Paradise Review 8/5/13

Pre-Cruise: Knoxville, TN to Clearwater Beach, FL

The four of us had been planning this girlfriends' getaway since early December 2012. Needless to say, we were extremely anxious to get the fun underway! We started out from Knoxville at about 9 am on Sunday morning. The drive is pretty dull - I-75 the entire way - but finally, FINALLY, we arrive in Tampa around 7 pm. From there, it was an easy 30 minute drive to Clearwater Beach, where our hotel on the beach awaited us.

I am a Choice Hotels credit card holder, and I travel extensively for work, so I redeemed my points to get us a free night at the Quality Inn on the beach in Clearwater. Quality is one of the lowest tiers of the Choice brand; my expectations were pretty low for the hotel itself, but hey - it was on the beach and free, so how bad could it be, really?...

View from our hotel room balcony:

I was pleasantly surprised by the hotel. It was clean, quiet, and located right on the beach. The rooms were typical mid-level hotel rooms, but the staff was extremely friendly and helpful. For some reason, I was under the impression that Clearwater Beach was going to be more of a quiet, laidback location than a typical Florida beach. I was mildly disappointed to discover that it was essentially a mini Panama City. However, our portion of beach was significantly quieter than the "main drag" area we passed through to get there.

We quickly unpacked and walked down the street to a nearby resort called Shephard's for dinner. It was a typical seafood buffet - good but not worth the $27/plate cost, in my opinion! The patio area where we ate was right on the water, which was nice, but next door to the resort's night club, which kind of killed the ambiance. The death knell in our relaxing dinner came when one of the patrons at the table next to us (a group of barely-21s), who had been passed out the entire time we had been eating, vomited on the table while we were waiting for our check. :eek: :mad: I immediately got up and walked out, not even bothering to wait for my change. My stomach has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to vomit.

Aside from that incident, it was a pleasant evening. We walked on the beach for a little while, anxious to get our toes in the ocean. Our only other minor bummer of the night was finding out that the hotel didn't carry HBO! We ended up watching "True Blood" and "The Newsroom" on an iPad; we are nothing if not resourceful! :D

Next up: Embarkation Day - And A Cannibal Bird...

The death knell in our relaxing dinner came when one of the patrons at the table next to us (a group of barely-21s), who had been passed out the entire time we had been eating, vomited on the table while we were waiting for our check. :eek: :mad: I immediately got up and walked out, not even bothering to wait for my change. My stomach has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to vomit.

quote]

NO WAY!:eek:

Unbelievable!

Hope the rest of your cruise goes better!:o

Embarkation Day: At Long Last!

We slept until about 8:30 or so on Sunday morning, not even bothering to set an alarm. We weren't in much of a hurry, but the call of the ship didn't allow us to sleep for long. The hotel was attached to a small IHOP, and we decided to go ahead and grab breakfast there out of convenience. They actually had a covered outdoor patio, so we enjoyed the sea air a little with our breakfast. As we were finishing up, we noticed that we were being watched by several different birds. When we got up to leave, one of them helped himself to Kim's leftover eggs! We dubbed him the cannibal bird.

We decided to get manicures and pedicures before heading for Tampa. Luckily, there was a salon just down the street from the hotel. This turned out to be an excellent choice; it was the best service I had ever received from a nail salon! Refreshed, relaxed, and a bit pampered, we were now ready to load up the car and head to Tampa.

The drive across the bridge from Clearwater to Tampa is short and very easy. Once we got to Tampa, my GPS's six-year-old maps took us on a bit of a detour, but we eventually managed to find our way to the pier after a brief tour of downtown Tampa. We were very excited to finally catch a glimpse of the ship from the parking garage!

We arrived at the pier just after noon. There was quite a crowd already, but we were checked in and on the ship in about 45 minutes. By the time we boarded, our cabins were ready. We had originally booked one oceanview cabin on the Main deck; after the Triumph incident sent prices tumbling, we had changed to two oceanview cabins on the Empress deck - E106 and E110 - for $100 less per person that our initial booking. This was an excellent decision! We absolutely loved the central location of our cabins.

