deladane

Yea, that is pretty much my rationale as well. Plus, Ian will still qualify as an infant on this trip so we may as well go while he is still free!

I'm so glad you guys went to the aquarium! We will be back in Mazatlan in January as we are sailing on the Discovery Princess for New Years (switching it up instead of doing the same Panorama cruise 2 years in a row!). We will be in Mazatlan on New Years Eve day and wanted a half-day activity to make sure to be back on the ship around lunch time so Ian can take his nap and hopefully not have a meltdown again like he did last year! I had looked into going to the aquarium last year in case our day pass to Hotel Playa fell through, so now we are planning to finally get to the aquarium next year. There really wasn't much info about it when I was doing my research last fall, so I am bookmarking this page of your review. Did you think it was worth the $30 per person for admission? That seems a little steep for an aquarium in Mexico (especially considering we only paid $12 per person to go to the zoo in Puerto Vallarta). Did you think it was a good value?

Kim, JerseyGirl and I were on the same New Years Eve cruise. She posted in my review about her insane day in La Paz when she went out on the boat to see whale sharks and it was horrible seas and very dangerous and they were so late coming back that they nearly missed the ship. You definitely read about it when she posted in my review in January! Just thinking about her day raises my heartbeat!

🤣🤣🤣 IYKYK

I just got caught up. I’m so sorry your La Paz tour was cancelled. I was looking forward to living vicariously through you swimming with sea lions and whale sharks! It’s weird that it was so chilly for you in early April. I think we had warmer weather in early January!

Looking forward to reading your review! I loved my ABC cruise on Celebrity back in 2018!

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!!