Mitsugirly's PANORAMA detailed review and pictorial

[mitsugirly]

The had an entire room dedicated to just jellyfish. Each tank was in a different color to make them light up as they bobbed around. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will spare you from having to look at each color. Same jellyfish, different color.

 

 

They had an educational room for the tots. 

 

 

 

And one for the adults as well

 

 

 

SHARK!  Several sharks would swim in a big tank that went up and over you. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The filtration is massive on these tanks. I can only imagine what it takes to keep them clean and running. My few salt water tanks I used to have had quite the set up including a filtration system in our basement as well. Oh how I miss them. 

 

 

[Cruising_Addict]

2 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

 

Aww, glad you found the review. Hey, we were still vacationing (to the ports we visit while cruising) during the pandemic...did you happen to read any of them? We had such a great time!

 

Where are you cruising in December to and what ship?

Oh yes, I definitely read your land vacation reviews as well! I enjoy all of your reviews. But was also selfishly hoping that you weren’t going to give up cruising for land vacations. 🙂

 

We are cruising out of Tampa on the Carnival Legend Christmas week to Panama, Costa Rica and Grand Cayman. Panama and Costa Rica are new ports for us and while I would love to do a cruise that actually goes through the Panama Canal (we are only stopping in Colon), I haven’t been able to find one that’s much less than 14 days. We have four dogs and I have a hard time leaving them. So I try to keep our cruises to 9 days max. 

[EllieinNJ]

5 hours ago, Cruising_Addict said:

Totally agree! My recent trips have been an Alaska cruise, a Norway cruise and a trip to Vegas from the east coast. The long flights kill me. Just booked our BOS-TPA flights for December. Nonstop, just a bit over 3 hours. What a difference! I would love to sail out of California again, but it’s such a trek from the east coast to the west.  

We took United from Newark to LA.  Can't sleep on a plane so was expecting to watch a few movies.  We flew to Europe with them last May and it was good but now we find out they took away the backseat movies and you have to use your cellphone.  I'm a little hard of hearing and can't get the volume up enough so it was 6 hours of just doing nothing.  Make it 8 because there was maintenance problems and we sat in the plane for two hours before we even left.  Ugh!!!

[mitsugirly]

 

We have definitely seen our share of these lobsters every time we snorkel and dive. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A nice view from above of the grounds. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They also had a "petting" area. It was time to test Karl's guts ability. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THIS GUY!!!! OH MY GOSH HOW I LOVE PUFFER FISH!!! THEY ARE ONE OF MY FAVORITES AND HAVE SUCH A CURIOUS PERSONAILITY!!! They had several of them in the tank.

 

 

He kinda looked at them and moved on. Oh no you don't, get back here and touch something mister!

 

 

 

We got to the stingray tank and it took quite a bit of courage to get Karl to stick his hand in there. He would put his hand in and wait for them to come and quickly pull it out. We finally convinced him to leave it there or we would make fun on him the rest of the day and go home and tell all his friends. Eventually he caved in. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tortuga!!!

 

 

[jerseygirlinAZ]

13 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

 

Me too! We were very lucky there were so many still around and so active. 

 

I don't understand...why did La Paz give you PTSD? I'm confused. 

 

 

It was such a let down and I still don't understand why they said the port was shut down. It was perfectly fine out that day. I'm still left wondering if it was for real or it was this vendor 🤷‍♀️ But then again, people on my roll call said Carnival cancelled theirs as well. So idk.

 

Yea the weather definitely wasn't what I was use to when cruising for sure. 

 

 

Why? I'm confused?

 

 

I hope you are having a great time and good weather!!

 

We booked a whale shark excursion in La Paz in January.  Long story short, the tour left hours later than planned. The water was extremely rough.  Only four people out of 20 went in the water (and immediately came out).  Even the captain and first mate put on their life jackets.  The tiny boat was slamming against the waves. Time was ticking away and we were nervous about missing the ship.  The boat stalled twice on the way in.  They dropped us on a beach and said that transportation would be waiting for us. (It wasn't.)  We luckily hailed a taxi and made it back to the ship with three minutes to spare.

 

Talk about stress!

