LIVE Journey to Greenland on the Pride 9/8/24

[rxlowry]

I’m back for another live report! It’s been some time since my last Carnival adventure but I’m excited for this two week journey cruise. 
I love that it’s is an easy hour ish drive to the port in Baltimore. This is our second time on the Pride as most of our Baltimore cruises were on our beloved NCL Majesty.  It was in 2011 so I’m excited to see her again 
I’ll do my best to answer questions, so feel free to ask away!  
I’ll post soon from the Pride!!

Edited September 8 by rxlowry
Info

[Prometheus1]

Looking forward to your LIVE. Im on Pride for the May Greenland cruise 

[Jamman54]

We'll be following along. We actually were booked on this cruise but cancelled because previous cruises didn't make it there, or if they did, tendering was a nightmare. We decided to do another B2B on the Venezia instead. Hoping all goes well for you on this cruise. 😎

[rxlowry]

Parking a breeze!  Right to luggage and to pay with zero wait!  Arrived at 1:10.  On board at 1:50.  The ship had strong smell of varnish (?) and our cabin reeks.  Eye watering. I’m sitting up in Serenity for air.  It was bad by the shops too when we went for muster. I hope it airs out when we move. 

[TravelE]

Following along! This sounds like a fantastic itinerary.

[rxlowry]

So the smell is from fueling. Wow must be all the fuel we need to travel so far!  lol  I’m going to hide out in Serenity sipping this dry gin martini my husband brought to me.  I’m impressed with my husband’s tale of Guest Services and how quick a supervisor came to room. She beat him there. Said she’d put ozone machine.  Our neighbors in an inside across hall were there asking for one too. Bravo Carnival.  I wish I could go unpack but hey I’ve got lots of time until Greenland!! 
Heard announcement about dining times.  Early filled and any time is packed so they were pleading for people to do late which they said is earlier at 7:15. We have early but tonight we are doing the Steakhouse for free or discount wine. 

[pe4all]

Bucket list cruise for us - hopefully someday.!  Can't wait to read about your adventures.  Hoping you have good weather.

[ninjacat123]

Hey rxlowery! I noticed a chemical smell when we first boarded last week, especially around our obstructed window room 4122. I thought it might be cleaner or something from outside. I’m glad you guys solved the mystery! The smell dissipates after the first day (or maybe I got used to it🙀) but I hope it doesn’t hang around for you. Looking forward to your review 👍😸

[ninjacat123]

Home with the gray kitty!!😻

[ninjacat123]

33 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Home with the gray kitty!!😻

Sorry I meant to post that on my LIVE.🤣

[cyntil8ing]

Going to follow along. I was on the last one, August 18, that made it to 1/2 of the Greenland ports. Wishing you better luck! Bon voyage.

[Essiesmom]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

Sorry I meant to post that on my LIVE.🤣

You can never post a kitty picture too many times.  EM

[rxlowry]

Smell is totally gone!  Still super impressed by Carnival’s response. I’ve never smelled the fuel from bunkering on the opposite side of the ship soo strong before. 
It felt so sad going by the Key Bridge. Very eerie and somber for me 
We had dinner at the Steakhouse last night. It was very nice although our wine choice caused some difficulty as we decided to use the 50 off. After our oysters, which were delicious she said they did not have our choice. I gave a second and third so she did return when the salad and soup arrived with the third choice.  My salad was so fresh and Chris enjoyed the soup.  I had surf and turf which both parts cooked perfect and very tasty. Chris said same of rib eye.  My chocolate dome was a miss though. The chocolate didn’t melt when sauce was poured and it was pretty blah. Chris chose better with the apple tart. But it was a good choice for the first night and we met a lovely couple seated next to us. 
We tried to visit casino. Wow! No machines open.  Went to listen to music in Red Frog and really liked the band. 
 

[lazydayz]

Glad Carnival handled the first day issues well. Hope you get good weather and have a great cruise. 

[cyntil8ing]

9 hours ago, rxlowry said:

It was very nice although our wine choice caused some difficulty as we decided to use the 50 off. After our oysters, which were delicious she said they did not have our choice. I gave a second and third so she did return when the salad and soup arrived with the third choice.

