deladane

Great start to your review! I look forward to following along as I just did this itinerary for the New Years Eve cruise!

Yay!! I have been waiting for you to post your review! I can’t wait to see how you liked the Mexican Riviera!

I cruised out of Long Beach on the Panorama for the New Years Eve cruise, so the ship was filled to capacity with nearly 5000 passengers. We took my toddler on his first cruise and opted not to get him a passport, so we traveled with his birth certificate and my husband and I both took our passports. At debarkation, the line for passports was crazy long, wrapping all the way up to the top of the ramp when exiting the ship. We flew passed them all the way to the front and had no line at all for the birth certificate line (they were able to look at our passports there too since obviously we couldn't send our toddler on his own to the BC line). I assume that not every port operates the same way, but we were happy with our decision to use his BC as it saved us a lot of time in the long and slow-moving passport line in Long Beach.

I don't know the exact daily pricing to park in the garage because we used Uber. Maybe someone else can chime in about that? I don't think it will be possible for you to retrieve your car by 8:30am. Unlike most other cruises from other ports who arrive back to their homeports at like 5 or 6am, the Panorama doesn't arrive back in Long Beach until 7am. According to our paperwork, the earliest time to debark was 9:15am, and then you still need to get off the ship, through the terminal, through passport control, over to the garage, and up to your car.

Thanks for following along! I hope you have a great cruise!

Thanks! Yes, we lived in San Jose for about 8 years and Strike was one of our favorite breweries. I told Jason you liked his shirt, and he was excited someone recognized it!

Ugh, yea it's so hard to fly cross country with the big time zone changes. When we visited my parents in New York in August, the only direct fight back to Phoenix left around 6pm, and we landed at 9:30pm local time, which felt like 12:30am NY time, and by the time we got home, it was close to 2am NY time. That was brutal! Even still, I think you are making the right call with keeping the later flight. It's not worth the risk of missing the flight since based on peoples' replies, that traffic nightmare leaving the port of Long Beach is very common.

Thanks for following along! Now that I'm done with this review, I kind of want to book another cruise too, but it will have to wait for now (I think Ian would get back on a ship tomorrow if I let him, but Jason is still in recovery mode 🤣)

Isn't it so funny how two people can experience the same thing in totally different ways? Especially on a large ship with nearly 5000 passengers, and so many different things to do both on the ship and in port, everyone has a chance to enjoy what works best for them and their families. I love that about cruising! I hope you have a wonderful cruise next week!!

Thank you! It was great having you follow along!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed my review!!

Thank you!! So glad you enjoyed my review as much as I always enjoy yours! I made a mental note to check back in April to see how your cruise goes!

I'm all caught up, just in time for your arrival into San Juan! Wishing you a wonderful cruise and looking forward to following along. Just a pointer about the mud baths in St. Lucia... I did that same excursion a few years ago. It was great, but I would recommend wearing a bathing suit you don't care about in the mud baths. Or at the very least, only wear dark colors, and definitely no white! The minerals in the mud stained our bathing suits (both mine and my husband's) and it did not come out in the wash so those bathing suits are now tinted a rust/orange color. The black parts of the fabric were fine, but the white and yellow parts... not so much!