Live Carnival Pride September 10 to 19, Dover, UK to Rome, Italy

[Analog187]

Day 1 – Dover, UK

 

This is my 4^th Carnival cruise but my last one was about 20 years ago so none of that experience is really relevant to today. I’ve been on something like 45 cruises by now. This is my wife’s first Carnival cruise.

 

Embarkation was about 5 minutes. It was the quickest we’ve ever gotten on a ship. Pretty incredible. As soon as you got on, they have you do the muster drill which was really easy. We just walked right over to it and they showed us how to put the life jackets on. Took all of 5 minutes. We were on the ship by about 11:30. A lot of people were already out by the pool but the buffet never seemed crowded. Since our schedule is still off we weren’t starving so we each had something small. I had one of Guy’s burgers and I thought they were better than just about other cruise burgers (which are usually horrible) but it wasn’t amazing. Looking forward to trying the pizza and other sandwiches. The iced tea at the buffet was sweet which is unusual for cruises as it’s usually unsweet. I brought on a bunch of cokes since Carnival lets you do that.

 

 

We hung out for a while until our rooms were ready. Our room is an inside cabin right near the theater. There were no other cabins available when we booked the cruise but it’s actually a decent room given the age of the ship. 3 of our 4 bags were outside our door waiting for us. There’s lot of storage and the pillows are nice. The AC works well which is rare for us anyway on cruises. The bathroom seems really outdated but its functional. The TV is small but we don’t really watch TV on cruises anyway. I was absolutely wiped from lack of sleep so I took a nap for about an hour and a half. The bed wasn’t perfect but it’s better than other cruises I’ve been on. Our cabin steward dropped by and we asked for an egg crate. He looked at us like we had 10 heads but after some explaining, he said he’s put a comfortable under the sheet. Our 4^th bag showed up right after he left. Guy knocked on the door to hand it to us instead of just leaving it out there. That was a nice touch.

 

It was time for sail away so we went outside to watch it but due to some delays, we didn’t actually leave until after 6. Since our dinner is at 6, we weren’t able to watch it. Not the end of the world. We had MyTime dining but after hearing about all sorts of issues with that I changed us to the 6pm dining a few weeks ago. This means that we would be sitting with other people which we usually don’t like. Luckily we have some nice people at our table so it was a nice dinner conversation. I had the chicken parm and it was pretty much cafeteria food. I really don’t think there’s much of a difference between the buffet food and the main dining room food on most ships post-covid. Since I know what to expect going in, I’m not really disappointed. The dinner rolls were great though. Hopefully they have them at the buffet.

 

We caught the first comedy show and he was good but not amazing. I love the Carnival has 2 comedy shows every single night. That’s awesome. There will be 4 comedians on this cruise. Really nice tough. I then gambled a little bit and broke even. The casino was mobbed since this was an elite cruise. It was very smokey unfortunately but that’s to be expected. We went to the Welcome Aboard show. Cruise director seems nice but the show was mostly him talking. They did have the production cast come out and do a few songs. I’m usually not into the dancing and singing but they did a great job. The production was great too. Hopefully the other shows are like that too.

 

The late night comedy show was right after that so we went to check out that comedian. He was amazing. It was nuts. Such a good time. Will be interesting to see him do a PG show. I also want to see if the other comedian is better in an R rated show tomorrow.

 

It’s only the first day but so far, so good. I was a little hesitant to sail Carnival again given their reputation but I’m really liking how a lot of things are done. I really like the Hub app but I wish messaging was free. It’s $5 for the cruise which is annoying. We’re not gonna bother with it. Although the ship is old, I think it looks nice. Really looking forward to checking out the steam room and sauna tomorrow which is free. You don’t really see that anymore on the newer ships.

 

My only real complaint from today was a minor one which was that there was not football shown anywhere on the ship. But it turns out that this is not Carnival’s fault. It’s a licensing issue because we are in Europe.

 

Day 2 – sea day

 

I was pretty happy with the sleeping situation last night. Pillows are great and the bed is much better than most cruises I’ve been on. The AC worked better than probably any cruise I’ve ever been on. Only issue was that there was a lot of noise from the hall all night. Seemed to be crew members pushing carts of stuff down the hall. Hopefully that was just one night.

 

There was a sea day brunch so we went to the MDR to check that out. Even though there were a million empty tables, they made us check in on the app and then have a seat in the lounge only for them to come get us about 3 minutes later to tell us that our table was ready. Kind of a weird because with the MDR we just walk in. No big deal though. I suppose this brunch is not that different from a regular breakfast since we just ordered breakfast. We both had omelets and they were really good. The bacon was good too. I went to the casino after that to put some time in. Did pretty good. Would have been better if I didn’t try to chase this one machine with these firecrackers you have to light. Didn’t get any bonus and I just wound up losing. Made some of it up on other machines.

