We arrived at the Long Beach cruise terminal at about 12:20 to find a few hundred people already in line, and apparently embarkation processing had started early as the line was moving steadily into the terminal building. The terminal is housed in the white geodisic dome formerly home to the Spruce Goose, next to the Queen Mary. The ship, Carnival Pride, was docked next to the terminal.

While in line we met Rod and John, who had gotten married just the day before–in fact Rod was carrying the cake topper with him. John kindly took two pictures of us in line while we waited.




After going through a process much like boarding an airplane (i.e. metal detectors and X-ray machines, check-in lines) we had our embarkation photos [sorry, no scan available] taken in a cute “tropical” set–still inside the terminal building. We followed the line upstairs, received our “Sail & Sign” cards [scan coming] (about which more will be said later) and boarded the ship via a long elevated gangway from the dome straight onto Deck 3 (Atlantic). We were met by cruise personnel who handed us a Deck Plan [scan coming] and gave us directions to our stateroom. We’d originally booked a “window cabin”, which would have been on Deck 1 (Riviera), but were pleased and surprised to discover upon receipt of our cruise documents that we’d been upgraded to a “verandah stateroom” on Deck 7 (Verandah). We made our way up and aft to our home for the next seven days, cabin #7288. Naturally, I took a few pictures of the cabin and of the view from the verandah.




As our baggage hadn’t yet been delivered (“checked bags” are tagged and given to porters before entering the terminal building, then delivered to staterooms) there wasn’t much to unpack. We went up to investigate the Mermaid’s Grille on Deck 9 (Lido). The Grille is a buffet-style eatery which includes a 24-hour pizza bar, a deli counter, soft-serve ice cream and frozen yogurt, and several general service counters. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and the midnight buffet are all available here, and we had a fair number of meals here during our week aboard ship.

We had pizza and ice cream (vacation!).

The Spa Carnival on Deck 9 forward was offering tours, so we headed over. The spa tour was hosted by one of the spa staff members, and she took Jen and me and a couple of other guests on a tour through each of the treatment rooms. In each, a specialist explained the treatments available in that room–from massages and seaweed wraps to relaxa-pods and fat-burning treatments. Some of the offerings seemed, well, pretty scammy to me, but we ended up booking a facial for Jen and a full-body massage for me.

After the tour we had just enough time to get back to our cabin and grab our life jackets before we had to report to our assembly station for the mandatory lifeboat drill.

When the drill was done, we returned to our cabin to look through the offered shore excursions. The shipboard interactive TV system allowed us to book our excursions right there–very convenient.

At about 4:40, the ship left the dock, accompanied by two Coast Guard and one Long Beach Police launch.




Now it was time to explore the ship: top to bottom, fore to aft. We’d already been to the Mermaid’s Grille and Spa Carnival on Deck 9, so we checked out the pools and sports decks. Guest cabins occupy Deck 8 (Panorama) down to Deck 4 (Main), so we went down to Deck 3 (Atlantic). Here and Deck 2 (Promenade) are where the main public areas of the ship are located.

I should add a note at this point about the motion of the ship. I’d been told that on modern (i.e. huge) cruise ships, the motion of the sea is barely noticible. That may be, but I have always been particularly susceptible to motion sickness and didn’t want to chance a miserable week, so I received a prescription from my doctor for Scopalamine patches. These look like disc-shaped bandages and adhere to the skin behind the ear, gradually dispensing the medication. I didn’t have a problem the entire week, even during the high winds on Saturday.

Anyway, where was I… we checked out the lounges, theaters, bars, and shops on Decks 3 and 2. We did not go into the casino–in fact we stayed out of the casino, except for two quick entrees to use the ATM (wouldn’t you know the ATM would be inside the casino) for the entire voyage. I am not a good gambler, and I don’t like to lose. The combination makes casinos frustrating, so we agreed to stay out. This led to a few detours over the course of the week, but it wasn’t a big deal.

Then it was time for dinner. We had requested and been given the later seating for dinner, in the Normandie Restaurant. I’m not going to be able to recall each of the meals we had here, because quite frankly the Normandie meals were not all that memorable. We were both also disappointed in the wait staff we had been assigned, so after dinner we requested a change of table assignment. This was granted without question.

After dinner we went forward to the Taj Mahal lounge for the Welcome Aboard show, featuring the Cruise Director, Jeff Bronson.

I’m sorry I didn’t have video or audio recording capabilities, because you really need to hear how he pronounced his last name. It wasn’t just “bronson”, it was more like “brrronson!” with a cheezy French accent–and he was as middle-America as they come. It got to be a running gag throughout the cruise.

The Welcome Aboard show consisted of Brrronson picking guests from the audience (we were glad to have selected seats in the balcony) to make fun of on stage. Sorry, but I’ve never enjoyed this kind of display, and we quickly tired of the show and left.

We checked out a couple of the other lounges–lots of live music, some very good–and made our way up to the Mermaid’s Grille for the midnight buffet. I think we actually didn’t eat much (this didn’t happen again) and just wanted to see what was offered.

Then, as we both had 8:00 AM spa appointments for Monday morning, we went to bed.

Next… Day 1: A Fun Day and Formal Night at Sea