Another Pride Review from a Different Perspective

[cbpanda]

I have no plans to ever sail the Pride, but I'm still loving your review. Well, we'll be at HMC and Grand Turk next month, so that is definitely some great info we need. Thanks so much for the directions to find the shells at Grand Turk!

 

We will be on the Pride this upcoming weekend, but on the Bahamas itinerary (not the E.Caribbean). I love your pictures of the ship!

 

However, my mother and I are cruising on Princess in January and it includes a stop at Grand Turk. She will ABSOLUTELY love those shells. I'm not going to tell her, though, just take her for a walk down the beach and let her see for herself. Thanks for the great directions on how to find them!!!

[cbpanda]

Yes, all of the shells that we saw had at least one hole in them, but some were pretty small and I think the holes natural (we paid for a shell in Barbados with a whole in the same spot). I could be wrong though.

 

DH and I went on our honeymoon in St. Vincent (many moons ago), and while we were there, we took a sailboat around the Grenadine islands. The chef on the sailboat was making conch soup for dinner one evening and he had fished the conch shells right out of the water (talk about fresh :D). Anyway, he said the easiest way to get the conch out was to to make a hole in the shell in order to release the suction that held the conch in. Otherwise, he said you could freeze them and then its possible to pull the conch out without damaging the shell. When I indicated that I would love to have one of the shells he was discarding, he said that he would freeze a couple of them so he could give me one without a hole in it.

 

So, perhaps the holes are naturally made and it allows a way for the animal to get out or maybe they were extracted by fishermen who left the shells behind. :confused:

[TortieGal]

Me too. :)

I know we can't comment about poster's spelling and grammar mistakes, but I hope it's OK to say that it's so refreshing to see that our education system isn't a total failure. :D

This review is a wonderful read and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

 

OH and you have a beautiful family :)

 

ITA! Received an email from someone yesterday and there was not a single ounce of punctuation in the whole thing! :eek:

 

Enjoying the review though! I love Grand Turk. We were sent there after a pending hurricane cancelled one of our ports and I really enjoyed it. I'm a little tired of the Carnival itineraries but definitely have Half Moon Cay on my list!

[ChampionCruiser]

DH and I went on our honeymoon in St. Vincent (many moons ago), and while we were there, we took a sailboat around the Grenadine islands. The chef on the sailboat was making conch soup for dinner one evening and he had fished the conch shells right out of the water (talk about fresh :D). Anyway, he said the easiest way to get the conch out was to to make a hole in the shell in order to release the suction that held the conch in. Otherwise, he said you could freeze them and then its possible to pull the conch out without damaging the shell. When I indicated that I would love to have one of the shells he was discarding, he said that he would freeze a couple of them so he could give me one without a hole in it.

 

So, perhaps the holes are naturally made and it allows a way for the animal to get out or maybe they were extracted by fishermen who left the shells behind. :confused:

 

That's what I was thinking. Either for the conch to get out or something else to get in...

[ChampionCruiser]

Me too. :)

I know we can't comment about poster's spelling and grammar mistakes, but I hope it's OK to say that it's so refreshing to see that our education system isn't a total failure. :D

This review is a wonderful read and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

 

OH and you have a beautiful family :)

 

Thanks, Thanks, and Thanks :D

[ChampionCruiser]

Thanks a million more times everyone! I hope i'm doing this trip justice. If you have a question about the ship/ports i'll try to answer or add a picture. After all, I took over 800 pictures and can't post everything!

 

Moving on...

 

GRAND TURK CONT.

 

My sister and I really wanted to get to the tip of the island, so we kept walking even after we found our two keepers.

 

Rusty shells, anyone?

 

As we came to the end, we could see what looked like two sticks stuck in the ground.

 

 

They turned out to be conch trees :). They really were everywhere!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ChampionCruiser]

Eventually we got to the end and looked to see what was ahead. Unsurprisingly, it was a lot more beach.We saw more conchs but decided to take ours and head back towards the ship. We still had to meet our aunt and uncle and find four beach chairs before everyone came ashore. I would have liked to walk further, though!

 

 

 

It was okay, though. We had a long enough walk back as it was.

