Pride 6/5/05 Review

[katt]

Just got off the Pride and loved it. This was our 4th Carnival Cruise and second Mexican Riviera Cruise. The first was on the Elation. This time we had a balcony 7196.

 

Our room was very nice, loved the shower. The comforter was extremely comfortable and new looking as mentioned in some previous reviews. I heard that Carnival was replacing all their mattresses and pillows. Can't comment in general except the ones in our room were definitly not new. The mattress was very uncomfortable to me but that was just a personal preference. Did not stop me from taking my daily nap though! There was plenty of room to put everything away. A previous cruiser left 5 or 6 extra hangers and I was glad as had not brought any extra myself. Our empty suit cases fit under the bed. Our balcony was an extended one and very large. The room was in a perfect location for us fairly close to the elevators and glass elevators but never heard any noise from above or in the hallways - very quiet. There seemed to be quite a few kids on board and all that we ran into were very well behaved. Never experienced any negatives as described in some previous posts. Just kids having a good time.

 

Ports

 

As you may have heard this was the first week that the ports were done in reverse order. We went to Cabo first then Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. We enjoyed the extra time in Cabo. In fact we got to see the harbor twice. The first time was on Tuesday as part of the normal port of call and then again on Friday. We heard a crew member was injured and we went back to Cabo where a boat met us and took the crew member off. Never heard how he/she was though. They walked off so hope everything is okay.

 

Cabo - the weather was very overcast and foggy as we approached Cabo warm but so foggy that we were very close to shore before you knew it. This burned off by 8:30 or so and the day was very hot and sunny. We walked and walked and ended up at the shopping mall. Puerto Paraiso (sp) that was not our intention but just kept walking. There were a lot of boutique type shops there. In the afternoon we did the coastal and beach tour. Loved the boat ride up the coast - the weather was perfect for it. Upon returning to the harbor we went by bus to a beach. It was okay. We had lounge chairs reserved for us in front of a restaurant. The beach was pretty with a great view of the ship. The water was cold and pretty rough. It knocked over several children and a woman who was sitting near us.

 

Mazatlan - again very overcast in the early morning clearing and hot and sunny all day. We just shopped again walking all over.

 

Puerto Vallarta - Hot and huimid. We shopped and walked along the waterfront in the monring and took the Paradise Village Resort Tour. This hotel was lovely great wide clean beach. The water was warm and we had a lot of fun playing in the waves. The pool was huge and we had use of all of their facilities. We had a very relasing beachy type of afternoon.

 

Weather

 

I knew it would be cooler on the day we left long beach and the one returning but it was fairly cool every day we were at sea. No problem with chair hogs lots of empty chairs even around the pools. It was too cool for us to sit and sun bathe but did use the jacuzzi especially at night. Very nice. On Saturnday it was pretty cool - 64 degrees at noon and rained on and off all day. Left more time for eating and napping!!! I still sat on the balcony a lot wrapped in blankets some days. There was a sofa in our room with drawers underneath it which had extra blankets. We live in the desert so anything under 80 is cool to me LOL.

 

Food

 

We didn't find anything we did not like. My only regret is I did not have room for two servings of the flourless chocolate cake. It was the best dessert!!! This was on Monday on the first formal night. We ate in the dining room every night except Thursday and Saturday. Thursday we were so tired from being on the beach all afternoon and did not get back until 5:30 we had early seating so rested, cleaned up and ate in Mermaids Grill. This is the only night we made the midnight buffet. It was Mexican night and excellent. On Saturday we went to David's. What luxury - very much worth the $30 each. We were a bit skeptical that it could be that good but ate up there on the recommendation of my brother who did this same cruise in March. We are so glad we did. We both had the lobster. The chocolate desert was unbelievalbe. It was 3 separate desserts one being a small serving of the flourless chocolate cake that I loved. Our reservation was for 6 and that worked well for us. We were able to go to the show afterwards.

 

Casino

 

We wone a $100 not a lot but very satisfied. Had fun there a few eveings.

 

It was a wonderful week, we like being pampered and all of the staff were very friendly.

 

If you have any questions just ask. I will try to answer.

[dien2cruize]

Thanks for your review. Just got off the week before you and am so jealous that you got more time in Cabo :mad:

 

I just got my review posted....kudos to you for being so quick. Glad you had a great time as did we. :D

[BettyB2]

thanks for taking the time to post your review...it is well appreciated! Sounds like you had a very nice time! thanks again:)

[rwethereyet]

was the waterslide open for the 6/5 cruise?

