Sea Day Brunch Meltdown -- Carnival Pride Cruise Vlog Day #6 of 12

[@noradurham3162]

I loved your version of a meltdown!! You Canucks are so mellow. Except when you are watching/playing hockey!!! LOLOLOL

[@CruisingCanucks]

Too funny. And here we watched it back and thought we were really harsh. Now if carnival was reffing a hockey game there’d have been a bench clearing brawl during that brunch.

[@dawnlandis-lapham7165]

My husband and I were just in Alaska on Royal Caribbean and were very frustrated with how they pushed their app as well. They had very low attendance at things because they did not give any schedule out and didn’t even have them if you requested a paper copy. So many complaints that the last two days, they finally printed some. Also, I just realized how I did miss the waiter pulling out my chair for me as happens on NCL and Holland. We enjoyed the Ovation OTS but were flummoxed by their insistence on everything being done through their app. Thanks for your honesty about your experiences. Speaking of Alaska, we have been there in July before and found that to be the most ideal month to go as far as weather. It will be cold at the glacier, but port days could be 70-80 degrees! You will do love it!

[@jimelfering7485]

Thank you for your frank appraisal of the dining issue. I’m sailing on the Pride in January and I hope they will have tightened things up by then.

[@CruisingCanucks]

Food was good - just presentation and the atmosphere in the MDR needed some work. The design of the ship is classic and ideal for us! Have fun!

[@jmleigh3]

I agree 100 percent ! I do not want to HAVE to use my phone on vacations. Thank you for being honest.

[@marcplaisted6511]

My favorite drink, Long Island ice tea😊

[@CruisingCanucks]

It a backup drink in cases where there’s no Canadian whisky. 🥃

[@nancyp2992]

Talking about prices, sometime ago I used to cruise on Costa cruises. When we were in the US the prices were in dollars and when we were in Europe the Prices did not change they just changed it from dollars to euros. Works for them! Ha😂

[@CruisingCanucks]

We found it tough to find prices on many things - next weekend’s vlog shows how we get a shock in drink prices!

[@barbarashuster9029]

Princess in February and HAL 2 weeks ago and menus always.

[@CruisingCanucks]

Exactly what we found. And we did NCL in August - menus were provided no problem.

[@strikef16falcon58]

I'm glad you did not edit out your constructive criticism in regard to dining, because that is valuable information (I don't have a cell phone). I would like to see you sample the local foods of the regions that you're visiting. For example, sample the local wines & cheese of Spain. When I visit Spain, I would like to attend a traditional Flamenco show, and sample their food. It would be nice, if the cruise line would bring in talent from the region that they are visiting for onboard shows. Just a few random thoughts. Happy cruising!

[@CruisingCanucks]

We did have some coverage of some food ashore. We had lobster tapas in today's video for Bibao. It's usually just a snack or lunch, but I think most vlogs/ports from this time on will have some food. The best was the Irish Stew in Belfast!! - that's coming up in the 9-day vlog series following this one.

[@strikef16falcon58]

@@CruisingCanucks Perfect! I will watch that video right now. Thank you.

[@doughooks7411]

I am a subscriber and love your videos and appreciate your honesty. I, too, would be very aggravated with the phone thing. I hate carrying mine around on the ship and the Carnival app leaves much to be desired. Y’all are such a beautiful couple and Jill has a great smile! Keep up the good work with filling us in on the good, and and ugly. Thank you!

[@CruisingCanucks]

You are very welcome! Wait until the second leg of this cruise - we try to go phone-free for the whole trip!

[@Rose-bv6wp]

Thanks for posting about your experience and keeping it real. I appreciate your honest review while understanding that everything is subjective. However I too would hate having to constantly be tethered to my phone to be able to order dinner. IMO, after the first night, they should have brought paper menus to you without you having to ask for them. That's the kind of service you should expect on a cruise. I also really dislike the look of the dining room without tablecloths. It definitely gives me diner vibes, and doesn't make me think "this is where you're going to experience fine dining".

[@MrTWitts]

Going from Holland America to Carnival is equivalent to going from Macy's to walmart.

[@Scotts-CruiseTravel]

I would agree.

[@CruisingCanucks]

Before August we might have debated this.....and on some things Carnival has HAL still beat (main theatre for example). The dining room experience is certainly living up to your statement. We have 2 more carnival cruises booked (booked before our Europe adventure) in December. It'll be really interesting to see if we experience the same thing or was it a Pride issue? We will be on the Miracle (sister ship to Pride) and so that will be a fair comparison. Then on a newer ship (Panorama) and we'll see how they handle thigs. If it doesn't go well - that might be it for us with Carnival. If it goes well then maybe it's a ship to ship thing? We'll find out! And you'll see it!

[@barbarashuster9029]

Definitely rough in N Sea too.

[@feliciarodriguez4816]

All Carnical cruise ships are now like that. I just got off of one two weeks ago and I have to agree with both of you 100% I feel frustrated because I have to use my phone. They don’t pay my phone bill plus I go on a cruise to relax to get away from all my tech, I do that for a living. I need a break from it.

