Carnival Pride Review April 11, 2009

[libbyonthelabel]

We drove down to Florida from Michigan. Sometimes we drive and sometimes we fly. We just got a new Ford Flex, so we were excited to drive. My husband does all the driving and I stock up on movies or shows I want to watch for my DVD player, good passenger, huh? It is me, my husband and 2 boys (7 and 9).

We stayed the last night in West Palm Beach and drove the last 1 hour and 20 minutes the morning of the cruise (Saturday). We got there early, maybe 10:15 or so and the Port was crazy. I took note that when we debarked it didn’t seem half as crazy as when we embarked. My husband dropped us off by C terminal and went to park in the lot. We were actually moving faster than he was and we passed him as he was trying to get into the lot. He was there about 20 minutes later, there were no lines and we went right on through and were Zone 7. This kind of surprised me because it seemed like there were hardly any people there.

I am pretty bad at noting when we are getting on the ship because I am so excited, I never take note of it. We have several cruises planned and I am going to try to improve on that. But we got up to Lido, there weren’t many people there and got our lunch. It began filling up quickly. We hung out there for awhile until my son (7) fell asleep at the table. This would not be the last time and he had a reputation for it by the time the cruise was over.

My older son, Kane, and I decided to walk around and check some things out while my husband watched over Aidan sleeping and we decided to meet at the room at 1:30pm.

I love the look of the ship. I just read a review where someone said it was tacky. I thought it was the least tacky of any Carnival ship I had been on and I loved the painting replicas that would separate the tables and seating areas outside the Normandie dining room and along that area. I thought it was cool. I also really loved the atrium and the windows on each floor facing into the atrium.

 

 

 

 

more coming.........

[libbyonthelabel]

We had 2 8G balconies, 5112 and 5110. We were able to open the divider between them which created an amazing space. I went to Guest Services to request this and I felt bad for the woman going down the line helping people. It seemed there were some serious issues about unexpected room bumps. I wouldn’t want her job!

I was wondering how much of a difference an extended balcony would make and it was amazing! In my opinion from here on out, I will do inside rooms or extended balconies. It will depend on whether it is a splurge trip or an extra cost effective trip.

 

 

 

 

[libbyonthelabel]

Muster was seriously delayed, by about an hour, but there wasn’t an announcement so people were waiting and waiting. My husband happened to hear that there were delays from someone official so we went back to room until we did hear an announcement. They said there waiting for a busload of people and that they were still loading the ship. Muster was pretty uneventful, rained a bit and then it was over.

We signed the kids up for Camp Carnival and went to Dinner. We were table 286 in the lower level. We actually were in a sort of separate room. From the outside it looks like a separate dining area because it says Captain’s Club but it actually an extension of the dining room. I was initially disappointed because I like being part of the main dining room but it eventually felt more intimate. Our waiters were Thomas from India and Jaime from Peru. Jaime is already back in Peru and left early the day of debarkation and Thomas is leaving this Saturday. So, unfortunately they are gone but maybe we will run into them on another ship because they were great. They were so good to the kids and after the first night I never had to ask for a cappuccino again, as Jaime would always just bring it. They were the best dining team we ever had!

Isnan was our room steward and he also was very accommodating. He kept our cooler filled with ice and was very pleasant.

Camp Carnival – We had one in the 6-8’s and that was a great experience for our son. There were some very warm and nice counselors in that group. I was less impressed with the 9-11 group. The counselors weren’t great and seemed to be a little overwhelmed by the spring break crowd. We were told that when the group got too big, they bring in more counselors and maybe this needed to happen. My 9 year old came back the first day with a huge deep scratch under his eye from a girl who kept whipping her sign and sail card in his face. Based on what he says it was a bossy group. Also, their communicating of the details was lacking. We LOVED camp carnival on the Triumph in February; it was such an amazing experience. This time it was just okay. We got Kane to go back and encouraged him to give it another try and he was able to have some fun, but it was never going to be as good as the Triumph.

