Carnival Paradise Review

3.5 / 5.0
989 reviews

Carnival Paradise - Eastern Caribbean

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Paradise
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therbst
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Nov 2003

Paradise - Eastern Caribbean - Nov. 23 - 30, '03 So much has been written in other reviews about the Paradise, I'm only going to highlight a few things which I hope might be useful. I will add my praise to the many who have written about the pleasure of being on a smoke-free ship. It really does make a difference. And I will also add that, of the 4 ships we have been on, this was the most grandiose atrium we have seen. It was always a pleasant place to visit, made more-so by the excellent 3-piece orchestra group that often played there. It was a very clean ship everywhere we looked, even with 600 kids on board that week. We had been told that we should prepare ourselves for a bit of a letdown on Carnival, that we would not see the kind of service or the quality of food we had experienced on other lines. In fact, we thought the Paradise exceeded the quality we found on other ships in many respects, and both of us hope to return to the Paradise in the future. The pillows were flat, but we had 2 each. The mattresses were in good shape. My wife and I were on our 4th cruise on our 4th different cruise line. We are early 50's. We used Priceline to arrange a room at the Sheraton Biscayne for Saturday night ($37 + $10 Priceline fee). Paid $25 for cab from airport (inc. tip and toll fee). We asked for a room on an upper floor facing the cruise port and ended up with a wonderful view including a little of Bayside park. It's a very nice place and a great bargain through Priceline. We were treated very well. It was probably the best hotel bargain we've ever found. We walked over to Bayside Saturday afternoon (about 6 blocks, 10-15 minutes) and cabbed back after dinner at Bubba Gump's. We did see a rat scurry under a dumpster on the way over, and some of the streets are not well lit, but we could have walked back without any real safety concerns. As a matter of fact, we saw a young couple head back about the time we got into the cab, and they beat us back to the hotel as we were delayed (with the meter running) while a boat passed through a lift bridge. Bayside is a large collection of shops, stores, restaurants (Hard Rock, Hooters, Bubba Gump's, a Chilli's opening soon, and others), and fast food places. They have free, live music. We also found a "discount store" on a back corner between the hotel and Bayside where we picked up a few bottles of water and Pepsi. There is a post office, and we heard there is a grocery store in the area. They were setting up quite a little Santa's village in the park that weekend. There was no preboarding check-in available at the Sheraton that Sunday. We cabbed to the port Sun. at about 11:30. With the traffic delays and confusion, it cost us $15. Check-in: Speaking of confusion. After the security scanner, we were directed to a line being served by about 8 people. Just as we neared the front of that line, some of us were directed to the back of another line being serviced by about 4 people. From there, we were directed upstairs where we picked up our sail and sign cards and the confusion and delays really got pretty awful. This check-in process might take you 15 minutes or an hour, depending on the whims of line monitors. Next time, we'll wait till 1:00 or 2:00 to avoid the frustration.

On board: The cabin was ready when we boarded and the last of our luggage arrived by 4:00. The cabin attendants were friendly, courteous, and efficient. We had dinner in the Elation dining room and all other meals in the Paris buffet. The buffet crew was, by far, the most efficient group we have encountered on a cruise; plates and tables were cleared quickly, and we never had trouble finding a place to sit. We really appreciated having the napkins and utensils placed at the tables. The tables outside by the pool area were often not available due to people refusing to vacate them after eating. (Deck chairs were also hard to come by in the pool area, though there were almost always at least a few scattered chairs without stuff on them). We enjoyed all of the shows, particularly Adam Ace, one of the comedians. We were entertained by several of the contests and competitions and saw lots of people win the 24 carat gold plastic ship on a stick. Brent, Karl, and Tina worked very hard at providing entertaining activities in several different venues. Tina, especially, impressed us with her vitality and smiles, though all three seemed to genuinely enjoy their work. We did attend a question/answer session with Brent and Tina on the last day. My question was, "Do you know about the cruise critic web site?" Their answer was that they were familiar with it and corporate also paid close attention to it. We learned the breakfast lines were always shorter outside; the seats in the Normandie balcony are more comfortable with the high backs but require you to look through a brass railing and around posts; the gift shop prices match prices at shops on shore, there is a small, secluded deck at the rear of the ship; only about 10% of the men wore tuxes on formal nights, about 1/2 wore dark suits, and I was the only one wearing a sport coat on casual night; and some parents bring their children to adults-only entertainment.

Disembarkation: Whatever you may hear, there is no such thing as "express" disembarkation. Sleep in, relax, enjoy the ship those last few hours. Not sure if it works that way all the time, but we were told if we carried our luggage off, we could disembark between 7:30 and 8:30, dependent on clearance by immigration officials. Since we cleared immigration in St. Thomas, we assumed that would be a quick and painless process. At 7:15, we found an out of the way place on main deck near the elevators and waited - and waited - and waited - until the elevator lobby was so full people couldn't get off the elevators. At 8:20 they announced we could leave, but by that time, we were at the back of the pack with lines of people coming from everywhere. I took us 45 minutes to get to the exit.

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