Again I will say how easy I found it to navigate through the passageways on Pride. All public hallways were wide and accessible. There was always a nice place to sit (and people watch) in comfort.
One of the big dislikes that I had on this cruise was the public PA system. It eludes me as to why Carnival goes to the great expense of producing daily schedules, religiously placed on you bed each evening and then makes an announcement on the PA prior to each event. To me (IMHO) this gave the ship a feel of a department store. “Welcome K-Mart Shoppers”! In all public areas the volume of these announcements were so loud as to make hearing and understanding what was being said vary from difficult to impossible. If they are going to continue making these broadcasts I would suggest they tone down the volume, not so we, the guests, can ignore them, but rather so we can understand them more clearly. The speaker system on Pride clearly can’t handle the volume and thus all voices are over modulated.
Having said that, and I know that many will disagree with me, I would like to move on to the upper decks of Pride.
Pride is very nicely designed and more than capable of handling the number of passengers that sail her. Being a smaller ship it constantly amazed me just how many activities were taking place at one time. All without interfering with each other.
Sailing out of Baltimore, in the middle of the winter, one soon appreciates the retractable roof over the Venus Swimming Pool. This little feature allowed us to enjoy the outdoor fresh air on the very first day of sailing. On those days when we encountered high winds, again the retractable roof saved the day. I did find the noise of everyone having fun a little loud with the roof on but that is not to be helped given that voices bounce off the walls and the ceiling. This, however, never distracted from the comfort of the swimming area. What we enjoyed the most was to “fill our plates” in the Mermaid Grill and then sit and eat by the pool. There was always plenty of room to sit and enjoy the activities.
Speaking of the Mermaid Grill, I found this area to be a very efficient and well organized buffet area. On Princess everything was located in one area, so if you wanted food you had to join the gang and fight for position. Even if all you wanted was a piece of bread, or a salad, or a cookie. They were all located in the same area. Not so on Pride. Hot food was in one area, salads in another, and deserts in another. This arrangement seemed to work well once you were aware of where each station is located. Lines of people never seemed to exceed 5-10 at any one time. Very efficient (IMHO).
I am making the final 2D photo larger than the others as I want you to note something interesting.
If you follow the flow of dark smoke from the Ship's Stack to the horizon, you will note that we were experiencing an inversion of some sort which resulted in the Pride's Pollution being held on the suface of the ocean. Minutes earlier, we noted it, and it was more obvious, but by the time I got the camera it had begun to disperse. Interesting none the less.
Next post. Carnival Pride Public Rooms continued.
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