Carnival Pride April 7th-14th 2013 Bahamas

[SugarStar00]

More Food pics:

 

Seafood pasta

 

 

Half eaten braised short ribs (we forgot sometimes to take pics)

 

 

my sad whipped cream and waffles

 

 

french toast and corned beef hash

 

 

Diet coconut cake- one of my FAVS

 

 

omelette and corned beef hash

 

[SugarStar00]

oysters rockafeller

 

 

chili chicken tender app

 

 

shrimp cocktail

 

 

Red Snapper that was mentally hard to eat because of the skin on it

 

 

Braised Beef I think:

 

Amaretto Cake

[sparks1093]

Crud, I have gained 5 pounds just looking at your pictures:(:eek:;). (No, you won't get in trouble for too many pictures, not from us anyway:).)

[SugarStar00]

escargot:

 

 

Beef Berninase?

 

 

Sea Bass?

 

 

Baked Alaska, the weirdest dessert on the planet

 

 

Hazelnut or Espresso cake I think:

 

 

 

Mac n cheese

[SugarStar00]

one more page of food pics

 

fruit platter on brunch days

 

 

Brunch Steak and Eggs

 

 

Brunch Breakfast chicken and Egg Quesadilla

 

 

Brunch Cheesecake Dessert!!

 

 

Sorry thought these were more legible...maybe you can get the idea

 

 

Edited April 30, 2013 by SugarStar00

[SugarStar00]

The Cheers! Program:

One of the things we were looking forward to on this sailing was trying out the Cheers! program. For those of you who don’t know yet, it’s a drink program for $42.95 per day plus 15% gratuity you can have up to 15 alcoholic drinks per day, unlimited soda, and non-alcoholic frozen cocktails. The “spirited” drinks must be priced at $10 or under to be included, otherwise you get $25 off the drink price. Bottled water and wine are also 25% off. Specialty coffees are NOT included. As I said previously, I had a “spiked” coffee from the coffee bar, I was able to use Cheers for the alcohol portion ($5.25) and just had to pay the $1.50 for the “coffee” portion of the drink. Now the question I see on the boards: Is it worth it? For us mathematically, it was, but we had to work at it. Last year, we checked our final bill and we had each spent about $350 on alcohol. The Cheers program costs exactly $345.75 per person. Last year we only had one day at sea and were off the ship almost everyday. This year we had 3 at sea days so we thought for sure we’d be drinking more on the ship and it seemed like a no brainer. The problem which was evident very early on was bar staff had been cut back significantly since our last cruise, either that or this ship has always lacked in that area. Just as we had trouble in the MDR getting drinks, we had trouble everywhere. It was rare to see a bar waiter on the lido or sun deck, where usually they are coming by every minute to offer you a drink. We usually had to go find our own drinks and there was only two bars open, the lido bar which was usually busy or the serenity bar which was also usually quite busy and a bit of a walk from where I usually sit on the sun deck. Also in the main show lounge, in the past no matter where we sat, up high or down low, there were swarms of bar waiters taking orders. We went to a show almost every night and noticed one night, no waitstaff in the upper section and most other nights only ONE waiter for the entire second level of the main show lounge. Usually I’d have a drink or two during these shows, but if I even got one the whole week I was lucky. So we learned to plan ahead and bring a drink in, but if you finished it and the waiter had already gone past you, he wasn’t coming back. At one point we were sitting in the Serenity area (first time ever) in the evening, and it was about 5:00-5:30pm, I went up to the bar and the girl pulled the gate down over the liquor and said she was closed. Of course no waiters to be found, so I had to borrow two towels from the towel hut to “save” our papsan chair we were in so we could hike though the buffet area fighting the dinner crowd to get to the other side to the lido bar to get a drink. Huge change from previous experience and very frustrating considering we already paid for our drinks and we started to feel like their attitude was “well we already have your money so goodluck!”. I would do the program again if I knew that the service would be more readily available. It could be cutbacks fleetwide or maybe just the Pride isn’t staffed like other ships because it seems to be more of a family crowd? So to break it down, DB and I kept our drink slips (you still have to sign a slip for each drink) and it each slip shows the price of the drink. The drinks show up on your folio bill but it does not list the prices there, so if you are trying to do the math, make sure you keep your slips. It turned out we were missing about 10 slips between the two of us so my totals are a bit lower than they should be. My drinks added up to exactly $350 and DB’s added up to $445, for a total of $795. The cost for two cheers programs is $690. If you add in the missing drink slips you can add about $60 to that total, so we saved about $160. Worth it yes, but barely and Carnival sure didn’t make it easy!