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

We decided to head outside. But first we had to stop and get pop...which will cost you $3.00 for one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stood on the walkway and watched some type of ?duck? and it would dive under and STAY UNDER forever! Then you'd never know just where it was going to pop up. It was super quick swimming and would make it half way across the water then duck under and come back. It was pretty amazing to watch. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gatorland...I don't really care for gators. They look creepy. 

 

 

Edited May 1 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

 We really wanted to see the penguins and headed over to that building.

 

 

 

Now our espanol is muy pequeno... meaning very little known to us but sometimes enough to understand. 😉 We followed some signs and went into a building. It went up, there was nothing. We kept going up, still nothing. It was a rather large building. Um, ok. Maybe they don't have the penguins anymore?

 

We continued and started to head back down. Hey at least they had some cute displays right? It made me want to head to Alaska now. I mean at least there it's SUPPOSED to be cold.

 

 

 

 

Then finally...we found them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we got out of the building, we would notice that we had went in the wrong way and that's why we weren't seeing anything. Oopsy

 

[mitsugirly]

A lot of birds up in the trees today

 

 

 

We decided to head to the bird aviary because Sakari is a bird person of course. 

 

She absolutely loved this little owl. 

 

 

 

 

We actually loved they had a huge cage that you could go into with the birds. They were flying around everywhere and a lot of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

They had a big stadium where they had a bird show and we headed over to watch...only they came outside into an open area.

 

 

This guy had 2 birds and another guy had 1. Before long, they were talking in Spanish and building excitement and we had absolutely no idea what they were saying or about to do. Then....they released them!! Wait what??? These birds took off into the sky and out of sight. Before long, they returned and just kept flying around for a VERY long time. They would circle the buildings, go out over the street area, around the building, it was just crazy to watch. My heart pitter pattered a lot during this flight display. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They all stayed together during the entire flight.

 

 

 

Sometimes they got really close to the audience as they zoomed by.

 

 

 

 

 

Then their trainers walked to an entirely different area and called them back and in they came. It was just so amazing to watch. I don't know how they do it! I wish Sakari could train hers like this but I would never trust that. 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Here comes a baby dinosaur...have you ever seen a dinosaur in real life Karl?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading over to the flamingo area:

 

 

 

 

We heard a commotion in a building and went to check it out. They were getting ready for a sea lion show. I guess if I can't swim with them, I'll watch them do tricks. Of course the entire show was in Spanish so no idea what they were saying but none the less, it was funny to watch them perform.

 

This is Toby:

 

 

 

This lady talked and talked and talked and honestly it got quite annoying. Maybe because we couldn't understand but it was really drug out a little too long. Just have him do the tricks already. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We weren't the only one watching the show...

 

 

Next was Tito:

 

 

 

 

 

I felt like Tito did more interesting tricks but Sakari liked Toby better. Eh, they were both outstanding. 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We went to another bird show and they had several birds do a few tricks. 

 

 

 

They also brought out the owl and Sakari cheered!

 

 

 

 

Well, we had pretty much seen and done it all. It was time to head out and explore a little bit. It was now probably around a little after noon.

[mitsugirly]

I'm going to call it a night for now. I have an early morning meeting tomorrow and need to get some sleep. I hope everyone is enjoying the review and our day at the aquarium. I will try to continue tomorrow with the rest of our day exploring. 

[mitsugirly]

57 minutes ago, Cruising_Addict said:

Oh yes, I definitely read your land vacation reviews as well! I enjoy all of your reviews. But was also selfishly hoping that you weren’t going to give up cruising for land vacations. 🙂

 

We are cruising out of Tampa on the Carnival Legend Christmas week to Panama, Costa Rica and Grand Cayman. Panama and Costa Rica are new ports for us and while I would love to do a cruise that actually goes through the Panama Canal (we are only stopping in Colon), I haven’t been able to find one that’s much less than 14 days. We have four dogs and I have a hard time leaving them. So I try to keep our cruises to 9 days max. 

 

Oh ok. I wasn't sure if you had kept up with those or not. Yea, not giving up cruising but we definitely love our land vacations as well. 

 

OHHHHHH I WANNA GO!  That's been on my bucket list too: Costa Rica and Panama. I would love to do a Panama cruise in the canal. Can't you do ones that start in one place and end in another for a shorter cruise? I'm going to have to check this out. It's so hard for us to leave our animals as well. 

