Detailed Photo Review of Carnival Panorama 8 Night Mexican Riviera New Year’s Cruise 12/30/23

[john91498]

13 hours ago, deladane said:

 

haha comments like that make me very happy we opted to do the sky ride first!!  We originally thought we'd do both things back to back, but since camp called us on the Bat Phone, we had to get Ian ASAP and never got a chance to go back and do the ropes course.  Maybe that's for the best! lol

 

In hindsight, I had a huge lunch with a few drinks. Probably not the best time to tackle a physically demanding rope course after that...lol...

[Waynehazle]

My wife and I are leaving on Carnival Panorama, same cruise in 3 days, I am reading everything.  I am wondering if iut is very breezy and cold on the deck at night?

 

[deladane]

11 minutes ago, Waynehazle said:

My wife and I are leaving on Carnival Panorama, same cruise in 3 days, I am reading everything.  I am wondering if iut is very breezy and cold on the deck at night?

 

 

We didn't go outside much at night, but I can tell you it was FREEZING on our last night as we were coming back towards Long Beach!  For the days we were down in Mexico, I don't think it was that bad, but north of Cabo, it was definitely cold.

[Waynehazle]

11 minutes ago, deladane said:

 

We didn't go outside much at night, but I can tell you it was FREEZING on our last night as we were coming back towards Long Beach!  For the days we were down in Mexico, I don't think it was that bad, but north of Cabo, it was definitely cold.

uh oh that is scary. Though I guess ultimately nighttime doesn’t matter that much. My girls want to be able to swim during the day. Our plan is not to even get off the boat most of the time and just be at the waterpark. I hope it is warm enough to do that or we’re in trouble. 

[mitsugirly]

9 hours ago, deladane said:

 

Aww, yes, I love that we are continuing the tradition and now you get to watch my kid grow up!  Now what would really take it over the top is if we get to watch Sakari get married, have her own kids, take them on cruises, and see them growing up on CC too!!  When will she write her own reviews??  I forgot to say it in my last reply but OMG, how is Sakari driving already?!  I DO remember the photo her jumping from that platform in Roatan!  Crazy how time flies!!

 

 

The Havana cabins are on Aft Deck 5.  There aren't very many of them, so assuming you are looking for spring break 2024, they are likely sold out.  If you want to consider them for future cruises, keep in mind that the balconies aren't like regular balconies with a direct view of the ocean.  The deck 5 promenade is closed off to anyone not in a Havana cabin, but it does continue to wrap around the ship and forms a walkway between your balcony and the edge of the ship.  The balconies aren't very private because people can walk by right in front of you.  They do have really large balconies with different furniture than a standard balcony, but just be aware about the walkway so you aren't surprised!  Look around here on CC and I'm sure someone has posted photos of what I mean.

 

Oh gosh, I don't even want to think that far ahead (marriage and kids and....yikes. I just want to turn back time.  Yep, she has her temps and will able to get her license in another 3 months! Another yikes moment!!!

 

Yep, for Spring Break so I'm thinking they are all booked up by now and that's why I'm not seeing any of them listed. I do remember seeing some pictures of some ship when it came out with the balconies and a walk way in front of them. They looked really cool but I'm not so sure I would want people walking in front of me and not having the ability to just look down at the water from my balcony. 

 

I DID see an OV cabin with TWO bathrooms!! Now that would be neat as well. Hmmm, decisions. 

 

8 hours ago, mkcurran said:

Havana sells out quickly. 

I loved hanging out on the outside areas on deck 5. Peaceful and not nearly as packed as the lido. Also, the coffee shop is nearby, so sodas are easy to get. 

 

That's probably why I'm not seeing them then. They are sold out by now. 

 

 

 

 

On another note about taking the little to the MDR. We learned quickly about this and devised a plan. We would take Sakari to the kids club and we would go do our meals at that time. Nice and enjoyable meals together. Then we would hit up either the buffet or O'Sheehans and grab Sakari something, pick her up from the kids club, then head back to the room for her to eat. She enjoyed it, she didn't embarrass us, she got used to the routine, and life was peaceful. lol  I think the next cruise we would take our meal to the same table out back of the ship and it became a routine...although once someone was sitting at HER table and I think she might have had a meltdown, but that didn't happen again after that. Whew!  The things we do for our children and peace. 😄  

 

Can't wait to see Cabo!

