Carnival Paradise 5-day Western Caribbean Ports of call: Mahogany Bay in Roatan, Honduras and Cozumel, Mexico

 January 2023

This is a brief post, as I have already shared information for both of these ports in several previous posts. I am sharing some new information here, and you can click on the links at the bottom of this post to find more details about areas you are interested in.

Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan from Carnival Paradise

Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM

We had a casual day at this port; we walked to the port beach after lunch for a few hours. We were the only ship in port, so there were plenty of loungers available in the shade without having to rent an umbrella. Wifi is available for the day for $5. You can purchase with cash at a booth, or online with a credit card. I suggest purchasing with cash, as the credit card purchases were not working correctly. After I agreed to the terms and payment, the page reloaded and told me to pay $5 [again]. When I went to the booth to get this corrected, I waited behind another passenger being helped who had had the same trouble. The staff member got her account signed in, and then she fixed mine. If you purchase wifi at the booth, you are given a one-time access code to sign in with (which is pretty much what the staff member did after confirming we had actually made the purchase). Local beers were available at the bars for $5. Wine and mixed drinks were available too; however, I do not know the cost, since we did not purchase any. We have previously gone on the Tabyana Beach shore excursion at this port, which I recommend, if you are looking to get away from the ship dock. 

Iguana in the Cozumel port shopping area

Carnival Fantasy Cruise ~ 6 - Day Western Caribbean [Cozumel Plus] from Mobile, Alabama

November 2018

This was our first experience on Carnival Fantasy, and our first time cruising out of Mobile, Alabama. You can find additional pictures and information about Carnival Fantasy in my Facebook album. 

Carnival Fantasy atrium steps and elevator behind bar.

Pre-cruise

This cruise was kind of a last minute decision for us. We initially thought we would rent a condo in Orange Beach, Alabama for two weeks; however, the cost was quite high. We rented a condo last year for a week, and my husband said he wanted to go for two weeks this time to make the drive from Michigan worth it. I am the one who usually does all our vacation research; however, he found this cruise! The cruise was a much better value than booking the condo for a second week. 

View of Carnival Fantasy in Mobile showing location
of cabin E244. Click photo to enlarge it.

Western Caribbean Ports of Call from Carnival Magic: Cozumel, Belize, Isla Roatan, Costa Maya

February 2018

With the exception of Costa Maya, we have been to all of the ports in this post more than once, ranging from 2003 to the present. You can find additional port and shore excursion information from our previous visits by clicking on the labels at the bottom of this post, or links within this post. I started this blog in 2010, so information prior to that is not provided. That information is probably outdated, anyway! I also have more photos posted in the Western Caribbean Facebook album.

Carnival Magic in Cozumel port Puerta Maya

Cozumel

Cozumel was our first port of call, and our ship was docked there for most of the day. We arrived before the scheduled 9:00 AM arrival time, and we stayed until 6:00 PM. We have visited Cozumel in 2014, 2011, 2010, 2005, and 2003. You can find information about the Deluxe Sail & Snorkel Tour that we took in 2011 in my Carnival Glory blog post. We did not book an excursion in Cozumel this trip.

The Carnival Magic docked at the farthest out dock at the Puerta Maya pier. I thought there were two other ships docked at Puerto Maya (Triumph, and I do not recall the other one); however, the port schedule website only lists two ships for the day we were there. A couple more ships were also docked at the pier next door, across from Royal Village Shopping Center.

Shops at Puerta Maya pier in Cozumel

Carnival Sunshine Cruise ~ 7-day Exotic Western Caribbean January/February 2014

Pre-cruise

Our son had given us dinner in the steakhouse for Christmas this year, and we wanted to go the first evening because a bottle of wine is included the first evening. A few weeks before our cruise, I made the reservation online. The computer screen showed that my transmission had been successfully sent; however, I never received an email confirmation. I searched for information about steakhouse reservations online, and some guests said that they had been contacted prior to their cruise, and some said that they got their reservation details after they boarded (these comments were not specific to the Sunshine). I decided to call Carnival a few days before our cruise to make sure our reservation had been received. The person I spoke with did not say whether she could check into this; she merely said that our reservation would be confirmed during check-in. *2019 update: our experience on different cruises this year, is that the reservation and payment is confirmed immediately; just like a Fun Shops purchase.

