juanarcin

I'm taking a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Panorama out of Long Beach and can't get a straight answer regarding MIL's travel requirements. She is a Mexican Citizen, with a permanent US residency and a Green Card. Her Passport was issued in Mexico. When filling out our online check-in it asked what documents she had and we put green card. It then asked for her Visa information, which she doesnt have. We called Carnival who told us to contact the consulate. Couldnt find a number for the consulate but found a form online which only has option to enter by land, also Puerto Vallarta isnt an option. I'm so lost at this point! Has anyone had experience with this? Our cruise is this Saturday! any help would be greatly appreciated!

To be clear I'm not asking about denying staff their tips. They earn and deserve those! But I don't understand why we are given one rate when we clearly have to pay more. Gratuity has always been voluntary money given for great service...up until the last decade or so at least. suddenly it's expected and added to everything! So I'm curious how you would feel if they just silently added the gratuity to the price and it was never brought up again. I think people would still tip their favorite bar tenders, room attendants etc. and the higher price would still get distributed to all the staff behind the scene...but it would give us an idea of the actual price up front while avoiding this charade that we are voluntarily giving money. It's even a set amount that we are "voluntarily" giving!

Makes sense, thanks for the info!

Just purchased unlimited dining package for Quantum in May and had a few questions. It said to select my reservation time for the first day but it didn't give me an option for what restaurant. Are they going to select one for me? If so can I change it? Is Wonderland included in this? I went once and it was an amazing experience, we found this itinerary specifically while looking up what ships had Wonderland on it. If it is included, can I go more than once? How do I make reservations? I tried making some but every time I do, I get asked to make payment for that specific reservation as if I were paying for each restaurant individually, I don't see an option to select that I already have UDP. Thanks!

I'm looking into cruising to Alaska, never been. I'm also about about 20 points from Diamond on RC and so I was considering doing my first B2B on the ovation when it moves to Seattle. My biggest thing is I want to see Glaciers! Is Glacier Bay the way to go? I may do princess or others that go to Glacier bay as half of the trip and RC the other half if I have to.

DW and I have been on 8 cruises and are about to go on our 9th with our parents and siblings, all first time cruisers! There will be about 8 of us and we are so excited to see them cruise for the first time. We were talking about putting together small gift bags for them with items people don't think to take on the first cruise. But I can't think of much besides sea sick medication, lanyards for sail passes, and maybe ear plugs lol. Ideas??

Hello all! DW and I are going to be cruising on the Carnival Panorama in December. This will be our 9th cruise, however we are taking our parents and it will be their first, Excited for everyone involved! One thing though is that our parents have never really "hung out". Mostly focused on our mothers for this post. They have met about 3 times during small events, and have been very friendly with each other however they are both the timid type and are mostly polite with each other. One thing to note is that they are both immigrated to the US as young adults and basically spent their lives struggling and working to provide for us. This means they never made many friends outside of their family, and sadly neither of them drink lol! They both have so much in common but if left alone would probably stick to smiles and small talk about the weather lol! However, we strongly believe they can have a blast together if they open up! We have no doubt that by the end of the cruise they will be very comfortable with each other, but we are wondering what we can do on the first day to make sure they start enjoying fully from day one as opposed to a few days in, after all this will be their first vacation ever! The environment is right so we know that no matter what they will have fun, but hopefully we get some ideas so they get the most out of this experience. Thanks!

Maybe see if you can hire a task rabbit to just meet you at the airport or port with the drinks 😋 might be cheaper than multiple ubers.

