Carnival Pride - June 14-21 (2015) sort of a review

[DancerOT]

Great choice on Pratt Street Ale House. Awesome local joint! I often go there before Orioles games (their cherry blossom ale in the spring time is awesome) if I'm not in the mood for the true sports bars.

 

Question for you: do the light switches in the cabin require that you put a card in to make them work?

 

Thank you!

[JMAE]

There are different prices for different items. Depends on what you get. I had the cold noodle salad - spicy, but tasty and some sashimi - 4 pieces IIRC and DH had the Waygu beef appetizer. I think it was under $20.

 

Thanks for the info. :)

[thomarvin]

Great choice on Pratt Street Ale House. Awesome local joint! I often go there before Orioles games (their cherry blossom ale in the spring time is awesome) if I'm not in the mood for the true sports bars.

 

Question for you: do the light switches in the cabin require that you put a card in to make them work?

 

Thank you!

 

was on the Pride (again) in June no you don't have to use your S&S card to keep the lights on.

Edited August 8, 2015 by thomarvin

[Cyber Kat]

Great choice on Pratt Street Ale House. Awesome local joint! I often go there before Orioles games (their cherry blossom ale in the spring time is awesome) if I'm not in the mood for the true sports bars.

 

Question for you: do the light switches in the cabin require that you put a card in to make them work?

 

Thank you!

 

No they did not - just standard light switches!

[Cyber Kat]

So we hung around the lido pool while the whole crew got something to eat, and then it was time to meet up with some fellow cruisers from my roll call at the Red Frog Pub. I have to say I was a little disappointed in this venue. There was a band there one night, but we were doing something else. We checked a couple of other times and mostly there was a gang of kids beating up the shuffleboard table. It's near the dart board and so we couldn't do that either. The thing that ticked me off is that the kids weren't playing. They were just slamming the pucks from one end to the other. We wanted to play but we never got the chance.

 

It was also always dark and looked closed. Perhaps more people would have been in there if it had looked open.

 

Anyway our Meet & Greet was fun. We chatted. One of the people brought some little gifts and we had a raffle. It was good one, but then it was time for Muster/Safety Drill.

 

The Pride does it at the lifeboats. No life jackets required and it was fairly quick. They dismissed us in groups and our group got to go first - guess we got a good conduct excuse or something :)

 

Oh - one of the things I wanted to know when I was picking the cabin was how close the lifeboats were. I know on Spirit Class there is an indent where the lifeboats hang and you can see them from some balconies. Other rooms have obstructed view with lifeboats in front of the window.

 

This is what we saw when we looked down ...

 

 

The weather leaving Baltimore wasn't great

 

 

I love going under bridges. This is the Francis Scott Key Bridge

 

 

The weather was great for most of the day, but a huge thunderstorm rolled in as we were leaving. It mostly stayed behind us - at least for sail away. We hung on our balcony for awhile, then we checked out the ship and what was going on up on deck.

 

I almost missed going under the Bay Bridge. I took these through a window

 

This is the Taj Mahal Theater

 

We had late seating so there was no rush, but we headed back to the cabin to unpack and get settled.

 

We headed up to the MDR and stopped at the Alchemy Bar for a drink - well I did. DH wanted a Gin & Tonic - which they don't serve at the Alchemy Bar.

 

I have to tell you that it was always crowded and the bartenders were in the middle of all the fun - but I wasn't impressed. Just me, I guess, because everyone else seemed to love it. I did enjoy the Remedy, but the Caribbean Manhattan was only okay. I didn't think the drinks were worth the extra money. I prefer the regular drinks you can get from the regular bars. My favs are the FunShip Special - got to have one of those for the first drink! Kiss on the Lips, Mocha Chocolate Getaway and my new fav, the Twilight Zone.

 

There were no lines on this cruise - anywhere. At least none to speak of. It was kind of weird. I think the only time I saw a line for the MDR was on Elegant Night. Everyone has to get that lobster & prime rib!