 

We met back up for the Suess parade and the cruise director said that this is the first time that no kids wanted to join in. There’s 57 or so on this ship which is nice because you barely see them. Blink and you miss it but it was still cool to see. We went to lunch afterwards and I tried the grilled cheese and the BLT. I really like that little sandwich station. The BLT was great because that is some amazing bacon. Grilled cheese was pretty good too.

 

The wife went to go play trivia after that and I went to the gym to get ready for all this walking we have coming up. Gym was nice. After that I went to the sauna and steam room. There was hardly anyone there which is nice. I don’t think a lot of people realize its there. Felt so relaxed after and hour and half of that so I met back up with the wife in the room and we took a nap. Good thing I set an alarm because we could have kept sleeping.

 

Tonight was elegant night and as expected, there was a wide variety of dress from short sleeve polos to tuxedos. We don’t bother getting too dressy but we just try to look nice. I was looking forward to trying the grilled fish which was barramundi but it didn’t seem grilled at all. I wasn’t a fan but thankfully I wasn’t hungry at all. My wife had filet mignon and she wasn’t exactly thrilled. Again, we have low expectations so none of this really bothers us. As long as we can find some good food on the ship, we’ll be happy. I also had key lime mouse which was really good.

 

They were supposed to have the wait staff dance or something at dinner but due to a delay which I think was caused by a power issue, they couldn’t so they had some random crew member sing. It seemed a little strange and far from elegant. It was so loud that we couldn’t hold a conversation for 10 minutes while it went on. I suppose it was a nice thought but I think they should have just skipped it.

 

We went to the 8pm comedy show. He was good but like a lot of comics, he’s better when he can do his R rated stuff. Both of the comedians had R rated shows later one but we want to get up early tomorrow since we have a full day planned. So far, this cruise has definitely exceeded my expectations. Today was a great day but it went by fast. Didn’t get a chance to check out the water slide because it was raining in the morning and by the time it cleared up, I already had stuff planned. I’ll check that out at some point.

[nycruise1]

One slide the twister one is kind of slow and not too exciting, at least compared to some of the other ships.  Green Thunder is another story.  It literally has a floor that slides open and you freefall drop for a bit.  Not for the faint hearted though some love it.

 

Did you notice Chopsticks at lunch, an Asian buffet on the Lido deck?  I believe they still have it.

[Analog187]

Day 3 – La Coruna

 

We went to the buffet for breakfast. It was pretty chaotic and hard to find a seat. I wasn’t impressed with the breakfast at all because there’s just not a lot of options. I miss the old Carnival buffets with the giant pile of donuts and pastries. However, the omelets are really good and as expected, they were pretty similar to the ones we had at the MDR the day before. As long as the omelets are this good, I’ll be fine with breakfast despite the limited options. They also have POG (pineapple orange guava) juice, at least they did this morning and it was great.

 

We got off the ship right after breakfast only to realize the train doesn’t come for another hour and a half. La Coruna is a nice little town and once things open up, it’s not bad to walk around but at 9:30am there’s just nothing going on. We killed time the best we could and took a bus to the train station to go to Santiago Compestale which is the main reason the ship docks at La Coruna. It’s where most people are headed to. It’s a cheap half hour train ride but they really pack that train. Was pretty difficult to find a seat but we did. Santiago de Compestale is a nice town that’s not too touristy. The main thing to do there is to go to the cathedral which is one of the top tourist attractions in Spain. Of course we get there just in time for mass at noon as they didn’t let us in. We then walked back to lunch. I had Burger King (meh) because I don’t eat Spanish food and my wife wanted her authentic Spanish food. Her lunch cost almost as much as mine. She loved it. There’s a ton of restaurants near the cathedral and some are good and some are not so good so its always important to read the reviews. The reviews were spot on in this case.

 

The cathedral was amazing. We’ve been to a ton of old cathedrals in Europe and this was probably one of the most ornate cathedrals we’ve ever seen. After that we just walked around for a bit and then got the train back. The bus schedule doesn’t really seem to follow the right schedule. Most of them were on time but some were just completely canceled as they never showed. They also only accept exact change so if you only have a 5 euro bill, you just paid double for two people because the driver isn’t going to give you change. Luckily we had change and we made sure to get some more for the way home.

 

By the time we got back on the ship it was after 4. We walked about 8 miles. I got a few things done on the computer and then we took a quick nap before dinner. I had the chicken which was pretty basic since I get everything plain but it was pretty good. Had a good flavor to it. The cheesecake was pretty good too. I should mention here that the service at dinner is really good. So good that we are going to write something about one of our wait staff so she gets proper recognition. The one waitress knows I like lemonade so she gets it for me as soon as I sit down. I don’t even have to ask. Everything is done right away. She’s really on top of everything but the other wait staff serving us is good too. There’s two people for just our table of six and then there are other people that sometimes help too. Really amazing.

