Complete Power Failure: Carnival Pride March 23-30, 2014 w/Pictures

[Eng23]

i am very familiar with baltimore and recently retired from the baltimore city police department. as far as the HIE stadiums hotel it is fine for doing what you are doing park and cruise. especially if the lot is secured inside a fenced area. if it wasn't fenced in i might think twice about it. as far as walking to the inner harbor as a solo female don't attempt it, take a cab. you are really not close enough to walk safely to anything. the hotel is located on russell st which at that location is pretty much a highway. once you get through the light it turns into 295 a highway connecting baltimore and D.C. between the hotel and the inner harbor there are stretches of isolated roads that are between and through some tough neighborhoods. you don't want to get confused and lost in the wrong area. everywhere you want to go is probably a 10 minute cab ride. but a sketchy long 45-60 minute walk. just research ahead of where you want to go and take a cab. closest bar area is federal hill. you also have power plant live in downtown baltimore which is a location with numerous bars within an area that is grouped together. a longer cab ride would be canton square which is the go to area these days for young adults 25-35yrs. and also fells point which is like canton but not as popular now. and of course the actual inner harbor pavilion. all these locations you should not have a problem catching a cab back. just be aware of your surroundings even the actual inner harbor has had its share of problems with groups of kids causing havoc especially on weekends(i assume you are staying on a saturday since carnival cruises on sundays out of baltimore) i will be cruising on the pride apr 13 and can't wait.

I completely concur with this post. Very accurate information. I have been travelling to Baltimore for many years and know the areas this person is telling us about. As the poster is a retired Baltimore police officer you couldn't get any better information.

[Eng23]

Great info, Splintz!!! Any problems with Best Western on O'Donnell? That is where I will be staying for my Pride cruise on 5/4.

That's not a good location either. There was just recently a problem in that area involving a couple of bars and fights involving weapons. There is a truck stop type facility there too.

 

A year ago I had some friends that were booked for 3 nights there and checked out after one night due to cars being broken into and vandalized.

[Eng23]

Before we get too off track, back to the review!

 

Sunday, March 23, 2014 - Embarkation Day

 

Two days before the cruise, we received an email and an automated phone call from Carnival letting us know that due to routine systems testing, embarkation would be delayed until 3:00PM to 5:00PM and that we should not arrive at the Cruise Maryland terminal before 3:00PM as there is limited seating available and we may have to wait outside. I've seen similar notices before asking you not to arrive at the port before ____ time, but usually they don't state a specific reason. Since Carnival gave a specific reason and we already knew that the Pride is notorious for late arrivals into Baltimore, we decided to just wait it out and plan our arrival in the 3:00 to 5:00 window.

 

We scheduled our hotel shuttle to the port for 3:30, but the hotel was running shuttles ahead of schedule and we received a call to our room stating that we could come down as early as 1:30 and they would get us on the next available shuttle. We opted to wait for our 3:30 shuttle time and enjoy lunch in Baltimore instead. We went down to the lobby around 3:15 to find that we were the last guests of the day to go to the port and we got a shuttle all to ourselves. From the Holiday Inn Express Baltimore at the Stadiums, it is just a short 7 or 8 minute ride to the port.

 

We arrived at the Cruise Maryland terminal and our shuttle driver pulled up between the rows of luggage carts, where our shuttle driver helped us to unload luggage. In less than two minutes, we were walking into the terminal doors.

 

For those who have not previously sailed out of Baltimore, the Cruise Maryland terminal is not a typical cruise terminal like you would see in Miami, Port Canaveral, Tampa, New Orleans, or any of the other major port cities. Instead, it is a converted cargo warehouse with a long covered walkway between the warehouse and the ship. While not "small" by any means, it is smaller than most of the cruise terminals and thus space is limited for guests who are waiting to board.

 

When we arrived at the terminal, the line for security was extending outside of the queues and all the way back to the terminal doors. They have two entrances and two queues, but both were equally full. There were probably 500+ people waiting to clear security at 3:00, but they did a great job of keeping the lines moving, and it only took about 40 minutes to make our way through the metal detectors and X-Ray station and into the secure check-in area.

