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Saint Greg's Panorama - LIVE - October 23-30 2021

Saint Greg

By Saint Greg,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Saint Greg "Live from...." Rare

Saint Greg

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This is going to be I think my 15th cruise. This will be my first October Halloween themed one. The CD is Lee Mason. I had him as a fill in on Breeze in 2018. I think he's one of the best. This will be my second Mexican Riviera cruise on Panorama. This is the ship I was on when Covid-19 started to hit Carnival and we were held over in Long Beach for an extra day. If you missed that you can read about it on Panorama: Coronavirus Day . I already have a ton of Panorama coverage. I did a full pictorial tour by deck during the shutdown. You can look at those and all of my blogs from the last cruise at Carnival Panorama. I hit some adversity in the past week but I think I have it all squared away where it won't affect my cruise. Some other CCers like @Jamman54 will be on board so it should be fun.

 

 

 

 

 

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Saint Greg "Live from...." Rare

Saint Greg

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Here are my prior trip threads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://saintgregtravel.com/breezy-like-sunday-morning/

 

 

https://saintgregtravel.com/seven-days-of-freedom/

 

 

https://saintgregtravel.com/i-will-triumph/

 

 

https://saintgregtravel.com/leaving-the-elation/

 

 

https://saintgregtravel.com/r1-my-intro-to-cruising/

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Saint Greg "Live from...." Rare

Saint Greg

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Booking

I had a FCC (Future Cruise Credit) from Carnival that had $600 OBC (On Board Credit) attached to it. I believe the booking had to be made by the end of September for a cruise by the end of next year. Otherwise the FCC would still be good but I would lose the OBC.

 

I already had two cruises booked for next year. The only spot I knew I could add a cruise was in August. The cruises I was looking at were Mardi Gras or Horizon. The Horizon Aruba is the one I but the price was higher than I wanted to pay. As far as Mardi Gras goes, I didn’t know if I would want to do that ship again so close to my Celebration cruise.

 

I saw Carnival had some low fares for the fall and winter. Football season is tricky for me. I have two weeks in October I can work with. One is a bye week and the other is an away game on Monday Night Football which I know will be on the TVs on the ship.

 

The ships with good prices those weeks were Breeze with a 5-day starting at $300 or Panorama with a 7-day starting at $400.

 

I really didn’t want to go down to a 5-day. I looked into adding a 4-day on it but the price of the 4-day was so high it took away all of the savings. I also thought about my $600 OBC. I was also going to have a couple hundred overage on my FCC that would be converted to OBC plus my shareholder OBC and OBC from my travel agent. I’m going to have to spend around $1,000 OBC and I’ll have a much better chance of doing that on a 7-day Panorama than I would on a 5-day Breeze.

 

I went ahead and locked in the Panorama. The good room rate was only on an interior upper/lower guarantee. I have always wanted to try one of those rooms. This will be a good opportunity. If they had these solo deals more often, I would probably book one of those rooms. As it is it's usually only a $50-100 upgrade to get a king size bed on the lido deck so I never book the upper/lower rooms.

Two weeks out I got my room assignment. I booked the upper/lower guarantee so I was expecting to be in a closet on deck 1. I got a regular interior like I normally book with the king bed up on deck 7. It's right by the secret deck which is nice. It'll be very easy for me to step out and catch the sunrise/set. It's actually just about five steps from the 4J room I booked on Vista in December.

 

Flight

Do to my inability to fly out early the day before the cruise, my options were to get into LAX around midnight or take the first flight out on Saturday. I always said I would never fly in the day of a cruise. I'm making an exception this time. I booked a Spirit flight that leaves at 6am and gets in at 7:30. A month after I booked the flight, they changed the departure time to 7:45 and the arrival time to 9am. I looked at my other flight options and found the best I could find would get me in about 30 minutes earlier on a different airline. I decided to stick with my existing flight.

 

Since I am flying Spirit I was able to get the cheap seat upgrades I like. Exit row aisle seats both ways with additional leg room. In the past these seat upgrades have cost me $20-30 per leg. This time I'm paying about $46 per leg. But the flight itself was extremely cheap. The breakdown is $82 for the flight, $66 for a checked bag, $92 for seat upgrades and $31 for taxes. The grand total is $272 for the round trip ticket. Maybe I could get that price on another airline, but not with the seat I got and the checked bags.

