Re: Give Me Liberty or Give Me the Big Cats 9/15/07 (or Give Me Both!)
Good evening all,
While it's late, I did find some time to at least start a mini-review of the Paradise sailing. I'll try to finish the rest over the next few days and post photos...
Paradise Mini-review
OK, for those demanding, here in a nut shell is a mini-review of our Paradise sailing…
Long Beach…
Drive over was pretty uneventive…well with the exception of Arrielle sputtering “are we there yet†100 times. Weather was low 70’s in Long Beach, far cry from the 108 we left back in Phoenix. I always said I would move back to the west coast in a heart beat beat if I could find a shack for under 1.5 million and a job to make the payments. We stayed at the Long Beach Hilton again (Priceline bid, same hotel we stayed at with Jim and family). Much nicer experience this time though (didn’t run into your favorite person at the counter Jim). On the down side, I unknowingly had some kind of 72 hour flu, bug, virus…whatever you want to call it, that hit me like a ton of bricks that night. On our way to Denny’s, I started shaking/shivering uncontrollably and couldn’t warm up. While the family seemed quite alarmed, no one else seemed to pay me any attention…but then again half the locals in this area seemed to be suffering from the same symptoms as myself…just for different reasons. Without boring you with further details, my symptoms took about 72 hours to run its course.
Embarkation…
Embarking during the week is so much easier than on the weekend. Once again we took advantage of the Queen Mary early check-in at 9:30. What surprised me was how late arriving much of the ships passengers were. Very few passengers took advantage of the early check-in and there were no lines to be found. Carnival started letting passengers on at 11:30 and we were stepping on board at 11:50...all time best for us. Upon checking our dining table I found they changed us to early seating at a table by ourselves jammed between the kitchen and about 50 wheel chairs…lovely. While a big majority of passengers were looking to change to the early seating, to which they had no luck, we actually did the opposite and had no problem switching to a nice table for eight with a big window. I’ll write about the dining experience later.
The Ship…
The Paradise came out in 1997 and I was anticipating the ship to be somewhat run-down with her current 3 and 4 day sailings the last few years. Surprisingly we were quite impressed at how good of shape she was in considering she has yet to go in dry dock for a major refurbish. Certainly if you looked closely you could point out many things that could be done to improve the ships interior, but nothing that would break anyone’s cruise experience. Carpet and walls were spotless and everything was polished/fresh painted even to the most finicky cruisers liking.
Cabin…
Our cabin was outside cabin #4160 almost mid-ship. Our steward was excellent, must have been in our cabin 3-4 times a day. Oddly though, our cabin was not the standard 185 square ft configuration, it was definitely smaller to which a sofa wouldn’t fit. With that stated, Arrielle had an upper and our steward brought a roll-away for our niece…worked out fine.
Promenade Food…
Somewhat disappointed with the food in the promende, with a notable exception for the burgers and the deli (Deli is to small though, with one person working it; made for long lines). There was a big drop-off in the regular buffet food…selection/preparation was seriously lacking no matter what meal you attended.
Dining Room…
We were in the Destiny dining room at table #225. We sat with a couple with two boys Arrielle’s age, they hit it off real well, making our dining experience a good one in comparison to past years with Arrielle. Richard, the husband/father, turned out to be from the neighborhood I grew up in. It was really nice to get caught up on the old neighborhood. Did I happen to mention he is also a Rams and Dodger fan? The dining room food was good, not great, just good. I do like how Carnival has offered many alternatives for entrees should you not like whats on the menu that particular night. Our dining room waiter was another story all together. Believe it or not, she didn’t introduce herself, nor did she care to make small talk with anyone. Talk about no personality at all. We were always the last to get our food and getting iced tea or bread took an act of congress. Normally I would chalk this up to the waiter having to many tables to cover but in this case, she only had two. Fortunately we had good table mates and the lack of good service wasn’t really an issue for us. We were always the first to arrive and the last to leave…great conversations!
Pool areas…
Yep, insanely crowded and not a lounger to be found if you didn’t grab on by 9:00 am. The band was non-existant. They played an hour during each sail away and then an hour on the sea day…really disappointing.
