We are looking at a July cruise with two kids - 6 & 12. I have read a lot of good thigs about the Pride. Is anyone willing to share their Pride experience - positive and/or negative?
My husband and I were on the pride for our honeymoon and we also did the Mexican Riviera. It was my second time on the pride. It's a very nice ship you will have lots of fun.
Just got back from Pride. Beautiful ship, nice, easy layout. Well-maintained cruise ship. Very clean. Bring your binoculars to see the whales! That's a must. They do not give weather reports over the P.A. like other ships I've been on. Sadly, the hotel director and the cruise director are two of the worst I've ever experienced. The crew doesn't seem happy. Just my opinion. The Normandie Dining Room is beautiful. Very opulent. Request upstairs if you can. The rooms are big. Showers are extremely hot, which is nice. We had a room with a balcony. Well worth the expense. The bed was the most comfortable cruise ship bed I've slept on. I have a Visco foam mattress at home and this one rivaled it. The duvet is gorgeous cotton and the pillows are great. Now, you can even purchase their bedding. You will receive a flyer about it in your cabin. Do not miss the steam room, sauna room, hot tub and relaxation room in the spa area. The gym is overhead. You have to walk through the spa area to get to it. I loved it. No kids in there,it's peaceful and, best of all, FREE!
30 days to go till we leave for our 8 day Mexican Riviera cruise. We are cruising on the Spirit. I enjoy reading everything I can about the specifics of this cruise. The more I read on this board the more excited I get. Thanks for all the insight!
Andrea - Thanks for the detailed review/opinion. Our only other cruise experience was this past summer when we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversay with an Alaskan cruise aboard the Coral Princess - magnificent experience! Now we are looking for something that we could enjoy with our 2 youngest children - not looking for a romantic getaway, but a clean ship with a lot of activities and options, especially for kids. It sounds like the Carnival Pride might fit the bill!
soxfan, she is a beautiful ship. It's run very smoothly. It is constantly being cleaned and attended to. They even have a paper dispenser above the door handles on the public restrooms so you can grab the handle to avoid germs! My youngest daughter is 13 and she did Club02. She enjoyed it very much. Pride has a Build-A-Bear Workshop on board where the kids can make their own.(fee required) The sushi bar was one of the best. Martini night in the atrium is well worth the sight even if you don't drink Martinis. They make your drink (any kind of martini) in a sculptured glass carving. My girls liked the towel art, chocolates and cookies on the bed every night. You can request a glass of reg/choc. milk with it too!
Andrea - We have 4 children - the two youngest (6 & 12) are the ones that we would be bringing on the Pride. They have never been on a cruise - would like to make their first experience a good one. What do you make of the mechanical problems the Pride recently encountered?
Soxfan, it was a propulsion break down. The ship was only able to travel at half speed. Therefore, we got pushed back to leaving out of Long Beach to Monday. Can't say it was too shabby. We took our 2 girls(13 and 17) to Disneyland and Carnival paid us $200PP fee. It covered our stay at The Disneyland Hotel, entrance into the park and dinner. The other option was staying at a hotel in Long Beach. We made the better choice, in our opinion, since we had just spent 3 days touring LA. When we boarded Pride on Monday at noon, the ship was docked in San Pedro. Long Beach terminal had Paradise docked in Pride's slip. The hardest part was the busing of passengers from Long Beach Terminal to the San Pedro Terminal. Not very organized, as Paradise was disembarking at the same time. We purchased our own water (they ran out after awhile) and sodas. Many disabled/elderly were standing for hours with no place to sit and no wheelchairs available. It was a difficult and unexpected turn of events for Carnival and I think they handled it the best they knew how at the time. We were originally scheduled to leave port at 4 p.m. It got pushed back to 6 p.m. Passengers were provided updates accordingly on the repair. Finally at 9 p.m., Lloyd's of London, who insures the fleet, gave the go-ahead for the ship to leave port. The ship ran very smoothly down and back with no interruptions. The way it was described to us is, it's just like a car breaking down and it needs to be repaired and that nothing life-threatening could happen. BTW soxfan, I'm assuming you're from the East Coast as we are. The time difference was hard on us and our girls. We had 8:15 dinner seating. We had grand ideas of staying up for shows and the chocolate buffet on Saturday evening. Did not happen. We never quite adjusted to the time change the entire week. Went to dinner at 8:15 and then to the room to go to bed by 10:00. We also had an extra 3 days on the front end in LA to get acclaimated. Didn't happen. Just a thought! Have a great time! You will love Pride.
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