Mazatlan is what I would consider to be a medium port.  The options of things to do are not nearly as limited as in La Paz, but it doesn’t have close to the number of options as Cabo and Puerto Vallarta.  Ian LOVES animals so I knew I wanted to show him animals in at least one of our ports.  Mazatlan opened a brand new aquarium in early 2023, and it is supposed to be one of the 10 largest aquariums in the world upon completion.  They are opening it in stages, so when I was doing my research over the summer, only part of it was opened for visitors.  I’m not sure what the timeline is to complete construction, and it may or may not already be done.  It was very hard to find reviews of people who have visited the new aquarium because it’s only been open for a few months, but I did see a Youtube video of someone who went there and the exhibits looked beautiful and interactive.  It seemed like a very doable activity, especially if the weather was cold or rainy that day.  I also liked that we didn’t need to buy tickets in advance so we could keep our options open in case we wanted to go at the last minute.

Another thing that I knew we wanted to do on one of the port days was to buy a day pass to an all-inclusive resort.  Of course Cabo and Puerto Vallarta have lots of options for resorts with a day pass, but they all seemed very expensive at $100+ per adult, and some also charged for toddlers.  As far as I could tell from my research, there are 2 resorts in Mazatlan which offer a day pass.  One is the El Cid Marina Beach Hotel, but this is where Carnival takes its ship excursion so there was no way I was going there too!  The other is called Hotel Playa Mazatlan, and it is located just a few minutes down the beach from El Cid.  While it is an older resort originally built in 1955, it seemed to be updated and get very good reviews online.  Best of all, they only charge around $40 per adult for unlimited food and drinks, use of facilities, palapas, and pools, and children under age 4 are free!  The resort looked amazing, with several different pools, waterfalls, beach access, and even a children’s area.  This looked like the perfect way to spend our day, and we did not need to buy tickets in advance so we could always switch our plans if the weather didn’t cooperate.  The one slight issue was that they don’t guarantee that they offer day passes every day.  If the hotel is overbooked, they reserve the right to decline a day pass, so they recommend calling that day to confirm.  Luckily, my cell phone plan includes free calling in Mexico, so I planned to call the hotel the day before while we were in La Paz (since I didn’t want to wait until that day to know what we were doing!).

About 2 weeks before our cruise, Hotel Playa Mazatlan revamped their website.  Since I’m always a bit anxious about our plans in port, even after I have settled on a plan, I continue to check all the websites regularly in case of changes.  Sure enough, they changed their day pass prices from 700 pesos (approximately $40 USD) to 850 pesos (closer to $50 USD).  It was still a great deal, especially compared to prices in Cabo and Puerto Vallarta, so while I wasn’t thrilled that our day would now cost $20 more than had we visited just a few weeks sooner, it wasn’t a deal breaker.  The bigger issue was the page with a detailed description of their day pass was completely gone, and I couldn’t find the details listed anywhere else on their website.  The link I had been using now gave me a “404- page not found” error.  The only information I could find was buried on the “services” page.  It said “With this deal, you can come any day of the week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and enjoy our facilities with a family member who is staying at our hotel.”  Ummmm, say what?!  We obviously don’t have any family members who happened to be staying at this hotel on the day our cruise ship is in port.  When did that become a requirement??  Suddenly, our plans were in limbo.  I decided that I was going to play dumb and make believe I didn’t see the change on the website.  Maybe the person working at reception didn’t know about the policy change and would still honor the old day pass policy.  Or better yet, maybe they just meant this as an example of why you would want to use a day pass, but it wasn’t the only reason and they would still give day passes to anyone who wanted one.  I still planned to call the hotel the day before, and if worse came to worse, we had the aquarium as a backup option.

During Ian’s naptime yesterday, I went out onto the balcony to call the hotel.  I had written down 3 phone numbers.  The old version of the website listed the front desk phone number as where you should call to verify day pass availability.  After the website changed, I also jotted down the general “contact us” phone numbers.  They had 2 options, one for USA and one for Mexico.  I honestly didn’t know what that meant.  I have a cell phone registered in the US with a US phone number, but I would be using that phone in Mexico over Mexican cell service.  It didn’t hurt to bring all 3 numbers on my page of notes.  So back to the balcony… first, I called the front desk phone number, but I got one of those pre-recorded messages from the phone carrier saying they are not able to complete the call as dialed.  Ok, well since I am physically in Mexico, and the top left corner of my phone now says Telcel instead of Verizon, let’s try the 800 number listed for Mexico.  Nope!  I got the same pre-recorded error message.  Now I was getting nervous.  If I couldn’t speak to someone at the hotel, I was going to abort these plans and just go to the aquarium.  I didn’t want to risk showing up at the hotel, them demanding to know the room number and last name of my family member who was staying there, and rejecting us as we stood there in bathing suits ready for a day at the pool.  No thank you!  I could feel my heart racing as I dialed the 800 number to call the hotel from the US… and it worked!  Maybe I should have known to try that from the start, but I was overthinking things.  A man named Carlos answered the phone, and I asked if he spoke English.  He said “A little” so he did his best in English and I filled in my questions with my limited knowledge of Spanish.  I asked if they were selling day passes to the hotel for tomorrow, and he said yes, they have them every day.  I asked if it was okay for me to come with my husband and 2 year old son from the cruise ship, and he said yes, that was no problem.  I opted to omit a question about having my family staying at the hotel because he seemed very chill about the day pass and he didn’t give any indication that there would be a problem.  He said we could only have access to the hotel from 9am until 5pm, but I told him we would be gone by 3pm to be back on board the cruise ship long before sail away time.  He confirmed that they provide towels (good! Because I really didn’t want to schlep those big heavy blue Carnival towels into their hotel, which would make it even more obvious that we were day pass people and not actual hotel guests), and that the day pass included unlimited food and drinks and access to the pools and loungers.  By the end of the call, I felt confident about our plans for Mazatlan.

We all woke up at 7am from the vibration of the thrusters.  I didn’t mind the early wake up though because we had places to go, and slushie alcohol-filled drinks to drink!  I took a peek out on the balcony, and we were just pulling into the dock in Mazatlan.

Look at all those white tour vans lined up and waiting to pick up passengers!  Having already packed our bags last night, we got ready quickly and went to Lido at 8am for a lite breakfast.  Our day pass would include breakfast and lunch at the hotel, but since it would still be an hour or two before we had food in front of us, we wanted to eat a little something on the ship first.  I got a half-slice of French Toast for Ian and myself, plus a lemon poppyseed muffin.  I love how the muffins in the breakfast buffet are just the muffin tops.  Everyone knows that is the best part of the muffin, so this probably cuts down on a lot of wasted food (I have definitely been known to break off the bottom stump of a muffin and throw it away because it’s not as good as the golden, crispy top part!  Also, props to anyone who gets the Seinfeld reference!)

We got off the ship by 8:15am, and took an open air shuttle for the short ride from the ship to the port exit.  We were not allowed to walk through this port as it’s a busy working port with shipping containers and lots of action, so I assume these shuttles were there for our safety.  They only held about 20 passengers, so it filled up quickly and we were on our way.

We had to walk past lots of stores to exit the port, and at first I wasn’t even sure where we were going and if we were still in the port or if this was the streets of Mazatlan.  Eventually, we saw what we assumed were the port gates, so we asked one of the staff to double check and he said yes, we should exit the gate and that’s where an Uber could pick us up.  Out of habit, my eyes scanned the list of options in the Uber app for the cheapest price, but be careful!  The cheapest option on Uber in Mexico is a scooter!  That definitely would not work for 2 adults, one toddler, and a stroller!!  I requested an Uber X and it arrived 2 minutes later.

A nice, new, clean car pulled up with enough space in the trunk for Ian’s stroller.  The ride to the hotel took 15 minutes and cost $4.11 USD.  Can’t beat that!

We pulled up to the Hotel Playa Mazatlan just before 9am. The Uber dropped us off on the street, but in hindsight, he probably could have pulled up to the front of the hotel where guests unload their luggage.  We put Ian in his stroller and walked across the street to enter the hotel property.

The reception area was in a big room with a long counter behind a glass partition, and a separate line for checking in and checking out.  We got on line to check in, and when it was our turn, they said the person who handles day passes would arrive soon and that we should wait to the side.  Ok, that was promising, they had a dedicated person to handle day passes.  This must be a legit thing to do at this hotel.  

10 minutes later, they called us back to the desk and explained all the rules of the day pass, and had us sign off on the policies.  

They took a cash deposit of $30 USD, and I confirmed that they would give me back the deposit in USD as I didn’t want to receive pesos back.  They gave us 3 blue cards that we could exchange for towels, and we had to trade the towels back at the end of the day to return the blue cards or we would be charged 250 pesos ($15 USD).  He put a bracelet on Jason’s and my wrist, but Ian didn’t need to wear one.  After that, we were free to enjoy our day.  No one said anything about needing to know someone staying at the hotel, so clearly I just took that blurb on the website too literally and anyone is free to visit and pay for a day pass.  I asked for a map so we could find our way around, and then we were on our way.

We walked around briefly to get a lay of the land and decide where we wanted to set up our spot for the day.  The hotel grounds were beautifully maintained, and hardly anyone was out this early in the morning.  There was a rectangular pool across from the lobby with several lounge chairs, but it looked like a pool for laps, or maybe playing water polo or volleyball or something, and we hoped to find something more scenic.  We walked down a corridor and it opened up to the beach.  There were lots of lounge chairs under palapas in the sand and shockingly, no one was using any of them!  

Next to the beach, there was a beautiful pool with a waterfall and a swim up bar, so this seemed like a perfect spot for us to hang out today. 

It was kind of strange, though, because there weren’t any loungers.  I don’t think I have ever seen a hotel with no lounge chairs at the pool.  There were a few palapas with upright chairs at the far side of the pool, so we gathered 3 of the chairs under a palapa that was against the side of a hill so we knew we’d be protected and in the shade, and we set up our towels here for the day.

Bars at the hotel don’t open until 11am.  That was the one thing that surprised me most about this all-inclusive resort.  I was under the impression that they served alcohol 24 hours a day, or at least from 7am until sometime around midnight or 1am or something.  What if people wanted a mimosa or Bloody Mary with their breakfast?  That caught us off guard since we would only have about 6 hours at the hotel and this took away 2 hours of our drinking time.  Breakfast was still being served, so we went to the buffet to get something to eat.  There was a very long line, so it took about 20 minutes to reach the front, but along the way, we caught a sneak peek at the food and it looked good and well-stocked.

When we got to the front of the line, the long wait made sense.  A hostess greeted us and asked how many people were in our party, then she escorted us to our table.  This was wonderful!  Unlike at the buffet on the cruise ship, where you have to walk around searching for a vacant table, the hotel staff seated us which eliminated a lot of stress.  I was actually surprised at how far apart they spaced the tables.  Maybe I just got used to the tight spaces on the ship, but there was plenty of space between the tables here so it didn’t feel crowded, even though every table was occupied.

Jason sat at the table with Ian while I went to the buffet to get our food.  The buffet had lots of options, from fresh fruit, to yogurt, to typical breakfast options like pancakes, french toast, and waffles.  They had lots of pre-made Mexican food options (obviously!) and a salsa station, but there was also a station for made-to-order eggs and another for chilaquiles.  They were constantly refilling the trays of food, and with so many people eating at once, nothing appeared to be sitting out too long and it was all served at the appropriate temperatures. 

Fresh fruit

Yogurt

Salsa bar

Fresh salads

I made eye contact with the woman making fresh waffles behind the counter, so she gave me a fresh one straight from the waffle maker.  I knew Ian would be thrilled, as he loves waffles and I could never find them at the Lido breakfast on the ship.

Jason opted for the made-to-order chilaquiles, one of his favorite Mexican breakfast dishes.

The dining tables had a beautiful view over the beach, looking out towards Isla de Venados.

We finished breakfast by 10:30, so since the bars weren’t open yet, we decided to go to the pool.  Jason took Ian to the bathroom to change him into a swim diaper and bathing suit, so I sat in our chairs, scrolling through social media on my phone.  Suddenly, this big guy strolled over, right in front of me!

He walked across the shaded area, through the rails on the fence, and plopped himself down in a sunny spot on the grass next to our chairs.  That was unexpected since we were inside the area of the resort, but maybe he came from out on the beach?

When Ian got back from getting changed, I brought him over to see the iguana, and then we realized there was a whole koi pond over there.  Ian got a kick out of saying “Hi!” to the fish!

By now, it was 11am, so Jason went off to find a bar to get us some drinks, while I hung out with Ian.

He was ready to go in the pool, so I took him over there, but wow!  That water was COLD!!  No wonder the pool was empty all day!  Guests staying at the hotel must have already figured it out that the water in the pool is freezing and while it is beautiful to look at, it is terrible for swimming!  Maybe it warms up naturally in the summer, but in early January, when the air temperatures were forecast to reach a high of 75 degrees, it was way too cold.  There was a long series of 3 long steps that spanned the width of the pool, so Ian had a blast walking back and forth in the ankle-deep water.

Side note:  We enrolled Ian in swim lessons last summer, but he hated it and cried every time.  Living in Phoenix, nearly everyone has a pool so it is very important that he learns to swim ASAP to decrease his risk of drowning.  The nightly news over the summer seems to constantly air stories about toddlers falling into backyard pools and drowning.  It’s scary stuff and we don’t want to become a statistic, so we will start up Ian’s swim lessons again in the spring.  Hopefully now that he’s a little older, he will make some progress and start enjoying it.  In the meantime, we made sure to keep close watch over him today with all of this time in the pool.  He is in this annoying stage where he is too big for the infant pool safety floats we used to use, and too small for the toddler ones.  I have a puddle jumper for him, but he’s still too small for it and he doesn’t weigh the minimum weight yet, so I left it at home and just made sure we were always within arm’s reach of him while he was near the pool.

Speaking of our responsible parenting… this is when Jason returned with our drinks LOL  Good timing!  He got a pina colada for himself, and a strawberry daiquiri for me.

While tasty, the drinks weren’t very strong.  We realized quickly that there’s an easy solution for this… ask the bartender to make the drinks stronger!  Since it’s an all-inclusive, we could have asked for a shot on the side and poured it in the drink to make it stronger, but then it gets too liquidy and loses the slushy consistency.  For our next round, we just said something to the bartender and he was much more generous with the pours.  Problem solved!  

Now that we were happy with our drinks, I left Jason and Ian to play in the pool while I walked around the grounds to take some photos.  While it made for a cute photo, this picture is a bit deceptive- Ian only lasted a few seconds on that lower step before retreating to the ankle-deep water on the top step haha

Right near where we were sitting, there was a set of stairs running up along the side of the pool.

I climbed up and found a jacuzzi up there.  The hotel policy is that the jacuzzis are only for adults, so we didn’t bother using them because Ian couldn’t go in with us.  It looked like a nice place to hang out though, especially with the great views, and I’m sure the water temperature was more tolerable than the swimming pool!

Staying up at the top of the stairs, I walked past the jacuzzi to an overlook with a view of the beach.  The building on the far right was where we ate breakfast.

Looking back in the other direction, I could see all the other hotels along the beach.  The views are amazing no matter which hotel you pick along that beach.

Turning back the way I came, I walked back down the flight of stairs.

Alongside the staircase is a hallway that goes underneath the jacuzzi.  Be careful of this guy- he spits water at you as you walk past him!

There were also bathrooms in that hallway, located conveniently next to the pool and jacuzzi.

At the far side of the hallway was another set up stairs, which led up to the same jacuzzi.

There was also a pretty waterfall feature up there.

I could see Jason and Ian were still walking around in the pool, so I continued on with my tour.

This photo shows a good view of the swim up bar at the pool where we hung out all day.  We never saw them open this bar, but maybe they only use it on weekends or in the summer when it’s warm enough that more people are in the pool?

I walked back through the original corridor we used to access the beach and pool area, and into the lobby.  Sorry for the blurry photo- that’s what happens when I am snapping pictures as I walk!

This was the pool right across from the reception desk.  By now, more people were sitting on the loungers (it was totally empty when we arrived at 9am), and it sounded like there was someone hosting a game of some sort.  He was speaking in Spanish over the microphone so I didn’t follow what he was saying.

