kwokpot

We are currently in Waikiki Beach for a three night pre-cruise stay before embarking on the Ovation of the Seas cruise from Hawaii to Vancouver. I had originally booked a 12:00 flight from LAX to Honolulu post Panorama Cruise but with advice from here on CC we changed our flight to 3:00 on another airline. We figured if we were to leave with the Diamonds at 8:30 we would be too early to check our bags AND too early to enter an airport lounge. That's why we chose a 9:50 debarkation which if things had gone to plan would have put us at LAX around 11:15 or so. In hindsight we should have departed with the Diamond debarkation. In any event we had just enough time for a quick lunch at the airport lounge despite it being two terminals away from our flight.

I like to give a few thoughts on my just completed 4/20 sailing on the Panorama. For context this is our 29th Carnival cruise, Diamond member, 112th cruise overall with all cruiselines. First time sailing from Long Beach on the Panorama. It won't be a day by day cruise review but bullet points of thoughts and observations. *This was the first time back on a Vista Class ship since 2019. Previous sailings post pandemic have been on the Mardi Gras, Celebration, Pride,and Luminosa. As such I've forgotten how nicely laid out the Vista Class ships are and there's almost no negatives besides the Liquid Lounge and the cabin bathroom designs. The ship is in immaculate condition. *Service was excellent throughout our cruise. Employees were friendly and accommodating. *MDR service was very good. Food was good for the most part and I enjoyed the new entrees and starters, especially the special Emeril selections. TBH I actually prefer the aft dining room on the Vista Class vs the Excel class as I have consistently found the MDR on the Mardi Gras and Celebration dark with a convention center banquet dinner like atmosphere. On the Vista Class natural light seems to flood the entire dining room and there's a much larger atrium opening than on the Excel Class ships which further the more open and less claustrophobic environment. *Buffet food was pretty good overall. Guy's was excellent as usual. The pizza was a tale of two cities. The first time we had pizza it was some of the best pizza of ANY cruiseship we've been on. It was hot, the crust was thin and wonderfully crispy, and the cheese and sauce was just perfect. I was in heaven! The next time we ordered though, it was totally the opposite. It had skimpy toppings, and the crust wasn't baked enough so it was a soggy messy. I two two bites and didn't finish the rest. It was obvious that it was a totally different person making the pizza and it was just terrible. *The other thing that was disappointing was the banana cream pie. That used to be such a yummy dessert but now it's nothing like the previous versions and honestly not very good. *We were disappointed with the Mongolian Wok lunch since it's now just a handful of set choices with no customization allowed. No extra side dishes are available like in the past. Although it's so much faster now TBH it's really not worth it. I guess you can shlep up some additional food/sides before going up so you can gave a complete meal all at the same time. *I enjoyed using the fitness center every day and it was great having the free sauna in the spa/gym men's locker room that's available for everyone to use. *We enjoyed get our Americano coffees at Java Blue every day. *Alchemy Bar is my favorite and everyone there was friendly. One of the bartenders there, Marina, remembered me from the Luminosa when we sailed the 30 day TP from Seattle to Brisbane last year. *Our cabin attendant was great and we had no issues with our room. One major thing we miss from the new Excel Class ships are sliding balcony doors vs right a regular glass door. You wouldn't believe the amount of balcony door slamming,it was constant, loud, and disruptive. Why people can't hold onto the balcony door handle and close it gently is beyond me. *The casino was busy and smoky as usual. My husband and I came out nicely ahead so that's always a good thing! *As the old saying goes, Dione the cruise director wasn't my cup of tea. That's all I will say about that. *The phone app always worked well and we enjoyed the additional functionalities that have been added to the app. This brings me to the new disembarkation on the mobile app. *I'm sure at a different embarkation port the mobile app disembarkation will be better than the old way. One problem it solves is how Carnival did self assist disembarkation. Previously if you wanted to self disembark with your own luggage everyone didn't go down at the same town. Instead it went by Decks:Whatsmore general disembarkation started before self disembarkation finished, if you wanted to catch an early flight it made no sense to do self disembarkation. This new method you actually choose the time you want to get off the ship,in 20 minutes intervals. You are then assigned a Group letter and you will get a notification from the app when your group letter has called. So when it works correctly,it's far better than the old method. *On the our 4/27 disembarkation there were MAJOR delays which weren't explained. Our group was supposed to disembark between 9:50-10:10 but we didn't get the message u til 11:15. There was also major crowding and it wasn't clear as to where the queues where to disembark . It was a total mess that was exacerbated by the lack of regular updates from the cruise director, leaving everyone wondering what was going on. We didn't get out of the terminal until 11:45 and we went even the last group by far. Everyone was frustrated and angry with the disembarkation and it put a damper to an otherwise great cruise vacation. *My final piece of advice is to disembark as early as you can, even if you don't need to. Trust me, you'll save yourself a lot of frustration and angst.

