Carnival Paradise Review: Day 2 – Embarkationfeatured
All of the cruises I’ve taken over the past 13 years…they all blend together. It’s a wonderful blur of memories punctuated by moments I can’t forget.
I don’t remember much about my first cruise on the Paradise. Bits and pieces. Tarkay paintings lining Carnival Boulevard. A pink couch that squeaked every time someone sat on it. Mom bringing two piña coladas back to the room for Stephanie and I to enjoy on our balcony (shhh, don’t tell anyone). The staccato click of the beads that adorned the braids I was so excited to show off of as I walked down the atrium staircase. I remember the day we got off the ship, walking along the shore at a South Beach Marriott and trying to figure out how soon we could book another cruise because cruises were awesome.
There are bits and pieces I won’t forget, but they’ve started to pull apart and fray at the edges, lost in a sea of mega ships and exotic ports. And so when I woke up in Tampa on embarkation day, I was just kind of excited to see what memories being back on that very first ship would conjure.
Keri and I were up early. Our appointment to board the ship wasn’t until the afternoon (and, side note, does anyone abide by these appointments?), but we wanted to try to get on as soon as we could, and the hotel had limited breakfast hours anyways.
The hotel breakfast was delicious and filling, with a short buffet of eggs, potatoes, meats, grits, cereals, pastries and juices were set up in a small conference room just behind the gym. Having skipped dinner the night before, we were famished and everything tasted like the best thing we ever ate.
After breakfast, Keri went back to the room to shower and I made a quick run down the street to CVS for two different types of Benadryl. Note to self: no more gel mani’s because I am definitely allergic to something and Cuba was not going to be the place where I treated an allergic reaction. Hotel check out was at 11:00 am and I think we left slightly after 10:30 am. It was super quick and easy to get a Lyft pickup even though we weren’t downtown and we were off to the terminal in a snap.
I don’t know when (or why) Carnival started this whole make-a-reservation-to-show-up-at-the-pier thing, and I didn’t know if they would enforce it or not, but I had no plans of waiting until 1:30 pm in the afternoon to show up for embarkation. Thankfully, the Port of Tampa staff made no mention or check of arrival times and even though our Lyft got a little lost on the way, from the time we left the hotel to the time we were on the Lido deck having lunch was less than 45 minutes. And most of that was in the car. When we arrived, the Priority baggage handlers swiftly took our luggage and pointed towards the escalator. We joined the VIFP Priority line, walked right through security and then was directed to a table to fill out the forms for our visas. Unlike most of the Caribbean, you’ll need a special visa to disembark in Cuba. Not to worry, though – Carnival handles the paperwork and the visas ($75 on your Sail and Sign card). Once our paperwork was all filled in, we were directed to the VIFP Priority check in area, where we were checked in immediately. And right as our cards were being placed into our hands, they called out for Platinum boarding. We walked right on the ship. It might have been the quickest, easiest check in I’ve ever had.
Keri had only been on one Carnival cruise, but sailing together meant that my Platinum perks were her perks for our cruise, and that as soon as we boarded, our room would be ready and waiting for us. We made our way down to deck 5 and snuck behind the heavy doors to find our room.
Many of the older ships (the Paradise included) do not have many balcony cabins unless you’re sailing in a suite. Given that it was a four night cruise and just two of us, we booked an Oceanview cabin (M61). Our room was right next to the aft elevator banks (primo real estate in my book) and was plenty big for the two of us. I did find the room to be a bit outdated, showing its age most in the bathroom (the shower, in particular, had seen better days), but it was a short cruise and it would suffice for our voyage.
After we unloaded our carry on baggage, we made our way upstairs to the Lido deck for lunch. I’ll say this: I was stoked to go on a Carnival Journey’s cruise for the holidays, but you don’t need a Journey’s cruise for a retro Carnival experience – just book a trip on a ship (like the Paradise) that doesn’t have the 2.0 upgrades yet. The options on the Paradise were the same ones I had way back in 2004. Even the pizza stand had the old options offered. So, minus, no arepas, no tacos, no prosciutto pizza. Plusses? Cheeseburgers that didn’t have mayo slathered all over the buns and De Chevre pizza.
We opted to walk lunch off by exploring the ship. I really, really wanted to jog some of those old memories. We walked down the Carnival Boulevard. I remembered sitting in the casino with one of those giant tubs because the machines used to spit out coins. The casino still stands. The coin tubs do not. We walked past some of the night clubs and Keri grabbed a latte at the Ile de France. We read through the shore excursion options (which were super limited, particularly for day 2). We walked around some more and discovered every corner of the ship we could find.
Eventually, we took refuge in the Normandie Lounge to watch Cruise Director Jaime’s Fun Aboard Fun Ashore presentation. This was my…third…I think?…cruise with Jaime Dee. She is, hands down, one of the best in the Carnival portfolio. She’s hilarious, she has energy that I couldn’t match even if I downed four Americanos and she’s just good peeps. When we were on the Dream back in 2011, she was the Assistant Cruise Director and she was really fantastic in helping us get around with grandma (who was in a wheelchair at that point) and making sure that we were able to get on, off and around the ship with her. Mom has never forgotten it and she is still to this day my Mom’s favorite Cruise Director. So much so that while I was watching her presentation on Havana, my mom was writing on her Facebook wall.