miami vice

 

 

Lemon Drop Martini and Raspberry Mojito

 

 

 

 

 

Morning Cranberry Mimosas

 

 

 

 

This was the hardest beer to get, and they didnt even offer us a glass!!!

 

 

[WetToes]

Loving your review. Thanks! The food. The food. It all looks so good.

We'll be boarding her ... again, Sunday. :)

 

BTW - The two bridges are the n/s spans of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

[SugarStar00]

Entertainment/ Activities:

Another thing I was looking forward to on this sailing was spending more time enjoying some of the things offered on the ship. With 3 days at sea I figured I could get this done. The weather turned out to be nicer than I thought the first two days at sea so I spent a lot of time planted in my lounge chair in the sun, this limited what I did during the day. We tried afternoon tea the first day which was a neat little thing. You go to the MDR and they sit you down with some other peoplel. We sat with a couple much younger than us who had just gotten married. They offer you a selection of teas and then come around with a little dessert cart and you pick what you want off of the cart. My favorite thing was the chocolate macaroons. DE-lish. I didn’t take a picture because I was embarrassed in front of our tea friends. The cart came around a second time and I got two more. We stayed for about a half hour then went on our way. I was pretty happy to finally have time to do that.

The first day at sea they advertised a slot tournament in the casino, and on every other cruise they do it again at the end of the week, so we skipped it the first day cause the sun felt so good. Sure enough the last sea day, it was posted in the fun times. We went down to sign up and were so disappointed to find that it was a continuation of the tournament from the first day, so only the winners from that day were allowed to play. I was really upset about this and I let it ruin my afternoon which I shouldn’t have.

I decided to play bingo on the last day in the butterflies lounge. It was advertised for 3:00pm, we thought that was “play” time but it was apparently the time they start selling cards. There were two huge lines and it took about 30min for everyone to get their cards, we started playing around 3:45. Not a huge deal but if you’re trying to do other things, this is good to know, they should tell you this. There was a raffle as part of this bingo session and they said if you have any questions come up to the front. Everyone seemed to have the same question so they came on the speaker and answered the question for everyone. My question was different so I went up front with my ticket in hand, the kid barely looked at me and started repeating the answer to the question everyone else was asking, and didn’t even give me a chance to ask anything. Then the other guy came over and started doing the same thing! I finally had to raise my voice and say “THAT IS NOT WHAT MY QUESTION IS!” The kids running the bingo that day seemed extremely rude. I’m guessing they did most other activities too, but nothing I participated in. rude rude rude.

Another disappointing thing was the lack of music on the lido/ sun deck. The cover remained over the main lido pool for the first two days at sea, even though the weather was nice the second day, they can’t open it while the ship is moving. A bit of a bummer. It was very crowded and hot and stuffy in there the second day, and all the activities are crammed into this small enclosed area. As I said before the seating in that area is VERY limited and its full of kids running around like maniacs playing in the pool. I usually sit up one deck and look down at the pool, and enjoy the music or whatever activity is going on. Since it was covered I heard nothing. No music, no activities, nothing. Yes, some would call it peaceful, but eventually I felt left out, and sad. I guess that’s just the nature of the ship, with the time of year for the pool to be covered. I do wish they had some music playing at the other pool for the rest of us who can’t fit into the covered pool area. Although it seems we didn’t miss much for music anyway though, as you’ve probably read, no more bands, just a DJ with his laptop running down the list of top 20 MP3’s. Even the deck party was a dud. It was down inside the now half uncovered pool, but no fancy lights or decorations, no sign or the cruise director or activities people engaging the crowd, just a DJ playing music from his lap top and a congregation of people sitting at tables.

