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

[deladane]

3 hours ago, VictorWI said:

 

Wow, that is sad. 😞 I get that they probably tossed a lot of cheese as they used to give you quite a bit but they could make it look more presentable and keep the fruit and bread. I found a picture of one from 2016 that looked exactly like your 2019. 🙂 

 

Exactly!  We have gotten cheese plates on every cruise, so I was curious if I was just remembering the presentation from a different cruise line, but nope!  My old archive of photos doesn't lie 🤷‍♀️

[pghsteelerfan]

On 1/22/2024 at 11:04 AM, deladane said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I knew that the Baja Peninsula was in a desert climate, but I had no idea they had this many cacti!  I live in Phoenix.  I see cactus every day, but rarely do I see so many cacti so close together.  It was beautiful!

 

 

 

I have the same picture from the bus window of the cacti!!!  They handled the shuttle busses differently than they did on our cruise.  Due to the change in our itinerary because of the tropical storm that became Hurricane Lidia, we had two sea days at the beginning, La Paz and Mazatlan as scheduled, then two days (the second a half day) in Cabo.  We missed Puerto Vallarta due to the hurricane.  On that second sea day at the beginning is when you could get tickets for the busses.  Tickets were available on Deck 10, just inside the pool area at 2PM but the line started forming at 1:30.  We wanted the earliest time so I got in line for our tickets.  We got the time I wanted, fortunately.  There were a lot of complaints about that and the confusion.  So glad you got to sleep in a little and didn't have a long wait.  Maybe that's one of the issues the Carnival worked out because a lot of people were complaining about that whole fiasco.  LOL!  I'm really enjoying your review and beautiful pictures.  I used my phone for most of my pictures too!

[pghsteelerfan]

9 hours ago, deladane said:

 

Thank you!  Oh yes, I would have been nervous about hearing lots of noise overhead in that cabin, so I'm glad it was quiet for you.  Did you find that the overhang provided extra shade compared to a regular balcony?  And did the overhang impact your view?

We've been right under Lido on our Valor and our second Liberty cruise and it really was never an issue. On the Liberty cruise, my husband did say he could hear the deck party after our day in Barbados going late but I fell asleep and didn't hear a thing.  We could occasionally hear chairs being moved around, but it was usually fairly quiet at night.  We did get a little extra shade on the balcony and I noticed in my pictures that you could always see it, but for some pictures I just worked around it.  Attached a pic so you could see what it looked like.  This was when we were sailing into Mazatlan before the ship turned and docked. 

[jerseygirlinAZ]

7 hours ago, deladane said:

 

Exactly!  We have gotten cheese plates on every cruise, so I was curious if I was just remembering the presentation from a different cruise line, but nope!  My old archive of photos doesn't lie 🤷‍♀️

I am sad that the steakhouse no longer offers the cheese plate.  It was truly my favorite thing to eat on cruises.  So delicious!

[deladane]

15 hours ago, pghsteelerfan said:

I have the same picture from the bus window of the cacti!!!  They handled the shuttle busses differently than they did on our cruise.  Due to the change in our itinerary because of the tropical storm that became Hurricane Lidia, we had two sea days at the beginning, La Paz and Mazatlan as scheduled, then two days (the second a half day) in Cabo.  We missed Puerto Vallarta due to the hurricane.  On that second sea day at the beginning is when you could get tickets for the busses.  Tickets were available on Deck 10, just inside the pool area at 2PM but the line started forming at 1:30.  We wanted the earliest time so I got in line for our tickets.  We got the time I wanted, fortunately.  There were a lot of complaints about that and the confusion.  So glad you got to sleep in a little and didn't have a long wait.  Maybe that's one of the issues the Carnival worked out because a lot of people were complaining about that whole fiasco.  LOL!  I'm really enjoying your review and beautiful pictures.  I used my phone for most of my pictures too!

 

Oye, I'm so glad they didn't make us get tickets for the shuttle.  I couldn't have predicted the day before what time we would be ready to leave the ship (because... toddlers!) so that would have just been added stress.  Maybe there was a long line for the shuttles at a different time in the morning, but we got lucky and had a very smooth experience.

[deladane]

14 hours ago, pghsteelerfan said:

We've been right under Lido on our Valor and our second Liberty cruise and it really was never an issue. On the Liberty cruise, my husband did say he could hear the deck party after our day in Barbados going late but I fell asleep and didn't hear a thing.  We could occasionally hear chairs being moved around, but it was usually fairly quiet at night.  We did get a little extra shade on the balcony and I noticed in my pictures that you could always see it, but for some pictures I just worked around it.  Attached a pic so you could see what it looked like.  This was when we were sailing into Mazatlan before the ship turned and docked. 

 

Yea, that's what I thought it would be like under the overhang.  I could see that being a good cabin on a Caribbean sailing when the weather is hotter.  We have had some cruises when we couldn't use our balcony in the afternoon because it was so hot out there in the direct sun, so the extra shade would come in handy.  Otherwise, I don't think I would like the overhang because it blocks the view for photos, and you know how important the photos are to me! #priorities 🤣

[deladane]

11 hours ago, jerseygirlinAZ said:

I am sad that the steakhouse no longer offers the cheese plate.  It was truly my favorite thing to eat on cruises.  So delicious!

 

I don't think we have ever gotten the cheese plate from the steakhouse... and now I guess we never will 🤷‍♀️ bummer!

[MEUB1112]

Outstanding review Dana!!

[deladane]

16 hours ago, MEUB1112 said:

Outstanding review Dana!!

 

Thank you!  It's been a busy weekend, but I'll try to post the next part tomorrow!

[Waynehazle]

Just got back yesterday from my trip on the Carnival Panorama!  What an amazing time!!  I will need to work on my own report.  It will never be as good as yours Dana but overall I highly recommend this trip.

 

[deladane]

15 hours ago, Waynehazle said:

Just got back yesterday from my trip on the Carnival Panorama!  What an amazing time!!  I will need to work on my own report.  It will never be as good as yours Dana but overall I highly recommend this trip.

 

 

What a beautiful photo!!  I'm so glad you had a wonderful cruise and can't wait to hear all about it!

[deladane]

Thursday, January 4 | Puerto Vallarta | 9:00am to 9:00pm

 

As I mentioned, Jason and I spent a week in Puerto Vallarta in December, 2018.  We stayed downtown in the Romantic Zone, and spent the week seeing all the major tourist attractions that interested us.  Luckily, PV is a big city with countless ways to spend the day, and traveling with a toddler opens up a new world of options.  Back in 2018, whenever I read a list of the top things to do in PV, the Vallarta Zoo was always on the list.  It is a non-profit zoo built into the side of a mountain in the jungle, and it houses mostly rescued, endangered, and injured animals in an attempt to provide them a better life than they would have in the wild.  At the time, we chose different ways to fill our days, but on this cruise, I knew the zoo would be perfect for us!  They only charge $12 per person admission, and children under age 3 are free.  They also encourage visitors to interact with the animals, and they sell a bag of food for $5 with treats specific to various animals so Ian could feed the animals.  We thought that would make the zoo a bit more exciting for him, so overall this seemed like a great way to start our day.  The plan was to take an Uber down to the zoo, explore for an hour or two, and then take an Uber to the Malecon to walk around and get something for lunch.  

 

 

 

No matter what time I fell asleep, I always woke up at 7am on this cruise, and today was no different.  The boys were still fast asleep, so I quietly got dressed in the bathroom, then snuck out onto the balcony to watch us sail into port.  

 

 

We weren’t due to arrive for about another hour, so we were still a bit far from the marina.  

 

 

15 minutes later, we turned into the marina, and I could see the Emerald Princess was already tied up at her dock.

 

 

I don’t think I have acknowledged this yet, but I took this photo below so obviously it was bothering me this morning.  When I booked our cabin, I knew there was a smoking section on the starboard side of deck 5 forward.  I assumed that being 4 decks higher, and being closer to midship, we wouldn’t notice the smell if people were down there smoking while we were on our balcony.  I assumed the smoke would dissipate before it got to our balcony.  I was wrong.  We could definitely smell it, both while docked in port and while out at sea.  I have no idea why Carnival decided to put the smoking section at the front of the ship so everyone on their balconies would be downwind and have to smell it.  There were several decks of balcony cabins below us, and many cabins forward of us, who could all smell it too.  We made the best of it, but sometimes had to go back inside if the smoke was too much to tolerate.

 

 

[deladane]

By 8am, we had pulled in beside the Emerald Princess and started the docking process.

 

 

The sun was shining and the high temperature was expected to reach 81 degrees today, but I could see clouds gathering in the distance and the forecast predicted rain later this afternoon and evening.

