Pride Review--7/3--7/10, broken into several posts

[Tribe-Fans]

I read a lot of reviews and other posts on Cruise Critic preparing for our July 3rd sailing of the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore. I picked up a lot of great tips and was entertained, so I thought I should add to the community with a review of our cruise. These are strictly my opinions and observances based on my limited experience of 2 cruises. Others may disagree, but I will call it as I see it. Forgive me if I ramble.

 

Cruise: Carnival Pride out of Baltimore, July 3rd – July 10, stops in Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Freeport.

 

Background: 7 people in our group, 2 families from Ohio, My wife and I and our 12-year old son, my cousin and his wife, their 17-year old son and their 12 year old son. We all sailed the Pride last year at this time on the other itinerary. (Cape Canaveral, Nassau, Freeport). It was the only cruise for any of us. We like the Baltimore location as it is an easy drive to port…not many driving options from Ohio.

 

Pre-cruise: Drive in the day before, about a 6-hour ride, no issues. TIP: Get an E-Z Pass if you drive the toll roads. Love ours for Ohio, but even easier to use in PA as you don’t have to slow down and drive through a gate---love the E-Z Pass. Stayed at the Homewood Suites in Columbia MD. Very nice hotel, 2 room suites with a king-bed and fold out couch. Also a decent breakfast included. We paid $110 including tax. The drive to the port from the hotel could not be simpler, 2 turns, get on the highway; get off at the port, 20-30 minutes max. The thrill of seeing the ship in port as you drive up is great.

 

Embarkation: Last year we arrived at 12:30 PM or so and ended up waiting in a long line of cars waiting to unload bags and park. This year we decided to go earlier to avoid that line. We left the hotel at 11:00 AM, arrived at the port at 11:25 AM, had bags unloaded and were parked by 11:30 AM, were through customs and sign-n-sail sign up by 11:45 and were on the boat by 12 noon. Our counter gal was being trained and it still went lightning-quick. I have to hand it to the Baltimore Port people, this was as smooth as possible and everyone was pleasant and cheery which helped maintain the excited mood everyone shared.

 

My sister and brother-in-law are wine makers, which is great except none in our cruise group drink wine. But my sister gave each adult in our group a bottle of wine to carry-on board, and damn if my 2 bottles didn’t taste like Jim Beam bourbon and my cousin’s 2 bottles tasted like Bacardi rum. Customs agents gave them a quick once over in line but they got on with no problems. Took a cork screw and a rubber wine stopper…worked out great.

 

My cousin and I broke last year’s personal record of 2 minutes from stepping on the boat to sipping our first DOD’s, got it down to 45 seconds this year. Tasty---and the wives shaking their heads as they try to corral 2 excited 12-year old boys while we sip umbrella drinks is an added plus. While in the Atrium we signed the kids up for soda cards, picked our cabana number for Half Moon Cay, and made dinner reservations for David’s for the last night of the cruise. Still, the time from stepping on the boat, making those arrangements and heading up to our spot on the sun deck was 15 minutes max---12:15 PM and we are on deck 10.

 

Got the same “home base” on the sun deck as last year, up on 10, overlooking the center pool, smoking side of the ship. (more on that later). It’s a nice spot, usually a few open chairs early in the day, and we use it as a place we can look for each other if we get separated. Works out well.

 

Rooms are supposed to be open at 2:30 PM but I check ours at 2:00 PM and it is clear. 1 bag is already outside my room and as luck would have it the bag was mine. I am unpacked and back on the sun deck for sail-away by 2:30 PM.

 

The sail-away video dude gets my cousin and I leaning on the rail enjoying our 2nd or 3rd DOD, and he gets the wives doing the cupid shuffle or some such line dance on the 9 dance floor, and that video is shown on the TV all week in the cabin. Sail away at 4:00 PM, sunshine, DOD’s, music playing, dancing and fun for all…..what could be better?

