BooBooMonkey's excellent PARADISE Tampa to Cozumel 4-day cruise (LONG with Pix)!!!

[BooBooMonkey]

Good review Booboo....My wife and I were the ones that won the 70's trivia, lots of fun.

 

See, I knew you had SOME fun on your cruise :p:D;).

[Gemynii]

Thank you for posting your review... can't wait to read the rest of it. :)

[BooBooMonkey]

I was up at the crack of dawn and mad at myself for forgetting to grab some ones to tip the room service person. Had to go down to the service desk for change and back to the room for our 7:30 breakfast delivery! Kind of defeats the purpose of room service, but I hate stiffing people their tips. The room service delivery person was at our door when I got back (DH was out on the balcony and didn’t hear them knocking).

Sitting on the balcony planning our day:

 

We lounged around the cabin until 9:30 as we had a 10:00 reservation for Playa Uvas and It occurred to me they were probably expecting us at 10:00 Central time—not Eastern/ship time. We walked right off the ship and over to the taxi stand.

We selected Playa Uvas this time after researching it on CC and Trip Advisor. We were looking for an all-inclusive beach option, but not Nachi Cocom again, as we’d been there 3 times already. Playa is located in an area near Chankanaab and has snorkeling from shore. The cost for open bar, lunch, snorkeling equipment, use of chairs/umbrella for the day was $43 per person. If you book through their website, you pay nothing up front and they send you a letter by e-mail with your confirmation, information about how to get there, and your balance due.

When we arrived, our name was up on their board. We arrived around 10:00 ship time (it only took 30 minutes from the door of our room to the entrance to the beach!) and were the first there. I really do think they were expecting us at 10 island time, but they didn’t seem to mind.

 

We tipped the bar guy $20 up front and asked him to keep ‘em comin’! The drinks were strong enough (we stuck to frozen drinks) and the food was delicious!

 

We snorkeled for about 45 minutes and mostly just enjoyed the beach. They offer glass kayaks and some people did those. I saw a couple of kayak excursions come over to the area in front of us (where the fish are). A small jeep or 4x4 tour stopped there for lunch as well. Other than that, it was very quiet until after around noon. At the busiest, there were maybe 50 people there. They offer massages for an extra price (I told the girl, that’s what I have him (DH) for!).

 

Comparing to Nachi—Nachi is “nicer” as in more resort-like. Their beach is softer, but there is no snorkeling there. The rocky entrance to this beach is part of why there are actually fish out there to see when snorkeling. We thought the food and drinks and service were better at Uvas. The taxi was $10 each way and only took 5 minutes to get there in the morning. We spent about 5.5 hours there and definitely got our money’s worth and more!

We shopped a little in the shopping area at the port for some trinkets for the kids. I like “Los Cinco Soles” (sp?). It is a little more expensive, but no pressure from the sales people there, and plenty of space to move around. We stopped to watch the revelry going on at Fat Tuesday…what a riot! We could hear the party going on there from our balcony when we got back!

We sat on the balcony for a while and watched people walking back along the pier. DH witnessed something happen (I missed it). He says a guy and his kid were walking back towards the ships when the little kid turns around and kicks the dad in the you-know-where as hard as he could! The guy hit the ground instantly and did not get up for some time, according to DH. The little kid must have felt bad because he falls on top of dad, hugging him. DH said when the dad gets up, he walks over to the edge of the pier and puts his hands on a rail or post or something and stands there for a few more minutes trying to recover! DH said he swore the guy was gonna jump! Funny, but not funny at the same time. Poor guy!

[BooBooMonkey]

Carnival Triumph coming in to Cozumel (Puerta Maya) and will dock next to us. We could see the fantail from the beach through some trees later.

 

 

Some people getting ready to go out on the glass kayaks. there is a line of white sandbags in the middle of the beach on the right of this picture. that is where you can enter the water without walking on the rocks.

 

A good idea of how uncrowded it was in the morning. Our 2 chairs are by the lowered-down umbrella on the right (blue Carnival towels).

 

Looking toward port area from the beach.

[poppadaddycruiser]

DH and I both had the lobster. I thought it was just OK, and DH thought it was terrible

 

 

This is the DH and I am a lobster fanatic. This is the one night I wait for in great anticipation for (it is common for me to get 3 or more tails on this night - (not counting the wifes!)) This lobster was like someone cooked it at home and over steamed by about 7 minutes and put the tail in a bag of saline solution and set it in the fridge for 24 hours. It was sooo salty I at first thought it may be the butter, but my table mate Brad who also knows good lobster pointed out it was the meat that was salty.