After a quick lunch at the Deli, we explored the ship for a bit before the muster drill. The drill was relatively well organized and much quicker than I remembered from my first cruise a few years ago. Once muster wrapped up, we headed back to the cabins to change into our bathing suits and found that our luggage had already been delivered. We unpacked before heading up to the aft pool for sail away.

Finally, it was time for the first drink of the day!

It was EXTREMELY windy up by the aft pool. We nearly lost a few flip flops and did lose two drinks and a plate of sushi to the high winds. I was happy to have one of my Christmas gifts, a terrycloth lounge chair cover with pockets on both sides! I was able to tuck my drink into one pocket and my shoes into the other to keep from losing them over the side of the ship.

We hung out by the aft pool until after we passed under the bridge and out into the ocean. It was very quiet up there - maybe 50 people total. I'm not sure if this was due to the wind or if other passengers just hadn't discovered the second pool yet. Either way, that worked out great for us! After that, we cleaned up and headed to our first dinner.

We had late dining in the Elation dining room. We were excited to see that we were seated at a table for 11. Besides the four of us (28, 28, 28, and 35), there was a 50-ish father and his two young 20-something daughters, and a pair of honeymooners travelling with his father and stepmother. The father and his girls were very nice. The other foursome was...interesting...to say the least. They did not seem impressed with the main dining room food or portion sizes. On the second night, the father didn't show up until very late, and the stepmother was extremely unhappy about something he'd done earlier in the day. After that, they never returned to the main dining room, so our table for 11 became a table for 7.

We were looking for something to do after dinner and stumbled upon the "rocking country" band at the casino bar. The lead singer was hilarious! He had more energy than any person I had ever seen in my life. We were sitting right next to the band and ended up making friends with both the lead singer and the lead guitar player. We watched their shows almost every night of the cruise and jokingly called ourselves their "groupies".

Next Up: First Day at Sea

NO WAY!:eek:

Unbelievable!

Hope the rest of your cruise goes better!:o

It was truly disgusting. The worst part was that his "friends" (who, had they been true friends, would have taken him back to their room long before he got to that point) made no attempt to clean up the mess or to alert the waitstaff to what had happened. They just got up and carried him out. Bleh.

And, yes, the rest of our trip was MUCH better!

I'm enjoying your review so far, and can't wait to read more. I did a B-2-B aboard "Paradise" in April, and enjoyed it so much that I'll be boarding again next Monday. :cool: Great ship, fantastic crew, and service, and outstanding food and entertainment.

"SKY"

Day at Sea and Elegant Night

We slept with the curtains in our room open every night, allowing us to wake up gradually with the sun every morning. This is a luxury I don't often get in my every day life, and I enjoyed it immensely. On the first sea day, the name of the game was unwinding! We grabbed a quick breakfast in the main dining room (had to get my free "past guest" mimosa!) before heading out to the Serenity Deck around 9 am. Since it was still so early, we were able to snag chairs right at the rail, under the umbrellas. I love the view from the back of the ship; it is so peaceful.

We stayed out there, sunning, snoozing, and reading, for about three hours or so. By then, it was getting hot at the back of the ship, and I was hungry for lunch. We ordered sandwiches from room service because nothing on the buffet appealed to us. I highly recommend the chicken fajita wrap! Then we headed up to the Lido deck to watch the master mixologist contest. Unfortunately, it was extremely crowded up there. The only table we were able to find was behind the stage, in the smoking area. The smoke didn't particularly bother us, but we couldn't really see or hear what was going on from where we were sitting. We lasted just long enough for Claudia to snag a drink in a blowfish glass before heading back inside.

We spent the afternoon playing a few rounds of trivia and watching some karaoke. Then it was time to get cleaned up for Elegant Night. I think we posed for pictures at every single photo backdrop that night. The photographers kept putting us in some extremely intimate poses for a group of friends. At one point, we were laughing so hard that we nearly fell off of the stools we were posing on. By the time we got to dinner, we were starving. I think every one of us ate three appetizers, two entrees, and desert that night! The lobster was delicious; I did not care for the prime rib at all.