We spent a few hours in the casino after that and we did pretty well but ultimately lost a little. Got a lot of playing time out of a small amount of money. The show tonight got moved to tomorrow and the Love and Marriage show got moved to tonight. It was fun but it seemed like it was the express version because the cruise director Frankie read all the answers which takes a lot of the fun out of it. Not sure if that’s just his style or he did that because they moved things around but I’ve never seen that done before. Still a good show but always better when they have to say the answers themselves. Some people brought their kids which was a little strange.

 

R rated comedy show was after that. I definitely like that one guy better when he does his R rated stuff. Having comedy every night is great. I didn’t have a big dinner so I went up to the buffet to get something quick to eat and there’s a weird gap between 11 and 11:30 where the only food is pizza and I didn’t want a a whole pizza to myself. They should have slices like RC does.

 

Long day but we get to change clocks back to get a little more sleep. We are having a great time and we are both really surprised by how nice this cruise is going.

 

Luckily we haven’t experienced any noise in the hallway since the first night. The front desk has called several times to check on us and they even sent a letter. That’s really amazing.

 

[Analog187]

21 hours ago, nycruise1 said:

One slide the twister one is kind of slow and not too exciting, at least compared to some of the other ships.  Green Thunder is another story.  It literally has a floor that slides open and you freefall drop for a bit.  Not for the faint hearted though some love it.

 

Did you notice Chopsticks at lunch, an Asian buffet on the Lido deck?  I believe they still have it.

 

I don't eat asian food but I saw that they had something like that.

[Analog187]

Day 4 – Porto

 

We got to change our clocks back because Portugal is in a different time zone. We really needed that extra hour of sleep. After breakfast we walked off the ship and immediately saw the long line for the hop on hop off bus and knew we didn’t want to mess around with that. We’re kind of turned off from them after our Norway cruise. The tram is a short walk from the ship and its only a few bucks to get into town. You also get to beat all the traffic which was nuts. A couple at our table got half their tour canceled for some reason and they think it was due to the traffic. Porto was absolutely mobbed. I thought Europe would be a little better now since the summer is over but nope, everyone is still traveling. The tram was absolutely packed and there were just a ton of locals out all day.

Our first stop was this bookstore that has connections to Harry Potter. My wife likes HP so I thought I’d take her there first before it gets crowded. The line to get in went for blocks. Must have been hundreds of people on line and it didn’t seem to be moving at all. I should have known. Seems like anything with ties to TV shows or movies are incredibly popular. So we bailed on that. We checked out some view points which were really cool. The city is great. Really nice architecture so it was nice to walk around and just take it all in. We then were going to check out this palace which is more like a presidential palace but it was also mobbed. We stood on line for almost a half hour and it seemed like we had about an hour in front of us so we bailed on that.

 

Lines were kind of the theme for the day which really surprised us as we’ve been to Europe so many times pre-pandemic and lines were rare. They seem to be the norm now. We checked out a church and the line moved pretty quick but it turns out that the line was to get up into the tower which you have to pay for. Luckily I figured that out before we got to the end as we just wanted to go in the church which was free. It was really nice like a lot of old European churches are.

 

We had McDonalds for lunch. Lame, I know. None of us are into Portuguese food and a lot of the restaurants in the touristy section get horrible reviews which is par for the course. After lunch we made our way down to the waterfront which was really cool to check out. You get a great view of the bridge which was designed by Gustave Eiffel. Only problem with that is that everything is back up the hill and those stairs would have killed us in that heat. We are obviously not the only ones as there is a funicular to get you back up the hill. The cost is 4 euro a person and they only take cash. There was a bit of a line but it only took about 15 minutes. The line got much longer by the time we got on. We then went to the main cathedral which is a quick walk from where you get off at the top. The line also moved pretty quickly which was nice. This is a great cathedral and it was cheap to get in. Viking had a ship in and one of their tour groups got in at the same time we did so that made certain parts pretty crowded. What was odd is that they only stayed in a small area and didn’t seem to really check out the entire cathedral. Not sure what was up with that. Admission includes the tower but we had our share of steps today so we didn’t need to do that.

 

From there we got to walk on the bridge which had incredible views. At that point, we had walked almost 5 miles and it was time to call it a day. We took the tram back to the ship but we stopped at Lidl first. These are way better than what they have in the US. The lines were incredibly long which seems to be common at European grocery stores, especially Lidl. The bread they had looked really good but I was done with lines for the day. If there’s another one somewhere we’ll try again.

 

Back on the ship, we got a little bite to eat before lunch was wrapping up. After catching up on a few things, I went back to the room to take a quick nap. The phone woke me up and it was the front desk checking up again on the noise in the hall way. I told them that we haven’t had any other issues and that I really appreciate them calling. The guy called back 5 minutes later and said that he wanted to apologize again for the inconvenience and something about drinks. Didn’t really quite pick up on what he said but I thanked him anyway. 15 minutes later went to leave for dinner and there was an envelope outside our door with an apology note and 4 free drink tickets. That’s really crazy because its not like I made a big scene out of this or anything. Carnival just continues to impress.

