Pride review-4/18-4/25

[cantwait06]

Hi everyone!

 

So we just got back from our Pride cruise last week. We really had the time of our lives-it was our best vacation ever!

 

So here is my attempt at review writing-its my first one. I hope you like it. I have lots of details and I have a feeling its going to be a long one. I do have pictures as well, but not as many as some might like. But I will do my best. If you have any questions at all please feel free to ask, I loved this vacation and I will love reliving it even more!

 

Today I have a major case of the post-cruise blues, so I'm hoping this will help. So here goes nothing.....

 

enjoy!

[cantwait06]

So a little background to start. This cruise was taken by me (28), my fiance (31) and our daughter (3). It is my third cruise and their second. We booked this cruise because it is school vacation week and I am a teacher and its the only week I can get off. Also, Baltimore is driving distance for us (about 5 1/2 hours coming from Western Mass) so it fit.

Precruise:

 

We decided to stay at the Sleep Inn in Baltimore. We used parksleepfly.com to get a great rate (about the same as parking at the port) for one night and up to 2 weeks of parking. Since it was such a great deal, I expected the hotel to be not so nice, but we really were pleasantly surprised-the hotel was very nice looking from the outside. Inside, the lobby was nice and clean, and the staff was helpful. After driving for what felt like forever, we were too tired to care anyway, but it really did exceed our expectations. The room was perfect-2 beds, and very clean.

The blanket is off of one of the beds because my 3 year old is sleeping in one of them. We arrived at about 12am so she was out, which made for a peaceful trip for mommy and daddy!

 

The next morning we got up and decided to do the free continental breakfast-it was as good as they get, really. Bagels, muffins, cereal, yogurt, coffee and juice. After breakfast, we packed up, and headed down to wait for the shuttle to the port at about 10:45. Shuttle arrived at 11, and we were at the port by 11:15. It was completely painless! One of my favorite parts of cruising is driving up to the port and seeing the ship you are about to board-and this time was no disappointment! When we saw it, my daughter was so excited she could barely stand it-and fiancé and I felt exactly the same way!

 

[cantwait06]

Cruise, Day 1

We arrived on our shuttle; there were no lines or traffic. The shuttle dropped us off right in front, the porters took our bags, and we walked in. Once inside, there was barely a line to get through the first security check.

 

 

But then they announced there was no photography so I stopped taking pictures since I then walked into the secure area.

 

Walking through, they asked if we had alcohol. We told them there were 2 bottles of wine, but they searched our bags anyway and inspected the bottles. We brought the biggest size wine bottles they had, but they didn’t give me any problems.

 

Then, we proceeded to fill out the health questionnaire and then checked in to get our sail and sign cards. I couldn’t believe how nicely things were going-until the lady said we’d have to have a seat and wait-boarding wasn’t going to start for an hour. Shouldn’t be so bad, except we had an excited 3 year old with us! She was good though, I gave her my Ipod to listen to music and she sat quietly. When boarding finally did begin, I thought we were still in for quite a wait since we were given Zone 7 to board. We only waited about 10 minutes, and then we were on our way!

 

We walked onto the ship and I was immediately struck by how beautiful it was. I knew about the décor and honestly I thought it sounded tacky, and I was worried about how my 3 year old would take it, but really it was beautiful! She never even noticed any naked bodies either, or if she did, she never said anything about it.

 

 

We headed up to the Lido since it was so early-probably around 1:00 by now. Lunch was being served, so we grabbed 2 funship specials, found a seat, and took turns getting lunch.

Our first meal onboard

 

By the time we were finished eating, it was getting really busy there, and we were lugging around a very heavy carryon. In order to avoid smacking into people with our bags, we decided to try to get to our room incase it was ready early. We stayed on the Rivera deck 1. The room was considered aft but it was more in the middle of the ship-you couldn't really get an aft room on this deck because there is a club there. We never heard any noise from the club, btw.

 

We headed down, our steward stopped us and said the room wasn’t ready. We asked nicely if we could just drop our bags off and he let us, so we immediately tipped him and thanked him profusely! Our room was nice-ocean view, bottom floor. We did feel and hear some vibrations but it didn’t really bother us.

