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Hello, Havana! Nicole721's Full PICTORIAL Review of the Paradise 4-Day to Cuba


Nicole721
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Hi friends!

 

After a few months on the NCL board, I'm back with the first of two trip journals that I'm going to attempt to write and share before we leave for the Horizon inaugural in two and a half weeks ;) Will I finish? Who knows, but I'm definitely going to try!

 

If we haven't formally "met" around these parts, I'm Nicole, and the only thing I love nearly as much as I love cruising is taking pictures and writing about my cruises, and then sharing them with all of you! Kind of my pay-it-forward for all of the pouring I do over the cruise reviews on these boards. I live in downtown Chicago, where I work in online merchandising, and I usually cruise with my Mom and my sister Stephanie once or twice a year for our family vacations (which we still insist on taking even though Stephanie and I are now adults -- they only get more fun as we get older!)

 

But this time...I LEFT THEM AT HOME! My friend Keri and I had been dying to go to Cuba and I'll go just about anywhere on a cruise ship. And so we booked a four day itinerary on the Paradise that would take us from Tampa, down to Havana for two days, and then right back to Tampa (with a day at sea in between).

 

This is more of a journal than it is a review. There will be a ton of pictures. And if you're reading along, I'd love to know it so pop into the comments and give me a wave! And if you have questions about the Paradise or about Havana or cruising in general, I'm happy to try to answer them :)

 

So with that...lets go to Havana!

 

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Day 1: Chicago to Tampa

 

I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to have the opportunity to write this trip journal. In fact, I should probably alternatively title this The Trip That So Very Nearly Almost Wasn’t.

 

Future note to self: hurricanes do, in fact, pop up during hurricane season. Plan travel accordingly.

 

When we came home from the Baltics, I had zero travel plans. No cruises planned, no long weekends, no work trips, nothing. By the end of June, I had found myself with travel plans for almost every weekend from the middle of July through the end of September. I was living in the land of yes, because if not now, when? And so when travel to Cuba became a hot political topic again and my friend Keri texted me that she wanted to go to Cuba before travel there got more complicated, I couldn’t find it within myself to say no. Because if I didn’t go to Cuba now, when would I have the opportunity again?

 

Much like when I visited Russia in May, traveling to Cuba was complicated and planning a trip that would abide by all of the guidelines was intimidating. So choosing to visit Cuba via cruise ship was a fairly easy decision. We could spend two days in Havana (perfect for two gals with full time jobs and full time obligations), but the cruise line would take care of our visas and we’d have the comfort in familiarity of coming back to the cruise ship when we were done touring.

 

So we booked a four-day cruise onboard the Carnival Paradise, which happens to be the very first ship I ever sailed on (and where my obsession with seeing the world on a cruise ship really started!), setting sail from Tampa on September 21.

 

And then Hurricane Irma happened, leaving a path of destruction through some of the islands that hold dear spaces in my heart and a path of uncertainty in some of the islands I have yet to visit, barely a week and a half before our scheduled voyage.

 

We didn’t know if we’d make it to Havana. We didn’t even know if there would be a cruise terminal left in Tampa for us to sail out of. I watched CNN for hours with baited breath. I stalked the Carnival Facebook for updates. I even kept tabs on the Havana geotag on Instagram so I could scope out the situation for myself.

 

Somehow, the brunt of the storm missed Havana. And somehow, Havana was up and running again within days. I finally exhaled and started putting the final pieces in place, having held off on booking my airfare and a hotel until we knew the extent of the storm damage in both Cuba and Florida.

 

Two days before we left, they started forecasting for Maria. And somehow, the storm turned away from the west and veered north, sparing both Cuba and the western coast of Florida.

 

It wasn’t until the day we left that Carnival confirmed that the port facilities in Havana were unharmed and that Havana was ready to open to cruise tourists again. With all of the uncertainty behind us, we dove into researching People to People (the conditions of our visas stated we needed to spend 7-8 hours interacting with the Cuban people conversing, learning and experiencing their culture), photo stops in Havana, paladares (family owned restaurants), anything and everything about Cuba we could.

