Review of our Spring Break '14 Cruise on Carnival Pride

[apdchief]

Sorry to intrude, we had Villa D and it was a great location. The sooner you can get on board the better to make stopping at the excursion desk your first priority to select the villa you want. For us, we felt A, B, C were too smashed together. Go for D or E.

 

A is the first one and nearest to the point of entry to HMC, E is the one furthest out and away from the crowds .

 

 

Paul, I am enjoying your review.

 

Thanks, I am shooting for E, but will settle for D hopefully!

[BeeBeeCee]

Loving the review...and great pictures, thanks for posting!

 

I've never been to HMC...but now I'm feeling the need:)

[BuzzBuzzen]

Truly wonderful photos and review, thank you so much cheers, Buzz.

[jamscckmc]

Your pictures of the moon are spectacular!

 

Leaving in two weeks and your pictures are getting me more excited. I know you had a later arrival to HMC but it looks like you had full sun in the cabana. Was there any shady areas during the day in the cabana? We are only renting one because we can't do sun. Did you notice if some of the other cabanas had more shade? Wondering what the red structure passed cabana #15 is. Is it a lifeguard station?

 

From what I read Carnival unlike the other cruise lines allows men to wear shorts in the MDR at dinner. Did most men wear long pants or shorts to dinner? Thanks!

[kybluecruiser]

I'm not sure where this pose came from;

 

 

 

I so wished I had my 5DIII instead of the point and shoot. I adjusted the settings some, but could have done better;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hanging out waiting for our pager to go off;

 

 

Our wait wasn't brief, but several groups of people were a bit riled with having to wait to be seated. I understand that full is full, but apparently some people think they are holding tables back or something. One guy asked how long I'd been waiting and when I told him five minutes or so he went ballistic. He insisted that he'd watched me waiting for over 45 minutes and he was behind me. This was when we were waiting for a pager. He was actually seated right before we were and appeared to still be quite angry. The EXIF from my photos reveals that we were in line for the pager at 1914 and we were seated and had been waited on at 1954. Forty minutes total isn't too bad given the time frame we chose. I can only imagine how long the fella that had no concept of time thought he had waited.

 

Oysters Rockefeller. IMO the Rockefeller family has done for our State exactly what this food did to my palate; wreaked havoc. I highly recommend avoiding this option;

 

Lol that was funny i loved it. Maybe it would have tasted better if they were Captio oysters lol

[silvercrikhix]

Enjoying another of your cruise reviews, I always look for it at the end of April now.

Thank you much for continuing to share your cruise adventures!

Not only has it been enjoyable watching your boys grow and learning from your port & ship experiences, but the last few years, we are now enjoying watching you learn all the ins and outs of photography!

So nice to see you enjoying that process, all these memories you are capturing will surely be great sources for your family in the future :D

[swalton85]

Thanks for your review and fantastic pictures! I cannot wait to go to hmc next year on the Pride!:)

[torcruise]

FYI that hand sign your son is doing is pretty dirty, you might want to look up "the shocker" hand signal before you hang that one! lol

[sjn911]

FYI that hand sign your son is doing is pretty dirty, you might want to look up "the shocker" hand signal before you hang that one! lol

 

It is sad that kids get exposed to all this in music and outrageous pop stuff anf gestures that is not nearly like it was in our days...neither are drugs..everything is stronger and worse and i am sure many young kids know they are being daring and funny and sexy...goofy without knowing how dirty they are being...

 

Another area illustrates this...

 

I see my niece 12 when her granny passed..the youngest in quite some time and generationally to loose a granny in my family....she just could not grieve then like she does now close to 2 years later...

 

My sis said..it is just naivete and it saves them a degree of it before they are ready...I have witnessed it...

 

This young boy respects his mom and remember cute photos proving it...

 

Not to worry..this family will take care of things..and thanks OP and Paul..now I am educated with another thing..we adults need to learn and it is impossible to keep up...Sarah

Edited May 6, 2014 by sjn911

[daledoe]

FYI that hand sign your son is doing is pretty dirty, you might want to look up "the shocker" hand signal before you hang that one! lol

 

Hey Mother Theresa.... just because you're familiar with the missionary position, doesn't make you a missionary.

[mephistoles]

FYI that hand sign your son is doing is pretty dirty, you might want to look up "the shocker" hand signal before you hang that one! lol

 

OH my! :eek: I just learned something new here. I have seen pics of many kids using that sign and I thought that it meant "West Side"....how sad is that?

 

Paul, I am loving your review

[kybluecruiser]

FYI that hand sign your son is doing is pretty dirty, you might want to look up "the shocker" hand signal before you hang that one! lol

 

Thought it was to repersent West Virginia

[PaulMedik]

Your pictures of the moon are spectacular!

 

Leaving in two weeks and your pictures are getting me more excited. I know you had a later arrival to HMC but it looks like you had full sun in the cabana. Was there any shady areas during the day in the cabana? We are only renting one because we can't do sun. Did you notice if some of the other cabanas had more shade? Wondering what the red structure passed cabana #15 is. Is it a lifeguard station?

 

From what I read Carnival unlike the other cruise lines allows men to wear shorts in the MDR at dinner. Did most men wear long pants or shorts to dinner? Thanks!

