Carnival Paradise Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Overall, I thought Carnival had excellent service! The workers went above & beyond for anything we needed. I was really impressed by the guinely kind people & their passion behind doing their job to the best of their ability. Especially Naidu in the Destiny Dining Hall! He was the best person I met on the cruise & was so thoughtful & kind. He was the best waiter I have ever had & Carnival is lucky to have him! Please recognize him for his excellent service! He remembered our names as if we had been friends for years & treated us with such respect! He remembered what we liked to eat & was proactive in satistifying our needs. He truly is an amazing person!! So thankful to have had Naidu be apart of making our cruise experience especially wonderful. 

The ship may have been small but perfect for us. Plenty of jacuzzis and the Serenity deck was wonderful. The staff, bar, wait staff were all wonderful as well.  I would definitely book this cruise again. The only issue was the fact that they didn't cruise to one of the original destinations we really wanted to visit, but it was still a wonderful trip.

We enjoyed the food at dinner time. The shows were more for the younger crowds and there was no dancing it seemed like an exercise cruise.  The casino was for smokers just didn't enjoying it there should've been a none smoking area.  Even on the deck there were people smoking.  Costa Maya was just for shopping very expensive and there was no beach unless you paid someone or took a taxi to get you to the beach. Also the photos were very expensive...

We are return customers to Carnival Paradise, our last cruise was 5 years ago on Paradise. This 2017 Paradise cruise lacked the luster and awe as it did 5 years ago. Mainly the ship needs some upgrades. We found the overall appearance to be dull; the color scheme is so 80's: the beds could be a bit more luxurious; the linens need a good bleaching or just replaced, many of our towel animals had stains on the towels. Most of the staff were friendly, but some were very unhappy to be there, and didn't hesitate to admit they were. One very big disappointment was the pool; it really is un-inviting; the tiles are old and discolored. the food was very good in the dining room, but not so much on the buffet line, especially the hot foods.

I am very fond of sailing with Carnival Cruise Lines, and this trip will not defer my future choices for Carnival, but I will plan only to sail on Carnival's bigger and newer ships. This trip was a family celebration of 2 birthdays and just having fun with our family, and that we did!!

Our itinerary was changed, which was a disappointment for us. Costa Maya has nice beach views but lacks appeal with all else. I would like to see Carnival fix the issue which caused the change, Grand Cayman is a much better choice.

Overall, our experience was good; it was a wonderful time with family, we all laughed, relaxed, partied (a lot), and had a great time. Carnival Paradise just needs a make over to  make her as appealing as her sisters in the Carnival fleet.

Looking forward to my next Carnival cruise,

Kelly Krueger

I think the ship is overdue for improvements and updating. Things are old and broken and it just looks like the bottom of the barrel cruise ship. I've been on it before but I don't remember it being quite like this. I did notice a change In service staff though. My first sailing on Paradise was awesome and we were very pleased with the crew, especially our housekeeper. He was amazing! This time, however, we were a bit disappointed. It was obvious that most of them didn't want to be there because they never smiled and some were flat out rude in the dining hall. I felt like they just wanted us to leave as soon as possible. We weren't trying to spend a lot of time in there but I felt rushed. Food was pretty nasty for room service. Dining room food was pretty good. Cruise director seemed unprepared and she was boring.  Shows were ok.

I will start with the positives, The room attendant (especially Chiao) were awesome. The restaurant wait staff was also exceptional (especially Lino & Co.).

The negatives.  We had a suite but because it was an older ship the view was partially obstructed.  The balconies are the smallest of any cruise I have every been on.  Because of my height I was barely able to sit facing the water because my knees would touch the railing.  We booked the cruise unknowingly during Spring Break.  Many young college kids drinking heavily and raucous.

All and all a nice relaxing experience.

My favorite part of Paradise cruise was the Serenity area for adults, even though it was to small. Also the gym was pretty good with many machines and equipment to workout. I didn't like any of the activities (only a few), empty night clubs, no food after 9:30pm (only pizza), pool to small, extra pay for lobster or steak, to many photographers, long lines for dinner, and staff not trained to stop any disturbare or fight. In the casino there was to many people smoking. I will not recommend this cruise to any body. 

The Elation dining room was wonderful.  We had two of the best servers ever!!   Socorro was the head waiter and was so nice and charming.   Geetalanjali? was the greatest.  She saw to our every need.   They even brought food we did not order because they heard us trying to make a decision between two entrees.   They both always had a smile and when we saw them in the other parts of the ship they came up and greeted us by name.   Fantastic duo.

