PARADISE Oct. 4 REVIEW 4 NIGHTER #1

[rpinphx]

Hi,

 

This is my 5th CCL cruise, second and last short one, and next is Spirit 8 night Mexico in Jan. I was on Empress deck, Cabin E55

This short cruise is in no way representative of a 7 night + CCL cruise.

It is for first time cruisers to get a very small taste of cruising, someone who gets a great price for a quick getaway. It is so non representative of a regualr cruise I asked if this was a training ship for cabin personnel.

________________________________________________________________

 

We stayed @ Coast Hotel in Long Beach the night before. Sheer perfection.

 

Embarkation: was as effiecient as is could be as the ship was sold out.

Everyone on line was pleasant & friendly making time go by quickly.

Please have documents and ID ready. It really was amazing that people couldn't find where they put things. That is really what slowed up the line.

 

Paradise General Condition:

Public Spaces/Bars/ Showroom/Casual Dining on Lido Deck/ Gym:

Showing some wear & tear but they're clean. Elevators had a mind of their own, going up/down was whatever the elevator wanted to do once your are inside. Passengers walked alot out of frustration-good exersize!

 

Gym: well equipped w/ eliptical, Kaiser machines. Perfect for short cruise

No CCL employees there to help find towels or instructions how to use equip.

 

Dining Rm/ Service/ Menu:

Clean, good food as represented in front of CCL brochure. Varied w/ Filet, Lobster. Sm. portions but many order multiple servings.

Service was efficient, entertaining, friendly, no problem at all here! Any order errors corrected immediately w/ a smile. These employees worked for their tips. Accepted my soda card no problem

 

Internet: several pkgs. Worked ok for me. BE SURE to look , find out when a CCL employee is there @ the computer site. WHY?

ASk for the list of short cuts of how to acess your email at sea. I didn't know to ask this @ first & spent 3-4 mintures trying to get to my email site as if it was dial up. Also, this employee can extend your minutes gratis if you have problems. They did it for me as the CCL employee realized how much time was used just trying to get online.

 

Catalina was fine, tenders were fun and I would love to do that again.

You can buy water, soda etc. @ the Vons little supermkt they have there.

It post card picture-esque.

Is that a word? Weather is great, normal tourist shops. A lovely day.

 

Ensenada: there is no reason on earth to take the Ensenada City & Shopping Tour Tour Ensenada, the genuine Mexican City that has not totally succumbed to the trappings of tourism. It is your worst slum with nothing to buy. There is a nicer part of Ensenada but that is not where we were abandon by our supoosed tour guide. I will go into why and how I got a complete refund for this tour on review #2. It was hell on earth.

It was my first and last shore tour w/ CCL. It's a long story.

Just think 1950"s bus w/ no air and it looked like a frat party was just done.

Broken glass windows..... no one was happy.

 

Cabin Steward: in one word.... non- existant. Never saw this person. Sometimes the room. was done, other times not. Upon arrival @ rm. I saw the shower curtain ( looks like it was from the dollar store) had large and numerous unrecognizable brown stains.

It was beyond disgusting, and I am no wimp. Hopefully someone was dying their hair??? The medicene cabinet doors wouldn't close and kept opening when a person would lean over to wash. No prblem till you hit your head.

I reported this to housekeeping and the information desk within 1 hr of arriving on the boat. It was resolved after I had followed up daily for 3 days and finally asked for a meeting w/ the Cheirf Purser Leslie Ballan. That was Wed. On Thurs @ 10:30pm housekeeping showed up to change the shower curtain. We were asleep.

 

I told them no way, fix it when I leave.

 

DIsco/ Bars/ Coffee Bar: fun for everyone.

 

Shows: Hollywood show a great try to do Vegas. But. do not miss the show: SHOUT--great fun. Very well done and entertaining. You will not be dissappointed. Seats fill up early. Everyone saves seats and so it's first come EARLY or forget it.