 

I know some of you will say, "you should of ordered Another." however everyone's lobster at the table was tough and salty so I figured why even try.

 

They did do a great job on shrimp and scallops when it came to seafood. I had the cocktail one night, a fried appetizer another and the ones served with the salty sucky lobster were GREAT! In addition, the escargot was the best I've ever had on board, just wish they had it more than one night!

 

Service at every meal in the MDR both lunch and dinner was agonizingly slow nearly everyday. This as the first time in 9 cruises I had ever experienced this type of poor service. It also took FOREVER to get any beverage other than water.

 

Of course as is the new norm on Carnival the wait staff are the Bread N a z I s. I just got use to asking for 2 or 3 right at the get go.

[BooBooMonkey]

We again went to the MDR for dinner. Misty and Brad were there, as well as the Uncle/Niece combo. DH had the shrimp starter and Jerk pork for dinner.

 

 

I had a Caesar salad again with the shrimp and fries dinner. All the food was great! One snafu was they didn’t bring cocktail sauce with the shrimp. I asked for some, and they brought tartar sauce instead! (that is ketchup in the picture, for the fries). When the head waiter noticed that it was the wrong sauce, he had the other guy (not our asst waiter…some other guy) bring the right sauce.

 

 

We were in a hurry that night because we wanted to go up top to watch the “pier runners” for our 7:00 sailaway. We missed it! That is the only bad thing about having the 6:00 dinner when the ship leaves at 7:00 lol.

We did make it in time for sail away and the horn scared the crap out of me yet again! So loud! But so fun!

We spent lots of time in the casino. I finally won some $ on a penny slot machine (and promptly donated it back). DH did not do well at Bj and roulette tonight, but did have a good run at the craps table. I milked about 3 hours of slot machine entertainment out of my original $40 investment…fine for me. I play more for the entertainment, and hope for a big win some day.

 

 

A couple notes about the casino:

Day 1 was a "black hole" for me on the slots, but DH won $120 at BJ pretty quickly. The drink service was almost adequate in there. The staff did enforce the new smoking rules. They now have signs on the slot machines where smoking IS allowed (instead of signs on machines where it is not). They have signs saying there is only smoking allowed when playing at designated slots or tables. The casino staff really did try to enforce this (until the last night). Also, I don't care what anyone says about RNG and odds on the slots. The ships do change up the machines on the last day. They do not pay out as well at all. I feel confident that this is true after my 10 plus cruises playing slots. I have noticed a marked difference in how the machines work on the last day on every cruise. They seem to be loosest on boarding day and the second-to last day. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

After our casino donations, we stopped by guest services to grab a room service menu. They don’t keep them in the rooms anymore. We went to the cabin and ordered a pastrami & rye and a BLT. Yummy midnight snack!

Next up: last day at sea…

[LUVMYGSDOG]

Thank you for another enjoyable istallment and the lobster review by your DH. I didn't like the lobster on the Fantasy either. I think in May, I just might order something else on lobster night (even though I love lobster!).

 

Room service late at night is so fun! I always get a grilled cheese. Yum.

[declansdad]

Thanks for another update. We have booked Nachi for our Cozumel stop so I was happy to see your comparison.

 

Do you know what type of lobster they were?

[BooBooMonkey]

Thanks for another update. We have booked Nachi for our Cozumel stop so I was happy to see your comparison.

 

Do you know what type of lobster they were?

 

I'm not sure, but probably warm water variety, as they were not very good.

 

You should enjoy Nachi. we would go back again, but wanted to try something different this time.

[BooBooMonkey]

We finally slept in today…me until 9:15 and DH until about 10:00. It was hot and MUGGY this morning up on deck! Not complaining, but I really did notice the difference this day.

 

I had to get an online package in order to check in for our Southwest air flights. That is my only complaint about SWA…if you’re on a cruise, you have to pay $ to log in 24 hours before your flight to get a good spot.

Anyway, I got the pay as you go for $3.95 plus 75 cents/minute. I did that about an hour before I knew I needed to go online to check in with the airline. Then, when I went back to do that, it kept saying I had the wrong password! I KNOW I had the right password (we all have that one password we use all the time, right?) And, I had to enter it twice when signing up for the account, so I KNOW I had the right password! I got locked out. No option to answer a security question or anything! I looked around the corner to the guest services line with 10 people in it and decided to just open a new account under DH’s name as my time was drawing near. That worked and we got passes somewhere in boarding group B. So, at this point, I was out about $5 for the double account. I decided it wasn’t worth my time to go try to get my $ back…not worth the hassle at all.

