Carnival Pride Review - 5/16/2010 - lots of pictures!

[ElkridgeTerp]

What # did you have? We will be sailing next week (June 6th) in #7347 which a 7-deck aft wrap... I was interested in knowing if your description was for our exact same room or not. And if it's the same room #, I could retrieve anything you may have left there on your cruise.:D

 

Other side 7298. It's your room in mirror image. Happy sailings!

[broadwaystar32]

So we ended up leaving Baltimore a little late - no big deal, except that we had hoped to be on deck as the ship went under the bridge (Chesapeake Bay Bridge? I'm not positive!) However, it was around 5:40 and we were still a bit far from the bridge, and we were hungry, so we decided to go get dinner. We had the "Your Time" dining, so we could go any time between 5:45 and 6:00. We got there around 5:50 and were seated immediately. We had a great head waiter named Dejan, from Romania (I'm pretty sure). We ended up having him at least two other times and he was always our favorite, though the other waiters are all great.

 

 

About Your Time Dining - in general, we had few problems. However, we always tended to go to dinner early anyway, usually right around when it opened, so I think that helped. We only had to wait once, and that was on the first formal night. We got there around 7 and had to wait over half an hour. After that we tried to get there earlier. The day we were in Nassau we also hit the dining room at 7 but were seated right away, I assume because many people were still out and about in the port! The Your Time diners are seated on the second level of the dining room, and there are a lot of four person and two person tables, so it's likely that you won't be sitting with anyone else. Good or bad, depending on your preferences, but more like a regular restaurant in that regard.

 

Well, I hope you guys like the "food porn," because I've got pictures of everything we ate! (At least at the dinners). First up was the appetizer. I got a tasty fruit plate in tequila juice, and Jason ordered smoked salmon, which he said was delicious.

 

 

 

For the entrees, I got the sweet and sour shrimp while Jason got two entrees - the grilled New York Strip Steak and the Chicken a la Grecque. I will say here that sometimes I was a little nervous about ordering things I wasn't sure I could pronounce, but the waiters were awesome and would just fill in the blanks for you. And it was worth it to get this food!

 

 

 

 

Dessert will be in the next post... for now I have to go catch the American Idol finale! I should be back later tonight!

[vavasmom]

Congratulations on your degree.

 

I have what is going to seem like a very unusual question - Did your cabin have a safe? If so was it a pin code or did you use an magnetic stripe card? I am trying to determine if I need an old credit card for my cruise.

 

You food pics are great (I love food pron!!!). Your BF's chicken looks good - I am not certain I would have the guts to order it without an explanation. It looks like a much simpler dish than the name would imply.

[broadwaystar32]

welcome back! (as if... you wanted to be)...

 

but great start so far! this is bringing back some memories, and im looking forward to the rest of your review!

 

good idea re: the drinks of the day - smart! :cool:

 

congratulations on your graduation! :D

 

Thank you! Your review really "inspired" me, shall we say, and it was super helpful so I'm hoping to do the same!

[broadwaystar32]

Hey thanks for writing a review. We were getting off of the Pride as you guys were getting on! Why did you have to kick us off ;) I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your review and seeing if you guys saw things we missed. My hubby is doing a review of our trip on the Pride go check it out. It was the May 9th sailing. Congrats on graduation! What is your education degree in?

 

Well thanks for keeping the Pride in such good condition! I will have to check out your husband's review.

 

I graduated with a BA in English and certification in secondary education. I'm actually going to grad school in the fall to get my masters in library science, with a specialization in school library media.

[broadwaystar32]

Was on this cruise with you!!!! And was also in the MDR when a certain "special" event took place....congratulations!!!

The trip really WAS awesome, wasn't it!!!!????

 

That's so cool! It was a great cruise, wasn't it? Maybe we ran into each other at some point. ;) And thank you!!

[broadwaystar32]

We were on the same cruise (Pride 5/16) and this marked our return to cruising. After logging five cruises in two and a half years, my wife and I had to take a five year hiatus from ocean life due to having a child. But she's nearly four now and we decided to now was the time to introduce her to cruising.

