heckledtrio

16 hours ago, glrounds said:

I've read that you have to download the app on your phone before you get on the ship. Is that true ? Leaving in 11 days. Anybody recently back from the PANORAMA that knows how well this app works on the PANORAMA ?

I was on the Christmas sailing of the Panorama and WiFi was pretty solid. Of course, I've also recently sailed on the older Inspiration and Imagination, and experienced similar results. Independent of the WiFi, the Hub app itself works well most of the time. I still had to force close and restart it a few times during the cruise, but it's actually much better than it was the first time I cruised in 2016, so they're obviously actively working out any bugs in the app 🙂 

19 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

I have a similar issue...we are taking my daughter's BFF on the cruise at spring break. My daughter is 12 and her BFF turns 12 in April. I had assumed they would be in the same age group (we usually sail Princess and they start the "teen" club at 13). Now I see that DD will be in Circle C and her BFF will be in the regular camp. There is no way they will go to kids club if they are not together, but I am doubtful we will be able to switch groups given that it's spring break. Ugh.

I would ask the crew. On our recent Christmas cruise (i.e. kids on winter break), my friend's son turned 12 on the last day of the cruise (debarkation day) and he's pretty mature for his age. He did Camp Ocean the first time they cruised when he was 10, and he didn't like it very much. So on this cruise, she took him to the Circle C open house/check in period, introduced her son to the staff, explained the situation, and they let him in! He ended up having SUCH a blast. So it really does depend on the staff, but unfortunately you won't know for sure until you're on board. Perhaps you might push a little harder to explain that the kids want to be together, and that BFF's birthday is super close anyway-- those might provide more compelling reasons that might sway them 🙂 Best of luck! 

2 hours ago, hoopersville said:

Thank you all!!! One more questions..... does anyone remember the cost of drinks?

Crown and coke

mirtinas

momosa's

and how much the drink of the day is??

I'd say they are roughly comparable to land-based bar/restaurant prices. I have photos of the regular bar menu from my recent Christmas cruise on the Panorama, and mixed drinks were around $10, plus 18% gratuity. Beers were about $6-7. 

We sailed on the 7-day Panorama cruise over Christmas, and the bar tab for hubby and I totaled about $300-350. If I drank the 5-6 drinks per day that would be needed to break even on Cheers, I'd be too full to eat anything! And when I cruise, I love to eat! 😉 

I'm not a lobster person, but my hubby and friends say it was the best lobster they'd ever had! I hope they keep it included by the time you sail! 🙂 

We actually ventured out to do Mazatlan on our own! I studied the info on these three websites:

http://www.mazatlantouristaide.com/

http://arewethere-yet.com/wordyexplorers/blog/pages/view/view.dhtml?linkId=4FavoritesMazatlan&storyId=1532711033361

http://arewethere-yet.com/wordyexplorers/blog/pages/view/view.dhtml?linkId=CentroHistoricoStoneIslandMazatlan&storyId=1530238592810

Basically, there's a blue line painted on the street that you can follow from the cruise terminal to the old town area (~3/4 mile walk). Along the way, there are American ex-pats living in Mazatlan that volunteer their time to greet tourists and provide directions and maps. The second website I provided above has low-quality images of the maps that the volunteers hand out. If you'd like to see a better-quality version before you sail, let me know, and I can dig mine up and scan it! 

We pretty much hit up the main sights labeled on the map, and did some shopping in the big marketplace (Mercado Pino Suarez). It was a breeze to navigate everything with the tourist aid map. It was our first time venturing to a new city all by ourselves, but those online resources made it so easy! 

Elegant nights are normally the first sea day (Day 2) and the second sea day (Day 6). However, the Christmas cruise was slightly different-- they made the second elegant night Day 5 (PV day) because it was Christmas Day. Believe me, there was a LOT of confusion about it on the cruise. I asked several different crew members and got a different answer each time. Some said Day 6, others said Day 5. It didn't help that the initial paper Fun Times they provided with the week-long itinerary, plus what was listed on the TV, said Day 5, but the daily Fun Times on the Hub app said Day 6 ("cruise elegant" portrait times, for example). 

I finally got a straight answer from Guest Services, who confirmed with management that they were deviating from the normal elegant night schedule because of the Christmas holiday. I showed them the inconsistencies on the Hub app, and they fixed it promptly. 

So yes... any other sailing, they would be on the two sea days 🙂 

We did have lobster and prime rib on the first elegant night... and they were part of the REGULAR (included) menu, not the extra $20 one! So most of my table mates enjoyed surf n turf that night for "free"! 

15 hours ago, cmich068 said:

 

Why on earth would they not change the time the night before Cabo to match up with local time if they're just going to make the change the next night anyways???

 

I get only wanting to change time once and I get not wanting Puerto Vallarta to be 2 hours off ship time, but not this. Maybe they just want people to get confused on time and get back to the tender line early. 

LOL-- I asked myself this EXACT same question while on the ship. It made no sense to me, either! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we didn't set anchor in Cabo until about 10:00am, whereas the other ports we were docked by 8:00am? Who knows... 

13 hours ago, FLAlaska said:

Thanks for your review Nevada Jen, you did a great job! I have one question. Do you remember which ports local time was different than ship time? A previous poster said both Cabo and PV had ship time as 1 hour earlier than local? Did ship time ever change?

 

Thanks!

Ship's time changed once, on the night between Cabo and Mazatlan, so port and ship times were the following, given a base of PST per the home port of Long Beach:

Cabo (MST): port time is one hour ahead of ship time

Mazatlan (MST): port time is the SAME as ship time

PV (CST): port time is one hour ahead of ship time

Jen, I was on the exact same sailing, and I loved reading your review. Made that fun week come back alive for me again 🙂 

We stayed on Deck 1, and got called shortly after 8:00am. So we were still in our cabin, bags at the ready, when we were called. One of the few perks of staying in the bowels of the ship-- first (regular deck) off!  😉There seemed to be lines everywhere, but they moved at a steady pace. I'd estimate that from the time our deck was called to the time we arrived at our car in the parking garage (we live about a 2-hour drive away) took about 35 minutes. We eschewed the elevator madness in favor of stairs-- I think that helped, time-wise.

We were already on the freeway at 9:00am when our friends on Deck 2 finally got called. I hadn't thought about it, but your observation about most people staying in the lower decks + self-handling baggage must be right. Good to know your experience was so much smoother. Handling our own bags worked well for us this time because we were the first deck off, but in future, if we ever stay at any deck above Deck 1 on a ship like this, we'll do checked baggage. 

45 minutes ago, annviv said:

Thank you so much for doing this review! My husband says I'm an information junkie...probably true, but I love to be prepared and learn about things ahead of time.

Question about ports...does ship time change at different ports? I have read some very conflicting information from other posters from other ships. We have booked an excursion and I'm wondering about times now.

Thanks in advance.

I was on this exact same cruise and yes, the ship does change time, but it's a bit confusing. Cabo and Mazatlan are one hour ahead of us, and PV is two hours ahead. However, on Cabo day, we did not change times, so there was a 1-hour difference between ship's time and port time. Late that night, however, we DID switch an hour ahead. So on Mazatlan day, ship's time and port time were the same. But we didn't change again, so on PV day, port time was again 1 hour ahead of ship's time. Then, on the night of the second sea day (after all the ports), we set ship's time back an hour, putting us back on LA time, and gaining the hour we "lost" the night between Cabo/Mazatlan. Did that make your head spin? It made mine spin while I was ON the cruise! 😉