Ahoy there mates! In case you don’t know me, my name is Jeff “Jamman54” Maskall, and I am a cruise addict. My wife Patti and I just returned from one of our favorite cruises on board our favorite ship, the Carnival Pride. This was a 14 day Journeys repositioning cruise from Tampa to Baltimore, with plenty of fun in between. Here is where we went…..
This will be a tale of three all-inclusive beach days, (Cozumel, Aruba, & St. Maarten), a partial Panama Canal transit, (awesome!), two countries we have never visited before, (Costa Rica & Bonaire), and seven, yes count them, seven glorious sea days!
Please be patient as this review will take some time to complete. Patti and I, well mostly Patti, took nearly 4,000 photos during our journey. Also, I have tons of items to scan in, including all of the Fun times. For the first time ever I brought along my laptop, and we were glad we did. Every day, I was able to download photos from the camera and work on them, deleting bad ones, resizing, cropping, etc. That will save a lot of time moving forward, but I still have to upload our finished pictures to our photo hosting site as the ship internet, even the Premium Package, was just too slow to accomplish this.
Taking this cruise would not have been possible if Patti hadn’t retired last year. Once she did we immediately booked the Sunshine 7 Day Canada cruise, then this one. First, we had to figure out the logistics of leaving from Tampa, and returning to Baltimore. Here is what we decided to do. We would drive down to Baltimore four days prior to the cruise, and stay at the Best Western in Elkridge for one night. We wanted to build in some extra days in case the dreaded “S” word camein to play. Thankfully, it didn’t. The Best Western has a “Park and Cruise”package which allows you to park free for the duration of your cruise, so we got 17 days of free parking. The next morning we flew to Tampa, and stayed at the Bay Harbor Hotel for the three nights prior to the cruise. Once the cruise was over, the shuttle from the Best Western picked us up and took us back to the hotel, where we got our van, then drove back home to New Jersey. Easypeasy!
We will be covering our “Journey” from driveway to driveway, including our time in Baltimore and Tampa. I know that some don’t want to see the pre-cruise stuff, and I can appreciate that, so all I can say is please check back in a few days to see if I have started the cruise itself. Thanks again for your patience.
Our roll call on Cruise Critic had to be one of the largest I have ever seen, and I understand that the one on FB was huge as well, (we are not FB people). We joined the roll call about a year out, and it was very active. Let me just say that we met many wonderful people at the hotel and aboard the ship. It was great to meet each and every one of you! Hard to believe though, that there were a lot of roll call members we didn’t get a chance to meet. Hopefully we’ll meet some time aboard another ship in the near future. I invite anyone who was on this cruise with us, whether we met or not, to post their thoughts and comments as this review moves forward. There is no such thing as “hijacking” any of our reviews. We welcome your opinions even if they are contrary to ours. We want this review to be fun and helpful to all that read it!
I think that just about covers all the pre-review mumbo jumbo, so grab yourself your favorite DOD and enjoy the ride. We are glad to have you aboard with us!!!
Every“Journey” has a beginning, so here we are preparing to leave for Baltimore. Can’t you see the anticipation in our faces!
Here I am driving down the New Jersey Turnpike……
We head across the Delaware Memorial Bridge and out of New Jersey…..
Any drive to Baltimore must include a stop at Maryland House! Lol…..
To be continued…..
This will be a tale of three all-inclusive beach days, (Cozumel, Aruba, & St. Maarten), a partial Panama Canal transit, (awesome!), two countries we have never visited before, (Costa Rica & Bonaire), and seven, yes count them, seven glorious sea days!
Please be patient as this review will take some time to complete. Patti and I, well mostly Patti, took nearly 4,000 photos during our journey. Also, I have tons of items to scan in, including all of the Fun times. For the first time ever I brought along my laptop, and we were glad we did. Every day, I was able to download photos from the camera and work on them, deleting bad ones, resizing, cropping, etc. That will save a lot of time moving forward, but I still have to upload our finished pictures to our photo hosting site as the ship internet, even the Premium Package, was just too slow to accomplish this.
Taking this cruise would not have been possible if Patti hadn’t retired last year. Once she did we immediately booked the Sunshine 7 Day Canada cruise, then this one. First, we had to figure out the logistics of leaving from Tampa, and returning to Baltimore. Here is what we decided to do. We would drive down to Baltimore four days prior to the cruise, and stay at the Best Western in Elkridge for one night. We wanted to build in some extra days in case the dreaded “S” word camein to play. Thankfully, it didn’t. The Best Western has a “Park and Cruise”package which allows you to park free for the duration of your cruise, so we got 17 days of free parking. The next morning we flew to Tampa, and stayed at the Bay Harbor Hotel for the three nights prior to the cruise. Once the cruise was over, the shuttle from the Best Western picked us up and took us back to the hotel, where we got our van, then drove back home to New Jersey. Easypeasy!
We will be covering our “Journey” from driveway to driveway, including our time in Baltimore and Tampa. I know that some don’t want to see the pre-cruise stuff, and I can appreciate that, so all I can say is please check back in a few days to see if I have started the cruise itself. Thanks again for your patience.
Our roll call on Cruise Critic had to be one of the largest I have ever seen, and I understand that the one on FB was huge as well, (we are not FB people). We joined the roll call about a year out, and it was very active. Let me just say that we met many wonderful people at the hotel and aboard the ship. It was great to meet each and every one of you! Hard to believe though, that there were a lot of roll call members we didn’t get a chance to meet. Hopefully we’ll meet some time aboard another ship in the near future. I invite anyone who was on this cruise with us, whether we met or not, to post their thoughts and comments as this review moves forward. There is no such thing as “hijacking” any of our reviews. We welcome your opinions even if they are contrary to ours. We want this review to be fun and helpful to all that read it!
I think that just about covers all the pre-review mumbo jumbo, so grab yourself your favorite DOD and enjoy the ride. We are glad to have you aboard with us!!!
Every“Journey” has a beginning, so here we are preparing to leave for Baltimore. Can’t you see the anticipation in our faces!
Here I am driving down the New Jersey Turnpike……
We head across the Delaware Memorial Bridge and out of New Jersey…..
Any drive to Baltimore must include a stop at Maryland House! Lol…..
To be continued…..