jcruise3883

yes they were decorated for Halloween and had dress up times- not sure if they did a contest- check their rules- no weapons or masks, etc

Carnival Paradise Oct 7 to 11 Notes

 

Flight: flew Allegiant to Tampa- had heard all kinds of horror stories but was pleasantly surprised for this trip. On time both ways, pleasant crew.

 

Tampa: stayed night before at the Hampton Inn Channel District, highly recommend, new, clean, nice staff and free shuttle bus to the cruise terminal. Also was located about three blocks from the Street Car terminal which we rode up to Ybor City for lunch and also rode it downtown for dinner with our niece.

 

Embarkation: really easy, on board in about 30 minutes

 

Random Cruise Thoughts:

Room Steward greeted us right after we were allowed to go to rooms- he had a menu of what we wanted- one or 2 times a day service, robes, etc. Very nice and greeted us by name for the rest of the week.

 

Assigned Dining at 6- wife tries to avoid gluten whenever possible- staff was very helpful, they had her order tomorrow’s meal each evening in case it needed to be specially prepared.

 

Main Dining Room for Breakfast- highly recommend, no fighting the masses or standing in line, Steak and Eggs available on sea day brunch menu is pretty tasty

 

Casino: pretty sure I spent more time at the Craps Table than anyone else on the boat. Opened the table a couple of times, closed the table a couple of times, played solo. Won a little for the week and had a blast. Got Drinks on Us, cookies to the room and a voucher for SteakHouse selections for 2 on the final night. There was not a huge amount of craps players on this trip but did have several people go from “what is this game?” to player in a few days. Most of the Staff was very personable and fun to play with and helpful to the newcomers. 

 

Spa: the wife almost doubled the cruise fair in the Spa and enjoyed her massages.

 

Ports: Grand Cayman- took a shuttle to some bar on the beach (Callico Jacks) $6 shuttle each way, got 2 chairs and an umbrella for I think $20 or 25. Bought drinks in the bar and spent most of our time in the water. Cozumel- did the save the sea turtle excursion. We had done this previously and was telling the friend that was with us about it at breakfast when she decided that she would like to do it too. Excursion started at 11 and it was already 10:30. Went to guest services and asked if it was even possible and they made it work. It’s actually kind of cool and makes for some great pictures.

 

Main Dining room- service was great, food pretty good. Favorite thing was probably the Grilled Skewers appetizers from the Grand Cayman menu- wished it was a main dish!

 

Comedy Club- always one of our favorite activities- saw both comedians do each of their shows. The venue vs the number of passengers is better on the smaller ships than it is on the larger ships- no big line to wait in.

 

Disembarkation: Self Assist- definitely shorter to use a porter vs waiting in the monster of a line they had.

 

Shuttled to the airport and rented a car until the next day’s flight- drove  to Clearwater Beach and enjoyed it very much. Stayed at a Hampton Inn near PIE since our flight was at 6 in the morning. Note to PIE- if you require passengers to be at the airport 2 hours previous to flight time, both TSA and airport services should be open (no food or drink available until 5)

 

Overall another great cruise! We have also travelled with NCL and Royal Caribbean, but still gravitate back to Carnival and this one did not disappoint-

 

Some great advice so far from Big G and Proggieus- craps is a great game! My advice is start simple, it is very easy to get overwhelmed because there are an incredible number of bets that can be made and an infinite number of ways to bet or strategies to use, with a crowd of people playing and usually a crowd watching-- or it can be as simple as $5 on the pass line. in general everything in the middle is high risk, a lot of fun, but not a "good" bet. Keep researching- you'll be fine. The number between 6 and 8 is statistically the most probable to come up and does come up for EVERY shooter sooner or later. i like to make my money and then get mostly out- sometimes tough to take bets down, but craps is coming (said that in my Eddard Stark voice)

If I bet Red or Black and keep doubling if I loose until I finally win does method work? The only way i can see it not working is if there is a cap on amount of betting you can place.

 

Example: I bet $25 on Red it hits black so next time I bet $50 on red and it hits black. Next hand I bet $100 on red it hits black. Next hand $200 it hits red so I have made back my loses and gained $25. I just need to know is there a limit on bets because this won’t work if it goes too high doubling

google "Martingale" - statistically it does not work, but i have used it and won (and lost)- you will cap out around $300to $500

I am a rookie and was wondering about how roulette works on the ship.

