THE VOYAGE OF THE CARNIVAL PRIDE

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I took the senior bus to Fargo and they left me at the Motel 6. I had lunch at Burger Kind and supper at Perkins. Both were within walking distance of the motel.

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On Saturday I took NWA(soon to be called Delta Airlines) to Minneapolis. While I was having lunch I met an Asian American girl from the Bay Area. She had a magnetic personally. She is establishing a travel business and was heading for New York City for fun.

The flight from Minneapolis to LAX(Los Angeles International Airport) was uneventful. When I got to LAX, I met a student from Taiwan who was trying to get to a university near Hollywood.
We were trying to catch the free "G" shuttle to the train or Metro. A very nice United Airlines baggage handler helped us get from the Red Line to the Blue Line. This involved getting off the train and taking an elevator to the Blue Line. This kind Jamaican went out of his way to help us. This trip of at least 20 miles cost me $1.80 much cheaper than a cab or Super Shuttle which costs $17.00.

I got off the train at Pacific Coast Highway and Long Beach Boulevard. There was a Mexican restaurant so I ate there. I was afraid to walk to the Motel 6 so I asked the Restaurant people to call a cab. They did not know the number and by that time my cell phone was dead so I couldn't Goog 411.

I walked across the street to a Chevron station and asked the attendant to call a cab. He called a cab like it was part of his job. Soon I was at the Motel 6.

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The next morning I ate breakfast at the IHOP(International House of Pancakes) and returned to the motel. There the motel clerk introduced me to Carol, a 65 year old professional clown.

She has worked at Vargas Circus as a clown, but now does private parties. She was an interesting person who was also going on the Carnival Pride, but with another group. I took her to lunch at the IHOP and we decided to share a taxi to the pier.

I carried my meager luggage aboard and checked in without to much trouble. A Carnival employee helped me fill out a form when I said I had low vision. The man also said that cabin 7270 was a good cabin.

When I got to my cabin I found no room mate. I hoped that I would have a cabin to myself. I went out on deck and met some experienced cruisers wearing lifejackets. They told me to go to my cabin at get my lifejacket. I waited and ran out of time to get to the cabin and from deck 7 to the muster point at deck 3. A kind crew member from Russia let me go into my cabin because there was no time to muster.

I was on the ship for 7 days and visited Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. I went ashore in Puerto Vallarta and tried to find a barber shop near the ship. I never found any, but people kept directing me.

Most of the time I at buffet style on Lido deck(deck 9). There was oatmeal for breakfast and lots of fruit. I would have a salad and more fruit for lunch.

I ate in the formal dining room a few times. Once I had steak that was not that good. One other night I had salmon, but that was not super. The nice thing about the formal dining room was that you sat with other people and it was entertaining.

I met quite a few passengers during the cruise. I spoke German with two German tourists from Stuttgart who were anti Bush and pro Obama. One of the members of our singles group was 72 year old Christine from Vancouver, BC. She was from Vienna, Austria so we chatted in German and socialized now and then.

Towards the end of the voyage I met a sea captain from Argentina. I asked him how to use the word "che". He said you say "Hola che". Che really means nothing -- it is a filler word. This sea captain had spent 5 years in Bremen, Germany so we chatted in German. I was eating lunch on the Lido Deck one day and he came and said "mahlzeit" which is a lunch time greeting in Germany.

I walked into the gift shop one day and met the beautiful Maria from Argentina. So now armed with the correct "Che" use I returned and greeted her and said "Hola Che" and adios.

I attended a trivia event set up by our group. It was boys against the girls. Under the direction of my room mate, Gary the boys won.

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I attended the singles Halloween Party at the Lido Poseidon Bar. I went as a surgeon, but there were at least 7 other doctors. One women went as a plastic surgeon and went around attaching plastic wrap to everyone. There were two patients with gowns and a plastic butt. I sat next to Christine at the Halloween formal dinner.

The crew was from all over the world. They were all very kind and helpful. Our cabin steward was a filipino. There were almost 1000 crew members. If Carnival has 22 cruise ships that means they employee 22,000 crew people. This is a huge cruise company, but there are other cruise lines so there must be thousands working the oceans.

I call myself a "freighter refugee". I really did not like the cruise. When I left I was just getting over bronchitis so I did not want to swim. The food was good but not outstanding. I had better food on a freighter out of Rimouski, Quebec. As I said earlier, the crew was great. I did not bring a suit so I could not meet the captain and say something to him in Italian.

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