Swodog94's Eastern Caribbean Cruise on PRIDE 23-30 Oct 16: A Review and Pictures

[swodog94]

Really enjoying your review of the Pride. We'll be cruising on the Pride for the fifth time in March 2017. I'm counting down the days and driving DH crazy. Glad you had a great cruise.

 

Yeah, she's a great ship. We really like the fact that she's not too big nor too small. You never feel like everyone's packed in tight and everything is very conveniently located. Still, I look forward to trying out e newer ship soon.

[swodog94]

Stateroom

 

I mentioned in my intro that I've spent my adult life going to sea on warships. So despite having 12 years and 8 months on my underway days counter (out of a 23 year career since commissioning), I had spent almost all of that time at sea in small windowless boxes. Even when I was Executive officer of a frigate and later a cruiser, all I had was a small porthole. So when we decided on our first commercial cruise in 2011 I decreed that we would never sail with less than a balcony. And I've made good on that threat! We have truly enjoyed being able to sit out on our balcony and relax, read, look at the sea go by, and watch sunrises and sunsets. It also affords us a great amount of privacy for sunbathing so that the folks out by pool don't have to be subject to my shirtless torso more than they have to be!

 

Everyone has their own way of relaxing on vacation. I am happy reading, hanging out in/by the pool, going to the casino, and having a drink or two. My wife enjoys relaxing in bed, napping on the balcony and watching the free movies on the cabin TV. We both need time away from the bustle of the ship sometimes. Which means that we use our stateroom for more than just showering and sleeping. Based on those requirements, I decided that an Ocean Suite best suited our needs. Luckily, by cruising in October, the cost of an OS was about what a Balcony stateroom in July or August. I booked stateroom 6203, which is on the starboard side. We had previously always been on the port side. No real difference, but I still prefer the port side.

 

The Ocean Suites are pretty spacious, as cabins go. Along with the bed there is a full size couch, upholstered in luxurious Carnival-orange naugahyde! There's also a small table and a chair.

 

 

There's a safe for storing valuables. The safe is operated by sliding a magnetized card, such as a credit card. It's not recommended that you use an active card, as the magnetic mechanism might demagnetize the card (so definitely don't use your S&S card!). Bring an old, expired credit card toi use for just this purpose.

 

 

Mounted above the safe is a flat screen TV. There are various channels that play on it, with many of them being internal shows that showcase shore excursions, on board shopping, and Carnival commercials. There are also a couple of channels that show movies on a loop; the movies change daily. Finally, there are a few actual TV channels such as Fox and ESPN.

 

 

The room also has a desk, which holds the house phone as well as some water bottles (provided free to suite guests). Above the desk is a semi-bar area with wine glasses, while underneath the desk is a small mini-fridge. Ours was empty, but if it's full of overpriced drinks when you arrive, just ask the room steward to clear it out.

 

 

Oh yeah, this arrived safely. And that's all I'm gonna say about that!:D

 

[swodog94]

Stateroom (Cont.)

 

As you head towards the bathroom, you first pass through a small dressing area with a large mirror and stool. This is good spot to sit while you do your makeup, ladies. It's also where one of the few outlets is located.

 

 

There's also a set of wardrobe closets in this dressing area. This is where your robes will be hanging; it's also where your life jackets are stored!

 

 

The bathroom is quite room, with double sinks, which Mrs. Swodog loves.

 

 

There's also a tub/shower combo, with a jetted tub at that! I can't tell you if it works, we have yet to use the jets in either suites we've cruised in.

 

 

 

[swodog94]

Balcony

 

As I've already mentioned, I don't cruise unless I have a balcony. The Ocean Suites have a very nice sized balcony. Big enough to hold two chairs, two loungers and two small tables.

 

 

 

Sadly, Carnival has changed their smoking policy. I used to greatly enjoy having cigars on my balcony with a nice scotch...that is no more.:mad: Oh well, at least there are still perks to having a balcony - like this.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2016 by swodog94

[swodog94]

Once we had unpacked, my wife engaged in her cruise tradition - taking a nap! I grabbed my camera and went walking around the ship to see all the new stuff that had been put in. If the boarding gantry had been operational we would have boarded at the Atrium, so I headed there. First new addition: Bonsai Sushi!

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of the few dining venues that charges extra to eat there. I really wasn't in a sushi mood the whole week, so I never tried it. But I saw lots of folks with takeout from there, and it looked good!

[swodog94]

Now I headed forward to see the Alchemy bar. I'd heard lots of great things about the mixologists from many of the reviews. And it is all true! Gabriel is absolutely awesome! He does a great job making any of the drinks on their menu, but he really shines if you just give him a little guidance and let him surprise you (ex. make me something with vodka, not too sweet). The bar area itself is pretty neat, with lots of interesting knick knacks displayed in cases. Plus during the day when the bar is closed, the lounge is a nice quiet place to sit and read.