 

 

Ian and Jason slept in until 8:15am.  With the whole gang awake, we could finally get this day started.   We went up to Lido for breakfast at 8:45am, and surprisingly, there was only 1 person working to make burritos at Blue Iguana so it took a lot longer than the other mornings.  There had been 2 people at peak hours all week, so I’m not sure what happened, but eventually I got our burritos and we ate them at one of the nearby tables.

 

 

Today was also the morning when the cabin stewards set up towel animals on all the lounge chairs on Lido deck.  After I finished my burrito, I went off to take some photos while Jason helped Ian finish his breakfast.

 

 

 

The cruise ship docks in a commercial area of Puerto Vallarta, right across the street from a shopping mall and a Walmart.  The streets were already busy with traffic and the morning rush.

 

 

 

[deladane]

We got off the ship at 9:30am, and had a very long walk to exit the port area. 

 

 

 

First, we passed a check point where they looked inside my backpack to make sure I didn’t have any produce.  I packed a peanut butter sandwich for Ian in case he got hungry for lunch before we did, and I was worried they would take it away, but she said it was okay and let me pass.  Whew!  We continued walking on the sidewalk along the side of the ship, following signs to exit the port.

 

 

Eventually, we came to this door, and when we passed through, we were finally out on the sidewalk outside of the port area.  Luckily, the whole walk was on paved sidewalk because we had our stroller, but that was definitely the furthest we had to walk to exit the cruise port on this cruise.

 

 

We walked across the busy street, then stood in front of the shopping mall to request an Uber.

 

 

There was a ton of traffic, so it was no surprise that our Uber took 15 minutes to pick us up.

 

 

 

While we waited, we had a nice view of the ships docked across the street.

 

 

 

And look who I spied waving hello from the Panorama’s bridge:

 

 

[deladane]

Our Uber arrived at the mall just before 10am.  The ride went smoothly and it took us 50 minutes to reach the zoo down in Mismaloya. 

 

 

 

You know that feeling of uncertainty when you don’t know exactly where you are going, and it seems to take forever to get somewhere you haven’t been before?  It was so nice that I could relax during our Uber ride because we had actually been very close to this zoo when we were here in 2018.  We bought a day pass to visit the Barcelo All Inclusive resort in Mismaloya, and the zoo is just up the street from there.  I remembered feeling like that Uber ride to get to the Barcelo took sooooooooo long because I didn’t realize how far down the coast we had to go.  This time around, I didn’t have any of that uncertainty with not trusting our driver, or any of those “are we there yet” feelings because I already knew… It was going to be a long drive!  We arrived at the zoo shortly before 11am, and the ride cost $12.50 USD.  I loved how affordable Uber was in Mexico!  Our Uber driver was even nice enough to offer to take our photo before we went into the zoo.

 

 

As I expected from the information on their website, the zoo charged us $12 USD per adult, and Ian was free.  The guy behind the register didn’t mention anything about buying a bag of food for the animals, but I saw them sitting next to him on the counter, so I asked about it and he sold it to us for $5 as expected.  Good thing I saw that information on the website or we wouldn’t have known to ask!

 

 

 

On the back of the bag, they listed which animals could eat which foods, so that was nice knowing it was safe for the animals to eat this food and that we weren’t going to cause any harm by feeding them.

 

 

There is just one very long path around the entire zoo that starts and ends at the front gate, so you can’t really get lost.  I do wish we had some kind of map so we would know how far along the path we were to help gauge our timing and dispensing of snacks to the animals.  One thing to note: while the entire path is paved, the zoo is built up into the mountains, so there are a lot of steep hills to climb and I would not recommend this place to someone with mobility impairments.  When we left the visitors center, we forked to the right to start the uphill walk to see the animals.  Later on, we passed people coming from the opposite direction, so they must have forked to the left to start.  I would not recommend that, as the last section of the path was extremely steep, so much so that Jason asked me to help him control the stroller as we walked down because we were afraid he might lose his grip and Ian would go flying down the hill!!  There were no animals to see during that 10 minute steep walk down, so the people who did the path in the reverse direction just had a super steep uphill climb with no animals to see and no chance to stop and catch their breath.  At least by forking to the right from the start, we had lots of animals to see along the path and kept stopping every few feet, so it broke up the uphill climb and it wasn’t as taxing.

