Pride Update

[FirstAlto]

I think that would be UTC (roughly London) time so several hours later here in Maryland. Probably somewhere around 5AM.

 

Roy

 

Good guess Roy - they just announced we would be getting in at 6 AM ;)

[JMAE]

What is the ocean like?

Edited October 3, 2015 by JMAE

[FirstAlto]

What is the ocean like?

 

It was fine - I think the Captain wisely kept us as far away as possible :)

We have never sailed that close to Cuba before as we headed West away from the Bahamas.

[dcruisers]

Our cruise director said it his was the first time in 18 years that the ship couldn't make any ports. I guess the terrible weather in Grand Turk making it difficult to do anything was also considered.

Captain did a super job keeping us safe. Thankfully, we love sea days and therefore still had a great time!

We think the 50% refund for the cruise as well as 50% off a future cruise was very kind.

There were many first time cruisers who may have never wanted to cruise again! But now they will be willing to give it another chance. Great customer service- well done Carnival!

[The Grumpus]

That is pretty cool of Carnival. Not something I would have expected given the situation was no fault of their own, but would have been very appreciative of the gesture.

 

Glad to see you all made it home safely.

[retiredgram]

We were on this cruise and must say the Captain did a great job of keeping us out of danger. Every year, we take this cruise and this is the first time we have had ports cancelled because of a hurricane. We have been very fortunate. We know it is the hurricane season.

 

Yes, Carnival really gave us a great compensation. :D

 

To all first time cruisers, don't let this one cruise be your last.;).

[Haoie]

That's a very generous amount of compensation for weather!

[retiredgram]

That's a very generous amount of compensation for weather!

 

Yes it was. If you read your cruise contract, they have the right to change and adjust the itinerary. Carnival has no control over the weather but they treated their customers great. Good customer relations.

[AnitaVacation]

We were on this cruise.....and I admit, it was a very generous and unexpected compensation from CCL....we are very pleased. Look forward to our next cruise which just happens to be this exact itinerary but leaving in June 2016...and hopefully no hurricanes...

 

The saddest part of this cruise.....we were able to book one of those coveted private cabanas on the private island.....we were sooooo looking forward to that....fingers crossed that we will be lucky enough to get one next June...

[PAPERBKWRITER]

Just a quick update on what's happening on the Pride.

We were just notified that we are skipping our stop in Freeport tomorrow because of Hurricane Joachin. sp??? Lol

We will be getting 50% off our cruise fare for this cruise and 50% off a future cruise.

I was really surprised as a hurricane is obviously no ones fault - especially when you cruise the end of September

 

Kudos to Carnival :):)

 

You get all that for missing Freeport? You hit a home run. Congratulations.

[rfreeman11]

You get all that for missing Freeport? You hit a home run. Congratulations.

 

We didn't just miss Freeport, the reality is that we truly missed all the ports, if you didn't get off in Grand Turk before 10 you couldn't get off (with very good reason)

 

It was a 7 day CTN, Carnival really did step up and take care of everyone on board, there were very few people upset following the announcement that we were in fact heading back.

 

The Captain and Crew worked very hard to salvage what had to be a difficult and stressful situation. I'm not sure how but he managed to have sun and smiles for most days. My Kids even got to ride the Green slide one day!

[ForSharonB]

We didn't just miss Freeport, the reality is that we truly missed all the ports, if you didn't get off in Grand Turk before 10 you couldn't get off (with very good reason)

 

It was a 7 day CTN, Carnival really did step up and take care of everyone on board, there were very few people upset following the announcement that we were in fact heading back.

 

The Captain and Crew worked very hard to salvage what had to be a difficult and stressful situation. I'm not sure how but he managed to have sun and smiles for most days. My Kids even got to ride the Green slide one day!

 

And did you depart Grand Turk early?

If so, how were those who had gotten off notified to return to the ship?

[FirstAlto]

And did you depart Grand Turk early?

If so, how were those who had gotten off notified to return to the ship?

 

We were originally told we were going to stay till 5 since we were skipping Half Moon Cay , but when the ocean condition deteriorated the Captain decided to leave early.

The conditions were terrible - torrential rain and wind ,so the majority of passengers were already on the ship. The captain blew the horn a few times and

as soon as everyone was back we headed out ( and home )

[Crusin Karen]

We were originally told we were going to stay till 5 since we were skipping Half Moon Cay , but when the ocean condition deteriorated the Captain decided to leave early.

The conditions were terrible - torrential rain and wind ,so the majority of passengers were already on the ship. The captain blew the horn a few times and

as soon as everyone was back we headed out ( and home )

We have been to GT and HMC a bunch of times and we've always been super lucky with weather, so I can't even IMAGINE what it was like. Shame you didn't have the same experience but CCL really stepped up to the plate and I hope you have blue skies and smooth seas for your next cruises!

[MAZ100]

Sorry - in a hurry so didn't go into detail - Grand Turk was 5 hours of torrential rains and wind , we skipped Half Moon Cay :( then Freeport was just cancelled.

