The Ship and Fun Days at Sea

First, a correction. This cruise is NOT my first and only vacation. Randy and I and the kids have been to San Diego and last summer the kids and I went to the Oregon Coast. This was, however, my first vacation alone with my husband (no kids and no other relatives).

We got on the Carnival Pride at about 12:30 on Sunday. We couldn't get into our rooms until later in the day and we didn't set sail until 4:00 p.m. So, in the meantime, we investigated the ship.

This one. The Carnival Pride. One of Carnival's biggest ships and the longest ship to sail through the Panama Canal.
This is the Lido Deck, where the three pools are. This is also the deck that the Mermaid Grill is on. That's where we played cards most of the time. It was also where a lot of the activities took place.
This is the 11th deck, and I cannot remember it's name. Note that there are lots of places to soak up the sun.The ship also had a water slide. I never tried it out, but Robert did and got to experience sea water in a water slide.

In the middle of the ship was the atrium. The atrium was open from the second deck to the 10th deck. From the 9th to 10th decks was this glass "floating" staircase. Standing on it and looking down did a number to my stomach.

This is the bottom of the atrium on the 2nd deck and the staircase to the 3rd deck. Note the bar. Can you see the piano behind the bartender? That made this a piano bar. Cruise ships are not known for their performers, let me tell you.

We're still in Long Beach. Here's Vicki and Jason (on the left) and Lori and me (I'm in the back) on the 10th deck just checking out the ship.

At 4:00 we were required to participate in the muster, which consisted of getting our life vests from our rooms and going to our assigned place on deck 3. There, we had to line up shoulder to shoulder and learn how to put our life vests on. I was bored and decided the vest made a nice pillow so I put my head back and soaked up some more rays and took a little nap. The life vests have a salt-water activated light and a compass. One comedian on board informed us that those were to make it easier for the sharks to find us. Our life vests also came equipped with a tiny little whistle. Initially, you think, "oh, that's cool." And then the comedian reminds you that the ocean is HUGE and that one little whistle will do you absolutely no good.

"Jack...?"

"Jack...?"

Quick- name that movie.

And here's the ship at night. Pretty, huh? When it finally got warm enough at night to be out on the deck, it was fun. When the ship finally set sail, which they very quietly do while you're all mustering, it was time to get down to business!

Here's Jason, Vicki, me, and Lori at the bar, business as usual. Jess is standing back trying to decide... HA HA. I'm only kidding. The bar was the only place to get a Sprite or Diet Pepsi or Mr. Pibb. The bartenders were also good at making non-alcoholic drinks. Vicki, Lori, and I had a strawberry something or other. It was yummy.

Seriously, the business was having fun! The ship had games on the Lido deck all day long. We (not necessarily I, but we as in the collective group we) participated in scavenger hunts, yes/no games, adventure quests, and just observed other people making idiots of themselves. We managed to watch the ice carver take a chunk of ice from this:

To this:

During the day there were also classes you could attend. A previous post has the dance classes. On the last day, Vicki, Randy, and I went to the towel folding class.

There were photographers all over the ship. They took your picture at dinner, getting on and off the ship, waiting in line for dinner....it was nonstop. At one point, I took advantage of some downtime and convinced the girls to come get a picture. The European photographer had no idea what an old west photo was like and seriously needed to spend some time in Virginia City (and maybe photography school since he put the shortest woman in the back between the two tallest women). However, it was still a fun picture to take.


Then we tried one this way, with our heads all together. This one didn't turn out quite so cute so all you get to see is this one that one of the husband's took.

At one point, we even got a tour of the galley. It was huge. The soup vats were bigger than my washing machine.
This was the section where they prepared the dinners. I'm not sure if this picture even does justice to just how large the galley was. One neat thing about the galley, though, was the view from down here.
Just a note on the port hole. This was the only place I ever saw a window this small.

During the day, we would go our separate ways, but by dinner time, we were together again. Everynight but one we ate dinner together as a group. Dinner was a fabulous experience and the food was always good. I think, though, that the reason dinner was so wonderful was due in large part to the company.
From front to back, with spouses sitting across from each other: Robert and April Howard, Denny and Mary Zimmerman, Jess and Lori Marin, Randy and I, Jason and Vicki Jeppsen.

At night, there were always shows in the Taj Mahal lounge. A previous post shows the fiddler who came. We had two different comedians entertain us. The Carnival Pride dancers and singers entertained us a few times. One night there was even a ventriloquist. We would go straight to the lounge after dinner and wait for the show to start. And while we waited, I....
read a book that I kept in my bag. And here we are again, waiting, and I'm .....reading. See the book? From left to right down the row: Lori, Jason, Vicki, Denny, Mary, and Trulee, reading again.


When I look back on this trip, there will be some memories that really stick our for me. But one thing I will always remember

Cards in the card room

Cards in the Mermaid Grill

Cards late at night on the Lido Deck

Cards when we were so stinking tired we were all in sweats and had our contacts out. That's not a very pretty picture of me, so try to ignore me yawning...or whatever it is I'm doing.

So that was the ship and what we did while at sea. Still to come: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas!