Carnival Pride July 1-8 Review: Baseball, Inner Harbor, and (oh yeah) a Cruise!

[nybumpkin]

I love the picture of the parasail above the ship. Looks like someone is parasailing from the ship itself. Way cool.

LOL - There were a couple of times that I thought the parasailer was going to come down on the Lido deck!:eek:

[nybumpkin]

One of my biggest complaints about this itinerary is the port time. Both Grand Turk and Freeport are really short port days. In the case of Freeport, we were docked before 7 and needed to be back on board by 1:00. I’ll give some more thoughts on the itinerary at the end of the review.

 

 

The first thing you need to understand about Freeport is that it’s an industrial port. When you look around, you’ll see a large container facility; drydocks for seagoing vessels; and a sand dock for ships exporting sand and the like. All that is within walking distance of the ship is a small straw market, some additional shops, and a couple of bars/restaurants. If you want beaches, or snorkeling, or boat tours, you will need to book an excursion or take a taxi. There are independent tours to book, and there are drivers at the port willing to show you the island. (I’ll talk more about Freeport in my “editorial” section.)

 

 

MSC Container Ship

 

 

Drydocks

 

 

Container Port

 

 

M/V Bahama Spirit at Sand Dock

 

 

Pride docked in Freeport

 

 

 

Okay, those photos may have done a good job at turning you off from Freeport. But keep reading....

[nybumpkin]

Two years ago when we were in Freeport, we booked Paradise Beach/Deadman’s Reef for snorkeling. It was $35 per person including transportation to and from the port and the beach and the snorkeling were great. I thought about booking it again (and this time remembering to bring an underwater camera) – but then I saw another, brand new, excursion that caught my eye:

 

 

Alexander von Humboldt, or “Alex” as the crew calls her. Alex is a 106 year-old windjammer. She wasn’t actually built as a sailing ship; instead, she started out life as a lightship in German waters. She was retired in 1986 and converted to a tall ship, based on her clipper hull, for use as a training vessel. She was retired as a training ship a few years ago and purchased by a Bahamian group for use as a touring and training vessel. She left Germany in January 2012 and arrived in Freeport in March 2012, with a German crew to train the new Bahamian crew. Now she’s doing three-hour sailing tours off Grand Bahama. We decided we needed to try this tour.

 

 

Alex at the dock

 

 

Alex at the dock

 

 

 

We were a combined group from Pride and Ecstacy, which was also in Freeport that day, with the tour departing at 8:30. It was a short walk from our pier to the next pier where Alex was moored. We were greeted by both the German and the Bahamian crew, boarded the ship, and set sail. The idea was to give us a real sailing experience – use the available sails and minimize the use of the engines. Passengers were welcome to join in raising the sails and to climb the ratlines on the masts to the first platform. (None of our group dared, but others went for it.) They would also give you a turn at the helm.

 

 

Climbing the ratlines

 

 

Me - at the helm

 

 

 

What was interesting was watching a group of very precise German sailors training a group of much more laid-back Bahamian sailors. It makes for an interesting combination.

 

 

Alex Main Deck

 

 

Sailing....

 

 

 

The boys – I haven’t mentioned them in a while in this review. They were on deck for a while, but then disappeared below. Turns out they were sitting in the crew mess when the chief engineer invited them to tour the engine room. We didn’t even get that chance!

 

 

In all, this was a very relaxing sail – and certainly the biggest ship I’ve ever traveled on under sail.

[CMM]

Thanks for taking the time to do a review.

 

How long was the cooking demonstration at the Steak House?

[dixieva]

Enjoying your review-since we're doing this same cruise in Oct.!

 

I have a question about the cabana rental-we have reserved a cabana and I have been reading that if you have a cabana you get priority tender tickets. You mentioned that you didn't get those. Does anybody know for sure if you're supposed to get them? i read that when you go to the shore excursion desk to pick out your soda selection that they give you the tender tickets at that time.

