Home sweet home on the Paradise! Our 6th cruise on this oldie but a goodie ship… And you can’t beat sunny cool days in Grand Cayman & Cozumel. What a great spring break cruise in 2024!
Carnival Paradise Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 11
Helpful Votes: 320
5 Night Western Caribbean (Tampa Roundtrip)
Sail date: April 01, 2024
Ship: Carnival Paradise
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: E35
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 7 months ago
Review summary
• Spring break cruising out of Tampa is first class. We typically stay in Orlando where the hotels are cheaper. Sailing under the Skyway Bridge is memorable. Western Caribbean ports of call are fun & usually have great weather. Do yourself a favor – book a room on the Paradise & go have some fun in the Caribbean sun!Embarkation
• Walked onto the ship around noon! Love the platinum priority perks! Very sunny day for sailing away! We didn’t realize that this was our 25th milestone cruise with Carnival until we got our sail-n-sign cards. • Sail away party by CD Amber & the Fun Squad was fantastic. There was a huge Fun Squad that performed some choreographed dances that got the crowd primed up. After that, there was total crowd participation in the line dances. Great job, entertainment team!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
o MDR dinner seemed to get better the longer we sailed. Braised short ribs on sail away was more like pot roast. Not impressed.
o Day #2 on elegant night was better. The salmon & chicken cordon bleu were decent entrees. The crawfish fettuccine appetizer was also pretty good.
o Day #3 was probably the best meal; we enjoyed the BBQ spring rolls & Emeril’s cast iron bronzed fish with grits.
o Breakfast & sea day brunch bring up the average rating. Every early morning in the MDR on this cruise was excellent & timely. On the negative side, we actually saw families in their pajamas show up at sea day brunch in the MDR. Really? Just rolled out of bed? Surely there is a dress code in the dining room for brunch!
o If we ate lunch, it was usually at Blue Iguana to get fresh tacos. We were specifically working hard to avoid extra calories on this cruise & leave extra pounds on the ship instead of carrying them home in our waistlines!
Onboard Activities
o A nice surprise this year was the fitness center on the Paradise now opening at 6am! Not that crowded on the treadmills & weight machines in the early mornings. Run off at least 500 calories every morning.
o For the 3rd year in a row, there were not enough loungers on the aft deck on the 1st sea day, people having to lay out directly on the deck. Still not getting this. There should always be enough chairs for people on cruise vacations. This is becoming a regular occurrence on CCL ships on the 1st sea day.
o Really enjoyed the diamond platinum party, and our shopping expert friend Johan stopped in to wish us well. Also brought some new cruise friends with us to enjoy the VIFP benefits!
Entertainment
o Sail away party by CD Amber & the Fun Squad was fantastic. There was a huge Fun Squad that performed some choreographed dances that got the crowd primed up. After that, there was total crowd participation in the line dances. Great job, entertainment team!
o Enjoyed the live music by Sea Stars on the Promenade stage! Also enjoyed watching NCAA women’s basketball on the casino bar TVs.
o CD Amber’s rock-n-glow party at Cozumel sail away was a whole lot of fun to watch. She knows how to get the crowd fired up!
o Lobby trivia nights with CD Amber was very entertaining! She’s absolutely nuts! Just amazing energy between the entertainment team & the cruise guests. If you’re not participating in the lobby trivia nights, then you are missing some of the best entertainment opportunities that Carnival has to offer.
Children's Programs
Graduating senior is too old for the children's programs!
Service and Staff
o Shout out to Johan shopping expert from South Africa, such an asset when purchasing expensive jewelry at Grand Cayman & Cozumel.
o Amber our cruise director seemed to have infinite energy & crazy fun. Just don’t wear salmon or khaki colored shorts around her, she likes to poke fun at people’s clothes choices…
o More shout outs to MJ & Nisha in jewelry sales, both work very hard to make deals within the limits of their oppressive & nasty boss Hanif. They need to be promoted so the Paradise can sell more jewelry.
o And our last shout out goes to Leslie, Mary Elaine, Sidiani our Destiny MDR servers @ table 315, early dinner, aka the powerpuff girls. Such hard workers, took amazing care of us every night in the Destiny MDR. Very entertaining & making sure their dinner guests were always having a great time.
Ship Quality
o We love the layout of the Paradise, & we are very familiar with it. Sure could use an Alchemy Bar or Red Frog Pub, which would be a really nice addition.
Cabin / Stateroom
o Plenty of room in our E35 oceanview room for the 3 of us on the Paradise. Large room, large bathroom, not enough counter space in the bathroom, lots of USB ports at the vanity & along the head of the bed.
o There still seems to be rust in the water coming out of the bathroom faucet. Make sure you drink bottled water in your Paradise stateroom.
Ship tip
• Take advantage of the fitness center on the Paradise. They have plenty of machines & treadmills in a very large space. They replaced the broken chest press weight machine from last year. Do yourself & favor and leave those extra cruise pound on the ship instead of carrying them home with you!
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
o Glorious sunny day in Grand Cayman at Seven Mile Beach. The public bus was easy & cheap @ $3/ea. Loungers & umbrellas are still too expensive to rent from the locals, in my opinion. It’s an easy walk to the Shopright store at the Grove for drinks & snacks rather than wasting money with the questionable locals.
o Bought a nice tanzanite tennis bracelet from our friends Brinda & Vick @ Diamonds Intl in George Town! Always willing to make a deal! And our shopping expert Johan made the deal even sweeter by dropping a DI $100 gift card on our purchase… such a pleasure working with the Carnival shopping staff!
o The early water shuttle plan for diamond & platinum guests to Grand Cayman was pretty chaotic. Not very smooth delivering guests to shuttles since it changed in the middle of the plan.
o Got a nice men’s tanzanite ring in Cozumel! Love our DI family at port! Thanks to Mario for helping us out to get the ring & alterations to the bracelet, as well as Johan ensuring the work got done. Carnival shopping experts are fantastic, including our meet up with the team from the Carnival Jubilee Julian & Daniel as well as Kimberly from the Carnival Dream!
o Excellent pool day at Nachi Cocom! The sun came out as we arrived. German was our server again from when we visited in February! The food was great, the drinks were potent, & the sun was fierce!
o Finished up the day in Cozumel at Pancho’s Backyard in Puerto Maya having a large frozen margarita. Really love the atmosphere at Pancho’s in Cozumel.
o On the negative side… So many Carnival cruisers from the 3 ships at port: the Jubilee, Dream, & Paradise. And we arrived last & left first. Crazy long taxi line in Cozumel because of the Carnival mega ships in port with us.
o And as usual, do your best to avoid the Passion Island excursion. Our experience from last year – it’s a HUGE rip off & false advertising on the part of Carnival. And they’ve raised the price to $85pp this year. Two thumbs down.
Disembarkation
• Love the easy facial recognition at customs! Gets us out of the building in Tampa fast with zero hassles from customs officials! • Annoyed by people jumping into the diamond & platinum line while getting off the ship early. Because they broke into the line, they wound up separating quite a few people & families in our group. There has got to be a better way to keep people from standing around on deck 7 waiting to hop into the line. • Since we weren’t in a hurry to travel home, we stopped at the Metro Diner on Kennedy Blvd again for an epic breakfast. They have outstanding flavored coffee as well as biscuits with sausage gravy. Don’t leave Tampa without having breakfast at the Metro Diner!
Traveler Photos
