Pride 6 day review with pictures - 5/17-5/23

[vacruizer]

Not to dwell on the negative -again, our cruise was excellent in every other way, but now I have to ask, who was your waiter? This is exactly what happened to us. No water, no rolls, no attention. Even when we asked for water, he told us he was too busy! The assistant waiter was not be seen for long streches of time and maybe the head waiter was just annoyed with being asked to do those kinds of things. But not even in cheapo land restaurants have we actually been denied water when we asked for it! I guess the real rub was that they did have time for the song and dance numbers but I would really have prefered to have had better dining service than watch them dance.

 

Again, this was THE only complaint we had with an otherwise perfect cruise. But I was wondering if we just happened to have the same waiter team and maybe the rest of the dining room had Carnival's normally wonderful service.

 

 

I think his name was Ireneo? We saw so little of him that I'm not sure. I, too, don't like to dwell on the negative but while we've noted that dining service has been rushed and not as attentive our last few cruises, it was nothing like this where we were just ignored. The asst. we saw even less - it does almost sound like the same team. Our head waiter was spending lots of time joking and laughing and bringing the other 3 tables multiple entrees, doing napkin tricks for them, taking pictures, etc. but he would actually look away as he walked by our table. He would almost fling our food on the table and turn and walk away very quickly before we could ask for anything else (like water!) :eek: Things kind of came to a head on our last night - more on that later when I get to Friday's section of the review.

 

I think the singing and dancing is fun but it was always well prior to that that we were sitting there with empty plates and glasses and feeling a bit left out seeing him interact so much with the other tables. I can't for the life of me think of anything we or our table mates would have done to offend him - no special requests or anything, I always make it a point to smile and say hello and say thank you for everything so not sure what was up? Maybe we were an additional table added to him that he didn't want to deal with? :confused:

[spaceystacie2006]

Hi Vacruizer,

 

Great report!!! Thanks for the pics....

I'll need them, seeing we lost our camera:(!

 

BTW...Staying on deck 1, we felt like we stepped on the set of

"Most Dangerous Catch"...

Along with the 60 knot winds, The waves were breaking ABOVE our ocean view window. From the ship/water level, it had to be 30 feet high.

 

Evidently, CD Kirk and Asst. CD Jamie are an item...so it was implied during the Q and A session:D

 

Keep it up!

 

Mike

 

I have over 700 pictures I can share with you as well if you would like some please let me know at spaceystacie2006 @ yahoo.com here is a link to our pictures

http://www.photoshop.com/user/spaceystacie2006/?trackingid=BTAGC&galleryid=9a98672947e945c0aac2197956422f1c&wf=share

[livestocruisetoo]

Hi Vacruizer,

 

Great report!!! Thanks for the pics....

I'll need them, seeing we lost our camera:(!

 

BTW...Staying on deck 1, we felt like we stepped on the set of

"Most Dangerous Catch"...

Along with the 60 knot winds, The waves were breaking ABOVE our ocean view window. From the ship/water level, it had to be 30 feet high.

 

Evidently, CD Kirk and Asst. CD Jamie are an item...so it was implied during the Q and A session:D

 

Keep it up!

 

Mike

 

All of the above!!! :eek:

[trock]

LOL - not in the slightest. It's art. There are various reproductions of many famous works of art around the ship including a full statue of Michelangelo's David in the supper club. The halls where the cabins are also have line drawings of various nudes. It's was all perfectly tasteful and really one of Carnival's more subdued ships decor wise.

 

The human body only becomes a big deal if we make it that way.

 

 

Great photos great review!

I WAS JOKING.. there is a current thread about this ship right now.. the man is afraid to take his kids due to the art.. LOL

We should give hime your great link!!!

 

Have a DOD!!!!

[vacruizer]

Great photos great review!

I WAS JOKING.. there is a current thread about this ship right now.. the man is afraid to take his kids due to the art.. LOL

We should give hime your great link!!!

 

Have a DOD!!!!