 

You mentioned that you didn't have to wait long anyway so that's good. But we are traveling with my older sister who can't stand in long lines even for 15 minutes so I hope we can get the priority tickets.

 

Thanks!

[nybumpkin]

Thanks for taking the time to do a review.

 

How long was the cooking demonstration at the Steak House?

It was about 45 minutes long, with some time afterward to take photos.

[nybumpkin]

I have a question about the cabana rental-we have reserved a cabana and I have been reading that if you have a cabana you get priority tender tickets. You mentioned that you didn't get those. Does anybody know for sure if you're supposed to get them? i read that when you go to the shore excursion desk to pick out your soda selection that they give you the tender tickets at that time.

The last two times we went to HMC, they did give priority tenders to people with cabanas and early excursions. You just had to show your excursion ticket. This time they didn't have priority tenders for anyone - for excursions, this was the quote from the Fun Times: "Due to the tendering process please depart the ship no later than 1 hour prior to your tour departure time. You will meet your Shore Excursions on the Pier. Please have your tour tickets and proceed to the Taj Mahal Lounge deck 2 fwd when ready. This will ensure that you make your excursion."

[dixieva]

Thanks for the information. I'm disappointed to find this is the case. That was a perk that I liked about paying for a cabana. Oh well- I guess we'll just have to go very early and try to get a tender before the lines get too long.

[nybumpkin]

Thanks for the information. I'm disappointed to find this is the case. That was a perk that I liked about paying for a cabana. Oh well- I guess we'll just have to go very early and try to get a tender before the lines get too long.

If you get to the lounge early, they will give you your tender ticket as you enter and you can just sit and wait for them to call your number. They had the TV on (we ended up watching Rachel Ray's show). They started giving out tickets at 8:45.

[DaveRRT]

going on the Pride in Nov, what did the sailing in Freeport cost?

[Crusin Karen]

GREAT REVIEW! We used to drive down to Baltimore when "our Yankees" were playing the O's and Camden Yards is such a fantastic ball park. GT and HMC are my 2 FAVORITE ports :D Thanks for taking the time to share this cruise with us.

[backdro69]

Thanks for the posts about your trip. We are sailing the Pride to the same locations in about 5 weeks!

[nybumpkin]

Dad and son with hat purchase at the straw market. Dad loves his hat for lawn mowing!

 

Pride in Freeport. Photo taken from Alex.

 

Ecstacy at Freeport

 

Freeport Pilot Boat

 

Youngest dressed for elegant night

 

Towel monkey

[nybumpkin]

This was a pretty laid-back, do nothing day. We slept late (not hard to do when you’re traveling with teenage boys), played cards in the card room, wandered the ship, and read.

 

 

 

Pride fountain. The fountain is on deck 2 forward near the coffee bar.

 

 

Atrium elevators. The red comes from the skylight in David's Steakhouse.

 

 

Atrium

 

 

Promenade

 

 

 

Promenade

 

 

This afternoon Jaime and Jay the ACD held a question and answer session in the Starry Nights lounge to talk about life on a cruise ship. A lot of people were there and had some pretty good questions. An interesting observation from Jaime: While a number of us may not care for Pride’s Port Canaveral/Nassau/Freeport itinerary, the crew likes it better than the Grand Turk/HMC/Freeport itinerary because they get more time ashore. As the mom of a merchant mariner I completely understand; when our oldest was on one cargo ship for four months, I think he had five days total where he actually got off the ship.

[nybumpkin]

Last dinner in the dining room. I love the Normandie theme, honoring one of the loveliest ocean liners that ever sailed. The ceiling mural is of the Normandie:

 

 

 

 

 

Steve being silly

 

 

 

 

They did deliver my two bottles of Bambarra Rum to our cabin that evening (last year on Fantasy we had to collect it ourselves the morning of debarkation). Then packed our bags (we don’t do self-assist), set them outside our cabin, and sat out on our balcony enjoying the bottle of champagne that Jaime sent us. We stayed up until we entered the Chesapeake and went through the Chesapeake Channel of the Bay Bridge-Tunnel. According to the captain, the entire Chesapeake transit to Baltimore is about 9 hours.

 

 

Champagne from Jaime

 

 

Towel heart

[nybumpkin]

It always seems as if we have more stuff left in our cabin when debarking than we anticipated. We were jamming dirty clothes, toiletries, a third ship-on-a-stick (courtesy of Jaime) and stuff the kids hadn’t packed into our carry-ons. As Platinum cruisers, we had #1 luggage tags and could wait to be called on deck 2 at 9:15. We were off the ship even earlier, through Customs in no time, and in our car on the way home by 9:30. Dropped off nephew (I don’t think my sister had been away for him for that length of time) and had lunch, went to visit my mom, and then headed home. The traffic was heavy, being a Sunday afternoon, but we were still back home before dinner.

[Room Service!]

Thanks for your review and pics. Seems a good time was had by all. ;)

[Xmansmom]

Great review. We are leaving on our Pride Cruise Sept. 2. This will be our first time out of Baltimore even though we live close (VA). My DH is not very excited about the port stops in the Bahamas but Baltimore is so close and we don't have to fly. Unfortunately the Orioles are not in town when we are. So we are going the day before to Washington and seeing the Nats play instead.

[nybumpkin]

This is the section where I give my thoughts about the ship, cabin, passengers, the entertainment staff and crew, food, and the itinerary.

 

 

Carnival Pride: This was our second time sailing on Pride. She’s not my favorite ship, décor-wise. I find the Renaissance/Baroque themes to be too dark for my tastes, and when you’re traveling with three teenage boys the nude artwork becomes an issue. (Youngest son didn’t like the reproduction of Michelangelo’s “David” in the steakhouse. I explained about the significance of Michelangelo’s work, but he just couldn’t get around the naked statue.) I also prefer Conquest-class to Spirit-class ships, unlike a lot of people; the difficulty in navigating decks 3 and 4 on Conquest-class doesn’t bother me, and I find it more difficult to navigate Spirit-class ships during the dinner hours. I find the Lido deck on Spirit-class ships to be more crowded at lunchtime; although the buffet lines move well, there’s nowhere to sit unless you eat very early or later. No problem on Conquest-class; if there’s no seating available on the Lido deck, I go up one floor to the Promenade buffet seating and have never had a problem getting a seat there. However, décor and layout are not a primary factor in booking a cruise, so I wouldn’t hesitate to sail Sprit-class ships – and Carnival Pride in particular – again. And there were features we really liked, like the card room on the Promenade Deck and the fountain between decks 2 and 3 forward. The Serenity area on Lido deck aft is very nice, if you can get a chair. And Pride is very well maintained. At the question-and-answer session on the last day, someone asked about maintenance; the response was that it’s ongoing. The crew was out constantly working on the ship.

 

 

Cabin: We had aft Vista Suite 6329 and adjoining Balcony Aft 6331. Both very nice cabins. When you enter the aft wrap, you go down a hall to a sitting area with sofa, table, chair and desk and a TV. Next is a dressing room and the bathroom with a tub with jets – DH used it several times. Finally, there’s the bedroom with a king bed, drawers and closet, and another TV. The balcony has most of its space along the aft of the ship, with a small portion on the starboard side. I used that small starboard portion often, as it tended to be shadier during the day – and was out of the range of people dropping cigarette ash from above. (Yes, someone did drop ashes on me while I was sitting outside reading my Kindle!) 6331 was also a nice cabin with a good-sized balcony. The boys didn’t use the balcony very much and we never did bother to get the divider opened between the two cabins.

 

 

 

6329 Balcony

 

6329 Balcony - Divider with 6331

 

6329 - Entry and sitting area

 

6329 Bath

 

6329 - Tub

 

6329 - Bedroom

[nybumpkin]

Passengers: As with our last cruise on Pride, this was a very Mid-Atlantic passenger demographic. Lots of folks from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, with others from New York (I met a couple from a town right across the Hudson River from us) and North Carolina. Aside from chair hogs on the Lido deck, it was a really nice group of passengers. Lots of lids, but we never noticed them.