 

They had that woman sing again in the dining room. I know Carnival does things different but it just seems really off. Maybe other people think its great. She sung two songs. Not the end of the world but I could do without it. After that they had the wait staff dance and that was just a lot of fun. Much more my speed. This one guy really got into it and they even got some passengers to join them. I had the prime rib which was OK.

 

After dinner we hit up the casino and we about broke even. My wife killed it on this one machine and then we quit while we were ahead but I say we broke even because we had lost some on previous machines. We played for about an hour and a half so not really losing any money after all that is pretty good. We caught the comedian we like for his last show. This was PG show and it was better than his previous PG show but all of them were really good. We get two new comedians tomorrow.

 

We then checked out the 90s dance party in the club. There was pretty much no one there and I’m not really sure the DJ understood the assignment. We stayed for 15 minutes and most of the music was either not dance or not 90s. I had a feeling that was gonna happen as I think 1/3 of the passengers are going to be in the casino all night. We then went up to the Mega Deck party and at least there were some people out there but Frankie indicated he was expecting a bigger crowed. Again, everyone is in the casino. It was fun though but it was all line dances and other than the cupid shuffle, I don’t line dance. Fun to watch and of course we had to do the cupid shuffle. We did some other dance but after that I wanted to call it a night.

 

This was another fun day. Tomorrow is Lisbon but we’re gonna stay on the ship and use it as a sea day. We have 3 ports in a row coming up so it’ll be nice to relax. Lisbon is a great city but if its anything like Porto, it’ll be a mob scene. Since we’ve already done everything we’ve wanted to do there on a previous trip, we really don’t need to go this trip.

 

 

[ninjacat123]

Great review!  What floor is your room on?  DH and I will be on Pride in about a month on the fourth floor in the aft.

[backbiter]

Sorry to hear how crowded Porto was. My only visit there was in October 2015, when it wasn't at all crowded at all. 

I loved everything about Porto (and Lisbon), and find Portuguese food delicious.

Enjoying your detailed trip report. We almost booked this cruise!

[Analog187]

7 hours ago, backbiter said:

Sorry to hear how crowded Porto was. My only visit there was in October 2015, when it wasn't at all crowded at all. 

I loved everything about Porto (and Lisbon), and find Portuguese food delicious.

Enjoying your detailed trip report. We almost booked this cruise!

We've been to Europe many times pre-pandemic and it never felt really crowded but we'd never go in the summer.  European tourism has been crazy this summer.  We were in the UK for almost 3 weeks.  We've been to Scotland before and it was empty.  Was mobbed last month.  I figured it was because of the summer but that's over and Europe is still mobbed.  

[Analog187]

Day 5 – Lisbon

 

Since we’ve already been to Lisbon, we didn’t bother to get off the ship. We slept in and by the time we went to breakfast, there was almost no one there. Too bad it can’t always be like that. I went to work out after that and it was also empty. Real nice. Went to lunch and was hoping to get a BLT on a pretzel bun but they can’t source them outside of the US. Bummer. Had a good chicken sandwich and the buffalo sauce is actually really good. Surprised by that.

 

Since we were right by the Serenity pool (adults only area) we figured we’d get a clam shell seat and just hang out there all day. I tried both water slides. The green one was dry in one part so I got a big of a rug burn. Between that and the stairs, it was one and done for me. The yellow one is nice. Otherwise we just hung out for a while. I went to the sauna and steam room for a while which is always great. Can’t get enough of that. Before we knew it, we were sailing away from Lisbon. We watched the sail away for about a half hour and then headed in to get ready for dinner. For not doing a lot, the day went by really fast.

 

They had half priced drinks for 2 hours which was really nice. You don’t really see that on cruises too often so we took advantage of that since we don’t have the drink package.

 

For dinner we went to the steakhouse. We go to nice steakhouses fairly often and we recently went to Ruth’s Chris for my Mom’s birthday. This steakhouse was better than RC. The service was excellent too. I wasn’t a big fan of the cheesecake because it wasn’t a traditional NY cheesecake. They put something in it that I didn’t like. My wife loved her melting chocolate ball thing. It was a great experience. Probably the best cruise steakhouse we’ve been to.

 

We went to the casino after dinner and did OK. There was this crazy guy screaming the entire time which annoyed a lot of people. I just don’t understand what’s wrong with some people. We caught the 80’s production show. That was really good. I’m not a huge fan of production shows but Carnival seems to put a lot of work into their shows. Lots of great effects and choreography. The cast is very talented as well. Looking forward to their other shows.

 

After that we went to see one of the new comedians. I’m not sure what changed but we got there 15 minutes early and there was literally nowhere to sit. I had to ask a woman to sit up so I could sit and my wife stood behind me despite my protests to switch that up. The first four shows weren’t like that at all. People got there 5 minutes late and got a seat. Maybe this guy is well known or whatever. No idea. He was funny but he really wasn’t my style. My wife liked him better than I did.