And speaking of that presentation, it was super helpful and insightful. Cruising to Cuba is an involved process with many conditions, so it was helpful to have it all laid out for us. Oh, and we got a cute little pin out of it, too!
Here’s the skinny on what we learned about Cuba:
- Havana is proverbially frozen in time. There are no Starbucks or 7-11’s, and the port would be different than anything we’ve experienced anywhere else in the Caribbean (so all you Diamonds International fanatics out there are going to be disappointed – there’s no DI, no Del Sol and very limited shopping).
- Cuba is the birthplace of two of my favorite boozy libations: the daiquiri and the mojito.
- Broad tourism from the US to Cuba just opened up within the past few years and the Cuban tourism industry hasn’t caught up yet, which means traveling there right now is still a very unique, very raw experience.
- You’ll need to BYOTP (that’s bring your own toilet paper) and some CUC’s, too – many restrooms require a small fee.
- Tipping is expected for all services rendered. The average salary in Cuba is $40 a month and those tips go a long way.
- When there are signs prohibiting photography, your camera best not be out (especially in the cruise terminal).
- US credit cards are not accepted in Cuba, and it’s rare for USD to be accepted. The Cuban currency (CUC) is equivalent to one dollar, but when you exchange US dollars for CUC’s, you’ll face a 10% embargo fee and a 3% exchange fee, so for every $100 you exchange, you’ll get 87 CUC back.
After the show, we ran back to the room to see if our luggage had shown up (Keri’s had, mine had not) and charge our phones before the muster drill. My bag showed up just as we were about to leave for the drill, which was supposed to start promptly at 3:15 pm. Doors to our muster station didn’t even open until closer to 3:30 pm and it ran later from there, as they called out for every person who hadn’t checked in for the drill individually.
Even though we were approaching Fall in late September, it was in the 90s outside, and we were really glad to find out that our muster station was inside the Normandie Lounge. Great luck, right? Nope. Only part of the drill is in the lounge. Then they make you walk upstairs and line you up outside. It’s terrible. Thankfully, though, because we were the first ones into the Normandie, we were the last to leave it, and we were the last ones up to the muster station, which meant we got to stand in front and were first to leave.
With sailaway quickly approaching, we grabbed some pizza (and, side note, that De Chevre was even better than I remembered it) and watched sailaway from the aft of the Lido deck.
Once we were out to sea, we grabbed some drinks from the bar (daiquiris and mojitos, obviously) and watched as the water stretched out ahead of us. Time seems to pass by and disappear when I’m on, near or just watching the water and this was no exception. It’s mesmerizing, the way the water stretches to the horizon and the way the waves appear from the wake of the ship. I could spend hours just staring. I do spend hours just staring.
When the drinks ran dry, we moved to the Taste Bar for a quick snack as we perused the dinner menus. The Paradise was serving the newer American Table menus, which is just about the only dining option that has changed onboard since 2004 and though they weren’t our favorites, we headed down to the Elation dining room for lack of other options.
Our dinner was alright. The service was unremarkable. The food was even less remarkable, though the Nutella Tiramisu was particularly tasty. We had a wonderful view near the window as we passed through the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
Bread Basket
Smoked Chicken Quesadilla
Orange and Grapefruit Fillets
Flat Iron Steak
Nutella Tiramisu
With evening entertainment options running the gamut from live music to educational lectures about Havana, we decided to go watch Hasbro: the Game Show in the Normandie Lounge. I wasn’t sure if the ship was running light on capacity or if people just weren’t feeling the game show, but just about everyone who wanted to play on stage got to because there weren’t many people there.
Hasbro: The Game Show was super entertaining, if not slightly awkward because some of the people on stage didn’t actually want to be on stage. After the show, we headed back to Carnival Boulevard to check out the $10 Shop. The $10 Shop was in between some of the bars and night clubs and had a bunch of tote bags and accessories, but we walked away empty handed – there wasn’t anything amazing or that we really needed on hand.
Next stop was our stateroom, where I unpacked (because even on a short cruise, I can’t live out of a suitcase for more than a day or two!) and Keri decided it was bed time for her. But I had too much energy (and an extra cup of coffee) running through my veins, so I headed off to the Welcome Aboard Show, which was new and different and a very pleasant surprise. Jaime kicked it off with her own routine before kicking it over to a Playlist Production Cast of eight who did a short set of pop songs from Bruno Mars, Meghan Trainor and Jason Mraz. It was different, but I was okay with that (especially since the two Playlist shows on this cruise were shows I’ve seen multiple times).
The Welcome Aboard Show culminated in a party in the atrium, where Jaime and the Fun Squad threw beads out to three levels of wildly gesticulating people. I passed through on my way to the Paris Restaurant for Late Night Snacks.
Carnival’s Late Night offerings seem to vary from ship to ship, but on the Paradise, it’s the old school grill. Open from 11:30 pm to 1:30 am every evening, they serve up burgers, grilled chicken, hot dogs and fries. Even if the offerings on this ship were limited, we wouldn’t go hungry, that was for sure!
The Cubs were in extra innings and I held off on going to bed until the W was recorded. I didn’t know what Havana had in store for us, but I was so excited to find out.
