itchintocruise

Okay it's time for a quick wrap up of our trip. Overall we had a great time and enjoyed the week off and spending it with our family. We probably won't do this itinerary again as we felt the weather was too cold for the outbound and inbound sea days. Plus 3 sea days is one too many. We felt like we couldn't take advantage of the outdoor ship activities as we have in the past on a Caribbean cruise. We kinda expected that while choosing this cruise, but we thought we might give it a chance. We certainly enjoyed Cabo and PV, but not a big fan of Mazatlan. The overall food selection was decent, but we have noticed a gradual decline in the selection of choices and quality in the included dining areas. As with all cruise lines, there is a push to encourage people to eat at the the pay per venues. The staff was great. Very friendly and accommodating, especially the dinning and kitchen staff who went out of their way for our food allergies. Kudos to Carnival. Obviously the ship is new and shiny and so we had no complaints. We had previously sailed on the Vista and Horizon so we knew what to expect. Up next we may gave the Mardi Gras a try. We are looking at either Christmas or New Years week next year.

Thanks for following along this week and I hope that we were able to answer some questions and build up the cruise fever for others.

Oh and one more thing, I want to give a shout out to American Airlines for buying us a new piece of luggage.

1 hour ago, colohenry said:

WAs your flight number 231 to DFW?? That is ours to DFW then a flight to Tulsa. 

Did u take a shuttle to LAX?? If so which one?? How long did it take traveling to LAX??

I am taking Shutle6LAX, it was the most the most reasonable one price wise. I was shocked at the prices to go from Pier

to Lax airport. I don't think I will be cruising the west coast in the future.

Flight # was 258 leaving at 12:10pm.

We pre-booked with Prime Time Shuttle for roughly 85.- each way for 4 adults and 5 pieces of luggage plus tip. About 200.- total.

Travel time was about 30 minutes each way.

19 hours ago, PekingeseLady said:

THank you, your review was fantastic!!!  On the movies you get in your room, so they run on a loop or can u pause them and start them when you want?

I hope you had a great time.  I board on the 4th, just around the corner now.

Not sure on that and thanks for following along.

We decided to let Carnival take our luggage off the ship except one bag, so we waited in the Platinum area until they released us around 8:40ish. It was around 9:15 by the time we left the port area and on our way to LAX. Our flight was scheduled for 12:10, so we had plenty of time and no traffic issues. I will try to do a post trip wrap up tomorrow and answer any questions. Thanks for following along. Good night.

2 hours ago, crucero said:

I read that the internet was not good. How are you finding it? I haven’t been on Horizon nor Vista but I’ve read they were good. 
 

Currently riding to Long Beach from LAX for my turn! 😃

We bought the mid tier plan and found it to be adequate for our needs.

8 hours ago, colohenry said:

We are going on the Panorama Feb 1, 2020 and would like to hear from you about arrival time on your return.

We heard different arrival times etc. I know it is scheduled to arrival at 9AM, but others say it arrives much earlier.

Have fun on your cruise.

 

 

 

I’m posting the disembarkation info for both non -priority and priority that we received for our sailing. Have a great cruise.

2 hours ago, ykennedy35 said:

What Channels are available in the TVs in the stateroom.  Hubby is concerned he will miss football.

Best chance of watching any sports will be in the new Hero’s Tribute bar that took the place of the sports bar.

Here is a list of the dinner menus:

I know someone asked about the Havana bar area. Here are a few pictures. On the two nights I peeked inside there was a Latin band playing with a light crowd and the other night there was karaoke.

Yes. We just boarded on the Panorama with one platinum and one  gold.

Our day in PV consisted of doing a RZR (side by side) ATV excursion through WILD TREK. They took us up into the mountains and stopped at their restaurant/ bar at the halfway point. Super nice guides and very safety conscious. They don’t let you do any racing or hot rodding. The ride was very dusty and we did get splattered with mud and cow patties. We could have gone through the car wash afterwards and still needed a shower back on board. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures as they didn’t want you to use your camera on the ride. We did get to interact with their resident cat “Pepito” and dog “Cuco”. We finished the day in the main dining room for Carnival’s  Christmas dinner.

