Carnival Pride Cruise Reviews - Reviews

My first Carnival cruise, usually go with RC.    I was dissapointed in the the lack of staff (seemed understaffed) and the staff were not very helpful or friendly.  On RC, they always go out of your way.  Carnival staff were snippy and rude, and provided little help to my disabled veteran husband (like not helping him at the buffet when they saw him struggle with a cup of coffee).   On RC, they were right there.   Long lines to get drinks and snacks, etc, did not seem  like they wanted to help.  Maybe they are overworked. 

Food was OK. Guys burger joint and pizza were a hit. Buffet was average, formal dinners nice in dining room.   Cabin assistants were awesome - best employees on the ship. 

The emergency boat drill was very unorganized. It took almost 45 minutes or even more to get started. Something needs to be worked out to make it a more smooth presentation. My other cruise had us completely finished in 20 minutes or less.

Last time I cruised there was not Alchemy bar, just the Martini Bar. This was the best part of the trip. Boat was recently updated, but not 100% crew said the ship vibrates more since the update. Overall great time, but the staff was the best I have encountered.

it was a nice trip for our family. We had 13 family members go on this cruise together. Everyone had a good time. the pool is very clean. Food is amazing. The stateroom stew keeps the room clean all the time. crews on the ship are very friendly to us. They always ask if we need any thing or if we are happy with the food. It was the most wonderful week of the year for my family.

This happened to be my first cruise. I thought there wasn't going to be nothing or not a lot to do, but when u get on the carnival pride you forget that your even on a boat. there is so much to do. so many activities that keeps you busy. They have a little something for everyone of all ages. I would recommend this cruise to everyone i know. i cant wait to aboard again..

My wife and I were celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary.  Overall a great experience.  The ship was recently remodeled and looked good.  We liked our balcony room and spent sitting on the balcony late at night.  The cheeseburgers and seasoned fries on lido were great!!  On our actual anniversary day we went to David's steakhouse and had a great meal.

My first cruise on Carnival was a very bad experience, therefore I was not expecting much on this cruise.  Aside from a grouchy Guest Services agent on the first day, the cruise was excellent.  The rest of the staff were very pleasant and accommodating.  The last port was not worthwhile.  The port of Baltimore was the best port I have ever sailed out of.  Our dining room staff were perfect and quite entertaining.  Based on this cruise, I might go on another Carnival cruise, although my preferred cruise line is Holland America.

 Wonderful experience for first time cruising!  Very relaxing. Great food.  Perfect weather. Fun Trivia.  Something for everyone, even the kids.  Happy we selected a balcony. We will go again!

Baltimore was close, but 1 and 1/2 hour wait trying to get in to parking lot. Once aboard, ship was clean and staff, friendly. The muster drill was a disgrace, 25 min. outside in the hot sun, several elderly passengers passed out.  The food was excellent. The linens and towels smell sour, Not sure they even use detergent, smell like they autoclave with water and heat. The room was neat and clean and the stewards attentive. Second dinner at table number 163, which was above the ships engine. Every  night the table dishes, and stem ware shook and clanged, everyone around us kept looking. I did mention this to the head waiter, who stated that this is to be expected as it was in the back of the ship. Look up and the entire second floor of the restaurant was open. Photographers were everywhere. Lovely photos, however quite expensive. I witnessed the staff throw out 14 large plastic bags from the photo recycle bins, the last night. Why not make the photos more affordable, what a waste. The shows were spectacular. Unable to find a chair by the pool . Found one on the top deck in the sun. Passengers save chairs for hours at a time. Seems there should be enough lounge chairs as paying guests. Tried o book a future cruise while on board, however there was no one on board to assist.

Ship is in very good shape especially since the recent 2.0 upgrades.  Guy's Burgers is a great addition with yummy burgers and fries.  Very clean and very friendly staff.  No issues or concerns during cruise - all went as expected. Hit or miss with comedians - total of four during cruise, 2 great, 2 mediocre.  CD - Kevin- adequate but not very outgoing; rest of entertainment staff very good.

We choose this cruise for our Honeymoon because I had cruised with Carnival before. My husband loved it! The crew were extremely friendly and the ship was very clean, the crew was always cleaning. There was a huge selection of food to chose from on the Ledo deck. The dining room staff was very professional and friendly. The only port we were not thrilled with was Freeport, not because of our excursion, that was fantastic, the time there was very short and the port was not very appealing to look at, it look like a refinery. Grand Turks and Half Moon Cay were extremely enjoyable and beautiful, we wished we had more time there. We are both looking forward to our next cruise which we will be booking with Cruises Only, we received a GREAT deal with the ability to acquire an upgrade at no extra charge with the help of Cruises Only! A good friend of mine recommended Cruises Only and I have already recommended them to another bride to be.

While still a little gaudy, the Renaissance theme of Carnival Pride is preferred to the Las Vegas style on other Carnival ships I have traveled upon.  The abundance of balconies on Pride make booking that category more affordable.  The Bahamas itinerary was not my favorite, but the ability to tour D.C. afterward due to close proximity to the port was a bonus.  Freeport in particular was limited in time and experiences.  Embarkation and debarkation in Baltimore was the smoothest I have experienced so far.  The ship was clean, but in need of stateroom updates.  One of the two staterooms our party booked had a connecting door through which we could clearly hear conversations from the adjoining stateroom, so I wouldn't recommend such a room unless you need one.  The other stateroom's bathroom smelled musty.  Bring conditioner, because it is no longer provided and buying it in the store is expensive. Food was decent, but the Blue Iguana and  Guy's Burger Joint were good.  Your Time dining was efficient, but not as personal.  There seem to be more specialty food and activities that require additional charges, which is a trend I do not appreciate.  Many of the free activities onboard are essentially sales pitches.   The music/dance productions were among the best I have seen on a ship despite such a small cast.  Hasbro The Game Show and trivia were fun.  We saw two comedians who were mediocre.  The Serenity pool was too crowded every time we tried to find a lounge chair, but you could find chairs elsewhere on the lido deck.  The spa/gym was clean, well-equipped and not too crowded.  The locker room has a sauna, steam room and showers with multiple heads.  Our children made friends at the early teen and teen clubs the first day and attended club sponsored activities here and there.  They mostly just hung out with their new friends and had no complaints.

