Matt & Ashley's Carnival Pride Review - (New Year's, Pictures, FunTimes)

[DCCruiser1013]

Fabulous pics! You have me rethinking booking the Conquest, and going with the Pride! A big plus is we could drive down to Baltimore from Buffalo, NY, rather than fly into Ft Lauderdale. Thanks for the review! I will continue to follow. 😎

 

Oh wow, whichever you opt for, I hope you have a great time. You may already be aware of this, but if you decide to go with Baltimore there are several hotels around the area that will allow you to leave your car and shuttle you to the cruise terminal.

[swodog94]

Great review so far! We love sailing on Pride, but I had never seen her decked out for Christmas, so thanks for posting those pix. Looking forward to the rest of your review (they're harder to do than people think!).

[Jamman54]

Patti & I are really enjoying your review and pictures. We were on the Pride for Christmas and New Years Eve back in 2011 and the ship was decorated beautifully. Thanks for bringing back those memories! :D Can't wait to be on the Pride again in 50 days!

[JaniceB]

Can't wait to hear about Half Moon Cay!

[Laney219]

Following along. Possibly sailing the same route in August. Need to finalize a few things.

 

Couple questions. I may have missed but does the pizza place in the buffet have breakfast pizza?

I know hmc is coming up, but do you know the price of adding a 5 or 6 person to a cabana?

ETA are you unable to make reservations for carnivals anytime dining?

 

 

Thanks for an enjoyable review!

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

Edited January 6, 2017 by Laney219

[DCCruiser1013]

Great review so far! We love sailing on Pride, but I had never seen her decked out for Christmas, so thanks for posting those pix. Looking forward to the rest of your review (they're harder to do than people think!).

 

Thanks for reading! Your review was among those that Ashley and I followed along with to tide us over until this cruise, so thanks for yours too! You're right about writing, it's definitely an undertaking you have to commit to. Totally worth it though. I wish I had written more down, so I didn't have to resort to looking at the FunTimes and our Sail & Sign statement to see where we were on what days.

 

Patti & I are really enjoying your review and pictures. We were on the Pride for Christmas and New Years Eve back in 2011 and the ship was decorated beautifully. Thanks for bringing back those memories! :D Can't wait to be on the Pride again in 50 days!

 

Have a great time! That'll be a fun cruise. Someday we'll do a Journeys.

 

Can't wait to hear about Half Moon Cay!

 

Stay tuned, it's coming tonight!

 

Following along. Possibly sailing the same route in August. Need to finalize a few things.

 

Couple questions. I may have missed but does the pizza place in the buffet have breakfast pizza?

I know hmc is coming up, but do you know the price of adding a 5 or 6 person to a cabana?

ETA are you unable to make reservations for carnivals anytime dining?

 

 

Thanks for an enjoyable review!

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

 

Thanks for reading! Wow - great questions.

 

The pizza is 24 hours, but I'm not sure they do breakfast-oriented pizza. My guess would be they don't but I yield to anyone who says otherwise. I think more than 4 people in a cabana requires somewhere around $40 or 50. I'm not sure if they use that to cover additional amenities in the cabana, but I would assume they do. I'm pretty sure they don't do reservations for YTD. It's first come first served.

[DCCruiser1013]

Happy Friday Everyone!

 

Day 5 – Friday December 30 – Half Moon Cay

 

 

 

Unofficial poll time. Do you pronounce Cay like the end of Okay or like Key?

 

We woke up at about 8am, with no sign of the island quite yet (though I suspect the other side of the ship could probably see it quite clearly).

 

 

We were due to meet in the Taj Mahal at 9am to be among the first to debark with all the other excursion ticket holders. If you didn’t have an excursion or some other priority status, you went up to Lido to get stickers with numbers on them. Then guests would head down to the tender boats when their number was called.

 

We headed up to Lido to get our breakfast burritos. That’s when I turned around and noticed we had arrived. We heard a rumor that they were going to begin letting people off early, so we decided to get our burritos to go, and head down to the room to get packed up. I snapped a couple pictures of the island.

 

 

[joand452]

He does!! How funny!

