Quick Pride 2.0 Review

When booking--I was just looking at dates and ports--by luck it was the first cruise after the 2.0 dry dock. We had been on the Pride 2x in the past few years, so I was looking forward to the upgrades.

Room: Our cabin was a balcony on the 7th floor--it was adequate and unchanged since the last cruise. The bed was comfortable, The steward kept it clean, it was cool when we needed it to be and warm when when chilly. The balcony had a little sway in it and seemed smaller than usual--the swinging door always hit the 2nd chair. We didn't spend a ton of time out on the balcony but it was nice to have. The TV didn't work for a day, but they eventually replaced it with another old fashioned TV.

Food: Overall is was pretty good. We always do Anytime Dining. No changes here in the 2.0 except for the addition of the $20 up-charge entrees--wife got one and it was better than dining room food but less than David's. Entrees were good and you could order more than one if you wanted. Service some nights was fast but other nights slow. The Maitre D' sang a hokey song and the wait staff did a little dance that I though was totally unnecessary and actually slowed service. David's never fails to impress! Worth every penny!

Entertainment: I have to say the 2.0 upgrades actually downgraded the entertainment--especially the nightly shows. We caught the tail end of the Welcome Aboard show--it was OK. 88 Keys was a song and dance show featuring piano players--it was bad. On the middle nights there was a juggler, a magician, a ventriloquist---all horrible, not funny. The Love and Marriage show was stale and had very little passenger participation. The closing night was another production show Getaway Island, and it was terrible as well. There was an abundance of trivial and other deck activities that were unchanged form previous cruises. The house band played every night in the atrium, the band was good, the singers were weak--they were always checking the ipods for lyrics. The guitar player in the Red Frog was the star of the boat--he had charisma and knew all the words to the songs!

Ports: Sail away was late--no big deal. We arrived early in Cozumel but there was a hangup getting off the boat and folks were queued up and getting restless as almost an hour passed. One guy verbally abused the entertainment staff and was a real A-hole--hope you had a great cruise, pal. We spent the day at Nachi's. Belize was a ship day for us. Mohagony Bay was disappointing and we only spent about an hour there. Grand Cayman was a shopping day for us. Arrival in Tampa was delayed, but we rolled off by 10:00 AM.

2.0 Upgrades:

Guys--delicious, skip the buffet and burger everyday!

Blue Iguana--delicious--needs longer hours!

Red Frog Pub--they seemed to pushing this venue as shows ended there on some nights. Drink menu was delicious.

Alchemy- good, expensive quality drinks--seemed under utilized.

EA Sports Bar-Lot's of TV's, slower service, enjoyable.

Bonsai--didn't eat there. (pay restaurant)

Water slides--looked popular, didn't go on.

Dive In Movies--big screen, thought sound was horrible, never ventured up again after 1st night.

Gym: All new cardio machines! New dumbbell rack as well!

Overall, enjoyable cruise, disappointment ship wasn't cleaned that much when we got on--they eventually caught up with it. Could see some cost cutting from prior visits, but not enough to turn us off from the brand. Entertainment staff were nice, the Cruise Director thought he was more funny and debonair than he was. Next cruise will be on a different ship!

PS: Serenity is supposed to be serene--shut up already! I can hear your conversations all the way over here!

PPS--Have all the Fun Times--will get around to scanning eventually!

Thanks for the review! Can't wait to see some pics of the new 2.0 areas!

Any changes in David's?

Thank for your review.

I have my 4th sailing on the Pride for when she returns to Baltimore this spring. Looking forward to the changes.

Thanks for the review! We sail in 6 weeks! Looking forward to seeing your FunTimes!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for the 2.0 review. Going on Pride May 3rd and looking forward to it.......one of the few cruises we can drive (not fly) to the port! Yeah. And we loved Miracle (sailed 2xs) so looking forward to sister ship.

Sailing on Sunday. Looking forward to your posting of Fun Times if you get a chance by then.

I hope the debarking issues are handled better this Sunday and we can set sail on time.

Looking forward to Guy's burgers. Were there long lines for that?

Sad to hear some cutbacks are evident but I love Carnival , hopefully it won't get worse.

Thanks for the review.

