Paradise review, May 18th - 22nd

Hi all! I am home and (mostly) recovered from all the fun on the May 18th-22nd sailing of the Paradise. My group included myself and my bff’s Clark and Karen, all in our 40’s ish. This was my fifth cruise, all on Carnival. Clark and Karen each cruised one other time on different lines, a decade or so ago, so they were essentially rookies. As this was such a short cruise, there were lots of things we never quite got around to doing – we mostly just relaxed and avoided anything resembling a schedule. I’ll try to keep this relatively short, despite my general tendency to ramble, but please let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best. I do have the Fun Times scanned,as well as a couple of Spa special flyers, and will upload those as soon as I figure out how to do it. J

Transportation

As my name suggests, we’re from Indianapolis, and Southwest has conveniently-timed non stop flights to Tampa. I typically like to fly in the night before the cruise, but I needed to economize vacation days, so we took the chance in non-hurricane-season, and flew down early on the 18th. We had time for the flight to be delayed for ~ four hours if needed and still make the ship, but thankfully there were no snags. I asked a “Welcome Guide” (or some such name) at the airport where we should go to meet an Uber driver. I forget the exact wording, but it was something like “Red Terminal, Door Seven” –highly specific and the driver came right to us, no problem. We wanted to stop at Publix to get some good champagne for sailaway, but weren’t looking forward to hauling our luggage with us. Fortunately, the driver was happy to be bribed with an extra large tip, and wait for us before continuing on to the port.

 

 

Embarkation

As you already know if you saw my thread from that morning,embarkation was a bit of an adventure. I had done the online check in for all of us, and printed all our docs weeks in advance. Clark checked in just fine.Karen checked in just fine. The rep scanned my passport, and immediately had “UH OH.” face. She walked over to a supervisor, whose face matched. They both comeback to me and tell us all to “Please have a seat in the red chairs and we'll come talk to you in a few minutes." The red chairs were a u-shaped spo tbehind cordons, with zero other people there. My adrenaline shot through the roof, thinking there was a mistaken-identity warrant out, and the police would be arriving soon. I am a planner, and have contingency plans in place for lots of issues that could come up. Deviations from the plan not covered by one of the aforementioned contingencies = instant IndyGirl panic mode. :o :eek:

 

 

After a HIGH ANXIETY five minutes or so, the supervisor came over and said, "Just go have a seat [in the non Red Chairs of Doom section], come back up when boarding starts, and we'll escort you onto the ship." That calmed me down as it made the mistaken felony charges less likely, but I was still nervous enough to post on CC for advice/info, and also sought out Captain Carnival. He was kind enough to seat us in the Captain's Lounge (two of us are in a suite, the third an inside), and arranged for the check in supervisor to come find us there vs us seeking her out once boarding began. Great guy, great service, and greatly appreciated! But I still didn’t get any info other than “We’ll escort you on to the ship.”

 

 

 

We were the first guests on board (and remained the only guests for ten-fifteen minutes - much to the consternation of a Diamond passenger who was *torqued* to see someone else walk up the gangway first!). The Guest Services Manager came to talk to us,and explained that our suite had been on a renovation list. They took it off at the last minute, but they’d been concerned with our early arrival at the port,that it wouldn’t be ready for us for several hours. This also explains why no one in the terminal – Carnival folks, not Port of Tampa – was willing to give us any info. I think they were afraid there would be a meltdown, and wanted Guest Services to have to deal with it vs them. Ha!

 

 

Assuming my rambling hasn't already lost all of you, I think that's enough for a first post. More to come later! :)

 

[Edited to fix a bunch of weird spacing issues apparently caused by copy/pasting from a Word doc. That's what I get for failing to use the "preview" option!]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. We had a similar experience on HAL, one of our cabins had water damage and they had to switch us to another. We were not very happy because we had booked it for our 2 teenagers across the hall from us.

So excited to hear more - I'll be sailing this one in the fall, and was a bit invested in your private escort onto the ship!

Wow crazy start...what suite were you in? We cruise in three days and are in a GS. Heard they replaced the carpet over the past month.

 

Cheers and happy cruising.

Following

From JaniceB

Looking forward to the rest of your review. We had a similar experience on HAL, one of our cabins had water damage and they had to switch us to another. We were not very happy because we had booked it for our 2 teenagers across the hall from us.

Yeah, we would have been less than thrilled if we had to switch one cabin to somewhere far away from the other. I hope it worked out for you!

 

 

From hrwi

So excited to hear more - I'll be sailing this one in the fall, and was a bit invested in your private escort onto the ship!

You'll have a great time on your cruise!! :) And thank you for feeling the importance of my embarkation-day "crisis." :D

 

 

From Port of Tampa

Wow crazy start...what suite were you in? We cruise in three days and are in a GS. Heard they replaced the carpet over the past month.