I always fly out for cruises since most have been European or Asian (I've only done 9), but right before the pandemic, I had some time off. I decided to take a solo cruise and skip the flight since I live in Los Angeles and have a port at driving distance. I booked a cruise to Ensenada on the Miracle and I was shocked at how bad of a time I had! The ship seemed like it was falling apart, the food was steps below other ships, the people were rude and aggressive... I didn't let it ruin my trip, but was just shocked as this single experience had tainted my idea that all cruises were amazing. I took another one about a year later on the Radiance and it was the same thing! I learned that booze cruises are not what I'm into. Now here we are years later and my wife and I decided to introduce some of our family to cruising. We were thinking of taking a small group somewhere like New Orleans, or New York and doing a cruise from there. But as we asked who would be interested we were surprised to see how many signed up...now with 15 people on board, we decided we should keep it simple and just have everyone drive down to Long Beach... you can see where this is going LOL! So obviously the Panorama is much newer and larger. But I have been hyping up cruises to my family and now that I will be taking 15 of them on one, I'm starting to get nervous. I'm concerned that the issues are more based on itinerary, locals (I'm from LA so I understand how "animated" we can be), or maybe even Carnival (most of my cruises have been RCL). But to be fair the other two ships were short 3-4 day cruises on old smaller ships. Our upcoming one will be 7 day on a newer larger ship. So I'm 95% positive it will be a closer experience to what I'm used to on my 11 day RCL cruises, but wanted to hear from others who have sailed out of long beach on these ships. I just need help going from 95% to 100%! LOL Either way I'm sure we will make the best of it and enjoy ourselves.

I don't drink tea or coffee (never been a fan of hot drinks). But I am taking a cruise and convinced my mom to join us, and she loves coffee and tea. I was debating getting her the unlimitted bubbles package for these items but see that it only includes soda and juices. I saw unlimited tea under the cheers package, but that seems like overkill just for tea since she doesn't drink alcohol and limits sugary drinks. I also saw specialty coffee under the cheers package but no sign of regular coffee. So it sounds to me like regular coffee is free? I read you can bring your own tea bags, is it easy to get hot water through out the ship? I've been on a little under 10 cruises but never pay attention these things since I dont drink these items! Please show me the ropes so I can let my mom know! 🙂

Good idea thanks!

How easy is it to find authentic Mexican food while in the ports the panorama stops at? Mazatlan and Cabo specifically. We are doing these ports on our own and we are Mexican American, we aren't fans of the Mexican food served near ports because they are heavily catered to American tourist, meaning they cook with items that aren't used in most authentic Mexican meals... salsa on the milder side (not as hot), American cheeses that melt, ground beef, etc. Im sure there's authentic food if we hunt it down, but wondering how common it is if you're on your own near the port?

We found a tour that can accommodate a small private group of up to 19 people in PV! I was concerned about this as well but luckily it worked out on this one port. Even better is that broken down per passenger, it still works out to a much better rate per person than any of the ships excursions. And for a much longer time. This is great for us because we can take advantage of the full 8 hour day offered since we will be in Port for 12 hours that day. Thanks!

Thank you for this! And for letting us have the bench! 😂 This actually sounds like a great plan, so much so that we may skip the tour and just do it on our own with the golf carts. I believe we are in Mazatlan from 6:30 am to 3pm so the amount of time we would be out would depend on how early everyone eakes up. As for your advice in PV, I believe we saw a 3rd party excursion service that can accommodate a private group of ip to 19 people. So that may turn out to be the only port where we do an excursion since everything else sounds so doable. Your replies truly answered so many questions for me and now I'm even more excited! One last question (I feel like now I'm Taking advantage lol.. Sorry). We are actually Mexican American and all speak Spanish fluently, so that helps but it also means that we many of us will be very picky about eating americanized Mexican food made for tourist... Especially when we are aware of the great local flavors. If we stick to those recommended locations in mazatlan and cabo, how likely are we to find authentic food? I figure with a private guide in PV doing a custom tour we have a greater chance of eating authentic... Though I'm very much aware of the possibility of them taking us to restaurants that pay them per customer. But that's something we can discuss with them. Once again thank you for all your help, it was more info than I was expecting and I'm grateful that you practically planned out everything for us! You laid out a great road map for us to follow, my family and I all thank you!

Thank you so much for the detailed info! This sounds doable, I believe getting in the tender will be fine but if course I won't speak for them. Once they see it, they can decide, snd if they can manage the rest should be fine. Thanks again!

anyone know if King David Tours is till available? We were really excited about the Jungle tour (which we cant find from any other vendor), but when we fill out the form to purchase it just says the total comes out to $0.00 and once its calculated $0 selecting any other date just says nothing is available...but I am talking about any date for the entire year! Hope its still an option.

My wife and I are doing the Panorama in December. We are taking 12 first time cruisers with us. among them are my in-laws and my mother. One concern of ours is that we will be focusing a lot on our parents who, while arent using any type of mobility assistance (scooters, walkers, canes etc) they still have a bad knee or need a rest after a block or two They can keep walking but will have to stop for about 5 minutes every 2k steps or so. With that in mind, I have a few questions regarding these ports. For Cabo, we are interested in a boat ride to the arch. However, Carnival has one for 45 min. We're not excited about getting dropped back onto the ship after 45 min in port. Would we be allowed to opt for staying out there and wondering on our own, then taking a cab back? Or are there private boat tours within a short walking distance of the port? For Mazatlan and PV, just wondering how easy it is to get to the port to meet with third party excursions. Thanks!

I saw someone posted the Fun Times and it does show 2 formal nights. I thought there would only be one, but that was helpful to learn. Thanks for keeping an eye out, I'm curious to see what you find out on your cruise, I'm envious, wish i was going this week haha, have fun!!

I've sailed with carnival and am very familiar with how laid back they are! I dont go all out on formal nights, I just have a regular button up shirt. but I was surprised to learn many in my group were very interested in dressing up, so I thought I'd get some info for them. thanks

Thank you so much! this shows 2 casual nights. I think this is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

Going on the Panorama in December for a 7 day cruise with a group of 14. My wife and I are the only ones who have cruised so 12 first timers are looking to us for advice and questions. The subject came up of formal night and white clothing (on a recent cruise on the Oasis), and we were asked how they could learn of the different themes that might happen during the cruise so they could prepare. We have no idea as we rarely participate in formal night or the white theme, so we dont prepare for those nights. Any idea how those in our group who are interested can get info on upcoming dress themes?

Hi, I booked a few rooms for a family cruise. One room has both my parents on it, but now my dad can't go. I emailed my TA to change it to be just my mom but they emailed me saying the price would only drop by $50.00, which doesn't surprise me, but what did surprise me was that there is a $150.00 dollar fee to update the paperwork! so it will actually be an extra hundred dollars to remove him! So I'm wondering, what happens if he's just a no show? We would likely avoid those fee but will we still have to pay his gratuities, taxes and fees?

I was on the Oasis a week ago, it was my first time on this size ship and I loved it! However the app was more of a headache, maybe I was doing something wrong? There were many minor issues, such as my phone not always working to open the door, no biggie. incorrect times for restaurants openning/closing...no biggie. Passing by bars / lounges and seeing activities that arent on the app...somewhat of a biggie. I found myself not looking at the printed version of the daily schedule because I was relying on the app, so it sucked to see, days into the cruise, that I had been missing things. For example I marked all the karaoke events in my reminders, I believe their were like 3. But almost every time I passed the karaoke lounge, there was karaoke happening...but not shown in the app! A basic issue...why would it give you every single thing happening on the ship for the entire week, but not have the itinerary! Everytime we wanted to remind ourselves what time we docked or how long we would be in port, or where we would be on what day, we would have to ask someone because it isnt on the app! sure you can go through the calendar and scroll through all the events until you see something like "All aboard" under 7pm. but that means I have to scroll through 5, 5:30, 6, 6:30, and finally 7...oh ok we leave at 7. Instead of just having a calendar of ports and times. Another big issue for me (and many guests) was that it allowed people to rsvp stuff for multiple days, preventing others from enjoying them. Main example, the comedy club. 2 comedy shows every night, and we learned it's the SAME comedy show every night. So some people rsvp both shows for every night. go to the first show, then the second...realize its the same and just stop going. But now each show is full and we all have to wait in the non rsvp line until 5 min before the show, and that line starts forming an hour before the event, only to walk into an empty room. But my biggest issue with the app was that it seems to block your calendar if you already have something set. so on the first day of the cruise, I went through all the events and added a LOT of things to my calendar. trivia, live music, games, etc. My week was practically booked. I figured I'd get the reminder and decide if I wanted to go or not, but at least I would know somethign Im interested in is happening. But now for the rest of the cruise, if we wanted to rsvp a dinner or anything, we would get an error saying that we already have something scheduled for that time. so I found myself having to constantly go back and forth cancelling multiple things in order to plan dinners. It got old real quick. I love the idea of the app and hope it improves because the things that did work, made our cruise a better experience, but the things that didnt made us feel like we missed out on things or added some frustration. If it werent for that vacation happiness we felt the entire time, this would have been a bigger issue! lol, but wondering what everyone elses thoughts are on the app?