We checked out the piano bar one night before the comedy show and it was HOPPING! We should have stayed there because as it turned out there was no seating in the comedy show and we had to leave. A drink got spilled on us while looking for seats, and we ended up calling it a night. We wanted to back to the piano bar but never found the time. We also visited the dance club one night for a few minutes, it was two levels and the seats were pretty full, but only a few people on the floor. I think we were early and the party was just getting started. The comedy club was fun, it fills up pretty fast and a lot of people just stay there for the night for all the late shows, it can be hard to find a seat so get there early! We enjoyed all the comics.

The shows in the main lounge.were decent. The welcome aboard show had the same intro I’ve seeon the other ships, but then Kirk the cruise director takes over and chats with the audience and pulls people on stage and embarrasses them. This is why we sit up top, but even sometimes they come up there. We also attended the “Wonderful World” show which is a collection of dancing and costumes from different cultures/countries. It was actually really good! I preferred the faster dancing, some was a little slow. There was also some singing mixed in and we thought it was pretty good and were happy we made time to go. They had a juggler there also, I think we’ve seen him before but not sure. He’s listed as “physical comedy” in the fun times. He also pulled people out of the audience, so we were a bit uneasy the whole time. Finally, we attended the love and marriage show which we never did but heard it was funny. Again, it was 3 couples from the audience up there, most of them against their will. It got off to a slow start as Kirk had to find the newest married couple, longest and then had the middle couple audition for their spot. If I hear a horrible impersonation of Tarzan again I’m going to scream. LOL

Piano Bar

 

Piano bar

 

Center Staircase leading up to piano bar, near taste bar and coffee bar

 

 

Pool tables in the sports bar connecting to casino

 

 

Odd little corridor with sitting area, no where near anything else

 

 

Taj Majal, main show lounge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SugarStar00]

Butterflies lounge

 

 

 

 

 

[SugarStar00]

crazy juggler

 

 

The dance club

 

 

 

 

[SugarStar00]

 

 

Deck "Party"

 

 

 

**on a side note, we were given this coupon for being a past guest, but since we had the cheers program the only thing it was good for for us was my cappuchino in the MDR...but not at dinner only breakfast or lunch!!

 

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

Thank you for the review! We will be on the Pride at the end of September. Do you remember what time the cabins were available on embarkation day?

[SugarStar00]

Day 1 and 2 At Sea:

The first Two Sea days we had really nice weather. After brunch we went up to the sun deck to find some chairs, this is the only cruise I’ve been on where there was no problem finding a lounge chair. I guess because it wasn’t super hot, but I was warm enough to sit out in a swimsuit and cover up. We chatted with the people around us and made a few friends. We had lunch at the various lido deck restaurants and went to tea the first day which I’ve already shared. We missed all the shenanigans like hairy chest contest and master mixologist because of the covered pool, but we enjoyed relaxing in the wonderful sun. I’d like to thank mother nature for providing me with GREAT weather!!

 

Cruise Toes!!

 

 

 

View from morning breakfast

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SugarStar00]

Day 3 Port Canaveral, Florida

After two days at sea we were happy to get off the ship for a bit. We arrived in Florida around 7am, before I got up so we missed docking. We didn’t have anything booked, just planning a beach day, so we had a leisurely breakfast in the MDR then packed our beach bag and headed out, maybe around 10am. Our plan was to get a cab and head to Cocoa Beach. This port is a little weird, more of a port for Carnival to restock I think than anything else. You have to walk through the building which is where most passengers are embarking the ship for the first time, but being a Wednesday it was empty. We got outside and didn’t see much, mostly shuttles and vans waiting for the pre-scheduled tours. We saw a person holding a sign for beach taxi $6 and they directed us to someone across the street. We got across the street and the first people we talked to seemed like they were trying to trick us, we said we wanted to go to cocoa beach and they said yea we take you there and shopping” but then I noticed their sign was for $15pp. I didn’t want to shop and kept looking around for the $6 taxi. We eventually found it (really not that hard to find we are just easily confused I guess.) They had a few vans waiting to go. These Vans were air-conditioned and held about 8 or 10 people. The ride to Cocoa beach was quick, I’d say less than 10 minutes for sure. As we pulled up to the beach, the driver pointed out a few places to shop and good places to eat. He dropped us off in a beach shops parking lot and collected our $12. He gave us a card to call for a ride if we needed to be picked up anywhere other than where he was dropping us off. A shop employee also came out and gave us cards for 15% off anything in their store, which included chair and umbrella rentals. It’s a little walk across the street to the beach so we headed over there to see if there were chairs closer. Indeed there only seemed to be one vendor renting chairs. It was quite an operation though. We paid $27 for 2 folding lounge chairs and an umbrella. They hand you everything right there and you go pick your spot and stick your own umbrella in the ground. The chairs we’re a little odd, but good enough for the day. We sat on the beach right near The Sandbar, a bar and grill that the driver recommended. You couldn’t see it from the beach so it was peaceful but just a short walk over a little bridge and you were there. They had outdoor and indoor seating. We went there for lunch and drinks and we very happy. They had some strong drinks. 5 different levels of hurricane’s and I got the Sandbar Bacardi Bucket,with 4 different Bacardi rums in it that comes in mini sand pail. Very cool and delicious! For lunch we split the conch fritters, which to me were more like crabcakes. We had fritters before in St. Kitts that I liked better (battered and fried), but these had some kick and were still quite delicious! I ordered a shrimp taco and two fish tacos which were mahi mahi. The shrimp taco was out of this world good, and the mahi mahi was very good, but was missing the same delicious sauce the shrimp taco had. All in all my meal was fantastic. DB ordered a mahi mahi wrap, which he liked but liked my tacos better. We then headed back to our chairs and took a nap!! We went back to the Sandbar for one more round of drinks and decided to pack up and head back to the ship, probably around 4pm. The vans were all lined up just where we left them waiting to take us back. We didn’t even have to wait because it seemed everyone was heading out at the same time. Got back to the ship around 4:30 for a 5:30 or 6pm departure.

 

 

 

 

 

Forgot to mention we walked down the beach to this area and there was a restaurant and another place selling chairs, but I think they were a few dollars more than what we paid. Also some shops up there I think

 

 

Crazy Seagulls with Mohawks

 

[SugarStar00]

the Sandbar

 

 

 

Fish/Shrimp Tacos

 

 

Mahi Wrap

 

 

 

He got the Hurricane Category 5 and I got the Sandbar Bacardi Bucket. Can't wait to make it at home.

 

[SugarStar00]

Day 4 Nassau-

This was our first time in Nassau, we had a 2 hour snorkel excursion booked for 12pm with Blue Hole Watersports and then were planning do go to a beach after. We didn’t arrive until 11am so again we had a leisurely breakfast in the MDR and then headed out to the decks to watch us pull in to port. As we were pulling in we could see 2 of our whale Tail sister ships already there, along with one other. We pulled in right next to the Ecstasy at exactly 11am. DB and I found our way to the the part of the ship that sticks out on the sides a bit, and you can get close enough to see the nose of the ship, that was pretty neat. We watched them hook the ropes and then headed off as soon as they allowed. We had to meet our group at the Hilton, which looks very close but the walking path to get there is a little more round about than you’d expect, I’d say it was a good 10min walk, maybe more. We walked through the lobby out to the beach where Blue Hole has a little stand set up. We got all signed in, paid our $55pp, and headed out. They have two very small, simple boats. There were two families and us, we couldn’t all fit in the one boat so DB and I actually went just us in the second boat with Basil. We zoomed off into the ocean and they took us through the marina area by Atlantis. My camera batteries died here so I have no pictures, but it was really extravagant and nice. Lots of huge yachts! Then we headed out to the reef, probably a 15-20 min ride. He took us to an old resort “island” that was no longer being used, such a shame to see it growing over and unmaintained. It had a nice coral reef all around it so we geared up and jumped off the side of the boat. This was really great snorkeling, tons of yellow fish wanted to be friends, and kept swarming around us. Saw a lot of the same fish you tend to see in other places, the Paradise fish, the black and orange striped ones that I don’t know what they are called and some other smaller guys. Basil said they had lion fish there but we never saw one ;( On my way back to the boat I spotted a starfish scurrying along the bottom of the ocean. This made my whole day! I’d never seen a starfish in the wild, and he was moving! I always thought they had hard stiff shells that didn’t move, but they bend their arms when they move!! Learn something new everyday. We were supposed to go to a second sight but since it was so windy, the waters were rough and he said it would be low visibility, so we spent the whole time at this one spot which was fine with me. I was pretty exhausted after an hour of snorkeling, it totally wears me out! We rode back to the Hilton around the front side of Atlantis this time for a full circle tour. It was really nice. We got back at 2 like promised and decided to buy a day pass at the Hilton for $65pp. This seemed like a decent deal since you get $40 credit pp towards food and drink, and we were starving so we just stayed there. We got beach towels and chairs with little clamshells attached to them, and were under a little palapa thing. A waiter came and took our orders, we were each able to get sandwiches and 2 drinks for the $80 food credit we had. Nothing out of this world, but good enough. I went for a swim in the pool to get the salt water off and that felt like heaven!! The Hilton grounds were really beautiful but being so close to the port, there was a little ugliness when you looked out in the water to the right. A very “man-made” feeling. This port reminded me of where they drop you off in St. Maartin, very crowded, dirty feeling, lots of people selling you stuff on the street. Not my favorite but we still enjoyed ourselves. We headed back to the ship around 5pm and watched the other 3 ships sail away. It was funny because as we sat on deck, we could hear music blasting from one of the other ships, and we ENJOYED this so much, it was the only music we heard on deck all week. Made us sad. Then the Conquest pulled away and we were back to silence. Sigh.

 

Atlantis in the background

 

 

 

 

 

man made reef, kinda cool

 

 

 

Balcony View

 

 

pulling into our spot

 

 

 

 

 

[SugarStar00]

zoomed in on the Estascy's Bridge, Hi guys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SugarStar00]

 

 

Hilton Grounds

 

 

Hilton next to Senior Frogs where we loaded our snorkle boat

 

 

heading out to snorkel

 

[SugarStar00]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SugarStar00]

Hilton Pool

 

 

Drinks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SugarStar00]

Day 5 Freeport-

On cruise critic it seems not many people like this stop, but we were excited for it because I read it had a lot of natural beauty. Unfortunately this was really a half day stop, we arrived around 6 or 7am, before I got up, and had to be back to the ship for 1pm. Hoping to make the most of this day, we skipped MDR breakfast and just grabbed a few quick things from the buffet and went back to the room and ate it. We headed off the ship around 8-8:30 and went to find a cab. Most people go to Grand Lucayan here but we wanted to go to Junkanoo Beach Club. We found the line of taxi’s and were told it was $14pp roundtrip. She was taking most of the other riders to Lucaya but we stopped at Junkanoo first, about a 10-15min ride. She was very talkative and showed us some of the abandoned hotels in the area that were damaged during the hurricanes and the economy there now. She gave us cards to present for our ride back, so I wasn’t worried about paying the return trip in advance. We were dropped off at about 9am and to be sure they got us back in time, they picked us up at noon. We walked to the beach and it was beautiful! There were rows of lounge chairs set up waiting for us, ($5 each I think) but when I inquired about renting an umbrella (This was now Friday and my skin was extra crispy) we were told it was too windy and they weren’t renting them. (Several of the ship sponsored tours were also cancelled according to an announcement early in the morning.) Panic set in. There was NO way I could sit in the direct sun for another 3 hours, my skin would melt off. Luckily we were there early enough to get a seat at a table under one of the 4 or 5 palapas that provided some shade. Whew. Not the most comfortable wooden upright chairs, but it was only for 3 hours and it wasn’t in the sun. And then we drank. We each had 4 Kalik beers, they were 2/$7. They had waiters walking around taking orders so that was nice, because I was not going to lose my coveted shade spot. As we got closer to noon we went for a walk down the beach, it was so pretty and more natural than Nassau, I wish we could have stayed much longer. I would definetly recommend Junkanoo Beach Club to anyone looking for a nice un-crowded beach in Freeport. It was exactly what we were looking for, I didn’t want to go to another resort beach!! Our taxi was waiting for us when we packed up and had another really nice driver who chatted with us the whole way back. Got back to the ship without incident, and they had a stand selling drinks and things and they had yellowbirds on the menu! I was told by a friend to try one last year and I never could find one, or figure out what it was, so I had to try it. It pretty much just tasted like pineapple juice, very yummy. I bought a bottle of rum then boarded the ship. So sad to leave such a beautiful place so early.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SugarStar00]