 

We went back to the casino after that and we were up, then down and then the last machine we played kept hitting so we about broke even. Maybe its just luck but I’m impressed with how much we’ve played vs how much we’ve lost. The only downside is all the damn smoke. Its impossible to escape.

 

Another great day. Looking forward to 3 days in a row of Spain.

[Analog187]

Day 6 – Cadiz

 

We originally tried to book a tour to see the white villages but there wasn’t enough people so we didn’t go. That turned out to be a good thing since it was a little overcast so I don’t think we would have got good pictures. We would have also missed out on Cadiz which is an awesome little city. This is my type of port. You get off the ship and you’re right there. There’s free museums, really great cathedrals, plazas, beautiful parks, narrow streets, awesome architecture, etc. We had such a great time. Only took a few minutes for me to put a walking tour together and we pretty much went everywhere. We found a park filled with monk parakeets which we have in Florida but they are still cool to see. I also saw a wild cockatiel which was amazing. First time ever for me. It was just a lot of fun and the highlight was the Cadiz Cathedral which had a great audio guide. I also really enjoyed checking our the Mercado which had a big focus on seafood. Checking out all the different seafood they had was really interesting. There’s also a free history museum and a free archaeology museum. We didn’t get a chance to check out the archaeology museum because we had to wait to be let in and we had other things to do. After walking 5 and a half miles in the heat on cobblestone streets, we were tired.

 

There was really nothing for me to eat in town and I didn’t want fast food again so my wife ate some tapas while I went back to the ship. I had that chicken sandwich again but this time I had them put the buffalo sauce on it. Really amazed with how good that is since I’m very picky with buffalo sauce. Too bad they don’t have wings anywhere. I then took a much needed nap real quick. I got some stuff done on my computer and then we had some time to kill so we both took a nap since we were so exhausted. By the time we woke up, it was time to watch the sail away so that was nice to watch.

 

We didn’t like anything in the MDR tonight so we opted for the buffet. As is the case with a lot of ships lately, the food in the MDR is similar to the buffet. I tried the pizza for the first time and I was not impressed. It also took forever as the guys working there had a lot of problems getting it together despite no one else being in line. I won’t be back but I really didn’t want another sandwich. I think this is my main problem with Carnival. The buffet is very limited. I feel like its the most limited that I’ve ever seen. Guys burgers makes up for this during lunch but during breakfast and dinner, you don’t have that option. Its a good thing I like the omelets for breakfast or else I don’t know what I would have done.

 

We were going to check out the production show but decided to bail on that because there was just too much else going on. That’s never a bad problem. We always like doing the art scavenger hunt and we almost got all of it right. The two we got wrong could be easily switched. After that we spent some time in the casino and had fun. Saw some woman win almost $1,900.

 

We then checked out the comedy show. This was a different comedian that also came on the ship yesterday. I liked him better than the guy yesterday. I’d like to check out the R rated shows for both of them but we just can’t stay up that late especially since our tour leaves right as the ship docks tomorrow. It was busy tonight but it wasn’t crazy packed early like it was yesterday.

 

After going back to the casino for a few minutes, we went to the silent disco. That’s one of those things I’ve known about for a long time but never actually tried it. It was fun but when you took your headphones off, it was really funny to watch people dance with no other noise. There were three music channels to choose from. One was always playing funk which was good, one played newer music which was mostly good and the other was just really strange. Pretty cool concept but I’m an old club rat so I prefer loud dance music.

 

Tomorrow is going to be a really long day but I’m looking forward to it.

[kwokpot]

On 9/14/2023 at 3:48 AM, Analog187 said:

Our first stop was this bookstore that has connections to Harry Potter. My wife likes HP so I thought I’d take her there first before it gets crowded. The line to get in went for blocks. Must have been hundreds of people on line and it didn’t seem to be moving at all. I should have known. Seems like anything with ties to TV shows or movies are incredibly popular. So we bailed on that

The key to Livraria Lello (the Porto bookstore) is to make reservations on line in advance. There's a separate line for reservations holders and if you have one you walk right up. It does cost money but you can use the admission fee to buy a book there.

https://g.co/kgs/XPm9Lj

Edited September 17, 2023 by kwokpot

[Analog187]

Day 7 – Malaga

 

We had to get up early to meet our tour which left just a few minutes after the ship docked. We usually don’t book ship tours and this cruise is no exception. We used Spain Day Tours to take us to the Alhambra in Granada which I highly recommend. The guide on our bus was British which was nice as it made her very easy to understand. They do small groups so there was only 16 people on the bus. I was able to sleep a little on the way there. Our guide did a great job of explaining stuff to us the entire way there which made the 2 hour drive easy to deal with. Halfway there we stopped at a rest area to use the bathroom and get some food. I was able to get a sandwich for lunch which was helpful.

