Matt & Ashley's Carnival Pride Review - (New Year's, Pictures, FunTimes)

[DCCruiser1013]

Day 3 – Wednesday December 28 – Second Day at Sea

 

 

We got up even earlier today to make another attempt at a sunrise picture. This time we were much more successful. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

After taking these pictures, we were ready to tackle the day! Oh, never mind, we went back to bed.

[DCCruiser1013]

We got back up a little later and headed up for our second round of burritos. I tried ham this time, and I stuck with that for the rest of our breakfast burritos. Ashley went meatless, and I got a plate of bacon for us to share. She unwrapped her burrito and put some bacon in, but said she couldn’t really taste it. That’s a waste of bacon if you ask us.

 

Ashley went over to the Fun Shops for their 2 for $20 sale and got a couple t-shirts. I decided to head back to the blackjack table. I’m pretty sure I got wiped out on this run. There may be a reason why I didn’t frequent the casino as much on this cruise.

 

I met up with Ashley as she was checking out at the Fun Shops, and we walked around the promenade on the 3rd deck. We walked all the way aftward, and got this picture of the wake of the ship.

 

 

One thing that is sort of a tradition for us is to have at least one day where we order BLT’s from room service. They are always really good. On our Glory trip we had the ingenious idea of pairing those BLT’s with fries from Guy’s. Ashley headed up for the fries, while I made the call to room service. We enjoyed our delicious feast on the balcony.

 

At 12:45, we participated in Guess What Year trivia. 2 points were awarded for nailing the year of the event they named, but you got 1 point if you were within 2 years. We got 20/40 possible points.

[DCCruiser1013]

We decided to refuel with a black and white milkshake, then stayed for Slogan trivia, where we got 14/20 correct. Our trivia performances hadn’t netted us that coveted shiny plastic ship yet, but we weren’t giving up yet!

 

I headed over to the blackjack table and actually had a winning session. Then I went upstairs to celebrate with a couple cocktails on the balcony.

 

We headed upstairs for a pre-dinner snack because we were a little hungry, so we played cards on the Lido deck with a few slices of pizza.

 

We then headed down for our first visit to the Alchemy Bar before dinner. Katie and Andrei were this cruise’s bartenders, and they were fantastic. Ashley tried a few different drinks from Alchemy throughout the cruise. This time she got a French Kiss, then a Perfect Storm. I had two Quick Fixes which had a delicious black licorice flavor. This combined with our balcony drinking had us feeling silly at dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

Ashley got the spring rolls and the Greek Salad to start. She said both were good, but the salad was a little heavy on the dressing. I got a Caesar salad and shrimp cocktail. Ashley got the mojito chicken for dinner, while I got the flat iron steak. Both were okay. We skipped dessert.

 

After dinner we were thoroughly stuffed, and honestly a little sleepy. We hung out in the room for a while, a nap may have been involved. Just before 9 we headed down to the piano bar, where we stayed until probably around 10:30. We headed back up to hang out on the balcony until we finally went to bed.

 

Sorry, I killed our towel animal before I got a picture of him.

 

Coming later this evening, our day in Grand Turk!

[DCCruiser1013]

Day 4 – Thursday December 29 – Grand Turk

 

 

 

I’m going to start today with a warning: We barely stepped foot off the Pride today. Grand Turk is a beautiful island, but really – it’s a beach stop. Ashley and I considered getting some beach time in, but the idea of an empty ship really appealed more to us. Besides, we knew we’d be getting more than enough beach time in tomorrow.

 

With that said we slept in a little late today. We started getting up just before 8am, just in time to see us pulling into Grand Turk.

 

[DCCruiser1013]

We were originally thinking about not getting off the ship at all, but we decided to stroll around the cruise center area and maybe put our feet in the water. Also considering the ship had been swaying a lot on the way down, we agreed that it would be nice to get our feet on dry land. We got dressed and headed downstairs to Deck A Forward and walked down the pier to the cruise center. First you get shuffled through a shop, on the other side of which is a main plaza area with excursion folks ready to collect you. Depending on which way you head, you can either park yourself on a beach, go back to Margaritaville, or keep shopping. Smoothies sounded good to us, so we headed over to FROOTS. Delicious smoothie in hand, we headed down to the beach just to put our feet in for a few brief seconds. I’d say in the 3 minutes we were on the beach, we were approached by at least 5 locals offering beach chairs, hair braiding, etc. They weren’t aggressive, though, a simple “no thanks” sufficed for them. Just before 10am we started to head back onto the ship.

 

On our way, Ashley snapped a handful of pictures of the Pride and the surrounding area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

Some more pictures

 

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

We headed up to Serenity and claimed a clamshell at the very back. Just before we hopped into the pool we saw the Glory off in the distance, scheduled to arrive in Grand Turk at 11am.

