All Things PRIDE!!

[Crusin Karen]

Last year when we went on pride we drove from western ny the day before as we had never been to Baltimore. We went to the pier around 11 I think, we had to wait in our a car a little bit so don't get there too early. There would be stores with a couple minute drive so you should be good with that. We had fttf and things went quickly and smoothly in the terminal. Seemed there was plenty of seating and room where we were. We are going on her again next month and driving in the day of. I am a little nervous about traffic and what not but planning to get there around 11 so if we are a bit late it'll be all good. Have fun on your cruise!

Thank you. You have a great cruise too!

[swodog94]

I just found this thread. I guess it was bumped up from a few months ago. We weren't booked on the Pride at that time, so I paid no attention. Eventually I'll go back and read all the pages, so if this has been discussed, excuse me. :o We plan to drive from NE NJ to Baltimore the morning of the cruise. I am terrified of bumping into traffic or whatever and "being late." We are platinum and enjoy being one of the lst on the ship. We will be parking at the pier. Is it open 24 hours? I am a bit worried we will get there at 9am or something and the gates will be locked. Also, what is the terminal like? In case we have a wait. And we are doing a B2B so if we want to do some shopping between cruises for "supplies" is this doable? Are there areas within close proximity to shop at? TIA.

I lived in Baltimore until very recently and have cruised out of there 3 times, including twice on Pride. Can't predict what traffic will be like coming from NJ, but shouldn't be an issue when you're arriving at the port. I wouldn't arrive too early because the ship docks around 0700, and everyone is headed outbound until about 1030 or 1100. I'd recommend getting there between 1100 and 1200, you should have no problem parking and checking on board.

The terminal is pretty basic. You'll be in line for a bit waiting to get thru security. Once you get thru that, as a Plat you'll be directed to a private room on the right side of the building. There you'll have some nice couches to relax on while the very nice ladies get your boarding docs in order (I think there was coffee and water available). After that, you'll be directed to board, past the usual pre-board paparazzi (which we skip), through the station where they take your pic and match to your S&S card, and on to the ship.

There is a shopping center called McHenry Row nearby, about a 10 minute walk. There is a Harris Teeter ("Gucci" grocery store) there, as well as a few restaurants. Hope this info helps.

[BigRed93]

If you do a b2b out of Baltimore, are you required to pay for the 2nd week of parking? You pay up front, so if you don't move your car, how is it handled? Just out of curiosity...

 

 

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[Crusin Karen]

I lived in Baltimore until very recently and have cruised out of there 3 times, including twice on Pride. Can't predict what traffic will be like coming from NJ, but shouldn't be an issue when you're arriving at the port. I wouldn't arrive too early because the ship docks around 0700, and everyone is headed outbound until about 1030 or 1100. I'd recommend getting there between 1100 and 1200, you should have no problem parking and checking on board.

The terminal is pretty basic. You'll be in line for a bit waiting to get thru security. Once you get thru that, as a Plat you'll be directed to a private room on the right side of the building. There you'll have some nice couches to relax on while the very nice ladies get your boarding docs in order (I think there was coffee and water available). After that, you'll be directed to board, past the usual pre-board paparazzi (which we skip), through the station where they take your pic and match to your S&S card, and on to the ship.

There is a shopping center called McHenry Row nearby, about a 10 minute walk. There is a Harris Teeter ("Gucci" grocery store) there, as well as a few restaurants. Hope this info helps.

Thank you. That's a lot of good info. So you live in San Diego now? We went on a cruise from SD a few years ago and I fell in love with the place. So much so I didn't want to get on the ship! :p Got home and the lst thing we did was book a cruise for the following year from SD and flew out a few days before, rented a car and explored the area. What a great place!

If you do a b2b out of Baltimore, are you required to pay for the 2nd week of parking? You pay up front, so if you don't move your car, how is it handled? Just out of curiosity...