 

Onboard Credit

 

As I mentioned earlier I used a FCC with $600 OBC from a previously canceled cruise to book this one. That FCC was worth more than I paid for this cruise so the overage gave me another $200 or so OBC. Then I added on $100 OBC for owning at least 100 shares of Carnival stock. I will get a little OBC from my travel agent as well bringing me up around $1000 OBC. I will use that to pay for my Cheers drink package, internet, automatic gratuities. That should leave me with about $350 to spend on specialty dining and excursions.

 

Specialty Dining

 

I have not booked any specialty dining yet but with my onboard credit I will definitely be spending at least one night in the Steakhouse and JiJi's. I may even try the Seafood Shack for lunch one day since I have never eaten there.

Excursions

 

Due to the amount of onboard credit I have on my account, any excursions I book will be booked on the ship. My hope is at a minimum to book Rhythm of the Night in Puerta Vallarta once on the ship. I was a little concerned about it because it hadn't been listed as available for purchase online. Finally one week before the cruise it popped up. As long as it doesn't sell out between now and the time I board the ship, that will be the first thing I do once onboard. I heard nothing but good things about that excursion prior to my last Panorama cruise and I have heard nothing but good things about it since my last Panorama cruise.

 

Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan are still up in the air. I did Whale Watching last time in Cabo. I said next time I would like to be in one of the smaller boats that gets closer to the whales. I don't believe we are in whale season now so that is out. I may look into one of the smaller boats that gets closer to the Arch. Last time I went to the top of El Faro in Mazatlan. I also took a little private tour with a cab driver that included a tour of the Cathedral, a drive down the melancon, and watching the cliff divers. I would be interested in touring the Pacifico brewery if they have that. I heard it used to be a great tour. Then they got rid of it. Now it's a little sketchy as to whether or not you can do it but they say it's not as good as it used to be.

 

Covid-19 Testing

After my incident CVS last time, I will no longer put my ability cruise in the hands of CVS. Walgreens won't allow you to book until two days out which is scary. I ordered the home tests from Optum that are approved by Carnival. I waited until early October to order received the tests two days later. I got a 3-pack for $100. The tests expire in late December. They will cover this cruise, my December Vista cruise and I'll have one spare in case something goes awry with one of the other two tests. I had booked a standard PCR test a Walmart who got me results in 2 days last time, I'm going to keep that appointment just as a back-up. Then my absolute last resort will be airport testing. I can get a rapid antigen test at both airports for $80.

 

 

 

 

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Saint Greg "Live from...." Rare

Saint Greg

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I got a new phone. For my three Mexico trips and my Mardi Gras cruise I was using an iPhone 11 Pro Max. 
 

I have the next up deal where I can trade my phone in each year and upgrade without paying off my phone. I used to do that in April but with the pandemic I pushed it to June last year. 

Now it’s 15 months instead of 12 so it worked out where I was eligible right when the iPhone 13’s came out. 
 

If you read my horror story about them trying to charge me for the full price of the phone when they claimed they didn’t receive my trade-in by mail last time, you know I said I’d never do it by mail again. Well…I had to do it by mail again for the 13. Good news is it went smooth this time. I got an email confirming they received my old phone and all is well.

 

This one better have a better camera. The lenses are twice as big as they were on my 11.

 

Immediately I notice the auto zoom button used to be 2x and on this one it’s 3x.

 

 

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Saint Greg "Live from...." Rare

Saint Greg

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A week ago I had my regular semi-annual dental visit. My toof cleaning girl said this crown I have in the front of my mouth was moving. They took an X-Ray and found a fracture at the root. They tell me I either need to get a bridge or an implant. Between now and then it’s at risk of getting infected. I decided to not deal with it right now. Just put it off until at least after the cruise and hopefully after the holidays. 
 

After a couple days I realized something must’ve shifted during that toof cleaning and my mouth just isn’t closing normal. I’m essentially holding my teeth apart all day which is killing my jaw. Then I thought, what if this thing breaks off in the middle of the ocean? 

 

So the other day I went to the oral surgeon for a consultation. After that I decided I needed to get this taken care of before the cruise If possible. There’s a 3-4 month healing period before they can put the permanent crown on so my dentist is going to make me something temporary. The oral surgeon has an opening on Friday but my dentist is going on vacation. I had to go in a 7am Thursday for impressions and I should be able to pick up my temporary on Monday. Over the weekend…well I guess it’s a good thing masks are in style.

