Pride review w/ Pic's 11/16/08

[caliseas]

Overall, we loved the cruise. There were a few quirks, but no one is perfect and we didn't expect perfection. We loved the service we did recieve and for the service we didn't recieve, Oh well!!! We love to cruise and we would definitely sail w/ Carnival and this itinerary again!

 

We sailed the Pride Nov. 16-23, 2008

Cabin 5236 (we got a GREAT balcony at a bargain $$!!!)

 

We packed and were ready to load the car when....our cat wouldn't get off the luggage!! He wanted to go w/ us!

 

We live in Southern California, so we drove the the Long Beach Carnival Cruise center Sunday morning. When I saw the sign for the cruise terminal I screamed!!! We were here! We arrived apprx. 10:30am and used the porters in the garage to take the bags to the ship for us. Our bags were taken from the car with no problem. We parked in the garage and it costs $12 per day = $84 for 7 day cruise.

 

We checked in at the Queen Mary. Check in took about 10minutes. VERY quick. All Carnival employees were very nice!

 

We waited (standing) in zone 1 for 45minutes and then we TOOK THE WALK! I don't think I breathed until my husband of 10years and I took THE STEP onto the ship. We gave each other a huge smile and quick kiss and THE CRUISE HAD BEGUN!!

[caliseas]

We got on the ship deck 3 and had our pic taken for our S&S card. Then took a few steps and AWWWW!! It was not the neon "las vegas" scheme..it was a bit dark, but artsy and beautiful! A nice change.

 

We walked around the ship a bit and at 12:15pm went to Lido deck and had lunch. After looking at all the choices..I of course settle for a deli sandwich...a wonderful grilled ham and cheese..YUMMO! My hubby decided to try out the Asian food and said it was tasty also. I'm sure the DOD made it even better!!

[caliseas]

Then at 1:30pm the doors were opened to our cabin. We were in 5236 (7A) obstructed balcony. HOWEVER...we got the special balcony!! It is one of a few realllyy long balconies. It was triple the size of the normal balconies. We loved it!

[caliseas]

Cabin was very comfortable. LOTS of storage space. (2) closets

to hang clothes, (1) closet w/ shelves and then drawers everywhere.

Luggage fits under the bed for storage.

Balcony. Very nice.

Cabin location: We loved our PORT side cabin. I feel we saw more being on the PORTside. Southbound we were able to see Cabo while cruising. PV we got to dock on the Port side. Mazatlan, saw more on the port side and Cabo the port side faced the arch the entire time. Northbound - we saw the open water and loved it!

 

- Sail away - life boat drill

We did life boat drill PRIOR to sail away. It was the quickest drill ever.

It maybe lasted 10 minutes tops. Approx. 10-15 minutes after drill was

sailaway.

 

- new cruise director - Mark Price.

Very nice guy and was entertaining at times. Not annoying at all, just

doing his job. You will hear him "GRRR" several times throughout the

cruise. (you'll see what I mean when you get on board)

 

- water - (and tea/coffee/juice)

We drink a ton of water at home and we did take a case with us. We put it in a suitcase and checked it on thru. No problems!

Now, the water on board..yes there was a distinctive odor if you

put your nose to the glass. Taste? Most of the time it was ok. I do

use lemon in my water and that helped. Hard to describe the odor &

taste. I guess it was a "chlorine" odor/taste? I have a feeling that

I wouldn't of noticed it as much if I hadn't read so many comments on

this board. However, the ice tea was some of the best ever, so I drank

it everyday!! Loved it! Coffee, tea and juices were fine. Did not taste

bad (we just missed our flavored creamer!!!)

 

- Food....our opinion only...

Not the best, but not the worst.

Menu in dining room did change each night. However, on the menu

they also have the "carnival classics" that were the same each night.

(ie. chicken, steak)

We had a nice variety and really only disliked one of the dishes.

Buffet area. Nice variety and we actually chose to eat there a

couple nights instead of the dining room.

Room service - You've seen the menu's listed. BLT was my favorite and

Hot Rueben was my husband's favorite. We actually thought the

cheese cake and the chocolate cake from room service were the

best deserts we had the entire cruise!

We did not get a chance to enjoy David's supper club because we were too busy enjoying the rest of the ship. We did see the menu and the restaurant is beautiful and there was no problem for those who waited to sign up once on board. It is $30 per person.

 

Normandie dining room- We were at a table for (4) on deck 2 table #164. Beware that if you are assigned to the tables in the back, the ship vibrates and it is not the best area to sit...you may want to check it out and asked to be moved....

 

We loved the shrimp cocktail (double order), steak - cooked perfectly!, sweet and sour shrimp, lobster and shrimp and the cheese plate.

[caliseas]

We enjoyed room service. You no longer order by number. You just tell them what you want and how many of them. Each time we ordered, we were told it would be approx. 30-45minutes, however, it was always delivered in 10-15minutes! Very good service!

 

Pictures:

BLT was great. Shrimp on a roll - we didn't care for it too much. Chocolate cake - the best desert I had! Creme Carmel was also good.

 

We had also ordered from room service a hot pastrami, tuna, casear salad w/ chicken, cheese cake, coffee and tea. All was good.

[caliseas]

- Drink of the Day / and coupons

Lots of choices. We are not big drinkers, so my husband ordered

me a Carnival Cocktails book from the Carnival Bon Voyage Dept. and

so we had it when we got to the room. We got to look thru it and

choose drinks that we knew we'd like. One drink that I loved that is

not in the book is a "Kiss on the Lips". It is my favorite!