 

CCL Corp and I have talked. I will give you details of the Shore Tore Boy and his attitude on next post tommorrow. The way the housekeeping/ cabin/ shore tour was handled was a disgrace and I view it hopefully as an isolated problem. CCL knows I have big bucks on my 25 th anniversay cruise in Jan on the Spirit.

 

Let;s see how CCL makes up for this. This may determine if I cancel and go w/ another line. As I told the Cheif Purser and the Office of The President. I cannot take a chance that my anniversary cruise will be like this.

The housekeeping was miserable. The attitude and inefficiency of the information/shore people to get things done was equivilant to a training ship.

I offered to change the shower curtain and give me the screwdriver I would do the cabinet so I don't hit my head on it.

 

Oh.... this was a gift from my Dad for me and my stepmom. I finally convinced her to go on a ship. She was always afraid to cruise. this was a great embarrassment for me to bring her on this ship as her first taste of cruising. I could not aplogize enough. I wouldn't get on the Paradise for free. CCL needs to train sections of their staff.

 

Living in a hovel for this cruise, put a bad spin on our cruise.

Again, this was just once in 5 times for me. But, it was so unecessary to have happened.

To be continued.

 

Email me w/ any questions. I will be happy to answer all of them.

Robyn

rpinphx@cox.net

[DeckCadet]

Sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise.....

This is somewhat puzzling. I got off Paradise on 9/20. She was in excellent shape. The service from the pursers and the room steward was great....we were on the other side of the atrium.

Of course, you may have been a victim of circumstance.

3/4 day cruising is a very hectic and stressful operation. It is generally accepted that service, wear and tear etc. is much worse on a short-cruise ship.

It is likely even more of a problem in your case as you cruised so soon after the ship's arrival.

For approximately two weeks prior to the canal crossing, Paradise was dodging hurricanes. We left over a day late due to the port being closed.

We didn't even get off the ship at a port for over a week. The canal crossing was a stay-aboard one and we missed Aruba. We had to alter our course completely to avoid Ivan.

then, on the west coast, we had to dodge hurricane Javier and missed our final port.

Paradise has also been doing 7 day voyages for six years. She has had an extremely high crew retention rate (I knew at least half of them on this cruise, having cruised on her 4 times prior) due to the former non-smoking nature of the ship. The crew was just about all volunteer.

Therefore, the crew was thrust into a difficult situation after coming out of a difficult situation of a totally different nature.

[rpinphx]

Yeah, I am used to 7 day CCL ships. A whole different animal!

I think you maybe onto something. Maybe the housekeeping crew was stressed, overworked etc. Like I said this was the problem, and it may be just w/ that one invisible steward!

 

Alot of passengers were letting the purser desk know their feelings about this being a smoking ship. Evidently, they didn't read the brochure , some were told by their agents that it was still non smoking. They were rattled.

[dyn2cruise]

Sorry to hear about your not-so-great trip aboard Paradise. This is the kind of thing I have been worried about since booking. We are taking my in-laws on a surpirse 50th Anniversary cruise in November. I sure hope they get it together by then.

 

Out of the four families cruising for this very special occasion, two of them have never cruised before- my in-laws being one of them- and I would be embarrassed if we recieved service like you did since I have been preaching cruising to anyone who will listen.

 

I kind of thought that coming off of sailing 7 days to 3 & 4 days could be a problem as well as the crew coming from being non-smoking to a smoking ship.

 

Can't wait to hear the next part of your review.

Thanks for posting.

[rpinphx]

I have been on 3 short cruises. 2 w/ CCL and one w/ Royal Caribbean.

This is the first problem I have had. Check out the cabins when you get there.

Call housekeeping from cabin phone immediately w/ any problems. Note time and who you spoke with.

 

If unresolved that day , DO NOT be like me and continue to go to the information desk and be patient and polite for days. . Instead, demand to see the Cheif Purser or someone in power asap. That is what I should have done. That is what got a result.

 

The food, shows etc. are very good. People who have never been on a cruise don't know what to expect anyway. My situation w/ the steward and cabin seems to be isolated.

 

Again, email me w/ any questions.

 

rpinphx@cox.net