All four of us enjoyed the shot offerings on our nights in the main dining room. On Elegant Night, we named our shot the "FFA shot" due to the color scheme.

After dinner, we watched our new friends in the country band play for a while and headed to bed fairly early. We knew we wanted to be up and off the ship as soon as possible in Grand Cayman the next day.

Up next: Grand Cayman and our Kayak Adventure

Grand Cayman: Ultimate Kayak and Snorkel Safari and Chef's Table

(I had to split this into multiple posts due to the board image limit!)

I woke up very early this day, in time to see the sun rising over Grand Cayman as we arrived in port.

We were scheduled to be in Grand Cayman from 8 am - 3 pm ship's time (7-2 local time). Because of the odd hours in port, we decided to stick with a ship-sponsored excursion. This was my first time not booking with a private operator, so I was a little concerned that we might end up in a huge group but decided to give it a try anyway. We booked the Ultimate Kayak and Snorkel Safari. Our excursion was scheduled to begin at 9:30 am. We grabbed some pastries in the buffet and headed to the tender line, which wasn't bad at all. We were off the ship by 8:45.

We hit the Tortuga duty-free shop first for rum and souvenirs. I got a bottle of Tortuga pineapple flavored rum for myself and a bottle of Big Black D*ck dark rum for my brother-in-law (can't WAIT to see his face when he unwraps that...), and my total was just over $30, which I thought was a very reasonable price. We still had some time before our excursion began, so we walked around the area near the port for a while.

When we met up with our excursion group, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were only 12 people total signed up for the excursion, counting the four in our group! This was definitely not going to be a "cattle call" kind of excursion. Our guides were Jay and Angelo, and they were fantastic! After a short bus ride, we arrived at our kayaks and received some basic instruction. Then we paddled down the coast, stopping periodically as Jay explained the history of the "shoe tree" and mangrove forests and the important roles that sea grass plays in the island environment. He also gave us an up close and personal introduction to a mangrove jellyfish, also known as an "upside-down jellyfish".

Then Jay left us in Angelo's capable hands, and we paddled out about 10 minutes from shore to our snorkeling platform. The color of the water in Grand Cayman was like nothing I've ever seen before. It was unbelievably gorgeous and clear. The photos definitely don't do it justice! We snorkeled around the platform at a small coral reef outcropping for about 45 minutes or so. I had a little trouble with my mask fogging at first, but once I figured that out, I was good to go. This wasn't a huge reef with a ton of variety in the marine life, but it was interesting nonetheless. The water was warm and clear and not very deep - in many areas, I could easily stand up (I'm only 5'1").

Here comes my only major rant of the cruise: IF YOU CANNOT SWIM COMFORTABLY IN WATER OVER YOUR HEAD, DO NOT TAKE A SNORKELING EXCURSION!!!!! There was a rather annoying, whiney family of four on this excursion with us. The two teenaged girls clearly did not choose this excursion and complained the entire time about how "hard" it was. During the snorkeling portion, the father (a rather heavy-weight man in his 50s) panicked when he couldn't reach the bottom and began to have trouble keeping himself above water. Marianne was the first person to notice him and attempted to help move him into shallower water while she got the guide's attention. The two of them were able to tow the man back to the snorkeling platform. Why he didn't have on a life jacket, I don't know - there were two in every kayak available for use. :rolleyes:

After the snorkeling, we paddled back to shore to reboard the bus. Claudia and I spotted a huge sting ray just as we pulled away from the platform, but we couldn't catch up to him fast enough to get a picture. We arrive back at the pier around 1 pm and decided to grab a quick snack at Paradise restaurant before heading back to the ship. I knew that Grand Cayman was expensive, so I was prepared for the sticker shock, but a couple of my friends were not. We each had a drink and split a plate of conch fritters, which were delicious.

We made it back to the tender line around 2 pm (last tender was scheduled for 2:15). By then, the line was several blocks long! Luckily it moved quickly, so it wasn't all that bad - maybe 30 minutes or so from the end of the line to back on the ship. Then it was time to get cleaned up and ready for Chef's Table!

