Carnival Pride Bahamas Cruise Review Blog 12/15/09 Day 3

We woke up at 1 PM and at the the Mermaid's Grille at around 1:45 PM. The beets and red cabbage salad was excellent there. The lamb was pretty good as well, and so were the Indian food area. The Mahi Mahi was way too salty, however. We also tried the goat cheese and mushroom pizza at the Pizza Bar- it was too salty also.

Afterward we played two rounds of miniature golf atop the Carnival Pride. You have to check out the clubs and golf balls at deck 9 pool area. The course was 9 holes and wasn't anything innovative but it was fairly fun. We then returned the clubs and exchanged them for paddles for some ping pong on deck 10 overlooking the pool deck. Sometimes the ball would drop down to the pool deck which makes you ponder why the table tennis tables were not strategically placed in a better location.

Later on we attended the Carnival Past Guests invitation-only party at the Taj Mahal. This was only our second Carnival Cruise and we didn't know what to expect. We arrived about 10 minutes early and a fellow cruiser said that you would get free cocktail drinks and hors d'oeuvres- no wonder there were a pack of people already waiting outside the closed doors. Once inside we took photos with the Carnival mascot and then were greeted with live music from the excellent Marty Szucs and the Carnival Pride show Band. We had a few cocktails and hor d'oeuvres, and the cruise direct Kirk came out and raffled off a free dinner at David's Steakhouse. We were then shown a brief video of the history of Carnival Cruise Line and its line up of current and former ships. It was a fun experience.

We had reservations for David's Steakhouse at 6:30 PM so we got dressed up for that. Upon arrival we were greeted heartily, but noticed that surprisingly there were vacationers in short sleeves and pretty casual clothing even though the dress code was supposed to be "Cruise Elegant". After we ordered we were presented with two small appetizers "complements of the chef". One was a small dish of beef tartar and a tiny bowl of tomato cream soup. They were tasty and had pretty presentation. In fact all the dishes of the night had terrific presentations. For starters we had Tuna Tartare and Escargot. The tuna tartar was bland (needed some lime juice and kick) but the Escargot was very good. For dinner we had Chilean Sea Bass (excellent) and the Surf and Turf (lobster tail and filet mignon). Unfortunately the lobster tail was only half a tail and a tad overcooked. The filet mignon was tender and good, however.

Then came the odd, extremely long wait. The service up until then had been superb, but then it was like they had totally forgotten us. No one came to check to see if we liked our entrees. We pretty much just sat there for more than an hour before someone came to take our order for dessert. In the meanwhile we had to listen to a neighboring table chatter loudly and throw in some f-bombs to boot. We figured the wait staff got busy but still were annoyed about it. For dessert we ordered the Chocolate Sampler and the Cheesecake. The sampler consisted of four shot glasses of various ice cream and dessert. We especially liked the one that had mango sherbert and the tiramisu- the other two were too overwhelming in terms of chocolate flavor. The cheesecake was massive but good- we couldn't finish it it was so big.

David's Steakhouse was a mixed bag- we probably won't be trying it again, especially at $30 a person. The food and ingredients were good, and the presentation was great, but overall it took 2 and a half hours for dinner, and that was too long for us.

Later we went to showtime at the Taj Mahal theater where ventriloquist/comedian Jerry Goodspeed performed. It was a pretty funny and impressive performance. The funniest part was when he got a guy from the audience to be his "dummy".

The Good:
-Carnival Repeat Guests Party (free cocktail drinks and Hors d'oeuvres)
-Red cabbage and beet salad at Mermaid Grille was very good
-Great presentation of dishes and they tasted good in general at David's Steakhouse
-Ventriloquist Jerry Goodspeed was entertaining

The Mediocre:
-Only half a lobster tail for the Surf and Turf dish at David's Steakhouse

The Bad:
-Extremely long wait between main entree and dessert at David's Steakhouse; overall "experience" was too long at 2 and a half hours

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