 

Anyway, I hope Becky doesn't mind if I just add my experience of this cruise to her already wonderful review.

 

 

Thank you for sharing all of your input on the same cruise! You did some things I didn't do and vice versa, so I'm sure it's helpful for people to get another side of things! And who knows, maybe we ran into each other at some point on the cruise!

[broadwaystar32]

Congratulations on your degree.

 

I have what is going to seem like a very unusual question - Did your cabin have a safe? If so was it a pin code or did you use an magnetic stripe card? I am trying to determine if I need an old credit card for my cruise.

 

You food pics are great (I love food pron!!!). Your BF's chicken looks good - I am not certain I would have the guts to order it without an explanation. It looks like a much simpler dish than the name would imply.

 

Thank you!

 

And I think that's a great question, something I was wondering about before I left. Yes, the cabin has a safe, and it's one that you need a magnetic strip card for. So if you want to keep your current credit cards locked up, it's definitely a good idea to bring a spare. I just kept my credit card on me and used that one, but we put all of my boyfriend's in the safe.

[broadwaystar32]

So for dessert Jason and I had to order the same thing, it sounded so good! We both got the vanilla creme brulee. It was really delicious. I'd never had creme brulee before and I liked it even more than I thought. It was also "garnished with assorted berries," and I'm definitely a fruit person so I loved the flavor that added - I just could've used more berries!

 

 

After dinner I convinced Jason to come to a ballroom dance lesson that was being led by one of the Carnival Pride dancers. There were about six or seven couples there total, so a small group, but it was fun. We learned some simple cha-cha steps and practiced for about an hour. I had taken a ballroom dancing course when I was abroad, so I already knew all the steps that she taught, but it was fun to be dancing again. It took place on the stage in the Taj Mahal, which was a beautiful theatre. It has a main floor where there are little tables and they serve drinks during all the shows, and it also has a balcony (though no one will walk around to serve drinks up there).

 

 

 

 

We also hit up the whirlpool briefly. It was too cold for the pool and unfortunately I had a pretty bad case of poison ivy that had started about a week before we left on the cruise, and it was still there. Hot water can be very painful on it but if you run hot water over the areas they don't itch for a really long time, so it worked to keep me itch free for the rest of the evening! It was about 8 in the evening, and the pools/whirlpools were open until 11:45, but this night there was no one else there so we had the place to ourselves.

 

At 9 o'clock we headed back to the Taj Mahal for the "Game Show Mania" event. They got three volunteers to be contestants in a Jeopardy like format, and then played clips from movies and songs. Most of the questions asked you to identify the movie, song, actor, singer, etc. It was pretty good, though some of the questions were pretty dated and a lot of people struggled. Ben from entertainment hosted this one, and we interacted a lot with him later on since he did a lot of the trivia games that we attended. He was a lot of fun.

 

 

That was followed by the "Welcome Aboard Show", which was kind of a bunch of mini acts in one. The Carnival Pride singers and dancers performed, which was all right. The stuff they did throughout the week was always pretty cheesy, and not really broadway caliber or anything, but they did a good job.

 

 

And of course, FunShip Freddy made an appearance!

 

 

I don't know about you, but I think he's kind of scary looking!

 

After the songs the cruise direct Kirk came on. His section of the show was pretty hilarious. He first found the most recently married couple in the audience, and then the couple that had been married the longest (Stanley and Anita, 66 years!) He made some jokes and embarrassed them a little bit.

 

Next he had all willing, married men in the audience "audition" to be the celebrity of the week. The catch: they had to do this by doing their best Tarzan impersonation. I was dying of laughter during this. Some of the weirdest sounds game out of these men's mouths! Eventually Gary won. His prize: he had to come on stage all week any time Kirk said the word "Pennsylvania." He then had to tell the audience that he loved his wife Melissa more than anything and would do anything for her, including jumping up and down four times. And as Kirk said, the jumps had to be "with flair!" The audience would then respond with "prove it!" and he jumped. Gary was not a small man either, but he was a good sport. I don't know if this is a gimmick they do on every Carnival cruise or if they have different ones on different ships and this one is special to the Pride, but it was funny.