Chef's Table was probably the thing that I was most looking forward to on the entire cruise. We ended up being ready a little early, so we checked out our photos from the night before, decided which ones we'd want to buy later in the week, and then Kim, Claudia, and I wanted to try the martini tasting before dinner. We thought the bartender would pour one of the choices for each of us, then the second choice, etc., but instead he poured all four for each one before moving to the next person. This meant that, by the time poor Claudia got her drinks, she had to down all four of them in less than 10 minutes! They were extremely good, though. My favorite was the Florida Squeeze.

Needless to say, we three (especially Claudia!) were a bit tipsy when the Chef's Table festivities began. This made it a bit difficult to pay attention to the finer details of the information we received during the galley tour, especially with the champagne flowing freely! We managed to keep it together, though. I didn't take photos of the appetizers we were offered in the galley, but they were fantastic. The langoustine and sundried tomato jam fritters were to die for. The melting chocolate cake cooking demonstration was fun, and I was happy that we received the recipe afterwards with our group photo.

After the demo, we were lead to the library for our meal. First up was "Tomatoes Our Way", which consisted of aerated tomato juice, chardonnay poached cherry tomatoes, and a cherry tomato coated in cocoa butter. All I can say about that last one is WOW!

Next was what was probably my favorite dish of the entire meal: Ahi tuna on lemon bread with sesame crisps, miso cream, and avocado gel. This was absolutely amazing.

After that came a Cornish game hen, caramelized with a butternut squash foam/gel, caramelized onions, and little balls of balsamic vinegar and something else that I've sadly forgotten. This dish was accompanied by a warm yeast roll with caramelized garlic on top.

That was followed by the only dish of the night that I didn't particularly care for. It was something called a Bavarois, which was meant to combine the salad and soup courses. A turnip and green apple soup was served over a bed of spinach and green peas.

After the soup course came a brief break before our entrees were served. A magician did a short show for us during this time. Claudia excused herself to go to the restroom...and still hadn't returned by the time his act finished. At this point, we were extremely worried about her. Did she get sick? Did someone abduct her? How would we even go about trying to find her?

At that point, our next course was served. This was a delicious salmon with herb pesto, cured tomatoes, carrots, fava beans, and condensed beets.

I was just finishing up my salmon when Claudia reappeared! What happened to her, you ask? Well...she apparently didn't realize that there was a restroom literally just outside the library and went searching for one. When she came out, she was completely turned around. Not only did she not know where she was, but she couldn't remember the name of where she had come from. She wandered around for a while, decided that maybe if she went back by the cabin she would find something that told her where to go, and realized that she had also lost her sail and sign card (she and I had bought lanyards the night before in the gift shop; she still had the lanyard but no card)! Finally, she went to guest services, where they gave her a new sail and sign card, a deck plan/map, and directions to the library. We were all relieved to see her show up, including the wait staff and chef! Later that night, she found her old sail and sign card - in her bra. Martini tasting + free flowing champagne + wine is not for the faint of heart!

The next course was the most tender Kobe beef ever, stewed in a delicious dark sauce and served with potato pebbles, pumpkin fudge, and tomato dust.

Our final course was, naturally, desert. It was called "Chocolate 88F", and consisted of a rich flourless chocolate cake, aerated pistachio and mango cakes, mascarpone cream, guava, and caramel pralines. It was delicious! Unfortunately, I was too full from the other courses and wine to eat more than a few bites.

And so ended our Chef's Table extravaganza! We once again listed to our friends in the country band for a few hours, danced a bit, and then headed to bed.

Next up: Cozumel!

Enjoying your review! We loved the Paradise and will hopefully sail on her again in the future. Trying a sister ship 1st, then want to do a 7 day... but definitely want to go back on the ship that got us hooked on cruising. :)

I'm so excited for another Paradise review. We will be sailing next month. And we are right up the road from you in KY and will be flying out of Knoxville.

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Cozumel: Nachi Cocom

We were all very excited about our day in Cozumel. The ship was scheduled to be there from 11-8 (10-7 local time). I had booked the four of us at Nachi Cocom for the day. I was also looking forward to snorkeling; I had heard that Cozumel was one of the best locations in the Caribbean.