 

 

So we headed back. Our return trip down the beach wasn't quite as amazing since I was awkwardly hiding our shells in my towel, but we managed :). There still wasn't anybody walking towards this part of the island by the time we got back to the shopping complex and we didn't see many people go this way throughout the day. I think 95% of the passengers either head straight for Margaritaville or the beach right off the ship.

 

Here were our shells at the end of the day after being cleaned. We thought our little adventure was a success!

 

[ChampionCruiser]

After meeting up with everyone (finding empty chairs was a breeze), we decided to get our shopping done so we could spend the rest of the time swimming and whatnot. The shopping area is very nice and more importantly convenient. No bus or cab is needed as it is RIGHT in front of the ship. Kudos to Carnival for investing in this port!

 

 

 

There were (of course) your expected jewelry stores, as well as local vendors (seen above) and clothing stores, souvenir shops, an art gallery, etc. Oh, and it’s impossible to forget Margaritaville!!

 

 

We at least glanced in every shop but we were mostly interested in Margaritaville and Del Sol. I HAVE to get a Del Sol shirt every time I see a store, so I was glad to learn there was one in Grand Turk. Now I have a shirt from Jamaica, Key West, Cozumel, Charleston, Charlotte, and Grand Turk :). Besides that, we bought a few shirts from Margaritaville for our family and some other little insignificant things.

 

After we finished, we split up again. My sister and I wanted to dip in the enormous Margaritaville pool while they went to lounge. We swam for around ten minutes and then realized how ridiculous it was to be swimming in a pool when the Caribbean Sea is a few steps away. Off to the beach :D

 

Gotta love the squinted eye pictures!

 

[ChampionCruiser]

It was already about 10:00 by the time we were all ready to swim. We planned on boarding around 12:30, so the day was disappearing fast! The water was terrific and I thought it was really cool to swim so close to the ship (I don’t remember a port with a beach THIS close to the pier).

 

 

But be aware that the beaches at Grand Turk (at least on this part of the island) aren’t totally sandy. Instead, you’ll have to walk across some rocks to get to the smoother surface further out. Obviously, you’ll want to find a good place to get in, because some areas had no rocks while others were really slippery.

 

It made for a neat photo, though:

 

[ChampionCruiser]

After swimming for a while, my sister and I decided that we wanted to snorkel (we saw people snorkeling in the deeper parts near the ship). We went to the water sports rental shack (it had a different name) and each got a mask, snorkel, and jacket for $10.00 for the entire day. It seemed pretty cheap, so we weren’t too hopeful about seeing anything interesting. Well, we were wrong. No, the area right off the ship definitely isn’t like the snorkel excursions to amazing coral reefs, but we were still impressed. We saw tons of fish (some pretty large and some colorful), a large submerged cannon, some large shells, a sea star, and a black and white spotted eel. A man also gave us some bread to spread around and fish immediately surrounded us. It was really neat. We snorkeled for around an hour, which was long enough for me to get a really funny tan line in the shape of my life vest :cool:

 

After we finished, we turned in the equipment (they hold a card for a deposit) and spent the rest of our brief time in Grand Turk walking the beach and lounging/reading.

 

The beach to the right (coming off the pier) was almost empty the entire day. The shade made it a perfect place to read and relax.

 

 

[ChampionCruiser]

Here are a few more pictures of the beach:

 

 

 

 

[ChampionCruiser]

Unfortunately, my uncle’s watch and my stomach told us that it was time to get back to the ship. It was around 12:45 when we made our way back to avoid the long lines, which worked. We didn’t even stop on our way down the pier. Well, minus taking a few last second photos of Grand Turk :(

 

 

 

And the ship, of course!

 

[ChampionCruiser]

After stopping by the cabin to put away our shells and gifts, we all went to our usual lunch spot at the Mermaid’s Grill. This was the first time I had pizza, and it was really good but I preferred the other stations more. I’ve apparently changed a lot, because I ate pizza every day when I cruised on the Glory.

 

After lunch, we went to the front to watch us sail away (and take pictures). We didn't have any concrete plans until dinner, so we were just taking it easy.