 

I have used FTTF on the last two voyages, but knowing that we had plans in Baltimore the morning of embarkation and that the Pride is often late to board anyway, we opted not to purchase it on this voyage. Once we were through security, there was no line for check-in, and we received our Sail & Sign cards and were on our way onto the ship in less than five minutes. No waiting in the small seating area for us!

 

It was COLD on embarkation day, and the long covered walkway between the terminal and the ship is not heated with the exception of a few heat lamps hanging from the ceiling. I was glad that I kept my jacket on just for the short walk through the covered walkway and up the ramps to the ship. There was a short backup in the ramp-bridge as people were scanning their Sail & Sign cards to board, but we were on the ship within 2-3 minutes.

I was on the sailing before you. Sorry to hear your boarding was so delayed. We actually were docked just after 9am. I agree with your assessment that the terminal is not typical of ones at other cruise ports. The location of the security checkpoint is not very good which leads to those lines going out the doors. I did think it was set up a little better for disembarking at the end of the cruise.

 

One thing I found disappointing about the Pride is the pool area with the retractable roof. It was not fully closed (which you would expect it to be sailing from a cold weather port) and stayed that way the entire cruise. I asked some crew members about it and was told it was broken and stuck in that position. It pretty much made that pool unuseable for 2 days due to the temperature (and it did snow during our trip down the bay) and rain. It looks like in your pictures that roof was in the same position as it was on my sailing.

 

On my sailing I noticed the same issue with the Serenity hot tub and also the hot tub in the forward pool area was out of service until the last day of the cruise. We only had 2.5 functioning hot tubs for for the entire cruise. One in the spa area, one in the covered pool area, and the small Serenity hot tub.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Eng23

[Eng23]

One more thing.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post a review! :)

[sjcruiser]

Loving the review and photos. Thanks for posting.

[brilliantseas]

I was on the sailing before you. Sorry to hear your boarding was so delayed. We actually were docked just after 9am. I agree with your assessment that the terminal is not typical of ones at other cruise ports. The location of the security checkpoint is not very good which leads to those lines going out the doors. I did think it was set up a little better for disembarking at the end of the cruise.

 

One thing I found disappointing about the Pride is the pool area with the retractable roof. It was not fully closed (which you would expect it to be sailing from a cold weather port) and stayed that way the entire cruise. I asked some crew members about it and was told it was broken and stuck in that position. It pretty much made that pool unuseable for 2 days due to the temperature (and it did snow during our trip down the bay) and rain. It looks like in your pictures that roof was in the same position as it was on my sailing.

 

On my sailing I noticed the same issue with the Serenity hot tub and also the hot tub in the forward pool area was out of service until the last day of the cruise. We only had 2.5 functioning hot tubs for for the entire cruise. One in the spa area, one in the covered pool area, and the small Serenity hot tub.

 

That was the same case with our cruise. The retractable dome over the pool is stuck with about a 5-10 foot gap left open. It is slightly warmer under the dome than at the outdoor pools, but still very cool for swimming on the first few days. It sounds like this is something that has to wait for dry dock to fix.

 

The Serenity hot tub was working except the jets were very intermittant in terms of when they came on and when they would shut off. I am assuming this is just to let the motors for the jets cool down. I heard comments about one of the main Lido Deck hot tubs not being super warm, but they were all open on our sailing.

 

Work has been sucking me away from vacation / dream mode over the past week, but I will be back with more of the review over the next 24 hours.

[brilliantseas]

Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - Port Canaveral, Florida

 

We arrived in Port Canaveral on Wednesday to find that the wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped into the low 50s. This was not the weather that we had imagined encountering in Central Florida!

 

I had originally planned on surprising the GF with a trip to Universal Studios to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. She is a HUGE Harry Potter fan and we have been talking about going to Universal to see both parks' HP offerings in 2015. One of my friends works for Universal Studios and offered us free tickets to visit during this trip, so I had planned on surprising her with a trip to Islands of Adventure a little earlier than planned. I brought the tickets with me and had planned on renting a car to drive to/from Orlando. Although the ship arrives in Port Canaveral at 7:00am, Budget does not open until 8:00 and shuttles operate every 20-30 minutes on a first-come, first-served basis.

