Carnival Panorama Jan 21, 2023 post trip review.

[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. 

[nwcruiselover]

Thank you for taking the time to do this review.  I was on the Panorama B2B for the 1/7 and 1/14 cruises, and my experience was very similar to yours.  I too did the Rhythms of the Night excursion in Puerto Vallarta and was very impressed with it.  It was kind of pricey at $159.99 but worth every penny of it.

[mcgore83]

Great review!  Thank you for sharing!

[cruisingguy007]

Forgot to add, before anyone asks, no covid from any in our party once we got home. I keep seeing these doom/gloom posts warning about covid but we didn't get it on this cruise or the two previous cruises from last year. Wash your hands frequently and use common sense.  

[cruisingguy007]

48 minutes ago, nwcruiselover said:

Thank you for taking the time to do this review.  I was on the Panorama B2B for the 1/7 and 1/14 cruises, and my experience was very similar to yours.  I too did the Rhythms of the Night excursion in Puerto Vallarta and was very impressed with it.  It was kind of pricey at $159.99 but worth every penny of it.

 

I agree, it was over 1K for me since we had a larger party and I tried to get a price match (to $111) for the regular show that day but it got denied, it would have helped but I'm glad we did it since the older kids are old enough to appreciate it and will probably remember it forever and we had some new cruisers who were elated with it overall. It was worth the money in the end though stung the wallet a bit. 😃 

[kona_wahine]

Thanks for the review. We will be on Feb 18. Looking forward to the trip. Got a SUPER deal, didn’t plan on a cruise, couldn’t pass it up. Have an excursion in Cabo as we’ve never been but just going to enjoy the ship in Maz and PV. 

[nwcruiselover]

1 hour ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

I agree, it was over 1K for me since we had a larger party and I tried to get a price match (to $111) for the regular show that day but it got denied, it would have helped but I'm glad we did it since the older kids are old enough to appreciate it and will probably remember it forever and we had some new cruisers who were elated with it overall. It was worth the money in the end though stung the wallet a bit. 😃 

I tried to price match to $111 also but they said EVERYTHING had to be exactly the same, and the $111 price was for a later show so they didn’t match because of the time being different.

[cruisingguy007]

9 minutes ago, nwcruiselover said:

I tried to price match to $111 also but they said EVERYTHING had to be exactly the same, and the $111 price was for a later show so they didn’t match because of the time being different.

 

Yup, same response I got. They said since it was an exclusive ship excursion and the departure times and arrival back to ship times were different it was a no-go. 

[mkkao924]

I am wondering what cabin number you had initially? We will soon be on her in family harbor suite, and hopefully the issue will be resolved by then.

[cruisingguy007]

Random photos.

[cruisingguy007]

Read some more of the comments and it seems like Carnival needs to do a reunion sweetheart cruise for those who met onboard! Who knew there were so many?! 😆

 

https://www.tiktok.com/@darylanndenner/video/7194245188297018667?_r=1&_t=8ZY3xprLDIM

Edited February 3, 2023 by cruisingguy007

[cruisingguy007]

1 hour ago, mkkao924 said:

I am wondering what cabin number you had initially? We will soon be on her in family harbor suite, and hopefully the issue will be resolved by then.

 

2416 I believe, aka poo cabin. 😝 😁

[LaRue1975]

Thank you for the great review! We have been on the Vista, Panorama and Radiance since our return to cruising last April. Panorama was the best by a country mile, can’t wait to sail her again in December for our first NYE cruise. Hubby will turn 70 on NYE and four couples will be joining us, we’re all in Havana cabanas and balconies. Most will be first time cruisers and I booked the tailgate party cooking class for the group which should be fun. Everyone is getting the Cheers package, we can’t afford not too! 
 

In October we found the Pig & Anchor bar the best and my daughter and SIL spent just about every night in there. It was the happening spot on our cruise, the bar staff was fabulous and the drinks were tasty and STRONG. I did my research on the elevators so tried to explain to my family that we needed to push the floor number five times for our party but they wouldn’t listen to me. They even had a crew member stationed next to elevators when we boarded and I asked her to confirm we needed to push the floor number for every person getting on, she said no, just push the button, grrrr…. By the third day everyone seemed to figure it out, I guess they got tired of the doors opening to already packed elevators, lol! 
 

It was our 9 year old grandson’s first cruise, he had the time of his life and is now completely hooked. Camp Ocean was amazing, they do such a good job and the tears started when I picked him up the last night. He cried again at breakfast, walking off the ship and half way home in the car and is constantly asking when are going to take him on another cruise. Thanks for sharing your positive experience with the Family Harbor area. I have been getting free balcony offers so think I will book a cabin there when he is with us. 
 

