Carnival Pride 14 day tampa to Baltimore mini review

[bigdog1958]

I was on the 14 day Carnival Pride cruise from Tampa to Baltimore March 15th to the 29th. I will highlight some of the things we did and saw and felt about this cruise.

First off, 14 days was probably a little too long of a cruise for us. We had a group of 8(4 couples) on this cruise all of us 55 to 60 years old. We are by no means young any longer, but we certainly felt young on this cruise. I do not know what the average age was on the cruise, but it certainly felt like it was quite a bit older then us. The average age on the cruise was a favorite topic for the comedy shows.

Our weather was great for the entire cruise, until the last day where it was quite cold, which was expected.

The day after our last port St Maarten was a little bit of rough seas, but the weather itself was great.

[brew62]

We are taking the southern in April. What did you do in Bonaire?

[bigdog1958]

We are taking the southern in April. What did you do in Bonaire?

 

First sorry, I hit enter way before I was finished.. I hit edit, but it took me too long to finish, so it it did not allow my edit.

 

Bonaire is no much of a port, unless you are a diver. We did the spice beach excursion through carnival. There is a beach, but you cannot walk into the water as its full of coral. They do have stairs where you can float into the water and swim, but you cannot stand in the ocean, do to the coral. They also have a pool, which is okay. Did not really this too much of this excursion. The shopping at port is also limited. Overall not a great stop.

[brew62]

Thanks. We are not into snorkel or diving. Still up in the air.

[bigdog1958]

I was on the 14 day Carnival Pride cruise from Tampa to Baltimore March 15th to the 29th. I will highlight some of the things we did and saw and felt about this cruise.

First off, 14 days was probably a little too long of a cruise for us. We had a group of 8(4 couples) on this cruise all of us 55 to 60 years old. We are by no means young any longer, but we certainly felt young on this cruise. I do not know what the average age was on the cruise, but it certainly felt like it was quite a bit older then us. The average age on the cruise was a favorite topic for the comedy shows.

Our weather was great for the entire cruise, until the last day where it was quite cold, which was expected.

The day after our last port St Maarten was a little bit of rough seas, but the weather itself was great.

 

I hit enter too early, so here is a continuation of my mini review

 

The ship was in good shape and the 2.0 additions were great, such as guys burgers, blue inquana, red frog pub, bonsai sushi and alchemy bar.

 

The production shows for the most part were okay..

88 keys and Pop to the Max were good...

Love and Soul? was okay

Getaway Island was horrible... someone should be fired for that one.

 

Besides Bonaire, the other ports were nice and had many things to do. Costa Rico rain forest tram was nice the panama canal we something to really see.

 

The entertainment on the ship did tend to get boring after the first week or so, that Band and the singers played the same sets over again and again.

 

I did really like the Duo who performed everyday on the lido deck on the stage in front of the big screen. They had nice video scenes behind them and they sounded very good.

 

We spend most of our time during the day out by the big screen and stage pool. Which was a change for us, as most of the time on other cruises we would be at the serenity area. On this cruise that area seemed really boring. A lot of people sitting in the shade sleeping or playing cards for 6 hours a day.

 

There were only 40 kids on this cruise so the other pools were also almost all adults and just seemed to be much more fun.

 

We talked to a few waiters and bartenders and by the second week, they all realized they were taking a pay cut on this cruise, as most of the people were not drinking at all. Quite a few times the waiters would come over to us and top off our beer buckets with ice, as they said they were bored and had nothing to do.

 

We did feel shortchanged by carnival regarding the sea day brunch. They had it the first sea day, then did not have it again until the second to last sea day. That was it.. Two sea day brunches out of our 8 sea days.

 

There were health protocols put in place on our second full day, where Carnival had crew spraying people's hands when they came back on board from each port and when they went to the lido deck or MDR. Also everyday they made annoucncements for people to wash there hands and it was printed on the fun times everyday.

 

Carnival never said why this was being done, but in talking to a few crew members, they said a couple of crew came down with a GI bug on the first day of our cruise, then 10 to 15 passangers went to the infirmary to get treated for the same, so carnival put some health protocols into place.

 

In talking to fellow passangers over the cruise, I think quite a few came down with a touch of this GI bug, but many said it only lasted about 5 hours or so, then they just felt kind of drained for the rest of the day. It did not appear to be any thing real serious, but did take people out of action for a day or so.

 

The cigars under the stars that John Heald did, was pretty good and well attended on the serenity deck. They tried a second one, the last night of the cruise, but it was 30 degrees, so did not go over as well.

 

Overall, we had a good time, but we all felt it was probably the worst cruise we had taken. This is probably the result of it being a little too long for us at 14 days.

[pirate4me2]

Thanks for posting this, we sail the 14 day Pride cruise next March.

[KroozFoolz]

For Bonaire, I suggest an island tour with Bonaire Vista Tours.

 

http://www.bonairevistatours.com/Island-Tour.html

 

We were there for the first time a few weeks ago on Legend of the Seas, and really enjoyed this tour.

[boaterette]

Thanks for your take on this cruise. My sister and I were on it also and had a blast. This was one of the best cruises for me out of more than thirty. We enjoyed Bonaire also. We just got off and wondered through town and found a bar sitting out over the ocean and had drinks and looked at the fish. The people we talked with there were very nice. We spent most of our time by the forward pool. Met some great people there. Hope your next cruise is better for you.

[golfb4cruzing]

Time for some popcorn. The cheering has begun. Who will be the first to say Brilliant?? 14 days will bring out the retired and well traveled. Minimal kids will make for a quieter ship. 8 sea days and I would be insane.

[Crusin Karen]

Thanks for your take on this cruise. My sister and I were on it also and had a blast. This was one of the best cruises for me out of more than thirty. We enjoyed Bonaire also. We just got off and wondered through town and found a bar sitting out over the ocean and had drinks and looked at the fish. The people we talked with there were very nice. We spent most of our time by the forward pool. Met some great people there. Hope your next cruise is better for you.

Funny you should say this. We had the exact opposite experience. We were on a B2B on Liberty in January and went to Bonaire twice. First time we did a tour to see the island as we had never been and didn't think we'd ever go back. It was "okay." 2nd time we were there we got off the ship and wandered into the shops. I wanted to get a tshirt. I have to say every shop I went into I was followed around by employees that acted like they were making sure I wasn't going to steal something. I don't think I encountered ONE nice employee in ANY store. We have a "rule" in our town that cars must yield to pedestrians and this is certainly NOT the case in Bonaire. I felt like I was taking my life in my hands every time I crossed a road. Never had ONE CAR stop and let me cross, even when in a cross walk. We were very suprised about this because we were the lst CCL ship to sail to Bonaire and we thought the natives would bend over backwards to make us feel welcome and want us to come back. I don't know, maybe we were just in the wrong places at the wrong times :confused: but the vibe was not good! :(

OP, thanks for your review. We will be on the Pride for a B2B and are excited to go back to a spirit class ship again. She is the only one we have not sailed. Hope your next cruise is a bit more lively! ;)

[Raschueler]

Thanks for the review. Sailing the Pride in Oct 2016, so I'm excited to hear all that I can about her!

[kteachcruiser52]

We are taking the southern in April. What did you do in Bonaire?

 

We have never been there, but are going in January. We have made reservations for Twizzy Tours in Bonaire. I hope it is fun. You drive little 2 people cars that look a little like electric cars and a van leads you on a guided tour of the islands. You can have beach time at the end, if you wish.

[cruiser fanatic]

I hit enter too early, so here is a continuation of my mini review

 

The ship was in good shape and the 2.0 additions were great, such as guys burgers, blue inquana, red frog pub, bonsai sushi and alchemy bar.

 

The production shows for the most part were okay..

88 keys and Pop to the Max were good...

Love and Soul? was okay

Getaway Island was horrible... someone should be fired for that one.

 

Besides Bonaire, the other ports were nice and had many things to do. Costa Rico rain forest tram was nice the panama canal we something to really see.

 

The entertainment on the ship did tend to get boring after the first week or so, that Band and the singers played the same sets over again and again.

 

I did really like the Duo who performed everyday on the lido deck on the stage in front of the big screen. They had nice video scenes behind them and they sounded very good.

 

We spend most of our time during the day out by the big screen and stage pool. Which was a change for us, as most of the time on other cruises we would be at the serenity area. On this cruise that area seemed really boring. A lot of people sitting in the shade sleeping or playing cards for 6 hours a day.

 

There were only 40 kids on this cruise so the other pools were also almost all adults and just seemed to be much more fun.

 

We talked to a few waiters and bartenders and by the second week, they all realized they were taking a pay cut on this cruise, as most of the people were not drinking at all. Quite a few times the waiters would come over to us and top off our beer buckets with ice, as they said they were bored and had nothing to do.

 

We did feel shortchanged by carnival regarding the sea day brunch. They had it the first sea day, then did not have it again until the second to last sea day. That was it.. Two sea day brunches out of our 8 sea days.

 

There were health protocols put in place on our second full day, where Carnival had crew spraying people's hands when they came back on board from each port and when they went to the lido deck or MDR. Also everyday they made annoucncements for people to wash there hands and it was printed on the fun times everyday.

 

Carnival never said why this was being done, but in talking to a few crew members, they said a couple of crew came down with a GI bug on the first day of our cruise, then 10 to 15 passangers went to the infirmary to get treated for the same, so carnival put some health protocols into place.

 

In talking to fellow passangers over the cruise, I think quite a few came down with a touch of this GI bug, but many said it only lasted about 5 hours or so, then they just felt kind of drained for the rest of the day. It did not appear to be any thing real serious, but did take people out of action for a day or so.

 

The cigars under the stars that John Heald did, was pretty good and well attended on the serenity deck. They tried a second one, the last night of the cruise, but it was 30 degrees, so did not go over as well.

 

Overall, we had a good time, but we all felt it was probably the worst cruise we had taken. This is probably the result of it being a little too long for us at 14 days.

 

Hi, we saw the same shows on the Freedom. I agree that 88 Keys and 80's pop to the Max were good. I enjoyed Heart of Soul. I did not like Getaway Island either. It was very corny. Can you tell me more about Bonaire? We are going there on the Valor in a few weeks. 14 days on a cruise is not for everyone. It sounds like 7 or 8 days is good for you.

Edited March 31, 2015 by cruiser fanatic

[jetta8300]

Thanks for your review. We are sailing on the Pride in 20 days! My husband and I were 28 years old during our first cruise in 2011, and we went on the Carnival Freedom for 8 days in early October before we had kids. There were only SIXTEEN people onboard under the age of 18. Needless to say, the entire ship went to sleep after 8pm. We couldn't figure out why or how people called Carnival the "Party ships." We had a good time anyway, but the crowd was definitely mostly well past retirement age. Nobody dancing or drinking, the clubs and bars were completely vacant. It was a VERY mellow week. We are hoping this cruise is a bit different.