Just Back from the Paradise. A tale of two cruises.

[VentureMan_2000]

Very good review.

 

How are you coming with your refunds and new microwave...?

[cruisecastle]

Very good review.

 

How are you coming with your refunds and new microwave...?

 

 

see the otherside in my new post "imagine this"

[lvrodmic]

I have a question I hope you can answer. On the three day cruise do they have any activities on the ship besides the casino, pool and spa. I was looking for things like bingo, trivia games etc. Thank you for taking time to answer. We will be celebrating my daughter's 40th birthday and will be a group from age 14 to 62. Enjoyed your post. Still laughing. Love to know there are still a lot of us out there with a sense of humor.

 

Mickie

[caribbean dreams]

Very cute!

I also have that dreaded cold and am having a hard time laughing without coughing.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

[cruisecastle]

I have a question I hope you can answer. On the three day cruise do they have any activities on the ship besides the casino, pool and spa. I was looking for things like bingo, trivia games etc. Thank you for taking time to answer. We will be celebrating my daughter's 40th birthday and will be a group from age 14 to 62. Enjoyed your post. Still laughing. Love to know there are still a lot of us out there with a sense of humor.

 

Mickie

 

They really have the whole production on the short cruises. They had bingo, poolside games, etc... Too me it's no different than a longer cruise except that you wish you were staying longer.

[Las Vegas Non Rev]

:) :) :) :d :d

[jandjfun]

Sorry to hear about your microwave. I would think someone like yourself would have know to put it on the sink counter in the bathroom. Use a very long extention cord to plug it in. Then you could have heated your own soup. Don't worry about using the sink, it is full of germs and the water is not drinkable anyway.

:D :D :D :D

[AQW]

I have a question I hope you can answer. On the three day cruise do they have any activities on the ship besides the casino, pool and spa. I was looking for things like bingo, trivia games etc. Thank you for taking time to answer. We will be celebrating my daughter's 40th birthday and will be a group from age 14 to 62.

 

Absolutely - just got off the three-day Paradise and we had bingo, trivia, newlywed game, deal or no deal, name that tune... everything. Lots to do, particularly on your sea day. You do not get shortchanged in the activities department on your shorter cruise!

[Thoth]

This first review is my review based just on exactly how I felt the cruise was. The second review down below would be the typical cruise critic poster review.

 

First of all lets clear up all the confusion regarding early check-in once and for all. It is not cancelled and is up and running in full fashion. This is a very nice feature and allows you to be one of the first people on the ship. We were on at 12:00 and were the 5-13th people on board. Emabarkation was a snap.

 

Having never been on such a short cruise, this was the 3nt, I was a little concerned going inot this cruise. There was no need. Despite always wanting to stay on board longer it was a very good cruise. It has been rated the 2nd highest next to Elation for quite some time now from the customer questionaire score.

 

This was my first time in a Cat 12 suite and what a treat that was. Very nice.

 

The food was very good we had excellent gazpacho soup, vichysoisse sp?, prime rib and chateaubriand. Had a bit of a glitch on a couple of the lobsters as they were dried out. Asked for new ones and the 2nd ones were fine. The lido deck food was probably the best of any ship I've been on for the lido deck food.

 

The cruise director is probably the exact opposit of John Heald. He is barely seen and rarely heard. That's fine in my book even though I like Heald as well.

 

Ensenada was lots of fun and La Bufadora (the blow hole) was alot of fun. Habana Banana near the blow hole had great margarita's and excellent guacamole.

 

This cruise was not a party cruise but seemed to be very well balanced between partiers, Grandparents, and families. Since it's a short and relatively inexpensive cruise there are lots of folks celebrating things like 40th birthdays, anniversaries etc......I would not hesitate to bring children or a family on this cruise for one minute. There were 8 of us ranging from 5-70years of age and all had a good time.

 

Casino was good and the had a hold-em a table which stayed busy until 4:00am.

 

The Paradise is a very nice ship but seems very small if you have been on the liberty recently which we had last summer for european cruise.

 

Debarkation was easy.

 

Can't think of any negatives at all and had a really good time only wish it had been longer.

 

2nd review from a typical cruise critic posting point of view.

 

Embarkation was a real pain in the rear as I had to carry my microwave and coffee pot over 300 yds from early check in to the the terminal. While trying to balance everyting onto the ship I cracked my coffee pot on the steel siding of the ship. Why Carnival doesn't pad these I don't know! I quickly made a note to add this to my post cruise complaint letter to Bob Dickinison demading reimbursement for my coffee pot. When I finally got to my cat 4 inside stateroom I couldn't believe how small and dark it was. There was no room for my microwave so I had to keep it on the floor. This is unacceptable as Carvival should have microwave stands in each and every room.

 

After unloading all my stuff I went up to the lido deck. Man was it cold, 65 degrees vs the 80 degrees I saw last week. I can't believe Carnival did this to me on my vacation. I quickly made a note to add this to my complaint letter and demand a 50% refund for cool weather. I couldn't find a deck chair exactly where I wanted to sit in the first two minutes so I saw a chair loaded down with shoes, a walkman, and a book. A half full drink was also next to the chair. Since no one was sitting in the chair I gathered all their stuff and threw it overboard so I could sit down. Of course I kept the drink and it was mighty tasty. Hey a free drink you can't beat that.

 

After 5 minutes I was bored so decided to walk the ship. I was soon outraged as I saw a wet paint sign on a wooden bench right where I wanted to sit. Hey, I paid for the use of this ship and I'll sit where ever I please. So I moved the sign and took a seat. When I awoke from my nap my clothes were stuck to the bench and stained. The nerve of Carnival! Made a note to demand payment for my ruined outfit in my post cruise complaint letter.

 

After going downstairs to change into my jeans I headed up to the dining room. Wow! What a disaster. These morons gave me two many forks I mean who needs two forks! What a waste! Anyhow the gazpacho soup was cold. I told the waiter to take it back and bring me a hot bowl. What? It's supposed to be cold! Damn it I paid for hot soup I want hot soup. Overall the food wasn't good as I could barely finish my fourth entree.

 

Ensenada was crazy. I loaded up my back-pack with food before I got off the ship. I took the la bufadora tour and had to walk about a 1/2mile to the blow hole. That's an outrage I didn't come on this ship too walk. Then when I got to the blow hole that shoots water up 70ft in the air I got wet and my camera was ruined and all my food was wet.. Carnival never told me I could get wet on my tour so I made a note too put in my post cruise complaint letter that they owe me a new camera.

 

The casino was a rip-off as I actually lost money in there.

 

The last day was sea day and after clearing a deck chair of some stuff left behind I was good to go for the day. But is was too cold again so again I'll note that in my letter. Good news though seemed to be alot of folks not watching their drinks so I got loaded on all the left behind drinks for free.

 

As I went back to my room drunk I tripped over my microwave and broke it. Carnival will be paying for that I thought.

 

Needless to say this cruise was a disaster and this is the last cruise I'll ever be taking with Carnival.

That is cute in that I too see the glass as half full. Unlike some however, I don't flame those who DIDN"T have a perfect cruise. People are entitled to their points of view.

[yellowfrog777]

That was a really good review. I guess it's all your perspective. Are you there to have a good time or is everything that occurs negative and someone else's fault. Good job. I appreciate the humor. If you are interested in my cruise journal from my same 3 day Baja cruise to Ensenada check out the link to my web page. Scroll down to the 2007 trip. I don't sell anything just hope to help others with my tips from my experiences. Have fun and make memories the bank can't take away.

http://www.workingformynextvacation.com/2.html

 

 

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