 

There were long lines at the GS desk this whole day. We think it was people removing tips and/or questioning every little charge on their accounts. DH had to go pay the $4.05 balance the next morning, and he said it was a zoo and people were arguing over a single drink charge they didn’t remember, etc. What a waste of time.

Lunch in the MDR was very good today! DH had the rainbow trout and said it was the best piece of fish he’d had in a long time (and he is picky). I had the build-your-own-burger. I know it sounds uninspiring, but after avoiding the buffet/grill all week, I really just wanted a burger! It was good. Dessert for DH was a “chocolate sundae”. He was disappointed that it was just a scoop of ice cream, a dollop of whipped cream on the side and a light drizzle of chocolate sauce. It was not what most North Americans would picture when thinking sundae. I had the apple tureen (sp?) which was absolutely delicious! The lunch waitress told us there would be a chocolate buffet in the Lido restaurant at 2:00pm (it wasn’t advertised). We didn’t make it to that though.

 

Back to the room for balc/nap/packing…

 

We had an envelope under the door with zone 3 luggage tags. Later, after our room was cleaned during dinner, they placed zone 1 tags on the bed with VIP debarkation instructions (meet in the library by 9:00 in the morning, after self-assist). We had an 11:20 flight, but didn’t want to do self-assist, so this worked out nicely.

We noted in the Fun Times that the fun farewell party would be at 5:00 in the aft lounge. Only time you can get free drinks on board. It was fun with a band/singer. We had our fill of whiskey sours, and I ordered a diet coke to take to dinner (something I had been craving, since we didn’t buy the soda pop package). Thanks to Cruise Critic, I knew to look for this event! It is not well advertised—mentioned on the first day in the Fun Times (that they will have one the last day, but no time or location given). On the last day, it is only listed on the tear-off part of the Fun Times that lists the time of everything. There, it did not say what the fun farewell party was, so you had to know. Maybe 100 people showed up, so service was outstanding (practically begging to give you more free drinks).

 

The last dinner, we took our time and ordered a few different things. For starters, we both had the crab cake (not good—too mushy and served over diced pears). DH had both the mushroom soup and the French onion soup. I had my usual Caesar salad. For the main, DH had the penne Mariscos (seafood pasta with red sauce). He said the scallops were cold in the middle. I had the flat iron steak, which was passable, but the potatoes were not cooked well enough for me. For dessert, DH just had plain vanilla ice cream. I had the cheese plate with a baguette. We both had a cup of cappuccino.

 

That evening, we went to see the other comedian, Thomas Brown at 10:00. I liked his show better than the other guy’s. We did go to the casino to make our final donation and as I said before, they change up the payouts on the last day, so it was not as much fun. Hardly anyone was in there that night. The ship was ROCKING that night, so that may have something to do with it (and no one had any $ left).

We must have forgot the food porn that night…sorry. Here are a couple more shots of the cabin:

 

Balcony door and window seen from the sofa

 

Looking from the balcony window towards the entryway-gives a good idea of the size of the room

 

Towel animal! We had a new friend every night. I would place them in the window sill facing out so they could watch the sun rise in the morning :-)

 

Next up, debarkation day :(

[richstowe]

Great review. Love the idea of a short review and then going into detail.

Do want to make one comment. Think you are NUTS to have taken an 11 20 flight.:eek:

 

Look forward to reading about the rest of your trip.:)

[BooBooMonkey]

Do want to make one comment. Think you are NUTS to have taken an 11 20 flight.:eek:

 

I know, right!?

The next option was late afternoon not getting us home until after 8pm. I didn't want to hang out in the airport that long, and had to work the next day. I did research flight times on the Tampa/Florida homeport board and decided it was worth the risk based on what others had experienced.

[LUVMYGSDOG]

Looking forward the rest of your review and how the 11:20 flight went! We are taking a 12:30 flight from Tampa and interested in how soon you debarked and arrived at the airport!

 

Kim

[BooBooMonkey]

Looking forward the rest of your review and how the 11:20 flight went! We are taking a 12:30 flight from Tampa and interested in how soon you debarked and arrived at the airport!

 

Kim

 

Well DUH! I just realized I wrote out the debarkation day part but never posted it!!! Silly me! :p

 

Debarkation day

I awoke before my alarm at 7 a.m. and we were already docked. The ship docked in the opposite direction than it had been when we left. Room service breakfast was delivered on time around 7:20. We hung out in the room and finished packing until about 8:45.

The customs calls started around 7:20 (right when our breakfast was arriving). By 7:50, they were calling the names of 4 people who had not cleared customs yet. Around 8:10, there were still two people and they were announcing their names and cabin numbers! Come on non-US citizens—get it together with the customs clearance, will ya? If I were self-assist with an early flight, I would have been really ticked-off!