 

 

 

 

 

The room did have a minifridge if anyone is curious. Our steward was cool about us emptying it and putting our own sodas in there. We did bring on 2 12 packs of soda, the 2 bottles of wine I mentioned earlier, and 2 rum runners with vodka and rum. Everything got through with no issues.

[cantwait06]

So we dropped off the bags and took a little tour.

 

My daughter stopped to run around in the pools-even though it was freezing-we were in jeans and sweat shirts but still chilly-I think it was in the 50’s.

 

Midship Lido pool

 

Kids pool

 

View going up in the elevator

 

 

 

Muster drill was next, very painless, and really nice not to have to grab those life jackets, even though I saw quite a few people wearing them anyway. Then we went to get ready for dinner. Dress was casual tonight, and usually we change anyway, but this time we didn’t care much and just went how we were. Everyone else did too.

 

Last time we cruised we our dinner table mates were great and my daughter made a great friend, so I was really hoping this would be the case this time as well. It turned out that we had a small table for 3 instead. It was really fine though, it just made keeping my daughter occupied was a little rougher when there were no kids to play with! Dinner was great-my daughter and my fiancé both had the ribs. We don’t bother to get her kid’s meals on cruises because she can eat that stuff anytime-we usually get her steak or chicken since we don’t have to pay extra for it! I had the spa carnival tilapia-it was really delicious! For dessert my daughter and I split the warm chocolate melting cake that I have been dreaming about for a year now (since the day we got off our last cruise) and it was just as great as I remembered! Yum!!!

[cantwait06]

After dinner we walked around a bit, checked some more things out, drank some more DOD’s….and as you can guess we were exhausted. We did happen to catch the ship going under the bridges that it looks as though we will smash into them-I can't remember the names of the bridges.

 

It is very cool to see and I suggest you doing so if you have the chance!

 

We wandered around some more, and I headed back to the room with my daughter to sleep, and my fiancé went to lose money in the casino. In all, it was a great first day!

 

Towel animal of the evening:

[Tiffany1203]

Great review!

[kellyq]

Great start!! Your daughter is precious!

[cantwait06]

Ok, thats it for tonight, but up next will be Monday: first sea day/elegant night! If you have any questions at all, ask away, I am more then happy to help! I hope you're enjoying so far! :)

[Baybear]

Thanks for this start! This is great... we're going on this ship June 6th in just about one month with my Wife (Grams), Me (Grandpa Bear) and our Daughter and Husband and our 3 Grand-Girls (3, 8 and 10 yrs). Does Carnival allow you to take on 2 bottles of wine? We'd like to do that. Also, did you use the "Camp Carnival" for your 3-year old as we'd be interested in doing that too?

[Kaboochi]

We were on the same sailing. I lovelooking at your pics, makes me even sadder that it is over. Great ship, great crew and WAY TOO Much fun!!!! Keep the review coming and more pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[cantwait06]

Thanks for this start! This is great... we're going on this ship June 6th in just about one month with my Wife (Grams), Me (Grandpa Bear) and our Daughter and Husband and our 3 Grand-Girls (3, 8 and 10 yrs). Does Carnival allow you to take on 2 bottles of wine? We'd like to do that. Also, did you use the "Camp Carnival" for your 3-year old as we'd be interested in doing that too?

 

 

Hi Baybear! You are allowed to take on one bottle of wine per person (over 21) as long as it is in your carryon. We did use camp carnival quite a bit for our daughter, she loved it so much that she begged us to go every night directly after dinner after the first night onboard. I will write quite a bit more about our experiences with camp carnival but they were all positive, and I wouldn't hesitate to put her there again. We actually dropped quite a bit of money using the after 10 babysitting service and it was money well spent, as she had a blast and then so did we!

[cantwait06]

We were on the same sailing. I lovelooking at your pics, makes me even sadder that it is over. Great ship, great crew and WAY TOO Much fun!!!! Keep the review coming and more pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

 

It was a great cruise. We really enjoyed the staff as well, and thought the entertainment staff was particularly great, especially Kirk, the CD and his assistant, Jaime. I am majorly depressed today as I am really having a hard time readjusting to life off-board! Thanks for your kind comments, glad you had a great trip as well!

