What can I say? I left this cruise feeling very satisfied with very little complaint. We are a family of four with 2 kids under 10. We cruised out of Baltimore to the E. Caribbean on The Carnival Pride. The ports were Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay & Freeport. The embarkation process was pretty smooth taking about an hour or so from start to finish. Some of the port personnel could use a refresher course on friendliness and also Carnival's rules on what you are allowed to bring on-board with you. Also I felt the port area could use better traffic infrastructure & signage to help with the flow of vehicles and advise you how to get around.
The ship was in fantastic shape, the crew were constantly cleaning in a detailed way. Food was very very good. Lunches & breakfasts had great selections & very tasty. Highlights here being Blue Iguana Cantina & Guy's burger joint. The buffet and breakfast at lunch usually had some sure fire hits as well. Pride has the American Table menu for dinner now. I felt in the past Carnival dinner's were just OK, with some hits & more misses. With American Table my feeling is that you can get a meal that is above average to excellent every night. This is an area of huge improvement to me. Did the Bonsai Sushi one day for lunch, very good. Also went to the Steakhouse first evening for dinner , excellent service & food; though my steak seemed a bit too fatty. What wasn't fat was delicious.
The pools and splash park / slides were a lot of fun, and for the most part pretty clean. Green Thunder was not operational the first day of the trip, but by the second day it was working and remained so most of the time. Service from all crew members was excellent. Especially our room steward Tennyson. He was such a nice guy & hard worker, and I admired him for putting up with our family of four daily mess!
Excellent room with a lot of space & storage. Balcony much much larger than a standard balcony cabin. Had two chairs, table & lounge chair. Only complaint was the hack repair job in the bathroom behind toilet. Looks like the cut a square section out with a reciprocating saw than screwed the piece back on and messily caulked the seam.
shopping in port area
Villa rental is a must do at least once. it's like having your own mini beach house at the best beach ever. Ac on second level plenty of chairs / lounges inside. Fridge. Stocked with chips, soda, water , fresh fruit. Mats & snorkel gear for the water
better port infrastructure needed