Pride First Trip Post Dry Dock-Never again

[Rynerson27]

The warnings are true folks, don't expect your normal cruise experience on a ship's first cruise post dry dock. We just got off the Pride yesterday and it was not the same wonderful experience we had in October of 2017. The ship was not ready for us when we boarded and it took the first sea day for the crew to get her close to normal condition, but the cruise was still plagued by technical issues and continued work around the ship. 

 

The ship was filthy for the first day and a half, everything was dirty and covered in dust. Our stateroom didn't have soap, towels, or any welcome aboard materials out, and the balcony was covered in paint chips. My parent's room was in the same condition and lacked a shower curtain. Serenity was closed the first sea day, the roof was stuck half open most the cruise (they finally closed it on an 80 degree day), the pools were closed most of the cruise, the water park did not open until the end of the second sea day, half the games in the new arcade didn't work and would take your money, The casino and fun shops had technical difficulties with their systems. Our bathtub wouldn't drain and would fill with yellow water as you showered and there was constant painting going on below our balcony. The smoke from the casino was out of control as well, most of the 2nd deck was overrun by it. 

 

We did get a $200 credit per person which eased the pain, but all the little things added up to a disappointing experience. It didn't make matters better that this cruise was sold out and full of Northeasterners who are easily frustrated. A LOT of grumpy people on this trip. Most Northeast schools are on a winter break that week, there were 660 kids on the ship. Why Carnival chose this time to send the Pride to dry dock is beyond me. 

 

The positives were the food was tremendous and the staff never turned, they kept doing their jobs with a smile. A lot of new carpet around the ship, new arcade will be nice once it works. 

 

Think twice about cruising post dry dock. 

[Herbaltees]

I just learned that my cruise is the first one after a planned dry dock.

 

A couple of questions:

1. What were the planned upgrades given to the Pride?

2. When did they announce the $200 pp credit?  How was it administered?

3. Were any of the activities impacted or was it more inconvenience, dust and grime?

 

TIA.

[Rynerson27]

3 minutes ago, Herbaltees said:

I just learned that my cruise is the first one after a planned dry dock.

 

A couple of questions:

1. What were the planned upgrades given to the Pride?

2. When did they announce the $200 pp credit?  How was it administered?

3. Were any of the activities impacted or was it more inconvenience, dust and grime?

 

TIA.

1

The Pride was just getting "general maintenance" plus carpet, a new arcade, new Wifi (still worthless)  and new Family Cove area. Other changes I noticed were the vibrations in the aft of the ship are now gone and the drinking water is back to normal (it had a funky taste/smell before).

 

The $200 per person credit was added to our onboard account and was refundable. Supposedly a letter went out to the staterooms but we never received one.

 

It was more of an inconvenience, a few power hours in the arcade were messed up because of technical difficulties. Some folks had issues in the casino transferring money onto machines.  I purchased some booze when the point of sale system was down in the shop. The charge never hit my account and when I took my paper receipt back to fix it, they were out of the booze I had ordered yesterday. I felt bad for the customer service staff, they had long lines all week. 

 

I consider my self pretty patient and understanding, but when you pay that much for a vacation with your kids and invite other family members to come along, it was just disappointing after a while. Thank god the food was stellar, that saved things. 

[Herbaltees]

I'm taking a group on this trip, so I will just need to prepare them for the worst and pray for the best.

 

thanks for the info and sorry to hear of your experience.

[Rynerson27]

Good luck to you.

 

It was explained to me that the ship was without running water or power for two weeks, and a lot of new crew was picked up when it arrived back in Baltimore from dry dock. You would have thought the ship would have been clean and prepared on its trip from Freeport back to Baltimore after dry dock, but apparently, the staff wasn't on board to get it all done. 

[jbethel11]

1 hour ago, Rynerson27 said:

this cruise was sold out and full of Northeasterners who are easily frustrated. A LOT of grumpy people on this trip. Most Northeast schools are on a winter break that week, there were 660 kids on the ship. Why Carnival chose this time to send the Pride to dry dock is beyond me. 

 

 

As a Northeasterner, I can agree with this! 🤣

1 hour ago, Rynerson27 said:

Think twice about cruising post dry dock. 

 

Besides that, were the cabins okay? I know you mentioned the bathroom and balcony, but was the cabin filthy/dirty?

[Rynerson27]

1 minute ago, jbethel11 said:

 

As a Northeasterner, I can agree with this! 🤣

 

Besides that, were the cabins okay? I know you mentioned the bathroom and balcony, but was the cabin filthy/dirty?

They were fine, just a lot of construction dust over the counters and other surfaces and lacked a lot of essential items. The public areas were the worse, everything felt dirty. The bathrooms were horrible the first day and a half and every SINGLE window was filthy. I get it, its a losing battle with salt water but these windows had not been cleaned in some time. 

[schazzy]

I have read so many reviews like yours that we will never intentionally book the first cruise right after a dry-dock. At least they got that vibration fixed, it was bad on the Miracle last year and I'm sure if you had to deal with the "Magic Fingers" dining room on top of everything else, it wouldn't have helped matters any.

 

I'm sorry you had a disappointing cruise. 

[HeidiHo]

I  was on the Dream 1st cruise out of dry dock. There was still work being done in some areas. Very little of it impacted my experience but I could see how some people would be upset. Hot tubs didn't open until mid cruise. I generally don't go in the hot tubs so this didn't bother me but I know it would bother others. I don't think the water slides were open the first couple of days either. Not sure about that because again, I usually don't do the slides so I wasn't paying that much attention. I'm sure people with kids were upset but at least the pools were all open. There was still work being done in the Serenity area but they just closed off small sections at a time so the entire deck wasn't off limits.

 

We knew when we booked this cruise that it was the 1st one after dry dock and were aware that there would probably still be work going on. I will probably avoid booking cruises right after dry dock in the future but we still had a great time. We did not get any kind of compensation for the inconveniences so don't count on that. That might just depend on how much work is being done on each cruise. On our cruise it didn't seem to be that much.

[ATL_Miami_Cruiser]

I learned my lesson when I sailed Carnival Victory immediately after her 2015 drydock. We had all the problems you encountered except the yellow water. In 2020 I'm cruising the Mediterranean on the new Carnival Radiance (retrofitted Victory) and was given the option to sail the first cruise post drydock, I politely declined. But that would have been funny if I made the same mistake twice on the same ship with a new name.

[mets123]

Most ships are still being worked on after a dry dock, as well as the weeks leading up to it. Unfortunately it is cheaper to give O BC than cancel a sailing. I make it a point to wait a least a month before returning to a ship that just had a dry dock.

[PlanoDebbie]

Hopefully we won't have a similar experience next week on the Freedom.  It's my Spring Break, so I was only looking at that one week.  I kind of wondered why it wasn't leaving Galveston until 6 pm.  Then, I found out it's currently in dry dock until our cruise.  Ugh.  Fingers crossed.