My Super Long Paradise Review

[heathercruisin]

Warning - this is a long review!

 

My review of the Carnival Paradise – Sept 16 – 21, 2013

This trip included me, my husband, 7 year old daughter, and 80 year old father. We have all cruised on Carnival before. We stayed in two inside cabins side by side, on Upper (deck 6) in Aft. Next cruise, I think I will try to get a cabin in the mid part of the ship. Staying in Aft had me walking a lot.

Sunday: we drove down from Georgia and visited friends that live in Largo FL, not far from Tampa. Had a nice dinner with them and headed to the hotel in Clearwater. Got a great rate of $130 for a 2 bedroom suite at TownePlace Suites.

Monday: Just a 30 min drive to the port the next morning. We got to the port around 9:30am, hubby parked at the port parking garage, and we sat outside across the street at the aquarium in the shade for a few minutes because the previous passengers were still getting off. We went in about 10:00, smooth check-in, and were boarding about 11:15. We did not buy the Faster to the Fun, and I’m glad – we were boarding just after they did. The only down side was we had to lug our luggage around for a little, but other than that, I didn’t mind not having purchased it.

We went to the Lido deck and there was some confusion as to where all of the food was. They directed us to the buffet lines outside near the pool, but didn’t say that there was food inside, where the Deli and pizza were too. The Mongolian Wok was open but I never made it to there. I got a Rueben from the Deli and it was delish! We hung out there and after a while I went down to see if our room was ready (before the announcement) and it was, so we unloaded our luggage.

It was hot and humid while in Tampa. But closer to 4pm it got cloudy and rainy and that pretty much was our weather for the next 5 days. The safety briefing was fine, but I couldn’t quite understand why we went to stand outside at the muster station in the heat – they just got us out there, we stood there for a little while, nothing was said, no instructions, no names were checked or anything…then we were dismissed. We checked out the Camp Carnival for our daughter and got her signed up. We had the early dinner in the Destiny dining room. We had a 4 person table in the corner of the restaurant which I didn’t care for. Felt like we were the ‘bad kids’ and stuck in the corner, but our waiters were great. We ate dinner every night in the dining room.

Monday night I tried the escargot. Never had it before and I actually liked it. I can’t remember now what else I ate that night. We went to the free Liquor tasting and man was the line long! We stuck it out, tasted a few different things. Bought 5 bottles of liquor. I had done my homework before we left and wrote down the prices of some things in our local liquor store. Carnival’s prices were good on some items, other items not that great of a deal, so do your homework! We got 5 raffle tickets but forgot to show back up the next day for the raffle – boo hoo.

We went to the Welcome show that night and it was pretty funny. Robin Gardner from England was our cruise director and we liked him a lot. His parents were on board too which was nice.

[heathercruisin]

Tuesday was a Sea Day, and formal night. Another rainy day. But we saw a water spout! So cool! My daughter freaked out. I tried to take a video of it but it was hard to see on the video because I was filming it though a window and it was so gray outside. My father and I did trivia (didn’t win though). I went to the Art Auction for my free champagne and was laughing to myself at the prices that they were starting some of the auctions at – 17k? On a Carnival ship? It dragged on and on and I kept thinking “I’m missing my time with my daughter for this – a chance to win a piece of art?” So I left an hour into it and they still hadn’t got to any raffles. My daughter did the Build a Bear (aka Bear Cuddly) and for about $35 got a bear and an outfit.

 

Before dinner was the Captain’s Celebration. Now, years ago this used to be in the lounge and the band would play, everyone would get a free drink, and you could dance on the stage. Not now. My daughter was disappointed – she really wanted to dance with Daddy on stage. Now they have the Captain and the other officers in the promenade and you can just meet them.

 

For dinner I tried the Alligator for the appetizer and it was good – it was fried into a ball. Tasted like chicken to me. Had the prime rib and lobster but didn’t care for either of them. We saw the comedian Steve Burr for the family show and he was really good. Then the Shout show which was great! I liked this one the best.