[libbyonthelabel]

Food- I thought the food was great! My only mediocre meal at dinner was the flat iron steak. It had good flavor but it was tough. The rest of the meals were awesome. I had prime rib, bowtie pasta, pork, filet, penne pasta….and I loved the warm chocolate melting cake but for some reason I always feel like total garbage after I eat it so I mixed it up more this time. My favorite on the Triumph was the Bitter and Blanc and it was just as good this time.

Dining Room – We loved Thomas and Jaime and the dining room was fun. It was great service, even with my son falling asleep 3 different times. We got pictures with several different people behind my sleeping son.

 

 

 

Proof he didn't always sleep......

 

 

[libbyonthelabel]

Infirmary- Yes, we had an opportunity to visit the ship’s doctor more than once. My 7 year old was running a fever the first night and it turns out he ruptured his eardrum. He never complains, so we didn’t know anything was wrong. And then my husband felt ill and went a day later. It was a different issue, a chronic bronchial issue he has. He said that this doctor was the best doctor he had ever seen and spent 45 minutes with my husband. Thumbs up for the ship’s doctor. This doctor even sent some informational sheets to the room with information my husband might find interesting.

Shows- We missed a lot of shows. We had a tendency to turn in early and I would always get up by 6am, especially on port days. But we saw Vroom which was pretty good and we saw Wonderful World again and it was better this time. We also finally saw the Legends show and that was a lot of fun. But yes, my 7 year old fell asleep during it.

San Juan – This is not my favorite port and we did an average tour last time and decided to just walk around a little this time. We spent most of the time at the pier looking at the ships.

 

View from our room.....

 

 

 

Hanging out at the pier.....

 

[libbyonthelabel]

St. Thomas – We loved St Thomas last time and had done the mini boat excursions with the snorkeling. So, this time we decided to tour St. Thomas and do the mini boat/ snorkeling excursion in St. Maarten. We originally booked a tour with Air Force 1 Fun Tours. But they cancelled a few days before we left. So, I booked Sunny Liston instead. I had always wanted to book them but when I use to go to their site it would crash my computer, this time no problems and we were scheduled for an 11am pick up time since I didn’t want to do a ton of shopping. Well, this was the first time I had booked an excursion outside of Carnival and the kids were in Camp Carnival, so I was nervous about it. And when they didn’t show up for another 40 minutes, I was starting to make a back-up plan. But they showed up and apparently they were picking up people from the Glory and it was taking them a long time to get off the ship. Gie Gie was very apologetic and we were tense from wondering what our plan for the day was going to be but we relaxed and it was a blast!! The tour was great but with 3 or 4 trucks of people it made the stops where Sunny would talk very crowded. I could never see what he was talking about. There were a lot of people! But we would just get a drink when we could and clapped and sang to the songs and didn’t sweat it. It was fun and it was a good deal for $25.00 a person. We stopped at Sapphire beach which was nice, but I am yet to find that beach that blows me away! The water is always amazing. Last time we went to Orient, so I feel Sapphire was nicer and if we had the kids since this time there were fewer waves which made it a much better swimming beach than Orient. We were starting to cut it a little close in getting back to the ship so they put us on a taxi to head back. Overall, it was a really nice tour.

We bought a bottle of liquor in St Thomas and put it in our bag. They never asked us about it and we took it straight up to our room.

 

Accidentally put the St. Maarten Pics first.....so St. Thomas pics will come in next post.....

 

St. Maarten – I booked the mini boat excursion through Shore Trips because we really wanted to snorkel. We got to start and every person was from the Celebrity Solstice. They had all booked it on their ship. But they all had the Jeep Safari and Mini Boat Combo. We only had the Mini Boat/ Snorkel portion. So they told us we could do the whole island tour and Jeep excursion for nothing extra if we wanted. We were not expecting that so we went for it. That tour was fun but you had to be on top of your driving and stick close together. Turns out everyone paid 120.00 per person and we paid 59.00 per person. So, it was good deal, especially when we added on the Jeep part we didn’t have to pay for. The Jeep part was a blast and we had a ton of fun and I am super glad we did it. The mini boats were not as nice as the boats through Captain Nautica in St. Thomas and it was overall a bumpier ride. But the disappointment was really in the fact that this was not a snorkel trip at all. They took us to a swimming beach and gave us masks and snorkels, no fins. My husband and I were the only two who never swam to the beach and got out. We were there for the water but we saw two tiny fish the whole time. We saw more pop cans on the sandy floor than we saw fish. This was not a snorkel excursion. So, the plus was we got the Jeep portion as an add-on. The minus was the snorkeling experience was non-existent. But still, we love the water, so we just swam around and had fun.