 

We ended up waking up a little later than planned; around 8:30, and talked about our plans for the day. GF and I were both excited about the idea of going to Universal, but neither one of us was feeling very well that morning. We decided that neither one of us really wanted the stress of rushing through the park in just 3-4 hours during the peak of Spring Break season and then trying to get back to drop off the car and get back to the ship on time, and the cold, windy weather was going to make our visit less than enjoyable. We ended up deciding that a relaxing day on an empty ship was more appealing than stressing over crowds and time constraints at Universal, so we stayed on the ship for our port day in Port Canaveral.

 

We enjoyed a late breakfast on the Lido Deck and some quality time with our Kindles. We even found time to visit the Card Room on the ship and play a board game, something that I have never done on a cruise before. I was quite surprised to find that every table in the Card Room was taken, so we selected a board game, Scrabble, from the cabinet, and took it out into the adjoining lounge near the casino to play.

 

 

After Scrabble, we decided that we wanted to at least be able to say that we stepped foot on Floridian soil during our vacation, so we grabbed our IDs and cameras and headed off the ship to walk around Port Canaveral.

 

If you've never been to Port Canaveral, there is really nothing to do without getting in a cab. The cruise terminals are all located on a little island in the middle of the port that is connected to the mainland by a bridge. We did enjoy walking around the different terminals and looking at the little bit of landscaping that was between the parking lots.

 

Port Canaveral feels completely different without all of the commotion of an embarkation day. It felt very strange to walk through a huge empty terminal and past all of the other terminals with nothing going on aside from some lawn mowing and landscaping.

 

We walked around for about 15 minutes and took a few pictures, all while getting very wind-blown. You know it is cold and windy in Florida when a mostly sunny day requires a hood to keep your head and ears warm!

 

Carnival Pride docked in Port Canaveral, Florida

 

The gangway is located at the Atrium lobby and connects you to the upper level of the old Carnival terminal at Port Canaveral. I believe that this is the terminal the Ecstasy used when it docked in Port Canaveral at the on the same day as the Dream or the Sensation.

 

This is about all there is to see at Port Canaveral without getting in a taxi. Lots and lots of parking with a few flowers and palm trees. We walked around for about 15 minutes and got back on the ship.

[brilliantseas]

Explorer of the Seas was visiting from Bayonne, New Jersey on the same day that we were in Port Canaveral.

 

You can't really tell in these photos, but she was showing A LOT of rust along her sides. I am hoping that RCCL will take her into dry dock for a new paint job soon.

 

Fishlips Waterfront Bar & Grill. Our backup plan for Port Canaveral was to go here for a late lunch and check out the Port Canaveral Exploration Tower, but neither of us was really hungry and it was far too cold and windy to sit outside and really enjoy the view.

 

The Port Canaveral Exploration Tower opened in November 2013. I had heard about it and we thought that it might be fun to visit and check out the view of the port from the observation deck. I didn't realize how small it was until we arrived at Port Canaveral. The Pride is taller than the tower! We decided that it wasn't worth the $6.50 per person admission, plus the taxi ride to go up an observation tower that is shorter than the ship!

 

A close up of the Port Canaveral Exploration Tower. If we were already taking the taxi to Fishlips, I might have considered going inside just to see the ship simulator, but it wasn't worth a trip on its own. The observation deck is only 7 stories tall - shorter than most of the cruise ships that visit the port. Admission is $6.50 for adults and $3.50 for children.

[brilliantseas]

Before we knew it, it was time to sail away from Port Canaveral and head toward (hopefully) warmer weather in Nassau.

 

 

GF was able to get a photo of the NASA assembly building at Cape Canaveral in the distance.

 

The "old" Carnival terminal, terminal 6, opened in 1991 to support the Carnival Fantasy. It is now used for the Pride on Wednesdays and the Carnival Sensation on Thursdays when Carnival Sunshine is also in port. NASA is in the background.

 

The "new" Carnival terminal, Terminal 6, built in 2012, supports the Carnival Liberty and Carnival Sunshine. The Sensation also uses this facility when available. On days where the Carnival Sunshine is at Terminal 6, Carnival Sensation will utilize the older Terminal 5.

