Mitsugirly's PANORAMA detailed review and pictorial

[mitsugirly]

Back to the room and we decided to challenge each other to some Uno. I won, I won, and won again. We probably played 20 rounds and poor Karl did not win one time. Of course he said "Well I'll challenge you to another game of chess then!" LOL

 

 

The kids decided to nap and we watched some tv for awhile and it was time to head to the comedy show. Tonight we would be seeing Comedian Spencer. He was funny and we enjoyed the show. 

 

Then it was back to the room to dress up and head to dinner. We had decided on the MDR tonight. We have learned to check in early so that we have time to get ready. 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight they seated us in the back of the dining room and the service was EXCELLENT!! They were fast and attentive. We spoke to Carlos, which was the lead server. He told us about his job and how much he loved it. He said it usually takes around 18 months of being a server before you become a lead like him. He said a lot of people refuse the position but he absolutely loved it. We told him what a good job him and his team were doing tonight. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we were off to see a show: Celestial Strings. Man those people could play! I thought the show was good. However, there were a lot of people leaving during the show in our area. 🤷‍♀️

 

 

 

After that, I'm looking at my Carnival app and GUESS WHAT!!! TONIGHT WAS THE WHITE HOT PARTY!! We didn't miss it after all. Woo Hoo! We were so excited. 

 

They were having it in the atrium and off we went. 

 

Dion was doing his thing and dancing on the bar below...as always, getting carried away. He really can sing good though. He gets the crowd going. However, he does the same routine at every show...he'll be singing and the music stops and he keeps going and it escalates and then he stops like "oh, sorry about that I got carried away" while looking at the DJ. Same thing every time. While it's funny and entertaining at first, after awhile, it kinda got old (at least IMO).

 

He really got the crowd going and this lady was really into the song and he noticed.  

 

 

He definitely has a lot of energy!

 

 

Crowd participation at its finest...on all levels. We had such a good time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The party went on until 11:30pm and then back to the room and off to bed we went...me, hoping for no pillows to the face tonight. 

 

[fethiyeden]

Hope your knee is not too painful.

I always put butter on the outside of my bread when making a toastie. It’s too dry otherwise.

Loving the review as always.

[mlshum]

4 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I lightly spread mayonnaise on my cheese sandwich then grill it. Yum!!

My mom does this!  I put the butter on the bread myself.  Gotta have one or the other, though!

[broberts]

21 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

After returning to the ship, we (and by we I mean mostly Karl) was hungry of course. So we headed upstairs to see what they had to offer. Our timing was off, of course, and the buffet was closed. We just decided to get in line for the deli. I decided on a grilled cheese and a hot dog and I won't admit to having any of the fries you see in the picture...just saying. Now I have to ask you all...when you make grilled cheese, do you put butter on the outside of the bread when you cook it? I always have and that's how my parents did it. Only on the cruise ship will I experience that they do not put butter on the outside. Is it just me?

 

 

 

 

 

That's a toasted cheese sandwich. Definitely NOT a grilled cheese! 🤮

[mitsugirly]

8 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I lightly spread mayonnaise on my cheese sandwich then grill it. Yum!!

 

 

I love mayonnaise however I'm not sure how I feel about it on a grilled cheese. 😶

 

 

4 hours ago, fethiyeden said:

Hope your knee is not too painful.

I always put butter on the outside of my bread when making a toastie. It’s too dry otherwise.

Loving the review as always.

 

Same and yes too dry (and this sandwich was just that).

 

And thanks!

 

4 hours ago, mlshum said:

My mom does this!  I put the butter on the bread myself.  Gotta have one or the other, though!

 

YES!

 

57 minutes ago, broberts said:

 

That's a toasted cheese sandwich. Definitely NOT a grilled cheese! 🤮

 

HAHA...YEP!

[ninjacat123]

A couple reasons mayo works for grilled cheese:

already spreadable 

adds a nice tang that pairs well with cheese

mayo is made of eggs and oil and has a higher smoke point which allows the cheese to melt thoroughly 

I think the French do it this way

😁

[xkritter]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

A couple reasons mayo works for grilled cheese:

already spreadable 

adds a nice tang that pairs well with cheese

mayo is made of eggs and oil and has a higher smoke point which allows the cheese to melt thoroughly 

I think the French do it this way

😁

Agreed...it grills really nice with the mayo vs butter.

