Pride Review Jan 29 - with 8.5 month old

[SunTravels]

Here is our Pride review from Jan 29- Feb 5

I was travelling with my husband and 8.5 month old. We had a wonderful time!

 

First I want to address the questions I read on here all the time about traveling with a baby…It really worked out great for us. I do want to say that you need to have the expectations set of what kind of vacation you are looking for before you go. Our main goal of this vacation was to relax – NO COOKING, CLEANING, WORKING – just focusing on family and bonding. Being that I primarily stay home with my baby it was no burden what-so-ever to spend all day with him, if I wanted to be without him I would have booked a vacation with just my husband. It was awesome for us, but I can see where it may not be for everyone, just understand that traveling with an infant does change what kind of cruise you have.

 

Ok on to the cruise - Embarkation was a breeze, never in any other cruise have I arrived at the port and walked right onto the ship…no sitting or waiting…we arrived around 2 and were in our stateroom at 2:20. We were in cabin 6279, and it was AWESOME! We had so much space for the pack and play and the baby to get his wiggles out. The ship is lovely, I was prepared for an ugly, dark, ship with in your face nudity (as mentioned in so many reviews) and really it was nice. The nudity was there but I thought it was more muted than many have reported.

 

Food – the food was fine, it’s not what it used to be, but they do many things well. We ate many of our dinners in the Lido, or brought food back to the room and ate on the balcony. We ate one night in the main dining room and one in David’s. The main dining room was great (except the fried shrimp) and David’s was wonderful. We had breakfast twice in the MDR and that was very nice.

 

For those of you with babies - As far a food for the baby goes I would recommend binging enough of your own food for the little one. I brought some, but after reading a few reviews about the MDR being accommodating for babies I didn’t bring as much as I would have liked – they would not alter anything (it’s one of the reasons we didn’t go there often). It was fine I worked it out, but some of the Carnival reviews I’ve read said they would puree things and cook things plain (everything is in butter or oil), but they wouldn’t (we had ATD so maybe it’s different for set dining).

 

Excursions – We did EPCOT, and it was great, we had about 6.5 hours in the park - the rest was travel time (about an hour each way from port and 15 min each way for monorail transportation). We booked a beach day at the Hilton in Nassau, it was lovely, the beach was great, and plenty of space on the beach and in the shade and the water was refreshing. Freeport we had booked an excursion through Pat and Diane snorkeling, but they canceled our original trip and were offering a modified trip, that we were not interested in with the baby, so we just walked around and shopped a bit before heading to back on the ship.

 

SPA – My husband and I both had 2 massages each, I had a hot stone and Swedish, and my husband had a bamboo and deep tissue, and we thought they were all great and worth the money to get a little extra relaxing. I also got a pedicure, it was nice, but not sure I would spend the money again for that one.

 

Entertainment – Don’t have much to say here, we didn’t do much as many of the shows were after 10 and we were already settled in for the night. Some of the live music on the ship as we strolled around in the evening was nice.

 

Pools - The covered pool was closed the first day and a half (but open the remainder of the trip). The slide was open most days, and the outside pools also. The weather was awesome - I was expecting the worst being that we went in Jan, but it was so sunny and calm (Friday night was the only night it was rocky...and overcast Friday/Saturday, but the temp was still great).

 

Any questions, please ask…I’m sure I’m forgetting things.

[soozenw]

Glad you had a good time with your family! Little guy isn't even a year and already a seasoned cruiser! Awesome!

[woodmews]

What was the reason that the covered pool was closed???

[SunTravels]

The sign said maintenance. it was a shame because it was so warm in that area, and I'm sure people would have wanted to take advantage. But it did open later.

 

The Sunset Garden was also closed the entire cruise for the same reason.

[gelo7]

Nice review.

[michelle1836]

The sign said maintenance. it was a shame because it was so warm in that area, and I'm sure people would have wanted to take advantage. But it did open later.

 

The Sunset Garden was also closed the entire cruise for the same reason.

 

too bad. the sunset garden is so nice

 

thanks for sharing your review! heading on the Pride in July

[nieciez]

Thanks for the review...we set sail on her this Sunday and hope we have nice weather too!

[SunTravels]

Thanks for the review...we set sail on her this Sunday and hope we have nice weather too!

 

Enjoy your trip!

[tracyanns]

OMG...You were in 6279!!!...tell me everything about it...we just booked this cabin for the Miracle and it was the only room I wanted...did I make a good choice?

 

It look a quite a bit bigger than the regular cabins...what was the seating arrangement on the balcony and was it much larger than the regular balconies?

[Smithkids5521]

Glad to hear you had a nice time. I really think it is all about expectations- some go on a cruise with such high expectations that nothing could ever really live up to them. But you went with reasonable ones and had a nice time...so that is very nice to hear! :)

[SunTravels]

OMG...You were in 6279!!!...tell me everything about it...we just booked this cabin for the Miracle and it was the only room I wanted...did I make a good choice?

 

It look a quite a bit bigger than the regular cabins...what was the seating arrangement on the balcony and was it much larger than the regular balconies?

 

I can sum it up in one word...AWESOME! It was very quiet (the only time we heard noise was during some rough seas Friday night there was something banging around, we assumed the elevator cables). It's a square layout – giving room to move about without tripping over the table or chair, with marble in the bath and counters like in the suites. The only real difference from a suite was that we didn't have an extra sink or bath tub. Honestly, I was in a suite on Holland America (similar to the suites on carnival) and we liked this layout better because of the shape it gave a little more room to get around. There was plenty of closet space and drawers. The balcony was huge, had 3 chairs, 1 lounge chair and a table (more than double the size of a regular balcony). We brought a blow up tub for the baby to use and also put it on the balcony for the baby to swim in and there was still plenty of space. Once I have pics downloaded I will see if I have any to post. It's perfectly located to the stairs, so we would just walk up 3 flights to the lido and grab food or 3 flights down to the dining room. Great location! We are already talking about booking the same cabin again next year.