[Jennifer128]

Hi! We will be going on the Pride in Oct, it will be our first cruise. Can you eat at Mermaid's anytime you wish? Another question I have is regarding the seating times for our meals... we have the early seating... now that only applies to Normandie's right? ---- or does that apply to mermaids as well? Thanks for your help.

[ronrythm]

Mermaid's (the lido cafe) is open seating. Come any time during the meal period, sit where you like with who you like. Assigned seating is only for the formal dining room.

[lbgirl]

Mermaids is a buffet. You can go at any time.

[glrounds]

:confused: I was also on this cruise a week earlier with dien2cruise and her family, but we had a similar coincidence. Even though we were on the old schedule of port calls, we pulled into Cabo on our way to Puerto Vallarta to let off an injured passenger (broke her leg falling in the shower).

 

Very good review. Can understand the flourless chocolate cake comment. That was fantastic. :)

[glrounds]

Sorry, double post. :o

[Wennfred]

Another Awesome review, we will be sailing on the Pride, this Oct also, cant wait, read 3 great reviews today alone and all were great, Thanks again.

[bardgal]

I think everyone needs to give up on the water slide issue until someone posts that it's open. Since the most likely reason it's closed is due to some litigation as someone stated, it's likely it's going to be closed for quite some time.

 

JMHO

[rwethereyet]

CCL has created the mystery about the waterslide. They deny having knowledge of the slides being closed on any of their ships, but cruisers report that the Pride slide is still closed. Why dosen't CCL just explain to their customers what the real deal is? They certainly have no problem explaining things when it comes to buying diamonds or taking "Their shore excursions". lol :)

[katt]

Hi! We will be going on the Pride in Oct, it will be our first cruise. Can you eat at Mermaid's anytime you wish? Another question I have is regarding the seating times for our meals... we have the early seating... now that only applies to Normandie's right? ---- or does that apply to mermaids as well? Thanks for your help.

 

 

Jennifer - As stated previously you can go to Mermaid's anytime during their open hours and sit anywhere. If I can remember they were open for an early breakfast from 6-8 - think that was just cereal, sweet rolls etc can't say for sure because we never made it that early. We were more the 9:30 breakfast people. Full breakfast was from 8-12. The Pizza place was open 24 hrs and the deli had longer hours too. Lunch was from 12 to 3??? I think and dinner from 6-9. The coffee, tea, lemonade, punch, ice tea were open 24 hours. Maybe we were just lucky but we never had trouble finding a seat. We almost always were able to sit by the windows which we preferred. Most importantly I was always able to find chocolate at lunch and dinner. The last day at lunch they had all types of candy - fudge, bark like stuff and a number of non chocolate types. Very good and a change from cookies and cake not that I minded those either.

[katieandpaul]

Thanks for the review! Did you do any execursions? Not rying to be cheap... but those really do add up! If you didn't do any, do you wish you would have?? Thank you! :)

[dien2cruize]

Thanks for that info about the injured pax. It was nice doing doghnuts around Cabo on the way to PV and I had heard that we needed to offload a sick pax but never found out what acutally happened.

 

DARN! Wish I had tried that flourless choco cake :mad:

[katt]

Thanks for the review! Did you do any execursions? Not rying to be cheap... but those really do add up! If you didn't do any, do you wish you would have?? Thank you! :)

 

 

We did 2 excursions and thought they were both worth it. We did one in Cabo coastal boat tour and beach thingy and in PV did beach hotel thing to Paradise Village. One was $35 ea and the other $30 each. If you go to the ports of call site there is a lot of good info on the different ports and on tours offered by the ship and private ones. There is also a lot of information on which hotels let cruisers use their beach and pools and what the costs if any are. We knew we could do this but just decided the tours were easier for us. I don't know when you are going but did talk to a few people who did the kayak tour in Cabo and they said they saw a lot of jelly fish there.

[greenphotos]

Why am I getting different prices for: Davids' Supper Club?

 

Do they look at ur watches and shoes...and go ah......$30

 

Amazing some reviews $25 and others $30

[sister act]

thank you for the wonderful reviews on the pride - this will be my 5th cruise. great information to know about the cool weather - online the weather history states in the 80's so would never had thought to pack a sweater :rolleyes: Can't wait to eat at Davids either - not one bad review- i can taste the lobster already ! can any one tell me about the sushi bar and how well prepared it is ??? can't wait to post my review October 3rd - different perspective => not family cruise, not honeymoon cruise but a vacation that sisters are going on with a substantial age differance :)