This was our 8th or so cruise and we had so much fun despite the weather. The stateroom stewards ask what would be an ideal time for them to enter the room to clean and not disturb anyone which is a plus. The cruise director Leon knows how to keep a party going and things up beat at all times, outstanding job on his behalf. Our children along with my relatives children had a blast at camp carnival each and every time they were there, and the staff was excellent at keeping an we on them. Dinner at the Elation restaurant was also great and the waiters did an excellent job as always. Everything from the shows to the deck parties kept my family of 23 happy and always entertained while on vacation. We felt at home and well taken care of. I’d also have to mention that the captain did a great job with the ship since the weather condistions were not the best. The ladies in our group enjoyed the spa services, and we all enjoyed the Dr. Seuss breakfast. Absolutely No complaints here as everything was great as always. We will continue to recommend and choose carnival for our cruises no matter what because aside from anything and everything that can go wrong, Carnical knows how to party and make us feel like part of their family. Thank you Carnival Read Less

This was my wife and my 45th anniversary present to each other. We should have stayed home, went out to dinner, and saved 4 grand. If you are looking for a low budget frill cruise, an over crowded ship, school cafeteria food, and poor service then this cruise is for you. First the over crowded, dipping your toes in the pool or even finding a lounge chair, unless it’s raining, was impossible. In addition we arrived in Key West with three other cruise ships, and in Cozumel with 4 others. Shoulder to shoulder shopping, no seats to sit down to eat, and over-priced trinkets. The only things to do on the ship for the middle aged was to listen to music, no ‘60s or Country; drinking if you could get service; gamble if that’s your thing; and eating if you don’t mind what you put in your mouth. The dining room food tasted like school cafertia food. The only thing we found palatable in the food court was a hamburger and fries, for 5 days! Carnival also must go to great lengths to train their staff not to do anything special for their guests. My friend asked to taste a thimble full of the reminents of a mohito blender mix and was told that they would lose their job if caught giving anything away. Instead it was washed down the drain. Why aren’t soft drinks free, gotta be $$. Service was poor everywhere. Carnival seems to pride themselves on having over 50 nationalities on their staff. I wouldn’t care if I was served by a baboon if the food was good and service was friendly. This was my first and last Carnival cruise I have disembarked for the last time. Read Less

This was my families third time cruising with Carnival and this was the absolute worst one yet. For starters we were to board between 12 - 12:30 but that didnt happen it was more like 1:30. Most of the staff and waiters were rude, not to mention my four year old hated the kids camp because the staff wasn't very kid friendly. There was a guy in the day camp who had no business working with kids all he did was raise his voice at them, and he tried to discourage parents from leaving their kids after 10pm because he didnt want to be bothered. When i dropped my son off and he was there he just cried. The camp my thirteen year old attended was okay but the kids basically did their own thing.Our cabin wasnt bad, but the guy who was cleaning kept busting in really early ehile we were sleep. The beds were actually very comfortable. Our waiter at the Elation restaurant was extremely rude and seemed as if he didnt want to be there. I'm definitely considering a different cruise line for our next family vacation. Read Less

We decided to cruise on Carnival Paradise due to it being the best itinerary for our travel date. The ship just came out of dry dock & refurbishment in March 2018. They added Waterworks, Guys Burgers, shopping options like Pandora & renovated all rooms. We were not first time cruisers but this was our first time on Carnival. As previous Disney cruisers it’s hard for any other cruise like to compare but I can say we were pleasantly surprised. We traveled with our 2 sons ages 13 & 19. We booked a balcony room. The room was clean & balcony was new. The entertainment was good. The comedians did PG shows in addition to adult shows which worked out well for my family & the nighttime musical performances we good also but it’s not Disney & trying to compare the too is like comparing apples & oranges. Simply you can’t compare the 2. Food on carnival is good & I recommend your time dining. It worked great for us. If you have children, plan on staying at the water slides as the pool area is the center of the party for the adults. If you do like smoke, stay out of the casino area. Circle C was great for our 13 year old. There wasn’t as much for the 19 year old just because he’s too old to hang in the teen club & too young to enjoy the night club but he still had a great time. We loved the excursions we booked. We highly recommend beginner scuba in Grand Cayman & the dolphin swim & Xplor Park in Cozumel. If you do Xplor know that it takes the whole time your there so no time to shop or check out Cozumel but if you like zip lining this is the place to go. Also the cruise director Leon was great. All in all one of our best family vacations & my husband & I look forward to cruising without the kids on Carnival in the future. Also book faster to the fun. It’s worth it for debarkation! Read Less

