE - 48 Hours til Embarkation.

The car is packed (Between 3 of us (all males 25-40) we have 2 large suitcases, 2 carryon cabin cases and a backpack. This is way more than we would take on a normal cruise but as Carnival has 2 elegant nights, this means more shirts, trousers, smarter shoes, suit jackets etc!

As one of us still needs to work tomorrow, we're leaving halfway through the day. We're due to get our COVID tests at DAM Health, a small clinic that do LFT's and then upload your results and certificates to an app on your phone within 2 hours. We got the results within 30 minutes last year so happy to use them again!

After our COVID tests tomorrow, we are going to IKEA for a Scandinavian lunch (I know, I know, IKEA is Swedish not Norwegian but it's close enough!) of Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy with Lingonberry Jam and of course Almond cake! This is not high cuisine but it's a taste of where we're headed and I don't want to wash any dishes before we go!

I'll be back tomorrow to update you on the day and how things go as we head off on the first leg of the trip. I am so excited that it's finally here!

DAY TWO: ROTTERDAM

This morning we woke up bright and early (albeit a little hungover) and headed to the Main Dining Room for breakfast as didn't fancy the buffet rush. We were too tired to get pictures of breakfast but we had a Create Your Own Omelette, some muesli, pastries and coffee of course!

Once we were done with breakfast we headed back to the cabin to grab our port day backpack and headed to deck 6 where the gangway allowed us off into the Rotterdam cruise terminal.

We had been to Rotterdam for an overnight port visit in December on P&O Iona so took the chance today to do a leisurely walk and explore rather than an excursion or specific goal in mind. So we set off in the direction of the Erasmus bridge and the City Centre, with one goal on my mind...the MARKTHALL!

For those who have not visited Rotterdam before, the whole city is incredibly walkable and for things further afield (such as the Zoo, or even other cities such as Amsterdam) there is a metro system that is easy to navigate and low cost. You can use this to get from the cruise terminal to Rotterdam Centraal station for onward trains to Amsterdam Centraal.

I've always loved how Rotterdam has this kind of Industrial Chic feel to it, the city feels alive with art and nature and I just love walking it.

We headed into the City Centre and walked around the shops before heading to the famous Markthall which is my favourite place in Rotterdam!

Our first stop was a cute chocolate shop and cafe called CHCO where we indulged in a Hot Chocolate and a Cannoli!

At the Markthall, we stopped for some snacks, such as a Stroopwaffle and a Corn dog made with squid ink! Then after we were done, we decided to head back to the ship early to make use of the empty ship while others would be out and about.

We headed to the Masters of the Sea British Pub onboard to try one of their "Beertails" but we found that they weren't to our taste, still, we ticked it off our to-do list!

We then went to one of our two favourite bars onboard. L'Atelier d'arts. I had a glass of Red Wine and Hue had a latte as he was feeling a bit sleepy!

Soon enough it was time for dinner in the Main Dining Room and tonights Menu was specifically a Mediterranean Theme.

We ordered the TAPAS to share for a starter, followed by the Seafood Mixed Grill for Hue and the Hunter's Chicken for me. Dessert we shared the Tiramisu, the Baklava and the Pineapple and Coconut.

All in all, a very tasty dinner! 

After food, we headed to the Sky Lounge and had more drinks looking out at the main pool deck, watching the sun fade and the stars appear as we tried some of the tapas style snacks/canapes.

Bed awaited us! Tomorrow we would be arriving into Cherbourg in Normandy France, a port neither of us had been to before so we were looking forward to this.