Carnival Pride - July 31-Aug 7th

[trickg]

After having a few summers where we didn't get much of a vacation, we decided to embark upon the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore again. This was our 4th cruise, but our 3rd cruise on the Carnival Pride. The main reason for this is sheer convenience - we live about 20 minutes from the port, so it makes things easy. No joke, we were home and unpacking before some people even disembarked.

 

Another reason we chose the Pride again was also simple - we like this ship. A lot.

 

I should probably note that the last two times we sailed this ship (2009 and 2010) were before the renovations, and although much is still the same, there were a number of neat changes, and I think they are all for the better.

 

I'm not quite sure how to work this, so I'm just going to kind of dive in with some random thoughts.

 

Embarkation - the port of Baltimore does a pretty good job, but given that it only took me 20 minutes to get to the port, I felt that the 45 minutes it took from the time I lined up for the parking lot until the time I could actually park my car and get out was just a bit too long, but that's totally on the port - Carnival has nothing to do with that.

 

Service was excellent as usual - always friendly smiles, always someone straightening something out or cleaning something up - seriously, if someone spilled a bit of a drink at the drink station, it was cleaned up within 60 seconds - they were always on the ball.

 

The rooms seemed to be mostly the same - I don't really care too much about that because I'm hardly ever in my room, so I don't have much to report there.

 

Now, some of the good things that changed. There were some nice changes on the Lido deck, to include Guy's Burger Joint. Think Five Guys - that's pretty much what they taste like, although they mainly just grill it up and put it on bun - all of the extras - sautéed onions, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, mayo, bacon, etc - is there on a fixings bar. They also have the same kind of rough cut boardwalk style fries. YUM!

 

There was also a new burrito and taco bar - I only got tacos there once, but they were delicious.

 

Pizza!!!!! The pizza bar (which always seems to be open) is a nice treat.

 

There's always good fresh fruit and deserts available too.

 

I didn't eat at David's, the premium steakhouse, and that's because I never felt that I needed to - the Normandie restaurant never failed to please - everything from Flat Iron steak to the famous Chocolate Melting Cake, filet mignon, prime rib, escargot, stuffed mushrooms, mushroom cream soup, beef and barley soup - as always, the dining, IMO, was excellent.

 

One thing that I believe has changed though is the quality of food on the Lido deck. There was some really great chow that could be had there, and there were a few times I wondered if maybe I should hit the buffet rather than going to the Normandie.

 

I always like to go to the Normandie for breakfast too - eggs Benedict, as well as salmon eggs Benedict, pancakes, steak and eggs with real filet mignon - just a really nice experience. I did get some breakfast one morning up at the Mermaid Grille on the Lido deck, and it was excellent too.

 

From what I could see, there is no more karaoke - what used to be the karaoke joint has been replaced by the Red Frog Pub where they had live music. The bartenders are nice - look for Andre, Koko and Salwa.

 

Other new things:

 

BlueIguana Cantina and BlueIguana Tequila Bar -- basically a remodel on the bars on Lido in the middle of the ship with the requisite themed cocktails that go along with the decor.

 

Bonsai Sushi -- this costs extra money, but it's money well spent in my opinion. My son and I ate Sushi from a ship on a ship - basically, arranged on server that looks like a ship. The sushi was fresh, well made, and very tasty. So was the warm Sake! :D

 

Carnival's Seaside Theater - basically a decent sized jumbo-tron TV midship on the Lido deck, and they played movies on it at night. One night was "The Martian," and one night they did "Dead Pool" after midnight - NOT for the kiddies! There were other movies, but I don't recall what they were because I didn't go watch them.

 

So, the ports:

 

Grand Turk - we basically took our own snorkeling gear and did a beach day. You can get a meal at Margaritaville, but we chose to eat on the ship this time. There's some shopping you can do a the duty-free store (called Dufry) and there are some other shops for this and that too, but we chose to only do a beach day. There are LOTS of fish in the water, but be careful - there are some rocks too, so you have to be careful of your feet just a little bit. Going back to the fish, one lady brought out a box of Cheerios from the Lido deck and was feeding fish standing waist deep in the water - they'll swim right up to you to get it. For those interested, there's an old anchor and cannon out in the water just before the drop-off where they dredged it out for a ship dock. If you do want to shop or eat, bring some cash.

 

Half Moon Cay - again, we chose to make it a beach day. Oddly enough, a guy got bit by a "barracuda" (my daughter made friends with the guy's niece - apparently it was a small shark) so when we got to the beach, they weren't letting people in past their knees. He did require some surgery to get it all back togetehr, but he'll recover 100%. Eventually they opened the beach up again for swimming clear out to the rope. I got some basic rum drinks at the bars - all the bars are staffed by personnel from the ship. The cookout food was pretty tasty too - burgers, dogs and jerk chicken, along with fruits, veggies and other salads.

 

Freeport - to me, Freeport is always kind of a disappointment. It's an industrial dock, so all excursions and beaches are a 20-30 minute cab or shuttle ride. Again, we chose to not do excursions this time and didn't even leave the straw market there right by where the ship was docked. To be fair, there's a big bar there, plenty of crafts and Bahamas trinkets to buy, and even a Del Sol store (where the products change color in sunlight) and a Harley Davidson store, which I thought was interesting because HD is a company that prides itself on being distinctly American. Whatever. In any case, Freeport was also a short and early day - the ship docked around 7:00, and everyone had to be back on the ship by 1:30, which is also part of why we didn't do an excursion there.

 

Moving back to the pride, I feel that they really stepped up their entertainment in the Taj Mahal theater. We went to two shows - 88 Keys, a piano themed show with tunes from the likes of Billy Joel and Elton John, and an 80s themed show hitting a bunch of great tunes from the 80s. The cast is young, energetic and talented, and the staging, lights and special effects all combine together to make for a great time.

 

The comedy club was ok - pretty much as expected. It's re-themed, but it's basically the same place.

 

The Alchemy Bar - BOOM! This, for alcohol, is the best value for the dollar. They do everything from scratch and the cocktails are always perfectly made. Yesterday I had just two drinks, but between the two consumed roughly 7 oz of pure liquor. Look for Gabrielle and Adrienne - they are kind of like Penn and Teller. Gabrielle, from Romania, is an interesting guy with a lot of interesting stories, and is very conversant, and Adrienne, from Hungary, hardly says anything. There's a third guy there too - I forgot his name, mainly because all of my cocktails were made by Gabrielle and Adrienne, but they are all fantastic mixologists.

 

Music. From what I can see, there were fewer musicians than ever before. There isn't a band for the Taj Mahal anymore - it's all pre-recorded. As for musicians around the ship, it's mostly handled by Phoenix and Emily Jane - guitar player/singers. There's a singer and piano player who hung out by the Alchemy Bar, and they may have played the atrium too, but otherwise, I don't remember seeing them anywhere else. There's a piano man at the Ivory Piano bar, but I never really got into him. There's also the R&B band that performed at the Red Frog pub - they were a group out of Georgia and they were energetic and a lot of fun. Mostly I got into what Phoenix and Emily Jane were doing. They played out on the Serenity Deck at the back of the ship, and in the atrium. My son sat in with Phoenix at both the Atrium and Serenity deck, which was cool (he's a pretty killer guitar player in his own right) and there was a 14 year old girl who played and sang with both Phoenix and Emily.

 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the two gentlemen from the Islands who played pan music - the steel drummer is killer! For anyone who has ever tried to play steel pan, you know how hard it can be, and he makes it look easy - poetry in motion.

 

That's about it for now - again, a nice time and Carnival is keeping with the theme - these are "Fun Ships" - if you want elegance and grandeur, go somewhere else - if you want to get a great bang for you buck and have a blast, you could do far worse than the carnival pride.

[Hribal]

We just got back today, too. We were down at the cabanas at HMC and we just went to get in the water when all od the sudden whistles were being blown, lofegiards running up and down the beach, yalling "shark!" They did a really good job there.

