Pride 8/10-8/17 Review (I apologize it's so long)

[Mama's looking good]

So, we took our 17 year old daughter on this cruise to celebrate her High School graduation. We usually travel out of NYC, but Baltimore was about $200 less per person and parking was less than 50% of NYC. We took, myself (42) hubby (44), her (17), cousin (16), cousin (36), aunt (55) & grandma (63) and had 3 balcony cabins with 2 adjoining on Deck 7 (7193, 7195, 7199).

 

I read a lot about the ship coming in late, but ignored the notice because we live in central NJ and had a 2 1/2 hour drive. Left home around 7:30am and arrived at the port by 10:30 (we stopped to eat since we had so much time). Had to wait in line to park because the ship had JUST docked and hadn't been cleared by customs or disembarked yet. Around 11:30am we were allowed to pull in and drop off our bags and park the car.

 

We had purchased FTTF so we flew to the front of the check in line, waited for a few minutes before we checked in. We were then shuffled to a sitting area to wait for the ship to receive us, there was music, cold water and of course people watching!!! We were on board by 1:15pm and went directly to the shore excursion desk to choose a cabana (that I had paid for months ago). Our first choice was cabana #7 but it was gone so we took #6 (more on that later) and we added one adult to the cabana (I'm not a rule breaker) for $50. Got my soda card and went to the room to drop off the bags. We had Carnival decorate our daughter's cabin with the "Congratulations" package as well as a dozen chocolate covered strawberries, it was all there to surprise her when she arrived. We met "Joey" our cabin steward, he was great. He had our 3 balcony doors opened for us and brought my mother a lounge chair for the balcony. He also put up with our teen girls, they left a mess all the time and dinner trays but he always had a smile.

 

Dropping off at the room was easy breezy, then lunch on the Lido deck. During the week I didn't enjoy the Lido Deck buffet as much as I did the room service Chicken Fajita...OMG I thought it was so good.

 

We decided on David's for dinner since it was my birthday. That was the best food on the ship, I would do that again! We thought that it was well worth the $35 PP.

 

Enjoyed sitting on the deck, plenty of chairs by the pool, in the shade or the sun and on the 10th deck. Never had a problem with finding a chair and there were usually 5 of us at one time. I expected the bar attendants to be bothersome, I hear on the forum about them harassing people, we did not find that at all. At some points we had to search for a waiter.

 

We spent a lot of time in the casino, usually following around the cute dealers, in particular Christian from Romania...oh my! It takes 1500 points to earn free drinks, not sure I know how but I qualified for that card. I lost maybe $300-$400 (winning then loosing then winning) but enjoyed my free drinks while I did so. I have only ever played "Let it Ride" but the above mentioned cute dealers showed me "Caribbean Stud" and "3 card Poker" and were very patient (as I lost most of my money).

 

I was disappointed in Bingo, I don't like playing the same card game after game because when I fold and unfold the spots I lose track of which numbers were called this game. I only played once.

 

We had Your time dining and with 7 people we were worried that it would take forever to get a table. It didn't, we did not wait more than a few minutes for a table, ever. Food in the main dining room was awesome. Some favorites, my husband had the DIDJA (as in did you ever) each day and enjoyed them, the crab cakes, prime rib, short ribs, the BBQ ribs on elegant night (explain how they want you to be dressed formal and give you ribs and corn on the cobb for dinner??) & loved the bacon mac and cheese on the last night. There was also a "shot of the night" in the main dining room, it came in a souvenir shot glass in different colors each night....we got two sets of 7....lol. We enjoyed every shot except the first one, it was supposed to be lemon something but it tasted and looked like Pine Sol...yuck! By night number 3 the "shot lady" as we affectionately called her, knew our names (the teens thought that was a shame) and we gave her an extra tip directly at the end of the week.

 

Grand Turk was as it normally is, quiet and relaxing but very very hot. Laid on a chair under a tree until the heat got to me. We did a little shopping and found "Silver Sun" which was inexpensive and nice jewelry. My teens and husband went paddle boarding with Andre',they loved it. They would do that again too!

 

Half Moon Cay is beautiful but tragedy struck on our trip, read my review here http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2088343

 

Freeport was quiet, it had some shopping and it poured, but only for an hour or so. It was the only rainy day we saw and it was a short time...I'll take it.

 

Teens enjoyed new friends. They went to Club O2 the first night and didn't like the actual club but hung out with friends. They had a dance party, but weren't allowed to dance, huh? The director said that dancing was inappropriate so she didn't allow it all. They spent the whole week with their friends, only having dinner with us each night, but had a blast.

 

I was disappointed in the photos. We had several taken and they were very nice, but you had to purchase the original 8x10 for $22 just to be able to order it in different sizes. I wanted 2 different pics and was willing to buy the 8x10 but wanted 5x7's of the others. They wouldn't let me buy the smaller sizes, so I got the 2 I wanted and put back the other $150 in pictures that I wanted. Had they let me buy smaller sizes, I would have got a bunch.

 

We had a great vacation and are planning to do it again next summer! That's all I can think of at the moment. Thanks for reading!!!

[McBlessings]

Thanks for the review Mama! I've got something cooking up on the pride next year.

[champagne123]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this review. Leaving for the Pride soon and grateful for any info posted, which has not been too much lately. Soooooooo, thank you my fellow Jersey Gal. :o

[rainbowflag]

Thanks for the report!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[dixieva]

When you arrived at the port at 10:30 was the line of cars waiting to park very long?

[Mama's looking good]

When you arrived at the port at 10:30 was the line of cars waiting to park very long?

 

I would say that there were about 25 cars ahead of us, but it wasn't terrible. We turned the car off and opened the windows and just stared at the ship imagining our vacation!!

[wdazew]

When you arrived at the port at 10:30 was the line of cars waiting to park very long?

 

We too were on the cruise. The staff was truly awesome. The Pride does have a rep of coming in late. Even the inside port staff were talking "laughing" about them being consisently (sorry for the spelling) late.

 

There were about 4 rows of 25 when they started letting cars in to park.

 

We got back at 9 we were out to car by 9:25 and there were already 3 cars waiting in line. I truly wouldn't plan on getting there before 10:30 and even then it is a 50/50 shot of getting in the lot.

[dixieva]

Thanks!

[erewhon]

Thanks for your review.

What an appalling person to video the tragedy at HMC.

[092306]

Thanks for the review and glad you had a good trip overall. I agree about the photos and having to buy the large one in order to get 5x7 prints. Wish they would come up with a digital system.

[Smaklp]

Hi - question for the OP: I realize I'm a little late to the party, but I thought I would ask my question, in hopes you'll see it. When you were decorating your stateroom door, did you happen to notice if the door was metal or not? I'm heading out on the Pride soon and I'd like to decorate my door too, and wondering if I can bring magnets to hang items. TIA!