Wondering also, but I IMAGINE that you have to pay for the 2 weeks when you get there at the beginning. This in case we don't want to get off the ship in between cruises. I never count on ANYTHING being free! :rolleyes:

 

 

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[nokidz]

Going on the Pride in a few weeks. Setting up a cash account. Does anybody know for sure if you add cash at check in or at guest services/kiosk?

And, how long after the cash is added to your account, is it usable?

[ryanpatricksmom]

If you do a b2b out of Baltimore, are you required to pay for the 2nd week of parking? You pay up front, so if you don't move your car, how is it handled? Just out of curiosity...

 

 

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That's a really good question that I hadn't even thought of...and we've contemplated extending our cruise a time or two so I should probably find out, lol! I think that they use different colors of paper to print the passes that you display on your dash each week. They would likely notice that you had last week's "pass", but I doubt that you can pre-pay. Maybe they expect you to walk off, pay, and exchange your pass. I would ask someone in the cruise terminal as opposed to the parking folks....I've never exactly gotten a warm and fuzzy feeling from the girls that collect the parking fees.

[belles]

Going on the Pride in a few weeks. Setting up a cash account. Does anybody know for sure if you add cash at check in or at guest services/kiosk?

And, how long after the cash is added to your account, is it usable?

 

Not sure if you can add the cash at check in though I'm sure you can. Definitely can add cash at guest services and at the kiosk. It will be available immediately.

I'm on the same cruise...can't wait.

[beachbaby2]

Can anyone tell me what time the welcome aboard show is on the first night?

[cruisenoobie14]

My husband thinks I'm insane because we don't sail on the Pride until next February and I've been searching anywhere/everywhere that I can for information/photos of the Pride after her 2.0 upgrade. This is our first time on a Carnival ship - our second cruise (previous one was on the Grandeur) so any photos of the upgrades to her would be greatly appreciated.

[cruisenoobie14]

Also, since most of you seem to be cruise vets, are their any tips for the Pride that you could give us to make our trip run more smoothly (its my husband, myself, my mother and my younger sister in one of the extended balcony rooms).

 

An example of what I'm talking about would be if you need to put binder clips on the bottom of the shower curtain to keep it down (like we were told to do in the Grandeur last year)

[Crusin Karen]

My husband thinks I'm insane because we don't sail on the Pride until next February and I've been searching anywhere/everywhere that I can for information/photos of the Pride after her 2.0 upgrade. This is our first time on a Carnival ship - our second cruise (previous one was on the Grandeur) so any photos of the upgrades to her would be greatly appreciated.

 

Also, since most of you seem to be cruise vets, are their any tips for the Pride that you could give us to make our trip run more smoothly (its my husband, myself, my mother and my younger sister in one of the extended balcony rooms).

 

An example of what I'm talking about would be if you need to put binder clips on the bottom of the shower curtain to keep it down (like we were told to do in the Grandeur last year)

Jamman is on the cruise now. He will be back on Sunday and promises a review. If you have read any of his reviews, you know it will be GREAT. His wife Patti goes around the ship before it gets crowded and takes awesome pictures. We are leaving on Pride ONE MONTH FROM TODAY. :D She is the only Spirit class ship we have not sailed on so we are excited to get back as it's our favorite class of ship. There is a pretty area surrounding the main lounge on deck 3 that is very easy to miss. I think I was on our 3rd or 4th spirit class ship before I discovered it. :( Just looked at the deck plans of Pride and it is called Sunset Garden. Be sure to look for it. Everyone talks about those shower curtains, but I have never had a problem with them! I put them on the INSIDE lip of the shower and they have always stayed there. :cool: What cabin are you in? We are also in an extended balcony cabin for our lst week. Tip from me: to keep your balcony door open, use the rubber door wedge/stopper that is by your cabin door the stewards use. Just open the balcony door and wedge it into the space between the door and the frame. :p

[cruisenoobie14]

We're in cabin 6273. I'm looking forward to trying out a Carnival ship as we had a blast on the Grandeur last year. Absolutely LOVE sailing out of Baltimore so that we don't have to worry about airlines losing baggage or having delays. All we have to worry about is Beltway traffic because we live about 2 hours outside of Baltimore.

