Chrissandra's 2012 Carnival Pride Review May 27 - June 3 (lots of pics)

[Anung Un Rama]

Carnival Pride Review (5-27 thru 6-3) Port Canaveral, Nassau, Freeport

 

Well we’re back. After a pretty rough May culminating in having to say goodbye to my beloved dog of almost 13, I decided to do something I’ve never done in my life, book an immediate vacation. We are official cruise junkies and usually plan our vacations almost a year in advance. We had 193 days until our Breeze cruise and booking the Pride cut that down to 13!!! It never sucks cutting off 6 months off your wait until the next cruise. I had done a lot of research that weekend into 3-4 day cruises that were almost exclusively out of Florida. It was cheaper for us to book a 7 day cruise out of Baltimore than to deal with the absurd airline prices and a much shorter cruise. We got home and Cass checked out cabins and there were only 8 interior rooms left. After dinner I got online and they were down to 4. I jumped on one of them and as I was about to pay, I remembered that we had a FCC from our Liberty cruise. So I called Carnival and booked over the phone and they were able to apply our FCC so I got $100 off and we had $100 OBC waiting for us. We love our balconies but since this was last minute and I was trying to save some money I didn’t mind settling for an inside cabin. We got room 4109 which is above the corridor that leads to the Secret Garden on deck 3. I was also surprised when we found out that this isn’t a traditional inside cabin but one even with the life boats that has a window. Think of it as an obstructed Ocean View cabin.

 

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the roll call was pretty active and had a lot of nice people in it (even if there were several Yankee fans). We jumped right in and signed up for the hosted meet and greet the first sea day.

 

This was my 6th cruise and Cass’ 5th (4th time on the Pride for us). The Port of Baltimore is so ridiculously close and convenient that the Pride is almost our vacation home. The fact that we would be back on the Pride in such a short time was weird. We kept looking at each other over the next two weeks just smiling. The time flew and before we knew it we were driving to port. It only took us 25 minutes to get to port and we arrived around 10:45

 

 

 

 

 

Cass always has to get a shot of the ship as we pull up.

 

 

[wrigley80]

I know exactly how you feel. We had to put our beloved Shih Tzu, Boo-Boo to sleep :( only one week before we left on the Carnival Fantasy in March. They really do become a part of your family :).

We were on the Pride in 2009. Keep the pictures coming. I love photo reviews

[jmwg49]

Always love your reviews! I am very sorry to hear of your loss. It is a heartbreaking time, and I'm glad you were able to soothe your broken heart by doing something that is near and dear to you.

 

Great start!!!!:)

[Xmansmom]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. I loved your last one.

[Anung Un Rama]

OK, I don't know how a 5 got at the beginning of this Thread Title but I hope a host can edit it because it's bugging me :mad:

 

Anyway, we got to the port quick and after 10-15 minutes we were waiting in line at security. It took us about 30 minutes as it seems they just opened up but once through the rest was cake. We got our boarding passes and were on the ship by 11:45. There was no wait to get on, no boarding zones or anything which was a first for any cruise we've been on (they must have done a great job debarking). Went straight to the Serenity Deck and grabbed a hammock as we were the only people up there :D

 

 

 

 

We passed on the first couple guys coming around with DOD's but our will is only so strong. And look, it's the regular DOD cups!!!!!

 

[Crusin Karen]

Looking forward to more. Sorry for your loss.

[earl_m]

Great photos!1thanks for sharing!!

[LisaT12]

Tell us more about your trip. Were leaving on the Pride next month. It is our first time out of Baltimore.

[Crusin Karen]

Also sorry that I am a Yankee fan and I'm reading your review. :( Are you Orioles or BoSox?? :cool:

[Anung Un Rama]

It's kind of weird (but also cool) being recognized on cruise ships from our reviews and it happened pretty early as our roll call mates Emily and Mike saw us and came over to say hi. Now I was worried as most of our roll call were baseball fans (and the Sox have been sucking) but Emily is probably the coolest Yankee's fan I've ever met. They told us they were big trivia fans so I knew we'd be seeing a lot of them over the next week.

 

It was getting pretty warm out in the sun so I decided to take a few pictures of the deck above the Serenity area.

 

 

 

This is also where the slide ends.

 

 

We decided to enjoy our drinks and sit in the comfy shaded chairs in the Serenity area.

 

 

As we were waiting we saw Karen (Goofydust) and her husband. They sat down and talked for a while (very nice people). It was about 1:30 and we decided to get some food from the Mermaid Grill. I was actually rather impressed (or maybe just really hungry) with the lunch served.

 

[truelovedisney]

Looking forward to reading. We will be on the Pride on Sunday. It's my first cruise.

 

Not sure, because this is my first post here, but on my other forum, you can remove your 5 by clicking edit in your first post, then click advanced to edit your title... worth a try...

[DEBnGAB]

Hey Chris and Cass! Its been awhile and look at this..you guys went on another cruise! But, I am so sorry to hear of the circumstance. I have a 14-yr old cat, Tom, that I cherish dearly.

 

Cant wait to see more!

[shiralex]

I want to read the rest!!! We leave on the Pride in 20 days

[Anung Un Rama]

Also sorry that I am a Yankee fan and I'm reading your review. :( Are you Orioles or BoSox?? :cool:

 

BoSox! Was on the Pride last September when they blew the last of the wild card lead. Got to hear it from all the faux O's fans on board.

 

After eating we decided to check out our room to see if it was ready. Fortunately it was and we were able to drop off our carry on bags.

 

So here's our cabin, same standard size, just with no balcony.

 

 

 

 

 

The TV was horribly crappy and Cass was a little upset that there was no shampoo rack in the shower for all her crap. She really liked it on the Liberty. There was also NO electrical outlet in the bathroom (I think someone had asked about that).

 

And I'm sorry, I just remembered that many had requested a larger font when typing. I'll do my best to remember that from here on out.

[Anung Un Rama]

Looking forward to reading. We will be on the Pride on Sunday. It's my first cruise.

 

Not sure, because this is my first post here, but on my other forum, you can remove your 5 by clicking edit in your first post, then click advanced to edit your title... worth a try...

 

That was the first thing I tried. Couldn't edit the Thread Title, just the post itself :( But thanks anyway. You'll love the Pride. We both love the layout of the Spirit Class ships and the crew was really great as well. Hoping to have this all done by Friday as we have a surprise for the end of the review that some here already know about.

Hey Chris and Cass! Its been awhile and look at this..you guys went on another cruise! But, I am so sorry to hear of the circumstance. I have a 14-yr old cat, Tom, that I cherish dearly.

 

Cant wait to see more!

Hi Deb!!! Yeah, this was very impromptu. I'm paying for taking a week off of work now but it was so worth it. We met a lot of great people and had a ton of fun (which you will soon see :D)

[Anung Un Rama]

Cass had contacted the Carnival Player's Club prior to our Liberty cruise and they didn't respond until after we had gotten back. We had no hope of a response before this cruise but they more than made up for missing us on the last one. We were supposed to get the small bonus of 2 plates of chocolate covered strawberries, but we were thrilled to find the following in our room.

 

Now don't get your hopes up, the Captain Morgan was a gift from some friends we met on our last Pride cruise (completely unexpected and completely awesome!!!).

 

 

We loved the bottles of water and the fruit basket also had a bottle of wine in it!

 

 

My luggage arrived as we were in the room so I took the time to unpack and made a drink with some smuggled Captain Morgan :eek: (this was our first time attempting to smuggle and I would feel bad about it if not for the 400% mark-up on Bon Voyage liquor)

[Anung Un Rama]

We walked around the ship a little before muster and got some pictures of the Taj Majal main stage.

 

 

 

 

 

After that it was muster (relatively quick and painless) and then our unofficial meet and greet back at the Serenity bar for sail away.

[rambler57]

Nice review, keep it coming

[Anung Un Rama]

We hung up on Serenity for a couple of hours (Baltimore isn't the most photogenic of cities but did get some nice pictures)

 

 

 

Key Bridge

 

 

 

A hottie

 

[oncruisecontrol]

Nice start. I love the Spirit class ships. Sorry for the loss of your dog. We lost our cat of almost 17 years back in 2010 so I can imagine how tough it is for you. Looking forward to more of your review.

[Anung Un Rama]

Around 6 Cass wanted to go back to the room to see if her luggage had been delivered. Nope. But there was a letter in our box asking us to come down to customer service........uh-oh!!!

 

 

So Miss Smarty Pants decided to try to smuggle some pocket shots (cleverly rolled into her socks :rolleyes:). We waited for about 5 minutes and they called us into the naughty room. We had used the TSA locks so she had to open up (I guess they don't have TSA keys) and when they asked if we had any liquor, Cass said yes. She pulled out her 6 little bottles and then the person checked our Febreeze :confused:. We got a little worried at that point but then she told us we could close up and go. Cass had 2 bottles of Shambooze filled with Stoli that they didn't even check for :D. We breathed a sigh of relief, unpacked, and headed to dinner (with drinks in hand)

 

Speaking of, time for dinner, but we'll be back.

[Coolcruise02]

Nice review, can't wait for more! :)

[MisterMom]

Wow. I feel like I just finished reading (studying) your Liberty review and here you are on another cruise so soon! Quite jealous (I think we need to move closer to a port. But then I'd never have a job because I'd be cruising all the time).

 

So sad for your loss. We had to put down our dog, Karen, the day before our Oasis OTS cruise last year. She had a tumor. It was a painful time but the cruise helped ease the pain some.

 

(We leave for an RCI Alaska northbound cruise in 18 days so I'm being a bit of a hypocrite about y'all cruising so soon!)

[Anung Un Rama]

Wow. I feel like I just finished reading (studying) your Liberty review and here you are on another cruise so soon! Quite jealous (I think we need to move closer to a port. But then I'd never have a job because I'd be cruising all the time).

 

So sad for your loss. We had to put down our dog, Karen, the day before our Oasis OTS cruise last year. She had a tumor. It was a painful time but the cruise helped ease the pain some.

 

(We leave for an RCI Alaska northbound cruise in 18 days so I'm being a bit of a hypocrite about y'all cruising so soon!)

 

Trust me, this put a crunch on available days off for Cass. It also means we won't be leaving as early as we expected for our Honeymoon. Having this cruise was a great form of therapy. Also knowing what's coming at the end of the week really helped as well :D

[etwright]

That was the first thing I tried. Couldn't edit the Thread Title, just the post itself :( But thanks anyway. You'll love the Pride. We both love the layout of the Spirit Class ships and the crew was really great as well. Hoping to have this all done by Friday as we have a surprise for the end of the review that some here already know about.

 

O.K. I'm not cruising on the Pride, but now you have me subscribed to see the surprise. Not a Yankee fan (or ANY NY team fan), but not a Sox fan either:D