Carnival pride Review. What was your experience?

5/27/200912:16:32 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment

We sailed on the maiden sailing on the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore Maryland on April 27th.  The trip down to the ship from Philly was great, one direct route down 95 right to the pier.  The parking lot was well laid out with easy luggage drop off and boarding.  They let us board approx 12:30 pm. Once I arrived on board I was quite surprised!  No neon, no flashing lights just dark renaissance like decor in the main atrium.  Once we arrived in our cabin it did not look like a cabin on carnival cruise lines, it has upgraded linens, duvets and a nice layout. cabins were a bit worn and in need of a refit but were fine with no problems at all except for the air conditioning in our cabin was inconsistent.  The cabin steward was very good and provided top service.  The biggest surprise of all was the good to great food in the dining room, now don't look for gourmet offerings or fancy presentations of the food, just good consistent food.  Service in the dining room was very good to great, with attentive staff.  Deserts were better than usual for a mass market ship.  The buffet area was another story with very bad food to very good food with sub par service.  Everyone on board was friendly and had a smile.  The most frustrating thing on board was the lack of cocktail service in the lounges and bars, no one was ever there to wait on tables and when they were they did nothing to service the guests. I never encountered service like that on board any ship.  Never let something like this ruin your trip though, just go up to the bar and get service there.  The layout of the ship does not allow for too many cozy areas, everything is out in the open and all along the main corridors.  One thing I did notice was smiling passengers all over the place!!

We did dine in the allacarte supper club, Davids steak house.  We heard rave reviews, but upon our visit the steak was full of grizzle and the service was a calamity of errors but don't judge it by our experience as others had better.  debarkation was a nightmare as they now do self debarkation and it was the same as regular as they called you by deck, they did not just let you disembark like on Cunard.  It took over 3 hours and I saw no difference except you had to carry your own luggage.  Hopefully they will refine this procedure to make it a better experience in the future.

Overall my voyage on the Pride was a good value for the money.  It is not for everyone, especially those of you who have cruised other lines such as Holland America or Celebrity , but variety is the spice of life.  One thing I can say is everyone had FUN!!!!

So take some time out of todays stressful life style and just have fun, you deserve it!

Please let me know some of your experiences on carnival.

Dave Bilardi