 

 

 

 

 

[swodog94]

By this time I was getting kinda thirsty, so I headed aft to find the Red Frog Pub. But before I could get there, I had to walk through the casino. We were still in port, so the casino wasn't open yet. I would be back later that night after dinner to play some slots. I did pretty good that first night, winning a few hundred bucks. But my luck didn't hold and I wound up down overall for the cruise. :eek: But I still had a good time playing slots!

 

 

 

 

[swodog94]

Next I found the sports bar!

 

 

 

We spent a good deal of time there watching sports. The World Series was on, plsu tons of football. Here's where I'll mention something very cool. Because Pride sails out of Baltimore she offers a couple of local beers. In this case it's Loose Cannon and Storm Front from Heavy Seas Brewing. These are some of the best Maryland beers made, and Loose Cannon is my personal favorite! I probably would have drank that exclusively if I hadn't been drinking so much Thirsty Frog!:D

 

[swodog94]

Finally, I get to the Red Frog Pub.

 

 

This had been the Starry Skies Lounge previously, where you could go to smoke a cigar and catch some great live music. There's still live music!

 

 

Now its a tropical paradise that serves up Carnival's exclusive beer, Thirsty Frog Red!

 

 

 

I guess this is what they do if you've had a few too many Frogs!

 

 

[swodog94]

My thirst properly quenched, I went up a deck where I found the Library...

 

 

 

 

...and the Chapel.

 

 

 

[swodog94]

Just aft of the Library and Chapel is the Ivory Bar. There's usually a guy in there every night, playing the piano and singing songs that everybody knows (sing along, why dontcha!).

 

 

 

As you continue to head aft you come to the Fun Shops. We walked through these several times but didn't really buy anything, except for some over the counter meds during the week. We have bought booze in the past, but didn't really feel like there were any good deals to be had this time.

 

 

 

 

[swodog94]

Having seen enough of the interior of the ship, I decided to head topside! Back on the Lido deck the weather was a bit cool so the roof was closed over the midships pool. It would stay closed the entire week.

 

 

 

The forward pool wasn't getting many customers yet!

 

 

But folks were grabbing lunch as they came on board. Guys Burgers were a favorite, but so was the Blue Iguana. They served both burritos and tacos!

 

 

Once you get your food there's a salsa bar with many salsas, ranging from a mild pico de gallo to a blazing hot habanero salsa. Plus if that doesn't give you enough of a kick, there is a large selection of hot sauces including Cholula, Tapatio, and some other really evil looking bottles!:eek:

 

 

[swodog94]

Now I headed to the stern, which has my favorite part of Pride (other than my balcony): the Serenity Adults Only area!

 

 

I like kids as much as anybody, but I prefer my deep relaxation to be child-free. Serenity is great because it has it's own bar and seating area.

 

 

Plus it has it's own pool and hot tub! The pool is great because it has benches to sit around it, plus a large lip where you can sit in the water and dangle your feet into the deep part of the pool. I hung out there with a cold drink in hand quite a bit!

 

 

Couldn't resist the selfie!

 

[swodog94]

Serenity has loungers and these big oversized chairs that couples can share. Some are uncovered...

 

 

...while others have a canopy to shade you from the sun.

 

 

If you're really lucky, you can score one of several hammocks!

 

 

There are only two things I don't like about Serenity. The first is the incessant "chair hogging". It doesn't seem to matter when you go out there, the chairs are always taken. I've been out there as early as 07:30 and folks had already gone out and put towels on chairs to "reserve" them. It's really bad! The staff claim that if they see any towels holding chairs for more tha 40 minutes they'll confiscate them, but I've never seen it happen.:mad:

 

And the only other even slightly bad thing about Serenity is that you are directly below the slides, so it can get a little noisy sometimes.

 

 

[swodog94]

One of the most anticipated 2.0 upgrades was the addition of a new extreme slide and the Water Works splash zone for kids.

 

 

I didn't use the Splash Zone (although it looked fun!) but I did use both slides.

 

The yellow slide was already on Pride, and while fun, it's pretty tame.

 

 

The real fun is the Green Thunder extreme slide!

 

 

 

You walk up the many stairs to the top where you step onto a platform at the top of the slide. The operator closes a clear plastic shield over you and...you wait for him to hit the button. I swear that wait is the worst part, because you don't know when he's going to push that button which causes the platform under you to drop! You freefall into the slide, zip down and around the loop, and before you know it you're splashing into the braking pool at the bottom. It is a rush! I did it several times, but every time I went up at least one or two folks were doing the walk of shame back down the stairs, having chickened out. :eek:

 

I took my GoPro up with me one time. If you want to see my video, go to the video-tube-site-that-shall-not-be-named (rhymes with GooToob) and type in "Green Thunder Water Slide Carnival Pride 2016".

[swodog94]

By now it was getting later in the afternoon and the Safety/Muster Drill was looming. But there was one more thing I needed to do: purchase the wine package. Every time we've cruise I've bought the five wines package. There are three levels offered, low, medium and high. I always buy the high end package, although the wines are hugely overpriced and the quality is mediocre to almost good. Still, I do it because of the convenience. Getting a drink in the Main Dining Room (MDR) can take a long time, and trying to get a second glass of wine with dinner...well, let's just say you have a better chance to win the Powerball. But if I have my own bottle of wine on the table, I can refill my glass whenever I want. If you don't finish your bottle, you can take it with you!

 

So, based on past experiences, I headed for the Atrium. On our last cruise, there had been a table set up there selling the wind packages (I think the official Carnival name for it is "Cruise the Vineyards"). I got to the Atrium and there was no table selling wine. Hmmm...ok, may as well get a drink while I'm here.

 

 

For some reason there were already folks lining up at the Guests Services Desk!:eek:

 

 

I did find the table advertising the Dr. Seuss at Sea stuff. We didn't participate but apparently both the Cat in the Hat Parade and the Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast are very popular with families that have small kids.

 

 

Drink in hand I headed back to the Lido deck, where completely by chance I found the guy selling the wine packages. He was mobile, pushing them around on a small cart...no wonder I couldn't easily find it!

 

[swodog94]

It was time for the Safety Brief, so I headed back to our stateroom, collected the wife, and we headed for our Muster Station. On past cruises this evolution has been a complete clusterfrack, but surprisingly this time it went smoothly. We were done in twenty minutes and were dismissed to prepare for Sailaway. We shortly felt the engines spool up, and Pride took in all lines and got underway!

 

 

 

I went up to Deck 11 to get a good view of our outbound transit. There I found the putt-putt golf course...

 

 

...and a basketball court.

 

 

Back on the Lido deck the DJ was doing a valiant job of trying to get folks to dance for the Sailaway Party, but with the weather being kind of cool, attendance was not very heavy.

 

 

[swodog94]

The transit out from Baltimore is always interesting. The first thing you pass is Fort McHenry.

 

 

This is the site of the famous battle during the War of 1812 where the British fleet bombarded the fort. Francis Scott Key, watching from the deck of a British warship, was sure that the fort must surrender, but at first light he saw that the American flag was still flying! Inspired, he scribled down a few lines of poetry that would eventually become The Star Spangled Banner, our national anthem.

 

Next I saw a very interesting ship moored at a pier in Canton.

 

 

This is the NS SAVANNAH, the only nuclear powered cargo ship the US ever built. As a matter of fact, she was the first nuclear-powered merchant ship. Built in the late 1950's at a cost of $46.9M, including a $28.3M nuclear reactor and fuel core, funded by United States government agencies, Savannah was a demonstration project for the potential use of nuclear energy. Launched on July 21, 1959, she was in service between 1962 and 1972. Savannah was deactivated in 1971 and after several moves has been moored at Pier 13 of the Canton Marine Terminal in Baltimore, Maryland, since 2008. Don't worry, her reactor is defueled and not active!

 

Next we passed under the Key Bridge. There ship clears it easily, but it always looks like the mast is going to hit!

 

 

After the Key Bridge is Fort Carrol

 

 

Fort Carroll is a 3.4-acre artificial island and abandoned hexagonal sea fort in the middle of the Patapsco River, just south of Baltimore. It is named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737–1832), a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The fort was designed by then-Colonel Robert E. Lee and built in 1848. After World War I the Army removed all the guns and abandoned the fort in 1921. It's now privately owned land.

 

About and hour later we pass under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

 

 

It's almost time for dinner!

 

[swodog94]

There are three choices for dining in the MDR: Early, Late, or My Time Dining. My Time dining means you eat in the dining room on deck 3. You can show up at any time and they'll seat you as space becomes available. If you have to wait, they'll give you a buzzer like you might get a sit-down style chain restaurant. I don't care for this style of dining when I'm at sea.

 

Early dining starts at 5:30pm. This is great for folks over 70, or those who have kids under 10, but 1730 is too early for me. So I always choose Late Dining. This is at 2030 (8:30pm) and it works out great. We tend to sleep in and eat breakfast midmorning, eat lunch around 1 or 2pm, and have a snack in the afternoon. So we're really not going to be hungry for dinner until a bit later.