[luvcruzing]

I also spread mayo on the outside of my grilled cheese sandwich. Try it, you’ll like it.  😀

[Daruma]

I spread mayo on the outside of my steaks, helps "glue" the various spices on.  

[mitsugirly]

Well now I'm going to have to try it with mayo. 😄 

[mitsugirly]

APRIL 6: Saturday and yet another sea day

 

 

 

Now even though it was a sea day, we had to be up at a certain time, so I had set my alarm to get up by 7:30am. Any other day I'm up at 6-7am but not today. I slept all the way until the alarm went off. So unlike me.

 

So why did I need to be up at a certain time? Because we were headed to Thing 1 & Thing 2's Birthday Breakfast!!! (These guys must be so old celebrating every week). 

 

Now we have done the Dr Suess breakfast several times (back when Sakari and Brayden were young of course) and they always loved it. The extremely "odd" food was always the reason for going and they got a kick out of it. However, now that Sakari is older, I would never think twice about going. Been there, done that right? HOWEVER, Karl was the contributing factor in this decision. Sakari wanted him to experience the fun, the singing and dancing, the weird looking food. So we decided to book it. BUT, the Dr Suess Breakfast was sold out! I kept watching for them to add some more reservations on there but they never did. Oh well....

 

Then a few weeks before the cruise, they added this Thing 1 & 2 Birthday Breakfast. Hmmm, ok,  that will have to do. 

 

 

 

Now mind you, this is the same kind of food you can get anywhere else, it's just colored and "different" (the deserts) at the same time. Is it worth $15/pp? Absolutely not. But, it's all about the experience. 

 

We hurried and got dressed and headed down stairs. The doors were closed and there was another family waiting there. We waited for awhile and then started thinking about this...it was almost time for it to start and no one else was here. Hmmm, there has to be a different entrance and off we went. 

 

We arrived in the atrium to find this is where we needed to be. 

 

 

The Cat in the Hat showed up for a few pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

Then we headed inside. It was set up just like I had remembered it. 

 

 

 

 

 

These tables though....oh my gosh. You had to be about 50# to squeeze in between them. They were so close I could eat off someone's plate at the table beside us. I really wonder why they put them so close. People were having issues getting between them and dragging the table cloths along with them and I watched an elderly couple with walkers have a lot of difficulty with this. Like WHY???  They didn't even use the entire dining room area. I honestly thought there wasn't really a big turn out for this. Maybe because others had went to the Dr Seuss Breakfast instead? (From what I had read, they were phasing out the Dr Seuss Breakfast and it was only going to be the Thing 1/2 Breakfast now). 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

The shenanigans immediately started and we vetted Karl on how to wear his "tie".

 

 

 

 

 

Then the Things arrived and started coming around to greet everyone at the tables...and of course to get a picture.

 

 

 

 

 

They had us ordering right away and this was the menu:

 

 

 

They used to hand out menu's that looked like a Dr Seuss book, but everything has went digital now. 

 

Once again, someone came around to ask if we'd like freshly squeezed OJ...yes it cost. I came in a VERY small glass. Nope, I'll take my free large glass instead. 

 

When our meal came out, it was lack luster to say the least. No green eggs and like I said, mostly what you could get at the buffet. There was nothing colorful on my plate. I swore there was more to it back in the day. 

 

 

 

 

 

Such a disappointment to say the least. 

 

Karl got the waffles I believe and then the regular egg meal as well. 

 

 

 

Sakari tried really hard to get just cereal and I told her "Oh no you're not. You better get something with color for $15"  She ended up with the waffle as well. I was really hoping she would pick something different (in color). Sigh

 

The deserts were about as interesting as it got. 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course since we were celebrating a birthday...

 

 

[mitsugirly]

There was no Dr Seuss music playing, there was no singing or dancing and I have to say it was pretty disappointing. I won't do it again. Thank goodness I have no more small children. (I did noticed adults coming to this with no children, and like I said, even elderly couples) That was a $60 meal that I would have rather spent somewhere else. We also felt extremely rushed the entire time. We were walking in at 8:15am, seated, pictures, food came, then leaving by 9am. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to the room to pack and...the kids needed a nap already. LOL  All that sugar and now they were crashing. 

 

 

Here's a collection of my magnets I bought while in port (I always collect them from everywhere we go). 

 

 

 

In between packing, we decided to go to check out our photos from the week. Man they take a lot of them! It was so hard to pick from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then when we were in PV, they had a bird that Sakari took pictures with. I didn't purchase them because...well she has a bird at home and that's good enough. 

