Our Tale-Carnival Pride 8/28-9/4

[billvabeach]

We stayed at the Best Western on O’Donnell Street and it was wonderful. We drove up from Virginia Beach on Saturday and arrived late afternoon. Hotel is beautiful. Room was spacious, clean and well kept. We enjoyed the breakfast provided in their restaurant.

 

We used the shuttle option for our reservation so we were able to park for the week and use the van service they provide. We were very lucky. We had a 10:15 shuttle reservation but we were ready by 9AM. The woman at the check in desk said they had room on the 9:15 shuttle if we wanted to go early. Since we had FTTF we did. This turned out to be a huge blessing.

 

They loaded our bags on the shuttle and we were at the pier around 930AM. The ship had been delayed coming in but not by much. However, there seemed to be large problems getting the ship debarked of that morning’s guests. They also had a Cat in The Hat promotion which was also causing some confusion.

 

They opened the doors to the terminal close to 10AM and with FTTF we were able to go right in through security and into the main lounge. I believe around 1030 they called Priority Boardings (weddings, Platinum, Diamond, FTTF). Within 10 minutes we had our Sign and Sale Cards in hand and were directed to specific seats for FTTF waiting to Board. And Waiting…And Waiting…And Waiting.

 

We had no idea how bad later arrivals had it until we spoke to others on board. Because of the delays in having prior guests off ship, the parking lot and terminal were locked because Priority had not cleared the area for them to let more people inside. I have no idea what the delay was from the earlier passengers but that 9:15AM shuttle was the best thing to happen to us.

 

 

First view of ship from tunnel and waiting to board

[BoDidly]

This one should be interesting :eek:

[billvabeach]

We booked early and there was a minimal price difference between having a suite and a balcony so we booked Cabin 6170 Ocean Suite Mid-Ship. Domingo was our Steward and he was wonderful. We never wanted for anything and never really needed to ask for anything. My wife and I were traveling with our 18 year old daughter and the extra space was amazing. There were plenty of drawers and closets, a larger vanity area, dual sinks and a full sized jetted tub. We never felt like we were on top of each other.

[riclop]

Thanks for the tale.

[billvabeach]

We were among the first to board and I believe it was around 130 or 2pm before we got on board. We were able to go directly to our cabin and drop off our carry- on bags. We then went to Guys Burger Joint. My daughter loved Guys. I liked the fixing bar options but I am not a big fan of pressed patties. It was good but it was the only one I had this trip. On vacation I prefer to eat items I am not often going to eat at home or can make myself. I cannot offer any insight on the Blue Iguana. I never tried it and I found the Lido Buffet items, deli and Chopsticks options to be more to my particular taste then Guys and Blue Iguana.

 

We had the Cheers! Card and Bubbles for our daughter and found these to be a great value to us. We purchased on line a couple of weeks before sailing. I am not going to say that I broke even with Cheers, but it may have been close. I definitely tried items that I wouldn’t have without the program. I didn’t have to worry about our bar bill at the end of the week, and I certainly wouldn’t have gotten to know Gabriel and Alchemy or Michael at the Serenity Bar without Cheers.

[tsutton]

Thanks for sharing! Enjoying so far!!

[billvabeach]

Thanks for sharing! Enjoying so far!!

 

Thank you. I have more to write and will continue tomorrow. I didn't realize when I started that I was going to hit my wall this early tonight. Loved the ship, loved the crew, loved being able to drive to a port and not fly.

 

Much more to come.

[pusywillow]

Can't wait to read more. I'll be boarding the Pride in two weeks.

 

Can you tell me how muster was handled? Thanks!

[cruzin Phillis]

Im excited to read more!!!

 

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[Clarea]

Following.:)

[easyboy]

Interesting start. Following.

[flyersfan1129]

Can't wait to read more...we sail on the Pride in 84 days!

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

I can't wait to read more about my favorite ship. I sail on the Pride next Sunday!!!!

[Seago2]

So glad you had a great time!

[bar10der421]

Thanks for this! So ready to read more. Thirty-four days and counting until our next time on the Pride!!

[evandbob]

I'm interested in hearing about the ride home before the storm - videos posted show 20' waves, lurching and listing, some cabins getting swamped.

[Arzeena]

I'm interested in hearing about the ride home before the storm - videos posted show 20' waves, lurching and listing, some cabins getting swamped.

