tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45136186987801997052024-03-14T04:19:18.579-04:00Trips, Sails, n' TailsAdventures in Cruising, Traveling, and Dogs and Cats! Living Together!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-63066194814217732662012-08-13T21:29:00.002-04:002012-08-13T21:34:56.318-04:00and They Call It... Puppy Love<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>After a hellish weekend of Mr. Frustrating Stubborn Extraordinaire, we decided to try round 2 of the Doggy Park down the street last night to try to burn some energy out of this pup. He just got his last round of shots a few days ago, and he was due for a bath anyway, so it was good timing. </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>This dog park is different than some others in that there aren't separate sections for big dogs and little ones - so there was a good mix of different sized dogs in there. I'm not sure I love it - I am much more comfortable with him around dogs of his own size, especially as a puppy. </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>But it's the only one we've got, and he had a good time last time, so in we went, big dogs and all. Of course when a new doggy arrives, all the others have GO SEE - and this was no exception. We were there all of about 2 minutes however, when all of a sudden there was a gang up and all we could hear was Vasher yelping like he's never yepled before. We both got scared, took action, and all the owners broke it up. He got a little dirty, but no damage done, so we both breathed a sign of relief. </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>He soon found someone his own size - another 4 month old puppy - a female Rottweiler named Zoe - and.. well... after some VERY close "get to know yous"... yeah.... Our little guy got his first girlfriend. </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>I apologize in advance... for some reason I can't embed the video here... so here's a link to it on YouTube.... </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Follow and Enjoy! (I promise it's worth it!)</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://youtu.be/GwS-ghEZixs" target="_blank">http://youtu.be/GwS-ghEZixs</a></i></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-48658035919701430692012-08-10T20:09:00.002-04:002012-08-10T20:39:45.218-04:00Puppies are.... tiring<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So it's been a Loooooong time - yeah yeah you heard that all before, but damn we're both exhausted. Seriously our lives have been reduced to:</span><br />
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<li><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Wake up (yay it's been 6:30am lately - not 4:30am) - I play animal shuffle where I take the kitties down to the basement while Chris and Vasher are outside. </span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Stay up and supervise Vasher (because he can't be trusted on his own for longer than 2 minutes tops on a good day) till it's time for his crate - includes feeding, the obligatory pee and poop, and playtime. Crate time around 7:50am on weekdays - 8:30-9 on weekends. </span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Work (weekdays) / regain sanity (weekends)</span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Lunch = puppy out for an hour or so, less on weekdays, more on weekends. Shuffle the kitties into my office room for the hour to shield them from that which is the Vash.</span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Work (weekdays) / regain sanity (weekends)</span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Afternoon = puppy back out around 4:30/5 - another Animal Shuffle to take the kitties back to the basement (which is finished, and has all their necessities - no worries, they are comfortable, if a bit mommy deprived down there) - then its..... VASHERTIME which includes Hunger Games (more to come on that), training, walks, fetch, keep away - basically anything we can do to keep him engaged, active, and preventing him from doing bad shit including chewing and digging on furniture, closet doors, and rugs. We may or may not also try to play Jedi mind tricks on him that "you're tired. Really... Vasher, you're tired." It doesn't usually work... bummer.</span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">9:30 - approximate puppy crash time. Yeah full 5 hours of VASHERTIME means 5 hour energy is getting a bump in it's stock shares from the daily shots Chris has been taking just to stay functional. </span></li>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Seriously, by the time Vasher crashes it's beddy-by time for us. And trying to do anything productive (like blogging ?!) during VASHERTIME is an exercise in futility. Chris tries his damnedest to be the primary interactive human but come on the poor guy needs a backup just to keep his sanity. What does all that lead up to? No blogs. No social life. A crash course in patience. Realizing how much we need and love each other. ...And trying to remember that PuppyTime won't last forever - and even though he is INCREDIBLY exasperating at times, he has glimmers of being a great dog - so that's the end game. I'm confident we'll get there - perhaps looking a bit like <a href="http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Tyrion_Lannister" target="_blank">Tyrion </a>or <a href="http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Davos_Seaworth" target="_blank">Davos </a>(minus a nose or finger from a puppy nip) but we'll get there. We're both too stubborn not no. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Now for some new shots... a video mash-up of bath time antics, as well as "Hunger Games" is in the works, but for now this is gonna have to do... Enjoy </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">That ball is a BIT too big for your mouth pup... for now.. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ahhhh the puppy life - AC, favorite chew toy, and a tennis ball... doesn't get better than that.</span></td></tr>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-24111087663268601342012-08-01T07:46:00.000-04:002012-08-01T07:46:04.317-04:00MIA Lately.. will return shortly<span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>So yeah we've been MIA lately.. sorry 'bout that - it's just been chaotic to say the least between everything going on. But stay tuned, I've got a new post brewing with tales from the first trip to the dog park, hunger games, and CRICKETS! </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>In the meantime, I leave you with a little something I created to vent my frustration one morning. </i></span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-39926260546423523232012-07-17T11:12:00.001-04:002012-07-17T11:12:50.428-04:00Where's the Squeaker??<span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you've been reading along, you know we have 2 older Siamese cats - 12 and 11 years old - who have been with me since they were kittens. I love them dearly, and Chris begrudgingly puts up with them because he loves me. I am the "Cat Person" and he is the "Dog Person" and we live in harmony as such... so while he has put up with my cats for 3 years, he finally has his new puppy that he can live out all his dog glory in (and revel in the frustration that is raising said puppy). </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Guys, this is just a one bedroom apartment... </span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Av9WHEkYZYs/UATDwACvG4I/AAAAAAAAFHY/U_Fji2Yw19E/s1600/P1010556.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Av9WHEkYZYs/UATDwACvG4I/AAAAAAAAFHY/U_Fji2Yw19E/s640/P1010556.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you didn't already know, Siamese are talkers. Leo is a bit more chill and only lets out his deep yeowls when he musters the energy to do so (which is quite a bit more often with Vasher around). Leia on the other hand can get into fits where she just meows with wild abandon, with her decidedly higher-pitched voice. Lemme tell ya, Chris Loves It. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was able to catch a video of Leia having some rare quiet time, and she was in a really sweet mood. I can already hear Chris saying "oh god no one wants to hear her meow..." so fair warning, this is about 50 seconds of Siamese meows, but she's my sweetie. And it's also a good example of how similar she sounds to a squeaker in a dog toy..... </span><br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-x_ifs3j4R4/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-x_ifs3j4R4?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-x_ifs3j4R4?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">We noticed a few weeks ago that instead of running away, standing up for herself, or fighting back.. the dynamic between Vasher and Leia is.. well... a bit odd. I really think Vasher thinks she's a toy with moving and vocal parts. Which is a little scary, yet funny all at the same time...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">You decide... </span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-55403796596181550232012-07-14T21:30:00.000-04:002012-07-14T21:30:04.798-04:00Ser Vasher Lionhat... if you please<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yes we're as obsessed with Westeros as everyone else... although our lack of an HBO subscription means that we we actually read the BOOKS... so I'll get all hoighty-toighty and proclaim that we are real Ice and Fire fans whereas all you pretenders that just watch the TV show are just posers. The reality is that although we have read the books (ok I'm still reading Dance with Dragons, but STILL) we are insanely jealous of all you HBO people that get to watch the shows whereas we have to wait for the Blu-ray edition </span><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>(or ::cough cough:: watch them through nefarious online locations ::cough cough::)</i></span><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Whether you are a fan of the books, the TV series, or both... you should enjoy this introduction to the newest ally for the North... Vasher Lionhat. </span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-33788631902122235102012-07-13T20:48:00.001-04:002012-07-13T20:48:33.314-04:00Basement Camping! ...finally<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yeah Yeah Yeah... I know, this is a loooong time coming. We're like a video game that keeps hyping ourselves up and keeps pushing back the release date. I feel your frustration, and the best excuse I can come up with is that I'm an overly anal person, and it took me forever to futz with all these video clips and get them into some kind of coherent collection that lived up to my mediocre skills. The additional excuses include that I've had a few freak out moments when it comes to raising a puppy and I needed a few mental health days to get back on track. Thank the maker for Chris being the primary caregiver because I'd have been in a padded cell a few weeks ago! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">ANYHOO... we've been hinting at all the shenanigans that we had to come up with during our time in <strike>hell</strike> the basement without power (134 hours during the hottest week we can remember for all you who may have miraculously forgotten from my incessant facebook updates). We made the best of it. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was over July 4th (a Wednesday of all days) so while that granted us a day off work, we didn't really get to enjoy it like we wanted... but we still did do our best - we luckily got a 3550 watt generator from Chris's dad about 3 days after we lost power feeding extension cords into the house which we connected the fridge to, as well as trailed down to the basement to run some fans and lights. Since I wanted nothing with grilling outside in 105 degree temps only to come inside to 95 degree temps to eat, we decided to hook up the George Foreman (do I need a copyright or something?) to grill up some hot sausages and at least do up the 4th of July proper. Lesson Learned: a 3550 watt generator does NOT like trying to power a Foreman and a fridge at the same time. This sucker hoovered more power than the Xbox 360 and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/G155-Gaming-Entertainment-Mobile-included-Playstation-3/dp/B004XGN8W4/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1342225682&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Gamez system</a>. True story.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Basement Grillin' ...oh yeah</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">We had plenty of time to take pictures because... lets face it... there isn't much else to do when you are without power.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NKwx_utorOI/UAC98agw6UI/AAAAAAAAFGg/BV5pQo-Z19k/s1600/P1010526.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NKwx_utorOI/UAC98agw6UI/AAAAAAAAFGg/BV5pQo-Z19k/s640/P1010526.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Vasher n' Daddy.. chillin like villans</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yXMuu1yMFVE/UAC-H8AypnI/AAAAAAAAFG4/OWY-y9TPCWg/s1600/P1010541.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yXMuu1yMFVE/UAC-H8AypnI/AAAAAAAAFG4/OWY-y9TPCWg/s640/P1010541.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Coolest seat he could find</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pq011bERCVU/UAC-L8eFJAI/AAAAAAAAFHE/uJ2bJTKMWhs/s1600/P1010550.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pq011bERCVU/UAC-L8eFJAI/AAAAAAAAFHE/uJ2bJTKMWhs/s640/P1010550.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ima big boy!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">But where are the kitties during all this you say?? They were troopers hanging out upstairs for the most part... even though it was hot as hell up there (thermostat pegged on 90, so my best guess was about 99/100) they lounged around, I kept lots of water on hand for them, and they of course had the option to come join us. For the most part they wanted nothing to do with a cooped up puppy. Can't say I blame them. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Last but not least, we were hard pressed to come up with ways to tire the guy out since he wanted nothing to do with being outside aside from some P&P so hey... what can I say, we improvise. </span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-4505005891428267552012-07-06T19:31:00.001-04:002012-07-06T19:33:35.757-04:00Dog days of summer...<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So remember when it wasn't a daily temperature of "holymotherofgodhotashell" outside?? Yeah neither do we... but it must have been at least a little tolerable when I took this footage of <strike><i>the demon hound</i></strike> our darling puppy a week or so ago. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the midst of out 134 hour long power outage (thank the maker for the 3500 watt generator we had to at least run a few fans, lights, and keep our cell phones and laptops charged) my newly purchased video editing software arrived and I had something to keep me occupied while I wasn't grilling hot sausages on the George Foreman grill (that by-the-way sucks power like a Dyson with a wattage addiction) in the basement (yay Basement Camping!). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The result is my first foray into video editing... yeah you better watch out Spielberg... </span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-31016492398836667382012-07-03T18:49:00.000-04:002012-07-03T18:49:30.567-04:00An update from the dark side...This post comes to you live from my 3G network which here in the basement where we are camping out with 2 fans, an iPod dock, one light and chargers for our cell phones courtesy of a generator.
Why you ask? Oh because we are going on 93 hours without power due to the massive "derecho" thunderstorms that ripped through the area on Friday night (6/29/12).
The power company has no clue when we will be restored - estimates are this coming weekend.
Meanwhile Vasher, Leo, Leia, and Chris and I are suffering through. I'm sure there will be fun tales to tell when this is all over. There already is... Let's just say Vasher has been honing his cat-like jumping skills being in such close quarters!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-60579078947242363282012-06-29T17:49:00.002-04:002012-06-29T17:49:52.844-04:00Mass Hysteria Round 2 - Come Into My Castle<span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />So in the ever-eventful land of Dogs and Cats! Living Together! We often get to complete the quote with MASS HYSTERIA. <br /><br />Usually it involves the Fat Man himself - Leo "Lunchbox" Kitty and Vasher the Thrasher because unlike Leia, Vasher hasn't quite gotten up the gumption to try to !PLAY! with Leo. Mostly because Leo Ain't Having It, whereas Leia has been sighted giving the young pup a a tease now and again. <br /><br />Unfortunately the latter hasn't yet been captured for posterity yet. I'm convinced that I'm going to have to strap the camera to myself during all waking hours, it's like trying to catch a Sasquatch on film sometimes.<br /><br />We were lucky enough to get this sighting... Leo's got his full on Grumpy Old Man Pants on here... </span><br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And he'd rather dig in for the fight than give up his well-earned seat. I can just hear him thinking "..dammit I was here first you rotten mongrel...."</span><br />
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<object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1QLKAxS_V2E/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1QLKAxS_V2E?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />C'mon Leo, Vasher just wants to plan "Come into my Castle" - don't you read Game of Thrones??<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-au4LLeapWvs/T-4Y7LSjyFI/AAAAAAAAFFw/_UJAUIbZdd0/s1600/P1010504.JPG"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-au4LLeapWvs/T-4Y7LSjyFI/AAAAAAAAFFw/_UJAUIbZdd0/s640/P1010504.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bT2C-af9LE0/T-4Y-ImcxmI/AAAAAAAAFF4/xPEV0c_arSE/s1600/P1010506.JPG"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bT2C-af9LE0/T-4Y-ImcxmI/AAAAAAAAFF4/xPEV0c_arSE/s640/P1010506.JPG" /></a><br />Why doesn't he wanna play?! I'm CUTE!! <br /> <br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-trjo-qzfKb4/T-4ZCVfNfkI/AAAAAAAAFGA/koTdf7p_o78/s1600/P1010507.JPG"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-trjo-qzfKb4/T-4ZCVfNfkI/AAAAAAAAFGA/koTdf7p_o78/s640/P1010507.JPG" /></a><br />Oh... alllllllll Riiiiight.......:::sighs::<br /><br /><br />Round 2 to Leo, but this battle ain't over yet. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-87434183619919363612012-06-24T09:04:00.001-04:002012-06-24T09:04:17.213-04:00Sept 2011 - Carnival Pride - Part 4 - Freeport & The End<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cassandra – 9/30/11 – Day 5 of the Cruise – Freeport </span></h2>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />This port is one that tends to be hit or miss for most people – I think partly that is due to the wonky times the ship is in port (7am to 1:30 when all guests should be back on board), and partly because there really isn’t anything good to do right off the boat. You have to either book an excursion or at least take a taxi to Port Lucaya, the local beach resort, to see anything of value. Personally, I think they would see a lot more interest in the port if either some money was invested in updating the area where the ship currently docks to make it less industrial, or somehow being able to dock near the Port Lucaya area. I’m sure both options would require quite a bit of $! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Anyhoo, even though I know a lot of people dismiss this port, we actually had one of the best experiences of our lives here in 2009. Because I like to share, and I want people to realize how great of a stop Freeport can be, Chris and I decided to actually treat our “review” of this day as kind of a collection of what we did on all 3 cruises. I’ll start actually start with our 2009 and 2010 Excursions, then circle back around to this current cruise. <br /><br />So as I mentioned above, in 2009 we had one of the best experiences of our life here on Freeport. It had always been my lifelong dream to swim with dolphins, and when we were researching Excursions on Carnival’s website a few months before we cruised, there were a few dolphin options here in Freeport. We had it narrowed down to the “Dolphin Close Encounter” and the “Swim with Dolphins” After reading the descriptions of both, we decided to go with the “Swim with Dolphins” even though it was more expensive. Let me tell you, we were SOOOO happy we did! <br /><br />As soon as we got off the ship in port, over to the left is where all the excursions meet. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We were looking for a sign that exactly matched what we booked, and realized it was called “Dolphin Swim” instead of "Swim with Dolphins"... meh, potato potaaato. We handed in our little tickets, and got different little tickets. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />After about 10 minutes, two busses picked us up. At this point, I was thinking WOW this is a lot of people, but what we realized later is that both the Dolphin Swim and the Dolphin Encounter people go to the same place. There were only 12 people total in the Swim Excursion! (We highly recommend booking through Carnival’s website BEFORE cruising! This year when I was in line to select our cabana, the people in front of us tried to book this excursion, and was told it was already sold out even prior to sailing!) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Our bus with built-in air conditioning (yes the door stayed open the entire trip LOL) <br /><br />We were all bussed across the island (about a 20 minute ride) and arrived in the Port Lucaya area. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />The excursion was actually with Unexso, and we met up with their folks. They led us through to the marina area, and our group of 12 boarded a pontoon boat. Their facilities where the actual excursion takes place is in a different location, and usually they get there by going out in the ocean – this time they said the water was a little rough, so they were going to take us though some canals that wound their way through a residential area. It was actually pretty cool because we got some really good shots of vacation homes. There was also a really cool pirate ship that we were told was man-made and used as a prop in a movie (can’t remember the name of the movie, unfortunately). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />When we got to the facility, we were separated into 2 groups of 6, given some safety pointers, flippers, and general instructions on what to expect. We were going to interact with 2 dolphins, 2 people at a time, in a large area with nets that kept uninvited ocean critters from getting in. It was about 15 feet deep, thus the flippers. <br /><br />We were introduced to the dolphins – Cocoon and Xuma (pronounced Zooma) – Cocoon was actually one of the dolphins that was in the movie Cocoon! She was 42 years old.. and pregnant!! The trainers told us that they loved to play, and basically the effort we put into interacting with them would be equal to the amount of interaction we would get back from them. They said they got bored easily, and if we weren’t “fun” enough with them, they wouldn’t stick close to us for long. <br /><br />At that point, the first group of 6 got in, and 2 at a time, they went out to the middle of the area and had their interactions with the dolphins. The trainers weren’t even in the water with us – they were sitting on the side. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />It seemed like most people were really hesitant to be active with them, and as we were warned, the dolphins lost interest in each group pretty quick… until Chris and I got in! <br /><br />I absolutely love these animals, and when it was finally our turn, we had a BALL. We swam around to all corners of the large area, swam and interacted, and the dolphins were GREAT. They swam all around us, did circles around us, it was excellent. You could tell we were “doing good” because I swear it felt like the trainers let us out there at least twice as long as all the other groups before us! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />When our group of 6 was done, we all got to go back one more time to do 3 “posed” shots with the dolphins, and one of the Unexso people took professional photos we had the option to buy at the end of the excursion. We did buy them (I insisted) but we were lucky enough to get more pics of our own by having another person use our camera for us when we were in the water, and we did the same for their turn. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />And remember how I said Cocoon was pregnant?? Yeah she took a special liking to Chris!! He was the only one she offered up this pose to! (He was like OMG what can I touch!! - or in his words "that's not a blowhole!!" ) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />When everyone had their turns, the dolphins put on a bit of a show for us as a goodbye. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />All during this time, I want to point out that the “Dolphin Encounter” was going on in an area behind us, and we kept seeing people looking jealously over at our small group wishing they had picked ours! </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Note the jealous on-lookers in the background</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Granted, the Encounter is more suited for smaller children (the Swim has a height requirement) but I’m convinced ours was 1000% better! We also got great t-shirts that said “I got kissed by a dolphin in the Bahamas!” </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />After all was said and done, we took the boat back to Port Lucaya, this time via the ocean – and was able to get some great pics of this gorgeous coastline. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We were also unable to get rid of our perma-smiles for the rest of the day. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />When we got back, our pictures were ready, and we were given some time to shop before our bus picked us back up to go back to the Pride. Unfortunately, the bus was like 40 minutes late!! Needless to say, we didn’t get back to the ship by 1:30… luckily we were such a large group with both the Swim and Excursion folks, plus it was Carnival-sponsored, so the ship waited for us – whew! (Another reason we like to book through Carnival when we can, even if prices tend to be a bit higher!) <br /><br /><i><b>So in the words of Bill and Ted, that was our "Most Excellent" excursion to Freeport in 2009. </b></i><br /><br />In 2010 we booked a Catamaran Snorkel excursion, which also departed from the Port Lucaya area. It was good, but now in retrospect, we felt our snorkeling on this cruise in Grand Turk was better. Unlike the dolphins, we didn’t get many pictures (mainly due to the fact we didn’t yet have our nifty waterproof camera). The excursion picked us up from the terminal and took us to Port Lucaya to depart for the actual snorkeling. <br /><br />The marina at Port Lucaya: </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />My travel-tip: Don’t sit in the front of the Catamaran on the net! If you're not familiar with a Catamaran - the net area in the front is suspended directly over the water - kind of like a see-through trampoline. We thought it was a great place to sit when we were still docked… until we were out on the open ocean speeding along – we pretty much got soaked (along with all our stuff – towels, bags) before we even got to the snorkel location. Here’s a shot BEFORE we set out of what we thought was our great spot lol. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The ride to the snorkel location took about 10 minutes, and it was kind of chilly (it was about 8am). The water that splashed up on us was REALLY chilly! This was the first time I had snorkeled outside of goofing around in a pool, so the little blow up vests were something new for me. Travel-tip #2: unless you can’t swim at all, you don’t need to blow your vest up very much. I distinctly remember having to keep pulling it down as I was swimming, and it getting stuck up all around my neck. Not so much fun when you’re swimming in the ocean! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />However, the water was really beautiful and clear, and the day ended up turning out to be beautiful. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />They let us snorkel for about 30-45 minutes I think, and at one point, one of the group leaders got in the water to feed the fish and bring a lot of the tropical fishes closer. This sounds like a good idea, but in reality, it was kind of a mess. A bunch of people all flopping around in the ocean with their heads under the water all gathered in the same location just meant getting kicked in the head a few times, and having snorkel tube mishaps. Chris and I ended up staying away from the crowd during this fiasco, and were still able to have a nice time. <br /><br />As I mentioned before, it was nice – we saw a lot of tropical fish, and a few barracuda (nothing like Jack in Grand Turk!) but the reef wasn’t nearly as colorful and alive as what we experienced this year in GT. <br /><br />After everyone got back in the boat, and we headed back to the shore, the group leaders tried to get people up and dancing on the boat. I am not normally one to join in these kind of shenanigans, but after refusing 2x, I figured why the heck not, and got up. And of course Chris didn’t waste the opportunity to snap some photos. At one point, I tried to turn around and go sit back down, but they saw me and called me out! So up there reluctantly I stayed. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />When we were dropped back off, we had some time to look around the little shops at Port Lucaya, and then we boarded our bus back to the terminal. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Back to the current sailing, Oct 2011. We decided not to book an excursion and just stay on the boat. Our theme for this cruise was all about relaxation, and we did our best to live up to it. We figured since we were staying on the ship, we would have a decent shot at getting a good Serenity Deck location, and we did. Our friends already had deck chairs up there, so we plopped our stuff into a round chair, went into to grab some stuff for breakfast, and brought our trays back out with us to eat outside. We finished up, set the trays up by the tables by the bar, and settled in for some sun. <br /><br />I want to point out that Carnival’s stock photos and other reviews we have seen from other Serenity Decks show these great clamshell covers that can go around the back of the round loungers… unfortunately they don’t have them on the Pride… or at least they didn’t on this cruise. I asked, and was told nope. Drat. <br /><br />So we set up shop, and took some photos of the dock area. Turns out the Carnival Triumph was here in drydock! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Unfortunately the day before on Half Moon Cay, I neglected to put extra sunscreen on the tops of my hands, feet, and back, and therefore I was pretty red in those areas already, not to mention it was REALLY hot this day – and not a bit of wind to speak of. <br /><br />Our friends snapped this photo of us relaxing. At that point, I was already wishing I had the little clamshell cover! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We stuck it out as long as we could, but after about an hour, we relocated to the shaded chairs closer to the bar area (still in the Serenity area). Still, close to 11 I decided to head in. Chris went with some of our friends up to the slides first, before heading back in as well. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Since we hadn’t yet had any pizza yet (blasphemy!), and really wanted to try the new Red Frog pub beer with the nifty souvenir glasses they only sell in the Sports Bar, we had a plan to grab some pizza up on the Lido, bring our plates down to the Bar to enjoy some pizza and beer. Yeah, not so much. For some reason, the Sports Bar was closed. Bummer. So we ate our pizza out in the Piazza Café area, snapped a few more photos of this area of the ship, and went back up to the room. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Sorry the pic is a bit blurry - Piazza Cafe - this is where the Sushi Cart is every day starting 5:30pm - Yum! <br /><br />Because we really didn’t get any pics of Freeport, and we love the sail away from here (the water is to die for around this area) we headed up to Deck 10 to get some photos and say goodbye to Freeport. And we waited. And waited. And… then an announcement from the captain: there was some kind of problem with one of the lifeboats, and our sail away would be delayed until around 2:45. Okie dokie. At that point, we realized there was an area on Deck 9 Forward that people were milling about on, which was normally closed off when the ship is sailing! We made our way to it, and were treated to some views that we hadn’t experienced in any of our past cruises – cool! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We also spied this area on deck 3 that we think is an area just for crew members – a hot tub and some lounge chairs, along with an anchor and huge propeller blades. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The captain’s estimate of a 2:45 departure came and went, so we decided to go back to the room for what was quickly becoming a favorite pastime… Afternoon Naps! (In all seriousness, we REALLY missed our naps this week - I was adding a 2nd cup of coffee every day around 3pm just to ward off the sleepiness!) I tried to sleep for a little, but really couldn’t, so I got in the shower and got a head start on getting ready for Elegant night. We finally started setting sail around 4pm, and we were able to get a few shots as we left the port. As our balcony was on the Port side of the ship, we didn’t end up getting any new shots of the Starboard side, which we feel has some beautiful coast, so I’ll slip in some other photos from our previous trips as well. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chris said this reminded him of the "dead men tell no tales" in Pirates of the Caribbean </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br /><br />We had previously made plans to meet some friends of ours for drinks at the Atrium bar at 7 (they had late seating dinner) so we knew we had some time to kill before getting ready. <br /><br /></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We figured that the Sports Bar was now open, so we went and were finally able to enjoy our first Red Frog Pub beers, and Chris got the special Pint Glass to take home as well. We really aren’t beer people, but do like it occasionally. He’s a fan of Yuengling, and I like the Yuengling Premium (not really available outside PA – It’s the “tan” part of a Black and Tan.. for Marylanders - we also LOVE the microbrew Duclaws - Highly recommended if you haven't tried!). We were told that the Red Frog was pretty similar to Yuengling, and we were both pleasantly surprised – it was nice and smooth (not hoppy at all, which we both were happy about) and had an almost sweet hint of flavor. I would love to see this sold in stores! Unfortunately we didn't take any photos. Boo. It's just on draft, and the taps are really cool - green and colorful! <br /><br />We took our pints and headed to a 5pm Sports Trivia in the Ivory Piano Bar. As Chris mentioned before, we never really went in there before because it was usually pretty smoky, but now that the area is non-smoking, it really is nice in there. Again, no luck at that elusive Ship on a Stick! Trixy little minx, it is. <br /><br />I also had been waiting for Friday because the shops were doing the Inch of Sterling Silver sale. I’d been eying the little chain with dolphins on it ever since 2009, so I finally went ahead and purchased a bracelet and anklet - with the clasps they came to about $50 total, which isn’t too bad considering they came with a lifetime warranty! I was told they would be available for pick up the next day. <br /><br />We finally went back to the room, got ready, and headed down to meet our friends. We enjoyed a drink, snapped some photos. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I did NOT partake in a martini this year… I had one in 2009 and one drink about did me in for the night. So I played it smart and had a Miami Vice (I'd never heard of them before, but a fellow Roll Call member and Let it Ride player told me his wife loved them - half Strawberry Daquiri, half Pina Colada. my first – very yummy!). <br /><br />We went to dinner around 7:30, which was nice because we missed the crowd between the early seating and late seating. <br /><br />I’ll take this moment to go off on a tangent about the Anytime Dining option. <br /><br />Even though the Anytime people are seated in a separate area than the other folks, we have found most people generally tend to go to dinner, even with Anytime, around the same times. I’ve read other posts/threads/reviews here on CC about people that had long waits for Anytime, and in the past, I was always boggled by this! Prior to this cruise our longest wait was at the MOST 4 minutes. <br /><br />During our Half Moon Cay review day, we forgot to mention something that we wanted to be sure to put in the review. So here it goes… That evening was the first time we were given a pager thing (which we were told worked in all bars and lounge areas on the ship) and were told we would have about a 30 minute wait. Actually, they told us if we didn’t want to wait, they would be glad to seat us, but that we would be seated with another couple… eh, we declined and took the pager and the 30 minute wait. No offense to anyone we may have been seated with, but I think that’s another reason we love the Anytime – always a table to ourselves. As Chris likes to say – he gets a whole week of taking me out to dinner for free. So we took the pager, and since Anytime is on the 3rd floor, we went to Raphael’s bar and each got another Bahama Mama (this was HMC day after all, and it WAS the DOD!) <br /><br />It actually worked out well, because we ended up seeing some great friends of ours we met from the roll call, and were able to chat with them about the rest of their HMC experience! Our pager went off about 35 mins later, and we went in. I also want to take this time to give my immense gratitude to Jen and Cindy for finding my little wristlet purse and bringing it into the MDR for me!! I later lost it again 2 days later, but at least another kind soul turned it into Guest Services . God love Chris when I get into my senile years.. I’m already clumsy and forgetful. I can’t imagine the train wreck I’ll be 40 years from now . Hopefully the pharmaceutical companies will have invented some magic pill for those problems by then ! <br /><br />Anyhoo, later that night I was having a good run at the casino table, and ran back up to the room for some more cash. Here’s the moral to this story: Lo and behold, awaiting us in our room was a covered dish of 2 different desserts – a really delicious fudgy thing, and some kind of to-die-for apple pastry thing (reminded me of baklava). It came attached with a note: “Please accept our apologies for the wait for dinner earlier this evening”… <br /><br />SERIOUSLY?? Like wow. I really wasn’t bothered by the wait, but this gesture from Carnival and the staff completely obliterated any HINT of a negative thought. It was completely out of the blue and unexpected – we never said a word to any of the staff or servers during dinner about the wait, and this arrived out of the blue. So that’s our final words on Anytime Dining. It Rocks. <br /><br />So anyway, back to our originally scheduled programming. This was another adventurous night for me. I made up my mind before we cruised I was going to try most of the scarier “didja” options (Chris thought I was crazy and didn't even want to LOOK at most of the things other than the Alligator). Tonight was the big kahuna in my mind – Escargot... so I ordered it, but also got the Corn Chowder Maryland (which is weird to me – shouldn’t it be called Maryland Corn Chowder?? But I digress…) and Chris actually didn’t get any appetizer that night. We also ordered drinks – I tried something new, a Raspberry Mojito, and Chris got a Long Island Iced Tea. <br /><br />Since we really hadn't had any "professional" photos taken that we liked, I guilted.. ahem, persuaded , Chris into taking pics of each other. hehehe. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The Escargot came out first… so like a big girl, I took a deep breath and took a bite. Ugh. Yeah I only had one. And then promptly asked the waiter if he could kindly remove it and that I’d like my Chowder instead please. The soup was much better, that’s for sure! I’m sure it wasn’t that the actual food itself was BAD, I just wasn’t able to get past the texture, flavor, or the fact that the whole time I'm envisioning an actual snail inside my mouth. It didn’t help either that I really didn’t like the Raspberry Mojito. This wasn’t shaping up to be a good dining experience (no fault of anyone but my own on the choices!) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />For posterity, here's pics of both. I'm glad that lovely piece of bread is over the escargot, because I'd be perfectly content never seeing or eating that ever again! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />For dinner, I decided to try the Martini Braised Basa Filet with Tomato, Chili, and Fennel. Chris had previously decided he was gonna go with the Create your Own Burger off the everyday menu since nothing else really looked good, and he already had a lot of steak on the previous nights. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I didn’t realize the Basa Filet was actually fish , and while it did taste good, it just wasn’t helping the condition my tummy was in after the Miami Vice, the SNAIL, and the not-to-my-liking Mojito (not to mention the 2 pieces of Sushi I forgot to write about earlier that day). Chris asked for a side of BBQ with his bacon cheeseburger, but the waiter said he didn't think they had it available, but would check. The burger didn't come with it. He said it was still really good. <br /><br />Finally in an attempt to get something I was used to – I went with the WCMC for dessert, and Chris tried the Amaretto Cake. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />He said the cake was really yummy. Unfortunately I could only get through a few bites of the WCMC and I started to get that ohmygodimnotfeelingsogood feeling… yeah we finished up quick and headed back to the room . <br /><br />I’ll spare you the details and go on to say I was feeling better about 30 minutes . We decided to try to catch one of the new comedians for the Adult Comedy at 9:45. It was Percy Crews, and he was OK, but wasn’t the best we’ve seen on the ship (I don't think it helped that the person standing right next to us was bursting out laughing at all the wrong times.. like when Percy was setting up the joke, not delivering the punchline... I think the guy was in his own little atmosphere at that point.. but it was kind of disturbing!). Plus it was REALLY crowded again, and we thought ourselves lucky to get a spot to lean against along the back wall. Carnival really ought to see about providing bigger venues for the comedy show, especially if there isn’t something going on in the main theater – but I guess set up and everything for the main shows can cause scheduling problems. <br /><br />When the show was over we strolled through the Sports Bar and into the Casino just to see if there was anyone playing at Let it Ride (we don’t like to play alone – we lose our money too quick!) Unfortunately the casino was PACKED, and seemed really smoky for some reason. Let it Ride was full, so we just decided to head out. We went up to the Lido Deck to get some fresh air, and decided to call it an early night. <br /><br />Our little buddy for the night was this little dino:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chris/Cassandra – 10/01/11 – Day 6 of the Cruise – Day at Sea </span></h2>