 

 

Kids’ Activities: We signed up youngest son for Circle C and nephew and older son for Club O2. None of them ended up participating in many organized activities, although the older two met kids at Club O2 to hang out with. As for the younger one – he missed the first night get-together and never really got into Circle C. However, he still had a great time. He and the older two spent a fair amount of time on the sports deck.

 

 

Entertainment: Jaime had a great entertainment staff and I had no complaint about the number of scheduled activities. All the usual activities – trivia, hairy chest, love and marriage, ice carving, bean bag toss, etc. Three production shows: “Jazzin,” a tribute to the Jazz Age, “Wonderful World,” a trip around the world, and “Vroom!”, a motorcycle-themed show. A Motown Show with Ron Joseph. Comedy every night except Thursday.

No Lido duo – two DJs instead. I missed the Lido group, but the DJs were pretty good, very entertaining, and played a good mix of music. Roger was great in the piano bar – I’ve never seen the piano bar on a Spirit-class ship so crowded. Then there were a couple of solo musicians and the group “True Identity.” I do have to say I’m disappointed in the ship’s orchestra; this group was down to a live saxophone, keyboard, drums, and two guitars. There’s a lot of dependence on electronics.

 

 

Crew: We had great stewards and wait staff. Our cabin was well cared for (although we did throw them a bit when we had a 6:30 steakhouse reservation, since they expected us to be out of our cabin at 6:00). The wait staff in the dining room was great as well, although service was a bit slow. Our only complaint was with the purser’s (Guest Services) staff. We had a problem with the entry key for 6331; sons’ cards and DH’s key card took a number of swipes before they would work. Our cabin steward confirmed that there was a problem with the lock and he called it into Maintenance. Instead, Guest Services just re-keyed the cards for 6331. They didn’t work any better, and DH’s key card didn’t work at all. And it messed up DH’s Internet access, for some reason (I guess because he was booked in 6331).

 

 

Food: When it came to breakfast, DH had a Western Omelet and yogurt each morning. He had a very short wait for the omelet. I opted for the buffet, and really liked the varieties of potatoes and sausage they served every day. For lunch, we had a good variety again; DH opted most times for a salad or low-carb entrees. He’s been trying to lose weight and has the added issue of being recently diagnosed as diabetic, so he watched what he ate very carefully (although he resigned himself to gaining weight on the cruise; at the end of the cruise, he gained all of ½ pound.) I varied my lunch; burgers and fries several days, Caribbean another day, Oriental another time. If you get to the chocolate buffet on the last sea day, don’t miss the chocolate cheesecake! And as for dinner, we never lacked for variety. The older two boys are picky eaters, but they did fine with dinner. One had a grilled chicken breast and Caesar salad every night, the other had a hamburger every night. They were happy. And DH, 12 YO and I always had a good choice for dinner. (BTW, nephew and 12 YO raved about the bacon mac n’ cheese!)

[nybumpkin]

Itinerary: The biggest problem with this itinerary is the port time. Now, I’ve always said that ports don’t matter very much, but if we’re going to do a port we’d like to have enough time to enjoy it. Due to the 7-day itinerary, with 9-10 hours just to get from Baltimore to the ocean, port time is limited. Short port times in Grand Turk and Freeport make it difficult to find things to do. If you do the 8-day itinerary to Grand Turk, HMC and Nassau on Carnival Miracle out of NYC, you get better port times.

 

 

 

Grand Turk: Beautiful beach. Just get away from the cruise port – the port is too artificial. The beach is much nicer away from the cruise port.

 

 

HMC: Gorgeous beach. And here we had a full port day. If you can get a cabana, go for it. The sun is strong here – if you can’t get a cabana, consider a clamshell or finding a place in what little shade there is.

