Carnival Pride Cruise Review 6/15 to 6/22/14

[bigdog1958]

Below is my best attempt at a little review of our cruise on the Carnival Pride. Sorry in advance for mistakes or typos.

7 Day Cruise Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay and Freeport

10 People in our Group

4 Platinum

4 Gold

2 First time on Carnival

Arrived at Baltimore Port at 10:45am and the Parking opened up at about 11:10am. Dropped our Bags off and parked our cars. Went through security and was sitting in the waiting areas by 11:35am.

Boarding began at 12:20pm and 4 Platinum people were on about 15min before us and waited at the Atrium Bar. Some of us bought the cheers program, then went upstairs and sat near the pool and had something to eat and had a few drinks.

We went down to our cabins about 3:30 to unpack and get ready for the Muster Drill. The Muster drill was at approx. 4 to 4:30pm. Then we headed up to the serenity bar for cocktails and to watch us sail away.

8 of our Group sat together at the early seating for dinner. My wife and I did your time dining.

The 8 at the early dinner did not care much for their wait staff. At different times there food was either on the cool side or they were being served their second course while they were still eating their first. Everyone thought their food was good overall, but at times because of the wait staff, the food was not as hot as it should have been. My wife and I ate 6 nights in the MDR and had 4 different wait staffs as we sat in different areas each night. We were very happy with all of the staff that served us each night.

We all experienced the sea day brunch at least once (some a couple of times) and other days we ate on the lido deck for breakfast. For Lunch we tried quite a few items, including the sandwiches available at

Serenity Bar, The Pizza and the deli. A few of us also had room service later in the night and had BLT Sandwiches which were good and loaded with bacon. They told us it would take about 30min, but our experience was more like 15min.

Overall the food was very good most of the time and all of us were happy with the selection and quality of the food we had.

For activities, some of our group participated in a lot of Trivia games; a couple of them even were part of the winning team trivia event that happened over the course of the week on the ship. Some did bingo and others mostly hung out at the serenity area. We also did a little gambling along the way as well.

A few of us went to a couple of the production shows and also watched a couple of the comedy shows.

We went to the Piano Bar a couple of nights for a while and listened to Roger.

Almost every night we went to the Starry Lounge and listened to the band Hi Lux. They are pretty good and we enjoyed the music each night. On the last night, the show band did a set of Motown songs in the lounge and they were very good.

We also listened to the individual singers in the casino and Atrium Bars at different times. They were decent. One of them Tony Ray? ( I think) this was his last cruise with Carnival.

At our first port, Grand Turk we went the Beach and swam in the Ocean for 45min, then went to the pool at Margaretiville. One thing about the swimming area in the Ocean at Grand Turk, it is filled with rocks and kind of hard of the feet. The water is nice and clear and good for floating around but it was hard to walk with all the rocks.

At Margaretville there was an incident in another section of the pool where I believe a person was drowning and they pulled her out and performed CPR on her for a good 20min. After a time they brought a defibulator out and used that also. Someone that was over that way said they thought they finally got a weak pulse, but when they were taking her away on a stretcher it looked like from a distance that they were still doing CPR. None of us heard how she made out, so not sure of the outcome, but everyone around the pool area was stunned and saddened by this event.

Our next port Half Moon Cay, our group rented the Private Oasis. This was absolutely fantastic.

All 10 of us thought this was the best thing we have done on a cruise. It’s not cheap, at 1495.00 but for 10 of us it was the best 150.00 per person we could spend.

This is a private area where we had our own Bartender (with open bar), our own cook who made Hamburgers, Hotdogs, BBQ Chicken and Fish for us. They also had salads, chips and Salsa and deserts for us. They also had a butler for us who kind of did whatever was needed for us. They also supplied a life guard for us.

This private Oasis was just that, with a big bar, dining area, Men’s and Ladies restrooms. It also had sun loungers and sofas. There was a huge 8 person hot tub, steps going into the ocean and a slide going into the Ocean. They also provided Mats and snorkel gear for us to use in the Ocean and Beach towels. They also had a boom box where we plugged in an MP3 player and played our own music all day.

At Freeport, all of us just walked around doing a little shopping for an hour or two and that was about it.

Overall, our group had a fantastic cruise and we even lucked out on the weather as it was great every day. No rain at all on any day of the 7. I think it may have rained one night late, but it was well after all of us were sleeping.

[Jamman54]

Thanks for posting your review. We have enjoyed our cruises on the Pride, and you can't beat a day at HMC, especially if you are lucky enough to snag the Oasis!! :D

 

Sorry to hear about that person at Margaritaville :(

Edited June 23, 2014 by Jamman54

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[ConshyCrock]

Awesome review. We're booked on the Pride in September and it cannot come soon enough!!!

 

 

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[wrigley80]

Thanks for the review. I will be on this cruise on July 27th. We are super excited to get back to Half Moon Cay

[ILCruzr]

OP what did you think of Josh Waitzman? hes the best CD carnival has!

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your review.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for taking the time to write your review.

 

Keith

[krumyilingy]

We are super excited to get back to Half Moon Cay

[susie8862]

Thank you for your review BigDog. There are so few and far between for the Pride.

 

We will be on her at the end of November, after the refurb. :) Did you find that she was run down or if there was a lot of wear and tear?

 

This will be the smallest ship we have ever been on....which will be strange, but maybe nice. Looking forward to it.:o

[bigdog1958]

OP what did you think of Josh Waitzman? hes the best CD carnival has!

 

To be honest I really dont pay much attention to the CD.. I do not attend the welcome aboard show and really just hear his annoucements. So, I cant really comment on him as CD

[bigdog1958]

Thank you for your review BigDog. There are so few and far between for the Pride.

 

We will be on her at the end of November, after the refurb. :) Did you find that she was run down or if there was a lot of wear and tear?

 

This will be the smallest ship we have ever been on....which will be strange, but maybe nice. Looking forward to it.:o

 

Yes quite a bit of wear and tear right now... The ship was originally scheduled for dry dock this past Feb, but was delayed. As far as the size of the ship, I like this size. The spirt class seems to fit us fairly well, we find it never to be too crowded in most areas.

[ryansmith18]

That private oasis sounds dope. I need to do this one day.

[retiredgram]

Yes quite a bit of wear and tear right now... The ship was originally scheduled for dry dock this past Feb, but was delayed. As far as the size of the ship, I like this size. The spirt class seems to fit us fairly well, we find it never to be too crowded in most areas.

 

Have to agree with this. We will be on her in Sept. and usually sail on her every year.

[jaynedough26]

My husband and I were also on this cruise. It was our first and it was fantastic! We had a blast. Half moon Cay was def. our favorite port. I am sure we met, as we also went to the starry night lounge to watch the Hi Lux band nightly.

 

 

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[LilMsTexas]

Thanks for the complete review! We sailed on the Pride last September and we're booked again September 14th with friends who have not cruised in 11 years :eek:

 

I was on the Triumph in April out of Galveston that already has the 2.0 upgrades. The upgrades are fantastic but overall I still enjoyed the Pride more.

 

One thing I did immensely enjoy on the Triumph was the magic show production and the Burlesque show. These were really to notch! Was there a burlesque show on the Pride? Can you say more about the Show productions and the comedians on board now? I'm hoping a year later I won't be seeing the identical shows.

 

We also do anytime dining but have a different experience by requesting the same wait staff each night. They give us a buzzer if we need to wait for our table to be available. We sit in the nearby martini bar for a cocktail while we wait. Usually 15 minutes later we had our staff and same booth! This let our team know we were pleased with their service and it even got better each night as they anticipated what we would want and how we wanted things prepared. This made tipping at the end of the week special :) I actually have their names and if we are fortunate we will have them again!

 

Thanks again for the current review! I look forward to reading what you have to say about the shows if you offer more details. Happy cruising everyone!

 

CHEERS!

Christi

 

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Edited July 13, 2014 by LilMsTexas

[bigdog1958]

My husband and I were also on this cruise. It was our first and it was fantastic! We had a blast. Half moon Cay was def. our favorite port. I am sure we met, as we also went to the starry night lounge to watch the Hi Lux band nightly.

 

 

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Yeah, I am sure we saw each other, I was the fat old guy with long hair that walked with a cane and usally sat at the bar.

[bigdog1958]

Thanks for the complete review! We sailed on the Pride last September and we're booked again September 14th with friends who have not cruised in 11 years :eek:

 

I was on the Triumph in April out of Galveston that already has the 2.0 upgrades. The upgrades are fantastic but overall I still enjoyed the Pride more.

 

One thing I did immensely enjoy on the Triumph was the magic show production and the Burlesque show. These were really to notch! Was there a burlesque show on the Pride? Can you say more about the Show productions and the comedians on board now? I'm hoping a year later I won't be seeing the identical shows.

 

We also do anytime dining but have a different experience by requesting the same wait staff each night. They give us a buzzer if we need to wait for our table to be available. We sit in the nearby martini bar for a cocktail while we wait. Usually 15 minutes later we had our staff and same booth! This let our team know we were pleased with their service and it even got better each night as they anticipated what we would want and how we wanted things prepared. This made tipping at the end of the week special :) I actually have their names and if we are fortunate we will have them again!

 

Thanks again for the current review! I look forward to reading what you have to say about the shows if you offer more details. Happy cruising everyone!

 

CHEERS!

Christi

 

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I believe the shows are the same ones the pride has had for the last couple of years. I do not think they have changed them. I think one was Vroom and another was Jazz'n ? The comedians will probably be different as I was on the pride in feb and then june and the comedy shows were different on both cruises. Sorry I cant be more help on the shows, but dont think they are changing them until the 2.0 upgrades in Oct.

[aaron3219]

We had jazzn and vroom. Decent shows but the old guy on the motorcycle cracked me up with how corny and poorly that was done.

 

Comedians were mostly different each port stop.

[jaynedough26]

Yeah, I am sure we saw each other, I was the fat old guy with long hair that walked with a cane and usally sat at the bar.

 

 

I remember you! My husband and I are in our 30's and always sat at the bar too!

 

 

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[tinyrose]

Thanks for the review. I have been trying to talk DH into a Pride cruise from Baltimore especially since it is only a 9 hour drive for us. But he keeps saying "no" that he is not interested. :( I am going to keep working on him as I really would like to see what Baltimore and the Pride have to offer. :D

[jaynedough26]

I remember you! My husband and I are in our 30's and always sat at the bar too!

 

 

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You drank Fosters!

 

 

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[bigdog1958]

You drank Fosters!

 

 

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You are correct, some times to many