This smaller pool was off to the side of the big pool.  It was packed with kids, so maybe this is where the kid’s club takes the kids to swim??  You had to be 4 years old to use the kids club at the hotel, so once I knew Ian wasn’t old enough, I didn’t really look into the details.

Just beyond those pools, there is a sand volleyball court.  It was tucked away between some buildings with hotel rooms, and was surrounded by lush palm trees, giving the court lots of shade.

This little shark slide looked like fun.  I meant to bring Ian back here, but we never got the chance.

I was just looking back at the map of the hotel.  I wish I had continued walking beyond the volleyball courts because apparently there was another area for kids with water slides and a big pirate ship, and Ian would have loved playing back there.  Now that I think of it, I did see photos of that area when I was researching prior to the cruise, but that day, I totally forgot about it and we never found this area.  Here are some of the photos from the hotel’s website…

After the volleyball court, I doubled back the way I came.  In my photo of the lobby, you can see 2 archways at the far side of the lobby.  I walked through the archway and discovered this swing set and play structure.  How fun!

There was also a water feature that poured water down from overhead.

Right next to it was another small pool with 4 water slides.  I found it so interesting that this hotel had so many different pools in different areas.  It really helped to spread out the guests and the hotel never felt crowded all day.  If it weren’t for the line at the buffet this morning, I would have wondered if anyone was actually staying here!

There was also a smaller water slide for little kids…

Just to the side of the water slides, there was a pathway which led back to the pool where Jason and Ian were hanging out.

By now, Ian had given up on the cold water and opted instead to walk along the ledge.  Those little toddler footprints were just too cute not to snap a photo!

I was happy to see my baby again, but he didn’t look so thrilled to see me!  #Toddlers!

It looked like there were a few people up on top using the jacuzzi, but the regular pool was still empty, and the swim up bar was still closed.

Ian wanted his sunglasses so he could look like mommy and daddy…

Jason was ready for a refill, so I left him to play with Ian while I went to the bar for another round of drinks.  On the way there, I noticed someone was parasailing over the water!  I don’t know if it was from a private vendor or through the hotel, but I watched them land on the beach in front of the hotel.  From my experience on the Sky Ride on the ship, I wasn’t so sure I could handle parasailing, but it was fun to watch someone else do it!

The bar near the dining area had no one else in line, so I walked right up and asked the bartender to make a strawberry daiquiri for me and a pina colada for Jason, but to make them extra strong.  He said it was no problem and made the drinks very quickly.  It looked like he poured half a bottle of rum into the blender, so our request was definitely granted!  I could get used to this all-inclusive experience!

When I got back to where the boys were playing, I told Jason about the other pool with the 4 water slides just down the hall from us.  We packed up our stuff and went over there so Ian could play on the slides.  I was so proud of him for going down the big water slides.  He has never been on a water slide before, and he is just learning to hold his balance upright when going down the small slide in our backyard, so this was a big leap for him.  We started with me putting him a third of the way up the slide, and Jason stood in the pool to catch him.  Then each time, I put him a little higher up, and after a few rounds, he felt confident enough to climb up the stairs on his own and go down the whole slide.  Way to go Ian!  

We stayed here for a little while, and only one other family ever came by.  It was so nice to basically have the pools to ourselves all day!

At around 1:30pm, we started to get hungry again.  We wanted to head back to the ship around 3pm, so we decided to get changed back into dry clothes and go to the buffet for lunch.  At this point, there wouldn’t have been much time to go back in the pool after lunch anyway, and it is more comfortable to eat in dry clothes.

We got to the lunch buffet at 1:45pm, and there was no line to get in and hardly anyone was seated at the dining tables.  I’m not sure if we missed the rush (lunch opened at 1pm), or if we beat the rush, or maybe people just skip lunch after having a big breakfast?  Anyway, as expected, they had all of the typical Mexican food options available at the buffet, plus there was a big salad bar.   

Salad bar:

Hot food options:

Bread station:

I had some veggies, pasta, and a quesadilla.

Of course, Ian stole most of my pasta LOL

After lunch, we tried getting Ian to go down into the sand, but he wasn’t interested.  We hoped he would have a chance to splash around in the ocean, but he preferred not to get messy in the sand.  Oh well, maybe next cruise!

I don’t know where all the hotel guests disappeared to, but hardly anyone was down on the beach.

With it getting later in the day, we brought our borrowed towels back to the front desk to exchange for the blue cards, then went over to the reception desk to check out.  They cut off our wristbands, returned my $30 USD cash deposit, and we were free to leave.  Overall, we had a great experience with the day pass at Hotel Playa Mazatlan, and we would definitely consider coming back if we return here on a future cruise.  It is located close to the cruise port, so it is easy to get there by Uber or a taxi.  The food was plentiful and fresh.  There was never a line at the bar, and the drinks were all good (especially after we asked to have them made stronger).  There were multiple pools to explore and things to do, so if we do return, we could have a totally different experience by going to the other side of the resort, or maybe even convincing Ian to go down to the beach.  It never felt crowded, and as day pass holders, we never felt out of place amongst the guests staying overnight at the hotel.  Sure, it wasn’t as fancy as some of the newer resorts, but it also only cost $50 per person, so we can’t really complain about that!  I do think it would feel a little small if we were staying there for several days as hotel guests, and I imagine the food would get repetitive after a while, but for a short 6-hour day pass visit, there was more than enough variety.  Overall, it was a great day!

We walked down to the street and I requested an Uber back to the port. It took him about 12 minutes to arrive and it cost 120 pesos (nearly twice what we paid this morning but it was still only $7 USD, so we were happy with that).  

As soon as we got in the car and drove away, Ian fell asleep.

We usually try to keep him awake for short car rides because those quick 10-minute naps in the car on the ride home will totally destroy our chances at a good long nap in his crib.  This time, we just let him sleep.  Despite some crazy moments, he was such a trooper for most of this cruise, and if he needed a nap right then, he could have it.  

We passed the Mazatlan letters along the beach on the drive home.  This was the only port when we didn’t have a chance to take our touristy photo with the letters, so this was the best I could do…

The Uber dropped us off outside the gates of the port, and we walked past all the shops again.  Unlike this morning, the shops and restaurants were much more lively now, but we didn’t stop to look around because we wanted to get Ian back to hopefully finish his nap.

There was a short line for the shuttle, but we didn’t wait too long before we could find seats.

Then the shuttle drove us the 2 minute ride, past the shipping containers and over to the ship.

There she is, waiting right where we left her!

We got back to the cabin at 4pm, and this little sting ray was waiting to greet us.  

Jason put Ian in his crib in hopes he would take a nap, while I stepped out onto the balcony to take some more photos.

After an hour of trying to get Ian to nap, we admitted defeat.  Sure enough, that short nap in the Uber destroyed our chances at a good long nap in the crib.  With fingers crossed that the short nap was sufficient and we wouldn’t have a repeat of New Year’s Eve, we released Ian from his crib, gave him a quick shower, and went out to the balcony to watch a beautiful sunset as we sailed away from Mazatlan. 

The sunsets on this cruise were truly spectacular, and tonight was another prime example!

For a while, I thought we would see the elusive green flash because the skies were crystal clear.

Of course, just as the sun was about to hit the water line, some clouds gathered at the horizon and there was no green flash.

The sun went down just in time for us to head down to the MDR for dinner. For my appetizer, I had the shrimp cocktail and the BBQ beef spring roll.  Both were good but nothing special, although at least they were served as expected and as described on the menu.

I had the eggplant parmigiana for my entree.  It was tasty, but I wished they plated it over a bed of spaghetti.

The short nap didn’t phase Ian… he was having a great time watching Cars on his phone and stealing bites of food from my plate.

I had the cheese plate for dessert.  Imagine my surprise when this is what they brought me…

I’m sorry, but that just looked sad.  On our 2019 cruise, the MDR dessert cheese plate looked like this:

They had the same 5 varieties of cheese, but the pieces were significantly larger, they included fresh fruit, and several pieces of bread.  I was really trying not to be too critical of all the cutbacks that we noticed throughout the week, but it was getting hard to ignore.

None of the evening entertainment for tonight appealed to us.  After so many long, busy days and late nights in a row, we decided to go right back to the cabin after dinner.  We put Ian to sleep, and we called it a night and went to sleep right along with him.  

Up next: Puerto Vallarta

Back when I was researching daily excursions, I decided to start my research with the smallest, least touristy port, and move on from there.  That was La Paz, and no surprise, it proved to be the most challenging port to pick an excursion.  The port itself is industrial and there isn’t anything to do in that immediate area.  Most cruise passengers go to the center of town where they can walk along the Malecon, go to a restaurant, or shop in some of the touristy shops.  I’m not really a fan of shopping for trinkets that will just gather dust on a shelf once we get home (and Ian gets bored quickly when we put him in the stroller to go shopping at home), so while this was a possibility, it was not my first choice of what to do that day.  

There are 2 popular beaches located about 15 minutes north of the cruise port.  They looked very pretty, but also very remote.  I was unsure about the idea of spending the day at the beach, especially one with few resources.  I was not sure if there was any natural shade, or a place to rent an umbrella and some lounge chairs.  When we go to the pool at our community center, Ian is content for about an hour and then he’s ready to go home.  It seemed like a lot of effort to go to the beach if he was only going to tolerate it for an hour and then want to leave. This was still a possibility on my list, but not the ideal choice.

Another very popular activity in La Paz is swimming with whale sharks and/or sea lions.  Pre-child, there is no doubt in my mind that this is how Jason and I would have opted to spend our day.  La Paz is one of the top places in the world to swim with whale sharks, and this seemed like an incredible bucket-list opportunity.  The problem was that this would definitely not be a toddler-friendly excursion.  It would involve riding on a small boat out into the Sea of Cortez, and spending several hours on that boat.  My past experience with similar tours was that everyone jumps in the water together, so who would be left on the boat to watch Ian?  And even if Jason and I could somehow take turns going in the water, it still seemed unsafe to take a toddler on a small boat in the open water.  We spent a lot of time debating back and forth on if we should leave Ian in Camp Ocean while we left the ship to do this excursion.  There are some tours which last the whole day and include swimming with both whale sharks and sea lions, then having lunch somewhere, then going to the beach, and we would be gone for 7+ hours.  We knew we couldn’t do a tour like that, but we thought it would be possible to pick a shorter 2-3 hour tour in the morning.  Ian has been going to daycare full time Monday through Friday for 10 hours a day since he was 6 months old.  He loves daycare and always has so much fun (based on the reports from his teachers and from all the photos they upload into the school app), but we had no way to know in advance how he would react to camp on the cruise with all new kids and counselors and a new environment he wasn’t used to.  Unfortunately, swimming with whale sharks would have to wait for another time, but it wasn’t in the cards for this cruise.

Every few weeks through the fall, I did another search online for things to do in La Paz, hoping to see something new.  In the end, I really couldn’t find anything specific that would work for us, so we decided to do something we almost never do and have no plans for the day.  We would find our way to the downtown area, walk along the Malecon, and see where the day took us.  The biggest question was how exactly would we get downtown?  La Paz is not a very common cruise port for Carnival, so there was basically no information about it on Cruise Critic.  Some Princess itineraries go there, and I was able to find out that Princess offered their passengers a free shuttle bus to get downtown, but I had no idea if Carnival would make the same arrangements for us.  Princess is owned by Carnival Corporation so I kept my fingers crossed that they would handle things similarly for us.  Planning to have no plan kind of gives me anxiety with all the unknowns, but worst case scenario, we would just cut the day short and go back to the ship, or just never get off the ship at all that day.

Last night, Nino left us a paper with details about the complimentary shuttle bus to transport passengers from the ship to the beach and/or to downtown La Paz.  I was so relieved to get this information because it made it possible for us to get downtown.  Whew!

With no specific plans for the day, I didn’t set an alarm and figured we could sleep in until our toddler alarm woke us up.  After going to sleep so late last night, I really hoped Ian would sleep in, but nope!  He had other plans and woke up at 7:30am today, so he only got 8 hours of sleep instead of the 12 hours he gets at home.  

From the balcony, it looked like a beautiful morning in La Paz.

We all got dressed and went to Lido for Blue Iguana burritos and arepas. Even Ian loved the arepas!

Since we weren’t in any rush, I left the boys at our breakfast table and went up to deck 11 where I could take some photos of the port without windows blocking the view.

As you can see, there is a whole lot of nothing nearby the port.  This is definitely not a place where you can get off the ship and just walk around on your own.  Thank goodness for those complimentary shuttles to take us somewhere with something to do!  We finished up with breakfast, then got off the ship at 10am.

It was a short walk past the 4 or 5 vendors and through the port building, and then we found the large shuttle bus waiting for us.  The bus was nearly full when we got there, so Jason and Ian boarded while I loaded the stroller into the storage compartment under the bus.

I was surprised that there was no wait or line to get on the bus.  I’m not sure if it was more crowded earlier in the morning, but this worked out great for us.  Jason snagged the 3-seater row at the very back of the bus so we could all sit together.  We left the port shortly after boarding the bus.

Ian has never ridden on a bus before and he loved it.  He stared out the window for the entire ride.  Maybe he was just excited to face forwards on a moving vehicle, since his car seat is still installed in the backwards facing direction?  When he returned to daycare the week after the cruise, his teachers asked him his favorite part of the cruise.  Ian’s response: “I rode on a bus!” …#Toddlers!

A minute or two into the ride, a lady stood up at the front of the bus and introduced herself as our guide for the bus ride.  I don’t remember her name, but she told us lots of facts and information about La Paz, which helped pass the time as we drove the 15 minute ride to our first stop at the beach.  I tried to snap a few photos along the way, but it’s always challenging from a moving bus and with the window glare.  

I happened to capture this man riding his bike… I didn’t even see him coming!  Good timing, I guess!

I knew that the Baja Peninsula was in a desert climate, but I had no idea they had this many cacti!  I live in Phoenix.  I see cactus every day, but rarely do I see so many cacti so close together.  It was beautiful!

We pulled over at the beach at 10:20am and the guide explained that we had the option to exit the bus here to go to the beach, or we could stay on until the next stop downtown.  She said the buses would come every 20 minutes, but that if you wanted to go to the beach, you should get off now because after leaving downtown, the bus would return back to the ship and not stop at the beach again.  Nearly everyone got off the bus here.  I tried to get a sneak peek at the beach, but I couldn’t really see much from the bus.

No one was ready to leave the beach this early in the day, so the bus left with those of us who stayed on, and drove another 15 minutes until we reached downtown.  I took a screenshot of Google Maps so we could find our way back to this spot later on to catch the shuttle back to the bus, but that wasn’t necessary as it was very easy to find.  We were at the main bus station downtown and it was a busy hub for both tourists and locals alike.

Sorry about the sun glare but this was the outside of the bus station:

As I mentioned, we didn’t have much of a plan for today besides walking along the Malecon and getting a drink or maybe lunch somewhere.  The weather was absolutely perfect with temps in the mid 70s, low humidity, and a slight breeze.  The Malecon is beautiful with lots of shops and restaurants on the inland side, and a long walking path along the ocean side. There were a bunch of sculptures along the way, so Jason pushed Ian in the stroller and I tried to snap a few photos as we walked along.

It was such a perfect day for a walk along the beach!  I’m not sure how deep the sand was at the beach where the bus dropped people off, but the stretch of beach along the Malecon was beautiful and there were lots of people swimming and sunbathing.  You could very easily have a beach day down here at the beach and skip the other beach stop.

Like most touristy cities, La Paz had the giant brightly colored letters spelling out the city name as a photo opportunity.  We waited for a few families ahead of us in line, then we had our turn.  It was nice that people just naturally lined up to give each family their own photo op.  I have seen similar touristy photo ops when people weren’t nearly as civilized, so everyone ended up with strangers in their photos.  No one wants that!

While we waited in line, a guy came up to each family trying to sell footage from his drone at the La Paz sign.  He said he would get a video of you standing in front of the sign waving, then he flew the drone up and down the Malecon, and then came back towards you from out over the water to capture your image from the other direction.  The people ahead of us did it, and Ian loved watching the drone fly, but we opted to just have the people behind us in line take the photo on my phone for free.  I do wish I had thought to ask him what he charged as we were curious about it, but we never found out.