Never a dull moment, haha! We were in U108 - I did notice some obvious wear in a couple of spots (cabin section of the review is coming up), but no carpet issues. Maybe they did the carpets first and then the rest in later stages? I know that U104 was on the reno list, as when we were talking to Guest Services immediately after our "private escort," one of the ladies asked if we were in U104. Not sure if that one wound up getting renovated or pulled from the list like ours, though.

Ship

I sailed on the Paradise a few years ago, and loved it, and this year was no different. She is starting to show her age a bit, and I think the extended dry dock early next year will do her a world of good. Public areas were generally very well maintained, and there was constantly a staff member cleaning something, but you could see the overall … tiredness. Also, one of our cabins was a little beaten-on. (More on that below.) Having said that, I’ve sailed on Fantasy class ships four of five times, and absolutely love them.Mega-Monsters Of The Sea really just don’t hold much appeal for me. Would I enjoy a dinner in the steakhouse? Yes. Is it a deal breaker not to have one?No. Same for an Alchemy Bar. Etc. Public areas aren’t crowded, lines aren’t too long, and there are enough bars/lounges with different vibes to fit a variety of guests’ needs. WIN.

 

 

Cabins

We had a Grand Suite and the Inside directly across the hall, both on Upper deck. My favorite deck on Fantasy class is Empress, but I sacrificed in order to get the suite. (Woe is me! #firstworldproblems) We all had keys to both cabins, thanks to a trip to Guest Services for extras. The three of us would have more than comfortably fit in the suite, but the second cabin was great because Clark tends to stay up far later than Karen and I do. The inside was perfectly sized for one person, and would have been fine for two if needed. There was an extra closet, although largely taken up by a rollaway bed. I will say, I have no idea where the rollaway would go if you needed it for a third guest – you’d definitely have to crawl over someone to visit the bathroom in the middle of the night!

 

 

 

The suite with tons of extra room and the large balcony was fabulous and totally worth the splurge, particularly on this ship where there are no Balcony categories. We spent a good amount of time just relaxing and reading on the balcony with drinks. However, I will say that the inside of the suite was the one place on the ship where we noticed the wear the most. The bathroom countertop was cracked, and the sofa was just sad – numerous scratches and rips in the upholstery. We also had some trouble getting the A/C to a comfortable level. The Inside cabin got nice and Arctic, but the suite never got colder than “Well, this isn’t unpleasant, per se.” I did ask for someone to come check it out, and a staff member was there within fifteen minutes – great turn time! He checked that all the vents were on full blast, and then used a temp-reader. It was 70.5, which is within their “allowed range,” and I didn’t want to kick up a fuss to press it any further. I do kind of wonder if any of our neighbors were propping their balcony doors open, but the problem was pretty consistent for the whole cruise. Anyway, after all that griping :D I will reiterate that I loved the suite and felt it was worth the money – I just like to include the good, bad, and ugly and you can judge for yourselves!

Thanks for the review.

Appreciate the feedback.

Thank you for the review.

 

 

... Also sought out Captain Carnival. He was kind enough to seat us in the Captain's Lounge (two of us are in a suite, the third an inside), and arranged for the check in supervisor to come find us there vs us seeking her out once boarding began. Great guy, great service, and greatly appreciated!...

 

So happy to have helped you guys out and onboard. Come back and see us again and of course stay away from the"red" chairs too!!

Enjoying your posts.

Keith

So happy to have helped you guys out and onboard. Come back and see us again and of course stay away from the"red" chairs too!!

The Captain comes through again!!!!!!!!

I am going on the Paradise on May 27 th . Did you go into the piano bar if so how was the player?

From Captain Carnival

So happy to have helped you guys out and onboard. Come back and see us again and of course stay away from the"red" chairs too!!

It was nice to meet you, and thank you so much again for your help! I assure you, I will do my best to stay in the Good Kids Section, lol.

From scubadavedl

I am going on the Paradise on May 27th . Did you go into the piano bar if so how was the player?

Yes, and he is *fantastic* - his name is Russell Blues, and he's very high energy with a great voice and a funny personality. You'll love it!

And now my favorite part of the review – the booze! :D

 

Cheers

As expected, the Cheers package more than paid for itself. Karen roughly broken even – she only had 3-4 alcoholic drinks per day, but also 1-2 coffee bar coffees, a few ginger ales for seasickness, and a bunch of bottled water. I spent $230 vs around $400 had I not had the package. I wasn’t quite obsessive enough to keep track of each drink, but based on my end folio count and the fact that many of my drinks were $11 margaritas and $13 glasses of wine, $400 sounds about right. Clark’s total without the Cheers package would have been approximately the size of the national debt. Definite win all around!

 

Bars

* Atrium – constantly packed, but a small enough space that the bartenders could largely keep up. Also, I asked for an elderberry mimosa one morning – they’re on the menu at the Promenade bar, which wasn’t open yet. He didn’t have the elderberry mixer, but volunteered to put some St Germain (elderflower liqueur) in a regular mimosa, which turned out life-changingly good.

