This was our 2nd cruise with Carnival and the first on the Pride. We choose Baltimore as our departure point for convenience and price. The cruise ship itself was quite nice. The decorations were quite tasteful and we had no problems with them at all. The staff, on the other hand, were not as good as we had hoped. This was very evident whenever we were in the Main Dining Room. We had lots of problems with the waiters getting our orders wrong. Staff seemed poorly trained. Often they would bring the wrong item to the table, forget to bring some components of the meal to the table, forget to get the dessert menu, refill water or bring fresh bread. The food was also sub-par...often under or over done. Some of the meat tasted old and rolls were often stale or burned. I am still trying to understand the policy for the MDR also. We had two formal nights, one night my son was allowed in with bermuda type shorts, the other night he was turned away. All I wanted was consistency!!!. Also the loud and obnoxious drunk was allowed to enter no problem. This included his partner who couldn't stand or walk by herself because she was so drunk!! Toast should be toasted and not just slightly warmed up bread. It really seemed that many of the crew were new and didn't quite understand their jobs. My final rant on this trip. It took us almost 3 days (crusing at a comfortable 12-15 knots) to get to our first port of call (Cape Canaveral) but only 1 1/2 days to return to Baltimore from Freeport. The Captain was pushing the ship hard on our return trip (22-23 knots). The poor ship was rattling from bow to stern . I would have preferred a slower return. Save the "Mad Dash" for getting into the warm weather and not the return to snow and ice.