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We were on Panorama this past week, and the first arrival appointment was 11:00 - 11:30 (because as mentioned, Panorama gets back to port later than usual). The cruise prior to ours had to skip Cabo due to high swells, so they didn't seem to be running late - if we were delayed getting on, it was minimal (we arrived at the terminal at 10:50 and were walking onto the ship about 11:05). However, we were later than usual getting back into port yesterday. They started priority debarkation (Diamond/Platinum/Suites) at 9:15 am.

This is so good to hear - in a couple months we will be taking Spirit through the canal the opposite direction (Seattle to New Orleans). I was kind of nervous being on a smaller older ship for 16 days.

Oops sorry that is a typo, we were in 10226 (10220 is a balcony). Also wanted to add the forward bank of elevators nearby are much quicker than the others.

We had one of those rooms on Celebration and would not book it again. There is a crew smoking deck nearby, and our room always smelled like smoke to me (even though we rarely opened the balcony door). I have asthma and am really sensitive to smoke so it might not bother others as much as it does me though.

We haven't been in the rooms mentioned, but we were on Lido 10220. Absolutely loved it - very quiet for the most part and the AC worked well. Really convenient location too.

What a great surprise (and great deal)! Crossing my fingers there are no more cancellations as we are booked for this coming New Year's Eve.

We are on Panorama in Puerto Vallarta right now. To confirm what others have said, you stay on ship time and must be back on board by 8:30 pm.

If Panorama got in later than usual this morning we did not notice it - we were walking onto the ship at 11 am like usual. It was an incredibly quick/easy embarkation but they did mention we have an incredibly full ship (just under 5,000) for this 4th of July cruise.

We love to walk to port when it's an option, so we stayed at Riu - Fisherman's Warf. It's an easy walk to the port if you don't have a lot of luggage. And of course walking distance to Fisherman's Warf if you have time the day before embarkation to spend some time there. The hotel is nice, the bathroom seemed unusually small (but not as small as on the ship so not a big deal to us for one night).

We just had the same situation on Vista with a party of 7 across 3 rooms. We went to guest services as soon as we got on board and they gave us extra "key cards" for the people who needed access to other rooms. That worked best for us because we didn't want to chance messing up the variety of OBC already assigned to the cards/rooms.

We have done 25 cruises on Carnival (everything from 3 days to 16) and in our experience the longer cruises are a different crowd. And of course the time of year (and whether it's during a Holiday) makes a difference too. In general our longer cruises seemed to be a quieter/older crowd, more interested in the destination than partying on the ship (not that there is anything wrong with that - Carnival is the fun ship). We saw way fewer teens running around the ship at midnight and things like that. I agree, the Excel ships are a very different experience and if you are tired of the "same old thing" you will likely really enjoy Mardi Gras/Celebration/Jubilee. It's my favorite class because there is so much more to do.

Yes, it's been years since they have put away the sofa bed for us during the day (on various ships).

We have had great experiences with the rental car company near Port Canaveral. They are so quick and efficient - both times we've used them the shuttle to the port was ready and waiting and we barely had a chance to sit down before we were on our way. I agree with the advice above, get checked in as soon as you can and plan to meet up with the drivers in the boarding area waiting room.

I also agree - we did the 8-day Dream itenerary back in April and I loved Key West (one of my favorites) but I didn't love the ship (for the reasons already mentioned). In addition, I really had a terrible time with my (typically well-controlled) asthma on this particular ship. We were on Celebration in January and absolutely loved it - I like those ports better overall also.

We just got home yesterday and our flights, both going to our cruise and coming home, were delayed (on one we missed our connection). The next flight we tried to get on was already oversold with a standby list. Luckily we did fly in the night prior to the cruise, so we made it with a few hours to sleep before boarding the ship, but we spent a lot of time sitting in airports. The airlines just seem to be struggling to get back to normal (at least in our experience).

We are on Panorama this coming Saturday and our arrival appointment time is 11:00 to 11:30 am for boarding group A01 (which is 30 minutes later for the same boarding group as our last cruise on Panorama 9 months ago). Final boarding is listed as 3:30 (also 30 minutes later than last time, so it seems like they expect the delay to be minimal ... fingers crossed).

