Adventures in Mexico!
Carnival Panorama Cruise Review to Mexico
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 20
8 Night Mexican Riviera (Los Angeles Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 07, 2023
Ship: Carnival Panorama
Cabin number: 8374
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 7 months ago
Review summary
While there were a few disappointments, mostly because Hurricane Lidia caused some itinerary changes, we had a great time overall! There was plenty of fun to be found, both on board and at the ports, plus lots of relaxing down time. A real vacation!! And the food and service was excellent on the Panorama.Embarkation
We left four hours late, in the dark, because fog kept the refueling barge from getting to the ship. Wasn't anyone's fault, just a little disappointing. However, the entrance to the ship could have gone better. We had a scheduled time in the afternoon to get on board and arrived early, to find they were letting everyone on at once. They did not follow they system to spread everyone out, so we ended up in long stand-still lines. Then once we got through the long lines, we found out they would not let us into our rooms until 2:30 instead of 1:30. We sat bored in an elevator foyer over 90 minutes because we didn't want to haul our luggage around while trying to find something to eat.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We mostly used the main dining rooms and buffets. All the food was great and well stocked. We ate very well!
Onboard Activities
We enjoyed the giant water slide, even though I'm not usually a water park person. My husband did the ropes course and thought it was great! And the sky ride was lots of fun in spite of my fear of heights. 2nd time was better than the first time around. We would have done these more, but the final day was too windy and all of these were closed. Again, only Mother Nature's fault.
Entertainment
Loved the Iliad Trio strings group and Wild Embers guitar/singer. We watched their performances over and over! Ace Dyamante was good, as well. Panorama stage shows were very well done! Comedy was OK but only watched one show and that was enough.
Service and Staff
The service across the entire ship was amazing. Everything was kept clean and organized. No matter who on the staff we talked to or passed, they were all extremely friendly. Robi was our room steward and he was wonderful! It felt great to have him greet us by name every time we saw him in the hall, and he attended our room well.
Ship Quality
Everything was clean and well-maintained. There was always someone around cleaning and perfecting their area. It didn't take us long to figure out the layout of the ship, and it was easy to find where we were going. My only complaint is that on level 5 near the fun shops, while watching the performers in the atrium, there was a lot of concentrated cigarette smoke. Made it quite uncomfortable to watch the performers from that top level.
Cabin / Stateroom
The bed was very comfortable, and the size of the room was perfect for us. We are both small, so we imagine larger people would have a more cramped experience in the bathroom and shower. Robi kept our room very clean! We decided the middle of level 8 was the best place to be to get to food and fun quickly by using the stairs. Just go up or down a few levels, and we were right there at the action! We rarely used the elevators because the stairs were so convenient.
Ports of call
Long Beach (Los Angeles), California
Didn't do anything here except get on and off the ship. We tried to see the Queen Mary but it was mostly blocked with some local event and found out we couldn't explore without having a room there.
Thumbs Up
0
This was our most fun adventure. Dock a 1/2 star for all the pushy salespeople, but we got a local boat tour to see El Arco, sea life and surrounding rocks, plus got dropped off for an hour at Lover's Beach to enjoy the scenery. We didn't realize we would have to jump from the boat into the surf to access the beach, but we dried off eventually!
This was the smallest port and our first stop off the boat. Apparently this was the first time this cruise had stopped in this port, so it was a little unorganized. (They ran out of free shuttle passes really quickly, and then we had to wait a long time for any taxis to show up.) Once we got to La Paz the city, it seemed most people stayed within about a 3-block area if not doing an excursion. We chose to walk most of a mile each way to see the small whale museum "Museo de la Ballena". We paid about $4.50 USD each for an English-speaking guide to give us a 45-minute tour. Hot and humid, but it was interesting enough. Prices were lower outside the main tourist area.
We got a taxi outside the cruise terminal to be transported to El Faro, the lighthouse hike. It was hot and humid, but it was beautiful and well worth the effort! Flora (flowers, vines, and crazy cacti) and fauna (butterflies, iguanas, birds, and feral cats) galore! Easy to get a taxi ride back to the cruise terminal. We did not explore further.
Disembarkation
Once again, we were disappointed that they lumped us with the masses when trying to exit. We tried the "express" exit by keeping our luggage with us and then waited for them to call every muster station to exit except ours. When they finally called ours so we could exit, they also started naming a long list of others not in the "express" group. We were again packed into long lines that we thought we were going to avoid because of a system put in place they did not seem to follow. We took the Carnival transport bus to LAX and were very glad we made that choice.