Carnival was awesome, way above expectations. CheapCaribbean sucked.

Carnival Pride Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

katiemarb

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 8

Overall rating:

4.9 out of 5

7 Night Western Caribbean (Tampa Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 16, 2022

Ship: Carnival Pride

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 1148

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

Wish I was back onboard right now! It was a wonderful traveling experience and would recommend Carnival to anyone. The biggest pitfall was booking through cheapcaribbean.com. Not being able to take the toddler in the pool or off the boat was a huge disappointment and nearly ruined the trip. It would have been nice to have a play area or somewhere that we could have taken the kids to blow off steam since the toddler wasn't allowed in the Kid's club, the pool or off the vessel. I wish that Cheapcarribean would have set expectations for the unvaccinated toddler. They were a difficult company to deal with every step along the way. I would never recommend them and will certainly never use them again, specifically travel agent Samantha Strassberg. Thankful that they connected us to Carnival though. Carnival employees Tanja in food service and Hari in room service were exceptional and made our trip complete. I hope to travel with them again someday. THANK YOU CARNIVAL!

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Wonderful, we even got an upgrade. Above and beyond by Carnival Cruises.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

The food was perfect. Everything was excellent.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Pool, spa, casino, it was all great.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Fantastic!

Children's Programs

2 out of 5

At no fault of Carnival, my son did not enjoy the kid's club. My 18 month old was unable to partake in the kid's activities, including the pool, because she was too young to be vaccinated. This was my biggest complaint on the cruise. I wish that there would have been a play area or somewhere that we could have taken the kids to blow off steam since the toddler wasn't allowed in the Kid's club or the pool. Not being able to take the toddler in the pool or off the boat was a huge disappointment and nearly ruined the trip. I wish that Cheapcarribean would have set expectations for the unvaccinated toddler. They were a difficult company to deal with every step along the way. I would never recommend them and will certainly never use them again, specifically travel agent Samantha Strassberg. Thankful that they connected us to Carnival though.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Tanja in the restaurant was phenomenal. She made the cruise extra special for us.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

I loved it. The walking was great. I tried to take the stairs as much as possible. The ship was well thought-out and the details were impressive. Good job!

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Hari took care of us in our room. He is your best employee! He made our room extra comfortable and the kids loved him. You are lucky to have him in your staff. The room was perfect, thank you for that.

Ship tip

Don't take an unvaccinated toddler on a cruise. The options are limiting and the bubble tours were a joke. It was unfortunate the toddler couldn't play in the pool. We had to take turns spending time with our toddler in our room since she wasn't allowed to do much on the ship. We weren't able to check out the ports because of this. Very disappointing.

Thumbs up