 

 

 

 

We hadn’t eaten yet, so Ashley went back into the buffet to get an omelet while I got this shot of the Glory pulling in.

 

 

Fun fact, I had proposed to Ashley exactly 4 years ago on this date, and the Glory was the ship we were on for our honeymoon. Just a funny semi-coincidence.

[DCCruiser1013]

We headed downstairs for Geography trivia at 11am. I figured this was our best shot at a ship on a stick because I was a geography major in college, I make maps for a living, and everyone was off on the island. We competed with a grand total of 2 other people. Some of the questions had me sweating a little bit, but...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you saw this guy earlier in the pictures of the room, sorry the surprise was spoiled. I don’t care that we only competed against 2 other people for this. That just tells me we wanted it more than anyone else on the ship. Psshh – beach time. We triumphantly carried our prize back to the room, and headed back up to Lido to reclaim our clamshell in Serenity, but sadly all the clamshells had been taken. We decided to head over to the forward pool, where we went for another swim, then eventually got out and headed over to Guy’s for some burgers, then got out and headed over to the Red Frog Rum Bar for a couple Pina Coladas.

[DCCruiser1013]

Since this is the day we spent the most time on the upper decks, I figure this is the best time to go ahead and give you the tour. Again, most of these pictures were taken either in Freeport, or on our way back to Baltimore. I didn’t have my phone on me while we were actually up here in Grand Turk.

 

Starting on Deck 9 (Lido) Aft, we have Serenity. Serenity has a lot of comfy padded chairs, couches, clamshells and hammocks. There’s an actual pool back here, which many Serenity areas on other Carnival ships cannot claim. Serenity also has its own bar and towel hut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A common complaint I’ve heard about the Serenity area on the Pride is that the waterslides are very close to it, which is true.

 

 

That’s really the only complaint I’ve heard, other than that it gets packed like most other poolside areas of the ship.

[DCCruiser1013]

Moving forward, you pass through the Lido restaurant. This is the buffet area of the ship. In here they serve breakfast, then during lunch and dinner they have 24 hour pizza, a salad bar, a deli, Chopsticks, and other fun stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

From inside the restaurant, you can look straight down to the Atrium.

 

 

You can also climb up the glass staircase that goes up to David’s Steakhouse.

 

[DCCruiser1013]

David’s Steakhouse is actually on Decks 10 and 11. Here are a couple more shots of the staircase, and the nerve-wracking view of the abyss below.

 

 

 

The steakhouse itself is beautiful, with a 12 foot replica of Michelangelo’s David (plus one fig leaf to make him modest).

 

 

 

Ashley wants me to point out that David looks exactly like Steve from some Stranger Things. I'll open this up to the floor for discussion.

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

A couple more steakhouse shots.

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

Back down to Lido, moving forward brings you to the Venus Main Pool.

 

 

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

This is one of the busier parts of the ship, with points of interest in every corner. On the starboard side, aftward from the pool is famous Guy’s Burger Joint.

 

 

Acting as the counterpart to Guy’s, Blue Iguana Cantina sits on the port side.

 

 

And just forward of Blue Iguana Cantina, on the other side of the pool, is Blue Iguana Tequila Bar.

 

 

Finally Red Frog Rum Bar sits on the starboard side, just forward of the pool.

 

 

Like I said, this is a busy part of the ship during the day. This is where your louder music is going to be played. The other two pools are much quieter. They also have deck parties here. The New Year’s countdown was also here.

Edited January 6, 2017 by DCCruiser1013

[DCCruiser1013]

Forward of the Venus Main Pool is the Apollo Forward Pool.

 

 

There’s a little less activity here, though they do have ping pong, and the comfy chairs you’d find at serenity.

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

We’re going to head up two decks now to Deck 11 Forward, where the mini golf and basketball court sit.

 

There are no scorecards, so if you are as competitive as I am and have to keep score, I suggest making your own or using your phone.

 

 

The mini golf course is nestled inside and around a jogging track, and wraps around the basketball court.

 

 

 

 

 

You get a great view of the ship from up here.

 

[DCCruiser1013]

We’re now going to move back down to Deck 10 and head aftward. This is the Sun Deck, and it runs around the length of the ship, with loungers lining a large portion of it.

 

 

Just above the forward pool they have cornhole.

 

 

Here are a couple shots overlooking the forward pool.

 

 

 

Keep heading back and you can see inside David’s Steakhouse.

 

 

And continuing aftward here’s a shot of the green water slide that I am too afraid to go on. I don’t care what you call me. It’s not happening.

