I've cruised Carnival many, many times, and indeed, I've cruised "Paradise" many times as well. This cruise was very good, but I can see lots of small things slipping. Food was good, but not as many choices as in the past. Dining room services was OUTSTANDING, and has improved on my last TWO Carnival cruises. Entertainment was O.K., but a bit lacking in the offerings. It seemed to me that if you didn't gamble, there wasn't a lot to do on some evenings. BIG SHOWS were good, but the same ones I've seen over, and over again. Cabins on the recently dry docked "Paradise" were excellent, and the cabin service was also very good, but the lack of choices on the T.V. was disappointing, even though I don't cruise to watch T.V. I rarely leave the ship, so I can't comment on Ports, or Shore Excursions, but others I talked to said they enjoyed their excursions. Read Less

Pros: Cabin was great - very clean - and my cabin steward, Inna, was very nice and very professional. The ship was decorated for Christmas, which was a nice surprise. The Playlist productions were pretty good. I went on the Mayan Ruins and Island Sightseeing tour in Cozumel and it was fascinating! The tour guide, Cesar, is of Mayan descent and really brought their history to life. Embarkation and debarkation were pretty smooth. Cons: I wasn't really thrilled with the food. Ate in the MDR twice for dinner and once for breakfast, Guy's Burgers twice, and Pirate Pizza four times. So, a total of nine meals over five days. Plus, I did the Chef's Table, which was postponed until the last night of the cruise. The appetizers and seven courses contained a lot of fish (and chocolate) dishes, which I don't eat so that was a hundred bucks down the drain. Would probably be good if you eat those items. Most activities seemed to run late. I purchased the Cheers Package and was very disappointed with it. The drinks were very weak and took a long time to be served. It was almost as though once they saw the Cheers sticker on your card you didn't matter because they already had your money. I'm cruising on the Ecstasy in April so well see how it measures up. Read Less

We chose this cruise because it matched our tight schedule and small-ish budget. I've sailed on Carnival before so I knew what to expect, however this cruise still didn't meet my limited expectations. Here's a pro/con list: Pros: -Value (if you didn't pay for ANY extras which were pushed constantly) -Comfy bed -All of the staff were great! -The ports were fun (Roatan and Cozumel). We didn't pay Carnival for excursions, we got a taxi and explored. Cost about a quarter of what the cruise line charges and there were no crowds or waiting in line. -Guy's Burger Joint is SUPER delicious -The taco stand is not bad -My 6 year old loved the slides -Breakfast delivered to your room in the morning. Just old pastries and cereal but at least the coffee was hot. Cons: -The amount of "down time" on board was far more than I expected. We are a young family with 2 kids (ages 6 and 4) and there was literally nothing to do together except eat meals and try to "swim" in the incredibly packed swimming pool. I feel there was a huge lack of activities if you're not interested in gambling, drinking, and paying extra for baby-sitting to go to the night-clubs which didn't open until 10pm. -Camp Ocean, which provides childcare at certain times during the cruise, was pretty blah. Yeah, you can drop off your kids sometimes. But Carnival makes it sound like it's going to be super exciting with adventurous activities. In reality they just did a LOT of coloring and watching movies. -The kids' dinner menu was pretty limited and even my 6 year old ended up eating mostly off of the adult menu because it was so blah. The chicken nuggets were exactly like McDonald's. Not terrible but certainly nothing fun or special. Same for kids' desserts. Basically just a bowl of melted ice cream. -The adult dining menu was also very limited. There was either exotic items like braised rabbit or plain grilled chicken breast that you can make at home. Not much in between. So for those expecting an upscale steak or seafood option, again you're paying more ($20 fee). -Disappointing 24-hour pizza and ice cream. The kids were super excited about these things. Pizza and ice cream anytime you want!! It's really hard to mess up pizza! We tried each exactly one time. The pizza had razor thin crust, tomato skins in the sauce and a tiny bit of cheese. The "ice cream" was bland soft-serve frozen yogurt-type stuff. No toppings or anything. Again, not disgusting just...sad. -The buffet was either packed at mealtimes or closed in between (except for the sad pizza). No place to get snacks for the kids in the afternoon around 3 o'clock when everyone gets hungry. There was a plate of fruit left out so we ate that most days. So many apples in 5 days! Buffet was closed almost every time we tried to eat there. -The shows were ok but there wasn't nearly enough entertainment. Our evenings left us "all dressed up with no place to go!" Again, after dinner if you're not going to gamble or stay up for the 10 o'clock opening of the night-clubs, you're sort of left wandering the ship. Which is fine for a night or two but after that it was frustrating having to scrounge for something to do. We'd drop off the kids after dinner and then be like...ok now what? There's a 20 minute comedy act and then...nothing at all. The afternoons were even worse. Like, a game of "Friends" trivia at 230 and then...nothing until dinner. Lots of empty time on our hands. There were a few things that were beyond Carnival's control that I'm not including like: delaying departure for an hour due to a lost passenger, diverting to Mexico for a medical emergency (which cancelled a lot of people's shore excursions for the next day), and disembarkation taking 5 hours because of a late arrival due to rough seas and a strong headwind on the way back. It was a mess but not the cruise line's fault. Anyway, I'm not going to do Carnival again. This year our budget and schedules really limited our choices. Our next big vacation I will just save for an extra 6 months and take a Disney Cruise. Read Less