Tim and Anne’s Carnival Panorama 7 Night Mexican Riviera Cruise (November 2021)
By Tim Larison, CLIA Certified Master Cruise Counselor
with comments by Anne Larison, Family Travel Gurus Travel Consultant
A wonderful cruise for families at a value price! That is how I would characterize one of Carnival’s newest ships, the Panorama, sailing 7 night Mexican Riviera itineraries out of Los Angeles. We hadn’t sailed on Carnival in a few years and we jumped at the opportunity to sail on the Panorama in the Fall of 2021. Our report:
Sail Away
We sailed away from Carnival’s dome cruise terminal in Long Beach, California. We flew into LAX that morning and we were pleased with how organized Carnival was at the airport. We had purchased Carnival transfers before the trip. Carnival staff members met us in baggage claim, we were ushered into a waiting area, and soon we were on our way to the ship. After a bit of a wait after passengers on the prior cruise were disembarked, check in at the terminal was quick and efficient.
The Buffet
On this first day we ate at the ship’s buffet for lunch, and we would return to the buffet for many other meals during our 7 night voyage. We especially enjoyed the array of different cakes at lunch each day for dessert!
On most mornings we ate breakfast at the buffet. I liked the egg and omelet station. The service here was quick as the cheerful Carnival cooks cooked breakfast for hungry morning passengers.
Anne says:
On our cruise the buffet was self-serve, which we prefer (versus the servers handling the serving spoons due to health precautions). The breakfast buffet was always the same but with the omelet station, you could mix it up with different egg and add-in choices.
The lunch buffet was good everyday and the cake station was amazing. This was not offered at the dinner buffet.
We did eat at the dinner buffet a few times. One night there was an option for salmon and it was better than I’ve had at some table-service restaurants.
Other restaurants on board
While we have seen bigger buffets on other cruise ships, the Carnival Panorama had many other dining options to choose from.
The hamburgers at Guy Fieri’s burger joint just outside the buffet were delicious! Service was again quick here. I had a burger on two different days at lunch and met Anne in the buffet.
The lunch pasta bar at Cucina de Capitano, included at no extra cost, was wonderful! Just upstairs from the buffet I had the above order of lasagna, pasta, and Caesar salad at lunch one day.
We also ate at Cucina de Capitano on formal night dinner for a $15/person service charge. Delicious!
Other no cost options at lunch, besides the buffet, were a mongolian grill restaurant and a taco/burrito stand (BlueIguana Cantina). For a small fee passengers could dine at the Seafood Shack. There was also a pizza stand that was available 24 hours a day! The pizza is thin crust and decent but not amazing.
For dinner there were a number of specialty restaurants for an extra fee:
Ji Ji Asian Kitchen
The Chef’s Table
Bonsai Teppanyaki
Steakhouse
Guy’s Pig & Anchor Smokehouse | Brewhouse
Bonsai Sushi
Most nights we dined at one of the two ship’s main dining restaurants (pictured above is the Vista Dining Room). We had the early dinner seating, rather than anytime dining, which allowed us to have the same wait staff serving us every night.
We were very pleased with the variety and quality of the dining options on the Carnival Panorama!
Anne says:
The portion sizes in the dining room are not large but, as we were reminded by the dining staff several times, you can order as much as you want. We are fans of shrimp cocktail and it was available every night in the dining room.
The other treat we took advantage of is 24 hour soft serve ice cream and yogurt machines.
Recreation
There are so many recreation options on the Carnival Panorama that we could not try them all. Listed below are the ones we liked.
On the Skyride, cycle on a pedal-powered bike high above the deck while taking in views of the sea all around. We found the skyride not too difficult to peddle and the views were incredible! On our cruise the Skyride was available on our “at sea” days.
Want something more challenging? The ropes course may be it!
Anne says:
I had done a ropes course on another cruise ship in the past and knew I would enjoy it. I was always safe with the harness but it was certainly thrilling and a little scary when the wind was blowing. There were smaller kids passing me at my snail’s pace, but I enjoyed it and would recommend it to young and young at heart.
We like to play ping pong on our cruises and the Carnival Panorama had the best cruise line ping pong setup we have seen! We appreciated the enclosed air conditioned room for the ping pong tables, with no wind, which made for good play.
Billiards on a cruise ship?? We hadn’t seen that before. Just outside the ping pong room were billiards tables. We never had a wait for the several games we played.