We just got off Vista yesterday and much prefer Horizon and Panorama over Vista. We had no propulsion issues on our trip that I was aware of (we were early to most of the ports and were off the ship and in our Uber by 7:55 am for debarkation) but I found Vista to be in pretty rough shape for an 8 year old ship (I would have guessed it was 10 years older than Panorama). It didn't help that we had a leak/water issue in the area of our cabin so it constantly smelled musty (and some days the carpet in the hallway was so saturated they would bring out the carpet cleaner to extract water and put out industrial fans to try to dry it out. This spanned approximately 10 cabins. Our family had a total of 3 cabins in that area (8 aft). We couldn't figure out where the leak was coming from, but we frequently saw crew members working on pipes in closet type area in the hallway so maybe it had something to do with that? This was our 25th cruise on Carnival and have never experienced anything like that before.

I am currently on sister ship Vista and just ran down and took this pic. If you zoom in you can see 2365 to the left.

I'm the minority here who absolutely loved our Havana Cabana on Mardi Gras. Our sailing was over capacity at spring break and I loved the fact that we always had the Havana deck area as an option for a quiet spot with no kids. I'm not a pool/hot tub person so I don't care about the smaller pool/no hot tub (in fact I prefer it as it kept the Havana area deck so calm and quiet). Yes, the pool is smaller but when people did use it, they pretty much had it to themselves (I never saw more than 1 family at a time using it and that was rare). The loungers were never more than 50% full. Although there is a walkway in front of your cabana balcony, we only saw someone walk by it once or twice the entire cruise. Yes, all of the Havana Cabanas had the swing chair (loved it for relaxing and reading). We had 3 family members in the Havana Cabana and 2 in an interior across the hall, and had more than enough space on our balcony area (and the area in front of it which also has lounge chairs) for all of us to hang out. Over Christmas, I would definitely pay $1,200 for Havana Cabana.

Thank you for the good and bad news. We are on the Spirit out of Seattle in a few months (Panama Canal itenerary) and I'm dreading the Seattle port experience. I think we will arrive later in the day to hopefully avoid the crowd/chaos (it's the one port we can drive to). I agree that it is a good idea to check your account frequently (on all of the ships). We were on the Dream recently and were charged nearly $100 at Bonsai Sushi (and we never went there). Initially guest services kind of gave us a hard time asking if we could have bought drinks/food anywhere near the restaurant (kept questioning us if it could possibly be our charges and we weren't remembering). Finally, I asked what time the charges were made - the representative looked it up and realized it had only happened 20 minutes prior. Then as we were standing there, more charges appeared. She then contacted Bonsai Sushi and asked them to figure out what was going on. I've never eaten there, but apparently people can write their folio number on a slip of paper and that is the account that gets charged? That is how they explained it anyway. It took about 45 minutes but the charges did get removed.

Something to consider, we have done the Hawaii itenerary twice on Carnival and found that it wasn't the typical younger, fun, loud Carnival crowd. In my opinion the passengers were older and were there for the destination, not just a fun cruise. So I thought it was a bit different than a typical Carnival cruise anyway. We were also on Spirit and really liked it - yes, it's an older ship but I like the layout and it never felt crowded (which is important to me when on a cruise for that long). It has some great quiet interior spaces to relax or read if you have bad weather and don't want to be out on deck.

I totally understand what you are saying and agree each situation is different. It's just 2 of us, we travel a lot, and when our vacation is over, I just want to head home. I prefer to take my chances on an earlier flight home knowing I might have to change our flight last minute (in 27 cruises we haven't had to yet ... knock on wood...) but I'm always prepared for that. We only fly into a port on the day of the cruise when I can get an early direct flight. Otherwise we go the day before. The thought of missing our flight home doesn't stress me near as much as possibly missing the ship. 🙂 Back when we traveled with more family members we were a lot more cautious, but with just the 2 of us we can be flexible and deal with the unexpected easier. Since we are on the west coast and the Long Beach port has multiple airport options, I'm pretty laid-back with those travel plans. Flying form Florida all the way across the country is a different story.

Thank you for posting - we are on Panorama 7/1 and did not receive the email (but that is not uncommon). I have an great flight out LGB at 10 am (and have easily made that flight in the past) but with this announcement I am going to change it to a later time. ☹️

Thank you! I will check that out. The only thing that really bothered me from the reviews is the plumbing issues - quite a few people mentioned toilets not flushing and things like that. I'm pretty easy going, and almost any day on a ship is better than a day at work, but plumbing issues do stress me out.

Thank you - the reviews I've read so far have not been especially positive (making me nervous for our cruise the beginning of August). Looking forward to your review!