[brilliantseas]

The causeway that connects the cruise terminals to the mainland. Cocoa Beach, Fishlips, The Cove, and the Exploration Tower are just a short taxi ride away.

 

Coast Guard Station Port Canaveral

 

The Port Canaveral tug fleet

 

Explorer of the Seas begging for a fresh coat of paint!

 

All that rust on the bow just screams "paint me!"

 

Disney Cruise Line terminal at Port Canaveral

[brilliantseas]

One of the smaller restaurants near the entrance of the port.

 

Fishlips is a great place to watch the ships come and go from Port Canaveral. I would love to spend an evening here (even though I'd rather be waiving from the ship!).

 

Our pilot boat escort out to open waters. Only Cozumel requires a shorter distance under harbor pilot control. I imagine this port is a breeze for most cruise ship captains.

 

Victory Casino ship sailing out of Port Canaveral. The dome that Victory uses is one of the original "B-side" cruise ship terminals that was built in the 1980s to accommodate the original cruise ships that sailed from Port Canaveral. The domes are now used for the Victory Casino ship and can also accommodate cruise ships visiting as a port-of-call, if all of the newer cruise ship terminals are full, although I don't know how often that happens these days?

 

Victory Casino cruise ship

[brilliantseas]

Pilot boat sailing along side the Pride at sunset.

 

Lots of cars and RVs watching the cruise ships depart at sunset. This little park is at the very tip of Port Canaveral, at the end of Cocoa Beach.

 

Passing Cocoa Beach at sunset

 

Cocoa Beach

 

Beautiful Cocoa Beach sunset. If only it had been 30 degrees warmer, it would have been the perfect evening to spend on deck.

[brilliantseas]

After watching sail away and freezing our butts off on deck at sunset, it was time to get ready for dinner. Without further ado, here are the menus for Wednesday night (Port Canaveral night) on the Carnival Pride, courtesy of Zydecocruiser.

 

[brilliantseas]

For starters, I had Tom Ka Gai and the Chilled Shrimp Cocktail and GF had the Yukon Gold Potato Cream Soup and the Farfalle with Roast Turkey Breast and Green Peas. For a main course, I ordered one of my personal favorites, the Black Bean and Vegetable Enchiladas and GF ordered the Braised Lamb Shank in Burgandy Sauce.

 

Tom Ka Gai - Coconut Curry Chicken Soup - 5/5

 

Yukon Gold Potato Cream Soup - GF said she liked it, but I didn't get a score.

 

Black Bean and Vegetable Enchiladas - 5/5 and one of my personal favorites on Carnival's menus, which says a lot considering that I am not a vegetarian, nor a big fan of most vegetables. I'll be sad to see this one go when Carnival introduces the new American Table menus.

 

Braised Lamb Shank in Burgandy Sauce. GF said it was okay, but she preferred the lamb stew that she had in Ireland. Not the most appetizing presentation in the world.

 

For dessert, GF ordered the Tiramisu and I ordered the Bitter and Blanc. I love Tiramisu, but it just sounded too rich tonight.

 

Bitter and Blanc with Vanilla Sauce - 5/5 (sorry for the poor quality photo)

 

Tiramisu - GF loved it!

[brilliantseas]

Since there is no Punchliner Comedy Club on Wednesday or Thursday night and we had no interest in seeing "Wonderful World", we decided to spend some time in the casino. GF had never played in a casino before, so we spent some time having fun and donating money to the one-armed bandits before moving on to the video poker machines. I spent a little time explaining how to play Keno and video poker to the GF and then sat down beside her and played some video poker myself. GF came out close to even and I won $36 playing $0.25 Jacks or Better video poker.

 

After some time at the video poker machines, I told the GF that I wanted to show her my favorite game in the casino, roulette. GF decided that she was too intimidated to play without watching for a while first, so she grabbed a scorecard and kept track of each spin. The towers that normally show the last numbers to come up on the wheel were turned off on both tables throughout the length of the cruise. I'm not sure if they don't work, or if they were just turned off for one reason or another. This particular sailing was a Premier Casino Cruise, so the casino was almost always busy, and there was some big money on some of the tables.

 

The roulette table was very nice to me and I turned $40 into $200 in about half an hour. GF was finding that she loved roulette! Unfortunately, she did not play until Thursday night, so she did not get to partake in the winnings on that night.

