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I am curious as well.  We are on the Magic in November out of Miami.  We have never sailed on this class of ship before so all tips are welcome.

21 hours ago, braveslake said:

There is a Coffee Shop on Deck 5 near the Ocean Plaza which was very busy. Not sure if it had the Java Blue name though!

 

Thanks!  As long as the coffee is good, the name doesn't matter!

Our experience on the Panorama the last couple of times is that the tables by the window were usually tables for 8 people.  Most of the 2-person tables were closer to the aisles.   It may have changed though.

Panorama had it on the first day of both of our cruises last year.  Hands down the best cake all week on the "Cake Bar".

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.  We are going on the Magic next November for the first time.  From a quick glance at the ship's layout it looks a lot like the Panorama which we've been on a few times and enjoyed.  Do you remember if there was a Java Blue on board?

We haven't had any good offers in about a year.  We aren't huge gamblers so we never get casino offers.  The last time we received great offers was when they first started back after Covid.

I believe it's always been at 3:00 on sea days.  The last time we went it took place in the main dining room.  They seat you as you arrive, so most of the time you are sitting with whomever arrives at the same time as you.  Once a table is full they seat people at the next table.  

It's actually quite nice, and it wasn't all older folks.  There was a wide range of ages.

On our last cruise we had late seating, and the group that was at our table for early seating showed up 30-45 minutes late every night (according to our servers).  This put a lot of stress on the servers to get them out of there in time for us to show up on time.  We had to wait a couple of times so they could clear and reset our table which was not fun.  I would recommend getting Your time dining if you don't think you can make it on time every night.

I did a quick search and nothing came up.

20 hours ago, kdr69 said:

Just off the Panorama for second time and most of the time folks just waited for someone else to pick a floor and hopped on totally defeating the way the elevators are designed to work then were quick to comment on how the elevators were stopping on each floor when it was full of people.  Some cant be bothered learning how to use the technology.  Tried to explain it to folks but they just shrugged and said hate them.

We noticed that too.  It was really annoying that people didn't even want to TRY to understand how it is supposed to work.  Some people just jumped on whatever elevator opened up, and then complained about the lack of buttons inside for them to choose a floor.

41 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

It looks like they are only there to lure folks back to give cruising a try. I booked a different rate and didn't use the free/$10/$20/$150 casino code offer because of a scheduling conflict. That conflict has resolved itself and I went back today to try and book one in March and all of those deals have been pulled now. It was there for a few days after booking. Guess I missed the boat, quite literally lol.  

Same with me.  Once we booked a cruise all of those good rates disappeared.

23 hours ago, Sailing Smooth said:

We got a cruise over spring break (6 day Horizon) for $200/person in a balcony.  I've never seen anything that cheap, and we don't gamble more than $10 in a quarter machine.  Great deals!

We also got a balcony on the 7-day Panorama for $212 per person.   Great deal!  Not as good as free, but I never get the free cruise offers.

On 2/23/2022 at 11:05 AM, shortyjoesmith said:

I went to the simple black background for pictures with my granddaughter, had no idea it was the more expensive photos. Eventually after the sticker shock and some back & forth, I was able to pick 3 plus the digital rights for around $300. Pricey but worth it for the edited pics for the two of us. 

 

With that  in mind, I will forever skip the simple black backgrounds. 😉

Same thing happened to us.  They made us make an appointment to come back and view them, which I did not understand at the time.  I had no idea they were different than the regular pictures.  I really liked one of them, but the photographer told us all or nothing.  So we said nothing, and he got kind of snippy with us.  The pictures were not worth $899 by any stretch of the imagination.

The excursion we are looking at would be on March 30

On 2/11/2022 at 1:23 PM, jas283a said:

How late in March? When we went in March 2 years ago, it was around the 21st and we saw plenty of whales. 

The excursion date would be March 30.

I do see that Carnival offers a whale watching excursion, but I have read that the whales are pretty much gone by then.  It's not a cheap excursion, so I do not want to waste my money if the whales are pretty much gone by then.

Great information!  I think we will skip the overpriced ship excursions and do our own thing now.

On 1/21/2022 at 3:50 PM, scpirate said:

It better be twice a day or i am removing gratuities.

On the Panorama we were asked if we wanted morning or evening service.  Both was not an option.

Just an FYI--In the past you were allowed to get the cheesecake "to go", but since Covid the waitress told us they are not allowed to do that anymore.  However, she suggested that she bring it to the table, we don't eat it and she can then bring us a to go box.  This makes no sense, but there you go.

Back in October  I'm pretty sure we had to be completely out of our cabin by 7:30-8:00.  Most people were out and eating breakfast by 7:30.