Ian wouldn’t cooperate and look at the woman taking our picture, and he was getting fussy in his stroller, so we just rolled him off to the side and Jason and I took a nice photo together.

After that, we continued walking down the Malecon.  

There was a nice wide pier jutting out into the water, so we took a detour to walk along the pier and see the views.

We walked about a mile down the Malecon until the beach ended in a marina.  There was a fun restaurant and bar right on the water called Estrella del Mar.  It wasn’t busy and they had lots of tables outside on the patio with shade, so we stopped in for a drink.  

Dos Equis was 50 pesos (just under $3 USD), so we ordered a round of drinks. 

Ian had fun dancing around on the deck and burned off some energy while we relaxed in the shade and enjoyed our beers.  

The thatched roof made some weird shadows across our faces.  Too bad, because otherwise this would have been a great photo!

We were having such a lovely time that we ended up ordering a second round of beers.  We were both still full from that breakfast burrito at Blue Iguana this morning or I would have suggested we order some food too.  When we finished our drinks, it was time for the mile-long walk back to the bus station.  At first we walked along the Malecon, admiring the views, but then we got too hot so we crossed over to the inland side because there was shade from the store awnings.

We got back to the bus station at 1:30pm and at first, we weren’t sure where to go.  There were lots of locals coming and going because the city and regional buses also used this station.  We noticed there was a line wrapping around the corner, and when we looked closer, we realized some people had Carnival towels and Sign and Sail cards in their hands.  We found the end of the line and asked the people ahead of us to make sure this was the right place.  It was, so we got in line behind them.

Even though the line seemed really long, it only took 20 minutes to reach the front of the line.  This time, the shuttle was a public city bus instead of a coach bus, so there wasn’t space underneath to put the stroller, but they just let us collapse it and carry it on through the wheelchair door at the back of the bus.  It took about 30 minutes to drive back to the ship, and there was just a short line of people waiting to board.  We went straight back to the cabin so Ian could nap, and this little guy was waiting for us:

Jason stayed in the cabin with Ian while I went to Lido to get us a Fungi pizza to share.  Like yesterday, it wasn’t crowded and I got my pizza right away.  I brought it back to the cabin and we took it out onto the balcony.  As pleasant as the weather was while we were out in the sun by the beach, it was actually kind of chilly sitting out on the balcony.  We were on the shaded side of the ship, and I needed to wear a light long sleeve shirt to avoid goosebumps.  

While we were out on the balcony, we chatted about how nice it was to have an unstructured, low key day in port.  I almost always pack my port days full of exciting things to do, so it is very rare that we end up just walking a mile along the beach, getting a beer, then walking back and calling it a day.  It was very refreshing and we had a great day.  Not so great that I was going to abort the rest of our port day plans, but great enough that maybe I’ll save one port day on our next cruise for a similar low key day… maybe!

We were treated to a glorious sunset as we watched the ship sail away from La Paz.

Adios, La Paz!  Thanks for a fun, relaxing day!

Ian napped until 6pm, at which point we woke him up because we were afraid he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.  Unfortunately, we missed our 5:30pm dinner in the MDR, but we thought Ian could use the rest after so many missed naps and short nights of sleep over the last few days.  I really wished dinner was at 6pm like it was supposed to be because 5:30 is just too early on port days.  I will share the MDR menus here, even though we didn’t get to go there…

We decided to go up to the Lido buffet and see what they had for dinner.  We entered through the midship elevator bank, but that first section of stations was closed because they were using it to feed the kids in Camp Ocean.  This was another reason I was annoyed that they moved the fixed early dining time to 5:30pm.  Camp Ocean didn’t open for dinner until 6pm, so what did they expect us to do?  If we wanted Ian to eat with camp, we either had to miss our own dinner in the MDR, or we had to bring him to dinner for 30 minutes but not let him eat anything, and one of us would run him up to camp and hopefully get back in time before the appetizers came to the table.  The timing really made no sense, so we never ended up bringing Ian to dinner with camp.

Ian said he wanted pizza tonight so we got him a margarita pizza.  

I wasn’t really in the mood for the options at the buffet, so I got my favorite deli option, the meatball sandwich.  I noticed they had the shrimp and crab cakes from Emeril’s menu from the MDR, so I decided to try one and I thought it was fantastic.  

We dropped Ian up in Camp Ocean and went to the Liquid Lounge to find seats for the Rock Revolution production show.  The doors opened at 7, and when we arrived at 7:15 there were still plenty of open seats. 

I prefer to sit in the upper level of the theater.  I’m short, so if I sit downstairs where there’s no slant to the floor, the person in front of me always blocks my view.  The seats upstairs had a steep stadium seating, so I had a great view, even if it meant I was further from the stage.  That technique has always worked well for me on all of my cruises because the performers usually just stay up on the stage, or maybe they walk down the aisles briefly, but I could always see what was happening below.  With Rock Revolution, the whole stage extended out into the seating area downstairs, so it was hard to see what they were doing from upstairs.  Of course, we could hear the songs just fine, we just couldn’t see the performance for that part of the show.  This photo gives you an idea of what I mean…

Theme of Rock Revolution was Summer of 1969 and Woodstock.  It didn’t have any plot, just a bunch of songs sung concert-style, including Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, Come Together by The Beatles, Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel, Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin, and You Make Me So Very Happy by Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

One of my favorite parts of the show was the use of drones and lasers during Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.  It was so unique and definitely not something I have seen done on a cruise ship before.  It was very hard to capture a photo just using my iPhone camera, but this will give you an idea of how it looked…

.The show was 45 minutes, then we went back to the cabin to pack our bags for getting off the ship tomorrow.  We still had some time before we had to pick up Ian at camp, so we went down to the piano bar for the 9pm show with Mat (spelled with one ‘T’). 

I usually love going to piano bars.  I’m not a very good dancer, so the club isn’t for me, but sitting in a chair, singing along to some of my favorite music is my idea of a wonderful night.  Unfortunately, we thought Mat missed the mark as a piano bar entertainer.  His voice was good, and he knows how to play the piano, but there’s more to it than that… especially on a cruise ship, where piano bars usually have a certain kind of vibe.  His song selection was very low-energy.  He claimed he likes to alternate ballads with upbeat songs but his upbeat songs were not sing-along songs.  He played “Isn’t She Lovely” by Lionel Richie, “1999” and “Purple Rain” by Prince, and “When September Ends” by Green Day.  We like all of those songs, but they aren’t good sing-along piano bar songs.  Most people barely know any lyrics beyond the chorus, and those songs are far from “upbeat.”  Maybe things got better later in the night, but we couldn’t stay out late when traveling with a toddler.  

We left at 9:30 to get Ian from Camp Ocean, and beat the line to pick up before they start charging at 10pm.  Then we went back to the cabin and all went to bed to rest up for another fun day in Mexico tomorrow.

Up next: Mazatlan!

Let’s chat a little bit about planning our day in Cabo… Jason visited Cabo with his parents and extended family on a cruise many years ago, long before he knew me.  He has great memories of the day he spent with his cousins at Cabo Wabo, so at the very least, I knew that was one possibility of something we could do today.  I’m not so sure how toddler-friendly it is (the biggest concern being how loud they play the music), but I do know that Cabo has plenty of bars and restaurants close by the tender port, so going out for lunch was one option.  I looked into a day pass for an all-inclusive resort, but everything I found cost more than I wanted to spend.  Whale watching tours are very popular in Cabo, especially at the time of year we would be there.  We did a 3-hour whale watching tour in Puerto Vallarta in December 2018, and honestly, it was kind of boring.  It wasn’t until the very end on our way back to the dock that we finally saw 2 whales swimming alongside the boat for a few minutes.  Yes, that was very exciting, but we spent the whole rest of the time unsuccessfully searching for whales and it just got monotonous by the end.  Obviously, I understand that we are looking for wild animals in their natural habitat so there is never a guarantee you will see a whale, much less see one leap out of the ocean into the sky, putting on a show for us, but I didn’t want to repeat that experience while also trying to entertain a toddler.  

I searched on Cruise Critic for ideas of things to do in Cabo with a toddler, and someone mentioned they used to have a yellow submarine that took you underwater to see the fish.  OMG! That would be so perfect for us!!  Ian LOVES animals, and this would be even better than going to an aquarium because he could see the underwater animals in their natural environments.  We used to do multiple snorkeling excursions on each cruise, so this would sort of be the next best thing in a toddler-friendly version.  None of the comments I read mentioned a specific company name, so it was very hard to track down more information on how to book this tour.  After a bit of searching on Google, I found what looked like the right company.  It talked about all the details of the tour, with pictures of the yellow submarine, prices for adults and children, and contact information including a link to a website to book the tickets.  Unfortunately, when I went to the website, I got a “404- page not found” error.  After a bit more research, I found out that they no longer have the submarine used on this excursion and it is no longer an option.  What a huge bummer!!

Back to square one, I kept searching until I came across a tour on Viator with a company called Aquabulle.  There wasn’t a single mention of them on Cruise Critic or Trip Advisor, so I was very hesitant.  I was able to find their Facebook page, but everything was in Spanish and there weren’t many comments or reviews.  So why did I even consider this company?  Well, in theory, this tour was perfect for us!  Aquabulle is like a combination of a whale watching boat and a submarine, and gives us the best of both worlds.  It is a bigger boat, allowing a maximum of 50 passengers on each tour, with an upper deck so they can take you out to see the famous Arch and possibly to see some whales.  It has a middle deck that is all indoors with windows all around, so if it is cold or rainy, we can still see all the sites above water.  But the most exciting feature on Aquabulle is the lower level which is below the surface of the water, with huge windows along both sides of the boat so you can see all the fish without actually getting in the water!  

Here are 2 of the photos of their boat from their Facebook page:

I sent Aquabulle a message through their Facebook page to clarify a few of the details and logistics.  They said that they were indeed operating tours on New Year’s Day (I just wanted to double check to be sure!), and the cost was $65 for adults, and children age 5 and under were free.  While they could not pick us up from the cruise ship tender dock, they said it’s a short ride to their boat and they gave me directions.  They also confirmed that the price includes alcoholic beverages, soda, bottled water, and chicken tacos for lunch.  They said I could book directly with them, but it was the same price as if I booked through Viator.  I opted to book through Viator because if anything were to go wrong, at least Viator’s customer service could help resolve the issue.

Ian slept in this morning and woke us up at 6:30am.  We all got dressed and went up to Lido for breakfast.  Ian had French toast and hash brown patties. Jason and I had Blue Iguana burritos and arepas.  This is definitely my favorite cruise ship breakfast on a port day.  It is very filling so it holds me over until I get back to the ship after my excursion and I can often get away with not eating anything on shore if I don’t want to, plus it tastes really good!  There were a few people on line ahead of me, but they had two guys working to make the burritos so that saved time and there was only a few minutes delay to place my order.

I found a table by the window in the outdoor seating area nearby.

Yummmmm!  Those crunchy crumpled hash browns really make all the difference!  

We were finished eating by 8am, and we were still sailing into Cabo, so we walked around the outside decks admiring the view.  It was a picture perfect day today, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures predicted to reach the high 70’s.

As soon as we passed the Arch, we knew we were getting close to anchoring, so we went back to our cabin to apply sunscreen and grab our bags.

Yesterday, Nino delivered a letter to our cabin with instructions for the tender process. 

General passengers on the ship had to get tender tickets yesterday, but with FTTF, we could skip that process.  We had to meet in Liquid Lounge deck 4 at 9:45am and the crew would escort us down to the tenders ahead of the rush.  When I originally purchased FTTF, I didn’t realize how valuable this head start would be.  People who have cruised with this itinerary before can let me know for sure, but I would assume that the Captain usually has the ship change its clocks on the night before arriving in Cabo since Cabo is on Mountain time, but the ship starts the cruise from California in Pacific time.  Last night was New Year’s Eve, so I am assuming he opted to not change our clocks on a night when most passengers would be out very late and not want to lose an hour of sleep.  We did change our clocks tonight before arriving in La Paz tomorrow, so since Cabo and La Paz are in the same time zone, my assumption was they held us back an hour specifically for New Year’s Eve.  Anyway, that meant that ship time was one hour behind local time, giving us one hour less to reach the starting point of our excursion (something I did not know until I received the Fun Times last night, and certainly did not know when I purchased FTTF!). 

I knew there would be tons of people going to the Liquid Lounge for priority tendering, so we arrived there 15 minutes early at 9:30am, just to be sure we didn’t miss out on anything.  The crew members working there said there was a tender waiting for us at the midship elevators and it had space for 200 passengers.  The problem was that we were sitting forward of the forward elevators on deck 4, nowhere near the waiting tender, and there were more than 200 people sitting in the theater.  At that point, it was like a stampede for who could get out of the theater first and follow the crew members through half of deck 4, then down 3 flights of stairs to deck 1.  Meanwhile, other people who happened to be in our path figured out what was happening and they joined our parade.  I don’t know if they had priority tender access or not, but the whole thing was very unorganized.  There was a door tucked away behind the mid-ship elevators which led to the exit and access to the tender, and there was another crew member standing at that door who counted each passenger.  Of course, as luck would have it, they stopped the line one party ahead of us, closed the doors, and said the tender was full.  We were soooo close to the 200 person cut off but we just missed it.  It was very hot, with hundreds of people crammed into the elevator lobby, and Ian (and all the other little kids around us) got fussy waiting around.  #Toddlers!

We stood there for 25 minutes, then finally, they said they could take 50 more people on the next tender from the forward elevators.  Oye, here we go again!  Had they said the tender was waiting here at the midship elevators, it wouldn’t be an issue for us to get on that next tender.  Now we had to walk forward again on deck 1, passing a bunch of cabins.  When they heard all the noise in the hallway, I saw people open their cabin doors and join our line.  That was very frustrating since we had put in the time waiting on line, and who even knows if they had priority tendering.  When we got to the forward stairs, the security guard had no idea why we were there so he called on his walkie talkie and eventually let us down the stairs to board the tender.  That was way more work than it should have been, but we were finally on a boat that would take us to shore!  It was a surprisingly small boat (I had assumed they reserved 50 seats for us on one of the ship’s lifeboats, possibly combined with people on Carnival excursions, but this was one of Cabo’s tenders and only had a 50 person total capacity). but we got seats and the tender left soon after that.

The tender ride took 12 minutes, and gave us some beautiful views of the ship.  That’s my favorite part of tendering: the chance to take an unobstructed photo of the ship, which is usually very hard to achieve when the ship is docked in port and has lines and buildings blocking the view.

While we waited to board the tender, Ian was going bonkers and on the edge of a meltdown.  Luckily, he calmed down once we got on the boat, and he sat nicely in Jason’s lap for the whole ride.

I ended up sitting opposite them along the side of the boat.

We docked in Cabo and the crew helped everyone get off the boat safely.

We walked down the pier, passing lots of vendors and Carnival excursion line ups, until we reached the exit.  One of the port employees checked our backpack to make sure we didn’t bring any fresh produce off the ship.  We knew Ian would need snacks throughout the day, so I bought tons of pre-packaged single-serve snacks that I knew would be safe to bring into port in Mexico (ie: graham crackers, pretzels, cheese and crackers, plus the little bag of goldfish he was holding on the tender).  She dug through my bag, saw all of our snacks, unopened water bottles, and diapers, and waved us on our way.

I always took a photo of this sign as we got off the ship as an extra reminder of all aboard time.  We didn’t plan to be ashore nearly that late, but you never know what could happen!

Once we were out of the port area, I took my phone off airplane mode and opened up Google Maps for directions to our starting point for the tour.  I noticed the time on my phone was one hour ahead of the time on my watch, confirming that ship time and local time were not the same.  I always find this so confusing to keep track of, so I really had to pay attention to what clock I was reading.  On Saturday, I had turned off the feature in my iPhone which automatically syncs the time on the phone with the time on my Apple watch, that way my watch would always stay on ship time.  I wasn’t 100% sure that this would work, but I can now confirm that it does work correctly.  (Just an FYI since we are on the topic… The next day when we were in La Paz, I had to manually set the time on my watch to somewhere in the Mountain time zone (I chose Denver) to reflect the time change.)

Ok, back to Cabo… Google said it would take us 27 minutes to walk to the meeting spot for our tour.  The walk looked very easy- we just followed along the path lining the perimeter of the marina, and that would take us to the Breathless Hotel where the tour started.  We actually saw that hotel towards the end of the tender ride, so we could spot it from the other side of the marina.

