This was our 3rd cruise...and was not a great experience. As usual, the staff were fantastic, and the ship was kept clean. However, the ship is very dated, with a broken atrium elevator (judging by the reviews, it has been broken for months now), with lots of ripped upholstery and broken items. I appreciate the staff keeping it clean at least, but it could use a major refitting. The constant nickel and diming seems to get getting worse as well. The shows are great (especially the 80s one), comedians were great, and the food was fine. Don't bother with the dining rooms, the staff are shortstaffed and overworked. I don't think the food is worth it to deal with that and preferred the buffets.

We lost the Caymans port due to Tropical Storm Colin. That is not Carnival's fault, but it seems the Port of Tampa closes the port for just about anything, and left the port closed into midday the following day. It was sunny and calm for a few hours before they officially opened the port. Keep that in mind before departing from here.

The Paradise left, and the cruise director came on and informed us we would do an overnight in Cozumel instead. We were scheduled to arrive at 6 pm at Cozumel. No problem...however, the ship had a "propulsion issue" and we ended up so late to Cozumel that we basically only had one day there. Unfortunately, Carnival did no compensation at all for the ship's propulsion problems that caused us to have a single port day on a 5 day cruise. Read more