Just off Paradise - Review 7/19 - 7/23

[Cruisin'Trooper]

Background: This is CCL number 10 for my wife and I and a first for a couple that went with us.

 

Embarkation/Port: The Port of Tampa is about a 25 minute drive for us. We parked in the parking garage and had a very short walk from the car to the embarkation line. The VIP line was quick and we had our S&S Card in hand about 20 minutes after parking. Tampa is one of our favorite ports, so close to the house and so easy to get on board at.

 

Ship: The Paradise is old, but in great shape and super clean. As typical on CCL, everywhere you look someone is cleaning and mopping. This ship is very subdued with darker and more formal colors/feel compared to some of the tacky and gaudy decor CCL is known for.

 

There is no Water Works for the kids, no fancy new palm trees by the lido pool, and the pools are in original and poor shape. The lido restaurant is nicely laid out, clean, and serves really good food. The seating/tables in the Lido restaurant and the seating/tables on the Lido deck appear to be new.

 

The shops reminded us of a 1970's Miami Beach motel gift shop. They are very old, poorly stocked, and run the typical "one day only" sales that CCL is known for. CCL could take a lesson from Royal Caribbean regarding shops on board. Other than that, they were fine and carried the same stuff you see on all cruises.

 

Cabin: We had an Ocean View room on the Upper Deck. The room is the standard CCl cabin with a comfy bed, good a/c, great water pressure n the shower, and no odors that people typically complain of. The bath room was stocked with the normal little samples of stuff, and the CCL Tangerine Lemongrass body wash and shampoo. Our steward kept the room made up nicely and a towel animal every night. Only complaint was that he smoked, so whenever he left the cabin, it smelled of cigarette smoke. The TV is super old, but gets all the channels that we needed and when the one electrical socket broke, they were johnny on the spot and fixed it quickly.

 

Main Dining Room: We took advantage of the Your Time Dining feature that we have come to enjoy and ate in the Elation dining room everyday for Breakfast, Lunch, and Diner. Typical CCL menus and all of the food was great. The dining staff was hit or miss, and they only sang on the first and last night and both times it was mediocre. For us it was no big deal. but we'd of liked for our first time cruising friends to have experienced it.

 

Entertainment: Compared to the other cruises we've take on CCL, RCI, and Princess, this was by far the worst entertainment staff we'd ever seen. From the CD to the dancers, the shows were stale, game shows on stage were drawn out and boring, and the comedians were so-so. While there were plenty of laughs, applauds, and standing ovations at the shows, entertainment venues, and comedy shows, we noticed numerous people walking out at each event (us included in half of them).

 

Cozumel: Cozumel is fine and once you've been there, its pretty much like all the ports of call. We get tired of the heavy pressure from the CCL personnel to shop in their recommended shops (we all know they have a financial interest in these shops) so we skip the port shops. The Parasise docks at the International Pier which has lousy shopping compared to the Down Town docks and the Puerta Maya docks. We went snorkling on a CCL excursion which was really good and enjoyable.

 

Disembarkation: Even though we have the Platinum perk of being escorted off the ship with a CCL representative, we chose to take part in the Self Assist option and was off the ship at 8:30, in the car at 8:45, and home at 9:15! Tampa is smooth!!

[4hunters]

Thanks for the review. Sounds like you had a pleasant trip.

[Cruisin'Trooper]

Thanks - Every cruise is great, just some better than others!

[SkyMaster]

Thanks for the review. I'll be sailing "Paradise" in September, so I truly appreciate your candid opinion. As noted above, I always enjoy my cruises,,,but some are indeed, better than others. With over 120 total cruises, I can't think of a BAD one! ;)

 

"SKY"

[krehberg]

I was also on this cruise and if you only heard the waiters sing once it's because they sing based upon the early/late dining schedule and you must have picked a time off from that schedule. I heard them at least 3 nights and was also in Elation

 

I loved Sparkles, the CD and Cassie.

 

The comedians IMHO were the best two bar none in my 7 CCL cruises. Carl had my gf and I laughing so hard, we could barely contain ourselves. We went to the adult version though....maybe you tried the kids version?

 

Also enjoyed the shows, especially the country themed show on the last night. I'm a native Floridian after all.

 

Loved, loved, loved,that the serenity hot tubs had shade. It's July!

[MrFunInTheSun]

 

The shops reminded us of a 1970's Miami Beach motel gift shop. They are very old' date=' poorly stocked, and run the typical "one day only" sales that CCL is known for. CCL could take a lesson from Royal Caribbean regarding shops on board. Other than that, they were fine and carried the same stuff you see on all cruises. [/quote']

 

I just got off RCCL- Monarch and they too, had the typical "one day only" sales. It's surely not just a CCL exclusive. :-) Perhaps dated ship store styles. :-)

 

Glad you had a great cruise. You are correct in all cruises are great, some just have better memories than others. :-)

[vivavegas]

Nice review! Thanks for taking the time to write your review and share your experiences with us!:)

[gkrnjlr]

We are seriously considering the Paradise for 2013 to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. I am wondering if we should reconsider.

 

We've never had a bad cruise but sometimes it'd just be nice to know ahead of time that we should choose a different ship just to have good ship memories, too.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[rsjc]

Thanks for sharing, nice review ;)

[Gemynii]

We got off the Paradise the day you boarded.

 

I wish we could have traded our new flatscreen TV for your good A/C and great water pressure. Our room was usually stuffy when we went to bed, but got somewhat cooler while we slept and our shower had no pressure at all... the water trickled out of the holes in the shower head so slowly that it formed a single small stream in the middle. :p

 

The dining staff did a song and dance each night we attended (Apple Bottom Jeans was the best), but most of the time we went at 5:45pm, just before the 6pm assigned dining was let in, so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

We didn't attend any of the larger shows, but we did enjoy the comedy shows, the 60 seconds or less game show, karaoke and the trivia.

 

I would agree that the Port of Tampa was very easy for embarking and debarking (even though I have nothing to compare it to). I was prepared to get stressed out by the process, but that did not turn out to be the case. Everything went very smoothly and took very little time.

 

Thanks for the review.