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

[Waynehazle]

I can't wait to be sitting in one of those loungers!

[deladane]

Including the handful of photo stops along the way, it took us 45 minutes to walk to the Breathless Hotel.  

 

 

At first, we couldn’t find our meeting spot at “Dock 0” so we asked someone working at the dock. She asked what tour we were taking and we told her Aquabulle.  She said “That boat isn’t coming until 4pm.”  Ummm, what?!  We booked a 1pm tour.  I took out my confirmation email that I had printed out at home and she suggested we call them.  There was another employee named Max who was fluent in English and very helpful in translating with the first lady.   I called the tour company and someone answered right away.  He said they emailed me yesterday that the tour was canceled.  Ummm what?!  I booked this tour in August and you waited until the day before to tell me it’s canceled?!  I was in the middle of the ocean on a cruise ship yesterday and had no email access.  I didn’t get that email and had no idea the tour was canceled.  Had they notified me more than one day before, I would have seen the email because I checked all my messages right before sail away on Saturday.  And the craziest part of it was that he actually called me a liar when I said I had to way to read emails on a sea day on the ship.  He insisted that everyone gets wifi access on the ship.  Ummm, no sir, we don’t!  I explained that Carnival charges a lot of money to purchase a wifi plan and I did not want to spend my money on that, especially when I had full use of my phone and normal data access for our 4 port days.  I only had 3 days to be ‘disconnected’ and I found that appealing, so how dare he tell me that I am lying about being able to read my emails on a sea day!  I was livid.  We just spent 45 minutes walking in the heat and humidity to the far side of the marina all for nothing, and now we were left with no plans for our few hours in Cabo.  

 

Max offered to tell us about some other tour options available from that side of the marina. It was less than ideal because our original tour was so perfect for us, but it was this or nothing.  I was very concerned about Ian’s safety.  Our original tour was on a bigger boat, and the lower level for viewing the fish was fully enclosed so there was no way Ian could fall out.  The only tours Max had were either on big party boats with loud music, or small boats where Ian could fall off the edge if he wasn’t cooperating and sitting nicely on the seat.  Jason really wanted us to do something in the water today, so he convinced me to agree to a tour on a small boat.  The planner in me hated this situation.  I have heard from many people on our FB page that you can get a tour from the tender dock for $10pp out to the Arch and Lover’s Beach, and then it will drop you at the beach and pick you up later and bring you back to the tender dock.  Max wanted to charge us $25 per adult and $12 for Ian for the same tour.  This was going to cost us nearly the same price as our original tour, but it was 45 minutes instead of 2 hours, and it didn’t include the tacos for lunch or the unlimited beer, or the underwater viewing level.  It was honestly a terrible deal but it felt like we had no choice. Either do this, or do nothing, so we said ok and paid for the tour.  They had life jackets for everyone on the boat, including a kids vest for Ian (although it was huge on him and might not have helped if there was an emergency.  Jason emptied out his pockets and gave me his phone and wallet to put in my backpack in case he had to dive in and rescue Ian).  The one good part was the boat was already at the dock and we could leave right then to start the tour.

 

 

The tour was with a boat called Broadway II and our guide was Jupiter.  He and Max helped us get down onto the boat and get settled with our life jackets… our wet life jackets.  Eww.  I wasn’t thrilled that our life jackets were wet.  We were dressed in T-shirts and shorts, not in bathing suits since we had no plans to go to the beach today, so it just felt kind of gross to put on a wet life jacket.  

 

First, we went back across the marina and picked up more people from right near the cruise tender.  Those people paid the same price as us so I’m not sure how you get the $10pp price.  Maybe $25 is just the going rate in peak holiday season?  I think there were 11 of us in total on the boat.  As we motored out of the marina, Jupiter told us some information about Cabo, but honestly, I have no idea what he said.  He spoke very softly and was sitting at the front of the boat, so we could barely hear him from our seats.

 

 

Once we got moving, Ian had such a great time on the boat.  This was a totally new experience for him, and he was loving every minute of it!

 

 

 

[deladane]

We went out along the rocks and Jupiter explained a little about the rock formations but we still couldn’t hear him.  I guess we could have asked him to speak louder but we didn’t really care that much.  This was the reverse of the ride we took in the tender from the ship to shore, so while we had seen this view already, we were now a lot closer to the rocks.

