Matt & Ashley's Carnival Pride Review - (New Year's, Pictures, FunTimes)

Intro

Happy New Year everyone! My name is Matt, and I’ve been a longtime lurker (and occasional poster) on these boards. My wife Ashley and I just got off the Carnival Pride’s New Year’s sailing, which left from Baltimore on December 26. This was our 5th cruise, 4th on the Pride. Our favorite things about this board are the lengthy, picture heavy reviews that folks post after cruises, especially when they involve the Pride. We wanted to add our own review, and we hope you enjoy it.

About us

Ashley and I have been married for two and a half years, but we’ve been together for almost ten. We’re both in our late 20’s. I’m a GIS analyst (I make maps), and Ashley is a teacher (she teaches). We live in beautiful Frederick, Maryland, which is about an hour west of the port of Baltimore. We’re both pretty quiet and keep to ourselves – definitely aren’t party animals but our alcohol consumption does tend to rise once onboard. I am also an obsessive planner, particularly with vacations. I think it’s a little more evident with land vacations because I have so much more control over what we do, but you’ll still probably notice my compulsion at various points throughout this review.

Ashley and I believe that cruises are hands down the best types of vacations for us. We’re the type of cruisers who are in it for the ship. When we book a cruise, we don’t really pay too much attention to where it goes. What’s more important to us is from which port it leaves, and how long we are away from real life. When we’re sitting on our balcony during the daytime or walking around the upper decks in the evening and all we see is water for miles - that’s what it’s all about for us.

About this Review

Like I said, our inspiration for this review are the dozens and dozens of high-quality reviews that have come before this one. Honestly, I didn’t take as many pictures as I had planned to, so I don’t think this will come close to the quality of one of those reviews, but we did cover a decent amount. Towards the beginning of the review I’m going to give a little tour of most of the public areas. This is where the bulk of the pictures will be. Once we got on board we were a little overwhelmed and didn’t take a lot of pictures that first day, so most of the “tour” pictures you will see are going to be from when we were docked in Freeport, so keep that in mind as you go through it. All pictures are from one of our phones, no actual cameras. Also, we did not take many pictures of food. I just feel awkward taking pictures of it – so I do apologize for the lack of food porn. We did take pictures of the dining room menus posted outside the dining room almost every night, and I’ll also have the scans of the FunTimes.

Looking forward to reading your review. Thanks for posting it!! :)

Cruising history

Since this is our first cruise review, I’ll go ahead and provide a quick overview of our cruising history. Our first cruise was one week after we graduated from college in 2010. I still have no idea how we saved up to pay for it, but we are so glad we did. When we came back from dinner that first night and our room had been turned down, we stepped out onto our obstructed-view balcony to watch the Chesapeake shore of Maryland go by. That’s when we knew cruising was definitely for us. That night we were looking for the breakfast room-service door hanger things that I had heard about, but didn’t see them. Ashley placed a call to our room steward - Conrad, and he said “Open your door, I’ll show you something”. Lo and behold there was Conrad standing right there with the menus when we opened the door. From that point on we were convinced Conrad must have lived in the walls somewhere near our cabin. Ever since that first cruise, I’ve always regarded that week as one of the best of my life.

Our next cruise was two years later, in 2012, with the exact same itinerary. On this cruise we upgraded to an extended balcony (7200), and that has since become “our” room when we sail on the Pride. To us, the location can’t be beat. It’s located midship, pretty close to the atrium elevators, only two floors below Lido. Another perk is that the room number is incredibly easy to remember compared to most others.

Then, in 2013 we sailed the Pride for the last time before the 2.0 upgrades. This time we brought my parents along. My dad had already been retired from the US Air Force for a year or two, but my mom had just retired from teaching, so we enjoyed celebrating that with them. Instead of the Port Canaveral/Nassau itinerary we had sailed the previous cruises, the Pride brought us to Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay. Ashley and I were engaged at this point, and were trying to decide which cruise to go on for our honeymoon. When we were back on the tender boat leaving Half Moon Cay, Ashley and I agreed that we must include Half Moon Cay in our honeymoon. On this cruise, Ashley and I figured we were experienced enough in cruising to appreciate the Behind the Fun Tour, so that took up a decent chunk of our final day. It was well worth the cost, so we definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn’t taken it.

In June 2014, Ashley and I got married. A week later we flew down to Orlando for our 2 week honeymoon. Our first week was spent in Orlando going to Disney and Universal, then we drove down to Miami to sail on the Glory for 7 days. We had a great time, it was a cruise after all, but neither of us could get used to the layout of the ship, and I think we just missed the Pride.

