We booked a cruise on the carnival paradise for october and had a great time! The ship was older but still in good shape, The food was not that bad and was very plentiful! The best food was the free sushi bar! very good and always had a line so you knew it was good (if you like sushi).Embarkation was easy, we arrived at Long Beach the night before and spent the night at the Coast Hotel which was very nice with a fantastic view of the harbor and it's only a block away from the terminal. It only took us about an hour to check in and get on the ship.
Once on the ship we walked around and waited til our cabin was ready. They let us in our cabin around 2:30 or so. We had a few drinks and some snacks and waited for our munster drill.The munster drill goes better if you have fun with it! everyone has to do it so make it fun!
We had dinner in the main dinning room and our waiters were very attentive and got to know our names and remembered them the whole cruise! The food was good for a short cruise and they had a different menu every night. Its not fine dinning but is good quality for what you pay for.