We just got off on Saturday.

We've been on 12 cruises and this one has been my favorite by FAR.  The ship was about half full so there were no lines anywhere!  We walked in all the production shows, comedy shows and everything else at the last minute and had our choice of many seats.  The absolute best part was that we were able to get a lounge chair by any pool, or the Serenity Deck even at 10:30!  No more fighting the chair savers that got up at the crack of dawn!

Lee the cruise director and his fun squad were fantastic!  JJ and Celine Dijon in particular were great!  One thing I would like to say is that I have never seen so much cleaning going on.  The crew were constantly wiping everything down, including condiment bottles, hand rails, elevator buttons, etc. They also were changing out the utensils in the buffet line a few times every hour.  The ship looks brand new, and we found it to be extremely clean and well cared for.

As for suggestion for what to do on the ship, the entertainment was timed perfectly.  We had early seating for dinner, and got out in an hour or less, so we made it to the 7:30 show, as soon as that ended the comedians were getting ready to start, as soon as the comedy show was over the piano bar was starting, and there was always live entertainment in other venues like the Ocean Plaza, Pig and Anchor, and other lounges.  They had TONS of trivia contests if that is your thing.  Bingo, karaoke and dive-in movies were frequently going on as well.  You will always find something going on if you are looking.  The only thing I think was missing was the high tea on the last sea day.

I'm not sure what was going on in the Havana area because we did not have a room there.  We had a deluxe ocean view with the 2 bathrooms which was the greatest thing ever!  One was the regular bathroom with a shower stall, large vanity and toilet, and the other bathroom was a tub/shower combo and extra sink.  It made getting ready at night so easy!

The crew members were outstanding, as were the other guests.  We met so many nice people on this cruise.  I don't know if people were just happy to be cruising or what, but everyone was super friendly!  I only saw one woman who was really nasty to the poor guy serving bacon in the buffet.  There was a short line of maybe 3-4 people, and she marched to the front and stood kind of on the side of him.  When he didn't see her right away she barked at him and said "I'M WAITING" in a nasty tone.  Takes all kinds.

The Alchemy Bar was great, as always.  The only disappointing thing for us was the MDR food.  The general consensus among guests was that Carnival is not trying too hard because they want you to spend the money in the other pay restaurants.  We did the steakhouse, and it was not as good as it has been in the past.  We ordered the surf and turf and the lobster tail was about 5 inches long and the filet was a little bigger than a silver dollar.  It used to be much bigger.

Whatever you do, don't forget sunblock!  It was not sold anywhere on the ship, and with 2 sea days up front it isn't easy to get some in port.  Apparently they are having trouble with their supplier, which is not their fault.

One other thing that I wasn't fond of--in the nice jewelry gift shop on board we bought a watch for my husband.  They gave you raffle tickets and told us to come back the next day to try to win a $500 gift card for the Fun Shops.  When we went to the raffle the next day the person who won the gift bag opened it up, and we all watched to see what was in it.  There was a Carnival silvertone (not silver) bracelet, a baseball cap, a shawl of some kind, a t-shirt and a coupon for $200 off $1000 or more in Effy diamonds.  Everyone was really mad, and no one in the shop mentioned anything about the supposed $500 raffle.  It was weird, but did not hamper our enjoyment of the cruise.

The ship docked in Long Beach at about 8:45.  They started letting platinum and suite guests off at about 9:15.  After them they were calling people carrying their own luggage by their MUSTER STATION numbers.  This seemed to confuse some people.  We were B5 and got off at about 10:00.  After the people carrying their own luggage they were going to let off the people with the lower luggage tags.   However, if you have an early flight I would suggest letting them know and carrying your own luggage off.  An 11:50 flight is going to be really tight.

If you have any specific questions please let me know!

Thanks for taking the time to post this!  We are on the Panorama on October 9, and reading your review just ramped up the excitement!

Did you go to the specialty coffee place?  Were there any late night snacks anywhere?

Great review!  I always like when reviews tell the good and the bad because I've never had a totally perfect or completely horrible cruise.  It's usually somewhere in the middle.

Did you happen to notice if they had the cake station in the Lido?  If so, were there any other desserts to choose from?  My husband hates cake and he will be pretty disappointed if there is nothing else.

The Spicy Chipotle Pineapple martini from Alchemy is outstanding!  I could go for one right now! 🍸

23 hours ago, pinto18 said:

I am suddenly not so optimistic about our October cruise....

Me either.  We are scheduled to be on October 9.

Wonderful review so far!  I love seeing the pictures of the food.  Most of it looks nothing like I imagined!