My husband and I chose this cruise date for our honeymoon/wedding celebration, to enjoy with family and friends. The 5 days seemed liked the perfect amount of time and the dates worked great because we figured it was after spring break and before summer so the crowds would not be as bad. It was our first cruise and also the first cruise for many of our party and majority of our party are not sure we ever want to cruise again and most definitely, not with Carnival. I want to start b saying that the stateroom and bathroom size was larger than expected; the coffee was pretty good and the sit down restaurant was good (if you don't mind the occasional smell of sewage). Other than that, I could complain about everything else. I also want to note I have NEVER wrote a bad review so I am not one to complain. I just hope to save some one else the money and save their experience. The food was all mediocre (other than the restaurant). At one breakfast from the buffet, I had eggs, bacon, toast and potatoes. I found myself kind of forcing myself to eat these items and finally put he plate aside and opted for a bowl of cereal. There was not one item on the plate that I could actually say I liked and I do like breakfast food. Pretty sad that I had to eat cereal instead of stuffing my face with all the mazing food I expected. Also, the only 24 hour food that was available was pizza which was nothing to talk about. want a late night chocolate cookie? Don't count on it, the dessert bar, salad bar, buffet, burgers and tacos are not available. Now for the drinks, we purchased the CHEERS package for my husband and myself and the BUBBLES package for my daughter (we also paid for the gratuity). The idea of going up to any bar and ordering a drink with no bill was wonderful, however the service was not what we expected. In fact, it was like we were bothering the bar tender and this goes or the 3 main bars that we used; the Red Frog, the Blue Iguana and the bar that was located next to the pizza station. Now keep in mind The Blue Iguana was hardly ever open so that left the 2 to 3 bar tenders at the Red Frog to serve everyone that was at the pool area. We had gorgeous weather for our trip so it seemed that everyone was at the pool area. Those poor bar tenders seemed to be there from morning until midnight. I am sure they were tired and seemed over worked, but I am sure they need the money. However, we could wait anywhere from 5 to 12 minutes before even being asked what we would like. People would walk up to bar after us and would be served first. We did not tip every time (we did pay for that ahead of time), but other times we would tip. There was one bar tender named Billy that worked the bar Thursday night and we all made sure to tip him well because he was a pleasure and entertaining. I would also like to say that we had 22 people in our party and 16 of use purchased the CHEERS package, so they more than made their money. As mentioned earlier, we brought our daughter who is 6 years old and this was also her first cruise. What a disappointment she had on the size of the pool. When we firs boarded the ship and saw the size of the pool we were so sure that there HAS to be another pool on board. Goodness we were wrong and it didn't take long for the pool to fill up and stayed filled up. The pool never felt inviting. I will say however that I was impressed with the cleaning of the pool. At one point some one did a #2 in the pool (yes, you read that correctly!). The staff came in and not only disposed of the feces, they drained, scrubbed the inside of the pool and refilled. More than I would have thought. Now, there were 4 hot tubs on board; 2 that are for 21 and older so we were left with 2 hot tubs for my daughter which also stayed full. The slide was great and we enjoyed the multiple slides. However there is no shade at the slide area, which is great until you think about sitting out there for several hours watching your kid and some shade would be nice. The Ocean camp service was ok the only evening we used the services. My daughter seemed to have enjoyed her self. However, that is the only day we used the service because that day the sun was not out and it didn't feel like a sauna. We tried to take her to the camp earlier that week and where the camp was located the sun was beating through the windows and it was soooo hot in the room. When trying to locate our muster station and when trying to get to our tenders there was no assistance given by the crew members. It seemed that the entire ship walked around lost and were made to go up and down many levels of steps (elevators were always full and not going in the same direction). This was not too bad of a task for us at our age, nu my 83 year old grandma and his grandma that had shoulder surgery 3 weeks prior to our trip, didn't enjoy the wild goose chase. And no kidding, to find the level the tenders were located on, we had to go up and then down and that was never instructed.. I feel like I could keep going, however I feel like many will get my point. We waited in line for everything (some lines are reasonable); never had the chance to enjoy the pathetic excuse of a pool for a ship with that many people; the food was no where close to the taste it should have been (I was tolerable other than breakfast); and the kid activities were lacking majorly. We have now been hearing from others how amazing Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines are and we regret not using them. Hope this helps some one from making the same mistake, because I know we were so excited about this cruise and when I got off the ship, I found myself trying to convince myself that was great (I mean I was on vacation, on the ocean and not doing dishes), but it was anything from great. Read Less

