12/9/12 Pride review (with pics)

[cruzqueen518]

Thanks for your review. We leave on the Pride in 40 days, 19 hours and 37 minutes but who's counting, LOL. I was surprised to hear the MDR has become so lax regarding appropriate dress. We traveled the week of Thanksgiving in 2010 and my 15 year old son was not admitted into the MDR in his tank top for breakfast the morning we docked in Port Canaveral. To tell you the truth, we never thought about the tank top since it was breakfast. He was fine with it and just ran back to the room an grabbed a shirt, no worries....But to hear you say tank tops, bare feet and baseball caps are accepted in the MDR for dinner is surprising. I do however agree with the earlier comment about not really caring what others around me are wearing. I am cruising to relax and have a good time, I honestly could care less what Joe Blow at the table next to me has on, as long as its something ;)

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Thanks for posting. May book the pride for 2013.

[Sandpiper10]

Thank you so much for this great review. We sail the Pride in just 46 days, 7 hours and 13 minutes (we aren't counting down either) with the same ports.

My question to you is about the transfers to and from Cocoa Beach. I don't see it listed as an excursion. My parents will be with us and they wanted to spend the day on the beach while we are at Magic Kingdom and i was just going to have them get a taxi as a "day on their own" however i would feel much more comfortable if it was under Carnival, but can't find it on the computer. Was this something that the excursion desk offered once on board? If you could please let me know, i would appreciate it.

Also, we were planning to head to Lucayan beach as well, so your review was very helpful.

Thanks again!!

[Room Service!]

We took a shuttle bus (on our own) to Cocoa Beach. Cost $6.00 pp each way.

I believe they head back every half hour ... once the bus was full. The buses were not large so the wait wasn't very long.

[jnet2213]

Thank you so much for the review and the pictures- greatly appreciated! We will be on the Pride in October 2013 and am already excited.......:D

[rkoh]

We just got home from spending a week in Room 6309 on the CARNIVAL PRIDE and highly recommend it.

 

It was more spacious then as described and had all the amenities needed for comfortable cruising. Some of the better features were the nice sized balcony - room enough for two with cocktails and books. The balcony door was thick enough that there was no outside noise coming into the cabin.

 

Being on the vessel's starboard quarter (aft) we had a nice look at the sunset while travelling south and the sunrise on return. The location of the cabin is just about ideal also as it is located aft of the last set of elevators (a short walk forward) so it doesn't have any foot traffic other then others who have rooms in that corridor. It was very quiet - more so than we thought it would be.

 

The closet and drawer space was more than adequate; we packed more than was needed but still had storage room to spare. The rooms is tastefully decorated in a somewhat Swedish wooden decor and, I believe, purposefully understated as opposed to the rest of the public areas of the ship. A bit of a simpler oasis as it were. The bathroom is a nice size for one person; it will accommodate two if one person is in the shower. The shower was great - good pressure, good temp control and the shower head is adjustable to fit even my 6'6" height. Not an easy thing to do!

 

The bed was a King (two twins put together and was VERY comfortable. The pillows were firm yet soft and the duvet was like a cloud. We slept very well. Our Steward was excellent and proactive. The room was always very clean and neat. Ice and water was refreshed in the afternoons and he made a point to stop by in the late afternoon to see if we had any requests for that evening. I left a bottle of champagne on the counter and he iced it along with four glasses without being asked to do so.

 

I always slide the steward a $20 bill when we first meet and that ensures he remembers you, then I leave the rest of the $15 dollar a day tip when we depart.

 

One bit of advice: I bought a small Bluetooth "Auvio" battery (rechargeable) speaker from Radio Shack (@$80) so that I could play music in the stateroom from my cell phone. It was a great idea and made those times when you need to put some distance between yourself and the rest of the ship and passengers that much nicer when you had your own music filling the stateroom. Plus the romantic evenings were that much nicer.

 

All in all this Room 6309 was really worth every penny and more. We had a very nice cruise and in real stateroom comfort.

[kl25th]

We are staying in room 6263 (8J) for our upcoming sailing on the Pride. This is the first time that we are getting an extended balcony, asking if anyone that had an extended balconys on this ship, can you really tell a difference?

[Scrapenthusiast]

We were also on this sailing. We had the 8:15 reserved dining and we did see the maitre d turn away several folks on both if the cruise elegant nights, (we didn't really pay much attention on the other nights). We were very surprised to see this, but thought that it was great that he enforced the dress code. We personally love to get dressed up for any occasion, and don't care what other folks wear to dinner, as we find it makes for some very interesting people watching.;) Of the 2 cruises I have taken this one was just okay imho. You guys were so lucky to be off the ship so soon! We did self assist and they didn't call our deck which was deck 5 until around noon!!! It was a mess if you ask me. They started off well calling the decks as listed...then there was a long pause then they called several decks at once including the 4 or so of self assist that were left and then the first 2 of relaxed debarkation zones. We were annoyed with this. We thought the food in the MDR was okay most nights, but David's was absolutely phenomenal! I highly recommend checking it out, for anyone who's sailing on the Pride in the future. Well worth the small fee. In our opinion the food was better than a land restaurant like Ruth's Chris.

[sparks1093]

Thanks for the review! Glad to hear that Kirk and Gumbie are still doing a good job:).

[Jeepers385]

For anyone that's been on the Pride can you tell me if they offer Zumba classes? Thanks in advance.

[Room Service!]

We are staying in room 6263 (8J) for our upcoming sailing on the Pride. This is the first time that we are getting an extended balcony, asking if anyone that had an extended balconys on this ship, can you really tell a difference?

 

WE were on the Pride 12/2. This was our first extended balcony, and yes there is a difference.

We could actually stretch our legs out in front of us. We also didn't have to scoot our chairs around every time some wanted to enter back into the cabin.

Will definitely book these in the future.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review.

[rkoh]

We were in 6309 - just aft of where you will be and our balcony was just the right size. I'm 6'6" & 250 lbs and could stretch my legs out comfortably. You could even move a chair and the table over to the side where the door swings open (so you can face aft) and still have clearance with shifting to shift anything around.

 

The balcony stateroom was also big enough to make me comfortable and I get antsy if crowded - not a bit in that room.

 

As for departing the ship - we were in zone 15 and got off at 12:15. However we were told by the staff that it would be a long time and advised to 1) eat breakfast and 2) have a book or a game to play. We did and it was fine.

 

I'll agree with the above about David's (the $35 fee seating restaurant). It was delightful, the food expertly delivered and as we had a party of four we tried every dish on the menu (we went two times) and did not have one single complaint. The waitstaff was young but surprisingly professional and the Sommelier (who was also young) made an excellent recommendation on wines both evenings. BTW - our first evening's waitress was walking by when we were ordering on the second evening; overheard my selection and said "Sir, you ordered that on Monday - are you sure you don't want to try something else?" I had forgotten and took her advise and loved my second choice.!