 

Rooms: We opted for the same room configuration as last year, 2 side-by-side interior rooms for the adults and an OV room for the kids directly across the hall on Riveria Deck 1. 2 things about the room choice…..we did originally try to get 2 balcony rooms for the adults and an interior for the kids but when we booked in February there were no configurations like that available that met the guidelines for having minors in a room close enough to the adults. And last year we spent so little time in the room we felt the upgrade to a balcony or suite was not needed. But in retrospect we should have gone with 3 balcony rooms on the same floor. As long as the kid’s room was close to 1 of the adult rooms it would have been ok. Next year—balconies. But the rooms were really quite fine, plenty of space for us, and we were only in them to sleep and shower anyway. Room Tips: We used the luggage under the bed tip—worked great. We brought our own digital clock—worked great. We ignored the power-strip tip, which was a mistake….we needed that extra outlet space.

 

Sea-Days: Plenty to do on days 2 and 3 as we make way to Grand Turk. (I get to use my line---“it’s very coincidental that we are going to Grand Turk on this trip because I AM the Grand Turk”----it’s met with more head shaking).

[Tribe-Fans]

Activities:

 

Shows: We caught the sail-away show in the Taj, and one of the others during the week, but they were the same shows as last year. We are not big fans of the ship shows in general. We have a pretty good theater district in Cleveland and I grew up enjoying the art-form, but these carnival shows just seem amateurish to me despite hearing multiple times during the cruise that they are 25-million dollar shows. But many people like them. Frankly this is one of the reasons we like cruising…..there is truly something for everyone. Shows, trivia, tours, music, dancing, food, gambling, comedy, spa, exercise, or just sitting on your butt on deck…..if you can’t find something you like to do then you are WAY too hard to please……or maybe you’re just a jerk.

 

Trivia….now trivia we do like. We won 4 out of 5 sports trivia sessions last year. This year we won 3 out of 5 in sports as well as an unexpected win in the TV theme song challenge. Tough questions and very tough competition this year. It’s nice to get a ship on a stick for each one of the boys, and I am taking one for my desk at work this year. Big fun.

 

Bingo: We played many sessions of Bingo, and kept finishing close enough to winning (1 number away) that we kept coming back. At 20 buck a pop, sometimes getting a card for all 7 of us, it adds up quickly. Still, it was fun and the trivia / bingo guy does a nice job and has a decent sense of humor….fun for all.

 

Karaoke: We caught the Superstars Live show a couple times. First time it was very good, several fantastic singers—actually better than the gal that sang with the show band—several others not so good but in that situation everyone is pulling for each other and it is just for fun. The second time the big screen was not working right which lead to a 30 minute delayed start, they called the same people to sing multiple songs in a row and there were repeats from the previous show…..not as good mostly due to technical issues, but still fun and worth checking out.

 

Physical Comedy of Max Winfrey was fantastic (the boys bought my assertion that he was Oprah Winfrey’s brother until they saw he was a middle-aged white guy), but he was very funny as well as very talented and he got several cruisers involved which is always funny. If Max is on your ship, I strongly recommend catching the show.

 

Comedy: We went to all the adult-only comedy shows….its one of our favorite things to do. The first two guys were decent-to-good (can’t remember their names), the second two guys were better—with one guy—Jim Brick—fantastic to the point that I will keep an eye out for him at our local comedy clubs. TIP: The Butterfly Lounge fills up fast. We always went 30 minutes early to get a good seat—is might seem like a long wait but it’s a good place to have a cocktail and people watch, and better than standing in the back as dozens of people do each show. They really should move these shows to the main showroom Taj Mahal, they are very popular.

 

Events: There are many “event” type things to attend, from the Love & Marriage show (like the newlywed game), Fun Feud (family feud), hairy chest, bartender contest, etc., many of which we attended, many of which we liked. Make the ones you can….they are fun….but none would make my MUST make list. Most do run on a loop on the TV all week if you miss them.

 

Casino: I played blackjack each day to limited success, only got on 1 really hot run. Most of the dealers were not very animated and a few were downright rude. There was a player on one of the first nights that was so drunk he could not even manipulate his chips and they let him continue to play, which I thought was a little bad, but I am a freedom guy so to each-his-own. The wives played a lot of slots, which as usual seemed very tight to me. Overall we went through less than half our gambling budget due to several winning streaks, so that is a good thing. We take cash to gamble—kind of a separate fund / separate budget, and to come home with a decent chunk of cash is nice.