 

Here you can see the larger beach and the pool at Margaritaville with the new cabanas. I would personally wait until HMC if you really wanted one, because private cabanas and Margaritaville don’t really mesh well together IMHO. Hopefully you can tell that there are PLENTY of lounge chairs at the beach. The port can acommodate two large ships on the same day, so it was really nice being the only ones in port!

 

 

 

One last shot of Grand Turk’s AMAZING water:

 

 

Waiting on the last people to come aboard (an excursion was late returning):

 

So after a short delay...we’re off again! I would have liked a few extra hours in port now more than ever. I guess I’ll just have to come back one day because I really enjoyed my brief stop in GT.

 

 

Goodbye for now!

 

 

 

 

 

[ChampionCruiser]

After we set sail we basically had three hours to do as we please. For two of us (guess which) this meant nap time, but not for me :)

 

First, my sister and I went down to deck 2 of the atrium for our first bean bag toss ever (at this point I was still hopeful about winning a ship on a stick). It was a lot of fun and we were surprised by the number of teams that showed up. Our team name was The Champions, so naturally the staff member said we were really cocky (we told him it was our last name!). Needless to say, we agreed to brainstorm for a new name in case we did it again…

 

Anyway, we made it to the finals but still couldn’t claim the top spot :( I guess first place just wasn’t for us. (Don’t worry; we were able to recover since the prizes were the silly medals again).

 

After another defeat, we went up to the lido deck and swam and read. We soon noticed that the twister slide was open, so we agreed to try it once. We never tried it on the Glory because the line was always atrociously long but that was never a problem on the Pride.

 

So this was my first time going down a waterslide at sea and it was great! After three or four trips down we stopped for the day and finished lounging before heading back to the cabin to wake up my aunt and uncle and to get ready for dinner.

 

The slide really made me want to try those on the Fantasy/Dream class ships or the NCL Epic!

 

[ChampionCruiser]

Okay, i'm so close to finishing Day 4 but I can't make myself do it :o

 

I'll try to post in the morning before work, but if not I should still be able to get a lot of HMC out of the way tomorrow.

 

To be Continued....

[akers123]

Great review. Best I have seen yet of Grand Turk. I will be on the same itinerary very soon (July 18th). I was most excited about Grand Turk but like you said; getting up and off the ship at 7am sounds CRAZY. I wanted to swim and drink at the bar but thats a bit early for me. :)

 

Thanks again and I can't wait for the other ports!!

[valancy1]

Wow this whole detailed review thing takes longer than I thought!! But it's worth it since I get to relive my cruise :)

 

Here I go again...

 

SUNDAY, JUNE 20: BALTIMORE

 

We slept in as long as we possibly could Sunday morning before excitement overtook us and we had to get out of bed. Our planned “leisurely” morning turned out to be a sprint to get to the ship ASAP! We ended up leaving the hotel around 10:00 and stopped only for breakfast at McDonalds. After that, we were on the road again, but for a quick hour long ride this time (we were glad we drove nearly the whole way on Friday). We were worried about finding the ship in Baltimore (even though I go to school in New Orleans, we are definitely NOT city people – we like two lane roads with only a few cars!) but it was extremely easy. Just get on I-95 and follow the cruise terminal signs to exit 55.

 

Though we all had our eyes peeled, it was my sister who had the honor of spotting the whale tail first:

 

 

And this is where we really began to get excited! A few minutes and $115.00 later we were parked and ready to board our home for the next seven days.

 

 

Oh I *love* that feeling! Cannot wait for the rest of your review--we are considering Pride for our next cruise--gotta try one of those Vista Suites, methinks.

 

As an aside--should you go to DC again for site-seeing, my recommendation is one of those blue buses. You pay a one-time fee and can hop on and hop off at any location and be gone as long as you'd like. It is the way to see a lot of sites and save your feet.

 

Thanks for sharing this review--I can tell already I'm going to enjoy it!

[cbpanda]

As an aside--should you go to DC again for site-seeing, my recommendation is one of those blue buses. You pay a one-time fee and can hop on and hop off at any location and be gone as long as you'd like. It is the way to see a lot of sites and save your feet.

