Just Got Off Pride...Any Questions???

I'm 'meeting' so many people who will be on the same cruise! It just makes me even more excited!!!! Thanks to everyone for sharing your cruising experiences and your compliments on my degree.

 

 

swodog94 -- creepy fact: I am secretly following all your threads and have read all your past reviews :halo: Thank you so very much for the time you take to do this for people like me. I concur with kesrya, your reviews are among the most informative on here.

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say that. I'm glad they've been of use.

I hope you don't mind me asking a few more questions. Your posts have been the most informative I have found on all of cruise critic and you seem to like to do the same sort of things my husband and I do :-) I'm definitely going to try to be the first one in Red Frog for that free beer!

 

Spa tour - maybe you haven't bothered with this. Do you know how hard of a sell it is and how long it lasts when you do the tour on embarkation day? I'm not planning to get any services (I actually own a spa myself) but I do plan to use the exercise facilities and the free areas like the hot tub and sauna - so I figure a tour is actually the best way to learn my way around and it gets me entered into a raffle for free credits right? But if it's going to take an hour and they are going to push me to book a service with all their might, maybe its not worth it?

 

Tipping - I notice on your recent review thread, you said you gave your room attendant $20 on the first day. Did you do this in cash or did you add additional gratuity to your S&S?

 

Water in the OS - I saw your picture of four water bottles. Is this all you got for the week, or did they restock for free? I need to bring water for my toddler's night time bottle, but if there is water provided in the suite, then I'd rather use my "bring water or soda" for bringing some seltzer for my husband and myself.

 

And thanks for mentioning the European plug in the OS! I had specifically put my adapter kit back away in my travel drawer as I was beginning to gather stuff for the cruise, and now I know to pull it back out again!

Spa/Gym: I have not done the spa tour in the past. I have availed myself of spa services and have come away underwhelmed and annoyed. Underwhelmed because the quality of the services were poor, and annoyed because the hard sell of products is unrelenting (in Oct on Pride the nail technician who did my pedi claimed I had a fungal infection and that I needed to buy several of her products to treat it...I didn't ( and don't to this day) have any sort of fungal infection). The gym is nice and it's accessed by going through the spa, but you don't need a tour to figure it out, it's pretty straight forward. The hot tub is right in the middle of the gym, you can't miss it.

Tipping: We prepay gratuities and then supplement that with cash once on board. So my $20 tip upon meeting our room steward was in cash. We also tipped him cash on our way out. We did the same for our wait staff, too.

Water: There were two liter bottles of water in the room when we arrived, and two more showed up the next day, and I think we got two more after that. I think you're supposed to get a bottle each per day. However, you are no longer allowed to bring water with the exception of distilled water for a CPAP machine, or nursery water for a baby.

Thanks. The water we'd be bringing is for the toddler's formula bottle. You're saying I should bring distilled water for him?

This is my fear about even going near the spa (or some of the other events like the liquor tasting or champagne art auction) where we'd like to browse and just look around but don't want to be hit up with a hard sale.

As I said, I own a medical spa - so I can get superior service from my employees and any product I want at a fraction of the cruise price. I once had a patient who had been sold two bottles of Chinese herbs on a cruise ship after his acupuncture treatment (I am an acupuncturist) for $90 a bottle! They were the right / appropriate formulas for his condition but they were what we call a classical formula (herbal pill tablets that are just a standard formula - not custom blended for the individual) that *retails* for - no joke - $10 a bottles. But the cruise ship stuck their "proprietary" label on it and that was the biggest upsell I've ever seen in my 11 year career.

I actually booked a 90 minute massage in a beach hut for myself and my husband just outside the cruise terminal in Grand Turk with a woman that I know in a six degree to separation kind of thing through my colleagues. She is highly recommended and charges less than the average cost back here in Maryland. We're looking forward to it.

Hi -

Thanks for answering so many questions! How was the debarkation process? What time did you get off the ship? Any guesstimates on what time those of us without FTTF are able to get off the ship?

Thanks!!

Hi -

 

Thanks for answering so many questions! How was the debarkation process? What time did you get off the ship? Any guesstimates on what time those of us without FTTF are able to get off the ship?

 

Thanks!!

If you want to get off first, you hold on to ALL your luggage and walk off with it...this is called Self Serve. Or you can put your luggage outside the door by 11pm the night before and they'll offload it for you. Instructions and luggage tags will be left in your mailbox the day before telling you what to do. If you choose self serve, you will be the first folks off the ship; they will call you to debark by deck number. Once the self serve folks are done, they'll start with the second group. They will call these folks by group number. You luggage tags will denote your group number, and your instructions will tell you where to gather to wait for your group to be called. FTTF and suites will have a low number (1-3) and will gather in the Red Frog Pub.

The ship moored before 0900 and self serve folks were getting off by 0913. We put our luggage out the night before and were in Group 2. We went to the Red Frog Pub a little after 1000 and were walking off at 1028. We cleared customs, picked up our luggage and were headed to our car by 1044 and were driving off the lot by 1048.

The way I understand it, Diamond/Platinum/FTTF pax do not have to arrive at a set time. During online checkin, a checkin time does need to be selected, but not adhered to at the port. We're cruising again on Pride next month, and our boarding passes show 12:30 - 1pm....but I believe we can show up sooner for checkin being a Platinum level cruisers...fwiw.