 

Don't forget that we arrived at Grand Turks at 8:30 am and by 10:00 am no one was allowed off the ship and everyone had to head back to the cruise ship because the Hurricane was coming to Grand Turk.

 

I personally never got to get off the ship since I went down at 10 am.

 

So for me this was a 7 day cruise to nowhere.

 

But I had a wonderful time. Carnival took care of all the guests on this cruise and the Captain kept us safe during the hurricane as we were very close to Bahamas

[MAZ100]

Which is interesting since someone on another thread was just wondering how that would work since they had to stop doing CTNs. Wonder how it will be handled since they were not able to stop at a foreign port?

 

They stopped CTN starting in Jan 2016. Even though we did stop in Grand Turks I want to see what the government is going to do if this happens again on another cruise and they can't stop at any ports because of the weather.

 

This is suck a stupid law and upset just thinking about it since 2 of my crusies have been cancelled next year especially my Carnival Vista cruise

[MAZ100]

We were on this cruise and must say the Captain did a great job of keeping us out of danger. Every year, we take this cruise and this is the first time we have had ports cancelled because of a hurricane. We have been very fortunate. We know it is the hurricane season.

 

Yes, Carnival really gave us a great compensation. :D

 

To all first time cruisers, don't let this one cruise be your last.;).

 

Yes.. I 100% agree with you that Captain Francesco did a wonderful job keeping all us safe from the hurricane. I also tried to find us some sun 1 or 2 days.

 

I love Carnival. They are the best and always compensate their guests

 

I had a great time even though I never got off the ship and we had bad weather

[rfreeman11]

We didn't get off at Grand Turk, but from what I heard from those that did, it was awful, Margaritaville was flooded, people got herded into a store or customs office to ride out heavy rains.

 

I also heard that the Margaritaville PA system was being used to advise people to head back to the ship.

 

We had gone down to give the island a try and were turned away, this was around 9:45 - 10 AM, at that time we were not told that they were ceasing debarkation to Grand Turk, only that they were waiting for the weather to let up. We went to wait by the fountain on Deck two, (managed to play some movie quote trivia!) and by the time the trivia game was done, they were blowing the ships horn. People had been coming back on board soaked to the bone, and generally miserable from the trek out to the boarding area. The pier was exposed and the wind and rain were terrible.

Edited October 6, 2015 by rfreeman11

[dms419]

We were on this cruise too and were more than happy with Caranival. They really went above and beyond! We were stuck in grand Turk while the pier was closed and although it was inconvenient and everyone waiting to re board the ship it was the right thing to do. Now hurry up February, so we can get back on the Pride!

[Crusin Karen]

We are booked on Pride again for March. Does anyone know who the CD will be and if Ken Byrne will still be the maitre d? I know John Heald has a list somewhere but I can't find it! TIA

[fair-winds39]

We are booked on Pride again for March. Does anyone know who the CD will be and if Ken Byrne will still be the maitre d? I know John Heald has a list somewhere but I can't find it! TIA

I think Ken might be moving to the new Vista.

[Crusin Karen]

I think Ken might be moving to the new Vista.

Yea, but I don't think the Vista will be sailing by our cruise on 3/13/16. :confused::confused: I have gone on FB and read John Heald's daily posting, googled and searched here and CANNOT find a list of the CD'es and MayD's for Pride in March. :confused::mad: I know John posted the list a while ago.

[BigDoug]

You can find the Cruise Directors schedule on John Heald's blog. It is located at the bottom in "John's Help Desk" section. For the Pride, the schedule is only updated to November.

http://johnhealdsblog.com/redirect/cruise-director-schedule

[Crusin Karen]

You can find the Cruise Directors schedule on John Heald's blog. It is located at the bottom in "John's Help Desk" section. For the Pride, the schedule is only updated to November.

http://johnhealdsblog.com/redirect/cruise-director-schedule

THANK YOU! I could usually care less about CD's and probably couldn't name them if my life depended on it,except for Malcolm because everyone always talked about him and we had him a few times. We had JACE on our Pride cruise in May and we hit it off and I saw him CONSTANTLY. We were on a B2B and we were joking who was stalking the other! :eek: He was a super nice guy and I was hoping he'd make it back to the Pride when we sail her again. We had Ken Byrne on our Dream cruise a few years ago and had him again in May and he remembered us (or so he said lol) and LOVED his singing every night. Our DS and DDIL were on a cruise to Bermuda when there was a "rumor" that a ship had gone aground. Turned out it was not their ship, but DH was concerned and asked Ken if he knew what was going on and he actually left the MDR, went to the bridge to find out the story and gave us a print out of the incident. We were so relieved that it wasn't their ship and thankful noone was injured on the ship that went aground and Ken went above and beyond.

[fair-winds39]

Yea, but I don't think the Vista will be sailing by our cruise on 3/13/16. :confused::confused: I have gone on FB and read John Heald's daily posting, googled and searched here and CANNOT find a list of the CD'es and MayD's for Pride in March. :confused::mad: I know John posted the list a while ago.

Nope, I think Vista sails in the Spring. We're on the Pride again in late Feb. 2016, and I'm pretty sure Ken said he wouldn't be on our cruise.