Carnival

...taken on a 4 day Carnival cruise on their Paradise boat, departing from Long Beach, Ca, and visiting Catalina and Ensenada, Mexico. We left Monday evening and returned Friday morning. It was my first experience at cruising.

~ Booking ~
I was taken as a surprise trip, so I was not involved in the booking process and can not comment on it, or on the price paid per person, as I do not know.

~ Parking and Baggage ...
...better still, parking waived for Carnival Cruisers.

~ Check-In and 'Sign and Sail' ~
The next step was to check-in for the cruise itself. As I am not a US citizen I was directed to a different desk to most people (with a much shorter line, so that was nice!). As part of US border protection I had my fingerprints and photograph taken before leaving port, just as when I initially arrived in the US.

Carnival cruises ... more

I was recently taken on a 4 day Carnival cruise on their Paradise boat, departing from Long Beach, Ca, and visiting Catalina and Ensenada, Mexico. We left Monday evening and returned Friday morning. It was my first experience at cruising.

~ Booking ~
I was taken as a surprise trip, so I was not involved in the booking process and can not comment on it, or on the price paid per person, as I do not know.

~ Parking and Baggage Drop Off ~
When we eventually arrived at the Long Beach ferry terminal (through our own mistake we first went to the San Pedro terminal… whoops!) we easily found parking in a large multi-storey car park and, just as easily, dropped our baggage off with porters. Prior to arrival, we had received luggage tags that we'd filled in our details on. These meant that our baggage would be taken to our rooms, and would be waiting for us when we left the boat, four nights later. This process was simple, and from what I gather, has been reliable in the past.

We were rather surprised to learn that we would have to pay for car parking while we were on the cruise, and this came to nearly $50 for the week. It would have been nice to have been warned in advance, or better still, parking waived for Carnival Cruisers.

~ Check-In and 'Sign and Sail' ~
The next step was to check-in for the cruise itself. As I am not a US citizen I was directed to a different desk to most people (with a much shorter line, so that was nice!). As part of US border protection I had my fingerprints and photograph taken before leaving port, just as when I initially arrived in the US.

Carnival cruises have a 'Sign and Sail' card that means you only have to show your card (which also serves as your room key) to purchase things on board ship, and at the end of your cruise the total amount is taken from your credit card. At check-in you decide whether all members of the party will be on the same credit card, or if you will be separate. In our group two people were to be on individual credit cards, and the other four on the same card. This was no problem and quickly organised.

Equipped with our room keys and officially checked-in, we went to board the ship. En-route there was the first of many photo opportunities. Also there was the compulsory photo that would be brought up on screen each time you used the Sign and Sail card while on board, and each time you left or boarded the vessel.

~ Life Jacket Drill ~
Once everyone was onboard the ship we all had to take part in a safety exercise that gave instruction on how to use a lifejacket, where to meet in case of an emergency ('Muster Stations'), and which lifeboats to go to. Although this seemed like a hardship at the time, and many kids were making a fuss, if needed, it would have been useful if something had happened.

~ Rooms ~
By the time we reached our rooms, our baggage was already waiting for us, and after freshening up a little, we went to eat. Between the six of us, we had booked two interior stateroom cabins - one with two beds and one with four (two beds and two pull-down bunks). While our rooms were the most basic of basic, they served their purpose - we slept and showered in them! On the whole they were clean and tidy, and room stewards visited several times a day. One on-board comedian commented that they must hide under the beds or something, since, it seemed the moment you left the room, they'd turned down the beds and there was a towel animal waiting for you!

Our only problems with the rooms were with the pillows, and with the speed of room service. All of our pillows smelled badly, so we ordered replacements, which were much improved. The pillows only took about 10minutes to arrive after we'd phoned for them. Food, on the other hand, took much longer. One morning (around 3am) we ordered two sandwiches, some toast, and three glasses of orange juice. It took almost an hour to come! We were told this was the standard time for room service, but to me that is too long, considering it would have taken less than 5 minutes to make our food and 5 more to bring it to us.

Also, something I personally didn't like was about the darkness of the room. As we had an interior stateroom there was no natural light in the cabin, so when the lights were out there was always darkness. I found it quite disorientating to wake up in total darkness and find that its actually 10am! And because it's dark, it's all too easy to fall back asleep for a few more hours. I guess this is something that is always going to happen on the insides of a boat, but I didn't like it.

~ Food ~
There was no shortage of food on board, and you could eat 24hours a day if you really wanted, although the choice became much more limited during the night (Pizza and ice cream in the restaurants and a variety of sandwiches by room service). Breakfast and lunch you could eat wherever and whenever you wanted. Dinner was more organised, with each party on board being designated to a particular dining room at a particular time, but even then you didn't have to stick to this, with the Paris Restaurant being open to anyone. We were in the Destiny dining room and kept the same table and same waiters all week. The food in this dining room was of a very high standard and varied every night. Our waiters were excellent and defiantly made each meal more enjoyable than it would have otherwise been. A few evenings the waiters put on short entertainment, such as dancing or singing, and our table was picked on twice during the week to stand up with the waiters. This was good fun. We were told that spaghetti-strap shirts, and shorts were not allowed in the dinning room, but personally I found it too cold to even want such attire while eating!

