Ranyw

Our family doesn’t rush.  We’re lucky to drive to the port.  We’re always one of the last to debark.  On our last cruise we had someone from the fun squad approach us and say seriously you need to leave already 🤣🤣🤣.

I’ve called my pvp at carnival in the past and she’s been able to get an extension.

16 hours ago, pierces said:

I'm not a video guy, but I would think that the basics apply. Too much is entirely dependent on the destination and what you expect to shoot. I used to pack 35-40lbs of equipment for any trip, "just in case". It took a while, but I learned from experience what I likely needed based on the destination. I still take a full bag with two bodies and 4-5 lenses to Alaska but now I only take my phone on a 4-day to Catalina and Ensenada (my Pixel 8 Pro is equal to or better than almost any compact camera and even older DSLRs). An exception was on a recent 4-day with the grandkids where I took my A7rV with a 24-105 zoom to shoot their activities, so factor that in since you have kids. On our recent cruise to Italy and the Greek isles I planned on a lot of walkabout shooting so I took the A7rV/24-105 combo, and of course, the phone with about a 50/50 split in photos taken between the two. 

 

Do some research, plan ahead and pack accordingly. 

 

Oh, another thing I learned...don't get so wrapped up in recording your trip that you forget to enjoy it.

 

Dave

 

 

Thanks Dave,

I actually have the opposite problem, I get so wrapped up with the kids that I forget to capture the moments.  I’m still working on that perfect balance of being in the moment but capturing the memory.

Hi, just want to get some opinions.  I started packing my gadget bag for our trip and it filled up pretty quickly.  I started with my GoPro 12 creator edition, now that has its little case with accessories.  Then I always take my GoPro max to take some 360 video but I end up using it very minimally.  Then you add on another small case for a GoPro pole, various mounting adapters chargers, batteries, extra film etc.  Lastly I take my InstaGo 2 to mount on my kids to get a POV.  Of course another small pouch for a usb charging hub to charge the family’s electronics, even more cables and battery banks.

My backpack is filled to the brim. I admit I get that FOMO (fear of missing out) but I end up overpacking.
 

What do you take on your trip?

Just some clarification for those that don’t know.  Because there is so much congestion at LAX, there moved all the Uber and Lyft’s to an area called LAX-it (a pun on exit).  You need to take a dedicated shuttle from the terminal’s to the rideshare area.  It’s an extra step, at some point they area installing a people mover / tram to ease that also.

If you don’t mind paying multiple taxis /ubers.  You could get down to bayside marketplace, it’s about 20 mins from the airport .  I remember they had a spot to grab breakfast.  It’s also about a 30 min walk to the port or a 5-10 min car ride. You could grab a bite or a coffee there, but you’ll have the headache of lugging your bags around.

I’m unfamiliar with the port there, but our home port of Long Beach will allow you to drop bags at the porters early but discourage early check in.

My first cruise was on the Carnival Pride in 2005 from Long Beach to the Mexican riviera.  Not to date myself but there was fruit punch dispensed from the machines in addition to the lemonade and iced tea.  Oh yea and there was a top optional funnel deck and a grand midnight buffet.

There are two hotels about a quarter mile from the port, the hotel maya and I forget the other one.  You could walk over to the port.  I wonder f it’s possible to just park at the queen Mary and walk over next door to the port?

@bevans Please update us, I’m curious what happens?

Thanks for taking the time to save and post these.

We researched prior to our cruise we decided we wanted to spend the day at the Westin Puerto Vallarta.  I found a site called Resort pass dot com that can sell you passes prior to arriving.  I thought I would be smart and just go straight to the hotel and pay for the passes in person and bypassing the middle man to save a few dollars.  I was wrong, I was told at the from desk that they work exclusively with Resort pass and I would have to book it with them first and show my confirmation in order to get access.  I used the hotel’s wifi and booked for our family and paid a total of $249.04.  This was for 3 adults and a child.  This included using all of the facilities at the hotel and food and drink at 20% off the posted rates.

The hotel has beautiful grounds, the lobby was amazing.  We are totally considering having a land vacation at this hotel in the future.

