Another Pride Review from a Different Perspective

[ChampionCruiser]

Well, I am officially back home in North Carolina after my much-anticipated cruise aboard the Carnival Pride (June 20 – 27). I know there have been many many terrific and DETAILED reviews of the Pride since it began sailing from Baltimore and I will in no way try to out-do any of them. However, I know that those reviews were my favorite way to prepare and get excited about my cruise, so I thought I would do my part for you lucky people who haven’t sailed yet.

 

First, i’ll say that i’m only 19 years old (almost 20) and traveled with my family (sister, aunt, uncle). Obviously, this means I didn’t book or pay for this cruise and it also means I will probably lose a lot of credibility with some people, which is perfectly fine. But I’ll also say that absolutely love love love cruising and cruise ships, not to the point that I want to go on cruises, but to the point that I would love to someday work in the industry (I’m an upcoming junior majoring in Naval Architecture Marine Engineering). In short, I’m pretty much a major cruise ship nerd. Anyway, this will be my first review like this and I’ll try to be as specific as possible and hopefully add some photos along the way (if I can figure out how).

 

Oh, and I apologize in advance if this takes a really long time to complete since I’ll probably only type at night (gotta love a summer job, right?) or if I make any grammatical errors, etc. but I’m pretty sure I’ll be more worried about not boring you all with an essay.

 

I’ll also try to answer any questions I can, keeping in mind I’m not old enough to do EVERYTHING on the ship!!! :D

[camperhawk]

A different perspective is always refreshing! Looking forward to it!

[rglivestrong101]

for some reason I cant read the review I am looking at this specific cruise ship and am 18 years old and will be going with family. dont know if you are a guy or a girl but I am a guy. This will be my first cruise. The only thing i am worried about is meeting people my age, would you say there were a decent amount of older teens when you went on the pride and how were the ports? also because I am 18 i guess i cant go into the teen lounge but can I get in the adult club and is it worth it. where will I find people my age? is carnival better or royal sorry for so many questions.

[KeywestK]

I agree with Camperhawk--another perspective is a good thing! Looking forward to reading your review.

[eas2225]

I also agree with having a different perspective. Will be waiting for your review. We sail on the Pride in Sept. and very much looking forward to it.

 

Eileen

[luv2cruz66]

I am seriously considering the Pride for next summer and my son will be just a couple months shy of 19 when we sail, so I am VERY interested in your 19 year old perspective! Thanks so much for sharing your age and your review! I am subscribing to your thread right away!! Please post pics if you can!!

[cbpanda]

We are on the Pride in just 11 short days. I have been soaking up any and all Pride reviews. Looking forward to your perspective. Not sure why you think you would lose credibility just because you didn't book or pay for the cruise. You sailed, and now you're giving us your opinion. That's all that matters! :)

[ChampionCruiser]

for some reason I cant read the review I am looking at this specific cruise ship and am 18 years old and will be going with family. dont know if you are a guy or a girl but I am a guy. This will be my first cruise. The only thing i am worried about is meeting people my age, would you say there were a decent amount of older teens when you went on the pride and how were the ports? also because I am 18 i guess i cant go into the teen lounge but can I get in the adult club and is it worth it. where will I find people my age? is carnival better or royal sorry for so many questions.

 

1. I'm a guy

 

2. We saw plenty of teenagers on board. I couldn't go to the teen lounge since that is only for 15-17 year olds but we saw many throughout the ship, especially at the pools, etc. It would be nice to have planned activities for our age group but you shouldn't have a problem meeting people your age.

 

3. I went on the Grand Turk-Half Moon Cay-Freeport run and we loved the ports. I'll write more on them later, but I will say that HMC was definitely my favorite port so far.

 

4. I love both Carnival and Royal. The newer RCCL ships are more active than Carnival ships with the ice skating rink, rock wall, roller blading, etc. but I spent more time on Carnival's waterslide than all of those things. I think everything else on Carnival's and RCCL's newer ships are basically identical (shows, food, service, etc.) I would decide by itinerary.

 

5. The open decks/ pools (including adult pool) is where I saw most teenagers, especially on sea days. Otherwise, I would look in the FunTimes for activites that would appeal to you and other teens, such as the deck parties, etc.

 

Hopefully I answered all of your questions!

[ChampionCruiser]

We are on the Pride in just 11 short days. I have been soaking up any and all Pride reviews. Looking forward to your perspective. Not sure why you think you would lose credibility just because you didn't book or pay for the cruise. You sailed, and now you're giving us your opinion. That's all that matters! :)

 

Thanks! I was referring more to my age and not being a "seasoned" enough cruiser but i'm glad that doesn't matter :)

[msmayor]

I'm anxious to read your comments as well.

 

We cruise the Pride in a little over a month, and our daughter will turn 19 during that week. Her younger brother can still use the teen club (only 16) but she will be more on her own in that in-between age zone...too old for clubs, too young for all adult activities.

[ChampionCruiser]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

 

Well, here I go:

 

BACKGROUND

Like I said, I cruised with my aunt, uncle, and sister (17), the same group I have always gone with. While we all love to cruise, I’m definitely the most excited about it so I was pretty much in charge of picking our ship and trip. This was my seventh cruise, having sailed on Commodore, Disney, Carnival, Norwegian, Princess, and Royal Caribbean. Obviously, we like trying different lines and this was our first time repeating (my first gold card :)) but I chose the Pride because it was the only ship sailing from the east coast that stopped at totally new ports for us. I also liked the fact that she is part of the Spirit class, which seems to be loved by everyone and the eight hour drive to Baltimore wasn’t bad at all since we are used to nine to Port Canaveral and eleven to New Orleans.

 

We’re from the mountains of North Carolina and my sister and I absolutely love the beach, so we were more than ready to leave this:

 

 

For this!!!!!:

[ChampionCruiser]

Woo! So I finally figured out how to upload pictures. Now i'll upload more on line and continue later!

 

oh, and my camera is just your average digital camera (Nikon Coolpix S4000) so the pictures won't be amazing but hopefully you'll get the idea:D

[ava_girl_123]

Yay! A new Pride review! :D

[snydermann]

We're very interested in this review since we're both 19 . . . at heart.:)

[falkcor]

hey there, welcome back!!! (which i always feel odd typing, because who wants to be back!)

 

anyhow, looking forward to reading about your time on the carnival pride, and welcome 'a different perspective'... :)

 

PS, congrats on figuring out how to post pics! :D

[Biffer1997]

Where was the picture of the glorious water taken in your post above?

[ChampionCruiser]

Where was the picture of the glorious water taken in your post above?

 

Looking out from the ship at Grand Turk :)

[ChampionCruiser]

Okay, I think it's time to get started...

 

PRE CRUISE

 

 

So, after booking nearly a year in advance, Friday, June 18th FINALLY came! We decided to head up a day early to spend Saturday in DC since I had never been. We left home around 2:00 and had a pretty uneventful ride to Fairfax, VA (besides a tractor trailer accident along the way). I truly never realized how big Virginia was until I had to ride across the entire state! But we finally arrived at the Best Western Fairfax around 10:00 and were all extremely tired. I didn’t take any pictures of the hotel but it was nice with a nice pool (with a lifeguard on duty). There was no continental breakfast, though, which was a little annoying.

 

We woke up early on Saturday and were on our way to the metro station by 10:00 after breakfast. This was also a first for me and I was surprised by how “safe” the metro seemed…I guess I was expecting a lot worse after everyone told me to watch myself. Anyway, we got off at the Smithsonian station ready to have a fun and very touristy day in the nation’s capital. Our first stop was the Museum of Natural History, which I have wanted to visit since I was a kid because of the dinosaur section (I used to be able to spew tons of facts about dinosaurs…but not anymore :rolleyes:) and I wasn’t disappointed. The museum was huge and it took a lot longer than we expected to walk through all the halls (by the end we weren’t even trying to read anything). By around 2:00, though, it became really crowded and we were ready to move on while we still had energy, which was drained quickly in the 95 degree weather.

 

 

 

 

After fighting the crowds out of the museum, we walked towards the Washington Monument (which looked a lot closer than it really was) and walked around the national mall, stopping at the WWII, Lincoln, and Vietnam Memorials as well:

 

 

 

For anyone who doesn’t know, this walk is (again) longer than it looks (it looks long to me), and the walk back after a day of walking walking walking is ten times worse.

 

 

So yes, we were hot, tired, and sore after walking around for six hours or so and I was ecstatic when we finally got back to the metro station. I know one day in DC isn’t nearly enough to see much at all, but for a first timer I was pretty pleased with all that I saw, but if I ever go back I will definitely spread the sightseeing over multiple days ;)

 

After getting back in our car, we drove to find something to eat, got lost, eventually found a restaurant (Champs), somehow made it back to the hotel, and called it a day. By this time it finally started to sink in that I would be on a cruise ship the next day and so I got less sleep than I probably needed. Thank God we had two sea days to recuperate!

[wone3]

Both locations are cool to me!!! I like the trees especially in the fall but I like the water too. I'm doing you same itinerary, so can't wait to see your take...have about 1 1/2 months to go and can't wait!

 

DC is great but can be rough during the summer heat and humidity. You definitely could spend a week alone in DC at the monuments and museums and still not see it all....I should know, I have lived around all of those my entire life ;)

[Biffer1997]

"I didn’t take any pictures of the hotel but it was nice with a nice pool (with a lifeguard on duty)"

 

Something interesting I learned on my trip to DC last year was all public- use pools in Virginia must have a lifeguard on duty. The guy at our hotel pool said it was the easiest (but rather boring) job you could have.

[jbhcw]

Enjoying your review..pictures are great:) I used to live in Western NC...so love the comparison pictures..although the mountains are beautiful..I'll take Grand Turk:):)

[chachi]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review!

[cbpanda]

Thanks! I was referring more to my age and not being a "seasoned" enough cruiser but i'm glad that doesn't matter :)

 

Since my son is 17 (almost 18), I'm interested in your age perspective as well! Thanks again

[As You Wish]

You're off to a good start, looking forward to more.

[DBBJR87]

cannot wait for more