Me, (M/40), my wife (F/40), my daughter (F/12) and my niece (F/15) sailed on the Carnival Pride on 7/18/2010. I was a bit apprehensive when I booked this cruise having heard a few less than complimentary stories about Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL )and the so-called carnival crowd. I am pleased to say, however, that I had a great time. Prior to this voyage, we had cruised with Norwegian Cruise Lines (on the Norwegian Spirit) and with Princess Cruises (on the Caribbean Princess). So far we have taken advantage of the "cruise from your backyard" trend by sailing from the ports of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Baltimore. Embarkation was very well organized; there were absolutely no issues at the Port of Baltimore. We were part of embarkation group #5 since we arrived at the cruise terminal at 11:00. I wanted to be there early because I wanted to book a cabana from Half Moon Cay. I went directly to the shore excursion desk, but I was informed that none were available; I was placed on a wait list with little hope of securing one. Oh well! Our category 8H balcony stateroom on the 8th deck was very nice, clean and simple.

The negatives:

The water pressure in the stateroom was very low at times. Read more