 

I know you were joking :) - I got some good laughs out of that thread! Was starting to wonder if I'll get in trouble if I post my picture of the Supper Club here! :p

 

I really didn't think there were any more nudes around than on any other ship we've been on - I probably wouldn't have even noticed if people hadn't mentioned them so much here.

[trock]

I know you were joking :) - I got some good laughs out of that thread! Was starting to wonder if I'll get in trouble if I post my picture of the Supper Club here! :p

 

I really didn't think there were any more nudes around than on any other ship we've been on - I probably wouldn't have even noticed if people hadn't mentioned them so much here.

LOL!

 

Just enjoy!!!!

[megr1125]

great review and pix.............can't wait for the rest.

 

helps fill the time til we cruise on Pride in November.

[vacruizer]

Friday dawned with calm seas and clear skies. We lounged around most of the morning trying to avoid the slightly melancholy feeling I always get on the last day. You know when you come back to your room and the luggage mat is out on the bed along with the comment cards and your debarkation tags that it’s almost over. I decided to go to the dining room for lunch while DH went to yet another trivia game. Later in the afternoon Kirk & Jaime hosted a Ship Life Q & A session where people can ask questions about life on the ship for the crew. I’ve been to a few of these done by “Karl with a K” when we sailed the Liberty and they are always interesting for those of us who are into ship stuff. Most questions are fair game as long as they don’t have to do with salaries/wages or corporate operations.

When the Q & A ended around 3pm, we knew the time had finally come to pack up. Once that was done we spent a few hours wandering the ship and just enjoying our last bit of time out on the water. We managed to win a second ship on a stick at trivia as well. Before we knew it, dinner time had arrived. It was just the two of us again and DH was excited because it was Grand Marnier Soufflé night – his favorite after the Warm Chocolate Melting cake! I was all ready to video the last night’s song – the “you’re leaving our fun ship” song always makes me cry!

We sat down to dinner and watched as our waiter gave menus and water to the other three tables and left. It was just the two of us again so we didn’t have much to do other than sit there and watch. Then the assistant came by and gave bread to the other three tables. We watched as he then took the orders for the other tables. Once he was done with that he finally came to us to bring us water and menus.

I ordered the crab cake (had it on the Glory and it was really good) and the chicken mushroom fettucine (I always like any of Carnival’s pasta dishes.) My DH ordered a salad, a shrimp cocktail, and the flat iron steak. Then the waiting began. We watched as all the other tables ate their appetizers. About the time they were done ours showed up. This turned out to be the only time all week the food wasn’t good. There was just an “off” smell to my crabcake.

I have never in all our cruises sent a dish back, and I think my DH has only done it once for a steak – we are usually pretty happy with whatever. I tried and tried to get the waiters attention to see if I could get the Mango soup instead but he wouldn’t come over to the table. He finally arrived, yanked away my completely uneaten crabcake with no comment or question that I hadn’t eaten and dumped my DH’s shrimp on the table. At this point we were actually getting a little aggravated and it takes a LOT for us to get that way. Entrees were unceremoniously dumped in front of us a while later. I asked for more water and got no response – he just turned and walked away. Meanwhile, every few minutes he would reach behind him and grab some of the unused place settings from our table and use them when he needed extra silverware or glasses or napkins at the other tables! I thought that was a bit rude and also poses a sanitation issue – who knew if we’d touched or sneezed on those things! Sadly my pasta was so cold the cream sauce had congealed and my Dh’s steak was very overcooked and mostly fat. So we sat for another long while staring at our uneaten dishes – couldn’t get our waiter to come over and he never once checked on us. My DH finally said that for the first time in 7 cruises, he just wished a meal in the dining room was over with. After another 10 minutes or so, we decided to just leave and go find something at the buffet. We didn’t want to complain to the Maitre’d at that point since it was the last night and didn’t want to look like the people who are just trying to get out of a tip. So as we stood up to leave, for the first time in 6 days our waiter suddenly came rushing over with his hand out this time. He then finally asked if everything was ok and when we told him the food was not ok he just shrugged and told us good-bye and walked away. I was astounded. I know this is NOT the norm but was really glad this wasn’t our first cruise or we may never have tried the dining room again. Again, not sure what the issue was but wish our last meal in the dining room could have ended better.