 

Once we got to the Alhambra, they split us up into groups of 8 and we were handed off to our local guide. She was also great. This is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Spain and it was absolutely mobbed. Would not have been fun without a guide as there’s a lot to know and a lot to navigate. We love history, art and architecture and this is a perfect blend of all three. Really amazing place and the weather was perfect. We were there for about 3 hours. Although we didn’t walk all that far compared to previous days, our feet were killing us since there’s a lot of uneven walkways. Definitely worth it though.

 

After we were done, they took us down the hill into Granada but they are not allowed to take the bus into the town center and we just didn’t really have enough time to walk there and back. So we just hung out near where the bus was and had some drinks outside at a bar. It was nice to relax and the beer was great. On the way back, most people fell asleep. Most of the bus was snoring in unison except us. It was a long day as expected but it was a lot of fun. Really great tour.

 

We were hungry by the time we got back so had a pre-dinner meal. I finally tried the Blue Iguana. It was good but the chicken was a little spicy. About an hour after that we went back to the MDR for dinner and it was OK. Had the chicken again but it was a little tougher than the other day. Not the end of the world since I just ate not too long ago. Kind of expected that which is one of the reasons I didn’t bother waiting. They had that woman sing yet again. Its just really tacky at this point. I really doubt anyone is really interested in that.

 

We hit up the casino for a few minutes and then we went to the comedic magician, Greg Foster. I really wasn’t a fan. His tricks were pretty lame and there’s a ton of filler in his act. He’s supposed to be a comedic magician but he gets really serious and then he talks about how his mom died, etc. It’s a real downer and I am really shocked that someone at Carnival thinks this is a good act. He’s done hundreds of cruises and I guess there’s only so many people like that available to work ships but this was the worst magic act I’ve ever seen on a ship.

 

That show ended right as the comedian from two nights ago was starting so I ran downstairs to get us seats since they were so hard to get before. I liked him much better this time and he had this great act at the end where he put mouths on two people so he can control them like ventriloquist dummies. I’ve seen that before but it was done really well. Then he sung in two different voices at the same time. That was wild. He’s very talented. I’d loved to see his adult show but we just can’t stay up that late with our tours.

 

Back to the casino after that where we had some big wins and then some losses to about break even for the night. I’m still amazed at how much playing time we’ve got out of our money. I expected the slots to be really tight but that hasn’t been my experience. Had I played this long at the Hard Rock in Tampa, I would have probably lost my house by now. As expected, it was a very long but also very fun day. Kind of a similar set up tomorrow. Our tour is going to leave right after the ship docks.

 

 

[Analog187]

Day 8 – Cartagena

 

Another early day catching our our with Spain Day Tours. This one went to Murcia and then back to Cartagena. I wasn’t incredibly excited about this tour but it turned out better than I thought. Like a lot of Spanish towns, Murcia is a nice little town with a great cathedral. We did a walking tour and our guide was great. Since it was Sunday, we got to go in the cathedral to watch a few minutes of mass and to check out all the temples on the inside. We also got to go inside of this private club to check out a small part of it which is decorated like the Alhambra so that was really cool. It was nice to visit a city that I probably wouldn’t have visited.

 

We then came back to Cartagena and half of the people on our tour decided to just go back to the ship since it was really hot and they already saw Cartagena on a previous trip. Kinda seemed odd since it would have probably been cheaper to just catch a cab or a bus to go to Murcia and then come back. This was the part of tour that I wasn’t too excited about up to this point. It felt weird that we paid a tour company to show us around a town when our ship was a 5 minute walk away. However, our guide was so great that this turned into the best part of the tour.

 

We saw one of the first submarines ever built in the world. The locals are very proud of that. We had some free time on our own so we hunted down a restaurant that had what my wife wanted. Our guide said it would be easy but it really wasn’t. Eventually we did and they actually had air conditioning which was surprising. When we met back up with the tour we were taken by bus up to see the ancient Roman theater. There is no way we would have hiked up there to see that so that was awesome. We then got to see the old bull ring. Seeing both really made the whole trip for me. The guide offered to take us to a spot to get a good picture of the ship but we were all wiped so we opted to just get back on the ship.

 

As soon as we got back on the ship, I jumped right in the pool. It was nice and warm unlike the pool the other day. I then hit up the steam room and sauna to relax. After a quick nap, we watched the sail away. Dinner tonight was lobster tail and since you can order more than one entree, I ordered the steak that is on the menu every day to make it a surf and turf. One of our table mates did that as well. I’m sure a lot of people did. The lobster tail was great which was a surprise. Probably the best thing I ate in the MDR. My steak was the opposite. Easily some of the worst steak I’ve ever had. Basically prison food. I can’t believe they serve that.

 

After dinner we hit up the casino and we finally hit 1500 points so we could get free drinks but it was impossible to find anyone to actually get us any drinks. We’ll have to get some tomorrow. There was a production show tonight but we just didn’t have time for it. On the way to the comedy show we caught a minute of it and it seemed good. Once again there were literally no seats at the comedy show. This is really annoying because there has to be some extra seats somewhere on this ship and they refuse to bring them in. Even if it is only 10 seats, that’s 10 people that don’t have to stand around or just leave. Guess they just don’t care? No idea.

