Day 38 - Long Beach, CALIFORNIA to Carnival Panorama Cruise to MEXICO (Day 1)

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Today we get to start the final adventure of this holiday by going on a 7 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera(Saturday to Saturday). We are leaving on the Carnival Panorama which is a really new ship. We were scheduled to do this cruise on this same ship and same itinerary in October 2020 when the ship was only very new as it first sailed in December 2019. However this was obviously cancelled and once the cruise industry was shut down in March 2020 by the CDC, this ship was put into hibernation for 17 months and was subsequently sent to the Phillipines to take home all the crews from various Carnival ships that were based in the USA and it was mothballed until August 2021 so it is still a very new ship.

When we checked in online for the cruise yesterday we were allocated a specific boarding time of 12.30 to 1.00 pm and as the checkout of the hotel is 11.00 am we decided to checkout right on 11.00 am and then asked reception to call a taxi for the 4km ride to the cruise port. He did this for us and said “you are set”. There were about 8 other people in the lobby at the time and they all had Carnival Cruise bag tags on their luggage just like us so I asked him how long they have been waiting for their taxi’s and he said over an hour ! Soon I heard one lady asking him about where her taxi was and he said “they are always late” and he offered no empathy at all and his attitude was pathetic and it was the same guy who checked us in when we arrived on Thursday afternoon.

A couple of people walked out the front of the hotel to the street to look for cabs and I got the sense we were going to have some trouble. I headed outside as well and a taxi eventually rolled up and I overheard this women saying the taxi driver was quoting her $50- for the ride and a second taxi arrived and he was quoting a different price and the other people (ahead of us in the taxi queue) were getting agitated. Further the guy in reception did not even get our names when I asked him to book a cab so who knows what taxi belongs to who. I could also see a bunch of people waiting out the front of the Marriott Hotel across the road as well so I randomly decided to download the Lyft App on my phone (they seem to be bigger than Uber here in USA) and see what options exist for a ride share.

To my surprise it offered me a fare of only $7.50 and only a 2 minutes wait. There was also an option for an urgent one for $14.92 so I went with that and he arrived in a flash at 11.29am in a nice Toyota SUV. The ride didn’t start well when on the first intersection we got stuck behind a movie set where the road was closed for filming and he did not seem to know what to do ? We literally sat there at this intersection for about 5 minutes watching this Porsche car with a camera mounted on an arm attached to it’s roof presumably so it could film the drivers through the front windscreen whilst the car was in motion. He eventually did a u-turn and went a different route and soon we crossed the bridge over the Los Angeles River to join a huge traffic jam. We eventually got out of the car at 12.25pm and I had mixed feelings that I was glad I did not stay and wait for a Taxi to arrive but sorry that this bloke was only getting a $15- fare for a ride that my Lyft receipt said went for only 2.63 miles but took 56 minutes and 13 seconds went, so being generous I gave him a $15- tip and a 5 star rating.

The Lyft App was incredible as I kept on getting these notifications on the journey saying “we noticed you have not been moving and wanted to check everything was Ok .” The design of the App is so thoughtful and intended to provide some extra layer of safety I guess. I must have received at least 3 of 4 messages continually checking in on me asking if everything was still OK and whilst I’m conscious they would be just automated by a computer it was excellent service so I’d be happy to use Lyft again and given the comparison with the local taxi drivers who were taking advantage of the traffic with their surge pricing whilst Lyft were still offering cheap and importantly fixed price fares.

We dropped the two main suitcases to be checked on to the ship and joined the single long line for boarding and I went to the rest rooms which were a bit further down the queue and when I got back I told Kerry there was actually 2 lines further ahead so we moved around to join the shorter line and jumped in front of about 100 people (naughty me !).

Our new line was moving nicely and the original line we were in was was not moving at all, so it’s happy days indeed and soon our line splits into 2 lines so now we have 3 lines and we are escorted into the middle line of these 3 and soon I see a sign showing the left lane which was the original lane we were in was actually for people boarding 12.30 to 1.00 (hence that’s where we should be !) and the line on our right is the 1.00 to 1.30 boarding line and it’s not moving either. It seems we must have joined the 12.00 to 12.30 line so we must have jumped in front of around 500 people and there was no way I was going to go and rejoin the correct line ! As it turned out they did not check the boarding passes anyway and we were inside the security area within 20 minutes of arriving from the ride share service and before long we are onboard the Carnival Panorama !

We had to watch a quick 5 minute muster demonstration in the Casino area which is much better than what we used to do and then headed off to our room # 8296 to drop our carry on luggage and she is a very spacious cabin compared with what we have had before with a nice balcony. Lots of storage space full of coat hangers as well. They had our sail and sign cards in the room for us as well which act both as your room key and for purchasing things onboard. The weather is overcast and cool around 20 degrees.

We then head off for lunch where he had some Tacos and Burritos and we booked a couple of the shore excursion tours and bought a soft drink package on the Carnival Hub App (I’ll explain more about that later). Because of previous cancellations of our cruises (once due to the delay in construction of the Carnival Mardi Gras which we were originally booked on and later a cancellation of the Carnival Panorama due to the pandemic) we had been given a total of US $850- worth of onboard credit to spend in only 7 days ! We were unable to use this onboard credit to pay for anything until we were onboard the ship so we used the App straight away to book excursions in 2 of the 3 ports of call and a soft drink package for unlimited drinks for the whole cruise.