Unfortunately that was it until now. There are a few reasons for our lengthy dry-dock, but probably the most prominent reason is the handful of baseball-related trips we went on. In 2014 we started on a mission to visit every Major League Baseball ballpark. Through three years we’ve hit 17 ballparks. Now that the remaining, unvisited ballparks are a little further away, Ashley and I are feeling more inclined to book cruises instead. Someday we’ll hit all 30 ballparks.

Looking forward to your review! Off to a great start.

Looking forward to your review. Thanks for all the work it takes.

Leading up to the cruise

After Christmas 2015, Ashley and I were talking about how much we miss cruising, and how great it would be to see the Pride with the 2.0 upgrades that we had enjoyed on the Glory. We realized that our 2016 summer was packed, but didn’t think we could wait until 2017, so we went ahead and decided on the most expensive cruise possible – New Year’s on the Pride! We called up our new PVP (our old one wasn’t a PVP anymore), and booked our usual Pride room. Immediately after booking we got 30 inches of snow, but as we shoveled out of it we were thinking warm thoughts knowing we’d be back on the Pride in the Caribbean within the year.

Once the cruise was booked we didn’t really think about it too much over the next few months, mostly because we had trips planned for the summer. Once those were out of the way though, I started turning my attention to the cruise – and the itch got more intense. Around July/August I started frequenting the boards more often, and looking on a certain video hosting site to see if anyone had posted a recent Pride review. I try not to drag Ashley down with me too much because I don’t want her to get burned out before we even get on the ship, but even she became more involved than usual in scouring the web for recent reviews and news about cruising. It got to the point where we decided to go ahead and book another cruise for the summer of 2017 – a 5 day trip on the Sunshine out of New York to Canada.

When Ashley and I are under 100 days out from a trip we have planned, we like to have a little countdown to it. We do this by having a paper hanging up on our bathroom mirror with a short description of the trip, and numbers clipped below. Every night before I go to bed I adjust the number by 1. We starting doing this before our third cruise when we also had a trip to Las Vegas planned. A countdown seems especially appropriate for a New Year’s cruise, so on September 17 we began the countdown!

99 days seems like such a long time by itself, but considering we were at 350ish days when we booked the cruise it seemed like it was right around the corner.

Looking forward to your review! We live in Fairfax, and I'm trying to get hubby to cruise out of Baltimore. But he doesn't care for the older, smaller ships there. I think once you're inside, the ships all look great!

We're taking our first Carnival cruise in December.

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As the cruise got closer, we started to make some decisions about what we wanted to do onboard. On the Glory we had Faster to the Fun and we loved it, so we decided to do that again. We also booked a cabana on Half Moon Cay (there will be pictures, I promise). In an effort to save money somewhere though, we agreed that we wouldn’t go to David’s Steakhouse, and that would make this cruise our first where we didn’t visit the ship’s steakhouse.

Well, it didn’t take long before I broke our agreement and made reservations on New Year’s Eve for David’s. One of my favorite things to do in life is surprise Ashley, and I really considered not telling her about it until we were on the ship. In the end I figured it might impact what she wanted to wear that night, so I ended up telling her about it.

Beginning in October, we began purchasing Carnival gift cards from our local grocery store. The loyalty program at our store has awesome gas discounts, especially when you purchase gift cards, so this was a great way for us to save up for that Sail and Sign bill that tends to add a little insult to injury when they kick you off the ship after a week.

Happy Halloween! With only 8 weeks to go, we are almost halfway there!

We paid for our complete cruise in Gift Cards. Love the fuel perks. Now saving up to buy gift cards for Cheers.

We spent Thanksgiving with Ashley’s family in Nashville. The following couple of weeks at work were particularly stressful for me, but with the Christmas season kicking into gear we both had our eyes on the day after Christmas - Cruisemas. A couple weeks before we boarded, we headed on over to Baltimore for a little football game.

It was a Saturday, so the Pride wasn’t in port, but we know it was on its way. Then it only had two more round trips to make before we got to go. We were only a week away from single digits!

Unfortunately on the morning of the Army-Navy game I started to feel a little sick, and by the next day I definitely had a full blown cold. Luckily there were two weeks for me to get better, and I attacked the cold with a ton of water, vitamin C, and cold medicine. I started to feel better within a week. The following weekend saw my car battery completely die, and a large tree branch fell onto Ashley’s car and put a big dent in the pillar between her rear windshield and window. That last week before Christmas/Cruisemas dragged on for what seemed like forever, but eventually the Friday before came, and we were free!

We spent Christmas Eve packing and doing some last minute shopping. We headed to my sister’s house in Northern VA for Christmas. We left a little early to finish packing, because Cruisemas was almost here!!

My parents followed us back to our house, as they were going to drive us to the cruise terminal the next morning before they headed back home to North Carolina. It took me forever to get to sleep that night, and I woke up on my own incredibly early the next morning. Cruisemas was finally here!!

