The Pride is a fantastic ship. The crew is friendly & happy to serve their valued guests. The destinations from Tampa were outstanding: Roatan, Belize, & Cozumel are always a great time. What an unforgettable cruise thanks to the Pride & Carnival team!
Carnival Pride Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
• Tampa is a great port of departure. The Pride is a great ship if you don’t care for the large crowds, & it’s a great social ship since you constantly see people you meet onboard about twice a day. The length of the cruise with the great itinerary destinations is one of our favorites for this anniversary cruise. Hotels in Orlando are plentiful & cheap, so you can save on travel costs. If you’re looking for a fun & relaxing cruise, I would certainly recommend this one!
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Priority embarkation went smooth & fast. A traffic change at the port of Tampa, no more vehicle entry at the roundabout. Our luggage got to the room quickly, around 1:30pm. The VIFP gifts & pins are really sweet! I like the ocean wave design on the 2024 Pride pins. And the toiletries bag is a really thoughtful gift that cruisers will use. • Due to weather in the Gulf, we have an itinerary change which means we are missing Grand Cayman. Pretty bummed, but I don’t want to tender in rough seas. Not sunny on embarkation day, also pretty windy. We drove to Tampa from Orlando in a rainstorm. The rain & wind forces everyone indoors to the Lido buffet for lunch, which means no one can find an open table. We wound up eating at the back in the Serenity area.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
o Dinner in the steakhouse was good. We enjoyed the steaks, sides, & desserts. The atmosphere wasn’t great near the bar because of the loud conversations between the bartender & guests. As usual, the mac & cheese was fantastic!
o Dinner options in the main dining room are not great. The Emeril options are awful, IMHO. BBQ fish? C’mon… Please bring back the “port day” menus. However… I have two words: baked Alaska. Nuff said.
o Big props to the MDR breakfast server Anthony who got us port day breakfasts in a hurry. Really quick so we were able to make the first tender off the ship. Love that broken egg sandwich too!
o Lunch onboard was good, we prefer Chopsticks over Guy’s burgers. But the Pride’s lunch options are pretty solid.
David's Steakhouse
5 out of 5
Dinner in the steakhouse was good. We enjoyed the steaks, sides, & desserts. The atmosphere wasn’t great near the bar because of the loud conversations between the bartender & a guest. As usual, the mac & cheese was fantastic!
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
o We enjoyed the port shopping show with Chris since we got some freebies. Really nice to reconnect with Chris since we cruised with him on the Glory last year.
o We participated in our first silent dance club which was new & interesting! It was fun to have a choice of dance music. It was challenging to dance in rough seas!
Fitness Center / Aerobics Studio
5 out of 5
The HUGE fitness center was completely empty at 6:30am. Jogging on the deck 10 track was fun since it’s all the way around the ship, other than having to pause for early rain.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
o The Welcome Aboard show was good… but no different than any other one on any other ship. Please revamp this! Same jokes by the cruise directors from ship to ship.
o Enjoyed listening to & getting to know Wonder Duo playing at the Alchemy bar. They are a nice talented couple from Argentina. It was fun to trade stories with them about all things Argentina.
o No interest at all in the Heart & Soul show in the main lounge. Completely losing interest in Carnival song & dance productions now. We wind up walking out of shows more often than staying.
o Love & marriage show was funny; Christian the CD does a good job as a host. The questions are still the same, no matter what ship you’re on.
o Really enjoyed the decades lobby trivia party with CD Christian & DJ Z. DJs & live bands are definitely our preferred entertainment options on cruise vacations.
o Family Feud was pretty hilarious. CD Christian does a good job as a host. Both the PG & R rated shows were really funny. The tie-breaker & technical difficulties with the electronic displays were the funniest night on the ship for me.
