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Just back from Pride yesterday!

jordanaire

By jordanaire,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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jordanaire

jordanaire

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Posted (edited)

My wife and I just returned from our 19th cruise, this time aboard the Carnival Pride. My, what a lot of changes that have taken place with Carnival! Overall, the cruise was great, but many things have changed since we started sailing with them 19 years ago.

 

We flew from Louisville to Baltimore via Southwest Airlines. The flight was flawless, our first with this airline. After arriving at BWI, we stayed at the Aloft Hotel. A shuttle picked us up at the airport for the 5-minute ride to the hotel. What a unique hotel! We loved it! Very modern and hip. From the king-size bed, raised square sink in the bathroom and 42-in flat screen tv, it was truly a great place to stay. The only bad thing was the DJ playing very loud music in the lobby, which could still be heard of the 5th floor where we stayed.

 

There are no restaurants within walking distance from the hotel, but the free shuttle will take you anywhere you want to go within 3-miles. It took us to Chili's for dinner and to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and picked us up at both locations. Worked out great for us, as we didn't have a rental car.

 

On Sunday morning, a cab picked us up at the hotel around 9:00 am and took us to the port, which is about 15-miles away. The fare for the cab was $35.

 

Upon arrival at the cruise port, we dropped off our luggage to the porters outside then preceded into the terminal. As Platinum members, we were guided to an area to wait for check-in. After about 10-minutes, we were called to a small office where we were checked in and given our S&S cards. From here, we were taken to the waiting area. As usual, it was here that we sat for about an hour, waiting for the ship to clear out and then board. We met some very nice folks from Pennsylvania while waiting. They were cruising with some friends that they hadn't seen in over 20 years! After the weddings parties had board, my wife and I were the very first passengers to board!

 

Once aboard ship, we preceded to Guest Services to put money down on our S&S cards. We don't use credit or debit cards, but did use American Express Traveler's Checks which they gladly accepted. Since our rooms were not ready yet, we headed to the Lido Deck for lunch. Our inside cabin on deck 5 (Upper) was ready right after lunch. We were very surprised to see that our luggage was there as well. We had all of our clothes unloaded and put away before the muster drill!

 

The ship set sail around 4:30 or so. It was very exciting watching the ship pass under the Francis Scott Key bridge. It looked like the funnel cleared by less than 5 feet! Since the ship sails through the Chesapeake Bay, it must do so at a very slow speed (due to the "No Wake" zone). Therefore, it takes many hours to reach the Atlantic.

 

We had the 6:00 sitting for dinner each night in the Normandie restaurant, with Oliver as our head waiter and Richard as his assistant. Both were outstanding! Great service and very friendly. As for the food, all I can say is that it was GREAT as usual! I started taking pics of our meals on the first night, but I stopped after that because I was too anxious to start eating that I forgot to take pics for the rest of the week! Trust me, the food was just as good to look at as it was to eat it!

 

It was at this time that the first of the few complaints that I had about this cruise began. The "Welcome Aboard" show was held at 8pm. Those that had the 8:15 dinner seating missed it! What an odd time to have this show! The auditorium (Taj Mahal) was half empty! Never experienced this before. Usually you have to fight for a seat, but not here.

 

The next 2 days were at sea, so we tried to beat the "Chair Hogs" but to no avail. The first to go were on the adults-only Serenity deck. I guess you have to get up before sunlight to get anything there. We ended up with chairs above the Lido Deck which was just fine with us. We played trivia every day, bringing home 8 "ships on a stick". In fact, my wife won her very first one playing TV Trivia! There were several activities going on through the day, something for everyone.

 

Our first port-of-call was Grand Turk. Having never been here before, we followed the advice of many fellow CCers and just spent the day at the beach located right at the end of the pier. We rented a clam shell cover for our lounge chairs then hit the water. As we looked back at our chairs, we noticed that a dog had laid down under our clam shell and was sleeping! He got up a few times and walked around, but always returned to our area. Too cool! After lying on the beach for a few hours, we headed over to the center of activity...Margarittaville! This is where the party was taking place! The pool area was surrounded by hundred of fellow passengers having a great time. After checking it out, we headed back to the ship for a late lunch.

 

After dinner, we headed to the Taj Mahal for the first of the live shows. The singers and dancers were really good. Afterwards, we headed downstairs for the first of 20 adult-only comedy shows. It was packed here, as people started filling up the place while the live show was going on upstairs. This was a problem all week long. The scheduling of shows was horrible. Too many shows going on at the same time!

 

The next day we arrived at what has to be the most beautiful beach in the world...Half Moon Cay! The sand here is so fine that it resembles talcum powder. There are no rocks in the water to step on and the water is so, so clear! Truly a paradise! We rented a clam shell here as well and spent the entire day here in the water. Carnival supplied a great BBQ lunch that included burgers, hot dogs and jerk chicken. Very good!