[@CruisingCanucks]

That is exactly how will feel. It changes the atmosphere of your dining experience.

[@pileofstuff]

I'm hoping Carnival can get things smoothed out soon. My brother is taking his first cruise on Magic in December...

[@CruisingCanucks]

What we can say is that a lot of things that we noticed were differences from previous Carnival cruises. So someone that’s new to cruising May find that everything seems perfect and not have that bias. We had a rookie cruiser with us and she thought everything was great.

[@pileofstuff]

@@CruisingCanucks That's great to hear. Thanks!

[@Scotts-CruiseTravel]

Carnival is just not my speed. We love watching your videos and your shore adventures. It would seem that the destinations are the best part of the trip as expected. Let’s see how the next 3 weeks go. Thanks for sharing. ❤

[@CruisingCanucks]

We had to frequently tell ourselves that we paid a low price for the cruise and that we were there for the destinations, not the ship. Sadly, we love that class of ship - the dining room just seemed mismanaged.

[@Scotts-CruiseTravel]

@@CruisingCanucks yes. It is about the destinations for sure.

[@chadofthefuture]

We didn’t have any notable issues with service on Princess in June, aside from the app and the issues that went with it. That said, to a person, the crew were working as hard as they could! We felt badly for them that they were on the frontline of the app troubles and what came from them. I would love to put my phone in the safe on a cruise and just be disconnected. But on to the important things - pizza! 🍕 Gigi’s on Discovery Princess had pizza to rival the best Neapolitan pizza we’ve had on land! Hope you can try Alfredo’s/Gigi’s on Princess soon.

[@CruisingCanucks]

We are SO looking forward to Alfredo's in January on the Sky Princess. We've heard so many amazing things! There's an idea for a cruise - a "lock your phone in the safe cruise". Love it!

[@tonylarussa4046]

It's always rough eas in the Bay of Biscay.

[@CruisingCanucks]

Our westbound trek through Biscay was beautiful and calm, then a little windy in the return. We’ve seen on other vlogs that it can be a lot worse.

[@maedilein6802]

Wow 2 hour brunch. Could have been a problem in the kitchen, but the food and beverage manager should have instructed the waitstaff to inform the guests that there will be a wait because of ...."xyz or whatever". At least you would know and could do something else. I totally agree about carrying a phone on a cruise. I don't carry my phone around the house, because I usually don't have pockets, so it won't happen on a ship.

[@CruisingCanucks]

You will like the next cruise vlog series (9-day UK islands) after this current series. We take on the idea of trying to cruise without a phone!

[@paula6093]

I know I’m probably being a diva but I prefer a menu paper or hardback and ekk table clothes on tables in the main room. Carnival definitely lacks in that area. On the other hand I prefer to check in for a table via phone app.

[@CruisingCanucks]

100% agree. Our cruise last week saw us do exactly that. We used the app to book a table and then asked for paper menus.

[@JohnMacG]

One reason we ate mostly in the buffet on past cruises (both on Princess) was that we didn't like hanging about waiting in the MDR. Your level of hanging about was really over the top! Did you stay in the MDR later in the cruise, or did you vote with your feet pointed toward the buffet? Our food in the Princess buffets was fine and from what I read, on most ships there's not a great difference in food quality between the buffet and the MDR.

[@CruisingCanucks]

We had one night we didn’t do the MDR cause we were late from a Paris excursion. We weren’t impressed with the dinner buffet options so we stuck it out in the main dining room. The food quality was good - just the little classy things were missing. Only the brunch was a disaster in our sea days.

[@Scotts-CruiseTravel]

Paper menus please. 😂😂

[@CruisingCanucks]

We ate dinner in the MDR 11 times of 12 nights and with the same wait staff - and each night we had to ask for a paper menu. They could remember if you liked decaf or regular coffee after a night or two - but 12 days later still not realizing we wanted a menu seemed odd. Almost like management was telling them to keep pushing the app. At one bar we wanted to see a bar menu and were told it was on the app - we said we didn't have our phones with us - so the staff member pulled out their personal phone and gave it to use to look at. Like, what's going on Carnival?!

[@Scotts-CruiseTravel]

@@CruisingCanucks oh no. I wouldn’t want to look or touch another persons phone. Sorry to here that.

[@clairebass5843]

Important question: did they have ketchup Pringles though? 🇨🇦

[@CruisingCanucks]

Hmmmm we prefer plain, bbq or pizza. Not sure they had ketchup for other Canucks.

[@jlizardi5013]

Only for the burgers...LOL Princess' pizza wins, my opinion.

[@CruisingCanucks]

The must be at Alfredos?

[@daveamey7272]

jill and you jerry are so nice. you always protect the staff and the cruise ship .but lets get real you have paid a lot of money to cruise and princess always gets it right but this ship hasn't. me personally i wont travel on this ship .

[@CruisingCanucks]

If we knew then what we know now about Princess - we likely would have been a little more upset. We like that design if ship and might sail in it again if another better cruise line bought it.