 

Much has been made about Carnival's switch to American Table. Folks bemoan the lack of white tablecloths and the alleged lack of variety on the menu. I have to tell you, I had no issue with American Table. There was only one night where a table cloth would have come in handy (the ship was rocking a bit and you had to keep a grip on your drink glass or wind up wearing it). The menu had plenty of choices, including a few rotating substitutions, so you could foreseeably go the week without having the same thing twice unless you wanted to.

 

Our wait team, consisting of our head waiter Alexis (Colombia), Snyggz (Philippines) and Lamboi (India), were very good. We have had a warmer relationship with past waiters, but these guys took our order, got us our food quickly and made sure we wanted for nothing. And they can sing and dance, too!

 

We found ourselves assigned to table 244. This table had room for four, but we never had any tablemates. Not sure if we just got lucky or if there was no need to seat strangers together during the late seating, since traditionally more people dine at the early seating.

 

 

We did have couples sitting at tables to left and right of us. I was delighted to discover that the very nice couple to my left was some folks that I had been chatting with before the cruise on the Roll Call. We hit it off immediately and we enjoyed chatting with them at dinner every night. BubbaandThelma, we'll cruise with you guys anytime!

 

The food was nothing special, but it was very good and always arrived at least warm, if not hot. We never received a cold dish (unless if was supposed to be that way. I had the fried calamari as my starter and the pork chop for dinner.

 

 

 

For dessert, the Chocolate Melting Cake - sorry, no picture, ate it too fast!:D

[swodog94]

After dinner we strolled by the Atrium and listened to the live entertainment for a few minutes.

 

 

Then we headed for the casino. The slots were good to me, and I won enough to be up a couple of hundred bucks. My wife hit the wall shortly therefater and went up to bed, leaving me to gamble on my own. I stayed there for a bit longer and then decided to go to the late comedy show in the Butterflies Lounge. The late comedy shows (after 10pm) are for adults only...and they mean it! If you don't like curse words and raunchy jokes, these shows might not be for you. However, they're right up my alley! I went to watch Jason Blanchard at the 11:30pm showing and he was hilarious. By the time the show ended shortly after midnight I finally started to feel pretty tired (plus I had been drinking all day) so it was time to hit the rack. I got upstairs, hung the room service order form on the door, and turned in.

 

Taps, taps. Lights out. All hands turn in to your bunks and keep silence about the decks. Taps.

[swodog94]

Holy cow, turns out these reviews are a lot of work! This is as far as I'm going tonight. Tomorrow: 1st Sea Day!

[BellaSweet]

lol that's my Bf and me at the alchemy bar! We lived there with Gabriel :)

 

 

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[GradUT]

We would have loved sitting at your table--wish Carnival would have seated us together.

 

Normally, my husband and I cruise on Princess or HAL and we ask to be seated at a table for 6--good number for variety and you can get served and out of the dining room in time for the late show. We have met the nicest and most interesting people at these tables and it's a pleasure to discuss what you did that day with someone other than your spouse! Anyway, on the Pride, it seemed as if people were seated either with family or alone--no joining of couples to make up a table of 6 or 8. Despite requesting being seated at a table for 6 at the late seating, it was just the two of us at a table that could seat 12! So weird!

 

So, was this an anomaly or do Carnival cruisers just not like sitting with strangers?

[swodog94]

We would have loved sitting at your table--wish Carnival would have seated us together.

 

Normally, my husband and I cruise on Princess or HAL and we ask to be seated at a table for 6--good number for variety and you can get served and out of the dining room in time for the late show. We have met the nicest and most interesting people at these tables and it's a pleasure to discuss what you did that day with someone other than your spouse! Anyway, on the Pride, it seemed as if people were seated either with family or alone--no joining of couples to make up a table of 6 or 8. Despite requesting being seated at a table for 6 at the late seating, it was just the two of us at a table that could seat 12! So weird!

 

So, was this an anomaly or do Carnival cruisers just not like sitting with strangers?

 

On our very first cruise, on RCCL's Enchantment of the Seas, we shared a table with another couple. It was fun! But our last cruise on Pride we had a table to ourselves. I really think that folks prefer early seating, or My Time Dining. We also skipped the MDR one night and ate on the LIDO and it was PACKED! So my theory is that the late seating is half empty because most everyone has eaten by then.

[swodog94]

lol that's my Bf and me at the alchemy bar! We lived there with Gabriel :)

 

 

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LOL! If I had know that was you I would have said hi. Yeah, Gabriel was the best...and quite a character to boot! One night we got into a discussion about dictatorships and his native Romania (I've visited a couple of times, which is how we got on the topic). We usually just stopped for one drink before dinner, but my wife loved every drink he made for her, and she's picky!:cool: