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

[deladane]

1 hour ago, pghsteelerfan said:

Hi Dana!  It's been a LONG time!  I'm still around, just haven't been on CC for a quite some time!  We were finally on a cruise this past October - Panorama and the same itinerary that you just did, well, that's what was scheduled.  Our cruise was affected by Hurricane Lidia, so there was an itinerary change.  We ended up with 2 sea days at the beginning, missing Cabo since it wouldn't have been safe to tender; La Paz and Mazatlan were as scheduled; we missed Puerto Vallarta but it was replaced with Cabo.  We got a bonus 1/2 day in Cabo the next day, sea day, then back to Long Beach.  But still -  I loved it.  I want to do this one again.  Our last cruise before that was our Liberty cruise out of San Juan in 2015, so it's been a while.  We've still been vacationing, just not a cruise until last year.  Haven't been spending time on the computer and that's the reason I haven't been on CC - but I need to get back with it.  I am so glad you did a review and I'm looking forward to reading it.  I did notice you have a son now - congratulations!  He is just adorable!!!

 

Hi Holly!!  OMG!  I'm so glad you found my review!  That is too funny that you just did this itinerary a few months ago... or at least that you tried to do it!  We sure do have the same taste in cruises LOL  What a bummer that the hurricane got in your way, but it sounds like they were able to salvage things and you still ended up with 4 port days, even if you did have to miss PV.  That's just a good excuse to try again sometime!  

[jerseygirlinAZ]

8 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

We actually liked hanging in the piano bar with Mat..but we couldn’t help but laugh because he was a SPITTING image for Diego from the movie, Blow.

we figure Mat was a Spaniard maybe

 

We enjoyed hanging with Mat as well, but I agree that it wasn't a big party vibe and was a bit low key.  Guess I'm getting old, lol. 🙂

[deladane]

14 hours ago, jerseygirlinAZ said:

 

We enjoyed hanging with Mat as well, but I agree that it wasn't a big party vibe and was a bit low key.  Guess I'm getting old, lol. 🙂

 

I don't necessarily need a party vibe to enjoy a piano bar.  In fact, that's why I usually like piano bars so much- I get to sit at my table, enjoy my drink(s), and sing along to my favorite songs without having to get up and dance (which I'm not very good at!).  

[deladane]

Wednesday, January 3 | Mazatlan | 8:00am to 5:00pm

 

Mazatlan is what I would consider to be a medium port.  The options of things to do are not nearly as limited as in La Paz, but it doesn’t have close to the number of options as Cabo and Puerto Vallarta.  Ian LOVES animals so I knew I wanted to show him animals in at least one of our ports.  Mazatlan opened a brand new aquarium in early 2023, and it is supposed to be one of the 10 largest aquariums in the world upon completion.  They are opening it in stages, so when I was doing my research over the summer, only part of it was opened for visitors.  I’m not sure what the timeline is to complete construction, and it may or may not already be done.  It was very hard to find reviews of people who have visited the new aquarium because it’s only been open for a few months, but I did see a Youtube video of someone who went there and the exhibits looked beautiful and interactive.  It seemed like a very doable activity, especially if the weather was cold or rainy that day.  I also liked that we didn’t need to buy tickets in advance so we could keep our options open in case we wanted to go at the last minute.

 

Another thing that I knew we wanted to do on one of the port days was to buy a day pass to an all-inclusive resort.  Of course Cabo and Puerto Vallarta have lots of options for resorts with a day pass, but they all seemed very expensive at $100+ per adult, and some also charged for toddlers.  As far as I could tell from my research, there are 2 resorts in Mazatlan which offer a day pass.  One is the El Cid Marina Beach Hotel, but this is where Carnival takes its ship excursion so there was no way I was going there too!  The other is called Hotel Playa Mazatlan, and it is located just a few minutes down the beach from El Cid.  While it is an older resort originally built in 1955, it seemed to be updated and get very good reviews online.  Best of all, they only charge around $40 per adult for unlimited food and drinks, use of facilities, palapas, and pools, and children under age 4 are free!  The resort looked amazing, with several different pools, waterfalls, beach access, and even a children’s area.  This looked like the perfect way to spend our day, and we did not need to buy tickets in advance so we could always switch our plans if the weather didn’t cooperate.  The one slight issue was that they don’t guarantee that they offer day passes every day.  If the hotel is overbooked, they reserve the right to decline a day pass, so they recommend calling that day to confirm.  Luckily, my cell phone plan includes free calling in Mexico, so I planned to call the hotel the day before while we were in La Paz (since I didn’t want to wait until that day to know what we were doing!).