 

 

Ian had fun looking at the boats, birds, fish, and sea lions.  I could tell he would have loved our original tour, but at least he was enjoying this one too.

 

 

 

 

 

I was surprised to see people snorkeling out here.  There seemed to be a lot of boat traffic and I didn’t notice any buoys or ropes to mark off a safe place to swim, but I can only assume there is some unspoken rule about how close the boats can get to the rocks.  

 

 

 

[Moneymikey10]

15 hours ago, deladane said:

As I tried to explain, but maybe I didn't do a great job, I think the way the Captain handled things on our cruise was an anomaly because of New Year's Eve.  Of course I cannot guarantee anything, but I would think that on this itinerary, they will tell you to set your clocks forward one hour on either the first or second night, so when you arrive in Cabo on day 3, ship time matches local time. 

Thank you! So if I understand correctly, for your cruise, your ship time matched local time in La Paz and Mazatlan, and it was an hour behind local time in P.V. Does that sound correct?

[deladane]

Next, we had a view of Lover’s Beach.  I think Jupiter said something about this side having calmer waters where it was safe to swim because it was on the bay side.  The other side of this beach was called Divorce Beach because it faces the Pacific Ocean where the waves and ocean currents are very turbulent and it is not safe to swim.

 

 

We then came up to a keyhole in the rocks where you could look through and see the Pacific Ocean.  If you looked at the right angle and if the timing was right, the currents from the ocean and the bay crashed together, causing the water to splash up like a fountain.  I just took his word for it… we did not see anything like that.

 

 

 

Looking between the rocks, we could see a rock shaped like Scooby Doo.  We took a family trip up to Sedona in October, so I had lots of practice with looking for recognizable shapes in the rocks (Coffee Pot Rock, Snoopy Rock, Chimney Rock, etc.).  Earlier on this tour, Jupiter pointed out a gorilla in the rocks, but I couldn’t see it.  This time, I could definitely clearly identify Scooby Doo!

 

[deladane]

As we approached the next turn, Jupiter explained that this was the point where the Sea of Cortez became the Pacific Ocean.  And then we saw it… the famous Arch of Cabo San Lucas!

 

 

There were 2 or 3 other small boats ahead of us, so we waited our turn, then got a little closer to get an unobstructed view.  I really appreciated how Jupiter handled this moment.  He called us up one group at a time (there were 4 families on the boat), and used our own phones to take a bunch of pictures with the arch in the background.  It didn’t feel rushed at all, and each group could take as many photos as we wanted.  Then Jupiter helped us get down safely, and he went on to the next group.  Jason and I removed our life jackets (as did everyone else for their photos), but we left Ian’s on for safety.  Of course Ian wouldn’t cooperate for these photos.  When I texted one of these photos to my mom right after the tour, she said “Ian doesn’t look very comfortable. Is he enjoying it?”  I just wish he would smile for these photos so people could see how much fun he was having, rather than always fighting it and looking miserable!  #Toddlers!

 

 

 

 

Jupiter was very cautious when helping us get Ian down off the front of the boat, and he held onto him while Jason climbed down (and while I snapped this selfie, because, why not?!)

 

 

[deladane]

It only took about 10 minutes for everyone to take their photos, then we were on our way around to the Pacific Ocean side of Cabo.

 

 

The middle rock was the backside of Scooby Doo:

 

 

We went around the corner to see Divorce Beach.  It was much longer than Lover’s Beach, but also much less crowded.  Looking closely, we could see off to the far right side where there was a break in the rocks and the sand connected back to Lover’s Beach.

 

 

A view of the arch from the Pacific side:

 

 

Jupiter said lots of famous people have stayed at this hotel, and he named a few people but I don’t remember who he said.  I should have taken better notes!