 

The cruise departed on a Thursday, so I left Chicago on Wednesday morning, setting a new personal record in the process: from my condo in the Chicago Loop through the TSA checkpoint at O’Hare in 44 minutes. I didn’t get a ton of sleep – anticipation (and a newly discovered allergy to the gel manicure I received the day before) had me up at 4:30 in the morning. And in a fitting end to my summer of travel (which started with a cancelled flight home from Paris in May and continued on with cancelled flights to New York and Washington DC, a three-hour tarmac delay on my birthday flight to Austin and getting stranded at LaGuardia trying to get to Vermont), once I boarded my flight, we sat at the gate for over an hour due to an extended delay in filing maintenance paperwork for a scratch that was discovered on our aircraft.

 

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Once we actually departed, though, it was nothing but smooth skies and mimosas. By the time I finished my movie and brunch, we were beginning our descent over St. Petersburg. I lifted my window shade and peered out, letting out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Florida has been my second home since infancy and I needed to see that everything was okay before I could really believe it.

 

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Keri was waiting for me at baggage claim, having flown in from a business trip to Jacksonville an hour earlier, looked at me and shouted CUBAAAAAAAAAA as soon as she saw me. In all of the insanity, terror and destruction, how fortunate were we to have this adventure escape unscathed? I don’t think either of us could really believe it.

 

My luggage was second out on the belt and we were quickly in an Uber. I haven’t sailed out of Tampa since 2005 and I think it’s been just about that long since I’ve stayed in Tampa. There must have been a conference in town because most hotels were sold out and those that weren’t were pretty inflated, so we lucked out to find an Expedia special rate for The West Wing, a boutique hotel not far from Busch Gardens.

 

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The West Wing isn’t crazy big – just two floors – and it doesn’t have any bells or whistles. But it did have a super friendly staff, a free shuttle within a three mile radius, free breakfast and a nice little zen garden. And a robot! The hotel has a robot! How crazy awesome is that? For one-night pre-cruise stay, it was comfortable enough for our needs.

 

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We were booked in a two queen suite and it was beyond spacious. Like, I think this room may be bigger than my apartment spacious. Featuring a small kitchenette, a separate sitting room, a bedroom with two queen sized beds and a large bathroom, it could have easily slept four or five adults comfortably.

 

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After we settled in to our room, we decided to go out to grab some lunch. There was a large shopping mall across the street, and along Fowler Avenue (the main street running through the area) was just about every fast food and classic American restaurant. Driving in, I noticed a Portillo’s not far from our hotel, and if you’ve never heard of Portillo’s, it’s kind of the quintessential Chicago fast food restaurant. We have them all over Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, and if you’re from the Chicagoland area, you grew up on their Chocolate Cake Shakes and Italian beef sandwiches. They started expanding out from Illinois about 11 years ago with a small handful of locations on the west coast and it looks like they’ve also recently expanded with two locations in Central Florida. And while I generally try to avoid eateries I have at home when I travel, Keri doesn’t live in Chicago and has never been to Portillo’s on her visits, so it gave me the opportunity to introduce her to some good old fashioned Chicago grub.

 

((And the Cubs were in town playing the Tampa Bay Rays, so many Cubs fans were having a pre-game lunch and if I closed my eyes and ignored the palm trees outside, I could have easily been at home))

 

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We stopped at a Walgreens next door for water and snacks before continuing on our walk along Fowler to grab ice cream at a fun little rolled ice cream shop a block over.

 

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I always call my sister when I board my flights and when I boarded my flight this morning, she had joked that she didn’t need to check my Facebook to know what my day would look like: coffee in a hip coffee joint, graffiti walls, walk along the water front and dinner at some hipster pizza or burger place. And while I wish I could tell you all about the Tampa version of my lather/rinse/repeat travel haunts, the reality was far less exciting: after ice cream, we went back to the hotel and didn’t leave for the rest of the day. Maybe if we had rented a car, we would have ventured out and explored a little more, but it was hot, we were exhausted from traveling and we both agreed we just wanted to low key hang and get ready for our cruise.

