Cruise 2011 Page 1 of 6 Welcome to the Carnival Pride! Diane & I drove to Baltimore on New Year's Eve to meet up with her sister & husband for a New Year's Day departure! (I still like to call this one "Cruise 2011" since Diane & I are already planning another cruise later in 2012, ha ha...) Day 1: Sunday, January 1, 2012. Inside the cruise terminal at the Port of Baltimore (wait, you're not supposed to take pictures!!!), we're still rocking the gold card status! :) In a cruising first for us, we were invited to have lunch in the dining room rather than trudging through the masses on the Lido deck. Here, we see Diane's touching reunion with her beloved baguette. It's the dining room! And me! And Diane! And, oh yeah... I should mention that I ended up rocking a questionable home-haircut for this trip, a combined effort of Diane, myself, and her sister, as my barber was closed for the holidays. Yup. Exploring the ship after lunch (with much gratuitous walkie-talkie chatter between my brother-in-law Dennis and myself), we found the Starry Night lounge, a crappy arcade, and lots of other nifty places. This be the view from the bottom up through the atrium in the main lobby. We headed to our cabins around 2:30pm, sampled some complimentary champagne in the lobby, got through the muster drill, and the ship finally started moving! Let the games begin! After meeting our room steward Sanjaya, who is not pictured anywhere in this photo set, we headed to the dining room for our 6:00pm culinary adventure! Hey, it's the other folks who will be seen sporadically in this photo album... Diane's sister Emily and her husband Dennis. What up, peeps?! Dennis ordered the gazpacho, and was greatly saddened when this showed up at the table. Being a cruise novice, he was unaware that Carnival favors the dramatic presentation of pouring the soup tableside around a pre-plated garnish. Much humor ensued. We returned to the cabin after dinner to find our towel seal friend waiting, along with the next day's Carnival Capers. After a tour of the Lido deck in the dark, and an evening of trivia and game shows in the main lounge, our travelmates decided to hit the hay early. Diane & I caught the 10:15pm Welcome Aboard show, then headed back to the cabin around 11:00pm. * Continue the Cruise Adventure... * Return to the Photos page!