This was the 7 day Mexican Riviera, round trip from Long Beach, on the Carnival Panorama. Suzi and I were celebrating 2 anniversaries. August 27th was our 31st anniversary since we met and August 29th was our 29th Wedding Anniversary.
The Panorama is a Vista Class ship and is one of our favorite ships of all we’ve sailed on. So many options for dining!
This was purely a getaway vacation. Perfect timing as the week after, the Panorama was interrupted by Hurricane Kay. We drove ourselves to the Long Beach Cruise Terminal by 10:00 AM. Got checked in and onboard by 11:30. Booked the same stateroom as the last trip, Stateroom 9216. Off to the buffet on Lido deck, where I was re-acquainted with my favorite device, the handwashing station. Place your hands in two cylinders and they start to spin and spray jacuzzi temperature soap and water for 12 seconds. Thus, I call it the “Hand Spa”. There are several on the Lido Deck and I’m pretty sure I used all of them.
If you read my previous review of the ship, the other piece of “tech” I like is the elevators. Each elevator is assigned a letter. You select the Deck from the panel in the lobby, then the system will tell you which elevator “letter” to go to. Each member of the party should make a selection so the system can determine how many elevators are needed. Our first journey on the Panorama was after the industry pause, so there were only about 50% of capacity. This time, it was fully booked, so there was a little confusion as Decks 3, 4, 5 and 10 could get rather busy and require more elevators. The only real downside was on disembarkation day. Too many people wanted to self-disembark, us included, that since only 1 person was hitting the button, elevators were far and few between. When they did arrive, many were full. This is the first time we’ve ever chosen to self-debark and may not again.
As expected, the weather was hot and humid. We knew that going in so did not book any excursions. We got off in Puerto Vallarta to walk over to the Mall. We stayed on the ship in Mazatlán and Cabo.
We did not eat in the MDR. Instead, we ate primarily in the buffet. On anniversary night, I splurged and got a pound and a half lobster from the Seafood Shack. We also enjoyed the included lunch from JiJi’s and who can pass up Guy’s Burger Joint or Blue Iguana Café!
We find the buffet a great alternate. I’m a casual guy, always in dress shorts. If a menu posted for the MDR looks really good, we’ll give it a go. The meals offered just didn’t appeal that much to either of us.
A “benefit” of hot and humid weather also brings the chance of a thunderstorm. A few cruises back, we were able to sit on our balcony and watch lightening across Banderas Bay when leaving Puerto Vallarta. What a sight! Fortunately, we were given the same show but a bit further away. Same the the next evening. Wonderful to see Mother Nature in action.
Disembarkation, as stated earlier, was not well organized. The walkway is on Deck 4 Midship. Only those guests whos group was called could go to Deck 4. Good luck getting an elevator. When there was an elevator it was either full or… when it got to Deck 4, it was so congested, you could not exit the elevator, rendering it unavailable for other passengers waiting to go to Deck 3 or 5. Going forward, we will stick with the latest possible disembarkation time and relax on the Lido Deck.
Currently getting ready for the next cruise. We will be flying into Rome where we will staying 4 nights before heading to the Regal Princess for a 15 day journey across the pond to Florida.
The Veranda Life 