Pride Partial Panama Elite Cruise Review - February 5-13, 2022

[obx_fintoo]

It was a pretty decent size.  Not sure what ships you are familiar with.  

 

The casino on the Pride is on deck 2 midship.  It spans the entire width of the ship with a walkway through it, so if you are coming from the aft and want to go to the theater, you will walk right through the casino.  There are lots of slot machines on both sides.  As you walk in from the back, to your left are the cashier cages, slots on both sides, table games in front of cashier cages, then a seating area and the bar. There was a mix of newer and older slots, but more new than old that I saw.  

 

We were on a casino event cruise, so there were lots of times it was packed, however when we went during dining/show times, it was much less crowded and easy to move around.  I particularly enjoyed the Little Shop of Horrors, Heidi's Beirhaus and the small bank of slots in the far back left that give LOTS of free spins.  

 

Two pics below - example of the free spin slots and in the seating area in front of the bar.  I made it through the whole review without a sideways picture.  Figures they would fall over this time! 😄

[luvs2beachit]

14 minutes ago, obx_fintoo said:

It was a pretty decent size.  Not sure what ships you are familiar with.  

 

The casino on the Pride is on deck 2 midship.  It spans the entire width of the ship with a walkway through it, so if you are coming from the aft and want to go to the theater, you will walk right through the casino.  There are lots of slot machines on both sides.  As you walk in from the back, to your left are the cashier cages, slots on both sides, table games in front of cashier cages, then a seating area and the bar. There was a mix of newer and older slots, but more new than old that I saw.  

 

We were on a casino event cruise, so there were lots of times it was packed, however when we went during dining/show times, it was much less crowded and easy to move around.  I particularly enjoyed the Little Shop of Horrors, Heidi's Beirhaus and the small bank of slots in the far back left that give LOTS of free spins.  

 

Two pics below - example of the free spin slots and in the seating area in front of the bar.  I made it through the whole review without a sideways picture.  Figures they would fall over this time! 😄

Thanks for the pictures and your detailed response.  Happy to hear that there is a mix of old and new machines.  I will definitely try those free spin machines.  I will be on the Pride for 

two weeks in Jan. 2023 so will be visiting the casino a lot!

[Megan_Strick]

On 3/13/2022 at 11:20 AM, obx_fintoo said:

Took a bit to get my act together, but here finally is my mini-review of our Pride Partial Panama Canal/Elite Cruise...

 

Background - This was our 50th Carnival cruise.  We have only sailed on Carnival and have been Diamond since our Thanksgiving cruise last year. Hubby and I both like to gamble and have done Getaway and Premier cruises in the past.  He got an Elite offer last year before cruising opened up again, and since the Panama Canal part was a bucket list thing, we booked it right away.

 

Tampa Port - We drove in, taking 2 days to get there.  Stayed in Jacksonville Friday night and left there before 7am.  295 to 301 to 75.  It was overcast and/or raining off and on the whole way and since I was the navigator, I wasn't able to take many pictures of the Tampa sights on the way in.  Getting to parking was an event in itself.  There were folks out holding up signs for parking, but that is not the official Port Parking.  We circled around a bit and finally got to where we needed to be.  Parking was $15/day.  Once we were parked with a view of the ship, we grabbed our bags and walked the couple blocks to the port.  We were not impressed with the port itself.  Most of our cruises have been through Jacksonville or Port Canaveral.  Those places have it down.  Tampa, not so much.  First, we got there a few minutes past 10:00 when our checkin time was 9-9:30, mostly due to weather and traffic issues.  We got chastised by a security guard for being "so" late. 🙄

 

There is no dedicated entry/area for Diamond/Platinum, just all line up for security.  Some of the workers were ok, but the majority just didn't seem to want to be there.  Not what we are used to seeing.  Once we got through scanning, we had to have vax stuff and boarding passes checked, then we went to the big desks for final check in.  There was our first dedicated line and went pretty smoothly.  We were A2 and by the time we were checked in, they had called A1.  We sat for a couple minutes, then it was our turn to jump in line.  

 

More to come....

 

One cool retro pic from 301 and our Milestone card! 

 

50 cruises? Wow! I want to be like you when I grow up. That's awesome

[MistyRo76]

Thanks for the review! Panama Canal has always interested me. Maybe once our kiddo is out of the house, we'll have time to do something like that! 

