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Carnival
Paradise
Baja, Mexico

Diana R. Streit

Age: 41
Occupation: Business Owner
Number of Cruises: 1

Boarding
Boarding was non-eventful. We checked in around 11:30am (in the Queen Mary early check-in counter) and were assigned to boarding group #1. We were on the boat and checked into our room by 12:45pm. Debarking was a pain in the butt but carried our luggage on board (and off) and made it though all the check points in about an hour.

Rooms
We were pleasantly surprised to find our room which was booked as an inside stateroom was upgraded to an ocean view cabin on the Empress level. The room was more spacious that I thought it would be and we had no issues with storage space. Unfortunately, one of the 2 comforters provided had a blood stain and a pubic hair on it – ewwww. I doubt the sheets were ‘fresh’ either.

For some reason, we manage to get the same dirty nasty washcloth put in our bathroom everyday. Most of the towels provided were seriously stained and need to be replaced.

Food
What can we say… the food was awful! Cafeteria style at best. The scrambled eggs were nasty. You had to use a spoon (not a fork) to eat them. The best part about lunch was the burgers and hot dogs at the grill area near the pool. All the restaurants had seating that was dirty with stains and leftover crumbs. We had to switch out chairs every time we sat at a table. I can’t image sitting in one of those seats in formal attire. Sodas are NOT included in your fare. The ship will sell you a fun card for fountain sodas (which you can get at any bar) for about 5.50 per day. My recommendation would be to buy one card per party – don’t get one per person!

Summary
We tried the 3 night cruise to see if we would be interested in taking a longer cruise elsewhere. While we WILL do that sometime in the near future – it won’t be with Carnival. We didn’t appreciate the wild crowd, bad food and unsanitary environment which we put up with the minute we stepped on board.

The best part of this cruise was the cute towel arrangements our stateroom steward left us on our bed each night during turndown service. Pretty sad, eh?