We slept late, had room service breakfast, and then prepared ourselves for our day at the beach. Remember Claudia and her lost sign and sail card? Well, she inadvertently picked up the old card instead of the new one that morning. When she went to leave the ship, instead of the expected "ding", we heard a loud voice announcing, "Access Denied". Poor thing had to go all the way back to the cabin and then wait in line again before joining us on the pier. It only took her about 15 minutes, and then we were ready to find a taxi. The walk through the pier shopping area was longer than we expected, but we were quickly in a cab and away.

It was only a short ride to Nachi Cocom. We were immediately greeted, herded to the obligatory sombrero photo, and shown to the check-in desk. Our waiter for the day was Carlos; he showed us to our loungers for the day, shaded by a thick palapa. He took our drink order and, before we could even finish putting down all of our things, a representative of the snorkel company came up and asked if we were interested in any water sports. Kim and Marianne decided to join me on the snorkeling expedition; Claudia, who is not much for saltwater, decided to hold down the loungers.

We were told that it was a 45 minute snorkeling trip and would cost $38 per person. We handed over our money and walked down to the boat. Walking on the sand at Nachi is a bit difficult; it is coarse, hot, and filled with seashells. We eventually made it to the pier and then faced the challenge of climbing down into the boat, which we managed to accomplish, although clumsily.

Our guide, Eduardo, and our captain, Pancho, greeted us and helped us select our snorkel gear, and then we were off. The three of us and the guide and captain were the only people on the boat! I was buzzing with excitement and really hoping we'd see something exciting, like a sea turtle. We quickly reached our first snorkel location and prepared to jump into the water - which required climbing out over the side of the boat. I think my lack of athleticism in making the leap concerned our guides, because Eduardo brought a life preserver ring along with us at the first stop. At the second stop, having determined that I could, in fact swim, he left it on the boat.

The water at Cozumel is beautiful, although not in the same class as Grand Cayman. The snorkeling was absolutely amazing! The coral reef was huge and colorful, with an incredible variety of marine life. We saw all kinds of creatures at our first stop, including a huge star fish, several schools of barracudas, and a sting ray.

Eduardo was awesome. He made sure to point interesting things out to us and dove down among the reef sections to scare out sea creatures and bring us up a sand dollar, some conch, and a few other small items to examine. After what seemed like an eternity, he signaled to us that it was time to get back on the boat. Thankfully, there was a ladder to help us climb back in! Since we'd been out for so long, we assumed there wouldn't be a second stop, but soon we were pulling up to our second location. At this location, Eduardo found a spider crab and brought it up for us to hold. Then, we spotted a large sea turtle resting on the reef! My day was officially made.

As we were swimming along, I felt Marianne tap me on the shoulder. I turned my head and found myself staring right into the face of a rather large fish! This guy (grouper, maybe?) swam along with and between us for about 10 minutes. He seemed as curious about us as we were about him.

Snorkeling in Cozumel was the highlight of my cruise, even above the Chef's Table. It was one of the most awe-inspiring experiences of my life. By the time we returned to the dock, we had been gone for over two hours! We certainly got our money's worth out of that trip.

When we finally got back to Claudia at the loungers, we were starving. We ordered fresh drinks and four plates of guacamole. Holy cow - it was awesome! I followed that up with some of the most delicious shrimp ceviche ever. We told Carlos to keep the drinks coming, and he didn't let us down! I don't think any of us ever had an empty glass all day long.

Later that afternoon, it started raining, and the beach began clearing out even more. We remained dry and content under our palapa, until we started to hear thunder. At that point, we decided to dash for the safety of covered bar area where we had checked is. We settled in at a table, squeezed the water out of our hair and towels as best we could, and resumed drinking. Carlos also brought us additional plates of guacamole and ceviche - I think I ate about two and a half plates of guacamole and one and a half of ceviche myself that day.