[NoDayButToday]

My husband thinks I'm insane because we don't sail on the Pride until next February and I've been searching anywhere/everywhere that I can for information/photos of the Pride after her 2.0 upgrade. This is our first time on a Carnival ship - our second cruise (previous one was on the Grandeur) so any photos of the upgrades to her would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know if this will work from my phine, but I was on the Pride at the end of February and did an early morning wander around the ship for pictures.

 

 

This is the Sunset Garden area, it was always empty and was a great place to read inside and in solitude.

 

Guys Burgers

 

New screen on Lido (just to the right of Guys)

 

Pool at Serenity

 

 

Main pool

[WetToes]

Nice photos - NoDayButToday.

[mitsugirly]

I just finished up my full pictorial review of the Pride from our April 5-12th cruise. It was amazing. You'll find TONS of pictures of the Pride in it. It's located in my signature line if anyone is interested. :)

[WetToes]

I'll be checking it out. Thank you!

[Miss_Mono]

Some or all my questions may have been answered in this post, but I am a loon and cannot figure out how to find my specific questions, so please humor me....

 

1-I've recently heard about vibration in the aft dining. Any idea if early seating is in that area or is it wherever in the dining area they seat you? I'd like to avoid rattling silverware, if possible. Especially since friends will be with us on their first cruise, I want them to enjoy it the best they can!

 

2-Is sailing from Oct out of Baltimore going to be rough enough to worry for them and to plan on bringing special meds for nausea?

 

3-When is the Behind the Fun tour? Is it possible to book ahead of time?

 

4-This is more itinerary related, but I've heard "eh" thoughts on Nassau and Freeport, so if you have any excursions or things you did that are worth sharing, I'd love to hear them! I would like to snorkel at some point and I also thought the walking tour of Nassau could be a change of pace.

 

5-Lastly, I saw Mitsugirly mention the hotel she used in Baltimore, the BW in Elkridge. Further thoughts? We would also like to see the Inner Harbor, so any ideas on staying there and visiting the Harbor would be great, too! Restaurants, drive in and find parking? take taxi?

 

Thank you all for your great tips and advice!

[NoDayButToday]

About the dining room shaking - there is only one dining room on the Pride, so no matter which dining seating you will be seated in there. However, we barely noticed any shaking in there. Our regular seats were in the annex room to the side of the dining room, but we sat all over the place during sea day brunch and MDR open seating breakfast and it was never bad enough to distract. That said, the vibrations in David's were much stronger, that was where we had rattling silverware and was the only time we really noticed the vibrations.

 

I'm not much help with the other questions since we sailed out of Tampa, sorry.

[WetToes]

Some or all my questions may have been answered in this post, but I am a loon and cannot figure out how to find my specific questions, so please humor me....

 

 

2-Is sailing from Oct out of Baltimore going to be rough enough to worry for them and to plan on bringing special meds for nausea?

 

 

 

Thank you all for your great tips and advice!

 

We usually sail from Balto., in Oct. The weather can be iffy, especially off the Carolina's, Cape Hatteras. Planning for rough seas can't be a bad thing.

[Crusin Karen]

We usually sail from Balto., in Oct. The weather can be iffy, especially off the Carolina's, Cape Hatteras. Planning for rough seas can't be a bad thing.