 

Our third and final stop was in Freeport. Having been here 10 times before, we decided to just stay on the ship and finally get to enjoy the Serenity area. It was nice having it to ourselves. The best part of being in Freeport is watching the pier runners trying to make it back to the ship before it sets sail. It's really unbelievable how many people will stop and go into a gift shop after the ship's captain has sounded the horn 3 times! What could possibly be worth missing the ship over? Four passengers coming back from a shore excursion at the very last minute drew whistles and calls of "you should've bought a watch" from those of us on board.

 

Our last day was at sea and between packing up to go home, playing trivia and saying goodbye to some new friends, the day flew by. In fact, the whole week just few by!

 

We arrived back in Baltimore on time (around 9am) and the waiting game began. They allowed the self-assist folks to leave first. By the time the Platinum and Diamond Members were allowed to leave, the ship was half empty! I guess this is due to many passengers being from the Baltimore-Washington area and drove to the the port. It was the latest that we had ever debarked any ship! But no fret, we had plenty of time to catch our flight home.

 

OVERALL: the cruise was great! Loved the ports-of call and the ship. The decor may be a little suggestive to the younger crowd but we found it quite tasteful. Having been on the Spirit to Hawaii 2 years ago, it didn't take us long to learn our way around the ship.

 

STAFF: The Cruise Director is Josh "Big Sexy" Waitzman, who does an outstanding job! He's very friendly, funny and really loves his job. He has to be one of the best CD's that Carnival should be proud to have on board! His assistant Calvin, and social hosts Pauly, Char, and "Pickles" were absolutely a hoot! "Pickles" is one fantastic gal and will be with Carnival for a very long time! She's fabulous! We had a blast with everyone!

 

CABIN: Our inside cabin (5251) was fine. It was near the elevators, as we prefer. Our cabin steward Henry treated us as royalty! He did a great job with our cabin and our needs.

 

FOOD: The food was as great as it's ever been! No problems at all. From the prime rib, lobster, and shrimps to the Warm Chocolate Melting cake and Grand Marnier Souflee, it was truly delicious. It was so good that it was difficult to pick a night to go to the Steakhouse but we did. The food in the steakhouse is truly a dining experience. From the beautiful servers to the delicious meals, you cannot go wrong here. I highly recommend eating here at least once during your cruise.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: Again, I have to say that the scheduling of the shows was way off! Too many things happening at once! And there were a couple of evenings when there wasn't a show at all. There were lots of bingo and trivia games during the day, as well as a daily art auction. But the evenings seemed to be quite dull. The band "Hi Lux" was pretty good, but didn't perform daily. The only music on the Lido Deck was played by a DJ. It's just not quite the same without a LIVE reggae band! The adult comedy shows were good, but very crowded. The showroom had to be cleared out between shows, so your chances of seeing all of them was pretty slim. The best show, however, was the Legends show on the last night. Fellow guests dressed up like famous singers and actually singing the songs themselves, with a little comedy thrown in. It was great!

 

PORTS: Loved Grand Turk and, of course, Half Moon Cay. As for Freeport, I'm one of those many cruisers that would like to see Freeport dropped as a port-of-call in favor of some place else. Sorry, just my opinion.

 

Now that we are home, it's time to unpack, wash the dirty clothes and think about the great time we had last week aboard the Pride. We met some very nice people from Pennsylvania and West Virginia, as well as from the east coast that enjoyed sharing our cruise with. Hopefully we will get to sail with all of you again in the future. Now, it's time to start planning for our cruise next year! It looks like it will be aboard the Sunshine next May and will take us to our favorite port of all..St.Maarten! Thanks for taking time to read this review. I hope that it offers a hint of what lies ahead for those that will be sailing aboard the Pride soon! She will be undergoing dry dock in October and many changes will be made to her, making her one of the nicest ships afloat!

 

:cool: Bill

 

Edited by jordanaire
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lazycruzer

lazycruzer

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Thanks for taking the time for the review!:)

We will be sailing on her this September. DBIL getting married on board during embarkation. Looking forward to enjoying our first Carnival cruise in many, many years.

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lizjoemom

lizjoemom

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My husband and I were on the same cruise! Thanks for posting your review. We had a wonderful time as well. I agree with your comment about Freeport, Carnival should pick a better port. We only got off the boat for about an hour and got back on and hung out in the Serenity area too! It was one of the only times we could get a seat there. I also agree with you about the scheduling of the comedy shows. We tried to get in to see a couple of them, even going so far as to line up before one and by the time we got into the room it was standing room only! Frustrating. Otherwise everything was great, we also really enjoyed Josh and his crew, they really got the party started! Glad that you all had a great time too.

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aaron3219

aaron3219

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when we were on Pride in April, the "deck police' was out frequently removing items from chains that had been left there with no people sitting in the lounges. We were able to quite frequently get a good spot at the pool any time of the day.

 

I found the music at the pool to be a bit distracting. Blasting current day pop hits over and over again about drove me nuts.

 

If I had to hear miley cyrus or taylor swift one more time I was going to jump over board!

