So yes, we’re at it again, heading back to Baltimore and the Carnival Pride!

So far I’ve only changed the room once, and probably won’t do it again, because we have a super-sweet extended balcony this time!

We’re expecting minimal time off the ship this time – we’ve been to these ports, and after the past very stressful year of opening my store, we need to R E L A X! And there were plenty of things we didn’t do last time in 2009. So this time we’re going to take it easy.

Heck, I didn’t even finish up this blog! And don’t even start me on our blog from 2004. O_o

Well, we’ve been home for a week now *sob* and now the real work begins on cataloging the 1000+ pictures and 4 hours of video we’ve brought home with us.

The first thing I wanted to get up is the Capers from the week. The Capers are the ship’s newspaper, set out every night during turndown, that give you a list of what is going on the next day.

Since the Pride has only been doing this itenerary for a few weeks, there are a lot of people who are looking for the Capers, so that became my first focus to get online.

I’ve also added the official Shore Excursion price list for the three ports we visited.

It makes it easier to deal with not having a cruise booked. O_o

Just pulling out of Port Canaveral now, after spending all day uploading photos (and going to the beach). Trying to send this before the connection goes down – we still haven’t purchased a data plan.

But, photos we have! Enjoy!

(You’ll have to forgive me that some of the later ones aren’t rotated – I’m racing to finish uploading since we are pulling away from the US and will lose our connection soon.)

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Here’s a juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern – Jizo, the Japanese Buddha who watches over travelers, and Jill, our GPS. Either way, I wanted to be sure we were covered.

Unfortunately, Jill nearly let us down at the very end, on our final leg of the trip from the Townson mall to the hotel. Seems that while Google says the hotel is in Baltimore, and the hotel itself is called the Fairfield Inn at White Marsh, Jill would only show us the way here after we told her that the hotel is in Nottingham!

But other than that, the trip was blissfully uneventfull. Left this morning just at 11 – would have been 10:30 if the server hadn’t decided to puke at the last minute, so Chris had to wait and reboot it. The drive was uneventful – made stops at Corning for a quick lunch and then a super-quick stretching break just north of Harrisburg.

And then through York, right past the house where we lived when Stephen was born. We’ve driven through once before, on the way to Maryland for the renn faire there, and going past that North George exit is tough. You can just see the house at the top of the hill from the 83, just a glimpse – and that’s all I really want to see.

Made our obligatory stop to Build a Bear once we hit the Baltimore area – and of course didn’t escape without two new friends (only one of which is a bear).

Finally made it to the hotel, and met up with our old and dear friend George, who works in DC and lives about an hour away from where we are. We headed over to the Red Brick Station, a great local brew pub and eatery in the middle of the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen – a mall built like a fake main street. It looked like “downtown” NT, except with a Regal multiplex instead of our single screen, and a Starschmucks instead of a bar. And no tattoo parlors, or cheap apartments above the stores.

But the beer, the food, and the company were all top notch. ^_^

So, then back to the hotel, where we hung out in the lobby with George for a bit before he had to head back home, and now we’re just settling in for the night.

Tomorrow the plan is to get up, eat breakfast, maybe hit the pool for a bit so the kids can try out their snorkel sets, and then……11:30 the hotel’s shuttle will take us to the port!

Miss T was trying on her snorkel gear this evening.

Hope to see everyone there!

The tuxedo and Hawaiian shirts we bought on eBay for Chris and Mr. S. arrived and are perfect. The dress I bought, not so much – since when does “new with tags” mean “vintage new with tags and a whole bunch of black stains to boot”, grrrrr. At least it was only $15.

I’ve been keeping up on the names list for our Roll Call Meet and Greet, so if you’re going with us and you’re a member of Cruise Critic, leave a message here or drop a line!

But tonight I have been looking up travel quotations to print out and add to the door decorations. I came across this wonderful gem:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

Oh, and this one:

“If you look like your passport photo, you’re too ill to travel.” — Will Kommen

Both being very, very true! O_o

So as a part of my research, my favorite place online to go is the boards at Cruise Critic. There I can spend hours looking up port information, laughing at the endless arguments about kids on board/smuggling alcohol/selling VIP luggage tags on eBay, and generally wasting time.

My favorite part of CC is the roll call board, where there’s a separate thread for each and every sailing that other CC members are on. Our roll call this time started our really slow, but as the prices dropped on our sailing and more people started filling up the ship, more people have joined in on the roll call.

Since we’re nearly packed and I really need to kill time, I’ve offered to organize a Meet and Greet for our roll call. Basically all I really have to do is pick a time and day, and make up name tags for everyone. (If nothing else, it will give me a head’s up on trying to memorize everyone’s names!)

So, without further ado, here is the current list! If you’re on our sailing, and would like to come to the Meet and Greet, please let me know!

My thanks to Diane/cruisenuts4life for starting the list, and to Mark/falcor for updating it with the cabin information!

• Kellyx3 – 5 cabins / 15 pax – unknown
• Gotta Cruise Now – 1 cabin / 4 pax – Missi, Anna, Lashonda, & Katherine – Lancaster, PA
• the monkey – 1 cabin / 4 pax – Heather, Chris, Mr. S. (11) and Miss T. (9) – Buffalo, NY
• cruisenuts4life – 1 cabin / 2 pax – Diane and Roy – Baltimore, MD
• cruisefan42 – 1 cabin / 2 pax – Lisa & Carol – Ontario, Canada
• rocknroll – 2 cabin / 4 pax – Sue and Steve, Diane and Eddie, Baltimore, MD
• Staged – 1 cabin / 4 pax -  Dan, Autumn, Meghan, & Daylin – Inwood, WV
• falkcor – 3 cabin / 6 pax – Mark, Justice, Mom, Chris, Emily (8), Joan – Houston & NJ
• zachyzac – 1 cabin /2 pax – Nova
• Krazygal – 2 cabins / Catherine and Dorothy, Andrea and Ryan  – Ohio
• larkenwils – ? cabin / 2 pax – Will & Shannon – Baltimore, MD
• ladyhawke1001 – 1 cabin / 2 pax – Tanya & Taylor
• wannabemom2003 – 2 cabin / 5 pax – Lea, Stefan & Penny + parents – Germany
• cruize4fun – 1 cabin / 2 pax – Alice & Bill – Maryland
• mikepattyjustin – 1 cabin / 3 pax – I’m guessing Mike, Patty and Justin
• Brando19 – 1 cabin / 2 pax
• jflanders06 – ??
• Kready37 – 1 cabin / 2 pax – Dean & Kaye
• Mikey8Ohio – 1 cabin / 2 pax – Mike and Michelle
• aklingmeyer – unknown / 6 pax – Alison, Mike, Rose, Donna, Ritchie & Louise
• really curious cruiser – 1 cabin / 2 pax – Linda & Don – New Jersey
• schist79 – 4 cabins / 10 pax – Steve, mom, brother + 7 friends – NJ
• LeoNel – 1 cabin / 2 pax – PA
• Cruising Auntie – Donna

Now if it could only write entries for me, that would be fabulous. Sigh.

—————-
Now playing: Moby – Hope Is Gone
via FoxyTunes

This time we are sailing on the Carnival Pride, out of Baltimore heading to Port Canaveral, Nassau and Freeport. It’s been 5 years since our last cruise, and I for one can’t wait.

For now, you’ll have to forgive us the use of the stock footage in the layout – it’s kind of hard to use photos of a trip we haven’t been on yet! ^_^