Swodog's E. Caribbean Adventure: Carnival Pride 23-30 July 17

[swodog94]

Embarkation (Cont.)

I order the chicken quesadilla for my app and the grilled chicken breast for dinner. My wife and I split the tiramisu for dessert.

 

After dinner we hit casino to lose some money, then we go to the late comedy show. The comedian is Vince Morris, and he was hilarious! The late show is for adults only, and we got our money's worth. Also, a word of advice, do not sit in the front row if you have thin skin, because you will get picked on! We laughed so hard, we cried. And then we retired for the evening. Our towel animal for the night greeted us upon our return.

[swodog94]

Alright folks, that's it for tonight. I have been working on this most of the day and I need to go to bed. My vacation is over and I'm back at work tomorrow. The first day of my reviews are always the longest, and if you're still hanging in there, thank you. Tomorrow I'll post 1st Sea Day / Elegant Night.

[BG18]

Embarkation (Cont.)

 

 

After dinner we hit casino to lose some money, then we go to the late comedy show. The comedian is Vince Morris, and he was hilarious! The late show is for adults only, and we got our money's worth. Also, a word of advice, do not sit in the front row if you have thin skin, because you will get picked on! We laughed so hard, we cried. And then we retired for the evening. Our towel animal for the night greeted us upon our return.

 

 

I was on this cruise with you and was at 1 of Vince's shows and was in the front row, my stomach was hurting some and I wasn't really laughing much at 1st because of that and he started busting my balls calling me uptight for not laughing like the others and then make some not so mentionable comments about me and my lady friend which were funny, he was really funny and even started busting my balls after the show while walking out of the theater

[grest]

looking forward to the next installment!

[JerseyshoreBruce]

Us too!

 

Now that I think about it' date=' I just remembered you from the roll call thread.

 

Swodog94, great review so far. I never would have known about the first person to Red Frog thing had you not mentioned it. Thank you.

 

JerseyshoreBruce, you trying to get to Red Frog first? Game on brother! Haha. Just kidding.

 

 

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LOL nah I have Cheers package....no rush

 

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[nisewenn]

Thank you for this review, and the especially the pictures. Every time I read one, I learn something new. Showing the Baltimore port was helpful!

 

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[jimbri]

Great photos!

[swodog94]

looking forward to the next installment!

Thanks for following!

[swodog94]

Thank you for this review, and the especially the pictures. Every time I read one, I learn something new. Showing the Baltimore port was helpful!

 

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Glad to be of service. Thanks for following!

[Crusingdiva62]

I was on this cruise with you and was at 1 of Vince's shows and was in the front row, my stomach was hurting some and I wasn't really laughing much at 1st because of that and he started busting my balls calling me uptight for not laughing like the others and then make some not so mentionable comments about me and my lady friend which were funny, he was really funny and even started busting my balls after the show while walking out of the theater

 

 

 

lol I sat front row in Vince show too lol yep he for me and my girls and some poor random guy sitting next to us. We all laughed so hard . It's a known fact comedians use the first row as fodder for their acts lol

 

 

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[swodog94]

Great photos!

Thank you! I appreciate you following along.

[pcvtmom]

Awesome job on the review! We love the Pride and this itinerary, and may (again) choose it for our 2018 cruise! We've also been first to arrive in the "Frog"!!

[swodog94]

1st Sea Day

The first day at sea dawned bright but windy. The ship was steaming south at between 18 and 19 knots, and true winds were from the south, so we had about 50 kts of wind across the deck. That meant that basically everything above the Lido deck was closed down. That included the water slides, mini-golf and basketball court, and all the chairs on the Sun Deck (deck 10) were secured. All the pools were open, however.

 

Due to the heavy winds, the ship was rocking a bit, which doesn't bother me at all, but clearly there were folks who were not venturing out of their staterooms, because many of the venues were looking pretty sparse. The crew put out some bags in strategic locations, just in case.

The room service knock on the door seemed to come too early, but once we were up and about I headed to the Lido to get some breakfast. And I knew exactly what I wanted: a breakfast burrito from the Blue Iguana! This would not be the last one, either.

One of the house musicians, the steel drum guy, was on the Lido valiantly trying to rally the troops, but he really didn't have many takers. Too bad, because he was really good.

[swodog94]

Awesome job on the review! We love the Pride and this itinerary, and may (again) choose it for our 2018 cruise! We've also been first to arrive in the "Frog"!!