[LaRue1975]

That is exactly what the dessert looked like fresh, lol! I didn’t care for it but the rest of the meal was yum! 

[mkcurran]

2 hours ago, Waynehazle said:

uh oh that is scary. Though I guess ultimately nighttime doesn’t matter that much. My girls want to be able to swim during the day. Our plan is not to even get off the boat most of the time and just be at the waterpark. I hope it is warm enough to do that or we’re in trouble. 

The first and last days can get breezy and cool, especially after dark. The rest of the time you'll be good.

[deladane]

2 hours ago, Waynehazle said:

uh oh that is scary. Though I guess ultimately nighttime doesn’t matter that much. My girls want to be able to swim during the day. Our plan is not to even get off the boat most of the time and just be at the waterpark. I hope it is warm enough to do that or we’re in trouble. 

Oh there were definitely people using the water park on our sailing, even on the last sea day. I’m not sure how old your girls are, but kids are seemingly oblivious to cold weather when they are otherwise motivated to play outside haha I’m sure they will make it work!

[deladane]

2 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

 

Oh gosh, I don't even want to think that far ahead (marriage and kids and....yikes. I just want to turn back time.  Yep, she has her temps and will able to get her license in another 3 months! Another yikes moment!!!

 

Yep, for Spring Break so I'm thinking they are all booked up by now and that's why I'm not seeing any of them listed. I do remember seeing some pictures of some ship when it came out with the balconies and a walk way in front of them. They looked really cool but I'm not so sure I would want people walking in front of me and not having the ability to just look down at the water from my balcony. 

 

I DID see an OV cabin with TWO bathrooms!! Now that would be neat as well. Hmmm, decisions. 

 

 

That's probably why I'm not seeing them then. They are sold out by now. 

 

 

 

 

On another note about taking the little to the MDR. We learned quickly about this and devised a plan. We would take Sakari to the kids club and we would go do our meals at that time. Nice and enjoyable meals together. Then we would hit up either the buffet or O'Sheehans and grab Sakari something, pick her up from the kids club, then head back to the room for her to eat. She enjoyed it, she didn't embarrass us, she got used to the routine, and life was peaceful. lol  I think the next cruise we would take our meal to the same table out back of the ship and it became a routine...although once someone was sitting at HER table and I think she might have had a meltdown, but that didn't happen again after that. Whew!  The things we do for our children and peace. 😄  

 

Can't wait to see Cabo!

 

 

Oh yea, if you want to see the deluxe OV cabins (the ones with two bathrooms), read my Carnival Dream review from 2019!  We had that cabin for just the 2 of us HAHA  We each had our own shower (I used the one with the tub, which was so nice and spacious), and we each had our sink, but we had to share the toilet.

 

Good idea about how to handle meals.  Hopefully by our next cruise, Ian will be older and things will go a little smoother.

 

I'll start the Cabo posts tomorrow!

[john91498]

wow!!!!! You and your family look great in evening wear 😎

[deladane]

3 minutes ago, john91498 said:

wow!!!!! You and your family look great in evening wear 😎

 

aww, thank you!! 

[deladane]

Monday, January 1 | Cabo San Lucas | 10:00am to 7:00pm

 

Let’s chat a little bit about planning our day in Cabo… Jason visited Cabo with his parents and extended family on a cruise many years ago, long before he knew me.  He has great memories of the day he spent with his cousins at Cabo Wabo, so at the very least, I knew that was one possibility of something we could do today.  I’m not so sure how toddler-friendly it is (the biggest concern being how loud they play the music), but I do know that Cabo has plenty of bars and restaurants close by the tender port, so going out for lunch was one option.  I looked into a day pass for an all-inclusive resort, but everything I found cost more than I wanted to spend.  Whale watching tours are very popular in Cabo, especially at the time of year we would be there.  We did a 3-hour whale watching tour in Puerto Vallarta in December 2018, and honestly, it was kind of boring.  It wasn’t until the very end on our way back to the dock that we finally saw 2 whales swimming alongside the boat for a few minutes.  Yes, that was very exciting, but we spent the whole rest of the time unsuccessfully searching for whales and it just got monotonous by the end.  Obviously, I understand that we are looking for wild animals in their natural habitat so there is never a guarantee you will see a whale, much less see one leap out of the ocean into the sky, putting on a show for us, but I didn’t want to repeat that experience while also trying to entertain a toddler.  