 

Coupons - we also ordered alcoholic drink coupons and non alcoholic drink coupons thru Carnival BV dept. They were given to us at the

1st nights dinner in the dining room. We used them whenever we wanted

a drink. No problem. We had to give a coupon and usually had to pay $1.15 extra on our S&S card when the drink went over the coupon's value.

 

We had ordered several items both thru the Carnival Bon Voyage web site and thru Carnival 800# Bon Voyage dept. It is nice to have suprise gifts in the room awaiting our arrival!!

 

There was a small refridge in the cabin w/ drinks in it. We just moved them all to the bottom shelf and put our own bottled water on the top shelf.

 

Cabin only has (1) plug in...

 

Hairdryer only stays on if you hold your finger over the power button. It did work really well and I have mid length hair!

[caliseas]

We chose not to pre book any shore excursions ahead of time. We chose this vacation so we could just relax and not be on a time schedule.

 

Puerto Vallarta:

The only thing we did do in advance was book a massage at a hotel in Puerto Vallarta. We walked approx. 10 minutes from the ship and spent the day at the hotel on the beach. On our way back to the ship we shopped at the shopping area ot the marina. Our dinner mates did the tequila tour and really enjoyed it. I did hear several other positive comments on that tour.

 

Mazatlan:

According to many posts on cc, I was not really looking forward to Mazatlan... well...We were greatly impressed. We shopped around the harbor for awhile and then got talked into a Trolley tour. The first quote was $40 for two - we walked away and the manager said ...ok, $20 total for two people. SOLD! We had a 5 hour trolley tour that took us to old town to shop a bit and have a free margarita, to the old historic 1800's church, to see the cliff divers and then to the Golden Zone for shopping and some lunch (we paid for our own lunch). We got back to the port and did some of our best "bargain" shopping there.

 

Cabo:

We chose to just walk around the marina on our own. We walked to Cabo Wabo and had a few expensive drinks. The bananna margarita was wonderful! We also went to a new mall that was opposite side of where the tender dropped us off. It was nice and cool inside. A nice break from 90degree temp! Then we walked back to the marina and stopped at a restaurant that had a bucket of 5 beers for $10 w/ chips and salsa...Yummo! We decided to go back to the ship approx 1pm and spend some time on board relaxing with out alot of passengers on board. It was wonderful and we enjoyed getting back w/o the 3:30pm rush!

Many took the water taxis over to the arch and lover's beach. All the water taxi operators tell you they will take you for $12, but you can negotiate down to $5 per person easily, but we talked to a lady that got it down to $2!

 

All (3) ports are easy to get around and we had no problem asking for directions.

[bigcraig]

We got on the ship deck 3 and had our pic taken for our S&S card. Then took a few steps and AWWWW!! It was not the neon "las vegas" scheme..it was a bit dark, but artsy and beautiful! A nice change.

 

We walked around the ship a bit and at 12:15pm went to Lido deck and had lunch. After looking at all the choices..I of course settle for a deli sandwich...a wonderful grilled ham and cheese..YUMMO! My hubby decided to try out the Asian food and said it was tasty also. I'm sure the DOD made it even better!!

OMG, your killing me with that deli sandwich, I understand you can ask for a double now WooHoo, was there fruit punch on the lido?

Thanks for sharing

[caliseas]

We enjoyed many areas of the ship. It never felt crowded and there were lots of areas to be in the middle of activites and also lots of quiet reading areas.

 

We got back into Long Beach approx. 6:30am. If you have early flights, you'll need to do self debarkation- take your own luggage off. They'll let the VIP's and self debarkation passengers off first. Then they will go by deck number. We did not do self debarkation and we were luggage tag #15 and we were off the ship and in our car at 10:00am.

 

I hope this helps answer any questions you may of had or hope it gets you excited for your next cruise!

[caliseas]

I did not ever see fruit punch. They did have iced tea, lemonade, apple juice and an orange-mango (or something like it) juice that was actually good!

 

Yep..deli sandwiches - GREAT! They will actually make it anyway you want. It was always good.

[cheri]

Thank you for the pic and the review. We have been on this ship before and love it. We are leaving on the 7th. I hope the weather will be warm then too. Thanks again.

[mrintegra]

We enjoyed many areas of the ship. It never felt crowded and there were lots of areas to be in the middle of activites and also lots of quiet reading areas.

 

We got back into Long Beach approx. 6:30am. If you have early flights, you'll need to do self debarkation- take your own luggage off. They'll let the VIP's and self debarkation passengers off first. Then they will go by deck number. We did not do self debarkation and we were luggage tag #15 and we were off the ship and in our car at 10:00am.

 

I hope this helps answer any questions you may of had or hope it gets you excited for your next cruise!

 

The chess board, is that part of the ship?

[caliseas]

mrintegra:

 

Yes..it is located in the adult serenity pool area in between the bar and the pool.

[mrintegra]

mrintegra:

 

Yes..it is located in the adult serenity pool area in between the bar and the pool.

 

Cool they must have just added it.

[caliseas]

I didn't include it in my review, but they also have a mini golf course you can play, ping pong tables, volleyball, basket ball and golf. They had water works and of course the slide.

[mrintegra]

I didn't include it in my review, but they also have a mini golf course you can play, ping pong tables, volleyball, basket ball and golf. They had water works and of course the slide.

 

 

They added the mini golf 2 weeks before my last crusie on the pride.

[Prairie_Gal]

Thanks for your review, I really enjoyed it.

[sunnylasvegas]

hey Caliseas,

 

What great pics! I loved looking at them. I will definitely be getting one of those grilled ham & cheese sandwiches when I board the Pride on Mar. 22 for our 14-day Panama Canal cruise.