 

I had the option of being put to sleep…which I’ve never done before…or getting a local. I wanted to do local. They did warn me it may not be totally painless that way. But the other way you have to get a ride and have someone wait the whole time and take you home. I’d just rather drive in, drive out, and go back to work. I was awake for the extraction of all four wisdom teeth can it really be worse than that?

 

 

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I think we’re caught up. I had surgery this morning. I was awake for it. Other than the needles I didn’t feel anything. Towards the end it started to get a little sore so they gave me a couple more shots and I was fine. 
 

I went to work. Then at lunch I picked up my prescriptions. I got some antibiotics, ibuprofen, loratab which I will try not to use, and a mouth rinse. 
 

I picked up a Wendy’s frosty for lunch. I’m supposed to eat soft foods for a couple days. So it’s going to be a weekend on the couch watching football eating snack packs. Someone…probably a mother….is going to mention chicken broth…forget it. It ain’t happening. 


 

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Saint Greg

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I go into the dentist for my impressions yesterday. I’m thinking 7am…they’re doing something special slipping me in before the other customers. I walk in and it’s fairly dark and quite in there. The impression girl comes out and gets me.

 

As we’re walking back I’m like “that’s the impression that I get da da da da da…da da da da…da da da da da…da da da da da”

 

The next thing I know we’re in the midst of dental work. My toof cleaning lady is cleaning teef. My dentist is talking to someone. I’m like what time do they open here? It can’t be 7. It’s 7 and all of this is all already in progress.

Apparently a lot of people are getting their dental work done early in the morning. 

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When I went to pick up my prescriptions..I'm not talking too good. So I just wanted to hand them my ID and credit card. It's the same walmart pharmacy drive thru where I took the Covid test before Mardi Gras. I get up there and it's a different person than the one who took my prescription 30mins earlier. I'm holding out my cards. He says over the speaker "What's your name?" I tell him. He says "what's your birthdate?" I tell him. He says "I still can't hear you." I'm sitting here holding up my ID which has all of the information he wants on it but he insists on getting it verbally. With as much force as I can muster I say "I just had oral surgery take my ID." He says "Oh yes ID will work." He knew I was ticked. I threw it in the tray.

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canes20

canes20

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46 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

Excursions

Due to the amount of onboard credit I have on my account, any excursions I book will be booked on the ship. My hope is at a minimum to book Rhythm of the Night in Puerta Vallarta once on the ship. I was a little concerned about it because it hadn't been listed as available for purchase online. Finally one week before the cruise it popped up. As long as it doesn't sell out between now and the time I board the ship, that will be the first thing I do once onboard. I heard nothing but good things about that excursion prior to my last Panorama cruise and I have heard nothing but good things about it since my last Panorama cruise.

 

You should be able to book that excursion with your OBC sitting in the port on the HUB before actually boarding. Might get a jump on some that are standing in line. We are going on Elation in Jan 2022 so if you try and it works let us know.

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JandPB

JandPB

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3 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

My home covid tests. I think I’m planning on doing one Thursday evening. In that free time between work and my Thursday night football get together.

DC2D2902-310D-4A11-A5EF-84AE36620057.jpeg

We did these this morning and it was easy. Ready to sail Sunday. I'll be reading from the Glory. 

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Hogladyrider

Hogladyrider

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@Saint Greg.....all signed up and ready to follow along as well.

 

I am NOT a fan of the dentist and your ordeal does NOT sound like it was any fun at all.  However, it certainly sounds like you made the best decision to have the surgery BEFORE the cruise rather than risk an infection or something worse while on the ship.

 

Please take the weekend to kick back and relax and hope your body or should I say mouth start to heal.

 

On another note, is it just me, or does anyone else think that COVID is beginning to creep into every single crack in our lives.....now the drug companies selling testing kits are profiting at $100 yikes.....and all the hoops you are having to jump thru to get on a ship that you have paid for.......I'm ready for the GOOD OL DAYS to return to our country.......yes I know that ain't happening anytime soon, but a gal can dream can't she.

 

Lastly glad to read you will be sailing with Jamman and Patti....lovely couple!

Susan

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