Carnival Paradise
Cruise Review & Photos
Pictures and opinions about our April 2009 cruise to
Ensenada Mexico aboard the fun ship "Carnival Paradise"
Carnival Paradise |
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The Carnival Paradise at night
To celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary, my wife and I decided to take a 3-day cruise on the Carnival Paradise. This was our 5th cruise (4th with Carnival) and we had a fantastic time! We sailed out of Long Beach, California, on Friday, April 3, 2009. The ship visited Ensenada, Mexico, although my wife and I chose to just stay on the ship the whole time and not take any excursions in Ensenada.
Please enjoy a few pictures that I took during our cruise. Every picture on this page is my original photo... none are stock images or supplied by Carnival. These photos were taken with my Canon Digital Rebel XSi camera.
I took this shot just as the sun was setting for the day
We had fantastic weather during our cruise, so the pool area was
very popular!
Rather than hang out at the main pool area (which is a
high-energy place)
my wife and I spent several wonderful hours in this area at the back of the
ship.
It's called the serenity deck. It's a quiet place with no kids and no bar,
where you can just enjoy the sun without having to listen to a bunch of revelry.
If "serenity" is not what you're looking
for and "fun" is...
the main pool area on the lido deck is definitely the place to be!
We stayed in a somewhat unusual cabin, at the far back (aft) end
of the ship.
Most ocean-view cabins on the Carnival Paradise have a regular window,
but our cabin's window was recessed back far enough to offer a small ledge you
could sit on or in.
My wife liked sitting in the ledge of the window and reading or watching the
view.
It's cabin # E255 on the Empress Deck.
The Carnival Paradise docks at a pier in Long Beach that is right
next to the Queen Mary,
the historic ocean liner that sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967
for the Cunard Line.
That white dome-shaped building on the left used to house Howard Hughes' "Spruce
Goose" airplane.
Now it's the terminal facility where you check-in prior to your cruise.
Carnival just completed an $8 million remodel of these terminal facilities, and
it's really nice now!
At home, we don't get out much... so
one of the things we love about cruising is all the entertainment.
From broadway-style shows to goofy fun like the poolside hairy chest competition
to stand-up comedy...
there's something for everyone on a Carnival cruise.
There were two comedians on our cruise. This one, Seth Buchwald, was our
favorite.
He had us laughing so hard at a late-night show that it was hard to get to sleep
after!
This is a portion of "The Promenade"...
which is something like the cruise ship equivalent of a mall.
There are clubs, shops, bars, and lounges along the entire Promenade.
On the left, shoppers exit the $10 store... on the right, kids check in to
the Rex disco for a kids-only event.
This is an interesting area up on the Verandah
deck.
Kids play basketball while others enjoy lounging in the sun or in a small pool
or a hot tub.
I stayed so busy on this short cruise that I never
got the chance to try the waterslide myself.
It looked like fun, though!
I got a kick out of watching these kids launch
water balloons at another team across the deck.
Here we are... still "the happy couple" after 28 years of
marriage!
I packed a tripod with me so I could be sure to get a shot of the two of us.
This was in "the American Bar".
The Carnival Paradise sails three and four-day cruises out of Long Beach.
Since these cruises are short and inexpensive, they are especially attractive to
people who have never cruised before and aren't quite sure if they are going to
like cruising enough to take a longer cruise. On the chance that you've
found this page because you are looking for information prior to taking your
very first cruise... let me tell you a few things that you might not know
about cruising with Carnival.
First off, I can definitely say that you're going to love cruising. I've talked to LOTS of people about cruising, and I've never heard from a single one who didn't enjoy it! There's great food and entertainment, and a huge staff to do all the chores for you! You don't have to cook or clean up a thing... all you have to do is have fun.
But there are a few things someone should clue you in on before your first cruise! For example, did you know that there is only ONE electrical outlet in each cabin? If you are bringing several electrical devices with you, be sure to bring a 6-outlet power strip. For example, this will allow you to charge the batteries on your digital camera, cell phone, and laptop computer overnight. Hey, speaking of your laptop computer... one cool thing about the Carnival Paradise is that there's wi-fi throughout the ship, even in the cabins. Most cruise ships don't have wi-fi in the cabins... you have to go to a public area of the ship to pick up a wi-fi signal. But on the Carnival Paradise, it was a great treat for me to relax in bed one morning and check my email.
Other things to bring:
A 6-pack of your favorite beverage, so you don't have to pay ship prices for it.
A watch or a travel clock. Activities start at certain times, so you will frequently want to know the current time.
A highlighter pen, to mark activities on the daily schedule that you are interested in.
A small flashlight, so you can stumble to the bathroom in the middle of the night without disturbing your roommate by turning on all the lights in the room.
Your MP3 player, so you can listen to your favorite music while you relax in the sun on deck.
Some $1 and $5 bills. Very handy for tipping the people who handle your luggage on embarkation day, and also for making small purchases in Mexico. Using American money in Mexican ports is almost never a problem, but using a large bill to make a small purchase can be a problem.
A hair dryer, if you need one. Some cruise ships provide them in the cabins... but the Carnival Paradise does not.
Speaking of things found on some ships, but not on the Carnival Paradise... a lot of cruise ships have small refrigerators in the cabins, but this one doesn't. The room steward will fill up your ice bucket twice a day, though.
