Mexican Riviera Cruise on the Carnival Panorama – January 2023: Summary Review
Summary Review-- January 2023
Embarkation
The dome Long Beach Terminal is neat. We dropped our bags with the porters, who were collecting luggage in the parking garage. Our embarkation check in slot was 11-11:30 am. Unfortunately, when we got there a few mins after 11am, they were calling any boarding time could get in line. However, our boarding pass had a pre-assigned boarding group C01, so we did not lose that spot. Check-in was pretty quick; they checked our passport and that is all. Then we went through security. They did a small rip in the 12 can soda cardboard box during the check and let us through. Then we sat and waited for boarding to start, and this was slow. Excited for a boarding announcement, instead they kept announcing rooms not being ready until 2:30 pm, which seemed late. Our luggage also arrived at our cabin later than I expected. This is the biggest ship that we have been on, so maybe I did not have the right expectations. When they began boarding, they boarded in the following order: suite guests, Diamond, Platinum, Faster to the Fun, A01, A2, A3-10, B01 to C01 (us). Then we slowly moved in a long line until finally reaching the ship. The slow part turned out to be the picture for face recognition for passport control at disembarkation later. Embarkation took a little over an hour and a half, so not speedy.
Cabin
We were on deck 1, in an inside cabin, so lots of stairs to the Lido deck. The room was well laid out, functional, and very comfortable. When arriving, we were afraid that the shower looked small and that the material shower curtain would cling while showering. However, I had no issue with the size or curtain. The closet was small and too stuffed with hangers (plastic ones that someone else brought and left). I moved some to the bottom of the closet, so that we could get to the clothes that we did hang.
The in room on demand movies were very nice; on previous cruises, we have never been able to catch all of a movie from start to end (and then have to watch them on the plane home instead). The ones that were not free looked to be the ones shown at the Dive-in theater by the pool. I also liked the channel by Carnival showing people going on exodic shore excursions across the fleet. Travis liked the music video channel.
Light switch above the bed in a good location -- I guess a small thing, but bumping it accidently in the middle of the night is bad.
Our room steward was awesome. Carnival only does once a day service now; he asked the first day what we needed and what time we would like our service. I had not thought about this, so was not very prepared. We went with 6pm since we eat dinner early with Your Time Dining, and it worked well. We requested ice and an extra hair towel for me. We had both everyday along with a towel animal. He also always greeted us in the hall.
Ship
We had tons of kids on our cruise, though ours had been back to school from winter break for a week. This came to 4,300 passengers, and I calculated 107% capacity. Gone the reduced capacity of covid days, I guess. On Covid, no restrictions, and it was a normal pre-covid cruise. The buffet services have not been scaled up for 4,000 people, but seemed the same size when compared to a ship with 2,000 people. There was only one or two soft serve machine and two cake stations. Only two sections of food, with repeats, and never had all the areas filled with food.
Food
I ate too much with so many good options! I always love the Guy's burgers; the Guy's Smokehouse was really good this time too. The Fresh Creations salads were really good. The Mongolian Wok at lunch, JiJi's Kitchen, was good. Travis's pork was really good; mine was pretty good. I think that I just liked the favors in his better. Travis liked the pizza more than me. Most of the items in the MDR were very good. You request a table on the app, have it assigned, and then go to the MDR giving them the table number assigned. This was never more than a few minutes wait; again we did eat early. You can start requesting a table a few minutes before they open. We had good service everywhere. We had fun and good service at the Alchemy bar and Havana bar. The Havana bar was never very crowded; the Havana is a set of rooms that only those staying there get to use the infinite pool and hot tubs at the aft/behind the bar. So, I wondered if some people did not think they could go to the bar, or maybe it was just a less trafficked area of the ship. We did go there to get our loyalty water bottles and last night drink. The loyalty waters used to be delivered to the rooms; now, after finding out the new process, you have to go to the bar where you have the opportunity to add a tip. That was annoying.
Entertainment
We enjoyed the comedians and had four different comedians, two at a time. Karaoke was fun to listen too. We also enjoyed trivia and other trivia games. The Newlywed/Not So Newlywed game show was too late for what was occurring the next day, so we missed that. SkyRide was awesome; we got to do it twice the morning of Cabo. It was too windy the last two sea days, so we did not get to do it again. We did the Rope Course the first day. This was terrifying to me at first, but I got a little better at it toward the end of one lap. Travis was better, went around twice, and did it again after we did the SkyRide. We liked the new Top Gun at the Dive-in theater. Though they now charge for popcorn, and I did not successfully get a blanket so was cold in capris. I asked at the towel booth, he said 10 minutes, but others had them already. I never saw any more arrive. Some people brought pillows and maybe even the duvet up from their room bed. I did not want to miss the movie to go down (to deck 1) to change into jeans.
Disembarkation
The Captain arrived earlier than the published 9am time, so we were able to get off earlier than scheduled. We did self carry luggage walk off; they called this by muster station. This was slow; I guess people eager to get off and going before they were called. I was a little nervous that our flight was not late enough, so we took a taxi -- it was pricey and more pricey than the window advertised, though the window did not say LAX from where. We made it.
Good, fun, and relaxing cruise!
What a great detailed review!
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