 

We killed a little more time in the casino and then went to go see Quest. This has always been one of my absolute favorite things to do on a cruise and it has been over a decade since I’ve gotten a chance to see it. This one did not disappoint and it was fun to see my wife’s reaction since this was her first time. Just like over 10 years ago, you have people with a bag full of stuff so they can win the game. Takes some of the fun out of it. I’m not a fan of cheaters but they don’t change up the game so this allows people to do it. Regardless, it was still amazing and we had such a good time. I got a lot of it on video.

 

Really looking forward to a relaxing sea day tomorrow. The plan is to spend a good chunk of the day in the steam room and casino.

[Analog187]

Day 9 – Sea Day

 

We went to the brunch again and this time we both got one of the brunch specials. I got the 12 hour french toast which was pretty much Texas toast french toast. My wife got a skillet cake which was basically a think pancake. Both were pretty good except we ordered syrup and they gave us honey. I asked the waiter for syrup and he said they don’t have regular syrup because they can’t source a lot of things outside the US. He said they don’t have regular syrup, normal sausage links, grits and a million other things. This matches up with what the lady at the sandwich station said. Makes me wonder what I would think of the food if the cruise left out of the US. Guess I’ll have to find out one day. I’ve been on other cruises that left out of a port in Europe (2 in the last year, not on Carnival) and this wasn’t an issue – at least as far as I know. So the brunch was good but would have been much better with syrup.

 

We then hit up the casino and it was pretty brutal. Our favorite pig game was really bad to us. Oh well, that’s gonna happen. My wife then went to play trivia and I hit up the steam room. The buffet had some type of chocolate thing going on at lunch. They had a chocolate fountain and all sorts of other goodies. It was very popular. Needless to say, I had a big lunch.

 

We then went to the Q&A with the cruise director. It was pretty good. We then played some mini golf which was interesting since it was windy. I don’t think most people even know its up there. My wife played more trivia and I hit up the steam room one last time. One guy was upset that he just found out about it today. It helps to watch videos, read reviews and check out the deck plan.

 

Dinner was at the MDR again. Just had the chicken again since I had such a big lunch. They did a big dance thing at the end. It was funny just like the other ones. There’s just a lot of good energy on the ship. A bunch of passengers got up and danced with the crew. The older woman really got down. She probably has 30 years on me and has more energy than I do.

 

There was a comedian in the theater at 7:30, a show was 8:30 and another comedian after that at 9:30. The show was some type of guess the music game or something. We weren’t very interested in that so we saw the one comedian, went to the casino and came back for the other one. I got to watch a woman win $10,000 at the slot machine next to me. She was freaking out as I would be. It was nice to see someone so happy. Wonder how often that happens.

 

After the second comedian we called it a night.

 

 

 

[Analog187]

Day 10 – disembarkation

 

This is never really a fun day especially with getting up so early. They let us off the ship a little early and getting off was just as painless as getting on. Nothing worse than those giant lines. Didn’t have to deal with that here. There was no real signage once you get out of the terminal but it isn’t that big so it was easy to figure out. Got on the bus to the airport and had to wait for it to fill up. In typical Italian fashion, it was pretty warm. Takes about an hour to get to the airport. But as far as disembarkation day goes, this is as smooth as it gets.

 

 

Final thoughts – we were really impressed with Carnival. We were expecting to hate the on board experience and just like the ports but we liked this much better than our last cruise which was on HAL. We also liked it better than NCL. I was really impressed by the room especially since it was an inside cabin in an older ship. The bedding was better than anything we’ve experienced on NCL. The Hub app is great and easy to use. I missed Quest so much and I’m glad my wife got to experience it. The food was more miss than hit but that’s really been the same with every cruise post-pandemic but Carnival had enough of the good food to help me avoid having to deal with the bad stuff. The entertainment was great and the Pride has such a great use of space. Having a comedy show every night was great but there were usually two and sometimes three shows every night. That’s really awesome. I would tell a lot of people to avoid Carnival over the last few years but it looks like I was wrong. If you stay away from the booze cruises, they have some great ships and amazing crew. We’ll definitely be back.

[c2thesun]

Very nice review! I was wondering what currency they were using on board. USD or EURO. I bought gift cards today not thinking about what currency they were using. I'll be on the Pride Oct 8th 

[Analog187]

15 hours ago, c2thesun said:

Very nice review! I was wondering what currency they were using on board. USD or EURO. I bought gift cards today not thinking about what currency they were using. I'll be on the Pride Oct 8th 

US Dollar

[ninjacat123]

DH and I will be embarking on Pride this October 18 and your review got me excited to be on board Pride!  Thanks for taking the time to write it.  I'm hoping to do a LIVE review on our Italy land trip before the cruise and the 10 day cruise. 😃

[kwokpot]

Day 7 Update:

Our cruise past the International Dateline early this morning so we promptly went from Tuesday to Thursday. We have two more one hour back time changes to get us to Japan time. Our first Port stop is  Monday, September 25th in Otaru, Japan. This is the replacement Port stop for cancelling the Alaska Ports of Ketchikan and Dutch Harbor.

