carnival cruise entertainment

Carnival Pride cruise review: Final thoughts

September 18, 2013

The Carnival Pride, sitting in port in Florida.

(This is the final in a six-part series about my first cruise. I sailed on the Carnival Pride from August 4-11. It started and ended in Baltimore, making in Port Canaveral, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas; and Freeport, Bahamas. The other parts of this series ran over the past few weeks).

The ship has certainly sailed.

Alas, it’s time to put this series to bed as well. By now, if you’re a reader of the blog, you’ve read about my adventures about going on my first cruise. If you haven’t, well, shame on you. Go back and read them.

Now. We’ll wait.

OK, so you’re back? Welcome!

These are my final thoughts on this cruise. I’ve covered pretty much everything I could from that cruise. Being there as a member of a wedding and serving as the photographer allowed me to miss the experience of boarding with so many others. That was nice, I must say. The wedding and reception happened on the boat while in port in Baltimore. After that, it was one heck of a fun time.

The wedding was wonderful. Those involved were excellent. The food was exquisite. The celebration was awesome. It was an honor to be a part of the wedding and even better to be sailing with the newlyweds and the small party that joined them.

And I had the chance to cross something off my bucket list.

I had the chance to meet some great people — staff and guests — including the cruise director Josh (left) and assistant cruise director Sassy (right).

I’m not a “cruiser,” per say. I talked to several people on the ship who cruise any chance they get. I went to forums before the cruise and researched and people really do the cruising thing.

I’m more of an explorer. I like to go somewhere and have the freedom to check things out and do what I want without restrictions of a massive body of water surrounding you. Despite that, I always said I wanted to at least try a cruise and see what it was like. I’m glad I had this chance.

I never remotely got motion sickness. Walking around was no issue. And exploring the boat was quite fun in its own right. I wish I had a little better financial situation as there were a few things I would have liked to have done, such as the chef’s dinner or the Captain’s tour. Maybe on a future tour, I’ll have that chance.

But overall, taking a cruise isn’t a bad way to spend a vacation.

And despite there being more than 2,000 people on this ship, you could still find places for it to be quiet. Such as heading out to one of the lower decks, where people rarely seemed to be.

With a balcony room, it was nice to be able to sit outside and watch the world go by. Or, at night, it was nice to sit out there and just listen to the water. It’s very relaxing.

The food — with so much available 24/7 — was awesome. The entertainment was excellent. There are memories from this cruise that will last with me forever.

The people were the best. From guests to staff members to anybody I spoke with, everybody always seemed to be cheery and in a goof mood. And why not, right?

Before going further, however, I wanted to bring you some fun stuff. On the final sea day, the cruise director Josh, held a question-and-answer session. I took notes as I knew it would be full of great stuff to post. The questions ranged from the size of the ship to how much booze was served (my question, of course) and Josh did everything he could to answer. He’d call other people on the ship to find out answers, which was too cool. This was one fun show to watch.

How about these tidbits from this seven-day cruise?

The ship is 963 feet long — that breaks down to 11,565 inches
Enough milk is consumed to fill three swimming pools
The boat produces, from sea water, 1 million gallons of fresh water per day
More than 30,000 eggs are eaten
There are no garbage cans throughout the ship as crew members take care of that because of how waste needs to be taken care of
There were 920 crew members that represented 58 nationalities

Oh yeah, the booze. I asked that question and Josh called up somebody to get the answer. A bit later, he was called back. Turns out people like to have a good time on the ship. How good? See here:

1,035 bottles of wine/champagne
9,400 cans/bottles of beer
873 bottles of liquor
14,052 cans of soda

He didn’t get numbers of kegs of beer, but I’m sure that’s not too low of a number, either.

Crazy, right?

Anyway, moving on. With all the positive, there were, unfortunately, a couple of negative things did happen, mostly surrounding the wedding.

A good way to relax was to find a lower deck and just stare out at the ocean. Often, these decks were empty.

I’d be remiss to note that the couple had a frame with a photo of them in it. During the ceremony, they poured colored sand into it, around the photo. It was a nice situation.

Alas, Carnival, somehow, lost this item. No matter what the cost of it, it was priceless as it had way more of a significance to the newlyweds than money. It’s a shame that this happened. It’s a black eye situation, too, as nobody wins. Carnival looks bad and the newlyweds have lost something that money really can’t replace.

One thing to note — I wasn’t an “official” photographer as when you are married on the cruise, they give you one. However, the prices are extremely high for what you get. The photographer assigned to this was nice to start, but as things moved along, he got a bit more testy with me. See, people were looking at me for the photos.

Oh, the humanity, especially seeing as I was picked by the bride and groom.

A couple of times he made sure he got in the way of me shooting, too. I was trying to respect the space, but here was reality — the couple wasn’t going to spend that crazy amount of money on photos.

I understand the idea here, but Carnival really needs to re-visit this policy. They have to remember that it’s about the couple — and if they don’t want some photographer they don’t know, have never met and haven’t discussed things, then that’s how it should be. You don’t see places off the ship forcing a photographer down the throat of a couple, so why on board?

And though those were the only true negatives that I can recall, these are ones that can have lasting memories and not necessarily in a positive way, about the cruise line.

The other aspects of the wedding — and the cruise — were top-notch, however.

I’m sure I’ll sail again. It’s a relaxing and stress-free way to vacation and a way to see some cool places, meet different people and be able to know it was an affordable way to go.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Carnival Pride cruise review: The people

September 5, 2013

(This is the fifth in a six-part series about my first cruise. I sailed on the Carnival Pride from August 4-11. It started and ended in Baltimore, making stops in Port Canaveral, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas; and Freeport, Bahamas. The other parts of this series are scheduled to run over the next couple of weeks).

Do you ever sit back and think about all the people you’ve met in your lifetime?

Whether it’s on a personal level or a professional level, it’s amazing how many people come in and out of a person’s life on a daily basis. Some people might be a passing glance, others may be an in-depth conversation or more.

You just never know.

I think about the cruise and it’s mind-boggling how many people I met that I’ll likely never see again. Ever. From the wait staff in the dining room to our room steward to other travelers you may have shared a table with or had glancing chats with as you passed one another.

Crazy, right?

This post is covering those people. But I’m going to talk a bit about the staff on the boat, then mention some other travelers at the end.

Sassy and Autumn made the Carnival Quest extra fun.

As a people watcher, I always am interested to see how those who work with many customers react on a daily basis. After all, it can’t be easy to follow the “customer is always right” edict, especially when on a ship for a week, right?

Not so.

The people who work on these ships, at least the ones I dealt with or came across, are amazingly friendly and accommodating. They were quick with answers or would find what you needed.

I tried to interact with as many as could so I could actually know them a little. They weren’t just people working on the ship, they were somebody with a story.

Try this one on for size — there were 920 crew members on the ship, making up 58 nationalities. There were only, if I remember the number right, 14 Americans working on the ship. That total number basically means there were about two to two and half staff members per guest.

How’s that for a melting pot?

I do wish I wrote more things down, such as names. But I’ll try to remember some of the people who really made an impression on me. These folks ranged from the entertainment staff to the normal everyday workers, which made the experience that much better.

Let’s start toward the top. I met the cruise director Josh on the second night. After a brief chat, I mentioned I collected pins during my travels and that I was shocked there were none offered in the stores on ship. After talking about baseball, he excused himself for a moment and asked me to wait where I was. He returned with a couple of pins for me, special ones given by the trip.

Josh, the cruise director, hosting a show on the main stage.

I was impressed right off the bat with how he went the extra mile. I spoke with Josh a few more times during the week and really enjoyed getting to learn a bit about him. He also wasn’t afraid to put himself out there with his entertainment shows. In fact, in one of them, he dressed as Dolly Parton.

Josh was a solid host during shows and kept things entertaining and flowing. Given this was my first cruise, I feel lucky Josh was the cruise director as he really went out of his way at times to work with people.

His assistant cruise director — known as Sassy — was an incredible person on ship, too. Outgoing, readily available to chat and with a personality the size of the ship, he was fantastic to deal with. He, too, was an excellent host. I never played bingo on the ship, but I popped in one day to watch something following bingo — and he even made that fun. That says something.

But where he took the cake was in the Carnival Quest. Between him and his co-host Autumn, they did a wonderful job in making an adult-only scavenger hunt an absolute blast. It didn’t hurt that the team I was on took second, either.

Speaking of Autumn, I enjoyed a few other things where she was a host. Same with, I believe, Jess, who was excellent with the music trivia shows. Chris — the head of the comedy club — was solid as well as he was funny and the other time I interacted with him, I was impressed.

As I said, the entertainment staff was top-notch all around and they should be commended.

