Carnival Pride
Sail date:
After staying Friday night at the Radisson at the port, Saturday morning, we boarded the ship, which was very clean and efficient. Port Canaveral was, by far, the nicest cruise port I've ever experienced.The ship? WOW! If I had not seen the logo on the outside I would never have known it was Carnival. No neon and brass discotheque look. Gorgeous wood and art work everywhere -- top notch all the way. Our room was on the 8th floor with a balcony, it was just so beautiful!Sunday was Key West, always a beautiful stop -- very un-Florida. Did lots of walking and sightseeing, including the Hemingway house, Blue Cat and Sloppy Joes. Monday was a sea day -- my favorite thing! Ken, the singing maitre d', was awesome. Before the week was over, he even had my husband dancing in the isles! The show was great that night. The captain was much friendlier than those on other ships we have been on. We got on the TV that night (of course we bought the tape). There were two hilarious comedians on the ship that did shows during the main show and R- rated midnight shows.Tuesday was Belize. It's so big and the tours were long, so it was hard to pick just one thing to do. We chose Shark Ray Alley (similar deal to stingray city in the Caymans). The one speed boat ride out to the reef was nice, got to see a lot of the sites including the island golf course. After snorkeling with the stingrays and tiger sharks (too cool!), we went to San Pedro for lunch and hanging out. That's where they filmed Temptation Island. To properly see all of Belize, you would need to spend a week or two there -- very diverse and nice. They were good about telling people to not go downtown since Belize City (where you dock), is not that nice, but the rest of the country is gorgeous. The tours are the ticket there. Would have loved to see more!Wednesday was Cozumel. We chose to go the National Park, which is always a great time. The best snorkeling I've ever done. Got a professional underwater photo taken along with lots of our own.I personally think a tour (unles you wnat to go the the ruins) is a waste. Go the the park, it's beuatiful! We then headed downtown for shopping, skillfully avoiding the new Carlo and Charlie's!Thursday was one of my favorite days -- Progresso. A beautiful, not over-developed port with a nice little straw market and pretty beach. We got a hut on the beach and drank and ate all day ($30 for four of us).Had the best guacamole ever! It really is a nice area...like Cozumel was probably 20 years ago. That night, the four of us ate at David's, the reservations only restaurant. While we didn't like paying extra for it ($25 a person), we quickly realized why. It was easily a $100 meal! Top notch service and food. I had two of the largest lobster tails I've ever seen! Well worth the money and one of the highlights of the trip. It's very classy, at the very top of the ship with a glass ceiling, live music and dancing. Simply awesome! Went to the second big show that night (it was formal night) and it was great, also.Friday was our other sea day. We drank and hung out on the back deck, away from the main pool. The only bad part was we couldn't hear the steel drum band which was very good. Saturday was back in Canaveral, very efficient disembarkation. We were off the ship and on our way in our private van by 9:45 AM.