 

 

jamscckmc,

 

Thank you.

 

Yes the interior of the cabana was shade until very late in the day. You can slide the table over and pull the lounge chairs back to avoid direct sun. All of the cabanas will get similar sun due to the moon shape facing in a southern direction.

 

We wore shorts on non elegant nights which we normally don't do. It honestly did feel a little odd, but once there I didn't feel too out of place. I can say that other men did wear shorts, but I didn't pay much attention.

 

Lol that was funny i loved it. Maybe it would have tasted better if they were Captio oysters lol

 

kybluecruiser,

 

Capito oysters would have to be more palatable. I love oysters, but NOT those. :o

[PaulMedik]

FYI that hand sign your son is doing is pretty dirty, you might want to look up "the shocker" hand signal before you hang that one! lol

 

 

torcruise,

 

I assume the picture is the one where he's posing at sunset? That was one of many hand gestures he went thru as he posed and finally said OK take it now. I'll ask him tomorrow if he knows what the gesture means and enlighten him.....maybe. :p 'Son, when a gynecologist is performing a pelvic exam they......' Yeah maybe I won't explain it. Karen works in surgery at a Women's specialty hospital; I'll let her explain it. :cool:

 

 

 

Thought it was to repersent West Virginia

 

If he turned it up it certainly would resemble a W. Interestingly enough when I googled 'the shocker' a picture of W along with a group of people were all giving the same gesture.

[sjn911]

Now..lets get back to the photos and the great luck in casino! For a long time Carnival cruisin family..can't wait....i already have learned more,,think I better keep to the slots and a 100.00..limit..not a poker face here..lots of strategy involved..go Ben Affleck though..as Nancy says..tis ok by her!!

[PaulMedik]

Now..lets get back to the photos and the great luck in casino! For a long time Carnival cruisin family..can't wait....i already have learned more,,think I better keep to the slots and a 100.00..limit..not a poker face here..lots of strategy involved..go Ben Affleck though..as Nancy says..tis ok by her!!

 

 

 

sjn911,

 

The casino continued to be good to us, but I'm sure the odds will even out over time.

 

 

 

***********************************************************

 

 

Our next to last sea day began getting a bit windy near the end of the day, but it was still beautiful and warm. The starboard azipod would run a while, then it would appear to slow down;

 

 

 

We passed by ominous clouds on both sides of the ship;

 

 

 

Odd way to pile pillows;

 

 

 

No pop culture hand signs from him this time. Just watching TV while buried in pillows;

 

 

 

While standing in line for dinner the magician informed Spencer that he was the only one allowed to wear black and a bow tie. They had an interesting back and forth discussion of acceptable attire;

 

 

 

I attempted a GoPro timelapse for dinner, but while it did capture some amusing photos, the timelapse aspect of it didn't really work well;

 

[PaulMedik]

 

 

 

 

I may try the timelapse again sometime, but instead of the small tripod I will stick the camera to the wall and decrease the time between pics.....;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PaulMedik]

 

 

We were due East from Jacksonville;

 

 

 

Karen and I enjoyed another productive evening of BlackJack, but while the cards were falling well the smoke became a bit too strong so we called it a night. I smoke cigars while on vacation and generally don't mind cigarette smell, but for some reason the smoke just lingered and became stifling. We headed up to Lido and ran into the boys on an ice cream run and enjoyed some time with them. After we were finished we were going to go up on the top deck and Mother Nature changed those plans;

 

 

The drop in atmospheric pressure with the storm explained why we smelled the cigarettes so strong....

 

 

On our last sea day I was up walking the ship at 0400. I'm always amazed at how peaceful the normally bustling areas are;

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2014 by PaulMedik

[PaulMedik]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not a soul in sight;

 

[PaulMedik]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some day people will wonder what this picture's all about;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a great morning for a walk. Everyone was sleeping in and the ship was all mine;

 

 

 

 

[PaulMedik]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never once saw anyone using the computers;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

This area kinda reminded me of a Red Frog Pub;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The two cent slot was right behind the BlackJack tables;

 

[PaulMedik]

These quarters fell as I walked by and now they're on my mantle behind me. You know the casino is in your favour when you walk thru when it's not even open and money falls out of the machines;

 

 

 

The ship was really starting to rock back and forth, but this machine wasn't about to share it's bounty with me as I walked by;

 

 

 

 

At 0453 our balcony was not an inviting place to be;

 

 

Our balcony has a starboard side that is covered and we had two chairs back there to set out of the weather;

 

 

 

 

 

At 0900 this was as close as you could get to our balcony;

 

[PaulMedik]

The starboard azipod appeared to have been trimmed way back to avoid stress from the storm;

 

 

 

Our Grand Turk Conch shells were getting a very nice cleaning;

 

 

 

The covered area of our balcony sounded like a war zone. There was a section of glass that had worked loose and it sounded like an M16 firing on burst mode;

 

 

 

You can hear the M16 in the background;

 

[YOUTUBE]khvqvHytQgI[/YOUTUBE]

 

The boys balcony was better protected from the storm, but it sill wasn't usable;

 

 

[YOUTUBE]HlUUjAI3QSA[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

 

It was as cold as a cruise to Alaska, but there were no whales;