I chose to sail this cruise as I had taken the same one 2 years earlier with absolutely fabulous results. The ship was very well kept, the cabin was super clean, dining was nice with amazing staff but the food was not anything to write home about (got the job done). The entertainment was above average specifically Alvin the comedian was very funny and did a superb job in making the family show a success. The Hasboro Family Game show also was super fun for the entire family. The shore excursions were fun I did Chankanaab with sea lion show and snorkeling (Cozumel) with lunch and the sea turtle sanctuary in Grand Cayman. The only thing that made a sour taste was to find that I WON a $75 certificate for credit for spa services however they made it damn near impossible to use it finding excuse after excuse and this was awarded on the embarkation day as a promotional and Natasha the Spa Manager did not do anything to make it right of the Carnival Paradise 5/7-12-2018! Needless to say the spa services that I purchased for my Mom and myself were not at a discounted rate! Read Less

This was our 10th Carnival Cruise! We cruised out of Tampa which we consider our home port. We live in Cleawater FL. The Paradise had just come out of dry dock and we were looking forward to be one of the first to stay on the new 14 floor (Grand). Our room was absolutely amazing! The floor to ceiling windows were even better than I expected. I think I must have said "WOW" at least 10 times the first day. The upgrades were nice! The casino was spacious (still smoky, but nice). The food was good, Guy's Burgers are great!! I won Bingo which always makes it fun! Our Ports were Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We did the excursion thru Carnival and rode the bus that drives into the water and becomes a boat! The water was beautiful and it was fascinating to go from the road to the water and then back to the road. They have tv screens on the bus/boat so you can see under the water. You can also just look over the side the water is so clear and blue! Lots and Lots of Fish! (worth the money). In Cozumel we did some shopping, (lots of grandbabies to bring back a prize). We usually do the snorkeling and I did miss it, so next trip we will definitely be back in the water. The only negative: I was expecting a bocce ball court on the 14th floor. It's listed on the deck plan and in the upgrades from the dry dock, but it's not there. The putt putt goes all the way around instead. Read Less