One thing I loved was having an assigned dinner time. Though I would have rather eaten earlier, I liked knowing the table I was at and who our wit staff was. Even better was how they remembered our names after the first day. Amazing. To think these staff members are contracted anywhere from 6-10 months and turn ships around weekly — and remember names. That’s talented.

But the three who waited on us were incredible. They were friendly, funny and knowledgeable. They helped and made sure everything was perfect.

And, of course, when they performed, it was quite entertaining. See for yourself:

One of the people who really impressed me — and I regret not writing the name down because it’s a hard one and I’ll skip trying — was the person in charge of the Internet cafe. I had a couple of chats with him through the week, about life, photography, the Internet and living in different places. Talk about incredible. He has a wife and a young child and plans on only being in the cruise business for another year or so. In fact, he noted this was his last run (though like November) with Carnival, which he was disappointed about as he said it was a great company for which to work.

His vision for his — and his family’s — future was outstanding. It’s people like that where you wish your connection didn’t end after a week. I would love to know 10 to 20 years from now how his business and life ended up. I can only hope it works out to a great level.

The staff in the food court were great. The people who roamed and cleaned were always friendly and smiling. It truly seemed like it was a good place to work.

I leave one of the best staff members for last.

Edy.

Edy was our room steward. At the end of the week, he mentioned he took care of 26 (I believe that was the numbers) rooms. But he was always around, always smiling and always looking to help. His “Mr. P.J.” greeting is something I’ll always remember. He even took a request for a towel animal, making a hanging monkey the final night on the ship.

Edy was one heck of a room steward.

I feel we were lucky to have Edy as our steward as he was everything one could hope to have in that position.

Realizing they are in a business where they need to help or please customers, I understand they need to put on a good front. I’ve worked in industries where I needed to interact with the customers on a regular basis. Though you can put on the front, sometimes it can be tough. These people seemed genuine. Though I did see a few people who may not have always been in the best of moods, those I interacted and talked with made me feel like I was a king — and for that I am highly appreciative.

If you’ve read along with these reviews and other posts about this cruise, you already know I was on the ship as the photographer for a wedding. Going in, I knew Dave (the groom), Kim (the bride), Ben (the groom’s brother) and I had briefly met Gurney — the person I was rooming with — a cousin of the groom. That was it.

So I was going into this basically as a solo traveler.

I’ve traveled solo many times, but usually that is mixed in with some sort of an event, such as a geocaching event where I’ll have interaction. Still, I don’t have an issue striking up a conversation with somebody in a random situation.

Besides the crew, the people I met and chatted with were incredibly friendly as well.

Those connected to the wedding who sailed were a lot of fun to be on a ship with for a week.

Those traveling with the wedding party were a lot of fun and made the trip better. I enjoyed hanging out with some of them throughout the week, whether it was during dinner, random meetings on the boat, getting yelled at from our neighbors (Amy and Dave and their kids), or playing air hockey with Jonny at 1:30 in the morning, the people were great. When I was walking around alone, I met a bunch of people and just struck up conversations. The people were from all over and had different stories. It was also just nice to sit somewhere and people watch.

It seemed like once you met them, you’d see them again, though.

Why wouldn’t you be happy, though? On a boat, being treated well and having a good time. I would hope you would smile!

I also liked meeting people at breakfast. With no assigned seating, you were seated in different places. That meant being seated next to different people. On all but one of the days I did that, I got to meet some really cool and fun people. I had the chance to meet different people from all over. The one day was a port day. I was getting seated next to an older couple, who decided they wanted a two-seat table. So I sat alone for much of the time. Then some others were seated with me and they weren’t much for conversation. No worries though as I soon finished, bid them a fine day and got out of there.

In the end, the people really made this cruise amazing. I made some friends I’ll hopefully keep through my life and I met others who, despite likely never seeing again, had an impact on my life. I look forward to possible future cruises and having the chance to meet many more people.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Carnival Pride cruise review: Top photos on the ship

September 3, 2013

I stood at the front of the ship quite often. Being on the ninth floor was quite nice to be able to just watch as the ship sailed on.

(This is the fourth in a six-part series about my first cruise. I sailed on the Carnival Pride from August 4-11. It started and ended in Baltimore, making stops in Port Canaveral, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas; and Freeport, Bahamas. The other parts of this series are scheduled to run over the next couple of weeks).

I wanted to take a break from all the other reviews and share some images from the trip. I took a lot of photos, whether with my main camera or my iPhone, so I wanted to pick out 10 or so images to share with you.

