Carnival Pride Review

Turned the Tide

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Carnival Pride
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Qara
10+ Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Sep 2015

We have cruised about 15 times, mostly with RCCL and the rest with NCL, and Princess. This was our 3rd time with Carnival. Neither of the other Carnival Cruises left us with a fabulous impression likely due to mitigating factors such as weather and itinerary, so we had relatively low expectations going into this cruise but wanted to give Carnival another try. Boy am I glad we did, because we had a great time on Carnival Pride. We live within a 2 hour drive of Baltimore, so loved the ease of parking at the port, dropping our bags with the porters, and heading to the terminal. Check-in took about 30-40 mins but once through we boarded right away and headed to our cabin. Although it's showing some age and wear, it was the typical balcony stateroom with the usual appointments.

We thought we might be underwhelmed with the Pride since our last few cruises have been on the largest at sea. We were not, we found Pride to have lots of features we enjoyed. The children's water play area with the slides was a favorite with our toddler. We adults tried out both the big slides and the green one is indeed a thrill! The fitness facility is well equipped and the nice views out the front of the ship insire your workout. At first I wasn't sure to make of the Mermaid's Area as it seemed to have a different layout than most other buffet areas you find on ships and you needed to walk around in a circle to view all the stations. I realized this is a good design because it created seating areas which were somewhat isolated and cozy and allowed for a quieter enjoyment of the meal. The food was good here with plenty of selection. I thought the salad bar was always fresh.

As many have mentioned before, Guy's burgers are very tasty and tacos and burritos at Blue Iguana are also very good. We loved having all the options available. We had anytime dining but enjoyed our wait staff so much the first evening that we asked for set reservations at the same table each night which worked out great for us. We found all the meals in the main dining room tasty and enjoyable. Even though we were traveling with a toddler we did not partake of Camp Carnival so cannot provide any review there. What we would love to see though is a free-play area with toys that are available through-out the day as RCCL does. It really helps to know there is a place you can go with your toddler to burn some energy but not necessarily drop them off to be cared by the staff. They did have some free-play time but the hours were limited and never seemed to coincide with the time we could have used.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

Grand Turk

An easy stop to enjoy the beach, swimming, or the pool at Margaritaville.

Half Moon Cay

Gorgeous sand and clear water. Children's area with slides can be improved. The kids make it down about 1/2 way and then need to scoot the rest of the way. Would be great to invest in a nicer children's water play area here to make it even better than it is.

Baltimore

Easy to pull in, drop off bags, pay for parking, and enter terminal.

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