Here are the directions from Google Maps:

We considered taking a taxi, but decided against it because it was a beautiful day, the marina area looked safe enough for us to walk it, and then we didn’t need to stress about haggling with taxi drivers over the price.  Plus, the views were very pretty!

We tried to take a cute photo with the Cabo sign, but Ian wasn’t too excited about that idea. #Toddlers!

Up to that point, Ian had been holding one of our hands and walking with us, but we were now 20 minutes into the walk and only one third of the way to the Breathless Hotel.  Ian’s little legs were slowing us down!  What should have been a 27 minute walk would take 60 minutes at this pace.  Luckily, we brought along our backpack carrier as a Plan B.  We thought it would come in handy if Ian was being unsafe on the boat because we could just strap him onto Jason’s back and then he wouldn’t accidentally fall overboard if he was misbehaving.  We found a bench nearby and pulled over to get Ian situated in the carrier.  He got a free ride for the rest of our walk!

I thought this map was convenient for anyone who didn’t have access to a smart phone…

We found another version of the Cabo sign later in our walk.  With Ian still in the backpack carrier, he couldn’t object to posing in the photo!

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!

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.  

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!

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!

(photos edited for horizontal alignment at end of album cruise 03)

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?!)

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!

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.

As we were walking back to the tender dock, we spotted a restaurant with a good happy hour deal- $5.50 USD for Corona/Pacifico/Dos Equis and a shot of tequila.  After the day we were having, we needed a drink!  There was only one other occupied table when we arrived, but it filled in shortly after that.  We had a great view of the marina and all the people walking along the path, so it made for a fun pit stop before returning to the ship. 

I can’t remember the last time I took a shot of tequila, but when in Mexico… #YOLO  

We were enjoying ourselves and the great people-watching, so we decided to order a second round.  This was certainly better pricing than we’d get for drinks on the ship!  4 beers and 4 shots of tequila cost us $22 plus tip.  Can’t beat that!

When we finished our drinks, it was a quick walk back to the tender pier.  There was a big tour boat already filling up to bring passengers back to the ship.  We got on and quickly found seats for the short ride across the bay.

We were back on board by 3pm, so our first stop was to go back to the cabin for Ian’s nap.  This little guy was waiting for us on our bed… I think it’s a ram? 

Jason decided to take a nap too, so I left them there and went to find something else to do around the ship.  We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and surprisingly I wasn’t hungry, but I thought it was smart to eat a little something.  The Lido buffet was totally closed so I went to the Pizzeria del Capitano, and there was no line at all!  Score!  I asked the guys if they were open and they were, so I ordered the Funghi and they made it fresh for me in just a few minutes.  Hot and fresh from the oven, it was very yummy!

As I ate, I admired the beautiful view of the sun setting behind the hills.

A few people enjoying the Tides Pool, with the sun illuminating the Princess ship behind us:

Perfect weather in Cabo!

I went up to the padded chairs on deck 11 overlooking the pool to take some notes for this review.

The sun dipped behind the hills at 4:45pm, so I took that as my cue to go back to the cabin and wake up the boys and get ready for dinner.

It is so rare to see ports on a cruise at night, but since we didn’t sail away until 7pm, and the sun set so early with it only being the first week in January, we had a stunning view of Cabo from our balcony!

We arrived at our dinner table right at 5:30pm, and it took until 5:50pm for Raf to take our order.  In an effort to help speed things along, Jason asked Raf to bring all of our appetizers to the table at the same time, and then all our entrees at the same time.  We have done this on prior cruises and it works well for us.  Plus, that way if we don’t like one of the dishes for whatever reason, we already have our other dish sitting on the table, ready to eat.  No need to flag Raf down to ask for the next dish sooner than he planned.

For my appetizers, I ordered the stuffed mushrooms and the linguine with clams.  The mushrooms were always one of my favorite appetizers from the old dinner menus.  They used to serve them in the round tin with 6 little circles, which doubled as the tin to serve escargot.  Now that escargot is no longer served, I guess they got rid of those tins.  Instead, the mushrooms were just served on a plate, and there were only 4 of them instead of 6.  This cutback didn’t really bother me though because I usually end up ordering more food than I can eat at dinner, and if I did want more mushrooms, I could have ordered a second plate.

The appetizer portion of the linguine with clams was perfect.  I really like that the entree pasta dish is always listed as a smaller portion in the appetizer menu.  

I ordered the chicken parmigiana for my entree.  I wish it was served with a side of spaghetti with marinara sauce, but at least I got the linguine appetizer to satisfy my pasta craving.  The chicken was served hot and tasted delicious.

I ordered my first melting chocolate cake of the cruise as my dessert.  As much as I like my steaks served rare, I like my melting cake served well done and cooked all the way through.  I find that they are either served barely cooked with a warm liquid under the top cooked layer, or they are fully cooked through, and there’s no way to know what you got until you dip your spoon into the dish.  Luckily, my dessert tonight was served exactly how I like it!

We finished dinner at 7pm and took Ian up to Camp Ocean.  We made sure to give a thorough goodbye with our usual routine from daycare drop off, and that did the trick.  Ian ran into the play room and was very excited.  We called an hour later to check on him and they said he was happy and playing, so mission accomplished!   We took advantage of a child-free evening and went to the 7:30pm show in Liquid Lounge.  It was a Motown solo act singer named Ron Mitchell.  We arrived at the theater literally 3 minutes before showtime and there were still plenty of seats available. 

He was a decent singer but the show was so awkward because he didn’t have back up singers or dancers or anything so it was just him on stage with a backing track.  It felt like it was missing something, and we thought it was under-produced and had so much potential to be a better show.  We do enjoy listening to Motown music, so at least we liked that part of it.

After that, we went back to the Limelight Lounge for the Punchliner Comedy Club.  We got there at 8:15pm and it was almost full already for the 9pm adult show.  That was surprising because the Fun Times said the doors didn’t even open until 8:30pm, but when we arrived 15 minutes early, the doors were open so we just walked in and found a seat and no one stopped us. 

We tried to flag down a bar waitress for a while and couldn’t get her attention.  I found it so weird that there isn’t a bar in there!  Jason went over to the sports bar next door to get us some drinks.  I’m not sure what he had, probably some kind of martini, but I got my favorite Carnival drink: the Funship Special.  

There are no regular plastic straws on the ship.  Instead, they serve edible straws with a lime flavoring.  Since I tend to prefer fruity drinks, this wasn’t an issue (although I could definitely taste the sour lime flavor, the drink was sweet enough to overpower the lime) but I would imagine the lime didn’t mix well with a chocolate or coffee flavored drink.  John Heald actually just addressed the topic of straws this week.  I knew they made the switch away from plastic straws to protect the wildlife in the oceans, and he confirmed that reasoning.  He suggested people can bring reusable stainless steel straws if they don’t like the lime flavoring, but I can’t imagine most people would want to deal with washing their straws while on vacation.

The 9pm comedy show was rated R-18+ and featured JC Coccoli.  She was by far the funniest comedian I have ever seen on a cruise ship.  Yes, her act was a bit dirty, but that’s to be expected in an 18+ show.  She came across as very professional, with a great set of prepared material, while also thinking on her feet to react to comments from the audience.  And to anyone reading this who may have seen her show, I will never think of spaghetti and meatballs the same way again!  Spagoot!

Right after the show, we went upstairs to get Ian from camp before the 10pm cut off when they start to charge.  On the way back to the cabin, Jason found a rubber ducky hiding behind a pillar on the ship so he gave it to Ian and he was thrilled.  (Look up “Cruising Ducks” if you don’t know what I am referring to)  Ian kept referring to it as “my ducky” and he played with it for the rest of the cruise.

Ian was so happy and riled up from playing that it took an hour to get him to fall asleep, but that was ok because he was so happy and having a great time on his first cruise vacation.  He kept sticking his head out from the blackout curtains like it was a game.  Silly boy!

Even though Cabo and La Paz are in the same time zone, we didn’t change our clocks last night because of New Year’s Eve.  That meant we spent all day in Cabo with ship time being one hour behind local time.  Tonight, we did have to change our clocks so we lost an hour of sleep heading into tomorrow in La Paz, but that’s no biggie because we didn’t have anything specific planned anyway.

Up next: La Paz, Mexico

Ian woke up at 4:15am and cried “I want mommy” for 10 min because he was scared.  We calmed him down and he eventually went back to sleep, but I never did.  He woke up again at 6:15am, and I knew he was up for good at that point, so I got up, got both of us dressed, and we went up to Lido for a snack to hold us over until brunch while Jason went back to sleep.  

Random side note: In order to operate the lights in the cabin, you need to insert some kind of card or piece of paper into a slot above the light switch.  That seems like a great way to guarantee you leave your sign and sail card in the cabin when you leave because the habit would be to just turn off the lights and leave.  I’m sure I would only realize I left my card in that holder the second after the door closed and locked me out.  When we got to the cabin yesterday, there was a plain white plastic card in the slot, so we just left it there all week.  I’m not sure if Nino put it there, or if it was left behind from the people in our cabin last week, but either way, it was convenient and meant we didn’t need to find something else to operate the lights.  I have had this system on prior cruises and I always wonder why they installed it.  I understand that they want the lights turned off to conserve energy on the ship, but I would hope most people would turn off their lights the normal way, using a switch, and the number of people on line at guest services for a new key card because they locked themselves out of the cabin has more of a negative effect than any energy saved, but what do I know?

Ok, back to our sea day morning…

I walked around the Lido buffet in search of something to snack on that wouldn’t be too filling and ruin our appetites for brunch.  

We settled on one pancake for each of us, and I brought it to the outside section back near the Seafood Shack at the aft pool.  It was a glorious morning, with temperatures around 60 degrees and sunny with a light breeze.  It was the perfect morning to sit outside in the fresh air and watch the ocean go by.

When we finished eating, I took Ian for a walk in his stroller and took some photos around the ship when it was mostly empty as everyone else was still asleep.  

Since we were sitting by the aft pool, let’s start with a view of the wake!

The sunrises and sunsets on this cruise were so pretty!

Midship pool looking forward:

Midship pool looking aft:

Towel hut and life jackets:

Walking around the Sports Square on Deck 12, starting on the port side walking from midship to aft, first we found the foosball table:

Across from that are the stairs leading up to the ropes course and Sky Ride:

Next, we got a great view of the newly-reattached whale tail, right behind the mini golf course:

Out in the distance, we could see the Discovery Princess.  We were both due to be in Cabo tomorrow, and we could see them off to our port side for pretty much the whole day.  Ian got a kick out of it and kept asking “Where’s the crew sip?” (I don’t think he fully grasped that he was actually ON a CRUISE SHIP lol), so we’d run outside and look for it!

Continuing aft on the sports deck, we came to the basketball court.

And then the body weight work out machines:

Does anyone know what this is for??:

Rounding the aft of the ship, we had a beautiful view over the aft pool and the wake.  I just realized the wake had a zig zag pattern to it.  I’ve never seen that happen before!

Walking forward along the starboard side of the ship, we came to another section of work out equipment.  I’m pretty sure these are supposed to be like the Gazelle Glider machines, but there were 2 teenagers each standing on one of the footplates and swinging back and forth on it.  I don’t think that is the intended purpose, but there wasn’t any staff around to tell them otherwise.

Up next, we had a view of a few more holes of the mini golf course, with billiards tables in the background, and the ropes course above us.

We then continued forward on deck 12 to the Water Works area.  I was surprised at how active and busy the water slides were on this cruise.  Maybe people flying in from Northern states with colder weather at home thought the temperatures on this cruise were appropriate for swimming, but coming from Phoenix, I thought it was too cold!

We went back inside to the forward elevators, so I’ll take a moment now to talk about the elevators on the Panorama.  I’m not sure how many ships use this system, but this was the first time I cruised with “smart” elevators.  It really wasn’t that big a deal for me because, thanks to numerous posts about it on Cruise Critic, I was prepared and knew how the system worked.  Unfortunately, as I assume happens on every cruise, most passengers did not understand the rules and that’s what led to complications.  

There are no buttons inside the elevator.

There are touch screens in the lobby of every set of elevators.  

Each elevator is labeled with a letter (so you don’t get confused between the elevator name and the deck of the ship).  On the touch screen, you press the deck you want to go to, and the system assigns you to a specific elevator.

In case someone doesn’t know how to operate the elevator, they had a huge screen with the instructions:

The problem was that people didn’t always bother to repeat the process for every member of their party.  In a way, I get it.  If you have a family of 6, it is really tedious to type in “deck 9” 6 times.  It was even annoying for us and we only had a party of 3.  That meant that sometimes the elevator doors would open to my assigned elevator, but it was crammed full of other people and no space for me, so I had to repeat the process and wait for another elevator to come.  Similarly, people in motorized scooters really need to tell the system that they are a group of 2 or even 3 people because their scooter has a much bigger footprint than 1 single person.  The same goes for people with suitcases (ie: everyone on the first and last day of the cruise!) and strollers (we always pressed the buttons 4 or 5 times when Ian was in his stroller to make sure there was enough space for us).

Another issue we encountered was that I would repeat the destination request 3 times, and it would assign 2 of us to one elevator and the third person was assigned to a different elevator.  Of course, we don’t want to split up.  That’s ridiculous!  So we just all went in whichever elevator came first (and yes, I know that made us as bad as the people who only press the button once for a larger group, but I blame the system on that one!)

It didn’t take us long to realize a very simple way they could fix all of these problems.  Lord of the elevator, I hope you are reading this!  Listen carefully to my genius plan!!  Why can’t the touch screen first ask you to enter how many people are in your party, and then prompt you to select your destination deck?  Yes, that means when someone is taking the elevator alone, they have 1 extra button press to say they are a party of 1, but the vast majority of people using the elevators have at least 2 people in their party, if not more, so this would save button presses for all of those people.  It would also eliminate the issue of groups being split up between multiple elevators because it would know to assign you to an elevator with enough space for your group (unless you had a group of 18+ people which exceeds the elevator capacity… but does that ever really happen?!)  And obviously, it would eliminate the issue of people only pressing the button once for a group of 6 (or however many people) because you have to tell them the number of people in your group first, before selecting your destination deck.  But hey, what do I know?!

**end elevator rant**

I pressed the elevator button 3 times so Ian, his stroller, and myself could get down to deck 5 to continue our ship tour.  We exited into the atrium and spotted a beautiful floral design on the funnel.

Next, we saw the library.  I didn’t realize that newer ships still had libraries.  I would have thought a ship built in 2019 would make different use of that space in a world of Kindles and digital books.  I really liked the decor in here, and the ceiling was so pretty!  Apparently there is also a bar inside, but I never went by when it was opened to check it out.

There was a cute gingerbread display in the hallway.  I assume it was there for the whole Christmas week cruise, and it was also there for all of our cruise, so I was impressed that it was durable enough to still look good after 2 cruises.  I also assume that it was taken down (along with the other Christmas decorations) on our disembarkation day.

We went down to deck 4 for a quick view of the casino.  In general, I avoided walking through the casino as much as possible because it was always very smoky, but I thought we’d be safe to take a peek now as it was only 8am and it was mostly empty.

We took the forward elevators back up to deck 5 to sneak a peek at the Liquid Lounge.  It was set up for a presentation or a show, but I think they also clear out all the chairs from downstairs at night to set it up like a nightclub.  I have never personally seen it set up like a night club because that is waaaay past my bedtime.

Outside the deck 5 entrance to the theater, there is a display case showing all of the Panorama’s awards and accolades.  I love that every cruise ship has something like this and I always find it fun to check it out as it shows some of the history of the ship.

Just beyond the display case is a set of doors leading outside to the Lanai.  

This was one of my favorite parts of the ship.  Nearly the whole length of the ship on both the port and starboard sides, there is an open deck with nice padded loungers, dining tables, big round sunbeds, access to some of the specialty dining restaurants, and more.  The far forward section is blocked off for the crew members’ outdoor access, and the far aft section is reserved for passengers staying in the Havana cabins.  There is also a smoking section on the forward starboard side.  I love that deck 5 is always peaceful and relaxing, with no loud music or activities like on the Lido deck.  I also love that it is closer to the water level so we had a beautiful view of the ocean.  Sometimes it is so easy to forget that we are on a ship and not just a land-based resort, so it’s nice to spend some time with direct ocean views.