Arrival and Check-in ~ Port of New Orleans

We walked to the cruise port because our hotel, the Astor Crowne Plaza, was only a little over a half mile away. This did not end up being as easy as we anticipated. My husband and I had gone for a walk to the cruise port that morning, and we chatted with two female travelers who were pulling their luggage. They told us that they had just gotten off the Carnival Sunshine, and that they had walked out from the ship. They pointed to the corner across the parking lot, which they said is the cruise port entrance. There was a sign at the entrance into the parking lot from the sidewalk that said, "Pedestrian Entrance," so we did not walk any farther. We expected there to be a pedestrian walkway after we entered, so we returned to our hotel to finish getting ready.

View from Serenity deck

When we were headed toward the cruise port with our luggage around 10:30 a.m., we passed a few more travelers pulling their luggage headed in the opposite direction. After we went though the pedestrian entrance, we saw that the parking lot was uneven, and that there is not a pedestrian walkway through the lot. Since we did not think we had much farther to go, we continued on. We found the cruise port entrance in the corner exactly where we expected it; however, the cruise port is not pedestrian friendly.

Cruise port view from our balcony
cabin 6363
Click on photo to enlarge and read labels

We observed many people walking along the edge of the road inside the port, even though there were signs that said, "No Pedestrians." Since I did not see any cruise ship signage, I asked an officer in the area how to get to the Sunshine, and he gestured toward the road leading to the south end of the port. I asked him if it was okay to walk through that way with our luggage (after all, the signs did say, "No Pedestrians"!), and he said yes.    

Carnival Glory cruise -- 7-night Exotic Western Caribbean from Miami

Carnival Glory;
photo taken from our excursion boat in Belize

Check-in at port of Miami

This was our first experience with kiosk check-in. I had not noticed that our boarding document said "kiosk ready" on it before we arrived. Two Carnival representatives were greeting and directing guests to two different lines. They were also providing zone number cards. We arrived around 11:30 a.m., and received a Zone 7 card. One check-in line was for guests with kiosk ready boarding passes, and the line on the left was for other guests. After checking in and scanning our passports at the kiosk, we received a receipt from the machine with a window number for our cabin key pick up. Our receipt was for window number one. There was no line, and we were immediately greeted and given room keys. We sat down to wait, and our zone was called about 30 - 40 minutes later. We were on board the ship around 12:30 p.m.

When we had first arrived at the port, we noticed guests who rushed right past the Carnival representatives instead of waiting to speak with them. They were in such a hurry to get in line, they paid for it later. While we were waiting for our zone number to be called after check-in, we observed guests being redirected to the other line (they had chosen the incorrect kiosk or non-kiosk line in their haste). And, some guests did not have zone number cards because they had not waited to speak with a representative when arriving (we had to wait briefly behind four or five guests when we arrived). When these guests noticed the zone numbers, they asked what they were for, and what time certain guests had arrived (yes, some of them asked us what time we had arrived). Then, the guests without numbers expected Carnival to give them a low number (or, they expected guests like us who had a low number to include them in our group). They claimed that a representative was not greeting guests when they arrived, which was untrue. I always observed at least one representative greeting guests from the time we arrived until we boarded. There was only one representative when we first arrived, and the second representative returned to a his post a few seconds after we stood in line to wait. We were glad to see that the Carnival representatives were not providing already called zone numbers to the complaining guests.

Cabin 7442, balcony, category 8M

We had an aft cabin extended balcony room. The balcony is much deeper than the aft cabin balcony we had on the Legend; however, the room is smaller. There was no couch, and there was only one chair with the table. There was room for two chairs, so I did not understand why only one was provided.

Carnival Glory cabin 7442

There were two chairs and a lounger on the balcony, which was great! Unfortunately, I do not have any good balcony photos to share.

Carnival Glory cabin 7442

Food & Beverage

The food on this ship included the same offerings that I wrote about in my Freedom post from December 15, 2010.

There were a couple differences, which I will list here. There is a burrito bar on the opposite side of the ship from the deli counter. It was similar to the deli: You waited in line to special order any type of dry burrito desired. My husband had a shrimp burrito, which he said was great. If there was a burrito bar on the Freedom, we missed it. The sushi bar on this ship was open every evening from 5:00 - 8:15 p.m., instead of just a few nights. This was not listed in the Fun Times each day; however, I observed a sign stating the hours.