Was a nice vacation, but not end all be all

Item: Carnival Pride
Rating: 3
Author: jefferyshall

Carnival Pride Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas

jefferyshall

Contributor Level: Third Mate

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 43

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Bahamas & Grand Turk (Baltimore Roundtrip)

Sail date: April 14, 2013

Ship: Carnival Pride

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 11 years ago

Review summary

The boat was very clean and personnel were very nice and attentive. There wasn't much space on the ship so I always felt crowded, the times that food (besides main dining) and activities were available was very chaotic. The pools were too small and the fact that there were two didn't help much because one seemed to always be closed. For the cruise line that is supposed to be more for families, I was not at all impressed by the activities available for children. We brought my 12 year old daughter, who is very out going and makes friends instantly, she attended one initial Circle C event and went back many times to check out what they were doing, but she never stayed. So that should tell you something if a 12 year old would rather be with their parents than to be off free on their own with other kids their age. That would not have been so bad, but the shore excursions weren't that great either and times in port were far too short so you really couldn't let lose and enjoy yourself because you had to be back so quickly and you had to watch the clock. I would much rather have skipped going to Port Canaveral and been able to spend more time at the two Bahamas locations. Lastly, being a smaller ship it was tossed about pretty easily during the ship and many people were very sea sick for two of the four sea days. We parked next to the Carnival Magic once and the Pride was dwarfed by the newer Magic.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

I am not a big foody so maybe my comments are not for everyone. Some of the main dining food was great, there was a lot of exotic foods. I saw a lot of food waste which bothered me. I not likeing all that serious food would rather eat at the buffee dining etc and those had very stargne hours that seemed to change all the time where one station would be open with hot dog, hamburgers etc then it would close in the middle of a main dining time and then the subs and sandwiches section would open. It was very hard to plan to eat there it seemed totally hit or miss as to what was open and closed and the lines were very long. And the seeming popularity of the type of station seemed to have no baring on how many of that type station there were or how long they were open. You would think if half the people want to get a particular thing (which you can tell by the constant huge line the entire open time) that they would have several of those stations and leave those open the entire dining time.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

They ran the gambit from funny and fun to boring, but that is probably an individual taste. The only real universal complaint would probably be that they didn't spread activities out enough, a lot of them were at the same time or during the dining hours.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

I said OK instead of good as I thought there would be more entertainment. The entertainers themselves were between good and excellent. This made it kind of strange to watch as there were soem dancers on stage that were obviously excellent talents on stage with some who were just OK and the difference was very obvious. Overall though they were good. We had one night with a new dance and singing crew, it was their first night of the change over of the enterainers and boy did it show that it was their first time. At least I hope it was because it was their first time, hoping that won't be their typical performance.

Children's Programs

1 out of 5

As I said my 12 year old went to Circle C once and didn't like it, she was bbored. She went back to check out the activities many times, but never stayed. So if a 12 year old would rather be with their parents, rather than being free to hang out on their own with other kids their age, that should tell you the whole story. I didn't have any kids their, but I believe it would have been even worse if she were 11 instead of 12, because they group 6-11 year olds together. I think that is rediculous and that section seemed much more aligned to the very youngest kids. I am not sure how they think that an 11 year old would want to have anything to do with a bunch of 6 year olds.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

They were all very cherful and helpful. The cruise director was new, it was not his ship, he was replacing the main person. He did an OK job, but you could tell he wasn't "at one witht he crew yet".

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Was very clean, had a very odd renassance art theme with quite a few naked people, if you know that type of art. This made the ship interior feel much older and didn't induce the party vibe, that's for sure.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

We had an outside balcony room 5140, it was much bigger than I expected from the tiny room descriptions I have heard. The room was clean, the cabin stewart was EXCELLENT. No issues at all. Well, our safe didn't work, but that was it.

Ship tip

Go early to the main shows for good seats. Don't wait in line for your main dining room time just go down 5 minutes after your time & walk right to your table. The very first day takes a while longer because people don't know where their tables are yet so maybe go 15 minutes later on the first day.

Thumbs up