I can whole heartedly say it was worth every penny.  The pool was just slightly warmed and the ambiance was amazing.  Swaying palm trees and birds of different colors flying overhead.  The pools are just steps away from the beach.  There was a swim up bar in one of the pools and a separate hot tub.  There was also a child play area with a tree house and some water features.

We found 5 pool loungers in a private corner of the pool.  There was no foot traffic there whatsoever, it felt private.  They do offer cabanas on the sand for an additional fee.  The kids wanted to be in the pool and this gave us the perfect balance.

We of course had lunch.  Nachos, tacos, fruit plates, veggie plate with dips and even a cheese pizza.  The food was fresh and fresh out of the kitchen.

After a full day enjoying the sun, it was time to leave the hotel and make our way back to the ship.  The ship stayed very late at this port and had a all aboard time of like 8:30pm.  We got back to the ship freshened up and left again to go to the Walmart across the street from the pier.

We stocked up on Coke-Cola and the kids grabbed some snacks.  The Walmart also offers souvenirs like keychains, mugs and shirts at a great price.  We explored the different Mexican products.  At checkout you can use US dollars to pay, but will get Mexican Peso in change.  You can also use your credit or debit card.

We then made our way back to the ship to get ready for the MDR.  Here are some photos of food from the MDR.  I really need to work on taking pictures before digging in.

4/3/2024 - Wednesday - Mazatlan

In the past we’ve just exited the port area and walked the blue line.  If it’s your first time to Mazatlan. The city has actually painted a blue line on the street / sidewalk from the port exit right to downtown.  You can’t get lost and there is plenty of police and tourist assistance on the way if you have any questions.  We usually visit the large cathedral and browse the local market.  This time I wanted to shake things up.

I did my research here on cruise critic and also on YouTube.  I was interested in Stone Island.  I found a tour company online called Mazatlan tours.  They offered a package for the whole family for $177.00.  The website charged me $77 and the balance of $100 was due at the time of boarding.  They would include pick up at the port, transportation to the catamaran dock, a 30 minute Marina tour then off to stone island.  Once at stone island we would have a tractor take us to a beachside restaurant with an open bar, lunch and we could select a couple of activities to do such as boogie boarding, horse back rides etc.

Let me say that this was a very authentic experience.  I’d say it was about 90% locals and 10% tourists.  I LOVE these types of experiences.  The transportation we got from the Ship pier was a pickup that had been converted to a taxi.  It had two benches that face each other with a small metal gate to keep you from falling out of the back of the pickup.  There was one other family (father and son) from the ship that went with us.

The catamaran dock was only a 7 minute ride from the ship terminal.

Once we arrived at the tour dock we paid our balance for the tour and we are given bracelets and paper voucher to exchange for lunch / activities.  The other family with us mentioned that if we had booked directly with the local tour operator that we would have paid about half the price.  When the gate was opened there was a mad rush to board the catamaran, everyone was given a life jacket but there wasn’t enough seats for everyone.  Most people reserved seats, but stood up the whole time dancing or taking photos of the scenery.  There was a DJ on the catamaran that was hyping up the tour and playing salsa music.  Most of the dialogue was in Spanish, however once they realized there was a few gringos on the catamaran they pointed out some things in English.   There was also a bar onboard for drinks.

I found out later that Stone island really isn’t an island.  It’s more of a peninsula and it’s just a cross the harbor from where the panorama was docked.  Once the catamaran docked we exited and waited for our chariot to arrive.  There were plenty of vendors selling fruit, home made doughnuts, key chains and one man even had a monkey in a diaper for photo ops.

The tractor arrived, it felt familiar like the tractor rides at the pumpkin patch for Halloween.  There were 3 trailers that we piled into being pulled by a farm type of tractor.  It was a short 6-7 minute ride to the beach side restaurant.  We all got refreshments and waited for the lunch.  You had a choice of a fish fillet or bbq chicken. Either was accompanied by rice and beans and a small house salad.  They also had a larger menu of reasonable priced options like ribs, burgers and whole fish.

