0

Carnival Paradise Review

Fun on the FunSHip

Review for the USA Cruise on Carnival Paradise
User Avatar
sjalex20
First Time Cruiser • Age 2020s

Rating by category

Cabin

Additional details

Sail Date: May 2009
Traveled with children

We (my mom, sister, daughter (age 5) son (age 2) and I) sailed on the Carnival Paradise May 18th - 22nd . We booked this trip 1 week before due to the drastically reduced price and thus only visited Catalina Island and anchored off of Ensanada for 4 hours (to meet the Jone's Act). This was my 14th cruise (2nd on Carnival) my daughter's 4th and my son's 1st. We had a wonderful time and it was a great trip, complete with beautiful sunny weather and the ocean cooperated with very calm seas.

Embarkation: We drove over to Long Beach from Gilbert, Arizona the day of sailing and parked in the LB Port parking terminal. I appreciated that it was covered parking and the parking spaces easily accommodated my SUV. The cost was $15 a day. We checked our luggage with the porters (located on level one of the parking structure) and then stood in a really unorganized line for over an hour. We arrived around 2pm and did not get on the ship until close to 4. Apparently customs decided to do a full inspection on the off coming passengers and it held up getting us on. Why they did an inspection when they only sailed to Catalina is beyond me. We stood outside in an unorganized line and then proceeded to be shuffled over to another line just outside the terminal doors, then another line through security, a line to check - in, a line to take your picture (unavoidable), a line to get on the gangway, a line to scan your Seapass (I can't for the life of me remember what Carnival calls this?) and then we were on. Yip-eee. 

Ship overview: The ship was decorated in very loud colors and the green eggs and flower inlays in the lobby/atrium were ugly. The hallways to the rooms were really dark, we were on the blue side. However I do not cruise to be offended by a ship's decorations so it was fine. Just different than any other ship I have been on. Goofy golfing was fun, the adult area had nice padded loungers but was always packed, the gym was small but had nice equipment (at least it looked nice I was lazy this trip), there was lots of loungers around all the pool areas and Camp Carnival was set up great for the 2-5 aged group. The cruise director Filipe was a hyper little thing and would make announcements in the hallways at 10:45 at night and always ended his spiel with "WOO-HOO". Luckily my kids were so worn out these late night (for families) announcements never woke them up.

Cabin Review

Lots of traffic, hallway noisy, roomy layout, small safe

previous reviewnext review

Find a Carnival Paradise Cruise from $269

Any Month

Get special cruise deals, expert advice, insider tips and more.By proceeding, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

© 1995—2024, The Independent Traveler, Inc.