We did get to catch the last part of the “liar’s club” show in the main lounge since we left dinner early and that was a hoot. After that we thought we’d check out the disco and piano bar but for some reason the ship was completely dead. It was almost creepy how no one was around! There were 4 people in the disco at that point. So we went up to the aft pool area and just enjoyed being at sea again and watching the coastline of North Carolina appear again on the port side. By midnight we were up north of the Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach but still hadn’t reached the bridge tunnel so we gave up and called it a night. It did appear that either a Navy or Coast Guard ship escorted us most of the way up the coast after dark – they matched our speed and course exactly but I couldn’t tell much more about the ship in the dark other than it had the shape of a Navy vessel.

I didn't really take any pictures on Friday so thought I'd share a few more from around the ship. I've lost track of which ones I've posted already so sorry if any of these are repeats!

 

 

 

 

[vacruizer]

Saturday morning we got up around 7am knowing the end was near. I really liked that the Baltimore sailings don’t come into port until 10am – it made debarkation morning much less rushed. You could stay out the night before, sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast and relax as you watched the beautiful sights of the Chesapeake Bay go by. It was sunny, hot, and muggy outside - the warmest day of the cruise so far!

We came to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge right around 8am. Try to be up on the funnel deck if you can – the view was spectacular from there!

Around 9:15 we reached the Key Bridge.

We docked right at 10am and first call for early flight self debark was around 10:20am. The vast majority of the ship seemed to want to self debark which really slowed things down. We camped out on deck 3 and spent a lot of time watching to ship being unloaded and reloaded for the next sailing and then sat inside in the piano bar for a while. We had done regular debarkation and had #7 luggage tags. General debarkation finally started about 11:40 or so. We were in the second group called and stepped off the ship right at 12:05. Not sure how long it took to complete the debarkation but it seemed to go pretty quickly from there since so many people did self assist. We hit the road, sat in a bunch of beltway traffic, and finally made it home right around 6pm that night.

[vacruizer]

Overall we had a fantastic cruise and count it as one of our best. Yes, we did have some service issues and I made sure to note on my comment card the areas (mainly dining and room steward) where I thought things could have been better. But I also refuse to let that kind of stuff, or things beyond our control like weather ruin my vacation!

I am actually really glad we had the stormy weather and rough seas. I thought it was incredible to experience a different side of the ocean and marveled at how the seas changed, the beauty of the wind carrying the spray off the crests of the waves, and crashing of the waves on the ship’s hull.

It was also nice for a change to have nothing planned – no tours or excursions, no “must do” things (other than trivia – LOL!) It really gave us some much needed down time and relaxation.

A few general observations….

The ship is beautiful and spotlessly clean. There are a few areas of minor cosmetic wear and tear – some dinged up furniture, baseboards, elevator decorations but nothing horrible. I’m sure that stuff will probably be fixed in the next drydock.

The purser’s desk was fantastic – always pleasant and friendly. We had to visit them a few times – embarkation day to have our credit card reswiped as it didn’t take when they did it in the terminal, a few times to get the Capers for the next day our steward didn’t leave, and again when the button fell off our thermostat in the room and we couldn’t adjust the temperature. Each time we were greeted with a smile and everything was taken care of right away.

Most nights in the lobby there is a special drink table set up with a theme – margaritas, martinis, etc. The martini night was neat – they had an ice sculpture they poured your drink through and into the glass. This was the second elegant night where the seas were really rocking – it was fun trying to walk in heels and balance a martini glass! I did find a nearby weather bouy reading off the coast of Florida that reported 18 foot seas that evening! The martini there was probably the best drink I had all cruise. Overall the drinks were very weak onboard and I’m a complete lightweight so it’s got to be weak for me not to feel it! I had some other martinis ordered from other areas around the ship over the week that weren't nearly as good.