Alright folks, I'm going to respond to your comments, then I need to write up the first day. Luckily all the servers at work are still down from end of the year maintenance, so productivity is not expected from me today. I'm hoping to have Embarkation completed by the end of today.

Looking forward to reading your review. Thanks for posting it!! :)

Thanks Jamman! Your reviews are among those that set the standard, so thanks for all you've done.

Looking forward to your review! Off to a great start.

Thanks!

Looking forward to your review. Thanks for all the work it takes.

Thanks! You aren't kidding. This has really made me appreciate even more the reviews that have come before.

Looking forward to your review! We live in Fairfax, and I'm trying to get hubby to cruise out of Baltimore. But he doesn't care for the older, smaller ships there. I think once you're inside, the ships all look great!

 

We're taking our first Carnival cruise in December.

 

 

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Enjoy the Vista! We love the Pride, but if you're looking for a newer, bigger ship, it may not be for you. The upside is that you'll save on airfare, since you're so close.

We paid for our complete cruise in Gift Cards. Love the fuel perks. Now saving up to buy gift cards for Cheers.

Based on your location I'm assuming you are also getting your gift cards from Giant Eagle. You're not kidding about the fuel perks. Most of my fillups over the past few months have been free.

OK I'm onboard to read your review! You're off to a great start. I LOVE the Pride, she was my first cruise back in March 2012 and got us addicted to cruising. :)

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A friend of mine just did that same cruise that you did! She had a wonderful time!

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I forgot---I wanted to ask--is it too cold sailing out of Baltimore in Dec/Jan? I'm used to sailing out of South Florida.

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Based on your location I'm assuming you are also getting your gift cards from Giant Eagle. You're not kidding about the fuel perks. Most of my fillups over the past few months have been free.

Haha...yes Giant Eagle. And they were running double rewards the few weeks leading up to Cruisemas. Hoping they run them again for Valentine's Day/

great start to your review! Looking forward to the rest.

Loving the excitement. We leave in a little under 3 weeks on the Pride but out of Tampa. I have cruised 3x on the Pride out of Baltimore. My favorite ship and port. Already know I am going to love your review.

thank you

OK I'm onboard to read your review! You're off to a great start. I LOVE the Pride, she was my first cruise back in March 2012 and got us addicted to cruising. :)

 

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Thanks for reading! It's hard for us to imagine a ship we'd like more than the Pride.

I forgot---I wanted to ask--is it too cold sailing out of Baltimore in Dec/Jan? I'm used to sailing out of South Florida.

 

 

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If you are used to sailing out of South Florida, going out of Baltimore will probably be too cold in the winter. It really depends on what you want to do. For us, it was really only cold on embarkation day, the first half of the first sea day, and on the final day. The weather up here can really vary, but it's best to bank on it being cold.

great start to your review! Looking forward to the rest.

Thanks for reading!

Loving the excitement. We leave in a little under 3 weeks on the Pride but out of Tampa. I have cruised 3x on the Pride out of Baltimore. My favorite ship and port. Already know I am going to love your review.

 

thank you

Oh man, have fun! I'd be interested to sail out of Tampa.

Day 1 - Dec 26 - Embarkation

I found myself wide awake at 5:45am. After a while I realized there was no hope of going back to sleep, so I rolled out of bed at around 6:30. The vast majority of our stuff had been packed, but we had a pretty lengthy checklist of things to do around the house to prepare for our 7 days away. It was pretty overcast all day, with temperatures just above freezing in the morning. I don’t think it got above 50 degrees all day.

By 9am we were ready to head out the door. We said goodbye to these little furballs and packed up my parents’ car.

Getting the car packed up was a little tricky, since we had our luggage in addition to my parents’ stuff, as they headed straight home for North Carolina after dropping us off. We eventually managed, and hit the road, hopping on I-70W towards Baltimore!

A few turns and less than an hour later we were on I-95N approaching Baltimore’s Locust Point, and we got our first glimpse of the Pride!

Soon after we took exit 55 onto McComas Street and eventually found ourselves in line to get dropped off.

If you are parking your car at the cruise terminal for the duration of your cruise (which we have done twice), you are sent around to a line of baggage cars closer to the waterfront to drop off your luggage. Then you line up to pay for parking. In our experience, using the cash line to pay the $105 fee saved an immense amount of time, as that line was usually much shorter than the credit card line. This was before the days of staggered check-in, so I can’t say whether or not that’s still the case. Since we were being dropped off, we were directed to a separate line of baggage cars directly in front of the terminal.

After we gave our luggage to the porters, my parents were able to briefly pull into a parking spot so we could say our goodbyes, and my mom could take a picture.

