We sailed on the Paradise on 2/10/02. Flew into Ft. Lauderdale the night before. We had reserved a car from Avis using the special USA code along with a Winter special code I found on the Bidding for Travel.com web site. We got an Impala for 30.00 and was upgraded to a minivan for no extra charge. A word of advice - print out your rate and the confirmation number - Avis wouldn't give it to me without the print out. We stayed at the Comfort Inn on the beach in Miami Beach - hotel was very nice-good pool, right on ocean, has a free continental breakfast.Drove to the pier on Sunday - the pier in Miami is a madhouse-you pull up and porters direct you as to where to park. I started hauling bags out of the van since our porter started talking to a friend nearby - tipped him a dollar a bag to lift the luggage about 2 ft to a cart. Avis has a return on the pier but it is down about a mile. They will shuttle you back to the Carnival pier for no charge. Embarkation is very exhausting - we arrived at 12:30 and didn't make it in to the ship until 2:30. The line goes thru security first which moves very fast and then you wind very slowly up to the check-in desk. By 2:00, most of the line was gone - next time I would check in at 2:00pm. The room that the line winds thru is very warm - bring as little as possible with you as a carryon or you will regret it. Once you get your papers to board you take an escalator upstairs and wind thru another line which moves fast to get your final documents. They then take your hot, sweaty picture and you are on. Finding the cabin was easy. We had an oceanview stateroom on main deck with 2 bunks. The best thing I brought, thanks to Cruise Critic friends was the over-the-door shoe holder with clear pockets and the power strip. There is one outlet in the room and none in the bathroom except one funky plug that said "for razors only". There are also only about 12 hangers-plan accordingly. I did forget my steamer-something I constantly regretted, but I remembered my Downey Wrinkle release which worked for most items. Paradise has closed both the laundry rooms on the Main and Riveria decks so don't bother looking for them-they are still listed in their directory in the room. That leaves 2 laundry rooms with a total of 8 washers and dryers and 4 ironing boards for all the passengers and some of the crew. Lunch when you board is served on the Lido deck which has a open air food line along with the Paris cafe which has 24 hr pizza and ice cream. We always ate breakfast and lunch up there - food was very good. We had dinner in the Destiny dining room every night - was a little bit hectic to get cleaned up and dressed in decent clothes every night but the service was good and it was fun to try new foods on the menu. The chef is French so some of the dishes were very unusual to me - wouldn't recommend the frog legs. The waiters dance for you almost every night - the Austin Powers dance, the Conga, etc.. You are invited to join in. I get carsick easily but did not have any trouble even when it was choppy. Took ginger pills if I felt like I had the slightest potential to get queasy. The water slide was a lot of fun - didn't have a problem with deck chairs being saved. If a towel is on the chair and it isn't touched in 15 min. just move the towel and enjoy - most people just are lazy and leave towels lying around even if they have no intention of coming back. We purchased one drink card for our teenager for 29.95 (11 -day cruise price). She would give it to her little sister at times or get diet Cokes for me with it. None of the bartenders, except one, checked the name on the card - the kids just wave it and their order is filled. I'm so glad we only bought one. The kids figure out the system very fast. For the parents, bring an insulated mug so you can fill it with ice water, juice, iced tea or lemonade when you are by the pool or even in shows. I also brought wide mouth water bottles with insulated shoulder holders that we used on the shore tours and the beach. The ship sells bottles of Evian water for shore tours but who wants warm, expensive water to drink. We also kept a collapsible cooler in the room for my private stash of diet Coke and some small water bottles we carried on and refilled. We used this when we went to the beach. My 10 year old loved Camp Carnival - she checked herself in and out - checked in for dinner-other than dinner I rarely saw her. I felt very safe on board - security is everywhere-they also watch the pool and keep the kids in line. The cabin steward was very efficient - kids really liked the towel animals he made. The shows were very good - especially liked the comedians. Go at least 45 min early. The Normande longe has numerous blind spots - is a very poor design. There is usually a pre-show show with bingo or game shows with a lot of entertainment so you aren't bored if you do go early. There is TV is your cabin with movies running, along with the major networks. Never had time to watch anything. There is a library on board that has books you can check out - they also have the news highlights faxed to them daily. We didn't book shore tours in Aruba or Curacao - I am so glad we didn't spend the extra money. Both islands have very cheap taxis - We got a 2 hour tour in Aruba for 10.00 each which was very good. They are right on the dock trying to get your business when you get off the boat. We then took a taxi to the Low-rise hotel beach-taxi was 6.00. The beaches are free and the hotels let you use their restrooms and beach chairs for free. Amazing, beautiful beaches in Aruba. In Curacao, we went to the Sea Aquarium beach-12.00 per van load for transport, and 3.00 to get in to the beach. The beach was very clean, good snorkeling, restrooms, showers, tiki bars. In Panama and Costa Rica we booked Carnival tours - I didn't feel safe going it alone in these countries. Debarkation wasn't too painful - the Paradise allows you to wait anywhere to debark. We stayed up on the Lido deck to catch the last rays of sun and eat breakfast. Once you are called, which is by the color of your luggage tag based on your cabin assignment, you walk out, and after a short wait you are in the luggage area which was very organized. We put plastic shopping bag bows on all our handles which made it easy to spot everything at once. We booked a Carnival transfer back to the FLL airport - the bus had cockroaches in the very back seat, bathroom was filthy, driver begged for tips which say included on your ticket - Carnival will be hearing about this one. All in all it was a great vacation - the ship was very clean, in great condition, the crew friendly and competent. We would sail with Carnival again, but only on the Paradise due to its non-smoking rule. And a word about packing - everyone on cruise critic is right - pack your suitcase - then take out half of what you packed - you won't need all those clothes. Email me if you have any questions. rndm0803@msn.comMarch 2002