JMAE

The zucchini salad only available on embarkation day.  

As I recall the cream cheese is a bulk item on the buffet and not wrapped, what's the difference it and butter?  

We love the Punchliner Comedy Club in the Butterflies Lounge, they have family friendly and adult shows.  I agree with Chocolate Melting Cake that Maitre d" Ken is the best, we had him on 7 or 8 of our Pride cruises and his singing was a nice touch to the MDR experience. 

Enjoy your cruise!  

My wife and I like to dress up and that what we do for our vacation.  The MDR dress code has been eased over the years and almost anything goes now.  I think swim ware is were they draw the line now.  I have seen baseball cap on "elegant" nights.  As long as it is clean I would say anyone is safe.  It is your vacation wear what you want and enjoy your cruise and your family! 

As stated the Pride's return is dependent upon the conditions.  We have been on her 9 times and only had two or three late embarkation.  Sign up for notifications while doing the online check-in.  We drive from NE PA and have a 3 hour drive to Baltimore so when I wake up I check the location of the ship with one of the tracking website or apps to determine when we should leave.  We are Platinum so we can check-in at any time so if the ship is on time we shot for a 11:30 arrival at the parking lot.  This give us time to drop off our suitcases and pay for parking (the cash line is faster).  We are on the ship and in our stateroom within 15 minutes.  I see you are from Maryland so assuming you are parking, I would arrive an hour before the check-in time you select.  Not sure which itinerary your sailing, but if you are going to HMC (water shuttle port) I would look into FTTF.  FTTF gives you priority embarkation, debarkation and tendering.  This option costs $89.95 for the stateroom NOT per person.     

Enjoy your cruise. 

As other have said January and February could be hit or miss.  As I recall, 3 of our 9 Pride cruises were in January or February.  One it was very cold, picture below, so much so we did our muster drill inside and it wasn't warm until we woke the second day.  The weather on the other two cruises was fine, by mid afternoon we were out on the deck enjoying our time away from work!  In any case we had a great time on all of them and the cost of the trips was very reasonable. 

We sailing the Pride in September and we hope Ken has returned by then.  

We have been on the Pride 9 times, our 10th is coming up this Sept.  I would stay the late returns happen most often in the spring, fall and winter time frames.  Two or three of our cruises had a delayed return due to weather.  Our latest returning Pride was when we had the USCG evacuate two people on the same  day but different times. 

I wish CCL would cut the cost of pre-cruise soda purchases like they did with the water. 

Here you go mcmaitred@carnival.com

Happy anniversary and enjoy you cruise!

We live in NE PA and when I wake up I check the ships location to determine it will arrive in Baltimore so I can decide when to start our 3 hour drive.  I also track the ship a few cruises prior to our to see if they are arriving late.  The Pride is usually is scheduled to arrive in Baltimore at 10am, but if the weather is good it has been our experience it will arrive early.  On three or four of our Pride cruises we were driving home by 8:45am.  Think good vibes for good weather.

You can email the maitre d' a week before your sailing with your request.  I have done this a number of times successfully.  I would send the email the day after embarkation day of the cruise right before yours.  If see you are from Maryland if you are sailing on the Pride here is the email address: prmaitred@carnival.com. 

I would take a nice pen.  🙂

I just logged into my booking for 9/8/19 and went to the Fun Shoppes for in-stateroom beverages and they have listed Bud Light 4 pack for $24.

The info below is under CCL FAQ.  I read a review from a long time CCL customer that the times for assigned and YTD are changing?  They were on the Conquest in March 2019 and assigned started at 5:45 and YTD started at 5:15. 

3 bags pp and 1drink pp for the cruise. 

We like walking the Atlantic (3) deck after dinner not many people.  You can't walk around the entire ship we just return the way we came.  

We never got the drink package, our 10th pride cruise is this Sept. Drink prices you described are generally in the range from $8 to $12.  I often get an Amaretto, the costs is about $8, but always double it for an additional $3.  Since you are first time cruiser here is some good info for Carnival.  Each person over 21 yrs of age can bring a 750ml bottle of wine on the ship in your carry-on bag.  Also, each person can carry-on 12 cans of soda.  The buffet has ship's water (we love it), ice tea, lemonade, hot chocolate  and coffee, soda is extra.

I see you are from Maryland, so I assume you will be driving to the Port of Baltimore.  It is very easy and cheap.  You park basically next to the ship and it only costs $105/week/car.  The cash line moves faster than the credit card line.  

I will try to answer any questions you may have.   

7 minutes ago, Micah's Grandad said:

Wonder if they really would save $ 100,000 annually. Cheap pens cannot cost very much.

.04/pen x 2,000/cruise=$80/ship

$80/ship x 26 ships = $2,080/wk

$2,080/wk x 52 weeks = $108,160

One is cheap, scale not so much!

I'm a big CCL fan, and don't care if they provide a pen, pencil or nothing as long as I can relax on the cruise, I'm good!  But I just find this whole thing funny, no pen to help the environment and it might.  Maybe BINGO will be next, to save the paper of the cards and plastic of the markers.  I guess the 4 beers in bucket deal will have to be reevaluated, because the bucket is plastic.  This will not happen because both produce revenue for CCL.  Moving from a pen to pencil will saves CCL an estimated $100,000 annually, it's not an environmental issue.  The environment claim is marketing ploy to make a segment of CCL guests feel good.  I noticed some use the cutback word, I call them changes.  Some may be popular, like the Hub App and the 2.0 upgrades, some not so much, no pens, pillow chocolate and table cloths! 

Life is too fast to sweat the small things.  I hope you enjoy your next cruise!

If you feel compelled to conserve, you can tell your room steward not to leave a Fun Times or paper ads in your room.  I have a smartphone and I like the paper Fun Times too and will continue to use both until CCL stops printing them.   

The Hub App works well, remember to you have to keep the app running to receive notifications. 

We use and like the both paper Fun Times and the Hub app.   

2 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Carnival's greatest asset is their people and they know this.  It is not a coincidence they retain great people. Ken is simply the best...

Nicely stated and I totally agree!

Can't embed photos yet, that is something that I have been requesting.  I think is would be a wonderful way to share your time on the ship with friends and family.