I celebrated my 50th birthday aboard the Carnival Paradise. I had only sailed with Carnival once before, but I have been on other cruises. I flew into LAX the morning of the trip, I had arranged private transportation which was waiting for me. Once at the pier I was guided into the Dome for embarkation.Having read some negative reviews about the embarkation process I had filled out my online sea pass and was prepared for a long wait. Although there were a lot of people waiting in line it still only took about 10 minutes to get onboard. And I met some very nice shipmates! Headed up to the Lido deck, wasn't hungry so I just had a beer:-)and waited for my room to be ready. When it became available at 1:30 I was pleasantly surprised to see my bag waiting for me. The room was more than large enough for me,as I travelled single. The room steward introduced himself (Patrick Thanks again!)The room was thoroughly clean and stayed that way throughout the trip.On the whole I found the staff to be very pleasant, smiles everywhere and I thought they went out of their way to be helpful.

Entertainment was adequate, but I did attend most nights. There were lots of activities, even on the days we were in port so I never felt bored. I had early seating and was placed at a table of 10, but it turned out there were only 8 of us. Most were travelling single like me but there was a group of 3 ladies, who were Armenian and didn't speak much English. Through gestures,smiles and a few words we all became "family" :-)The food was great and had more than enough selections. Our servers were wonderful and put on a "show" every night with gusto :-) I did not go into Catalina as I have been there before, I had a massage instead. It was a little more than I would have paid at home, but Iliana was pleasant and felt me leaving relaxed! She did show me some product (of course!) but she wasn't at all pushy as has been written in other reviews. I had also been in Ensenada before but I did escort one of my tablemates into town. She could really shop:-)

I chose to self disembark as I had a fairly early flight. The process was very orderly, there wasn't any crowd and I was off the ship in about 15 minutes. The customs lady did ask me what U.S. country I was from and I thought that was amusing. All in all I had a wonderful time and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this 4 day cruise.