Andrea and Richard

We left for Oakland International Airport (OAK) at a bit after 7:00 AM and arriving before 8:00 AM to get checked in and get situated for our flight at 9:10 AM to Long Beach Airport. We flew JetBlue (Airbus A320), everything went quite smoothly and we landed at Long Beach Airport (LGB) an hour later. Having never been to LGB before, I have to say it is a very small airport. They only have like four airlines that fly out of there with JetBlue being the major one. Upon arriving, our shuttle, Prime Time, was waiting to take us to the Carnival Paradise cruise ship. We booked over the phone with Prime Time for $35 for two people one way trip, as Costco Travel had recommended them. If you don’t book ahead, it costs $25 per person one way.

We arrived to the port where Carnival Paradise cruise ship is at about thirty minutes later (11 AM). When you arrive at the curb side, there will be Carnival Cruise staff who asks if you want to check-in any bags (for a small nominal fee of $3 per bag, more if you want your bag to get there in one piece…kidding…kind of) before hand, so you won’t have to lug all the additional luggage around through the metal detector and in line to get your boarding pass. We checked most of our luggage except for my shoulder bag that had my laptop and one of my cameras. Thank god for my Pelican 1514 hard case that locks so I’m able to check the rest of my valuable equipment without worries. A word of advice, any luggage that is checked, when they bring it on board and to your room, they leave it all outside your door. At first, we thought that doesn’t sound very good because anyone can walk off with someone else’s luggage, we later learned all the hallways are monitored and recorded.

The check-in time for the cruise ship was 1:30 PM, but they were allowing people to board earlier, provided you didn’t go to your room just yet as they are still bringing the luggage to the rooms. We were going to check out the Queen Mary cruise ship next door, but figured best to get situated and do it when we get back. Check-in was relatively easy, you have to show your proof of citizenship and boarding pass confirmation that you print online when booking and then you go through the metal detector. Then you stand in another line where they check your passport, actually check you in, and you get your Sail and Sign card. Afterward, you start boarding the ship on Deck 7, Empress Deck. This part took forever because this is where they take a picture of you and associate it to your Sail and Sign card. We probably stood in line for more than 30 minutes.

Once we were actually boarded, we went to Deck 10, Lido Deck to go outside. This is where the pool, stage, Paris Restaurant, Pizzeria, snack bars, bars, and the (off-limits) Bridge is located. We spent most of the day up there, having lunch and touring around. You also get a great view of the Queen Mary off the starboard side.

We finally went to our staterooms around 1:30 PM. The staterooms are decent size, if there is only two of you. The more guests you have, the physical room size doesn’t change, just the amount of beds. So if you take a cruise as a family of four in one stateroom (and you aren’t staying in a luxury suite), be prepared to feel quite crowded. The stateroom has chairs, a TV with satellite, a desk, a cabinet for your clothes, and stall shower. There is no refrigerator or internet in the rooms. Apparently they don’t have wireless antennas anywhere but in the internet cafe (which cost $0.75 per minute if you do the Pay-as-you-Go plan). If you have an iPhone, you can get internet from where we were at, Deck 4, Riviera Deck. But once we leave out of range of Long Beach, you lose internet, but you do retain cellular service (not from your provider though).

At around 4:30 PM, as we were lounging on Lido Deck, an announcement comes over the ship board speakers that we are all to take part in a mandatory safety drill and we had to go back to our staterooms to retrieve the life jackets. This was a very painful drill that took almost a hour to complete with the U.S. Coast Guard observing. The ship could not sail until everyone had taken part in this drill.

Afterward, we went up to on Deck 14, Sun Deck, going to the fore of the ship where we could watch the ship disembark from port. This was quite a sight to see and experience. I wanted to replay the Titanic scene (”I’m king of the world!”), but Andrea wasn’t so willing. Shame.

For dinner, we ate at the Destiny Restaurant. Our dinner time was 8:15 PM despite choosing 6:15 PM when we were asked online to select our desired dinner time. One thing we noticed (and was later unofficially confirmed to us), a vast majority of elderly people got the 6:15 PM dinner time. We arrived at 7:30 PM to wait in line (we were first in line!) and what a wait it was. It was until past 8:15 PM were we finally let in. The whole time, elderly people kept coming out. We hardly saw a single person or couple under the age of 50 come out. When we were finally seated, our waiter was Kittisak from Thailand and the table supervisor was Alexander from Peru. They both were great in greeting us and seating us. The tables seat ten people total. On the first night, we met two couples; one from Utah and the other from South California. The other two couples didn’t show up. Each night the menu items changed, you select a single item from the starters and an entree. Dinner was good and the conversation at our table was very lively.