Thank you! Yeah, I think Pride is a great ship and I'd be happy to just keep sailing on her, but the wife is getting a little tired of her and would like to try another ship. Maybe even *gasp* a different cruise line! Either way, I'm sure we'll be cruising again in 2018.

[swodog94]

1st Sea Day (Cont.)

A quick perusal of the Fun Times showed that there wasn't much going on that day that I'd be interested in, so I decided to spend most of the day at Serenity. It turned out to be the right decision. I hung out in the pool with a drink in my hand and chatting with lots of very interesting folks.

As you can see in the above picture, the one negative to Serenity is that the water slides are located directly overlooking the deck, so sometimes it can get a little noisy. But with the slides shut down due to high winds, it was pretty quiet back there that day. It was seriously nice. Plus, on past cruises I have seen parents try and bring their children with them and the staff has to tell them they can't be back there. This time I saw no such thing, which was a welcome change. It made for a relaxing day at sea.

[bluewater5]

Awesome review and pics . Thank u

[swodog94]

Awesome review and pics . Thank u

 

 

 

Thanks for following!

 

 

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[Luke Saint Joe]

Thanks for this review. Following. Sailing on Pride in 3 weeks. Loving the review & pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[swodog94]

Thanks for this review. Following. Sailing on Pride in 3 weeks. Loving the review & pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for following! Enjoy your cruise on Pride.

[Crusin Karen]

Our first cruise on Pride following years of arm twisting by Jamman was a B2B, 2nd one in March, 2016 was a Journeys cruise. And we are booked on another Journeys cruise on her in January. So I see your pictures and feel like I am "home again." :D AWESOME cabin and one thing I have to remember is to get a breakfast burrito from Blue Iguana. For some reason I always forget and eat at the Lido buffet, then I am too stuffed to eat any more! Have heard so many people rave about them. Thanks for sharing your cruise with us. One question: was Ken Byrne back?

[JAXCRUISER]

Your review is great! Thanks!

[swodog94]

Our first cruise on Pride following years of arm twisting by Jamman was a B2B, 2nd one in March, 2016 was a Journeys cruise. And we are booked on another Journeys cruise on her in January. So I see your pictures and feel like I am "home again." :D AWESOME cabin and one thing I have to remember is to get a breakfast burrito from Blue Iguana. For some reason I always forget and eat at the Lido buffet, then I am too stuffed to eat any more! Have heard so many people rave about them. Thanks for sharing your cruise with us. One question: was Ken Byrne back?

Thank you! Jamman's reviews were part of what inspired me to start doing these. You will love the breakfast burrito's! And no, Ken was not back.

[swodog94]

Your review is great! Thanks!

Thank you for following along!

[swodog94]

HMC Cabana

Before I continue with the 1st Sea Day I need to backtrack a little. You may recall that I tried fruitlessly to get a Half Moon Cay cabana both prior to the cruise and again when we got on board. I had gotten my name on the stand bye list, but was number three and so felt I had little chance of scoring a cabana. But later that afternoon of Embarkation Day I came back to our stateroom to find that some things had been left in our mailbox. Every stateroom has a mailbox mounted to the bulkhead next to the door and things are left there for you every day. Sometimes several times a day! Many times they are flyers for art auction or such, but they can also be excursion tickets or important information, such as debarkation instructions. So in my mailbox was a ticket for our cabana on Grand Turk and a sheet to fill out information for a HMC cabana! I ran down to the Excursion Desk to verify that we had one, and we did! You can choose what cabana you want and when he showed what was still available I almost did back flips...cabana number 10 was open! I knew from reading reviews here on CC that if you wanted to be near the action you chose a lower numbered cabana, but that also meant you would be in a crowded area of the beach. A higher numbered cabana meant you had a bit of a trek to get there, but it was quieter...and 9, 10 and 11 are very near the restrooms. So I was super happy that not only did we get a cabana, but that we got a pretty good choice, too. Ok, back to your regularly scheduled review.

[swodog94]

1st Sea Day (Cont.)

After a few hours hanging out be the Serenity pool I started to get hungry. Time for lunch - another Blue Iguana Burrito!

 

After a nap, we walked the ship for a bit and looked through the pictures at Pixels to find our Embarkation photos. We didn't like any of them so we tossed them. Then I headed back to Serenity and my wife hit the casino. After I bit I got a little hungry and I knew that dinner was still hours away (we had the late seating at 8:15). I headed to the Deli for a snack. The Deli is one of the places that is open almost all the time (11am to 11pm) for sandwiches. But it's also where you can get a hot dog!

 

 

That would tide me over quite well until dinner. Plus tonight was Elegant Night.