This was an ongoing issue with our cruise a few weeks ago. No availability of certain wines by the glass and even running out of certain rums at Red Frog Pub.

There was a Conundrum White Blend we liked. We could get it in the Dining Room at lunch downstairs, but not at dinner upstairs. One night my husband asked for a Malbec. There were none available. 

 

Hubby was introduced to Bumbu rum in Red Frog. Ran out of it ship-wide after the first week. We have purchased a bottle since returning home.

[rxlowry]

2 hours ago, lazydayz said:

Glad Carnival handled the first day issues well. Hope you get good weather and have a great cruise. 

Amazingly so!  And now I gift from Guest Services…I can see a reason for the high loyalty of the Carnival fan base. 
these strawberries look amazing too. Way better than the ones NCL have done on my last cruises. 

[rxlowry]

Nice meal in dining room tonight. Met our table mates and enjoyed the first elegant night 

[rxlowry]

Waiting for the 88 keys show and Rodney from piano bar is warm up. Yikes. I don’t think we will hit piano bar too much. His playing is great but singing…..

[rrraydon]

Hello from Sussex County! 😁

 

Following along... I love this itinerary!

[cyntil8ing]

8 minutes ago, rxlowry said:

Waiting for the 88 keys show and Rodney from piano bar is warm up. Yikes. I don’t think we will hit piano bar too much. His playing is great but singing…..

Bwahaha. I promise to stop responding to every post with our experience, but cannot resist agreeing with this one. We tried four times to go to the piano bar. We never made it through a complete song! He turned everything into a sing-along. If I wanted that, I'd go to karaoke. 😀 We spent most evenings in Red Frog Pub. The regular band was an improvement over Rodney. One night they had a "fest" where the bands on board played together. That was fun! 

Get ready to be really confused about time! Hours will start disappearing every night.

[rxlowry]

1 hour ago, cyntil8ing said:

Bwahaha. I promise to stop responding to every post with our experience, but cannot resist agreeing with this one. We tried four times to go to the piano bar. We never made it through a complete song! He turned everything into a sing-along. If I wanted that, I'd go to karaoke. 😀 We spent most evenings in Red Frog Pub. The regular band was an improvement over Rodney. One night they had a "fest" where the bands on board played together. That was fun! 

Get ready to be really confused about time! Hours will start disappearing every night.

Feel free to join in!  I’m not like that!  
I think sing a long is the way to go when you aren’t very good at singing though. Really digging the band in Red Frog. We just did a jitterbug and got an invite to dance for the glee club!

Losing first hour tonight but with early seating at 5:15, 8:40 is feeling late!  
Tried to hit the early comedy but packed so I’ll wait until R rated!! The comedy on my MSC cruise last month was unhinged. It was the same comedian who made cruise talk for getting stuff thrown at him! 

[ninjacat123]

Rodney at the piano bar was not good and he didn’t get any better at the beginning of 88 keys. We usually enjoy the piano bar and it was one and done for us.

[cyntil8ing]

2 hours ago, rxlowry said:

Tried to hit the early comedy but packed so I’ll wait until R rated!

We had some good, and some not so good comedians. I think there were eight over the course of the cruise. We usually skipped the 8:00pm and made the 10:00pm because we like to eat dinner around 8:15. Timing worked well. They also added some 6:30 shows on the final sea days.

 

What I found amazing at the time was there were new comedians on day three or four, I don’t remember which. But when we start with five sea days, I was like were they keeping them behind glass, in case there was a comedy emergency? Or were they air-lifted in? 😀

 

Seriously, there were a lot of different acts leaving and joining the ship, and it kept things entertaining. 

[jimbo5544]

On 9/8/2024 at 7:41 PM, cyntil8ing said:

Going to follow along. I was on the last one, August 18, that made it to 1/2 of the Greenland ports. Wishing you better luck! Bon voyage.

And we were on the one before that that made it to none

[jimbo5544]

Along for the ride, we were on the one last sept that never got there.   Hope all goes well for you.