 

I searched on Cruise Critic for ideas of things to do in Cabo with a toddler, and someone mentioned they used to have a yellow submarine that took you underwater to see the fish.  OMG! That would be so perfect for us!!  Ian LOVES animals, and this would be even better than going to an aquarium because he could see the underwater animals in their natural environments.  We used to do multiple snorkeling excursions on each cruise, so this would sort of be the next best thing in a toddler-friendly version.  None of the comments I read mentioned a specific company name, so it was very hard to track down more information on how to book this tour.  After a bit of searching on Google, I found what looked like the right company.  It talked about all the details of the tour, with pictures of the yellow submarine, prices for adults and children, and contact information including a link to a website to book the tickets.  Unfortunately, when I went to the website, I got a “404- page not found” error.  After a bit more research, I found out that they no longer have the submarine used on this excursion and it is no longer an option.  What a huge bummer!!

 

Back to square one, I kept searching until I came across a tour on Viator with a company called Aquabulle.  There wasn’t a single mention of them on Cruise Critic or Trip Advisor, so I was very hesitant.  I was able to find their Facebook page, but everything was in Spanish and there weren’t many comments or reviews.  So why did I even consider this company?  Well, in theory, this tour was perfect for us!  Aquabulle is like a combination of a whale watching boat and a submarine, and gives us the best of both worlds.  It is a bigger boat, allowing a maximum of 50 passengers on each tour, with an upper deck so they can take you out to see the famous Arch and possibly to see some whales.  It has a middle deck that is all indoors with windows all around, so if it is cold or rainy, we can still see all the sites above water.  But the most exciting feature on Aquabulle is the lower level which is below the surface of the water, with huge windows along both sides of the boat so you can see all the fish without actually getting in the water!  

 

Here are 2 of the photos of their boat from their Facebook page:

 

 

 

 

 

I sent Aquabulle a message through their Facebook page to clarify a few of the details and logistics.  They said that they were indeed operating tours on New Year's Day (I just wanted to double check to be sure!), and the cost was $65 for adults, and children age 5 and under were free.  While they could not pick us up from the cruise ship tender dock, they said it’s a short ride to their boat and they gave me directions.  They also confirmed that the price includes alcoholic beverages, soda, bottled water, and chicken tacos for lunch.  They said I could book directly with them, but it was the same price as if I booked through Viator.  I opted to book through Viator because if anything were to go wrong, at least Viator’s customer service could help resolve the issue.

[deladane]

 

 

 

 

Ian slept in this morning and woke us up at 6:30am.  We all got dressed and went up to Lido for breakfast.  Ian had French toast and hash brown patties. Jason and I had Blue Iguana burritos and arepas.  This is definitely my favorite cruise ship breakfast on a port day.  It is very filling so it holds me over until I get back to the ship after my excursion and I can often get away with not eating anything on shore if I don’t want to, plus it tastes really good!  There were a few people on line ahead of me, but they had two guys working to make the burritos so that saved time and there was only a few minutes delay to place my order.

 

 

 

I found a table by the window in the outdoor seating area nearby.

 

 

 

Yummmmm!  Those crunchy crumpled hash browns really make all the difference!  

[deladane]

We were finished eating by 8am, and we were still sailing into Cabo, so we walked around the outside decks admiring the view.  It was a picture perfect day today, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures predicted to reach the high 70’s.

 

 

 

 

 

As soon as we passed the Arch, we knew we were getting close to anchoring, so we went back to our cabin to apply sunscreen and grab our bags.

 

 

[deladane]

Yesterday, Nino delivered a letter to our cabin with instructions for the tender process. 

 

 

 

General passengers on the ship had to get tender tickets yesterday, but with FTTF, we could skip that process.  We had to meet in Liquid Lounge deck 4 at 9:45am and the crew would escort us down to the tenders ahead of the rush.  When I originally purchased FTTF, I didn’t realize how valuable this head start would be.  People who have cruised with this itinerary before can let me know for sure, but I would assume that the Captain usually has the ship change its clocks on the night before arriving in Cabo since Cabo is on Mountain time, but the ship starts the cruise from California in Pacific time.  Last night was New Year’s Eve, so I am assuming he opted to not change our clocks on a night when most passengers would be out very late and not want to lose an hour of sleep.  We did change our clocks tonight before arriving in La Paz tomorrow, so since Cabo and La Paz are in the same time zone, my assumption was they held us back an hour specifically for New Year’s Eve.  Anyway, that meant that ship time was one hour behind local time, giving us one hour less to reach the starting point of our excursion (something I did not know until I received the Fun Times last night, and certainly did not know when I purchased FTTF!). 

