Paradise 7/16 review

[cathy_kearns]

This was the Carnival Paradise 4 day Long Beach, Catalina, Ensenada, Long Beach cruise

 

Background: For my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary my siblings and I took them on this cruise. My brother brought his two kids, my younger sister brought her husband, my older sister came alone (all kids and her husband were working) and I brought my teenaged girls. My parents have been on many, many cruises, usually HAL. My younger sister and her husband have been on Disney a few times, my older sister had been on a few cruises, including Carnival, and didn’t like Carnival before, and I’ve been on 5 other cruises, 1 Disney, 3 HAL, and one Regent. My brother was a cruise virgin. We picked this cruise as most of the family could make a 4 day cruise, but not a week. We were meeting in LA for the anniversary party, and didn’t want to fly again. I would not have picked this cruise or itinerary if it were just me and my kids.

 

And though we had a good time hanging out with the family, I wouldn’t really recommend this cruise for less than a large family reunion type thing.

 

Embarkation:

About half of us were in suites, so we had VIP embarkation. All of our luggage was small enough to carry on ourselves (note, mine was a size up from what an airline would consider a carry on…) and we did so. That saved us from the long check your luggage line. Then we didn’t have to stand in any other lines, as they usher you into the VIP lounge, check you in (I did have my pre registration done) cut you into the front of the security line, and then off you go to dodge photographers and get onboard. It took about 10 minutes from the parking lot to my room. My sister, who was not aVIP, took about 45 minutes. So I thought it was painless.

 

Accommodations:

I was in a Penthouse Suite, and this was the smallest room I’d ever sailed in. Okay, I’m spoiled. But when this is your top of the line choice, well, perhaps you might want to come up with better choices….And our room pretty much clashed with itself, which we found quite amusing. The smaller rooms had much classier décor. Hmm, too much decorating budget and they go astray. The beds were extremely comfortable. The shower was nice, it was over a tub. We didn’t try out the tub and see how the jets worked. There wasn’t enough room for my suitcase under the bed, and we ended up shoving it into the closet. I’m used to more storage room, but we three ladies did okay.

 

Wireless worked in the room, as did cellular. We only used cell service in port in Catalina, so I’m not sure how much the cellular at sea actually costs. Air conditioning worked really, really well. Controls are on the ceiling. And if you can’t get it turned off, I found our wonderful cabin steward was able to get it to turn off. Warning, after 36 hours of a nice temperature in the cabin it started to smell like cigarette smoke, and we don’t smoke. The heavy air conditioning blows that smell away.

 

Dining:

I always hear about the dress code, and no, they never denied entrance to the dining room to people in shorts or tank tops or bathing suits. (Though those in bathing suits did look like their shorts were dry…) On the other hand, though people were dressed like they do to hit the mall in southern California, they were very well behaved. I can’t say I ran across one rude guest in either the dining room or anywhere else on the ship, and on formal night I thought everyone looked rather spiffed up. Maybe they weren’t quite up to the “jacket and tie” look, but they certainly looked nice to me. My girls and I were in cocktail dresses formal night. We were adorable.

 

The food, well, I’ve had better beef Wellington, but I’m not sure I didn’t get the wrong order. As my daughter mentioned my brother across the 11 person table from me was complaining his was too rare, and mine was too well done, but we couldn’t really hear each other all the way across the table, and it didn’t occur to me they gave us the wrong orders. The lobster was better on our other cruises, but then again, lobster could be fresh in New England, so that’s not really a fair comparison. Nothing really hit me as WOW, but nothing in the dining room was inedible either. Plate were always clean at the end of the meal. I’d put it as good as one of those large charity ball dinners.

 

Food in the Paris (Lido) was pretty pathetic. I had breakfast there once, and thought about lunch once, and after looking at it went for the pizza. Their choice of fruit for breakfast was grapefruit, oranges, or oranges and grapefruit slices. Really? Melon was apparently out of their price range. The pizza was pretty good, but the service at the pizza counter was somewhat puzzling. They had all their selections in a case, and so there you were, looking at a pizza and you’d say I’d like a slice of that one, and they’d say “we don’t have that one right now.” I’m pretty sure I’m looking at one…. They need a better system, maybe making those say, warming cases, and only put the done pizzas in there….There was soft serve ice cream or frozen yogurt always available. And sometimes that really was your best option.

 

They did have a sushi bar tucked away on Carnival Avenue. (Or Boulevard or some cute name like that…) The sushi was never raw fish, and always something tasty. You could only get one or two selections at a time, it was meant for a taste, not a meal. And it was wonderful. We’d get a few pieces before heading off to dinner.