 

So there were no coffee shops or murals, and there are no from behind shots of me on a rock somewhere (though maybe those would come over the coming days). We tried to find the Cubs game on TV (…it wasn’t) and then settled in with a can of Pringles and hours of old Full House reruns.

 

It was out of routine and different, but I had a sneaking suspicion that this cruise would be, too.

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Day 2: Embarkation

 

All of the cruises I’ve taken over the past 13 years…they all blend together. It’s a wonderful blur of memories punctuated by moments I can’t forget.

 

I don’t remember much about my first cruise on the Paradise. Bits and pieces. Tarkay paintings lining Carnival Boulevard. A pink couch that squeaked every time someone sat on it. Mom bringing two piña coladas back to the room for Stephanie and I to enjoy on our balcony (shhh, don’t tell anyone). The staccato click of the beads that adorned the braids I was so excited to show off of as I walked down the atrium staircase. I remember the day we got off the ship, walking along the shore at a South Beach Marriott and trying to figure out how soon we could get on another cruise because cruises were awesome.

 

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There are bits and pieces I won’t forget, but they’ve started to pull apart and fray at the edges, lost in a sea of mega ships and exotic ports. And so when I woke up in Tampa on embarkation day, I was just kind of excited to see what memories being back on that very first ship would conjure.

 

Keri and I were up early. Our appointment to board the ship wasn’t until the afternoon (and, side note, does anyone abide by these appointments?), but we wanted to try to get on as soon as we could, and the hotel had limited breakfast hours anyways.

 

The hotel breakfast was delicious and filling, with a short buffet of eggs, potatoes, meats, grits, cereals, pastries and juices were set up in a small conference room just behind the gym. Having skipped dinner the night before, we were famished and everything tasted like the best thing we ever ate.

 

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After breakfast, Keri went back to the room to shower and I made a quick run down the street to CVS for two different types of Benadryl. Note to self: no more gel mani’s because I am definitely allergic to something and Cuba was not going to be the place where I treated an allergic reaction.

 

Hotel check out was at 11:00 am and I think we left slightly after 10:30 am. It was super quick and easy to get a Lyft pickup even though we weren’t downtown and we were off to the terminal in a snap.

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I don’t know when (or why) Carnival started this whole make-a-reservation-to-show-up-at-the-pier thing, and I didn’t know if they would enforce it or not, but I had no plans of waiting until 1:30 pm in the afternoon to show up for embarkation. Thankfully, the Port of Tampa staff made no mention or check of arrival times and even though our Lyft got a little lost on the way, from the time we left the hotel to the time we were on the Lido deck having lunch was less than 45 minutes. And most of that was in the car. When we arrived, the Priority baggage handlers swiftly took our luggage and pointed towards the escalator. We joined the VIFP Priority line, walked right through security and then was directed to a table to fill out the forms for our visas. Unlike most of the Caribbean, you’ll need a special visa to disembark in Cuba. Not to worry, though – Carnival handles the paperwork and the visas ($75 on your Sail and Sign card). Once our paperwork was all filled in, we were directed to the VIFP Priority check in area, where we were checked in immediately. And right as our cards were being placed into our hands, they called out for Platinum boarding. We walked right on the ship. It might have been the quickest, easiest check in I’ve ever had.

 

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Keri had only been on one Carnival cruise, but sailing together meant that my Platinum perks were her perks for our cruise, and that as soon as we boarded, our room would be ready and waiting for us. We made our way down to deck 5 and snuck behind the heavy doors to find our room.

 

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Many of the older ships (the Paradise included) do not have many balcony cabins unless you’re sailing in a suite. Given that it was a four night cruise and just two of us, we booked an Oceanview cabin (M61). Our room was right next to the aft elevator banks (primo real estate in my book) and was plenty big for the two of us. I did find the room to be a bit outdated, showing its age most in the bathroom (the shower, in particular, had seen better days), but it was a short cruise and it would suffice for our voyage.