 

[DCCruiser1013]

The yellow slide actually terminates on the Sun Deck (10), but you have to head up to the Sports Deck (11) to access the staircase to both slides. I’m proud to say I went on the Yellow Slide 3 times while we were in Grand Turk.

 

 

 

The entire waterworks area is pretty new. The yellow slide existed before, but in a different color. Maybe teal? There was a splash zone type thing highlighted by a big bucket of water that fills up and dumps water on you every few minutes.

 

 

Here’s a picture of it immediately after it tipped over.

 

 

There are a few sitting areas for parents/husbands waiting for their kids/wives to get soaked by the bucket.

 

 

And while waiting for the bucket to soak their wives, husbands can take pictures to show how high up the not-gonna-happen slide is.

 

[DCCruiser1013]

From the Sports Deck, if you head over towards the funnel you can actually go up another level to Deck 12: the Sky Deck. Here you can look down through the funnel into David’s Steakhouse.

 

 

 

This is looking forward.

 

[DCCruiser1013]

We headed back to the room to get cleaned up after our day in the sun. Ashley took a shower while I sat on the balcony and got some more pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sararebekahquinn]

Thank you so much for all of the details in your review. We will be sailing on the Pride for the first time in August. Even though this will be my 7th cruise, it will be my first one with Guy's and our first balcony. And, hopefully my first time at Half Moon Cay. 2015 cruise we had to skip HMC for weather😢😭. We have our cabana booked (again) and we are hoping to get to use it this time!

[DCCruiser1013]

Just before 2:30 we were pushing off, blasting the horn goodbye to Grand Turk, and en route to Half Moon Cay.

 

 

After getting cleaned up, I headed down to the casino to play blackjack while Ashley wandered the shops. I actually pretty much brought myself back up to even for the trip while at the table. By the way, the slot machines were open the entire time we were in Grand Turk, and the table games opened at 1pm.

 

At 4pm we decided to head over to the Piazza for Movie Music trivia. We ended up teaming up with a nice Canadian couple. We got 18/20 right, which tied us for first place. The trivia guy didn’t see us when he asked who else got 18, and no one on our team really cared to put up a fight, so we let the other 18-scoring team have the trophy. If you were on that team and are reading this review, you lucked out because we were on our game that day!

We then headed over to the Alchemy Bar, where I got another Quick Fix, and Ashley got a sweet drink with infused strawberry vodka. Then we headed back up to the room to quickly change for dinner, and I stepped out onto the balcony to get this sunset picture.

 

 

Don’t let the calm looking ocean fool you, this was a very rocky trip to Half Moon.

[DCCruiser1013]

We got lined up for dinner and headed inside.

 

 

 

 

 

Ashley got fried shrimp and a garden salad. I got the chicken tenders and a Caesar salad. For our entrees I got the sea bass, while Ashley got beef lasagna. We both got the popcorn pot for dessert. We both highly recommend that.

 

We decided to spend the evening in the Red Frog Pub. Adiktion was off for the evening, so they had Brandon, one of the guys who played guitar in the Atrium, performing. He was actually really good. He and I have pretty similar taste in music, so Ashley and I had a good time playing cards in the Pub listening to him. We left at around 9:30 or 10pm. I was a few beers in and feeling lucky. I decided to hit the $25 blackjack table. This was a mistake. First of all, the dealer was lightning fast. Second of all, it was just me and one other guy playing. Third of all, contrary to what the beer told me, I was not lucky. On this evening, the casino defeated me. I couldn’t look at a blackjack table anymore on the cruise without holding back some tears. In a manner very much opposite to how we carried up our ship on a stick, I sauntered back to the room, sat on the balcony and contemplated my life choices before going to bed. Luckily we had Half Moon Cay the next morning.

 

 

Coming tomorrow: Our day in Half Moon Cay!

[DCCruiser1013]

Thank you so much for all of the details in your review. We will be sailing on the Pride for the first time in August. Even though this will be my 7th cruise, it will be my first one with Guy's and our first balcony. And, hopefully my first time at Half Moon Cay. 2015 cruise we had to skip HMC for weather😢😭. We have our cabana booked (again) and we are hoping to get to use it this time!

 

Awesome! I'm glad this review can be so relevant to your upcoming Pride cruise. You'll have a great time. Guys is solid, but definitely try out Blue Iguana too if you like burritos/tacos. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you for HMC. It's a beautiful island.

[grandmarnnurse]

Fabulous pics! You have me rethinking booking the Conquest, and going with the Pride! A big plus is we could drive down to Baltimore from Buffalo, NY, rather than fly into Ft Lauderdale. Thanks for the review! I will continue to follow. 😎