21 Nights of Food and Fun (well, mostly Food) Pride Journey Cruises

[meatloafsfan]

Dessert was my other favourite - Gran Marnier soufflé. As good as always.

 

 

And my mother got the key lime mousse - except she couldn't eat it because there was a little piece of kiwi stuck on top.

 

[Crusin Karen]

In the past, we've seen where there were people brought on to do the crafts (and Shirley does ring a bell).

 

For these ones though, it was a member of the entertainment staff who led the crafts. Each kit contained detailed instructions and then the staff member would sit and make one as well (often learning as they went). There was more just general chatting going on and became a group of people getting together to have fun and create something (maybe - often we didn't actually do the crafts - we just took the kits and sat talking - my mother only has the use of one hand and not every kit was she able to do).

Shirley's husband's name just popped into my head. :eek: DALE. Nice, nice, nice people. I believe they were going to AK after their cruise with us and were super excited. This was a few years ago, tho.

[meatloafsfan]

The last day of the 11 day cruise was a port stop in St. Croix. Unfortunately, the ramp to get off the ship was extremely steep. We started to take my mother down but after only a foot, she said "Stop!". It just felt too dangerous to her and she was concerned about tipping over, or falling out of the wheelchair (and this was going down backwards!). So we settled for a day about a mostly empty ship.

 

We went to the Casino as soon as it opened (around 4pm I believe). I was a little peeved because my mother had been sent a bottle of wine at dinner the night before by the casino (I had not) and she had only half as many points as I did.

 

On day 2 I was sent a plate of (pathetic) petit fours from the casino and about day 5-6 my mom had been sent a plate of assorted cookies (tasty).

 

For her to get the wine and me nothing, I wasn't too happy.

 

I normally wouldn't say anything but my Father is not me and he went and got Bunny and told her I hadn't received anything and wasn't happy.

 

Bunny came over and told me that she had sent me a bottle of wine 3 nights ago and didn't know why I hadn't gotten it. She offered to send me another bottle tonight. I nicely explained that with my mother's bottle, considering we don't like wine, we had more than enough wine to share with our table let alone drink another bottle.

 

She offered to give me Steakhouse Selections tonight for the 3 of us. These I gladly accepted.

 

For appetizers, I ordered the French Onion Soup.

 

 

And the BBQ Chicken flatbread. This one was much better than the one my mother ordered the night before.

 

 

My mother ordered both the Caprese Salad and the regular salad and then asked me to mix and chop up the two salads together.

 

 

 

My dad had his traditional shrimp cocktail while he waited for his big - honking - steak to arrive.

[meatloafsfan]

So to start my mother ordered a side of the succotash. This was okay but she found the mix of vegetables a little too varied.

 

 

My parents both went with the 10 oz steak. This was very good (yes, I pilfered some of my mothers). It takes a little longer to come out (I imagine they actually have to get it from the steakhouse) but it's worth waiting for.

 

 

I went with the lobster tails. They may not look like much but they were 10 times better than any of the "free" lobster I've had on any cruise ship.

 

[realtrip]

Thank you so much for your review. It must take you a long time to get it all done. I cant wait for my cruise in June. I am looking forward to trying new things thanks to your great pictures.

[sailfirst]

Thank you for all the time you spent doing this. I never get around to doing anything with my pictures. So nice to see all of this can't wait we leave Sunday on the Pride. Jo:)

[cruzin Phillis]

Oh you B2B. Thats my dream!!! I will live vicariously through your review!!!

[meatloafsfan]

So while I'm talking casino perks - here are pictures of the (pathetic) petit fours. Really tasteless stuff - as in flavourless.

 

Cruise 1:

 

 

Cruise 2:

 

 

[meatloafsfan]

So the last morning of the 11 day cruise dawned clear and bright.

 

However, we didn't need to be to the Taj Mahal until 9:30am so we got to sleep in.

 

We did have a quick breakfast in the buffet because we didn't know how long things would take with 800ish B2Bers on board.

 

 

[dickinson]

The dining room sent us some petit fours for making us wait to get in (I was pleasantly surprised). In your first picture there is something tan looking that is triangular shape. We received that. I don't remember the flavor but it had tons of flavor. Actually too much as it was very sweet. Sorry yours were tasteless.