Yes,I bought my shares when it was $9.99/share

Would you consider sailing on the Explora ?

This in in-room coffee maker a pod type and are you able to get as many pods as you would like?

That's not going to happen. In fact probably the opposite. On the Pride drydock they removed the hot tub that was in the middle of the gym and used that whole are as the fitness center. They did a facelift of both spa/gym locker rooms with everything brand new.

That's exactly what we are deciding to do. Carnival, Celebrity, Royal and Virgin keep sending us offers,too many for us to use. We keep getting these great offers from Resorts World Vegas for free nights, Freeplay and resort credit even though he just played one afternoon when they first opened. We filed for our tax extension and this is the first year where our estimated payments won't cover our liabilities, which was all due to the W2-Gs. I think it was this wakeup call where we had our family discussion and decided on how we move forward with gambling and travel. Living 60 minutes from Atlantic City doesn't make it any easier,but we're vowing to cutback on those trips too.

My husband and I have had a great run and with his gambling had to report on our joint taxes W2-G winnings in the 6 figures for the past consecutive 10 years. Yes, he keeps good records so we offset the winnings with gambling losses,so we never had to pay taxes on the full amount. We were challenged by the IRS for our 2022 taxes but after showing how we arrived at the reduced figure which we had to pay taxes on the IRS agreed with our methodology so that went well. He is vowing to drastically cut back on his gambling both on land and sea. We are on our 2nd last day of our Panorama cruise and he's only played at the casio once, and that was with the given Freeplay, so none of his own money. We played his $1,000 Freeplay together, and with me consistently hitting collect after a handful of wins he was able to keep $820 of the $1,025 given to him on this cruise. I also came out ahead. Kept about $30 of the $25 Freeplay and then turned $50 of my own funds into $95.

We have never been able to test that scenario since we were never in the position to get a $20/nt AQ upgrade from a fully comped veranda. It was always being repriced with an AQ casino rate then discounted a few $ hundred for the internal value of the comped veranda, turning a cruise that only costed port fees and taxes to one that was several thousands of dollars. And that wasn't even a Retreat upgrade. No thanks. On our December Christmas cruise on the Anthem we were able to apply a Casino Royale comp to that holiday cruise which amounted to just over $2,000 discount. Since there was still a balance of $1300 of room charges and port fees and taxes, we successfully received shareholder credit.

It's still not combinable with fully comped casino cruise offers

Here's a new offer out today. A bit confusing.

A cooking method using a warm/hot water 'bath' so to slowly cook food in a plastic bag. A fancy way of saying 'boil-in-bag' cooking.

This stupid administration fee is what made us abandon NCL's casino at Sea. When people say Carnival Players Club isn't transparent it's referring to the lack of how a casino player ranks and what benefits comes with established tiers. As a gambler you know full well EVERY GAMBLING PROGRAM, whether land based or cruiseline, has player tiers which ranks you within the casino player program and tells you the benefits that you are due from those tiers. A regular gambler also knows those player club tiers aren't an indicator of the types of complementaries you'll receive. That's based on your ADT of your most recent visits.