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />I guess I should finish this thing up. We hadn't had a late night Friday so we were up pretty early and decided to do breakfast in the Mermaid Grill. I had a mix of different things from different stations and all were pretty good. Cass finally got her omelet. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We headed back to the room and got ready for our last chance at a Pride ship on a stick. There were several trivia and contests today since it was a sea day and the first was at 10 am. It was held in the Starry Night's Lounge and we did rather well, but not good enough. <br /><br />I wanted to get pictures of the gym since a lot of people as about it. We had a little trouble finding it but I know that we had used it.............once..............two years ago… </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We went back to the Mermaid Grill for a light lunch. Not because we weren't hungry, but because the Chocolate Buffet for dessert. We both had a grilled ham and cheese which was really good and really light. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I'll say that I'm a chocoholic and was waiting for this all cruise. We tried a bit of everything and the cakes were all good. The chocolate cheesecake was just OK. The highlight for me was the mousse. It was easily the 2nd best dessert I had all week (behind WCMC of course). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We went from the buffet to the main stage on the Lido Deck for a couple of contests. The first was a scavenger hunt but we were about 15 minutes late. I wish we had known that we still could've joined because there were only a few couples participating and everyone got a ship on a stick </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Well we waited for Chloe to get started with the movie trivia (I knew we had a good shot at this one). I felt really good about going 22 for 25 but of course someone beat us by one. We went to thank Chloe and that we'd see her at the Sports Trivia (last one of the cruise) but she told us she wasn't going to be there. We thanked her for a great time during the trivia and gave us a participation award! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Oh yeah!!! Chloe is awesome and I'm upset we didn't get any pictures with her. But we finally got our Pride ship on a stick and that made the rest of the day much more bearable. <br /><br />With nothing else to do until the Sail Away party (never one to miss free booze), we saw that there was a Galley Tour in about 5 minutes so headed down to the MDR where it started. <br /><br />So the Galley tour was very cool (and free). It was great to see the kitchens and all the prep that goes into our food. I got a whole new appreciation for those poor folks that work like house elves below us to make sure our food is ready 3 times a day. We got a lot of pics so here you go. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />These escalators move so fast! I don't know how these people get on them holding food and there aren't more accidents. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Pictures of what all the meals should look like </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Prepping the frog legs which was tonight's 'Did Ya Ever'..........we didn't. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The entire menu for the week </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />And this had my mouth watering even after the chocolate buffet </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Once again, this was a very cool, very free little tour that gave us both some good insight into the workings that we never see. </span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />From here we went up to Serenity and chilled for a little bit. We were about to get a drink when we remembered the sail away party was only about a half hour away. It was a little chilly out on the deck since we were approaching the Bay but still nice </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We finally remembered the sail away party this time and headed there for some free booze. Unlike the past guest party, there was no one serving apps but the drinks were plenty and did I mention free? Not much in the way of entertainment but some kids got up on stage and 'danced' to some music they've never heard (oldies). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />After about 25-30 minutes we decided to get out of there and head back to the room. We had a message on the phone and it was our new friends Linda and Ron who asked us to their Aft balcony for drinks. We headed there and I got to try some Capt. Morgan Lime Bite which was better than I expected. There was a great sunset but we missed the sun from our view point </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />A few pics from our last night on the balcony </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />It was a bit breezy but I really like this one </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Cass, taking over… After the sun went down, we got ready for dinner and headed down for one last night in the MDR. We usually check the menu outside of the MDR earlier in the day to see what we are in store for that night (it’s also on the TV, but we like looking person, don’t ask me why) and we knew we had some YUMMY things in store for our last meal. <br /><br />We both follow John Heald on Facebook, so we knew the menus had changed, and there was one dish I couldn’t wait to try… the Bacon Mac n’ Cheese. Applewood smoked bacon, with aged cheddar cheese, topped with a grilled, marinated chicken breast. OMG. Yeah…. So it didn’t take too long to figure out what I wanted as my main dish, but Chris also wanted the Prime Rib that night – so he asked if he could have a smaller portion of the Mac and Cheese as his appetizer. The waiter said he would check, and lo and behold they were able to accommodate him! I got the New England Crab Cake as an app, and it was delicious! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Chris dug into his Mac and Cheese, and said he loved it – and that he knew I would not be disappointed with it as my main dish. He also was very pleased with his Prime Rib. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />YUM. Hands down my favorite meal all week</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />As for dessert, yes we topped off our last night with a final farewell to the classic, you know it and love it, the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake mmmmmm.. <br /><br />After dinner, we decided to head down to the Casino to cash out our slot money from the Sail and Sign cards (you would be hard pressed to forget to do this – we had 3 messages on our phone from the Casino that day, plus they announced it about every 15 mins in the casino that night). And we did one last go-round at the Let it Ride table. Neither of us did too bad – didn’t lose ALL the money we brought to play with, but definitely left with less than we came with. Hey, we consider that our “entertainment” for the week and budget it in – we responsibly manage our vices… lol <br /><br />Speaking of vices, when we got back to the room that night, we had our gift shop purchases delivered. We figured this year we would really take advantage of the low priced and duty free alcohol, even if we did exceed our customs limit because we wouldn’t be back on a cruise that didn’t require a flight for a few years. We were also responsible citizens and declared all our bottles (or I can just say I’m a scaredy cat as well ). When we went through the line the next day during debarkation, we were taken back to a little room and all we had to do was pay an additional $20 total (cash only!) for a total of 9 bottles. They were a bit slow – it took about 20 minutes to stand there and wait while they got the paperwork in order, but not bad really. <br /><br />So I guess that brings us to debarkation the next day. We have always done the self-debark since it’s just the 2 of us, and we have always sailed so far during football season (need to get home to set those Fantasy rosters! ) and we followed suit this time as well. Room Service was delivered around 6:45, as I like to have already claimed our seats to wait in Raphael’s on Deck 3 Aft by 8am at the latest. I’m glad I did – it filled up pretty quick, and we have a good view of the ship coming into the bay and docking when it gets into Baltimore. <br /><br />We waited until they started calling a few decks before us for the self-assist, and headed down to the Casino to get a closer spot until our deck was called (because the line is snaked through the casino). As always, painless – hop in line, our sail and sign cards get dinged through for the last time, and out into Baltimore we go. They have a new ramp from the ground to the ship that is less steep, but more twists (and fully enclosed) now, which will help with the cold and those guests that have difficulty with steeper inclines. Customs was painless as well, just the 20 minute detour to pay our customs fees that we were already prepared to do. <br /><br />If you’re interested in our haul for the week, I don’t think we did too bad </span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>And that unfortunately brings us to the end of yet another journey... The next installment will be from February 2012, when we sailed out of Miami aboard the Liberty to celebrate Chris's "real" birthday (leap year baby!) </i></b></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-67638979287272298872012-06-22T23:12:00.001-04:002012-06-23T08:10:24.081-04:00Cruise Intermission - Tower Defense and Jenga<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So time for another little break in the story for another installment of "Vasher vs. Cats, Round 2"...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This time, Leia decides to get a bit crafty... hide and seek!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Unfortunately all it ended up doing was teaching him that the furniture has new and exciting chill spots. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<br /><br /><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">In other news, Chris felt altruistic and purchased a snazzy new cat tower for the Beans* (..ok sidebar time.. "Beans" is a time-honored nickname that I christened the kitties ages ago, and the nickname stuck.. yeah, Little Beans. I dunno what inspired it, the mysteries of my mind are infinite, and it's best not to dig to deep...)</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-size: x-small;"><i>*thank you again love - We (collectively myself, Leia, and Leo) all say THANKS!!</i></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">It's safe to say they love it. It's been intact for about 5 hours now and Leia hasn't left - she keeps hopping from perch to perch. </span></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="color: #20124d;"><br />Leo also took it upon himself to deal with his own form of security... out come the laser-eyes.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">For now all is calm in the land of pups and kits... it's a truce akin to a massive game of Jenga - one wrong move and it all crashes down. </span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-44300851749084666102012-06-22T16:50:00.000-04:002012-06-24T09:12:14.318-04:00Sept 2011 - Carnival Pride - Part 3 - Half Moon Cay<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<u><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chris – 9/29/11 – Day 4 of the Cruise – Half Moon Cay </span></u></h2>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Well as we’ve said before, this was the port we were waiting for. We made sure to get a good night’s sleep and I had no booze the day before to make sure I was 100% for HMC. Room service arrived right on time and as we were enjoying a nice breakfast, the island started coming into view from our balcony. <br /><br />Here are a few pictures from our balcony (I was very glad to be port side so we faced all of the islands when docked). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />If I remember correctly the first tender was scheduled for 9 am and they told us to be down on deck 1 about 10 minutes early. Since we had an excursion we had priority tendering. I pushed Cass out the door about 20 til 9 and when we got down to deck 2, they asked us to show our excursion ticket so we could head down to where they were starting to line people up. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This was our first tendered port so we were interested to see how it was handled. The line ended up curling down one of the hallways on deck 1 and there were several hundred people lined up by the time they started boarding the first tender. I’m glad we headed down early as there were only about 10 others after us on the first tender (I think they took a lot of crew and supplies on that one too). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And please watch your head as the ramp leads up and it’s only about 4 feet high and I had to duck quite a bit but someone else didn’t and nearly cracked her head open. She shall remain anonymous but her name rhymes with Bassandra... <br /><br />A few more pictures from the tender. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The Private Oasis </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We made our way off the tender to their little shops area which reminded me of a hassle free Freeport. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The excursion desk was off to the left so I let Cass ask some questions while I got some photos before the masses arrived. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We decided to get our shopping done now before it got crowded and also since we'd be at the other end of the beach at cabana 12. We got a couple shot glasses, a travel mug for her, and a few other knicknacks. Cass also got a new pair of sunglasses to replace the ones she had just mashed into her noggin. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />By this point we were both itching to get to our cabana so we headed down the path with our friends which was an adventure in and of itself. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bathrooms and lockers to the left before the first cabanas </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />A good shot of the ship in a gap between the foliage </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />The perfectly named bar </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The Captain Morgan Rocks bar seen from the trail, this is in between cabanas 5 and 6. Our friends had cabana 5 and said that there was very minimal noise from the bar. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Heading down the beach to our cabana. Let me just say that I've never felt sand like they have on this beach. I was literally like walking on powdered sugar. Just incredibly soft and it never seemed to get hot (of course it was mostly cloudy in the afternoon so that may have had something to do with it). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Our awesome home for the day </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The free food that comes with the cabana. There was also a few sodas and 2 big bottles of water in the fridge. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />View from our cabana </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The cabana also included some water gear, floating mats, and snorkeling gear. We loved the floatie mats and used them a lot. It was so relaxing just floating on the water with little, subtle waves rocking you. That is my new happy place <br /><br />We also had a little guy come to check out that everything was cool in the cabana </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I believe it was a Basilisk Lizard based on how he ran. What a cutie!! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br /><br />There were a couple of wedding's held on HMC which I think a certain someone wished she was getting married. Hey, if it gets me out of wearing a tux, I'm all for it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />It was time for a stroll and also a little video of the cabanas and areas which we have right here. It's about 6 or so minutes long but gives a good overall impression of the populated areas of the Cay. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">From here we both got a Bahama Mama in the Monkey Head. They were very good and then headed to the buffet for lunch. There was a nice selection of food and everything I had was very good.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I also stopped by the Captain Morgan bar to refill our drinks and the staff was very entertaining. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Since it was such a short walk, we took our food back to the cabana for a nice little private meal. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Most of the rest of the HMC pics are pretty much what's on the video so I'll spare the reposting of those. The afternoon was pretty cloudy which was a good thing since we didn't need to hide in the cabana. Spent a lot, I mean A LOT of time on the floatie mats out in the water. I really hope everyone makes HMC a priority for a cruise. If you've been there, you'll know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, you will once you go. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Finally, just a bit of video of us being silly in the morning on the floatie mats. It was really crazy how much the tide affected the shore. In the morning when this video was taken, the water was at least 5 feet deeper than it was later in the afternoon. Just a few hours later, we were only a few feet closer to shore at this point, and could touch the bottom! (Well, Chris could... me, not so much). Just another point about how much we loved the floatie mats!! Seriously these things were awesome. It was like floating in a giant pool with really gentle waves. Heaven on Earth!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Check out how deserted the lounge chairs were in front of our cabana for most of the day... </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Later, we saw some of our Casino dealers that were able to debark and enjoy HMC as well - they were very close to our end of the beach. I thought that was really cool they got a little bit of relax time off the ship! <br /><br />I also think we had a group of Carnival Videographers (crew) close to us as well - they were foreign (speedos!). For the most part they were fine (although I swear I saw one walking out of our Cabana at one point) but it was hilarious because they were playing Frisbee in the water for like 5 hours straight... at one point, I think they set up their professional camera equipment to film one of their 5-man Frisbee sessions.. Hey, whatever floats your boat...<br /><br />We took the 2nd to last tender back and the line was long but they herded us on and we were sadly sailing away from our new favorite place. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We headed to an early dinner, for us anyway, and the food was great as usual. We weren't feeling very original and we both ended up ordering the same thing for appetizer and entree. We had chicken tenders marinated in Thai spices (delicious, probably the best app all week) and then duet of petite filet mignon and short-rib confit (also very good). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I'll give you two guesses as to what we had for dessert but you'll only need one.. more WCMC baby. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />After losing more money in the casino (fortunately a little slower than most nights) we headed back up to the room to call it a night. This little guy was waiting for us..."Can you believe it Mr. Frodo? An Oliphant? My Old Gaffer would never believe this"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><b>Stay tuned for <a href="http://tripssailstails.blogspot.com/2012/06/sept-2011-carnival-pride-part-4.html" target="_blank">Part 4</a>, including previous Freeport experiences!</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-50452070349360250732012-06-20T14:38:00.002-04:002012-06-24T09:10:43.054-04:00Sept 2011 - Carnival Pride - Part 2 - Grand Turk<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<u><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cassandra – 9/28/11 – Day 3 of the Cruise – Grand Turk </span></u></h2>
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />When we woke up on Wednesday, we were already docked at Grand Turk. We booked the Reef and Rays excursion through Carnival, which was to meet around 8:15 at the port, so we made sure to put out the room service tag the night before, with a scheduled delivery around 7. I woke up earlier than that, and was able to get some nice pics of the port, and was happy to see the day looked promising for great weather. I loved having a balcony on this side of the ship! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />After breakfast was delivered, I got a few more shots as the sun rose higher. Our plan was to head to <a href="http://www.jacksshack.tc/Home.php" target="_blank">Jack’s Shack</a> after the excursion was over, so I was pleased to be able to see it from our balcony ahead of time. (it's the little teeny blue sign in the middle of the below pic) </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Teeny blue sign in middle of the pic is Jack's Shack</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Around 8am, we headed down to Deck A Fwd to debark. <br /><br />We walked through the first shop and in the courtyard is where all the excursion signs were posted for people to meet at. Ours was close to the Ron John shop. I walked over to the beach and tried to get a few more shots of the ship. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Our fellow Excursioners waiting to leave. My baby in the hat holding a towel refusing to have his pic taken. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />He couldn't hide from the camera for long, and I suckered him into one of the "hold the cameral out" shots I've tried to perfect. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our guide, some great guys from Oasis Divers, checked us in, took our tickets, and led us over to where their pontoon boats were docked. We all got in, and made our way around the island over to Round Cay and Gibbs Cay. I was able to get some great shots of the ship from afar. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The excursion included snorkeling first at the reefs off the coast of Round Cay. Evidently, this is the world’s 3rd largest natural reef, and we were excited to get in the water and see the sights! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Also in this area was “Jack” a very large barracuda who likes to hang around (mostly due to the chunks of food they were flinging him!) We were also able to try out our new Kodak PlaySport underwater camcorder/camera – so I was able to catch a few good shots of Jack. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">They let us snorkel for about 30-40 minutes, at which point we all got back in the boat and they took us closer to Round Cay. This is a small island that is inhabited by some animals and birds, but people are not allowed to debark and walk around on it. It is basically a very large rock, and had some really interesting natural formations on it. </span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />After taking pictures, we navigated over to Gibbs Cay, which is also another small uninhabited island, but with a good Sting Ray population. Here we were able to get back off the boat, and one at a time hold the Rays, give them a kiss, and get a massage from them. They are really soft and slick, and had really interesting eyes - yellow and black. Cute little guys in my opinion! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />When everyone had a turn with the Rays, they also offered anyone that wanted to lick the barb a chance! We both declined, and wandered away to see the other stingrays that were swimming around our feet. It was open water, and we were standing in water about 3.5-4 feet deep – there were a few rays just swimming around, and we really had to be careful where we stepped! <br /><br />After that, they did a demonstration on how to get the conch out of a conch shell – kinda nasty, and even cleaned off and offered raw conch to anyone that wanted it. I took a piece, but after trying to bite into it and having it spring back like a rubber band, I tossed it into the water for something else to surely enjoy it more than I would have. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For anyone that would like to watch, we also got some video of that... watch at your own risk! </span>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />All during this time, a huge storm was brewing back at the port – we could all see the dark clouds and storms across the water by the boat – so our guides had us wait about 10 minutes before heading back, and we just caught the edge of the storm as it was blowing back out to sea. Unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures of the huge black clouds over the ship, but by the time we got back into port, the sun was shining again, and the temp was heating back up. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The excursion was great – we were on the fence between this one (Reef and Rays) and the Gibbs Cay Stingray Encounter, but were very happy we chose the Reef and Rays. The snorkeling was great – we saw the other tour when we made our way over to Gibbs Cay, and the other group’s “snorkeling” consisted of swimming in the shallow water right around Gibbs Cay. Ours was out in the actual ocean by the reef. I would also highly recommend the Oasis Divers – very professional, knowledgeable, and fun. I believe they only take reservations through Carnival. <br /><br />The excursion was over and we were back on the main shore by 11:30. We briefly glanced at Margaritaville, took some cursory pictures, and headed to the beach to walk down to Jack’s Shack. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />As we were setting out, I stopped to grab a pic of this sign. I’ve seen the sign in other reviews, but thought it was hilarious that this time, the conch really was missing! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />It was about a 10 minute walk, which was lovely with our shoes off and the sun shining. <br /><br />This is one of my favorite pics from the trip (aside from the scads of ring pics I took ) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When we got to Jack’s we were greeted by Topher, the GoldenDoodle (Retriever / Poodle mix who LOVES to swim). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We took a glance at the drink menu, and I had to try the Drink of the day – the Sandy Vagina…. - it was their own vanilla infused vodka (vanilla beans soaking in a bottle of Stoli), Coconut Rum, and Pineapple Juice. YUM. Chris was still kinda feeling the effects of the night before, so he kept it safe with a bottle of water. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We ordered some food – he got a cheeseburger, and I tried the chef’s specialty Jerk Chicken. The food came in about 10 minutes, and it was really good. Here’s a shot of the chicken with my drink in the back. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We were hoping to make use of free Wi-Fi at Jack’s via my iPhone, but it wouldn’t connect. By this point the sun was really starting to get hot, so we decided to pay up and head back closer to the port to relax and get in the water before it was time to get back on board. <br /><br />We set up shop on some beach chairs in the shade, locked up our valuables using the new PacSafe we bought, and headed out to the water. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />It was a little tricky getting in, because the sand at the water’s edge gives way to some pretty slick rocks until you get a little further out. I would definitely recommend to new-comers to tread cautiously the first time going in the water, if you are close to the ship. After getting sufficiently cooled off, we went back to the chairs to relax for a bit until we decided to head back. <br /><br />We poked around a few more shops, and made our back on the boat. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We went back to the room and Chris took a nap while I relaxed on the balcony and got a few more shots of this gorgeous port. I would go back in a heartbeat!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><br />In this shot, you can see Margaritaville in the foreground, and I believe way off in the distance is Round Cay, where we did our snorkeling at. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Saying goodbye to Jack’s Shack! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />At 4:30 we headed back down to Deck 3 to try our hand again in Sports Trivia, and stayed for the General Trivia afterwards. Still no luck. We were now 0 for 4. By this point, Chloe, one of the entertainment staff, was really rooting for us! She was great by the way – very entertaining and had the greatest British accent! I'm disappointed we never got a chance to take a picture with her! <br /><br />We wandered around the ship, and were lucky enough to catch a really nice sunset. The huge cloud made the sunrays look absolutely exquisite. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We went to dinner, and I had my favorite drink of the week – Sex on the Beach. Last year I stuck with "The Cruiser" but I'm not a fan of the glasses they come in (like a wider wine glass with a long stem), so I switched it up this year. Chris is a fan of the Mai-Tai's and Long Islands. Since we are casino players, we like to order off the “Classic” drink menu so we can cash in our receipts for the $5 match play cards. By the last sea day we had accumulated 14 of them. I guess that's not too bad for 7 days between the 2 of us... hehe </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />For appetizers that night, Chris didn’t really see anything he liked, so he went with the Fruit Cocktail. I actually splurged and got both the Tom Ka Gai soup (a chicken soup with coconut and lemongrass) and the “didja” option – Shark and Langoustino Fire Cracker Rolls (we almost never get 2 dishes in the same course, it's just too much food, but I really wanted to try both). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The soup was great, but did have big chunks of mushroom in it, so I ate around those. The rolls weren’t what I was expecting (thought it would be more like sushi). They were OK but had a lot of filler. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />For the main entrees, we forgot to take pics. I know… </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">FAIL</span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">. <br /><br />I had the Assorted Seafood, Newburg Style. It was good, but had more shellfish (oysters or mussels or something) and that kinda turned me off. The prawns and scallops were yummy though. Chris had the daily option of the Flat Iron Steak, which is always a good choice. <br /><br />What I was most excited for this night was dessert – I have read so many reviews for the Bitter and Blanc, and never had it, so I was determined. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but still very good. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Chris got the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake again, and loved every bite. <br /><br />That night, we were both exhausted, and knew we had another early day the next day, so we decided to call it an early night. It was slightly disappointing too, because we wanted to try to make the late-night Mexican Buffet that was going on that night, but it just wasn't gonna happen. <br /><br />This little cutie met us when we went back to the room. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We filled out the room service tag for breakfast the next day and called it a night - and getting excited for Half Moon Cay the next day!! <br /><br />All in all, Grand Turk was excellent. It was a great port, and I can't wait to go back on the Breeze cruise in Nov 2012!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>Thanks for reading Part 2, Grand Turk! Stay tuned, up next for <a href="http://tripssailstails.blogspot.com/2012/06/sept-2011-carnival-pride-part-3-half.html" target="_blank">Part 3 is our own version of paradise... the private island, Half Moon Cay</a>!</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-1258787579787878752012-06-18T20:43:00.000-04:002012-06-20T14:41:54.740-04:00Sept 2011 - Carnival Pride - Part 1<b><i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /><span style="color: #134f5c; font-size: x-large;">So it wasn't my intention for the second trip we posted about to be from the same ship... but as you may have read in Part 1 from our <a href="http://tripssailstails.blogspot.com/2012/06/may-2012-carnival-pride-cruise-52712.html">May 2012 sailing</a>, the Pride really is like our vacation home, in a sense.<br /><br />Plus, we both thought it would be great to share a little slice of romance ;) <br /><br />So settle in for another 4-part retelling of our September 2011 cruise that went to Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Freeport. </span></span></i></b><br />
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<u><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">September 2011 – Carnival Pride (Sept 25 – Oct 2) </span></u></h2>
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />First a little background info. Booked the cruise way back in January so it was a looooong wait. It was me (my 4th cruise, 3rd time on the Pride) and my lovely girlfriend, Cassandra (CC screen name ardnassac79) (her 3rd - all on the Pride). We live about half an hour from the port so the Pride is just wicked convenient for us. This was a different itinerary for us which also a nice draw. <br /><br />We had originally booked an obstructed balcony room (there are a handful of these in between the lifeboats that really aren’t obstructed at all). I received a call from the upsell fairy about a month before the cruise for an extended balcony on deck 7 for a very small fee. I jumped all over it. <br /><br />We started our roll call thread here on CC on January 23rd, and were so lucky to have such a great and active roll call!! It made the wait so much easier to deal with, and we were excited to meet all the new friends we had gotten to know in the months prior. <br /><br />I also had a little surprise in store for Cass. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I’d been hiding this little beauty at work for the past month. I knew I wanted to propose the first day on the ship but didn’t have a specific time or place in mind, just figured I’d wait for the right moment to present itself. </span><br />
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<u><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chris – 9/25/11 – Day 1 of the Cruise - Embarkation </span></u></h2>
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I was hoping to get a good night’s sleep so I could be well rested for the first day but that went out the window when I woke up at 2:30 and couldn’t fall back asleep. I gave up at 4 and got some last minute gaming in until it was time to get ready. <br /><br />We had been reading that the ship was docking earlier than our two previous cruises so we decided to risk it and got to the port shortly before 11. <br /><br />We always sport our jerseys on game day and I tried to convince her that it wasn't a good idea for me to pose while doing driving on 95. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Here she is while driving up to the port.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Obligatory drive up picture - why does it always seem to be cloudy when we pull up?</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Last year the ship was a little late getting in and we were not on the boat until a little before 4 pm. This year was a completely different experience. The whole process went as smoothly as we could’ve hoped for. We were at the port by 10:30, parked and through security by 11. There was a little wait while the last passengers got off but they started letting us board a little after 11:30 and we were in the sports bar before noon. Getting on the ship that early really made the first day seem so much better and longer. Cass went to the excursion desk to reserve our cabana for Half Moon Cay and I went to the sports bar to meet up with some friends from the roll call. I also took advantage of this chance to move the ring from my carry on into my pocket. <br /><br />We relaxed in the sports bar and had our first DOD of the cruise for a couple hours until the room was ready. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Since the Eagles were losing Cass didn’t care to watch the rest of the game so we took advantage of the extra time and completely unpacked and did a quick tour of the ship to check out the upgrades since the last dry dock. We loved the Serenity area as that was by far the biggest and best update for us. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Ah, little does she know what is store for her in about an hour </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Since the sports bar is right next to the casino I decided to take a few quick pics of the updates and changes since our last cruise. There used to be a row of slots where the pool tables are and the Poker Pro table was in a separate room. It got a lot more action being next to all the other tables this year. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />The rooms were ready right around 2:30 and we were already heading there when they made the announcement. Cass had contacted the Player's Club about our last two cruises and we were told that we'd have some sort of Bon Voyage waiting for us. Cass was quite pleased </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The bottle of Captain Morgan was a gift from someone in our roll call. Completely unexpected but very appreciated. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The room was the exact same size as the obstructed view balcony on deck 5. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We headed back down for the muster drill which was, as always, a blast…::sarcasm:: </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Cass was given a stern look for using her camera... </span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />As soon as that was done half the ship headed for the sports bar to catch the Raven’s game. Being a die hard Raven’s fan it was I really wanted to watch the game but as we were up 21-0 in the first quarter, I decided that it was ok to head up for the sail away party. Again, I was hoping the right moment might present itself but so far no luck. We were up on the Sun Deck (10) watching the activities below. The sail away is what it is and as we’re not really into the dancing we decided to do some more exploring. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Charm City from (in my opinion) the best view </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We had never seen the Bay Bridge as we’re leaving so we went up to play mini-golf as we were approaching. </span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was right around sunset as we went under and the view was amazing. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After this we went back to the room to get ready for dinner and do the free liquor tasting (which is completely pointless - huge line for a teeny tiny thimble of liquor). </span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We also found the elusive hidden coin. I'll just show the close up but I won't tell you where it is… </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />While she was getting ready I went out to the balcony to gather up the courage that I knew I was going to need in the coming moments. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After a few minutes she came out and I knew the time was now. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I told her how much I loved her and dropped to one knee. I never had a doubt what her answer would be but it did take her a few moments to stop sobbing and actually say yes. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was glad I waited to do it in private so it was a little more intimate and she could feel free to let her emotions flow. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We then made the calls to family to let them know and headed out for dinner. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think she was still in shock the rest of the night as her eyes kept getting watery but I knew they were tears of joy and I loved the look on her face every time she glanced down at her hand. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have to say, I never in my life ever wanted to get married. I just didn't see the point. If you love someone, you love them. But I never imagined I could meet someone who compliments me so perfectly, someone I'd be so happy to call my wife. She's the most amazing person I've ever met and I'm thankful everyday that we both took a chance 3 years ago. <br /><br />I love you baby! <br /><br />We always do Anytime Dining as we never know when we’ll be hungry and love being able to sit by ourselves for dinner. We’ve never had a wait longer than a couple minutes and even that is rare (more on this later). Got there around 8 and were seated immediately. We planned to take plenty of food porn for this review but unfortunately had other things on our mind at dinner. <br /><br />I had the fried chicken tenders as an app and they were really good. Very lightly breaded and good, moist chicken. She had Gazpacho Andalouse (chilled tomato based soup), also very good with a little kick. For dinner I had the Tender Braised Beef Brisket in Gravy (the comfort food option for the night)....it did not suck. Cass had the Pan Seared Fillet of Tilapia, also good. </span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We shared the best desert on the planet that night....Warm Chocolate Melting Cake </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I was pretty amazed that I wasn’t tired yet so we headed down to the casino for my daily contribution. She ended up in the positive for the night while I lost a quick $100. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">By this point the day was catching up to us and we went up to the Serenity area and grabbed a hammock. We laid there for a bit which was great as it was still nice out with a cool breeze. We called it a night (certainly one neither of us would forget) shortly thereafter. <br /><br />Today's Towel Animal – Seal </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Some closing first day notes, we loved our Extended Balcony. As Chris mentioned previously, we had Obstructed View balconies on our past two cruises on the Pride. We always book Early Saver, and therefore were able to pick our own cabin – so we always got one in between the life boats, but couldn’t pass up the great upsell-fairy deal this time. We were so glad we took it too – we were in cabin 7180, and the extra leg room was EXCELLENT. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Also, for the Half Moon Cay cabanas, we were smart and reserved the cabana online through Carnival’s excursions in February. A lot of people on our Roll Call also ended up booking them as well, but they did sell out fairly quick. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once we boarded the ship, I headed straight for the Excursion Desk and picked the cabana number we wanted. Even though we were on the ship by noon, there were already 4 cabanas booked. Luckily they were all in the 3-7 range, so we had our choice of the high numbered ones. <br /><br />Also, in addition to the chocolate covered strawberries we got from the Carnival Players Club, we were also surprised with 2 photo vouchers (up to $14.99 each) when we went to dinner at in the MDR that night! It was a really nice touch, and completely unexpected! Unfortunately we didn’t really like any of the pictures taken on this cruise except one, so we asked, and were told we could keep the other voucher for our next cruise! <br /><br />I also want to say that Chris completely got me by surprise - in a great way!! I've never been happier, and he made me the happiest woman on earth that day! I love you too baby </span><br />
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<u><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chris – 9/26/11 – Day 2 of the Cruise – Day at Sea </span></u></h2>
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We ordered room service and had breakfast out on our balcony. The extended balcony was great and well worth the upgrade. It’s 50% bigger than the other balcony and gave us a lot more leg room. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After breakfast we headed up to Serenity to get a spot and were surprised to find it pretty deserted. We grabbed a clam shell and set up for the rest of the morning. It started to fill up around 9:30 and was quite packed by 10. We had people keeping an eye on us and as soon as we put shirts on had about 5 people ask if we were leaving. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cass being silly. I think she took more pictures of her left hand than the Pride </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />It was time to get dressed and ready for the roll call’s meet and greet. About 20 people showed up (generally the more active people on the call) and it was great to meet everyone whom we’d been talking to for the previous months. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Meanwhile, Cass was running around trying to find out where/how to sign up for the Master Mixology contest (it wasn't the most organized event and sign ups could've been handled much better). <br /><br />After that was time for the ice sculpture (Carnival, please teach them to do something other than an Indian Head). More importantly was the mixology contest in which Cass and Joey (another roll call member) were participants. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Cass working on her drink 'The Cass Kicker' </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Mmmm, it tastes so good </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I’ll just say that neither of them finished in the top 3 out of 5 so you can do the math. But we got to finish her drink, received a free drink coupon, and the best prize was the drink book which we will but to good use. <br /><br />We then had lunch up on the Lido and the burgers were good as always. I’ve never had a negative thing to say about the food on Carnival. When going to the grill on the Lido deck, expect a couple minute wait if you want a burger. The line may look long but it moves pretty quick. After that we checked out the shops and looked at liquor since we knew we would be getting a lot this year. Cass also checked out some jewelry that she wasn’t going to get but you can’t blame a girl for looking. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Mmmm, Private Stock! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Met up with some friends for the sports trivia but once again came up short and still no ship on a stick <br /><br />Ivory Piano Bar (Level 3 right above the Sports Bar) We had never been in here before since it was a big smoking area but they held a few trivias in here this year and it's a nice out of the way place to relax as well. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Went back to the room for a quick power nap and got ready for dinner as it was the first formal night. I hate dressing up so Cass let me slide without getting pictures. One thing I don’t understand is why the only night they have the BBQ ribs is a formal night. I love ribs and these were falling off the bone. Very good, but messy. <br /><br />There was one picture of me but as you can see, I hate having my picture taken. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I skipped an appetizer tonight since I was having the ribs and know they are filling. Cass started with West Indian Roasted Pumpkin Soup </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We also decided to be brave and tried the Didja Ever option tonight which was Alligator Fritters. These were surprisingly good though the filler and spices helped hide any real difference between this and chicken. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />As I mentioned above, the ribs were great. Nice and moist and fall off the bone good. Just wish they offered them on a different night. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />She had the Lobster and Shrimp combo which I heard was good but wouldn't know as I don't do seafood. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I live in Maryland and don't eat seafood. I know I've heard it all before... </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I once again had WCMC for dessert and Cass went with the Caramelized Apples on Puff Pastry. I think she was jealous of me that night. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Looks good, but on the dry side... </span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />After I changed into something more comfortable we went back to the Let It Ride table which was a bit more kind. Quite a few people were hitting good hands including the lady next to me who hit 4 of a kind for a quick $850. Since we were both doing ok we decided to skip the adult comedy which is always crazy packed the first showing. <br /><br />Tonight's towel animal...... </span><br />
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<u><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chris/Cassandra – 9/27/11 – Day 3 of the Cruise – Day at Sea </span></u></h2>