 

 

[deladane]

After that, they turned the boat around and we headed back into the Sea of Cortez.  I assumed that was the end of the tour and we would head back to the marina, so I was surprised when the boat aimed straight towards Lover’s Beach!  We had no plans to go to the beach today since our original tour was just going to be on a boat, but apparently some of the other people on our tour wanted to go to the beach.  There were guys waiting on the beach to help hold onto the boat as we bobbed along in shallow water.  The families who wanted to go to the beach hopped down off the boat into knee-deep water, then Jupiter handed them their bags to carry overhead to shore.  When the last person was climbing down from the boat, the water got choppy and she almost fell under the boat.  That was scary!  She was okay, just a little startled.  Once they were all ashore, 2 other people who had been at the beach climbed onto our boat.  I am not sure if Jupiter was the one who brought them there earlier in the day, or if they came out on a different boat, but my guess is the latter and all the boats share passengers interchangeably.  Jupiter gave them both life jackets and now it made sense as to why ours were wet at the start of the tour.  These people just came from the beach, and they were only wearing bathing suits, no cover ups, because they had to wade through the water to get back on the boat.  I don’t really blame them for not bothering to put on dry clothes first, but eww!  Once we were all settled, we motored back to the marina, passing close by the Panorama on our way.

 

 

 

Jupiter docked the boat at Breathless Hotel, and the people who joined us from Lover’s Beach got off, but we asked if we could stay on until he swung around to the other side of the marina.  He said that wasn’t a problem because he was going there anyway to pick up more passengers from the cruise ship.  We had no interest in walking an hour back from the Breathless Hotel to the cruise tender dock, so this saved us a few dollars on taxi fare.  It was a short 3 minute ride across the water, and we docked again on the other side.  We gave Jupiter a tip, then climbed off the boat onto terra firma.   Obviously I wouldn’t pick this as my first choice of what to do in Cabo, but it was fun as a last minute option to try to save our day, and at least we got out on a boat and did something fun for Ian.

[deladane]

26 minutes ago, Waynehazle said:

I can't wait to be sitting in one of those loungers!

 

Soooo soon!!

[dallasdan]

@deladane My granddaughter is 2 1/2 so I understand your frustration with pictures.

Edited January 19 by dallasdan

[deladane]

11 minutes ago, Moneymikey10 said:

Thank you! So if I understand correctly, for your cruise, your ship time matched local time in La Paz and Mazatlan, and it was an hour behind local time in P.V. Does that sound correct?

 

Yes, I think that is correct, although I'm not 100% positive about PV.  With 12 hours in port and no specific tour planned, the exact local time didn't matter and I never verified it with anyone.  I do know that PV is in Central time zone, whereas Cabo and La Paz are on Mountain Time, and we did not change our clocks between Mazatlan and PV.

[deladane]

1 minute ago, dallasdan said:

@deladane My granddaughter is 2 1/2" so I understand your frustration with pictures.

 

I seriously cannot wait until he outgrows this phase!  We used to get the cutest photos of him up until about 6 months ago, but now it's such a battle!  I used to use an app called 1 Second Everyday, where I took a short video of him every day and it puts them all together into a video.  I did it every day of his life from birth until he turned 2 years old, but I had to stop because he flat out refused to cooperate anymore!  At least I have a great 12 minute video to show at his wedding one day 🤣

[Worldly_Idiot]

@deladane Not to get all techy and suggesty, but one of the things thats helped my family is getting a Pixel 8 phone. They have a feature for the phone called "Best Take" where you can take a dozen or so photos, and then allows you pick the best face from each one to combine into a photo. Sure its not the REAL photo, but it looks real and everyone is smiling and no eyes are closed. Its amazing!

[deladane]

5 minutes ago, Worldly_Idiot said:

@deladane Not to get all techy and suggesty, but one of the things thats helped my family is getting a Pixel 8 phone. They have a feature for the phone called "Best Take" where you can take a dozen or so photos, and then allows you pick the best face from each one to combine into a photo. Sure its not the REAL photo, but it looks real and everyone is smiling and no eyes are closed. Its amazing!

 

Wow, that's a great feature!  I haven't seen that feature in my iPhone, but we do have "live" mode where it captures a few seconds before and after you take the photo.  Kind of like a mini video for every photo I take.  It has been a lifesaver since having Ian because I can scroll back and forth within that photo and find the moment his eyes are looking at the camera. 

[Worldly_Idiot]

20 minutes ago, deladane said:

 

Wow, that's a great feature!  I haven't seen that feature in my iPhone, but we do have "live" mode where it captures a few seconds before and after you take the photo.  Kind of like a mini video for every photo I take.  It has been a lifesaver since having Ian because I can scroll back and forth within that photo and find the moment his eyes are looking at the camera. 

Same basic idea, but you can pick different moments for every person in the photo.