The cruise was overall a very good experience. My negative comments include:

1) The itinerary out of Baltimore is boring. You need to drop the Cape Canaveral port of call, and add another Bahamas port.

2) The casino refused to refund $8.00 left on my sign and sail account because it was in the name of my 85+ year-old in-laws (the Tichauer's cabin #6254) who were too tired and disabled to come down from the room in person at 10:00 PM on Saturday night before disembarking. I explained that their sign and sail card was backed by and on MY credit card, but the rude and rather too-young casino manager refused to refund the money unless they came down in person. That same rude casino manager refused to send a staff member up to their room to verify that they are who I said they are. So basically, the money was stolen.

3) We are Carnival Platinum members. According to your website, we are entitled to "priority seating" at dining. Despite multiple requests on the first night, we were assigned open seating. That would not be a problem, but we had two very old guests with us who used walkers, and they were in no position to stand in the long lines that formed early outside the open seating dining hall on the 3rd floor. And they were in no position to do late dining. When we approached the maitre d' on the matter, he was not helpful and made no accommodations. We then went to guest services, who called Ivan, at the upstairs (3rd floor) dining hall, and he very helpfully assigned us a table for the duration of the trip. I would like to commend the upstairs dining service manager for taking action and resolving the matter. This was especially helpful to our elderly guests.

4) Please understand that the above comments do not reflect the overall quality of our experience, which was superb as usual. We enjoyed the cruise very much. The comments above are meant to covey the few areas that need improvement and reflection. Many thanks. 

The service was GREAT ! The Food was Fantastic. Everything was clean.  The excursions were a bit too expensive and did not meet our expectation.  The sales booths on the ship were a negative and not worth the money. 

My wife and I took our four grandchildren on this trip ages 11-15 and had a wonderful time. The ship, staff and activities wer fantastic. Our contact Kimberly Lindsey was on top of every step of our trip and very helpful in guiding us through the process  

My wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by taking a cruise to the Bahamas. The cruise overall was good - no complaints about the accommodations or the food, both were excellent. The service provided by the crew was fantastic - super friendly and always greeting you with a smile. There was quite a bit of confusion about their entertainment - the itinerary that was published each day had many mistakes, including mislabeling different events, etc. As a result, my wife and I missed out on a few shows and events. In addition, the smoke in the casino was terrible. I realize that many states still allow smoking at different venues and casinos, but it was completely overwhelming. My wife ended up with a sinus infection as a result of the amount of smoke exposure. They need to work on creating a non-smoking section that is completely separate or simply not allow smoking in the casino.

We would definitely recommend carnival and we will definitely cruise with them again.

We had four people two adults and two kids (3 & 5) in our cabin/stateroom we had an ocean view suite.  My wife and I had the bed set as a king and the kids shared an upper pullman and a sofa bed.  Both the kids beds basically became bunkbeds, google carnival upper pullman and you will see tons of images.  There were so many activities to do with kids on the ship, camp carnival was fantastic, the counselors were great and the kids never wanted to leave.  Its also full of time structured actives not just drop them off here and we will watch them.  Face painting, treasure hunts, games, etc.  

There is an adult only area on the Pride which is really nice, the spa is excellent.  Food, there is so much food to it is crazy.  I have never seen people eat so much food.  For an all inclusive type event, for what you pay you really do get what its worth.  There is the main dining room for scheduled eating, we only did it once, then basically hit the buffet, 24 hour pizza or Guys's Burger stand.   In the end we will do it again with the kids, its an easy 1.5 hour drive to the port, no plane ride for us or long hour to a beach town on a busy Saturday.  This was much less stressful.  Highly recommend.  

The staff of the Carnival Pride were exceptionally well-trained and friendly.  As an older traveler, the entertainment and activities were not a perfect fit--for instance, there was not really any ballroom dancing, especially earlier in the evening.

I booked this cruise because of its home port, Baltimore, it is about 1 hour from my house. Our first stop was Grand Turk, my wife and I booked a tour on the Inland. This place was very depressing, I will never go back. Our second stop was Half Moon Kay, A privet Inland, I presume owned by Carnival. We never got to see it because it was to rough to go ashore. I think Carnival should spend some money and invest in building a pier so this kind of thing doesn't happen. The last stop was Freeport Bahama, the little of the Inland that we saw was nice. We paid for an all inclusive beach retreat, what a waste of money that was. The drinks were very week and the lunch, well I have had better at McDonalds. They had conch fritters that was all bread, If you wanted the conch salad you had to pay extra. 

In all I am very disappointed with Carnival. This was our fifth full cruse and one 4 day cruise with Carnival. If this is what they have become I will have to look at other cruise lines.    

SHAME ON YOU CRNIVAL 

I have had my worst on shore experiences with Carnival Pride. We booked two on shore events for two of the islands, they were both canceled and nobody informed us until we found out last minutes. It was too late for us to do any changes for our plan on the Island and the Manager came to me with an extremely rude attitude when I ask for an explanation! He threw me the list and yield at me " Just go and book for another event for tomorrow!" Can you believe this?