Since the deck extends out further than the balconies, you get a good view of the balcony cabins from here.  Of course, that means that when you are on your own balcony, it is never fully private as someone can possibly see you if they are looking up from deck 5.  Buyer beware!

Something to keep in mind when selecting your cabin on this ship:  I personally would never want a cabin on deck 9 midship where you are directly below the Lido pool, but there is one very slight advantage (at least for me).  If you look closely, you can see in the photo below that part of the upper deck extends out further than the balconies.  That bump out is from Lido deck, so the cabins below it on deck 9 have an extended roof above them, likely providing more shade than a standard balcony.  For me, that is a plus since I usually hide from the sun (as much as I love sunshine and sunny days, the sun does not love me and my fair skin!)  If you prefer more sun on your balcony and you pick a deck 9 cabin, make sure you are further forward than where this bump out begins, somewhere midway between the forward and midship elevators).

Continuing on our tour of the deck 5 lanai, we found the Guy’s Pig and Anchor BBQ Smokehouse.  There was an indoor and outdoor part to this specialty dining venue.  The outdoor area was open from noon until 2:30pm on sea days, including embarkation day.  The food is free and served buffet style with staff behind the counter dishing out whatever you ask for.  Many people think this is a great place to go right after boarding the ship because it is less crowded than Lido, but as you already saw, our embarkation day was far from ordinary and we opted to hold off on eating here until the final sea day.  More about that later, but for now, here are some photos of the outdoor section when it was closed this morning.

Just aft of the Smokehouse, the deck is blocked off for Havana access.  There is a large revolving door to get back inside, so we entered into the Ocean Plaza.  There were always activities happening here throughout the day, from trivia to dance classes to kids club activities, and in the evening, there was usually some kind of live music and dancing.

Just forward of that was the Java Blue Cafe and Shake Spot.  This was the one place that was busy as I walked by at 8:10am (no surprise there), so I didn’t want to take a photo at that moment, and I forgot to return later in the day.

Up next, we came to the indoor section of the Pig and Anchor Brewhouse.  This place was always busy whenever we walked by from midday through the evening.  They often had live music performances, and there was also a tour of the brewery offered several times this week.  We have taken brewery tours before, and while we considered it on this cruise, it just never fit into our schedule.  While the outdoor buffet part of the smokehouse is free, the indoor restaurant has a separate menu for a charge per item.

The last stop on our tour was at the Pixels gallery.  I have never seen so many screens to view your photos on any other ship.  There were about 20 of them on bar height tables, plus at least 10 along the banquette seating along the windows in this area.  You can also view your photos in the Hub app, so I don’t know why it was necessary to have this many screens at the Pixels Gallery, and there were rarely more than a handful of people using them as we walked by throughout the week.

It was now 8:15am.  When I left Jason in the cabin an hour earlier, we agreed to meet downstairs on deck 3 aft for Sea Day Brunch when it opened at 8:30am.  Before I walked too far forward on the ship, I decided to turn back and take the elevators down to deck 3 and wait for the dining room to open.  When I got down there, two of the waitresses were in the elevator lobby with tablets to take reservation requests.  The app doesn’t let you request a table until when the doors open at 8:30am, so this gave us a head start before the mad rush.  I told her our cabin number, and after she put in the request, I got an alert through the app on my phone that our table was requested and it would notify me when our table was ready.

Three minutes later, my phone buzzed again and our table was ready.  That was fast!

I clicked the “On My Way” button (even though I was already there), and the screen changed to indicate that they would hold my table for 10 minutes.

Just then, Jason met us outside the MDR.  Good timing!  While we waited, we talked about it being convenient to be able to text each other when we split up on the ship.  Pre-Ian, we usually made it work without being able to communicate when we went in different directions, but with Ian, we realized we needed to be able to reach each other.  We didn’t pay for the wifi package on the ship, and Jason uses an android phone so we couldn’t text over iMessage even if we did have the wifi package.  We decided to buy the chat feature through the Hub app at $5 per person for the whole cruise.  Since I’m talking about it now, I’ll just say that we have mixed reviews about the chat feature.  If your screen was off, you didn’t get an alert of a new message, so half the time he didn’t see my messages.  If you had your screen on and you were actively using the app when a message came in, it did alert you… sometimes.  We still found that we missed messages or that the messages never went through.  When it worked, it was convenient to have, but unfortunately it wasn’t reliable and didn’t work 100% of the time, so that was annoying.  I guess it had enough value to be worth $5 per person for the whole cruise, but still, when you pay for a service, you expect to get what you paid for.

Ok, back to brunch… The MDR doors opened at 8:26am, and we were immediately escorted to our assigned table.  We asked them to bring a high chair for Ian, which was done promptly.  It was nice to be assigned to a table by the window with such a beautiful view.  We wished we could have a table like this for dinner!

Just like at dinner, the menu is available in the app, but they will bring a paper menu upon request.

This menu was new to us since our last cruise in 2019, so I was excited to try some of the new dishes.  I ordered the bagel with lox, the skillet cake, and the 12-hour french toast (I’ll take carbs with a side of carbs, please!).  The bagel came out right away, which was convenient because then I could feed Ian ASAP.  He got the plain bagel, and I smeared the cream cheese on the lox and made a little roll-up for an appetizer.

It took 20 minutes for our hot food to come.  The french toast was very good, although it was similar to what they serve in the Lido buffet.  I’m not sure if 12 hours made any difference versus 1 hour, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

The skillet cake was the real star of the show!  It was a thick and fluffy pancake, topped with whipped ricotta and guava preserve, with marshmallows and maple butter on the side.  It was soooo good.  Definitely the highlight of the meal for me!

We skipped dessert, and took Ian upstairs to Camp Ocean for the open play time in Dr. Seuss Bookville.  This room was outside of the regular camp rooms, and was basically open all day/evening for parents to play with their children.  This was the only option for kids under age 2 who were too young to enroll in Camp Ocean, so most of the toys were for babies.  

There was a huge wall filled with multiple copies of every Dr. Seuss book.

Ian ran right in, grabbed a xylophone, and started to play.  He felt right at home!

We had about 20 minutes to play with him there until Camp Ocean officially opened for the day at 10am.  The drop off process took a really long time.  One of us should have waited in line while the other played with Ian in Bookville, but we didn’t realize a huge line had formed out by the elevators until it was too late and we had a bunch of families ahead of us.  It was finally our turn to approach the desk at 10:20am.  They made sure we had our Bat Phone and that Ian was wearing his name tag, they took our bag of diapers and wipes, they opened the gate and told Ian to come in, and that was that!  We didn’t realize he would be swept away so abruptly so we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.  At daycare drop off, we have a routine to say goodbye, sort of like Ian’s version of a secret handshake.  We give him a big hug, then 3 kisses (one on each cheek and one on the lips), and then a high five.  Then we reassure him that “Mommies/Daddies always come back” (something his teacher said to reassure kids with separation anxiety at the start of the school year, and it seemed to stick so now all the kids in his daycare class say it to the teacher instead of the teacher saying it to them!).  None of that happened today at camp drop off and we were afraid it would backfire, but we just went with the flow and trusted the counselors knew what they were doing.

We knew we wanted to try the Sky Ride and Ropes Course, and that we needed to do it while Ian was at camp because he is obviously way too young to participate in those activities.  We went straight up to the entrance, which was right above us at deck 12 midship.  The line for the Sky Ride was pretty short so we decided to start there.  They have little signs along the way to tell you how long the wait is from that spot.  We were lined up to the 15 minutes sign.

It actually ended up taking closer to 30 minutes to reach the front of the line.  There was a man around 70 years old who got stuck and stopped pedaling.  Each track has 2 cars- 1 that is out on the track doing the course, and the other that is being unloaded and reloaded with the next rider.  The staff had to get into one of the 2nd cars to come up behind the man who got stuck, and then gently push him the rest of the way around the track.  It was actually interesting to see what they did when someone can’t finish the course on their own.  

When the people before us got called on to the scale, the Bat Phone rang.  Uh oh!  Camp Ocean was calling to say that Ian was upset and crying for me.  I knew that abrupt drop off would backfire!  He was in a strange place and he didn’t get the reassurances that he is used to when we leave him in childcare.  I told them to give him cars and trucks to play with because he is currently obsessed with anything with wheels.  I said we were about to get on the Sky Ride and that we would be down to get Ian in 10 minutes.  They said they would call back if needed. 

When it was our turn, they asked each of us to stand on a scale.  It had a big light on top that turned green to indicate we were under the 250 pounds max weight limit (and I assume if we were over that weight, the light would have turned red).  We assumed they ask everyone to get on the scale, even if they are obviously under the limit (like the super skinny teenager who went on the ride right before us), so that way they don’t insult anyone by picking them out to get on the scale.  Don’t worry though, the scale does not give a read out of your weight.  It just lights up green or red.

Next, they asked us to put any belongings into a basket.  I was hoping to take a photo while on the ride.  My phone has a wrist strap that I can secure around my wrist so if I dropped it, it would just dangle from 3 inches down from my wrist and there was no risk of it falling to a deck below or into the ocean.  But nope, no phones or cameras or water bottles or purses or anything else was allowed on the ride.  My general philosophy on cruises is “photo or it didn’t happen” so that was a bummer.  No worries though, there are 2 cameras on the course to take your photos as you are pedaling.  I made sure to find them before I started the course so I would know where and when to look up and smile.  

Jason let me pick which bike I wanted so I opted for the one on the inside.  Biiiig mistake!  The staff helped me slide the seat forward enough that my feet could reach the pedals, then they counted us down and said “Go!”  Within the first few seconds on the track, I had to pedal uphill and it was a lot harder than I expected.  Jason’s track started with a gradual downhill slant, so I wished I was on that bike.  Mid-pedaling, I looked up at the camera to smile.  I didn’t see a flash go off, which was weird because usually on roller coasters at amusement parks, there is a flash for the cameras during the ride.  Odd, but I couldn’t focus too much on it because I had lots of pedaling to do.  Then, my nerves kicked in.  I never really thought that I had a fear of heights, but I guess it’s been a few years since I have done something thrilling like this and fears have developed with age.  I kept telling myself over and over that I would be fine, I wouldn’t fall off, thousands of other passengers have done this ride before me and no one died, everything would be okay.  I tried to look out and enjoy the views, but really I just spent the whole time focusing, pedaling, and breathing.  After I curved around the aft of the ship, there was a steep drop where I really picked up speed.  I think had I started with a downhill drop at the beginning of my course, that would have given me momentum and the uphill climb at the end would have been easier.  Jason kept stopping and waiting for me to catch up, so we pedaled side by side for the last part of the course.  Just a little bit before the finish, there was a second camera, so I paused to fix my hair and smile.  Again, no flash from the camera.  And that was it.  We returned to the starting platform, the staff helped remove the harness, and we got off the ride.  Jason said we should do it again later in the cruise and I could start on the outside bike, but I said no way was I ever doing that again!  It was definitely more thrill than I could handle and once was enough for me!  Later in the day, and several times through the rest of the cruise, I checked the Hub app to see my photos from the Sky Ride, but nothing ever appeared.  I was actually most annoyed about that.  Obviously those cameras weren’t working, and surely the staff knew that.  If that was the case, I wish they would have taken a photo of me sitting in the bike at the start line so at least there would be some proof that I did it, but nope!  So now you will just have to trust me when I say I gave it a try, but one and done!

We ran back down the flight of stairs to pick up Ian from Camp Ocean, and sure enough, he was happy and playing with cars and had no memory of being upset or crying a few minutes earlier.  I know my kid so well!  We signed him out of camp because it was almost time for the Noon Years Eve party in the atrium.  This was a “family event” as the counselors put it, which meant that they would not take the kids at camp down to the event and they expected parents to get their kids and bring them down.  

When we got down to the atrium, we could see the funnel looked like a starry night sky.  The event had a space and astronauts theme.

There was a table set up where parents could pick up some crafts for the kids, so we got our goodies and found a spot to sit down.  Ian doesn’t really like coloring, but he liked putting the stickers on the paper.

The entertainment staff did a good job hosting the event.  They played Simon Says and Musical Chairs with the older kids, but Ian just hung out with us.  

They handed out sparkling cider, and did a count down at noon.  I was expecting balloons or confetti or something to fall down from deck 5, but that didn’t happen.  Nonetheless, it was a nice way to let the kids enjoy some of the New Year’s Eve fun without staying up past their bedtimes.  I don’t remember Noon Year’s Eve being a ‘thing’ when I was a kid, so as a parent now, I appreciate it.

The event was over by 12:05, so we went up to the deli for lunch.  Luckily, it wasn’t crowded at all.  I got a meatball sandwich, and it was as delicious as I remember from my 2019 cruise.  Ian even ate half my sandwich!

Camp Ocean hosted the Dr. Seuss parade at 1pm.  That seemed like weird timing as that is the time that most little kids take their naps.  Going on the cruise, this was one of the top things that I definitely wanted to do with Ian.  Starting a few weeks before the cruise, we read him lots of Dr. Seuss books at bedtime.  I wanted him to recognize the characters and be excited to meet them, so we read those books over and over until he knew their names.  It wasn’t ideal that the parade was at nap time, but there was no way we were missing it, so we just crossed our fingers that Ian would adapt and not have a meltdown from being overtired.   

The parade started in Ocean Plaza.  First, they gathered all the kids on the dance floor and started getting them hyped up.  They taught them how to march together, and they taught them a little chant: Dr. Seuss is on the loose!  To this day, Ian sometimes randomly says the chant and it is so cute!  Next, they told the kids to line up and march in a circle around the dance floor.  As they passed the stage, the kids could pick up a bell and streamers to hold during the parade.

At daycare, Ian doesn’t usually participate when the other kids are jumping and dancing around.  He is more reserved and has always been more of an observer than a doer, so I wasn’t sure how he would respond to such a festive event.  He impressed me so much and made me so proud as he really embraced it and was having so much fun!  Just look at that smile!!

Once all the kids had their supplies, Deon came out to introduce all the characters.

First up was Thing 1 and Thing 2:

Then came Sam I am:

I expected to see The Cat in the Hat, but he wasn’t there.  Deon led the parade, followed by the 3 characters and then all the kids and their parents.  We marched through the ship from deck 5 aft at Ocean Plaza, all the way through the promenade.  Ian LOVED it!  He had so much fun ringing his bell, shaking his streamers, and running through the halls of the ship (poor kid has such short legs that he had to run to keep up with the big kids who were marching haha).

Even the funnel in the atrium had a fun Dr. Seuss theme!

I can only imagine what the other people on the ship thought.  Not everyone has kids in Camp Ocean, so I am sure many of them had no idea about this parade, but there’s no way they missed now because it was sooo loud!  Those were some excited kids!  The parade continued down the atrium stairs to deck 4, and into the Liquid Lounge forward for story time.

They reintroduced all the characters, and then announced that a special guest was on his way…

The Cat in the Hat arrived!

Ian was thrilled!!  He was so excited to see all these characters from his books at home, right there in front of him.  

For story time, the team from Camp Ocean dressed up and acted out the book “Read Horton Hears a Who.”  They had so much energy and did a great job of keeping the kids excited, entertained, and getting the kids involved with yelling out different lines in the book and animal sounds.  This was definitely worthwhile as Ian had a blast, and it was totally worth postponing nap time so he could attend.

Story time ended at 1:45pm, so the whole thing took 45 minutes (including the parts before the parade).  We went straight back to the cabin for Ian’s nap.

I took this photo 30 minutes later.  Does this look like a child who wants to take a nap…

Unfortunately, Ian refused to nap. He kept singing songs and saying “It’s not nap time. It’s wake up time.”  In an attempt to give him some alone time so that maybe he would settle down, I sat outside on the balcony for a bit.  It was a beautiful afternoon, with sunny skies and temps had warmed up to the low 70’s.  

Looking forward:

Looking aft:

Actually, that photo shows a good view of the bump out from the Lido buffet which gives extra shade to some of the deck 9 balconies.