[Tribe-Fans]

Food:

 

Buffet: We liked the buffet food, nothing spectacular but good. Some favorites were the vegetable lo-mien, fried eggs from the omelet station, the breakfast sausage mix, grilled corned beef and pastrami sandwiches at the panini bar, and the pizza, not to mention the ice cream machine which got a real workout from the boys.

 

Main Dining Room: We enjoyed the MDR food quite a bit. We often ordered two of the same course and shared (which we dubbed “doubling down”) and the dads did pull off the dreaded Triple-Double, 2 apps, 2 entrées, and 2 desserts in one sitting. Lets see that ass LeBron do that! The soups were exceptional all week. The beef was very good, and the addition of fried chicken to the menu was welcomed by one the 12-year olds that doesn’t like beef so much. The food was not always piping hot and not always seasoned perfectly, but it was above average every night, the variety of offerings were great, and we never left dinner un-satisfied.

 

David’s Steakhouse: We did not go to the steakhouse last year but after all the great reviews we read on CC we opted to visit David’s on the final night. The food was fantastic, as good as any top-end steakhouse I have ever visited, and well worth the $30 per person. The apps were solid to spectacular---- I had the tuna tartar and it was great, the wife had the crab cake and she loved it….one person did say they liked the onion soup in the MDR better than the onion soup at David’s. For an entrée I had the 24-oz porterhouse and it was perfectly cooked and tasted great. Several had the filet and they were truly melt-in-your-mouth tender. The desserts were great as well, a few chocolate samplers and a few cheesecakes as big as your head. We will be visiting the steakhouse on each cruise going forward.

 

Room Service: We ordered room service several times. The BLT was a favorite. I liked the shrimp salad sandwich. The 12-year olds got cereal and milk several nights.

 

Ports:

 

Stop 1 was Grand Turk. We rented a golf cart from Nathan and Linda as advised on a CC thread. It was a good idea, but an issue was that the cart rental was located outside the port property which was a bit of a walk, and the cart could not be driven on port property so we could not drive back to Margaritaville for example to exchange passengers for rides. We went on several cart rides and saw much of the island. People were great, very nice and accommodating to the naïve visitors, but ultimately I don’t think we got our money’s worth out of the cart. Our group is just not that big on sight-seeing….but if yours is then the cart is a great deal, $80 buck for the whole day. We spent the rest of the day in the pool at Margaritaville (we have a cabana reserved on the beach for tomorrow at Half Moon Cay—so there will be plenty of beach time). We loved it, beautiful day, nice clean pool, good times for all. We got on and off the ship with no problems, and we had a great time at this stop----better than any of the stops last year (Cape Canaveral, Nassau, Freeport).

 

Stop 2 was Half Moon Cay. Whatever good has been said, whatever rave reviews you have read, they are all true. This beach was incredible---sand as white and soft as possible, and cool as well. The sand at Coco beach last year was almost too hot to walk on, but the sand at HMC was cool to the touch---how do they do that? And the water---blue and clear and beautiful….when standing at the rope line with water to my chin, I can still clearly see my toes. We rented a cabana months ago and it proved to be a great decision. It’s nice to have a home base, a place to get out of the sun for a little while, a place to eat, a place to shower off the sand, and it had snacks and beach gear such as rafts and flippers. Not cheap ($225?) but well worth it. We had cabana # 5, right next to the pirate bar, and we worried it would be too crowded or too loud but it was neither and it was close to everything. Nice long port day, great location, great weather, we have a new winner for best port day ever for our group.

 

Stop 3 was Freeport. Not big fans of Freeport (a view shared by many it seems as the comedian made some cracks about why Carnival won’t stop going to that crappy location—which was met by overwhelming applause), but it could also be that we just spent 2 full days at great port stops and were kind of in need of a break. Several in our group just got off and hit some shops, I stayed on board. Regardless, the first 2 stops were so good this one truly didn’t matter.

[Tribe-Fans]

Service:

 

Room Steward: Our room steward was Alex (Introduced himself as Alex Baldwin the first day—good sense of humor). He kept all our rooms clean and fresh with towels, kept the ice full, and contended with a room with 2-12 year olds and a 17 year old that slept in late. He and his assistants were always pleasant and professional. Really not much to say, they did a great job. Last year’s steward was a gal named Dewy—she and my wife talked a bunch and still remain Facebook friends, so some feel that last year we got a slightly higher degree of personal attention, but Alex and his assistants were great—no complaints. We tipped Alex extra beyond the auto-tips.