 

1) what is the minimum and maximum you can bidi- usually 5 or 10 for min and not sure about max- i'm not in that stratosphere

 

2) what are some tips that help you win?

there are several websites that have tutorials if you need a little coaching- Roulette has a statisticlly high House Edge but is a fun game none the less- a dollar on a winning number wins $35! Roulette players all have their own system- watch for a few minutes and you will see what they do. Great entertainment as long as you consider losses as entertainment fees. Numerically though, it's all luck.

This was our (wife and I- mid 50's- but don't act it) first cruise with NCL (6th overall) and I have learned alot from other's posts- so I want to do some bullet points of what questions I have previously seen. We can only do vacations during certain times due to the dang jobs, so we choose from what's available during those time frames and try to do different lines or ports.

 

Staying near the Port- our previous cruises have all been in October and i usually make reservations, but this time wasn't sure how far we'd get so skipped making plans- MAJOR Mistake! everything was sold out- ended up in a smoking king (non smokers) on Merritt Island- guy was very nice and actually cut me a pretty good deal since it wasn't what we wanted in spite of it being his last room ( two people called while I was paying and he told them he was sold out) He said to always have a reservation in March and April!

 

Embarkation- we chose 10 to 10:30 as our check in time, but arrived around 9:30, parked, walked up as they opened the doors, check in complete at 10:00. Were then told it would be around 12 before we could board, no big deal, got choice of seats, near plug ins for phone, and Boarding Group 1. Called Group 1 around 11:30 and were eating lunch and having a Bloody Mary at Sheehans by 12:00. They do check your carry on bags if you want in the Bliss Lounge (i think). Made reservations for Shows in the Headliners for the rest of the cruise

 

UDP- would give us 2 drinks per card, never gave us anything to sign, usually didn't have to wait too long, does work on Great Stirrup Cay

 

Spring Break- yes a bunch of kids, young and college, none were too bad- the out of control groups were Moms on Women's Long Weekend Cruise! good for them!

 

Specialty Dining Pkg- we spoke to several people on board who had Spec Dining but didn't make any reservations ahead of time, they were not happy because there was slim to none left- i had read this and made reservations pretty much as soon as they were available. We did Teppanyaki- very good, Epicurean the next night, food was good show was very good and Cagney's the last night- also very good. Was curious how Cagney's would work since it is a la carte' but we ordered what we wanted, the bill totalled it all up and then 100% comped. Epicurean was a small upcharge that I paid when I did the reservations.

 

Garden Cafe- we ate there for most of the other meals- i thought it was pretty good, enjoyed it much better than what we ate on the Oasis last October.

 

Room- balcony on the 10th floor in the back behind the life boats so we could see the water and still near the elevators (room 10280- there's a You Tube video with a young English girl- i think- giving a tour if you want). strange layout, very little room, sink basin is tiny and usually made a mess-

 

Ship- I'm usually pretty good with directions and finding my way around but was lost the entire time on decks 5,6, and 7 and never did "get my bearings"

 

Steward- never introduced themselves, not even sure who it was, but room was made up, towels exchanged, and cleaned every time we were out, which is fine with us

 

Casino- $10 craps was lowest minimum, was fairly busy, $25 table was empty first 2 nights and then it was $10, lowest minimum Blackjack was $10, I think Roulette was $5, wife reports that the machines were "stingy"

 

Shows- Production Shows were light years ahead of Carnival, and I thought were also better than RCCL, The Beatles show was a blast and Howl at the Moon was great and a lot of fun, saw the female comedians (Julie and Allison) and thought they were both pretty good. Didn't get a chance to go to the Glow Party or the 80's Party.

 

Disembarkation- did the self assist- left the room at 7:30 and was on the interstate by 8. Did see multiple County officers with people pulled over right outside the port.

 

Overall- would i do this cruise again? Sure would!

We also did the Galley Tour and Brunch $35- informative and interesting to see, but tough to understand the Speakers due to accents. The meal that followed was excellent- our group all did the Surf and Turf. Lots of champagne! I had a total of 4 lobster tails this day (including Formal night) and turned down any more. Good Day!

 

Casino- members of our group hit bigger slot jackpots of 1100, 250, 600, 500 and 300 dollars. Some of them even managed to keep a little of that. The machines they won on during the first 2 days were turned off the next day and gone the following day- i guessed that they probably went overboard. I played craps and blackjack all week for a wash. Bad news is that even $10 BJ is paying 6/5 so didn't spend much time there. There was a lady beside the craps table in the smoking section that hit a slot jackpot for $11,761- a good night for her!