My daughter was so excited to go on a horse ride.  She has private lessons once a week at home so she wanted to show off her skills.  She wanted all of us to ride.  Who I am I to say no?  There was one man at the restaurant that spoke English and was the trip coordinator.  He pointed out where the horses were.  This was in a no way a professional operation.  It seemed like a local rancher and his daughter had 5 or 6 horses that would offer rides in exchange for a coupon that we were given on the catamaran.   I’m assuming the horses had done this a 1,000 times as the horse was on cruise control and knew where to go.  This was the first time me and the wife had been on a horse.  My son has had rides before at the local ranch.

We mozzied down the dirt road and then turned onto the beach where I held on for dear life.  I was petrified and my family was just laughing away.  Seriously we were going about 1mph.  The ranchers daughter snapped some nice pics of us.

After the wife and daughter headed to the shore to look for more sea shells.  Me and my son sat and listened to the mariachi bands play special requests.  There were so many vendors that had some good deals.  We got a dozen key chains for just $5 usd.

Before we knew it we were told it was time to reboard the tractors as we had to head back to the catamaran.  I grabbed A fresh coconut for $1.50 to enjoy on our ride back.  There were many people from our ship that were on this tour.

Once back to the catamaran we boarded and it was a quick 5 minutes back to the tour dock.  This is where it got a little dicey.  I’d say they were about 200 people on that boat.  The tour coordinator disappeared and we were sort of left on our own to find a return to the cruise ship.  200 people were running along side the sidewalk trying to disperse.  I heard some of the fellow cruise passengers asking for their ride back to the ship.  I just took matters in my own hands and  I flagged down a taxi while all the chaos was going on and was told it would be $10 back to the cruise port.

Let’s go!  Once back to the cruise port we quickly browsed the gift shops and made way to the ship.  We managed to snap a picture with Deon the cruise director before boarding the ship.

If you're courageous enough to do this tour, my advice.  Book directly with the tour operator.  You will probably save and have a great experience.

A few pics from dinner, my son really enjoys the "Showtime" in the MDR.

4/2/2024 - La Paz - Tuesday

This was port was the main reason we picked this cruise.  We have never been to La Paz and were excited to try a new port.  The ship actually docks in Port of Pichillingue.  Carnival provided free shuttle bus’s for the 30 minute ride into town.  The bus will stop at the beach if you want about half way to town and drop you off there. 

This was the beach stop for those who wanted to stay there.  Odd note, if you opted to get off here and wanted to return to the ship, you have to catch the next bus which will take you to downtown bus depot, then you return back to the ship.

Once in town we had a plan of walking along the Malecone (The Boardwalk / beach walk), visiting the church and having Lunch at either Mr. krispy or Tex burger.  Today was a cool breezy day.  We didn’t let it ruin our experience.  The church is a short walk uphill from the bus terminal.  We made our way up the uneven sidewalks to the church.  I always find older church’s to be very inspiring.  We try to be as respectful as possible.  Unfortunately we tend to have shorts on due to the weather.  After we finished exploring the church we stumbled onto a local grocery store to explore the local options.

When I was younger I used to watch a show by a man called Rick Steves.  He is a travel enthusiast and one the main reasons i enjoy traveling.  He always encourages the traveler to not dine in the most touristy spot but rather where the locals eat to get a sense of how the locals live.  When I’ve visited Europe I followed his advice and went to a local grocery store and picked up some odds and ends and had a picnic with a view of the Eiffel Tower.  That’s a story for another blog.

After the church my daughter wanted to walk along the beach to see if she could find any sea shells.

When I was researching La Paz, I found two local places Mr. Krispy (A fried chicken place) and Tex burger.  We swung by around 1:30 and was told by both places that they were not open yet and didn’t expect to open until 3pm.  We had a deadline to get onboard the bus to head back to the pier.  We walked around the boulevard and found a small pub that had a decent menu.  I think it was called Cornelio Cantina?  We grabbed a quick bite and made our way back to the bus terminal.  We ordered a couple tacos, chips, mini burger sliders, fries and sodas.  The total was about $75 (surprised at the price?  Higher than I had expected.) But the view was nice, it was nice and breezy.