 

MDR Waiters: First off—we opted for any-time-dining but went to eat each day at 5:45 PM when they opened so we got the same wait staff each day. Our Head Waiter was Roderick Ong and he was very good. He was very shy looking, professional and composed, but then he would do funny off the wall things. My wife asked him if the waiters would be dancing one night and Roderick says “you want me to dance for you?” and proceeds to lean on one of the columns and grind like a pole dancer….which was hilarious and had our table roaring. And Roderick lead the upper-level conga line on Friday night, walking with a tray of glasses on his head. Great guy, did a great job and was especially nice to our boys. We tipped Roderick extra beyond the auto-tips.

 

Drink Waiters: Like most on ship, these people bust their asses. We had several that we saw all week, including one gal from Macedonia (Yugoslavia) that was cheery, upbeat and funny all week. She worked some long days, we would see he on deck in the morning, at shows in the afternoon, at dinner service, at the show in the main showroom and then at the late adult-only comedy show. LONG days for these people---and that Half Moon Key day—when they had to walk with trays of drinks up and down that sandy beach---damn that must have been hard. I was winded walking into the water and back to our cabana. We learned from one that they only get the 15% tip per drink---no salary, which explains why they hustle so much I guess. We tipped our favorite upbeat gal extra at the end of the week because her hard work and great personality added to our enjoyment of our cruise.

 

Entertainment staff:

 

Cruise Director Brent Loyer: Maybe we were spoiled last year by CD Kirk Benning and his assistant / girlfriend Jamie but we felt Brent was a severe drop-off from Kirk last year. We only saw Brent at a few shows but never around ship. (Last year we saw Kirk everywhere and he was always interacting with people). Brent made a ton of PA announcements each day, mostly just rehashing the Fun Times everyone had already read, and many times his announcements interrupted other activities people were doing. We made a joke to assistant CD Pete—asking him to settle a bet—was Brent actually on the ship, or were all the announcements on just tape—because no one had seen Brent in days? Pete’s reaction led us to believe that the feeling may be shared among the staff. Brent had a very odd, almost forced sense of humor and was not very funny. To be fair--we did attend the ship Q&A with Brent on the last day, and he was very well informed and answered the questions with great detail, but I am not sure he has the proper personality to be a CD. Just my opinion and it certainly did not ruin our trip in any way.

 

Other Entertainment Staff: Pete the assistant CD was funny as the comedy club MC. We saw him everywhere. As well as trivia and bingo boy Bob…..those guys were both good.

 

Drama: About mid-week we returned to our floor during the day to find several members of the security staff rooting through a room across and down the hall while the occupants sat on the bed. The room had several teenaged boys in it who were traveling with what I assumed were grandparents that were staying in a room down the hall. It was a pretty public scene and drew the attention of anyone walking down the hallway. The grandmother floated the story that the boys had lost their camera and the staff was helping look for it, but that didn’t really fit the scene. The scuttlebutt in the hall (stewards, security. etc) was that drugs were involved. Security was present on and off by that door the rest of the week, and early the morning of landing the door was sealed with evidence tape and a Crime Scene sign was posted, “no one but the Captain or Security Chief can remove the tape” or something to that effect. Regardless, for half the cruise we had the most secure hallway on the ship.

 

Chair Hogs: Didn’t see many of them, actually what we saw were full chairs. Most were in use, and we saw several instances where people would share chairs. There was an instance once morning (10:00 AM) where were in our home base on 10, my cousin and I seated; the wives had gone down to get a beverage so we were saving their 2 chairs. 2 older women came by and asked if they could have the chairs. We mentioned we were saving them for our wives, and they older women snarkily said “are they still in bed??!!”. 5 minutes later when the wives returned I so wanted to take them over and introduce them to the older ladies who had found chairs about 30 feet away, but I resisted the urge.

