Carnival Pride Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,595 reviews

Pride Upgrades Enjoyable But Smoke, Mediocre Food and Dirty Cabin Wasn't

Review for the Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Pride
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tdrenth
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Mar 2016
Cabin: Aft-View Extended Balcony

We enjoyed our cruise immensely, but not necessarily because Carnival offered such a great ship, crew or experience. We NEEDED a vacation and there would have been little, in the course of a normal cruise, to keep us from enjoying time away from the busy-ness of home. We LOVED the newer layout of this ship as opposed to our other experiences on Carnival ships. That being said, the Pride, even though she has been out of refurbishment for only a year, is looking very worn and tired in many places - paint, wall edging, flooring. This was disappointing considering we picked this Journeys cruise because our perception was that she would still be rather fresh.

Adding to our feeling of disappointment was the fact that our room was not cleaned well before we arrived. We found a bobby pin and a Tic Tac from the previous guests on our stateroom floor, table sticky with maple syrup and empty Coke can full of cigarette butts on the balcony. As soon as I spoke to Guest Services about it, they inspected the cabin, so I expected to return to a shiny, clean stateroom. However, even after the "housekeeping inspection," the bobby pin was still sitting in the middle of the floor, the table was still sticky and the Coke can sat on our balcony for three days until the balcony was scheduled to be cleaned. We were, however, treated very nicely by our cabin staff throughout the entire cruise.

We are also NONSMOKERS who spend a significant amount of time and money in the casino. Not hours and hours or thousands of dollars at a time, mind you, but it is definitely a part of the "getaway" that I referred to earlier. The very little time that Carnival spent to organize non-smoking areas for the convenience and air quality of non-smokers? Pathetic. Truly pathetic. And THEN, for slot tournaments, the spa staff took one of the ONLY full banks of non-smoking slot machines and tied them up for hours at a time! Carnival, if you're reading nothing else of this review, please read this - If Carnival doesn't make some changes in their smoking policy, they WILL lose passengers. 20-30 passengers, on this cruise alone, that I spoke with in the casino said that they would probably not take another Carnival cruise because of the lack of thoughtfulness when it comes to the heavy population of smokers they draw. It may be a loss they're willing to take, however, considering our experience. And that's disappointing to us as loyal Carnival passengers.

Cabin Review

Aft-View Extended Balcony

Cabin 8M

We came in with great expectations. We've enjoyed aft facing balconies before and expected nothing less on the Pride. However, to start, our room was not cleaned well before we arrived. We found a bobby pin and a Tic Tac from the previous guests on our stateroom floor, table was sticky with maple syrup and an empty Coke can full of cigarette butts was left on the balcony. As soon as I spoke to Guest Services about it, they inspected the cabin, so I expected to return to a shiny, clean stateroom. However, even after the "housekeeping inspection," the bobby pin was still sitting in the middle of the floor, the table was still sticky and the Coke can sat on our balcony for three days until the balcony was scheduled to be cleaned. I had heard of complaints of an engine rattle and possible temperature control issues with this cabin. We experienced both, unfortunately. The rattle usually came from lighting panels and the crown molding and couldn't be fixed. It was also inconsistent, which, for us, made it worse. The thermostat could not be adjusted and we spent 12 of the 14 nights in much warmer than preferred temperatures. All that being said, we were treated very nicely by our cabin staff throughout the entire cruise.

Port Reviews

Grand Turk

I really think I would enjoy visiting Grand Turk...if it didn't involve Margaritaville and the what seemed like the "human stew" in the oceanside pool. My recommendation? Book an excursion.

St. Lucia

Stopped here on a Sunday. Did not have an excursion scheduled so we decided to get off and just check things out. Big mistake. The shopping at this part of the port was a little obnoxious. The taxi drivers were hawking you from the moment you entered the shopping area. We were able to bypass them and walk out of the port mall area, but once we got on the street there was really nothing but an open-air market with pushy vendors. We literally were off the ship for a 1/2 hr and felt like that was a waste of time. If this is the downtown area, I can't say that we will ever visit St. Lucia again.

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