 

Finally the show concluded with a short bit by the comedian Darren Sanders. He was pretty funny, though I had to admit that I laughed a lot harder at a lot of the Tarzan cries.

 

And then it was off to bed - end of Day 1!

[luvscruising2007]

I am enjoying your review. We will be on the Pride soon.

A friend of DD was on the cruise with you and as I looked at your picture of the dining room, I saw her in one of the booths. How cool!

Looking forward to more.

[ChampionCruiser]

Still enjoying the review!

 

One quick question: you said you had multiple waitors throughout the cruise? I thought with Your Time you had the same waitor every night. That's actually why we chose it...

 

oops nevermind. For some reason I was confusing Carnival and Princess...I thought it was "Your Time" vs. "Anytime"

 

We should be happy then :)

[pickeringprincess]

i'm really excited to read the rest of your review! I'm sailing to the bahamas in august with my boyfriend, and we'll just have turned 21, so this is really neat for me given the relatability :)

[labtech]

We used the sign and sale card to swipe our safe.....didn't want to be carrying a CC around all the time.

[ElkridgeTerp]

We used the sign and sale card to swipe our safe.....didn't want to be carrying a CC around all the time.

 

The only reason I could come up with for not to use your S&S card to lock the safe was that some crew member has the ability to duplicate your S&S card. But then we are talking about a whole of lot of conspiracy to get to my stuff.:eek:

[broadwaystar32]

Still enjoying the review!

 

One quick question: you said you had multiple waitors throughout the cruise? I thought with Your Time you had the same waitor every night. That's actually why we chose it...

 

oops nevermind. For some reason I was confusing Carnival and Princess...I thought it was "Your Time" vs. "Anytime"

 

We should be happy then :)

 

Looks like you answered your own question... but yeah, different waiters throughout the cruise with Your Time Dining. I know you can request to have a certain wait staff if you want (you might have to wait slightly longer), but if you don't request it they will put you with whatever wait staff is available.

[broadwaystar32]

i'm really excited to read the rest of your review! I'm sailing to the bahamas in august with my boyfriend, and we'll just have turned 21, so this is really neat for me given the relatability :)

 

That's awesome, you're in a really similar position! We actually picked the May 16th cruise because my boyfriend had just turned 21 on May 11th. It worked out really well. I hope you have as good a time as we did!

[broadwaystar32]

We used the sign and sale card to swipe our safe.....didn't want to be carrying a CC around all the time.

 

That's a good idea too. I didn't try it so I wasn't sure if it would work, but I don't see why not. True, though, that if you're worried about the room stewards that might not be best given that they can get into your room (so they'd probably be able to get into the safe that way?), but all the room stewards that I met were friendly and nice so I wouldn't have worried about it.

[emjay]

Just a tip for you on the card thing, if you get a gift card at the store and don't have it activated you can use it or I use the savings card from our grocery store. That way if the strip gets damaged you don't have to worry about replacing your credit card.

[ddoc]

Carnival deactivates them. They don't want you to use it because Carnival personnel have access. It happened to us and then you have to have the guy come and you lose there because it takes about 1/2 hour for the guy to come.

[ElkridgeTerp]

Just remembered, there was one thing that annoyed me about this cruise. Why in the world would they have "New England Style Crab Cakes" on the dinner menu when sailing out of Baltimore?

 

Carnival, you best understand your audience, hon. :p

[broadwaystar32]

So the night before we came to the realization that the room didn't have any sort of clock in it. I usually bring one of those travel alarm clocks but I had forgotten it. I tried to figure out the wake up call on the phone quickly but couldn't seem to get it to work, so I set my cell phone alarm instead. Now, most of you probably know better than me, but I had no clue at the time. I knew I wouldn't get service at sea; I didn't realize that the times would be off on the phones!

