7.2018 Paradise Review

[cthrn27]

Gypsy, we stayed about midship on Riviera deck. Low and steady in the water.

[cthrn27]

LadyMac, I'm jealous!! It's a great ship and the crew is so relaxed and friendly. They will make you feel right at home!!

[cthrn27]

Less than perfect end to a perfect trip!

By now, you will surely realize that I am a bit neurotic. I have been on 7 cruises, but I still like to hear the instructions on the Mandatory Safety Meeting. I have debarked 7 times, but I still go to the debarkation presentation the day before. Why??? I think it is just the way I am put together.

 

So, sitting in the theater, listening to Cam the Cruise Director give instructions on debarkation procedures, I didn't hear much about self assist. This surprised me as previously, I thought, they encouraged that. In fact, I thought they usually said "....and after Platinum, and FTTF, self assist may debark. " It was kind of the carrot on the stick to get us up and out. Knowing that I am sometimes wrong, I thought I must have missed it. Cam was saying "if anyone has any questions....". So I asked. NO, he said. Self Assist waits for their floor to be called. Neurosis kicks in. I have to pick up a rental car, drive to Orlando, return the car, and get on the plane. Yes, I do have plenty of time, but this was not what I was expecting. I must give him the "are you kidding?" look, because he says "We do this every 5 days. We know what we are doing." Well, that does make sense....

 

The next morning, we were packed and ready by 7:30. We made a quick run to the Lido deck for our last breakfast (did I mention before how great the huevos rancheros and arapeas were?). We returned to our cabin (and our luggage) at 8 am. We were instructed to be out of the cabin by 8:30 and we planned to be, but the steward had already been in. He took our luggage off the bed, made the bed (changed the sheets????), and put our luggage back on the bed. Kind of grossed me out so I decided not to dwell on it. We grabbed our luggage and headed for the promenade to wait for our deck to be called. We waited 90 minutes and I got fed up and made my way down. No one said a word. No one checked to see what floor we were on. The crew was as friendly and nice as they had been for the entire cruise and I felt wrong for leaving early, AND angry that I didn't leave earlier. A no win situation for me.

 

Customs was insane. Our line snaked around the inside of the warehouse where the luggage of people NOT doing self assist was stacked. Obviously, there were still MORE people waiting to leave the ship. Based on previous cruises, I had reserved a car for 9:30. By 9:15 I still couldn't even see the customs agents in the next room. I called Avis and asked them to hold the car. At 10:30 I called Avis for a pick up and the guy says that he wished I'd called earlier as they were now out of cars. How could this be, I asked, as I had already paid for the car? Thank God I did all that relaxing on the ship, or I might have just screamed here....

 

Now, I don't think Customs having only 2 agents to process the entire ship is the fault of Carnival. And I know that the Car Rental Agent had nothing to do with Carnival. AND, the debarkation procedure was really annoying, but I had a great cruise. I enjoyed the people that worked on the ship, and I enjoyed the cruisers. I enjoyed the opportunity to visit 2 ports, and to relax when I wanted and to be busy with many choices whenever I wanted. I really liked not cooking or cleaning, but still having good food and a clean room. I can't wait to cruise again.

 

Thanks to anyone that stayed with this L O N G review. I really enjoyed reliving my fun trip.

Smooth Sailing to All!

[TravelE]

Oh no, don't leave us hanging. You have to tell us how you made it home!

 

Also I would love to see any more pictures you have of the ship. We are sailing the Paradise in September.

[tallnthensome]

Thanks for the review. I'd love to see pictures. We are sailing her to Cuba next August. We were able to snag one of the two new scenic view cabins on deck 14 that they added after this year's dry dock.

[ricew001]

Day 2 - Embarkation

With all the excitement we were up early and on the road to Tampa by 8:30 am. Seemed like too early, but there was an accident along the way. Google rerouted us through the "back woods". An area we would have never seen along the main thoroughfare.:eek::eek::eek:

 

We arrived in Tampa by about 12:00. Our appointment to board was 12:30 - 1:00. I felt like all morning I worried about being too early/too late. I didn't like the appointment idea (until I actually got there!) We returned the rental car to the Embassy Suites in Tampa, just off the Port. They called a free shuttle for us.... they have a tiny little closet of an office off the lobby at the Embassy. They told us to go wait out front. The door man told us to go wait out back. about 10 minutes later the guy from the car rental came running back looking for us. "What are you doing back there?" Yikes!!

 

It was a quick trip to the cruise port. I love seeing the ship first coming into view. I get thrilled!! First you see the Whale Tail and then the rest of the ship. Even though Paradise is one of the smaller ships, up close it is HUGE. They dropped us in front of the door. A porter run up and took our bags and we entered the building. We were a tad early, but no one seemed to care. Our only waiting was going through security and that wasn't bad at all. I'm not sure if things went so smoothly because of the new appointment times, or for some other reason. Either way, it was quick and painless. They welcomed us back (I love that!), and after a couple of pictures, smiles, and chit chat, we walked into the atrium lobby of the Paradise.

 

Goosebumps!! The ship was spotless. The wood gleamed, the glass sparkled. All the employees smiled their 100 watt smiles!! It sure felt good to be cruising again.

 

The lay out of the ships is very similar (at least the ships we have sailed). You have a general idea of where everything is. So we headed for the Lido deck. We said we were exploring, but we were heading to Guy's. As soon as the sliding glass doors from the atrium opened, those burgers were calling my name. There weren't many people on board yet, so we had no trouble snagging a greasy burger with super melty cheese, seasoned fries and lemonade. Yum! I think this was the earliest we had ever gotten on the ship and we had time and space to enjoy a leisurely lunch and just soak up the cruise vibe. :cool: Looking at the pool and the clear, blue, sky, I knew the journey had began, and the possibilities were endless!

 

After the burger we did a quick search for something sweet and found a nice variety. And there is always ice cream. The ice cream is really pretty good. Then we really did explore the ship. We went up, down, inside and out. We couldn't help but compare Paradise to the last ship we sailed. Of course it was smaller, but with fewer people it didn't see m like a bad thing! We looked over the side at the water in the port and it was pretty brown.... by then we were able to get into our room!

 

Did you have FTTF? Is that how you got on so early?

[cthrn27]

I'm sorry but I just could not get the pictures to load...nothing unusual, anyesy.....

We didn't have faster to the fun,

 

Those of you heading out on Paradise, hope you enjoy!!

[CHEVSTRISS]

we are looking at Paradise Cuba/Cozumel next month. Never been on Carnival, just HAL and NCL. anything we should know that is different on Carnival? we will prolly drive to Tampa from TN.