[heathercruisin]

Wednesday was the Grand Cayman day. We bought the Stingray, Hell and Turtle Farm excursion. We met in the Normandy lounge, then all walked down to level 3 to disembark. Well, the guy leading us down didn’t bother to ask if we could all take the stairs, and we couldn’t because of my father. So we jumped on the elevator and went down. Then I couldn’t find the group. I kept asking and finally an employee said to go ahead and get on the tender and meet the group at the port.

 

We make it to the land and see that all of the excursions have signs up all around. We found ours, and we stood there for a long time before anyone came to finally take us to the bus. I wish this part had been organized better. It was very hot and humid just standing there. We get on the small bus and I just felt rushed. He drives us to Hell and says we have 15 mins. So we rush to go see the Hell formations for about 30 seconds, rush into the little store to buy a postcard, quickly address it, buy a stamp, mail it, and I quickly used the restroom. Then went to the Turtle farm, didn’t feel as rushed there. This was a nice area. Then we had to stop at the Rum factory store – again rushed. I could tell it was owned by Carnival or they had some kind of partnership with them because the prices for the rum cakes and liquor were the same as on the ship.

 

Then we finally got to the highlight of the trip – the Stingrays. This made it all worth it. We got on the small boat and it was about a 30 min ride out to the sandbar. There were several other boats already out there but that didn’t diminish our visit. I was the first person in the water. The stingrays were huge! A lot bigger than I imagined. The guides would get a hold of one, and help us each hold it while they took pictures. You could take your own cameras out there too. We were in the water for about 40 minutes. I didn’t feel rushed at all. They got food out for them too and let us feed them (I didn’t do this part). My father stayed in the boat. My daughter was scared at first but finally we convinced her to join us. She did it and loved it, but quickly got back in the boat after the pictures. During the ride back, they showed us the pictures one at a time. For $40 they gave you all of the pictures on a CD. I thought that was worth it, so I bought it. I didn’t have a waterproof camera so I didn’t get many shots myself. So if you do this trip, either take cash with you to buy the CD if you want, or have your own underwater camera. The weather was still cloudy and threatening rain but it never rained on us. But my husband still got sunburned.

After dinner we went to the So You Think You Can Dance show and my daughter and I ended up getting up on stage with others and learned a short country dance. This was fun but my daughter quit half way through it cause it was “too hard” (say it with a whiny voice), which it totally wasn’t. The next show was their version of Minute To Win It and my daughter got on stage with 2 other boys and she had them do a tongue twister to try to get them to say ‘Fart’ but all of them said the tongue twister fine, so they all got Ships On A Stick. My daughter was so happy to get that.

[heathercruisin]

Thursday was Cozumel. We were late getting cleared for debarkation for some reason. I think it was an hour behind. We bought the Carnival excursion for the Dolphin Push, Pull and Swim at Chankanaab Dolphin Discovery for me and my daughter, and bought the Dolphin Observer for my husband and father. The tickets just said to meet at the end of the pier. We were supposed to dock at Cozumel at 11. Since my father walks slow we left our room early to head down to deck 3. But they wouldn’t let anyone down on that level until we were cleared. So we stood in the elevator lobby on level 4. They kept telling people to not stay there and to go up to the Lido deck to wait. Then it was past 11, and people kept coming so they were lining them up down the halls. The line was wrapping around. Some people said they had the Faster to the Fun and shouldn’t have to wait in the line, and they needed the elevator. The employees didn’t seem to know what the FTTF was, and I never heard any announcements for them.

 

 

 

We finally just got on the elevator and went down to level 3, right along with them. It was mass chaos. Once we got off, we got one of the bicycle taxi's to get a lift down to the end of the pier. We found our excursion and waited a little bit for the others to show up. Then we had the long walk through the shop area to get to the taxi stand. I felt bad for my dad with all of the walking. We got in a van and got to the park.

 

 

 

We did the dolphins first. Here they do not allow any photographs in the immediate area of the dolphins. But they did allow the observers to take pictures from the boardwalk area, but it’s so far away, and at the wrong angle for them to get any good shots. All you are allowed to take with you is your shoes and sunglasses, but you have to take them off when you get into swim. So it would be hard to try to get photos yourself.