[MissKIA]

You're right, those petite fours do look terrible.

[meatloafsfan]

The dining room sent us some petit fours for making us wait to get in (I was pleasantly surprised). In your first picture there is something tan looking that is triangular shape. We received that. I don't remember the flavor but it had tons of flavor. Actually too much as it was very sweet. Sorry yours were tasteless.

 

I think it was supposed to be maple fudge. My was mushy though, and tasted more like unsalted butter than anything else. The chocolate things on plate 1 were a thick mousse thing but it just tasted like gelatin. And the green things were so dry, they were difficult to get down.

 

On plate 2, the chocolate things were covered with cocoa powder and were dry as were the green cake things. I had hopes for the pink and yellow thing (hoping for lemon strawberry) but again, they tasted like butter.

 

Most of these went into the garbage (or more accurately, the plates were put out with room service dishes).

[meatloafsfan]

Dining was open seating for the first night of the 10 day cruise. So we decided to hit up the buffet and then see the movie.

 

My plate - fried shrimp, green beans, lasagna, chicken quesadilla, focaccia bread, chicken and apple sauce.

 

 

For my dad - roast pork, shrimps and lasagna.

 

 

For my mother, a plate similar to mine but she had pork as well.

 

 

 

My dad found a wonderful whipped tiramisu on the buffet desserts.

 

 

And my mom and I split some choco-mocha thing and a plate of sliced fruit.

 

 

 

Both of which were very good.

[meatloafsfan]

The next day was St Thomas. We've been here oh - about a thousand times. Well, not that many but enough that we weren't doing anything much. We basically took pictures of the boats (I have about a 100 of those) and then settled back onto the ship.

 

My mom and I had the buffet for lunch and it was pretty good today. The carvery was some very tender turkey breast, and then there was whipped, cheddar mashed potatoes, fried chicken and pot roast. It was American day.

 

My mom had the turkey, some potatoes, a tomato stuffed with squash and a "corn muffin". I knew from other reviews that it truly was "corn" muffin as in a muffin with kernels of corn in/on it.

 

 

I had similar but also had some noodle salad, some other kind of mixed salad, a piece of fried chicken and some "stuffing" (I don't know what recipe book they are working out of but ??what??do they think stuffing is).

 

 

My dad came and found us at some point because we got dessert. Nothing remarkable today. Basically a few gelatin/pudding type desserts, dry carrot muffins, and some mocha cake.

 

[meatloafsfan]

We spent much of the afternoon just hanging around the mid ship pool. I know we had ice cream because I made my mother this

 

 

We had brought a few cans of diet root beer onboard, so I got a plastic glass from the bar and filled it about 1/3 of the way with ice cream, added the soda and viola!

 

And I ordered some kind of frog jumper long island iced tea thingy.

 

 

It was good but very strong so I got some of the lemonade and mixed it about 2/3 alcohol and 1/3 lemonade and it went down super easy.

[SenatorsFan]

I'm enjoying these great pictures and your wonderful descriptions of your food. :) Love the A&W root beer can, too. :D

Heather

[meatloafsfan]

I'm enjoying these great pictures and your wonderful descriptions of your food. :) Love the A&W root beer can, too. :D

Heather

 

Speaking of Canadian stuff - we also bring a stack of (clean, unused) Tim Horton paper coffee cups with us on trips. We're not a big fans of the small, ceramic coffee cups onboard - its takes 3 of those things to equal one morning coffee. My dad was walking around with one of them at some point and probably 3-4 people stopped and asked him if there was a Tim Horton's at the port and where was it because they wanted some good coffee!

[meatloafsfan]

So - it was yet another formal night on night 2 of the 10 day cruise (this would be formal night number 4 for us). This is where the menus started repeating and we could either order what we enjoyed from last time or branch out and try new stuff. We did a little of both.

 

My mom ordered the mushroom soup for an appetizer. Again, a very good soup - creamy and strong flavours.

 

 

I again ordered the pork tenderloin tarts. (sorry for the super blurry picture this time).

 

 

And I'm happy to say that entrée this formal night were exceptional. Admittedly, I had told our server that I have the worst luck with lobster on cruise ships - if it's going to be over done or small or limp or cold, it'll be the one served to me.

 

He told me not to worry and he'd take good care of me.

