Carnival Paradise Review: Day 5 – Sea Dayfeatured

Up to this point, I had never been on a cruise as short as this four day Havana cruise. And while I’m sure I’ve been on cruises that only had one sea day, we also usually repurpose a port day for an island we’ve visited numerous times before as a sea day (I’m looking at you, Grand Turk). I’ve never tried to cram everything I usually do onboard during a week long voyage into one day.

But you know, there’s a first time for everything.

Because we didn’t have a port to explore this day, Keri and I decided to give ourselves one big whopping extra hour of sleep, setting our alarms for 8:15 am instead of the 7:15 am wake up calls we’d been doing in Cuba. First up on the sea day cramfest? Sea Day Brunch. I had a VIFP free drink coupon to redeem, and Sea Day Brunch was the only time on this voyage where filet mignon was anywhere on any of the menus. Is 8:30 in the morning too early for steak and booze? Well, in the wise words of Jimmy Buffet, it’s five o’clock somewhere.

After brunch, we grabbed our swim gear and headed upstairs to deck 11. Something most people didn’t seem to realize was that the main pool and the Serenity hot tubs were not the only swimming areas on the Paradise – there was also a pool and an expansive deck on deck 11 aft. An expansive deck that was just about empty.

I’d been going back and forth all cruise long on if our cruise was just not at capacity (understandable given that Hurricane Irma was just a week and a half prior) or if the passenger to space ratio was better on the Paradise, which still does not have the Funship 2.0 enhancements. I think it was probably a little of both, but I certainly was not complaining.

I didn’t last long in the sun – I had a bit of sunburn left from our last day in Havana and the late Fall humidity was absolutely killer. I’m not big on public pools and I didn’t want to travel home with a wet swimsuit, but I came pretty close to throwing my goggles to the wind because the heat and humidity was pretty oppressive. I had sweated off my sunscreen within minutes of putting it on and as soon as I was toweling the sweat off my skin, a glistening new layer would appear.

I was done with the pool deck after an hour, but that was a-okay because there was plenty on my list of things to do. Keri stayed at the pool and I headed back to the room to shower off and change.

As short as this cruise was, I really wanted to spend as much time watching the water as I could. It might sound completely lame, but one of my favorite parts of cruising is literally just being on the water. I could (and do) spend hours just watching the ocean when we cruise, completely mesmerized by the endless horizon and the latticework of the water as it ricochets off the ship. The Paradise isn’t really the best ship for water watching – there aren’t a ton of outdoor spaces with great ocean views (and even fewer indoor spaces), so I had to take to walking around deck 11 to get in my water time on this ship.

Keri and I met up for a quick lunch of piping hot De Chevre pizza. I prefer the newer pizza Carnival serves on just about all of its ships, but this tasty blast from the past was a nice slice of old cruise nostalgia.

Our afternoon was packed with activities, but I expected no less sailing with Jaime Dee. Every time I’ve sailed with her, the Fun Times are jam packed with activities. First one on our list was the Q&Awesome, a Q&A with Jaime and the Fun Squad about life on the ship. Did you know that guest fraternization is only one of SEVEN terminable offenses? Now you do. You’re welcome.

After the Q&Awesome was tea time, my favorite activity. On the Paradise, it’s held in the America piano bar and, oddly enough, everyone I saw in the room (and there were not many) had a Platinum or Diamond card. We chatted with a woman at the table next to us, reminiscing on when tea time had white glove service, a full array of complimentary teas to choose from and a string quartet playing live music. Things certainly have changed in the past ten years, but I’m happy enough that this activity still exists at all – it’s still my fave sea day activity!

Name That Beatles Tune followed tea time. No musical theater trivia for me to dominate this time, but I made a strong showing with my knowledge of Beatles tunes (thanks to many viewings of Across the Universe and all those cruises we took on the Miracle where Ticket to Ride was the Playlist show!).

With the later afternoon hours bringing some (slightly) cooler air, Keri and I headed back to the aft pool deck with our books to get in some reading time al fresco before dinner. The aft pool stayed relatively empty all day, and with tons of deck space, it could be the perfect spot on the Paradise to enjoy those ocean views (as long as you don’t mind that there’s a makeshift basketball court on the near side of the deck!).

We made a quick stop at the room to freshen up for dinner and made a quick stop at the Taste Bar for some Blue Iguana bites. The Taste Bar was set up on days 1, 3 and 4 and all three days featured bites from restaurants that did not exist on the ship. A welcome reminder of some of my favorite Carnival eateries, but an odd experience for newer cruisers who may not have known what these places were.

Our final dinner in the Elation Dining Room was just about the same as all of the other dinners we had this cruise – the shorter menus are not my favorite as they they heavily featured seafood (and if it comes from the sea, it’s not for me). To be honest, if they had the steakhouse onboard, I probably would have paid to eat there every night. As it was, our options were the main dining room, the Lido buffet or room service and everything we had in the dining room was good, we just felt limited in our options.

Bread Basket

Baked Meatballs

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Flat Iron Steak

Passion Fruit Flan

The last night always means packing, and even with a shorter cruise, packing was no less awful. Thankfully, there was another Playlist Production show to distract us – Epic Rock. I’ve seen Epic Rock more times than I can count, but I think it really is one of the better Playlist shows. The set list is great, the LCD sets aren’t horribly misused or distracting and it’s super high energy.

After the show, though, we couldn’t put off packing for much longer. The rum I had purchased in Havana was delivered just before 10:00 pm, just in time to get packed into my checked luggage!

Keri and I did a final lap around the ship, putting our leftover cash towards our onboard accounts and enjoying some of the live music on the promenade. We parted ways after a bit – Keri heading off to go to bed and I stayed out for a bit longer. Our room was warmer than we would have preferred and the staterooms onboard the Paradise do not have individual thermostats (rather, they have air flow controls on the ceiling vent), so I headed up to the Lido deck, where there was a bar playing a football game (go…team) and there was heavy air conditioning and an ice cream machine.

And when I couldn’t avoid sleep any longer, I headed back to the room and to bed. The last night is almost torturous. It’s gotten better throughout the years – almost every time I leave a cruise, I already have another one booked, but there’s just something about leaving and the looming stress of the travel day ahead.

There is one thing that always makes the last night better though: the impending return of my cellular data. And with the ship inching me closer and closer to full access to everything the social media package blocked me from all weekend, suddenly going to bed and closing the book on this cruise didn’t seem so bad after all.