 

56 minutes ago, EllieinNJ said:

We took United from Newark to LA.  Can't sleep on a plane so was expecting to watch a few movies.  We flew to Europe with them last May and it was good but now we find out they took away the backseat movies and you have to use your cellphone.  I'm a little hard of hearing and can't get the volume up enough so it was 6 hours of just doing nothing.  Make it 8 because there was maintenance problems and we sat in the plane for two hours before we even left.  Ugh!!!

 

Oh that sounds dreadful. Do you have an iphone? If you have one, you can get the ear buds and they seem to be really loud. I always have to turn mine down they are so loud. Maybe that would help?

 

52 minutes ago, jerseygirlinAZ said:

 

We booked a whale shark excursion in La Paz in January.  Long story short, the tour left hours later than planned. The water was extremely rough.  Only four people out of 20 went in the water (and immediately came out).  Even the captain and first mate put on their life jackets.  The tiny boat was slamming against the waves. Time was ticking away and we were nervous about missing the ship.  The boat stalled twice on the way in.  They dropped us on a beach and said that transportation would be waiting for us. (It wasn't.)  We luckily hailed a taxi and made it back to the ship with three minutes to spare.

 

Talk about stress!

 

Oh yea, I remember that story. Yikes!

 

When you both first posted PTSD I thought you were referring to something I had posted that we were doing. But, I get it now. That would be a nightmare! I hope some day you get to swim with the whale sharks. It's the MOST AMAZING experience ever. 

[deladane]

I'm so glad you guys went to the aquarium!  We will be back in Mazatlan in January as we are sailing on the Discovery Princess for New Years (switching it up instead of doing the same Panorama cruise 2 years in a row!).  We will be in Mazatlan on New Years Eve day and wanted a half-day activity to make sure to be back on the ship around lunch time so Ian can take his nap and hopefully not have a meltdown again like he did last year!  I had looked into going to the aquarium last year in case our day pass to Hotel Playa fell through, so now we are planning to finally get to the aquarium next year.  There really wasn't much info about it when I was doing my research last fall, so I am bookmarking this page of your review. 

 

Did you think it was worth the $30 per person for admission?  That seems a little steep for an aquarium in Mexico (especially considering we only paid $12 per person to go to the zoo in Puerto Vallarta).  Did you think it was a good value?

[mitsugirly]

9 hours ago, deladane said:

I'm so glad you guys went to the aquarium!  We will be back in Mazatlan in January as we are sailing on the Discovery Princess for New Years (switching it up instead of doing the same Panorama cruise 2 years in a row!).  We will be in Mazatlan on New Years Eve day and wanted a half-day activity to make sure to be back on the ship around lunch time so Ian can take his nap and hopefully not have a meltdown again like he did last year!  I had looked into going to the aquarium last year in case our day pass to Hotel Playa fell through, so now we are planning to finally get to the aquarium next year.  There really wasn't much info about it when I was doing my research last fall, so I am bookmarking this page of your review. 

 

Did you think it was worth the $30 per person for admission?  That seems a little steep for an aquarium in Mexico (especially considering we only paid $12 per person to go to the zoo in Puerto Vallarta).  Did you think it was a good value?

 

 

Well, it's really hard to answer that question about the price. It is definitely expensive for an activity in Mexico I feel like. It's definitely more expensive than even going to our local zoo, which is HUGE and well known because of Jack Hanna. But, I guess it was worth it for us because it gave us something to do for the day other than just walk around and explore or ride around on a tour. Sakari is an animal lover and it suited her well and she was excited to go so that made it worth it. I looked at it this way, we would have spent that on an excursion had we done it, so this was our excursion for the day. 🙂 

[deladane]

3 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

 

 

Well, it's really hard to answer that question about the price. It is definitely expensive for an activity in Mexico I feel like. It's definitely more expensive than even going to our local zoo, which is HUGE and well known because of Jack Hanna. But, I guess it was worth it for us because it gave us something to do for the day other than just walk around and explore or ride around on a tour. Sakari is an animal lover and it suited her well and she was excited to go so that made it worth it. I looked at it this way, we would have spent that on an excursion had we done it, so this was our excursion for the day. 🙂 

 

Yea, that is pretty much my rationale as well.  Plus, Ian will still qualify as an infant on this trip so we may as well go while he is still free!  

[fla33023]

Is this a turtle on its back? I can't figure out what this is! 