 

My mother again ordered the root vegetable pie. This time instead of one large pie, it was 2 smaller ones. The same filling, the same great taste, just more pastry (for most it would be a positive but my mother doesn't eat pastry). Upside was - there was also more goat cheese!

 

 

And I had probably the most perfect lobster tail I've had served to me on any formal night, on any cruise ship, on any cruise line. And the shrimp and orzo were good too.

 

 

My dad ordered some medium well prime rib and he was very happy with the portion and temperature of the meat.

 

[meatloafsfan]

Desserts this time were the same as last time - crème brulee, coffee cake and the malted chocolate cake, just the same people didn't order them. My mom had the crème brulee, I had the malted chocolate cake and my dad had the coffee cake.

 

 

 

[meatloafsfan]

The next day was Antigua and this is a port stop we'd never been to. I have to say that the people here were very aggressive about tours, hair braiding, buying stuff, etc. We sat and watched a couple of tour guides get into a very heated argument and there was also a hairbraider that followed me for a full block before she gave up.

 

My advice is just say, "No thank you." and keep moving.

 

My parents feel the need to explain and justify why they don't want a tour, a picture with a monkey, a necklace, etc. If you engage in any kind of conversation, the person will start walking with you and really trying a hard sell.

 

Anyways, it is a pretty place at the port. There are lots of shops, and then there is a market that is a bit back and over. There's a couple of bars and restaurants (not Senor Frogs) at the port as well. The port area as well was very clean and the pavement was okay for wheelchairs. It was just when we started off the "port" area onto a regular street we had a big problem - broken, uneven payment and bad sidewalks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[meatloafsfan]

I had chopsticks for lunch today; and my mother had some noodles and wontons. I know my dad had a full plate of something but no pictures of that.

 

 

[meatloafsfan]

Tonight's dinner was a very good menu.

 

We all started with the potato and leek soup. This was very thick and rich tonight (maybe we got the bottom of the pot) and there was so much bacon in it! Yum.

 

Funny story, my mother didn't realize there was bacon in the soup so she was spooning it out of the soup and putting it on her bread plate. She turns her head to me and says, "This soup is really good but I must have gotten the bottom of the pot because I keep coming up with pot scrapings." I pointed to the bacon she'd put on her bread plate and asked, "Is that what you think that is?" And she said yes. I laughed and told her it was bacon, not the scrapings off the bottom of the pot! She laughed as well and then ate the bacon off the plate.

 

 

Another favourite is the spring rolls which both of my parents ordered again tonight.

 

 

And a favourite of mine from last week - the braised rabbit. Admittedly, I liked last weeks better, this was a little more sauce, and a lot less rabbit.

 

[meatloafsfan]

For entrees I went with one new and one old.

 

The port of call was a lamb curry. I like curry but was a bit concerned with what the "Americanized" version would be like. It was actually very good with a medium-strong yellow curry flavour. I wasn't a huge fan of the red beans and rice but I'm not fussy on that stuff at the best of times, let alone when I have an entire other entrée sitting next to me.

 

 

I also went with a favourite from last week - the baked ziti. This dish was just as creamy and tasty as last time. If anything, this was maybe a better mix than last weeks.

 

 

My mom had the tilapia when she enjoyed. The fish was cooked perfectly and lightly seasoned.

 

 

My dad had the pork chop which he claimed was not as good as the brunch chop. I think this is one dish that would benefit from a sauce.

 

[meatloafsfan]

Desserts were again winners across the board.

 

For my mother it was the strawberry Financier. Basically it's a mildly sweet vanilla cake with strawberries baked into it with a light strawberry juice poured overtop.

 

 

I had a melting cake with strawberry ice cream.

 

 

And my dad had 2 pieces of blueberry pie.

 

[meatloafsfan]

This next port day was Dominica. We ported in the industrial port area which is different than where we stopped when we cruised here with Celebrity. There was a large (un-air conditioned) warehouse next to the port which held a number of vendors selling various souvenir items. Many were made or partially made on the island.

 

There wasn't much else to do right at the port so we were back on board for lunch.

 

It was - again - Guy's burgers.

 

My mom had hers with no bun, but bacon bits with a side of tomato and pickle.

 

 

I had a chili burger

 

 

And my dad just a plain jane with lots of sautéed onions on the side.