 

About 2 weeks before our cruise, Hotel Playa Mazatlan revamped their website.  Since I’m always a bit anxious about our plans in port, even after I have settled on a plan, I continue to check all the websites regularly in case of changes.  Sure enough, they changed their day pass prices from 700 pesos (approximately $40 USD) to 850 pesos (closer to $50 USD).  It was still a great deal, especially compared to prices in Cabo and Puerto Vallarta, so while I wasn’t thrilled that our day would now cost $20 more than had we visited just a few weeks sooner, it wasn’t a deal breaker.  The bigger issue was the page with a detailed description of their day pass was completely gone, and I couldn’t find the details listed anywhere else on their website.  The link I had been using now gave me a “404- page not found” error.  The only information I could find was buried on the “services” page.  It said “With this deal, you can come any day of the week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and enjoy our facilities with a family member who is staying at our hotel.”  Ummmm, say what?!  We obviously don’t have any family members who happened to be staying at this hotel on the day our cruise ship is in port.  When did that become a requirement??  Suddenly, our plans were in limbo.  I decided that I was going to play dumb and make believe I didn’t see the change on the website.  Maybe the person working at reception didn’t know about the policy change and would still honor the old day pass policy.  Or better yet, maybe they just meant this as an example of why you would want to use a day pass, but it wasn’t the only reason and they would still give day passes to anyone who wanted one.  I still planned to call the hotel the day before, and if worse came to worse, we had the aquarium as a backup option.

 

During Ian’s naptime yesterday, I went out onto the balcony to call the hotel.  I had written down 3 phone numbers.  The old version of the website listed the front desk phone number as where you should call to verify day pass availability.  After the website changed, I also jotted down the general “contact us” phone numbers.  They had 2 options, one for USA and one for Mexico.  I honestly didn’t know what that meant.  I have a cell phone registered in the US with a US phone number, but I would be using that phone in Mexico over Mexican cell service.  It didn’t hurt to bring all 3 numbers on my page of notes.  So back to the balcony… first, I called the front desk phone number, but I got one of those pre-recorded messages from the phone carrier saying they are not able to complete the call as dialed.  Ok, well since I am physically in Mexico, and the top left corner of my phone now says Telcel instead of Verizon, let’s try the 800 number listed for Mexico.  Nope!  I got the same pre-recorded error message.  Now I was getting nervous.  If I couldn’t speak to someone at the hotel, I was going to abort these plans and just go to the aquarium.  I didn’t want to risk showing up at the hotel, them demanding to know the room number and last name of my family member who was staying there, and rejecting us as we stood there in bathing suits ready for a day at the pool.  No thank you!  I could feel my heart racing as I dialed the 800 number to call the hotel from the US… and it worked!  Maybe I should have known to try that from the start, but I was overthinking things.  A man named Carlos answered the phone, and I asked if he spoke English.  He said “A little” so he did his best in English and I filled in my questions with my limited knowledge of Spanish.  I asked if they were selling day passes to the hotel for tomorrow, and he said yes, they have them every day.  I asked if it was okay for me to come with my husband and 2 year old son from the cruise ship, and he said yes, that was no problem.  I opted to omit a question about having my family staying at the hotel because he seemed very chill about the day pass and he didn’t give any indication that there would be a problem.  He said we could only have access to the hotel from 9am until 5pm, but I told him we would be gone by 3pm to be back on board the cruise ship long before sail away time.  He confirmed that they provide towels (good! Because I really didn’t want to schlep those big heavy blue Carnival towels into their hotel, which would make it even more obvious that we were day pass people and not actual hotel guests), and that the day pass included unlimited food and drinks and access to the pools and loungers.  By the end of the call, I felt confident about our plans for Mazatlan.

[deladane]

 

 

 

 

We all woke up at 7am from the vibration of the thrusters.  I didn’t mind the early wake up though because we had places to go, and slushie alcohol-filled drinks to drink!  I took a peek out on the balcony, and we were just pulling into the dock in Mazatlan.

 

 

Look at all those white tour vans lined up and waiting to pick up passengers!  Having already packed our bags last night, we got ready quickly and went to Lido at 8am for a lite breakfast.  Our day pass would include breakfast and lunch at the hotel, but since it would still be an hour or two before we had food in front of us, we wanted to eat a little something on the ship first.  I got a half-slice of French Toast for Ian and myself, plus a lemon poppyseed muffin.  I love how the muffins in the breakfast buffet are just the muffin tops.  Everyone knows that is the best part of the muffin, so this probably cuts down on a lot of wasted food (I have definitely been known to break off the bottom stump of a muffin and throw it away because it’s not as good as the golden, crispy top part!  Also, props to anyone who gets the Seinfeld reference!)