These images are all from the boat, however. I didn’t want to use port shots or anything as I covered that already. So anything goes with these, as long as they were on the ship.

Remember, my initial reason for being on this cruise was to take photos for a wedding. And the wedding took place on the ship, so that’s all good, too.

I’m trying not to duplicate ones I’m using in other posts, but nothing can be guaranteed!

I have picked out 10 photos below, in no particular order.

1. Sunset

It’s unfortunate, but I didn’t get to see too many cool sunsets. With a later dining time, we were eating when these often happened. I was told I missed an amazing one on one night, but there were a few other nights where it was too cloudy or it just didn’t have that “magical” feeling. This one was pretty amazing, though.

Sunset

2. Newlyweds

As noted above, I was on the ship to also take photos for a wedding. As we were walking around after the service, we wanted to set something like this up. However, this was as I was testing some lighting things out. I really loved how the shot came out.

Newlyweds

3. Carnival Pride

I love shots like this. Just simple things, but it shows the ship you are on and that you’re on the ship. I took a few of these over the course of the week, but liked this one quite a bit.

On the Carnival Pride

4. Dolphin

I had heard about dolphins swimming with the ship. In fact, somebody had seen them a day earlier. I didn’t know if I’d have the chance. I was walking on the deck one day and saw a bunch of people looking over. I had my camera and looked over … and there they were. I snapped as many shots as I could before they disappeared, but it was really wild to see.

Dolphin

5. Another Carnival ship

One night, while sitting out on the balcony of my room, another Carnival ship sailed by. I pulled out the zoom lens, knowing I wouldn’t be able to keep it still enough to get a crisp shot. So I messed with the movement, hoping to get something cool. I liked how this one turned out.

Another Carnival ship sailing by

6. View from the front

I never got tired of going up to the top decks to lean on the railing and just stare out as the ship sailed along. The views were amazing, the wind hit you in the face and it was extremely relaxing. Often, I was the only one there, too, so the quietness was very peaceful.

Sailing ahead

7. Storm brewing

The view changed on the final day at sea as we headed into a crazy looking storm.

Storm ahead

8. Getting off the ship

OK, I consider this technically part of the ship. I took this one day when getting off the ship at a port. Just really thought the look of it was pretty neat.

Walking off the ship

9. Sunset II

Another sunset shot. Not quite as nice as the first night, I don’t think. And this one disappeared before the horizon because of clouds. But I liked how it glistened the water.

Another sunset

10. Setting them up

OK, so a somewhat “selfie” shot as the final one. This is as I was trying to line up everybody from the wedding who was sailing. It wasn’t the easiest of jobs, especially because of how nice it was on the ship!

Set up!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Carnival Pride cruise review: The ports

September 2, 2013

(This is the third in a six-part series about my first cruise. I sailed on the Carnival Pride from August 4-11. It started and ended in Baltimore, making in stops Port Canaveral, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas; and Freeport, Bahamas. The other parts of this series are scheduled to run over the next couple of weeks).

As you likely know, one of the best parts of a cruise can be the ports.

After spending so much time on a ship, it’s nice to get off and go investigate new places, whether it be shopping, eating, sitting on a beach or taking an excursion.

We made two stops in the Bahamas.

The cruise I took had three ports — Port Canaveral, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas; and Freeport, Bahamas. Each offered something different, which was nice and we had different amounts of time at each.

I forgot to bring an excursion book home with me, so I can’t comment on how many were available. But there were quite a few for each port. The good thing about excursions is that they do all the work for you — they pick you up, take you where you are going, handle all tickets etc., and make sure you are back on time. If something is wrong and you are going to be late, the ship will wait as it’s an official excursion.

That being said, already being constrained to being on the ship, in two of the three ports, I opted to do my own thing. I took an excursion in Freeport, which was decent, but I’m not sure I’d do that again. I liked having my own agenda and doing what I wanted and not being held to the time frame of the excursion.

All three ports had their good points and bad points. I changed my plans, for the most part, at two of them and would say I enjoyed the things I opted to do. Below is a breakdown of each port and my thoughts.

Port Canaveral

My original plan was quite simple — go geocaching.

Across the bridge from the port (where I’d need to take a taxi) was a geocaching power trail which would, if I found them all, have given me about 25-30 caches. Not too bad, considering the boat was docked for 11 hours. I ended up changing that up slightly, which I am quite happy I did. If not, it may have been one miserable — and more expensive — day.