Day 6 At Sea:

 

 

Our last day at sea was sunny, but super windy which made it cold. My skin had started recovering I was hoping to get a little more sun before returning home, but despite my best efforts to find a warm “enough” spot to sit out, it was still too cold. So we headed back to the room and showered for the day and just some of the things around the ship I already explained. They had the chocolate buffet this day for lunch, I missed it on the last two cruises and was really excited for it this time, but it really wasn’t anything that special, just some fruits and donuts to dip chocolate in, and various desserts that they had pretty much everyday anyway. I was too full to really eat anything.

 

I realize now I put the chocolate buffet pics under the wrong section, but i'm sure you guys figured it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ectascy pulling out of Nassau

 

Sunset on the last Day at Sea

 

 

[SugarStar00]

Disembarkment/ Shuttle Home

We foolishly opted to put our bags out the night before, thinking we wouldn’t want to deal with them in the morning and it would allow us more time for breakfast. We didn’t realize or believe that the estimated time for our zone to be called would really be 11:45am. Live and learn. So in the morning we packed up our carry on and headed down to the MDR for our final breakfast, about 8:30am. We had a nice window seat and watched as we pulled into the port of Baltimore promptly at 9am. We headed out to find a seat in one of the “waiting” areas around 9:30. Here we sat until about 11:30am. Uggggg. Boring!!! I caught up on facebook, emails and even chatted on cruise critic to pass the time, but still got bored. We finally were called and headed off the ship. Customs was a breeze this time, last time we were “randomly selected” to have our bags checked. Took about 10min to get through the line at customs then we grabbed our bags and went to call our shuttle. We called just before noon, they said they didn’t know where he was or how long it would be. We waited in the spot they told us to for almost 30min, and then some guy came walking over asking if anyone called for the Sleep Inn shuttle. We were like YES!! And followed him to the van, parked no where near where they said to meet them. Apparently everyone else was waiting in the correct spot but never called for their ride, and since we called we got first dips on the shuttle back, and he actually WENT LOOKING for us. I was thrilled and so happy with this level of customer service!! Some of the other riders were not as thrilled since they had to wait for the next shuttle because we were technically “first”. I also feel like the people in our van were a little mad because they had to wait for us. Whatever I guess we followed the rules and no one did. The shuttle brought us right to our car at the hotel. We gave him a nice tip and parted ways. Very impressed and happy with the shuttle service from the Sleep Inn BWI.

Headed Home:

Our drive home took much longer than the trip down, we got stuck in massive traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike and then again at the GW Bridge. Frustrations were high and by the time I got to my parents house to pick up dear doggie, I was completely frazzled and exhausted! It took us 8.5 hours to get home. Not what I had bargained for. Oh well, we were home safe and that is what mattered.

Overall we enjoyed ourselves on this vacation, we did feel let down by Carnival on many things. We also felt many things were repetitive and unexciting, which is what I guess one should expect traveling on the same cruise line 3 years in a row. We really liked the ship itself and enjoyed the stops but the crew on it needs a little improvement. Hope you enjoyed this review, it really took a long time to put together!! Let me know if you have specific questions!!

[SugarStar00]

Thank you for the review! We will be on the Pride at the end of September. Do you remember what time the cabins were available on embarkation day?

 

 

Exactly 1:30, we were standing right there waiting for them to open. :)

Edited April 30, 2013 by SugarStar00

[WetToes]

I have enjoyed your review and appreciate the time you put in. The time shows. ;)