Paradise's last smoke free cruise

[dickinson]

Just came home last night from the 14 day panama canal voyage of the Paradise. It was the last smoke free cruise. :( . saw them painting over the no smoking sign on the outside of the ship as we got off. I will post a short review later today. We did have a wonderful cruise however and met some great people from cruise critic!

[SevenVII]

Well at least now that the ship will be making money again!

[dickinson]

Our cruise was wonderful. It was shortened by one day because of Hurricane Frances over southern Florida. Because of this we missed going to Aruba. Carnival offered everyone $200/person on board credit for the missed day or the opportunity to cancel with no penalty. I think many people took them up on the offer to cancel as there were only 1496 passengers on board the ship. We heard that any where from 500-700 people cancelled or just could not make it to the ship. Lots of flights were cancelled so everyone scrambled to try and get there. We had a great roll call going and everyone who was active on it made it.

 

We met at sailaway on verandah deck aft and we were to all wear rubber bands on our wrists. Because of the storm the ships sailing was delayed til 10:30 pm to allow everyone to get there. Sailaway was in the dark but many of us were able to find each other. We had set up in advance a meet and greet for the next day at 5pm by the United States bar and there we met others who had not made the other meeting. We all decided to meet every day at 5pm in the piano bar (America bar). Not everyone came every day but most of us came most of the time. There was always a nice group of people there. At 4pm there was afternoon tea so at 5 pm when we met it was just winding down and we could always find a corner with plenty of seats. It was nice and quiet there and a great place for a meeting. We would chat for about 45 minutes as some people had early seating at 5:45 pm. We all had a wonderful time.

 

I won't go over the ports of call as they are not the usual ones. We did go to Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Acapuloc; and Mazatlan. We missed going to Cabo San Lucas due to hurricane Javier making too many waves. It is a tender port and I hear is often cancelled. We also had to make it to Long Beach in time.

 

the cruise director is Jeff Bronson. I had read mixed reviews on him. He was not too bad but he always pronounces his last name with a french accent (because he is from US and most people are from other places he gives himself an international air). He also goes bye y'all and when you answer he says it again. That gets to be annoying but other than that he was ok.

 

For entertainment he tried to get some different acts including people who had been on the ship often in the last few years. Tia Thompson made her last appearance on the ship. He got a group called Tribute to the Temptations (they were wonderful). We also had Norm Crosby who is a comedian. For those of us who remember, he used to appear often on Ed Sullivan. for the Las Vegas production shows there was Shout! which does a lot of songs fromt he 60's and 70's etc. The other show was a brand new (It may have been on for the past month or so) production. It was wonderful also. I sailed Paradise 2 1/2 years ago and did not care for one of the shows so I am glad they got rid of it.

 

for those people who like karaoke, Dave does it in the Queen Mary lounge which is the lounge in the very back of the ship. He is there doing it almost every night from 8-12. there will also usualy be Karaoke for one hour in the afternoon in the Leonardo bar. My DH had a wonderful time there. We tried the piano bar one night but did not care for the piano player, Billy. I think he was getting off the ship when we were so for those sailing after us there will probably be some one new.

 

Now that we are home it is time to actually cook and make my bed myself!

[dickinson]

Forgot to mention this but it was great to be on a ship where we had our choice of deck chairs!!!! With all the cancellations (and probably also the fact that the crowd was a little older- although we did have lots of people of all ages) because of the weather the ship was not crowded at all. On a beautiful sea day you could go to the pool area and actually choose which chair you wanted !!!! No saving of chairs at all. It was heaven!!!!

[kajsb]

I was fascinated watching the Parades on the webcams as it went through the Canal. Here are some of the pictures that I saved.

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/186119413URZuqQ

[MrPete]

Tia Thompson made her last appearance on the ship.

Is she the black woman that sings THINK and does a great BIlly Holiday and Judy Garland for her lounge act?

[dickinson]

Yes, Tia Thompson is that woman.

 

I saw the pics of us going through the canal. thanks!! the ships photographer was outside taking lots of pictures of the ship going through too. they had them in the photo gallery for sale.

[DeckCadet]

hey guys.

I had a wonderful time on this cruise as well.

I won't go into it in detail, but our staff was excellent. Our food was good, the rooms comfortable and the ship beautiful.

Got a big poster blowup of the ship's bow in the canal......got all the staff to sign it.

David was great with the karaoke. He let me take over (i'm a big a/v geek, I take TV video in school) at times. My grandmother and my mother both sang regularly there and in the piano bar. We met lots of great people.

I actually went to some shows, a first for me. I was also in the 3PM hypnotist's show. IT DOES WORK, don't ask me how.

Hope to cruise with you guys in the future.

[peanutprincess1977]

I for one am heartbroken that Paradise has moved to the west coast and become a smoking ship. She was the first cruise I went on, and you know you never forget your first. I loved the time I had on her and I don't know if any cruise will come close to that experience. My group from last year is planning a Non-Paradise, Paradise Reunion. We will be sailing the Valor on the same itinerary we sailed on the Paradise. It won't be the same though. I loved everything about that ship, except Jeff Bronnnnson. Maybe I will get to sail her again one day.

[mohavemommy]

I for one am heartbroken that Paradise has moved to the west coast and become a smoking ship.

Ditto on that one.

[cherith]

The paradise was the only reason I would sail with Carnival. . .I loved that ship. . . I guess it's goodbye Carnival. :-(

[NancAngel]

we too are deeply sadden by the paradise move, :mad: it was soo nice to go anywhere on that ship and not have mine or hubbys asthma kicked upi because of the smoke... maybe someday they will yet again give us a non smoking ship