 

After walking away a winner (a rarity for me in the casino...), we decided to take a short walk around the ship and then head back to our room for the night, knowing that we wanted to be up early and with plenty of energy to explore as much of Nassau as we could on Thursday morning.

 

Up Next: Thursday, March 27, 2014 - Nassau, Bahamas

[msboilerman84]

Does anyone know anything about the best western park and stay ??? How's the neighbor ??

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[brilliantseas]

Does anyone know anything about the best western park and stay ??? How's the neighbor ??

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Another poster said that it is not in the best neighborhood and very close to a truck stop.

 

Based upon the research that I did before my cruise, the best hotel for the park and cruise hotel is the Holiday Inn Express Baltimore at the Stadiums (the hotel that I stayed at). I also read some decent reviews of the Sleep Inn Airport and Cruiseport, but it is much further from the port than the Holiday Inn Express. Several of the hotels (Days Inn Glen Burnie, Hampton Inn Glen Burnie, Super 8 Baltimore Cruiseport) are old and very run down. They use the park and cruise package to drive traffic to their hotel that would not otherwise come close to their hotels. Hampton Inn is normally a brand that I trust when I travel, however the one in Glen Burnie that offers the park and cruise package has crime problems in their parking lot, and mixed reviews online. The recent reviews that I looked up tonight for that hotel seem to be better, but it is still an older (in need of updating) Hampton Inn in a less desirable area of town.

 

Do your own research, but I found the Holiday Inn Express Baltimore at the Stadiums to be a nice hotel (excluding the surrounding area and construction across the street) with great service and a fast, reliable shuttle. The parking lot is also fully fenced and gated, so you don't have to worry as much about the safety of your vehicle, even in a less than desirable neighborhood.

[fair-winds39]

Does anyone know anything about the best western park and stay ??? How's the neighbor ??

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

We stayed at the Best Western (Park & Cruise Package) for our Feb. cruise this year. The room was fine, the front desk people were very friendly & helpful. We had breakfast the next morning, and registered with a shuttle representative after breakfast who was seated at a table in the hotel lobby. We signed up for 11:30 shuttle, and we were actually boarded onto the shuttle by 11:15 and in the terminal by about 11:25-11:30. The Best Western is very close to the Port of Baltimore. Shortly after boarding, it began to snow, and while we were on the cruise, we heard that a storm was headed up the coast on Thursday, and would hit the Philly area pretty bad. We were concerned about our car at the Best Western parking lot and if it would be snowed in. All we brought with us was a broom if cleaning off the car was necessary. Long story short....We arrived back to Baltimore the following Sunday, no snow at the port, no snow on our car, with just a little bit of snow surrounding it. We parked the week before in such a way, that we could pull right out in case the snow was really bad in Baltimore.

 

The only issue we had on our return was waiting for the shuttle back to Best Western. Evidently, the service uses 3 shuttles, and we called for pick-up and it was first-come, first-served when one of the shuttles pulled into the lot, everyone waiting, ran to get that shuttle. We waited about 45 min. from the time we got off the ship until we were able to get to the shuttle. Other than that, we had no problem at all. Also, my SIL did the same cruise last year and stayed at the HIE and had no problem, so that's another great alternative. Enjoy your cruise!!

[PathfinderEss]

Really enjoying your review, thanks for posting it.:)

[cruiseclues]

Back to the review.

 

 

Before I go any further, I will give you a little background about us. I am 26 and am a manager hospitality industry in Ohio. My girlfriend is 23 and is a school teacher. This was my 8th cruise (all on Carnival) and her first.

 

This was my first cruise on the Carnival Pride, and the first on a Spirit class ship. I have previously sailed on two Fantasy class ships (Imagination and Paradise), two Destiny/Triumph class ships (Triumph and Victory), and a Dream class ship (Dream). I still prefer the layout of the Dream and Fantasy class ships over the Spirit class ships, but the Pride was definitely nicer than the two Triumph class ships that I have been on. All of the public areas on the Pride are condensed on decks 2 and 3, but they are buried down in the bottom of the ship, a long way from the Lido Deck and the daytime activities. I felt like we spent a lot more time climbing stairs and waiting for elevators than we did on some of the other ships.