[Cruising_Addict]

On 4/30/2024 at 9:54 PM, mitsugirly said:

 

Oh ok. I wasn't sure if you had kept up with those or not. Yea, not giving up cruising but we definitely love our land vacations as well. 

 

OHHHHHH I WANNA GO!  That's been on my bucket list too: Costa Rica and Panama. I would love to do a Panama cruise in the canal. Can't you do ones that start in one place and end in another for a shorter cruise? I'm going to have to check this out. It's so hard for us to leave our animals as well. 

I could be wrong, but I think the ones that start in one place and end in the other are the repositioning cruises that are 14+ days and go all the way through the canal. At least with Carnival. I have yet to be able to bite the bullet and book a different cruise line. We have only done two cruises as Platinums on Carnival and at least for the time being, we are enjoying the small perks we have earned. 🙂 Someday when we can cruise more I’ll probably start booking other cruise lines. 

[Kanyon71]

On 4/30/2024 at 8:24 PM, mitsugirly said:

It was time to explore our favorite area...the aquarium.  You'll walk to different rooms seeing different creatures and fish and excitement grows wondering what is around the corner. 

 

There are some curious fish in here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have some VERY large display tanks...it kinda reminds me of the one we have here at our local zoo. I could spend hours just sitting and watching it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fish in the first picture to the right looks really mad at you for taking this picture. 🤣

[Bobstam]

Oh my, I loved reading your reviews in the past, your daughter has grown up, so glad she has a kind and caring young man in her life, I know my 16 & 15 year old grands have chosen well and we love their bf & gf like our own.  I think we were on the same ship in the past on NCL, we hve been on carnival for our last 2 and love them, we did the Mecican Riveria on NCL in 2018, we stayed at the same hotel, loved the Long Beach area, even though the ship did not leave from Long Beach, we didn't like the area for NCL used, can not remember the name of the place, but right next to Long Beach.  Love your stories!!  

[mitsugirly]

On 5/2/2024 at 6:48 AM, fla33023 said:

Is this a turtle on its back? I can't figure out what this is! 

 

No it was some type of lizard looking creatures inside a hollowed trees. 😄 

 

On 5/2/2024 at 11:05 AM, Cruising_Addict said:

I could be wrong, but I think the ones that start in one place and end in the other are the repositioning cruises that are 14+ days and go all the way through the canal. At least with Carnival. I have yet to be able to bite the bullet and book a different cruise line. We have only done two cruises as Platinums on Carnival and at least for the time being, we are enjoying the small perks we have earned. 🙂 Someday when we can cruise more I’ll probably start booking other cruise lines. 

 

Oh, well maybe I've been wrong in thinking they all go in the canal? I'll have to check more into it. I can completely understand about those perks. We only cruised with NCL for the longest time and got all the perks but eventually decided other cruise lines were a lot of fun as well. We are almost to Platinum status with Carnival. We are miles away from RC any status. LOL

 

8 hours ago, Kanyon71 said:

The fish in the first picture to the right looks really mad at you for taking this picture. 🤣

 

 

LOL I know right?  😄 

 

5 hours ago, Bobstam said:

Oh my, I loved reading your reviews in the past, your daughter has grown up, so glad she has a kind and caring young man in her life, I know my 16 & 15 year old grands have chosen well and we love their bf & gf like our own.  I think we were on the same ship in the past on NCL, we hve been on carnival for our last 2 and love them, we did the Mecican Riveria on NCL in 2018, we stayed at the same hotel, loved the Long Beach area, even though the ship did not leave from Long Beach, we didn't like the area for NCL used, can not remember the name of the place, but right next to Long Beach.  Love your stories!!  

 

Yes she has grown... and too fast for my liking!

 

Really? What ship were we on together? 

 

We love Carnival as well...and RC. Heck, we love any cruise ship I would imagine. lol

[mitsugirly]

Ok, it's been a very busy week for me and I just finished up for the day...so...it's time to get back at this review. 

 

After finishing up at the aquarium, we walked down the street a ways but didn't see much but did take a picture of a few statues:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made the executive decision to grab a cab and have them take us to the area where the cliff divers are located. We had plenty of time to spare so why not? I was pretty sure it would give me high anxiety but I was willing chance it anyhow. 