I was wondering about this also....we are going on the Pride in April and have FTTF. I was wondering what

the earliest boarding time would be.

Does every person in the cabin get a sign and sail card? or is it one per cabin. Sorry if this is dumb - not sure if its like a hotel.

Does every person in the cabin get a sign and sail card? or is it one per cabin. Sorry if this is dumb - not sure if its like a hotel.

Each person gets their own sign and sail card with their own folio number.

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Thanks. The water we'd be bringing is for the toddler's formula bottle. You're saying I should bring distilled water for him?

 

Unless the water you bring onboard is packaged in cans or boxes, it will be confiscated. You can order a 12 pack of bottled water through the fun shops before you sail and it should be waiting for you in your cabin. If you are a repeat Carnival cruiser, there will be a free bottle of water in your cabin; there will also be bottles of water to purchase in the cabin. We always buy a 12 pack of water and it works out just fine for us.

We literally just got home from our cruise on Carnival Pride from 23-30 July 2017. We sailed the Grand Turk/Half Moon Cay/Freeport itinerary. I'll be writing an in depth review (with lots of pictures) this week but if you have any questions about the ship, our itinerary or embarkation/debarkation in the Port of Baltimore, ask away. I'll try and answer as best I can!

Do you happen to have a Fun Times you wouldn't mind sharing? Thanks!!!

Hi - I'm looking to take the Pride in March 2018, with my 2 boys (10 and 14). I've cruised once before (2012) on a Celebrity cruise with my now ex-husband - we had splurged on a nice room with balcony. I'm not wanting to be cramped and my boys can get on each others nerves :evilsmile: but there's a $1500 difference between Extended Balcony 8J and Ocean Suite. Is it worth that price to get OS? I'm not sure if they'll abandon me for the activities etc. :') and if so, which room do I want to hang in? Are any of the Extended Balcony rooms updated? It seems the OS are but I'm unclear on the 8J.

Another question... did you go on the slides? I read a review stating it doesn't end in a pool and sometimes it's not open. I'm all about amusements and the slide is part of my draw to the Pride. Any comments on it? How does it end if not in a pool?

Thanks!

Hi - I'm looking to take the Pride in March 2018, with my 2 boys (10 and 14). I've cruised once before (2012) on a Celebrity cruise with my now ex-husband - we had splurged on a nice room with balcony. I'm not wanting to be cramped and my boys can get on each others nerves :evilsmile: but there's a $1500 difference between Extended Balcony 8J and Ocean Suite. Is it worth that price to get OS? I'm not sure if they'll abandon me for the activities etc. :') and if so, which room do I want to hang in? Are any of the Extended Balcony rooms updated? It seems the OS are but I'm unclear on the 8J.

 

Another question... did you go on the slides? I read a review stating it doesn't end in a pool and sometimes it's not open. I'm all about amusements and the slide is part of my draw to the Pride. Any comments on it? How does it end if not in a pool?

 

Thanks!

None of the rooms on Pride look updated (i.e. modern). We like the OS rooms because they do provide a good bit of room, but I agree that a $1500 delta is tough to swallow.

I did not go on the slides this time, but have in the past, with my most recent time in Oct 2016. They end in a "water brake". I took my GoPro with me for one of them...go on you tube and look for "Green Thunder Water Slide Carnival Pride 2016".

Unless the water you bring onboard is packaged in cans or boxes' date=' it will be confiscated. You can order a 12 pack of bottled water through the fun shops before you sail and it should be waiting for you in your cabin. If you are a repeat Carnival cruiser, there will be a free bottle of water in your cabin; there will also be bottles of water to purchase in the cabin. We always buy a 12 pack of water and it works out just fine for us.[/quote']

 

The Carnival website says that you may bring distilled water if you have a CPap or a baby (for nursery water). We have a baby who needs formula. I don't think they package distilled water in cans, so I'm wondering how to pack this. I'll just ask our travel agent.

Do you remember what time the self disembark started? Have an 11:30am flight, and hoping to not have to change to the next one avail (4pm).

For our cruise on the Pride that came home 8/27, the self-disembark began at 9:30am. Our friends that we traveled with did self-disembark and were off the ship and back home in Reisterstown (20 minutes away) by 10:45am. BWI is closer than Reisterstown, so it's possible you could get there and get on your flight by 11am, but you might be cutting it close. Sometimes security line at BWI is non-existent, other times it is 30+ minutes long.

Sounds like you had an enjoyable cruise. We are sailing on 10/8 and can't wait. If you attended, how did they run the comedy shows? On each of our last two Pride cruises they did it differently each cruise.

 

We the the Sprite class ships because of the size and floor plan. The best part is we are only a three hour drive away from the pier.[/quote

 

We are sailing same ship on 10/8 as well!! Can't wait!!

Sounds like you had an enjoyable cruise. We are sailing on 10/8 and can't wait. If you attended, how did they run the comedy shows? On each of our last two Pride cruises they did it differently each cruise.

 

We the the Sprite class ships because of the size and floor plan. The best part is we are only a three hour drive away from the pier.[/quote

 

We are sailing same ship on 10/8 as well!! Can't wait!!

We can't wait to sail and we always have a great time at the comedy show. Every time we sail it has been a different process, but on our last cruise they did not clear the room after each show so you could just sit in the same seat for all the shows.

 

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