Bare necessities - Carnival Pride

Left Tampa on 5 Feb, at sea 6 Feb, in Key West today 7 feb. so far, good boat, good crew, good food, good service, good passengers.

First BN cruise and first Carnival cruise. As for Carnival very surprised fto the good side on the ship, the food and the service.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />

Interested to hear what you think about your return.

We are off on the 2018 Big Nude Cruise, cannot wait! Hope the rest of your cruise is fun!

Cranan74

8 Feb back at Sea
9 Feb was Half Moon Cay. I'd say nicest beach <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/circle.gif" alt="" />and biggest of cruise out islands over Princess Cays and NCL Great Stirrup Cay. Great, long white sand beach and it was AN the entire day save the tender ride in/out.
10 Feb was Grand Turk and despite high expectations for AN at the beach and Margaritaville, that was not allowed. We did a nice AN boat trip to two deserted islands for stingrays, conch demo, and AN beach stop. Very nice.
11 Feb was Amber Cove, DR. Alot of folks paid big bucks for some lousy AN excursions to some beach and the trucks got stuck, slid off road and it rained. We lucked out and the pier pool complex was declared AN. Nice until it rained. Only bad weather day.
12 and 13 Feb at sea days- usual sun deck sunbathing.
14 Feb disembarked tampa. It was surreal to see 9 day companions all clothed and putting their barrier faces back on as they gathered luggage and waited for cabs and such.

Carnival: after reading years of reviews either way, Carnival did a perfect job of cabin service, main dining room service, food quality, and running the cruise in general. ALL STAFF WERE FRIENDLY AND PLEASANT AT ALL TIMES FOR 9 DAYS. The Carnival Cruise director Steve was top notch and the BN director Barry worked well together.

Expected way below Princess for food quality/service but quite frankly while it was a little less white linen, the food came promptly and was quite good. The last night's Prime Rib beats any beef served on over a dozen cruises.

Fresh Towels in abundance at every sitting venue buffet, lounges, theatre, bars, etc. Never out.

Spa was free with nice steam room and sauna. Mucho hot.

Bn couple workshops were very enjoyable.

Bn brought a great band onboard Wild Ginger from Tampa that covered wide range of dance/rock as well as a police/jimmy buffet band.

Comedians were pretty good and made good work out of the bn crowd.

Pro photographers took pictures just like a textile cruise and many an pictures were taken.

The bn staff were visible at all events.

They also had theme events mimicking su parrothead, fantasea fest, nudapalooza, and naked man similar to burning man.

Must say what they say is true. Much friendlier bunch than on any textile cruise and many friends made.

The cruise is not a pure aanr event. There are no kids onboard and that is a good call.

Out of over 2000 pax, there were maybe a dozen you'd wish weren't there for whatever behavioral reason. About th e same as textile.

Water slides are quite scary and exhilerating. 1 time each is enough to avoid heart trouble.

1 individual had a serious medical issue at end of boating excursion and was well handled by pax, boat captain and bn reps to get back to ship asap and medical attention. Was able to reboard ship. The person was traveling alone and did not have travel/medical evac insurance. This is definitely a must for any foreign vacation.

I'd say Carnival and BN hit BNB 2017 out of the park with bases loaded.

Flew frontier to florida and allegiant home from Florida. Both firsts for us and we have no complaints with either.

Pelican--thanks for the report.

I have to laugh about the issues with the A/R excursions. We went on two BN cruises, YEARS ago, the then Crown Dynasty and also Star Clipper, both in the Caribbean. On both cruises, there were HUGE issues, whereby they had to totally refund the cost of an A/N excursion. On Dynasty, an excursion to a restaurant on Isla Mujeres, that we lovingly afterward called "the beach bash bomb", and one on the Star Clipper, to a resort in Roatan. That one, we didn't even ever sign up for, as we wanted to see Roatan, never having been there. I know that they like to go to different destinations, as many people go on the cruises year after year, but the days which turn out the best always seem to be the private island ones, or on the ship, as those days are totally within their control. The other excursions often seem to have a way of going sideways.

We didn't know until we got booking numbers that all shore excursions were sold via carnival. Thought BN would arrange and sell the AN ones. The good news with that is these excursions all had a textile Carnival equivalent for which there were many reviews online. The amber cove excursion difficulties of getting stuck and long ride to/from and short beach duration were all frequent repeats of many other reviews. The Grand Turk winner was a winner with/without clothes

BN could have been more active/forceful on photo taking enforcement. While 99.9% observed the rules, there were a few who didn't.

That is a change from when we went then, as at that time, BN ran all the excursions. Of course, I assume at this point it is a matter of economics, the cruise line is not going to let them run their own excursions these days.

Carnival sold all shore excursions.

BN did sell (prior to cruise only) workshops and massages by BN masseuses.

Once aboard you could buy Carnival massages.

they also allowed the sale of BN hats/shirts in gift shop. I assume Carnival got a cut of those sales.

I guess certain smaller groups of people/friends may have arranged their own AN snorkeling trips, etc.

All in all, in was possible one way or another to be AN in every stop of this cruise. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Other than the private island, I think a smaller a/n excursion is probably the way to go. In general, regardless of the cruise, I find ship shore excursions to be overpriced and you get less value than doing the same thing on your own.

I agree. With a few exceptions, I've learned with good homework, I can cobble together a more effective and much cheaper sightseeing trip.

I also hate waiting pierside for all to assemble, riding motor coaches, eating std meals, getting hurried, and ending up at kickback souvenir shops on my dime.

That said, we've cut it close several times and once in Naples,Italy the gangway officer requested an explanation for the captain why we were late and holding up the departure.

We were on an electrified train from Pompei to Naples that got hit by lightning. We had le with plenty of time but with massive delay arrived at Naples station 5 minutes before sail time and 25 minutes after onboard time. Cabbie literally driving like James Bond on the other side of the road.something to talk about and more exciting than pompei. We were prepared to catch a train to next stop.

We never cut it THAT close in the past, but I was pretty nervous several times! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Smile.gif" alt="" />

A bunch of us have signed up for next year's BN cruise, also on Carnival. Just curious, what is the cost of drinks if you don't get a package?

Roughly about $10.00 plus 18% gratuity so figure $12.00 for cocktails. Not sure about beer.

We are also on the 2018 BN Cruise and can't wait. We took both of their Fantasy Fest cruise and they were great. Wonderful to be able to dock over night in Key West to enjoy the Fantasy Fest actives.

There was no drink package for this BN charter. Normally, the Carnival package limits you to 15 drinks/day/person and all occupants of the cabin must buy it.

Also, at Amber Cove, you cannot use your sail and sign card, must use credit card/cash.

You could buy the unlimited soda package and you can buy a bottle of booze for the cabin the cheapest of which was about 90 bucks.
On princess and Norwegian the endless soda package was fountain soda. With the exception of one bar on the Pride, the sodas were poured from a coke can over ice. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

A beer was about $6.24 and a bucket of 4 was $24 I think. Big savings. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" /> 16 oz miller lite wide mouth with cap.

They advertised Carib on line but there was none onboard <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />