allinwonderland

I feel like I'd have to do Excel class on an itinerary I don't really care about so I could prioritize seeing/doing/eating everything on the ship instead.

God I miss Aqui's from when I used to live in the Bay. 😫

Heck, I've never been a fan of those kind of places but now I'M considering it for my cruise in a few weeks. @TxTeach79 Carnival should give you an affiliate link if I do it 😂

Are you referring to the candy? LOL Would any bartender (or even just any Alchemy bartender) know how to make these if I ordered them, or would I have to tell them what's in it? Definitely intrigued bc I like the sweet drinks - and especially the chocolate and mint combo.

Ingredients for the Geisha looks JUST like my favorite drink from the comedy club, the Whimsy Scarlett! Except this one looks a little paler pink (maybe the lighting difference?) Either way, the WS was a contender for best drink I had on the ship.

Mazatlan is a nice little place to do a city tour IMO, and with the size of your group, booking it privately might end up close to the same price and then you get a smaller van and more control/flexibility. Also likely to have the cheapest shopping. Cabo is the one port where I might say to do a Carnival excursion so you don't have the hassle of trying to get off the boat in time; could also be a good beach day, there's not a whole lot to do in the marina area that's kid friendly. Or just stay on the ship. 🤷‍♀️ Panorama is an awesome ship! On sea days don't miss the salad bar on Serenity and free lunch at Guy's BBQ. Jiji's and Cucina also both offer free lunch on all days; might be a good place to hit up embarkation day to avoid the crowds at Guy's Burgers or the buffet. Don't miss the cakes at the buffet for lunch - so good! Definitely don't miss the Skyride bike, ropes course, mini-golf, and water slides for the kids, all included. Comedy is great too and they have PG shows for the kids (though the adult shows are GREAT for the adults!). I didn't find the MDR food to be that great for dinner but there are enough specialty restaurants and other options, though that may not be financially feasible for a group your size. Cucina (at dinner when it's a pay restaurant) was absolutely incredible though, great value for the cost, and Italian is kid-friendly, if you're wanting to splurge for one special night.

I booked it through Carnival. We left the ship at around 3pm and got back by 9 so right before the ship left. I think they do a separate version of the event just for cruise ship passengers and another one for people staying at local hotels that starts and ends later. If it's not on the Carnival excursions portal for your sail date then idk what to tell you - I wouldn't recommend trying to book it separately, the risk of missing the ship is way too high (plus I think they don't let you if you're a cruise ship passenger). And yes it was quite a bit more than that per person!

I'm based in AZ, so theoretically could go out of Galveston as easily as I can Long Beach (I keep doing the Panorama because it's a great ship, good ports, and pretty cheap all-in), but also kinda can't bring myself to spend Excel-class money and then have to watch my drinking on the first day because you can't use Cheers 😂 Panorama just needs to add Shaq's and Rudi's and I'd be over the moon! LOL

That bread pudding looks fantastic. Sad that I don't have any Excel-class trips planned - with the price and instability of airlines these days, just getting to FL adds several hundred dollars to the cost of the trip and a lot of extra stress. 😢

DAMN that's nice. I know they do the free wine on the first night at the steakhouse (and would assume that applies to Rudi's as well, given the similar price point) but it's unlimited? Like they've brought you more than 1 bottle and didn't make you pay??

I believe anything where you'd have to buy doesn't count to your 15 (like a bottle of wine, or a brewery tour/Alchemy cocktail class) but on the day I did the class thing, I didn't get close enough to my 15 to have to worry and know for sure. Certainly seems like a nice little loophole, and in the case of bottles of wine, if their concern is over serving people, there's not enough alcohol content in wine to make that much of a difference unless you bought 5 bottles on top of your Cheers limit.

Agreed. My first Panorama trip back in September was a Cabo-first route and I can't imagine I'd want to even get off the ship that day if I did a Cabo-last itinerary (excursions would mean waking up at the crack of dawn, stuff in the marina doesn't open that early, and honestly the marina's kind of expensive and tourist trap-y already). Plus I think I prefer my two sea days at the end so I still have a little more vacation after the ports are done. I'm going on the 1/21 sailing which thankfully is Cabo-first, but if they're not doing those anymore, I'm going to be seriously sad. Might still go again (Panorama is a great value of a vacay for me) but wouldn't prefer it if given the choice.

Please report back if you get it, because I would be interested in trying that. LOL

Make it a B2B and join me on the 21st!! LOL 😄

Hmm. I booked the other day when it was still showing at $42, used OBC, got a confirmation email, and it's still showing in my planner that I am booked for the steakhouse. I bought some other things too and ended up having to pay $10 out of pocket in the transaction plus what was left of my OBC, and my card was debited only for that $10. So maybe the issue was with your gift cards.

Would the Firenze get the same venues? I'm much more likely to sail that one someday since it's going to go out of Long Beach.

Thanks for the heads up! Interestingly, I put it in my cart earlier, when it was still showing in the planner as $48 but showing in the cart at $42. Took it out and put it back in to change the time I wanted and by then it was showing up as $42 in the planner. I grabbed it for that price (would've gone at $48 since it's just me on this trip but hey, savings are savings) and hope they'll honor it - not force us to pay again or cancel - although I had some OBC to use so didn't really outlay my own money. It's just a difference of $6, surely it'd be more of a hassle on them to try and claw it back than it's worth.

Hahaha that's how I did it too. 😉 Actually by the time I heard about it they were already booked up but then some people didn't show on the day of the class and I just hung around the bar and my favorite bartender (Kateryna on Panorama) just let us into the class to take their spots.

Vermouth, bitters, rye whiskey - and the special ingredient that makes it "Caribbean" is a bit of brown sugar syrup. I don't like whiskey-based drinks but I took this class and we made this drink and I could handle a few sips. If you like whiskey drinks then it seemed to be a crowd pleaser

I'll be on that sailing! I'm not as fun/can't hold my alcohol nearly as well as Megan, but I'll have a drink with you for your belated birthday! 😁

Oooh tell me more about these cheap massages in port? Was it easy to find? Where do I look? When I'm going back on the Panorama next month I have an afternoon excursion so planning to wander about port/town a little first - but a massage sounds fantastic!

What's your first port stop? I recently did this itinerary but Cabo was my first port stop. We did not move the clocks before Cabo (day 3) so ship's time was 1 hour ahead of shore time. That night we moved the clocks so that in Mazatlan the next day, ship and shore time were the same. PV was the last port stop and we did not move the clocks, so ship's time was an hour behind shore time. (So confusing!) I'd assume they do the same thing when PV is the first stop, but idk.

For what it's worth, the classes just popped up today for my January 21st cruise. So it seems like ~60 days out may be the new date, rather than 90. They've also gone up $5 from when I sailed in September.

Oh I hope you're right about that! I had an amazing passionfruit martini type drink that was the "50th birthday martini" on my last cruise, and I was hoping I could get it again in January, but I had assumed it would be a calendar year thing; i.e. they started in 1972 so they''re celebrating in the year 2022.

Not that I was in any danger of hitting my 15 on my last cruise, but no, the mixology class does not count toward your Cheers limit because you also have to pay for it separately (though you do get a discount for having Cheers). I'd assume the brewery tour is the same, but I hate beer.