almendrada

We sailed out of Port Canaveral in December 2017. I remember it being fairly smooth, but we had FTTF. Good luck!

I saw the post... but we had them last week on the Splendor. Guess I got the last ones! 😂

Ahh... Cabana #10. One of my favorite places in the whole world. We had it one day last December. Best, most relaxing port I've ever been to.

Rent a Cabana, you will love it! The cost is good for 4 people. This picture is from Cabana #10

 

 

 

 

I was really disappointed to hear about this policy change. All the more reason to try to take our cruise when school is in session. It seems that kids have enough space onboard; sad to see that one of the more relaxing areas will be disappearing.

To understand the corkage fee, it helps to think of the main dining room as a restaurant. If you brought a bottle of wine to a restaurant on land, regardless of the type of closure or if you brought your own corkscrew, they would charge you a corkage fee. On the other hand, if you open the wine in your cabin, pour it into a glass, and carry the glass to dinner (or wherever), there will be no fee. Hope that helps :)

We booked a cabana because I have heat sensitivity from a neurological condition, and it didn't look like there was a lot of shade available on HMC. I am SO glad we did. It was the most relaxing day in paradise. The heat was never a problem for me. If we go to HMC again, I won't hesitate for a second to get a cabana.

Ship - Glory

Deck - Lido

Stateroom # - 9255

Stateroom Category – Interior

Starboard or Port Side - Starboard

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Yes

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – N/A

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - N/A

Was wind a problem? - N/A

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - N/A

Any specific problems with this cabin? - No

Any other comments? - We loved the cozy feeling of the room; it was our first interior. However, we did not enjoy being at the front of the ship. With the Conquest class layout, there were only a few options for us to walk aft. Will book midship from now on.

Ship - Pride

Deck - Main

Stateroom # - 4162

Stateroom Category – Balcony

Starboard or Port Side - Port

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Yes, with the exception of noise from the Atrium until about 10:00 pm

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - Yes

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – Normal balcony with normal views, though you can see the lifeboats to the side.

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - Normal

Was wind a problem? - No

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? -

Any specific problems with this cabin? -

Any other comments? - nice central location.

I haven't stayed in that balcony, but I will tell you that any time we went to the aft restaurant (Platinum) while the ship was underway, there was a strong vibration from the ship's engines. That having been said, the restaurant is on 3 and your cabin is on 8, so it might not be so noticeable.

I have a great hotel. BEST WESTERN PLUS BWI Airport Hotel - Arundel Mills. Around $150 a night, they have a shuttle to the port. Pretty decent breakfast in the morning. Can park car for free (safe well lit parking lot). And when you get back you just call them and they come pick you up at the port and take you back to your car. Have stayed there 4 times, and next weekend for a 5th. Very clean newly remodeled. Love leaving out of Baltimore and love the Pride. Easiest port ever as far as getting on board. We normally take the 10 or 10:30 shuttle to the port. The port is about 20 minutes away. Then when you get back it is very easy to get on the highway to head home.

I second this. Awesome hotel! There's also a great little restaurant/bar right next door.

With FTTF on the Pride, we were actually Zone 1. We left our bags out the night before, and we were only behind the people that did self-assist. We even were able to wait in the Captain's Lounge until they were ready to have us debark.

Our waitstaff on the Pride in March was simply amazing. I probably miss them most out of all the crew members.

No need to smuggle. We had one with us on the Pride last month.

Wow. And is the Chesapeake particularly silty? Is it possible a lot of silt is getting caught up in her engines? We sailed on Pride about 10 years ago and had no problems...but that was in the Pacific.

 

CC members mention a lot of cost cutting measures on Pride (reduced workforce in MDR, cabin service encouraged for 1 time daily, cold food, etc). You know, one of the most notorious cost cutting measures used when in a financial pinch is deferred maintenance. (Although all media sources say Carnival made 1+ BILLION in profit last year). Apparently that propulsion system has not been repaired since you were on the ship before. I read last week that the toilets went out recently. We have a cruise coming up and, frankly, I am worried.

