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.

~ 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.

~ 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.

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.

~ 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!

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.

~ 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.

~ 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.

~ 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.

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!!

~ 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.

~ 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.