 

 

We got off the ship by 8:15am, and took an open air shuttle for the short ride from the ship to the port exit.  We were not allowed to walk through this port as it’s a busy working port with shipping containers and lots of action, so I assume these shuttles were there for our safety.  They only held about 20 passengers, so it filled up quickly and we were on our way.

 

 

We had to walk past lots of stores to exit the port, and at first I wasn’t even sure where we were going and if we were still in the port or if this was the streets of Mazatlan.  Eventually, we saw what we assumed were the port gates, so we asked one of the staff to double check and he said yes, we should exit the gate and that’s where an Uber could pick us up.  Out of habit, my eyes scanned the list of options in the Uber app for the cheapest price, but be careful!  The cheapest option on Uber in Mexico is a scooter!  That definitely would not work for 2 adults, one toddler, and a stroller!!  I requested an Uber X and it arrived 2 minutes later.

 

 

 

A nice, new, clean car pulled up with enough space in the trunk for Ian’s stroller.  The ride to the hotel took 15 minutes and cost $4.11 USD.  Can’t beat that!

 

 

 

[deladane]

We pulled up to the Hotel Playa Mazatlan just before 9am. The Uber dropped us off on the street, but in hindsight, he probably could have pulled up to the front of the hotel where guests unload their luggage.  We put Ian in his stroller and walked across the street to enter the hotel property.

 

 

The reception area was in a big room with a long counter behind a glass partition, and a separate line for checking in and checking out.  We got on line to check in, and when it was our turn, they said the person who handles day passes would arrive soon and that we should wait to the side.  Ok, that was promising, they had a dedicated person to handle day passes.  This must be a legit thing to do at this hotel.  

 

 

10 minutes later, they called us back to the desk and explained all the rules of the day pass, and had us sign off on the policies.  

 

 

They took a cash deposit of $30 USD, and I confirmed that they would give me back the deposit in USD as I didn’t want to receive pesos back.  They gave us 3 blue cards that we could exchange for towels, and we had to trade the towels back at the end of the day to return the blue cards or we would be charged 250 pesos ($15 USD).  He put a bracelet on Jason’s and my wrist, but Ian didn’t need to wear one.  After that, we were free to enjoy our day.  No one said anything about needing to know someone staying at the hotel, so clearly I just took that blurb on the website too literally and anyone is free to visit and pay for a day pass.  I asked for a map so we could find our way around, and then we were on our way.

 

 

[deladane]

We walked around briefly to get a lay of the land and decide where we wanted to set up our spot for the day.  The hotel grounds were beautifully maintained, and hardly anyone was out this early in the morning.  There was a rectangular pool across from the lobby with several lounge chairs, but it looked like a pool for laps, or maybe playing water polo or volleyball or something, and we hoped to find something more scenic.  We walked down a corridor and it opened up to the beach.  There were lots of lounge chairs under palapas in the sand and shockingly, no one was using any of them!  

 

 

Next to the beach, there was a beautiful pool with a waterfall and a swim up bar, so this seemed like a perfect spot for us to hang out today. 

 

 

 

 

It was kind of strange, though, because there weren’t any loungers.  I don’t think I have ever seen a hotel with no lounge chairs at the pool.  There were a few palapas with upright chairs at the far side of the pool, so we gathered 3 of the chairs under a palapa that was against the side of a hill so we knew we’d be protected and in the shade, and we set up our towels here for the day.

 

 

[deladane]

Bars at the hotel don’t open until 11am.  That was the one thing that surprised me most about this all-inclusive resort.  I was under the impression that they served alcohol 24 hours a day, or at least from 7am until sometime around midnight or 1am or something.  What if people wanted a mimosa or Bloody Mary with their breakfast?  That caught us off guard since we would only have about 6 hours at the hotel and this took away 2 hours of our drinking time.  Breakfast was still being served, so we went to the buffet to get something to eat.  There was a very long line, so it took about 20 minutes to reach the front, but along the way, we caught a sneak peek at the food and it looked good and well-stocked.

 

 

When we got to the front of the line, the long wait made sense.  A hostess greeted us and asked how many people were in our party, then she escorted us to our table.  This was wonderful!  Unlike at the buffet on the cruise ship, where you have to walk around searching for a vacant table, the hotel staff seated us which eliminated a lot of stress.  I was actually surprised at how far apart they spaced the tables.  Maybe I just got used to the tight spaces on the ship, but there was plenty of space between the tables here so it didn’t feel crowded, even though every table was occupied.