Another “best we have seen on a cruise line” attraction – minigolf! The minigolf course was more like minigolf courses we have seen on land, unlike other cruise line minigolf setups, with numerous obstacles to overcome on the 9 hole layout.
For the kids a water park and a big arcade will surely lead to fun times.
Anne says:
Another unique thing was the number of foosball tables on the ship. There were two outdoor tables on the activity deck and in the indoor activity area were two more. One had eight handles on each side so a group could play a game of foosball with more than just two or four people!
There is a walking track on the activity level of the ship and also several outdoor exercise stations. Plenty of opportunity to work off that 2nd piece of cake!
The Carnival Panorama even had the Sky Zone – a unique indoor trampoline park.
For kids and adults two water slides provided thrills.
Anne says:
In addition to the slides and the pools there is a water park for the little ones. I saw many wee ones enjoying the fountains, spilling buckets and mini-slide.
I did enjoy both slides. The blue slide was very fast and riders slid down on their backs. I only “enjoyed” it once – a little too fast for this old lady. The red slide uses a water donut. You pick up an inflatable donut at the bottom, carry it to the top and slide down the circular tube. I did ride this one a few times.
The ship’s main pool was a good place to take a dip or relax on one of the many lounge chairs. At night, movies under the stars were shown on the big outdoor screen. We watched the recent Disney film “Jungle Cruise” outdoors one evening.
Entertainment
Movies under the stars was just one option of many nighttime entertainment options. I especially enjoyed the talented string musicians who played in the atrium most nights and were featured in the ship’s final main theatre show on our last night. Play the short video above to sample the music played by these skilled performers.
The Carnival Panorama’s theatre featured production shows on four nights of our cruise. My favorite was Summer of ‘69: Rock Revolution.
The Punchliner Comedy Club featured four different comedians during our cruise. It was one of the largest comedy clubs I had experienced on a cruise ship. There were early evening PG13 shows for families and later “adults only” shows.
Anne says:
There are a variety of bars and lounges on the ship. All with a unique theme and lots of opportunity to relax with a beverage.
As with most large cruise ships there is a casino that operates when the ship is not in a port. There were many people enjoying the casino while we were at sea.
There were pool games at the family pool and at times a DJ playing music. Always an opportunity to be somewhere doing something!
We love trivia and the Carnival Panorama had multiple trivia contests on all different subjects each day of our cruise.
In the same lounge as the trivia contest at other times dance classes were offered, like this special Halloween “Thriller” dance class.
Anne says:
I love dance classes and this was no exception. One day a couple of entertainers from the entertainment group taught us the Thriller dance and another day it was Broadway! We learned a dance to “All That Jazz”. Fun!
The Carnival Panorama celebrated Halloween in style. On Halloween night many guests were dressed in costume. A large Great Pumpkin display in the atrium reminded us this was a Halloween cruise! And one morning we discovered a fun Halloween display by the main pool with some very creative towel animals!
Other Ship Features
The Carnival Panorama featured the most advanced elevator system I have seen on land or at sea! You picked the floor you wanted to go to on an interactive screen, then the display would tell you what elevator to take. In the above pictures we selected a destination floor, the display said “take elevator D” and the letter D was shown over our assigned elevator. Inside the elevator there were no buttons – it showed you what floor you were going to. I was fascinated by the elevators the whole cruise – there was rarely a wait to get to the floor we wanted with this advanced technology!
The ship featured many comfy deck chairs for relaxing when we weren’t participating in the cruise’s many activities.
The Ports
Our 7 night Mexican Riviera cruise visited three ports: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo. We had visited these ports several times on past cruises so for our Carnival Panorama cruise we chose to stay onboard during port days. We were impressed with the variety of shore excursions Carnival offered at each port.
Covid19 Precautions
You will notice people wearing masks in some of our pictures and not in others. I thought Carnival did a good job of preventing the spread of the virus. They required a negative Covid test within 48 hours of sailing (we got ours at a CVS Pharmacy before leaving town). They required passengers to be vaccinated as a requirement for sailing. They verified our vaccination cards and negative covid19 test at check in. On the ship Carnival asked that we wear masks except when drinking or dining. We noticed this was strictly enforced at the buffet, and not so much in other areas of the ship. The extra covid precautions didn’t take away from our enjoyment of the cruise. A Carnival staff member thanked passengers at one of the shows for adhering to covid19 precautions, and said they haven’t had a case of covid19 onboard in three months of sailing.
Summary
Our Carnival Panorama cruise exceeded our expectations! We had a wonderful time!
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