 

Smoking: I am a smoker. I do not smoke in my cabin (never have or in a hotel room for that matter). I smoked in the casino which now seems to be split into smoking / non-smoking sections. Half the casino bar is smoking, the other half is non-smoking. The sports bar is now non-smoking but the Starry Night lounge a few feet away is smoking so I smoked there. Last year I enjoyed sitting in the sports bar and having a smoke while watching Sportscenter (how do the cabins not have ESPN access?!), but I adapted. The sports bar by the way was empty most times I was in there. I smoked on deck 10 on the smoking side. CD Brent did mention during his Q&A that all Carnival ships will soon be non-smoking except the open air deck. I feel Carnival could throw the smokers a bone by giving them 1 room, bar, whatever that is smoking----just don’t hold any events in there that non-smokers may want to attend. 1 more thing, I noticed several times where the smoking half of the bar was full of non-smokers while the non-smoking side was empty. Non-smokers---please don’t take up the few spaces us smokers have to sit and smoke if “your” side has openings. We can’t sit on “your” side and smoke. Thank You.

 

Other thoughts:

 

The 12-year olds liked Circle C this year much more than Camp Carnival last year, probably because they were the oldest last year with little kids and were with older kids this year.

 

The line on deck 3 for early dining was massive and that seating didn’t begin until 6PM. If it were me and I wanted early dining I would instead book anytime dining and go at 5:30-5:45 PM as that seating starts at 5:45 PM.

 

We only have last year’s Pride cruise as a comparative, so take this as you will, but we felt the food and service were slightly lower this year than last, the CD was certainly worse, but the first 2 shore stops were so good that this was a better overall cruise for us. But 2 years in a row on the same ship is enough—we (especially the boys) need a new ship to explore and learn. It is nice to know where to go, where things are, etc, but it is also nice to see new things and explore.

 

For what our group likes to do----relax, water activities, comedy entertainment, some gambling, food!!!---a cruise vacation is the perfect fit. Some days we are busy as hell, others we do nothing, it’s all up to us.

 

Funny story—I am a pretty big (fat) guy, and it was funny how often I was asked if I wanted a bucket of beer (4-beers in an ice bucket, $2 off the total price) The funny part is the waiter would go down the row asking people if they wanted a drink “drink sir?, drink madam?, would you like a soda young man?------bucket of beer sir”? I guess that’s what’s called belly-profiling…….it worked though, I was compelled to order said bucket during one of our comedy show waits, which quickly turned into 3 or 4 buckets when my cousins jumped in to help. NOTE TO SELF----bring more aspirin next year.

 

Go to the ship Q&A the last day of you can---very interesting stuff, although Brent opened the presentation by saying they would not talk about salaries of any staff which is what it seemed many wanted to know. They should have done it in a non-smoking room---and I am a smoker—but I did not smoke during the session. Several facts I found interesting…Carnival Employees Retirement kicks in after 10-years of service as long as there are no gaps between contracts of longer than 6 months, and then the longer they work, the higher the benefit. Contracts are 4-7 months, then a usual “break” of 1 week for every month of the last contract. 95% of Carnival employees are assigned a different ship to start each new contract---the biggest exception is the Tech / Engineering staff and sailors that get used to how a certain ship operates. Staff has full medical coverage paid for by Carnival, and they get paid when they are sick, and the ship doctor is careful when exposing a potentially contagious (flu, etc) crew member to the public. Of the 900 crew on board there were 150 couples, so 1/3 of the crew was in a relationship. No Fraternizing with the customers. Only certain crew have “public access”, where they can mingle with the passengers when off-duty.

 

We got 3 FCC’s for next year. Can’t beat the deal if you ask me.

 

I will add more later as I think of things. Please feel free to ask any questions and I will answer the best I can. It’s the least I can do with all the help the CC community has been to me.

[Anung Un Rama]

Thank you so much for the review. Been on the Pride twice and am 75 days away from this itinerary which we've never done. It's good to know that people are getting on the ship earlier than before (I heard the ship is getting back to port about 2 hours earlier than last year). I hadn't heard that the sports bar is now smoke free but that is excellent news as we have always travelled during football season and smoke gives me an instant headache. I'm interested to see how the casino is set up now as I spend a lot of time there too.