By 3pm, it was obvious that Ian was never going to fall asleep for his nap.  I think all of the excitement from the morning had a big impact on him, and now he was having some FOMO and he didn’t want to fall asleep and miss out on the cruise ship fun.  We knew this had the potential for disaster.  I can only think of a handful of days in the last 2.5 years when Ian didn’t take a nap, and none of them were good days.  This was New Year’s Eve and Jason and I were hoping to leave Ian at Camp Ocean for Night Owls so we could enjoy the festivities, but without his nap, that left our evening plans in jeopardy.

I took a shower, and while I was drying my hair, Jason took his shower.  At home, Ian has only ever taken a bath.  When we booked the cruise, we knew there wouldn’t be a bathtub in the cabin so we tried to give him a shower, but he hated it.  I think he was afraid of the water coming from the handheld shower head.  I bought a mini swimming pool to bring on the ship and planned to blow it up to use as a bathtub.  The shower has a curtain so this was the only reason I was happy to not have glass doors because we would have space for the swimming pool.  Maybe it was the new environment, but when Jason went to shower, Ian said “I come!” and he let Jason give him a shower.  That was a pleasant surprise and definitely made things more convenient!  

When Nino cleaned our cabin that morning, he left us a New Year’s Eve themed top hat and headband.  I thought it was a nice touch that it featured the Carnival whale tail.

There was nothing for Ian to wear but that was okay because we brought our own hats from home, not knowing something would be provided.  In the end, it turned out that Ian took Jason’s top hat and wouldn’t wear the hat I brought for him… toddlers! **eye roll**

We finished getting dressed for the evening and went down to the atrium around 4:30pm to take some professional photos.  With Ian being so resistant to taking photos on my phone, I thought maybe the professional photographers would get him out of his shell.  We went to the only backdrop that was set up because we were definitely there very early.  The photographer really tried to get Ian to smile, but he just wasn’t having it.  He kept trying to run away and was starting to cry.  Okay, let’s pivot and try asking a fellow passenger to take our photo.  This lady was so sweet and understanding.  She just kept snapping photos in hopes that she’d capture one useable picture.  Her techniques worked!  Ian never smiled, but at least she got a few pictures of him looking at the camera, so I guess that’s the best we could hope for!

Hoping to snap Ian out of his mood, we let him walk around the atrium.  He still wouldn’t smile, and he looked pretty miserable, but at least he wasn’t crying.

A second backdrop station opened up so we went over there to try again with the professional photographer.   Ian was still being uncooperative so we coaxed him over to sit in a chair to the side, and Jason and I took a few photos of just the 2 of us.  When I saw them in the Hub app, I could see the stress in our faces and it just wasn’t worth purchasing.  

Here is our over-tired toddler, waiting for us to finish taking photos…

Ian was just so tired and being very uncooperative, trying to run away from us and throwing himself on the floor crying.  He never usually throws tantrums so we knew it was because he was tired.  That skipped nap was really hitting hard!  We were counting the minutes for the dining room to open, and we went straight to our new table as soon as the doors opened at 5:30pm.  We saw Raf right when we got to the table and asked how fast we could get chicken nuggets for Ian because he was screaming that he was hungry.  Raf called over to his assistant Eva and told her to run down and get the nuggets right away.  It was so nice of them to take care of us like that and Eva returned with the nuggets in a few minutes.  Ian inhaled his food extremely fast, so he was definitely hungry!  Before our appetizers arrived, Ian’s eyes were drooping and his head was bobbing.  It wasn’t long before he fell asleep on the high chair tray!

At least with Ian napping at the table, Jason and I could enjoy our meal.  The night of the first sea day is always a formal night, but they also had a special menu specifically for New Year’s Eve.  None of those options appealed to me so I just ordered off the regular formal night menu.

  For my appetizers, I ordered the lobster bisque and the spiced pork poppers.  The lobster bisque was tasty, but it wasn’t exactly what I expected.  It didn’t have any pieces of lobster meat in it, but that didn’t really surprise me.  I was expecting a cream base but it was more like a tomato base, like Manhattan clam chowder instead of New England style.  It tasted lobster-y and was served nice and hot, so I enjoyed it even though it was different than I was expecting.

The spiced pork poppers were a miss for me.  Usually when pork is paired with apples, it is a sweet dish.  In fact, Carnival used to serve a similar pork chop dish on the old menu they had available every night in the MDR.  This appetizer really should have been called SPICY pork poppers, not SPICED.  They definitely had a kick to them and I wasn’t expecting that, so I only took one bite and I was done.

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!

The day finally arrived!  It is embarkation day!

With my body still on AZ time, I was up and out of bed at 5:30am.  It was so nice that Jason’s brother lent us his house because I could go out into the living room and get ready while Jason slept in.  I looked outside and… oh nooooo!!!… it was pouring rain!  I had been watching the weather forecast for Long Beach all week and it kept changing the prediction about if it would rain or not.  This was definitely not the beautiful southern California sunshine I was hoping for!

Ian must have still been on AZ time too because he was awake by 5:45am.  Luckily, he could spend the morning playing with his older cousin’s toys so that kept him entertained while we waited to leave.

I made Ian a special shirt on my Cricut for embarkation day:

Jason woke up around 6:30am, so we finished getting dressed and then packed up our bags to get ready to go.

It was still way too early to go to the cruise port, so we called our parents to say goodbye, and we each ate a granola bar as a light breakfast.  Soon enough we would be on the cruise ship for 8 days of overstuffing our bellies, so we kept it low key this morning.  Finally, at 9:45am, we requested an Uber, and it arrived to pick us up 7 minutes later.  We actually went with an Uber XL to make sure we had enough space for all our bags and whatnot, and it only cost $5 more than an Uber X so that was an easy decision.  When I did the online check in process, I got the 11:00 to 11:30am arrival window.  We were staying about 30 minutes from the cruise port, but we needed a few minutes to install (and uninstall)  Ian’s car seat, and we thought it would take a few minutes to load (and unload) the bags into the Uber, so we requested the car a little early to give us some padding.

It was raining lightly when we went outside to wait for the Uber, but luckily it stopped a few minutes later and I don’t think it rained again for the rest of the day (at least not while we were outside!).  We dragged all our bags to the curb, trying to avoid the puddles.  Our Uber driver was very helpful with getting our luggage into his trunk while Jason installed the car seat and I kept Ian from running into the street.  We are always worried about Uber drivers charging us extra fees for needing time to install and uninstall the car seat, so we try to get it done as quickly as possible.  Luckily, thus far, our drivers have always been very understanding and are either fathers or grandfathers of young children and are sympathetic to our logistics.  

We were all loaded in the Uber and on the road by 10:05am, and our luck continued as there was no traffic on the highway.  We spotted our first sight of the Carnival Panorama at 10:22am.

Ian loved looking at the cranes and shipping containers in the port of Long Beach.

Originally, our drop off time was estimated to be 10:35am.  As we approached the gates to enter the cruise port, traffic came to a stand-still.  We thought there was an accident up ahead because we couldn’t figure out why we stopped moving.  Gradually, we were able to roll forward little by little, until we could see the cruise terminal in the distance.

Finally, at 10:45am, we got to the gate to enter the cruise terminal, but there was still a ton of backed up traffic.

We continued to roll along verrrryyy ssslllloooowwwllllyyyy.  We reached the parking garage at 10:54am, and it then took another 10 minutes to pull inside and find a spot to park the Uber.  Our driver said Uber might charge us for the ride taking nearly double the original time, but I don’t think they did.  The ride was originally supposed to take 30 minutes, but my receipt says it started at 9:52am and ended at 11:01am, so it took over an hour!

It was complete pandemonium when we got out of the Uber.  There were hundreds of people who had just gotten off the previous cruise and were waiting to be picked up, so they were all crammed in on the sidewalk with their luggage.  The people coming to pick them up were probably stuck in all of the traffic that we were in too.  After we unloaded our luggage, it was really hard to figure out where to put our checked bags.  I ended up leaving Jason and Ian with all the bags while I ran around looking for a porter in the sea of disembarking people.  Apparently our Uber dropped us off in the wrong place, so I had to double back to get our bags, then drag them to the far side of the sidewalk area (Jason would have done it but I knew where to go and it was just easier to do it myself rather than try to explain to him where to go).  Apparently, there was a different entrance that priority passengers are supposed to use so all the priority bags go on the same big cart to be loaded on the ship together.  I don’t know how we could have known that because there weren’t any signs or anything as we pulled into the parking lot.  Once I found the right place to go, I handed over our checked bags to the porter and gave him a tip, then went back to find Jason and Ian so we could enter the cruise terminal.

Disclaimer/Rant:  Ian is becoming more and more like opinionated every day, and he recently started giving me a hard time when I take his photo.  He basically refuses to smile in photos with me and Jason, and he usually yells and turns his head when I try to take a photo of just him.  Sometimes I get lucky and snap the photo before he realizes I’m doing it, but there are going to be a lot of photos in this review where Ian looks angry and miserable.  He was in a good mood for most of the cruise, but it doesn’t always look that way in the photos.  In vacations pre-Ian, Jason and I always asked other travelers to take our photo and it was never a problem.  Now, with Ian bordering on a tantrum all the time, it was a lot harder to get good photos together.  We did the best we could, but I don’t have nearly as many photos from this cruise as I did on prior cruises.  **end rant**

So where were we… oh yes, we walked up to the cruise terminal at 11:10am, smack in the middle of our original assigned arrival window (so all that traffic didn’t matter much, even if it did add a lot of stress).

When we got there, they were letting people from any/all appointment times enter the terminal.  That was kind of annoying to hear because I had stayed up late and made sure to check in exactly on time, and basically this meant my efforts were irrelevant.  Someone was standing at the door to check our boarding passes, and they directed us to the entrance door for Suites, Diamond, Platinum, and FTTF passengers.  Once inside the terminal, we saw that they set up a makeshift check in station for priority passengers with a bunch of little tables and one staff member at each table who used a cell phone to scan our documents.  There was just one group ahead of us and then we were directed over to the next available table.  Jason and I both have passports and have only ever cruised using passports as our official documentation, but we opted to use Ian’s birth certificate instead of getting him a passport.  I know, tisk tisk.  I didn’t think of it when we originally booked the cruise, and by the time I realized he doesn’t have a passport, it was too late to get one before the cruise, so we just took the risk and cruised with his birth certificate.  

The check in process was very quick and easy, but the guy scanning our documents said something that was a bit strange and concerning… As part of his speech on the embarkation process, he said cabins would be available at 1:30pm.  I said that we have FTTF and have access to our cabins as soon as we board the ship, but he insisted that was not true and that I had to wait until 1:30pm to drop off my bags.  This man was specifically checking in people with priority, so everyone who he checked in that day all had immediate cabin access.  I decided not to argue with him because his opinion didn’t really matter… he was out in the cruise terminal and he wouldn’t be on the ship to stop me from going to my cabin, so I figured I’d fight that battle after we boarded the ship.

Our next stop was the x-ray machines and metal detectors for security.  They made us take out our 2 bottles of wine to shake them and look for bubbles.  We also had a 12-pack of soda in the same bag, but it was wrapped in a plastic bag in case one of the cans leaked.  Interestingly, he didn’t ask us to take out the cans or even to remove the plastic bag to see what exactly the cans were, so for all he knew, we brought on 12 cans of beer!  YMMV, but I guess they focus more on the wine bottles than the soda cans.

After security, we entered the waiting area.  There were thousands of seats, but it looked like they were all occupied.  There was a section for FTTF, but it was very crowded so we just found a spot off to the side to stand and wait.  By now, it was 11:30am and it was clear they hadn’t started boarding yet, but we assumed boarding would start soon.  So we stood, and we stood, and we stood some more. After a while, people started getting antsy about why boarding didn’t start yet. 

Finally at 11:50am, they announced that boarding would start “soon”… and then they announced a few minutes later that boarding was “delayed”. None of the staff in the terminal knew what was going on, and all of the passengers were growing grumpier by the minute.  Finally, they started boarding with the Diamonds, Suites, and Platinums at little after 12, and they called for FTTF at 12:15pm.  Whew!  We are finally going to board the ship… or not!  There were so many people packed onto the ramp that zigzags up to the ship and the line moved very slowly. 

It was clear something was wrong because this whole embarkation process was not normal, but no one knew any details. It would have been great if they filled us in!  We moved very slowly up the ramp to the top level when someone finally came over to explain what happened.  There were King Tides all along the west coast this weekend with lots of coastal flooding and massive waves. All day yesterday, my phone kept getting alerts when I used Google Maps that “coastal flooding might impact my route” but I didn’t experience any issues.  Even my parents heard about it on the nightly news in Florida, so it made national headlines.  Those waves were causing too much movement with the bridge between the ship and the terminal, so they could only allow 15 people on the bridge at one time. That’s why it was so delayed with the prior cruise getting off the ship, and that is why it was taking forever for us to get on the ship.  I understand that this was an act of nature and not something within Carnival’s control.  The issue was with the lack of information.  Knowledge is power, and if they had just made an announcement about what was happening, I think most passengers would have approached things differently.  We finally made it to the front of the line, and I took this photo of us crossing the bridge at 1:18pm, exactly 1 hour after they called FTTF to start boarding. I can only assume under normal circumstances, that would be a 10 minute process at most.

So far, FTTF had zero benefits for us since we only first stepped on the ship a few minutes before everyone had access to their cabins.  We boarded the ship on deck 4, midship, which was right next to the casino.  Since that’s where our muster station was, we decided to take care of self-mustering right then instead of trying to get back there later in the day.  It was a very quick process… they scanned our boarding passes, and then showed us how to don a life jacket. They put a wristband around Ian’s ankle for his muster station, and said if it fell off, we could get a replacement from our cabin steward.  

We went up to the cabin at 1:30pm, but our bags weren’t there yet.   There were several bags outside the doors of other cabins near us, so it was disappointing that our bags weren’t there yet.  Especially considering I handed our bags to the porter at 11am, so it was now 2 and a half hours later!  

Our sign and sail cards were in a sealed envelope outside our cabin door, so we went in to drop off our carry on bags.  The cabin was a standard balcony cabin, much like we have seen on other Carnival ships.  

The balcony had one standard upright chair and one chair with an adjustable reclining back, plus a small side table.  I appreciated that the safety railing was high enough I never worried about Ian accidentally falling over the railing. 

On the desk area, there were plenty of outlets.  There were 2 USB outlets, 2 standard US outlets, and 1 European outlet.

There was enough storage for the 3 of us, but it was a tight fit.  I imagine we will have more struggles putting all of our stuff away as Ian gets older and his clothes are bigger.  I forgot to take a photo of the empty closets before we unpacked, so this is from later in the week… don’t mind all our messy clothes!  One of the closets has 4 shelves, 3 drawers, and the safe:

There are 2 closets for hanging clothes.  One of them has a removable bar in the middle so you can have an upper and lower hanging bar, or just remove the bottom bar, lift up the shelf, and it becomes another closet with just the one upper hanging bar.  I bought this hanging shoe rack a few years ago, and it works great as extra shelves on a cruise:

I also bought an over the door hanging shoe rack to hang on the inside of the bathroom door.  This is one of my favorite things to bring on a cruise to keep all the little odds and ends organized:

There was one nightstand with a lamp on each side of the bed.  It seemed like a missed opportunity that such a new ship did not have USB ports near the bed.  If the nightstands had a lamp, they had a power source nearby, so in a world where people are never more than inches from their phones, there really should have been USB ports in the nightstand.  One great feature of these nightstands was that there was a door to access the space inside.  This was the perfect laundry basket for the week!  Jason put all his dirty laundry in his nightstand, and I shared mine with Ian.  This kept our smelly, dirty laundry out of the closet full of clean clothes, and made it very easy to pack at the end of the cruise because all of our laundry was in one spot.

Our cabin steward left us a little message on the mirror:

We were now left with a dilemma.  I had assumed we would be on the ship by noon at the latest, and we would drop our bags in the cabin, go get something to eat for lunch on Lido, do our self-muster, and be able to put Ian down for his usual 1pm nap in time.  It was now 1:35pm, so clearly all of those original plans were out the window… err, out the balcony door!  I knew it was possible to request a crib for the cabin from our steward, but he was no where to be found.  I was concerned that there would be a high demand for cribs given that this was a holiday week cruise with lots of families on board, so we also brought our Pack N Play from home just in case we couldn’t get a crib for Ian.  I gave it to the porters to check onto the ship because it was too much for us to carry with all our other carry on bags and Ian’s stroller.  Silly me, I assumed that FTTF meant our bags would be at the cabin by 1pm in time for Ian’s nap!  So with both of our options for Ian’s nap MIA, we decided to go up to Lido for lunch.  