 

Weather hasn't been good and our first several days out of Seattle were rocking and rolling with the main pool drained but hot tubs intact.

Then we had a full day of fogged I weather where for most of the day you couldn't see beyond 100 ft from the ship. 

 

Today started out cloudy and it went downhill the rest of the day with clouds then rain and rocky seas that didn't subside until early evening. 

 

The casino remains a problematic area with continuous smoking and crowds. Today they actually opened the casino at 5:00am. Everyone we've spoken to are in a casino comped cabin.

 

On the bright side the food remains to be very good both in the buffet and MDR. Entertainment has been very good with talented performers.  The ship isn't crowded anywhere despite being nearly at full double occupancy.

 

We've had two medical evacuations so far; the second incident was early this morning where the sick passenger was transferred to a nearby cargo ship for further transport.

 

Despite the weather issues it's been a relaxing cruise so far with good food. I know people will be running off the ship on Monday after 10 full days of being on the ship without the ability to touch land. 

 

Photos of some entrees. The short rib currently is my favorite choice entree. 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by kwokpot

[cellfree]

2 hours ago, kwokpot said:

Day 7 Update:

Our cruise past the International Dateline early this morning so we promptly went from Tuesday to Thursday. We have two more one hour back time changes to get us to Japan time. Our first Port stop is  Monday, September 25th in Otaru, Japan. This is the replacement Port stop for cancelling the Alaska Ports of Ketchikan and Dutch Harbor.

 

Weather hasn't been good and our first several days out of Seattle were rocking and rolling with the main pool drained but hot tubs intact.

Then we had a full day of fogged I weather where for most of the day you couldn't see beyond 100 ft from the ship. 

 

Today started out cloudy and it went downhill the rest of the day with clouds then rain and rocky seas that didn't subside until early evening. 

 

The casino remains a problematic area with continuous smoking and crowds. Today they actually opened the casino at 5:00am. Everyone we've spoken to are in a casino comped cabin.

 

On the bright side the food remains to be very good both in the buffet and MDR. Entertainment has been very good with talented performers.  The ship isn't crowded anywhere despite being nearly at full double occupancy.

 

We've had two medical evacuations so far; the second incident was early this morning where the sick passenger was transferred to a nearby cargo ship for further transport.

 

Despite the weather issues it's been a relaxing cruise so far with good food. I know people will be running off the ship on Monday after 10 full days of being on the ship without the ability to touch land. 

 

Photos of some entrees. The short rib currently is my favorite choice entree. 

 

 

Wrong spot?

[Amyracecar]

You may not know the answer depending on your tastes, but have you noticed the if the full range of sodas is available out of interest? I only ask because my Husband loves Root Beer and we normally get value out of bottomless bubbles just with that, but I've rarely seen it for sale here in Europe so assuming they might not be able to restock. I probably won't bother if we're only drinking cola, as I likely won't want 4 per day. 

[kwokpot]

6 hours ago, cellfree said:

Wrong spot?

Yes, sorry. That's what happens when you try to post a trip report after a cocktail! 

[Analog187]

On 9/21/2023 at 10:28 AM, Amyracecar said:

You may not know the answer depending on your tastes, but have you noticed the if the full range of sodas is available out of interest? I only ask because my Husband loves Root Beer and we normally get value out of bottomless bubbles just with that, but I've rarely seen it for sale here in Europe so assuming they might not be able to restock. I probably won't bother if we're only drinking cola, as I likely won't want 4 per day. 

 

No, but you can take on 12 cans of soda per person so that would be 24 cans between the two of you.  I would highly suggest doing that as that is exactly what we did.  I kept the soda in the fridge and brought it to the MDR or wherever I was eating and it was never a problem.  The waitstaff always knew to bring me a glass of ice for my soda so after the first night, I didn't even have to ask.  

[Analog187]

On 9/20/2023 at 1:27 PM, ninjacat123 said:

DH and I will be embarking on Pride this October 18 and your review got me excited to be on board Pride!  Thanks for taking the time to write it.  I'm hoping to do a LIVE review on our Italy land trip before the cruise and the 10 day cruise. 😃

 

Most of my cruise pics are from our ports but if you want to see some Quest videos, everything is on my public Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/travelingwithjef

[vahey6266]

Good morning!  Thank you so very much for the wonderful live review.  We are so excited for our upcoming trip.  I was wondering if you found that you're able to bring wine and/or a bottle of vodka back from the port and then directly to your room?  We are heading out on the Pride 9/29/23 and have heard that, unlike in the Caribbean, you're able to bring back on the ship and to room instead of having to wait til the end of the cruise to retrieve your alcohol purchases.  Thanks so much!