October is prime hurricane season. Have cruised from NY many times September/October and you have to be aware there is a possibilty you can have bad weather/rough seas/itinerary changes. Or you could have GORGEOUS weather. Mother Nature likes to keep us guessing! :eek: Just be prepared. We have sailed "AROUND" 3 hurricanes and had some rough seas, but we never had a problem. Kind of liked the rocking and rolling! ;)

[JMAE]

1-I've recently heard about vibration in the aft dining. Any idea if early seating is in that area or is it wherever in the dining area they seat you? I'd like to avoid rattling silverware, if possible. Especially since friends will be with us on their first cruise, I want them to enjoy it the best they can! Cruised the Pride three times, You will feel the vibration throughout the MDR. My wife get motion sickness, she has used Dramamine and never got sick.

 

2-Is sailing from Oct out of Baltimore going to be rough enough to worry for them and to plan on bringing special meds for nausea? May be rough but if you take Dramamine you should be fine.

 

3-When is the Behind the Fun tour? Haven't taken the tour. Is it possible to book ahead of time?

 

4-This is more itinerary related, but I've heard "eh" thoughts on Nassau and Freeport, so if you have any excursions or things you did that are worth sharing, I'd love to hear them! I would like to snorkel at some point and I also thought the walking tour of Nassau could be a change of pace. We cruised this itinerary once and didn't like it much, we just went to the beach. We like the other and can't wait until Oct 4th which is our next Pride cruise.

 

5-Lastly, I saw Mitsugirly mention the hotel she used in Baltimore, the BW in Elkridge. Further thoughts? We would also like to see the Inner Harbor, so any ideas on staying there and visiting the Harbor would be great, too! Restaurants, drive in and find parking? take taxi? We live in PA and drive to the port.

[Crusin Karen]

An opinion about the hotel. I see you live in PA. We are in NE NJ. It would be about a 4 hour ride to Baltimore which we have done many years ago many times to go to Oriole/Yankee games. We had planned to drive down early Sunday morning to the terminal. We are doing a B2B and since it is $15/day for parking it would be $210. For anyone going on a week cruise, $105. Found BW in Elkridge that has free parking, free shuttle to ship and from what I have read, a great breakfast. We used Trinityreservations and got the room for $127 for a night. So we can drive down, have a nice afternoon in Baltimore, good night sleep, nice breakfast and free shuttle and parking for $85 less. This sounds like a good plan for you too! :p

[nokidz]

An opinion about the hotel. I see you live in PA. We are in NE NJ. It would be about a 4 hour ride to Baltimore which we have done many years ago many times to go to Oriole/Yankee games. We had planned to drive down early Sunday morning to the terminal. We are doing a B2B and since it is $15/day for parking it would be $210. For anyone going on a week cruise, $105. Found BW in Elkridge that has free parking, free shuttle to ship and from what I have read, a great breakfast. We used Trinityreservations and got the room for $127 for a night. So we can drive down, have a nice afternoon in Baltimore, good night sleep, nice breakfast and free shuttle and parking for $85 less. This sounds like a good plan for you too! :p

Just back from the Pride. We used the Elkridge Best Western through the above mentioned reservation website. Trust me, you cant go wrong with this arrangement. Saved some money on the parking, decent breakfast, good accomodations, nice pool, nice shuttle ride there and back. We are using them again, for the third time, this coming October Pride cruise.

[jficco]

Wondering which option is cheaper? Driving to the terminal the day of the cruise and parking there? Or going to Elkridge Best Western the night before and parking there? So the Best Western price for staying the one night is $105? how does that compare to a week parking at the port? Thanks!

[mitsugirly]

Wondering which option is cheaper? Driving to the terminal the day of the cruise and parking there? Or going to Elkridge Best Western the night before and parking there? So the Best Western price for staying the one night is $105? how does that compare to a week parking at the port? Thanks!

 

It's $15 a day to park at the cruise terminal=$105

 

Please see the post a few up from here describing the benefits of staying at the hotel before the cruise instead of driving there the day of.

 

 

Also it would depend on how far away you are, if something could go wrong on the drive, traffic, construction and so on. It would depend on your comfort level of coming in on the same day too.

Edited May 8, 2015 by mitsugirly