At that point, it was clear that the rain wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Within an hour or so, we were one of only two small groups of people left at Nachi, other than the staff. When the storm finally subsided to a gentle rain, we jumped in the pool and hung out at the swim-up bar. Things start to get...fuzzy...at that point, but I know there were some tasty shots involved. Eventually, we asked Carlos to call us a cab and made our way back to the pier. I wanted to buy a couple bottles of vanilla and a few bottles of good tequila, along with a few other souvenirs. Those missions were accomplished quickly. The next thing we knew, we were "tasting" several varieties of tequila and then, inexplicably, buying cigars?? (None of us smokes...) At one point, we also found a bicycle mounted on a blender and posed for pictures with that and with some random animal statues along the way back to the ship.

By the time we reached the pier and could see the ship, we were undoubtedly "those girls". My flip flops kept falling apart, making the walk back even more entertaining. But we made it safely back onto the ship - and didn't have to run - so we considered the day a success.

I think it was around 7 when we got back to the ship. We got cleaned up for dinner - sans Claudia, who didn't quite stay up long enough. :D I'm sure our dinner companions got a kick out of our behavior that night. Needless to say, we went to bed right after dinner!

Next up: Final Day at Sea and our Trivia Mania

I'm so excited for another Paradise review. We will be sailing next month. And we are right up the road from you in KY and will be flying out of Knoxville.

That's exciting! Have you flown from Knoxville? It is a very easy airport to get in and out of. We thought about flying for our cruise - Allegiant flies insanely cheap routes from Knoxville to Tampa and a few other Florida destinations. Unfortunately, their flight dates/times didn't quite work for our cruise and work schedules.

That's exciting! Have you flown from Knoxville? It is a very easy airport to get in and out of. We thought about flying for our cruise - Allegiant flies insanely cheap routes from Knoxville to Tampa and a few other Florida destinations. Unfortunately, their flight dates/times didn't quite work for our cruise and work schedules.

Yes, Allegiants flight days are strange, so we couldn't use them. We've never flown from Knoxville but have picked up plenty of people. We found reasonably priced flights so we figured why not.

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Final Day at Sea: Cozumel Hangover Edition

Okay, Cozumel, you win! We were not at our best when we woke up on the last day at sea. The fact that the winds had picked up and the ship was doing some significant side-to-side rocking action didn't help our situations at all. We ordered "breakfast" from room service consisting of BLTs and grilled cheese sandwiches when we woke up a little after 8. That helped a little. My neck and upper back were a bit sore, either from snorkeling or from sleeping in a weird position. Since the spa was having a special on full-body massages, I made an appointment and headed up there around 9 am. The ship was eerily empty - apparently we weren't the only ones who were having a rough time post-Cozumel!

The ship was REALLY rocking up on the spa deck. I was thankful for the Dramamine and ginger ale I had downed with my breakfast that morning. My massage was wonderful. Stephanie, the masseuse, told me that I was in very bad shape - one of the worst she had ever worked on. Apparently I need to get back into a chiropractic routine ASAP - when I lay down, one shoulder is about 3" higher than the other, and my muscles were incredibly sore all over. I felt much better after she worked on my for nearly an hour, and I headed down to find the rest of the girls.

We parked ourselves in the shaded section of the Serenity Deck for a couple of hours, enjoying our last chance to stare out at the peaceful water. The fresh air definitely helped my hangover/seasick combination significantly. We ate lunch in the main dining room and then wandered around the ship for a while. I purchased a couple of formal night pictures, and then we settled in for some serious trivia playing. I had tied for the win in a game called "Majority Rules" earlier in the week but lost the tiebreaker. We failed miserably at the sports trivia and did very well with the comedy movie quotes trivia, but didn't manage to win that one. Claudia tied for first in the boy band trivia game. She had to play "rock, paper, scissors" and sadly lost that after three rounds. Apparently a ship on a stick was not meant to be for us on this trip!

Since trivia was obviously not meant to be for us, we headed over for one last taste of sushi from the sushi bar and then went to pack our bags and get ready for dinner. After dinner, we watched the adult comedy show, visited one last time with our friends in the country band, and then finished packing and placed our bags out in the hall before going to bed.

