First and foremost I have been on many cruises with Royal Caribbean (including the newer Oasis fleet) so as I might be biased, I will explain at the bottom some of the differences I found. My mom, dad, brother and sisters have never been on a cruise so I decided to take a look at the Carnival Pride since we live in Northern VA and it is easy to get to B-More. Three months ago I went on the Enchantment of the Seas (5 night) with RC and my GF went on a 9 night cruise with Norwegian with her family a month ago, both out of Baltimore, so I choose the Pride to give ourselves some variety. Boy was that a mistake, so being a natural cruiser I hyped cruising in general to my family, saying it would be the best vacation our family has ever taken. So lets begin......

Coming onto the boat:

Nothing, nada, no splash, no grand entrance....no welcoming party and no one there to get you excited about your next 7 days. You walk into the boat and you are on your own, go to your room or explore. As I walked down the halls it was odd, the hallways for rooms were narrow as expected but every time we passed a section for steps and elevator you would never know because that area was so small as well. The decor made it feel like I was in the hotel where Stephen Kings book turned movie "the shining" was filmed. Dark, musky weird decor which continued throughout the boat. The navigation of the boat at first is tough too since everything is so enclosed, every hall way looks identical and so does every deck. Finding my entire party was quite the adventure but eventually we ended up at Mermaid's grill (buffet area). Read more