This was our first ever Carnival cruise, and we got really lucky, because the Carnival Paradise had just come out of dry dock/major refurbishment/upgrade shortly before our cruise on April 23. (Dry dock was Feb/Mar, I believe). Since we had never sailed on this ship before, I can't say how it used to be, but we were very pleasantly surprised with our entire cruise and the accommodations! Our cabin (U49) appeared to be completely new (except for the oceanview window, which, as another reviewer pointed out, is really pretty old/dirty, with lots of caulk marks) - new carpet, new built in closet structure, new bedding and linens, new artwork, new (large!) TV, even appeared to be entirely new bathroom fixtures, lighting, etc. To note, the mirror above the desk has lighting entirely around it (very flattering!) and there are several USB charging ports - at least 4, I believe. The built in closets (2) are big enough to each hold a large suitcase (so no need to store under the bed). I wish there were more drawers - really only 2 usable drawers down near the floor, right by the door. But, there are shelves, instead, and lots of hanging space in both closets. When we arrived, our cabin steward had 3 blue pool towels in our room for us. When we used them (especially off the ship) we simply took the wet ones up to deck 10/Lido deck and exchanged for fresh towels prior to going back to the cabin, so we always had clean blue pool towels in the cabin. Throughout the ship, we thought it appeared that all of the public spaces were in great condition (not sure which were new vs. just well taken care of). It appeared to us that much of the carpet throughout the ship was new, for example. The main pool and at least one of the whirlpool tubs at the main pool were new. To us, it didn't appear that the whirlpools in the Serenity/adults only area (no pool here, just 2 whirlpools) were not new, but also didn't appear to need replacement. We enjoyed both the Guy Fieri's burger joint and Blue Iguana Cantina on the Lido Deck by the pool for lunch more than once - the burritos at Blue Iguana were especially good. All of these foods are made to order. We may have just hit them right, but we never had to wait in line long when we were there. We also found (on about day 3) the omelette station in the Lido/Paris buffet. This was awesome, and the man who made the omelettes - Percival - was awesome - always with a smile on his face, and a great attitude for "his guests"! Again when we ate either breakfast or lunch in the buffet, we never had a problem finding a table and never had to wait long in any of the buffet lines. NOTE: the Serenity/adult only deck (no pool here, just whirlpools and really nice CUSHIONED lounge chairs) is a bit tricky to find at the back/aft of the ship. You can get to it either by walking through the Queen Mary Lounge or by going through the Lido/Paris buffet and exiting out the back door on the left (next to the bar inside the buffet!!) and walking down one flight of stairs. The Serenity area does have bar service, and also provides yellow towels for your use - you just have to sign them out and sign them back in when you return them. For the first time on a cruise, we selected the 6 pm assigned dining room (normally we do "my time dining". Although we were traveling as a couple, we were assigned a table with 2 other couples, which worked out fine for us. We did notice that, especially after the first night, the main dining room was definitely NOT full at the 6 pm seating. Also, 3 out of the 5 nights, the waiters did some dancing and singing around the dining room around dessert time! Very fun and entertaining. We were very impressed with our server, I Ketut, who asked our first names on night 1, and addressed us by our names every night thereafter. He also got to know what everyone drank with dinner, who liked pepper seasoning, etc., etc. We liked him very much, and that personal touch added by addressing us by our first names. We thought the entertainment onboard was really excellent. The shows in the main theater 4 out of the 5 nights featured a cast of only 7 singers/dancers, but they put on 2 really high energy, very creative shows each of the 4 nights, and each show featured many costume changes. The shows included an Epic Rock show on the last night; an outstanding 80's themed show one night; and a tribute to Cuba/Latin music called Amor Cubano one night. Again, these performers worked really hard, and we thought they were very talented! I wish we would have seen both performances of the 80's show - it was that good! Another of our favorites as far as entertainment was the Kraken band perfoming hits from the Decades - almost every night (except night 4). They were outstanding; and played lots of music to dance to. The only drawback is that their stage was located not far from the casino, which meant it was a bit smoky. We also enjoyed the piano bar/sing a long in the evening, although considering this lounge is right off of the atrium (deck 8, I think), the music from the atrium on some of the nights really interfered with his music on some of the nights. There were also two separate solo guitar performers - sometimes in the atrium, sometimes up on the pool deck. Both were good. There was a Latin band that was in one of the clubs almost every night, and there was also Karaoke several times while we were on board. And, there were 2 DJ's on board, I think - sometimes at the pool, sometimes in one of the clubs. I would say that the entertainment on night 4 of the cruise was a bit sparse, and there was an afternoon or two (probably the 2 days in a row that we were in ports) where there wasn't any musical entertainment scheduled. Since we didn't spend full days onshore, that meant things on board were a little bit quiet until after dinner/until the evening theater show. But, overall, we were pleasantly surprised by the entertainment. I know there were also 2 comedians who did several shows - we didn't see them, but people we ate with said they were both good. We arrived a little earlier than our 1:30-2:00 scheduled embarking time - maybe around 1pm, and had only a short wait to get through security and get checked in, then walked right on the ship and into our cabin (cabins are ready by 1:30). When we arrived back in Tampa on Saturday morning, we had chosen to check our bags, so we didn't "walk off" the ship - but it appeared that many passengers did. Honestly, for this size ship, which is relatively small, it seemed like the people who had chosen walk off had quite a challenge, because when we walked downstairs to wait to be called, the elevators were crammed full of guests with their luggage. Once we were called into the terminal (you pick up your own luggage tags the day before - so get there early in the day, so you can choose your departure time) - and we got the first set of tags (#5 were the first tags available) we easily found our bags - again, there were apparently not many that were checked the night before. We had to wait maybe 20 minutes +/- to get through customs, and then we were off to pick up our car. I would say we were at our car by 9:15 am or so... Again, we were genuinely pleasantly surprised with our first Carnival cruise, and would definitely consider booking another one! Go and enjoy Paradise with Carnival! Read Less