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ALWAYZCRUISEN

ALWAYZCRUISEN

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when we were on Pride in April, the "deck police' was out frequently removing items from chains that had been left there with no people sitting in the lounges. We were able to quite frequently get a good spot at the pool any time of the day.

 

I found the music at the pool to be a bit distracting. Blasting current day pop hits over and over again about drove me nuts.

 

If I had to hear miley cyrus or taylor swift one more time I was going to jump over board!

 

I was on the Pride a few weeks ago and I enhoyed your review. One thing I noticed that a lot of people talked about was there no bacon police.

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fireishott

fireishott

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Thanks for the review, My wife and I will be sailing on her for our first cruise Next Year! and celebrating our anniversary!. We will be doing the same itinerary as you did. thanks for the heads up on chair hogs, i was hoping it all to be a big Myth or Urban Legend but i guess they are real. :eek:

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IMKTDQT810

IMKTDQT810

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Hi Bill,

 

We were on the sail same sailing and I Ditto Freeport. We have never been there but not wanting to pay for a shore excursion we just went off the ship to shop and spent the day on board. I also Ditto the scheduling of the shows. Our biggest "race to get to" was the family friendly comedy shows since we also had 6pm dining and we were normally done by 7:20. But the show started at 7:30 and we would walk from the dining room to the Butterfly lounge and never got a seat except once, we were so far up and to the side we only saw the back of the two comedians.

I also had a very, very big complaint with the fire in the garbage area on May 20th. Unfortunately we smelled it really bad and I called in about the smell around the same time the bravo, bravo, bravo came over the system. But guest services made me seem like I was a loon for "smelling an odd smell" that I said smelled like burnt marshmallows & DH said it was burnt plastic. Anyways...I was a tad-bit ticked we were made to seem like fools for smelling something and only after the Captain announced what had happened did I call back down to guest services and verified everyone in our area were complaining about the smell and I cancelled the "someone will come to investigate the smell" since DS was asleep by then and nobody had arrived in 40 mins.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread. I need to write my review soon also. It was a wonderful trip overall and I'm sorry I never got to meet anyone at the M&G, we got wrapped up in meeting with family on this ship!

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NyYankees2k3

NyYankees2k3

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Just want some opinions here. Based on schedule it looks like my only option to go on a cruise coming up is to go on the Pride. Not saying that's a negative thing, but I've been on the RCL Oasis, Navigator, and Freedom ; NCL Gem, Sun, Epic ; Carnival Sensation.

 

My only concern is having enough activities, and it being a smaller ship. The itinerary looks amazing. What are you all's thoughts on a small ship vs some of the larger ones? Any comments?

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  • 3 weeks later...
Silverspringcruiser

Silverspringcruiser

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STAFF: The Cruise Director is Josh "Big Sexy" Waitzman, who does an outstanding job! He's very friendly, funny and really loves his job. He has to be one of the best CD's that Carnival should be proud to have on board! His assistant Calvin, and social hosts Pauly, Char, and "Pickles" were absolutely a hoot! "Pickles" is one fantastic gal and will be with Carnival for a very long time! She's fabulous! We had a blast with everyone!

 

We were on the May 25th cruise and want to second how great the staff is. Both Josh and Angelica learned our names and always had a big smile whenever we passed by. I forgot to ask her how long she's had her nickname (anyone familiar with Nickelodeon cartoons knows how she got it).

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CruisingAgain

CruisingAgain

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Bill - great review. We are considering the port of Baltimore (and the Pride) for a future cruise. I hope you can answer some question: I haven't been on the Pride (or sister ships) since they added the Serenity deck. I thought the pizza and burger areas were in the back. Are they still there? Can teens go to them? If they are moved inside, does it get more crowded at lunch time?

 

Thanks

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sjcruiser

sjcruiser

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Nice review of the Pride, we sailed on her last spring, and on her sister ship the Miracle, the summer before that. We really enjoyed the layout of the ship, but the decor was something else. We never have a problem with staff, cabins or the food, and we can't wait to hit the Sunshine in 60 days.

 

Thanks for sharing!!!!:)

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jordanaire

jordanaire

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Posted (edited)
Bill - great review. We are considering the port of Baltimore (and the Pride) for a future cruise. I hope you can answer some question: I haven't been on the Pride (or sister ships) since they added the Serenity deck. I thought the pizza and burger areas were in the back. Are they still there? Can teens go to them? If they are moved inside, does it get more crowded at lunch time?

 

Thanks

 

The Serenity Deck is directly behind the Lido Deck inside dining area and is for adults only. The kids have total access to the pizzas (before entrance to Serenity Deck) and burgers (mid-ship by pools).

 

:cool: Bill

Edited by jordanaire
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TinyDancerMom

TinyDancerMom

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Thank you for posting this! I'm doing this very cruise in August. Very excited. It'll be my 2nd cruise, I went on my first in March on the Pride and now I'm hooked. Totally addicted to cruising now. Hopefully it won't be terribly crowded, local schools go back while we're gone. Here's hoping that will be a good thing. ;)

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