Drink prices are up a fair bit – most martinis will now run over $10 with tip along with mojitos, long islands, and that type thing. Most others like the fruity drinks or plain mixed drinks were running $7-10 with tip.

If any of you smoke and live where tobacco is cheap like Virginia – take them with you. Prices were actually more expensive onboard than they are in Virginia running $65 more for a 5 carton pack than they were on the Glory in January. I think the price was $159.95 for 5 cartons or 74.95 for 2 cartons. We ran into this last year as well – the Victory sailing from Norfolk had really inflated prices, then we sailed the Liberty in July and the Glory in January from Florida and prices were back down to what we remembered - around $85 or so for 5 cartons.

Also – anyone who is sensitive to smoke might want to avoid crossing deck 2 and use deck 3 instead. This class of ship you have to walk through the middle of the casino instead of along the edge. They do have some non-smoking tables and slots available, but it seemed poorly laid out with smoking allowed right along the walkway but not allowed back in the corner which made no sense to me. Doing just the opposite would probably have worked out better. There are only 4 indoor areas where smoking is allowed on the ship – the sports bar, casino, piano bar, and upper level only of the disco – dance floor level is non-smoking which is nice for those who don’t smoke. Starboard side of outdoor decks was also allowed. If you are sensitive try to stick to the port side.

The social hosts and entertainment team were great – they really tried to make things fun and seemed to enjoy their jobs.

I don’t want to dwell on the negative and say too much more about our dining experience, but I did notice looking around and at the open seating breakfast and lunch I went to that not many of the waitstaff looked happy when they weren’t directly interacting with a guest. I’ve worked in restaurants and this is usually a sign of bad management – maybe the F&B director will change soon and get things back together for the crew.

Other than that last night – all the food we had was excellent. The Lido in particular was very good. I usually find the Lido food kind of ho-hum but everything I tried was excellent. The Sushi bar was open each night down on deck 2 outside the sports bar from 5-8pm except the night of the Captain’s party. My DH had it quite a few nights and even got me to try a few things and I don’t like sushi! The shrimp and tuna nigiri were excellent!

Bar waiters were plentiful but didn’t always come and ask you if you wanted anything – they tended to stand back and wait for you to let them know you wanted something. Upstairs in the disco had no waiter service – you had to get drinks at the bar.

The shows in the main lounge each night were good, but I thought the other live music around the ship lacked variety with mostly just solo piano and guitar. We never made it to the piano bar but heard he was excellent.

All in all – it was a great cruise and I can’t wait to sail again! I would actually love to sail through some more storms – I thought it was much more interesting that glassy seas and was mesmerized watching the waves.

If anyone has any questions or thinks of something I didn’t address just let me know.

[MarylandLady]

Great review vacruiser!!! We decided to go with anytime dining on our cruise in July, so I hope we don't get your waiters!:eek:

[Lgarth]

What an awesome review and pictures that came along with it! Glad you had a great cruise despite the events in the dining room.

Thanks for sharing !

[crazycruzer68]

Great review, loved your pics. Funny thing, it's been raining here all day so I thought I would log on and look at some sunny beach shots, again just more rain!!

[vacruizer]

Great review, loved your pics. Funny thing, it's been raining here all day so I thought I would log on and look at some sunny beach shots, again just more rain!!

 

Sorry! I actually came to enjoy the rain and clouds after a while. :p

[vacruizer]

Great review vacruiser!!! We decided to go with anytime dining on our cruise in July, so I hope we don't get your waiters!:eek:

 

You should be good - we were on the other side of the upper level from the anytime dining! They have the upstairs split in half - when you enter the dining room the left is where you go in for anytime dining and the right is where you go for fixed seating. Lower level is all assigned seating as well.

[debbie83]

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this wonderful review! I've really enjoyed reading it. I'm looking forward to getting on this ship myself later in the summer. :D

[mommyloons2009]

Thanks for the review. I was down at the port on Saturday and saw the Pride return. I can't wait to go on board in less then 4 weeks. Since you did the same cruise as we are doing, do you happen to have the Capers.