~ Air Conditioning ~
This was a problem across the whole ship - it was very cold. We found that while walking around inside it was most comfortable when wearing trousers and a jumper, while outside it was too hot for even shorts and t-shirt! There was also a problem with the air conditioning in our cabin. The dial to switch it off was broken, so it was always very cold in the room. We reported it to the room steward one evening, and the next morning a serviceman came to fix it. After that it was fine.

~ Something I didn't expect … ~
I was a little shocked when I received my bill on the last morning. A $40 service charge had been charged for each member of our group. I was told this acts as a tip for the room stewards, and the waiters, and when you think about it by days and meals, $40 seems like a fair amount, but until then I hadn't been told this was going to happen. I don't know if that's the fault of people in my party, or of Carnival cruises, but next time I'll know!

~ Drinks~
As I said at the beginning, I wasn't involved in the booking process so I don't know the cost of the cruise, so can't comment on value for money. What I can comment on is the prices onboard ship. Drinks were not included in the tickets and as such you had to pay for them on board. For alcoholic drinks, I could understand this, but even for soft drinks you had to pay, and the prices were high. Maybe this is normal with all cruises, but I would have liked the drinks to have been included in the price, just as food was.

~ Shopping ~
There were a few shops on board the boat, with a variety of duty free products, general goods, and some Carnival merchandise. There were plenty of boat-products that said 'Paradise' on the side, but when you looked closely, the ship modelled wasn't actually the Paradise at all!! I found this kind of disappointing. As mentioned before, you can use your 'Sign and Sail' card to pay for anything bought in the shop, or you can use cash/other card if you want.

~ Photos ~
Across the week there were many photo opportunities - in the restaurants, while off-ship, scattered around the ship. Some were very informal (coconuts, parrots and Mexican hats!) and others were much more family-portrait style. The prices were the same as you would pay at other places, theme parks etc, at around $10-15 for different sizes. It was nice to take so many photos of the journey and be able to pick out a few to buy at the end of the week.

~ Entertainment ~
There was plenty to do while the boat was at sea, and even more was put on during the 'fun day at sea'. The ship had three (I think) pool areas, one with a slide, and according to the website this can cater to 800 people at one time. There was an area on the top deck for miniature golf and a large area of casino a few decks down. There were several different lounges across the ship that put on various activities in the afternoon/evening. There was a spa on the boat, but treatments were not included in the cruise price, so we didn't go in there.

In the evenings Las Vegas style shows were put on by members of the crew. There were evenings of high quality dancing, singing and magic, and after the show was a comedian. Some nights the comedy was family rated, and on specified evenings it was 'adult only' sessions. My only criticism of these shows would be that there were not enough seats for everyone to see them!!

~ Kids Stuff ~
Two of the members of our party were children (8 and 14) so they went to the Club Carnival kids activities some of the time. I don't really know much about what they did, but they did thoroughly enjoy themselves and met lots of other kids to hang out with while on board. One evening there was a slumber party the kids could attend, a fee was charged for this though. There was also the opportunity for the kids to go on the daily excursions with their age-group, rather than with their parents.

~ Other ~
As with, I guess, any vessel at sea, there is the possibility that you might see various forms of wildlife. On the last day on board the ship, and the last evening, we saw two single dolphins and what people said was a baby shark.

Seeing things like dolphins is going to be a luck-of-the-draw thing, whether you are in the right place, at the right time, and looking in the right direction, so it probably can't be fairly included in an evaluation of Carnival cruises, but I want to note it as the sightings were defiantly a highlight of my cruise experience.

Enough about on board the ship …

Our cruise had 2 days where we were off the ship - one on Catalina and the other in Ensenada, Mexico. Apparently you could arrange excursions via the Carnival staff, but we didn't use this service. Instead we decided what to do once we got there. At Catalina we had until 4pm, and in Ensenada until 10.30pm. According to the schedule you could leave from 8am, but I didn't get out either day until much later (due to the darkness of the cabins I mentioned earlier!).

~ Catalina ~
Catalina is a small island off the coast of California that I didn't know existed until I found I was going there!! In Catalina we spent a while on the beach and in the sea (got sunburnt!), then took a ride in a semi-submarine (it went down 100 …. Inches!!) This was sort of expensive, at around $30 each for 40minutes, and it turned out that we didn't actually see too much aside from some standard looking fish! On the other hand, it was still an enjoyable experience and is probably just luck if you get there on a 'good' day.

~ Mexico ~
In Ensenada, Mexico, we took a bus trip to La Bufadora, a natural sea spout in the rocks, and to some street markets. There were lots of begging street children and adults around, trying to sell you things. I did not like that part of the excursion. Our bus guide recommended a particular Mexican restaurant as a great place to eat at a bargin price, and she turned out to be right. That evening there was also a midnight Mexican buffet on board ship.

~ Summary ~
The people I was with had all sailed on Carnival before (but not this route), and actually said this wasn't the best cruise they'd been on, far from it in fact. They said the 24-hour food facilities on Paradise were too limited (only pizza and ice-cream was served in the Paris restaurant, while there were other food available through room service - on other ships their had been a much wider selection) the entertainment was poor, and the ship was too small. As a first time cruiser I didn't notice any of these things, and they didn't limit my enjoyment at all. Many of the reviews on here seem to be negative towards Carnival cruises in general, but I truly enjoyed my time aboard the Paradise 'fun ship' and would defiantly sail with them again if given the opportunity.

 

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