Pride review 7/3

[BeachyLisa]

Let me start by saying that overall we had a great time. Included on this trip me, hubby, kids 14 and 16 an my parents still partying in their 60's.We booked this sailing because we got nice military and senior discounts even though the itinerary was not so appealing. I thought that maybe between the unappealing itinerary and July 4th holiday it would be less crowded but that was not the case-it was packed!!

 

Embarkation- Got to the terminal a little later than I wanted (about 12:50) and by the time we dropped off luggage and parked there was a line. When we finally went to check in we had the slowest guy ever! The lady next to him checked in 3 families in the time it took us to get thru and then he screwed up my sign and sail account -lol and go with the flow. By the time we got on the ship it was about 2:30 and we were starved so we headed right uo to lido for lunch whichwas packed. Had our luggage pretty quickly so we unpacked while waitin for sail away which was delayed by about 45 mins. Going under the bridges is awesome-definately be on deck for this!!

 

The ship overall is nice, clean, and in pretty good shape. Some complain about the decor but other than David's full frontal it didn't bother anyone. The people at the Guest Service were super nice and helpful while straightening out our sign and sail accounts.

 

Food-Most important!!

We had 6pm seating on 2nd floor of dining room at a table in front of a window overlooking the back of the ship -very nice! Rigo and Alfredo were graet as our wait staff-always checked in after a few minutes of receiving our entree to make sure if we like it and wanted anything else. Can't say we had anything that we hated. Everyone got the lobster on first formal night and loved it except my son who got the duck and proclaimed it Awesome !! Some favorites were Asian beef short ribs (Yummy!!) also a decent prime rib, grilled shrimp, BBQ ribs, and while many complain about the chateaubriand(sp) mom got it and said it was fantastic. On the last night I had a fettuccine with chicken and mushroom sauce that was good and huge-it was the only dinner I couldn't finish. Their caesar salad was good and their grilled steak is a great alternative if nothing else appeals to you-delicious and always cooked perfectly. If you like sherbets they are really good especially the pineapple. Biggest disappointmentswere shrimp cocktail (don't bother) and I found the dessert selections to be lacking-Thank goodness for the melting cake. The baked alaska and grand marnier souffle were bad.

We ate at Mermaids for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is pretty monotonous-not much variety and the omelette line was always long. Luch food was better but absolute chaos! My advice avoid between 12 and 1:30pm. The lay-out is confusing which adds to the chaos. It would be helpful to have a map with a listing of what is at each station posted on the entrances to cut down on the time and effort it takes to get your food and navigate the crowds. The Asian station is popular (ie long lines), also enjoyed the Italian, Mexican, carving stations, and the fish always tasted fresh.

 

Entertainment-Saw all but 2 shows. We skipped the musicals except Vroom(was ok) and we enjoyed the Welcome show (poor Tim), the comedians and the ventriloquist. The legends show is pretty good.

Played a lot of Bingo-price is pretty reasonable especially when it is half price-$10 for a triple card. Mom won $250 but I didn't win squat. Cruise director and staff (Kirk and Matt) were funny. Go to the Liars club show-very entertaining.

My kids went to Club O2. My daughter won't turn 15 til November but they let her in without question. Not sure if that's good or bad. Not many structured activities as with younger kids-they just pretty much roamed the ship in packs getting on people's nerves(lol).

We learned that if you skip the show there's not a whole lot to do. One night we went to karaoke and found lots of talented singers on board. Some nights we went up on deck with a bucket of beers and relaxed.

Pools on sea days were packed as expected mostly with younger kids. Also be warned that lido deck is very slippery-have started thread on this topic.

 

Excursions:

Port Canaveral-Why?? We didn't want to fork over all that cash to do the Orlando stuff-time wise it's just not worth it to us so unless you want to do Space Center there's not much to do. We took a shuttle to Cocoa Beach and did some shopping, walked around, checked out the beach (very crowded) and headed back to the ship for lunch and an uncrowded swim.

Nassau-docked at 11am but took over an hour to clear us. Luckily our excursion wasn't til 1:30 so we had time to eat lunch and head out. Our kids wanted to see Atlantis and the cheapest way thruCarnival was their Discover Atlantis tour ($50pp). It actually was better than I expected. We had a guided tour thru the hotel and aquariums and was glad to be mostly inside cuz it was brutally hot that day-about 95 degrees!

 

Freeport-Not much to look atexcept the water is absolutely amazing-even more so than Nassau. We booked sand dollar snorkel and sail tour with the recommendations of the Bahamas board and it did not disappoint. Well worth the money-$45plus $10 round trip for taxi-and for me the highlight of the trip. Short day here-only docked from 7 am to 2 pm and then it's back off to Baltimore (boo) !!

 

Last day weather was really bad-cold, rainy, and windy!! Can't really complain as every other day was great.

Got back into Baltimore a little early like 9ish but debarkation was still painful-have started thread on this as well.

Overall good trip-would definately do again with a different itinerary!!

[andychris]

thanks for the review-sounds like you had a good time!!

[cyntil8ing]

Alfredo was our waiter too, though his assistant was Marcos.

 

Glad you had a great time!

[thomarvin]

my favorite dinner was the turkey with bow tie pasta. Fabulous. I thought the Gran Marnier souffle was good but DONT PASS UP THE BREAD PUDDING!!! IT IS FANTASTIC!!! Don't bother with the baked alaska. I don;t think it was baked at all. My oldest had the choc melting cake everynight accept one. He had the apple pie. He likes pie. I also couldn't finish the chick with mushroom fettuccine. It was the only dinner I didn't finish.

 

Lisa, did you go to tea?

[Only1dee]

In reference to the the excursion with Sand dollar -what time did you get back to the ship?

This will be my first cruise and I really want to go snorkeling, I tried to book the excursion through Carnival but I'm getting an error message and the Rep for Carnival told me it's most likely full. :confused: Since the ship leaves @ 2 I don't want to run the risk of missing it. The other couple we're traveling with was able to book this excursion online :(.

Thanks

[jerseygirl2609]

Thanks for the review! We are considering touring Atlantis when we go in August, do they allow you to use the beaches after the tour?

[Nunu]

I can't imagine Port Canaveral as a port stop either. :confused:

[Ted]

I appreciated your review!

 

Which nights were the "elegant nights?" We are trying to pre-book the supper club for one evening for our September cruise, and do not want to miss one of the good nights in the dining room.

 

I assume that the second elegant night was the Freeport night. Was the other the night of the first or second sea day?

 

Thanks!

[posh08]

Thanks for the review.:cool:

[mom2tcdx2]

We are sailing in September with the same itinerary. I kind of like the Port Canaveral stop over the two in the Bahamas. We are renting a car and using our season passes to go to Sea World for the day. It will also allow us to see how to get into Port Canaveral etc since we will be driving there for our cruise in December.

 

I wish our cruise in December was stopping in Nassau as long as we will be there, my kids would really like to do the water parks in Atlantis. I am just not sure at $125 and being in port from 8-2:30 if it would ultimately be worth it. My mother did the same excursion where you see the aquarium when we sailed last November, while she said it was nice she would have liked to have been able to stay on her own at the casino and they told them they could not.