We devoured the food, then realized that we didn't take any photos.

Here is a picture of the bus depot.  Notice the line of people that were waiting for a shuttle return trip back to the pier.  The line moved pretty fast, only took about 10 minutes for us to board the bus.

At the port in La Paz, there are the usual vendors inside the port area with local wares.

Sorry for the delay ! Been working through some health issues.  On with the show!!

2 hours ago, dctravel said:

Any idea if the Westin pool is heated?

It actually was!  It was the perfect temperature.  

5 hours ago, pinto18 said:

The prices in Cabo on the beach are pretty similar to the US. Most other places in Mexico you will find it less expensive 

They are.  I know some ports can be a bargain, but Cabo is not.  Reminds me of our trip to Vegas last year.  We stayed at the Wynn.  While at the pool we ordered wings, chips and salsa, 2 mai Thais and 2 bottles of water and the total was $130.

Your paying for the ambiance in Cabo.

38 minutes ago, PaddleAddict said:

Thank you so much for this! Would you recommend the West specifically or should I look for something else?

My wife actually liked the Westin so much she’s considering doing a land vacation there.  But I’d browse the photos and see which layout you like best.  Most of the hotels will be on the beach, just depends which layout you like most.  Have a great time !

We tend to get a day pass at a hotel.  In puerto Vallarta we went to the Westin which is an on beach resort.  You have the options of the manicured beach or you can always fall back on the multiple pools they have.  Plus it’s nice to have amenities such as a bathroom, showers and food as you need it.  I used a site called resort pass .com and you can browse the options.  In the pass the waves have been pretty knarly and there were riptides.  Wasn’t like the brochure.

8 hours ago, Roxxy said:

Loving your review!

You said you had ticket #23 for a 10:30 tender ??  What time did your ship dock?

Hi there!  Sorry I don't remember.  I looked at the time stamp from the camera when I snapped a photo on board the tender, it was 11:49am.  However, I am not sure if that was ship time or port time?

In previous experience dock time is never guaranteed.  If the seas are rough it can be delayed, once it was a bit windy and they kept having to move the ship around which caused delay.

18 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Lunch at The Office looked great! Do you remember how much was the total bill? Thx!

Hello, I can do one better,  Here is a copy of our receipt.  I believe at the time $1 US dollar was about 15.6 Mexican Pesos.

10 hours ago, pghsteelerfan said:

Great start to your review!  We just sailed on Panorama last October and did the 8-day, same as you.  Our itinerary had to be rearranged due to Tropical Storm, then Hurricane Lidia.  Instead of our first port being Cabo, we had a sea day.  La Paz and Mazatlan were as scheduled.  We missed Puerto Vallarta but went to Cabo instead for one full day and were in Cabo again the next day for a half day.  We loved Panorama, nice layout.  The largest ships we've been on prior were the Conquest Class so wasn't sure how we'd feel about being on a ship as large as Panorama but we really thought the layout was designed well and it never felt crowded/or were sailing with almost double the amount of passengers we're used to.  I'm looking forward to following along for the rest and thank you for taking the time to do a review.  I've done reviews in the past but failed to do one for Panorama.  We just took in the cruise this time. 

Hi! This was the largest ship we have sailed on.  I've always said that my favorite are the Spirit class ships.  My only gripe about this ship was the aft elevator bank.  We waited upwards of 15 minutes for an elevator only for it to arrive packed, even though we pushed our selected floor 4 times to accommodate for our family.

3 hours ago, LaRue1975 said:

 

 

Lastly they had these Rubber ducky Lanyards at Cherry on top marked down to $1.75.  I bought one for each of us.  Not to sound old fashioned but, I’m not into the new lanyard styles that have the boat wheel at the bottom, makes the lanyard feel too bulky for me

 

The hubby and I didn’t like the heaviness and length of the new lanyards so he took the boat wheels off and they are perfect now. I am going to put cruise pics in the boat wheels and use them for Christmas ornaments. I’m enjoying your review, we did this cruise over New Years and had a fantastic time. It was raining before we boarded also and the parking ticket machine was broken back then too. The port is really dropping the ball on this issue as it makes the drive in so much longer, just fix the dang thing! 😡 I am looking forward to the rest of your report, thanks! 