 

I tried both the Flowriders (one stand up, one boogie board)- they are a blast! Never got around to the rock climbing walls or the zip line, but there is always next time!

 

We did self debarkation to get an earlier start- left the room just before 7 and had the car packed at 7:30- would have been quicker but Customs was a little slow getting started, but can't complain with that.

 

This was our first RC Cruise (all previous cruises were Carnival), and most likely not the last. We are trying a NCL cruise next. Since we generally have a specific time frame that is dictated to us that we can do vacations in, we look for varying itineraries.

 

I have found these boards to be good sources of information from people that have been there before, so helpfully this can help others with a little insight.

the port of Falmouth, at least inside the gate, was nice. Check the taxi stand for fares to the Falls- $150 US for 4- don't know if that's a good deal or not but I had wondered. After sailing, Captain said that they had tried to work out a stop at Grand Cayman but since it's a tender port that it wouldn't work. Later the announcement was that soon to be Hurricane Nate would be near Cozumel during our planned stop, so... Cozumel was canceled and we added Labadee back to the schedule for Thursday. Captain said we would do full speed to ensure a full day at Labadee. Lesson learned here: bayside beach is nice and sandy, oceanside is very rocky! Friends did the zip line said it was great fun. Captain tried to add Nassau as a port but they were booked, and Puerto Rico was not an option so we did an extra sea day. Comedians used conversations from the Captain as fodder for the acts- it was funny because it was true!

 

Onboard- The Aquatheater Show is not to be missed! Closer to Cirque de Solei than typical cruise entertainment, "come fly with me" was also pretty good. We skipped "Cats". Ice show is entertaining. Comedians were good.

 

Dinners in the Main Dining Room were pretty good- service was excellent, very attentive and a nice pace. Our table of eleven received comp champagne and cheese or snack plates most nights. We ate there every night. I was less impressed with breakfast and lunch buffets. The park cafe thing was ok.

We had a great time on our first RC cruise. Arrived at PC around 10:40 after staying at the Radisson (country inns and suites had been the first reservation but they were closed due to the hurricane). Drop off and parking were easy. Chose to park at the port to avoid shuttle hassle upon return as we had about a 10 hour road trip ahead. Check-in was a breeze and on the ship around 11:30. Rooms were shut off so went to the pool deck for a beverage and a snack. We don't drink enough to do a drink package- but the buy 4 beers and get 5 deal is not too bad, especially when they put an extra beer in! Luggage was at the room by 2. Muster station was in the theater and they showed an action style video that kind of covered everything for the drill. Sail away was cloudy and rained a little but we didn't worry about it- we're on a cruise!

 

 

Captain Pier (yes, really) said that he would go quick and to the outside of the Bahamas to avoid the storm mess that was covering FLA at the time. Seas were rough- ship moved a bunch. Monday arose to a medical evacuation to Nassau- Captain said that they tried to get helicopter but seas were too rough and there were no Coast Guard ships to transfer to so we needed to port. We pulled in next to another Oasis class ship (i think the Allure?). Heard talk that they had never been in the same port at the same time before- not sure about that but it sounds cool. They pulled an ambulance into the ship and soon departed- I never heard what happened to the patient but hoped for a good outcome. This diversion meant that our Labadee day would be cut too short so we skipped that and continued with the plan for Jamaica on Wednesday. we had scheduled the falls and beach day excursion but it was cancelled before the cruise and we never got around to booking anything else so we just shopped around the Port and spent time at Magaritaville.

We used Lots of Honor last year in October- they were very nice, everything was fine except for pick up- but that was not their fault as we arrived on Saturday after the Hurricane. the port had been closed and I think four boats arrived at the same time. it was a total cluster. did run into an uber that took us back to the lot. about Wednesday they were saying Port Canaveral would take a direct hit and have something like 12 to 14 foot storm surge - i was glad that the lot was not that close to the ocean.

We were on Deck 11 and just went out the front doors to the deck at the front of the ship. If you stand kind of in the middle of the deck the ship structure above will block the ambient light from the Lido area.

 

YTD is in the Northern Lights Dining Room.

Overall, another wonderful cruise! No pictures to post, but some thoughts on the usual topics.

