Carnival Paradise Cruise Reviews - Reviews

I've recently returned from my first cruise vacation to the Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico aboard the Carnival Paradise. I  thoroughly enjoyed my experience aboard the ship. The staff was beyond pleasant and is guaranteed to try and make your experience the best it possibly can be. There are tons of activities always taking place and they certainly make the "down time" easy to fill and keep busy. 

Thank you Carnival (Paradise)!

Our great cruise getaway started with our agent Chris who was very knowledgeable and efficient. He also gave us some good tips to make our trip even better. The ship itself was excellent, very clean and the cabin and bedding very comfortable. All the staff was friendly and fun The pool servers were so efficient. The food delicious . Our dining room servers Dennis and Lala were excetional. The entertainment was great and I especially liked the innovative and colorful costumes. The Comedy club was hilarious. This is a young fun cruise with a laid back tropical atmosphere. Thanks again Carnival!

PS there were some very trashy girls who were provocative and inappropriate. They must have thought they were on the girls gone wild! Kudos to all the staff and security for dealing with them appropriately.

Carnival Paradise is an older ship and needs some cosmetic updates, however, overall, it was a wonderful strip. The food was delicious, staff exceptional.  Price unbeatable.

the cruise overall was fun, the kids (15 & 14) loved the o2 club and enjoyed their time.  The ship itself is older, there was no way to control the cabin temperature.  The room never got cool enough for my liking.  The pool was very small, but the slide was awesome.  did not like the automatic gratuity added to my drink/food orders.

We did this cruise 2 years ago and loved it so we booked it again. Big mistake, food choice was half on what the first trip was. Entertainment was almost non existent. Ship is going in for a total remodel in feb,I guess they are just going through the motions for now

This was my first time traveling on Carnival Cruise and we had a great time.  The room and dinning room service was excellent.  The food was great.  I would of liked to see more show during our stay. 

  The only inconvenient was the last day at sea by the pool side.  There was a group of people that had a little to much to drink and were conducting  themselves in a very inappropriate behavior acting out like if they were having sex.  There were children around the pool and Jacuzzi area. The Ship security was called to the area, but they were not able to control the situation and let.  I believe security should off removed them from the area.

Almost NO entertainment, unless you like to gamble, play Bingo or Karaoke. There was only one actual show on the last night. The itinerary for the ships entertainment is very misleading. The food is not very good, the sodium is so high that our entire party was swollen and felt sick. The time at the first port (Cayman Islands) is so little that you can't actually do anything.

However the staff were great!

This will definitely be our last cruise with Carnival.  Very disappointed in the food, entertainment, and the bartenders', waiters' and hostess' friendliness.  We had a suite/cabin with a balcony that overlooked a lifeboat.

     Our last cruise was more than 20 years ago, and my husband and I took this cruise for our 25th wedding anniversary. Even though the Paradise is one of the older, smaller ships we enjoyed the cruise very much.Our main purpose was to get away and go snorkeling. The dining room was very nice and the food varied from good to excellent. Loved the lobster dinner and Elegant Dining night. We did the Anytime dining and it let us meet many wonderful people and Anytime diners had tables near the windows for a great view.  The dining room staff, for the most part, was friendly, served us quickly and made sure we were pleased with our meal. We did the 3 bottle wine package which worked well for us along with the two bottles of champagne we were allowed to bring aboard.  You have to call the Fun Shops to arrange it. The buffet in the Paradise Cafe was also very good as an option. There was a great brunch for both days at sea that goes until 1:30. The pizza at the Pizza cafe needs a lot of improvement, however. The lobby and library were beautifully appointed, and the clubs looked nice, but we did not spend time in them.  We had a room with a window on the Upper Deck about the middle of the ship. I highly recommend getting a room with a window; it was wonderful. The beds and pillows were very comfortable, but the furnishings need to be updated a bit as do the hallways going to the rooms.The pools were small, but the slide was a lot of fun...it's not just for kids! The smaller pool was a great place to meet and talk with people, while the main pool was the party pool. We spent a lot of time relaxing on the Serenity Deck also.

      We did two shore excursions. Stingray Sandbar & Coral Gardens snorkeling in Grand Cayman, which we booked through Carnival, was outstanding. Since we snorkel a lot I was concerned that it might not meet our expectations, but it was great.   We spent about 45 minutes at each site. We had more than enough time to hold and pet the stingrays. Coral Gardens had a variety of coral, including elkhorn and soft corals and lots of it. We saw lobster, urchins & other invertebrates, tons of fish, a stingray,  and more. The dive site was about 10 feet deep or less,so it was an easy dive. The masks and fins on the boat looked good, although we brought our own. The second shore excursion was in Cozumel. We booked through Shore Excursions Group, and we were greatly disappointed. It was a sail/snorkel trip on a catamaran that was promoted as being smaller and more friendly than the bigger excursions. The equipment they provided was not very good.  They did not take us to a reef, even though they said they did. When they dropped us off the boat I could see coral reef to the left of us, but they had us swim to the right, over sandy and rocky bottom. I asked the staff person where the reef was, and he said "this is it." The current was very strong and we had to drift with it.  One of the crew mentioned that each dive operation had a more or less appointed section of the reef and I'm guessing that the larger operations that the cruise ships book with have the better locations. We saw the larger catamaran that Carnival books for their excursion, and later spoke to some people who had been on it, and they said they saw a lot of coral and fish and had a great time. Needless to say, next time we will book all of our excursions through the cruise ship.

