cruisingguy007

This will be a review of Carnival Panorama Jan 21st 2023 cruise and Family Harbor area (first time for us). Embarkation: Embarcation went pretty smoothly. There was a hiccup for some reason and they notified us that cabins wouldn’t be ready until 2pm but ours was ready upon boarding since we had a family harbor suite. The captains lounge at Long Beach terminal was way way too crowded with diamond, platinum, and suite guests. Carnival really needs to cut some portion of folks from this area, probably platinum since they board after diamonds and suite guests but it was way too crowded. E-muster right after boarding and off to have fun! I did notice that the cruise seemed to be filled with veteran cruisers and there were very few visible blue/red cards, it was mostly gold+ that I could see. This led to longer lines than usual at some of the eateries during embarkation lunch and this was the first clue that this was not like other cruises of the past with all blue cards jamming the lido buffet. First time seeing a line at Pig and Anchor bbq on embarkation. Cabin: Our original cabin was ready once on board but was missing one chair from the balcony. I asked about getting another (there should be four) but was refused (second cruise this happened) but we started to get settled but quickly noticed a bad smell (sewer) coming from the bathrooms and the air was not working in the bathrooms either. Call to guest services and a lot of waiting around while various members of maintenance and housekeeping came to attempt to fix it. About five hours after boarding it was determined that it could not be fixed and, after contacting guest services, we would be moved to another cabin and compensated $100 OBC for the hassle. A housekeeping manager helped us move all of our stuff over and we finally got resettled by nightfall. It was a bummer missing sail away and having to waste/wait all that time so I thought the $100 OBC was light but whatever, we cruising! Cove Balconies: I understand now why so many sing their praises, I dug it immensely and it really does bring you more in tune with the ocean. The Mrs. was able to see several whales near Cabo as well. We also saw a small pod and a full breach on our Rhythms of the Night excursion in Puerto Vallarta but more on that later. Cove suite balconies= awesome sauce! I didn’t notice any excessive noise in our cabin, there were some thumps here and there but a noise maker easily drowns that out. I did hear kids running a few times but it was when I wasn't sleeping. Someone in our party got a cabin right next door to family harbor and they were miserable the entire cruise with loud noise every night, all night. They were compensated by guest services and were happy with the arrangement but wouldn’t stay in that area again. It really does depend on where your cabin is located so choose wisely. On a side note: yes, they will leave the beds out all day pretty much since there is only one service a day. This is important for folks considering booking more than two to a cabin, it works in the suits but in a regular cabin, no way would I be ok with this; something to consider for folks that are looking to book cruises. More cabins and spreading out is that way to go! Family Harbor Area: I really liked the family harbor lounge, much more than I thought I would in fact. It’s really nice to have ice, water, ice cream machine, coffee machine and snacks/sandwiches at various times so close by. They have a full breakfast spread there each morning, I did see powdered eggs as someone else reported but they had boiled eggs too with lots of options from sausages, french toast, bacon, potatoes, hash browns, various pastries, lox and bagel sandwiches, yogurt, milk ect. It was well received by everyone. I definitely consider it a feature now rather than simply a nice touch. Makes breakfast on the balcony easy for those lazy mornings. It was manned by staff and kept clean and orderly. Food: I’ve seen some complaints recently about food quality and I have to say, I've seen none of that. Everything I had was good-great IMO. Main dining room dinner/breakfast was tasty and most of the favorites were there. They are charging for extra entrees beyond two but I happily paid $5 a pop for extra lobsters. The oysters were expensive this cruise at $2.50 a pop at the seafood shack but the dozen I had were good. Ordered a bunch of room service one night and it was good and got gobbled up. Tried the sushi, ramen, shrimp tempura and some other items from Bonsai and it was delicious. I will be eating there on the next cruise as well. Had tacos and a burrito at Blue Iguana cantina but didn’t make it to Guys burgers once this cruise (first time for me) as I was burgered out from the week(s) before the trip. I did eat at Pig and Anchor bbq and the chicken, sausage and collard greens are as good as ever. I even had this delicious stewed goat, curried veggies in coconut milk based sauce and these garlic seasoned potatoes from the mid lunch buffet one day and it was screaming good! Plenty of hot/fresh entrees in the lido buffet, even lamb on the last night. The deli is once again making great sandwiches and not the cold terrible ones during covid. The buffalo chicken and steak sandwich were great (fries are back too, no more chips). Can’t say I had any bad food the entire cruise and