Carnival Paradise Review

Not all its cracked up to be

Review for the Mexican Riviera Cruise on Carnival Paradise
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Chuck
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Dec 2007

My wife and I went on a 4-day cruise over Christmas. We are in our 30's and this is the first cruise that we have ever been on. We selected this one since it is affordable and a shorter duration so that we could get an idea of what it is like without being trapped on a ship for too long. We sailed on Dec 24th and expected to visit Catalina Island on the 25th. However, the wind was strong enough the next day that the ship rearranged the schedule to have the day at sea on the 25th, then Catalina Island on the 26th, and Ensenada on the 27th. The night we sailed, we explored much of the ship and got an idea of where things are located. There are several bars that have slightly different themes. However they all serve the same drinks and none serve food (other than pub mix). We were surprised by this since we had thought that we would be able to order food while sitting at the bar and having drinks. Also what surprised us is that the bars are not always open - some we never went into at all since we never happened to walk by them when they were open. This is strange, since when you first get on board they are saying that you can "sleep when you get home". This is no Vegas by any means. There is a casino which is open once the ship is in international waters (open for a few hours each night), but we are not big gamblers so it wasn't a big attraction for us. In any case on the first night we spent a good deal of time having drinks in various bars, enjoying the ocean, and visiting the karaoke bar (not a bad selection of songs, but not outstanding either). Karaoke only runs for a few hours in the evening, and we were lucky to go when there was only a couple other people there (the DJ said that it is usually more busy - as we saw the rest of the nights). So we got a chance to get warmed up before more people trickled in. After karaoke we went to the dance club which had about a dozen people - so we had a couple more drinks and then headed for the 24-hour pizza. It was a fun first night, and overall probably the one we enjoyed the most.

SHIP: Nice ship. We didn't think it was showing its age, just some of the color schemes have gone out of style. It seems like it is well taken care of. ROOMS: The room we had, Interior Stateroom, was adequate. It has enough room so long as you don't intend to spend a lot of time there. This is a ship, so you have to expect that the rooms will be on the small size, but had everything we needed. ROOM SERVICE: Good service and can order sandwiches and bagels - but there is not much more available on the menu. 24-hour service SERVICE: Excellent service and the staff are great. Some even remembered our names and gave us some tips here and there to avoid the crowds. BEER/WINE: Good selection of both. Beer like Pilsner Urquell, Stella Artois, Sam Adams, Guinness, Bodingtons, etc. At over $5 each for premium beer, it adds up fast. FOOD: Average at best. I can appreciate how hard it is to prepare food for hundreds of people at the same time, and they did a pretty good job, but certainly nothing to write home about. And if you time it badly (like we did a couple times) your only alternative is the buffet. DAY AT SEA: The day at sea was low key. Since it was Christmas day we did not do too much other than open a few gifts we brought along, and relax a bit and watch a movie (luckily there was an ok selection of TV stations to watch). Unfortunately we did not know at the time that there are certain times when the restaurant is serving food, and if you miss it you need to eat at the buffet. We also timed it badly this day, since we ended up looking for food when the buffets were being switched over. Next time I would not want a day at sea - we were getting a bit stir crazy by the next day. CATALINA ISLAND: We got up for breakfast and got seated at the restaurant (between 7-9) and ate before we headed to shore. We opted to skip all shore excursions (thankfully). We walked to the botanical garden (around 2 miles), which we needed the exercise anyway but could not really tell from the map what the distance actually was. The garden is nice and has some good views. We returned to town about an hour later and found a restaurant that we saw earlier - seafood restaurant that has 4 different Paulaner beers on tap and served large 1L mugs. We had some lunch and beer and then walked around the town a bit. Avalon is a quaint little "America town" that is interesting but unexciting. We talked to a local bar tender a bit and he told us some interesting things about the island. After a couple hours of looking at shops we headed back to the ship. ENSENADA: This was the best stop of the trip. We like Mexican culture and enjoy trying to speak Spanish with the locals. We ended up going to see La Bufedora (natural blow hole) since the shuttle into town said that they offer a tour there for half the price that Carnival charges. The tour guide gave some great information about Mexico on the drive up and also gave some shopping advice. There is a flee market at the blow hole as well, so we could do a bit of shopping and get some lunch while we are there. The blow hole is neat, but with hundreds of people crowding around the rails we never got a chance to see anything except the spray as it shot up - so we were disappointed. We had some fish tacos and did a bit of shopping. Then we headed back to town. The city is neat with a big party culture downtown. Unfortunately, even though there were two cruise ships docked, the bars were not very busy. We wandered around and had a few drinks in various places (one showcases beer from a brewery in Tijuana - and the beer there was excellent). The ship was sailing at 6:00pm, so we could not enjoy the night culture there (disappointing).

THE GOOD: - A big floating party, everyone is having fun - Carnival allows you to bring a bottle of wine per adult on board with you. THE BAD: - The food is unexciting, and sometimes not very good. - The coffee is horrible (we like starbucks). Luckily there is a coffee shop on board, but it does cost extra - The shows seem more oriented to children and grandparents. They seemed cheesy (the limited exposure we had to them) - The captains dinner/formal night is a "crock". They don't really care if you dress up, and it is just dinner with a cheesy show tacked onto the beginning and end. - The shore excursions are way overpriced. If you book it outside of carnival, you should be able to get it for around half the cost. - The ship does get a bit repetitive after the first day or two THE UGLY: - Carnival seems to view everyone as cows to be milked for their money - You can't help feeling sorry for the staff - sometimes they have to perform and you can tell that it is the worst part of their job - We were afraid that the passengers may mostly be retired people, but more horrified when we saw the number of children on this particular cruise. Many of the activities on the ship were geared towards children and parents, and that did not suit us. It turned out to be "kids night karaoke" for all of the remaining nights except the first night. However, this may be due to the dates of the trip (over christmas, and it was a full cruise). SUMMARY: Based on my limited experience, cruises seem more majestic and exciting from the shore. The long lines, "buffet culture", and constant hustling to spend money on the ship is not really my cup of tea.

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