I grabbed the copy of the Fun Times from our cabin and started to look at it as we walked to the elevators.  It said the Maitre’ D would be at the MDR from 12-2pm for questions and dining concerns.  This was ridiculous considering no one was on the ship for the first half of that time, and the vast majority of passengers wouldn’t board until after 2pm.  Jason has a few dietary concerns, so we definitely needed to speak to the Maitre’D.  Lunch would have to wait, and we made our way down to deck 3 forward to find the MDR.  There was no one else in line (likely because no one thought that this had to be their very first stop after boarding!), so I approached the desk.  Jason mentioned his dietary concerns so it could be noted in their system.  They gave him the option to pre-order his dinner each night for the following day, but he prefers to order in the moment depending on what he is in the mood for.  It’s really hard to know a day in advance if you will be very hungry for a big heavy dinner, or still be full from a late lunch and prefer a lighter option.  He opted to just order each night like everyone else, and if he had questions about what was in a dish, he could ask the head waiter.

I requested a high chair for Ian, and if possible, that we wanted a table just for the 3 of us because… toddlers.  She said we were at a table for 6, sharing with 3 strangers. I really didn’t want to do that because Ian is unpredictable and I didn’t want to be stressed about ruining someone else’s dinner every night if he was in a bad mood.  Why on earth would they think that was a good table for us?!  She said the other people were older adults, so it wasn’t even like they paired us with another young family with their own unpredictable toddler.  I asked to change tables so we could have our own space, and she said she would try and we should check in the app to see if the table number changed closer to dinner time.

With our fingers crossed, we left to get lunch on Lido.  It was hectic as it always is on embarkation day, but not nearly as bad as it could have been since so many people had yet to board, and those that were on board had access to their cabins by now so everyone was more spread out around the ship.  There was no line at all for Guy’s Burgers, so I got that, and Jason went to the Blue Iguana for tacos.  By now, it was 1:50pm and all I had eaten all day was a granola bar at 7am.  That burger has never tasted so good!!!

We sat at a table near Guy’s, with a beautiful view of the Long Beach Cruise Terminal dome and the Queen Mary docked next door.  Those white puffy clouds in the sky looked like something out of a cartoon!  They were so bright and fluffy!

We were desperate to put Ian down for a nap because he was getting cranky, so we went back to the cabin.  Unfortunately, our luggage was not there yet, and we still couldn’t find the steward to ask for a crib.  Continuing on with our embarkation day errands, we went up to Camp Ocean to get Ian registered.  On our way, we took our traditional life ring photos that we take on every cruise.  We never ended up getting one of the 3 of us, but at least we each got photos with Ian.

The only way to access Camp Ocean is on deck 11 via the mid-ship elevators.  Being newbies, we didn’t know that and used the forward elevators since that was closer to our cabin.  It took us a bit of running around the perimeter of camp to find the entrance.  We found the playground area and tried to enter that way, but an alarm went off when we opened the door.  Oops!  Eventually we found the front desk (just aft of the midship elevators), where Lin greeted us and explained the rules and procedures.  She gave us a phone to use for the whole cruise in case we needed to contact them or if they needed us or Ian was upset or anything at all.  Jason and I affectionately called this the Bat Phone, and had to keep making sure we didn’t lose it through the week.  It is quite bulky, like the size of the old Nokia phones from the early 2000’s, so of course it didn’t fit in my little wristlet that I usually carry around the ship.  Lin said we would be charged $150 if we lost it, so it was precious cargo! 

After Ian was registered and given his name tag, we went inside the play area to show Ian all the toys and make sure he felt comfortable there.  He has been going to daycare full time for 2 years, so he is very used to us leaving him to play with his friends, and he knows that “Mommies always come back” and we aren’t abandoning him.  Since this was an unfamiliar place with new teachers and new kids to play with, we wanted him to know it was safe and to see us playing there with him, since after this afternoon, we wouldn’t be allowed back there with him.

The camp is one large open space with different sections for each age group.  The spaces for the older kids had lots of TVs and video games and places to watch movies.

The space for the penguins was much more simple.  It was just a large open space, with a few books and toys on a low shelf that the kids could reach, and some other toys towards the back in big bins.

Lin showed us the bathroom for the kids and suggested that maybe Ian would be potty trained by the end of the week.  We just laughed.  Like I said, Ian has been in daycare for 2 years.  He is used to being around other kids his age, and his classmates right now are nearly all potty trained (Ian’s birthday is close to the cut off, so half of the kids in his class are nearly a year older as they missed the cut off for the 3 year olds room).  Now that we are home from the cruise, we will probably start training him soon, but we purposely didn’t start before the cruise so we wouldn’t have to deal with accidents while traveling.  Lin must be used to having kids in the camp who are still home with their parents and haven’t been exposed to watching other kids use the bathroom, so the peer pressure motivates them.  Not Ian, that’s for sure!  

Ian really liked Lin and gave her a big hug when it was time to go.  Camp was only open after 10pm tonight for Night Owls, so we told Ian we would bring him back to play tomorrow.

We went back down to the cabin, only to see our luggage STILL wasn’t there.  It was now 2:30pm and I was getting nervous.  Did they forget to put the bags on the ship??  Someone walked by pushing a dolly full of luggage so I asked if he knew when ours would come, but he didn’t.  I did notice that none of the bags on his dolly had priority or FTTF marked on their luggage tags, so again I questioned why I bothered paying for FTTF since it clearly didn’t give us any priority at all.  I still didn’t see our steward in the hall, so I called him with the “steward” button on the phone to request a crib for Ian. He answered right away, and said it was no problem and he would bring the crib now.  While we waited, I took out the door decorations which were packed in my carry on bag and decorated our cabin door.  I have never bothered to do this before, but I wanted Ian to recognize our door in the long hallway of identical doors.  I bought a bunch of New Year’s Eve themed decorations and glued tiny magnets to the back so it would stick to the door.  I also made a few custom decorations on my Cricut.  I was actually quite impressed with the number of people who decorated their cabin doors, and with the elaborate and creative things people did!  This was definitely more than I have seen on any of my prior cruises, maybe because it was a holiday cruise?

Our steward’s name was Nino, and he brought the crib around 3pm so Ian finally got to nap. He fell right asleep, poor boy was so tired!  Jason also took a nap, and I sat out on the balcony with a view of the gangway bridge. I could see there were still tons of people boarding.  There were way more than 15 people on the bridge at once so I guess the waves calmed down with low tide?  It looked like the last people boarded around 4pm.

The boys woke up a little after 4pm, and Ian was hungry so we went to the buffet in search of food. It was sooooo crowded!  I assume a lot of these people only just got on the ship and were famished because they hadn’t eaten lunch yet.  I got a slice of funfetti cheesecake which was just ok, not great.

The lines were way too long everywhere except the general dinner food line so Jason got some pepper steak and sweet potatoes. We didn’t know if Ian would eat it but he did!  I was so proud of Ian all week for trying new foods!

As we were finishing eating, we felt the ship vibrating and realized we started to sail away.  I ran outside to see a beautiful sunset and views of Long Beach in the distance.  The timestamps on these photos are at 4:40pm, so despite all the craziness with the tides and slowing down the embarkation process, we still managed to sail away on time.

We considered going to the sail away party by the Lido Pool but decided against it because the music was very loud and it was too chaotic for Ian.  I put my phone into airplane mode and logged into the Carnival Hub app for the first time.  I went to check if they changed our dinner table, and I noticed dinner was at 5:30pm, not 6pm.  When we booked the cruise, the options were 6pm, 8:15pm, and ATD.  When we did online check in 2 weeks ago, it was the same.  We originally had ATD because early dining wasn’t available when I booked the cruise over the summer, but I noticed 6pm fixed dining opened up a few days after check in started so maybe people made changes?  I grabbed it right away!  So when did they change it to 5:30pm?! And why didn’t they tell anyone?!  I was so confused.  I actually ran down to the MDR to check, and there was a sign outside saying they were closed (not surprisingly) and it listed the dining times as ‘early’ at 5:30pm and ‘late’ at 7:45pm.  So weird, but good thing I saw it now!

Side note: I just unpacked our Sign and Sail cards to put them in the little box where I keep the cards from all of our cruises.  I just noticed that it actually says our dining time on the card in teeny tiny letters.  I went 8 days on the ship and never once noticed that it was printed on our cards, so maybe it’s on me that I didn’t know dinner was at 5:30pm.  I never looked that closely at our cards, especially since we were all different colors (I was gold, Jason was red, and Ian was blue) so I didn’t even need to read our names on the cards to tell them apart.  It also never occurred to me that I needed to check the cards to know our dining time.  I signed up for 6pm dining and just assumed that is what we had.

I went back to the cabin to change for dinner and our luggage still wasn’t there so we went down to the guest services desk.  The line wrapped across the entire lobby, but then I remembered we have access to the dedicated priority line from FTTF.  There were only like 10 people in that line.  We got in line and waited for a bit, but it looked like there was only one staff member helping people from the priority line.  It was getting close to our new 5:30pm dinner time so I left Jason and Ian in line and ran back to the cabin one last time to get Ian’s diaper bag and our bags were finally there!  Over 6 hours after we gave it to the porter!  Is that seriously what they consider express luggage service?!  By the time I could have gone down to deck 3, grabbed the boys from the guest services line, gotten back to the cabin, gotten myself and Ian changed (sorry Jason, you need to get yourself changed!), then gotten back down to deck 3 to the MDR, we would have been very late for dinner, so we just stayed in our daytime clothes for the evening.  This is the first time I have ever had to do that.

We had 10 minutes to kill before they opened the doors to the MDR, so we found a couch in the lobby to sit and watch the patterns on the funnel.  I loved this feature of the atrium and looked forward to seeing what new designs and themes it had each time we passed through.

At 5:30pm, the doors opened for dinner, and tons of people walked in, so I guess they got the memo about the earlier dinner time.  We still had the shared table assigned in the Hub app, so one of the waiters greeting us as we entered the lobby escorted us to the table and we met our assigned table mates.  It was an older couple and their middle-aged daughter, and they said they thought they were sitting with the rest of their family.  I’m guessing they didn’t know to link their dinner reservations because obviously they were assigned to different tables.  I went back to the Maitre’D, and this time there was a different man there.  I explained our situation and he looked at his screen for a minute and found us a new table.  I’m not sure why no one did that for us earlier in the afternoon to avoid the awkwardness of going to our original table, but oh well.  One of the waiters escorted us to our new table, all the way at the back of the dining room, right near the doors to the midship elevators.  It was one of the dreaded long banquettes where the tables are all inches apart from each other, and they pushed all the tables closer together to squeeze Ian’s high chair to the side of our tiny table for 2.  The table next to us was 2 tables for 2 pushed together, which would be enough space for 4 people, but they had 3 chairs along the outside of the table, making it a table for 5 people.  The waiter looked at it and said no, that is the wrong way to set their table, and he pulled one of the 3 chairs to the far side of the table, thus needing to push the other tables down on that side of the banquette even closer together because now both Ian and one of the people from their table had to fit in the space normally used for walking between the tables to sit on the banquette.  Honestly, this was ridiculous and there really wasn’t space to do this, but at least it meant we sort of had our own table.  I just realized I never got a photo of our set up, so hopefully my description gives you a good enough idea.

Once we were seated, we requested a kid’s dinner menu.  I did think it was weird that they didn’t bring it automatically when they brought over the high chair (In fact, we had to ask for it every night as they never automatically gave it to us.  By night 3, we realized the kids menu never changes, so we just referred to my photo of it.  Ian is still too young to care about coloring or the activities in the menu, but if he enjoyed it, we would have had to ask every single night for him to have a paper copy of the menu.)

Our head waiter, Raf, took Ian’s dinner order and asked his assistant, Eva, to run down to the galley right away and grab Ian’s food.  This was the single best act of service that we received for the entire cruise.  Every single night, Raf prioritized Ian getting his food ASAP and made sure Ian was happy and well fed.  We really appreciated this, because when he gets hungry, he gets HANGRY and everyone else in the MDR would know it!  It also meant we could feed him and get him settled before our food came out, so when we did get our food, we could eat it while it was still hot.  Unsure of the portion sizes and if Ian would like the food, we ordered Ian both the cheese pizza and the chicken nuggets with fries.  It came out on two plates (obviously), so we combined them to save space on our tiny table for 2.

Ian loved both entrees, and he couldn’t decide what to eat first!  

Parenting disclaimer: We designated one of Jason’s old android phones to be Ian’s phone.  It doesn’t have cell service anymore, but we load videos on the microSD card and only take it out in restaurants to keep Ian calm.  We understand that we have certain things we like to do, but those things aren’t always the most exciting for toddlers.  Ian has joined us at restaurants since he was 2 months old, and he is usually well-behaved, but after a while, he gets bored of watching all the people nearby, being contained in a high chair, and playing with whatever toys I packed in his diaper bag, and he needs some extra stimulation.  That’s when we take out the phone.  We allowed Ian to watch movies during dinner every night of the cruise because we know MDR dinners are long, and we didn’t want to be forced to eat in the buffet every night of the cruise when we usually enjoy the MDR experience.  Ian does not have nearly this much screen time at home, but it’s his vacation too and we wanted him to be happy.  I know screen time can be a controversial parenting topic, but this is how we chose to handle the situation.  **end disclaimer**

Each day, the MDR menus are posted in the Hub app.  Actually, you can scroll through and see the menus for the entire cruise starting on day 1, but for simplicity, I will just post them day by day.  They do have a limited number of paper menus, which is especially helpful for people who cannot read the small print on a phone, but you need to ask the waiter to get it for you.  It is not given out automatically like it used to be.  These menus are fairly new for Carnival.  They just rolled them out last year, and while they added a bunch of new options, they also kept some of the original options from our prior cruises.  I felt this was a good balance of the old and the new, and I was able to find something to order every night. I will admit there were multiple times that I only liked the sound of one appetizer or one entree, whereas I am used to having trouble narrowing down my choices because so many things looked good to me.  The new menu has many more spicy dishes, and I have zero tolerance for spicy food so that eliminated a lot of options for me.

For my appetizer, I ordered the roasted duck rolls.  These were one of the new options and I really liked them.  It caught me off guard that they were served cold, but I enjoyed it.  

Meanwhile, the people at the table for 5 sitting next to us (inches away) were having some crazy family drama.  Grandma stormed off after eating her appetizer, and the teenaged daughter was literally sobbing and crying for half the meal.  It felt like a crazy reality show or something, and while it was definitely entertaining, it was so awkward for us!  At least Ian was a champ, and for once, he wasn’t drawing all the attention.

For my entree, I ordered the pappardelle with braised lamb.  It was very tasty and served as hot as it should be, but it was comical that there were literally only 3 small shreds of lamb in the entire dish.  I was glad the duck appetizer was filled with protein because this entree was definitely not!

I ordered the cheesecake with strawberry sauce for dessert.  It was good, and much better than the funfetti cheesecake I had for a snack earlier in the day.

We finished dinner at 7pm and I went back to unpack in the cabin.  It was so annoying to first be starting that process so late in the day, but it is what it is.  I told Jason to take Ian for a walk around the ship so I could have the space to open up the big suitcases and get everything stashed away without Ian being under foot.  I also wanted to set up the space for Ian to sleep.  I bought some small magnetic hooks and 4 panels of 8 foot long black out curtains.  Each night and for afternoon naps, we hung up the curtains from the ceiling using the magnetic hooks to create a separate room for Ian.  We made sure to keep the curtains away from the air vent and the sprinkler on the ceiling.  The curtains were a little too long, so if I were to do it again, I would get 7 foot curtains instead.  We made it work though, and it did work very well.  It was very dark inside “Ian’s room” (as he called it), and we could turn on the lamps on our bedside table, or the bathroom light, and Ian wasn’t disturbed.  We just had to remember not to turn on the overhead lights because one of the lights was inside Ian’s room.  

It’s not the best photo because it was too dark, but this will give you an idea of our set up:

We skipped all of the evening activities on the ship that night, and just got ready for bed, put Ian to bed, and then we went to bed early after a long day.