 

First, this was during the Monster Matthew Storm of the Century. We were on the Western swing and our weather was beautiful most of the time, with just some scattered rain on Monday in Costa Maya- no big deal for us. Our thoughts and prayers to those affected by the storm.

 

Embarkation- was a snap

 

Cruise Director- I've always wondered why cruisers even cared who the CD is- I've done several cruises and was only mildly impacted by anything they ever did, but now i understand their interest. We had The Good Reverend Doctor E and he was incredible! His events are a blast and even his announcements are fun.

 

Food- ate in the Main Dining Room 5 nights- Saturday Night was incredibly slow, the other four were great. Enjoyed all the meals- The Lobster was decent sized, well prepared and tasty (better than past cruises). Baryo was our Head Waiter for most nights and we enjoyed good service from him and his team. This was the end of his contract and was going home to Chile and going on vacation with his family, but not a cruise! Had Dinner in the Cucina del Capitano- delicious- had the steak. This is only a $15 upcharge per person, and a very nice dining experience. Did one night in the Lido Buffet, actually a first for me. Breakfast burritos and omelets are worth the wait. Guys burgers are good- and usually a small line.

 

Room Steward- we had Rommel and he was very attentive and "always" having a good day- his quote. He did room service twice a day and kept our ice bucket full every day.

 

Casino- attentive dealers, spent most of my gambling time at the Craps Table-

 

Costa Maya- took the Trolley thing to the public beach $3pp and $2pp cab ride back to the port. Ate and drank from the El Dolphin- food was decent and the beer was cheap, service very good, but be prepared for the onslaught of vendors selling all kinds of stuff.

 

Roatan- Channin Bodden provided transportation and hooked us up with a Dive Shop buddy of his to do some snorkeling- great time.

 

Belize- did the Star Island excursion. Beach time and lunch- good

 

Cozumel - did the Sea Turtle Release excursion. We worked with the local group that is trying to preserve the Sea Turtle population. Nice tour of the island and incredible experience of emptying a nest that had just had hatchlings and counting the empty eggs and "rescuing" any stragglers left behind and getting them into the water. Second half of the tour was a Mayan Experience/Show- it was kind of cheesy but was informative.

 

Room- we splurged on a Spa Balcony but barely used the spa facilities so probably wont do that again. Facilities were wonderful, but it wasn't a priority for us.

 

Misc- we enjoy going to the decks at the front of the ship at night and doing some star gazing- it is so dark and makes the stars very visible. We saw shooting stars, satellites, planets and the Milky Way in addition to the sky full of stars. Beautiful.

 

Disembakation- Due to the port closure Matthew created, our cruise returned to port around 2 in the afternoon instead of the scheduled 7 am- lots of fun.

Three boats arrived basically arrived at the same time and everybody on the boat tried to leave at the same time, plus people were already arriving to start their cruise. To say it was a cluster would be an understatement.

We were on the same cruise- CD and Asst CD were fun. Also did anytime dining with a large group and hardly waited at all but we went early and 4 of 5 nights had the same wait staff. Food overall was good in the MDR- some of the things i was not impressed with- like soggy eggrolls- were fine for others in our group. Had up to 4 apps one night and multiple entries 3 times. Desserts were good.

 

Ship does show some age but no real problems. Bathroom did smell when we arrived like many others have said but i think it was the cleaning solution in the toilet! smell went away after a few flushes. Our cabin steward was Felix (others in our group had Oscar- not the Odd Couple)- Felix called out to me first day as i walked by the cabin he was attending to and second day asked the correct pronunciation of my wife's name- room was well attended and he kept us in towels etc.

 

Not much action at the craps table and Blackjack not nice to me overall for the week- but you can't win them all. We are from Tennessee and during one of the shows Adam or Gary determined that most of the passengers were from either Tenn or Kentucky -- we enjoyed some "Rocky Top" by the pool and the winning guest bartender thing was a Kentucky Wildcat- i think it was blue.

 

Found a mens wedding band at Coco Cay and turned it in to Guest Services if you've lost one.

 

Weather was great, seas were calm and had a great time- this was our second cruise, the first was many years ago and weather was bad- rough seas, a lot of seasick people, cancelled shows for the safety of the performers etc, but we are considering doing another cruise again.

I found a men's wedding band on Coco Cay and turned it in to Guest Services on the Fascination. If you're missing yours, could be worth a call to Carnival.

great video- could be/should be a Carnival commercial