Carnival Pride Review

A great time was had on the Pride!

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Carnival Pride
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Captain SteubMe
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Feb 2014
Traveled with children

By way of background, this was our 4th cruise, 3rd time on Carnival, and our first cruise in about 5 years. The other cruise we did was on Royal Caribbean, which we did not enjoy as much as we've enjoyed cruising on Carnival. On all the previous cruises, it's been me, my wife, my daughter, and my parents, but my parents died a few years ago, and my wife doesn't really care for cruising, so this time it was just me and my 14-year-old daughter.

First, a very helpful tip: I had been shopping around on the various travel websites for a cruise that matched up with my daughter's mid-winter recess. None of the sites was any cheaper than Carnival's own site, so I placed a 24-hour courtesy hold on this cruise at Carnival's site while I asked my wife one final time if she would come. It being tax season, she declined. In the meantime, I got a call back from a travel representative with Carnival, Deandra, who couldn't be nicer. I was looking for the absolute cheapest way for us to take a cruise, meaning, yes, I was willing to take a dreaded interior cabin. Deandra offered an upgrade that I hadn't been able to find online - for $10 apiece, we got upgraded from interior to a blocked view cabin. This means that we had a window - the French doors - and we were on the exterior of the ship, but we were right behind one of the lifeboats. But this was still pretty good. We got air, we got light, and we could stick our heads out and check the weather for the day. Sure a balcony is nice, but this "interior room" was well worth it.

Embarkation took a while. It seemed that the ship was a little late getting back into port from the previous cruise, so we didn't get on board until after 2pm, instead of around Noon, as we were hoping. No matter; that's quickly forgotten once you're on board and enjoying the luxury of the ship. The Baltimore port facility was okay; once the very long line started moving, we got to the front (check-in) very quickly, and then onboard right after that.

Cabin Review

"Interior with French Door" means that we had a blocked view cabin. This means that we had a window, we were on the exterior of the ship with French doors, but we were right behind one of the lifeboats. But, this was still pretty good. We got air, we got light, and we could stick our heads out and check the weather for the day. We even had a sliver of a view in between two lifeboats. Sure a balcony is nice, but this was well worth the savings. The cabin was a very standard one. It seemed exactly like the cabin we had had the last time we cruised on the Carnival Valor 5 years earlier. Standard small size, but big enough for the two of us. All the standard cabin amenities: two separate twin beds, nighttables, plenty of shelf and closet storage, room for our suitcases in the closets, plenty of hangers, mini-fridge stocked with drinks we didn't drink, but moved so we could store the odd piece of fruit or other goodie we had taken from lunch, a desk area with a small hair dryer in one of the drawers, a sitting area that included a couch (which can be used as a bed), chair, and table, a standard bathroom with plenty of shelving and counter space, a clothesline, etc. The one thing that was really lacking in the room was that there was just one outlet by the desk - one plug. When you've got computers, cellphones, rechargeable batteries for digital cameras, one plug just doesn't cut it. Be forewarned and bring a splitter and this won't be a problem. Also, the television was an old picture tube one, but it was perfectly fine. We watched the Olympics from our beds just fine on it. There was also an outlet for a shaver in the bathroom, but I didn't use that one, and it didn't work with the plugs for electronics, as it seemed to be the wrong size and was overhead.

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