 

I knew there would be tons of people going to the Liquid Lounge for priority tendering, so we arrived there 15 minutes early at 9:30am, just to be sure we didn’t miss out on anything.  The crew members working there said there was a tender waiting for us at the midship elevators and it had space for 200 passengers.  The problem was that we were sitting forward of the forward elevators on deck 4, nowhere near the waiting tender, and there were more than 200 people sitting in the theater.  At that point, it was like a stampede for who could get out of the theater first and follow the crew members through half of deck 4, then down 3 flights of stairs to deck 1.  Meanwhile, other people who happened to be in our path figured out what was happening and they joined our parade.  I don’t know if they had priority tender access or not, but the whole thing was very unorganized.  There was a door tucked away behind the mid-ship elevators which led to the exit and access to the tender, and there was another crew member standing at that door who counted each passenger.  Of course, as luck would have it, they stopped the line one party ahead of us, closed the doors, and said the tender was full.  We were soooo close to the 200 person cut off but we just missed it.  It was very hot, with hundreds of people crammed into the elevator lobby, and Ian (and all the other little kids around us) got fussy waiting around.  #Toddlers!

 

We stood there for 25 minutes, then finally, they said they could take 50 more people on the next tender from the forward elevators.  Oye, here we go again!  Had they said the tender was waiting here at the midship elevators, it wouldn’t be an issue for us to get on that next tender.  Now we had to walk forward again on deck 1, passing a bunch of cabins.  When they heard all the noise in the hallway, I saw people open their cabin doors and join our line.  That was very frustrating since we had put in the time waiting on line, and who even knows if they had priority tendering.  When we got to the forward stairs, the security guard had no idea why we were there so he called on his walkie talkie and eventually let us down the stairs to board the tender.  That was way more work than it should have been, but we were finally on a boat that would take us to shore!  It was a surprisingly small boat (I had assumed they reserved 50 seats for us on one of the ship’s lifeboats, possibly combined with people on Carnival excursions, but this was one of Cabo’s tenders and only had a 50 person total capacity). but we got seats and the tender left soon after that.

 

The tender ride took 12 minutes, and gave us some beautiful views of the ship.  That’s my favorite part of tendering: the chance to take an unobstructed photo of the ship, which is usually very hard to achieve when the ship is docked in port and has lines and buildings blocking the view.

 

 

 

 

While we waited to board the tender, Ian was going bonkers and on the edge of a meltdown.  Luckily, he calmed down once we got on the boat, and he sat nicely in Jason’s lap for the whole ride.

 

 

I ended up sitting opposite them along the side of the boat.

 

 

[deladane]

We docked in Cabo and the crew helped everyone get off the boat safely.

 

 

We walked down the pier, passing lots of vendors and Carnival excursion line ups, until we reached the exit.  One of the port employees checked our backpack to make sure we didn’t bring any fresh produce off the ship.  We knew Ian would need snacks throughout the day, so I bought tons of pre-packaged single-serve snacks that I knew would be safe to bring into port in Mexico (ie: graham crackers, pretzels, cheese and crackers, plus the little bag of goldfish he was holding on the tender).  She dug through my bag, saw all of our snacks, unopened water bottles, and diapers, and waved us on our way.

 

I always took a photo of this sign as we got off the ship as an extra reminder of all aboard time.  We didn’t plan to be ashore nearly that late, but you never know what could happen!

 

 

Once we were out of the port area, I took my phone off airplane mode and opened up Google Maps for directions to our starting point for the tour.  I noticed the time on my phone was one hour ahead of the time on my watch, confirming that ship time and local time were not the same.  I always find this so confusing to keep track of, so I really had to pay attention to what clock I was reading.  On Saturday, I had turned off the feature in my iPhone which automatically syncs the time on the phone with the time on my Apple watch, that way my watch would always stay on ship time.  I wasn’t 100% sure that this would work, but I can now confirm that it does work correctly.  (Just an FYI since we are on the topic… The next day when we were in La Paz, I had to manually set the time on my watch to somewhere in the Mountain time zone (I chose Denver) to reflect the time change.)