After renting a car, I ended up heading to Cocoa Beach for a bit.

I didn’t get off the ship until probably around 9 a.m. or so, which was after most people had taken off. I had been told what I needed to do was take a taxi — which should cost about $5 or so — across the bridge and to the starting point of this power trail. Simple enough, right?

Ha!

When I got to the spot where you get taxis, the person helping tried to get me to where I wanted to go. But one taxi driver made it sound like he had no flipping clue whatsoever. Made me worry about getting back. Some other people came and went and there I stood, still without a ride. I was beginning to wonder if I should have booked an excursion, if not just to go somewhere. Not to mention it was quite hot and humid and I was starting to get a little grumpy.

So I asked about rental cars. I was told I was looking at $75 or so per day for the car, which blew my mind. I decided to walk across and find out some prices and a guy from Payless Car Rental quoted me $35 and offered to help me upgrade with a GPS. I realized it was my best course of action and I’m glad I went with it.

Let me say this — if you are coming into port and want a rental car, deal with Payless. They were nice, quick and helpful. The experience I had was unreal. After taxed, I paid about $40 for a mid-size car with a GPS unit. You can’t go wrong with that. When I got back, it wasn’t long before I was on the shuttle back to the boat.

One of my stops was a geocaching store, where this massive cache was waiting.

Having that car allowed me to get around a little, which was nice. I took some photos, I found a few geocaches and I visited some tourist areas. I also got to stop at a geocaching store and chat with the owners, which was nice.

Basically, my day was spent looking at things. I had originally hoped to find a Gulf Coast League baseball game, but none were close enough. So this was the next best thing, especially with the heat and humidity. I had lunch at a nice little bagel shop and visited the famous Ron John surf shop in Cocoa Beach.

And I added Florida to my caching list.

I was happy with this port as I got the chance to do a few things and had the freedom to do it on my time and at my pace. If I had just been dropped off to do some geocaching, I would have been hot, sweaty and a bit of a mess quickly. I’m glad it worked out as it did and I’m glad I talked to Payless Car Rental as I feel I got a fair deal on a solid car.

When back on board, I showered up and went about the normal things, which obviously included finding some food. We set said again and the next day was port stop number two.

Nassau

I’m not going to lie here — I was a little fearful about Nassau. You see, I was going solo on this one and the ship had handed out a warning from the US Government about the crime in Nassau and how it had reached a critical stage.

Oh joy.

A great view coming into Nassau.

I decided, with that in mind, not to put myself in any situations where it could be bad — so I left my camera on the ship and figured I could take most shots I’d want with my iPhone. With the plan to grab a couple of geocaches as well, I hooked my GPS to one of my belt loops so it could stay in my pocket when not in use.

Let me get one thing out of the way, though. I never had any issues and really never had any feeling that I was in a bad situation. I stayed alert, too, so I think that helped me in the long run. Either way, I got to do pretty much everything I had hoped and planned to do, outside of walking on a beach. But I blew that chance, which I’ll cover in a moment.

I was up early, knowing I wanted to get off the boat quickly as I was meeting a pair of geocachers to find a few before heading off to do my own thing. After getting off the boat, I waited and waited and ended up missing them. So off I went, first stopping to do a virtual geocache, then a nano in a small park area. It was there where I met the cachers. We teamed up to do one more before splitting and I headed toward my first planned stop — The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas.

First, I was quite happy the place was air conditioned as I was very hot at that point. I paid the nominal $5 fee to get in, chugged a bottle of water and off I went.

If you are a fan of art galleries, I think you’d enjoy this place. It’s filled with art by well-known local artists and those who have connections to the Bahamas. There were all sorts of different styles of art in here, which made it even better. And, with the Bahamas celebrating 40 years of independence this year, there was a magnificent exhibit showcasing portraits (photographs) of some of the most prominent people in the country’s history. I truly enjoyed looking at those images and reading about each person.

All told, I spent about an hour and a half in there and it was well worth the stop. I’m glad this was one I chose to do as it showed some history and I got to see great artwork.

Following that, I went around the corner to John Watling’s Distillery, which was my main goal of the day.

John Watling’s Distillery.

I’m a fan of rum and to be able to see where it’s made was too cool to pass up. When first coming in, you’re greeted by somebody who gives you the basics and explains about the tour. It’s a self-guided tour, which takes about 10 minutes. You get to see the history, where they make and bottle the rum and see different bits of information about how rum is made.