 

I was wondering if you could give an impression of the Serenity deck as it'll be new for us this cruise. And also, any pics? :D

[Tribe-Fans]

The serenity deck was very nice, great big lounge chairs, clamshells with thick cushions, hammocks, and a few nice table / chair setups, like sectional sofa / pit configurations. We didn't use it much as we have kids, but it was very nice. It was also packed every time I walked by, so I imagine getting a seat might be tough.

 

I will upload some photos a little later.

[Tribe-Fans]

Photos of the room at Homewood Suites

 

 

 

[rpmljm]

Hi Tribe-fans

We were on your cruise as well. What deck were you on where the drama unfolded? What are FCC's?

I agree with you about the shows and yes, they should hold the comedy in the Taj Mahal theater. I enjoyed the comedy. Only went to one song and dance show. I saw them all two years ago. I think Carnival can use the money they spend on those in other ways to entertain people.

[Tribe-Fans]

Passing under the bridge

[Tribe-Fans]

more bridge

 

[Tribe-Fans]

Head Waiter Roderick and other staff singing God Bless America on July 4th----funny because there were no americans among the wait staff.

 

[Tribe-Fans]

Sea days are beautiful sometimes.

 

 

 

 

[Tribe-Fans]

Golf Cart dude on Grand Turk--the end of a long day

 

[Tribe-Fans]

From Grand Turk--ship side.

 

 

 

 

[Tribe-Fans]

Hi Tribe-fans

We were on your cruise as well. What deck were you on where the drama unfolded? What are FCC's?

I agree with you about the shows and yes, they should hold the comedy in the Taj Mahal theater. I enjoyed the comedy. Only went to one song and dance show. I saw them all two years ago. I think Carnival can use the money they spend on those in other ways to entertain people.

 

Deck 1 was where the drama unfolded, about mid-ship.

 

FCC, Future Cruise Certificate, costs $100 each, only can buy 1 per cabin, will be applied to a future cruise deposit when we sign up for the next one, must be used in 24 months, gets us $100 On Board Credit, so for us knowing we will cruise again in the next 2 years, its $100 free money x 3 cabins = $300 free money.

[bar1068]

Passing under the bridge

 

Hey!! We were on that cruise as well...u "caught" me in your picture!!

[Tribe-Fans]

Half Moon Cay is tremendous.

 

 

 

[Tribe-Fans]

More HMC

 

 

 

 

 

[Tribe-Fans]

More HMC

 

 

 

 

 

[Room Service!]

Thanks! That was a nice trip (if only in my imagination).

We'll be doing the same itinerary in '12.

[Blondie008]

Service:

 

Room Steward: Our room steward was Alex (Introduced himself as Alex Baldwin the first day—good sense of humor). He kept all our rooms clean and fresh with towels, kept the ice full, and contended with a room with 2-12 year olds and a 17 year old that slept in late. He and his assistants were always pleasant and professional. Really not much to say, they did a great job. Last year’s steward was a gal named Dewy—she and my wife talked a bunch and still remain Facebook friends, so some feel that last year we got a slightly higher degree of personal attention, but Alex and his assistants were great—no complaints. We tipped Alex extra beyond the auto-tips.

 

MDR Waiters: First off—we opted for any-time-dining but went to eat each day at 5:45 PM when they opened so we got the same wait staff each day. Our Head Waiter was Roderick Ong and he was very good. He was very shy looking, professional and composed, but then he would do funny off the wall things. My wife asked him if the waiters would be dancing one night and Roderick says “you want me to dance for you?” and proceeds to lean on one of the columns and grind like a pole dancer….which was hilarious and had our table roaring. And Roderick lead the upper-level conga line on Friday night, walking with a tray of glasses on his head. Great guy, did a great job and was especially nice to our boys. We tipped Roderick extra beyond the auto-tips.

 

Drink Waiters: Like most on ship, these people bust their asses. We had several that we saw all week, including one gal from Macedonia (Yugoslavia) that was cheery, upbeat and funny all week. She worked some long days, we would see he on deck in the morning, at shows in the afternoon, at dinner service, at the show in the main showroom and then at the late adult-only comedy show. LONG days for these people---and that Half Moon Key day—when they had to walk with trays of drinks up and down that sandy beach---damn that must have been hard. I was winded walking into the water and back to our cabana. We learned from one that they only get the 15% tip per drink---no salary, which explains why they hustle so much I guess. We tipped our favorite upbeat gal extra at the end of the week because her hard work and great personality added to our enjoyment of our cruise.

