Cruise Review 3/25 - 4/1 Carnival Pride
General and Background Information We sailed on the Carnival Pride to celebrate our 10th anniversary with my in-laws, celebrating their 25th anniversary. This was our fifth cruse, fourth with Carnival. I am composing this completely from memory, very fond memories. For being a spring break cruise, the ship did not seem to be over run with unruly teens as I had expected. As a high school teacher, I can spot that from a distance. On the last sea day we did see some groups congregating in stairwells, and the in-laws did see some underage drinking on the ship on one occasion, but the children were well behaved for the most part. It was much better than I expected from the reviews I have read about spring break cruises. The pool area (especially the first and last sea day when the roof was closed over the pool) was crowded with children, but that can be avoided by heading to the adults only aft pool. The cruise director, Jeff, was much less obtrusive than my previous cruise. Gone were the constant announcements about upcoming bingo and other activities. A good word for him would be "dorky." Not in a bad way, he was just "dorky." We watched most of his talks on the TV while sipping wine or waiting to get ready for our activities for the day. Overall, I was impressed with the layout and design of the ship. I read some reviews about the dEcor being over the top, but did not find that the case. The crew was professional and friendly from the embarkation staff to the room stewards. The weather, however, did not fully cooperate on the first and last sea days.
Dining and Food The food in the dining room was amazing. We ate in the dining room for breakfast most days (Favorites: Eggs Benedict and baked apples) and lunch once. On the Lido deck for lunch, the Asian food was very good as was the steak sandwich, deli sandwiches, and hamburger (the steak sandwich is a Carnival favorite of mine). I heard some wonderful things about the Reuben sandwich from my father-in-law, but did not have a chance to get one.