  The triple room was not satisfactory for 3 senior adults.   One of the 70 year olds had to crawl up a ladder to get to the upper bunk.   This was not safe for a person in their 70's.   We asked for a roll away bed and they said they would get back to us,but never did.   They also said that they did not want to put another bed in the room as the room was only for 3 people.   After we sailed, we could hardly smuggle an unpaid guest in.   What if we just wanted to put a paid grandchild in for the night so his parents could have a night out????    Was truly disappointed by this lack of concern.

Ship is old and desperately needs updating.  Rooms are ugly and not very clean.  Navigating the ship is confusing as to get to one restaurant you must go up one level and come down one level on the other end of the restaurant.  Of course you don't realize this until you arrive for dinner and have to make a detour.  Went to hear the main band on 9th level two nights in a row, both nights they had 'technical

 difficulties and we left after one hour waiting.  Very limited sugar-free food.  Limited to one dessert each day, look like same cake with a different flavor most days.  No sugar-free ice cream.  Charge and a first come first serve (with a limited supply) for cooler for room for insulin.  Mustering drill was a joke.  We waited in a lobby area approximately 45 minutes while they tried to round up passengers.  We asked if it was always this way and the reply, was in a very negative tone, like mind your own business.  Then we were marched up a flight of stairs under the boats, 5 deep to the railing, no words were spoken regarding the boats or this is where we should report, and then dismissal.  Worst we've ever experienced.  So bad in fact, that two 'Diamond' couples said it was terrible.  This was our first and most likely our last Carnival cruise. 

Oh, one of the first things we encounter was when we entered the ship from gangway - many people gather in area where large bar was located, no direction of asking if we needed help or looking to see what floor we needed to be on, and where we saw cabin signs, large pink metal doors were closed under the signs so we were not sure if we were to enter through those doors.

The people are nice, and the food was good. However, they had no flexibility when there were unexpected events. Before the cruise started, they changed a port from Grand Cayman to Costa Maya. Did they consider that we chose the cruise precisely because we wanted to visit two different places? In any case, they offered a $25 credit to offset this unpleasant situation. However, the second destination day, the weather was too bad to dock the ship. We had to stay on the boat. So, on a 5 night cruise, we got off the boat once. That is not what we paid for, and, to be honest, the boat is not nice enough to support 4 days of "entertainment."

We just returned from our cruise with Carnival on their ship Paradise.  We booked this trip back in November.  My sister flew from Hawaii to Tampa to join me and my daughter on a cruise advertised going to The Grand Cayman and Cozumel leaving on March 4 and returning March 9.  We received an email from Carnival on March 2 that the itinerary had been changed due to technical difficulty with their engine that would allow the ship to travel at high speed and we would not be going to The Grand Cayman but instead would be stopping at Cozumel and then Costa Maya.  Disappointment number one!  We didn't have time to rearrange my sister's flight from Hawaii because she actually left Hawaii the night of March 2 in order to arrive in Tampa by March 3 to be in place to board the Paradise early March 4.  So, we made the best of our disappointment and accepted that we would still be able to go to Costa Maya.  We booked new Shore Excursions for Costa Maya to replace the one we were going to do in Grand Cayman.  We did get to go to Cozumel and do our shore excursion and had a fun day.  We got back on the boat that afternoon and got excited about our next day in Costa Maya.  However, we woke up to the disappointing news we would not be docking in Costa Maya.  The Captain informed us the port was closed due to high winds and rough water.  The water did not appear to be that rough.  Nevertheless, our hands were tied and we were forced to spend another day at sea.  Completely disappointed!  The next day I woke up around 6:15 AM  to go to the restroom in our cabin and found sputtering brown water in our cabin restroom.  It was raw sewage coming through the pipes.  EEEEWWWW!!!  I remained in my pajamas and robe and headed to the coffee bar upstairs to be told by the barista that he could not make coffee due to the issue with the water.  Disgusted and disappointed I walked back to our cabin where my daughter and sister were still sleeping.  Within minutes of my arrival back to the cabin the announcement was made to not use the water inside our cabins until further notice.  I walked out to the main lobby to the stench stench stench of raw sewage.  We tried to make sure we did not eat anything at breakfast that would have required the use of water to cook.  After lying in the sun and making the best of our day we went back to our cabin to get dressed for dinner.  Our water in the sink was GREEN.  What?!!!!  We called guest services.  They told us to use the water bottles in the room and that we would not be charged.  They then sent a technician who ran the water and said there was nothing to worry about.  However, when the water drained out of the sink it left a GREEN FILM on the sink bowl.  GROSS!!!  It had to be due to something they had put in the pipes to clean the sewage.  This could not have been safe.  We reluctantly took quick showers and got ready for dinner.  We brushed our teeth with the bottled water.  We disembarked the next morning without showers because the sink was still running green.  So, ultimately our trip was a big fat disappointment!!!!!  We truly think Carnival should reimburse us for no less than half our cruise cost or give us three free vouchers for a future cruise.  In fact the ONLY way I would ever give Carnival a second chance to redeem themselves would be if the cost of the cruise were free. 