Rhythm Of The Nights gets excellent reviews but you really brought it to life in your review, I am definitely going to recommend it to our NYE group. It will be prime whale season then so we might get the bonus show too, I hope so! Thanks again, I am now even more excited for the Big 70 cruise! 
 

 

[cacruisin]

Thank you for the review.  We go on the Panaroma next month and look forward to a great cruise like you had!

[cruisingguy007]

23 minutes ago, LaRue1975 said:

Thank you for the great review! We have been on the Vista, Panorama and Radiance since our return to cruising last April. Panorama was the best by a country mile, can’t wait to sail her again in December for our first NYE cruise. Hubby will turn 70 on NYE and four couples will be joining us, we’re all in Havana cabanas and balconies. Most will be first time cruisers and I booked the tailgate party cooking class for the group which should be fun. Everyone is getting the Cheers package, we can’t afford not too! 
 

In October we found the Pig & Anchor bar the best and my daughter and SIL spent just about every night in there. It was the happening spot on our cruise, the bar staff was fabulous and the drinks were tasty and STRONG. I did my research on the elevators so tried to explain to my family that we needed to push the floor number five times for our party but they wouldn’t listen to me. They even had a crew member stationed next to elevators when we boarded and I asked her to confirm we needed to push the floor number for every person getting on, she said no, just push the button, grrrr…. By the third day everyone seemed to figure it out, I guess they got tired of the doors opening to already packed elevators, lol! 
 

It was our 9 year old grandson’s first cruise, he had the time of his life and is now completely hooked. Camp Ocean was amazing, they do such a good job and the tears started when I picked him up the last night. He cried again at breakfast, walking off the ship and half way home in the car and is constantly asking when are going to take him on another cruise. Thanks for sharing your positive experience with the Family Harbor area. I have been getting free balcony offers so think I will book a cabin there when he is with us. 
 

Rhythm Of The Nights gets excellent reviews but you really brought it to life in your review, I am definitely going to recommend it to our NYE group. It will be prime whale season then so we might get the bonus show too, I hope so! Thanks again, I am now even more excited for the Big 70 cruise! 
 

 

 

Wow! Sounds like it will be great! A NYE cruise is high on the list for the Mrs. and I and we want to do one badly but missing Christmas with the extended fam would be tough. We actually missed our first one this year do to covid (dressed up as Santa for a school event and got a surprise present from someone or some family during photos) and it was tough but we are aiming to get one in, in the next few years. I'm really hoping to convince the extended fam to come along but it may be a tough sell. We are doing a Thanksgiving cruise this year though, a first for us and we are super excited about it.

 

The kids really do have a great time at the kids club and they get a real vacation too. It's nice to see them so happy and yet so sad when the magic is over. 

 

Agree with Pig and Anchor and Alchemy, those old fashion variants are great! The espressotini's over at Plaza bar are pretty solid also!  

 

Also agree with Rhythms of the Nights, especially for novice cruisers or those who have never done it on a land based Puerto/Nuevo Vallarta trip. Probably the most bang for the buck excursion as you get a sunset cruise, beach front dinner on the shore, a show and a combo nighttime starlight and lit up skyline view on the way back. Maybe even a whale bonus! It's like multiple excursions in one package.

 

Hope you have a wonderful NYE trip! It sounds fantastic!  

Edited February 3, 2023 by cruisingguy007

[tonit964]

Thank you for your great review! I’ll be on Panorama for the first time in October and I’m so excited to be sailing Carnival again, it’s been a few years.

Glad you had a great cruise!

[tonit964]

8 hours ago, LaRue1975 said:

Thank you for the great review! We have been on the Vista, Panorama and Radiance since our return to cruising last April. Panorama was the best by a country mile, can’t wait to sail her again in December for our first NYE cruise. Hubby will turn 70 on NYE and four couples will be joining us, we’re all in Havana cabanas and balconies. Most will be first time cruisers and I booked the tailgate party cooking class for the group which should be fun. Everyone is getting the Cheers package, we can’t afford not too! 
 

In October we found the Pig & Anchor bar the best and my daughter and SIL spent just about every night in there. It was the happening spot on our cruise, the bar staff was fabulous and the drinks were tasty and STRONG. I did my research on the elevators so tried to explain to my family that we needed to push the floor number five times for our party but they wouldn’t listen to me. They even had a crew member stationed next to elevators when we boarded and I asked her to confirm we needed to push the floor number for every person getting on, she said no, just push the button, grrrr…. By the third day everyone seemed to figure it out, I guess they got tired of the doors opening to already packed elevators, lol! 
 

