Carnival Pride Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,595 reviews

28 Feb. PRIDE out of Baltimore- We'd do it again!

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Carnival Pride
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MenBobbyMcGee
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Feb 2010

DON'T WORRY! Being a big lurker of the Cruise Critic reviews, I started feeling a little stressed about sailing out of Baltimore....for NO REASON! The Port of Baltimore is a wonderfully convenient facility with friendly, helpful staff that got us on board within 20 min.of being dropped off by the Country Inn & Suites BWI (great pre-cruise hotel) shuttle service. STATS: We are a married couple in our 40's traveling with 4 other family members, all of us non-smokers. This was our 4th cruise- 3rd with Carnival. GOOD FOR LOCALS: This cruise really is the most advantageous for people who don't have to fly to Baltimore. If you live within a couple of hours drive time to Baltimore and want an affordable winter break to meet up with people you like to hang out with, then you can't go wrong. Caveat: during the winter, you KNOW it's not going to be a tropical escape- you might get lucky with some sun here & there in the Bahamas, but really, it's best to think of this as a "cruise to nowhere" with some stops as a bonus. Don't book this cruise in the WINTER and expect this to be the "Vacation of a Lifetime"- that would be an unreasonable expectation. FELLOW PASSENGERS: There was a diverse group of all ages, sizes etc. so it made for good people watching. We hung out with some fun Canadians who enjoyed the Gold medal hockey game....sigh.... CREW: SUPER FRIENDLY-Even more so than on the VALOR last June and didn't think that was possible.We seemed to run into the Captain & officers quite a bit. PRIDE VS VALOR: We both agreed we preferred the slightly smaller PRIDE. It had the same size of amenities (minus one MDR + one larger lounge) with around a thousand less passengers, so we really felt like we had the run of the ship.

GYM: I liked the layout better on the PRIDE VS the VALOR and was there at 6am every morning when they opened to avoid the crowds. SEASICKNESS: We were lucky that we avoided the "Snowmageddon" period, so we had fairly smooth sailing. Only one in our party needed some meds on the last night. We DID have to go full speed during the second sea day due to a passenger with a serious, but stable medical situation, so we arrived early in Port Canaveral. DECOR: We share the opinion of previous reviewers that the main atrium resembles Disney's Haunted Mansion, but it was okay & amused us. We didn't mind any of the decor; we don't get to Vegas often, so it was like a "Vegas Cruise" for us. You're on vacation PEOPLE! RELAX a little. The decor in our stateroom was exactly the same as on the VALOR- so no surprises there. DINING: We managed to always find something we liked in the buffet & complimentary room service for lunch & breakfast. For dinner we chose "Your Choice" dining which worked well for our diverse party of 6. We had to wait sometimes, but only because we requested our favorite server Roselle & her hard working team at "our" round table for 6. We enjoyed our favorite "Rooster" wine (Rex Goliath) with most of our entrees. Our party of 6 went to David's on the last night to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary and managed to go through 2 bottles of the "Rooster". We were hesitant about the extra $30. per person when we'd enjoyed the MDR so much, but we appreciated the FAB dining experience & decor of David's and agreed it was worth it. OBSTRUCTED VIEW BALCONY CABIN: This was our 4th cruise and the first in a balcony cabin and were very happy with it. The top of the lifeboat was actually even with the floor of our balcony, so we could see everything just fine. DON'T FORGET YOUR BUNGEE CORD to keep the door open! This advice from CC reviews really helped us to enjoy our balcony & fresh air. My Hubby managed to see a pod of dolphins trying to keep up with us! We hosted family sunset cocktail hours in the room pre-dinner a couple of nights, so that was nice. The only irritation was that our neighbors seemed to smoke day & night. Carnival needs to consider designating one deck of cabins on each vessel JUST FOR SMOKERS. Most hotels don't allow smoking at all anymore and if so, they isolate it to just one floor or a few rooms. CABIN SERVICE: Our cabin attendant "Novi" & her assistant were excellent and went above and beyond to meet our requests. It was always fun to come back from dinner to see what new towel creature was awaiting us. When Novi saw our pitiful attempts at chilling our large bottle of champagne, she brought in a huge ice bucket and planted our bottle of bubbly right in there. The gratuities are included in the tipping package, but we always like to give extra $ on the side to those that go above & beyond. PHOTOS: This was a family get-together vacay, so there were plenty of photo-ops. The photogs weren't as aggressive and pervasive as on our June trip aboard the VALOR, so that was appreciated. Our family members were happy with the photos and purchased quite a few. The process needs to be streamlined and apparently Carnival is working on this issue to upgrade the system. SHOWS/ENTERTAINMENT: The comedians were OKAY. We thought the ones on the VALOR last June were a lot funnier. We never made it to the production shows, but heard they were good. Went to Karaoke one night and got my man to sing "No Woman No Cry", so that was a fun time. We liked the atmosphere in the "Starry Nights Lounge" better than the "Eagles Lounge" on the VALOR, because it had a nice Van Gogh theme and had more of a cafe feel. The various live music acts around the ship were all pretty good. The hip-hop dance team always put on a good show. LIBRARY/GAME Check-out: The hours are horrible; sign-out is only for a couple hours a day, so be sure to bring your travel Scrabble, good books etc. to enjoy just being on the ocean. Not sure if Carnival will improve this, as there is not a profit incentive there....not being critical- just understand capitalism. INTERNET: We purchased the 100min. plan for around $55. The service is hit & miss, but we managed. CASINO: We played the slots a lot more on this cruise, due to the chilly weather & not having an itinerary-driven schedule. Yes, it was hard for us non-smokers, but we were prepared for that after reading the reviews and tried to play earlier in the day. People seemed to be having a good time and one of our party even won a $500 Jackpot. I made it to the finals in the slot tournament and got a T-shirt for my troubles. I was also picked at random to spin the "Wheel of Prizes" one night & won........wait for it.......another T-shirt :) Even though we played slots a lot more on this cruise, we somehow ended up a little ahead, so can't complain. SAIL & SIGN: Check your account DAILY- get any discrepancies resolved ASAP. PAST GUEST RECEPTION: This was held in the "Taj Mahal" show lounge with the Captain & officers in the entry hall greeting everyone as they were entering the party. We enjoyed a few complimentary cocktails and live music. They showed a nice Carnival promo piece about the history of the company......Yes, we "drank the Kool-Aid"......don't judge us.....did I mention there were free drinks?! PORTS: In Port Canaveral we met up in Cocoa Beach ($10pp RT shuttle) with relatives we hadn't seen in 10 years, so we had a nice day despite the weather not cooperating. Nassau was VERY windy & cold, so we just checked out Atlantis ($8.pp RT taxi+tip) and wrote postcards. Freeport had the best weather & was the best port day of all. We caught the ($8 pp RT+tip) shuttle to the "Our Lucaya" resort area and had a really great time just hanging out with family at the beautiful beach and having a couple drinks. We would have done the snorkeling excursion, if we didn't have to be back on the PRIDE by 1.30pm. DEBARKATION: This was painless- we weren't on a tight schedule, so we just hung out on the LIDO and waited for our zone # to be called- after that, it only took 10min. to get our luggage & exit the terminal. RATES: We snagged a great rate, super service + $50.OBC per cabin with Ian at "Cruise Direct." We originally booked with Luis @ Carnival who was very helpful & informative, but he couldn't match the OBC offer.

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