 

Service

 

There was a coffee bar with a cute French name I forget. The barista working there was a bit confused, as people would be standing there waiting to be served (and these are paying customers, this place was not free) and yet she’d be doing inventory. I saw this happen not once, but twice in the same day. Now how often do they really need to do inventory in one day?

 

I’m not sure where she learned customer service, but that trainer apparently got to many crew members on this cruise. I found many instances where I definitely wouldn’t say Carnival is trying to get our money. To the contrary, guest were there, ready to hand over Sign&Sail cards, and yet the employees would not drop other activities, such as playing with a crumpled up piece of paper, to wait on them. Perhaps they weren’t trained to think of waiting on people offering them money as a priority, or maybe they are just tired of working on the ship, but either way it was quite the turnoff. I actually left pictures I was considering purchasing and walked away from the photo area, as of the two cashiers one was arguing with a customer and calling them names (and I didn’t hear the customer say anything rude, they just asked for a folder for the picture they had bought..) and the other was tossing around trash, I imagine to work on his future as a cruise ship juggler.

 

The dining room waiters were good, the cabin steward was great, but the people working the Paris (Lido) restaurant bussing tables were pretty clueless. I saw them carefully stepping over spilt ice cream, just leaving them there, as if that were someone else’s job. The tables seemed to be set once with silverware, but once they were cleaned, the next people had to track down the silverware themselves. My mother rumaged through the bussing stations to find extra silverware and napkins. And these employees were experts at almost cleaning off a table, say picking up everything but one glass. This left the folks standing around with trays wondering if that table was vacant, or if someone really was around somewhere that wanted that glass.

 

The maître’d in the dining room was also interesting. He’d interrupt the conversations of the whole room at the end of dinner to announce the next day’s activities. He was accurate on stuff going on in his dining room. Not so much on stuff going on outside his dining room. And he wasn’t funny. And I'm pretty sure no one cares about the red/blue games. Perhaps he’d be better served going back to wandering the dining room and talking to tables individually.

 

Ports: Catalina and Ensenada

 

Catalina was a tender port. Despite what the maitre’d told us, you can just wander down to the tendering decks after 8am but before 9am and hop on a tender. Since the maitre’d kindly misinformed the rest of the passengers, saying tendering for the masses wouldn’t start until after 10am, the tenders were nearly empty, and no lines. Avalon is a square mile of cuteness. We rented golf carts (three four person ones for our party of 11) and did the hour or so tour. Okay, there were members of our party that did not seem to understand the “no rental carts” sign meant them, so we had a bit of trouble finding the scenic route, but it was well marked. People who read signs should have no trouble. Warning, most golf cart rentals are cash only, and at $40 an hour, not pocket change. We went for the three hour rental ($80) but came back early, and the pro rated the hours and gave us back $24.

 

Then some of us then did some shopping and eating, while others actually tendered back to the ship for free lunch and then tendered back for our 2pm glass bottom boat ride. Use your AAA card for glass bottom boat tickets, you get a discount…The glass bottom boat ride was cool; you really could see the fish. The tenders were the Catalina water taxis, and the drivers were very friendly, offering to give exciting rides, or telling you Catalina history while on your tender into town. I was used to the ships using their own lifeboats for tenders, so this was a nice change for me.

 

We docked in Ensenada. It was very cool that you woke up and looked out the window and there was the largest Mexican flag I had ever seen. So you knew where you were! There was a small shopping center right off the ship, and $2 shuttles into the shopping district. After you paid $2 for this short ride they spent the entire 5 minute ride trying to sell you another bus ride to perhaps better shopping and a blow hole. My brother and I and our kids were on the shuttle, but we didn’t try the trip to the blow hole. We wandered and shopped the main street, eating in one of the larger restaurants there that didn’t have associated trolleys with dancing girls. (We were with children…) I found the city as tacky, but not as seedy as I expected. We were particularly drawn to the wrestling masks they sold everywhere. For the life of me I couldn’t think of a single person I knew that would pine for a “Hello Kitty” wrestling mask and cape, so I didn’t get one, but Boy was I tempted.

 

Entertainment:

 

My daughter is a dancer. I’ve sat through many a dance show. And needless to say, she’s seen more dancing than I have. The dancers on this ship were her number one peeve. She thought they were awful. She thought they were so awful she had to go see every show, and our entertainment was watching her watch the dancers. But yeah, I had to agree with her, the dancers were pretty bad. In general, I’ve found dancers that are confident in their steps and their dancing can dance full out, and you are so enamoured with their movement you don’t notice if they are off. These dancers were not confident. Some of it had to do with costumes. I’m not sure how confident anyone is dancing in a g-string. Some of it was they apparently were not familiar with some of the numbers. And some of it were their technique was not as polished as kids who take 15 hours of dance a week. As she pointed out, the show was obviously choreographed for different dancers with a different skill set. Even my 14 year old non-dancing nephew noticed, “they tried to dazzle us with eye candy, but it still couldn’t cover the dancing.”