After lunch we did a quick orientation of the upper outside decks 10-12 and there is so much to do with basketball court, pool tables, a rope climbing course way up on deck 15, waterslides and this bike course where the bike is suspended from a track above your head and you pedal around the track around the very top of the ship near at the whale tail funnel and the track goes right to the edge of the ship (you need to have no fear of heights to give this a try), and we both did some workouts in the outdoor fitness area (who would have thought exercise could be fun !).

We then found the laundry on our deck 8 and did a huge load of washing and we are now all set for some fun. For dinners we chose to have the “anytime dining option” so we used the App to request a shared table and got the message back saying table was ready within 10 minutes for the main dining room at the back of Deck 3.

At dinner we met 2 sisters. One was from Phoenix (a bus driver who has 6 kids including a 15 year old son who plays football and already having concussion issues) and Vanessa who has recently relocated and now lives in Austin, Texas and Macey who is a single female traveller and a first time cruiser from Hawaii (Kauai) who originally hails was from Indianapolis so I told her about the amazing quirky Bottle Rockets song called Indianapolis that I had on my Spotify playlist for the 2018 holiday when we visited Indianapolis. She had not heard about so I told her to check it out but not get offended as the lyrics are not very complimentary about her home town !

The mother who was from Phoenix (yes they were not actually sisters but mother and daughter) correctly guessed we were from Australia which is most unusual as we normally get called English. She also said that she is on her 8th cruise (loyal to Carnival) and has packed 9 bathing costumes in her luggage for this 7 day cruise as she might need two pairs a day occasionally ! It’s always good to chat with strangers on a cruise at dinner time about their travels, where they are from and find some common interests. Meeting new people is one of the things we love about cruising and we did a quick check and think this is our 10th cruise sailing together (Kerry did the Fairstar before we met so she always has one extra on her cruise list).

After dinner we went to the comedy show in the Limelight Lounge and met Heather and Andrea who Kerry correctly identified as being sisters on their cruise # 9. They always travel on Carnival cruises because they are so cheap. They are both from Utah and volunteered that they were born Mormans but are not now ! The show only went for half an hour and was pretty good.

Heather asked me a random question that she had heard that our toilets in Australia flush in the opposite direction to American toilets and I said I have no idea but I replied to her that you do have this affinity in USA with low toilet seats that are ideal for kindergartens and these funny flushing handles on the sides. She was also curious to know if we had many black people in Australia which was a weird question to be asked.

We then went to main showroom called the Liquid Lounge where we met the pommy Cruise director named Marty who said there were 4309 passengers on board and 48% are first time cruisers. They did a short show of the singers and dancers who will be in the production shows later in the cruise.

Later walked along the shopping precinct on decks 4 and 5 and through the casino which felt like we were back in Las Vegas again with so many slot machines with bright lights everywhere and full and they are allowed to smoke in here (that should not be allowed but they want their money). After that we went to check out the havana bar but the cuban band was taking a break so we went to the piano bar where James was raking in the tips and getting the crowd very engaged with playing their requests and putting his own fun interpretations on some sings.

We finished up at midnight (where did that day go ?). First impressions of this ship are that it does not seem crowded even with 4300 passengers onboard and the staff are so focused on cleaning everywhere. The Carnival Hub App is an excellent innovation that works using the ships wi-fi and enables you to see all the activities onboard, book restaurants and see the menu’s, book shore excursions, view your account statements on the sail and sign cards (everything you spend is charged to your room).

Tomorrow is a sea day so we have time to relax, be waited on, explore the ship and the vast array of activities including trivia which is one of my favourites.

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Photos

We are finally about to board the Carnival Panorama. The dome building is the departure building and you can also see the Queen Mary.
The skies are a bit cloudy and it rained a little as we left at 4pm but we are headed to sunny Mexico where it we much much warmer.

Cabnin # 8296 on Deck 8 will be our home for the next 7 days
Very spacious inside with a King Bed and 3 seater lounge with a bar fridge and balcony just forward of mid ship on the port (left hand side of the ship).

They say to dress up on your first day on the ship but really !
Dressing up in costumes is apparently and american thing as there were quite a lot of people who must like the attention.

This is the outdoor fitness deck on Deck 12.
There was about 8 different types of equipment here and you could get a nice and easy workout without any stress on your joints at all. Exercise could be fun (maybe we can install these at home and I can get a workout whilst watching TV ?). I enjoyed this so much I have committed to exercising everyday here. We’ll see what happens.

How can you resist a game of cornhole !
The 9 hole putt putt course is also in view and basketball court is close by. Check out the suspended walking course as well (not for the faint hearted on deck 15).

Our big ship the Carnival Panorama
Construction started in January 2018 in Italy and she is 323 metres long and has maximum capacity of 5,146 and crew of 1,450 ands weighs 133,868 tonnes so I still get amazed at how a rock sinks but this floats ? We are on our way to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta on this 7 day adventure.

Pool deck 10 with the big TV screen
Lots of chairs and at no stage of the cruise could you not get a seat.