[libbyonthelabel]

Sapphire Beach....

 

 

Magen's Bay........

 

 

 

This was a great cruise and I spent a lot of time reading on my balcony. We were right below the bridge, so I would occasionally wave to them up there while getting some sun and reading my book. It was funny! I loved the location of our room and we felt like we were taking a chance being a few doors down from camp carnival. While this was convenient for us, we realized it could be loud. But it was really only loud when there was big sign-in or sign-out time and many times we were apart of that. It helped that there were not any cabins across the hall.

We had a blast but we are pretty easy to please overall. We just love being on a cruise so even when things go wrong we keep it in perspective.

Debarkation was easy as we put our luggage out the night before and were not in a rush to get off the ship as we were driving. We were Zone 20 and were off the ship by 9:30am.

[libbyonthelabel]

This is Thomas and Jaime.....just because they deserve it!!!

 

[libbyonthelabel]

I am surprised I left out any mention of the cruise director. Well, I guess it is because he wasn't that memorable. The CD was Mark Price and while he seemed nice enough, he just wasn't that good. I heard he is retiring and he also mentioned that he had been under the weather part of the cruise. I mention this in the effort to be fair. I don't like slamming any one person in a public forum, especially when I know they try very hard. But we had Jorge Solano on the Triumph(last cruise in my memory) and he was soooo good. We would go to things just to see Jorge. The opposite was true of this cruise. I felt like I could miss things because we were not impressed. He had a few good one liners I had heard before.....but he was ok at best.

[vacruizer]

Thank you so much for the review and the wonderful pictures! I've been anxiously awaiting some reports of the Pride since she came back to the East Coast.

 

Only 24 more days to go before we sail her from Baltimore! :D

[monkeyface]

Thanks for sharing your great trip. It makes me even more excited about my trip in the summer on the Pride!!:D

[LadyLuc361]

Thanks for the review! I am sailing on the pride in 30 days, yippee :D

 

You mentioned you had cappaccino after dinner in the dining room. Was this included or did you pay extra for it?

 

I'm a newbie so I am trying to make sure I know what's included and whats not! :)

[LUPY48]

Cappucino and expresso are included.

[kids1stcruise]

how did the boys enjoy this cruise? my boys are 16 and 13 we have been on 3 other cruises last one on liberty--i am nervous about the pride knowing it is smaller--please give more review of the ship

[cruisefanatic01]

It really makes me nervous that your son came back with a big cut under his eye from some kid. Does Camp Carnival not keep a close eye on what the kids are doing?

[travelqueen10]

I am surprised I left out any mention of the cruise director. Well, I guess it is because he wasn't that memorable. The CD was Mark Price and while he seemed nice enough, he just wasn't that good. I heard he is retiring and he also mentioned that he had been under the weather part of the cruise. I mention this in the effort to be fair. I don't like slamming any one person in a public forum, especially when I know they try very hard. But we had Jorge Solano on the Triumph(last cruise in my memory) and he was soooo good. We would go to things just to see Jorge. The opposite was true of this cruise. I felt like I could miss things because we were not impressed. He had a few good one liners I had heard before.....but he was ok at best.

 

 

Thanks for the great review, how was the dress on formal nights?

[libbyonthelabel]

It really makes me nervous that your son came back with a big cut under his eye from some kid. Does Camp Carnival not keep a close eye on what the kids are doing?

 

 

I didn't like it either and when we went again I made sure they knew. I think this was a case of it being spring break and the camp carnival being on max capacity. But that doesn't mean I am at all excusing it. But it was absolutely not this way on the Triumph in Feb.

There were some bossy kids in this group that dictated some group activity and that irritated my son.

[libbyonthelabel]

Thanks for the great review, how was the dress on formal nights?