 

Entertainment staff:

 

Cruise Director Brent Loyer: Maybe we were spoiled last year by CD Kirk Benning and his assistant / girlfriend Jamie but we felt Brent was a severe drop-off from Kirk last year. We only saw Brent at a few shows but never around ship. (Last year we saw Kirk everywhere and he was always interacting with people). Brent made a ton of PA announcements each day, mostly just rehashing the Fun Times everyone had already read, and many times his announcements interrupted other activities people were doing. We made a joke to assistant CD Pete—asking him to settle a bet—was Brent actually on the ship, or were all the announcements on just tape—because no one had seen Brent in days? Pete’s reaction led us to believe that the feeling may be shared among the staff. Brent had a very odd, almost forced sense of humor and was not very funny. To be fair--we did attend the ship Q&A with Brent on the last day, and he was very well informed and answered the questions with great detail, but I am not sure he has the proper personality to be a CD. Just my opinion and it certainly did not ruin our trip in any way.

 

Other Entertainment Staff: Pete the assistant CD was funny as the comedy club MC. We saw him everywhere. As well as trivia and bingo boy Bob…..those guys were both good.

 

Drama: About mid-week we returned to our floor during the day to find several members of the security staff rooting through a room across and down the hall while the occupants sat on the bed. The room had several teenaged boys in it who were traveling with what I assumed were grandparents that were staying in a room down the hall. It was a pretty public scene and drew the attention of anyone walking down the hallway. The grandmother floated the story that the boys had lost their camera and the staff was helping look for it, but that didn’t really fit the scene. The scuttlebutt in the hall (stewards, security. etc) was that drugs were involved. Security was present on and off by that door the rest of the week, and early the morning of landing the door was sealed with evidence tape and a Crime Scene sign was posted, “no one but the Captain or Security Chief can remove the tape” or something to that effect. Regardless, for half the cruise we had the most secure hallway on the ship.

 

Chair Hogs: Didn’t see many of them, actually what we saw were full chairs. Most were in use, and we saw several instances where people would share chairs. There was an instance once morning (10:00 AM) where were in our home base on 10, my cousin and I seated; the wives had gone down to get a beverage so we were saving their 2 chairs. 2 older women came by and asked if they could have the chairs. We mentioned we were saving them for our wives, and they older women snarkily said “are they still in bed??!!”. 5 minutes later when the wives returned I so wanted to take them over and introduce them to the older ladies who had found chairs about 30 feet away, but I resisted the urge.

 

Smoking: I am a smoker. I do not smoke in my cabin (never have or in a hotel room for that matter). I smoked in the casino which now seems to be split into smoking / non-smoking sections. Half the casino bar is smoking, the other half is non-smoking. The sports bar is now non-smoking but the Starry Night lounge a few feet away is smoking so I smoked there. Last year I enjoyed sitting in the sports bar and having a smoke while watching Sportscenter (how do the cabins not have ESPN access?!), but I adapted. The sports bar by the way was empty most times I was in there. I smoked on deck 10 on the smoking side. CD Brent did mention during his Q&A that all Carnival ships will soon be non-smoking except the open air deck. I feel Carnival could throw the smokers a bone by giving them 1 room, bar, whatever that is smoking----just don’t hold any events in there that non-smokers may want to attend. 1 more thing, I noticed several times where the smoking half of the bar was full of non-smokers while the non-smoking side was empty. Non-smokers---please don’t take up the few spaces us smokers have to sit and smoke if “your” side has openings. We can’t sit on “your” side and smoke. Thank You.

 

Other thoughts:

 

The 12-year olds liked Circle C this year much more than Camp Carnival last year, probably because they were the oldest last year with little kids and were with older kids this year.

 

The line on deck 3 for early dining was massive and that seating didn’t begin until 6PM. If it were me and I wanted early dining I would instead book anytime dining and go at 5:30-5:45 PM as that seating starts at 5:45 PM.

 

We only have last year’s Pride cruise as a comparative, so take this as you will, but we felt the food and service were slightly lower this year than last, the CD was certainly worse, but the first 2 shore stops were so good that this was a better overall cruise for us. But 2 years in a row on the same ship is enough—we (especially the boys) need a new ship to explore and learn. It is nice to know where to go, where things are, etc, but it is also nice to see new things and explore.