     Other than that, we attended a couple of shows on-board which we enjoyed. The session I attended on shopping in Cozumel was very helpful. We got discount coupons and learned which shops were reputable and which ones to avoid, and how to get free gifts. I did not attend the session that discussed disembarkation at Grand Cayman, but it would have helpful if I had.  I would have known that we would be tendered off the boat and that the process would take 45 minutes.

    One suggestion for Cruises Only would be to include a reminder to register with the cruise line to receive your onboard cash. It had to be done 30 days prior to the trip. It was in the 4 page document I printed but I did not see that until too late, so I lost the $25 onboard credit I would have received.

    Overall, my husband and I had a great time and everyone we talked with also enjoyed this cruise.  We would do it again.

The cruise was very good. The only problem we had was at night after Midnight, we had a bad order coming from our air vent. This was not constant but would happen off and on through our last three nights of the cruise and always after midnight. The order was bad enough to wake me from sleep. I asked a member of the staff in my area if anybody had complained about this problem and was told no so we put up with it for the last three nights. If you take a cruise on this ship DO NOT book cabin E162. 

This was the best decision I have ever made to celebrate my husbands Birthday.

Carnival Paradise staff was awesome!!! Shows were great. Food was to die for. 

I hope he plans one for my Birthday.... 

I had a lovely time on the cruise, dinning was excellent, Activities were fun...

However, there are a few things that can be considered to improve the overall experience for your passengers. The main thing is monitor the smoking. If a particular area is No smoking please enforce these boundaries. I am allergic to cigarette smoke and can say numerous times there were people smoking in areas that specially stated NO SMOKING. The only other area, I would say that could be improved is, police the pool. There were times when people drinking got a little rowdy and started chicken fighting in the pool. I think this could be a horrible liability to Carnival and other passengers if someone were to get hurt. Other than that I had a wonderful time. Thanks for some good memories.  

I had a great time with the group I was with and enjoyed the day in Mexico also.

I would do this trip again, however I have had several trips with Carnival and

I enjoyed all. the other five people on this cruise was there first and they all want

To do this again. The service was great the crew was very attentive to any needs

That was asked. Good trip

Lem griffin

I had a great time with the group I was with and enjoyed the day in Mexico also.

I would do this trip again, however I have had several trips with Carnival and

I enjoyed all. the other five people on this cruise was there first and they all want

To do this again. The service was great the crew was very attentive to any needs

That was asked. Good trip

Lem griffin

It was my first cruise and I have never had so much fun in my life. I plan on going on another one as soon as I can. There was so much to do, and not enough time to do it all. It was very helpful to receive the information packet of the daily events as well. I enjoyed seeing the shows as well.

I traveled with 3 other friends and we had a great time, just wished there were more time but we had to come back to family and life.  It was great to get away and this was the perfect way.  The cost of the cruise and everything was very reasonable.  The only problem we had was not with carnival but on the excursion we took in Grand Caymen.  I have already posted something on that so I will not go into it here.  Each of us found stuff we liked to do as a group and by ourselves.  We loved that our Head waiter knew our names right away and they were all great.

It was pretty much what we expected form this particular cruise line/ship.  Fun passengers and crew.  Was set up very similar to other carnival ships.  The only thing that really stuck out was that there weren't any specialty restaurants.  Not that we would have dined in them but you never know.  The price of the cruise did drop $40 per person the last week before sailing.  I tried to get to refund the difference but they would not as it didn't fit their criteria for a refund.  It would have been nice for them to do something for the price change.  With that said we thought the trip was a good value.

total relaxation.   After getting settled in the room, I could feel the tension start leaving and relaxing taking over.  The entire trip was relaxing.

This was my first cruise and hope to take many more. The price was excellent and the service was great. My only downside was the pool was too small for so many people, but overall--the service staff and the food---OMG the FOOD!! were outstanding!! Look forward to many more in the future!!Thanks again..

If you are not on the ship's schedule, and I'm talking about from 10:00am to 10:00pm and don't make your assigned seating at dinner, be prepared to wait at least 1/2 hour for food at the deli (sandwiches),

the grill (hot dogs or hamburgers) or the pizza place...the buffets were rarely open when we were hungry...we were asked to leave the dining room because we were not dressed properly (I was returning from the infirmary with my grandson who slipped and fell on the wet pool deck got 4 stitches and was hungry...last thing on my mind was to take him back to the cabin so I could put on a pair of long pants and remove my hat...price was right for my wife and I and 2 grandsons...we had a lot of fun on our Cozumel excursion...the crew was rude and the process painful and very unorganized as we attempted to disembark the ship...If your cruise was great to this point, the disembarkation process surely changed your mood and mind...went on an Alaska cruise earlier in the summer, different company...walked right on and got right off...very organized and the way a cruise should end