 

Wow. We were on the Sunshine returning to NY around the same time frame and did not encounter any bad wave/weather action except for rain on the last sea day. I found this ship to be very stable. Captn did say that we steered out of the way of the storm a bit, delaying our arrival in NY by 1 hour (50 min to be exact;) )

[Arzeena]

Bill

 

Thanks for posting your review and pictures. We will be on the Pride in Feb.

[billvabeach]

After lunch, my Beautiful Bride went back to the room to rest and all of luggage was quick to arrive. Darling Daughter and I went exploring and took a tour of our new home for the next week. I love this Ship!! It is so easy to get around, does not feel overlarge or cramped. We started top to bottom with part of the Sun Deck (10). Beautiful views of Baltimore. Daughter was not quite comfortable walking around outside and on exterior stairs yet. If you have never been on a ship before, the outside vertigo needs a little getting used to but you do overcome it quickly. Never found the mini-golf, but I admit I did not go looking for it too closely.

 

Went to Serenity at the aft section of Deck 9(LIDO) to look about. I like the layout. There appeared to be plenty of deck chairs, clamshell loungers and undercover sitting surrounded by a smaller pool and hot tub. The chair hogging was not too bad this week. I prefer to sit under cover and not in the direct sun. There were very comfortable chairs, sofa’s and love seats with comfy cushions under cover and I spent the bulk of the week in them. Very restful and my favorite daytime resting place. Michael at Serenity makes an awesome Bloody Mary and my wife will agree that he makes a darn good Mimosa as well. We usually spent our mornings at Serenity then had lunch and wandered about. I am getting ahead, on with the initial tour…

[billvabeach]

Lido buffet area is right in front of Serenity. Very large with several sections. We spent nearly no time waiting in any lines at Lido. At lunch they had a very nice salad bar, 24 hour Pizza and you must try the Quatro Cheese Pizza no red sauce. Chopsticks looked good but I can get my fill of Chinese Buffets in town so I did not try any food from there. The Carnival deli was very good. I had a couple of Panini Ruben’s and they were wonderful. There were also a pair of Carving Buffet Stations and the lunches I had up there served Roast Beef (very good); turkey (didn’t try) and Lamb (WOW!!!). My only dislike about this area is that it is not very convenient to get a drink (soda or alcohol). You either have to go back to Serenity or through the main pool to the Rum Bar.

 

The next section on Lido Deck are the two main pools. The center area at the Pool included Guys, Blue Iguana, the tequila bar and the rum bar. This is also where they have the Dive In Movies. There is a retractable cover over the main pool and I believe on Friday coming home they had the lid on over the pool. I confess that I loved the Serenity area so much and did not have little children that I spent zero time at either of these two pools so I cannot offer any other information.

 

It was very hot on Sunday and we were ready to explore more of the ship in Air Conditioning. I don’t believe I ever ventured Forward of the Rum Bar on Deck 9 the rest of the trip. Decks 8 through 4 were all cabins so we went down to 3 and looked in the windows of the shops. Maybe because I do not drink much more than rum, Kahlua and Amaretto at home I didn’t find the liquor prices that much better then home that I would want to haul bottles home with me. Passed the card room and the library. Peeked into the Piano Bar that we would spend most of our nights in.

 

 

 

Deck 2 has the Coffee Bar with beautiful desserts you can purchase. Between dining room and Lido, there was plenty sweet to be had at virtually anytime so we did not order anything from here. The Red Frog Tavern and Sports Bar are on this deck and in this area. Spent a bit of time in Red Frog and didn’t have any events I needed to watch so no Sports Bar for me this week. Walked through the unopened Casino and it reeked of Smoke with no one even in it. You just can’t filter out 15 years of smoking on a ship. Never went back in.

[billvabeach]

Because the gangway is not repaired yet, embarkation occurred on the A deck as it would be coming back from an excursion. What a disappointment if you were a first time cruiser. Entering through the lobby would provide an incredible first impression of this ship. The ten story open atrium is lovely. You can hear the music while waiting for the glass elevators to arrive on the upper decks. I jokingly said it reminded me of the Wall of Faces from Game of Thrones. My family did not see the humor in this but still posed for my A Girl Has No Name photo. Beautiful lobby bar and window seats. The Bonsai Sushi restaurant is also off of the lobby an is a little open air restaurant. I love sushi and have wonderful sushi restaurants in town so I did not feel the need to go to this fee restaurant.

 

I will post more about the Alchemy Bar later, but this was my Favorite Indoor Spot on the ship. Gabriel is THE ALCHEMIST and his potions were magical. The Main Dining Room and Beauties night club round out the 2nd Deck.