 

Another thing to note, which is also mentioned on the zoo’s website:  The zoo is located in the jungle, so while it is fully shaded by trees and they say wearing sunscreen is unnecessary, they highly recommend wearing pants and long sleeve shirts to decrease the risk of bug bites.  We opted for a two-pronged approach.  I wore capris and I dressed Ian in long pants, and Jason wore shorts (he’s a risk taker!), but we all wore T-shirts because we knew it would be humid and we didn’t want to get too hot.  I bought a package of bug spray wipes, and we applied it to any exposed skin before entering the zoo.  That worked perfectly and none of us got any bites while we were there.  If there is a bug nearby, it will always find me and bite me.  I actually got 2 bites yesterday in Mazatlan, but nothing bit me today, so that felt like a win.

[deladane]

They wasted no time with the excitement as the very first animal we saw was an enclosure with 3 tigers!  The gate was low enough that Ian could easily see the animals from his stroller, and he was so excited to see the tigers up close!  There were 2 sets of gates, so we felt safe and didn’t think the tiger would attack us, but this was a good way to see what the zoo would be like.  

 

 

We definitely tested the limits of our stroller today, as while the path was technically paved, it was more like cobblestones and made for a very bumpy ride for Ian.

 

 

We passed a sign that said to be careful around the coati, and to closely guard the bags of food, as they can become aggressive and try to get the food.  Sure enough, we saw this guy approaching a few moments later…

 

 

I held our bag of food tightly and walked briskly up the hill, and the coati continued on his path, back into the jungle.

 

Up next, we saw the ostrich:

 

 

Then we saw a beautiful white tiger:

 

 

Usually when I go to the zoo, I have trouble finding the animals and half the time they aren’t even in their enclosures.  That wasn’t an issue here.  Every single enclosure was clearly labeled, and the animals were always easy to find.  It made the zoo visit fun for all 3 of us, as even Ian was able to spot the animals without our help.

[deladane]

Up next, we found our first opportunity to feed the animals.  Up until now, the animals were either behind a fence or a window, or they weren’t listed as one of the options to feed from our bag of snacks.  It was very obvious that we were encouraged to feed the flamingos as soon as we got there because they come right up close to you, and there’s nothing separating them from us besides a low ledge, at the perfect height to put down some food where they can reach it to eat.

 

 

Ian was hesitant at first, so Jason showed him what to do.

 

 

When he felt comfortable, Ian took some of the food and put it out for the flamingos to eat.  He loved it and asked to do it again and again!  I think he felt safe because he was sitting in his stroller that he uses all the time at home.  He was doing this new activity in an unfamiliar place, getting him out of his comfort zone, and he did great!

 

 

Their enclosure looked quite large and extended back quite a ways.  The surrounding mountains and lush greenery made this zoo very scenic.

 

 

Up next was the barbary sheep (I would have said it’s a goat, but the signs indicated otherwise).  He came right up to the gate to say hello…

 

 

…so Ian fed him a carrot!

 

 

[deladane]

I won’t bore you with photos of every single animal in the zoo, but I will say that I was shocked with the variety of animals and I was very impressed with what this zoo had to offer.  I honestly thought it would be a small zoo with a handful of animals, but they did an impressive job with laying out the path such that you could see lots of animals in a short time as you wind up and down the hills.

 

We turned another corner and there were a bunch of geese walking around.  Growing up on Long Island, I am all too familiar with geese, and not necessarily in a good way.  But Ian has never seen a goose before, so he was having a great time squawking at them.

 

 

Up next was the highlight of my day (and possibly my highlight of the entire cruise)... We got to feed a giraffe!!  He was so friendly and stuck his neck out, over the top of the barrier, just to say hello!

 

 

I took out a carrot from our bag of snacks, and he was so gentle as he took it from my hand.

 

 

OMG! This was so fun!  I tried to take Ian out of his stroller so he could do it, but I think he was intimidated by the giraffe (which is understandable considering their size difference!).  I just let him stay in the stroller and watch me feed him again.

 

 

 

I could have fed that giraffe our entire bag of carrots, but Jason made me stop and save some for the other animals.  Okay, okay, fine!

[deladane]

Moving on, we saw the Shetland ponies. 

 

 

 

After that, we had the chance to feed some parrots.  There were quite a few of them in their enclosure, and as soon as they saw I had food for them, they all came right up to the fence to say hello!

