Definitely get what you pay for. The cruise ship is outdated and randomly smells like sewer. I stayed in an interior room on the Empress deck and it was just grungy (Hair on our bedding, urine still in the toilet). We booked this cruise last minute because the price was so low and after the trip, I see why. The food was good, but the service in the main dining room was not up to par with the larger ships I have cruised on. It wasn't just terrible service, but not what one is used to while cruising. The lido was fine and the serenity deck was nice. The staff were friendly and while they didn't have a lot of activities to attend, the activities that they did have were entertaining. If you aren't looking to get much out of a cruise (would be happy just eating the buffet and playing in the casino) this would be good for you. Would not recommend this 4 day Caribbean cruise to any new cruisers, y'all might get the wrong idea of cruising!! Read Less

I generally don't return to cruise critic after a cruise and I, and my family, are relatively tolerant of imperfection. I have been a member since 2004 and been on a fair number of cruises, most in suites and more on NCL than Carnival. I have to say there is no comparison if you are in a suite. Do not waste the large amount of extra money, particularly on Paradise, for a suite. In order to get a fair amount of space and a balcony that could fit chairs we had to book a Grand suite which is the best cabin available. First, do not expect any kind of VIP treatment. There isn't any. I kind of assumed that going in so I was banking on the cabin being worth the fare. It , and the ship, were not up to snuff. Worst of all the coveted and rare (on Paradise) balcony smelled like raw sewage for the whole trip. I had to complain and they said they had heard that before!! Things are not clean. The robe had someone else's dirt on the collar, the surfaces were all sticky when we got there, the windows (which are easily accessible from the balcony -- I was going to clean them myself) had old drippy streaks running down them. I don't blame the stewards, I'm sure they are overworked. I can go on -- but I'm too busy coughing my lungs out from the second hand smoke in the casino which seemed to have no air conditioning or air circulation. Dining room wait staff at our table was excellent and we tipped them extra accordingly which I could tell was a shock to them as was the tip I gave our room steward. I don't think he had ever had a decent tip before. He said as much. Carnival Paradise is a tired old ship, okay for a short CHEAP cruise. This is not the ship to book if you want the suite experience. I will pony up the extra for a suite on another line where VIP means something. It's always nice to get what you think you are paying for. I wrote this so others are forewarned and don't get the major disappointment we did. Regarding service -- guest services often does not answer the phone. I had a message on the phone, tried to call them 6 times, no answer. I finally had to go to the desk and wait 15 minutes on a long line. Finally we were supposed to have priority disembarkation being in a suite and also with a wheelchair bound parent. We were completely ignored by the staff helping priority disembarkation until I steeped forward to ask several times why they were not letting us through. Read Less

We were on the Cloud 9 Spa, on the 12th floor, Riviera, with a balcony. We thought the room would be larger than what we had before on the 8th floor on Carnival Liberty, three years ago.. They were totally the same room. There were four of us and we need more space to put our things away. We lined suit cases up against the wall going out to the balcony. We had 3 closest and used those also. The two drawers under the couch, one was full of sheets, etc. They need to remove those items so you can put more clothes out of the way. I should have asked them to, but did not. I put my suit case under the big bed after I emptied it. Lots of room under the big bed for storage of suit cases.The refrigerator was full of juice and pop. We made them remove all of it so we could keep our own drinks in it. It makes it tempting to have all of that in the fridge and if you drank any of it you are charged for it.The stewards were just wonderful. They straightened our room twice a day. In mornings, removed dirty towels, cleaned, vacuumed. The 2nd time, they turned down the bed and removed all dirty towels, vacuumed and straightened and cleaned again. Room service was very good also.We will go again. We loved it.You can feel more movement in the ship on the 12th floor. The buffet food for lunch and dinner was not real good and also was luke warm to cool. All of the carving meat that we had was tough and could not be eaten.The restaurants on board had delicious food. But the food was also luke warm to cool. Breakfast was just about the same every day. They had an Italian restaurant on the 11th floor and the food was delicious. Opened for lunch and did not open for dinner. I told my daughter in law we should have eaten there all week. We had a good time on board. Lots of things to do. All of the stewards were wonderful. The weather was good to us. Read Less