PRIDE Review- Honest

[wack001]

Carnival Pride,Sailing date: 16 May

Embarkation:

I hate to start off with a negative, but this was definitely the worst embarkation I have ever experienced. I spend the night before boarding aboard the Queen Mary (highly recommended for any cruising fan) and did the pre-boarding registration @9:00am on cruise day. Pre-board was smooth and I was told I would most likely be on board by noon if I were to get in line @11:00am. Well to make a long story short, apparently US immigration was conducting some type of immigration check aboard the PRIDE for all crew members (this check is conducted every ninety days or so), and boarding was delayed for ALL passengers until 2:00pm. There were lines everywhere, no water, no updates, no warning, no shade, and NOBODY had a clue as to what was happening. All the Carnival representatives could say was “a few more minutes”. Bottom line, it was mass confusion in the hot sun with more than a few passengers irate. Carnival could have easily had a back-up plan for situations such as this!

Cabins:

Nice. I always book the cheapest; lucked out and managed to get upgraded to an outside with obstructed view, a cabin with a great view of part of a lifeboat but did have a door which opened like a small balcony. The cabin was large with a nice layout. The room had lots of storage space, a small couch, dresser and the bathroom had a nice soap and shampoo stocked dispenser as well as some nice complimentary toilet items. I did manage to view the inside cabin and they appeared to be about 180sq ft. and well laid out with plenty of storage. The only real complaint that many of us had on my floor(4th) was that bass noise and banging in the Atrium (perhaps better soundproofing) could often be heard inside the cabins and the TV movie (a late night pastime) selection was plain awful.

Dining/Food:

Overall food and service in the main dining room were nothing short of excellent. I ate all my evening meals in the main dining room, table 101 it seats 12. Our waiter, Gokhan, was simply the best ever. He not only was fun and had a sense of humor, but a sense of urgency and elegance in his service, AND he knew what to recommend (instead of “everything is good”). I ordered wine (there is no wine steward) every night, and of course, our waiter provided quick and responsive service (be warned that the wine is very pricey on the ship). For most cruises, I try and avoid BUFFETS for breakfast or lunch; for this cruise I broke my rule more than once and ate at the breakfast and lunch buffets often on the Lido deck. The variety of food at the buffets (Mermaid Grille) was wonderful, plentiful and very tasty; the lines were never excessively long and usually moved quickly. The breakfast and lunch menu in the dining room is almost identical to what is usually being served at the Mermaid Grille with the exception of one special item. I did not eat at David’s supper club as I thought the price of $25pp was a bit steep.

Public Rooms:

Simply beautiful. The ship was decorated in a Renaissance era motif with touches of ancient Greece and Rome. The ship was designed with making the 2nd and 3rd decks as the main hub of activity, i.e. shops, casino, lounges, photo, library – main traffic area. Rest rooms were easily marked, as were the deck signs. Elevators were plentiful and were always operational.

Entertainment:

In the evening, you will find music at a variety of locations throughout the ship. There is a piano/singer who had about a dozen regulars in the piano bar, a good guitar player is found in the casino bar (he is hard to hear with all the noise + the smokers everywhere), in the Atrium bar there is also a guitar player, but with all the traffic he was also hard to hear and in the Butterfly lounge there is a band that would put the best of us to SLEEP! The disco is reserved for teens early in the night, then switches to 18+, playing techno/rap music starting at around 11:30PM. My biggest complaint was that there was nowhere to dance and listen to era specific fast paced disco/rock and roll music for the 35-50yr old crowd. The guitar players were good, but in the location they were it there was no place to dance. I always look forward to the theme night, but on this trip the single theme night was a flop as the cruise staff put it on in the rear of the ship on an open deck and were not involved at all in its organization. Karaoke was featured nightly and was very popular with the guests. A major disappointment was the lack of nighttime shows. On this cruise there were only 3 nighttime shows (Las Vegas type) at the Taj Mahal lounge, I found this to be very unusual, however, the three shows were all excellent. On one additional night Carnival featured the passenger talent show (I guess this is a way to save money) as the nightly entertainment and on another night it was a singer (terrible) that I walked out on along with numerous other passengers. Overall, the entertainment is a very weak area.

Excursions:

The Pride stops at three wonderful ports: Puerto Vallarta, Mazaltaan and Cabo San Lucas. My past experiences has taught me to rarely take the ship excursions as I find them too expensive and I do not like the cattle call feeling that they produce with their mass numbers and “group feel”. I can usually do my own excursions, visit the same places as the ship’s excursions, and save a lot of money and headache. However, be warned that my method of excursions tends to be on the adventurous side and are not for everyone.

In Puerto Vallarta, my group did the Los Veranos canopy tour – a 13-point zip line through the jungle and over a river. This was about $65pp (if you book ahead of time), including a soda afterwards and all transportation, lockers to store your stuff, and free use of a rock climbing wall and swimming hole. WORTH EVERY penny – loads to see, and fun, fun, fun!(this is not the same location as the ships’ excursion).

In Maztlaan, we booked Randi’s Happi Horses and did a jungle and beach ride for about 1.5 hours, while stopping at a great lunch place at the end for some food, drinks, and surfing. It was about $40 pp and also included all transportation and a soda afterwards. Randi is great to work with and the horses were also tame and fun to ride – what a view on the beach!

In Cabo San Lucas, We ended up taking a glass bottom boat ride to Lovers’ Beach, which included a view of the sea lions and the famous cliffs of Cabo. It was about $8pp round trip and was about 45 minutes long. Worth it for the photos you’ll capture! Cabo is very pretty, although most expensive to shop in, but lots of hotels and fun things to do on the beach.