 

 

That's a great idea turning them into ornaments.  I agree that the port needs to expand, especially now that they will have 3 large ships sailing out of there.  They need to consider putting in another parking structure.

4/1/2024 - Monday - Cabo San Lucas

Cabo is a tender port.  This means that the ship will anchor away from the shore and smaller ships will help shuttle the passengers back / forth from the pier.  ADVICE:  Check the Fun times to see when they will distribute the free tickets to board the tender boats.  Normally, the VIFP Platinum and higher will go first, then faster to the fun purchasers then Carnival Excursion ticket holders will be allowed to depart initially.  Then they will start calling our the ticket numbers.  Once all the tickets numbers are called it is then all the rest of the passengers that didn’t have any of the above.

TIP:  Before leaving the boat, take a moment to look at your fun times and take a picture of the contact information for the port agent.  God forbid you have an emergency or are late running back to the ship you can reach out to the port agent for assistance.  No guarantee the ship will wait, but at least you have an ally there.

We were able to get ticket #23.  This would put us on shore at an estimated 10:30 - 11:00am.

It seems like we do the same exact thing in Cabo every time.  AND WE LOVE IT !  Once we get to shore, I use my broken Spanish to find us a glass bottom boat to take us on a quick tour of Los Arcos (The Arch).  After our tour we have the boat drop us off at Medano Beach for lunch.  Carnival does sell an excursion like this at the cost of $74.99 per person.  I was able to negotiate a tour for all four of us for $50.00 ($12.50 pp).  There are dozens of vendors and all are ready to negotiate on their prices and offer different packages.  Sometimes some will say that there is a $1 or $2 pier tax.  Just ask when your negotiating the ticket price if this is included.  I just don’t like to be nickeled and dimmed.  We boarded a small boat with another part of 5.  Turns out they were just being dropped off at another pier so our tour was a private tour FOR ONLY $5O !

After we had our photo opp.  We headed to Medano beach.  Medano can be a lively place and we were in the heart of spring break.  There is no dock at Medano beach so our floating limo just pulls up into the sand amongst the waves and lowers a little ladder for you to climb down into the water and work your way onto the beach.  It’s an awesome experience.  There are some men on the beach that will help you by the hand and if your so inclined you can tip them a buck or two.  Once we exited we made our way to “The Office”.

The office is a on beach restaurant.  It’s been getting busier and busier with all the Social media attention it gets.  Your dining table is placed right into the sand with a blue umbrella overhead.  The service is great and the food more amazing.  Do set aside an hour or two for the whole experience, really you don’t want to rush.  There was some loud music coming from the place next door, the kids had a blast and felt grown up and on spring break.  The office does a smart thing and places a “rope” around the perimeter to limit the peddlers so you don’t have to constantly say no thanks.  We started with some chips / guacamole / salsa.  Kids had chicken strips and fries.  The wife got a whole fried red snapper.  They guarantee the fish to be at least 1 kilo or 2.2 lbs before cooking.  I got a mixed fajita of chicken and steak.  We ended with a flan for the adults and vanilla ice cream for the kids.  We aren’t big drinkers so me and the wife got one strawberry margarita for the photo opp.

Once we were done, we browsed the peddlers on the beach for a couple of trinkets.  I feel like the best value is here.  I got the wife a silver cross about an inch and a half long, made of silver for just $20.  The shops along the pier asked for $80 for something similar.  Once we were done, we found an awaiting water taxi that took us back to the Marina for $5 a piece (I thought it was expensive, i have had fares for just $2) but still being in a food coma we just wanted to head back.

Once back to the Marina we browsed a couple of shops, souviners seemed pricey this time around.  I noticed that most of the shop owners were more interested in browsing their phone than tending to customers.  I was surprised.  We walked back to the pier and piled into a tender back to the ship.  Every time you re-enter the ship you do pass through an airport style security screening where your bag is screened in an x-ray machine and you walk through a metal detector.  After a nice day in the sun we headed back to the cabin to shower / change and rest a bit before heading to dinner.