 

So when they opened the doors, we just all headed in. We had table 102 - GREAT table by a window - awesome wait crew! Alex, Erik & Mr X. These guys were the best we've ever had. They were funny. They danced with us. They made hats out of napkins for the birthday boys & girls (we were celebrating several!). They took really good care of my 2 grand nephews - making sure they had what they wanted to eat. They were simply the best!

 

We didn't do any of the shows. My sister and some of her crew went to the comedy clubs, but DH and I never made it. After dinner we walked around a bit and headed back to the cabin to hang out on our balcony a bit.

[Cyber Kat]

First Sea Day

 

I cruise for the Sea Days - love 'em!

 

Our cabin was on the starboard side, so we were on the west heading down. I love getting up to take sunrise pics, but there was no reason to get up early if the sunrise is on the other side of the ship!

 

I have to say that except for the stormy send off, we had gorgeous weather. I love cruising in June - we seem to luck out in that month. We also had THE calmest seas I have ever seen. There were times when the water just looked like a lake instead of the ocean.

 

I was also excited for this cruise because I had eating partners :). DH eats one meal a day - except on a cruise, eats a bacon sandwich for breakfast! My sister - who I often cruise with is a grazer. She just picks bits and pieces when she passes through the lido buffet. I want to sit down to a hot breakfast when I'm on vacation, so I had people this cruise who wanted to do the brunch with me! YAY!

 

We had set up the night before who was doing breakfast/brunch and who wasn't. I went up with DH to keep him company while he did his bacon sandwich thing. I got some juice & coffee and snitched a piece of his bacon!

 

Then I met my nephew and his family for brunch - the rest of the crew were all sleeping, except for my sister's b-i-l who was up and out at the crack of dawn and now ready for a nap!

 

No line for the brunch. They took us right in and we had a great table in the back by a window. The brunch is great! Like with other meals you can double things up and they will do special things if they can. My nephew wanted Swiss cheese with his bagel instead of cream cheese - no problem. His wife wanted sour cream with her omelet - no problem.

 

It's so nice not to have to find a table, and gather everything while your food gets cold. Cold pancakes or waffles - not good. Everything at the brunch was hot and tasty! I just wish they would give you a choice of having 2 pancakes instead of the four. I can't eat that many!

 

After breakfast we all scattered to do different things. I went back to the cabin to collect my DH and we hung on the balcony for a bit marveling at how calm the water was. Then we headed back to the aft pool/Serenity Deck.

 

They do this up right on the Spirit Class Ships - pool, hot tub, bar, big overhang with comfy chairs for those who want shade, lots of those round chairs with the hoods. But the chair hogs are out! It was okay - we wanted shade. We got a drink and hung out. My sister and my nephew's step daughter were in the hot tub. I considered the pool, but it was mobbed.

 

I did take some pics!

 

 

 

 

 

That's the bar and the overhang under the slide.

 

Okay - I've got to get my butt in gear and do some things, but I will be back with more!

[Cyber Kat]

I'm just reading a thread about bad shaking and vibration in aft cabins on the Pride. Our cabin 7299 was the first mid-ship cabin after the aft section. I felt vibration - not bad, but noticeable in some sections of the ship. Different places - not always the same places. I noticed nothing in the cabin - if there was a vibration it was minimal enough that I didn't feel it.

[imonaboat2011]

More! :D

[Cyber Kat]

Jumping in with my Pride experience on these...blow dryer was the usual weak cruise ship dryer. I don't recall a cool shot. I usually just let my hair airdry and then used a straight iron. ;) The safe requires a card. The only magnetic space I found in our cabin was the bathroom door.

 

We will be on her again Sunday. Can't wait! :)

 

Kat - Love the review! :cool:

 

Thanks! You can see in the room pics just to the right of the balcony door, I had my magnetic clips holding my various papers.

[Cyber Kat]

Well rats - I don't know what happened to the First Sea Day stuff I wrote yesterday! I could have sworn it posted.

 

Let me try again - I hate having to do things twice!

 

I mentioned that we hung around the aft pool/Serenity for a bit. There are comfy chairs and sofas under the overhang by the bar. So we sat there chatting with various members of our group who drifted in and out. I mentioned that I wanted to try the Bonsai Sushi and a couple of others said they did as well. Two had to go change and the third was off to check out the casino. The ones who were changing were supposed to come back to the pool area and we were meeting the one who went to the Casino at Bonsai Sushi.

 

Well - this is one reason why I don't like traveling in groups - it's like herding cats. The ones who went to change never returned. It was getting late and the Bonsai Sushi closed at 2:30. I'd eaten lunch, but we had late seating so I wanted a snack and sushi fit the bill!

 

DH and I headed down there and sat outside in the atrium to wait a bit. Here are a couple of pics that I took while waiting

 

 

Those were not my people!

 

This is the entrance

 

It was 2pm and still no sign of my group, so DH came in with me to keep me company. He does not eat cooked fish - let alone raw fish!

 

I ordered the Bonsai Noodle Salad ($2) - which was tasty, but spicy!

 

The California Roll was tempting - they use real crab, not that surami stuff - but I got 2 pieces of salmon sashimi and 2 pieces of yellowtail (my favorite) sashimi at $1.50 each. DH decided to get Waygu Kakuni ($4) - since it's beef and cooked! I finished with Yuzu Custard $2 - which we'd tasted at the Taste Bar the night before. If you like rice pudding, it's fantastic!

 

Our companions never showed - they missed out!

 

Came to less than $20 with the tip for the 2 of us. All the food was good and the service was great. If you like sushi, give it a try!

 

It was flag day the day before and they had a flag hanging in the atrium

 

Here's a shot of the lobby bar from above

 

Artwork over the lobby bar. All the artwork on the Pride is Renaissance in style, but they gave the David Statue in the Steak House a fig leaf, though!

[Cyber Kat]

I should mention that we had Kevin Donohue for the CD and he's fabulous! They are moving him around a bit right now, so he is no longer on the Pride, but if you are sailing on the Splendor between now and next Feb - you are in for a treat!

 

Years back we had Trevor Block as CD on the Legend. He was always my favorite, but sadly, is no longer with Carnival. Kevin D reminded me a lot of Trevor. So much energy - all over the ship interacting with guests and crew alike. He did all the music trivia and they were so much fun!

 

I don't know who is on the Pride now or how good he is. Hope you have as much fun with him as we did with Kevin. He really put a great cruise over the top!

 

Here are some other pics I took around on the first Sea Day

 

We found our way to the aft on Deck 3. This is really close to the water and pretty cool

 

 

Looking right down into the maelstrom!

 

If you are an aft view fan and love the wake - check this out!

 

We had made reservations for Davids Steakhouse online for my birthday on the 17th, but I wanted to check and ask if we could get a window table, so we headed up there. Of course, I took pics!

 

 

Not good for those who suffer from acrophobia

 

More Renaissance artwork

 

The first Sea Day is also Elegant Night. The Herding Cats phenomena came into play again as we attempted to get a group photo with us all dressed up. The short story - it didn't happen!

 

But dinner was great and once again Alex, Eric & Mr X took good care of us! Oh and I forgot to mention that we also had Ken Burns the singing Maitre d. He's amazing.

 

DH and I are hockey fans so we headed to the EA sports bar to check out the Stanley Cup finals game that was being played that night.

 

We were there to see Chicago win. It was fun. Sorry Tampa fans.

[Cyber Kat]

We had 2 Sea Days going down.

 

Second Fun Day at Sea.

 

We went to the MDR for brunch again. This time they gave us a big round table near the entrance - which worked out, because the sleep heads joined us about half way through breakfast.