Next up: Debarkation Day

Debarkation Day: Back to Reality

The morning we were dreading finally came! We all determined that we want to try a 7 day cruise next, because 5 days just wasn't enough. We woke up around 7 am and finished our last minute packing as we listened to the various announcements in the hallway. When I finally took my phone out of the safe and turned it back on, it sounded like the darn thing was playing a symphony as all the notifications popped up. All told, I had missed a dozen or so text messages and 136 work-related emails in five days! :eek:

We ate breakfast in the main dining room and then parked ourselves in the essentially vacant Queen Mary Lounge to await debarkation. We were Zone 9, so we anticipated a bit of a wait. I filtered through my emails and then read for a bit.

Self debarkation didn't start until around 9 am or so - it had taken forever to get all of the international travelers off the ship and through immigration. It was about 10 am when our zone was finally called to debark. Getting off the ship was relatively easy and quick. Finding our luggage was a bit more difficult, but we finally located it in the far corner of the port building. Unfortunately, one of Claudia's bottles of rum from Grand Cayman had shattered in her smaller bag. :( The entire trunk of our rental car smelled distinctly of coconut by the time we got home that night.

Getting out of the port building was extremely quick and easy. The customs officials glanced at the monetary totals on the fronts of our declarations and didn't bother to even look at the itemized lists on the backs. All of us were over on our liquor allowance and were prepared to pay the duty requirement, but we walked right through and out of the building without so much as a question. We drug our (now considerably heavier, thanks to all of our purchases) luggage across the street to the parking garage and loaded up for our trip home. We were pulling out of the garage by 10:45.

Our trip back was relatively painless. We stopped for lunch in Ocala, FL and in Tifton, GA, for pecans and peaches. We dropped Claudia off at her apartment and finally pulled back up to my house in Knoxville at about 10:30 pm. We basically collapsed in our beds and then drug ourselves up to return the rental car at 8 am yesterday. Kim and Marianne headed back to Nashville, and I went back to bed! It was a good thing I took today off work, too, because it took me until now to get all of my laundry and unpacking finished.

It was quite a trip! We had some exciting adventures, some misadventures, and a whole lot of fun. The crew and staff on the Paradise were amazing. They were beyond friendly and always willing to go the extra mile to make sure everyone was having a great vacation. I would sail her again in a heartbeat.

Now to start planning the next cruise...

What a great review! We leave on the Paradise in 17 days. So excited!

Cyndi

Going in Sept on this ship. Tell me about the adult serenity deck. Do you get there by using an elevator? Is there a fee to use this area? Is there lots of shaded lounge chairs to use?

Going in Sept on this ship. Tell me about the adult serenity deck. Do you get there by using an elevator? Is there a fee to use this area? Is there lots of shaded lounge chairs to use?

The Serenity Deck on the Paradise is on deck 9 at the back of the ship. You can get there by going through the Queen Mary Lounge or by going out the back of the buffet area on the Lido deck and then down a set of stairs. It is free to use. There is a decently sized covered area with regular chairs, and about half of the loungers are either in the shade or under umbrellas. The rest of the loungers are in direct sunlight. There is also a hot tub back there. This area doesn't get a lot of breeze; I recommend getting out there fairly early in the morning. By noon, we were sweating and ready to go back inside. It is very quiet, though, and the view is fantastic.

[quote name=agp_mzk;39517771

that point' date=' it was clear that the rain wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Within an hour or so, we were one of only two small groups of people left at Nachi, other than the staff. When the storm finally subsided to a gentle rain, we jumped in the pool and hung out at the swim-up bar. Things start to get...fuzzy...at that point, but I know there were some tasty shots involved. Eventually, we asked Carlos to call us a cab and made our way back to the pier. I wanted to buy a couple bottles of vanilla and a few bottles of good tequila, along with a few other souvenirs. Those missions were accomplished quickly. The next thing we knew, we were "tasting" several varieties of tequila and then, inexplicably, buying cigars?? (None of us smokes...) At one point, we also found a bicycle mounted on a blender and posed for pictures with that and with some random animal statues along the way back to the ship.

By the time we reached the pier and could see the ship, we were undoubtedly "those girls". My flip flops kept falling apart, making the walk back even more entertaining. But we made it safely back onto the ship - and didn't have to run - so we considered the day a success.

