Understaffed cruise = underwhelming cruise

Item: Carnival Panorama
Rating: 4
Author: MariahM

Carnival Panorama Cruise Review to Mexico

MariahM

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 17

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Mexican Riviera (Los Angeles Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 19, 2022

Ship: Carnival Panorama

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

The older kids (middle & high school) were absolutely out of control on this ship. Our door decorations were stolen on the first night, as were others in our hallway. The roaming herds of kids also thought it was funny to run down hallways in the middle of the night banging on random cabin doors.

Embarkation

3 out of 5

Got in line for our 10-10:30 embarkation time at about 9:50. Checked in about 10:05, but was then held inside the terminal until about 12:45 before first boarding group was called

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

JJ’s restaurants could not accommodate us for Mongolian Wok lunches because their waitlist filled so quickly. If eating in the main dining room anytime after 5:30, service was incredibly slow. Regularly took at least an hour to get food after ordering it. This was tough with hungry kids.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Children's Programs

1 out of 5

Kids club was incredibly understaffed. The line to check a child into the kids club was 45+ min long. Then parents had to wait in the SAME 45 min line again to pick kids up. Incredibly inefficient. If made attempting to attend one if their 30 min activities completely pointless. 1.5 hours of line to watch a 30 min magic show is ridiculous. The entertainment was waytoo rudimentary for our 6 & 8 year-olds. They were bored out of their minds at the kids club. “Kids Choice” on the kids club itinerary means “video games”. There is no other “choice”. However, their are bo enough cideo game consoles for everyone, and the staff didn’t enforce kids actually taking turns when they said it was time to switch players. Most players refused to move, leaving many kids without the opportunity to ever play

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

All staff extremely friendly and helpful.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Everything about the ship is amazing and beautiful except the smoking areas. The casino is more smoky than the smokiest Vegas casino I have ever seen. The stench permeated the Heroes bar and the cooking class kitchen that are both adjacent to the casino. The smell from the other smoking area on the deck above the pool (11) wafted up to deck 12 where we were attempting to relax in lawn chairs.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5