You don't need to bring shampoo or soap... it is provided. But if you like to use conditioner on your hair, be sure to bring your own.
Clarification to what I said about there
not being refrigerators or hair dryers in the cabins:
I was speaking of ocean-view cabins as well as interior cabins. That's the
vast majority of the cabins on the ship. If you are fortunate enough to be
staying in one of the category 11 or 12 suites, you will have a refrigerator and
a blow dryer in your cabin... and your bathroom will have a combination
bath tub and shower. All of the other cabins have showers, but not tubs.
Another nice perk for passengers who have booked a suite: priority
embarkation. In other words, you get to bypass some of the lines in the
check-in process... which will allow you to get on the ship much quicker.
However, you have to be sure to get in the "VIP" line in the terminal to take
advantage of this!
Having been on five different cruises, I did find that things on the Carnival Paradise were pretty much as I expected. Carnival delivers a great vacation experience, at a very reasonable price! The food, the entertainment, and the overall "fun factor" were all exactly as I've come to expect.
But even after four previous cruises, a few things still impressed and surprised me:
Internet access throughout the ship, not just in the public areas. Loved it! It cost about 50 cents per minute, and it was worth every penny to me. Of the five cruise ships I've been on, this is the first that has had Internet access in our cabin.
The passenger terminal and facilities at the dock in Long Beach. Carnival recently spent $8 million to improve the facilities here, and they have really got a nice setup now! This is the state-of-the-art in cruise terminals.
The embarkation and debarkation process. Getting a couple of thousand passengers (and their luggage) on and off a ship at the same time is a process that can be problematic for some cruise lines. Carnival has got this process practically perfected. In five cruises, we have never had such an easy time getting on and off the ship as we did with our Carnival Paradise cruise. We arrived at the terminal at 11 AM and were enjoying lunch on the ship by noon. The debarkation process was even easier. We were in our car at 7:45 AM! A lot of people on the ship had barely woken up at that point!
Speaking of the embarkation process...
Let me give you some advice. If your goal is to get on the ship as early
as possible, my advice is to arrive at the parking structure at approximately
11:30 AM. This should put you onboard the ship somewhere around noon or
so. It's really pointless to get there much sooner than that.
Passengers are not allowed in to the terminal prior to 11 AM. So, if you
get there any earlier than that, you'll just wait in a line outside. Once
you get inside the terminal, you will go through the security search and then
work your way through a line to the check-in desk. After you have
completed all this, you go up an escalator to the second level of the
terminal... and that's where the gangway is that takes you on to the ship.
Now here's the point: they don't let passengers on to the gangway until
noon. So, there's no point in getting to the terminal when it first opens
at 11 AM. The security search and check-in processes do not take an hour.
If you complete them before noon, you will just end up waiting in a line for the
gangway. So, the goal is to get to the terminal early enough to finish up
the check-in process right around noon. Thus my recommendation that 11:30
is about right. And if you're not concerned about being on the ship as
early as possible and you're more concerned about spending as little time in
lines as possible... get to the parking structure closer to 1 PM.
The later you arrive, the less congested things will be in the terminal.
If you're looking to take a cruise out of a Southern California port, one thing you might consider is the fact that the newest ship in Carnival's fleet is now based in Long Beach. The Carnival Splendor incorporates many improvements over the 1990s-era design of the Carnival Paradise. For example, lots and lots of balcony cabins! Also, a retractable roof over one of the outdoor pools... so that if you happen to cruise during bad weather, the outdoor space becomes a protected indoor space. Also, there's a giant TV screen out at the pool deck. I'm looking forward to a cruise on the Carnival Splendor sometime in the next year or two!
Carnival Capers
Each day of the cruise, they publish a little newsletter that tells you information about what will be happening on the ship that day. It's called "Carnival Capers". If you've never cruised before, you'll find looking at a copy of Carnival Capers to be a great way to see the kinds of activities available onboard the ship. I've scanned the Carnival Capers from each day of our cruise, as well as the shore excursion price list. All are in .pdf format.
Carnival Capers - Friday, April 3rd
Carnival Capers - Saturday, April 4th
Carnival Capers - Sunday, April 5th
Shore excursion price list
A Great Book About
Working On A Cruise Ship!
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Here's a great book that I enjoyed, and I bet you would, too. It's a behind-the-scenes look at life on a cruise ship, written by someone who worked on the Carnival Legend, the Carnival Conquest, the Carnival Fantasy, and other Carnival ships. It's the real story of what it's like to work on a cruise ship... including little tidbits like the slang term that the crew uses instead of "passengers", why there are almost no Americans on the crew, the long hours and bad working conditions they have to put up with, and LOTS of stories about sex among the crew. Don't read this book if you're a prude! The first chapter describes checking in to a hotel room the night before his first cruise, and finding two other Carnival employees buck naked and in the middle of you-know-what. That pretty well sets the tone for what happens throughout the rest of the book! There are lots of great stories in this book that will really help you understand what life is like for the people who work on the ships. After you read it, you'll be a lot nicer to the crew members on your next cruise! |
Other Cruises We've Been On
If you've enjoyed this page, you would probably also enjoy reading about:
Our January 2009 cruise on the Carnival Spirit
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