Wonderful Cruise from Tampa

I chose this cruise thinking my partner, who never cruised, would be more willing to try cruises if it stopped in Key West.  Well, shortly after booking we got a letter stating that the itinerary was changed and Key West was cancelled and replaced with Costa Maya.  Too late to cancel we went and decided to make the best of it.  We then started reading a bunch of poor and bad reviews on this site.  Well all I gotta say is that they were all wrong.  Yes, the ship is older and as such shows some age, BUT, the staff was awesome, and the ship was spotless,  It is one of Carnival's oldest and smaller class of ships at 70,000 tons, but there is still a lot to do and a lot of spaces to do it in. If you didn't have fun on this ship, it's your own fault.  The bigger ships may offer more amenities, but then again they also have more people to contend with.  This ship seemed just about right because there never seemed to be a long line for anything, and if there was a line it moved fast.  Remember Bigger isn't always better.  

The Paris Restaurant on the Lido Deck was fantastic.  many different stations and the variety was awesome.  Mongolian Wok, Grill (Burgers and such), Chefs Choice, Pizza, Deli, Desserts, Salad Bar.  It was all there.  we were assigned to the Destiny Dining Room and only ate dinner there 3 of the 5 nights. Since we had the 6pm sitting we did try the Paris later in the evening to see what they had and quite frankly the food in Paris was better than Destiny.  

As far as ports go, yes we were disappointed not going to Key West, but Costa Maya actually turned out better than we expected.  We actually had more fun in Costa Maya than Cozumel.  As far as I was concerned they could have cancelled Cozumel instead of Key West.  

The Cruise Director Brandon was awesome.  He seemed to be everywhere and would talk to anyone about anything.  He was great.  The drinks we had on the ship were all fantastic.  

We are looking forward to cruising on the Carnival Paradise again next year when it comes out of it's dry dock and refurbishment.  They will be adding a Guys Burger Joint, Blue Iguana and some of the other things the newer ships have as well as a water park on the aft end and re-doing all the rooms and pool area.