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

For the first hour or so that we were at the zoo, we only saw a few other families and for the most part, we had each animal to ourselves when we got to each enclosure.  It was now 12:30pm and while the zoo was far from crowded, we could tell that more visitors had arrived.  There were small groups blocking our view of some of the more popular animals (tigers, deer, bear, jaguar, etc.), so we took Ian to see some of the less exciting animals.  To adults, these aren’t as impressive as the bigger animals, but it was Ian’s first time seeing these animals in real life, so he loved it!

 

There were 4 or 5 raccoons in one of the enclosures, and the window went nearly down to the ground so Ian had a great view from sitting in his stroller.  We spent quite a while there, watching them eat and play with each other behind the glass.

 

 

 

After that, we found the rabbits.  There were tons of them!

 

 

This was another enclosure where the gate came down low enough that Ian could feed the animals while sitting in his stroller.  He had so much fun with this, and I think it was one of his favorite parts of the day!

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

That zoo looked like a lot of fun! Also getting to feed the animals is really cool as well. You mentioned they were animals they rescued that wouldn't make it out there on their own. Do they just have giraffe's and tigers running around the island? Where did they come from? Shipped over from other places? It just makes me wonder when they say that. 

[dallasdan]

2 hours ago, deladane said:

I won’t bore you with photos of every single animal in the zoo, but I will say that I was shocked with the variety of animals and I was very impressed with what this zoo had to offer.  I honestly thought it would be a small zoo with a handful of animals, but they did an impressive job with laying out the path such that you could see lots of animals in a short time as you wind up and down the hills.

 

We turned another corner and there were a bunch of geese walking around.  Growing up on Long Island, I am all too familiar with geese, and not necessarily in a good way.  But Ian has never seen a goose before, so he was having a great time squawking at them.

 

 

Up next was the highlight of my day (and possibly my highlight of the entire cruise)... We got to feed a giraffe!!  He was so friendly and stuck his neck out, over the top of the barrier, just to say hello!

 

 

I took out a carrot from our bag of snacks, and he was so gentle as he took it from my hand.

 

 

OMG! This was so fun!  I tried to take Ian out of his stroller so he could do it, but I think he was intimidated by the giraffe (which is understandable considering their size difference!).  I just let him stay in the stroller and watch me feed him again.

 

 

 

I could have fed that giraffe our entire bag of carrots, but Jason made me stop and save some for the other animals.  Okay, okay, fine!

We have a safari drive through close to our house where you can feed the Giraffes.  Our 2 1/2 year old grand daughter acted the same way as Ian.  She just threw the carrots.  Wouldn't get close.  I love your review.  Thank you

Edited January 30 by dallasdan

[ninjacat123]

12 minutes ago, mitsugirly said:

That zoo looked like a lot of fun! Also getting to feed the animals is really cool as well. You mentioned they were animals they rescued that wouldn't make it out there on their own. Do they just have giraffe's and tigers running around the island? Where did they come from? Shipped over from other places? It just makes me wonder when they say that. 

Here in the Carolinas we have Tiger World which supports mostly exotic animals that have been brought in to the US and in some cases, once the animal is past the "little cute stage" they are brought here or reported for neglect and they are brought to Tiger World.  Maybe this is a similar scenario for this zoo.🤷‍♀️

[deladane]

54 minutes ago, mitsugirly said:

That zoo looked like a lot of fun! Also getting to feed the animals is really cool as well. You mentioned they were animals they rescued that wouldn't make it out there on their own. Do they just have giraffe's and tigers running around the island? Where did they come from? Shipped over from other places? It just makes me wonder when they say that. 

 

Now that you are booked on this cruise, you'll have to remember... there's no islands on this itinerary! This ain't the Caribbean 🤣 So maybe the animals came from somewhere else in Mexico, or Central or South America?  I'm not really sure 🤷‍♀️ 

[deladane]

58 minutes ago, dallasdan said:

We have a safari drive through close to our house where you can feed the Giraffes.  Our 2 1/2 year old grand daughter acted the same way as Ian.  She just threw the carrots.  Wouldn't get close.  I love your review.  Thank you

 

Aww, maybe they are just too young at this age?  I was just proud of him for feeding the flamingos and rabbits.  We took him to a petting zoo last spring and he wouldn't get near the animals so this was huge progress!