Another Panorama Review 4/27/24-5/4/24

[mkcurran]

I debated even doing this review. But it feels weird to not do one at this point.

 

Pre-Trip:

 

Anyway, it was time for our annual do something on our anniversary. The cast of characters this time are myself, the hubs of 27 years (K), our good friends and neighbors that we have hooked on cruising, B & T.

 B & T kept bugging me about when we and where we were going to do our next cruise. My work has been in an uncertain place where we have been up for sale for two years. So much fun. Part of this fun is that they are holding off bonuses until the sale is finalized. Well, this is usually the travel fund for the year. So, we kept this trip close to keep the budget under control. 

 

As planning started B & T said something about a night market in Palm Springs on Thursday nights. As we were driving to Long Beach in Friday, breaking the trip up a bit sounded like a good idea.

 

Plans were set. We all live in Southern AZ, so we get to see the Falcon 9 launches occasionally. These images were from my back yard shortly before the trip:

[Out of Iowa]

I am looking forward to reading all that will follow in your review. 

 

Thank you for writing one.

[mkcurran]

Palm Springs:

 

I can't edit the title, so please ignore until it changes to 4/27...

 

Anyway, our first day was spent taking a very scenic route to Palm Springs. We drove through the date orchards in Coachella. 

Our hotel was the Seven Springs. This was a very mid-century funky place. It was priced well. we did have a little company in our room.

 

We'd later get a better look at the lady when walking downtown:

Yes, that's K in the black shirt. 

The night was uneventful. There was dinner at a place that I'm trying hard to forget. I'll just say if you are going to charge $80 for steak, it had better not be over cooked.

I did enjoy a local flower garden:

[mkcurran]

Long Beach and boarding day 4/26-4/27:

 

This is where the story gets a little interesting. For years we have driven to the port. Found a spot and went on our merry way. This would not be the case this year.

 

When we got near Long Beach, we tucked ourselves in the Best Western in Garden Grove for the night. We enjoyed the hot tub and had an early night.

 

On 4/25--the Wednesday before this trip two thing happened. The Firenze came to Long Beach and we got an email telling us the parking garage would not be available to us. At this point it's a little late to change course and book a park and cruise hotel. We planned on sucking it up and dealing. I should have packed some adult beverages for this ride. 

 

Given this information we made our way in about an hour earlier than usual. We needed to drop B & T, figure out where to park and hopefully find them on the way back.

 

We sat in this traffic for a solid hour before parking. Then we got our piece of paper that let us park on a roof top garage across the bridge in Lond Beach.

 

This was going to be interesting on the way back as B doesn't do stairs or long walks. I was assured this process would be mobility friendly. I was beginning to have my doubts. 

 

Anyway, we loaded up on the bus. Helped another lady even get on the bus. To back up down the street. Wait, what? Driver had a drop at another garage. He driving skills were good thought. A whole block backwards.

[mkcurran]

Long Beach continued....

 

We eventually got back to the dome. Total time the whole parking thing took? 1.5 hours. We clear security and find our way into the dome and find B & T. Seating is tight. I put my tablet case down on the bench next to B. Dude on the side of B starts saying that his wife is sitting there. I assure him my tablet will only be taking up five inches of space until I get back from the bathroom, where is wife is currently.

 

Personal thing taken care of we return to B & T. And take a seat on the floor. The dome is packed. I'd given more money than was descent for a margarita at this point. And we sat. And waited. Civilizations rose and fell. B's neighbor, who proceeded me to the powder room, figures out I might know something and starts asking questions about the cruise. It had been a while for them. This, thankfully, made the time pass a bit quicker. 

 

Around 12:30 we got on the ship, mustered, and made our way to Guys BBQ on 5 for lunch. Completely uncrowded. Though a bit chilly outside. We moved into the ocean plaza to wait for rooms. We sat, visited, and waited. It dawned on me, there were no announcements. Around 2pm, I went up two flights of stairs to check to see if rooms were ready. And found this:

 Not only were the rooms ready B had a little surprise for us.

 

 

[mkcurran]

The room:

We had one of those sideways interior rooms. I liked the feel of the extra room. I liked not having the bathroom between the bed and the door. I wasn't keen on the TV placement. It should be mounted on the wall at the end of the bed.

 

The room was good, 7421. There was a serious light leak around the door. But that meant we didn't need a night light. 

[mkcurran]

Sea days:

The first two sea days were pretty uneventful. We did see dolphins, flying fish, and a turtle. 

 

We wake up too early for regular breakfast, so we usually park on the lido and eat and drink coffee until everyone gets there. 

 

I struggled with breakfast on this trip. The buffet food, even when fresh was cold. Bagels were hard enough that chewing them became a challenge some mornings for me. I usually love a Blue iguana breakfast, but as the lido food was below par, lines there got long. When I did Huevos, I found them extremely salty. I usually just ate deli meats and cheeses and called it good.