 

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After we unloaded our carry on baggage, we made our way upstairs to the Lido deck for lunch. I’ll say this: I was stoked to go on a Carnival Journey’s cruise for the holidays, but you don’t need a Journey’s cruise for a retro Carnival experience – just book a trip on a ship (like the Paradise) that doesn’t have the 2.0 upgrades yet. The options on the Paradise were the same ones I had way back in 2004. Even the pizza stand had the old options offered. So, minus, no arepas, no tacos, no prosciutto pizza. Plusses? Cheeseburgers that didn’t have mayo slathered all over the buns and De Chevre pizza.

 

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We opted to walk lunch off by exploring the ship. I really, really wanted to jog some of those old memories. We walked down the Carnival Boulevard. I remembered sitting in the casino with one of those giant tubs because the machines used to spit out coins. The casino still stands. The coin tubs do not. We walked past some of the night clubs and Keri grabbed a latte at the Ile de France. We read through the shore excursion options (which were super limited, particularly for day two in Havana). We walked around some more and discovered every corner of the ship we could find.

 

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Eventually, we took refuge in the Normandie Lounge to watch Cruise Director Jaime’s Fun Aboard Fun Ashore presentation. This was my…third…I think?...cruise with Jaime Dee. She is, hands down, one of the best in the Carnival portfolio. She’s hilarious, she has energy that I couldn’t match even if I downed four Americanos and she’s…she’s just good peeps. When we were on the Dream back in 2011, she was the Assistant Cruise Director and she was really fantastic in helping us get around with grandma (who was in a wheelchair at that point) and making sure that we were able to get on, off and around the ship with her. Mom has never forgotten it and she is still to this day my Mom’s favorite Cruise Director. So much so that while I was watching her presentation on Havana, my mom was writing on her Facebook wall.

 

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And speaking of that presentation, it was super helpful and insightful. Cruising to Cuba is an involved process with many conditions, so it was helpful to have it all laid out for us. Oh, and we got a cute little pin out of it, too!

 

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Here’s the skinny on what we learned about Cuba:

 

1. Havana is proverbially frozen in time. There are no Starbucks or 7-11’s, and the port would be different than anything we’ve experienced anywhere else in the Caribbean (so all you Diamonds International fanatics out there are going to be disappointed – there’s no DI, no Del Sol and very limited shopping).

2. Cuba is the birthplace of two of my favorite boozy libations: the daiquiri and the mojito.

3. Broad tourism from the US to Cuba just opened up within the past few years and the Cuban tourism industry hasn’t caught up yet, which means traveling there right now is still a very unique, very raw experience.

4. You’ll need to BYOTP (that’s bring your own toilet paper) and some CUC’s, too – many restrooms require a small fee

5. Tipping is expected for all services rendered. The average salary in Cuba is $40 a month and those tips go a long way.

6. When there are signs prohibiting photography, your camera best not be out (especially in the cruise terminal)

7. US credit cards are not accepted in Cuba, and it’s rare for USD to be accepted. The Cuban currency (CUC) is equivalent to one dollar, but when you exchange US dollars for CUC’s, you’ll face a 10% embargo fee and a 3% exchange fee, so for every $100 you exchange, you’ll get 87 CUC back

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After the show, we ran back to the room to see if our luggage had shown up (Keri’s had, mine had not) and charge our phones before the muster drill. My bag showed up just as we were about to leave for the drill, which was supposed to start promptly at 3:15 pm. Doors to our muster station didn’t even open until closer to 3:30 pm and it ran later from there, as they called out for every person who hadn’t checked in for the drill individually.

 

Even though we were approaching Fall in late September, it was in the 90s outside, and we were really glad to find out that our muster station was inside the Normandie Lounge. Great luck, right? Nope. Only part of the drill is in the lounge. Then they make you walk upstairs and line you up outside. It’s terrible. Thankfully, though, because we were the first ones into the Normandie, we were the last to leave it, and we were the last ones up to the muster station, which meant we got to stand in front and were first to leave.

 

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With sailaway quickly approaching, we grabbed some pizza (and, side note, that De Chevre was even better than I remembered it) and watched sailaway from the aft of the Lido deck.

