Dec 21 to 28 2019 panorama review

[annviv]

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.

[Oceansaway17]

Hey NEVADA JEN:

your post 16 is of special meaning to me as I will have that exact room in October.

Never had an aft room and when I saw your post, I checked my reservation and dang it was the same room.

 

I did the Carnival Vista and had a quiet SPA room.  So we shall see.

 

I think in time all the issues will be resolved since ship is still new.  I will continue to read more of your posts.  

 

meanwhile before I get to My cruise in October, I only have 5 others to take earlier in the year.

Love to cruise and hoping to not gain much weight on the others so I can enjoy Guy's burgers on this ship

[Amadawn1]

Jen, thanks so much for your wonderful review and great sense of humor!  I don't know if you've ever sailed out of Galveston, but we just sailed on the Carnival Vista a few weeks ago and it was a blast.  Big ship, but we always seemed to find the same bunch of people. Great conversations, and hugs goodbye on the last evening of the cruise. We had a Havana Cabana.  The Havana area was great, but I would definitely go Havana balcony instead of cabana next time (finances permitting). You can smoke in the casino before the ship leaves Galveston, just no smoking in the outdoor smoking areas due to fueling. Same deal when you get back to Galveston on debarkation morning.  Also, on the Vista there were actually two specialty coffee bars.  Most people did not know this.  The main one was the "Shake Spot".  But about 30 feet away, right near the entrance to the Havana cabins was the Plaza bar.  No line at all.  The gal there was so very nice, and made great cappuccinos for us each morning.  Thanks so much again for the great review!  Happy cruising!

[heckledtrio]

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! 😉 

[annviv]

7 minutes ago, heckledtrio said:

 

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! 😉 

 

[annviv]

Head spinning, yes...but it makes sense. Thank you so much!!

[heckledtrio]

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. 

Edited January 3, 2020 by heckledtrio

[Nevada Jen]

Lol. I knew I had the debark times wrong. I think it was actually related to me waiting to change my clock. Someone asked what time we had to be back on board in PV. I think we have established that you can’t trust me on time or directions but I think it was 730. To the poster who has my cabin in an upcoming sailing, I left old fashioned plastic straws in the desk drawer. There are enough to last a year. You’re welcome!  And I hope you have the same cabin steward. He was genuinely nice and like a magic elf cleaning our cabin. I think his name was Komang. And yes, all the time changes are confusing. When you put your phone in airplane mode when you get on the ship make sure you change the time to set manually and then listen to Emma. All I remember was we were worried our 930 excursion meeting in mazatlan was going to be hard to make because it might actually be 830 ship time but then we moved the clock back an hour and it was fine. 

[LaRue1975]

Thank you so much for the marvelous review, I thoroughly enjoyed it!  The hubby and I are returning to cruising after a 12 year time out, we are taking our daughter and family on the Vista Easter Week this year and I have booked the Panorama for our 45th anniversary in April 2021. 
 

I booked a Havana Vista balcony on the 6th deck for our anniversary cruise and I feel certain we will love the whole Havana Experience, definitely getting the drink package! I chose the 6th deck because those balconies appear to be the most spacious and I like the way the cabin is configured, it looks bigger but I could be wrong on that. I know people above and below will be able to see onto our balcony but I am not bothered by tha. Our last two cruises were in Vista suites on the Miracle and Legend, same thing but totally worth the views and huge balcony. I would appreciate any advice on my cabin choice, thank you!

Boy, you did pick a cold week, SoCal has not seen this much snow in a very long time. Reading your review has me so excited for my upcoming cruises, thanks again for taking the time and effort to share your thoughts. I didn’t miss the photos at all, they are a dime a dozen with a quick google search. Your words painted a much better picture in my mind! 😊

 

 

 

[dallasdan]

Jen, thank you for the review.  We are on the April 25th sailing with 10 of us coming from Texas.  We will try and hold down the load conversations, lol...Before I quit drinking carbonated beverages, I would have been out of mind with trying to drink Diet Pepsi, so I understand your issues.  

[Nevada Jen]

LaRue. I think you will love that cabin!  Before I sailed I thought those 6th floor balconies would be too loud because of the Havana area but not I think it will be just fine. The Havana bar is inside solid doors. The doors spin maddeningly slow by the way. There is a backside of the bar for Havana pool guests but it’s not a hoppin place. It looked like the rooms or balconies were bigger on 6 from the shape of the ship but even if they are not, it’s plenty big. Plus less soot!  

[chefchick]

On 1/2/2020 at 2:57 PM, Nevada Jen said:

 That is a tough call.  The Havana bar part of deck 5 where the interiors are is actually really quiet.  There are just little sitting areas there in kind of sectioned off alcoves.  The band is in that middle section of the bar and faces the back of the ship (away from your room).  Those might be better spots than deck 7.  Or you could get a loud family who plays board games against your wall in the little sitting area all night long.  