At the end, you’re back in the main building, where you get to taste their three types of rum — Pale, Amber and the award-winning Buena Vista, which is a sipping rum. I enjoyed all three, but truly enjoyed the Amber best as it’s more my style of rum. The Buena Vista was quite amazing, too, but I’m not much for a sipping rum. So, in the end, knowing I would be taking a bottle back with me, I went with the Amber.

Then I sat down at the bar and had a Rum Dum, which is a drink made up by one of the older bartenders, Uncle Will. He made mine, too, and it was quite amazing. I had a good conversation with Uncle Will and Felix about the rums, the Bahamas and other things. It was truly an experience and one I’ll remember for a long time. Uncle Will also gave me a bit of a Bahama Mama, which was fantastic as well. But that Rum Dum … wow. Amazing and, without a doubt, the best rum drink I’ve ever had.

I’d like to duplicate the drink, but I only have one of the two rums needed for it. I’m not sure if I can find this rum locally, so I may have to try and figure something out as it would be nice to sit back and have a Rum Dum on occasion. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance to return to Nassau one day and have one from the source once again.

The Rum Dum.

Following that stop, I walked back into the main part of Nassau and went to a spot to eat. I was disappointed there because I was told the conch fritters, which I had wanted to try, was a small batch. So I got that and some chicken. The problem was, the fritters could have been a meal by themselves. I should have just got them and some fries. Instead, I got what felt like a three-course meal and ended up having food wasted because I couldn’t eat it all. I think I would have been better off just finding a smaller place, having a snack and then waiting for the boat.

At that point, I made a mistake. I went to look for another geocache, which I didn’t end up finding. With the time I had left, I should have gone and found a beach or something and walked around looking at the water. It’s the one thing I truly regret. I did, however, end up with a piece of art from a street artist, which is something I try and do when I travel. So I was happy about that.

Once back at the port, I utilized the free Wi-Fi to check some e-mail and upload some photos and then back on the ship I went to grab a shower and get ready for the everyday things. The next day would be an early port and I had an excursion I was debating whether or not I wanted to do. I was told I could get a refund if I wanted it, but ended up deciding that I had already paid for it, so what the heck.

Freeport

We were in port early (7 a.m.), but I didn’t need to be out for my excursion until 9 a.m. So I grabbed a shower, went and had some breakfast and set out for my excursion, which was going to include a stop at a perfume factory, a shopping area and a brewery. I’m sure you can guess my main reason for this excursion.

In Freeport.

Before I talk about anything else, I’ll say that the tour guide was fantastic. He was funny, informative and made the whole trip worthwhile.

Soon, we were on the bus and off to the tour. The first stop was at the perfume factory, which I truly didn’t enjoy. It was hot inside and it wasn’t anything I was interested in. The area was also a little run down, which made it not a great spot. We were soon on the bus again and heading to a downtown area, where there was shopping.

This is where I really got disappointed.

I had been told at the excursion desk that I should have time to walk to the beach. Not to swim or anything, but I just wanted to see it and walk a little. When getting off the bus, the people told me I shouldn’t because we were only there for 30 minutes. So, I was a bit bummed there. I did run into a few people from the wedding party I was with, however, so it was all good.

Then it was time for the brewery.

Now I don’t know how much it would have cost me to get to the brewery and do a tour and such on my own and I think the price I paid for the tour for what I got was a little steep, but the brewery kind of made up for it all. We had a great tour guide and the tasting of the beers was a show in its own. The Bahamian Brewery was a great stop with some good beers.

Virgil’s Ale.

We had the chance to taste six beers — five public ones and one that is brewed exclusively for Atlantis, which is in Nassau. Sands Light was first and we went up the chain to Sands, High Rock, Bush Crack, Virgil’s Ale (the Atlantis one) and, finally, Strong Back Stout. After testing them all, they gave you a few more samples of the ones you liked best, which for me, was Virgil’s Ale and the stout.

I’ve been on many brew tours, but this one was very memorable. The guide (Ash) was outstanding and the beers were tasty. In the end, it made me happy to have done the excursion.

We got back to the port in plenty of time and I hopped on the boat. About 20 minutes later, the skies opened and a good storm passed through, so the timing of everything turned out to be perfect.

Freeport was a short day off the boat — only from 7 a.m. – 1 p.m., but for the time, it wasn’t a bad way to spend the day.