Your math is off. According to my husband, in Feb. on a 7 day Celebration cruise he spent about $6K and he earned 4,371 points. He wasn't particularly lucky on that cruise. Normally he wins multiple jackpots garnering multiple W2-Gs but on that cruise he only had one jackpot.

Yes most definitely if that's your whole cruise gambling budget. You'll get subsequent offers for totally comped cruises. You'll also qualify for at least a free specialty dinner for two with a bottle wine on your first cruise. As with other cruiselines, don't be bashful about speaking to the casino host during the cruise and asking about what comps your entitled to based on your current play. The hosts are all very nice and they will say , no you you need to play a little more, or say,yes I can give you a dinner for two with wine,where would you like to go? Just to be clear, just with other cruiselines the slot machines will track your accumulated points and in fact the info is on the phone app. The only thing that is clear is if your comped cruise offer doesn't specify free drinks in the casino or everywhere on the ship,you'll need to earn 1,500 points to get free drinks while playing in the casino. All other complementaries aren't spelled out.

It will probably be a few months but they notify you via emails, postcards,and as I said on their regular website under your profile and offers section. Here's a photo of two postcards we received.

Here's a link for more info on Carnival's Casino program. https://www.carnival.com/casino/carnival-players-club

Carnival's casino program isn't transparent but once you're part of it benefits are actually very good. Whatsmore the casinos are fun, always with the newest slots. One major drawback and a potential deal breaker is the amount of smoke that goes on at the casinos on all Carnival ships, even their newest ones. It honestly is the worst of all the mainstream cruiselines. Celebrity is the best with this since there's no smoking in their casinos, but their casinos aren't half as fun as any on Carnival. What other questions do you have? I'm on a Carnival ship right now, the Panorama, on a casino comp in a balcony. My husband, who's the gambler in the family, got $1,000 Freeplay, and both of us have free drinks EVERYWHERE on the ship. Unlike Royal, Celebrity, NCL, and the new Virgin program that just rolled out, Carnival's casino program doesn't have visible tiers for passengers to play to. Obviously you're ranked internally but you have no idea what that is and no one can tell you what you're ranking is. You can check your casino offers right on Carnival's website under your loyalty program profile. I can answer any questions you have regarding casino comped cruises,and comparisons between the mainstream cruiselines you mentioned.

We have a high powered exhaust fan and still have had the smoke alarm setoff and the security company called. Now I make sure our kitchen back door is open,lol. Not a fan of self outdoor barbequing.

Any cruise with multiple seadays are really meant just to chill and relax. If you can't do that I would advise not doing any cruise itinerary with many seadays. Last year we did a 30 day repositioning cruise on Carnival from Seattle to Brisbane, Australia. The original itinerary was 9 ports of call out of 30 days. Due to weather and other issues we had multiple port cancellations and alterations. Our first port of call after debarking from Seattle was in Japan 12 days later! People were going stir crazy. On our last port of call in Japan, Okinawa,there were multiple guests doing unplanned debarkations even though there were still about 10 more days until Brisbane, Australia. People couldn't handle that many seadays. That cruise was offered free to lots of Carnival casino players. I'm sure the thought of getting a $5,000 cruise for free and seeing Japan and Australia were very enticing to many inexperienced cruisers. So the point of this post is if you're easily bored don't do long cruise with many seadays.

I'm currently on the Carnival Panorama from Long Beach doing the Mexican Riviera. Had a wonderful day yesterday in Puerto Vallarta and we're docked in Mazatlan right now.

Thank you for your post. We'll be on the return TA on SL in November. Has there been any mention of any specific updates/renovations for SL or is it just the required 5 year maintenance drydock?

I usually take mine out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking. As others have said at least they realized the experience wasn't what was advertised.

I'll tell you here for free. 1) Buy a nice ribeye steak 2) have on hand a cast iron skillet or grill pan 3) preheat pan at high heat 4) season steak with sea salt, fresh coarse black pepper, garlic powder 5) grill 4 minutes on each side 6)remove from pan, let rest 5 minutes 7) eat your perfect steak