 

 

 

This was the real highlight of our trip. The dolphins were amazing! There were about 8 people in the water with our 2 dolphins. The trainer had us take turns doing the Kiss, Hug, Belly ride and Boogie Board ride. Every one wears life vests so if you can’t swim well it’s okay. To do the belly ride and boogie board ride you do have to swim out pretty far, and with the ocean tide rather strong that day it was a little difficult. But so worth it. We were in the water for about 45 mins total. Then we go into a different area and fed and touched a manatee. That was cool too.

 

 

 

Then they try to sell the pictures that they took – pretty expensive. About $35 for 1 picture, and $150 for all of them on a CD. I was in shock at the price, and at first I was just going to buy 1 picture. Then I thought – I’m probably never going to get a chance to do this again, and since it was my daughter’s first time, I went ahead and bought the CD (charged it of course). A buffet lunch was included for me and my dd, my dh and father had to pay $15 for it. Not that great of a buffet – was disappointed with the quality of the food. Then it started raining. Me, DH and DD went to the tequila house to taste several different tequilas (most were very good, but the prices were really high). It stopped raining and my father got to swim a little in the pool. We caught the end of the Sea Lion show which was cute. Then a bad storm came in.

 

 

 

We left, got back to the pier for a little bit of quick shopping in between the heavy downpour then got back on the ship. Another excursion was late getting back so we were late leaving. Tonight was the midnight Mexican buffet and it was really good food. Several different salsas, and other foods, really tasty.

[heathercruisin]

Friday was a sea day, and finally a sunny day! My daughter really wanted to go to the towel folding class so we did that. That was neat. We each got a large town and a hand towel and they walked us through making several different animals. We watched the ice carving demo, and I actually got in the pool for about 10 minutes. The pool was really crowded and is just too small for the number of people on this ship. The other pool on the top deck is just a larger size hot tub with water. No shade at all. My daughter then went to sing karaoke. Today from 12:00 – 3:00 was the chocolate buffet which was not advertised at all. Our waiter in the dining room mentioned it. It was held on the Lido level in the inside restaurant area. After finally getting some relaxation time in this afteroon, we started packing and went to dinner. My DH and dad went to the Cowboy comedian’s family show but said he wasn’t that funny. We all saw the 8 Seconds More show and it was pretty good – all country songs, and they had a great fiddle player. We spent some time out on the deck that night – nice full moon and no rain!

 

We had some trouble with our liquor order that we got delivered to our room that night. Just make sure you keep your receipt and double-check what you got. They tried to pull a fast one on us on two of our items and I’m glad we caught it and had it corrected.

 

Saturday was go home day. Debarkation was delayed because they kept calling the non-U.S. passengers over and over again telling them to go to Customs. We were about 45 mins late because of this. For some reason none of the other passengers could leave until they were processed. We did the self-assist debarkation. They called the Verhanda passengers first, so we were waiting and waiting... we finally headed down and got right in line to leave. They had several lines all merging in together. One was the VIP line but it was just as long as the others. We got out, and were in our car at 10am.

 

 

All in all it was a great cruise, and I think next time I will try not to ‘do’ so many shows/games and try to relax more.

[ManicHispanic]

Thanks for the review. Glad you had a good time.

 

We won't be in any hurry to leave the ship when we get back since we live about an hour from Tampa.

 

 

Sent from the Captains dingy with my iPhone using CC Forums mobile app.

[crusinpsychRN]

Thanks for the review! Wish they'd change up the itinerary a bit, Key West more often.

[teetee6263]

Thanks for the review, sounds like you had a great time. I'm in the process of researching excursions for my January cruise to Grand Cayman & Cozumel and this was very helpful.

[coho ken]

Thanks for the review.

[Silent Penguin]

Thank you for posting a review with lots of details but not too many. I can relate to your art auction experience. Speaking of onboard art auctions, have you read, "Ship for Brains"?

[Scooterpi]

Thanks for the review! I'm getting ready to book the Paradise for January.