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We had never had breakfast in the MDR so we decided to do it today. It was OK. The food really is no different from what you get up on the Lido but the atmosphere is much better. It took a while to get food which was a bit odd but we weren’t in a hurry. If you like to avoid the hustle and bustle of the buffet, this is probably a good option. If you’re starving, just go to the buffet and take your food somewhere a little quieter. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Not exactly sure why I took pictures of waffles. I mean they're just.....waffles. Not a big meal by any standard but I wasn't really hungry and just humoring my lovely fiancé (and nowhere near used to using that word yet) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />She had never tried Eggs Benedict so went with those this morning </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We decided to try our luck at the Serenity area again but since it was after 10, we knew we were pretty much screwed for a seat. It was packed so we went up to the little deck by the Whale Tail that very few people know about (used to be the topless deck). There was only one other couple up there when we arrived so it’s a nice alternative if you don’t feel like camping out for a Serenity chair. <br /><br />Cassandra Taking over…. <br /><br />We stayed up by the Whale Tale for a few hours, but neither of us can really stand the constant sun for too long, so we decided to pack up and head in (plus I had a hard time reading - its REALLY windy up there!) – on the way back we decided to check out the Lunch Menu for the MDR. Like breakfast, we never took advantage of lunch there on previous cruises, so decided to give it a shot. <br /><br />They do a full 3-course menu just like dinner, but still being a little full from breakfast, we tried to keep it light (haha). One thing we were not used to was eating on the lower level of the MDR – for Anytime dinner, we have always been on the 3rd floor, so this was the first time we had a nice view of the ceiling. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Chris started with the Jamaican Red Bean Soup. It had a little spicy kick to it, but not a lot. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I had the Chilled Curried Apple Soup which was really good with a really interesting flavor. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />For our main course, we both had the Chicken Caesar Salad. Chris was able to get his with Honey Mustard dressing instead of Caesar, good to know if you don’t like certain dressings but still want a salad. We didn’t take pictures of that – when you see one salad, you’ve seen them all! There was a LOT of chicken in them though. <br /><br />Finally, even though we tried to keep it light, we both ordered dessert as well – Chris had the German Chocolate Cake, and I had the Ice Coupe Belle Helene, which was vanilla ice cream with a poached pear and chocolate sauce. It was really tasty! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />After lunch, I wanted to try my hand in the Slot Tournament. The Fun Times said it started at 1pm, but we knew from past experience they allowed qualifications for a few hours. We headed down to the Casino and I was able to enter the 2nd to last qualifying round. Unfortunately, my Butterfly machine didn’t spin enough to win, but I still had a good time. A Roll Call member and her friend were also in the same round – her friend got in, but we aren’t sure how she did in the finals. <br /><br />After that, we headed to yet another attempt at Sports Trivia in the Raphael lounge. Another try, another loss . Some of those questions are so off the wall! By this point it was around 4pm, and the Past Guest party was starting at 4:30 so we headed towards the Taj Mahal and were close to the front of the line. People start lining up early for this, so we were glad to get a good seat. They changed the show from last year, so it was entertaining. We were also excited to be able to clap for our upcoming cruises we already have booked on the Liberty and Breeze! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />During the Party, Trevor the Cruise Director had to step away. A few minutes later, he came on the announcements and said that the ship was slowing down and stopping because they saw a vessel that looked like it was in distress. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At this point the Past Guest Party was about over, and most people started hauling up to Decks 9 and 10 to see what the commotion was all about. It was on the Port side of the ship, and was pretty comical to see almost 2000 people all on one side trying to see what was going on. We took a few pictures of what appeared to be an abandoned boat, and thought we may be able to get a better view from our balcony. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />As we were heading down to deck 7, an announcement was made again to clear the area on Deck 3 as that was where the crew was attempting to bring this thing on board ! Needless to say there was a lot of chatter from people with all sorts of conspiracy theories as to what happened. <br /><br />Evidently, nothing was found, the ship was put back in the water, and we went on our merry way. <br /><br />At this point, neither of us were hungry from the late lunch, not to mention the appetizers and free drinks from the Past Guest Party, so we hung out on the balcony for a while and relaxed. <br /><br />We saw a rain storm far away, and were able to catch a few pics of the storm, plus the rainbow off to the left if you look hard enough. As we got closer and closer, you could tell the rain was coming down pretty good, but we just barely got any. I think the captain may have tried to steer us around the bulk of the storm. It was still pretty cool to watch. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Finally we got ready for dinner and headed down to the MDR. Chris had the Smoked Chicken Quesadilla – I had a bite and it was scrumptious! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I had the Study in Sushi. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture till after I already ate 2 of the 3 little guys. I tried to artfully arrange the shrimp tail back in the right place, but I don’t think this pic gives the dish jus</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #741b47;">tice. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />For our main course, Chris had the Jerked Pork Loin. He ordered it with a side of white rice instead of the fried rice that comes with it, and he said it had a really nice flavor. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I had the Penne Mariscos, which is pasta with seafood and a tomato cream sauce. It was good, but I realized I’m not a big fan of mussels. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />For dessert we each had the Strawberry Cheesecake. We both liked the strawberry sauce came on the side, so you could add as much or as little as you wanted. It was light and creamy – very good. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />After having a full breakfast, lunch, dinner, plus a few tropical drinks, we almost literally had to roll ourselves out of the MDR. We headed down to the Butterflies Lounge to catch the Adult Comedy act. It was packed, but luckily some friends from the Roll Call saw us, and they let us nab their seats – they decided not to stay because they saw the same act the night before. It was the Assistant CD (Eric Brouman) and was really funny. <br /><br />After that we decided to make our daily offerings at the Let it Ride table. I lost a quick $100, but Chris was doing well (usually when I LEFT the table he did better than when I was there ) I knew we had an early morning the next day in Grand Turk, so I went up to the room early to relax. <br /><br />I was greeted with this cute little guy: </span><br />
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<span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>So this concludes Part 1 of our Engagement Cruise, thanks for reading... :) We'll be back within a few days with <a href="http://tripssailstails.blogspot.com/2012/06/sept-2011-carnival-pride-part-2-grand.html" target="_blank">Part 2, a full report of Grand Turk</a> - home to the 2nd largest Barrier Reef on the planet. </i></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-13842190304963066372012-06-17T07:48:00.000-04:002012-06-17T07:48:19.912-04:00May 2012 - Carnival Pride - Part 4 - The End<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<u><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chris – 6/1/12 – Day 6 of the Cruise – Freeport, Bahamas </span></u></h2>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />This was our 4th trip to Freeport and my 5th. There isn't much to do right off the ship and you need to book an excursion or take a cab to Port Lucaya for anything good. We planned on taking advantage of people getting off the ship and getting a spot in Serenity. Mother Nature was not as accommodating. Shortly after we woke up we heard Jaime come over the speaker and mention liquid sunshine. We left our towels and went up to Lido for a small breakfast. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />It was pouring! Haven't really experienced rain like this on a cruise before so I guess we were due and if it's going to rain on a port day, may as well be Freeport. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Since we knew we wouldn't get any sun, we headed back to the room to grab some cash and check out the shops since we didn't get a chance in Nassau. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Waste of time. We were back on board 15 minutes later. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We took our books back up to Serenity and I decided to finally try something I had read about on CC, make my own frap. I grabbed a cup and put a few ounces of coffee in it, then went to the soft serve machine. I filled the rest of the cup with chocolate yogurt (didn't realize it was yogurt and not ice cream at the time ). Stirred it up a bit and YUM!!! I'm going to do this all the time on the Breeze. So simple, yet so good! <br /><br />We spotted Lauren and Chris in the covered area of Serenity and sat with them until the days first Trivia Challenge on the Lido stage. Fortunately the deck cover was closed but there were still a few spots that were leaking onto tables. We grabbed pencil and paper and set up at some lounge chairs in front of the stage. I got 16 of 20 and ended up tied for first (really wanted to earn that ship on a stick) so there was a bonus question. I honestly can't even remember the question, just that the answer was cricket. I heard someone shout out the answer and just repeated it to Bruce for the win. The other guy didn't know it either so I didn't feel bad. FINALLY!!! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We were pleasantly surprised to see our seats still available in Serenity and relaxed there with a turkey and cheese sandwich from the Deli (surprisingly good). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Started pulling out of Freeport right on time and I took some photos despite the rain because it really is a beautiful sail away. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Since we didn't eat in the MDR the previous 2 nights I promised Cass she could get all dolled up and we'd do the second formal night. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We had the 3rd round of Super Trivia at 4 so she went to the room to get a jump start on getting ready. I went to the Perfect Game sports bar and lost a quick $20 in video poker. We went to Raphael’s a little before 4 and had to part ways since we were on different teams. <br /><br />Now the guys were up about 31 going into today but Friday was all about the ladies. We got some of the most ridiculous questions imaginable and the girls (with the help of their Google searches) got a quick 10 points on us. They continued to close the gap and thankfully our History buff Dave, helped us out as they were within 11. We got the last 9 points to get it back to 20 but I knew something was going to be up the last day so I wasn't as confident as I had been. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some random ship shots - David's Steakhouse...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Made my first drink back in the room and then went to Sports Trivia in the Piano Bar. Talk about obscure questions. I think I only got 11 right and came no where near winning. Went back to the room to get ready for dinner and fortunately had no wait tonight (it sounded like the Steak House was a popular choice this evening) <br /><br />In place of the Didja Ever Escargo (due to the world wide shortage.....or so I'm told because I'd never touch that stuff) Cass started with the Ceviche marinated in lime juice (which we said was much better than snails)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Her main dish was the Chateaubriand with sauce Bearnaise. I had the Flat Iron Steak (looks like I should've ordered 2). Both were very good and I honestly wasn't that hungry so it worked out well. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I skipped dessert while she had the Diet New York Cheesecake. Sorry no picture for some reason. <br /><br />Back to the room to get ready for the rest of the evening and found Froggy McNasty waiting for us. (I don't expect anyone to get that reference as it's from a punk band that even Cass hates) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Our Let It Ride table was empty so we decided to kill some time with video poker in the sports bar (if you're wondering why we spend so much time in there instead of at slots at the casino, it's because there's no smoking in the sports bar). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chris and Lauren found us and since it was about a half hour before the first new comedian (they swapped in Nassau but there had been no comedy the previous 2 nights) we went down to Butterflies early. It was a good thing too because it was already crowded and the only seat for 4 we could find was off to the side. The first comedian, Jim Brick, was very funny. It was almost more improv than anything because he mainly just made fun of certain members of the audience (and why I refuse to sit up front for any comedy show). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We got a couple drinks (any drink over $10 gets a stamp for a 'match play' card from the casino, the same ones you get for the Carnival Classics anywhere on the ship), and went back to the casino until the late comedy show. We played Let It Ride for a bit (while I was at the table a woman won a BMW at the slots!!!) but Cass wasn't feeling it so she cashed in some receipts and we went to Roulette to play our cards. She did well and decided to try her luck at the table. While she waited to get her own colored chips she plopped down a $5 chip on 27 (my favorite number) which I told her was silly.......</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">BAZINGA!!! 27 hits and she won a quick $175 and was as giddy as a school girl at a Twilight convention. I grabbed the winnings and cashed out while she played with the rest of her chips. <br /><br />I saw Mike over at the Tower of Cash which is relatively new and it looked pretty easy . I put in $9 and made it to the last ring 6 times (if you hit the last ring you can win $1000 or $500 and an iPad). Me and that machine were not done yet. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We went back to Butterflies Lounge 20 minutes before the last show and wow, standing room only. We were fortunate and good a good spot at the back with a drink rail that we could lean on. <br /><br />Larry Omaha was the 2nd comedian tonight......................................................... <br /><br />Sorry, I was taught that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. He wasn't funny. He wasn't crude or f bombing all over the place to make some people uncomfortable. He just wasn't funny. Kind of disappointing but whatever, they can't all be good. <br /><br />We hung around in the casino for a bit (stupid Tower of Cash ) before calling it a night around 1:30. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>Chris – 6/2/12 – Day 7 of the Cruise – Day at Sea </u></span></h2>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />This day is always bittersweet. You know it's the last day on board but you don't want to be down and let it ruin 1/7th of the vacation. <br /><br />We slept in till around 9 and went to Lido for breakfast. We never hit the MDR for breakfast because what's the point? It's basically the same food without the masses of people. We never had a problem finding a spot to sit and eat so it wasn't a big deal to us. We could tell that today was going to be bright and sunny and the Serenity area was already packed. Glad to say virtually no chair hogs. I'm assuming the few chairs that had just towels belonged to those in the pool or hot tub. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Still a little too early to sun for us so I stopped in the gift shop and got my 2 bottles of Captain Morgan Private Stock. We noticed a Sci-Fi Trivia in the Fun Times and thought I might do ok. Jaime walked by us and Bruce gave her a hard time for not announcing trivia. She was on the intercom a few minutes later and gave us all a shout out which I'm sure most of the people on the ship thought was weird. I didn't do so good on the trivia (I guess I'm not a big a dork as I thought ). <br /><br />Went back to the room and then made our way to the top deck that we love. Deserted once again. </span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">More people ended up finding their way up there closer to noon but it was still pretty quiet. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was quite surprised to see our very own CD, Jaime, come up there for some quiet sunning time. It was nice to know that she at least gets a half hour during the day to relax. We actually ran into her an hour later and she came up to us and introduced herself. I was kind of sad that we didn't have a chance to interact with her more because she seems like a really nice lady and is probably my 2nd favorite CD so far (Karl with a K #1). <br /><br />We went to the Lido grill for lunch and contemplated doing The Hunt is On game. Last year only 2 couples did it and we could've easily won our ship on a stick but we found a good table and decided we'd be spectators for this one. So this game is pretty funny to watch, it's kind of a PG rated The Quest with teams of 2. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Chris from the entertainment staff was hosting and when he saw me he asked why we weren't playing. I said there wasn't enough cross dressing to get me interested... :P</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Cass wanted to do the final slot tournament of the week but since finals were set for 10 minutes before the final round of Super Trivia, I passed. Her machine was not lucky.....at all. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In fact it was so bad that Bunnie (Casino Host) laughed when she saw her score. Bunnie had been a dealer, a great dealer in fact, on our 2010 Pride cruise. We had said hi to her earlier in the week and were always greeted with a smile whenever she saw us. So feeling bad for Cass, Bunnie hailed a waiter and told him that we could order anything we wanted from the bar. I wasn't quite ready for a drink but who am I to turn down free booze? I started off right with a Mai Tai, and Cass opted for the mixology winner drink of the cruise.. pretty good she said, but was a little lax on the alcohol, ha.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />I put another $5 into The Tower of Cash and got close 3 more times. <br /><br />My white whale </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So it was finally time for our 4th and final round of Super Trivia. We had a decent lead of 20 but I know there's always some sort of bonus the last day (I was expecting every roll to be doubled like on the Liberty). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We got our first 3 questions right and the ladies could only get points from free rolls. Before I knew it we upped our lead to 40. It didn't get any better for them and by the time all was said and done, we had won by a resounding 49 points. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is where I was actually disappointed. Only the team captain got a prize. That seems pretty crappy to me as there were several guys that had shown up for all 4 rounds. I gave the bottle of champagne to our History buff Dave and the ship on a stick to our new friend Chris. The bragging rights for the next 6 months was enough of a prize for me.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We stayed for 80's trivia and me and Lauren ended up with a 5 way tie for first. There was a 5 question bonus round and one guy got 4 points while me and Lauren actually tied for 2nd with only 2. We then had a bonus question for 2nd and it was very close but the crowd sided with her because.......well she's quite pretty. I couldn't fault them becuase I would've done the same thing.<br /><br />Now we hadn't seen anything earlier in the week about the Fun Farewell Party (this has been a "cruising secret" for years - a very unadvertised cocktail party on the last day of a cruise with free drinks, but ships have been putting by the wayside evidently) but there was something in the Fun Times called 'Farewell Set with Showband' at 5pm. I wasn't sure what this was but it was the closest thing and figured they just changed the name. Nope. They have in fact cancelled the Fun Farewell Party and free drinks that go along with it. I won't lie, it's pretty disappointing. <br /><br />So we made our way down to the Sushi bar and I grabbed us all seats since I don't do seafood. <br /><br />As Lauren is going for one of the sauces, the entire side tray collapses and everything goes everywhere. It was rather funny from where I was but as Cass and Lauren were right there, they were a little more startled. We parted ways to get ready for dinner and meet up with them for a table for four at 6:45. <br /><br />All week we had been asked if we wanted to sit together with another couple instead of waiting so we figured we'd have no problem with a table for 4. Wrong, another long wait and we were finally seated around 7:10. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was ready and waiting for some Bacon Macaroni and Cheese (or b.m.c. as they call it.. with chicken)!!!! Cass got the Crabcake app and a small portion of the BMC. I skipped an app and got the regular sized BMC. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As you can see, my portion wasn't much bigger than the smaller on but that's OK because I forgot how filling it is and it kept me from over eating. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But this is the one time I have to complain about the food and I hate that it was the BMC. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't exactly warm. Seriously, 15 seconds in the microwave and it would've been fine. A little let down for one of my favorite dishes but again, the only complaint in a weeks worth of MDR meals. <br /><br />After dinner we went to the casino for our final night of fun. We had all agreed that we didn't feel like going to any of the comedy shows so we waited for some other people to sit at Let It Ride. As soon as we sat down Cass caught a full house and was up a quick $240! She tucked aside her week's buy in and just played out the rest. I was having fun playing but kept hearing the Tower of Cash taunt me. I cashed in a few chips and put more money into that thing than I care to admit. After my final $5, I conceded my loss. <br /><br />Tower of Cash makes me pout </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />By this point it was almost 11 and we knew we had to shower and finish packing before getting up early. So we said our farewells and Cass and Lauren were sad to say goodbye to each other. I know it won't be too long until we see them again. <br /><br />We made sure we had everything filled out for the following morning (customs form, room service for breakfast) before turning in. <br /><br />I'm usually pretty sad this time of the cruise but knowing what was coming the following week was a real boon to the post cruise blues (baby Vasher!). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>Chris – 6/3/12 – Sunday – Debarkation </u></span></h2>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We always do self-assist debarkation on the Pride. It gets us off the ship much faster and isn't that much of a hassle. We had pretty much everything packed the night before and put out our room service tag for 6:30 delivery. We knew from experience that they are overrun with room service that morning so not to rely on it as a wake up call. We got up at 6:30 and the food was delivered 10 minutes later. We ate while finishing packing and double checking that we didn't forget anything (or pack our Sail and Sign cards ). <br /><br />I checked our box outside the room and our Sail and Sign bill had been delivered. We spent just over $400 for the whole week. But we had the $100 in OBC so our bill was a little over $300. Not too shabby.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We usually hang out on deck 3 near Raphael's for debarkation but since we were out of our room a little earlier we decided to shoot for deck 2 (the deck you debark from). Found a nice little bench right by the staircase outside of Starry Nights lounge. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">They were right on time with starting debarking and we were planned for 9:15. They called our deck at 9 and we went straight out. Customs was incredibly quick, we've never had anyone check anything at customs but we're always honest on our forms. I was pulling out of the parking lot at 9:15 and we were home by 9:40.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>... and, well.. that's that! Sadly, just like every cruise, good things must come to an end... but I think we'll be back shortly with another recap from 2011... everyone likes a love story don't they?? Stay Tuned!</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-23758145440654953122012-06-16T16:42:00.000-04:002012-06-18T20:45:04.310-04:00May 2012 - Carnival Pride - Part 3 - Nassau<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<u><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cassandra – 5/31/12 – Day 5 of the Cruise – Nassau, Bahamas (Atlantis, Paradise Island) </span></u></h2>