[WhiteOptima]

On 1/16/2024 at 9:25 PM, deladane said:

 

Woohoo!  No one ever tells me I'm their hero!  I think I got mine at Ross Dress For Less for $5, so you might want to look around.  For $5, it's worth it to have a dedicated one in your cruise packing stash instead of having to empty out one you are already using.

 

Have cruised for years and on our B2B on Celebration this year I thought we never have room for cards, sunscreen, Tylenol bottles ( which DH would ask me 40 times where it is), sunglasses so I got the over the door organizer and shoe organizer.  Best $10 spent ever! 

[Waynehazle]

7 hours ago, deladane said:

It only took about 10 minutes for everyone to take their photos, then we were on our way around to the Pacific Ocean side of Cabo.

 

 

The middle rock was the backside of Scooby Doo:

 

 

We went around the corner to see Divorce Beach.  It was much longer than Lover’s Beach, but also much less crowded.  Looking closely, we could see off to the far right side where there was a break in the rocks and the sand connected back to Lover’s Beach.

 

 

A view of the arch from the Pacific side:

 

 

Jupiter said lots of famous people have stayed at this hotel, and he named a few people but I don’t remember who he said.  I should have taken better notes!

 

 

The pictures of the rocks are gorgeous!!  I won't do that excursions but glad to live through you 🙂 

 

[jerseygirlinAZ]

On 1/17/2024 at 8:42 AM, deladane said:

I ordered 2 entrees tonight.  The filet mignon was excellent!  It was cooked perfectly- rare as I ordered it.

 

 

I also ordered the pappardelle, and this was another dish tonight that was served differently from what I was expecting.  The description said “butternut squash, portobello ragu, pine nuts, pecorino,” so I was expecting a mushroom sauce because of the “ragu,” or maybe possibly a butternut squash puree sauce.  This dish was served with an alfredo cream sauce, with diced pieces of squash and slices of whole mushrooms.  It was delicious, but very different from what I expected.

 

 

Ian woke up before dessert came and he wouldn’t stop crying.  We decided we needed to get Ian out of the MDR as he was likely bothering the tables around us.  Raf saw us getting up to leave and we explained we would need to skip dessert to take Ian back to the cabin.  Raf suggested he get our dessert to go and we could take it back to the cabin, which was so nice of him.  Jason took Ian back to the cabin, and I waited a few minutes for Raf to bring our desserts with lids over the plates.

 

Sometimes when Ian wakes up from a nap, he is cranky and he needs some time to snap out of it.  Tonight, he was at a whole different level!  He was hysterically crying, angry, refused to have a diaper change, and would not go to bed for an hour.  It was miserable.  Our original plan was to drop him off at camp and go see the 7:30pm production show Soulbound in the main theater.  That plan was out the window.  It was after 8pm by the time Ian finally calmed down.  We considered taking him to camp at that point because he was wide awake (thanks to his power nap through dinner), but we decided to just put him to bed and hopefully he would get a good night of sleep.  Of course, Ian had other plans!  He wouldn’t settle down and he was having so much fun running around the cabin and playing with the NYE top hat. 

 

 

 

While Ian burned off some energy, I packed up the bags for tomorrow in Cabo and Jason and I took turns getting ready for bed.  Ian finally fell asleep at 9:30pm.  We were about to go to sleep when we remembered we still had our desserts from dinner!  I got the Triple Chocolate dessert.  I’m not really sure what it was supposed to look like on the plate, and what was going on with the colorful frosting.  By the time it got back to the cabin and sat on our counter for 2 hours, it looked very messy, but I don’t know if that’s what it was meant to look like.  Either way, it was delicious!

 

 

We went to sleep right after that.  This meant that we did not get to enjoy any of the NYE festivities on the ship.  I was very disappointed at how tonight went.  I have never been on a cruise ship for NYE before, and I was really excited for the big deck party at midnight.  Had the calendar worked out that NYE fell towards the end of the cruise, I think things would have played out differently.  With this being our first full day, Ian was still adjusting to life on the ship and to the drastic change in his routine.  We knew that cruising with a toddler would be very different from when we used to cruise as just a couple, and this was one of those moments.  I think this was the first time I ever missed a production show on a cruise, but I know for sure that it was definitely not the first time I’ve fallen asleep before midnight on NYE!

