Paradise October 7

[jcruise3883]

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-

 

[marci4tony]

Tampa is one of our favorite departure points.  That and New Orleans seem to have their proverbial poop in a group!

 

Thank you for the props to Allegiant.  That is good to hear

[Kings queen]

Thanks for posting. Leaving on the paradise next week and was so glad to see your post. Was there Halloween activities on board? A costume contest? 

[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