Carnival Pride Europe Cruise Review: Day 5 – Embarkationfeatured
If there’s anything to know about cruising with us, it’s that Murphy and his dang law? It always comes along for the ride.
Two years earlier, we were supposed to be sailing on the Carnival Radiance for Mom’s birthday. We planned on being somewhere in Spain, soaking in the sun and drinking sangria until we couldn’t feel our legs beneath us. Instead, the pandemic hit, and we spent her birthday with takeout from Carson’s BBQ and a Somebody Feed Phil marathon on Netflix. We’d cruised over Mom’s birthday for the better part of the past 15 years and it felt odd and foreign to spend it at home. We couldn’t believe the day was here that we got to take the cruise we were meant to take two years earlier. We couldn’t have been more excited.
We were up with the sun — this time, I remembered to check us in online 16 days before our cruise so we could secure an earlier group since the last cruise we were on, we totally forgot and ended up with a late one. We had a last breakfast at the hotel and checked out.
If you’ve “traveled” with us before, you know that we do not travel light. We had seven suitcases across the three of us and we needed a big taxi, so we arranged it with the hotel the day before for a 9:00 AM pickup. I highly recommend arranging your taxi with your hotel before check out, especially if you need a bigger car. Our taxi arrived a few minutes late, but the car was big enough to fit all of our luggage and our driver spoke English so we were off and on our way.
And then Murphy showed up.
Apparently, there was a marathon in Barcelona. And many of the major streets were shut down. So instead of a quick, 15-minute ride to the port that costs less than €20, it was a 50-minute sweeping drive around the city that cost us just over €50. Nothing we could do about it, but I’m glad we had pre-arranged our taxi because we saw a lot of people schlepping luggage through the streets of Eixample because they couldn’t flag down a taxi.
We had a 9:30 to 10:00 AM arrival appointment and arrived at the port promptly at 9:59 AM. The luggage drop off was right at the front, so that was quick and easy. We flashed our boarding pass to enter and flew through security. This early, the port wasn’t too busy. At least, it didn’t seem that way until we got upstairs to check in. There were separate lines for regular check in, for suites and for VIFP Platinum and Diamond (the group we fall in). Maybe it just felt that way because we were waiting in it, but it felt like the VIFP line went the slowest. It seemed a lot of folks were confused by the check in process and I can’t fault them — this was our third post-Covid cruise and the requirements for sailing in Europe was by far the most complicated of the three. Our check in was easy — we showed our documents and our VeriFLY and that was it. Everything else we had filled out online.
By 10:30 AM, we were seated to wait for the boarding process to begin. We used the restrooms (which, to be frank, were absolutely disgusting) and we tried to use the vending machines (which didn’t work). Needless to say, we weren’t impressed with the port facilities. There was a shop inside with souvenirs, liquor and sodas. Stephanie bought some Coke Lights, some water bottles and a bottle of Cava and I think that came out to around €32.
At 10:43 AM, they started boarding suites. Groups A1 and A2 came next, and then our group, B1, was called at 10:48 AM. We walked up the long and winding gangway up to the ship and waited in line to get scanned. In actuality, the line moved quickly but I think the line only felt so long because we were just so excited to get onboard!
The last time we sailed on the Carnival Pride was in 2005. Stephanie and I were both in college, both under the age of 21 and Mom and grandma took us on the Pride to the Mexican Riviera to celebrate the ends of our Sophomore and Freshman years (respectively). It was one of our favorite ships — we have a lot of fond memories onboard the Pride — but we hadn’t been back onboard since.
Walking into the Atrium was like stepping into a time warp. Nothing on the ship had changed. I mean, it had — the ship had some of the more modern bells (read: a Blue Iguana Cantina, which is all I really care about anyways), but everything from the decor to the venues, even the elevators, feel so vintage now and feel so small compared to it’s more modern sister ships.
We quickly made our way to our muster station, where we scanned in, got a quick demo and merrily made our way out. Muster station used to be the worst and now it’s, at most, two minutes. I’ll call it the one good thing Covid has done to cruising!
Rooms wouldn’t be ready until 1:30 PM (even for Platinum cruisers) and we couldn’t even get in the doors to drop our things in the room, so we just made our way up to the Lido deck. We each had our obligatory “first meals,” which meant Blue Iguana Cantina for me and Stephanie and a burger from Guy’s Burger Joint for Mom. And some delicious Funfetti Cheesecake for dessert. That’s made its way onboard the Pride, too!