 

Needless to say, that morning Jason woke me up and asked, "What time is it?" I looked at my phone and told him it was 8:30. He swore it felt later so we put the tv on... and it was 12:30!! Remember, we were in an inside stateroom so no window. We'd slept the entire morning away. But at least the lesson was learned and it wasn't on a port day! I made sure to figure out the wake up call on the phone with much more diligence after that.

 

After we got dressed we went right into lunch in the dining room. Unfortunately we missed some things that afternoon we were hoping to see because we got a later lunch than planned. Now, a comment about lunch - we went to eat in the dining room every time we got the chance. They didn't serve lunch on port days, but all other days we were in there. The food is so good, and while the buffet is fine I don't see why you wouldn't get great food when you can! The only downfall I can see is that it takes about an hour. But you're on a cruise, relaxing, and there aren't so many activities during the day that you need to run off to different places. However, the dining room was often pretty empty at lunch.

 

We wandered around the ship and explored some more after lunch, and eventually ended up in the library, where we decided to borrow a board game. It was some rip-off version of trivial pursuit and okay for a little while, but we soon got bored.

 

 

At 4:00 we went to the karaoke lounge for the "All Ages Karaoke." This was in the Starry Nights lounge. Now, I loved the decoration in this place! I'm a big fan of Van Gogh's painting, so it was good with me.

 

 

Now, this was all fine and well until we tried to find a place to sit. There was a table that was in the perfect location - far back enough to not feel pressured to get involved, but close enough to see everything that was happening. It was a two person table but someone had taken one of the chairs, so I grabbed one from somewhere else I pulled it over. Well, as I was bringing the chair over I accidentally bumped a woman without realizing it. She stood up and yells at me, "What is WRONG with you?" I'm trying to stammer and apologize and she just keeps hollering at me. Well, Jason and I retreated away from our chosen table all the way back in the corner, where I began to cry - because, well, I'm a very sensitive person and I don't like being yelled at! Kind of ruined the karaoke experience.

 

To cheer me up, Jason got me the drink of the day - the Yellow Bird. This one was my favorite drink! It was so tasty - it had a combination of rum, galliano, creme de banana, orange juice, and pineapple juice. Yum! That cheered me up. I was going to sing something at karaoke but 1. I was now not really in a singing mood, and 2. They had binders of the song selections and everyone had snatched them up; I couldn't really get a hold of one.

 

 

After that it was back to the room to get dressed up for the first formal night! I love an excuse to dress up, and Jason wanted an excuse to wear the suit that he had spent quite a bit of money on!

[ElkridgeTerp]

Now, this was all fine and well until we tried to find a place to sit. There was a table that was in the perfect location - far back enough to not feel pressured to get involved, but close enough to see everything that was happening. It was a two person table but someone had taken one of the chairs, so I grabbed one from somewhere else I pulled it over. Well, as I was bringing the chair over I accidentally bumped a woman without realizing it. She stood up and yells at me, "What is WRONG with you?" I'm trying to stammer and apologize and she just keeps hollering at me. Well, Jason and I retreated away from our chosen table all the way back in the corner, where I began to cry - because, well, I'm a very sensitive person and I don't like being yelled at! Kind of ruined the karaoke experience.

 

What is wrong with people that they get so angry over nothing at all. I'm sorry this person's life is so miserable that they had to try to ruin your day. But smart hubby knows a drink cures most problems on the high seas! :D

[photojunkieEMT]

I'm getting spoiled with all of the great Pride reviews :)

 

It really does help the time go by...less than a month now!!!

 

Hey!! If I did my math right (been one loooonnngggg day) we will be on the Pride at the same time. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!

[dane225]

Great review so far!! The food pics are awesome can't wait for the rest!:D

[broadwaystar32]

Great review so far!! The food pics are awesome can't wait for the rest!:D

 

Glad you like them, because... more food pics up next!