We are Lisa and Bill, From the very start of waiting to get on board, everyone in Tampa was fantastic. We had an awesome time. The cruise director Jaime was awesome and kept everyone going. The Rock 80 show was fantastic. The cast of that show has amazing voices. The dining room experience was nice. We only ate there the first night and the last night, but I wish we had done it a few more times because I feel like we missed out on the entertainment by the dining room crew. Our cabin Steward Ida was very pleasant attended to our every need. The only change I would make about that cruise is that if when they had a table for selling T shirts, or they were selling at the Pandora counter, they had no markings to form a line, so there was just a huge mound of people waiting and made it very difficult to get up to view the merchandise. We have already booked another cruise with Carnival for May 2019. Read Less

We couldn't of asked for a more perfect vacation. Being first time cruisers we had no idea what to expect. We sailed out of Tampa, the check-in process in Tampa was very smooth. Traveling with 3 teenagers we made a point when we got on the ship, we took time to explore and to get to know the ship. We wanted to make sure all the kids got familiar how to find where you were. We also paid the $5 each to be able to send messages through the Carnival HUB. It was well worth the $5 to use that feature. We used the Carnival HUB app all the time to look at the "What's Going On" feature also. Some of the things we loved about the ship; the two new restaurant's Guy's Burger and the Cantina. The food was awesome and there usually wasn't a long line because they were very fast at servicing the guests. The Cruise Director Jaime was very upbeat and kept everything entertaining. We loved the nightly shows, especially the 80's rock show. The kids loved the mini-golf, Karaoke and all the activities they had on the pool deck. Things we didn't like, which wasn't a lot. We weren't fond of the comedian on-board. We actually left shortly after he started. We didn't think he was very funny. The pool gets crowded but we made sure we got up in time to get a good spot to sun bathe. Also, the elevator's took forever. We chose the stairs a lot, so we definitely got our steps in. Like I said previously, we sailed with 3 teenagers. We booked an inside state room. I was nervous about booking just one room but other's told me that you are never in your room. Well I'm glad I took that advise. The room wasn't that big but we had plenty of room. There was one queen size bed with a bunk above and then a smaller bed at the end of the queen with another bunk. We made it work and were happy with our decision. We sailed to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We loved Grand Cayman. We did the snorkeling with sting rays excursion. It was a blast. We booked with a private company and they were great. They also took us snorkeling and to dive for starfish. We were not a fan of Cozumel. We booked an all-inclusive day at a resort. It cost $25 by taxi to get to the resort and when we got there the resort really wasn't what it was hyped up to be. Everything cost extra. When we went to leave we were going to share a taxi with another group. They charged us double because we had more people. We did some shopping or should I say tried. We were getting pulled in every directions by the locals. I didn't like that especially when I had three teenagers that got nervous when people were trying to get us in their shops. Final note, even though the Paradise is an older ship for first time cruisers we couldn't tell. We had a great time and it was well worth the money. We would cruise again on the Paradise and/or another Carnival ship. Food was good, staff was great and our experience was unforgettable. Read Less