Carnival Paradise Cruise Reviews - Reviews

see pros and cons above. food and service was great! but ship was in def need of updating

Smaller than expected and needed to be updated in some public areas. All was very clean and overall a good value!

Very nice ship overall. Crew is awesome. A lot of things to do on board - never get bored. Great cruise experience overall. Thank you!

The ship is a good sarting place for first time cruisers or those with young children. Although we didn't use the daycare services, they seemed organized and well supervised. The interior is well maintained, the pools were clean and the guestrooms spacious. The overall service was adequate, however, I wasn't a fan of the mandatory gratutities carnival adds to your bill on board. Our waitress in the main dining room was quite possibly the best I have ever had. She was very attentive and took extra steps to go above and beyond in providing special treats for our 5 year old grandson. Housekeeping staff was adequate. The rooms were well maintianed as well. Crowding in the stairwells and elevators seemed to be a bit much and the first night of formal dining seemed a bit chaotic. Some of the staff such as the hostesses in the dining room and guest services tended to run a bit on the rude side.

We appreciated the ability to bring wine on board and took advantage of it. Very clean, nice room, attentive staff. Entertainment was almost non existent for people who don't like vulgar jokes or double meanings. Spa was nice, but exercise room was lacking in basic equipment...I missed not having a rowing machine, and the spinner bikes were reserved for classes only.

We recently sailed the paradise to mexico and it was a great experience. First time cruising and I am sold on the advantages of cruising. The food was excellent but for the the best part was the professionalism of the staff!! They were extremely friendly and made the trip very enjoyable. The ship was immaculate but a little antiquated compared to some of the other ships in the carnival fleet. Only complaint was a lack of designated cigar smoking places but this did not effect the overall enjoyment of our experience. I would recommend to anybody looking to travel

The ship is not that old and is HUGE! This was my first cruise and it was great. The ride over the Gulf of Mexico was pretty smooth, there were only a couple of times we really swayed a lot. The ship was still decorated for Christmas and looked great, the rooms are to be expected, the beds were pretty comfortable as compared to your typical hotel. Navigation across the ship to certain areas is not always easy but we figured it out. We went on this cruise to go to Cozumel, Mexico and have our wedding there on the beach. The staff was great, the wedding was awesome and beautiful! The only complaint, and it is a big one, is with the photographer pricing etc. 1) you are not allowed to bring your own photographer you HAVE to use Carnival's photographer. 2) The price list was from $500 for about 35 photos to $3000 for the "complete photo package", with no real customization 3) There was an additional $1200 photo book that was available that was not listed on the price list prior to cruising 4)You do not get to see a set of proofs to choose photos from 5) You HAVE to pay for your photos on the cruise, and you get about 30 minutes to decide which photos you want (in our case there were 300 photos to choose from!) 6) They preselected the size of the 8x10 and 5x7 photos, so you have no choice in the size of the photo as it has been chosen for you, you can't change the size they preselected. This made an awesome cruise end quite bitterly. Had we known that we had to pay for the photos on the cruise we would have brought this budget with us. Also, even if we did find our package there was no way to know about the additional $1200 photo book as it was not listed ANYWHERE. What I would suggest is that Carnival put the proofs on the web and let us choose state side, that would also allow our family to order photos and increase profitability. I think the worst thing I heard from the photo salesman was "can you borrow money from your friends?" What is this?! A used car lot? Really, what kind of professional asks you these things. All in all the cruise was great, the food was good, the scenery was great, the staff was awesome. The wedding photography system needs a lot of work and I wouldn't recommend going through carnival for your destination wedding based on this alone. I would book the cruise with carnival and book the wedding and photographer outside of them. Still, thanks for the great price from and thanks for the wonderful cruise from Carnival! ***************Some hint's for first time cruisers - You are allowed to bring a case of soda AND a 750ml bottle of wine or champagne on board. I suggest you do so on the soda if you want to be thrifty. If you don't want to lug the soda on board they have a bottomless soda option for $30 per person. You DO NOT have to have a passport a valid birth certificate and ID worked perfectly fine for the 12 of us. There is no reason to sneak liquor on board the liquor store has it cheap as it's tax and duty free. Two 1L bottles of Top shop Vodka will only cost you about $20 or so. For the smokers, the cartons of cigarrettes are like $22 on-board so buy them if you can, you are allowed to bring one carton per person home so don't buy 10 cartons lol.

This experience was totally mediocre. Carnival really let me down. I had high expectations, with all of Carnival's hype...

The ship looked like it had been designed in the 70's. It was ALMOST kitschy enough to be cute except you had the feeling they were 100% serious about the orange & brown decor. There was not enough to do on the ship, the entertainment was terrible and it's absurd that there was no free wifi (or at least moderately priced! It was $29 for 45 minutes, give me a break!).

This was a perfect size ship, the crew was professional and took great care of our party of eight that ranged in ages 6-79. All were comfy and found enjoyable ways to spend time. 5 days was good amount of time for us and food was good.

The ship was nice, not super luxurious or anything, but nice for the price. Would have like more and bigger pools. The two pools were pretty tiny and often crowded with kids. Wish they didn't allow smoking anywhere - some of the smokers weren't very considerate.

Very clean, good food, great service, and excellent entertainment!!

Overall a wonderful experience. Our waiter could have been a little more enthusiastic but for the most part everyone was friendly and knowledgeable. It was a wonderful honeymoon!!

Great cruise, great time with family, great deals with the tickets...

Our overall impression of the ship was good. First cruise we had been on since 2005 so it was interesting to see how things have changed or not changed as the case may be. Ship needs a make over as the decor is really becoming dated. Carnival has become much more informal in our opinion with respect to what is acceptable attire while on a cruise ship most noted in the formal dinning room. They have also become very lax with respect to intoxicated guests. We observed a number of individuals over the four days that really had to much to drink but they kept getting served. Would have like to have seen a bit more of the ships activities geared towards the holiday rather than just keeping the same itinerary. The CD and ACD were great.

i don't normally do reviews but i felt that the staff deserve an applaud. it was our first time on cruise. we truly enjoyed it. the dinner was restaurant quality, shows were professionally performed. staffs worked hard to keep the place clean and comfortable.

We were on Paradise for 5 nights. The overall impression was just ok. The staff was exceptional. Couldnt ask for nicer people. Activities were not the greatest. Entertainment was much less than expected. Price of cruise was ok but they get you with the extra's. Every arcade came cost at least a dollar, be prepared if you want soda. Family of five cost over $150 extra for SODA card. I don't mind gratuity but $57 a day was a little much. Parking was $75. After already paying for a five day cruise for five people I was hit for more than $500 more dollars the first day. Probably would not do again.

The Ship was Larger and Pretty - but as first time cruisers we were very disappointed in the disorganization. It took us a LOT Longer to get our luggage than we were told, and then there were no instructions as to what was where or what to do for 1 1/2 days. Feel as if that time was wasted. Our 11 yr old daughter wanted to watch shows, but they were way past her bedtime. The kids area was mainly YOUNGER kids and the boat has a policy NOT to allow 11 yr olds to be with 12 + olds. She was VERY disappointed

I Have Booked 7 Cruises Before This Cruise ( 3 on Carnival Inspiration ) This Was The Worst. The Room Has One BIG Problem-- It Has A Large Box in Back Corner of Room ( Not in Your Pictures of the Room ) For Life Jackets. You Have To Climb Across The Box To Get Out of Bed . I Got Many Bruises From This. The Room Steward ( Kate ) and Her Staff Were The Greatest!

was really great, is my third time and I really like to take a vacation, because is really vacation we don't do anything.....