Question about the Pride

[DBBJR87]

Does any of the past guests on the Pide know if there are any porblesm that are going on the pride. I leave in less than 2 weeks and i just want make sure it is all good.

[vacruizer]

The only thing I know of is that the Cd and ACD mentioned how rough the winter was on the ship sailing through all those crazy snowstorms and that the ship was going into drydock in Jan. I know that has now been change - my guess is not so much due to an issue but probably scheduling drydock time since you can't just pull up a ship to a drydock any old time.

 

The ACD said at one point last winter there was three feet of snow piled up on the Lido deck and they had lots of warped decking due to it. On our sailing half of the aft Lido area was closed while they replaced the decking. You can see some cosmetic stuff on the outside of the ship probably related to all those storms - a little rust here and there and spots near the water line that need some paint.

 

She's a beautiful ship with a great crew - wish I could be back on her now!

[BND]

I think it's more likely that the drydock was moved up to the next available time because there is something they really need to work on. Changing a previously scheduled drydock by two only months tells me there's a problem. Drydocks are scheduled at least a year out and the fact they changed it suddenly to a date that's only 4 months away reeks of an issue that they think won't wait. If the storm damage from 5 months ago was so bad, why wait til now to cancel on everyone for Nov 7 and 14?

 

And yes, I was originally scheduled for 14 Nov and had to reschedule to 5 Dec. We aren't happy.

[bjfitz0703]

I too am on the July 18th sailing and now I am concerned. The board postings do not seem to point to any issues. For folks that have been on the pride recently are there any real items we should know about? Thanks

[vacruizer]

I was on her the first week of June. Go and have a great time - no issues at all that will affect your cruise.

 

I don't think we will ever know Carnival's reasons - there are too many possibilities. It's entirely possible they have some sort of an issue that needs correction with drydock as soon as possible, but that won't affect cruisers in the mean time. Or the dockyard changed schedules on them. Or they decided after last winter they needed to get it in before possible storms this winter.

 

The storm damage wasn't anything that made the ship unable to sail in the meantime - it was more like excessive wear and tear from the high seas and cold going through all those winter storms in and out of Baltimore. They were working on much of this as they could while I was onboard - painting, sanding, replacing decking. Now whether or not there's something underneath the ship that needs quicker attention we'll never know. I"m sure Carnival wouldn't be angering this many people with the cancellations if they didn't have some type of reason. I do think their compensation offer to everyone was pretty crappy, though.

 

Seems like a few years ago the Miracle had propulsion issues and had to be pulled for an unscheduled drydock. Since the earliest drydock available was 3 months out, they had to cancel on those people on short notice AND alter the itinerary on the cruises in the meantime due to reduced propulsion. Everything else onboard was working fine.

 

I haven't heard about any changes in ports on the Pride, but it could be something similar that needs to be fixed, won't affect cruisers in the meantime, and Nov. was the earliest drydock slot.

[bjfitz0703]

Vacruizer - thanks for the update. We were on her in June 2009 and liked her. Really looking forward to it and just 10 days away now.

 

If anyone else has some insight, it is much appreciated.