Older, Superb Ship

Slow but efficient. Had water in my carryon confiscated. Officials told me I should have put it in checked baggage if I didn't want it confiscated.

Everything was great. Daughter could do the pool and slide while I got her Mac-n-Cheese and my burgers at the American grill near the pool. Hardly ever a wait for food, getting on or off the ship, shows, etc. Exactly how I like it. The atmosphere exuded by the crew and other guests was relaxed and comfortable. For kids that's super important. If they're not relaxed they don't have fun. They pick up on 'vibes' from others very quickly. I love the high crew to passenger ratio on the Paradise. It really shows when the crew are relaxed and rested. They spend the time to chat and you can tell they really like their job. Crew and passengers all know it's an older ship and make best of it. No one seemed pretentious and it appeared everyone was enjoying themselves. I like the longer dining times too. We're early risers and it was nice the crew made way at 5am for me to get coffee and a snack while they worked setting up the Lido buffet for breakfast. Room service was adequate and free. The 1 broken atrium elevator that's been out for at least 2 years -who cares, the other one was hardly busy. The games in the Library were great. My daughter and I played Parcheesi marathons. It was great to get her away from her iPad and iPod for the cruise. She was 8 and really enjoyed her 2 Paradise cruises. This year we're going on Harmony of the S. and from the reviews we are a bit trepiditious about the crowds and snoody guests and over worked crew. MDR Elation was great. Good steak. Ordered two. Taught daughter how to order an Entrée sized appetizer since she's a big fan of shrimp and calamari. Wait staff was attentive, polite and congenial. Very appreciative of Carnival seeing to all the finer points of a cruise. Takeaway: Carnival Paradise is now the 'old style' of cruising where everyone cruised as one class and is essentially equal in amenities, access and service. It appears the new mega ships are setup as classed ships with suite cruisers having their own restaurant, cabin staff, deck club, pool/spas and priority reservations. The rest of the ship's passengers get the brunt of the over-capacity complementary dining and over-worked crew. IOW, the new ships have brought back the First Class and Steerage Class of earlier cruising.

We did the game shows and trivia contests. Daughter loved them. She even went bonkers playing a money-drop game for several hours until the casino mgmt. interrupted her. I mouthed the words "thank you" to the manager for breaking her away. She's a kid -I let her play.

Pool is a little small so daughter did the slide over and over and over. Very convenient to the nearby lunch buffets of American and Mongolian Wok.

A great place for families to gather and play board games. Gets them out of their electronic devices. Carnival keeps the game shelf stocked since they had new games this year. We also bring a few games. We also bring golf balls for the mini-golf as on the prior year's cruise daughter witnessed "older kids" hitting the golf balls over the side leaving few to play with.

First rate staff. Their relaxed and comfortable demeanor really helped us relax. No one was uptight or appeared over worked, under-appreciated. Always leave a 20 for the cabin attendant and won't hesitate to point out issues -but there were none. The Attendant was attendant. Great service, great room, great beds and linens. Older ship but everything else was fantastic.

Old and worn but clean and superb efficiency of service and availability.

Clean, comfortable and plenty of room. just right.