 

Due to the late boarding we had a late muster drill. Ugh! It was close to 530 before the drill started. The positive, it was fairly quick and you did not need to bring your life jacket with you. The negative, it was HOT, we were all sweaty and it was ten minutes to six when finished and we had early seating so there was no time to clean up or change between muster and dinner.

 

Sadly, because of our late departure, we were already in the dining room for sail away and missed sailing under the Key Bridge and Bay Bridge. Not a big disappointment but something we had looked forward to.

 

More later…

[billvabeach]

OUT OF ORDER-TROPICAL STORM HERMINE

 

This was the end of the week, but I want to comment on this upfront as it is truly the only negative I have about this trip. First, I believe it was the right call to make to skip Freeport and head back to Baltimore. I am not a ship’s captain and I have no nautical experience. I will not criticize anyone in charge of the ship for any decisions made. I would have liked more information as to why the determination was made to attempt to cross the path of the storm to approach and enter the Chesapeake Bay starting in the pre-dawn hours of September 3.

 

Shortly after 430 AM we were awoken with a lurch. All drawers flew open, closet doors were flung open and we were nearly thrown from the bed. There were about 8 hours of strong rocking and high waves. Winds were over 40mph. On the Lido, carts of dishes were knocked over and there was broken glass throughout.

 

I wish the ship had the Weather Channel. CNN did a very poor job on reporting on the track. Here is what I posted on my FB Thursday afternoon.

 

“Hmmmm. Wondering what we are going to be sailing through on Saturday. I believe the Carnival Pride typically crosses the Ches Bay Bridge Tunnel around midnight late Saturday/Early Sunday if she is on time for a 9am docking on Sunday. She usually is on the SC/NC coastline most of Saturday. Wonder if we will be sailing further East to avoid storm and come in late. I am sure we will know more tomorrow night.”

 

Again, I am NOT criticizing Captain or Crew. They did an exceptional job getting the ship back to Baltimore and keeping us safe. My question is why not stay further out to sea and away from the strongest winds and attempt to cross into the Bay after the worst of the storm passed? Why make the attempt through the storm in the morning when it might have been safer to cross later in the day and still arrive in Baltimore on time?

 

 

 

We crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel around 11:20AM and the conditions improved within the hour.

[Conway733]

Enjoying your tale! Glad everyone arrived home safe, which is the most important detail! [emoji4]

 

 

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[billvabeach]

We had the early dining for 6PM. The Dining Room is beautiful and all the servers were very attentive. I had read earlier posts about their being issues with drink service in the MDR, but we had no problems. We had one to two glasses of wine with dinner every night and our wine glasses were never empty for long.

 

On “The Great Tablecloth Debate” Meh. Did not impact our enjoyment one way or the other. We had great meals every night we ate there. There were some nights where we wanted to order either every entrée or every appetizer. It had been over 10 years since I cruised on Carnival. There were three stand out items that we only ate on cruise ships that were not offered with the American Table Menu that I missed. Beef Wellington, Baked Alaska and Cherries Jubilee. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t able to find something else that I liked as much, but those were special cruise treats and hopefully they will make their way back to the menu someday.

 

Stand out dishes included the Prime Rib, Lobster Tail (or Prime Rib and Lobster Tail and Lobster Tail as ordered by me), Snapper, Seafood Pasta, chocolate melting cake and or daily cheese plate. I have been looking forward to the chocolate melting cake since I saw my first photo. It is as good as described and as it looks but so very rich. I loved it but just could not eat another one the rest of the week. I love chocolate, but this hit every chocolate sensation so hard that I just could not have another. And there were so many other different dessert options to enjoy as well throughout the week.

[billvabeach]

We stayed with Early Dining for the first two nights. On the third night we were a bit wiped out and were not ready to eat at 6pm so we went to Lido. It was the first night that I have ever eaten at the Buffet for dinner on any cruise. It was good, but not the experience I like. We were able to switch to Your Time Dining for the rest of the week and it was perfect. We went to dinner between 630 and 730 and only once had to wait about five minutes for a table. The trade-off is not having the same waiter every night but I will accept that for the convenience. The wait staff were still just as attentive and service was impeccable.

 

We had brunch in the MDR for the first two sea days then switched to Lido for the rest of the week. It was very, very good but I just didn’t want to spend an hour at Brunch every day. On the plus side, steak and eggs with filet mignon and bearnaise sauce was a delightful bonus.