kwokpot

While I didn't have the occasion to try this space out on my recent Pride cruises have you considered using the Secret Garden Interior promenade which encircles the theater on Deck 3? No it's not outdoors but it should be a quiet area with plenty of window seating to enjoy the views.

I don't remember where you're boarding the ship, but the Barcelona check-in was GREAT. Beautiful terminal, and it was easy. No lines at all, and they did look at the Verifly and didn't need to look at the paper copies.

No testing for b2b cruisers.

100% agree and I always try to separate reviewing the ship itself vs whether I had a good time on the cruise. I was on the Pride for 31 days starting May 19th. Now that it's been two weeks since I left the ship, I can have a clearer mind reviewing her. The ship is indeed overall in rough shape. Having said that they try to keep the ship as clean as it's possible with the limited staff that's on the ship.There are nicer areas and not as nice areas. The nicer areas are the MDR, the casino (the casino has all new slot machines, gaming tables, chairs) and where the Alchemy Bar is (that should be of no surprise since that section of the ship was renovated/facelifted when they added the Alchemy Bar). The areas that are not so nice are the outdoor areas (if you followed some of my posts you'll see I was very critical of the cabin balconies and how dirty they were) and the buffet (those blue 'water' lamps are hideously tacky). The cabins are in ok shape but the bathrooms need updating. I had a great time visiting al the different European cities, but the current CD, Felipe, is TERRIBLE. There's no communication (when did CD's stop making daily videos that loop on CCTV?) There's four different ways to communicate with passengers, print, PA, CCTV, phone app. But apparently the Pride doesn't want to use any of these to communicate with passengers.

Now that I've been off the Pride for two weeks and had time to think about our 31 days on the ship I would say the balconies were the only thing that really bothered me about the ship itself. Besides the older decor the ship was very clean and the MDR, for example looked great. The buffet is the one area that can use some renovation. Besides the tacky blue 'water' lighting that really hasn't aged well the layout could use a re-imagining.

Why would you do her check-in if she's not going on the cruise?

It's unfortunate the balcony floors are so dirty. Ours was eventually hosed down after 14 days. It was better but when you looked at the water trench right below the balcony railing it was permanently stained with yellow gunk along with dirt that was tramped in the gunk. It was pretty disgusting and looks like it would take more effort to clean it than the Cleaners had time for.

I like the Striped Bass on formal nights.

https://www.goaheadtours.com/travel-blog/articles/guide-to-power-adapters-and-converters https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/advice/2020/01/07/travel-adapter-vs-voltage-converter-overseas-travel-electricity-info/2827260001/

depends on what you're plugging in. Computers, cell phone chargers, etc only needs an adapter for the different plugs.

I guess people are literally looking for a 10 second mention from the Captain on his daily briefing. I Don't give a sh*t how deep the water is but a quick acknowledgement of the incident and that it's of no consequence seems to be what people are looking for.

Oh boy. Are there lines for people with reservations? I will be on August 5th with a party of 8 and have a 7pm MTD reservation for all 9 nights. Do you think we will face long waits?

This must be a change because when I first sailed on the Oasis a long time ago there wasn't any complementary food at the Vitality Cafe on the Oasis. Is this the setup in the Vitality Cafe on all Oasis class ships?

That's because it was originally designed as a nightclub.

@stephenSJ Has Felipe the CD improved his communications about Port of call information and/or done a daily morning/evening program? My 41 days on the Pride he never did a regular daily program that was broadcasted on the TV.

The Vista and Excel Class have beautiful large flat screen TV's so they did upgrade the actual TV's. But unfortunately it's wasted since there's no programming on it nor can you stream your own programming. The TV's are also mounted such that you can't access the other HDMI ports.

The main difference with Epic's Thermal Spa vs Breakaway or Breakaway Plus Class is both the Men's and Woman's Spa locker rooms have steam and sauna rooms that of course are single sex. I haven't sailed on the Breakaway Plus ships but it's safe to assume that the Epic is the last NCL ship to have single sex steam and Sauna rooms in addition to Co-ed facilities. We will see what the Leonardo Class spas have but the direction of many cruiselines is to only have co-ed spa facilities.

They aren't as cheap in spending on TV programming.

Celebrity has transitioned to reusable cloth laundry bags. You use them to send out the clothes ard receive them back in the same cloth bags. You can ask your room attendant for as many laundry bags as you need.

I absolutely do that depending on what the issue is. Many service issues in the MDR we addressed with the Maitre D'.

His name was Felipe.

No, I did not ask the Cruise Director about it. If I have the time and desire I will make my own post about my experiences on the Pride. I would like to give it some time so a can temper some of my thoughts about my time on the ship. An example of that is my softening of the overall appearance and condition of the Pride. Although I always thought the ship was immaculately clean (except for my balcony which after 2 weeks did get a thorough hose down to remove accumulated dirt and debris on the balcony floor) my first impressions were that the Pride was in disrepair. But after more thoughtful review and time my impressions were more colored by the dated design and decor and the Pride is actually in good condition for it's age. The MDR looked great and obviously the area where the Alchemy Bar is located since that was newly installed and the area surrounding it was refurbished to complement both the new and older portions of the ship. In a nutshell all the doodads and excessive wall treatments were removed for a cleaner and more contemporary look yet still retaining the darke, traditional design of the Pride. After ten days off the ship my opinion has not changed about the CD and his ineffectual communications. My opinion on this is shared by numerous cruisers that participated on other social media sites pertaining to the three cruises I was on the Pride. Complaints from both new and veteran cruisers were commonplace.

Received it and just completed it. I welcome their interest in potential upgrading of TV programming. When they went to streaming TV and only had CBS news it has become too limiting. Additionally I just finished 31 days in Europe on the Pride and there was ZERO, literally no daily updates on TV from the Cruise Director. The ship was very poor in communicating basic information. Why the CD chose to eliminate daily recorded updates on the TV shows a lack of concern for their passengers.

Don't you still need to use a drink coupon in the Diamond lounge?