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My teenage daughter and I both absolutely love it.

The bathrooms were the exact same size in an interior room, a balcony room, and a Havana cabana room when we were on Mardi Gras. We had connecting extended balconies (which turned out to be a lot of space) but as you mentioned, we spent very little time in our rooms and felt like it was not worth it. We have done both Mardi Gras and Celebration in various balcony rooms, but for our next trip I booked an interior (we really were only in our rooms to sleep). I am also wondering about the square interior rooms - we are booked in one on Jubilee, and am curious how people like them. It seems like a better space as the regular cabins are so narrow on the Excel class ships.

We were on Panorama in September. According to my Uber receipts, we were off the ship and in the car by 7:54 am. We do priority debarkation (because we are platinum) but if you have an early flight or other urgency, you can go to guest services and they will usually allow you into the priority debarkation group (if you aren't platinum/diamond).

Great review! This is one of my favorite ships. I totally agree with you on the food. I'm surprised how much the food quality can differ between Carnival ships. We were on Panorama in September and I thought the food was better than on Celebration last month (but overall no complaints). Even though we sailed during Hurricane Kay, it was a good experience and as soon as we got home, we booked Panorama again for July.

Although I totally agree with the comment above, it would be the only thing I would count as an advantage Celebration has over Horizon right now. These are my 2 favorite class of ships, and we've been on both in the last 5 months. Unfortunately for us, the Celebration crew was just not up to par. I know it's a new ship and the crew has not necessarily had a chance to get in sync yet, but they just seemed tired and unhappy. We experienced a lot of slow service and confusion. Unless the added dining venues are a big deal to you, I'd pick Horizon and the Southern itenerary in a heartbeat.

I was debating mentioning the differing crowd. 🙂 The last Journeys we did was Spirit to Hawaii and next we will do Spirit to New Orleans. I love the calmer atmosphere. But I've read here that you can expect a huge percentage of people to be Platinum/Diamond so our Platinum perks might not mean much.

That's a good point (Booze Cruise could be perspective) - we were on this one last year also, and there were a lot of great young families too. It's a school holiday and a great way to get some sunshine over the long weekend. But this is the only cruise where I've encountered someone vomiting in the hallway (after a day in Ensenada), so maybe that just traumatized me. I don't know if it was just my particular experiences, but I thought the miracle out of SF was a calmer/quieter crowd. But I enjoy both cruises/ships.

We have done this itenerary multiple times (on both Radiance and Miracle) and are booked for the upcoming President's day weekend on Radiance in 18 days. Yes, I would say they are booze cruises, but like any trip it's what you make of it and how much you let others impact your experience. I go into these cruises knowing what to expect. We drink very little, and for the most part go to bed fairly early and are up on the track first thing in the morning (and usually have it to ourselves as this is a crowd that sleeps in!). 🙂 I book a cabin that is way for forward or way aft to try to get a quieter location (mid ship near mid elevators are the worst for noisy people in the hallways). It's a very young crowd, and yes they can be loud, but I wouldn't say obnoxious (in my experience). We tend to do our own thing, avoid the clubs/crowds and just try to get some rest and relaxation. Since I'm still booking these cruises, they obviously don't bother me too much, but they are different from the 7 day (or longer) itineraries.

Well we finally decided to give up waiting on Carnival and booked our Europe cruise on another line (found a sale I didn't want to miss). So ... with my luck, Carnival will publish their Europe schedule any minute. 😄

Interesting - we are booked on Spirit Sept 19th - Oct 5th - I wasn't aware we were just prior to a dry dock.

We recently had the exact same problem on Celebration (we never fell but came close). There was a drain in the corner of our balcony but the water did not drain properly and instead pooled right in front of our door (not only on balcony cleaning day, but we also had rain). I would say the puddle was there for half our cruise. Not only a slipping hazard, but annoying to track dirty water into our cabin every time we went out on the balcony.

I was wondering about that too. We are trying to book May or June 2024 and although we prefer Carnival, we were going to discuss (tonight actually) if we should just book Royal. I'm glad you noticed that about Legend ... maybe I will give it a bit more time.

Just curious - which ship are you on?