 

 

 

She was just excited to hold it.

[purpleally]

Buttered bread on grilled cheese is a must! Then, if you like cheese grill it with shredded Parmesan. A whole new level!

[Daruma]

Seeing Karl in a straight up picture, standing tall just cracks me up. 

 

He's so tall, gangly, and a bit goofy looking... and I 1 billion percent mean that in an affectionate way, not a disparaging way at all, please believe that. 

[ninjacat123]

13 minutes ago, Daruma said:

Seeing Karl in a straight up picture, standing tall just cracks me up. 

 

He's so tall, gangly, and a bit goofy looking... and I 1 billion percent mean that in an affectionate way, not a disparaging way at all, please believe that. 

Karl reminds me of my first boyfriend.  He was 6'1" and 128 pounds.  He was a lot of fun and made me laugh😺

[mlshum]

I’m curious now…. What is Karl’s real first name?  Did I miss that somewhere!

[ninjacat123]

52 minutes ago, mlshum said:

I’m curious now…. What is Karl’s real first name?  Did I miss that somewhere!

Mr. Sakari.  Just kidding!😉

[jemrtt]

6 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

Here's a collection of my magnets I bought while in port (I always collect them from everywhere we go). 

 I collect magnets too. At one point, I thought if my fridge could talk, it would say: “NO! Please, no more magnets!”  😂  But I just keep buying them anyway. 

[mlshum]

35 minutes ago, jemrtt said:

 I collect magnets too. At one point, I thought if my fridge could talk, it would say: “NO! Please, no more magnets!”  😂  But I just keep buying them anyway. 

Me, too!

[MJC]

On 5/8/2024 at 4:38 PM, mitsugirly said:

  Where are the places you went to in the Pacific that you were underwhelmed? (I want to make sure we don't go there...although when in the ocean, it can change daily I realize). Where is Huatulco?

 

 I discovered my Olympus Tough camera's and never looked back (less bulky too). I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM! Every time they come out with a new one, I get another. 

 

We snorkeled a wreck mot far off the coast of Costa Rica, it may have been Puntarenas, but we didn't see much, and it was more geared to divers. But I wanted to try it, and it was meh, but we still had a nice day on the water. I also snorkeled on my own from one of the beaches in Cabo but didn't have any luck. Too many boats, too many people. Further south I did have a decent snorkel from Isla de Coiba near Panama. The water was calmer there than the others.

 

Huatulco is a newish port in southern Mexico, it is known for the Nine Bays, its very beautiful coastline. We went to a beach called Playa le Entrega. There is some coral along the rocks (I honestly didn't believe them when they told me there would be coral there until I saw it) but it is smaller and not as  colorful as coral in the Caribbean. We did see quite a variety of fish, that I didn't get any pictures of 😬 and so I can't remember to tell you what we saw. Mostly small and medium sized, some colorful. It was fun but the surf was challenging, not for beginners, and it pulled us out a bit, and we had to work to get back to shore.

 

Thank you so much for your experienced camera advice! I see an Olympus in my future!

[mitsugirly]

On 5/10/2024 at 9:52 AM, purpleally said:

Buttered bread on grilled cheese is a must! Then, if you like cheese grill it with shredded Parmesan. A whole new level!

 

Cheese=😍   Another thing that one of my patients taught me was grilled cheese with pepperoni on it too. It's amazing as well.

 

 

On 5/10/2024 at 10:03 AM, Daruma said:

Seeing Karl in a straight up picture, standing tall just cracks me up. 

 

He's so tall, gangly, and a bit goofy looking... and I 1 billion percent mean that in an affectionate way, not a disparaging way at all, please believe that. 

 

Haha, he is. He said some day I'll grow into my body. lol

 

On 5/10/2024 at 10:18 AM, ninjacat123 said:

Karl reminds me of my first boyfriend.  He was 6'1" and 128 pounds.  He was a lot of fun and made me laugh😺

 

That happens to be his weight too he said. 

 

On 5/10/2024 at 2:14 PM, mlshum said:

I’m curious now…. What is Karl’s real first name?  Did I miss that somewhere!

 

Nope you didn't miss it. I never said it. 🙂 

 

On 5/10/2024 at 3:07 PM, ninjacat123 said:

Mr. Sakari.  Just kidding!😉

 

OMG I LOVE THIS! I told them and they laughed. 