 

Ashley wants me to point out that David looks exactly like Steve from some Stranger Things. I'll open this up to the floor for discussion.

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

We then brought our burritos to the Taj Mahal and ate while we waited to be called to the tender boats. We were eventually called and filed down the stairs to Deck A. The ocean was a little choppy today, so the ramp to board the tender boat was actually moving. I watched it run over and then back off the flip flop of the lady in front of me. She got her foot out of the way in time but if she hadn’t she could have been pretty badly hurt. Even still, I didn't think this was a particularly dangerous process, however, I can now more easily understand why they would need to occasionally cancel this port of call. We filed into the tender boat. We were in the bottom level with a poor angle for picture taking.

 

A few minutes after we sat down, we were underway and down the channel to our little slice of heaven. When we got off the tender boat everyone moves down a pathway toward the welcome center. There’s a bar and a few little shops. There was also an excursions desk which had a ridiculously long line. Since I knew where the cabana was, I figured there was no need for us to wait and we just headed down the path towards our cabana.

 

Quick peek of the ship. We're almost there!

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by DCCruiser1013

[DCCruiser1013]

Eventually we finally made it to our cabana.

 

 

 

 

 

Within a cabana is a bunch of stuff. Notably 2 lounger chairs, with 4 other chairs at a table towards the back. There’s an oscillating fan towards the front, and a shower head for rinsing off your feet. For the warmer months there’s a ceiling fan above the table, and an A/C unit. You also get floating mats, and snorkel gear. We had a great view of the Pride.

 

 

We were also pretty close to the restrooms. They were in the building behind this tree.

 

[DCCruiser1013]

This is looking down the beach towards the welcome center.

 

 

And this is looking the other way.

 

 

As far down as we were, it never got very crowded. I’d guess the temperatures were in the upper 70’s. The water was pretty cold, and a little rough towards the beginning of the day.

 

 

Pretty quickly after we arrived, a bunch of Carnival employees showed up with our food, sodas, waters, and ice.

 

 

They put the sodas into the fridge (we put the dips into the fridge ourselves).

 

[DCCruiser1013]

We spent the morning swimming and relaxing in the loungers. It took a while to get used to the cold water, but once we did it was pretty nice.

 

Eventually a HMC employee showed up to ask us if we had checked in with the excursions desk. We apologized for skipping it, and she completely understood when we told her that the line was too long, and only asked to take our ticket. It worked out for us this time, but in the future we’ll check in at the desk so they don’t have to chase us down.

 

Eventually a small rainstorm moved in. Ashley and I hung out in our cabana and ate.

 

 

 

 

The rain cleared out for just a little while, then an even longer rain storm moved in.

 

 

This one took a while to go away, and it really cleared the beach out.

 

 

[cruise pup]

He does!! How funny!

 

Ashley wants me to point out that David looks exactly like Steve from some Stranger Things. I'll open this up to the floor for discussion.

 

 

 

Spooky!

 

But the face on the statue is a poor copy of the original (statue, not the guy).

[DCCruiser1013]

But the sun eventually came out for good at around 1:30 or 2pm. The waves had calmed down a bit, but it was a lot chillier. We briefly went into the ocean one more time, then laid around the cabana for another before we started to head back at 3.

 

 

We loved our cabana, but I think we will only get it again if we are with two other people. It felt like we wasted a lot of food by only being the two of us.

 

Attendants stopped by very frequently to see if we needed anything. They weren’t necessarily drink waiters, as they only visited the cabanas and villas. We were wondering what we could possibly need that they would bring to us. It was very nice, something we don’t remember happening the last time we had a cabana.

 

On our way back to the tender boat, I took some more pictures of the island.

 

 

 

 

 

This is covered hut type thing where they check your Sail & Sign cards and your bags before you get on the ship.

 

 

We’re pretty sure this is a new thing, and we are fans of it. It keeps people from waiting in the hot sun for a tender, and it keeps the line from backing up getting back onto the ship.

[DCCruiser1013]

This is from the tender on the way back to the ship.

 

 

Once back onboard, we headed back to the room, had our showers, and relaxed on the balcony. Before 5pm we were underway for Freeport. We were able to get a few sunset shots before we headed down for Big Bang Theory trivia, where we got 14/20 correct.