 

The Casino was good to me on this trip. I hit a few times the first couple of days.

[Jamman54]

Great start to your review. Looking forward to the rest! 

[mkcurran]

Puerto Vallarta 4/30:

 

I love PV. I have been here to stay for a week. This is a nice town filled with wonderful experiences and food. My favorite is La Palapa beach club. We made reservations and arraigned for a driver to meet us in the port. 

Turns out the drive couldn't actually get in the port. We had to make our way through the maze and get out. I felt like I needed a piece of cheese at the end. This port used to be easier than this. 

Getting off the ship was fun as well, I'm not sure why things backed up so bad, but they did. Patience saved the day and we were on our way.

An hour later I had a pina colada in had, sitting on a beach chair, watching the wave. All was good. 

 

K ended up roasting his legs this day. 

T is more adventurous than us and made her way down to the pier.

That's her in the hat.

Eventually they kicked us out. Something about setting up for dinner. We paid our tab, just over $100 for four of us to each and drink whatever we wanted all day. No charge for the seats. 

 

We made our way back to the ship. We got in one line to board and got shooed out of it. Okay, we went over to the other line. We ended up backed up onto the gangplank. Where we watched them re-open the other line and let the people behind us on. 

I remember a time when fun squad members and other would be out by the gangplanks greeting people, playing music and just making the whole process entertaining. That would not happen this time. At any port.

 

We got back to our cabin and were greeted by this

 

 

[mkcurran]

Mazatlan:

 

B & T wanted to see things. We booked Freddy's Pulmonia Tours for the day. This was a fun and interesting tour. But they do drop you at a terrible restaurant for lunch. Ask for mustard and you'll never see a server again. Lol.

I'll let  the pictures do the talking for this day.

This is the statue that keep the hurricanes away. People drop flowers to keep their fishers safe.

One of the cliff diving locations

Views on the tour.

[mkcurran]

Mazatlan Continued:

Beatles monument

[mkcurran]

Cabo:

This day started out much better than the rest on the lido. Why? This guy:

I had tried for a warm breakfast again. I had tried for a bagel, but my jaw wasn't having it. This guy saw me struggling and brought me hot eggs benedict and the softest bagel ever. Albin was my hero for the morning. He was everything I remembered Carnival employees used to be.

 

I did tell Mr. Heald about him when we got home. 

 

We never have big plans for Cabo. It's such a short time here, we rarely do anything other than take a quick walk and then go back and enjoy a quiet ship.

Here's a few random pictures.

 

[mkcurran]

Cabo Day Continued:

 

Is any Carnival vacation complete with-out ice cream?

Sailing away

 

This was the second formal night, otherwise known as lobster night.

B had to take a call on the Shell-phone

 

The food in the dining room was nothing special. A couple of the new pasta dishes were good. The everyday steak was often tough, over cooked, and usually flavorless. We were all disappointed in the food for the week.

 

[mkcurran]

Last sea day:

 

From the picture I took, I think I spent the whole day in the casino. I remember trying to watch movies out on the deck, but boy do I miss the retractable roof on the Splendor. It was too cold on the way back to spend much time outside. 

I did find some heat in the Casino.

 

[Kermarkim]

Can't wait to read more!

[mkcurran]

Debarkation:

 

Saturday came and it was time to kick us off the ship. This would be our first experience with digital debarkation. I'm not a fan. Estimated times meant nothing. I had to switch on and off the Carnival wifi to check for our notice to vacate. Somewhere around ten we just decided to head down closer to the doors. As luck would have it, we got our eviction notice on our way down.

 

Lines were confusing. We got yelled at a couple of time because we stopped to find B & T, after they got separated from us yet again. I really need to put trackers on them.

 

Once in the Dome we got separated into the passport line and the birth certificate/ID line. All the way down the ramp. This turned out to entirely unnecessary. B & T got to the luggage area and waited on us. I finally got down the passport line, left K, as they said leave one person in line and have one get your bags. 

 

I grabbed a porter, sent him to B & T, the went back and grabbed K out of line. We took the $20 porter short cut out and he dropped us where the bus would pick us up to get back to the garage.

 

[mkcurran]

Debarkation continued.

 

This is where thing went sideways. We just missed one bus. Porter unloaded us in a spot, talked to someone, and told us to stay put. They would get us on the next bus. 

 

Except no one knew which bus was next. They had people marching back and forth. The couple in front of us who just missed the last bus found the proper bus one stall over. We haul all of our bags over and load up. K has decided, B, T & me are going to wait at the curb, while he retrieves the car. 

 

The bus is loaded. K, again, helps others getting onto the bus. Nothing mobility friendly here folks. The we head back to the garage. Where the bus gets lost along the way. We make circles. We end up on a corner that's close enough to count. We get off, get our bags and get met with a wall of impatient people trying to get their bags. We are trying to get out, you'd think one of these people would step aside and let us through, nope. 

