Carnival Cruise Line
Paradise Cruise Review
Baja Mexico

Marilyn Ralf
Occupation: Teacher
Number of Cruises: 3
Sailing Date: July 31st, 2006

After reading many reviews about this 4 day Baja cruise, we were prepared for the worst - but had enjoyable surprises and a good cruise.

Our embarkation was quick and smooth. We arrived at the port at 11:30 and by 12:30 we were eating lunch on the Lido deck. One change though - you cannot carry on your luggage unless it is 19" or less in size. This was different than what the published materials said.

Our room was much larger than our Princess Sapphire cruise taken last year. The bathroom was larger and the shower a decent size. New bedding was on the bed which was luxurious - 500 thread count sheets and wonderful duvet with 4 nice pillows - and we were NOT in a suite!

I read in other reviews that smoking was bad on the ship. We did not find that. Smoking was only found in a couple of lounges and the casino. It was announced numerous times that smoking was in designated areas only.

We found the food to be quite good - portions were smaller but more than adequate. The Beef Wellington, Prime Rib, Lobster Tails, and Salmon were all very good. The desserts were not as elaborate but still nice. No Creme Brulee but we did have a nice Baked Alaska.

Children were plentiful especially in the pools and spas.

Downside - while the stage shows were quite good, there were no lounge acts and the DJ in the disco was poor. Most of the time the disco was empty until 11:30 PM and the one club act was a lone country guitarist. The piano bar was good but the smoking drove us out. We felt Carnival could definitely improve on their nighttime activities. The only thing to do was play in the casino.

There were very few shore excursions on this cruise. In Catalina, we rented a golf cart for our own tour of the island for $40/hour and saw the entire island in an hour. In Ensenada, we took the shuttle into downtown and went to Papa's and Beer which was a huge waste of time. The margaritas were terrible, the bartenders ignored the customers and talked amongst themselves and there was nothing going on in the bar.

This was our second Carnival cruise and we did enjoy it and look forward to sailing with Carnival again.


 

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