 

I took some photos of the MDR. I thought it was very elegant and I really liked the decor

 

Brunch wasn't crowded at all - any of the days

 

We've been pretty lucky (knock wood!) with cruises and calm seas. We've run into very little rough water, but this was one of THE calmest I've ever seen the Atlantic. There were days when the water was like a lake or glass.

 

I took this from the balcony

 

Passing ship

 

We made plans at breakfast to meet in the lobby for the Caribbean Dance class at 2:15pm. I needed to catch up with some of these dances!

 

 

This time our crew showed up - yay! We had a blast. And I actually learned the Cupid Shuffle and the Wobble! I still can not do the Electric Slide - love it, but my feet get thoroughly tangled - and forget the Cha Cha Slide. That's okay - I can sit those out or jig around on the side lines to my own drummer!

 

We had a great day. We all managed to meet up by the Blue Iguana for some drinks and burritos for lunch. Try the shrimp on your burrito - so yummy! I couldn't get enough. DJ Goa was playing some good tunes.

 

We all met up again for dinner. Once again - food was great! Trying to remember what we did after dinner. Probably went up to look at photos. We spent a lot of time looking at the photos. My sister got one of the new photo packages and she was happy with it. She split it with one of the other members of our group. I think it was $149 for 10 pics - any size. There were other packages, but that is the one she took.

 

And the next day is Grand Turk - and my birthday!

[LUVMYGSDOG]

So happy you posted more! We had Kevin on the Splendor in May and I want not happy when I learned he was going back to Splendor and we wouldn't have him on the Pride.[emoji16]

 

Loved your review of Bonsai Sushi! I plan to eat there next month for my birthday cruise!

 

 

Kim

[Cyber Kat]

So happy you posted more! We had Kevin on the Splendor in May and I want not happy when I learned he was going back to Splendor and we wouldn't have him on the Pride.[emoji16]

 

Loved your review of Bonsai Sushi! I plan to eat there next month for my birthday cruise!

 

 

Kim

 

Kevin was great! Trying to figure out how to cruise with him again!

 

Bonsai Sushi was fantastic - loved the food and the service was very good as well. Prices were not bad at all for the quality of the food. I wanted to go back, but I ran out of cruise days! Don't you hate when that happens.

[Cyber Kat]

Sorry, I got sidetracked. We are planning a Viking River Cruise for August of next year, and I'm caught up in research. It's already booked, but I'm checking things out for our pre-cruise in Amsterdam and post cruise in Lucerne. I must confess I'm a research junkie.

 

But back to the Pride - Day 2 Grand Turk AND my Birthday!

 

We've been to Grand Turk before - love it! We mostly like to relax on vacation and not have anything we HAVE to do, so GT is perfect for that. We don't book an excursion. We just hang out by the gorgeous free pool. I'm not wild about the beach there. The sand is very soft and it makes walking difficult - you sink up over your ankles. There are too many rocks in the water as well.

 

I know a lot of people go down to Jack's Shack, but it just seems like too much of a hassle for us. When you get there at 9am - I'm not drinking much and I don't like Jerk Chicken. The beach does look nice there - we walked down that way on one trip - but the sand is still too soft to walk any distance - at least IMO. Your mileage may vary.

 

We got off the ship as soon as they let us. We wanted to get chairs with an umbrella by the pool and they go fast! It was just DH and I. We figured the others would catch up later. These are not early risers we were traveling with.

 

I'm going to give you some pics and some more comments on the end

This is where we ended up - would you believe, most of the umbrellas were taken already!

 

 

 

I love that they have all these little bridges over the pool

 

This is the free beach to the left of the dock

 

Obligatory photo of the ship at the dock. You can see how close people can swim

[Cyber Kat]

We did get an expensive drink later on - the prices at Margaritaville are expensive, but it was my birthday and I had to have a Margaritaville Margarita!

My sister said there was a bar just through the trees where we were sitting (near the Flow Rider) and the drinks were cheaper, but we'd already gotten ours. We had to be back on board by 2pm, so we left about 12:30pm to check out the shops for a bit. I got a t-shirt and some mail polish in the Del Sol shop - this is where I discovered that I'd left my wallet in the little purse I use for dinner. Ruh-Roh - I had my S&S card on a lanyard, but no photo ID to get back on to the dock.

DH was already grumbling about how he was going to have to go back on the ship to get it and then off again. There were 2 guards standing by the exit from the terminal to the dock. They didn't appear to be checking anything. I smiled and said good afternoon, and they smiled back and said, "Thank you for visiting and come back to Grand Turk again!"

Whew - good thing! I didn't want to stand in that nice duty free shop with no money to spend for a half hour!

Pride at the Dock up close
[IMG]http://cyberkatkreations.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v152/p1372050109-3.jpg[/IMG]

We boarded the ship - no problem and headed back to the room to change, then headed out to take more photos and grab a bite to eat. Oh and DH usually gets me flowers for my birthday, so he got me a rose from the Shops. I had a pic, but I guess I didn't post it to the site where I host the photos.

[IMG]http://cyberkatkreations.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v144/p1372050157-3.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://cyberkatkreations.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v68/p1372050585-3.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://cyberkatkreations.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v137/p1372050635-3.jpg[/IMG]

In this photo you can see the drop off where they cut the channel for the ships
[IMG]http://cyberkatkreations.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v135/p1372051146-3.jpg[/IMG]


Obligatory funnel pic
[IMG]http://cyberkatkreations.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v174/p1372051652-3.jpg[/IMG]


We headed to the Lido buffet because the Pride has a Chopsticks - and I love their food. I got some goodies and we headed to the aft pool area. There are nice tables by the bar.

A few of the rest of our herd of cats showed up as well.

We had reservations for the steak house that night to celebrate my birthday. We love the steak house on the ships, so we don't really need an excuse. They did give us a table by the window as requested and we had a great dinner. I always get the Ahi Tuna Tartare (love this!), one of the salads - usually the spinach - Surf & Turf with a side of the yummy mushrooms and the cheese cake. They put a candle in it and sang happy birthday.

After dinner, we were meeting our crew - my sister at least - for Kevin's Love and Marriage Show. More about this in the next post. Names will be changed to protect the guilty!

[selkcin2]

I've tried to decipher meaning but need help, please.

Brenda

[Cyber Kat]

[quote name='selkcin2']I've tried to decipher meaning but need help, please.

Brenda[/quote]

Faster to the Fun. If you are not platinum, diamond with Carnival or needing wheelchair assist, you can purchase Faster to the Fun and it gives you some perks. It's $59.95 per CABIN - not per person. You buy it under excursions for the home port on the Carnival site in your cruise area.

It gives you boarding, right behind the platinum, diamond, wedding parties and those needing assistance. It gives you access to your cabin on boarding, early luggage delivery, priority on tenders at tender ports and a special line at guest services.

Some people will tell you it's not worth it, but I will get it every cruise - if I can get it. They only sell so many per cruise. We don't check luggage, so I love being able to get to my room as soon as I board. Before they started doing this, we would be lugging stuff around for an hour or more while we tried to get a drink and something to eat. Hated that!

[Adge01]

Great review so far, I am following.:)

Just booked 11/6/16 cruise in 6279, the adjacent premium the floor below. I read where you commented you didn't feel too much of the aft shake which is a big relief. However, how was the elevator shaft noise and also the noise from being in a high traffic area?

[Cyber Kat]

[quote name='Adge01']Great review so far, I am following.:)

Just booked 11/6/16 cruise in 6279, the adjacent premium the floor below. I read where you commented you didn't feel too much of the aft shake which is a big relief. However, how was the elevator shaft noise and also the noise from being in a high traffic area?[/quote]

These are the aft most elevators so we had no noise at all. Not so much traffic as by mid-ship elevators. It was very convenient both to the MDR and the buffet.