 

They had comedians do 30 minute sets to give you a taste for their blue midnight shows. Both were very funny. The second one did the standard cruise “my room is small, the bathroom is weird, you eat a ton, there are men in speedos” set that was exceptionally funny. He had a great delivery. I didn’t make the midnight shows, too late for me. They also had a magician that was doing up close tricks that were displayed on the video screen behind him. Unfortunately, all you could really see off the cards was glare, you weren’t sure if perhaps the cards were blank or if it was the card he said. From the reaction of the people up close I’m sure the tricks were amazing, but the technology wasn’t there to share with the whole theatre.

 

There seemed to be live music in most lounges, but we didn’t hang out in any, so I’m not sure how good they were. The cruise director, Karl with a K, was extremely good. He could run the games and make them hilarious without embarrassing the contestants.

 

Debarkation:

 

If what you are looking for in a cruise is one you can get off of fast, this is the cruise for you. We got a VIP letter saying if we carried our stuff, and met at the American Bar we could get off at 7am. But you didn’t need the letter, they started calling floors at 6:40am. I was standing in front of the parking garage with my whole party of 11 at 7am. I did hear one employee say to another he thought they could get everyone off the ship by 8:30. (Note: immigration on this ship is done off the ship, inside the dome using for embarkation, this means you aren’t waiting for the people with foreign passports. When I walked off there were no lines, the immigration folks were ready for us.)

[ParrotHead79]

Hey--sorry to hear that you're such a pompass snob. Go back to HAL.

 

I've been on the Paradise, and couldn't have had a more different experience.

 

I loved everything about the ship, and the cruise.

 

SNOB SNOB SNOB.

[davidt1968]

Let me start off saying that I've been on the Paradise twice. I have talked to many staff members on the 9 cruises I've been on so far. The Paradise sails 4 and 3 night cruises. Cruise lines can tell you everything is the same on all ships, but anyone with cruise experience knows that is not true. Much of the staff are working they're way up(7 night cruises and up) and nicer destinations(Alaska). Get the picture? Ok, now some of the comments were a little holier than thou, but I'll be a little more creative on my response to you. You went on a 4 day cruise on an older Carnival Ship. You spent money for a suite for a 4 day cruise. Do you really spend that much time in your room on a 4 day cruise. The point is you went on a 4 DAY CRUISE. Have fun, don't be so critical. Tell your daughter to relax too. That's a bit mean to be so critical on dancers that make a small wage and are just trying to find better lives. My daughter dances and she is taught by her mother and I that all dancers dance because they love it and should be respected for being themselves. It's sounds like you just need to stand back and take a look at yourself and realize nothing is perfect (cruise line, food, dancers, you), so on your next cruise, relax, have fun, and don't be so critical. It's wasted energy, really. Oh, by the way, I'll be cruising on Holland America to Alaska in September. My wife and I are in the over 100K salary range, and we'll enjoy our interior room. Actually, it's just to sleep in, right? I'll go to the top deck for the views. There better anyway. I could go on and on, but I won't. Happy sailing everyone.

 

David

Upcoming Cruises:

Holland America Noordam: Alaska-09/23/07

Past Cruises:

NCL Star: Mexico-Apr/2007

Carnival Liberty: Western Carribean-Jan/2007

Carnival Paradise: Baja Mexico-Dec/2006

Carnival Pride: Mexico-Oct/2006

Carnival Spirit: Mexico-Feb/2006

NCL Star: Alaska-Sept/2005

Carnival Paradise: Baja Mexico-Apr/2005

Carnival Pride: Mexico-Sept/2004

Carnival Elation: Mexico-June/2003

[julesverrn]

thanks for the different opinions that followed this post. I'll be on my very FIRST cruise next Monday on the PARADISE and I found this review to be a little snooty as well. I just want to have a really fun time and I think David's post stated it well - don't be so critical and just enjoy the cruise! :p

[binkey36]

Cathy

We have a group of 30 booked on the Paradise in November.

 

I appreciate your objective review. I have to disagree with Parrothead. Having crused on some of the other lines (Sitmar, Princess, RCCL, HAL) I think you were pretty darn accurate on your access of everything.

 

That being said, we are still booked in November. The price is reasonable and it is a good cruise for a large group.

 

Thank you for your review.

[cathy_kearns]

It is a good cruise for a large group. The traditional dining makes it easy that you can see everyone everyday at dinner. Lots of ranges of activities for varying tastes. And as you pointed out, good price points.