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4 of us stayed at the Homewood Suites New Orleans French Quarter in October. https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/msyfrhw-homewood-suites-new-orleans-french-quarter/ We really enjoyed the hotel. Rooms were spacious, clean, it was easily walkable to all the nightlife on Bourbon street. There's also a gas station just down from the hotel for any snacks/drinks you may need (but if I remember correctly they do close fairly early so just be forewarned). They also offer free hot breakfast and the breakfast was actually pretty good. Lots of options. Getting an Uber to the port was easy peasy and was a quick trip.

My hubby and I started dating on the Splendor in August of 2012. We went with a group of friends (8 of us in total) and it was also my first cruise. My first actual vacation that wasn't a family vacation. All of us had an absolute blast. We took our 'honeymoon' on Carnival Miracle November 2015 (a little more than a year after we got married). Since then we've been on Splendor once more before she moved to Austrailia, Triumph, Glory, Radiance, Mardi Gras, and Panorama (2nd time on panorama coming up in 2 months!). We'll also be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary aboard the Horizon in September (where hubby should also be turning platinum!). I love the fact that with cruising you get to check out multiple ports of call to see where you may want to travel back to at a later date. Plus you can be as active or as lazy as you want to be. We haven't ventured outside of Carnival yet, haven't really felt the need too, but eventually I do wanna try out some other lines. Thinking about planning a Disney cruise next year.

I don't think I've read any of your reviews, but you seem like my kind of people! Following along as I'll be on the Horizon for the first time in September! Also in a Havana cabana for the first time. 🙂

On some ships, I have seen bags of chips in the sports bar (or I guess it would now be the heroes bar). As others have said, i've also seen Pringles (maybe other chips but i'm not positive) in one of the gift shops. Like others I like to bring some chips with me in my suitcase, for when those salty snack cravings hit. I usually like grabbing the Lays Stax since I feel like their cans hold up the best.

I dont use it, but I would think mid tier or highest tier should work for you. But for the price difference between those 2, I'd just get the highest tier package.

I was on the Mardi Gras in January of 2022 and while i'm not a seafood fan, the steak I had at Rudi's far surpassed the steak I had at the steakhouse. The rest of my party did order seafood and all raved about their food as well. I would highly recommend!

I love your reviews and I absolutely love your hair 😍😍. You're review is getting me excited for May, which will be the 2nd time my hubby and I are cruising on Panorama. Long beach is our home port and we also used to be annual pass holders for disneyland, so I've loved reading your pre-cruise festivities.

I also find it odd since I know i've read trip reports with people saying if you thought you were going to go over your 15 drinks on cheers then be sure to say you want to pay for you drink before you get to number 14. I also don't see how they can essentially limit someone to buying 15 drinks without cheers, because what if you're traveling with a group of friends and your buying rounds? Lets say you go with a group of 6 people and you buy 3 rounds, you're then over your 15 drink "limit" and they won't serve you anymore for the day even though you only had 3 drinks for yourself? That doesn't make much sense to me.

If you're not purchasing cheers he will not have a 15 drink limit. The 15 drink limit is only if you're on the Cheers plan. Otherwise you can purchase as much as you'd like as long as you're not stupidly drunk and they stop serving you. In answer to your bucket of beers/will they be open question. I know they usually open beers for you, but I don't think they open all of them for you if you open a bucket. It's been awhile since i've purchased a bucket so I could be wrong on that. You could always ask them to not open them though (or open them) depending on your preference. Have fun!

If you happen to be cruising in May, we may be on the same sailing. 😉 While the west coast definitely does not have the crystal clear blue waters of the Caribbean/Bahamas, the water out here is just as beautiful in its own right. I've attached a couple panoramic pics I took when we were in Cabo a number of years back. Long Beach is my home port, so we've been out of Long Beach 5ish times now. Depending on when you're going, the weather on this side of Mexico can either be really pleasant or really hot and humid. But I don't think we've ever really had "bad" weather anytime we've done the Mexican Riviera. We do not tend to do an excursion in Cabo. The first time we went we did a snorkeling excursion and while it was fun the water was pretty choppy and we didn't see much. We usually walk around the port area and grab food and drinks. When we were there in April 2023 we tried out Solomon's Landing for the first time and really enjoyed the food and the service. If you're into craft beer, Baja Brewing has some solid beers and eats. We haven't been since they moved locations, but I'm sure they're still just as good. A lot of people say they don't like Cabo because it's basically a desert, but I love Cabo. The last couple times we've been to Puerto Vallarta we've done an all inclusive day at the Hyatt Ziva. The first time we did it it was offered through Carnival, but the last time we went it wasn't offered through Carnival so we just booked it on our own and then took a taxi to/from the resort. Taxi's are super easy to grab in Puerto Vallarta. Highly highly recommend the Hyatt Ziva. Their food and drinks are great and the staff is wonderful. There is also a Walmart right across from the port area in case you need to grab anything. Puerto Vallarta also tends to be one of the ports that you have the most time in so you can really get your moneys worth in my opinion. We've also walked the Malecon before which provides you with tons of things to see and places to walk through. One trip we did the Rhythms of the Night through Carnival and while it was fun, we didn't have the greatest experience due to the super rough seas. 75% of our boat to the island area got sea sick. I wasn't able to enjoy dinner and I still didn't feel good throughout the show. We have friends that went a different time though and said it was great. I hesitate to this one again personally just because the price has gone up on it astronomically. Mazatlan is a working port so it's definitely not the prettiest when they dock (at least if you're looking out at the side facing the port, the other side view isn't bad). We've actually never done anything in Mazatlan (only been twice since Carnival didn't always sail there due to crime). On our family trip last April my BIL/SIL and their spouses did a kayaking excursion (it was this or ziplining I don't remember which) through an outside company and they all had a lot of fun with it. La Paz we have not been to yet and this will be our first trip here so I don't have any tidbits of info for this. Panorama is a really nice ship. This will be our 2nd time on her and this time we're trying out the Havana area. I'll come back and add any other tidbits I think of that may be useful. 🙂

Our tradition is to take a patron shot as soon as we get on board usually followed by muster. Sometimes muster and then a shot. It always commences the start of our vacation.

I received this survey as well, and completed it, but I know that I was not on a casino offer. My goal this cruise though is to hopefully gamble enough/more to get some perks in the future.

That is true, but the website kept timing out on me for pretty much every step of check in even with jumping around to the different sections. At least it's over and done now and we have 13 days till cruising.

I was supposed to check in for my cruise yesterday (or Saturday night after 9pm since i'm on the west coast) and I was finally able to do so yesterday evening, but it was like pulling teeth. The website was still definitely very glitchy and kept giving me errors. After over an hour I was finally able to complete check in and I logged in this morning to confirm everything was actually there. Definitely agree that there should have been more testing or something before launching the site.

Just spent the last 4 hours going through all 60 pages of this trip report. It was great! Getting me excited for my October 1st cruise on Glory. First time on Glory, but not the first time out of NOLA. Cant wati!