no one else I traveled with reported any disappointing food either. Ship: The ship itself looked great and there were plenty of servers around to take drink orders. I didn’t notice any significant staffing shortages that others have reported. Service was great all around the ship from bars, room steward, housekeeping etc. every staff member we encountered was awesome as usual. The crew/staff are really the crowning jewel of the Carnival product. As a side note, we had no propulsion issues and arrived everywhere on time. I discovered on this trip that I’m not really as much of a lido person as I thought. I much prefer the deck 5 area and really enjoyed this outdoor space on sea days when the lido was over crowded. I did enjoy the lido for the football game though, it was awesome watching at sea and there was a lot of energy that was quite nice to see. I didn’t see any badly behaved passengers and met a few interesting characters throughout the cruise. This is also the best deck for drinks as Pig and Anchor, Alchemy, and Plaza bar were easily our favorite places to get drinks. We got all of our best drinks here during the cruise. We did end up buying cheers on the second day and it probably saved us some money. We should have gotten it before the cruise, we did in fact, but the Mrs. wasn’t feeling 100 and didn’t think she’d partake much but that changed after day one lol. She got her groove back so to speak. It was a good value for us considering how much everything costs al-a-carte. We may not get it next cruise since we plan to get off more and won’t have folks traveling with us but I do find it a solid value if you plan to drink 5-6 a day on average. The other drink options only add further value. A lot of folks were still having issues with using the elevators properly even later into the cruise and this caused cars to show up super full and other times people tried to squeeze on already full cars. I still like this system but maybe a little more outreach for passengers on how the elevators work is in order. Maybe a stateroom TV spot or an instruction paper in the cabins? Kids Clubs: The kids clubs are back to full operations and full hours. The kids had a blast and my youngest was nearly in tears on day seven when he realized we would be leaving the ship. They all had great things to say about the kids club staff and how much fun they had. This is a space where Carnival hits it out of the park for families and I’m sure will ensure many future cruisers who will have fond memories of their time spent in this space. I saw a story on reddit today in fact about a couple who met in the kids club and went on to get married and have kids, pretty awesome if you ask me! Ports: We stayed in Cabo and Mazatlan as we were traveling with some family that didn't really want to get off. Cabo is a great port to stay on the ship, you have it to yourself basically. We did Rhythm of the Nights in Puerto Vallarta and it was a great excursion. We did it exactly 18 years ago (while at a AI in Nuevo Vallarta) and much has changed for the better. The food was pretty good (excellent arrachera steak) and there were plenty of drink options, both on the island and on the ride there and back. You get a nice night time cruise as a bonus with the beautiful skyline and sky full of stars. We also got a mini whale watching side show on the way over with a pod of whales joining us for a large portion of the ride over. We even saw a full breach and particle breaches during this time and it was a super nice bonus! The show itself was high energy and very good as well with some very cool acrobatics. It did feel a bit rushed as they were trying to get us back to the ship at a reasonable time (we made it back around 8:40pm) but was still a great excursion. We saw a lot of various fish and sea turtles in the cool blue lights while reboarding the catamaran to return to the ship. Great excursion and highly recommended. Debarkation: Having a suite made debark easy and was a nice benefit. We usually just hangout until near the end with late tags but they brought us early numbered tags and we were off, through customs (use the porters!) and in the car by 9:30am or so. This got us home much quicker as we avoided traffic backups we usually have to deal with. We will do this from now on as it shaves off many hours on getting home. The CD was there to see everyone off and that’s always a classy touch IMO. He was also perfectly personable throughout the cruise. Probably the easiest debark to date. Final thoughts: We really enjoyed this cruise and are solidly hooked on Carnival's product and enjoy the brand. The last two cruises had some shortcomings that seemed to have been remedied and it seems this is more in line with what we expect and know Carnival is capable of. Again, no staffing issues, no food issues and no provisioning problems as best we could tell. It actually felt much more like Carnival in 2020 before the bottom fell out and it’s nice to see the product fully shining again. Is everything exactly the same? Of course not, but I’m good with the small changes as the core product is still executed very well. We’re all excited about our next cruise and look forward to booking many more. If anyone has any specific questions I’d be more than happy to answer, simply ask. Hope you found some value in this review, safe travels.

