Carnival Paradise Review
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Background Information: It was just me and my husband (mid & late 20's) traveling on the 4-day Paradise to Catalina Island and Ensenada. This vacation was booked mid June for the July 30 - August 3rd sailing out of Long Beach. This was our 2nd cruise, ever.
Travel To Port of Embarkation: We drove down early Sunday morning from the San Francisco Bay Area and arrived in Long Beach 4 to 5 hours later. My handsome husband drove the entire way (bless his heart) and we stopped off for breakfast at one of my favorite LA restaurants. Hotel Info: We enjoyed a pre-cruise stay at the Coast Hotel & Resorts located minutes away from the Long Beach terminal. We booked their Park & Sail package which allowed us to leave our vehicle at the resort while we were on our cruise, service to & from the terminal and breakfast for the both of us the morning of our cruise. Our navigation system led us right there (without it we may have been have missed it). We arrived at 12pm and they kindly allowed us to check-in early. We were exhausted from the drive, however once we settled in our spacious " Bay View" room with beautiful views of another Carnival ship, the Queen Mary, and the Bay, we immediately showered and changed into our bathing suits and headed to the pool.
Embarkation: We took the first shuttle from Coast at 10am and arrived at the terminal a few minutes later. We were going to carry-on all of our luggage but gave it to a porter since it was so early. We tipped him and he pointed us in the direction of the Queen Mary early check-in. We walked over and we were immediately assisted at the VIP counter. The representative was very helpful, gave us our Sail & Sign cards and a "Zone 1" tag. We sat at the front of the "Zone 1" line on the green benches and spoke briefly with another family waiting to board. I read my book, while my husband read his magazine and occasionally we watched passengers file out from the previous cruise. The dome opened at 11:30am, "Zone 1" was called, we went through the detectors, took our embarkation photo and we were on the ship enjoying our vacation by 11:41am. I was extremely pleased with the organization and convenience of the Queen Mark check-in. Kudos to Carnival!