Carnival Seaside Theater
5 out of 5
Oppenheimer featured at the seaside theater??? At midnight??? You guys are AWESOME for showing this movie on board! The picture was perfect & the acoustics were good.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
o We really enjoyed our time in the Red Frog Pub, specifically our server Joshua who was always making sure we had what we needed.
o Christian the cruise director from Canada did a great job as directing the entertainment.
o Chris the shopping expert from New York was extremely helpful when shopping onboard & at port. Definitely take advantage of his services if you’re planning to buy expensive things!
o Wonder Duo (Yayu & Matias) both from Argentina were very entertaining as a live music act onboard.
o MDR breakfast, brunch, & dinner staff on the Pride were outstanding. Avoid the crowds in the Lido buffet & let these guys & gals treat you like you’re on vacation for your early & late meals on ship!
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
o The fitness center was completely empty at 6:30am. Jogging on the deck 10 track is way more fun since it’s all the way around the ship, & it only takes 10.5 laps to run 3 miles.
o I love the Pride ship design. I love everything being located on the deck 2 & 3 promenade. I love the single MDR with the Alchemy bar located right outside, which is a great meetup location before dinner. The main lounge & comedy club at the front of the ship makes it really easy to go from comedy to shows.
o Taking away 1 star because of the smoking in the casino & removal of the casino bar.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
o Love the obstructed view cabins on deck 4. We don’t care much for the balcony rooms because they stay pretty gross for the duration of the cruise. We like the extra couch & coffee table which makes it easy to keep stuff off the bed & vanity desk.
o Make sure you bring an approved power strip for charging devices since there is only one plug at the vanity desk.
Ship tip
- Make sure you ask for “fresh scrambled eggs” at the MDR breakfast or seaday brunch when ordering scrambled eggs or the port day breakfast. That way you get real eggs instead of the powdered stuff.
o Finally visited West End on Roatan after several years of visiting the island! Visited Café de Palo & the Sundowners Beach Bar. The rum punch & “hot ass” drinks were tasty! On the other hand, West End smelled like a raw sewer early in the morning & the streets were gross & dirty.
o Despite not being able to snorkel, this was one of our best weather days in Roatan. Sunny, cool, & breezy. However due to wind & waves, we weren’t about to sail & snorkel with Capt Roger this trip. Those waves would have tossed his small catamaran around & made the sailing awful.
o The roads in Roatan are mostly terrible. And the motorcycle riders are absolutely wild & unsafe. Be careful if you decide to rent a car or get out on the Roatan roads, it is risky.
o Great weather in Belize. Also got the first tender off the ship. The Party Bus was mad fun! Same crew on the bus from last year.
o We did have some early audio problems with the party bus sound system. They need a Bluetooth device & wireless mic to avoid future issues. Pretty sure we accidentally left the party bus without tipping the staff. That’s what happens when you drink too much rum punch!
o Great shopping day at Diamonds Intl! We bought the same ring in Belize that was half the price of Roatan!
o Enjoyed a late lunch at the Midpoint Bar & Grill. The fish & the chicken were tasty!
o Enjoyed an OK day at the Nachi Cocom beach club in Cozumel. The weather alternated between partly cloudy, rainy, & sunny. Spent most of our time on the pool deck & in the hot tub. Mucho thanks to German our Nachi Cocom server who made sure our food & drinks were fresh!
o Irritated by the salespeople at Diamonds Intl in Cozumel who almost caused us to miss the ship by flagging us down as we were walking to the ship pier. If we had stopped to look, we would have been left behind.
• Woke up at 6am, finished packing, then walked right off the ship with the diamond platinum peeps. Couldn’t get any easier. • Seriously annoyed by the Carnival Hub app & downloading the final account statement PDF. You have to keep going back & forth between ship wifi & mobile network to “share” the file to something. Just let me save it locally to my phone so then I can push it out to the cloud once I’m off the ship. This is a constant headache. • Had a huge breakfast at the Metro Diner on Kennedy Ave in Tampa once we were off the ship. Will definitely go there again at the end of our spring break cruise out of Tampa.
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