 

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Once we were out to sea, we grabbed some drinks from the bar (daiquiris and mojitos, obviously) and watched as the water stretched out ahead of us.

 

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Time seems to pass by and disappear when I’m on, near or just watching the water and this was no exception. It’s mesmerizing, the way the water stretches to the horizon and the way the waves appear from the wake of the ship. I could spend hours just staring. I do spend hours just staring.

 

When the drinks ran dry, we moved to the Taste Bar for a quick snack as we perused the dinner menus. The Paradise was serving the newer American Table menus, which is just about the only dining option that has changed onboard since 2004 and though they weren’t our favorites, we headed down to the Elation dining room for lack of other options.

 

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Our dinner was alright. The service was unremarkable. The food was even less remarkable, though the Nutella Tiramisu was particularly tasty. We had a wonderful view near the window as we passed through the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

 

Bread Basket

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Orange and Grapefruit Fillets

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Flat Iron Steak

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Nutella Tiramisu

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With evening entertainment options running the gamut from live music to educational lectures about Havana, we decided to go watch Hasbro: the Game Show in the Normandie Lounge. I wasn’t sure if the ship was running light on capacity or if people just weren’t feeling the game show, but just about everyone who wanted to play on stage got to because there weren’t many people there.

 

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Hasbro: The Game Show was super entertaining, if not slightly awkward because some of the people on stage didn’t actually want to be on stage. After the show, we headed back to Carnival Boulevard to check out the $10 Shop. The $10 Shop was in between some of the bars and night clubs and had a bunch of tote bags and accessories, but we walked away empty handed – there wasn’t anything amazing or that we really needed on hand.

 

Next stop was our stateroom, where I unpacked (because even on a short cruise, I can’t live out of a suitcase for more than a day or two!) and Keri decided it was bed time for her. But I had too much energy (and an extra cup of coffee) running through my veins, so I headed off to the Welcome Aboard Show, which was new and different and a very pleasant surprise. Jaime kicked it off with her own routine before kicking it over to a Playlist Production Cast of eight who did a short set of pop songs from Bruno Mars, Meghan Trainor and Jason Mraz. It was different, but I was okay with that (especially since the two Playlist shows on this cruise were shows I’ve seen multiple times).

 

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The Welcome Aboard Show culminated in a party in the atrium, where Jaime and the Fun Squad threw beads out to three levels of wildly gesticulating people. I passed through on my way to the Paris Restaurant for Late Night Snacks.

 

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Carnival’s Late Night offerings seem to vary from ship to ship, but on the Paradise, it’s the old school grill. Open from 11:30 pm to 1:30 am every evening, they serve up burgers, grilled chicken, hot dogs and fries. Even if the offerings on this ship were limited, we wouldn’t go hungry, that was for sure!

 

The Cubs were in extra innings and I held off on going to bed until the W was recorded. I didn’t know what Havana had in store for us, but I was so excited to find out.

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Day 1: Chicago to Tampa

 

With all of the uncertainty behind us, we dove into researching People to People (the conditions of our visas stated we needed to spend 7-8 hours interacting with the Cuban people conversing, learning and experiencing their culture), photo stops in Havana, paladares (family owned restaurants), anything and everything about Cuba

 

I absolutely LOVE the conditions of the visas! This is what travelling should be about! Visiting Cuba is a dream vacay for us and is definitely on our bucket list. I’d like to go for my 50th birthday. Hopefully travel to Cuba will still be available then!

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GREAT start to your review! Looking forward to your Cuba photos. We will be on the Paradise next month after her extensive dry dock. :cool:

I was just going to let you know there's a Paradise review in the works!

Nicole, I've always loved reading your reviews. Have never been on Paradise, but I am also reliving some of the "older" ships in the fleet thru your pictures. Thanks for sharing!

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Glad to see a review of both the Paradise and Cuba! I just booked the hubby and I on a 5 day Cuba (Key West/Havana) cruise on the Paradise. Definitely a bucket list destination for us. Only bad thing is we have to wait until next April!

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