Carnival
Pride
Mexican Riviera

Dave, Kathy and Adriana Garcia

The wife and I decided to take our 2nd cruise to the Mexican Rivera and we really didn’t have many options for the dates that we chose. Only Carnival and Disney were available and I didn’t think I could stomach the Happy, Happy Disney theme for 7 days (We live 10 minutes from Disneyland). So, Carnival was our choice, I wasn’t thrilled, hearing about the Teeny Bopper atmosphere or food poisoning that I’d heard of, but we decided to give it a go!
On this cruise we decided to take our “10” year old daughter Adriana, she was thrilled!
I won’t take time describing the embarkation, debarkation scene, the downer of the trip.
We decided to enroll our daughter in the camp Carnival, a supervised kids club that had its ups and downs. By the end of the trip, she loved it! I’m convinced it really depends on who they meet onboard, she met a couple of sisters and they had a blast the remainder of the trip!
Due to a tropical storm in the area, the ship changed to a Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo pattern. No big deal, Puerto Vallarta was beautiful, tip, hire a bus for the day, we paid $25 for “5” hours and shared it with the parents of the girls my daughter met onboard. He took us to a spot in the jungle called Chico’s, excellent seafood platter, at about $60, not cheap, but feeds 3,,, Lobster, crab, shrimp, fish,,, Yum!!!!

Mazatlan was as out last trip, lots of stores, beggars or salespeople.
We took our daughter the Senor Frogs; she loved it but talk about hard sales! They literally had “7” men waiting for you when you seat hitting you up for Jell-O shots to balloon figures to magic trips to shots while shaking your head,,, it was never ending,,, definitely a turnoff.
Cabo San Lucas: Wow did they build up this place! A beautiful shopping center with restaurants on the prestigious dock area, we didn’t do much traveling into the city, but did enjoy the food at the Shrimp Factory.

Now for the Pride:
I was told that this one of the newest ships on the Carnival fleet, as we loaded, I noticed a very dark and almost dreary look in the interior. Everything was done in a copper or bronze color and yes there were pictures and art everywhere, in the elevators, at dinner etc, it was neither to my liking nor my wife’s. We had liked the open air, bright gold colors of the RC Grandeur of the Seas. The ship was full different areas to explore; it took us about “5” days to find our way.

The Room: We booked #7302, the very rear of the ship with a balcony, the balcony was as deep as the one we had on the Grandeur but it was not as wide and the swinging door made it a chore to get in and out of, we had a slider on the RCL ship.
The bed was firm but comfy; our room attendant Chalaca did not miss a beat overall a nice experience.

The Food: From gourmet to cafeteria! Hate to say it but the Normandy room was just not consistent! The highs: Prime rib, Salmon, flourless Chocolate cake (Trust me!)

The lows: Sliced Lamb, Costco? Shrimp pasta, cheesecake.

Overall Dining Experience: Well, this was a problem for us, on our previous cruise; we were seated with about “8” others in a large area on the bottom of the dining area. We enjoyed each others company and even ended up going to shows with each other!

We were always part of the festivities, dancing, singing, etc, but missed it all because we were seated in the top level against the window! We were seated in a table that seated “6” and lucky us, the “3” ladies decided to speak only Spanish around us, what a joy! My daughter overheard them saying not to speak English because we might understand them, well, I may not speak Spanish but I understood every word they said!! HEEHEE! I know the Cruise line cannot be held accountable for this but, if we were seated in a larger group, there would have been others to converse with. We ended up skipping “2”dinners due to this situation!

The Shows: Only saw V-Room, we all loved it, spans the rock world from Motown to Prince, Catch it!!!!

Overall we would rate the Carnival Pride a “B-”, those who stood out were Chalaca, out cabin Steward, Mignon, served drinks during dining and at the bar and Augusto, one of our servers, he was always there when we needed him, a pleasure!

Would we go back to Carnival? I think we’ll try Princess or Royal Caribbean next time, for the price, according to there mission statement, they “did not exceed expectations”.