[medianeh]

hehe. I just seen friends of ours that went on that cruise in the security line in one of your pics. That is cool!

[Baybear]

Hi Baybear! You are allowed to take on one bottle of wine per person (over 21) as long as it is in your carryon. We did use camp carnival quite a bit for our daughter, she loved it so much that she begged us to go every night directly after dinner after the first night onboard. I will write quite a bit more about our experiences with camp carnival but they were all positive, and I wouldn't hesitate to put her there again. We actually dropped quite a bit of money using the after 10 babysitting service and it was money well spent, as she had a blast and then so did we!

 

That was a QUICK reply! I forgot to ask... do they have a corkage fee if you bring the wine bottle to dinner? Or can you just bring it and drink it for "free"? Of course, if you drank it in the stateroom, you might not know the answer to that one... But TIA...

[4gsmom]

We were on that sailing as well. ITA about the kudos for Kirk, Jaime and we particularly loved Eli, the guy from New Zealand.

 

Did we have awesome weather or what?!?!?

[cantwait06]

hehe. I just seen friends of ours that went on that cruise in the security line in one of your pics. That is cool!

lol, that is cool!

[cantwait06]

That was a QUICK reply! I forgot to ask... do they have a corkage fee if you bring the wine bottle to dinner? Or can you just bring it and drink it for "free"? Of course, if you drank it in the stateroom, you might not know the answer to that one... But TIA...

I have heard that sometimes you get charged and sometimes you don't. To avoid that, we brought our own corkscrew and just filled the glasses they had in our stateroom with wine every night before dinner. We had about a half a bottle left at the end of the trip (a few nights we were still a little hungover and not feeling drinking by dinnertime) so we gave it to our steward, who happily accepted!

[cantwait06]

We were on that sailing as well. ITA about the kudos for Kirk, Jaime and we particularly loved Eli, the guy from New Zealand.

 

Did we have awesome weather or what?!?!?

Beautiful weather, except Saturday was quite miserable! I loved Kirk and Jaime, but also Ben and JD! I didn't see Eli very much, but I do know who you were talking about! Great trip! :)

[akers123]

This is GREAT. I am going to addicted to this post. We go on this ship July 18th. Any tips you can give would be great. We are doing the other cruise though; Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay along with Freeport.

 

You said you brought on Rum Runners? How did you get that on?

[Meyer2]

Great review & pictures so far. You daughter is so cute!!

[Kaboochi]

This thread is just what I need because it was a great cruise and I wish I was still on that ship. We uncorked our wine in the cabin and brought it to dinner. There are white wine, red wine and champagne glasses in the cabin. Pride is very laid back.

 

I personally enjoyed my time in the casino at the slots. I didn't come home with money to pay the mortgage but there were lots of nice wins that kept me happy. Denver and Dime, casino host and tech, respectively, were very attentive and lots of fun.

 

Debarkment was the best ever. We carried all of our luggage off and we were in the last group (deck six). We sat on our balcony sipping coffee until they called us at 11:45. We were back in Rhode Island at 4:15.

[Debbie15552]

Great review so far, I'm hooked!

Will be boarding the Pride this Sunday and I'm very excited to hear more about your cruise.

 

Beautiful pictures-esp your precious daughter. Sounds like she really had a great time.

 

Debbie

[firsttimespaz]

Thanks for doing this great review! Looking forward to reading more installments.

 

Just started looking at the Pride for a possible trip in the fall. It will be for our 10 year wedding anniversary.

[tomsgirl3]

We board next Sunday, May 9th! I am loving this!!! We are hoping that our girls (7 & 5 ) enjoy Camp Carnival as much as your's did!

 

Can't wait for the rest of your review!

[hockeymom249]

My husband and I and our good friends were also on this same cruise! If you went to the adult comedy show on Friday night in the Taj Mahal with Tommy Drake, you might have heard the "roast" on our friend Bill that my husband had Kirk do to Bill. It was a "payback" for what Bill did to my husband Jeff on the Tuesday Morning Show. All in good fun though! We had an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC time! Time went by TOO fast!