 

I also found your experience with embarkation at the Port of Tampa interesting. We've only cruised from Tampa once, a Cuba cruise in 2019. And in all my 18 cruises, it was by far the easiest boarding we've experienced. We didn't drive to the port, so maybe that changed things for us. We stayed overnight the night before and took a Lyft to the port. But security was quick and painless, check-in we walked right up and we were very quickly on board once boarding started. It was so smooth and easy and everyone was so nice. We found the same to be true when we returned to port to disembark. Add in how easy the airport was to navigate and it made Tampa one of our favorite ports! Of course, we usually cruise out of Miami which is a way busier port - so I'm sure that makes a huge difference. Plus that was also pre-COVID! so I'm sure that has changed things as well. 

 

[Saint Greg]

On 3/13/2022 at 1:58 PM, obx_fintoo said:

  The ship seems dark and of course, there are nudes around every corner, but it's a nice ship.

 

 

Spring break cruise?

[obx_fintoo]

16 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Spring break cruise?

The irony is, the next cruise after ours was a 2 week Bare Necessities group cruise, so I'm thinking that number increased a bit then! 

[luvs2beachit]

4 hours ago, sthrnbll said:

50 cruises? Wow! I want to be like you when I grow up. That's awesome

Lol!  Practice Practice!!  From your picture you look young so you have time to catch up!

And don't wait until "when we retire" try to do everything you can before.  My husband

recently passed away and I have all those beautiful memories of all those cruises!  So glad we didn't wait.

[Megan_Strick]

18 hours ago, luvs2beachit said:

Lol!  Practice Practice!!  From your picture you look young so you have time to catch up!

And don't wait until "when we retire" try to do everything you can before.  My husband

recently passed away and I have all those beautiful memories of all those cruises!  So glad we didn't wait.

You're too sweet. I finally got the kids married and out of college so now I need to ramp up my cruising. lol. Sorry to hear about your husband. I'm sure its tough. Happy cruising!

[cruzmaniac]

On 3/20/2022 at 1:21 PM, obx_fintoo said:

That's it!  Thanks for following along.  If there are any other questions that I didn't answer, just let me know.

 

Happy cruising!

Thanks for all the great information on your cruise!!  My hubby and I will be taking an Elite Casino cruise the end of June so this helps us know more of what to expect.  The drinks every benefit -  how does that work?  Do you have to qualify in the casino first by playing so much $$ or is it from the time you get onboard like the Cheers package?

 

Thanks!!

[Ofmyheart]

Tampa is my FAVORITE port but then again it is my homeport. Small and easy to navigate, beautiful sailaway

[obx_fintoo]

On 4/1/2022 at 9:54 PM, cruzmaniac said:

Thanks for all the great information on your cruise!!  My hubby and I will be taking an Elite Casino cruise the end of June so this helps us know more of what to expect.  The drinks every benefit -  how does that work?  Do you have to qualify in the casino first by playing so much $$ or is it from the time you get onboard like the Cheers package?

 

Thanks!!

The Elite drinks starts as soon as you board.  Prior to getting your room key, you can use your boarding pass.  Enjoy! 

[sc4125]

Thanks for the review and info.  I will be on an elite cruise on the Celebration in November - actually the week of Thanksgiving, so expecting lots of families.  

 

I had heard that there should only be 30 - 40 elite cruisers on a cruise.  Did you find this to be true for your cruise as far as drawings were concerned - were there any for elite only?  I've cruised 3 times so far post Covid and it seems that the casino is always pretty packed - but I took advantage of cruise offers on each of those cruises, so expected crowds - all were Premier or Ultra.  I was just wondering if being on an elite cruise may be different (maybe a better chance of getting name called in drawings.

 

 

[obx_fintoo]

On 4/4/2022 at 10:43 AM, sc4125 said:

Thanks for the review and info.  I will be on an elite cruise on the Celebration in November - actually the week of Thanksgiving, so expecting lots of families.  

 

I had heard that there should only be 30 - 40 elite cruisers on a cruise.  Did you find this to be true for your cruise as far as drawings were concerned - were there any for elite only?  I've cruised 3 times so far post Covid and it seems that the casino is always pretty packed - but I took advantage of cruise offers on each of those cruises, so expected crowds - all were Premier or Ultra.  I was just wondering if being on an elite cruise may be different (maybe a better chance of getting name called in drawings.

 

 

I have not done an Ultra cruise, but I am hearing that those are better for prizes and exclusive drawings.  While I don't know the exact #, it felt like there were a lot of folks on our Elite sailing.  The perks are what really make the Elite worthwhile.   I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving Celebration cruise.

 

Cheers!