 

 

 

I wasn’t able to get pictures of the menus for this evening, but they can be found here, in meatloafsfans thread.

 

Ashley got the conch fritters and a cannoli. I got the shrimp cocktail and conch fritters. The conch fritters were pretty awesome. Ashley got the spare ribs, which she said weren’t very tender. I got the linguini with sausage. Which was good. For dessert we both got s’more parfaits, and we split a sticky toffee brioche. I think we wish we had just gone with two brioches.

 

After dinner we headed to the early seating of the Hasbro game show.

 

 

It was entertaining, seemed short though. Apparently they did completely different games at the late seating. They played older commercials for Hasbro stuff, like Mr. Potato Head. That was interesting to see. After the game show we headed to the Piano Bar. The regular singer, Brad, had the night off, so one of the other guys, Mike, who plays guitar around the ship filled in. Mike could really sing, but had trouble converting some songs to the piano. It was still a good time.

 

We headed down to Butterflies at around 10:30 to get a good seat for the new comedian, John Wesley at 11pm. This guy was hilarious. A week later I’m still chuckling at some of his punchlines.

 

After John Wesley, we headed back up to the piano bar for a few minutes, then headed on up to bed. Very long day tomorrow.

 

 

Coming later this evening, New Year’s Eve in Freeport!

[OceansOfTravels]

I am loving your review and pictures of the Carnival Pride, bringing back memories of my first cruise! :D

[DCCruiser1013]

I am loving your review and pictures of the Carnival Pride, bringing back memories of my first cruise! :D

 

I'm glad to hear that. Thanks for reading!

[DCCruiser1013]

Day 6 – Saturday December 31 (New Year’s Eve) – Freeport

 

 

 

The Pride arrived in Freeport at 7am, and Ashley and I got up at around 7:30. We had no plans to get off the ship, as we’ve been here several times already. If you take transportation to other parts of Freeport, you can find some pretty nice spots, but the area around the cruise area doesn’t have a lot to offer except a straw market type place, and some touristy bars. The rest of the immediate surroundings are pretty industrial. As comedian John Wesley described it the previous evening, “it’s the truck stop of the Caribbean.” The color of the water here always amazes me though.

 

 

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

We headed upstairs, and the main pool had been taken over by towel animals. Get ready for picture overload.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

 

 

 

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

 

 

 

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

 

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

We got our usual breakfast burritos, and then went up to the Sun Deck to take pictures of Freeport.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lferra79]

Hi Matt! My family and I were on this voyage as well! So nice to relive it so soon! Your pics and review are incredible so far...I so want to be back on the ship!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[DCCruiser1013]

We also got some pictures of the towel population from above.

 

 

 

For much of the rest of the morning we wandered the ship, taking pictures that you’ve already seen in this review. I wanted to take them while we were in port because I like to minimize the amount of people in them if I can. While we were doing this, there was a crew drill simulating an emergency that would require an order to abandon ship. It was interesting to hear the various commands over the PA system, and CD Steve did a great job explaining to the passengers listening what was going on.

 

While we took pictures in the arcade, Ashley and I played a game of air hockey. On our previous Glory cruise, we spent a lot of time playing air hockey. The Glory has the ridiculous PacMan table that shoots out dozens of little pucks simultaneously and you have to play like that. Ashley got lucky whenever that happened. But when we played straight up air hockey with just one puck, she just didn’t stand a chance. Not to brag, but my air hockey slap shot is unstoppable. Luckily on the Pride, they don’t have the PacMan variation, so I upheld my reputation and beat Ashley, 7-3. Another cool thing to note is that when they made announcements, all of the games in the arcade stopped making noise, including the air hockey table.

 

Eventually we headed over to hang out in the atrium and play some cards, then down to the Piazza for Wacky Facts trivia. That trivia was tough, we got 9/20 right. I’m pretty sure the winner got 10 or 11 right. While we were there, the trivia host, Joe, pointed out the window to the “Sad Frog”. Near Senor Frogs, there’s a picnic table with a lonely frog. It was a little far away so it was hard to get a great picture of it, but look for it next time you’re there.