Overall thoughts on the ports

Though I think I enjoyed the sea days a bit more than the ports (when I travel in areas I’ve not been, I don’t like time constraints as I kind of like to just explore), the things I did choose to do made it fun. I got to see new areas, add a new state and country to my geocaching map. I also got to try some local beverages and food and that was worth it as well.

I look forward to future cruises and checking out other ports to see how they compare.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Carnival Pride cruise review: The food

August 27, 2013

(This is the second in a six-part series about my first cruise. I sailed on the Carnival Pride from August 4-11. It started and ended in Baltimore, making stops in Port Canaveral, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas; and Freeport, Bahamas. The other parts of this series are scheduled to run over the next couple of weeks).

One thing I always heard about when people talked cruising is the food.

Top of the line, I heard. The choices are plenty and there’s so much to try and experience. As a low-level foodie, this made me quite excited as I was ready to see what kind of things could be tried and what there was to be offered.

I wasn’t disappointed with the Carnival Pride’s menus.

From the main dining area, to the many choices in the food court area to the steak house and little spots throughout the ship for things such as sweets and more, I thought the options were plenty.

And knowing only one or two of the places weren’t covered by your initial fee made it even better.

I only paid for food a couple of times on the ship — the steakhouse (a $35 fee well worth it — more below), one time when I wanted a slice of carrot cake and another time for a milkshake.

That’s it.

Other than that, anything I ate on board was covered. That included the several late-night stops at the pizza place. Or whatever else. I’m going to tackle this post by talking about each meal (not one-by-one, but rather breakfast/lunch/dinner/other) to show what kind of things they offered. I’ll have photos sprinkled throughout and I’ll also have a bunch of extra images at the end of the post.

I’ll also be talking about the steakhouse experience by itself.

What I really like is they didn’t go crazy on the portion sizes in any of the meals. It wasn’t some massive feed-your-face free-for-all. Rather, the food they gave you was solid, tasty, nice looking and small enough where if you wanted to try more than one thing, you didn’t feel overwhelmed.

Breakfast/brunch

I made it a point to eat, for the most part, in the dining room each morning. On sea days, it was a brunch. On port days, it was a smaller menu and breakfast. Either way, there was some excellent stuff offered each day.

I had the eggs Benedict several of the days. It was quite good each day, despite one egg on one day not being cooked right. It didn’t take away from the experience and the food was good.

Fruit Loops on my French toast.

With that in mind, I usually doubled up on breakfast/brunch as I usually didn’t plan on worrying about lunch. I didn’t like battling lines up on the food deck, so I tried to make sure I wouldn’t get too hungry. And if I did, it was usually mid-afternoon, which was fine as our dining time was 8:15 p.m.

Besides the main idea, I also tried to have other things. Sometimes it was fruit, sometimes some extra bacon, or a bagel or something else.

Such as super fun French toast.

How was it fun? Well, they crusted it with the cereal of your choice. The one day I did this, I got fruit loops.

You read that right.

And, honestly? It wasn’t bad. The fruit loops, probably because of how it’s cooked or done, tasted slightly stale, but it was still pretty good. I didn’t even need syrup for the French toast.

Another day, I decided to go with steak and eggs. That’s eggs with a filet mignon on the side. Score.

One of the port days, I decided to go with room service, getting a bagel and some cereal. It was nice to have it delivered to the door. More about room service below.

I enjoyed being able to come in, grab brunch and do my own thing. There was no set time to eat and no set table. That meant I had the chance to see a few different servers and different parts of the dining room, which was nice.

And the food, as with every other meal, was top notch.

Lunch

As noted above, I didn’t eat lunch every day. But there were a few where I did.

From the deli.

Often, I’d go to the deli part of the food court. They made some fantastic sandwiches. One day, I had a corned beef and pastrami sandwich. Another, I had two sandwiches — a grilled ham and a cheese and a mozzarella on Focaccia bread. Tasty.

That’s pretty much my main “lunch” story. There were options on the deck with all the buffet choices. I had pizza one day and found the salad bar still open when I got up there another.

But for the most part, if I had a lunch, it was at the deli.

I really was impressed with the speed and taste of the sandwiches I had, which was nice. I also always went a little later than the normal lunch rush, so I usually had a seat near a window to watch as the water went by.

Dinner

OK, let’s be honest — dinner is where it was at.

With the entertainment given by the wait staff and having an assigned spot, which gave us the same staff (who, for the record, were awesome) and made it so all in the party ate together each night (well, for those who went), dinner was awesome.