 

Thanks

[vacruizer]

Thanks for the review. I was down at the port on Saturday and saw the Pride return. I can't wait to go on board in less then 4 weeks. Since you did the same cruise as we are doing, do you happen to have the Capers.

 

Thanks

 

I do have Capers and will work on getting them scanned and up. There was a scheduling mix-up on our cruise from what Kirk said at the Q & A on the last day with the second production show being Wednesday instead of on the second elegant night like it was supposed to be. So things could be a little different than the Capers I have.

[cruiser82]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review and post pictures. I'll be on the Pride in August so I'm trying to learn all I can about it!

[spaceystacie2006]

Thanks for the review. I was down at the port on Saturday and saw the Pride return. I can't wait to go on board in less then 4 weeks. Since you did the same cruise as we are doing, do you happen to have the Capers.

 

Thanks

 

I do have Capers and will work on getting them scanned and up. There was a scheduling mix-up on our cruise from what Kirk said at the Q & A on the last day with the second production show being Wednesday instead of on the second elegant night like it was supposed to be. So things could be a little different than the Capers I have.

 

 

I just posted Cspers before I saw this I also posted a bar menu!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=993057

[shellann]

I think his name was Ireneo? We saw so little of him that I'm not sure. I, too, don't like to dwell on the negative but while we've noted that dining service has been rushed and not as attentive our last few cruises, it was nothing like this where we were just ignored. The asst. we saw even less - it does almost sound like the same team. Our head waiter was spending lots of time joking and laughing and bringing the other 3 tables multiple entrees, doing napkin tricks for them, taking pictures, etc. but he would actually look away as he walked by our table. He would almost fling our food on the table and turn and walk away very quickly before we could ask for anything else (like water!) :eek: Things kind of came to a head on our last night - more on that later when I get to Friday's section of the review.

 

I think the singing and dancing is fun but it was always well prior to that that we were sitting there with empty plates and glasses and feeling a bit left out seeing him interact so much with the other tables. I can't for the life of me think of anything we or our table mates would have done to offend him - no special requests or anything, I always make it a point to smile and say hello and say thank you for everything so not sure what was up? Maybe we were an additional table added to him that he didn't want to deal with? :confused:

 

Then we did have a different team of waiters. We had Sergey and Budi(sp?). We did have a mix up and had to fiddle with our seating arrangements (DH and I were actually assigned to entirely different tables!) so we thought maybe having to switch people around might have increased their work load. But we did experience many of the issues you did too which does make it seem less like an isolated case. An overworked, busy waiter I can sympathize with, but he really made us feel like we were an inconvenience to him. We have never ever been made to feel like that before. Usually the staff bend over backwards to make everyone happy which is one of the great things we love about cruising -being pampered. I do believe that they were trying to stretch the wait staff a bit thin and I am sure it was as frustrating to our waiters to have to give subpar service as it was to us. I think next time we will try the Your Time Dining. Others in our group used that option and they had a very good experience.

 

To balance out all this negativity, let me add that David's Supper Club was exceptionally wonderful! Very attentive wait staff and phenomenal food!

[vacruizer]

I just posted Cspers before I saw this I also posted a bar menu!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=993057

 

Thanks! That saves me the trouble of scanning them in right now!

 

I am so not ready to face the real world again tomorrow! :p

[spaceystacie2006]

Thanks! That saves me the trouble of scanning them in right now!

 

I am so not ready to face the real world again tomorrow! :p

 

Me neither I wanna go back!LOL At least the house has stopped moving!

[vacruizer]

Me neither I wanna go back!LOL At least the house has stopped moving!

 

Oooh, not for me, yet. I always get it for 4 or 5 days after each cruise. I think it's worse this time from the rough seas. My DH thinks I'm crazy - he doesn't get it at all.

[Jeffy294]

Best review ever