Live From Pride 9/19 - (eMed) Testing, Cruising, Vacationing!

[ninjacat123]

Great start to your review!!  DH and I sailed on Magic Sept 4-9 and stopped in Bimini.  We did Carnival's 360 Beach excursion.  Rode an open air tram to the beach, got our two chairs and umbrella, drank our complimentary rum punch each.  Wore masks except while at chairs or in water.  Water was fine, not as clear as HMC.  Held a jellyfish, non-stinging type has a little red flower in the center, in my hand.  Overall a great day!

Looking forward to the rest of your review!!

[Steelers0854]

made it to Baltimore. Beautiful day in the low 80s. 
 

 

[Steelers0854]

3 hours ago, newpherchris said:

hi! I'm looking at a last-minute booking on the Pride next Sunday, the 26th. Does anyone happen to recall the boarding time-frame windows? I believe the earliest is 1 PM, which we wouldn't get or need at this point. Does anyone recall the LAST boarding window time? Thanks in advance 🙂

I don’t recall exactly but it was later. 5pm maybe?  We aren’t boarding til 2. 

[Steelers0854]

Sorry all, I forget Cruise Critic is horrible at handling photos from an iPhone and I “take my pictures wrong”. I’ll try and remember to take them with the phone flipped the other way so you don’t all get sick looking at upside down photos. 🙃

 

maybe they should look at fixing that issue. SMH. 

[ninjacat123]

15 minutes ago, Steelers0854 said:

Sorry all, I forget Cruise Critic is horrible at handling photos from an iPhone and I “take my pictures wrong”. I’ll try and remember to take them with the phone flipped the other way so you don’t all get sick looking at upside down photos. 🙃

 

maybe they should look at fixing that issue. SMH. 

What is "flipped the other way"?  TIA!

[Steelers0854]

5 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

What is "flipped the other way"?  TIA!

When I take photos I generally do it with the volume buttons facing up. When you do this CC likes to turn the photo upside down when you upload them. So I have to remember to take photos with the volume buttons facing down. 

[BroadwayGirl]

5 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

Great start to your review!!  DH and I sailed on Magic Sept 4-9 and stopped in Bimini.  We did Carnival's 360 Beach excursion.  Rode an open air tram to the beach, got our two chairs and umbrella, drank our complimentary rum punch each.  Wore masks except while at chairs or in water.  Water was fine, not as clear as HMC.  Held a jellyfish, non-stinging type has a little red flower in the center, in my hand.  Overall a great day!

Looking forward to the rest of your review!!

Did they offer any other excursions for Bimini at 360?  We’re trying to find out if we can use the pool if we buy the beach day as sone reviews say yes, others no.  Also seeing reports of a 39.99 per person beach club excursion worth pool use. But not seeing that offered. 

[fair-winds39]

Looking forward to your review from the Pride.We last sailed on the Pride for the7th time in Dec. 2019. We’re booked on the Legend for early 2022....fingers crossed. The Legend is pretty much identical to the Pride but we will definitely miss the Pride.

 

The cruise terminal in Baltimore is by far our favorite.  Convenient, orderly and quick.We also love that it’s only 1 1/2 hrs. from our home outside of Philly.  
 

Have a nice trip.

[Steelers0854]

tonight we did dinner at the Rusty Scupper. The old Googler lead us here and it didn’t disappoint. Now DW in addition to her food allergies is a picky eater and doesn’t do seafood but she indulges me and I always find a place with chicken and steak on the menu for her. 
 

this place is great. Easy parking ($9 isn’t horrible), and a beautiful view. 
 

started off with a Scupper Sunset at sunset. 
 

 

DW got the filet with grilled veggies. She said the veggies were excellent but the filet was under seasoned. We decided that most people get a topper or accompaniment and therefore don’t actually ever get the steak plain like she has to. 
 

 

I went for the adventurous option and got the whole fried fish. I love seafood but have never had this before. It was delicious. The chimmichuri sauce they put on it I could just eat with a spoon it was that good!

 

 

and of course the beautiful views!

 

[Steelers0854]

Good Night Baltimore. Tomorrow is cruise day!

 

[nybumpkin]

If you're looking for something to do in the morning you might stop at Fort McHenry, about 10 minutes from the port. You can walk around the grounds without paying to enter the fort.

Edited September 19, 2021 by nybumpkin

[ktmush2]

A Steelers fan traveling to Baltimore for anything? Blasphemy! Well, it is a cruise....

[ninjacat123]

7 hours ago, BroadwayGirl said:

Did they offer any other excursions for Bimini at 360?  We’re trying to find out if we can use the pool if we buy the beach day as sone reviews say yes, others no.  Also seeing reports of a 39.99 per person beach club excursion worth pool use. But not seeing that offered. 

Only one at 360 was a cabana and I have to say, not worth the extra money.  We asked about access to the pool and no access.  I was happy having chairs, umbrella and access to a bathroom.  It's the little things, right?😉

[jimbri]

Have a great time!

[Michelle236]

17 hours ago, Steelers0854 said:

When I take photos I generally do it with the volume buttons facing up. When you do this CC likes to turn the photo upside down when you upload them. So I have to remember to take photos with the volume buttons facing down. 

 

Good to know. 

 

Looking forward to your review...and GO STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nina_930]

What time were passengers allowed to get of the ship?