Maine lobster tail, with shrimp. I had two.

Even the formal night, which I wasn’t originally excited about as I didn’t want to have to dress up, just to eat.

But, this is about the food, not what we had to wear or who served it.

Dinner was when the portion size really came into play. With things not too big, I wasn’t afraid to have two appetizers or even two main courses. As much as I hate waste, if you didn’t like something … well, move along.

I had started writing down the items I ate each night, but I didn’t remember to do it each night. I ate in the dining room in all but two nights. One was the night at the steakhouse and the other was a night I didn’t think the menu really appealed to me. Funny enough, most of what was offered was easily grabbed in the food court area.

Anyway…

I tried things I likely never would have tried, such as cured salmon. I love salmon, but never having the chance with it before, I went for it as an app. Or spicy alligator fritters (which, honestly, weren’t too bad) or frog legs (didn’t really like these, to be honest). They had soups that were incredibly good, such as the strawberry bisque. I had three cold soups throughout the week, all fruity and sweet. They were amazing.

The desserts always looked nice and tasted even better.

Maine lobster tail, shrimp, chicken — you name it, I found it for the main course. Steak, of course. I split two entrees with another sailing with the wedding party one night, having half a burger and half of a dish with mussels, which was quite good, too. On the final night, they offered some comfort food in bacon macaroni and cheese, with chicken. It was quite good.

The desserts were always top notch. Between cakes and crème brûlée to cheesecake and other things, it was dynamite. The ice cream was fantastic, too.

I always left satisfied, which is what I hoped for. This experience was well worth having and one I’ll look forward to again, should I hit up any other cruises.

David’s Steakhouse

The steakhouse is an experience all in its own. At a modest price ($35), one gets a five-course meal. That meal would cost way more than $35 in a normal restaurant.

The first course was a one-bite appetizer, chef’s choice. Mine was a potato confit, which was absolutely outstanding. It always amazes me how many flavors and tastes can be packed into one bite.

Chef’s surprise — potato confit. Awesome.

The second course was the app of choice. I chose the lobster bisque, which was absolutely incredible. I wish it wouldn’t have cost extra to ask for seconds as I would have loved to have had another bowl. I loved this. The salad followed. I chose a Caeser salad, which was put together at the table. It was tasty and I liked that the dressing wasn’t too spicy. The croutons were fantastic, too.

For the main event, I had surf and turf — a four-ounce filet mignon along with a five-ounce lobster tail.

Yum.

It came with a baked potato, which was also really good.

As for dessert? A citrus cheesecake, which was out of this world. I couldn’t even finish it — that’s how filling the meal was. But oh so worth the $35. I would encourage anyone who takes a cruise to look into things like this as it’s definitely an experience worth having.

Other food items

There were other places to eat, too. Besides the food court (I know that’s not what it’s really called, but that’s what it can seem like at times), there were little snack stations and such. There was a dessert station where you could get some sweets, as well as coffee and things like that. One time I stopped for carrot cake (outstanding) and another time for a milkshake, which was OK.

Two times, I used room service. The first was on one of the port days, when I had breakfast sent up. I had a bagel and some cereal and fruit, which was nice. The same day, when getting back from the port, I ordered a couple of sandwiches. Room service is part of your cost, but tips are encouraged. The menu isn’t in-depth, but it can be used 24 hours a day, which can be handy.

Mmmm… pizza!

I had a few late-night things, too. It was nice to be able to go find some food when you wanted it. Most of the time, for me, that was pizza, which I had several times through the week. I also grabbed a couple of hot dogs one night. The pizza was really good and made to order. It wasn’t just going and getting a slice — you got a personal pizza made on the spot. Very cool.

Finally, I’ll add drinks with other food items. I didn’t indulge too much with beer, but I did have a few throughout the week. One beer I had more than others was Thirsty Frog, which is a beer brewed by Anheuser-Busch exclusively for Carnival. It’s a red and had a really good taste. I figured with it being only on Carnival ships, I needed to take advantage of it and had a few pints of it throughout the week.

Overall thoughts

Tasty.

There’s not much more I can say. I’ve never ate this well for such a long stretch before. I can’t imagine what kind of bill it would have been if it hadn’t been all included in the price. The staff really does quite an awesome job when it comes to food and that’s a good thing.

Below are a handful more of photos of food from the cruise. Enjoy.