It was our 9 year old grandson’s first cruise, he had the time of his life and is now completely hooked. Camp Ocean was amazing, they do such a good job and the tears started when I picked him up the last night. He cried again at breakfast, walking off the ship and half way home in the car and is constantly asking when are going to take him on another cruise. Thanks for sharing your positive experience with the Family Harbor area. I have been getting free balcony offers so think I will book a cabin there when he is with us. 
 

Rhythm Of The Nights gets excellent reviews but you really brought it to life in your review, I am definitely going to recommend it to our NYE group. It will be prime whale season then so we might get the bonus show too, I hope so! Thanks again, I am now even more excited for the Big 70 cruise! 
 

 

I’ve done two NYE cruises both on Carnival and they are an absolute blast. You are going to love it. They were held on “elegant “ night and had two parties, one in the atrium that was the more dressed up one and the other one up on the Lido deck that was more casual. They passed out champagne just before midnight and had music & dancing. So much fun.

In the dining room at dinner, they had the hats & noisemakers on the tables, they might do it differently now though.

 

It’s a great way to celebrate a birthday for sure.

[csm5986142]

Great review!  This is one of my favorite ships.  I totally agree with you on the food.  I'm surprised how much the food quality can differ between Carnival ships.  We were on Panorama in September and I thought the food was better than on Celebration last month (but overall no complaints). 

Even though we sailed during Hurricane Kay, it was a good experience and as soon as we got home, we booked Panorama again for July.

[Jeafl]

Great review!  Thanks for sharing!  

 

We did the Panorama twice as soon as cruising opened back up and the ship was less than half full, which was fantastic.  However, we did notice that the food options were sparse and there was definitely a shortage of crew.  It's great to see that that things are somewhat back to normal.

[slimbyspring]

15 hours ago, kona_wahine said:

Thanks for the review. We will be on Feb 18. Looking forward to the trip. Got a SUPER deal, didn’t plan on a cruise, couldn’t pass it up. Have an excursion in Cabo as we’ve never been but just going to enjoy the ship in Maz and PV. 

We are on the 2/18 cruise as well - we have never been to any of the ports!  Looking forward to it...we also got a great deal!

 

[RenoNanaOz]

11 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Wow! Sounds like it will be great! A NYE cruise is high on the list for the Mrs. and I and we want to do one badly but missing Christmas with the extended fam would be tough. We actually missed our first one this year do to covid (dressed up as Santa for a school event and got a surprise present from someone or some family during photos) and it was tough but we are aiming to get one in, in the next few years. I'm really hoping to convince the extended fam to come along but it may be a tough sell. We are doing a Thanksgiving cruise this year though, a first for us and we are super excited about it.

 

The kids really do have a great time at the kids club and they get a real vacation too. It's nice to see them so happy and yet so sad when the magic is over. 

 

Agree with Pig and Anchor and Alchemy, those old fashion variants are great! The espressotini's over at Plaza bar are pretty solid also!  

 

Also agree with Rhythms of the Nights, especially for novice cruisers or those who have never done it on a land based Puerto/Nuevo Vallarta trip. Probably the most bang for the buck excursion as you get a sunset cruise, beach front dinner on the shore, a show and a combo nighttime starlight and lit up skyline view on the way back. Maybe even a whale bonus! It's like multiple excursions in one package.

 

Hope you have a wonderful NYE trip! It sounds fantastic!  

We are on Panorama in May and were looking at Rhythm of the Night. We have done the daytime excursion there twice and loved it. I have read of some having issues with bugs at the nightime excursion. Did you have any problem?

Edited February 3, 2023 by RenoNanaOz

[allinwonderland]

I wonder if I ever said hi to you and didn't know it was you? LOL. Also spent a lot of time in Alchemy and Plaza. Thanks for inadvertently reminding me to go post all the notes and photos I took of this trip.

[nwcruiselover]

21 minutes ago, RenoNanaOz said:

We are on Panorama in May and were looking at Rhythm of the Night. We have done the daytime excursion there twice and loved it. I have read of some having issues with bugs at the nightime excursion. Did you have any problem?

I had no problems with bugs in January, but I did buy bug spray onboard the ship and had it with me.  I read that there is more likely to be a problem if it has recently rained and the area is wet.  It’s a wonderful excursion and well worth the price.

[RenoNanaOz]

Just now, nwcruiselover said:

I had no problems with bugs in January, but I did buy bug spray onboard the ship and had it with me.  I read that there is more likely to be a problem if it has recently rained and the area is wet.  It’s a wonderful excursion and well worth the price.

Thank You! We are definitley going to try it. (will bring some bug spray too 😉 )

[cacruisin]

I read everything I can on the Panorama but I feel like no one ever references the night club lol….if you checked it out on your cruise any feedback? Any other fun activities to not be missed? TIA