I think it was around 7 when we got back to the ship. We got cleaned up for dinner - sans Claudia, who didn't quite stay up long enough. :D I'm sure our dinner companions got a kick out of our behavior that night. Needless to say, we went to bed right after dinner!

Next up: Final Day at Sea and our Trivia Mania[/quote]

Nice review! Sounds like you had a lot of fun!

This particular part of your review cracked me up. I can totally imagine my friends and I ending up in a situation like this, lol. I haven't had the chance to go to Cozumel yet, but from what I have read about this port, it sounds like Cozumel "wins" a lot! :)

 

At that point, it was clear that the rain wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Within an hour or so, we were one of only two small groups of people left at Nachi, other than the staff. When the storm finally subsided to a gentle rain, we jumped in the pool and hung out at the swim-up bar. Things start to get...fuzzy...at that point, but I know there were some tasty shots involved. Eventually, we asked Carlos to call us a cab and made our way back to the pier. I wanted to buy a couple bottles of vanilla and a few bottles of good tequila, along with a few other souvenirs. Those missions were accomplished quickly. The next thing we knew, we were "tasting" several varieties of tequila and then, inexplicably, buying cigars?? (None of us smokes...) At one point, we also found a bicycle mounted on a blender and posed for pictures with that and with some random animal statues along the way back to the ship.

 

By the time we reached the pier and could see the ship, we were undoubtedly "those girls". My flip flops kept falling apart, making the walk back even more entertaining. But we made it safely back onto the ship - and didn't have to run - so we considered the day a success.

 

I think it was around 7 when we got back to the ship. We got cleaned up for dinner - sans Claudia, who didn't quite stay up long enough. :D I'm sure our dinner companions got a kick out of our behavior that night. Needless to say, we went to bed right after dinner!

 

Next up: Final Day at Sea and our Trivia Mania

This was the part of your review that I was referencing. It didn't show up when I quoted it in my last post!

Pre-Cruise: Knoxville, TN to Clearwater Beach, FL

 

The four of us had been planning this girlfriends' getaway since early December 2012. Needless to say, we were extremely anxious to get the fun underway! We started out from Knoxville at about 9 am on Sunday morning. The drive is pretty dull - I-75 the entire way - but finally, FINALLY, we arrive in Tampa around 7 pm. From there, it was an easy 30 minute drive to Clearwater Beach, where our hotel on the beach awaited us.

 

I am a Choice Hotels credit card holder, and I travel extensively for work, so I redeemed my points to get us a free night at the Quality Inn on the beach in Clearwater. Quality is one of the lowest tiers of the Choice brand; my expectations were pretty low for the hotel itself, but hey - it was on the beach and free, so how bad could it be, really?...

 

View from our hotel room balcony:

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the hotel. It was clean, quiet, and located right on the beach. The rooms were typical mid-level hotel rooms, but the staff was extremely friendly and helpful. For some reason, I was under the impression that Clearwater Beach was going to be more of a quiet, laidback location than a typical Florida beach. I was mildly disappointed to discover that it was essentially a mini Panama City. However, our portion of beach was significantly quieter than the "main drag" area we passed through to get there.

 

We quickly unpacked and walked down the street to a nearby resort called Shephard's for dinner. It was a typical seafood buffet - good but not worth the $27/plate cost, in my opinion! The patio area where we ate was right on the water, which was nice, but next door to the resort's night club, which kind of killed the ambiance. The death knell in our relaxing dinner came when one of the patrons at the table next to us (a group of barely-21s), who had been passed out the entire time we had been eating, vomited on the table while we were waiting for our check. :eek: :mad: I immediately got up and walked out, not even bothering to wait for my change. My stomach has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to vomit.

 

Aside from that incident, it was a pleasant evening. We walked on the beach for a little while, anxious to get our toes in the ocean. Our only other minor bummer of the night was finding out that the hotel didn't carry HBO! We ended up watching "True Blood" and "The Newsroom" on an iPad; we are nothing if not resourceful! :D

 

Next up: Embarkation Day - And A Cannibal Bird...

I read that you went to Shephard's and I instantly knew this was going to end badly! LOL