 

Our driver charged up $10 to get there. I'm not sure if this was considered one of the Palmonia cars or not but it looked like a car that had the top cut off, then roll bars and another top put on. It was all open aired. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took pictures along the way. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This guy had a serious sound system in it with speakers in the roof. 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

When we first got there, there was a really large crowd in the area. By the wall at the street I noticed a guy who was standing there and was wet. I assumed he was one of the divers that had just went. We decided to have a seat along the wall and wait. 

 

 

 

 

They had various vendors in the area selling fruits and small gifts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to get a cup of mango. It was delicious but there was a lot. We had wished that we would have just bought one and shared. It was too much for us to eat all of it. I think they charged $5 each cup or maybe it was $10. I can't remember but that sounds about right. 

 

 

 

While we were sitting on the wall eating our mango and every other bite we would throw down on the rocks below us...gotta feed the birds...I started noticing something moving. After watching for awhile, I tell Sakari there's a crab on the rocks! But there wasn't just A CRAB there were tons of them everywhere. 

 

 

 

 

 

I seen a mermaid in the distance and decided to go over and check it out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well at least the cliff divers don't actually have to climb the cliff to get to the top. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We waited for quite some time and the crowd was gone. I guess no more cliff divers and my anxiety was spared. I overheard someone say that they are not on a schedule and they dive when there's a big enough crowd. 

 

"Ok, let's walk down the street and do something! I'm tired of sitting here". 

 

My little ducklings, I mean family, started following and down the street we went to see if we could find anything interesting. 

 

 

I'm not really sure what this was? I was sure it had plenty of stairs to climb and I wasn't really in the mood to climb stairs so we didn't. I imagine the people up there could see the same as what I could from below only they are higher. 🤷‍♀️

 

 

 

I looked over to the other side of the street and immediately noticed something in the rocks:

 

 

 

This is known as Cueva del Diablo...The Devil's Cave. The Chapel of San Bartolome is right above it. This cave is known to have various stories surrounding it:

It was a place they used to hide soldiers guarding ammunition in the war days

Pirates used it to keep their treasures in here

The devil was released when work was done at the foot of the hill and the devil was heard inside

Others say people have went in and never came out even though it's a very small cave that doesn't go back very far

Among other stories told...

 

 

...you be the judge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were plenty of statues along the way...I only took a few pictures. 

 

Jack Cousteau:

 

 

 

Of course you won't find me passing up a mermaid picture. I had Sakari stand by it because well, I'm sure they were once related back in the day.

 

 

 

Right below this mermaid statue was a weird looking concrete (?) slide that looked like it might have went into a pool at one point? I starred at it for awhile trying to figure out just what this was and what it was used for. 

 

 

 

 

So of course, I had to look it up and this is what I found:

 

It is called Carpa Olivera de Mazatlan. The pool in the sea. It says it's a pool for aquatic fun and an ocean wave pool and one of the few that exist in the world. It says it is free to the public, but precautions are taken to ensure the safety of swimmers in relation to dangerous tides and waves. They say it is a revolutionary concept and the creator brought the vision of a pool fed by sea waters. There was a restaurant on site too. The pool slide was built in 2014. The salt water of the sea flows constantly to fill the pool from the waves and since it's always refilling, it made a unique experience for those who stayed at the hotels in Mazatlan. It's one of 7 marine pools in the world. 

 

I have found pictures of it with water filling it. It looks pretty cool. I guess today was a low tide? There was nothing in it and it wasn't being used. There's video's online as well. I think it's a pretty cool concept although sliding down a concrete slide that's not wet...hmmm, I don't know about that or how it would even work. 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Then we came to a little roundabout area and I looked across the street to find even more statues (I remembered seeing these in pictures before) and I knew we had to go over. 

 

This area is known as Liverpool Alley. This alley is a replica of England's Liverpool Street, which honors The Beatles. There are statues of the members of The Beatles that look like they are crossing the famous London Street on their iconic Abbey Road album cover. Of course the kids joined in on the fun. 

 

 

The Cavern Club, which is where the band debuted. 

 

 

The classic red British style car with flags printed on its rooftop (I have one of these replica's at home added to my "red" collection in my travel room)

 

 

 

Of course you have to have the red phone booth to go along with it (I also have one of these)

 

 

 

 

♪ We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine ♪ ♫ 

 

 

 

After enjoying this area for awhile and sitting down to rest, it was time to move on.