 

Up next: Cabo San Lucas!

 

I'm sorry your New Year's Eve didn't turn out as planned.  That's kids for you, right?  We actually celebrated in the AFT by the pizza place since my daughter doesn't like loud noises.  It was just us and some crew members.  Was actually perfect!  And, we got pizza before anyone else.  You can see that they knew people would be heading over for pizza after the party!

 

 

[jerseygirlinAZ]

On 1/17/2024 at 4:37 PM, Waynehazle said:

My wife and I are leaving on Carnival Panorama, same cruise in 3 days, I am reading everything.  I am wondering if iut is very breezy and cold on the deck at night?

 

Definitely breezy and chilly at night.  Most people watching the movies on lido were bundled up in their blue towels and blankets.

[mistycruiser]

3 hours ago, jerseygirlinAZ said:

Definitely breezy and chilly at night.  Most people watching the movies on lido were bundled up in their blue towels and blankets.

We were on this cruise also and watched several movies on Lido bundled up and I was still cold.  Re: embarkation, we've cruised out of Long Beach multiple times and I've never seen it as crowded as it was this time but as someone mentioned the king tides contributed to part of the delay and it was a full ship so it took longer than normal. 

Edited January 20 by mistycruiser

[mitsugirly]

19 hours ago, deladane said:

 

I seriously cannot wait until he outgrows this phase!  We used to get the cutest photos of him up until about 6 months ago, but now it's such a battle!  

 

I'm here to tell ya...they will continue to have phases as the grow up as well. So don't sigh any relief once he starts smiling again for pictures. 😄 When Sakari got around (guessing) 12 or 13 her phase was sticking her tongue out in EVERY picture! I hated it. She's in the phase now of smiling (smirk) without showing teeth. I have to catch her in a laugh to get an actual teeth smile like I like. Ugh!

 

 

20 hours ago, deladane said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OH EM GEE! I love that first photo (and some others you did) that captured that ray of light in them! LOVE LOVE LOVE

 

The seals on the rocks 🦭 is making my heart melt! Something we've never seen or done before...oh I'm building the excitement now!

[deladane]

13 hours ago, Waynehazle said:

The pictures of the rocks are gorgeous!!  I won't do that excursions but glad to live through you 🙂 

 

 

Thank you!!  Happy embarkation day!!  I hope you have a wonderful cruise and that you come back to tell us all about it afterwards!  

[edspec]

On 1/18/2024 at 4:23 PM, pinto18 said:

We have been on the Panorama a couple of times and all I can say is…I never knew what the heck time it was lol. The app shows the ships time and I think my phone shows port time but sometimes my phone and husband phone would have different times..it’s pretty confusing 

This.  I wear a not smart watch on these cruises and set it to ship's time and my i phone gives me local time.  

[deladane]

11 hours ago, jerseygirlinAZ said:

I'm sorry your New Year's Eve didn't turn out as planned.  That's kids for you, right?  We actually celebrated in the AFT by the pizza place since my daughter doesn't like loud noises.  It was just us and some crew members.  Was actually perfect!  And, we got pizza before anyone else.  You can see that they knew people would be heading over for pizza after the party!

 

Aww, I love that you guys had your own private NYE party!  And even better that you had first dibs on fresh pizza!  I saw some photos of the NYE party on Lido from our FB page, and honestly, I'm not even sure if I would have had fun there.  It looked PACKED!  Like seriously 90% of passengers must have been there, maybe more!  You probably made the right call with hanging out somewhere else.  And your daughter is so cute in those silky pajamas!

[deladane]

8 hours ago, mistycruiser said:

We were on this cruise also and watched several movies on Lido bundled up and I was still cold.  Re: embarkation, we've cruised out of Long Beach multiple times and I've never seen it as crowded as it was this time but as someone mentioned the king tides contributed to part of the delay and it was a full ship so it took longer than normal. 

 

There were several moments with both embarkation and debarkation when I questioned if the port workers had ever worked there before.  Even with the Panorama out of service for a few weeks, you would think most of these people work at the port several times a week because the Radiance and Miracle also sail from Long Beach.  People on the Christmas cruise also said embarkation was horrible, so it's not just due to the King Tides as they didn't have that issue the week before us.  It would be nice if they could get their act together so passengers can start their cruise off on a good note!