We chose Carnival Pride because the departure city of Baltimore is about an hour away, so no airfare required. Drove to the harbor and had to wait maybe 20 minutes for luggage drop-off and parking. Check-in went quickly at our appointed time. The walk up the gangplank is a bit of a hike if you're out of shape and lugging much carry-on.

We splurged on this cruise because we were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary, and were really happy with our Grand Suite, except the lack of outlets. See below for cabin review. But I will add that we LOVED having a nice big balcony, so there was no need to compete for space around the pools, all of which were extremely crowded, including the Serenity area. If I had wanted to be in the pools, I would have found that very annoying.

Dinner every night was in the main dining room, where we took the late seating. Initially assigned to a table for 4, our dining partners moved to a table with a window, so we had the table to ourselves all week - yay! Wait staff was friendly and efficient, and brought us a special little dessert for our anniversary. Once hubby found out he could pick and choose entrees and sides, have dessert as an appetizer and take another dessert back to the cabin to eat later, he was a happy camper! I enjoyed sampling the more adventurous options - but overdid it at the start of the week and by the end of the week was keeping it simpler. Read more