Mexican Riviera Cruise on the Carnival Panorama – January 2023: Cabo San Lucas

 Cabo San Lucas -- January 23, 2023

We had breakfast in the MDR, which was normal breakfast, instead of the Sea Day Brunch. Both mornings, they heavily pushed the fresh squeezed juices for $5. We don't drink juice normally, so did not order it. I had the Broken egg sandwich, which I discovered on a previous cruise -- very good. Travis had the yogurt parfait and Norlander bread. I had hot chocolate, Travis the coffee. I liked the hot chocolate machines in the buffet, and I assumed that they had the same in the MDR. Tasted good and convenient. 

We had not gotten our repeat Carnival cruiser water bottle to the room yet. I came across in the app that you have to get this at a bar now. That is an annoying change. We went to the Havana Bar; it was close to our room and was never very crowded. Maybe some people thought it was only for the Havana rooms like the infiniti pool and hot tubs connected behind it. It was easy to pick up, but prints a receipt with $0 charge giving you the opportunity to tip for something that used to be already delivered to your room when you first arrived. 

We were arriving in Cabo at 10am. It was a tender port. We were good with open tender, but the cruise director noted needing tender tickets, so I went down to the Havana bar the day before to get them, while Travis was at the gym. 

We watched the sail in. This was awesome; we got a good view of the Arch/Arco. We also got to try out the SkyRide. It was so fun! There were no line, so we went twice. I liked the one closest to the stairs bike, or rather track, or maybe I was just less tired the first time. Travis, who exercises on a bicycle all the time, left me in the dust, but I enjoyed the wonderful views. Part is even out over the ocean a little. Travis also did the rope course again.   

The Arch coming into view. 

Before heading out to Cabo, we had lunch at the Pizzeria Del Capitano. We have never tried the pizza place on Carnival before, worrying about long lines for a full pizza. This time they would serve a fourth to full pizza. We brought up our sodas; there is a convenient ice machine by the pizza place. Travis waited in line and then for the pizza to be baked. He got us a whole prosciutto pizza. This was like the four cheese pizza, no tomato sauce, and prosciutto. I do like tomato sauce, but we never tried one with tomato sauce. The prosciutto was thick and tough, and it was okay. Travis liked it better than I did. 

Then at open tender, we went to shore. This was operated by Cabo, not our lifeboats. On shore, we did not find any wifi or a working ATM (on screen error message) in the terminal. Since we had three Mexican stops, I wanted to get some Pesos. This was a strikeout; later in town all the ATMs said that they dispensed USD--what? In the terminal shopping area, I paid a $1 for the restroom; soda before port -- dangerous. I thought it would be a tip, but they wanted the $1 to even walk in. Next strikeout, we planned to hike over a hill to the Arch on this trail that was online maps (we even were prepared by finding the low tide time). The first entrance had fencing, scary dogs, and no trespassing signs (in multiple languages). The second entrance was closed off too -- boo! A co-worker's brother knew about going through the fence anyway and which side of a house to pass on. We needed to be able to phone a life line. When we sailed by and saw the fencing, I should have known this was a bad sign. I thought they wanted to keep us from falling off the hill. 

So, we tried to make it to the Arch via the beach but could not this way either, even with some rock scrambling. At least, we saw it during sail in. Some bird and ship pictures.  

This was the last attempt, that only Travis tried, was after this rock with just a cliff down and another cliff back up. After this, we headed back. 

This was the tuna cannery. 

After the beach, we walked around town or where the vendors/stores were. I had a Dairy Queen chocolate brownie extreme blizzard -- it was more chocolatey than at home so very good, even though I can, sort of, get them at home! I was hoping for available wifi, with a kid at home needing something, though unclear what, but no such luck. Travis had a tequila shot.  

For dinner, I had the pork slider with cheese, I asked for no slaw, and came with fries; it was very good. For the main, I had the leg of lamb; I did not like this -- it had a favor that I did not care for that I described as a funny mint. It came with potatoes with mustard seed that I also did not like. For dessert, I just got ice cream that I was not impressed with either. I did not pick well for me this night. 

Travis's was all good; he had: the Greek salad, ceviche, a mushroom with marinara sauce and mozzarella, and chocolate panna cotta. The panna cotta.

We watched the comedian Lenny Schmidtz again. 

Tonight we had a time change and lost an hour. I did not get this. Carnival uses ship time, not shore time, so how would this have a time change? We have not had a time change on a Carnival cruise before.  

Complete side note -- Our room toilet did not seem to flush as much water as other cruise ship toilet did, so had to check each time. I wonder if this is a newer ship thing. It did flush every time, so no issues there. 

Next up...Mazatlan

 

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