Rachel

Age: 29
Occupation: Corporate Trainer
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Carnival
Name of Ship: Pride
Sailing Date: March 1st, 2003
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

We had eight people in our group and we had a ton of fun! The ship was absolutely gorgeous and even though we were on the lowest passenger cabin floor (with a casino above us), it was very quiet. The ship was so luxurious. Every room and public area was new and clean and very pretty. Even the hallways were "fancy". We took some of our best pictures in the "Sunset Lounge" and had some beautiful portraits taken on the spiral staircase. The food was excellent and our waiters, Pat and Sunny, were very accommodating to our requests. The weather was also great. We had sun every day with temperatures in the 80's and a breeze. Perfect! Well, a little hot some days in port, but being March and from Maine, we weren't going to complain!

We visited every port and ended up doing three excursions through Carnival. Our first port was Key West and three of our companions had already been there, so we went out on our own. It was really nice and there were some good shops. For the next stop we went on our first excursion - snorkeling in Belize, it was my first time and it was wonderful! We were boated out to a small, almost "Gilligan-ish" island. It was so cute! The next day we went on the "Fiesta" cruise in Cozumel. It wasn't an excursion I would do again. First of all, it began at 8:00 AM. Yuck. Secondly, we boated to a neat part of Cozumel (sort of like a resort), but we were only given one-and-a-half hours there. Bummer! The next day we did our own thing in Progresso. A couple in our party went biking (they had an awful time - the bikes were mostly broken and the biking terrain was not very good - sand!). Progresso is a very poor port, but we were able to do some shopping and discovered that Coronas were only $1, while water was $3. So you can guess what we drank! Our last excursion was the day we got off the boat. We went to the Kennedy Space Center (we were staying in Orlando for a few days upon our return). That was our favorite excursion. Our tour guide was excellent and there were a lot of neat things to see there.

Our days at sea were also great. There was plenty to do and we didn't even feel crowded. There was so much deck space, and it was nice to be in the "adult pool" section. The fitness facility was also wonderful, although I have to admit, I only used it one day, I was having too much fun doing other things! My favorite part in the fitness facility was the shower in the locker room. It had 5 jets - it was awesome! Kind of silly I know, but it was wonderful!

The shows were also lots of fun and very entertaining and the shops onboard were nice and not too expensive (although I would have liked to have had more of them!). All onboard staff people were very friendly and good at what they did – they really seemed to enjoy themselves as much as we did!

We will definitely book another cruise with Carnival. It was only our second cruise, but it was a much better value than our first one (a competitor). The only aspects about this cruise that could use improvement were the excursions and perhaps the choice of ports. On our first cruise, the ports and excursions were all wonderful, but the boat was not nearly as nice or spacious. Next time we might just make sure that we’ll enjoy all of our ports.

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