Connie

PAST CRUISES:

Discovery Sun 2003 Freeport Bahamas Day Cruise

Celebrity Solstice 6/26/09 Eastern Mediterranean

Carnival Conquest 08/10/10 Eastern Caribbean

Carnival Victory 06/10/12 Southern Caribbean http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1659913

Carnival Miracle 07/30/13 Alaska http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showt...8#post39476968

Diamond Princess 12/23/13 New Zealand/Australia http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2112413

thanks for the review. i can't wait to go on the pride again especially with the 2.0 upgrades. from your review it sounds like they didn't upgrade the cabins at all. especially if they still have the old box tv's. that's disappointing. i always liked the art work on the ship. and the theme of the ship. is that the same or did they put new art work on.

As usual showroom entertainment lacking. It's pretty much fleetwide. Wish they would do something about that. I like all the other updates they have made. I wonder if they think this concert series thing is considered an entertainment upgrade. I don't.

Thank you for your review! It was a very good review, so ignore others. Sometimes people believe that things are bad and wrong when they don't want to here that there is a flaw in a ship.

I am debating 2 cruises on Pride, and I should be cruising on her in 2015! Thanks for the reviews and I am long awaiting her return to MD! :D

thanks for the review. i can't wait to go on the pride again especially with the 2.0 upgrades. from your review it sounds like they didn't upgrade the cabins at all. especially if they still have the old box tv's. that's disappointing. i always liked the art work on the ship. and the theme of the ship. is that the same or did they put new art work on.

See? And I wish all of that artwork would just go away! Loved our cruise, but hated the décor of the ship. It was just SO dark! After cruising the Breeze for the last two years, not sure I could get back on her.:o

i wonder who"s job it is to make sure the ship is clean? who:s job is it to make sure the crew knows what they are doing? who makes sure the ship gets out of port on time? who makes sure the d/r staff knows what they are doing?who makes sure everything goes o.k. when getting off the ship?carnival has really drop the ball on the pride. and i can not find a reply from carnival as to why. somebody needs to be replaced. and as i said this is a joke.

What is is this $20 charge in the dining room?

What is is this $20 charge in the dining room?

I believe this is the surcharge for enjoying a premium entrée normally served in the upsell Steakhouse restaurant. It's entirely optional.

carnival has nothing to be proud of with the pride. who job is it to make sure the ship is clean ? who job is it to be sure the crew knows what they are doing? why is the ship not getting out of port until hours after the ship is to leave ?who job is it to be sure the D/ room staff knows what they are doing? why is it taking so long to get off the ship at the ports? after reading the reviews i am sorry i am going on the pride nov. 30th. if i knew then what i know now i would never have booked. carnival has made no reply as to what is going on. will make the best of the cruise as i can. it is not the job of the guests to train the crew.

The Freedom had similar issues right out of dry dock too. Even on our sailing (the 4th one after dry dock), things still weren't quite finished. And we were the first sailing to get one of the shows, the first sailing with Seuss at Sea, and the first sailing with Camp Ocean. One of the other shows still didn't premiere until a couple of weeks after our sailing.

We hadn't planned on being a cruise right after dry dock - the dry dock was scheduled after we had booked. We still had a BLAST, and would go on the Freedom again in a heartbeat.

I am a little disappointed that they didn't upgrade the televisions. Not that we use it much, just seems like an easy fix.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, and I will be interested to see if the Pride improves in the coming weeks as they work the kinks out.

I've been following the recent Pride threads on CC to see if the upgrades were done in time, what they think of the new upgrades, and how well the ship looks just coming out of dry dock as I'm sailing on her December 14th. As we're all seeing...there are some mixed reviews. Hopefully the Carnival execs are watching the CC message boards and see the reviews and they get the bugs and kinks worked out soon so everyone's cruising experience is more enjoyable. This will be my 18th cruise. Sure things have declined over the years with cost cutting measures taking place, but its still a cheap way for me to go on vacation and a good bang for my buck. I've cruised enough that Ive already got enough pictures over the years, often find it cheaper to book my own excursions, don't gamble, don't drink alcohol etc....so the cruise line doesn't make a ton of money off of me. I always sail with the mindset that "a cruise is better than no cruise at all" and I'm just happy to be sailing than being at home.

Just off the Pride. The 2.0 upgrades were great but the rest of the ship was tired. We had some issues with cleanliness of the cabins but once reported they were taken care of immediately. IMHO Carnival was too quick to put the Pride back into service. They should have taken a few days to clean up the ship and get the kinks out before they set sail. Although somewhat disappointed we made the best of it and had a great cruise.