 

Ok, back to Cabo… Google said it would take us 27 minutes to walk to the meeting spot for our tour.  The walk looked very easy- we just followed along the path lining the perimeter of the marina, and that would take us to the Breathless Hotel where the tour started.  We actually saw that hotel towards the end of the tender ride, so we could spot it from the other side of the marina.

 

 

Here are the directions from Google Maps:

 

 

 

We considered taking a taxi, but decided against it because it was a beautiful day, the marina area looked safe enough for us to walk it, and then we didn’t need to stress about haggling with taxi drivers over the price.  Plus, the views were very pretty!

 

 

We tried to take a cute photo with the Cabo sign, but Ian wasn’t too excited about that idea. #Toddlers!

 

 

Up to that point, Ian had been holding one of our hands and walking with us, but we were now 20 minutes into the walk and only one third of the way to the Breathless Hotel.  Ian’s little legs were slowing us down!  What should have been a 27 minute walk would take 60 minutes at this pace.  Luckily, we brought along our backpack carrier as a Plan B.  We thought it would come in handy if Ian was being unsafe on the boat because we could just strap him onto Jason’s back and then he wouldn’t accidentally fall overboard if he was misbehaving.  We found a bench nearby and pulled over to get Ian situated in the carrier.  He got a free ride for the rest of our walk!

 

 

I thought this map was convenient for anyone who didn’t have access to a smart phone…

 

 

We found another version of the Cabo sign later in our walk.  With Ian still in the backpack carrier, he couldn’t object to posing in the photo!

 

 

[Waynehazle]

incredible having the countdown jar

[Waynehazle]

On 1/11/2024 at 4:01 PM, Guest said:

I've been on Panorama a few times, but doubt I'm on her again soon since she's leaving Long Beach. I have never heard of the ramp being semi-closed due to winds. The seas look flat, but I believe you. I've heard nothing but complaints about the Long Beach cruise terminal, but I guess I've been lucky. We've cruised out of there a couple dozen times and, knock on wood, nothing horrific has happened. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

On 1/11/2024 at 1:47 PM, deladane said:

There was enough storage for the 3 of us, but it was a tight fit.  I imagine we will have more struggles putting all of our stuff away as Ian gets older and his clothes are bigger.  I forgot to take a photo of the empty closets before we unpacked, so this is from later in the week… don’t mind all our messy clothes!  One of the closets has 4 shelves, 3 drawers, and the safe:

 

 

There are 2 closets for hanging clothes.  One of them has a removable bar in the middle so you can have an upper and lower hanging bar, or just remove the bottom bar, lift up the shelf, and it becomes another closet with just the one upper hanging bar.  I bought this hanging shoe rack a few years ago, and it works great as extra shelves on a cruise:

 

 

I also bought an over the door hanging shoe rack to hang on the inside of the bathroom door.  This is one of my favorite things to bring on a cruise to keep all the little odds and ends organized:

 

 

There was one nightstand with a lamp on each side of the bed.  It seemed like a missed opportunity that such a new ship did not have USB ports near the bed.  If the nightstands had a lamp, they had a power source nearby, so in a world where people are never more than inches from their phones, there really should have been USB ports in the nightstand.  One great feature of these nightstands was that there was a door to access the space inside.  This was the perfect laundry basket for the week!  Jason put all his dirty laundry in his nightstand, and I shared mine with Ian.  This kept our smelly, dirty laundry out of the closet full of clean clothes, and made it very easy to pack at the end of the cruise because all of our laundry was in one spot.

 

 

Our cabin steward left us a little message on the mirror:

 

 

That is neat to come into your room and see this 😄 

[Moneymikey10]

@deladaneThank you for this detailed review. We are doing the exact same cruise departing Long Beach on Feb 10. One thing we were a bit confused by was how and when ship's time is adjusted during the cruise. We are planning some activities on our own at some of the stops and it's hard to know when looking at the itinerary what local time will be compared to ship's time at each stop. I called Carnival and they told me ship time stays on the departure port's time and never adjusts during a cruise, but reading some other (older) posts of similar cruises as well as one of your comments above, it seems like Panorama may in fact be an exception to this. Do you recall how and when ship's time adjusted from Pacific time during the cruise?