One last photo of Cabo.

A couple of food pics from Dinner.  The wife opted for the Lamb from the steakhouse menu.  She asked for a Medium well, and they had brought a rare.  No problem, it was fixed right away.

Hi! We were on the same sailing as you guys!  I’m going through your pictures and it’s like Deja vu!  We even stayed at the same hotel pre-cruise!  Great review so far!

3/31/2024 - Sea Day #1 Easter Sunday (Elegant Night).

Our first day at sea was our typical sleep in a little and get to the late risers Breakfast.  We always intend to try the sea day brunch but its just easier for the kids to see what they want then make a decision off of a menu.  To Lido we go!  My son’s go to breakfast is a Cheese Pizza at Pizza D’ Capitano, Why not? It’s vacation time!  The pizza joint actually opens at 9:00am and closes at 4:00am on our sailing.

Unfortunately it was pretty chilly outside to the point you needed at least a hoodie.  The Sky Ride was closed due to high winds as well as the Ropes course.  The pool was ice cold, surprisingly there were some kids in it?  I am assuming they are our friends from the Midwest.  Another thing that surprised me was for a ship of this size there were only 2 hot tubs available.  The special Havana area have their own pool and hot tubs but are not accessible unless you have a Havana cabin.  I was told that all guests must be 13 years or older and most of the rooms cap at 3 passengeners.   

The wife opted to rest in the room while me and the kids explored the ship.  We stopped at the arcade.

Here is a late photo of the Sea Bass from the seafood shack.

A tip for the parents, when you do your online check in you can set a limit that your kids can spend on their sail and sign card.  You can go through $50 in 15-20 minute at the arcade.  You simply swipe your sail & sign card and spend $1.50 - $6.50 per game.  I initially set $25 for each of the kiddos.  Later, you can go to the Sail & Sign kiosk onboard the ship and increase the amount as you see fit.

After the Arcade we saw that they have a Sky Zone Bounce area available for the kids.  There is an extra charge for this of $15 per kid.  Because the kids are different ages, they would not let them play together and asked them to come at different times.  I opted to leave this for later in the cruise as other options winded down.

I am not going to bore you will pictures of the venues as they are plenty of them available.  I will show you our gift shop haul.  I am referring to the Carnival branded products.  Each ship seems to have completely different stock of items you can buy.  There was a backpack that I was on the fence about buying, I didn’t end up buying it and I totally regret it.  Reason to go on another cruise so I can buy it!  On our last cruise on the Radiance they had this nice Lanyard and pin set.  They did not offer it on the Panorama.  Also, I kept checking on ship models and was told they were sold out since the previous 2 cruises.

New for me on this cruise I noticed that they now offer reusable shopping bags offered for $1.95.

They also had these little wrist purses that were marked on clearance from $24.99 to $3.77.

We bought my daughter a birthday hat which she was too embarrassed to wear, no problem because I’ll wear for my birthday cruise god willing. I can embarrass her that way LOL.  That was also marked down from $24.99 to $10.77

We bought a Gold Carnival Spinning ornament cleared from $32.99 down to $14.49.

A bucket hat from $26.99 to $18.77

A mini Freddy the Funnel head doll with keychain from $12.95 to $9.77.

A set of Carnival Towel Clips.  A nice lady in the shop said she buys them for her towels but once home, she uses them as a photo stand.  She clips the photo in there to prop it up.  Those weren’t on sale but $14.95.

Lastly they had these Rubber ducky Lanyards at Cherry on top marked down to $1.75.  I bought one for each of us.  Not to sound old fashioned but, I’m not into the new lanyard styles that have the boat wheel at the bottom, makes the lanyard feel too bulky for me.

Here are a couple of our photos from the ships photographers.  I always guess wrong how people will dress on a sailing.  On the elegant nights on this sailing men were mostly in suit & ties or slacks / shirt / tie.  I felt underdressed especially being on Easter, but on previous cruise’s when I did have a suit and tie I felt like I was over dressed.  It’s okay, I think the wife did great coordinating our outfits.  Kids were comfortable that’s more important.