I regularly receive free premier cruises from Carnival and that is why we chose this particular sailing. It's tough to beat free, but if I had to pay for my Carnival cruises, I would really have to look carefully at the value vs the experience from now on.

This was our first time cruising out of Baltimore and it was by far the worst port we have ever sailed from. We arrived at the port at 11:30 am, waited in a line of cars for 20 minutes, only to be told once we got to the parking lot that we couldn't come in yet and would have to drive back around and get back into the line. I've sailed out almost every other port Carnival has and have never experienced that problem. We circled back around and were finally allowed to park at about 12:30. The line to pay was extremely long as well. Once we finally got inside the terminal the chaos continued. We have priority boarding but it doesn't seem to matter much in Baltimore. The line was crazy long and when we finally got through security they funneled all of the priority folks into a tiny room. There was one lady just telling people to sit down and that she would come get our boarding passes at some point and the direct us to one of two people working at the counter. When all was said and done we waited about an hour in that room before even being allowed to check in! It was just a terribly run operation.

Once we got on board, things got better. Our room was ready and set up just as we had asked. Our room steward greeted us warmly and gave us the option of morning, evening or both for service. We chose both and never had an issue. He did a great job and we saw him often. The Pride, in my opinion, is a very pretty ship and is very easy to navigate. We never felt crowded on this small ship. The food options were all fine. We ate at the steakhouse twice, Bonsai Sushi once, the Lido Buffet once and the main dining room the other nights. The service in the main dining room wasn't awful but it was also far from spectacular. Read more