Thanks for your review.

I regarded Frogfest as the best entertainment on the cruise. It was a jam session and some of the musicians had never met before. There were two singers regularly in the Red Frog Pub. The one who was also in Getaway Island was Brendon or Brandon. The Piano player was Davy Duke. Evidently he's on the Pride until February.

http://davyduke.com/index/

I regarded Frogfest as the best entertainment on the cruise. It was a jam session and some of the musicians had never met before. There were two singers regularly in the Red Frog Pub. The one who was also in Getaway Island was Brendon or Brandon. The Piano player was Davy Duke. Evidently he's on the Pride until February.

 

http://davyduke.com/index/

Thanks for the comments. How was the piano bar and player?

After reading multiple posts I have to say I'm not real excited about what I've read so far. We leave on 11/30 and I hope things get better. Two friends and I booked this cruise and this will be their first!! Hopefully they won't notice.... It really wasn't right of Carnival to leave the ship in the condition it did. As far as the entertainers, I think that's subjective, almost as much as food. What one laughs at may have someone else thinking "how stupid". Singers and dancers should be up to par though. Yes we will have a good time regardless... I'd only make myself miserable if I didn't. :D

That's what is great about these reviews--my experience will be completely different from yours because we are all looking at getting different things out of the vacation. I don't think that many people get on board looking for things to go wrong just so they can blast Carnival. I use the reviews as more of a "Hey, you might watch out for this" tips.

All the reviews so far are glowing for Guys and Blue Iguana cantina--We ate tons on the ship, our choice not to eat at the buffet was based on previous cruising experiences and certainly by a desire to try the new lunch places.

If Carnival were to overhaul the whole ship--cabins and all--it would certainly take longer than 3 weeks. You can see where effort was put in to improving common areas with an eye towards generating a little more revenue in some under-utilized areas.

As for the shows--believe me--we gave them a chance--we went to ALL of them! I just felt they would be better and when they weren't up to my expectations based on prior cruises and other cruise lines, I was a bit disappointed. I want to be entertained!

Things like cleaning rooms and common areas like Serenity could just be from being in dry dock for 3 weeks and focus was not paid in those areas until sailing. If you have ever done a home improvement project, dust can get everywhere--but you clean it up and go. If further reviews come back with reports of the ship still being a little dirty--then you start to wonder.

Again--your experience will be different than mine. Take the comments with a grain of salt.

DW and I sailed on the Legend the first sailing after drydock. Some of the areas still needed work but by no means did it ruin our trip. Carnival should have all the bugs worked out within the next couple of sailings.

We're sailing on the pride out of Tampa 2/15 and I cant wait.

When booking--I was just looking at dates and ports--by luck it was the first cruise after the 2.0 dry dock. We had been on the Pride 2x in the past few years, so I was looking forward to the upgrades.

 

 

 

Entertainment: I have to say the 2.0 upgrades actually downgraded the entertainment--especially the nightly shows. We caught the tail end of the Welcome Aboard show--it was OK. 88 Keys was a song and dance show featuring piano players--it was bad. On the middle nights there was a juggler, a magician, a ventriloquist---all horrible, not funny. The Love and Marriage show was stale and had very little passenger participation. The closing night was another production show Getaway Island, and it was terrible as well. There was an abundance of trivial and other deck activities that were unchanged form previous cruises.

 

The house band played every night in the atrium, the band was good, the singers were weak--they were always checking the ipods for lyrics.

 

Hey Bud, Al here,

My first experience with the experiment of downgrading the quality of the lounge band on Carnival was downright irritating ! There's absolutely No comparison with the established Music ..... bands, who have played together for years, having a 600 + song repertoire!

These playlist /house bands are literally thrown together, not as bands, but individual muscians. Yet, even if they were great muscians, the product will sound canned and poorly executed as team chemistry takes time.... You'll see what I mean as they page through their song books/i-pads to see, often for the first time, if they can all are able do a request.

Remember the Manilla bands, and others like them, poured their lives into one thing ---their band and copying songs and different styles, with excellence... the music we love and have grown up with.

So, I'm afraid unless, Carnival's marketing is smart, the'll keep some ships with-out Playlist Productions,or they will lose those whose cruising enjoyment has been ignored.

Al out

hi any bets on what time the pride will leave the dock from tampa on the 30th of nov. 4-5-6-7-8-9- what is your guess?