Carnival Pride – What a disappointment!!!

Author: ngrncr
Date of Trip: August 2007

The service on the Carnival Pride was really, surprisingly below par. We travel quite a bit and we were sadden by the level of unfriendly, uncaring and unprofessional service that was given by the reception attendants, the officers in charge of the waiters, and the waiters themselves in the lunch areas. If we can help it, we will never again travel with Carnival. I strongly advise that you do the same. Run!!!!

First of all, the embarkation process was ridiculous. They kept on telling us to register at a particular area, pointed in the direction and asked us to proceed. It was so far and the area was full of different events at the port that we actually got lost. Once we got there, we were told to ask for VIP line service since we purchased suite. When we finally found the registration area, two crew members told us that there were no VIP lines. While standing in line, my husband decided to investigate further and he did find the VIP line. The two crew members did not know what they were talking about and could care less!!! That should have given us a clue as to how the rest of the cruise was going to be like.

The suite that we ordered was nice, but some of the furniture looked dingy and worn. You don’t expect that when you are in a suite. I can’t imagine what a regular cabin looks like. However, I must say that our cabin attendant was EXCEPTIONAL. He was courteous, friendly and did a magnificent job keeping our room clean.

The ship décor was nice. The food service at the Mermaid restaurant was deplorable. We purchased a $38+ card that allowed us to have unlimited diet cokes. While we were told that we can obtain this service by showing the card to waiters in all areas of the ship, my husband had to continuously look for a bar, because they would constantly refused to provide the service. We had to get the sodas for ourselves…all the time. It was too long of a walk for them to get it, but it was ok for us who paid for it to get it. I JUST DON’T GET IT!!! LOL The Mermaid restaurant had tables with dirty dishes and the waiters took their time to clean. Thus, many of us had to look for unclean tables and wait for people to finish eating. In addition, they would CLOSE the food service, even if you were waiting in line to be serviced. They would send you to another food area, and that area was closed, too. The food was the same as always and it was OK. Don’t expect the food to be great. It is far from that!!!

By the way, the fitness area was full of old, much used machines. Some of them were unusable. We had to wait a long time to use them and there was no system in terms of time of usage. So you could be waiting for a very, very, long time!!!

We wanted to find out if there was going to be a religious service at the chapel when we were scheduled to dock at a port. We thought the reception booth could help. When we asked the question, they gave us two different answers. They looked bothered that we even asked. Then, they looked into their computer and gave us a “this is what we have in the computer and we do not know anything else”. I guess it was too difficult for them to investigate and get back to us later. No! THAT WOULD ACTUALLY BE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! Oh…by the way, they were not friendly at all. I have no idea why. However, the people working on this ship were so unfriendly. In addition, the people, who were dressed in white, considered officers and in charge of the waiters and bar areas, were unfriendly, unsmiling and made us feel uncomfortable. They even argued with their staff in front of us.

Now, the dining area was not to par with other ships that we have enjoyed, like the Celebrity Millennium, but it was ok. On our first night, we had horrible service. We waited over 30 minutes for a bottle or wine and a diet coke. This is only after we reminded him and he asked me AGAIN what kind of wine I had ordered. We decided to move to another table and the service there was excellent. We actually looked forward to dinner, because we really enjoyed the company and service that we received. It felt that we were in a first class operation. Once we left dinner, it was downhill from there.

While my husband and I enjoyed ourselves, because we will not allow anything to ruin our vacation. I can sadly say that we will do everything possible to avoid cruising with carnival. We thought we would give them an opportunity to show us differently from what we have heard and read, but the reviews about their poor and inadequate service is all TRUE. As far as we are concerned, we will avoid carnival like a plague. It is not worth our hard earned money and time.