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />OK.. little disclaimer.. this will be VERY picture heavy, and also kinda wordy... Hang in there with me please! <br /><br />After the unexpected but really fun night, we were both kind of shocked to be up around 9:30am, and not feeling too badly either. Since we weren’t scheduled to dock in Nassau until 11, and our excursion to Atlantis Aquaventure didn’t meet until around 11:30, we took our time heading up for a little breakfast at the Mermaid Grill (we usually hit up the grill around the Lido deck stage as it seemed less crowded on most days than the buffet stations indoors). <br /><br />Some shots of the ship pulling into the Nassau docks</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">My future house there in the background, hehe</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We went back down to the room to get ready, pack up, and headed down to debark. We waited on the docks for the rest of the people doing excursions through Carnival to Atlantis, and then were finally led down the docks to where the van shuttles were waiting to take us. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All the women were of course heckled by the Hair Braiders – Beverly, “like Beverly Hills” was trying her hardest to convince people to come back for braids. Gotta give them credit for trying. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some more shots of us being led through the resort</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />It was around 12:15 by the time got through the resort, led to the towel stations, and found the locker rentals. Woo Hoo, Lazy River! I wouldn’t exactly call this a “lazy river” – some of it is relaxing, but there are definitely little parts of rapids, waterfalls, and other surprises! It’s all a ton of fun – we opted to do the 2-person inner tube each time – much more fun! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We went around the entire circuit 2-3 times, each time taking a slightly different route (the different river channels take you to different water slides and rapids). </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Storm Clouds a-brewing!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Luckily there are staff members both along the walls for safety, as well as in the water at certain points to keep everyone moving smoothly. Overall the currents are designed well enough to keep the flow of tube traffic all going in the same direction, but there are a few places where people can get in and out that are like whirlpool deadzones… we always seemed to get stuck in these and poor Chris was forced to try to paddle us back with the rest of the floating herd. (I was worthless as my alligator-length arms could barely touch water over the sides of the inner tube!) </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Heat Lamps in here!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ahhhh here it comes!!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The next suckers in line for the tsunami</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Waves follow all the way down this section - uber-fun :)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />After about 45 minutes, we were both getting hungry, so we headed to one of the appropriate stands that could take our lunch coupons (they no longer offer the excursion without taking the “lunch included” option, and the coupons aren't taken at every food pavillion). It came with a sandwich, fries, and a soda – we went to the "Shark Bites" eatery which is close to the Mayan Temple with the slides - I had a grilled chicken sandwich, Chris had a cheeseburger. Both were decent, nothing to write home about, but when you're hungry, it was good. I liked the fries (and evidently so did the numerous seagulls, lol... <i>I saw a group fighting over a piece of chicken nugget and couldn't help thinking of that Family Guy episode... dude, that's bird your eating!</i>)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After lunch, we walked around a bit to check out the lines for some of the other water slides… <br /><br />The line for this one - the "Leap of Faith" takes you down through a tube under water in a shark tank - was a bit too long for now.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We previously did this same excursion in Oct 2010, and the place wasn't crowded at all. It was more crowded today... however, I am sure it was nowhere near as packed as it can be on really busy days. We decided the lines for both the Racing Slides and the Serpent Slides (both accessible from the large Mayan-looking pyramid) weren't too bad, so first the racing slides (he won....). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Next up was the Serpent Slide. We both love this one, as it done on an inner tube (or 2-person one as we opted for) and is a winding tunnel that comes out in a large acrylic tube that is actually under water where they have Nurse Sharks and Caribbean Reef Sharks swimming all around you! It slows down at this point and it’s REALLY cool to go floating along and see the sharks swimming all around you. In fact 2 of the Nurse Sharks were just chilling on top of the tunnel and we floated right underneath them! </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">See that square tube to the right, under the water? That's what you float through :)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />By this point it was becoming more and more overcast and started to drizzle, but who cares, we were already wet! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Then back to the lazy river we went to head around again and up through the Power Tower to do the other slide accessible from the lazy river. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Some empties heading down to the rapids </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />By this point we were ready for something a bit more exhilarating… the Abyss… this is a 200 foot drop that begins with 50 feet of a near vertical drop ending in a beautiful indoor lagoon. <br /><br />The Abyss is hidden inside the Power Tower, so it's easy to miss, but I assure you, if you like water slides, this one is a Must. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Holy crap this slide is For Real. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of it, so you'll just have to take our word for it. You literally freefall for a few seconds as well! And luckily the line for it was nonexistent. <br /><br />After that we did the lazy river one more time all the way around. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Finally we hit up the Serpent Slide a second time before calling it a day, with the waterpark at least. We went back to the locker area, cleaned up, and set off to take some more pictures of the area. <br /><br />FYI - the lockers are not free - we rented a small one which was big enough for my small backpack and our clothes and shoes. It was $7 for the day and I believe they only took a credit card. They had medium and large size lockers which I think were somewhere around $10-$12 and then $16-$17 for the day. No need to bring your own towels though - they were free, and you could swap out at any towel stand for fresh ones at any time. <br /><br />Here's just some random pictures of the area... such a beautiful place! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The bridge there is actually a penthouse suite, called the "Michael Jackson Suite" because he was the first to stay in it. It's $25,000 a night, with a 4 night minimum.... perhaps a few more years to save up... ha! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />As mentioned before, we were here previously in October 2010, and it was a sunnier day - we didn't get near as many photos this time around, I stole some shots from our trip in 2010 (nothing has changed!). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />This large area has Hammerhead Sharks swimming around</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />There is a beach area that people can enjoy as well - it was closed due to strong currents in 2010, but open this year. Unfortunately we never took advantage.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Ok back to 2012.. <br /><br />We found an area we missed last time, The Dig.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />This is a large indoor aquarium that has some of the most interesting and breathtaking sea life I’ve ever seen. They even have a pair of “baby” Manta Rays that had a wing span of about 8 – 10 feet, but they can get up to over 28 feet across in the wild! Amazing creatures to see up close. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I loved these little seahorses! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />No, my camera isn't upside down - this little guy just felt like showing off</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />See that little blue guy in the corner? He kept trying to photo-bomb all the pictures, so I finally gave him his own time to shine</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I forget what these were called, but they were beautiful! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />And onward with the tour.. next stop: squeamish, beware! <br /><br /> <br /><br />First, some Jellyfish... evidently it was Jellyfish season out in the ocean (we saw a posted sign) but these were much safer to observe! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Next stop on this tour... Moray Eels... ok, so we all know what eels look like, right.... yeah. Not these puppies...... <br /><br />..... <br /><br />These are what nightmares are made of.... <br /><br /> <br /><br />....... <br /><br /> <br /><br />................ </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br />..... Yeah told you... <br /><br /> <br /><br />And last but not least, some final images of The Dig.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">There were some great pieces of Quartz set up throughout the area</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">These guys were so thin they were almost see-through. Definitely could see their bones.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Whew... ok told you all this was gonna be a picture-heavy day! (The wordy part is still to come....) <br /><br /><br />Anyhoo... on with the show... <br /><br /><br /> We decided to head back to the van shuttles because it was close to 5:30 and they were running every half hour or so until 7pm. On the way through the resort, we grabbed a few more photos. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />I also posed in the big chair and felt like a queen... a lot more comfortable than what I imagine the Iron Throne to feel like (shout out to all Game of Thrones fans out there!) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Outside the resort close to where the shuttles are, is the marina... and some very impressive yachts... </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We still wanted to get in some shopping in the port area by the boat, specifically I wanted a new beach bag and Chris wanted to find a cool T-shirt, both from Del Sol. Evidently Rush Hour hits Nassau as well, as we hit some pretty heavy traffic coming back to the port. <br /><br />Our van driver took us off the beaten path down some back alleys and we got to see a little of the areas you probably don’t want to walk around in. <br /><br />Trust us, we did that on foot back in 2009 when Googlemaps steered us about a mile and a half inland in the wrong direction and were lucky enough to have a kind Nassau policeman escort us back to the safe areas! Not the kind of place you want to be walking looking like tourists... <br /><br /><br />We got dropped off by the pier around 5:50 and walked over to Bay Street where all the shops are. Everything closed. Apparently that rush hour traffic we were stuck in were all the shop employees going home. Bummer. <br /><br />Travel Tip – if you wanna shop in Nassau and are on an excursion, don’t wait till after 5 to do so. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Feeling bummed out, we decided to head back to the ship to freshen up. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We told our friends Chris and Lauren and Mike and Emily that we would meet them at Senior Frogs sometime in the early evening, since we didn't have to be back on board until 9:30pm. It was just enough time for me to snag some sushi as a snack, us to get quick showers (and Chris to make and suck down quick drink) and head back off the boat and down to the end of the pier area to Senior Frogs. This was our 3rd time in Nassau, and the first time we ever went there. It's about a 15 minute walk from walking off the ship to the bar (less if you're in a hurry). </span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Sunset was close at hand on the way there.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />This was the newly renovated Straw Market... it was closed up, but you can get an idea... </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Almost there!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We have arrived! <br /><br />Think Hailey Joel Osment in the movie The 6th Sense… “I see drunk people”. There was all kinds of shenanigans going on – shots, balloon hats, singing, dancing – everyone all having a good time… not to mention drinking age here is 18. <br /><br />We saw Mike and Emily first, ordered some Yards, and chatted a bit. Emily had already been indoctrinated into the Froggy style.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Yards in hand! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We then found Chris and Lauren and hung out some more. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />By this time I knew we needed to get some food in us, so we got a table and ordered some DELISH chicken quesadillas. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The menu says it’s enough for 2 people, and they didn’t disappoint. That's actually 2 quesadillas stacked on top of each other</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">At some point I was donned with the Flower Crown... or as Mike thought, a hat with balls in my face </span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Chris noticed this disclaimer on the back of the yards and had to get a picture... priceless... (it's funny 'cause it's true) </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Nighttime snuck up on us...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We hung out till around 8:45, Chris bought a t-shirt from the gift shop, and the 6 of us made our way back to the ship (but not before being by asked by a local if we wanted some coke.. and not the soda.. obviously we just kept walking… wow talk about being bold!) <br /><br />...And now we come to the wordy (but entertaining) part of the day... please keep hanging in! Will it be worth it? ..you'll have to follow along and find out! <br /><br />Mike and Emily were really interesting in doing The Quest later that night (an adults-only scavenger hunt type game) but it wasn’t for a few more hours, so we went to the Piano Bar for a bit. <br /><br />As people were just getting back to the ship, it wasn’t too crowded, and we got what we thought was a good seat at the bar… then in comes a big crowd that had just gotten back from Senor Frogs as well (the yards and balloon hats were giveaways… not to mention we saw a few of them dancing on tables earlier). I’m all for people having a good time, don’t get me wrong – but when you are constantly bumping into me, and slurring, perhaps it’s time to say goodnight. One member of their group did just that and laid her head down right on the bar and fell asleep . <br /><br />But no, tequila shots were ordered all around and they kept the party going... “I see really drunk people.” <br /><br />I got annoyed quick and left the bar area and took a seat a little further back, and Chris eventually joined me. <br /><br />Then Lauren and the other Chris showed up and we all stayed a bit longer (and felt adventurous and grabbed seats at the bar again) till it got closer to the time for The Quest. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">ROGER!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Lauren’s Chris wanted to hit up the blackjack tables, but Lauren decided to come with us (thankfully, as you’ll soon see!) <br /><br />The Quest was in the Butterflies Lounge (under the main stage Taj Mahal) and Emily and Mike were already there with seats in the front row. They know what they are doing</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Now, Chris and I had never done this before – we’ve read reviews where people have done it and heard it was a lot of fun, so we were willing to give it a try – and we came to find out there’s a good reason they make sure it’s 18 and older! The 3 of us joined up with Emily and Mike, and Gumby (and yet another Chris) from the Entertainment staff was there to host. <br /><br />We needed teams of 6-8 people, so there was another couple close to us who we invited to make a group of 7. They handed out laminated team numbers to each group, we were Lucky Team #13 <br /><br />The object was to be the fastest team up to the front with the required items – usually only one person from each team needed – the first, second, and third fastest teams got the most points respectively (I think 5, 4, and 3), then all the other teams all got the same lowest amount. <br /><br />They also warn you to leave all your inhibitions at the door – luckily Chris did, and Mr. Competitive came out to play <br /><br />The first round was for 4 Sail and Sign cards… easy peasy – Chris immediately took the lead man role and was our team “runner”. We were close to the stage and he got there first. Win! <br /><br />The second item was for 2 belts – Chris didn’t have one, but luckily Mike and the guy from the other team (unfortunately we never caught their names) were Johnny on the Spot and we got first for that round as well. <br /><br />By this point, I remembered from a previous review (Mike and Tracy's I believe) something about women’s bras, so I gave a head's up to Lauren and Emily, and we prepared just in case… and hey! Round 3 asked for 3 bras – woo hoo – they were off quicker than a wink and Chris dutifully ran up with 3 bras in hand. First again! <br /><br />By this point, we were cracking up, and I have to admit I forget some of the questions now. I know one was for 2 male team members holding hands and skipping, and Gumby ran all over the lounge and made all the teams skip-to-my-lou after Gumby – unfortunately we certainly didn’t first or even second for that one. <br /><br />Other ones we got pretty quickly were 2 pairs of men’s shorts – Chris and our other guy immediately ran up while taking off their shorts and we got first in that as well. (Gumby told them as they got up there that he just wanted the shorts – they didn’t need to be removed – haha! I’m sure Gumby loved it all the same.) </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Our 2 Boxer-Champions</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />One of the rounds was for a Tramp Stamp, and Lauren immediately took the reins and ran up for the team – she was even so excited to get first place that she didn’t have time to untuck her shirt – she just turned around and pulled up her skirt to show Gumby – that’s our girl! First again! He told her she had really cute undies, btw, lol! <br /><br />One round was for a man wearing girl’s shoes – I gave Chris my slide sandals, yeah he enjoyed trying to shove his size 12’s into a women’s 6.5, but we still got either 1st or 2nd on that one too! <br /><br />Another question we got unexpectedly was for a form of birth control – none of us had anything, and then the other girl on our team had an idea, took the team number card, and ran up… we still have no idea what she told Gumby, but we got points for it! Score! <br /><br />Finally the last one I remember was a female doing the worm – I took one for the team and got up there and did the worm, poorly, but it counted for 2nd place. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Of all the questions, there were 2 we didn’t even get a point for – a man doing a split was one – all guys flat out refused, even Chris. None of these guys are flexible, I tell ya… <br /><br />The other one was for a piercing below the neck. Out of all of us, no one had even a navel ring. Of course we were all joking we could go up and say we had a piercing in a place we couldn’t show – but none of us were that brave. <br /><br />Then it came time for the big round… <br /><br />A man in women’s clothes and a woman in man’s clothes – obviously from the same team. <br /><br />Chris and Lauren immediately hopped up and began stripping down to undies and swapping – hilarious! (And may I add I was relieved Lauren was there who had no qualms about it!) Luckily both their clothes were easy to take off and put back on quickly, and they made it up there either first or second… </span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Unfortunately I don't have any shots of them both lined up there next to each other, but I love this one </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Then came time for the finale… the girls in men’s clothes had to go back to their teams and leave the men up on stage… and each team was given 2 minutes to “accessorize” their man as best they could… we added purses, shoes, watches, Emily slathered some lip gloss on, I surrendered my engagement ring which he could barely fit on his pinky (thought some bling would help), my tiny feet shoes again, and my wristlet purse. To top it all off, we handed him a Bud Light. LOL. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I see you flippin me the bird there</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then as if that mortification wasn’t enough, each guy had to do a catwalk across the stage and show off their goods. We were cheering the loudest for my baby! </span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Then the crowd had to cheer for each person in turn – and the top 3 were chosen by Chris, the entertainment staffer (too many Chris’s!) My Chris was selected 1st (He swears it's because he showed some leg LOL) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />But alas, out of the top three, the final vote came down to the crowd, and the two other teams came in first – we still got points for 3rd place. Chris just couldn’t channel his inner RuPaul as well as the other 2 (which is probably a good thing)… <br /><br />I'm sorry, I still think he's a hottie </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><br /><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">After everyone was settled down, clothes returned to the proper people, and the points were all tallied, it was time for the big reveal. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">We had a feeling we at least placed, but were worried about the questions we took zeros on – plus we definitely didn’t come in first for everything. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">The prize for 3rd place was one bottle of champagne. We held our breath… and it wasn’t us. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">Ok down to 2nd. Prizes up for grabs were another single bottle of champagne, plus Carnival medals for each member of the team (which for anyone who hasn’t seen the medals yet – they aren’t for each ship like the Ships on Sticks – they just say Carnival – so don’t worry for all you collectors out there, there isn’t something else you have to worry about winning on each cruise). ....…and not us!! </span><br /><br /><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">Ok, by this point we were all looking at each other half-worried, half-hopeful. There was no way we didn’t at least place – right?! The first place prize was 4 bottles of champagne and the Carnival medals….. </span><br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">……drumroll….. </span><br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><i>TEAM 13!!!!!! Woooo!!! WINNER WINNER CHAMPAGNE DINNER! </i></span></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Looks like lack of inhibition and Chris’s uber-competitiveness paid off! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />We all floated out of there giddy off our win, and decided what to do next. We went with Lauren to find her Chris, but he wasn’t in the casino, so she left to her room to find him. <br /><br />I decided to go back to the room to make another drink and said I’d meet Chris back in the Piano Bar. When I got there, there was still a decent crowd there, but Chris was sitting down in one of the loungers with an irritated look on his face… I sat down and couldn’t miss the show going on in front of me – directly in front of the piano and Roger the Piano Man… one of the earlier crowd was there with a “new found boyfriend” and let’s just say some people really need to know when enough is enough (and I've got nothing against kissing, or normal public displays of affection). Like take advantage of one of the 2000+ rooms on board, or at least a dark secluded corner. Not smack dab in the middle of where the Piano is in the PIANO BAR... in the words of the ESPN football analysts.... 'cmon MAN! <br /><br />We got up and left, and unfortunately the whole thing just turned us off from the piano bar for the rest of the trip – not due to anything Roger did (which I felt really bad for not going back and giving him our support) but purely out of knowing that group would likely be in there… and honestly I wouldn’t have been able to look at some of them (and of course I kept seeing certain people for the rest of the trip in random places on the ship). Luckily it didn’t turn us off from all Piano Bars completely, and we are really looking forward to frequenting it on our next sailing. <br /><br />At this point it was getting late, but we weren’t quite ready to head back to the room so we went up to Serenity and laid on a hammock for a while. Then stopped to grab some waters from Mermaid grill and saw Emily and Mike, so sat down and chatted with them (and relived our impressive Quest win) before heading back to the room and bedtime around 1am. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>That brings an end to Part 3 of this little journey! Our final days of the trip will be wrapped up in <a href="http://tripssailstails.blogspot.com/2012/06/may-2012-carnival-pride-part-4-end.html" target="_blank">Part 4</a>, coming to a new blog post near you shortly. </i></span></div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-52699642171545014302012-06-15T22:59:00.000-04:002012-06-15T22:59:01.463-04:00Cruise Intermission - First Puppy Bath!<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So my original plan was to at least get the full review of our recent Carnival Pride sailing posted before any other posts, but can't let this day go by without a mention...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Puppy boy had his first accident in his crate today, much to my utter sadness - just felt bad for ignoring his barks and whines (although doing the same thing for the past 4 days he did just fine... thus is a puppy bladder I guess - akin to old people and pregnant women). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So poor Vasher had to lay in his own pee for an undetermined amount of time (probably no more than 30 mins or so for all you tsk tskers out there) and while he was perfectly happy 10 minutes after getting let out when Chris came home for lunch, he definitely had a stink to him, even after a wet towel rub down.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So that leads us to... </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Vasher's First Bath!</b></span><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Wooo! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">He was a champ though, and through the tag team efforts of both of us, me on water duty, Chris on hold-down and suds duty, the little guy was sparkly clean and smelling of tearless baby powder puppy shampoo in no time... </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Of course toweling the drowned boy off after was a chore, and he eyed us with deliberate mistrust afterward for having to be subjected to such an evil activity. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">...And then he turned into SPAZZ MATAZZ... seriously, he must have channeled his inner Ozzy because he turned into the Crazy Train afterwards... and of course both cats were hanging out behind the door wondering just what the hell was going on in here... </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Leo just wouldn't back down... </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>(yes Leo is declawed up front)</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Oy... what a night! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Vasher's back to his fuzzable self (alternating between extreme bouts of cute sleepiness and crazy puppiness)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Leo is back to his normal aloofness</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So all is right with the world... for tonight at least. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nighty Night. </span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-40711370526739155392012-06-15T13:31:00.001-04:002012-06-18T20:44:37.767-04:00May 2012 - Carnival Pride - Part 2 - Wizarding World of Harry Potter!<h2>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Chris – 5/30/12 – Day 4 of the Cruise – Port Canaveral (Universal Islands of Adventure) – More importantly, Wizarding World of Harry Potter!</u></span></h2>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u></u></span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">WARNING - Extreme Dorkness Ahead!<br /><br /><br />OK, so we are hard core Harry Potter fans. I mean really bad. We had to make up our own rules for Harry Potter Scene It because it was too easy. This post is going to get very picture heavy and our dorkness is going to shine through.<br /><br />We had room service delivered at 6:30 and actually woke up a bit sooner. We were down to the bus around 7:40 and on the road shortly after that. As we were turning onto the highway by the water that's to the right (Banana River, I think) a few of us were lucky enough to see a dolphin in the wild. The trip took just under an hour as we arrived at 8:40. Cass took advantage of the bus ride to catch up on FB and also look up some answers for holdover questions of Super Trivia.... brat.<br /> <br />We had already been to Harry Potter World once back in 2010 and knew that we needed to head to the main ride, The Forbidden Journey, first as the line could get ridiculous later in the day.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />Ahhh, Butterbeer (we got the frozen as it's not quite as heavy as the regular), God's gift to taste buds.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Little FYI... we found a really great homemade butterbeer recipe courtesy of <a href="http://www.chicaandjo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ChicaAndJo_ColdButterbeerRecipeCards.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chica and Jo</a></i><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">We were pretty surprised to see that there was already a 45 minute wait but it doesn't seem like it as the line takes you through Hogwarts and it is sheer awesomeness (I just realized that awesomeness is a word. That's pretty..........awesome).</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br /> Once you enter, you are not allowed to take purses or bags if you are going on the ride. They do give you the option to just walk through Hogwarts and see how cool it is so if you don't feel like waiting you can still see the coolest line of all time. If you do want to do the ride they have free lockers to put your stuff in.<br />
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<br /><br />The line winds around the Green House. Once past this point, the line really starts to move.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">There's Mandrakes behind that cage! Wear your earmuffs!</span></td></tr>
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I think there was a miscount as Slytherin should clearly be in the lead. Me and Cass both got sorted to Slytherin in Pottermore. She was upset but I told her it was because we were destined to be together.<br />
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Cass forgot the password to Dumbledore's office so we continued on.<br />
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<br /><br />The line continues through an area of moving picture frames which is done incredibly well. No pictures really come out because of the screens but it's very cool. We them move into Dumbledore's office and then Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pensieve!</span></td></tr>
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<br />You finish up the Forbidden Journey line in the Gryffindor Common Room. Now I must say that this is probably the best ride I've ever been on. The Spider Man ride in this park is a close 2nd, but this is as in your face as a ride can get. I won't post any spoilers about it but any amusement park fan should experience this at least once.<br /><br />The ride lets you out at Filch's Emporium where you can buy all sorts of souvenirs and pictures of your ride. It's cramped and packed, like most stores in HP World. I know they're going for realism, but sometimes it's a bit much. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">We were <em>REALLY</em> happy we booked to the Forbidden Journey first... when we got out, the wait time was up to 120 minutes!</span></td></tr>
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<br />We proceeded to the Dragon Challenge which is two very similar coasters. It also has a fun line to go through (centered very heavily on Goblet of Fire film/book) even though this ride is never that crowded (only 10 minute wait total).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The line for this ride also gives you a great view of Hogwarts</span></td></tr>
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<br />The line also takes you by Hagrid's Hut and the Weasley's Car.<br />
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<br /><br />There's some very cool blue smoke coming out of the Goblet of Fire that unfortunately didn't come out in this picture.<br />
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Be careful not to touch this as it's a Port Key.......<br />
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And probably my favorite <br />
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<br /><br />We waited for the front of the coaster because it's a great one to be up front for and we weren't in a hurry. Well worth it. This really is a good coaster as it's smooth and not jerky at all.........unlike another coaster we'll be on later.<br /><br /><br />It was packed on this side of the park but Cass wanted to get an idea of what she wanted so we braved Honeydukes for a bit.<br />
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<br /><br />A great shot of Hogwarts heading to the rest of the park.<br />
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<br /><br />We didn't even stop in the Jurassic Park or Toon Lagoon area. There's really only a water ride and some kiddie rides there and we really wanted to get to the Marvel section.<br />
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<br /><br />Now Marvel is obviously huge with the success of The Avengers and all the previous fantastic comic book movies so of course this side of the park was full of people as well. <br />
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When we were here 2 years ago, we walked right onto the Spider Man ride (this time, over an hour wait). We wanted to try all the big rides on this side of the park so since we hadn't eaten yet we decided to start with Dr. Doom's Fear Fall.<br />
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<br /><br />It's your typical free fall ride but once you've done it on top of the Stratosphere in Vegas, they never really feel the same. <br /><br />We got a lite lunch in the Fantastic Four Cafe and then went on the Hulk. Again, no bags allowed so you have to use the free lockers if you want to get on this ride. This is a ride I will never go on again. It wasn't that special and all it did was give us both headaches. They should have Bruce Banner handing out aspirin as you exit this ride.<br />
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<br /><br />We closed out the Marvel side with Storm Force which is basically a Tilt-A-Whirl without the tilt. It was still fun and I got wicked tired spinning the center thing (honestly my best workout of the week).<br />
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<br /><br />We were both pretty spent by this point and headed back to the HP side of the park. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">View of Hogwarts from across the Lagoon</span></td></tr>
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I knew I wanted a special mug that you could only get from the Hog's Head and they'd only fill it with beer. Twist.<br />
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<br /><br />We closed out the day by doing the other side of the Dragon Challenge (this time about a 25 minute wait) and then some shopping.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The constipation sensation that's sweeping the nation!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PACKED</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">... hmm. Alas, earwax.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stroke the Spine</span> </td></tr>
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<br />Cass got a quick picture with the Conductor of the Hogwart's Express and then it was back to the bus.<br />
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Some random shots of the park</div>
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<br />Oh, one more photo op<br />
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<br /><br />Now, my rant. It was a pretty warm day down there, 91 to be exact. We had a full bus and left around 4:30. The driver never turned on the AC until we were 5 minutes from port. It was so miserable on that thing and I was so irritated and agitated it took all my restraint to not snap. I couldn't wait to get off that bus and into customs and AC.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Port Canaveral Cruise Terminal</span></td></tr>
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<br /><br />We were back on the ship by 5:40 and I took some time to relax and get some pictures of the port and ship.<br />
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Disney Magic docked there with us.<br />
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<br />Our room was near the 3rd tier entry to Taj Majal.<br />
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And the always deserted Sunset Garden was right below us on the 3rd floor.<br />
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<br />We were planning on making this a quiet night and maybe watching a movie on my kindle up on Serenity. That way we could hit the gym early , and be rested for Atlantis Aqua Adventure on Thursday. We did dinner on Lido, I had pizza and Cass had lamb (which was very fatty) and some pork over rice. Went down to the casino where we saw a couple that had played with us the previous nights and started chatting. They were Chris and Lauren from Virginia and lucky me, Cass had found a drinking buddy. <br />
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The table was cold so we got up and invited them back to the room to make a drink. We all became quick friends and ended up talking (and making another drink) for an hour before heading up to Lido for some air. <br />
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We ran into Mike and Emily who had just come from the Mexican Fiesta (each carrying 4 Carnival light up shot glasses ). They invited us back to their room for drinks and to check out what a handicap cabin looked like. I knew at this point there would be no gym in the morning but at least we didn't have to get off the ship until 11:30 so I figured what the hell. I regrettably only got a picture of the handicap bathroom and not the room itself.<br />
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<br /><br />It was about 12:30 when we headed back up to Lido only to find Chris and Lauren still there chatting with some other friends from the roll call. We were all up there just talking about this and that when I realized it was after 2 and we should really call it a night. Even though it turned out nothing like we had planned, it was a great night and we knew a good friendship had been made.<br />
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We had Babar waiting for us, as well as a plate of goodies from the Main Dining Room as apologies for having to wait on previous nights to be seated - seriously yummy!<br />
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Well, that's all for Port Canaveral Day!! <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Please stay tuned for <a href="http://tripssailstails.blogspot.com/2012/06/may-2012-carnival-pride-part-3-nassau.html" target="_blank">Part 3</a> - our day in Nassau, including a trip to Atlantis and their excellent water park. As well as evening shenanigans that aren't to be missed! </span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-39431220183069727052012-06-14T11:30:00.002-04:002012-06-18T20:44:07.719-04:00May 2012 – Carnival Pride Cruise Part 1 - 5/27/12-6/3/12<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ok so here goes nothing… Please keep in mind this will jump back and forth from Chris’s point of view to my own… I’ll keep things in line (or try to!) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Also, I'm going to post this in 4 different sections, so please use the navigation sidebar to keep up!</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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</span><u><span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Chris – 5/27/12 – Day 1 of the Cruise - Embarkation</span></span></u></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After a pretty rough May culminating in having to say goodbye to my beloved dog of almost 13, I decided to do something </span><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've never done in my life, book an immediate vacation. We are official cruise junkies and usually plan our vacations almost a year in advance. We had 193 days until our Breeze cruise and booking the Pride cut that down to 13!!! It never sucks cutting off 6 months off your wait until the next cruise. I had done a lot of research that weekend into 3-4 day cruises that were almost exclusively out of Florida. It was cheaper for us to book a 7 day cruise out of Baltimore than to deal with the absurd airline prices and a much shorter cruise. We got home and Cass checked out cabins and there were only 8 interior rooms left. After dinner I got online and they were down to 4. I jumped on one of them and as I was about to pay, I remembered that we had a FCC from our Liberty cruise. So I called Carnival and booked over the phone and they were able to apply our FCC so I got $100 off and we had $100 OBC waiting for us. We love our balconies but since this was last minute and I was trying to save some money I didn’t mind settling for an inside cabin. We got room 4109 which is above the corridor that leads to the Secret Garden on deck 3. I was also surprised when we found out that this isn't a traditional inside cabin but one even with the life boats that has a window. Think of it as an obstructed Ocean View cabin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We were pleasantly surprised to find that the roll call was pretty active and had a lot of nice people in it (even if there were several Yankee fans). We jumped right in and signed up for the hosted meet and greet the first sea day.<br /><br />This was my 6th cruise and Cass’ 5th (4th time on the Pride for us). The Port of Baltimore is so ridiculously close and convenient that the Pride is almost our vacation home. The fact that we would be back on the Pride in such a short time was weird. We kept looking at each other over the next two weeks just smiling. The time flew and before we knew it we were driving to port. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It only took us 25 minutes to get to port and we arrived around 10:45.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cass always has to get a shot of the ship as we pull up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We got to the port quick and after 10-15 minutes we were waiting in line at security.<br />
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It took us about 30 minutes as it seems they just opened up but once through the rest was cake. We got our boarding passes and were on the ship by 11:45. There was no wait to get on, no boarding zones or anything which was a first for any cruise we've been on (they must have done a great job debarking). Went straight to the Serenity Deck and grabbed a hammock as we were the only people up there.<br />