 

We didnt really care all that much for the food otems in the MDR. A lot of repeat items and the really good food was an upcharge. All in all, it was a great ship. Glad you all had a good time.

[NewtoCruisewKids]

We just arrived home this afternoon from the same cruise. The 2.0 changes are great, however the Lido buffet for lunch wasn't as good as I remembered it from 2014. Also, I noticed a lot of little things that are no longer offered such as robes, pad and pen, chocolates (kids miss them) and the little basket of samples.

 

We still haven't made it to the Alchemy bar as we had such a great time in the Red Frog Pub. Loved Salya who took great care of my boys and their soda cards, especially my 13 yo who drank his share of Shirley Temples. She also pours a mean adult cocktail.

 

Green Thunder waterslide as awesome! Just be prepared to pull your bathing suit out of your crack before you stand up at the bottom :eek:

 

HMC was beautiful even if when we just sat our butts in the water after the shark incident. GT was fun and our snorkel excursion in Freeport was fun even though I thought the water was too rough.

 

Dinner in the dining room was on par and I ordered the largest lamb chops that I have seen from the Steakhouse menu.

 

Casino was tight, but it didn't stop me from trying.

 

Shows were good, but I missed the band.

 

All in all a great cruise had by my family with ages from 13 to 68.

[trickg]

I think that part of it for me was just that because we're on vacation, as long as something isn't outright bad, it's all copacetic.

 

I'd forgotten about the chocolates on the pillows - I guess they had to cut some corners somewhere. It also seemed to me that the ship's staff was maybe a bit thinner, although I never felt that anything was getting neglected from a service point of view.

 

I saw a Citizen watch I really liked in the jewelry store, but even though I have an anniversary and birthday coming up in the next couple of days, I just couldn't pull the trigger on getting it. Part was the price - $386 for the one I wanted - but the other part was that I thought maybe I could find it for less off the ship.

 

I probably should have bought it because it appears that the $386 is competitive with most other places - for the most part, I can't find it for less than $400.

 

Did you take note of "The John Walker" bottle of whiskey for $3800? Does anyone ever actually buy those things? LOL!

[riclop]

Thanks for your thoughts.

[NCTribeFan]

...Also, I noticed a lot of little things that are no longer offered such as robes, pad and pen, chocolates (kids miss them) and the little basket of samples.

 

 

All those things except the robes have been gone for quite a while. There have been many threads about it all, especially the chocolates. I miss the basket in the bathroom more than the others. I have enough Carnival pens to last me a few years. :p

 

Have not yet been on a cruise that didn't have robes in the cabin and I sail 2-3 times/year. We'll see if I get one on Splendor in a couple of months.

 

I sailed Pride once pre 2.0 updates (I'm a big fan of the Spirit-class ships) and I'm looking forward to 13 nights on her at the beginning of the year.

 

But I'm not a fan of the big TVs on Lido. There's plenty of noise pollution on ships without adding that non-stop din. I solve that by simply not hanging around the main pool area.

 

OP, if I lived that close to port, I'd just take a taxi! I'm about 14 minutes from RDU and it's cheaper to taxi both ways than to park, even off-site.

 

Next cruise will be #28 total, #26 on Carnival and I have yet to get on a water slide. I don't get in the pools, but I keep thinking I'll do a water slide some day. I just never seem to get around to it. Next cruise may be the time I finally give it a try! ;)

[JaniceB]

Thanks for the review of your cruise on the Pride. I have yet to sail her with 2.0 upgrades, I think I need to book one soon.

[jlc22043]

Can you tell me what time you arrived at the port? Did you have fttf or a suite to be able to board faster?

[Clarea]

Thanks for the report.

[skywalkr2]

I am ready for my trip starting next month. I also think the food on Lido has definitely improved since my first cruise.

[flyersfan1129]

Thanks for the review! I am looking forward to our first Carnival cruise on the Pride in November.

[bruce39]

FYI - The robes are still available. You just have to ask your cabin steward, and he/she will bring them.