From what I can tell, it looks like ship time is Pacific time leaving Long Beach through the end of the day you're in Cabo (so ship's time is one hour behind local time in Cabo), then that evening they move the ship's clock forward one hour so that in La Paz and Mazatlan, ship's time is the same as local time. When you arrive in Puerto Vallarta, the time zone changes, so ship's time is once again one hour behind local time in P.V. Then that night they switch ship's time back to Pacific time.

 

Does that all sound correct? Thanks so much!

[pinto18]

21 minutes ago, Moneymikey10 said:

Does that all sound correct? Thanks so much!

We will also be on the Feb 10 sailing …it’s coming up! We have been on the Panorama a couple of times and all I can say is…I never knew what the heck time it was lol. The app shows the ships time and I think my phone shows port time but sometimes my phone and husband phone would have different times..it’s pretty confusing 

[deladane]

4 hours ago, Waynehazle said:

incredible having the countdown jar

 

Thanks!  We've done it for all of our cruises together, so it's a fun tradition!

[deladane]

2 hours ago, Moneymikey10 said:

@deladaneThank you for this detailed review. We are doing the exact same cruise departing Long Beach on Feb 10. One thing we were a bit confused by was how and when ship's time is adjusted during the cruise. We are planning some activities on our own at some of the stops and it's hard to know when looking at the itinerary what local time will be compared to ship's time at each stop. I called Carnival and they told me ship time stays on the departure port's time and never adjusts during a cruise, but reading some other (older) posts of similar cruises as well as one of your comments above, it seems like Panorama may in fact be an exception to this. Do you recall how and when ship's time adjusted from Pacific time during the cruise?

From what I can tell, it looks like ship time is Pacific time leaving Long Beach through the end of the day you're in Cabo (so ship's time is one hour behind local time in Cabo), then that evening they move the ship's clock forward one hour so that in La Paz and Mazatlan, ship's time is the same as local time. When you arrive in Puerto Vallarta, the time zone changes, so ship's time is once again one hour behind local time in P.V. Then that night they switch ship's time back to Pacific time.

 

Does that all sound correct? Thanks so much!

 

Wow! I'm so honored that your first ever comment on Cruise Critic was in my thread!  

 

Whoever you spoke to when you called Carnival did not give you an accurate answer to this question.  I have always been told that it is up to the Captain's discretion if the ship changes time to match local time or not.  I have been very lucky on all my previous Carnival cruises (actually, on my Celebrity cruises too!), and the Captain has always opted to change ship time to match local time throughout the cruise so I have never had an issue where ship time and local time were different.  That is extremely confusing for so many passengers!  

 

As I tried to explain, but maybe I didn't do a great job, I think the way the Captain handled things on our cruise was an anomaly because of New Year's Eve.  Of course I cannot guarantee anything, but I would think that on this itinerary, they will tell you to set your clocks forward one hour on either the first or second night, so when you arrive in Cabo on day 3, ship time matches local time. 

 

If you look closely at the Fun Times, they actually listed the time change as an activity on the ship at 2am the night we were in Cabo (it's the very last thing in the What's Happening column).  It was also mentioned in the Hub app.

 

I hope you have a great cruise, and let me know if you have any other questions!

[deladane]

1 hour ago, pinto18 said:

We will also be on the Feb 10 sailing …it’s coming up! We have been on the Panorama a couple of times and all I can say is…I never knew what the heck time it was lol. The app shows the ships time and I think my phone shows port time but sometimes my phone and husband phone would have different times..it’s pretty confusing 

 

Do you have iPhones?  There is a setting in my iPhone under the Time and Date settings to "Set Automatically."  I'll bet one of you has un-checked the setting and the other has it checked, which is why your phones are reading different times.  This is the same feature that knows to adjust the clock on your phone when you are on an airplane and land in a different time zone than you departed from. 

[Waynehazle]

On 1/12/2024 at 9:49 AM, deladane said:

We had 10 minutes to kill before they opened the doors to the MDR, so we found a couch in the lobby to sit and watch the patterns on the funnel.  I loved this feature of the atrium and looked forward to seeing what new designs and themes it had each time we passed through.