 

But one does go off on K. Yelling and screaming. I thought she was going to throw down. K had a look like he was going to move this lady out of his way. Everyone is defending K, saying he didn't do whatever she was accusing him of doing. I grab K by the shirt, break his attention on this lady and get him out from in front of her. At this point I grab a couple rolling suitcases say, excuse me and try to make an exit for the curb across the street. 

 

Excuse me doesn't work so I start walking a yell, "Watch your toes." This worked. Everyone follows my lead. My group is now safely on the other side of the street with all of our stuff. We are breathing, collecting ourselves and the crazy lady come over. "Ma'am you need to walk away."

CL: "I was just going to apologize."

Me: "Okay, now please leave."

CL: "But....But...but...."

 

Someone from her group gather her and got her away. K got the car, parked in the street, and we loaded up and left.

 

The rest of the ride home was blissfully uneventful.

[mkcurran]

Final thoughts:

 

I am beginning to see why people are saying Carnival is cutting back. I felt a slide in overall quality. The biggest difference I felt was the fact that the employees didn't seem to have as much time to interact with the guests. There have always been smiles and greeting from all of the employees. We got to hear their stories. We got to know them a bit. Not so much this time. There were a few, but not as many as normal. They all seem so busy all the time now.

 

The cruise director. I've sailed with good one, I've sailed with bad ones. Dion used to be a good one. He seems a shadow of his former self. Marty last year was not the life of the party; be he was more personable. 

 

The parking situation. This could have been handled better. More than two days' notice would have been nice. It was actually a week's notice, since the web site changed on 4/16. If I had known when we booked the cruise, we would have booked a park and cruise hotel. Once we knew it was too late to change plans. 

 

Will I cruise Carnival again---maybe if I get a good enough deal, but unlikely until the menus change again. 

 

Will I sail out of Long Beach again? Highly unlikely. The parking situation is a mess and Carnival refuses to own it. The have the lease with Long Beach, they should have a bit more control over the execution of the plans. 

 

When is my next cruise? No idea. Waiting to hear if the grandkid is doing a semester abroad in Ireland. If that happens all vacation dollars will be going that way. Although if I get a bonus anytime soon, we might squeeze in a fall ABC cruise.

 

Thanks for reading my rambling, if you made it this far.

[edspec]

I don't think it is just Carnival with the frenzied employees and lack luster food.  We were on Quantum of the Seas last month and had that been my first cruise I'd have never cruised again.  Staff obviously overworked, food just ok, and a general feeling of being a $$$ instead of a guest.  

We need to take a vacation in August since we're selling our house. I have Princess booked but I need connecting cabins and nothing has opened up yet, thinking of booking Cunard.   I sailed w/ them last September and that was like cruising pre-Covid.

I understand the cruiselines took a hit and I don't know what their loan re-payments look like...perhaps short term is the only thing that matters.  I have a feeling the current cruise experience will end up costing them both loyal and new customers. Hoping in 2-3 years we'll be looking at different fares and a different on board experience.  

[Mike45LC]

Nice report, McKurren!  

 

For getting to the off-site parking lot after debarkation, we were in the line that the Carnival representative told us to wait in.  She abandoned us there, and never came back to tell us that she'd sent us to the wrong line!

 

Maybe K did not tell you, but the off-site parking structure only offered "Compact" parking spaces.  It was a nightmare putting my large car into a Compact space and trying to squeeze out of the car!

 

[mkcurran]

6 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

Nice report, McKurren!  

 

For getting to the off-site parking lot after debarkation, we were in the line that the Carnival representative told us to wait in.  She abandoned us there, and never came back to tell us that she'd sent us to the wrong line!

 

Maybe K did not tell you, but the off-site parking structure only offered "Compact" parking spaces.  It was a nightmare putting my large car into a Compact space and trying to squeeze out of the car!

 

I was with him when we parked the truck. Thankfully we drive a very compact pickup, so we fit.

[AKR2011]

Nice report! thanks for sharing with us ❤️⚓️

[SenatorsFan]

Thanks for sharing your anniversary cruise with us. It's too bad you had those disappointments along the way, but I'm happy to see you had some casino wins. 🤗

Edited May 16 by SenatorsFan

[mkcurran]

At least I got on apology about the parking situation.

[Hogladyrider]

@mkcurran...WOW that was some adventure!

 

I have never been able to convince my other half to cruise out of Long Beach and now I know it will definitely not be happening!  Very sad indeed.

 

I read on CC about the embarkation and debarkation issues that Firenza has been having in Long Beach as well.

 

At least you got to spend time with friends and had some fun time in the casino! 

 

We have moved away from Carnival and are trying other lines.