Ultimately Disappointed

Service on board is pretty good ship looks old inside, my biggest complaint was that I choose this cruise because I was supposed to meet my mom and sister that aren't able to come into the USA and don't know my children so I planned their trip and paid for them to come and meet us in Cozumel but because the change of itinerary we were off by one day of spending at least one day together , my mom made the trip even with her knee problems and this whole itinerary change was a disaster for us very very sad 😭 

Our favorite part was meeting other people on the ship.  The ship had mechanical problems so that night before we sailed we got an email saying it was not going to Grand Cayman.  We were extremely disappointed as we selected this trip mainly because Grand Cayman is our favorite place.  We were told by other passengers that Carnival knew they weren't going to Grand Cayman long before they informed us.  Also the ship was extremely rock, which we thought was probably because two of the engines were not working and the speed wasn't what it should have been which made it more unstable.  We were going to go to Costa Maya in place of Grand Cayman but the Port closed right at the time we were to get off the ship and we did not go to another port in it's place.  We spent three days floating around at sea.  We did enjoy Cozumel.  The last day of our cruise (Friday) we woke up to no water.  Once they got it fixed, there was a terrible sewer smell on the ship which was actually making people gag.  We've sailed with Carnival several times before and this is the first time we had a bad experience.  It looks like they've lowered their standards and makes us think maybe we should consider a different cruise line in the future.

The experience was so bad I am not going to waste another minute of my life typing out each detail. Just trust me - DON’T go with Carnival. There are too many other great companies out there that are worth the extra $50!

The most disappointed and upset cruise trip ever. The day before cruise, Carnival changed our port due to technical issues with ship. And we have to cancel our Cayman trip. First and second day on the boat, it is so rocky inside the ship, I felt the stomachache for two days. Third day for shore excursion, the boat likes roller coaster all the time and I started to develop diarrhea whole day. There are not so many entertainment on the ship at all. The food is not very good either. And then carnival cancelled our last stop as they reported to us as weather condition. But if we didn't make change at the beginning, that won't happen at all.  Worst of all, on the last sea day, our water is totally yellow and could not drink and smell it at all. We complain to the manager and it didn't help at all. I have to say this is the worst cruise trip ever for us.

Service desk and michael who took care of our room U108 was best thing on the cruise. They kept cancelling our side trips.  Shows were great and people were great.  Lido deck food was excellent, but steak restaurant service very very bad, had to wait 2 1/2 hours for food.  Ship had sewer smell a few days and my room was dirty and door to patio wouldnt open.  It was wooden had to be shaved twice.

Carnival had a last minute change in the itinerary due to problems with the boat. I was not notified about the change and neither were a lot of other passages who found out the day of embarkment. We were scheduled to go to Grand Cayman  and instead went to Costa Maya. Costa Maya was a very small port that was just built for cruise ships. The boat was very outdated, the website said it was newly refurbished in 2015 but did not appear to be.  Our stateroom furntiture was very old that it looked dirty and I did not want to put clothes away in the drawers. Most of the staff was very friendly. Some of the bartenders were cranky. The guest services desk was not helpful and never looked into our complaint. The pools on the boat were very tiny. 

The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because they changed our itinerary the day before we sailed. I was a little upset that we didn't go to Grand Cayman only because I've been to Mexico so many times!! Other than that we had an amazing time. There was always something to do!!! I would definitely go back!!

Paradise crew was excellent. Food was very good. Ship was clean. Ship could use a refurbishment. Bartenders in lobby of Deck 7 were excellent and so was the Cabin Steward taken care of Cabin E7. Thank you for a great time!!!!!!!

The Spa is the best experience not one to miss. It was so nice that I returned two more times. 

Re

The lack of ballroom dancing was a disappointment. The food was delicious although the fish was always over cooked. Every other food was good. The service from the attentive staff and maid was exceptional. I would recommend this ship to all my younger friends and family.