Greetings! Here is my attempt to inform you about sailing on the Carnival Pride down the Mexican Riviera. I've been on several Carnival cruises, one on Royal Caribbean in 1995, and one on Premier's Oceanic in 1991. It's been a fun time watching Carnival evolve from what I have seen with the Fantasy more than a decade ago, to the Triumph a few years ago, to the horrors with the Destiny last year, and now with their medium class-sized Pride. I wish their pool areas were bigger, but otherwise the Spirit-class is my most favorite Carnival class of ships. Overall, my girlfriend and I had a great cruise and I recommend this cruise to anyone who can't afford a cruise on Holland America, or one of the premium smaller cruiselines like Regent, Seabourn, etc. Since I fall into that category, I chose Carnival, but would like to try others before choosing Carnival again, just to see what else is out there now. I was astonished and more than pleased to see that nearly every aspect of this cruise was enhanced over cruises I've been on with Carnival in the past. (True, that's not saying much when compared with the Destiny, but still) A lot could be said about the classier clientele, in general, on this cruise just for the fact that it departed out of southern California and not Puerto Rico. Those who have been on the Destiny recently know what I'm talking about. Service from these crewmembers was nearly impeccable the entire week. I love meeting all these workers from around the world and how they don't have an ounce of America-itis in them when it comes to their work. They work like their lives and their families lives depend on it. Never fails to amaze me. It should be noted that I think this cruise was only booked to probably 70-85% capacity, if that. I went the entire week without complaining about having to wait in line for something. There simply were no lines, or extremely short lines. I even noticed that every lounge never had more than 5-10 people in it at any given time except for the main Taj Mahal lounge or the Starry Nights lounge during karaoke. I never had problems finding a lounge chair at the pool, or a seat for the now popular tea time. Anyway, I'm 29 and my girlfriend is a few years younger, and this was her first cruise. So, here we go:
The bad: I figure not everyone will read this entire review, so first, here are most of the bad notes I made. Sales pitches: Everything people say about crewmembers trying to sell everything from alcohol to spa packages to bingo to souvenirs is all true. If you know this coming in, and if you know to expect it, it's not that bad. Fact is, the base cost to cruise on Carnival today is half of what it was 10 years ago. The way I see it, the only ways they can stay in business (or turn a hefty profit) is to have more balcony cabins, and to rely on people to spend more and more money once they get onboard. Crewmembers will push to sell you stuff all week. It's okay to say no. However, it's not tough to spend close to a $1000 for two people once on the ship. I now know why people laugh at getting a $200 onboard credit when being extremely inconvenienced some cruises it isn't much. Budgeting beforehand works wonders. Just know that before you even step onboard, $70 will be charged per person for the week for tips to your steward and waiters. Tours are anywhere from $30-$200 a person. Drinks usually start at $4, average $5.95 (souvenir plastic glasses $6.75), and the good stuff like Patron will be $11.75 after the automatic 15% tip. Some fitness classes cost $10, the coffee bar charges a few bucks for coffee, wine tasting is $10, and David's Supper Club is $30 a person not including tips or drinks. There's more, and it all adds up. Know before you go and plan ahead, that's all. I especially got a kick out of winning one of several spa raffles that was good for 30% off of a spa treatment. I think it's the first time I won a raffle that in the end cost me money. It was an easy way to give my girlfriend a spa treatment: a 25 minute massage and facial. She liked it, but I don't know if it was worth $80 or so (over $100 regularly). I also found it ridiculous that her masseur tried to sell her over $300 worth of facial products. Also mind you she's still in her younger 20's! Crewmembers found smoking and drinking: I still can't understand how crewmembers can go into public bars every night with their gold name badges on and drink. The last night I saw them with drinks that you can't get as a passenger. You could, but they serve them in 8 ounce glasses, not the 16 ounce glasses that these crewmembers had. It was very frustrating. I keep hearing about how wild the crew bars are. Why aren't they there? And drinking in plain view of guests? Most people would be terminated immediately from their jobs. Apparently that's not the case with Carnival. I don't mind crewmembers smoking, but are they fooling anyone by going in the corner of any public bar? No. They are still seen and smelled. It just looks bad. There must be areas for crewmembers to go to drink and smoke. I just don't think the public areas should be one of them! Other random bad thoughts: Crew meetings in lounges. I shouldn't have to accidentally see a meeting taking place in the Starry Nights lounge one afternoon with a powerpoint slide describing how to deal with numerous waste removal procedures onboard. If these ships today don't have facilities behind the scenes to hold conferences for crewmembers, they should. The waterslide at the aft of the ship was open, but not long enough for me to try it, unfortunately. Usually open the first couple days at sea for a few hours, then maybe for a couple hours while in port. Other people like me will complain that you have to purchase an 8x10 picture for $20 before you can have it sized smaller for a smaller cost. None of the pictures seemed worth the high cost to buy, but you might like yours. Just expect the bill to run high awfully quickly. We had the late dinner seating because it worked well for me last time. I didn't like it this time because it seemed like all the live music would start just as we were going to dinner. If you went to the main show after dinner, it wouldn't be over till after 11pm, and the live music would be ending for the most part. The early sitting would work well - dinner, a show, and then live music. I've read that some cruises are bumpy when sailing and people getting seasick. This could definitely happen after leaving Los Cabos for a 40 hour sail back to Long Beach at maximum normal cruising speed. Dramamine seemed to work well for people I talked to who took it.
The Coast Hotel: We flew in the night before and really liked this hotel. An excellent choice for all. I got a pretty good deal as it was actually cheaper than the Queen Mary. I haven't heard many good things about staying at the Queen Mary but plenty about The Coast. It was easy to get downtown and to the Queen Mary on embarkation day via the Passport bus which picks up right in front of the hotel every 10-15 minutes from about 5:30am-midnite everyday, and it's free.