If your trip were sooner, I would definitely recommend Mardi Gras, but hopefully by the time you go, the Celebration crew will be able to get their act together. We were on Mardi Gras in Aug. of 2021 and April of 2022 and absolutely loved it both times. We were just on Celebration earlier this month, and we definitely felt like the crew just was not in sync yet - there was lots of confusion, service was slow, the crew just seemed stressed out and tired. The ships themselves are the same for the most part. Your kids will love it - there is so much for them to do. The dining options are one of the main reasons we prefer the Excel class. Although we have no complaints about the MDR, we thought Cucina, Chibang, and Pig & Anchor restaurants were nice change of pace for no additional fee. On a 7-day cruise we felt like we barely had a chance to try all the dining options we wanted to.

We have been on the Breeze twice since cruising has resumed and it was a good experience both times. Yes, Thanksgiving is going to ensure a full ship and lots of kids, but it will be a bunch of families like your own (your kids will likely have a great time). I found the food to be fine (but will admit I'm not a foodie). I certainly never had trouble finding something good to eat. Yes, the lines for pizza will be long later in the evening when a show gets out and it's the only place to eat. The other place I remember seeing a really long line was Guys Burgers on embarkation day (but again, it's usually just timing). I think the cruise lines are doing well considering what they went through with the pandemic, but things won't be exactly the same. We have been on 12 cruises since the pandemic (all Carnival) and some ships are struggling more than others. On the Celebration recently, they just couldn't seem to get it together. Confusion/slow service, etc, but it is a new ship and the crew likely wasn't in sync yet.

I'm jealous of those who find Southwest to be a bargain. They typically are not the lowest price for our location, but many times offer the best schedule. We don't check bags, so even that is not a benefit to us. I have been watching their fares recently (was going to try to rebook some of my future flights if there were any deals) but not much luck. Yes, it was bad for PR and their 4th quarter reporting will take a hit, but for all the people I've seen on the news saying they will never fly Southwest again, their planes are still pretty booked up well into June (at least the flights I'm looking at).

I think you will have a great time - we have sailed Mardi Gras twice and enjoyed it so much we have already booked both her sister ships (Celebration and Jubilee). I have nothing against Freedom, but I think you will find Mardi Gras to be a whole new ballgame. 🙂

We are not loyal to any airline (we book the best price & schedule). I will admit, in past experience, we have had Southwest cancel a flight (connecting flight for a cruise) and lose our luggage. We fly a lot and have had issues with all the airlines at one time or another. Sometimes it's just timing and bad luck. We have a cruise related flight booked on 1/8 - Southwest will get things back to normal eventually (and we are optimistic it will be sooner than later, but if not, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it). I'm actually thinking about switching some of my currently booked flights (in Feb) TO Southwest as they have some really great deals (I'm guessing due to people cancelling?).

We are booked to fly home from our cruise on 1/8 on Southwest and we don't really have any other options (going between WA and FL so driving is not an option). We are optimistic that they will have this sorted out by then (fortunately we booked a different airline going to the cruise on Sunday).

You can apply it to your account at the kiosk or guest services as soon as you board.

We have done both of those cruises recently and would choose Sunrise (it was just a slightly better experience overall). But neither will compare to your Panorama cruise - it's one of my favorite ships (after the Excel class).

I have done flights out of LGB multiple times (as early as 10 am, getting off both Miracle and Radiance) with no issues. we use priority debarkation and only travel with carry-ons (but we had companions who checked bags and had plenty of time). We always use Uber/Lyft but it's also easy to get a taxi (and they are a set rate to LGB). Although I wouldn't hesitate to book a 10:25 flight, I will agree it doesn't leave a lot of spare time if something unexpected were to go wrong.

I'm jealous - LGB is my favorite airport (I love how you can wait out in the fresh air for your flight).

Which ship are you on? I hate to say it, but we had terrible tender issues on the Panorama a few months ago. We are platinum and had gotten instructions for early access to the tenders and got off fairly quickly. When we returned to the ship after a couple of hours, we realized people were still trying to get off the ship. At dinner that night, people were so upset - apparently some people decided not to even got off, afraid they'd have to turn around and try to get back on an hour later. I'm not sure what happened, but there were a lot of very unhappy people. Hopefully it was an isolated incident.

LAX is probably my least favorite airport, but it seems LGB just hasn't recovered from covid (tough to find decent flights there). The last time we flew to LAX for a cruise, we sat on the runway for 50 minutes after landing (waiting for a gate) - they are just so busy, so you are smart to go the night before. Anyway, just wanted to mention that you can't take an Uber/Lyft from the airport - you have to go to their ride share lot (not a big deal but it can be kind of confusing the first time). It takes about 15 minutes to walk there or a shuttle runs pretty consistently. It's just kind of a pain if you have a lot of luggage or someone with mobility issues.