 The noise on deck 7 is the housekeeping crew for at least the half the floor getting all their cleaning carts and stuff out pretty constantly in the hallways along those balconies. And talking while doing it. From my room it was a bit of banging things against the hallway walls which were as far as possible from my bed.  From the cruise deck plan site your entire back wall is against that area and I think your side wall may be also (remember I said I thought the cruise deck plan is not entirely accurate for that room?).  Here is the thing, I heard the hallway noise through my room door but I did not hear room to room noise.  Maybe someone who had the rooms on either side of me will chime in with whether they could hear me coughing all night.  So it is very possible you would not be bothered by the crew area noise. The areas against your back wall could very well be shelves for linens. The area they enter and exit and did set up in the halls was in front of my room, not yours.  The more I think about it, I think you chose right.  There is a chance this turns out really good for you noisewise.

Thank you for such a detailed answer.  I guess I’ll roll the dice one more time 😎

[FLAlaska]

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!

[heckledtrio]

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

[ricew001]

great review. I just wanted to chime in about the piano bar - on 4 of our 5 Carnival cruises we have had an absolute blast in the Piano Bar and consider it our favorite hangout. On the Valor I also found karaoke weird becuase it was in this huge lounge.

 

 

[Happy0810]

On ‎1‎/‎2‎/‎2020 at 4:08 PM, Nevada Jen said:

  

I know people have a ton of little questions about Panorama, so I hope this has been helpful even without photos to make it more exciting.  Feel free to ask any questions you might have and I am happy to try to answer.  Thanks for reading.

 

Thanks for taking the time to give your detailed honest thoughts on your cruise.  To be honest, when I first started reading and saw there would be no pictures, I figured I would exit the review pretty quickly.  To my surprise, I stayed until the very end.  Your sense of humor showed through, and I really enjoyed reading along.  I didn't miss there not being any pictures...well except for the two sideways pictures.

[LaRue1975]

On 1/3/2020 at 1:16 PM, Nevada Jen said:

LaRue. I think you will love that cabin!  Before I sailed I thought those 6th floor balconies would be too loud because of the Havana area but not I think it will be just fine. The Havana bar is inside solid doors. The doors spin maddeningly slow by the way. There is a backside of the bar for Havana pool guests but it’s not a hoppin place. It looked like the rooms or balconies were bigger on 6 from the shape of the ship but even if they are not, it’s plenty big. Plus less soot!  

Thanks Jen! Your review inspired to me to make a big change for our anniversary cruise that I think will work out much better for us. I was excited to try the new Panorama, especially the one hour drive to the port as opposed to flying halfway or all the way across the country.
 

I am even more determined to enjoy the Havana experience, after reading your review I became concerned it would not be warm enough to get the full benefits in April. I have done the Mexican Riviera twice 20 or so years ago and the ride back from Cabo was rough, cold and windy. They used to do the two sea days going South to PV,  then sailing North to Mazatlan and Cabo before booking it back to Long Beach in one day. I checked with a friend that sailed the Splendor last June with the current route and it was too windy and cool to enjoy the slides and pools both sea days going North. I am not sure why they changed it, we both agreed the old route was better. 
 

I was able to grab the exact same Havana Vista balcony on the Vista out of Galveston for only a few dollars more than I was paying for the Panorama. It will be the same ship we are sailing this April with the family but a different experience with the Havana cabin. Different ports too, including Mahogany Bay which we have never been to and Belize which we have only visited once. I am super excited and so glad I made the switch while my cabin choice was still available. We were not at all excited about the Mexican ports, probably would have walked around Cabo for awhile but that’s it. 

I am sure we sail the Panorama eventually, it is definitely on the list. The hubby and I are freshly retired and hopefully will get a chance to snag a great last minute rate once the excitement of a new ship out here wears off. Thank you again so much for the great review, funny that it inspired me to cancel my Panorama Cruise but also made me excited to sail her in the future. Love your sense of humor, maybe you will find it funny too! 😜

 

Oh, and you just missed the great SoCal winter weather. We returned home today after a week on the beach, it was spectacular, come back and visit soon! 

[Nevada Jen]

Too funny LaRue. I finally would have changed ships when they announced the no coke rule if I could have. I too was not excited about the Mexican Riviera. I ended up loving it because of great excursions. Who decided we wouldn’t notice it was Mexico if they put the word “Riviera” after it? And I was very displeased that the captain booked it out of PV to the cold so fast. 
 

I had heard the piano bars were great fun and out of 3 cruises they have been uncomfortably lame for me. It could be a timing thing I guess. I really do think others will love the Panorama. It just didn’t work for me. I might be biased by the never ending cough that lasted 14 days and kind of stole my joy on sea days!  My next cruise has to be on another line with limited sea days so I can figure out if it is an air purifying thing on Carnival. 
 

You all are too kind to say I am humorous. Trust me when I say, no one finds humor in my opinions in my day to day life!

[FLAlaska]

9 hours ago, heckledtrio said:

 

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

Thank you! I wont be there until August and will see how this changes after Daylight Savings time 

[snoboarder]

I’m not sure how many years I’ve been a member of these boards, but it’s a lot. Longtime lurker, first time writer. I just wanted to say thank you for such a great review. I actually lol a couple of times. Seriously, I didn’t want the book to end. Thank you for the time you put into this amazing review from the honesty to the humor. One of the best I’ve ever read. Happy cruising. 

[cmich068]

10 hours ago, heckledtrio said:

 

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

 

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. 

Edited January 7, 2020 by cmich068

[cathyz]

1 hour 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. 

I've been on this itinerary several times (home port), and the time change has varied depending on the ship, it's totally up to the captain.

[heckledtrio]

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...