 

* Rotterdam (Promenade aft, just forward of the Queen Mary lounge that hosts the comedy club) – fantastic(!!) and with my favorite bartender on the ship, Jajo. They were never very busy, probably because they were kind of out of the flow of traffic, aside from people hitting the QM, and those people just went to the QM bar. I had two martinis there the first night, and was greeted by name and asked if I wanted another [martini of choice] every time after that.

 

* Promenade Mid (aka Casino bar) and Lido – constantly packed, and frequently overwhelmed / long waits. I don’t fault the bartenders for that at all – they were doing everything they could, they just desperately needed more help. Hey Beards, if you’re reading this, please get these hardworking kids some more coworkers!

 

* Misc – the Piano Bar doesn’t have its own bar; I think the servers go down to the Atrium to pick up the drinks. I spent time there two nights, and one was fine with two servers, but the other night one poor lady was trying to help everyone by herself. Hey Beards! MDR drink service at dinner was pretty good, because the Team Headwaiters now take drink orders at dinner. Breakfast and Brunch… hey Beards! We didn’t spend any time in the Queen Mary or Normandie Theatre, and very minimal on the open decks with wandering drinks servers, so I can’t comment on those.

Would love to see the spa flyers if you still have them. We are on the Paradise in 2 weeks. Thank you!

Would love to see the spa flyers if you still have them. We are on the Paradise in 2 weeks. Thank you!

I do, and will definitely get them up before you sail!

 

Sorry for going AWOL, all! The holiday weekend was hectic (in a fun way), and then today I had to catch up on work. I should have time the next couple of days to get the rest of the review done, and post the Fun Times and Spa flyers. :)

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Spa

While I would enjoy a pool or hot tub(s), the spa on the Paradise is a good size, with enough staff to have good flexibility on appointment times. Karen won one of the "Spa Raffle" gift certificates on embarkation day, but it was good for port days only. She and I had prebooked facials for the first sea day, so she wound up also getting a bamboo massage after we got back on the ship in Cozumel. She's not nearly as chatty as I am ;p but enjoyed both her facial and the massage. And she's a Licensed Massage Therapist, so her standards are pretty high! My facial was nice, but the product pitch at the end was way over the top. I spend entirely too much money on skin care already, so I'm a good sales candidate and probably would have bought one or two products. The therapist pitched five or six, for a total of ~$400 (for a one month supply). NOPE.

 

Clark and I also did the teeth whitening, and were both very happy with the results! I'd considered it on past cruises, but wasn't sure how well it would work, and didn't want to gamble on it. Clark went first, and as soon as I saw him afterwards, I booked my own appointment. That therapist also earned herself an extra big tip, by noticing that I'd already had a facial during the cruise, and applying the "volume discount" without me asking. (And I wouldn't have asked - I was under the impression you had to book the treatments all at the same time, and the teeth whitening was a game time decision.)

 

One odd thing with the spa billing: as I said, we prebooked the facials online, and those charges hit my card before we were on the ship. When we checked out with the therapists, they had us sign slips for the full amount (prepaid plus the auto-tip), but (at least mine, not sure how Karen's worded it) said only the tip portion would hit our S&S accounts. Sure enough, the full amounts showed up immediately. I went to Guest Services* to ask about it. They explained that normally prebilled services are credited on the last day of the cruise, but offered to call Accounting and push the credits through right away. I would have been fine with the normal procedure, but had no idea. Maybe it's in the fine print that I utterly ignored when I bought the services online?? :p

 

* I was totally one of Those People during this cruise, with multiple visits to Guest Services. (Thankful for the FTTF priority line!) Never with anything to complain about per se, but just lots of little oddball things that needed to be sorted out. So try not to judge if you see one of Those People on your next cruise - she may very well not be a crabapple, lol!

 

I've attached the Spa specials flyers for embarkation and Cozumel days, as well as one that goes into details on the various facial options. Hope those are helpful!

spa embarkation specials.pdf

spa port day specials.pdf

spa facials menu.pdf

What was cost of teeth whitening, did it hurt, how long did it take? Is it the light treatment?

What was cost of teeth whitening, did it hurt, how long did it take? Is it the light treatment?

It was $149 (before the auto 15% tip), but I think that may have been a daily special price and the regular is $179. It didn't hurt at all; I was nervous about that too, but Clark went first and confirmed it was painless. The only part that was even uncomfortable was the rubber gadget to hold your mouth open, and that was more awkward than painful, if that makes sense. Yes, it's the light treatment, combined with a whitening gel. We chatted for a few minutes, and she went over the procedure. Then I had "sessions" of two mins, eight mins, and eight mins (with reapplications of the gel in between). Including the introductory chat, the whole thing only took about half an hour. I definitely recommend it if the budget allows!

Thank you so much for the spa info! Really helped me make a decision - I'm waiting until I'm on board to book anything!

Thank you so much for the spa info! Really helped me make a decision - I'm waiting until I'm on board to book anything!

I think that's the way to go, in retrospect. Have a fabulous time!!

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to more...