[KmomChicago]

On 9/17/2021 at 7:21 AM, V_V said:

I absolutely appreciate when people give such detailed updates of their experience, so thank you. 🙂

I hope you guys have a great time! I look forward to reading about it. 

 I totally agree! If someone's not interested they can scroll on past but more often than not, someone out there is worried about the same stuff and will appreciate a firsthand source of the info. 

[KmomChicago]

19 hours ago, Steelers0854 said:

Sorry all, I forget Cruise Critic is horrible at handling photos from an iPhone and I “take my pictures wrong”. I’ll try and remember to take them with the phone flipped the other way so you don’t all get sick looking at upside down photos. 🙃

 

maybe they should look at fixing that issue. SMH. 

 

I did not have this trouble on my recent cruise - I actually would like to know what I was doing right? I guess I had the phone always oriented to have the camera window at the top of the phone so portrait  had the lens up in the corner by my right hand and landscape was a quarter turn in my hand to the left; i.e. now the lens was by my left hand. 

 

I am not doing this because I know what I am doing, BTW. It just seems to be how I am always holding the phone and naturally turning for side orientation. Lucky?

[Steelers0854]

It’s a beautiful 73 degrees outside and you can see the top of the Pride poking out above the skyline saying hello to us this morning!  See you in a few hours!

 

[breezer]

Thank you so much for all the testing details and tips.  It's the only thing stressing me out before I cruise in 3 weeks.  Your description of how it all went is very helpful.

I must have missed it in the thread, but where did you stay in Baltimore?

Please don't hold it against me, but I'm a Browns fan 🙂

Hope you guys have a wonderful cruise.  Thanks again.

[Steelers0854]

12 minutes ago, breezer said:

Thank you so much for all the testing details and tips.  It's the only thing stressing me out before I cruise in 3 weeks.  Your description of how it all went is very helpful.

I must have missed it in the thread, but where did you stay in Baltimore?

Please don't hold it against me, but I'm a Browns fan 🙂

Hope you guys have a wonderful cruise.  Thanks again.

 

We are staying at the Canopy Hilton.  Its a good hotel, not sure i would stay here again.  The only thing super close is a Whole Foods, the rest of the main area of restaurants aquarium etc is about a mile walk away.  The hotel is nice, and the staff is wonderful, there are some minor quality issues in the room that are a little disappointing for how expensive the hotel is (we stayed on a free night certificate).  

 

The testing couldn’t have been easier.  While we had to pay for them and i am sure we could have gotten a free test locally this was so easy and no hassle i would buy them again in a heart beat.

[Steelers0854]

Our boarding time is 2pm. We got here at 1:35 as we didn’t really know where we were going so wanted some extra time. They wouldn’t let us into the port area and told us to come back in 10 minutes. So not sure if it’s just this individual that’s working or if all of them are sticking strictly to the boarding times but just be advised you may get turned away if you arrive too early. also apparently we are supposed to know to ignore the signs that say keep right for passenger drop off and pickup and left for parking. It’s apparently just one line to the right.  Guess I left my mind reading hat at home lol. 
 

There aren’t exactly a lot of parking places around but we found a place to sit in time out and are just waiting now. 😎

[WhiteOptima]

2 hours ago, breezer said:

Thank you so much for all the testing details and tips.  It's the only thing stressing me out before I cruise in 3 weeks.  Your description of how it all went is very helpful.

I must have missed it in the thread, but where did you stay in Baltimore?

Please don't hold it against me, but I'm a Browns fan 🙂

Hope you guys have a wonderful cruise.  Thanks again.

We booked Courtyard McHenry row because it was closest and there is a grocery store near there.  We had Hilton Pier 5 booked but that was across the harbor and the Courtyard seems to have places to eat around it.  All the hotels seem pricey but didn’t want to stay near the airport.

[Steelers0854]

We made it!  30 minutes from parking the car to the room. The process couldn’t be easier. 

 

They are VERY strict on your arrival times at multiple points in the process. Highly recommend you don’t arrive until at most 15 minutes before your scheduled time. 
 

Pro Tip: You can be fully electronic with all your items (test results, COVID card etc). You MUST have a hard copy of your boarding pass. If you don’t have one they will print one for you right there. 
 

COVID Test and Vaccination Check: they looked at my eMed test results from the NAVICA app and looked at the date and had no issues with it. DW printed her test results with no issues either. We both had our paper vaccination cards and they had no issues with that either. 
 

once we boarded we went right to our muster station. They scanned our boarding pass and showed us how the life vest worked. Bam, done! 
 

our room was ready and we headed right up. We have the Cheers package but there was no sticker on our card. We confirmed at GS that it was in fact on there. Not sure if or when they changed that we have never had Cheers on Carnival so maybe they never did it. There was down pillows in the room and we had to go down to GS as housekeeping wasn’t available to have them removed. 
 

headed to the buffet for a light snack. Dinner in the MDR is in 3 hours. 

[Steelers0854]

Let’s talk about food allergies. This is gonna be interesting. We are not hopeful that there will be much variety for DW as there was on past cruises. 
 

they now use an app system through CertiStar. You go to the dining venue and they pull up an app and you tell them your allergies. They then show you what you can eat and what you can eat with modifications. They had DW order dinner for tonight and she could only do chicken with a salad. For lunch the entire buffet was off limits but they said to speak with any chef and they would make anything she needed. She got a salad as we were trying to eat light anyway so more on this in the coming days. We are hoping that once we get to the MDR and meet our waitstaff there may be some more flexibility there.