7-15 Pride Review: Mostly Great, a few not so great.

[kinggartk]

Thanks for your review, this is not a normal thing for a Waiter since they are the most cheerful and around the public the most. You need to write Carnival with this info so they can pull this Waiter from the Dining Room, I surely do not want to be stuck with this person. Just wondering what Country was he from?

 

We had a waiter like him on the Pride also, he was from India.

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Fred

 

 

I have always heard folks rave about their wait staff. My only Cruise experience was in 2005. Our waiter had no personality at all. He was efficient, but very quiet. Did not attempt to engage in any conversation even when we tried.

 

It was not a big problem for me, since I didn't Cruise to try to meet a freindly waiter, but it was a little disappointing.

[Calicruiser101]

Do they have a website? We are going in January and this sounds fun. How far is it from the port?

The Mismaloya is about a 35-40min ride, it is up in the hills and then down on the beach. Very pretty and a nice drive. Here is the website I used.

 

http://www.barcelolajolla.com/index.html

[Calicruiser101]

I took a look at their menu WOW!

How long did it take(or would it take) to get from the dining to the ship?

JGB

The food is spectacular. In fact while we were eating Carnival brought in an excursion group that also had been at the tequila factory. However, that excursion did not cost them $17 a person like we paid.:D After we left the restaraunt we went shopping for about an hour, so I would guess that if you left the restaurant and went straight back to the port it would probably be about 10-15min ride. Well worth it.:)

[cathy_kearns]

Someone was worried about the coffee. I know in the dining room on the Paradise you could ask for cappuchino or espresso and they would get it for you, at breakfast and dinner, and didn't charge you. There was also a coffee bar that did charge for drinks.

[Calicruiser101]

Ok, this one will be brief. Due to the weather again, we could not do as we had planned. We had made reservations w/ Randi's Happy Horses and were very much looking forward to our ride and Stone Island. Especially my daughter as she has been riding for a year now and learning how to barrel race.:( We got off the ship, took the tram to the termimal and by the time we reached Randi we were soaked. I don't mean a little wet, but completely soaked. We talked w/ Randi and we decided to cancel our ride as some of the roads were flooding we were worried we would get stuck somewhere. I will have to say I was impressed that she showed up in the rain. She seemed very nice and even offered us the use of her driver. We declined and decided to head back to the ship and figure out what to do next. My dad and DH were on an excursion w/ Carnival, they were going to play El Cid. They did manage to play, but I don't think it was El Cid and they had to play the same nine holes twice as the other part of the course was closed. They enjoyed themselves and said by the time they hit the 3rd hole the rain had let up. They are very dedicated golfers as I am sure you gathered.

 

The rest of us decided to go to the dining room for lunch, however it was closed. This was a little annoying as it was raining and we figured they should have been open. We ended up eating at the buffet and decided we would take a taxi into the golden zone. We took this funny looking car that sort of looked like a VW w/ 4 doors. The kids got a kick out of it. It was $15 from the terminal to the golden zone. Randi had told us the shopping was better at the terminal, should have listened to her. If you are not looking for diamonds or jewelry the shopping is better at the terminal. The kids were looking forward to bartering and picking up inexpensive trinkets and necklaces and this is not the place to find those things. It was fun to ride there in one of those cars though, so it was worth it. We told our driver to meet us back where he dropped us off in an hour and he did. He even took us the long way back to the terminal and showed us a little bit of the town. Very nice guy and he was tipped well.

 

Once again we ate in the dining room w/ lovely Allen. Great dinner and then we headed off to the karoke and Sport's bar. We called it an early night as we were headed to Cabo and wanted to be well rested.

 

CABO:

 

My sister and her family did the ecological snorkel. She said it was fun to ride on the boat, but someone should have warned them that the water was so cold. She and her husband only lasted about 10mins, but the kids lasted about 40min. They had to tell the kids to get back in the boat because their lips were turning blue.

 

My parents and my family got off the boat around 9:30 and went in search of a boat ride to Land's End. This was easy to do and off we went. We got the ride for $12 a person and I talked them into letting my daughter go for free. I was impressed w/ my bargaining skills.:D The ride was stunning and we have a lot of pictures. It was very choppy that day so at times I was a little nervous but everything went fine. We met up w/ my sister and her family at the bathroom after our ride.

 

We headed over to the Office for lunch and a little water play. We got a van ride for $2 a peice and off we went. Lunch was spectacular and margaritas were very large and very yummy. My dad and neice each ordered the crab w/ garlic. Wow, is all I can say. 3 crabs are delievered w/ little peices of crunchy garlic sprinkled on it, it was heavenly.

 

After lunch we went on a banana boat ride. My DD went w/ my parents to do some shopping, wise choice on her part. The ride sucked, we got dumped less than 5mins into the ride and we were probably going about 20miles an hour. After falling off and my DH pushing me to the surface I was ready to swim back to shore and figured all my time spent lap swimming will finally come in handy. My sister is a swimmer too and she was headed back to shore w/ me. However, the DHs convinced us to get back on, that was interesting and probably not the most graceful thing to watch. He went a lot slower after that because my neice and nephew were taking turns screaming and crying, needless to say that was not the best $20 I have spent. After that I was thinking about their safety laws, which doesn't appear to be much. When we take my sister's ski boat out if there is a person in the water the orange flag goes up not so in Mexico. We were just 6 bodies floating in the ocean and there are boats flying all over the place. But we survived and now have a pretty interesting story to tell. Once my DD heard we fell off she was even more glad she chose to shop w/ the grandparents then stay w/ mom and dad.:D

 

After that we did a bit of shopping near the pier and got on the tender by about 2:30. Then we rested a bit, again, and got ready for David's Supper Club. More on that in the next reply.