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We passed on the first couple guys coming around with DOD's (Drink of the Day's) but our will is only so strong.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">And look! It's the regular DOD Cups! I'm on Vacation Woooo!</span></td></tr>
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It's kind of weird (but also cool) being recognized on cruise ships from our reviews and it happened pretty early as our roll call mates Emily and Mike saw us and came over to say hi. Now I was worried as most of our roll call were baseball fans (and the Sox have been sucking) but Emily is probably the coolest Yankee's fan I've ever met. They told us they were big trivia fans so I knew we'd be seeing a lot of them over the next week.<br />
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It was getting pretty warm out in the sun so I decided to take a few pictures of the deck above the Serenity area.</span><br />
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We decided to enjoy our drinks and sit in the comfy shaded chairs in the Serenity area.</div>
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As we were waiting we saw some fellow cruise message board members Karen and her husband. They sat down and talked for a while (very nice people). It was about 1:30 and we decided to get some food from the Mermaid Grill. I was actually rather impressed (or maybe just really hungry) with the lunch served. </div>
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After eating we decided to check out our room to see if it was ready. Fortunately it was and we were able to drop off our carry on bags. <br />
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So here's our cabin, same standard size, just with no balcony. <br />
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The TV was horribly crappy and Cass was a little upset that there was no shampoo rack in the shower for all her crap. She really liked it on the Liberty. There was also NO electrical outlet in the bathroom. <br />
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Cass had contacted the Carnival Player's Club prior to our Liberty cruise and they didn't respond until after we had gotten back. We had no hope of a response before this cruise but they more than made up for missing us on the last one. We were supposed to get the small bonus of 2 plates of chocolate covered strawberries, but we were thrilled to find the following in our room. <br />
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Now don't get your hopes up, the Captain Morgan was a gift from some friends we met on our last Pride cruise (completely unexpected and completely awesome!!!). </div>
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We loved the bottles of water and the fruit basket also had a bottle of wine in it! <br />
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My luggage arrived as we were in the room so I took the time to unpack and made a drink with some Captain Morgan </div>
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We walked around the ship a little before muster and got some pictures of the Taj Mahal main stage. <br />
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After that it was muster (relatively quick and painless) and then our unofficial meet and greet back at the Serenity bar for sail away. <br />
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We hung up on Serenity for a couple of hours (Baltimore isn't the most photogenic of cities but did get some nice pictures). <br />
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Around 6 Cass wanted to go back to the room to see if her luggage had been delivered.<br />
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She unpacked and we headed to dinner (with some drinks in hand).</div>
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We had a bit of a wait for dinner (theme for the entire cruise). Anytime Dining must be getting very popular as we'd only had to wait once in our previous 4 cruises. <br />
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I loved the old style chicken finger that they had on previous cruises as they were lightly breaded and not heavy at all. The ones they had for today's app were pretty much the same they have on the Lido grill during lunch. They're not bad, just not nearly as good as the other version. <br />
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Cass had the Heart of iceberg lettuce with the vinaigrette </div>
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For our main courses I had the Braised Beef Brisket (delicious) and Cass had the Chicken Ala Greque (she loved it, one of her favorites for the cruise) <br />
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For dessert we shared the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. You don't need me to tell you how good it is. <br />
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Went back to the room and found the dreaded Vajayjay Monster waiting for us. I think it's supposed to be a Seal, but seriously. <br />
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We had been gearing up for the Piano Bar with a playlist of popular songs. So we headed up there shortly after it opened and grabbed a seat at the bar. <br />
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It took a while for it to get going but there were 20 or so people in there at one point. Then I'm guessing the other shows dragged them away as little by little our crowd dwindled to just a few of us. It was pretty obvious around 11 that this was just not the night for the Piano Bar. <br />
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Decided to go back to Serenity and relax for a while in the hammock where we started our day before grabbing a slice of pizza and calling it a night.<br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Cassandra - 5/28/12 – Day 2 of Cruise – Day at Sea </u></span></span></h3>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Monday found us waking up a little after 8 am – Chris wasn’t feeling too well from all the carbonation from his Captains and Dr. Peppers the night before (we usually let them go completely flat for him here at home). I felt unusually motivated for the first morning waking up on a ship and decided to take advantage of it and headed off to the gym. Packed. I can’t run on treadmills on the ship – I’m clumsy enough as it is – trying to run on something stationary while a ship is swaying has “twisted ankle” written all over it. So I waited a few minutes and an elliptical machine opened up. My plan was to do 45 mins on it, but they have them locked to a max of minutes… when 15 minutes passed by, I noticed there were less people there an no one waiting, so I restarted the program for another full 30 mins and got my full workout in. I’ll mention this about the ellipticals on the Pride – they aren’t as nice as the ones on the Liberty – I wasn’t able to access the TV stations from the machine panel, unfortunately. That left me with my iPod and the ocean view, but I suffered through. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Chris took advantage during that time to hunt out some OJ from the Lido deck and helped himself to an apple from our gift basket. He also took that time to type out notes for the review from Embarkation day on his Kindle Fire. He has an app that was free one day from Amazon which is essentially an MS Office program with Word – he found it extremely useful on both this trip and on the Liberty to be able to type up notes throughout the trip (and it gave him something to do while I was “wasting time” with girlie activities like hair and makeup ) </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I got back to the room, had a banana from the fruit basket for breakfast (we both thoroughly enjoyed having this in the room – we munched on the grapes and almonds all throughout the cruise – made for good healthy snacking instead of a late-night trip to the pizza bar!), and we got ready for the day. We donned our bathing suits, packed up the backpack with tanning essentials, and headed out to scope out our sunning spot. We knew it was probably pointless by this late in the morning, but did a pass-through of Serenity – yeah already packed – mostly people – very few chair hogs as there were also folks in the Serenity pool – so we headed directly to our favorite quiet spot – Deck 11 by the funnel. To get there, you have to go up to deck 10, head towards the funnel, then go inside and up the stairs – there’s a door leading to the another set of open-air stairs that will take you up to this awesome secluded spot. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On the first sea day, it’s usually deserted – we lucked out and had our own private tanning deck. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We did get some passer-bys of people out scoping out all the nooks and crannies of the ship, and by the 3rd or 4th day it’s not quite as deserted – but still always a guaranteed spot to get a chair. It also helps that on days when the ship is sailing, there’s quite a good bit of wind – so you stay relatively cool even without a pool. We did invest in some chair clips prior to the cruise this year (do a google search for Boca Beach Towel Clips) and they work great for keeping your towel where it should be! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">After about an hour and a half, we had each had enough (neither of us are real sun-worshippers – we like to get enough to make it look like we were on vacation – but I burn easily and Chris can only take so much sun). So we headed back down to the room to drop off our stuff and the to the Lido buffet for lunch. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We took some random shots of the shops and the areas on decks 2/3 Forward as we were heading back to the room. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We never opted to buy the specialty coffees here, but I was tempted a few times. I'm sure it beats the Lido Deck coffee (which wouldn't be too hard!)</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The main Atrium</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Still feeling healthified from my gym session that morning I went to the salad bar and Chris went in the opposite direction to the grill for a cheeseburger. This was the first time I tried the salad bar, and while the veggie selections were great, I was disappointed there was no protein like cold chicken or turkey cubes. This would be a welcome addition! There was a section next to the salad bar with cold cuts of deli turkey and cheese, so I grabbed a few slices of that instead. Met up with Chris who wanted a Funnel Cup, so I got the DOD in a regular cup as well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We wandered the ship for a while to kill some more time before our CC Meet and Greet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then off to the Ivory Piano Bar at 2pm for our Meet and Greet. We felt bad because Tammy (NYTammy) was apparently not feeling too well and wasn’t able to make it to the M&G. Her husband was there to make sure we were on the list and gave us our wrist bands Tammy got just for the event. It was nice – snacks were laid out (chips and goldfish crackers) and they had a waitress coming around with mixed drinks (similar to what they pass at the Past Guest parties – Rum Punch, Blue Margaritas, and Amaretto Sours). The hour went quick, and a few rum punches later we were all getting kicked out for another function. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was then time for the first of 4 Super Trivia rounds for the week, and some of our fellow M&G’ers came with us to Rapahel’s lounge for the first round. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We have previously done Super Trivia on the Liberty, so we knew what to expect… or at least thought we did! This time, instead of 5-6 teams of 6-8 people, the teams were split Men vs. Women for a Battle of the Sexes style game. It made for an interesting twist (and also encouraged newcomers to join throughout the week) but we wondered how it would work out come finals at the last round and the winning prizes. That would make for a lot of champagne and ships on sticks… Chris was nominated the “captain” of the Men’s team and had a lot of fun trying to figure out which answer to give from 8-10 people all giving different suggestions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">They unfortunately dominated and the men ended up 31-18 after the first round. Oh well... there was still hope for the ladies with 3 more rounds to go. We stayed for the sports trivia next, where Chris ended up in 3rd place. After getting the “pity” ship on a stick during our last Pride cruise, he really wanted to earn one this time around. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We then went up to hang out on the Serenity deck before it was time to get ready for Elegant Night (Chris’s favorite... sarcasm alert). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We got dressed and took the obligatory "fancy" shots. Chris had a big grudge against the photo ops they have set up all around the ship - he can't stand "posing" for photos - so this is all I have for us all dolled up: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We still look good hehehe. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We went to check in for dinner around 6:45 – ahead of us a couple was trying to check in, and we couldn’t help but notice the guy was in shorts and flip flops… and the hostess told him he would have to change… he took his inebriated self off in a huff. Normally we don’t pay much attention to what people wear to dinner, but shorts and adidas filp flop slides for formal night? C’mon – go to the buffet. We then checked in and were given a pager to wait (we had the option to take a shared table, but declined…). We went out to Raphael’s to wait and around 7:15 were paged for a seat. They gave us a seat by the window and we were treated to a lovely sunset that night. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was actually a pretty slow night for service as well – took about 20 minutes to get our order taken, and another 20 to get the appetizers. I’m sure it was busy due to being the first formal night (not to mention Lobster Tail night) but Carnival could really look into expanding the areas and staff they have dedicated to the Anytime Dining – I’m sure it’s’ becoming a much more popular option (we’ve certainly noticed an increase since our first cruise!) </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For the appetizers, I ordered the Pumpkin Soup – one of my favorites on the ship, and didn’t disappoint again this time – and Chris had the Minestrone Soup, which was good. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For the main course, Chris had his favorite BBQ Ribs (again same complaint as always that they should really serve this on a different day!) and I had the Lobster and Shrimp. Chris loved the ribs, same complaint for the corn on the cob - practically inedible... I don't think it's awful, but he doesn't even bother giving it a chance anymore. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">My lobster was much better than I had a few months ago on the Liberty, so I was happy. Shrimp was great, and I love the mashed potatoes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Chris’s Ribs were super-meaty and he was stuffed so he declined dessert. My lobster and shrimp were good, but I still had a little room for dessert, so I ordered the Diet Coconut Cake. I know I can always order double-portions of the lobster, but I was glad I didn’t and saved room – the cake was delish (anyone out there that like coconut should give this a try at least once!). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As mentioned above, we were treated to a lovely sunset as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">After dinner we headed back to the room to make more drinks and headed to the casino for a little before the first Adult Comedy at 9:45. Mike Macy was the comedian, and he was <u><em>hilarious</em></u>. One of the best we’ve seen on Carnival! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then… off to the Piano Bar! We took over the section along the back wall by the piano and had a ton of fun that night (not to mention a ton of adult beverages!) Roger, the Piano Bar singer was great – he’s from the Philippines, and can belt out the tunes just like the best of them (you could close your eyes and swear Elton John was really there). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He was tons of fun and even let people come up to give it a shot at singing every once in a while. I tried my hand at Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen…. I’ll say it’s a lot harder to sing without having the lyrics scroll across the screen ala Rock Band style. Luckily I was fueled up on enough Carnival Cruisers to not care! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was a fun night for everyone and we closed the place down. I STILL have "Alice? Who the ..... is Alice?!" in my head! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We decided we should probably call it a night as well and headed back to bed around 1:30am. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This little guy was waiting for us as well.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Chris – 5/29/12 – Day 3 of the Cruise – Day at Sea </u></span></span></h3>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">After closing down the Piano Bar we took advantage of a sea day and slept in. I will say this about our room, it was very quiet. I'm not sure why but I loved it. Never needed ear plugs and was never once woken up by slamming doors or cabinets. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Grabbed a late breakfast at the Mermaid Grill and ran into Karen and Brian again. Talked with them for a bit and went back to the room to get our books. It was raining off and on all day so we got some chairs in the covered part of Serenity. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It cleared up around noon and everyone rushed out to grab chairs only to have it start raining 15 minutes later. It was pretty amusing to see everyone running back in forth while we were just relaxing in our spot. There were a couple trivia's at Raphael's but lost both . Both trivias were very well attended since it was raining out. Neither of us were very hungry so we decided to try the room service. It was there very quick but they certainly could've taken a few more minutes to melt the cheese in my grilled cheese. Cass had the Chicken Fajita Wrap. The wrap looked and smelled much better but there wasn't much chicken in it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I took a quick power nap to freshen my brain for Super Trivia round 2. There were a lot of free rolls for the ladies but being the superior sex, we were still able to extend our lead to 31. I didn't want to get too cocky as I knew some bonus would be offered in later rounds. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Past Guest party started shortly after but we knew we did not want to drink that day as we had to get up very early the following morning. We found some friends we had made early on in the cruise who were at Super Trivia and just gave them our tickets. Was very pleased to run into them later that night and they seemed to have really enjoyed the free booze. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We played Scattergories with Mike and Emily but didn't do too well. Spent a little time in the sports bar playing video poker before going to the room to get ready for dinner. I took the couple of hours that Cass needs to get ready to type up more notes on my Fire. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We walked around the Sun Deck a bit before heading to Normandy for dinner. There was another long wait for dinner, at least 30 minutes. I guess YTD is getting more popular than I thought. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We both started with the Chicken Quesidillas, which is quickly becoming my favorite app. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I had the Jerked Pork Loin - Delicious! Another of my favorite dinners on the cruise. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cass had Braised Short Ribs. She loved them and I know I would have too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We both skipped desert that night in the MDR but walked up to the Lido Buffet and I had a lite moose while she had a small cheesecake. After that we went to the casino and played Let It Ride for an hour or so before turning in. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I know today wasn't very exciting but we were building up the excitement for the next two days, culminating with <span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><em><u>The Quest</u></em></span>!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><em>Please stay tuned for <a href="http://tripssailstails.blogspot.com/2012/06/chris-53012-day-4-of-cruise-port.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a> of our May 2012 Pride Adventure - A day at Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure (aka, Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!)</em></span></div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-14513752054586691102012-06-10T16:59:00.000-04:002012-06-10T16:59:06.603-04:00Cruising – through the years<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So my original intention was to start with a
recap of our oldest cruise and work my way to the most recent, with a sprinkling
of some other trips we took – but quite honestly that just seems too daunting
at the moment. So I’m gonna work my way
backwards – all 1 of you readers out there can tag along for this travel back
through time … if you dare bwahahahaha… yeah just kidding. Or not.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513618698780199705.post-60069198634310990272012-06-10T10:42:00.001-04:002012-06-10T10:56:38.006-04:00In the Beginning...<br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So hi there! We're Chris and
Cassandra from central Maryland (smack in the middle between DC and Baltimore).
We are engaged to be married next year, and are cruising enthusiasts
and the proud owners of three little fur-babies - a new 2-month old Australian
Shepherd puppy named Vasher, and two Siamese cats, aged 11 and 12 named Leia
and Leo. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Chris and I met in August 2008 and
quickly realized we were meant to be together.
Fast forward to May 2009 and I moved down to Maryland with my 2 cats and
we moved in together. He is by no means
a cat person, but we were deemed a package deal and he was willing to abide by
their meows and love of paperbacks to have me.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In November 2009, Chris took me on my
first cruise for my 30<sup>th</sup> and we both were hooked. Since then, we’ve taken 5 total cruises – and
we started doing reviews for the last 3 of them (and will continue to do
so!) We also love to travel to other
places, but through cruising and now our new puppy may not visit as many other
places as we want to for a while. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So follow along as we tell our tales
of our Trips, Sails, and of course the daily shenanigans with all of these
fur-baby tails! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07848587410691047862noreply@blogger.com0