I can't speak to the mechanical issues, but I sailed on the Pride less than a month ago, and we had no problems whatsoever with service or maintenance. MDR staff was brilliant, and our steward was all too willing to give us twice daily service. Also never experienced cold food. Also, everything (in our cabin at least) functioned perfectly. I hope that puts your mind at ease (at least a little) for your upcoming cruise.

We were on the Pride the week before you! I'm loving your pictures; it makes me feel like I'm back there again. What I miss most are (1) Bonsai Sushi, (2) our awesome dinner team, Piotr, Rahmat, & I Made, (3) Blue Iguana shrimp burritos, and (4) the gentle rocking that put me to sleep almost immediately every time I lay down, even if I was just trying to read.

Looking forward to the rest of the review!

Treat the onion aversion as an allergy. Onboard they will not remake something immediately on demand to avoid a disliked food.

I'd be careful with this. So many people say they're allergic or intolerant to things just because of distaste or other reasons, that servers start to not take legitimate allergy issues as seriously. Every server I know has a story about the "lactose intolerant" person who had no problems drinking milk, or the "allergic to tomatoes" person who wanted the tomato left off the salad but had no problem with their pasta and marinara sauce. :rolleyes:

For the sake of people who do have dangerous allergic reactions to some foods, I think it's a good practice to not fake an allergy just because of a distaste for a particular item.

Another difference is there's 4000 people lining up, not 1000. Should I pay to get closer to the head of the line?

When you talk about paying to get closer to the head of the line, I assume you're talking about Faster to the Fun. I found this to be well worth it. It doesn't help with lines for buffets, etc., but it saved us a lot of standing in line at embarkation and later when we needed to go to Guest Services. It runs from $49.95 to $59.95 per cabin, depending on the length of your cruise, and you have to be pretty quick on the draw to get it. Only a relatively small number of Faster to the Fun passes are made available.

We had it on our first cruise, a few weeks ago. It was absolutely worth it, and I plan on trying to get it for every cruise until we reach Platinum.

We had our first cruise ever a few weeks ago, on the Pride. We had FTTF and it more than paid for itself. Congratulations on being able to get it! We're going to try to purchase it for every cruise until we reach platinum.

We found FTTF incredibly useful on our cruise last week, though Baltimore has not yet gone to staggered check in times. We will likely try to get it on every cruise until we hit platinum, from here on out.

So yeah, I think it's really useful. UNLESS--you happen to be on either of my scheduled cruises. In those cases, it will probably be worthless, and you should definitely avoid it.

:D;):p

FYI, just back from the Pride. Our steward asked us to fill out the form, and had no issue at all with us asking for twice-daily service. So at the very least, the Pride appears to be following the policy as stated by John H.

Yes, we brought our Bubba Kegs. We would go up to Lido in the morning, fill up with Orange/Passion/Guava juice and ice, and that would last us most of the day.

We brought a brand new one without a surge protector last week, and had no problems.

First time Cruiser here.

Can I ask you about the excursions. Do you book from Carnival or book your own. Wanting a beach day at a nice resort and maybe some snorkeling one day. We will be in Nassau and Freeport. Whats your opinion?

Thank U

For Port Canaveral, we rented a car and bought our own tickets to the Kennedy Space Center. For Nassau and Freeport, we had heard enough sketchy things about the Bahamas that we decided to buy Carnival excursions, and we did that through the website. It turns out it was a good decision. I can tell you that My Bahamian House included snorkeling and some beach time, but there are also beach clubs at both ports where you can just sit at the beach or pool and have drinks. There's probably more about that in the Bahamas forum.

Yes, I'm fine. It was my brother and he is fine now too. Just one of those useless body parts that seem to expire at inconvenient times!

I have that same excursion booked for my next Pride cruise in August. I'm really glad everyone enjoyed it because the last time I was in Freeport we hung around the port and it was boring. Was it enough time? That was my main concern.

 

Thanks

That was the one thing. We were really crunched for time at the end, partly because we had some stragglers who didn't want to leave, but also because we stopped and pick some people up at Port Lucaya on the way back. But it was a Carnival sponsored excursion, so they wouldn't have left us. The only thing is that there was no time for shopping or anything.