 

On 5/10/2024 at 5:16 PM, jemrtt said:

 I collect magnets too. At one point, I thought if my fridge could talk, it would say: “NO! Please, no more magnets!”  😂  But I just keep buying them anyway. 

 

Same here. The side of mine is screaming help about right now. 

 

On 5/10/2024 at 5:51 PM, mlshum said:

Me, too!

 

Kendra started me on this. I'm sure there's probably a bunch of places I've missed (or have too many of a certain place) lol

 

On 5/10/2024 at 9:10 PM, MJC said:

 

We snorkeled a wreck mot far off the coast of Costa Rica, it may have been Puntarenas, but we didn't see much, and it was more geared to divers. But I wanted to try it, and it was meh, but we still had a nice day on the water. I also snorkeled on my own from one of the beaches in Cabo but didn't have any luck. Too many boats, too many people. Further south I did have a decent snorkel from Isla de Coiba near Panama. The water was calmer there than the others.

 

Huatulco is a newish port in southern Mexico, it is known for the Nine Bays, its very beautiful coastline. We went to a beach called Playa le Entrega. There is some coral along the rocks (I honestly didn't believe them when they told me there would be coral there until I saw it) but it is smaller and not as  colorful as coral in the Caribbean. We did see quite a variety of fish, that I didn't get any pictures of 😬 and so I can't remember to tell you what we saw. Mostly small and medium sized, some colorful. It was fun but the surf was challenging, not for beginners, and it pulled us out a bit, and we had to work to get back to shore.

 

Thank you so much for your experienced camera advice! I see an Olympus in my future!

 

Costa Rica is always some place I've wanted to go and haven't been yet. Maybe some day. 

 

I hope you some day take the plunge with the Olympus. I love mine so much! If you get the tg 6, you can also buy lens for it. I have a wide angle lens as well. (Something the older models can't do)

[mitsugirly]

Alrighty, I thought I'd try to do a few more "episodes" this morning. I didn't sleep well with my leg aching all night. 

 

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the mothers out there! Today is a double whammy for my husband because not only are we celebrating Mothers Day but it's also our 19th Anniversary today. It's a day of celebration for us. 

 

I forgot to mention, when we purchased our pictures, they also handed the hubby this:

 

 

 

Well since the kids were napping, we missed several things we had on our "entertain ourselves while at sea" list that we missed: Towel folding demo, the dance class and...THE DEBARKATION PRESENTATION!! Rut Row. This was definitely something I should have went to because I had absolutely no idea how this new way of getting kicked off the ship worked now. 

 

So, let's talk this new digital system....

 

Now a few days before now, I had played around with the Carnival Hub app, trying to find this system that I heard Dion mention. I have to say, for some reason every time I tried to find it within the app, I struggled with it. 🤷‍♀️ Maybe it was just me...idk. But it kept looking at it and trying to figure out which "time" we should pick. I went back and forth between just carrying off our luggage ourselves to putting them outside the door. Well, when I went to look the last time (after we had just decided to carry off our luggage) this is what I was shown. 

 

 

 

Notice the time of 9:40-10am?

 

Well, if I picked a time to just get off (with checked luggage), this is what was shown:

 

 

Um ok. Does that really make sense? You can get off the ship EARLIER if you check your luggage? So someone explain this to me....is this for real? Do they really allow some of the checked luggage people off before those bringing their luggage? I always thought it was the other way around. 

 

Well, I've heard what a mess getting off the ship and the port is so we wanted to get off as soon as we could. When we booked our airflights, I had made the decision to book an earlier flight than what we normally would because either way we were going to have a layover and what better place to have a layover than....VEGAS! That just sounded more appealing to me (and to give us something to do...gamble) while we were waiting for our flight. 

 

So, I just ended up picking the checked luggage time since it was earlier. We didn't end up getting our luggage tags and I had to call Ida to have him bring us some. 

 

 

 

I'm really hoping 16 is our lucky number!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ninjacat123]

Pooh!! Sorry that happened at JiJi’s. We have had great service (and food) for dinner at JiJi’s but the one lunch we had there wasn’t impressive to me.

Hope your Mother’s Day is great!!

[blarko]

1 hour ago, mitsugirly said:

Yep, there's the ticket (I blanked out his name at the bottom)

Did you realize you posted his full name above on the debarkation info 😬