The ugliest cruise ship we ever saw! I read prior comments about paintings and such, but nothing prepared us for the utter disappointment when we embarked the Carnival Pride and entered the Mermaids buffet area. Low ceilings, painted in dark blue and dark greens, grey mermaids...very dark, depressing dEcor, and the rest of the ship wasn't any better. Dark brown walls, dark brown ceilings, brown chandeliers, brown stairs, dark, kitsch paintings. Other than the missing spider webs and skeletons, it was a perfect looking haunted house. I was born and raised in Europe, so I did not mind the type of pictures presented, most of which I saw in original. But the ones on Carnival Pride were of kitschy quality and the very dark, ugly brown color was covering the ceilings and the walls throughout the entire ship. The thought of being stranded on that ship for a week during my only vacation this year was very, very sad, and our first impulse was to grab our carryon bags and run out before the ship left the dock. Unfortunately for us, our trip insurance did not cover ugly dEcor, so we had no other choice but to stay.

On a positive note, the state room was nice, spacious, decorated in warm colors and it had a nice balcony where the view and sounds of the ocean was priceless.

Since we did not like the dEcor, the way the food stations were organized and the crowds at the Mermaids buffet, we had all our meals in the main restaurant, "Normandie". The food was satisfactory, and while we did not go by any means hungry, the food did not have the outstanding quality and gourmet flavor we grew accustomed to during our previous cruises. The crew worked very hard to do their jobs, but with a few exceptions, they did not go out of their way to be friendly. We never saw the Maitre D, and other than hearing his voice announcing the "show" at the end of the meals, we never noticed his presence. Read more