Heather: After spending a lovely evening with George, we woke up the next morning ready to be on our way! The original plan was to get up early and hit the hotel’s pool, so the kids could work with their snorkels for a while in a freshwater pool before moving to the all saltwater environment on the cruise itself.
Chris: Get up, go get some breakfast, and find out the pool plans are scuttled by the fact that the only pool is outdoor and is closed. Decent breakfast; nukable breakfast sandwiches, make-your-own waffles, etc.
Heather: They had refrigerated Jimmy Dean sandwiches (and a microwave) various fruit cups, spackle I mean oatmeal (don’t eat it), a collection of the usual dry cereals, breads and a toaster, donuts, and our perennial favorite, make-your-own waffles. Coffee wasn’t too horrible, and there were juices also.
C: Get back to the room to repack, and a panic attack ensues when Heather’s passport (in its plastic holder) sticks to the bottom of her wallet, and looks like it’s missing. Tear the room apart, full-blown panic sets in, and eventually realize it was stuck to the wallet. Took a couple hours for the adrenaline to recede.
H: As I’m collecting together all of our paperwork for the port, I can’t find my passport. Anywhere. Without proof of identity and citizenship – either a passport or (for “closed loop” cruises only) a drivers license and state-issued birth certificate) – no one can board. And I could not find it anywhere. Not in my purse, which I dumped out. Not in the folder with all the other paperwork. Not in any of the other bags, or the car. For about ten minutes, I really thought that all my planning had gone to waste and I was not getting on the ship. Just as Chris was about to call home to see if anyone could look for it at home, I looked down at the bed and found it. The plastic of my passport case had fused to the plastic of my wallet, and when it was sitting on the bed, I couldn’t see that the passport was attached to my wallet. Phew!
Chris: Get on the shuttle promptly at 11:30, with another set of VIP cruisers. Come up to the pier, and excitement fills the van.
H: The hotel had already contacted me earlier in the week to schedule the time for our shuttle (calling multiple times, actually, because I had noticed that they had called on our caller ID). The ride to the pier was quick and uneventful, and included a ride through a tunnel, which is always a favorite thing of mine, even though I can never hold my breath the entire time, so I’ll never get that wish to go to Happy World Land) – and not surprisingly, it was Miss T who first spotted that ubiquitous “whale tail” funnel.
C: Arrive at the pier, get everything unloaded, and go inside. I kept forgetting to take bits of metal off me, so after three passes through the metal detector, I finally make it through. Heather and the kids were no problem.
H: He had also forgotten to pack his Leatherman into our checked luggage, so there was a bit of concern at first that they would confiscate it (and eventually sell it on eBay) but apparently because the blade is less than 4″ it was ok.
C: Go into the VIP lounge to check in, and it was pointed out that the kids’ passports weren’t signed, so Heather signed them. Didn’t even think of that before.
No photos allowed! (Oops.)
Go up to the front of the waiting area, where there were two rows of VIP people and 30-40 rows of everyone else. Facing each other. Almost as though they were to taunt each other or something.
H: Talk about being put in the spotlight, yowza! We waited for quite a while – longer than I had anticipated, but not too bad of a wait. Since the Pride has only been sailing our itinerary for a few weeks, I was really unsure just what time to get to the port. In hindsight, we could have waited longer because we would automatically be placed in section 1. If we hadn’t had the priority embarkation, though, I would have gotten to the port at about that time – by the time we were allowed on board, the people arriving were being given section 14 cards.
C: Anyway, beach balls are flying everywhere, so the kids had fun with that.
C: Someone recognized Heather in the waiting area, which was the first of four or five people to recognize her from the cruise board.
H: And it’s not even “Excuse me, are you the_monkey?” [my username on CC] but it’s “You’re the_monkey, aren’t you!”. Am I really that recognizable? I mean, yes, there are pictures of us on our website, but I didn’t think I was that distinctive. O_o
C: Board the ship, and start wandering around with our ~100lb worth of carry-on stuff. Find a table in the Lido, and had some lunch. Went up to the Sun deck, and the recognition continued; Heather was approached by someone else. Heather went to go sign Talia up for the spa, but got lost on the way back, so it took her about an hour. Stephen had thrown some ice cream overboard before she left, so he was confined to a lounge chair anyway.
H: Yes, despite my best efforts of studying the deck plans beforehand, I ended up lost for about an hour in the front of the ship. Not up by the spa/salon, but in the very front of the ship, because there are 3 decks up by the kids club that don ‘t connect to the upper levels.
Now the maps of the Pride had always confused me, because they show a very small number of tables, and with the few photos I had seen, I still couldn’t figure it out. Once on board, I realized that each of those little circles weren’t tables, they were columns, and the little circles around them were the tables. Now, can we discuss the “confusing” layout of the Lido buffet? There are two styles of buffets, the kind that is a long single line, and there is the station kind, where there are various stations so if one only wants a slice of pizza, one would just go to the pizza station and grab it instead of standing in one long horrific line for just that one slice of pizza. There are many stations on the Pride. Most of them, sadly, are not open 24 hours, which I suppose cuts down on both “waste” and “waist”. The pizza station is open 24 hours and there are several types of pizza available, as well as Caeser salads (with and without chicken, but be warned, the dressing is very heavy on the anchovy), breadsticks and calzones (which take 8-10 minutes and are worth the wait).
Ice cream is also 24 hours – there are three rotating flavors of both soft serve ice cream and frozen yogurt (chocolate, strawberry and vanilla). and both cones and dishes are available. Once we boarded, the burger/hot dog station was just starting up. They also have french fries and chicken fingers/nuggets. During peak times, there are two burger stations on either side of the Venus pool.
C: Heather finds us on the Sun deck, and we go to our room, which was just made available.
H: One thing that was very different now from our last cruise on the Triumph is that we could not get to our rooms at all until 3:30, not even to just drop off our carryon bags. Not that we had many – I had the bag with the two laptops and another bag with our two allowed bottles of wine (a champagne and a sake, but close enough) and our empty refillable water bottles, Mr. S had his backpack, and Chris had his camera bag. I can certainly understand why we couldn’t get to our rooms – the Pride docks late into Baltimore and the crew needs the time to remake the rooms for the new set of passengers.
C: Luggage is, fortunately, waiting for us outside of the room. Before anything is unpacked, I dig out the tripod from the one bag, and put the luggage in the bathroom for an unobstructed panoramic shot of the suite; might not ever get another suite in the future.
Get everything unpacked, figured out that there’s really only one 110V outlet to speak of (except for an electric shaver outlet next to the ceiling in the bathroom), and wandered a bit.
Went up to the Sun deck again for the departure of the ship, and took a few shots of the Baltimore skyline framed by the funnel. There was too much wind at the front of the ship, and Heather’s sail-away outfit was uncomfortable for her anyway, so she (and Stephen) went back to the room to change. Unfortunately, they didn’t return to watch the ship pass under the first bridge, except just as the funnel passed under the bridge. I did take a bunch of pictures, though.
At that point we go down to the dining room for dinner, which is just open seating. Eat dinner, and head back to the room. Kids are really beat after the long first day, so they end up going to bed at like 9 or 9:30, even including Stephen. We explore the ship, including finding the “Carnival ride” sign (light up sign that’s supposed to say “Carnival Pride”, but it was a sign fail):
and the welcome aboard comedy show in the Taj Mahal. Stopped by “Beauties” (the night club) for a bit, but they were doing 70’s and 80’s, so the disco music drove us out. Stopped by the pizza joint, and picked up a couple slices, including one for me that had capers and anchovies.
Eventually make our way back to the room, and go to bed.