[Calicruiser101]

We decided to eat at David's on the second formal night. We once again took some beautiful pictures and headed off for dinner.

 

The view is wonderful and the dinner is worth the extra charge. The service is superior and the live music was good. There are so many people offering you different things that you feel like a star. I ordered the surf and turf and my DH ordere the Prime Rib chop. For a starter I had the crabcake, not the best I've ever had, but hey I live in Monterey.:D They offer some rather interesting complimentry items, not sure what they were, but they were good. I am fussy about what I eat and so sometimes it is just best if I don't know what it is. I will have to say that the lobster was horrible. There was no butter drizzled over it and the butter tasted like saltless butter. The texture was tough as well. My mom ordered just the lobster and she had to have the waiter remove the lobster from the shell and even he had a difficult time doing it. My brother in law who serves lobster in his restaraunt said that sometimes chefs cook the lobster w/out a garlic or butter drizzle and this is how it turns out. I am not used to that and was very disappointed. But since I had the surf and turf I just plowed into my filet mignon served w/ fresh mushrooms so I had plenty to eat. I will have to say that because I eat my steak well done, I know a chef's worst nightmare, but it was cooked perfectly. My dad asked if they could butterfly for me and they did. So tender and juicy my mouth is watering all over again. We had many desserts and of course the cheese platter for my mom. The desserts very good, I had some sort of chocolate thing and my DH had the cheesecake, both were outstanding. My Brother in law had the escargot for a starter and he said it was quite good too. All in all it was a great meal and I would eat there again, just not the lobster. The dining room lobster was much better. Even my mom enjoyed her night, just not the lobster.

 

After that it was off to the karoke and of course the Sports Bar. We also enjoyed the music in the casino and had lots of fun requesting music.

 

Last Day:(

Not much to write about. We ate lunch in the dining room which was a nice change from the buffet. They really have great burgers on board the ship and the fries are great too. We bought more pictures, ate dinner in the dining room, w/ the lovely Allen. We didn't see much of the last night's singing and dancing as were not in the main dining area seating. Our table was through the main doors, turn left, left again and there is an area that holds a few tables. We did our usual thing that night. Packing sucks and is always a sad event.

 

Posted above is the terrible debarkation story, so I won't bore you w/ that again. We had a great time despite the weather working against us. It was nice to be w/ our family, even though we live a mile apart, it was nice to relax. If you have any questions let me know and I will help you as best I can.;)

[Pischina]

Thank you so much for your review! I just cannot wait - but I hope our weather isn't too bad! Did the Pride have the wonderful chocolate buffet I just saw posted on another thread? I can't believe I never read about this buffet before...

Oh, did you ever go to afternoon tea? I never hear from anyone who actually went.

[Calicruiser101]

Thank you so much for your review! I just cannot wait - but I hope our weather isn't too bad! Did the Pride have the wonderful chocolate buffet I just saw posted on another thread? I can't believe I never read about this buffet before...

Oh, did you ever go to afternoon tea? I never hear from anyone who actually went.

No, we didn't go to the buffet, I heard my sister mention it one time and then I forgot to ask her about it. I saw the tea being set up and it looked really pretty, but no we didn't go to that either. I am sure you will have a blast. Even though the weather was not in our favor we really did enjoy ourselves. The ship itself is just beautiful, however, wandering around w/ the 10years olds giggling at all the naked people did make for some interesting conversations and great laughs. They just couldn't get over it.:D

[Kurbanfan]

Welcome back Cali!

Sounds like you had a great cruise. We will be heading to Cabo in 2 1/2 weeks.....one of my favorite ports.

Thanks for the nice review!:)

[JGB]

Calicruisier

Thank you for taking the time to give your fellow cruisers the 411.

By the way did either you or a member of your family hit any royals in the sports bar?(if so what machine?)

JGB

[bunnkins]

Welcome back, are you going still looking for someone to bring you something to eat like we are! Cooking for yourself is not so much fun! We were on the Pride with you. Glad you had a great time. We really had a fabulous time too!

[Stevecruise]

Thanks for the feedback - my family was on the same ship with you and I'm just getting around to posting to our review...I'll copy the link to your review in my review to make it easy for people who want feedback on the Pride ship specifically.

 

I was more fortunate than you as our waiter was top notch and really did great by us...more on that in my review...thanks

 

Steve

[Jsme]

I go in a year and a half on this ship. lol I am so excited. I have a group cruise going on and I am taking many notes from your review.

 

What is David's Supper Club? I realize it must be a surcharge place.

 

Did you do a day pass to the AI in Puerto Vallarta? Did you just walk up and were able to get day passes? How much did it cost? Or was this thru the cruiseline?