 

For what our group likes to do----relax, water activities, comedy entertainment, some gambling, food!!!---a cruise vacation is the perfect fit. Some days we are busy as hell, others we do nothing, it’s all up to us.

 

Funny story—I am a pretty big (fat) guy, and it was funny how often I was asked if I wanted a bucket of beer (4-beers in an ice bucket, $2 off the total price) The funny part is the waiter would go down the row asking people if they wanted a drink “drink sir?, drink madam?, would you like a soda young man?------bucket of beer sir”? I guess that’s what’s called belly-profiling…….it worked though, I was compelled to order said bucket during one of our comedy show waits, which quickly turned into 3 or 4 buckets when my cousins jumped in to help. NOTE TO SELF----bring more aspirin next year.

 

Go to the ship Q&A the last day of you can---very interesting stuff, although Brent opened the presentation by saying they would not talk about salaries of any staff which is what it seemed many wanted to know. They should have done it in a non-smoking room---and I am a smoker—but I did not smoke during the session. Several facts I found interesting…Carnival Employees Retirement kicks in after 10-years of service as long as there are no gaps between contracts of longer than 6 months, and then the longer they work, the higher the benefit. Contracts are 4-7 months, then a usual “break” of 1 week for every month of the last contract. 95% of Carnival employees are assigned a different ship to start each new contract---the biggest exception is the Tech / Engineering staff and sailors that get used to how a certain ship operates. Staff has full medical coverage paid for by Carnival, and they get paid when they are sick, and the ship doctor is careful when exposing a potentially contagious (flu, etc) crew member to the public. Of the 900 crew on board there were 150 couples, so 1/3 of the crew was in a relationship. No Fraternizing with the customers. Only certain crew have “public access”, where they can mingle with the passengers when off-duty.

 

We got 3 FCC’s for next year. Can’t beat the deal if you ask me.

 

I will add more later as I think of things. Please feel free to ask any questions and I will answer the best I can. It’s the least I can do with all the help the CC community has been to me.

 

Am very concerned about the statement "Carnival will SOON become all non smoking indoors"?

We are from the UK, and stand to lose all paid deposits on both cruises and airlines, we do NOT under any circumtances get deposits paid back. We were ok with the new policy, and are booked for January (paid all deposits). But this worries me... there will be eight of us in a group, six smokers, total no go and deal breaker for us if Carnival were to change the rules again before January. We know about the changes in December coming, and are all fine with that (ie inside cabins etc)... how SOON did this CD feel this was coming? Any specific indication? Was this "heresay" or an official statement do you know? Any specific information would be gladly appreciated, thank you.

[Tribe-Fans]

The smoking comment by the CD was during the Q&A session, and he did not speculate as to when more changes would happen, but he did say it to a room full of people and he did not strike me as someone that would make something up. He mentioned it would be like many other indoor facilities and restaurants in the US, non-smoking indoors.

 

Sorry I don't have more details or any timelines for you.

[Blondie008]

The smoking comment by the CD was during the Q&A session, and he did not speculate as to when more changes would happen, but he did say it to a room full of people and he did not strike me as someone that would make something up. He mentioned it would be like many other indoor facilities and restaurants in the US, non-smoking indoors.

 

Sorry I don't have more details or any timelines for you.

 

Thanks TF.. who knows what to do...I so wish we were protected in the UK where changes are made which are "deal breaking" situations for us. If we cancel now, we lose each around $600, then there is a point where we lose airfare too,, but no way will we cruise on a ship where there is no smoking in casino and at least one club. We would choose a land vacation. 14 nights, two cruises B2B, plus UK airfares and hotels..lot of money to spend to not have 100% enjoyment. Hmmmmm.... :(

 

Great review and pics...!!! Thank you!!!

[Momma Donna]

We rented a cabana months ago and it proved to be a great decision... I thought you could not rent a cabana until you were onboard?

[jetsfan]

I loved your pictures of the Private Oasis on HMC. I am renting that with a fellow roll caller on our 8/2 Miracle cruise. It looks amazing. I enjoyed your review.