Activities:

The ship did not offer as much of the array of daytime activities I had previously experienced on Carnival, but the usual trivia and Bingo (I always play bingo; I was pleasantly surprised at the winning payout which was usually in excess of $150) were often played. However, due to the large an amount of participants at the popular activities (survivor, etc) a lottery was usually held to determine the participants, so not everyone who wanted to got to participate, although nobody seemed to mind and everybody was had a good time.

Disembarkation:

Disembarkation has always been somewhat of a hassle on almost every past cruise. All I can say is that is was a GREAT ending to the cruise! Basically you leave depending on your connecting accommodations. You get a specific tag color based on your connections and deck, but you do not need to leave immediately and there did not seem to be the mass lines and crowding as on other ships. Carnival also encourages you to carry your bag off the ship, making the bag pick up area less of a hassle. But what was most surprising was that the main dining room and Mermaid Grille were open until 9:00am for the normal breakfast (others cruises have served an abbreviated meal within a very short time frame). Once finished dining, you check out of your cabin and due to the ship size there is more than enough room to sit around and wait your turn. The disembarkation was one of the smoothest disembarkation ever.

Overall:

Carnival Pride is a very nice ship with a terrific itinerary (Mexican Rivera). Carnival seems to be working hard trying to come up with new ideas, but seems to miss on the small items that make a huge difference in a cruise. Some of the negatives that I did not mention; there were far too many announcements on board and the announcements were consistently promoting/hawking Carnival products and the photo staff were very pushy and somewhat unpleasant to deal with. Even though I rated the service excellent, many of my fellow passengers informed me that they thought the general attitude by the service staff was rude and aloof. My only bad service experience was in the casino bar where the drinks were not correctly prepared and the bartenders were plain rude – well, almost at every bar the service was below par come to think of it... Tipping at the end of the cruise is minimized as each passenger is assessed a charge to their room bill. I find this to be a major improvement and a change for the better. All this talk regarding lack of service since tips are automatically charged to your room daily is rubbish. I was so pleased with my dining room service that I tipped my wait staff extra... Besides the minor negatives I mentioned in my review, I think everybody needs to consider this ship; it was one of my best cruise experiences, and I would not hesitate to recommend this ship to anybody, I would even go so far as to rank this cruise a definite top 5 contender.

The Wack001

Pride 04

Zuiderdam 03

Sun 02

Destiny 01

Zaandam 00

Sea 99

Century 98

Leeward 97

Fantasy 96

Big Red 95

Triton 94

[kajsb]

Thanks for the review. I just recently sailed the Pride and it's still nice to hear about other cruises. I'd sail her again in a minute! :)

[Wini18]

:D Thanks so much for the great review. DH and I are booked on the Pride for August 28th of 2005 with large family group for our 50th Wedding Anniversary. I especially was glad to hear of the tables that seat 12 - have been having nightmares thinking of who will get on what table. Hope the entertainment situation improves - we love the shows and never miss one. :cool:

Wini Sell

[Sailfish]

Thanks for your excellent review. My husband and I will be sailing aboard the Pride over Thanksgiving. Did you happen to notice a sports court or volleyball? We are not much into production type shows and prefer more active types of activities. Last year, we sailed aboard the Navigator, which was awesome. I understand the Pride is one of the higher rated Carnival ships and has more things for activie people. Can you elaboate a little on whether you noticed miniature golf or had an opportunity to visit the spa/gym? Were the pools and jacuzzi open 24 hours a day?

 

Thanks again for you input.

[wack001]

There are about 6 tables that seat 12 people. I have 12 in my party and I was very concerned. Table 101 which was owers was excellant and had perhaps the best waiter in the entire place. Suggest you call your TA and make sure you get one.

 

There is a combo Volleyball/basketball court, and there was a very nice VB tournament( I was on the winning team), activties are OK not as good as others.

[wack001]

Sailfish;

Sorry to say that there was NO mini Golf on board. The Gym/spa was good. the whirlpool inside the spa was EXCELLANT- No kids around. Equipment was pretty standard, but they(staff) will not let u use the bicycles, they say they are for the spin class(kind of low class, as the spin class is only twice).

[yarlenna]

Loved the review. Enjoyed the Pride too! Only difference I saw was that I didn't care for my dining room waiter. Ship was very comfortable and we enjoyed the variety of music available in the evenings. Hmmm perhaps it is time to book another cruise????

[halos]

Great, honest and fair review. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

[tinydancer21]

I am just so exited now, less than 50 days to go! Yea! Pride, here I come! :D

[glrounds]

Thanks for the detailed review.

 

I found my experiences on the PRIDE to be very similar. I don't understand wny they can't do a better job on embarkation. Very little shade, poor directions (as to where to stand for which line, etc.). Hope the whole process is improved by this Fall.

 

Thanks again, Wack :)

[TinafromNJ]

Sounds like you enjoyed the Pride! I also enjoyed when it was located in NY last summer and we cruised to Bermuda. I did find the decor a bit over the top but, I'll gladly take it over the usual neon overkill. The Destiny was my favorite Carnival ship prior to my sailing on the Pride but, after being on the Pride, it has moved up to my number one spot in the Carnival fleet!

[wack001]

Thanks Folks.

Really no excuse on the embarkation, it is an easy fix, with a little extra even pass the cost, Carnival could really rise...

Pride was great, but the music is an issue....

all the best, agree, time to cruise again!

[wack001]

Reading so much about Pride embarkation. It would be so easy to set up a tent with water, hand out numbers to folks in line vice have them stand, a simple no brainer....

[wack001]

Thanks for all the emails, I have more of an in dept review that I sent to CC.

The wack

[wack001]

Yes, the biggest tables seat 12. I counted 6 tables that seat 12, most were for 6