 

 

I agree. I work in the city and see the Tourmobile (the blue buses) all over. We also have Old Town Trolley and the HopOn/HopOff double decker buses that also provide all day tickets and designated sightseeing stops. Tourmobile, I believe is the only bus, however, that goes to Arlington Cemetary (if you're interested in that). It does save a lot of walking and the stops are convenient to almost all the sights! Very good recommendation!!

[ChampionCruiser]

Oh I *love* that feeling! Cannot wait for the rest of your review--we are considering Pride for our next cruise--gotta try one of those Vista Suites, methinks.

 

As an aside--should you go to DC again for site-seeing, my recommendation is one of those blue buses. You pay a one-time fee and can hop on and hop off at any location and be gone as long as you'd like. It is the way to see a lot of sites and save your feet.

 

Thanks for sharing this review--I can tell already I'm going to enjoy it!

 

Thanks for the advice! We really didn't plan that much for our one day in DC, but if I go back (and I hope I do!) i'll keep that in mind, especially if it's another summer trip!

[ChampionCruiser]

With Carnival’s new (more) casual dress code, getting ready for dinner wasn’t really a hastle (at least for me). I know some people don’t like it, but I wore nice shorts and a collared shirt in the dining room every non-elegant night simply because it was comfortable and convenient. I was by no means out of place, for sure.

 

Dinner this night was (predictably) very good with one of my favorite menus. I had the very kid-friendly fried mozzarella (yum!), the farfalle with roast turkey (delicious), and the bitter and blanc for dessert (one of my favorites…EVER).

 

After dinner we fell into our nightly regime. We walked on deck, played cards, and went to the show.

 

 

Tonight’s show was the second production show, Jazzin’, and it was very, well, meh. It was far and away the worst of the three main shows IMHO but the fact that I’m not really into jazz music probably had a huge influence. I still wouldn’t have missed it, though.

 

One disappointment of the day was that none of us made it to the deck party that night, which we heard was a highlight of the cruise. Waking up at 6:00 really took its toll on us and when the show ended we couldn’t think of anything else but the Carnival comfort beds waiting for us in our stateroom. Maybe next time, I guess.

 

Here’s the cute little friend we found in our stateroom (I think I was impressed):

 

 

Well, that ends day four of my cruise (so sad!).

 

 

 

 

[ChampionCruiser]

Before I go on, i'll add a litte aside. While I truly love RCCL and Carnival equally, I will say that Carnival beats Royal HANDS DOWN with at least one thing: the towel animals! After going through my pictures from two years ago on the Mariner, I realized that there really is no comparisson.

 

Take the adorable monkey from above, for example...

 

 

...and then compare it to this monkey-like thing from Royal (at least I think it's a monkey):

 

 

I see a clear winner :D:D

[ChampionCruiser]

Happy Friday Everyone!

 

Wow it took me a long time to find my thread :p. Sorry for being lazy last night; this week has been rough. But now it’s the weekend! I’ve already uploaded all of the Half Moon Cay pictures, so we’ll see how much I get done tonight.

 

Picking up where I left off…

 

THURSDAY, JUNE 24: HALF MOON CAY

 

Finally, it was time for HMC! We were all really excited for this beach day and I had high expectations after loving Castaway Cay and especially Labadee. I really wanted to see if all you CC people were exaggerating about its total awesomeness.

 

I can tell you now: you weren't!

 

After our fun 6:00 wakeup the day before, we all were wild and crazy and slept till…7:30! Though you can’t get off until 9:00, they start handing out tender tickets at 8:15, and we wanted to be there ASAP. This was new to us, as our tendering experience in the past has always been a free for all. We got ready and ate our traditional breakfast in the Mermaid’s Grill before going back to the cabin to get our things. We ended up taking our time, which in hindsight was a mistake. I don’t know what time people start lining up to get their tickets, but we came around 8:30 and were given zone 8. The staff was strict about ALL members of your party being present, so you’re supposed to be ready to leave the ship when you get your tickets.

 

Once everyone has a ticket, you wait in a public area until your zone is called. We chose the card room since it was near the stairwell that led to deck A (where the tendering platform is located). We played cards and Sudoku until we were finally called (we were on the fifth or sixth tender), which helped the time pass. Still, it was a long wait (over an hour from the time we got the tickets) so be prepared or line up early.

 

One way to avoid this is to book an excursion that meets before 12:00. In that case, you'll wait in the Taj Mahal and tender early.

 

Good Morning Half Moon Cay!

 

 

View from the balcony:

 

 

 

Here's one of the tenders. I’m still amazed by how many people they can cram onto these things!

 

As you can see, everyone leaves the tender at the same place (at the front), so don't worry about getting a seat on the top or bottom. Getting onto the island is going to be like a herd of cattle going through a fence either way.

 

 

[ChampionCruiser]

When zone 8 was called (along with 5, 6, and 7), we went to the forward staircase and made our way down into the great bottleneck. I’m always entertained by the people who shove and push to get in front of you when everyone is going to the same tender. Again, patience might be needed.

 

Eventually, way too many people will pile onto the tender:

 

 

 

And you’ll be on your way to the most amazing island ever!

 

 

On the way, you might (if you’re like me) take way too many pictures of “your” ship in the hope of getting one decent shot that’s not crooked, blurry, etc. You might also (if you’re like me) make people angry by standing in their way to get a picture without anybody in it.

 

Oh well, I still think it’s worth it!

 

 

 

 

[ChampionCruiser]

After a short and painless ride, you’ll arrive at the tendering spot, which seems to have been cut out of a lot of rock. I could already tell that I would love HMC. It doesn’t have mountains like Labadee, but everything else from the water (bluer and not rocky) to the sand (whiter) just seemed prettier. And I was still on the tender!

 

 

 

 

The first thing you see when you step onto the island is the fort, behind which are the small shopping area and bar. There are a few local vendors that take cash only as well as a larger souvenir shop that accepts your sail n sign card and a tiny post office. Of course, I had no interest in any of these things yet and we went straight for the beach :).

 

Yay for more squinting! I really need to wear sunglasses...

 

 

Once we started walking I knew everyone was indeed telling the truth. The sand is the smoothest I’ve ever felt and the water is ridiculously clear. I come from a very “beachy” family, so I was in heaven. I wish I brought some sand back home…

 

[ChampionCruiser]

We all wanted to find a quiet spot, so we walked fairly far (near the last cabana) and found a nice shady spot with a hammock. From this point on, we had the best beach day ever. If you don’t like lying out or swimming you might be disappointed in HMC. Yes, there are excursions, but that’s not what makes the island so amazing.

 

After putting our stuff down, we all walked a bit further but soon my sister and I turned back because the water was calling us! My uncle ended up walking the entire beach (which is very long) and was pretty tired afterward!

 

The rest of us had a much more relaxing day. My sister and I have NEVER swam so much at any port on any cruise. With no waves and clear water, it felt like we were swimming in a really amazing pool. I think this should give you the idea:

 

 

We did eventually leave the water to walk the beach, buy more souvenirs from the shops, and eat, but we did so grudgingly.

 

Like other private islands, HMC has a large island “barbeque” for lunch (being from NC, I’m always disappointed when a barbeque has no barbeque, but that’s a different matter…). There was a lot of food to choose from and the process was very orderly. I remember that there was a ton of fruit, pasta salad, couscous, hamburgers, hot dogs, jerked chicken, and of course dessert. There was a lot more than that, as well.

 

Unfortunately, even with the variety, none of us really loved our lunch. One major annoyance was the fact that the cups are TINY, just like the thin paper cups found in the waiting rooms of my dentist’s office. Obviously, one needs more to drink on a hot Bahamian day, so I ended up getting three or four refills. As for the food, most of it was decent cafeteria-style food, but my hamburger was black (it crunched) and my aunt’s was too pink. This didn’t ruin the day AT ALL, but it did make me appreciate the buffet on board for the rest of the week.

 

Oh, and our only drop of rain during the week came here. It rained (hard at times) for less than half an hour before clearing up into a beautiful afternoon.

 

After eating and shopping, we spent the rest of our time on the beach (again) before sadly leaving to head back to the ship.

 

But before I talk about that, I’ll post some pictures taken throughout the day!