 

Formal night was one of the dressiest I have seen (only my 4th cruise). I did not see one polo shirt. And there were lots of formal dresses. I am more of a dressy pants gal, but I fit right in. I always shoot for middle of the pack and I was right there....lol.

 

But it was nice to see so many dressed up people.

[libbyonthelabel]

how did the boys enjoy this cruise? my boys are 16 and 13 we have been on 3 other cruises last one on liberty--i am nervous about the pride knowing it is smaller--please give more review of the ship

 

I don't think I am best at answering this since this was my biggest ship. But there was one point where we were walking along Atlantic deck where all the shops were, just past that is the coffee bar and then the stairs to the piano bar.....my husband looked at me and said "Did everyone get off the ship without telling us?" It was that empty. And the ship was full, it was spring break. But I never felt the crowds. Except for around the pools of course. Chairs were always taken....but such is life. But I remember on the Triumph, we had to get to shows 40 min early to get a good seat. But on the Pride, there are much better balcony seats with great great views and the theatre was big, so we could get there 10-15 min early and still get a good seat.

 

I felt the ship was big....

 

My boys loved the cruise, but they are younger than yours so I am not sure what these cruises are like for the average teen. But I am sure others can chime in. But I did notice lots of groups of teens walking around and they didn't seem to cause probelms. They all seemed pleasant enough with very few exceptions and seemed to be having fun. I did witness a few teen boys cruising past a few teen girls (13-14ish) at the mermaids grille and the boys were eyeing them saying "hey" "hey" and then the girls said "hey" giggle giggle.....it was actually pretty cute and very well behaved.

[libbyonthelabel]

Thanks for the review! I am sailing on the pride in 30 days, yippee :D

 

You mentioned you had cappaccino after dinner in the dining room. Was this included or did you pay extra for it?

 

I'm a newbie so I am trying to make sure I know what's included and whats not! :)

 

Yes, as another poster mentioned Cappuccino at dinner is free and I don't miss it.

[mistyinca]

Love the review and pics! We're thinking of doing the caribbean next time, and those pics of that water are really making me want to go!

[LuckieStar6]

Thanks for your review. my wife and i will be sailing on the Pride on July 3rd, out of Baltimore. we live only 20 minutes from the port so it is very convenient. This will be our 8th cruise (only one other was out of Baltimore), the 3rd on Carnival. We've done 3 on Princess and 2 on Royal Caribbean. The cruise is to Port Canaveral, Freeport and Nassau. We've been to Freeport twice before. Did the shore excursion to Port Lucaya & Dolphin Encounter the first time. The second time we took a cab to Port Lucaya and went to the beach at the Sheraton Our Lucaya beach. Bothe times were great but this time we'd like to do something different. Can anyone recommend something. Thanks

[michelle1836]

Thanks for your review of the Pride. We are sailing on her in July for our first cruise ever and cant wait!!

[sunnylasvegas]

We just got off the Pride a little over two weeks ago after our 14-day Panama Canal Transit, Long Beach to Miami.

 

The OP mentioned that someone said the Pride was "tacky." I'd really love to talk to this person "in person." We've been on the Valor and the Elation, and we both thought the Pride was the most beautiful ship we've been on.

 

Also, we saw the CD, Mark Price, every day for the 14 days! We were all amazed that he could keep up his charming, funny personality that long! I guess everyone has their bad weeks. But, we all loved Mark. I guess you were see what these people are made of when you see them in action for 14 days in a row! Oh, we asked a lot of questions of our DR servers and drink servers. We often saw out head server, Ahmad, in the buffet area at 9am. He was serving us at 9PM! He told is they have a few hours off during the day. But, he was with us---happy, smiling, and efficient, every night for 14 days. It's really amazing when you stop and think about what these folks go through! They deserve every penny they get!!!

[sunnylasvegas]

how did the boys enjoy this cruise? my boys are 16 and 13 we have been on 3 other cruises last one on liberty--i am nervous about the pride knowing it is smaller--please give more review of the ship

 

Smaller?!----I thought the Pride was huge!!! Loved it and found it very easy to get around! Loved it!!!