Self-assist finally started a little before 8:30 I think. They call decks starting from the top down. At 8:45, we left for the library for zone 1/VIP debarkation and waited until around 9:20 when they finally finished all the self-assist people and came to "escort" us off.

Luggage pick-up and customs were a breeze! We were in a taxi within about 5 minutes and on our way to the airport. The whole thing took about 30 minutes from leaving the library to arrival at the airport. Taxi was flat rate of $25 to the airport. We had about an hour and a half before our 11:20 flight, but I wouldn’t do anything much earlier than that. I decided to skip the free shuttle we had coming to us as I wanted to be sure to get there on time.

So, there you have it! Yet another fun cruise with Carnival! I will try to answer any questions (for a few days) if anyone has them. Thanks for reading!

[AdventureMatthew]

Thanks for the review. I'll be sailing on the paradise in Sep with a group of friends

[LUVMYGSDOG]

This was a most excellent review and I throughly enjoyed it! And I feel much better about our 12:30pm flight out of Tampa now!

 

Come on May 10th, hurry up! I can't wait!

 

Kim

[BooBooMonkey]

This was a most excellent review and I throughly enjoyed it! And I feel much better about our 12:30pm flight out of Tampa now!

 

Come on May 10th, hurry up! I can't wait!

 

Kim

 

Glad you found it useful and entertaining! I hope your experience catching your flight will be a smooth as ours!

Happy planning and sailing!

[chiklips]

Why can't you just get a taxi to a beach in Cozymel and Cayman?

[vivavegas]

Thanks for your detailed and well written review!:) Great photos too..:)

[deborahjo]

Never mind

[camper49]

We had cabin V-34 on the port side Veranda deck. It is a “junior suite” which is the only way (plus the grand suites) to get a balcony room on this ship. These cabins are only slightly larger than the ocean view cabins on the same class ship. Pretty much the same closet/drawer/bathroom space as any standard cabin on Fantasy class. Ours was the third cabin on the left as you come into the hallway from the elevator/stairs.

My first impression was that the cabin was very dark! The décor included lots of dark wood. Usually Carnival cabins are bright and gaudy…not the case here. We found the darkness a theme throughout the ship in the inside areas.

 

This one looks brighter:

 

 

The cabin was sold as an “obstructed view” cabin for a slightly lower price than the unobstructed cabins in the same area. We were pleasantly surprised to find no obstruction!

 

 

The cabin location was perfect for peace and quiet from the hallway (no one ever goes there unless they have a cabin there). The cabins just aft of us (two) had the obstructed views (lifeboats). None of those forward of ours had any obstruction. The very front ones were less private because anyone who found the “secret” deck above the bridge could see right onto those balconies. Although the promenade was right below us, we noticed that no one ever looked up as they were walking by! Also, not many people walked by below us anyway.

The balcony is small by comparison to the newer ship standard balconies. Another 10 inches in any direction would have made it better. The balcony was really nice to have though! We spent an average of 3 hours/day out there.

This is the balcony seen from the divider between ours and the neighbor aft of us.

 

There is a refrigerator (not very cold) and a cabinet with a selection of glassware to use for your drinks. The TV was a flat screen. However, they still had a VCR (yes---I said VCR) hooked up to it. Who even has VHS tapes to play anymore? They should have just trashed that thing during dry-dock (or at least replaced it with a DVD player).

 

The carnival comfort bed was comfy, but a bit firmer than the last time. I like a softer mattress (my sleep number is 35 on our sleep number bed at home). Love, love, love the pillows and duvet!

 

Here is a picture of the outside of the ship from Cozumel. Our cabin is just below the "e" in Paradise. The Grand suites are under the red line on the side of the ship.

 

 

There was no obstruction ??? We have cabin V34 on Sensation in Feb.. Is it possible there will be no obstruction?? Just wondering if all Fanasty Class would be the same...

[cowgrlkirby]

Can anyone please tell me where the secret deck area is on this ship? I always hear about them but can never find them. I love to explore the ship but I always feel like I am looking for the other end of a rainbow when I am looking for all of these "secret" places...lol! If anyone could fill me in on any neat things to keep an eye out for on this ship that would be great. I am sailing January th and this is the first time we will be going to these ports and on this ship, so I am really looking forward to it!

[BooBooMonkey]

Try deck 8 or 11 all the way forward. You get to them by a door at the front end of a hallway with cabins.

[camper49]

Try deck 8 or 11 all the way forward. You get to them by a door at the front end of a hallway with cabins.

So your cabin V34 was not obstructed??