2 hours ago, grima625 said:

Enjoying your review. We will be cruising in a Havana interior cabin. Have you been able to see if the Havana pool deck is very crowded.  It will be our first time cruising from the west coast and sailing in a Havana cabin. 

Every time I have peeked over the back of the ship to look at down at the Havana section it doesn’t seem crowded. Enjoy. Let’s us know if you think it is worth the extra cost. We haven’t any issue finding empty chairs or loungers.

48 minutes ago, psone said:

Are reservations available or required for any of the shows? 

No reservations available or required. Open seating, you may want to arrive early for best seating options.

36 minutes ago, amadorcruiser said:

I see all the comments on the Fun Times, so is there a helpful way to read them? It might just be us, but we can't read them at this size font... We board in 2 days and am excited to find the fun times here. someone on the cruise critics Panorama Dec. 28th sailing pointed us in this direction, thankful! 

Sorry they are hard to read. Have you tried opening the picture and zooming in? Have a great cruise.

Buyer beware on the Fun Times as we are on a Holiday week sailing and following a different schedule.

30 minutes ago, PekingeseLady said:

Was there a time difference between the ship time and port times?  TIA

Yes. In Cabo and PV the ship’s time was one hour earlier than local time. Ship time-10:00 am Local time-11:00am. Please be aware that Carnival does not do a good job of communicating this.

So to finish up Mazatlán we did enjoy a beautiful sunset, dinner in the steakhouse and the Christmas activities on the ship. 

We are not big fans of the up charge restaurants, but we do feel like the steakhouse is worth 38 bucks.

2 hours ago, crucero said:

We fly out tomorrow! I'm so excited! Not sure what we will do in Mazatlan. Will definitely remember to negotiate with the taxi. How has the weather been? 

The first day was in the sixties and cloudy. The three port days upper seventies and sunny. Today low seventies and mostly sunny. Enjoy.

1 hour ago, Joe817 said:

ichib, thoroughly enjoying your entertainingly review of your cruise! Thank you! 

Thanks for following along.

On 12/22/2019 at 3:34 PM, suess said:

I enjoy your reviews and hope your week is fab onboard. Can’t wait to read more. Hubby and I going on first cruise in April. BTW the Fun Day Planner shows Free Charm Bracelet, did you get yours and can you take a pic and show it?

Frohe Weihnachten Suess!

A quick fun fact:

Just in case you are wondering if the smoke detectors work onboard, we can verify that they most certainly do. The trick is two hot long showers in a row capped off by two people with a large quantity of hair using the hair dryer. We promptly received a personal call from the Navigational Bridge and a visit by the Carnival Fire Department. Thankfully the sprinklers didn’t turn on.

30 minutes ago, Youngcruiser1994 said:

Merry Christmas. Dont worry too much Your enjoyment is number 1 priority.

Thanks.

Well let me tell you about Mazatlan...

We knew from the outset of this trip that this port could be a bust. We didn’t plan anything ahead of time, knowing we had two other active excursions planned. So we took a chance and grabbed a taxi down to the Golden Zone. We made the classic rookie tourist mistake and didn’t negotiate the cab fare ahead of time. So a 10.- ride turned into 20.-. Not terrible but this isn’t our first vacation. So the driver seemed nice enough and pointed out the highlights of Mazatlan as we are driving along the nice Malecon. However, the further we drove the sketchier the surroundings became and eventually we got dropped off at the “friends” souvenir shop well past the Golden Zone. He also asked that we at least need to go inside the  store so he can get a voucher for gas money. For real! We swiftly walked back for at least a mile hoping to run into a nicer part of town and maybe the beach. After some discussion and the not so nice fish smell coming from the beach we opted to just head back to the boat and hang up in Serenity for the afternoon. Once back on board we did notice that a large number of people didn’t get off the ship. Apparently, we didn’t get the memo.

Well first of all Merry Christmas. I will try and play catch up. We have been enjoying the cruise but we have fallen down on the job.