I just came back from the Paradise and it was my first cruise ever, and I LOVED IT!!! I have to say, for being my first cruise, I really enjoyed the Paradise. On the positive side, the ship was extremely clean! The sevice we received from our waiters in the dining room was excellent!! The food was great!! Our cabin steward was wonderful and attentive!! The smoke free atmosphere was GREAT! I can't imagine taking a cruise where I'm surrounded by smoke, yuk! But, I'm sure I will be forced to in the future. Anyway, the overall trip was a marvelous experience.

However, I will be critical of some things. I felt the entertainment lacked some humph. The Rex disco was geared toward the teenagers which was OK, if the other lounges such as the Leonardo had had better music. They should have made the Leonardo lounge for the teenagers and the Rex for adults and played better and longer music. The Rex had a better design for dancing than the Leonardo. There were evenings where we were looking for something to do!! And as for Kooshal...well... that's another story.

The so called "classes" or "free demonstrations" were all gimmicks for suckers like me to buy buy buy... so, buyer beware. I felt a bit deceived and taken advantage of. And that was not the only time. We signed up for a tour that supposedly was a snorkeling tour. We asked at the information desk if our equipment was included and they said yes. Then when we went to the desk to pick it up, the guy said, "oh, you don't pick up the equipment here, the tour guide will give it to you on the tour." NOT! We got to our tour and no equipment. Sure we could have gotten the equipment, at an additional cost! So, be careful on your so called extra tours!! We paid over $200 in our group for a tour we could have paid $50 if we had done it on our own!!! Research where you want to go before hand and you may save yourself some time and money! Read more