We walked into the terminal at around 10:15am. We went through security very quickly, as there was hardly anyone else there. The security folks wanted to look at Ashley’s bottle of wine, but they didn’t even blink at our two 12 packs of Diet Coke. They weren’t checking folks in quite yet, so we were directed over to a sitting area with conference tables. At just before 10:45 they started calling us to check in. Priority guests were called first, then Faster to the Fun. We had completed our check in back in November, so we were all set. Once we got our Sail & Sign cards, we were directed to the “Lounge” with the other Faster to the Fun folks. This is where the real waiting began. We were crammed into a long corridor with chairs lined up. To our left we watched people from the previous cruise debarking with their luggage. To our right on the far end of the corridor was a wedding party waiting to board. My suggestion if you are going to get there as early was we did: Bring something to entertain yourself. Just before noon they began to file us towards the ship.

As many of you know, back in May the Pride was involved in an accident that disabled the gangway they use to board passengers. It still has not been fixed, so instead of a long ascent that delivers you into the beautiful atrium of the Pride, you travel down a long line of connected cargo containers and board on Deck A Forward.

It wasn’t a big deal to us, but Ashley and I are glad this wasn’t our first cruise. Way back in 2010, walking into that atrium from the gangway made our jaws hit the floor. It would be sad to miss out on that as a first-timer.

That aside, we scampered up two flights of stairs to Deck 2 and headed midship to the atrium, where we needed to reserve our cabana at Half Moon Cay. During our honeymoon, Ashley and I had Cabana #11, which worked out pretty perfectly. It’s close to the restrooms, but far away enough so that it’s hard to hear the commotion coming from the Pirate Ship. #11 was still available, so we booked that. They also ask you what kind of soda you’d like, and your shoe size for scuba flippers.

Once we were set on our cabana, we hopped into the glass elevators to deck 7 to drop off our carryon bags. I wasn’t going to share this picture initially, since it’s terrible and blurry. But I’ll just leave it here as a teaser for the tour of the ship coming later.

I will say that if there is an advantage to boarding guests on Deck A Forward, it is that these glass elevators are not crowded at all. On previous embarkations, these elevators got so crowded that we considered taking the stairs up to Lido.

Our room being ready for us to drop off our luggage is far and away my favorite perk of Faster to the Fun, but the price increases are starting to sway me away from purchasing it again. We already have it for our Sunshine cruise in August, but beyond that we may be done with it. When we got to our room, our FunTimes was there waiting for us.

We dropped our stuff off and stepped out onto the balcony and breathed in that beautiful Baltimore air, then headed up to Lido for lunch. The dome was closed over the main pool, so we were able to eat comfortably on Lido.

Surprise food porn! But really, that’s all the food porn for this review. I figured if I’m only gonna have one food picture, I’m gonna make it count. There’s some drink porn later on though. What we have in the foreground here is a Pig Patty, which comes with your basic toppings and a patty of bacon. Seriously. Ashley has basically the same thing in the background, just no bacon patty. The bacon patty was a little heavy for me, and I am a bacon lover. Luckily they have bacon pieces over in the toppings bar, so for all my future Guy’s burgers, I’d just top my burger with those. We washed down these delicious burgers with lemonade that has a habit of instantly sucking your cheeks in. Seriously folks, that stuff is tart. Before you venture into the Carnival lemonade, consider mixing it with water.

Once we were done with lunch, we started to roam the ship to get reacquainted with our old friend.

Starting with Deck 3 Aft, we are at the Normandie Restaurant. This is the only main dining room on the ship. If you have Your Time Dining, as we did, you will be eating on Deck 3, but if you are assigned to either Early (6:00) or Late (8:15) dining, you go to Deck 2. We prefer Your Time Dining because it is easier to get a 2 person table, and if we like our table and wait staff we just request the same table each night. On this cruise we ate at the same table every night, except when we went to David’s Steakhouse.

Following! Great start to the review!

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Before we move forward on Deck 3, I want to note that there is an exterior promenade on this deck that wraps almost around the entire ship. It wraps around the stern of the Pride and runs forward on both the starboard and port side and ended at the theater towards the bow. This area is usually pretty deserted, except during the muster drill.

Alright, moving forward from the dining room is the Raphael Lounge. Doors to Your Time Dining open at 5:45pm, but about 15 minutes prior to that is when people started to line up. By the time the doors opened, the line was usually around the corner towards the atrium. Hostesses came out of the dining room, moving through the line to get everyone signed up for a table. This process was helpful, in that it allowed the line to move quickly once the dining room opened. Eventually Your Time Dining fills up, and guests will encounter a wait for a table. Eventually the hostesses remembered us, and the table we wanted. On most nights when we finished eating, we saw the lounge filled up, with live music being played. It was a pretty nice atmosphere.