Loisaida Carnival

Advantages: Entertainment, a great opporunity to see a few different places on one holiday
Disadvantages: food limited at night, slow room service, small-ish ship

...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... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: none
Disadvantages: listed in my opinion

...As I filled in my Comment Card, following my recent cruise on the Carnival Spirit, I realised there was not adequate space to list the problems myself and fellow travellers encountered on the ?fun ship?. My complaints and comments are listed below. General Ship Condition. 1. Our cabin balcony was continually covered in soot from the funnels. Nelly, our Cabin stewardess, did her best to keep it clean but still the balcony got sooty. Two garments were soiled by this soot. We paid for the two back cabins for good views of the Panama Canal. This would not have been the case if we had known the soot would be a problem. The problem was also very noticeable on the Fantail Bar and pool area on the ship. 2. Many parts of the wooden deck boards were warped. This created wavy and unevenness on the decks. This was quite a hazard... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: some people love it
Disadvantages: some don't

...Ask Germans what they associate with the city of Cologne, Köln in German (the ´ö´is pronounced like the ´u ´ in burn), and I bet you´ll hear, ´Dom und Karneval (cathedral and carnival)´ or the other way round. (There´s fierce competition between the cities Aachen, Düsseldorf, Mainz and Köln (all in the west of Germany, the so-called Rhineland) each proclaiming itself the keeper of the one and only original carnival, from the outside, however, Köln appears to be the epicentre (don´t tell the inhabitants of the other cities that I said that!) As the cathedral is always there and right in the centre, it´s impossible for tourists not to notice it, Karneval on the other hand (I´m using the German terms from now on because there are different terms in the different parts of Germany) is not noticeable all the year round, although it starts... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful