Nikki Brickman

Age: 35
Occupation: Engineer
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Paradise
Sailing Date: July 15th, 2005
Itinerary: Baja, Mexico

BEWARE! The best part of this cruise was the company we were with. If we had not made it a good time for ourselves it would have been miserable.

ROOMS:

One of three rooms had horribly yellow stained sheets and towels. It looked as if a previous passenger suffered serious incontinence. They would not change them until we were seated at dinner.

DINING:

We had late dining in the Destiny dining room and it was horrible! We were expecting grand, fabulous meals and got second rate fare.

The service was equally terrible. Our server, John, never smiled at us, was rarely available, and really rude. He would literally throw plates down in front of us.

The bartender, Velidin (sp? - something like that), took our order (I still can't believe you had to pay for soda) and disappeared for the next 45 minutes.

We had to repeatedly ask for water refills.

When we tried to catch the Maitre'D, Gabriel, to get some help, he walked right by. He never stopped by the table to say hello as we had experienced on the Royal Caribbean cruise we took.

We were disappointed the first night and were not looking forward to the formal night but went anyway. We ended up having to seat ourselves. We skipped the third night entirely as the buffet food was preferable anyway. How sad is that?

The bright spot was our bread server, Asta. She was very friendly and fun. Too bad she wasn't the main server!

BAR:

The selection of alcohol at the bars were very limited and we had to explain most of our drink orders as they were not familiar with the drinks.

ENSENADA:

I would recommend the Rosarito/FOX studio tour. That was a very good time. Ensenada itself is not very appealing.

OVERALL:

I would never take a Carnival cruise again. The feeling I received from the staff was, "You are all here to get wasted anyway, so why should I bother." So we will be taking our money to another cruise line next time. It's too much money to spend on horrible customer service and food.