We settled into an outdoor table and walked around a bit to reacquaint ourselves. It felt foreign and familiar at the same time, but we’d be onboard for nearly two weeks so we knew our memories would jog at some point! While we were hanging around, we found that Carnival had added more excursions for our ports. This was an incredibly port-heavy itinerary and excursions were limited as many European tour companies had either gone out of business or were heavily impacted by staffing shortages. Stephanie found her absolute dream tour to Monet’s Garden, Giverny and Rouen and we booked it right away. It was pricey (nearly $300/pp) but it brought her so much joy and I knew it would be an experience we would treasure.
Rooms were finally ready around 1:30 and we headed downstairs to find our new home for the week. We were booked in cabin 6279, a premium balcony cabin, but this wasn’t actually the initial cabin we booked. We received an upsell call a few months before sailing offering a pay up to a suite. The price wasn’t that great (especially for a cruise so port heavy — we’d barely make use of the room) and so they offered a different upsell to a larger balcony cabin. And this one was huge — tons of space for three to spread out and settle in comfortably and best yet, a balcony that fit two chairs, two loungers and a table. It was perfect for our needs. The only downside was that the Pride is an older ship and that really showed in the bathroom, particularly — the molding and fixtures weren’t in great shape, things were rusting and cracking and flaking. And the toilet water was mustard yellow.
We were exhausted and the jetlag was hitting me particularly hard so I think I must have just shut my eyes for a minute and I don’t even know how long I was napping for before I woke up to my luggage being delivered. Our bags were delivered in waves over a couple of hours so we unpacked as much as we could. Our final bag was delivered as we were pulling out of port in Barcelona, so we snapped some pictures on the balcony with Mom and then headed upstairs to get the full effect.
Barcelona was fading into the background and we were full-speed ahead towards the Balearic Sea, just in time for our dinner reservations at David’s, the steakhouse onboard the Pride. Some elements of the Pride have been modernized and others (like David’s) hearken back to a time when the restaurants, bars and entertainment spaces were all unique and themed to the ship they were on. So there isn’t a Fahrenheit 555 onboard. Instead, the steakhouse is in this open space with pink light flooding in from the glass ceiling under the funnel and there’s a large replica of Michelangelo’s David standing prominently at the front. The rest of the experience is generally the same as the other steakhouses. Well, kind of.
We’d read online that Carnival was facing staffing issues and had cut back on a number of dining experiences and events but we figured since they kept the steakhouse, they could staff it. We waited 15 minutes to check in (with only three parties ahead of us) and we should have taken that as a sign but figured the restaurant had just opened in the past half hour and maybe things were slow to start. Our meal, start to end, took over three hours. In the first hour after we were seated, we’d gotten bread and at the tail end of it, an amuse bouche. After another hour, our starters and salads. Hour three brought our entrees (which were incorrectly prepared, overcooked and room temperature), about 45 minutes after the “warm plates” to serve our meals on were set out. They were profusely apologetic but did not offer to fix or comp the meal. When the servers heard from the Maitre’d that it was Mom’s birthday, they brought her an extra dessert and brought us a round of champagne. It was a pretty terrible experience, if I’m being honest, and I hate having to share that because Carnival’s Steakhouse is just about my favorite meal at sea on any cruise line.
In any case, dinner was disappointing but we know what this experience could be and usually is, and it won’t stop us from trying the steakhouse in the future. But that’s that. You know what wasn’t disappointing? The sunset. That seems overly-romanticized to say, but some of the most breathtaking sunsets I’ve ever seen have been from the decks of cruise ships in Europe and this one off the coast of Barcelona looked like a paintbrush had splayed the sky with the most beautiful colors. It was stunning.
Our original plan was to browse the shops before the show, but we didn’t really have time with dinner so drawn out, so we went straight to the Taj Mahal to grab some seats for the Welcome Aboard Show. And, sidebar, I just want to mention how glad I am Carnival didn’t convert the Taj Mahal (the Pride’s main theater) into a Liquid Lounge. I love how unique it is and better yet, I love that it’s appropriately sized to fit the volume of people it needs to serve. It is a theater proper. The seats are comfortable. It is expansive and beautiful and I love that it’s themed in a way Carnival has stepped away from in recent years.
The Welcome Aboard Show was…the Welcome Aboard Show. It could probably use some freshening up on the set list, but after watching the toned down version on our Panorama cruise (when the singers had to sit six feet apart and couldn’t dance because of Covid protocols), it was nice to just see an actual show again!
Afterwards, we headed back to the room to finish unpacking and call it a night. I really hadn’t slept well at all in Barcelona, so I was jetlagged, running on four and a half hours of sleep a night and the only thing I could think of that would help would be the motion of the ship. Besides, we had a sea day ahead of us where we could re-acquaint ourselves with the Pride and all of the fun she had to offer!