 

 

Freeport – So many people don’t like Freeport. And if you just want to get off the ship and walk around to do something "beachy", that’s understandable. There’s nothing right by the port. It’s industrial. If you want to see anything, you need to book an excursion or get a taxi. However, I do have to share the thoughts of someone who was on Carnival Ecstacy and also was on Alex with us. She and her daughter really couldn’t imagine why people didn’t want to get off the ship at Freeport – the port area is clean, the shop folks are not pushy (i.e., they don't grab you by the arm to bring you into their store), and no one’s trying to sell you drugs, unlike other ports. There’s some music to listen to, if you’d like. There’s food, but if you’d rather go back aboard the ship to eat that’s easily done. Now, there’s no reason that people who want to enjoy the ship on Freeport day as a “made-up sea day” shouldn’t do so; we’ve done it twice, in Nassau and Montego Bay, where we got off the ship to make a few purchases, went back aboard the ship, and enjoyed having the ship practically to ourselves. But I wouldn’t go so far as to not take a cruise because Freeport is one of the ports.

 

 

Platinum status: We never used the drink coupons because they were good only at breakfast or lunch in the MDR and we stayed with Lido for both meals. Did use the laundry service; for five of us (four Platinum, one my nephew who was a first-time cruiser), we used a total of five laundry bags for the week. With three bags allotted per Platinum passenger, we could have sent out seven more bags but just didn't have the laundry to justify doing so. Platinum gifts were small backpacks and binoculars - we sent one each home with our first-time-cruiser nephew. Didn't use priority dining reservations or tender service. Liked both the embarkation and debarkation - we were on and off the ship in no time. The ship-specific pin is cute, but DH jokes that if I pin too many of these on my Carnival baseball cap with my past guest pins I'm going to break my neck.:p

 

 

Platinum VIFP Pin

 

 

As for the VIFP party - I liked it better than the old past guest party, even with the limited drinks. The first one was a Funship Special, the second was a Mai Tai, and the third was a pina colada. 12 YO son got a Coke - before he was always limited to the non-alcoholic fruit punch, which he liked, but the Coke was fine too. Jaime the CD made it a much more interactive party, with a Mardi Gras conga line and learning a couple of dances on stage.

 

We like the benefits (especially the laundry), but we don't cruise because we're Platinum - we just like to cruise. Right now Carnival suits our family's lifestyle. Someday, when we can take longer cruises and/or sail without our kids, we may try something different.

[nybumpkin]

We enjoyed sailing out of Baltimore. It’s nice having an 8-day cruise available out of NYC or a 7-day cruise out of Baltimore within a relatively short driving distance. However, I love Western Caribbean cruises and as much as I like Grand Turk and HMC, I really want to go back to a Western itinerary, and for that we’ll have to fly.

 

 

 

Then there’s next year – it’s our 30th wedding anniversary and oldest son’s college graduation. Carnival’s sailing a Baltic itinerary with two days in St. Petersburg. No, it’s not cheap. Yes, we have to fly. It means taking off from work at least 2 ½ weeks. (Boss frowns upon 2-week vacations, let alone longer ones. After 25 years with the place, though, I do have the time.) But all of the boys (DH and oldest son who plans to sail for a living included) really want to do this one. And you’re only married 30 years once!

 

 

For now, our next cruise is a 5-day Canada cruise from NYC on Glory. We’ve done this cruise before, but we really don’t get tired of it. Three weeks from today we’ll be at sea again, and I can’t wait.

 

 

Any questions, or things I didn’t cover, please feel free to ask!

[nybumpkin]

 

What time was the cooking demo at the steakhouse on the first sea day?

Sorry I missed your question before! It was at 12:30.

[nybumpkin]

going on the Pride in Nov, what did the sailing in Freeport cost?

It was $95 for adults. Not cheap, but well worthwhile in our book!

[JeanieTheMom]

I'm moving to Maryland next week, and will sail on the Pride as soon as possible. Your review has been wonderful! Thank you.