We’re back!! What an awesome time we had on Carnival cruising the Southern Caribbean. It was two weeks of warmth and new adventures. Seeing as how it was in the teens when we returned, it was really hard to come back! LOL! Seriously just a few days ago it was 83 degrees and I was sitting on a beach sipping a fruity beverage…in shorts! gah!
Instead of giving a day by day account I thought I’d just hit the various topics of interest. I hope this review will help you if you’re wondering whether you should consider Carnival for your cruising needs.
Embarkation:
Embarkation was so easy! Super fast! We were on board (seriously) within minutes of arriving at the cruise terminal. Due to fog the Carnival Pride was late getting into Baltimore so in turn we were late getting underway. We basically went straight to dinner once we were on and settled into our state room.
Food, food and more food!:
Guys burgers was great! Give me all the fries (with bacon) all the time! haha! The main dining room tasty as always (although on this two week cruise I think the menu could have more variation). Didn’t spend too much time in the Mermaids Grill (other than to play some games with my mom just about every day!) so I can’t speak too much about the buffet. In the mornings I would grab some bacon, a muffin and some teat to take back to our cabin. From what I saw though, everything looked fresh. Late nights often found us at either the Deli (yummy BLT’s) or at Pizza Pirate which is open 24 hours! Need a pizza at 4 a.m.?…Pizza Pirates gotcha covered!
Activities:
We didn’t do a ton of activities, but the serenity hot tub was the perfect temp and not crowded at all. The kids have cruised with us before on the Pride and they loved the waterworks area. The waterworks area is the best! So many fun things to do. I will say the yellow water slide is super fun, the green one is likely too scary for littler kids. The floor drops out from underneath you and then you slide down the tube. I didn’t care for it although my husband thought it was fun. Now I don’t know if this is specific to just the Carnival Journey cruises, but folks on board would hide these little ducks around the ship. If you found one you could decide to re-hide it or keep it and then hide it on a later cruise. On the bottom (or on a tag) it would state the rules and the name of the person who hid it. We hadn’t found any until the very last night of the cruise and then we found 7! We decided to keep 4 and then found new hiding places for the other 3. I have ours tucked away to hide on our next cruise.
Entertainment:
As for the entertainment, I loved that there was more than just song/dance stage shows. The Magician, the Mentalist and the ventriloquist (he’s going to be on the next season of America’s Got Talent!) were fantastic! The Comedy club is all the way forward in the Butterfly lounge. There’s tons of seating and all of the acts we saw were hilarious! A few grossly inappropriate but still funny. 🙂 Just about every night you could find my hubby top side at the Seaside Theater for Carnivals “Dive in Movie”. According to him the movie selection was great and having the roof (mostly) closed made it so even in January he could sit outside comfortably and watch movies. (while he was watching movies up on Lido, I was tucked away comfortably in bed binge watching season two of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel…so good!!)
Our Cabin:
We splurged on an Ocean Suite this time around and we loved having the extra room a suite provides. The bed was very comfortable and the larger balcony was great. These suites have a ton of closet and drawer space which was especially nice on this two week cruise. Downside…there is ONE outlet for the entire suite and it’s in the dressing area, not anywhere close to the bed which was a problem or us since my husband uses a cPap machine. Thankfully we had brought a long extension cord and it was just able to make it from the outlet, around the drawer and closet area and behind the bed to plug his machine in. Our room steward taped it down for us later so there was no tripping hazard. I understand that often times there are extension cords available on board but I wouldn’t chance it, I’d take your own.
Photo Gallery:
Picture quality is great, but the Carnival Pride needs to get with it and update to the same photo programs the newer ships have. On the newer ships you view your pics on the Hub app. The amount of photos that get printed and then are never purchased is so wasteful! With the app you just pick the ones you want and have those printed out. It just makes sense!
Debarkation:
Debarkation was so, SO easy! We pulled in early and were off in a flash! Couldn’t ask for a better process. Because we are so close to the port we were home within an hour after stepping off the ship (and dropping my parents of AND making a pit stop at Panera)
The Not So Good Stuff….
Staff:
Here’s where the glitches were. Our main dining room staff was pretty awful. Consistently forgot to bring ordered items or would bring things we didn’t order. Overall our staff seemed rushed and never paid us more than a few seconds of attention at a time. At one point we were seated for over an hour before we received our main entrees. Good thing we weren’t in a hurry! Having been on a number of Carnival cruises before we were surprised at the lack of service…we’ve always been so pleased before. As for our room steward…When we first boarded we met a lovely lady who attended to all our needs. But then she disappeared! Days went by without seeing her. Don’t get me wrong, our room was still being tidied and turned down in the evenings, but our steward was MIA. Turns out she had to leave the ship for a family emergency. I felt bad for her but was in turn annoyed that whoever replaced her didn’t bother to introduce themselves. I had no idea who to call if we had any issues. I only found out by accident on the third to last day who had been taking care of our room. As a suite guest, we pay more in gratuities and I’d like to say we received top notch service, but the lack of personalized service was noticeable.
Ship layout and condition:
Before I start, please note that we have traveled on the Pride before and love this ship. Now, having said that, the Carnival Pride is looking sad and neglected these days. I understand she is to enter dry dock within the next two weeks and that should help in some areas. But, it’s only a 13 day dry dock. I’m sure she will receive a thorough cleaning and some issues will be taken care of but there is no way that everything can be handled in 13 days. The serenity hot tub bubbler didn’t work and it was massively chipped up and scratched. There were pieces of design work missing around the elevator doors, all of the handrails around the ship need paint at the very least, and many could use a total replacement. Most of the design elements in the Lido buffet area are really chipped and peeling. There were loose metal pieces in the elevators and many of the drawers and closest doors in our stateroom had missing or loose knobs or handles. The exterior of the ship is quite rusty. Our balcony had a lot of rust that clearly hasn’t been dealt with in some time. The funnel is faded and looks old. For the most part a good coat of paint will go a long way, but the interior features need updating and/or total replacement. On the plus side, I love the layout of this ship, it’s super easy to navigate.
A couple of tips:
A power strip (non surge suppressor) is a must! If you have any more than two devices to plug in your are going to need a power stip and/or a USB hub extender. Oh and fun tip! Fill a cup with vanilla soft serve and then fill with lemonade. Once you stir it together it tastes just like the lemonade frosty thing from Chick Fil A and it’s free! Looking for more tips? Check out this post!
Overall our first journey cruise on the Carnival Pride was mostly good. Setting the wait staff and the poor condition that the ship is in aside, we really enjoyed ourselves. Two weeks away was awesome. We saw 7 different islands and had lots of fun sea days. I’m hoping the Pride will look much shinier after dry dock…she’s a great ship and just needs some TLC.
Stay tuned for my review of our Carnival excursions and my thoughts on each of the 7 islands we stopped at. 🙂
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P.S. If you are wondering where I got my little black dress from…you can find it at Nordstrom although I received mine through my Trunk Club style delivery.
