Only a Six Hour Ride to Baltimore!

We had a fantastic time on the inaugural cruise out of Baltimore aboard the Carnival Pride!
Baltimore is an excellent gateway for this sailing. My wife and I decided to drive in a day early and check out the sites. We toured the inner harbor, rode the Light Rail and watched the excitement of the media as the event unfolded.
The Carnival Pride is really a ship all about art. The theme on board is “Icons of Beauty”. You will find reproductions of famous Renaissance paintings and statues by Raphael, Botticelli and even a reproduction of Michelangelo's David. Pride is also embellished with Renaissance style murals on the walls and ceilings.
The staff on board was great. We were well taken care of and the food was very good. Carnival has worked very hard to overcome the party ship image and has done that in our opinion.
We started out with two days at sea, which I really needed to just unwind and relax. We then stopped in Nassau. A group of us ended up catching a ride on the local bus service to the Royal Bahamian Sandals Resort. As travel agents we were invited to tour their resort and spend the day with them. When you go to Nassau this is a great stay or an excursion from aboard ship. I recommend the swim up bar! Our next day we spent on Freeport where we did some shopping then loaded onto a van and headed to a beautiful beach for the day. On our way back to Baltimore we had dinner at Prides signature supper club David’s. The food and service were great.
Carnival will be sailing year around out of Baltimore to the Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean.
Since our return we have already put together a meeting with Rick Zimmerman, CEO of KHM Travel, Burt Kramer, Director of KHM Travel, Virgil Lengel, Lakefront Bus Lines and Sally Nyburg, SAND Travel to decide how to best offer ongoing trips out of NE Ohio roundtrip to Baltimore to take these great year round sailings. Sally has over 20 years expertise in group travel.
Just think of it no airfare to buy, no airport hassles, no long lines to stand in. Just a comfortable Lakefront Lines luxury coach to relax on all the way to the cruise dock!

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Inaugural Sailing from Baltimore!

I was work the other day, phones nearly ringing off the hooks when my cell phone rings. Caller ID reads KHM Travel. That’s usually Burt the director of KHM. I took a break and answered my cell and sure enough it was Burt Kramer, Director of KHM Travel Group the largest online travel agency in the country. He gets right to the point, “Norm I just got off the phone with Geoff our BDM (business development manager) from Carnival Cruise Lines and they have three cabins they have to give away. Do you and Sally want to go on a FREE cruise May 27th?” I said I needed to look at a calendar. I asked what the itinerary was. There was awkward phone silence for only a moment until we both kind of said at the same time, “Who cares? It’s free!” I told Burt it sounded really great, but I did need to check with Sally. He said, “Geoff needs to know in the next fifteen minutes or they go away!” Then he sealed the deal with, “Did I mention they were balconies?” Long story short, Sally considered it for about two seconds and had me call him right back.

Baltimore is a new gateway for Carnival. It should open up a lot more Northeast, East Coast and Midwest business for them. We were invited along to check out the new sailing aboard the Carnival Pride. Sally has been doing a nice group business with local bus companies from the Cleveland area for about twenty years and has some great contacts with them. We are hoping to put the bus companies, the easy trip to Baltimore, Carnival and local travel groups all together for a nice time.

Back to the trip, we are leaving a day early to explore the port area a bit before we board the Pride on May 27th. From there we have two relaxing days at sea, a day in Nassau, a day in Freeport and a return day at sea. All in all this will be a six cruise, wonderful!! If the timing is right we will get to tour the All-Inclusive Sandals Resort while on Nassau.