 

 

Jason sat at the table with Ian while I went to the buffet to get our food.  The buffet had lots of options, from fresh fruit, to yogurt, to typical breakfast options like pancakes, french toast, and waffles.  They had lots of pre-made Mexican food options (obviously!) and a salsa station, but there was also a station for made-to-order eggs and another for chilaquiles.  They were constantly refilling the trays of food, and with so many people eating at once, nothing appeared to be sitting out too long and it was all served at the appropriate temperatures. 

 

Fresh fruit

 

Yogurt

 

Salsa bar

 

Fresh salads

 

[deladane]

I made eye contact with the woman making fresh waffles behind the counter, so she gave me a fresh one straight from the waffle maker.  I knew Ian would be thrilled, as he loves waffles and I could never find them at the Lido breakfast on the ship.

 

 

 

Jason opted for the made-to-order chilaquiles, one of his favorite Mexican breakfast dishes.

 

 

The dining tables had a beautiful view over the beach, looking out towards Isla de Venados.

 

 

 

[Waynehazle]

Laying in the Serenity area 

 

 

[vanislandcruisers]

35 minutes ago, deladane said:

Bars at the hotel don’t open until 11am. 

 

That caught us off guard since we would only have about 6 hours at the hotel and this took away 2 hours of our drinking time.  

 

Written like you are related to us....lol

[cmptrwiz]

Nice!

[seeuonthesea]

I'm loving this detailed review! Panorama is one of my favorite ships. We have done this itinerary many times, so it's pretty cool seeing it through someone else's eye and adventures! 

[seeuonthesea]

@vanislandcruisers Are you planning on writing a review of your Panorama as well? I hope you are! You are one of my favorites and I really miss your reviews!

[vanislandcruisers]

6 minutes ago, seeuonthesea said:

@vanislandcruisers Are you planning on writing a review of your Panorama as well? I hope you are! You are one of my favorites and I really miss your reviews!

@seeuonthesea...that is the Plan...and Thanks!!!

[deladane]

1 hour ago, vanislandcruisers said:

Written like you are related to us....lol

 

hahahaha that's how we roll!

[deladane]

1 hour ago, cmptrwiz said:

Nice!

 

Thanks!

[deladane]

32 minutes ago, seeuonthesea said:

I'm loving this detailed review! Panorama is one of my favorite ships. We have done this itinerary many times, so it's pretty cool seeing it through someone else's eye and adventures! 

 

Thank you!  I'm so glad you are enjoying it!  I also enjoy reading other people's reviews when I have done the itinerary already.  It's fun to see how they spent their days in port, and to relive the vacation vicariously through their reviews!

[deladane]

23 minutes ago, vanislandcruisers said:

@seeuonthesea...that is the Plan...and Thanks!!!

 

I'll be following along your review too!

[travelinjess85]

Loving your review! We went on the panorama last summer and had a great trip. Love reliving it as well as getting some good ideas for next time! 

[mitsugirly]

I was secretly hoping that you visited both the hotel and the aquarium LOL  I wanted to see both but I guess I'll have to youtube the aquarium. You gave me the perfect thing to do ...IF it rains. I guess I never think about a plan B if it happens to rain. At least I'll have one for this port. 

 

The hotel looks amazing! Can't beat that price either. 

[KarmaCruisers]

Hmm…we always go to Stone Island..but that looks pretty dope too. Especially if it included food and hooch.

[deladane]

8 hours ago, travelinjess85 said:

Loving your review! We went on the panorama last summer and had a great trip. Love reliving it as well as getting some good ideas for next time! 

Thank you! So glad you are enjoying my review!

[deladane]

8 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

I was secretly hoping that you visited both the hotel and the aquarium LOL  I wanted to see both but I guess I'll have to youtube the aquarium. You gave me the perfect thing to do ...IF it rains. I guess I never think about a plan B if it happens to rain. At least I'll have one for this port. 

 

The hotel looks amazing! Can't beat that price either. 

Hahaha that would have been a busy day if we also went to the aquarium!  I have never felt the need to research a plan B in case of rain, but since I had 2 great options of what to do in Mazatlan, I liked that one of them was indoors just in case. 
 

and yes, that price was perfect!  I’ll post lots more photos of the hotel soon 😀

[deladane]

4 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Hmm…we always go to Stone Island..but that looks pretty dope too. Especially if it included food and hooch.

I saw a lot of recommendations for Stone Island, but I didn’t think that would work for us on this trip. Maybe when Ian gets a little older 🤷‍♀️