Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Paradise Cruise Review
3 Day Baja, Mexico

Matt Hasselbach

Unfortunately, I've just returned from the worst cruise of my life (And I've been on 7) on Carnival.

We took the 3 day Ensenada from Long beach on the Paradise departing 2/3/06. The service was sub par in the dining room, the comedian was horrific (so bad they cancelled his second midnight act), security stared at us every second we were in the hot tub to prevent us from drinking them after the wait staff ensured they kept our glasses full. Additionally, the whole luggage tag, color coded disembarkation procedure was abandoned since about 1/2 the boat decided to form line at the gangway and leave prematurely. Good things don't come to those who wait.

Three other notes:
I invited by best friend of 27 years and his wife to join my wife and I after telling them how great my previous 6 other cruises had been: 3 Carnival, 2 Princess, and 1 Renaissance. I felt like a complete liar after our cruise was marginal at best.

Our wives also got 1 hour massages on Saturday morning in the spa. My friend's wife loved her massage but my wife was karate chopped for the whole hour and then coerced into buying $100 of bath amenties to help her skin. Total bill $229 for 1 massage that did not relax her and some bubble bath we'll never use.

A dealer in the Casino would not deal my cards in 'Let it Ride' since I wanted to stand up at the table. He was also very rude to two ladies who were watching their friend play at the same table because they were sitting and not betting. He was a real jerk to all three of us when he could have politly stated the rules and summoned the pit boss to reiterate rather than act like a schoolyard bully.


Lastly, I personally dove in to save an 8 year old girl, Jamese, on Sunday morning who had gone down the giant slide and could not swim. All while security was worrying about busting us for sipping our drinks in the hot tub and the wait staff was trying to earn commission on selling us four more. The fellow patrons gave a round of applause as I exited the pool and not a single Carnival employee said a word.

So the four of us dropped $2400 for three days of sub par service and poor entertainment. I do not intend to take another Carnival cruise.