 

Speaking of the ship, I was impressed with the overall condition of the Pride given that it has been nearly five years since she has seen a dry dock (she is going for her next dry dock in October 2014). The Triumph and Victory both showed a significant amount of wear only a few years out of dry dock, so I was worried that the Pride would be in poor shape, but that was not the case at all. Her crew does a great job of keeping her up at sea, and other than a few small items like the piano at the piano bar not rotating, one of the hot tubs jets being broken, and some wear-and-tear on the carpet and elevators, the ship seemed to be in good shape. The Pride, and really all of the older Carnival ships are probably comparable to very clean 2.5-3 star hotels (Hampton Inn, Courtyard, etc.), and the Pride is reasonably well kept. She isn't as nice as the newer Dream class ships, which I would classify more in the 4-star range (think Hyatt or a newer Hilton), but still provides a great vacation value.

 

As I said earlier, we chose the Pride based upon a process of elimination based upon our vacation week, budget, airfare, and distance to the port. We had originally considered the Carnival Dream, Carnival Legend, Carnival Sunshine, Carnival Ecstasy, Carnival Fantasy, Carnival Splendor, Carnival Magic, Norwegian Breakaway, Royal Princess, and Freedom of the Seas. We quickly ruled out the Florida, Texas and New Orleans departures due to high airfare during the Spring Break season. Airfare to Florida normally runs in the $200-250 per person range, but for Spring Break, it was in excess of $500 to every major port in Florida, and as high as $800 to New Orleans. New York, Baltimore, and Charleston are all within reasonable driving distance, so we quickly narrowed down our choices to the Carnival Pride, Carnival Splendor, Norwegian Breakaway, and Carnival Fantasy. Norwegian Breakaway was less expensive than we expected given that it is a brand new ship, and was originally our first choice, but with the cost of parking in NYC and the logistics of getting into and out of the city, we decided that we really did not want to depart from New York for this cruise. Our choices were down to the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore and the Carnival Fantasy out of Charleston. The Pride was a 7-night sailing to Port Canaveral, Nassau, and Freeport and the Carnival Fantasy was sailing a 5-night itinerary to Nassau and Freeport. For a little over $100 more, we decided we would rather spend an extra two nights on the ship instead of in hotels driving to and from Charleston, so it was the Pride for us on this trip. We would have really preferred the Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, Freeport itinerary, but due to my girlfriend's work schedule, it looked like the Port Canaveral, Nassau, and Freeport itinerary was the only choice for us. This would be my first visit to both Nassau and Freeport, so at least we had something new to look forward to.

 

I'd say more like 3 1/4 years since last dry dock completed 11/20/2010. That might account for why she looks better than you would expect. :):):):)

Edited April 15, 2014 by cruiseclues

[cruiseclues]

Really enjoying your photo review...looking forward to more of those 400 photos. :):):):)

[msboilerman84]

Thank you for the info ...... I heard the neighbors in Baltimore can be iffy so I was concerned leaving the car.

 

We the the FTTF pass hoping we would avoid any long delays getting on the ship.

 

Any pointers where to go in the Bahamas ???

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[fair-winds39]

Thank you for the info ...... I heard the neighbors in Baltimore can be iffy so I was concerned leaving the car.

 

We the the FTTF pass hoping we would avoid any long delays getting on the ship.

 

Any pointers where to go in the Bahamas ???

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Sorry, can't help you there. We didn't get off the ship. Also, about the safety of your car in the hotel parking lot. We were a little skeptical too, but we had no problem.

[cruiseclues]

We've never had a problem with parking our car in the Terminal lot. We've gone on several cruises from Baltimore over the last five years...we are about an hour or so from the port, and we have a number of relatives living in the Baltimore area...also in the 100's of departures from Baltimore reviews we've read, we've never seen a parking problem mentioned. :):):):)

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Francis Scott Key Bridge

 

 

 

Will we get stuck?

 

Just barely clearing the Francis Scott Key Bridge

 

We cleared the bridge and are on our way out of the Chesapeake Bay and on to the Atlantic Ocean!

 

Where the heck is everybody? Looks like you had the whole ship to yourselves.