Actually, you need to pay your cruise off so it will deduct from there first, the gratuities will show up in a separate line item as "additional charges" and can be paid well after the 90 day deadline for the cruise fare.

If you want to get all technical, tipping is also optional, period.

Well, they didn't reduce our cabin service gratuities 50% so who made out? Passengers didn't and staff didn't, in fact, passengers got increased gratuities (and yet another increase yesterday) and staff only got more work.

Why should he/she feel guilty asking for what he/she paid for? He/she did mentioned pre-covid, just because everyone else was happy with half of what they paid for doesn't mean he/she had to be. Post covid, the room servicing portion of your gratuities increased 50% do to once a day vs twice a day. You can also bet they cut staff back 50% but didn't give the remaining 50% a 50% raise.

1-800-845-2599, press nothing and wait. It will transfer you to a human.

Oh sorry, I see, mine is a 7 day and then a 8 day. I overlooked that. No balcony on Celebration? That's strange, I agree, hardly a suite. I'll have to check that out and see what the situation is. I'm hoping one of those class comes out west eventually but no balcony is no bueno.

It's actually $577.50 for five (prices went up) and Family Harbor Suites do have a balcony, an extended cove balcony. I have two cruises booked in that category.

Yup. Not hard to find. First three articles easy search: https://www.cruisehive.com/norwegian-announces-9-staff-cuts-and-leadership-changes/90412 https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2022/12/articles/executives/nepotism-and-employee-firings-plague-norwegian-cruise-line-holdings/ https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Norwegian-Cruise-Line-Holdings-cut-jobs

Having a backup state ID is also a good thing to have, a lot of folks have lost DL's and been in your same shoes. It's gotta be nerve-racking. I'm pulling for you! Let us know how it works out.

That may be your saving grace! Call first thing in the morning.

You will get auto refunds on all that stuff if you don't make the cruise. Only cruise fare is up for loss if you don't make it and it will most certainly be non-refundable if 3rd party, even if it was not, it's so close to sailing that even if bought through Carnival you could only hope for a FCC at best but they won't touch it if it's a third party since it's considered a travel agent, even if just through one of the large online sites. Hope it works out for you!

Theoretically true. One could also argue from a reduction in labor cost issue, less volume, less labor, same revenue. The problem with that thinking is lost volume opportunity (that may not add much more labor since it's not 1 x 1), increased waste potential (as seen in grocery stores all the time) and reduction in volume discounts from suppliers, customer retention loses and product immersion value; these folks are peeling away from your holistic product experience and that has value in or of itself that is hard to quantify but becomes an integral part of the overall experience you are trying to deliver.

It probably should be "kiss this trip goodbye" but folks have gotten on with a hodgepodge of docs before. Is the picture of the old license expired? If not, and it matches all the info on the temporary, they may possibly let you on. I'd call carnival directly, the local port folks, and try to speak to someone by name, figure out what would work and then be able to reference them if any problems arise at the cruise terminal. It could also be an issue of what Carnival will accept vs what CBP will accept for reentry, they aren't supposed to let you on if you wouldn't qualify for reentry (document wise), but I have seen some folks make some claims that seemed against the rules but they claimed it worked.

Make it a $75 or better yet, $100! I thought is was overpriced at $38 so unless it drops to $25 or so they can revenue optimize all they want as long as other suckers are willing to pay. I suspect less people will be inclined to purchase it as the prices continue to climb higher but if the ultimate goal is simply higher prices vs higher sales through volume, it make work for a while before plateauing. Revenue optimization can lead to revenue losses and decline just as easily. Simply demanding higher prices doesn't always equate to demand, whereas lowering prices through increasing volume is usually a surefire bet.

My cruise is in a few weeks and I've already paid the increased rates so I guess I'm just as virtuous. 🙄

They do, it's part of the $577.50 I pre-paid in gratuities before even setting foot on the ship.

Someone here is always talking about the only certainty is change, maybe it's time for the industry to change too? The staff shouldn't have to kill themselves to be treated with dignity or work/perform in fear that their hard work can be so easily manipulated on a whim by cheapskates and abusive passengers. It's never struck me as fair and calling them gratuities when it composes the majority if their salary is disingenuous at best.

Fair point, it still costs less than the price of one alcohol drink per day for all day internet. One could also buy less of it by buying onboard after a few days have passed. I don't think it's this specific increase, I think it's the totality of all the various increases that is grinding on folks. Folks will get over it but when all you've seen for a while is cutbacks, service reductions and higher prices on literally everything, it causes a visceral reaction. It's normal and it too shall pass and either we'll pay and accept it or leave it on the shelf and go without.

They will not be together for sure. They do sometimes give phones for the littlest little ones or if there was a problem on a previous visit (uncontrolled crying/temper tantrum/poor behavior) but not for the older kids. Including the grandparents at registration will give them full pickup/drop-off options. The cooking classes (most) may not be appropriate for very young kids but there are a few where it might be an option for the older kid. +1 on the Sky Zone, my kids still have their socks and orange shirts lol.

That's unfortunate, I've always enjoyed your adventures. I predict a lot of others will do the same though, at a certain price point it looks better on the shelf.

I don't disagree with that, they will work it until it doesn't work and the trajectory takes a hit or smashes head-on into Newton's laws.

Good point, maybe it's time to get real and call it what it is.

Until you hit diminishing returns. You can only cut so far before enough people quit buying. It works the same for charging high prices, sure, some will keep paying the higher prices but as that pool shrinks it necessitates even higher prices to maintain the same trajectory. Quiet ships will be bankrupt ships. Heck, some would argue they are already bankrupt and just don't want to admit it and will keep raising prices and cutting costs until they can't. People always mention supply and demand as a one sided argument for higher prices while ignoring all the other dynamics that enter the equation. Eventually, things look better on the shelf and the pool shrinks and Carnival operates on the more participants lower spread model vs less participants higher spread model. You can put lipstick on the pig all you like, it will only fool some of the people, some of the time.

I can't speak for "people kicking and screaming", I have a specific legitimate cabin question and I'm not sure why folks keep trying to pull it in a different direction or obfuscate the issue with random left-field suppositions. So you have zero experience with the issue and no clue? Awesome. Appreciate the contribution.