Booked the 4 night cruise on the Carnival Paradise, traveling to Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico, from Long Beach. This was a birthday gift for my friend who is turning 50 this year. I've been on over 10 cruises and he's been on one previously. The lines I've cruised on include Carnival, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Norwegian. Of all the lines my two favorites have been Celebrity and Norwegian. I sailed on Carnival once prior to this trip on the 7 night Mexico itinerary and enjoyed the travel but not the ship for many reasons. I was a bit hesitant to go on Carnival again after that first experience, but the price and dates worked for us so we took a chance on the Paradise. I'm happy to say that I'm glad we did because this was one of the best cruises I've been on. It surprises me to say that but it's true. It was a two hour drive to the terminal for us, and we parked our car in the convenient covered lot located on site. Easy access to the terminal and porters were available in the parking garage to assist with luggage. Arrived at 1:30 p.m., and on the ship 20 minutes later. Doesn't get better than that. Excellent staff at embarkation. Complete you "Fun Pass" on Carnival's website before you go. It will help with embarkation. Our outside cabin was on the Main deck facing the rear, or in ship lingo, aft. Large room and very comfortable for two people to share. I liked how the beds were configured with one against the back wall and one on the side wall. For two friends traveling together this gave a sense of personal space. The beds can easily be put together for couples if desired. Bathroom was excellent in design and comfortably sized. Almost a full size shower, all tile. No bumping elbows on the wall in this shower. Excellent storage space with large mirrored medicine cabinet above the sink. Tons of hooks for hanging towels and clothes. It could have been a little cleaner as I'm a fussy person about cleaning, but it was OK. Closet and drawer space was plentiful. Beds were very comfortable, probably some of the best I've experienced on a ship. Nice bedside lamps for reading in bed, too. TV programming was very good with several satellite USA stations broadcast. The overall condition of the ship impressed me. Very clean and looked like new. Much nicer than I was expecting.
The food was one of the highlights. Carnival has really done an excellent job in this area. Almost everything I ate was terrific, or at least good. Dining room food was wonderful as was the service. The buffet food was even tasty which I don't expect from buffets. The pizza was truly the best I've had on a ship, hands down. Made to order and about 8 different selections including my favorite which was a goat cheese and wild mushroom. I think I had a piece at least once a day every day onboard. And the pizza stand is open 24 hours so it's a great spot to grab a late night snack. We didn't see any of the shows onboard. I'm not into that type of thing. Played Bingo once which was OK. I did attend the art auction and bought a small piece. I've bought many times from Park West auctions on cruises but I have to say this was one of the most irritating experiences I've had with them. I had an appointment to settle my account with Park West at 10:15 p.m. on the last night. I arrived at 10:10 p.m. only to be told it would just be a few minutes. At 10:45 p.m., after chatting with one of the auctioneers for about a half hour to kill the waiting time, I began to get really annoyed and was still being told it would be just a minute. So this process in total took close to an hour and my actual time to do business was about 5 minutes. The auctioneers were way too aggressive for me, and the lead auctioneer was extremely arrogant and annoying. The auction itself was way too long, over 3 hours. I think I'll probably skip future auctions onboard.
The cruise staff overall onboard were well trained and courteous. A few exceptions here and there, particularly with those who didn't speak English well, or at all. Several times I received very odd responses to my simple questions or just dazed looks. My main complaint with this ship is the directional markings, or lack of. Decks maps were almost nonexistent unless you searched diligently for them. I usually have no problem maneuvering around ships but this one stumped me all the time. At a minimum Carnival should provide a small map of the ship's decks in each cabin. Moreover, the markings at the elevator banks needs major improvement. It was almost impossible to determine which floor you were on. They did use some very odd markings on the carpeting to designate the first letter of each deck name, but that doesn't do any good if you have no clue which deck you need by name. Just number the decks and call it a day. I heard this comment almost every time I was on the elevators from other guests.