 

 

 

 

At 5:30pm, the doors opened for dinner, and tons of people walked in, so I guess they got the memo about the earlier dinner time.  We still had the shared table assigned in the Hub app, so one of the waiters greeting us as we entered the lobby escorted us to the table and we met our assigned table mates.  It was an older couple and their middle-aged daughter, and they said they thought they were sitting with the rest of their family.  I’m guessing they didn’t know to link their dinner reservations because obviously they were assigned to different tables.  I went back to the Maitre’D, and this time there was a different man there.  I explained our situation and he looked at his screen for a minute and found us a new table.  I’m not sure why no one did that for us earlier in the afternoon to avoid the awkwardness of going to our original table, but oh well.  One of the waiters escorted us to our new table, all the way at the back of the dining room, right near the doors to the midship elevators.  It was one of the dreaded long banquettes where the tables are all inches apart from each other, and they pushed all the tables closer together to squeeze Ian’s high chair to the side of our tiny table for 2.  The table next to us was 2 tables for 2 pushed together, which would be enough space for 4 people, but they had 3 chairs along the outside of the table, making it a table for 5 people.  The waiter looked at it and said no, that is the wrong way to set their table, and he pulled one of the 3 chairs to the far side of the table, thus needing to push the other tables down on that side of the banquette even closer together because now both Ian and one of the people from their table had to fit in the space normally used for walking between the tables to sit on the banquette.  Honestly, this was ridiculous and there really wasn’t space to do this, but at least it meant we sort of had our own table.  I just realized I never got a photo of our set up, so hopefully my description gives you a good enough idea.

 

Once we were seated, we requested a kid’s dinner menu.  I did think it was weird that they didn’t bring it automatically when they brought over the high chair (In fact, we had to ask for it every night as they never automatically gave it to us.  By night 3, we realized the kids menu never changes, so we just referred to my photo of it.  Ian is still too young to care about coloring or the activities in the menu, but if he enjoyed it, we would have had to ask every single night for him to have a paper copy of the menu.)

 

 

Our head waiter, Raf, took Ian’s dinner order and asked his assistant, Eva, to run down to the galley right away and grab Ian’s food.  This was the single best act of service that we received for the entire cruise.  Every single night, Raf prioritized Ian getting his food ASAP and made sure Ian was happy and well fed.  We really appreciated this, because when he gets hungry, he gets HANGRY and everyone else in the MDR would know it!  It also meant we could feed him and get him settled before our food came out, so when we did get our food, we could eat it while it was still hot.  Unsure of the portion sizes and if Ian would like the food, we ordered Ian both the cheese pizza and the chicken nuggets with fries.  It came out on two plates (obviously), so we combined them to save space on our tiny table for 2.

 

 

Ian loved both entrees, and he couldn’t decide what to eat first!  

 

 

 

Parenting disclaimer: We designated one of Jason’s old android phones to be Ian’s phone.  It doesn’t have cell service anymore, but we load videos on the microSD card and only take it out in restaurants to keep Ian calm.  We understand that we have certain things we like to do, but those things aren’t always the most exciting for toddlers.  Ian has joined us at restaurants since he was 2 months old, and he is usually well-behaved, but after a while, he gets bored of watching all the people nearby, being contained in a high chair, and playing with whatever toys I packed in his diaper bag, and he needs some extra stimulation.  That’s when we take out the phone.  We allowed Ian to watch movies during dinner every night of the cruise because we know MDR dinners are long, and we didn’t want to be forced to eat in the buffet every night of the cruise when we usually enjoy the MDR experience.  Ian does not have nearly this much screen time at home, but it’s his vacation too and we wanted him to be happy.  I know screen time can be a controversial parenting topic, but this is how we chose to handle the situation.  **end disclaimer**

Totally understand this and you should not have other people "shame" you.  I've got twins and sometimes it was necessary to use the electronic babysitter.

 

[deladane]

16 minutes ago, Waynehazle said:

Totally understand this and you should not have other people "shame" you.  I've got twins and sometimes it was necessary to use the electronic babysitter.

 

 

Haha yea, I think most people are understanding.  The table sitting next to us had a son who was about 20 years old.  He liked watching Cars over Ian's shoulder every night, so even big kids need some screen time to make it through MDR dinners!  Funny enough, I think we created a monster because Ian now associates going out to dinner with watching Cars on his phone.  Last night, we told him we were going out for dinner, and his immediate response was "I watch Cars!" so now we have to work on breaking the habit!