Up next: Sea Day #1

Let’s get this vacation started!  Driving to the cruise port was definitely a new experience for us.  While it was nice knowing we weren’t confined to the 50-pounds-in-one-suitcase maximum restriction from the airlines, meaning we could have more variety in the size and quantity of our bags, we were confined to the cargo capacity of our Prius.  Getting everything to fit in the car was quite a challenge, especially with all of Ian’s stuff, but we did most of the jigsaw puzzle last night so we could quickly put in the last minute items this morning and hit the road ASAP.

Jason and I woke up around 6:30am, had breakfast, got ready, and finished packing up the car.  Just as we finished, Ian woke up around 7:15am, so that was perfect timing to focus on getting him ready to go and secured in his car seat.  Our goal was to leave by 8am, but we were ready to go at 7:45am, so we hit the road a few minutes early.  I sat in the back seat to help Ian reach his snacks and toys and whatnot.  He does fine back there on his own for short trips around town, but prior road trips have taught me that everyone’s life is better if I just sit back there with him for longer rides.

We needed to get gas, but decided to wait until we got out to Buckeye to fill up.  Arizona friends: there is a new Costco right off the highway at Verrado Way, and they have more gas pumps than I have ever seen at a Costco.  Plus, their gas was 20 cents per gallon cheaper than the one near our house, so we drove the 40 minutes out to Buckeye to fill up the tank.  It is always a super quick in and out, and we have never had any wait or line at the pumps.  Definitely keep it in mind for your future travels through the West Valley and beyond!

Five minutes later, we got back on I-10 and drove west to Quartzite for our next stop.  We always stop at the same gas station to top off the gas tank before entering California where gas costs a dollar more per gallon.  It is a little over 2 hours from our house, so it makes a good place to stretch our legs, let Ian run around for a few minutes to burn some energy, use the bathroom, and pick up Subway sandwiches to eat in the car for when we get hungry for lunch.  Sometimes we also make a stop in Palm Springs, 2 hours west of Quartzite, but we were making great time and there hadn’t been any traffic thus far, so we decided to drive straight through all the way to LA.  

Jason’s brother lives in LA and was nice enough to let us stay at their house on the night before the cruise, even though they were out of town that weekend.  We originally planned to stay in a hotel, but luckily the hotel I booked had a flexible cancellation policy, so we jumped at the chance to sleep at their house where Ian could sleep in a separate room, and we would have a bit more space to relax before the cruise.  We arrived by 1:30pm, which was the fastest we have ever done the drive, even when accounting for the 1 hour time zone change.  Of course, Ian fought his nap the whole drive (despite yawning and rubbing his eyes for the last 2.5 hours in the car!), so we put him down for a nap as soon as we got into the house.

That evening, we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant called Spumoni in Hermosa Beach.  We have eaten there on prior visits to Jason’s brother, and their whole menu is half price from 5-6pm, so we knew we wanted to eat there again tonight.  We ordered a glass of the house pinot grigio for me, the house cabernet for Jason, and we shared the linguini bolognese and farfalle with salmon and vodka sauce.  Everything was fantastic!  Even Ian loved it!

Bellies full and bodies exhausted, we went back to the house after dinner to put Ian to bed.  It had been a long day, plus it felt like it was an hour later from waking up on Arizona time.  The excitement of boarding the ship tomorrow didn’t stop us from crashing, and we were both asleep by 8:30pm.

Up next: Embarkation Day

Background Info:

Since you last heard from me, I’ve had a few changes in my life.  Around 2 years ago, my husband Jason and I moved from San Jose, CA to Phoenix, AZ.  Jason’s parents have lived here for 20 years and we wanted to move closer to them, partly because of the other major change.  I would like to formally introduce to you the newest member of our family, our 2 and a half year old son, Ian.

Needless to say, we have had our hands full for the last couple of years!  Another reason I have stayed away from cruising was that I didn’t think it would be much fun to take a baby on a cruise.  When Ian turned 2 this summer, I started to get the urge to consider a cruise again.  His daycare schedule came out for the next school year and they would be closed for 2 full weeks at the end of the year.  It’s been getting pretty hard to keep him entertained during the weeks of school vacation, so going on a cruise with endless options of fun things to keep him happy and entertained sounded very tempting.  

To cruise, or not to cruise…:

I was daunted at the idea of flying to a cruise port with all of Ian’s “stuff”… his car seat, stroller, pack n play, 3 different kinds of diapers (for daytime, nighttime, and swimming!), all of his favorite snacks (because of course, a cruise ship full of wonderful food options isn’t good enough for my toddler… he prefers to live on a diet of Goldfish and pretzels *eyeroll*), a puddle jumper, the list goes on and on.  If flying to a cruise port were our only option, we would need to wait a few more years before I’d even consider cruising.  Luckily, there are several cruise ports about a 6-hour drive from Phoenix, plus a little more time to make a few stops along the way for gas and food and whatnot.  This seemed a lot more doable with a toddler, so I started researching our options.

There are a handful of cruise lines that sail from Los Angeles, Long Beach, and San Diego.  Our options were severely limited when I learned that nearly every cruise line requires children to be at least 3 years old AND potty trained to use their camp programs.  Luckily, Carnival allows 2 year olds in diapers to participate in the camp program (and thankfully they are willing to change diapers as needed!).  The only glitch was that since he still uses swim diapers, he is not allowed to use the pool, splash pad, or any of the public water features on the ship.  That wasn’t a deal-breaker for me… we would be cruising in the winter on a route that tends to be cold for the sea days, so I doubted any of us would want to use the pools those days.  Plus, we live in Phoenix and have year-round access to a splash pad and heated resort-style pool at our community center.  If Ian wanted to go swimming, he could do it while we were off the ship in port, or he could wait until we got home.

Picking the perfect itinerary:

So now that I knew we were cruising with Carnival, it was time to pick a ship and itinerary.  There aren’t many options from Southern California, so it was a pretty easy decision.  The Radiance and the Miracle have some 3 and 4 day itineraries to Ensenada and Catalina Island, but there was no way I was going to pack up all the stuff entailed with traveling with a toddler, and drive 6+ hours each way, to take a cruise that short.  The Miracle also has a few 5 and 6 day itineraries to Cabo, but that was also too short for my liking.  That left the Panorama.  I loved the idea of sailing on a newer ship, although I was a little nervous about sailing on such a big ship.  Panorama’s capacity is just over 4000 passengers with 2 people per cabin, and I would be cruising during school vacation when many cabins would have 3 or 4 passengers.  I am more used to having around 3000 passengers on the ship, so I kept my fingers crossed that it wasn’t too crowded to enjoy the ship, and I just hoped the benefits of a new ship with lots of amenities would outweigh the possible negatives of a big ship.

Most of the time, Panorama sails 7-day itineraries, leaving Long Beach every Saturday, and visiting Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo.  I considered the cruise leaving December 23, but then I noticed the following week would be an 8-day cruise, including New Year’s Eve, with an extra port stop in La Paz.  Once I found this itinerary, there was no turning back!  I’ve always wanted to cruise over New Years, and I liked the idea of having 4 port days at places I’ve never been (aside from Puerto Vallarta… we spent a week there in December 2018).  

Now, it was time to pick our cabin.  In the past, we have cruised in inside, oceanview, and balcony cabins, and there was usually a specific reason I chose that cabin for that cruise (inside cabin on a port-heavy cruise, a great promo where the balcony was the same price as the oceanview, etc.).  Now that we are cruising with a child, I wanted a balcony so Jason and I would have somewhere to hang out while Ian was sleeping.  There were still plenty of cabins available, so I opted for a balcony just aft of the forward elevators on deck 9.  Checking the deck plans, it lined up to be under one of the cabins on deck 10 (I definitely did not want to be further aft where the lido pool would be above us and we would hear lounge chairs scraping on the ceiling, and noise from the DJ by the pool while Ian was trying to sleep!), and this would put us just 2 decks below Camp Ocean, and one deck below the Lido buffet.  I also liked that deck 9 had passenger cabins for the whole length of the ship so we could easily access any of the 3 sets of elevators (forward, mid-ship, or aft), and we could leave our cabin and go across on deck 9 to the elevator nearest our destination, then go up or down.  

With the perfect cabin selected, I officially booked the cruise on Carnival’s website.  We were officially going on a cruise as a family of 3!!  I booked with a rate that included price protection, so of course that meant I spent nearly every day until the cruise checking the prices of our cabin to see if I could get some money back.  As it turned out, the price remained surprisingly consistent, going up or down by only a few dollars here and there, but there was never a drop big enough to be worth submitting the price drop form.

I debated whether or not I should purchase Faster to the Fun.  We had it on our 2019 cruise and it definitely had its benefits, but they have since raised the price drastically and I wasn’t sure it was worth it.  Then I started thinking… We would be traveling with our toddler for the first time, and that comes with its own set of challenges.  Wouldn’t it be nice to go straight to the cabin upon boarding and drop off all our carry-on bags?  I don’t know how we would manage chasing after a toddler who wants to explore every square foot of this huge cruise ship, while also schlepping our carry-on bags, backpacks, bottles of wine, and cases of soda for the cabin.  It would also be nice to have early access to the cabin and have our checked bags arrive early so we could quietly unpack while Ian took his afternoon nap.  Another benefit would be that we would have priority tendering in Cabo.  We don’t arrive until 10am that day, so it was already going to be a late start and it would be nice not to stress about what time we’d actually make it off the ship in a non-priority tender.  That seemed like enough good reasons to me, so I went ahead and purchased FTTF for $130 for the cabin.

So many ports, so many options of things to do!:

So now that we know our ship and our cabin, it’s time to figure out what to do in each port.  Pre-child, I prioritized itinerary over ship amenities when choosing a cruise.  I loved waking up in a new port every day and having something different and exciting to experience.  I really hoped that I could continue that same philosophy when cruising with a toddler, but I knew I’d have to adjust my expectations on what exactly we could do each day.  Jason and I used to love going on full day excursions in a small boat to go snorkeling, and we even went scuba diving for the first time on our last cruise in 2019!  Unfortunately, that just doesn’t work when cruising with a toddler.  

Also, my philosophy has always been to avoid booking excursions through the cruise ship.  In my experience and based on the comments of other cruisers, they tend to cost more money to see fewer attractions with more people on the tour, and in a shorter time frame than private excursions. With one exception (see the Panama section of my Celebrity Equinox review!), I have had nothing but wonderful experiences working with private tour companies and/or planning a DIY excursion on all of my cruises.  Would that still be possible when cruising with a toddler?  Toddlers are unpredictable by nature, so I needed to take that into account when planning what we would do each day.  At home, Ian is a trooper when we take him along for whatever we have planned on the weekends, so I kept my fingers crossed that he would be so excited in interesting and unfamiliar settings that he would be happy and entertained through whatever we were doing.

Here is Ian having a wonderful time at his first professional sporting event, a Phoenix Mercury WNBA game last summer…

And here is Ian LOVING a rugged Pink Jeep Tour in Sedona, Arizona:

Expectations adjusted, I started looking into our options.  I will go into more details on what we did each day as I get to that day of the cruise, but here is a summary of our plans:

Cabo: Aquabulle Underwater View Boat to the Arch

La Paz: Explore downtown DIY

Mazatlan: All-Inclusive Day Pass at Playa Mazatlan Hotel

Puerto Vallarta: Vallarta Zoo, then walk along the Malecon

Seeing as how I am an obsessive planner, I created a calendar listing our activity for each day of the cruise. We hung this in our cruise cabin, which made it easier to remember what was on the agenda each day.

I have made countdown candy jars for all of our previous cruises.  The idea is that we eat one piece of candy each night and gradually watch the jar become empty as we get closer to the start of the cruise.  Ian is still a little young for this tradition, so I only made it for Jason and myself.  It’s fun to have a daily reminder of such an exciting vacation coming up!

Eight weeks before our cruise, the Carnival Panorama struggled with engine problems which required the ship be taken out of service and sent to dry dock for immediate repairs.  The cruise scheduled that week had a drastically modified itinerary (the ship was moving so slowly that they only had 1 port day in Cabo and the rest of the week was sea days!), and they canceled the next 4 weeks of cruises.  The plan was for the ship to go to Oregon for an emergency dry dock, and regular cruises would resume the week of December 9.  I felt so horribly for the people booked on those 4 weeks of cruises as they must have been so upset to have their cruises canceled at the last minute (especially those who planned to spend their Thanksgiving holiday on board!), but I was very thankful that our New Year’s Eve cruise would not be affected and we could still enjoy our vacation as planned… or would it??

A week later, John Heald announced that they needed to remove the whale tail from the ship in order to pass under several fixed bridges to reach the dry dock location in Portland, Oregon.  This meant they had to cancel 2 more weeks of cruises, and the first cruise back would be the week of December 23, one week before our cruise.  It actually turned out that the ship had to travel up to Victoria, Canada to have the whale tail removed, then back down to Oregon for the engine repairs, then return to Canada to have the whale tail re-installed, before coming back down the west coast to Long Beach to resume its normal cruise schedule.  This was pushing it too close for comfort, but there was really nothing we could do but keep our fingers crossed and wait it out to see what happened.  It was such a stressful few weeks with very limited information available about if the repairs were on schedule.  Luckily, we had a very active group on a certain web page (I don’t think I’m allowed to type the actual name here, so you’ll have to fill in the blanks), and people who lived in the Pacific Northwest posted a few photos of the progress visible from the outside.  I did not take these photos, and I honestly don’t even know who did take them so I am technically posting them here without permission, but hopefully they don’t mind since they took the photos as a source of information…

After the whale tail was removed:

When the ship made it safely to the dry dock in Portland, Oregon:

A view of the azipods being repaired while the ship was in dry dock:

Our best source was information came from one of the people on our cruise page who had a connection to a crew member who was on the ship.  He kept her identity private until the very end (after the repairs were finished), but she gave us frequent updates based on whatever information she could find out.  Interestingly, Carnival didn’t really update the crew with much information either, so we were all thankful for whatever she could find out for us.

The planner in me was going crazy since I did not want to start packing until I knew for sure that the cruise was happening.  I didn’t want to jinx anything by packing too soon, so I refused to pull out anything from my closets until the week before we were leaving.  Once the ship was sailing south down the west coast with her whale tail reattached, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and finally felt confident that we would be spending New Year’s week aboard the Carnival Panorama!

On the Wednesday before the cruise, I got a phone call from the 305 area code.  I usually ignore spam calls, but something told me I should answer that call.  It was Carnival!  They were calling to offer me an “upgrade” from our regular balcony cabin on deck 9 to an Ocean Suite on deck 7 for a $600 upgrade fee.  As he was rambling off all the benefits of a suite, I was quickly searching on the Carnival website for more information.  The suite was much further aft than our current cabin, almost at the aft elevators, so that wasn’t ideal.  I was really hoping this type of suite had a floor plan which would give Ian a separate space to sleep in, or even a walk-in closet or some place big enough to put his crib so he wouldn’t wake us up every night.  I wasn’t thrilled about the $600 fee, but if it meant Ian had his own “room” to sleep in, I might have gone for it.  Sadly, that is not how the Ocean Suite is layed out, so I couldn’t justify the extra $600 cost and I declined his offer.  That was the first time the upgrade fairy ever called me, so it was nice to know I had the possibility of a good deal.  Other people from the web page group got much better deals, like $300 to go from a regular interior to a Havana balcony!  Now THAT was a good upgrade deal!  

The rest of that week was a blur, filled with last minute errands and all the packing that I usually do over the course of several weeks.  I took Ian for a haircut, and I did my nails for the cruise.  Recently, I have been playing around with the nail polish stickers with fun patterns that I could never create for myself, so I thought these were a fun design for New Year’s and the week of the cruise:

Before we knew it, our countdown candy jars were empty and it was time to leave for the cruise!

Up next: California bound!

Hi everyone! I just returned from an 8-night cruise on the Carnival Panorama (December 30, 2023 – January 7, 2024 sailing). As you can see from my cruise history listed below in my signature, I used to take one cruise every year for a decade, but then, you know, the world shut down.  With all the uncertainty and variability in cruising for the last few years, I wasn’t really tempted to book another cruise and stress about cancellations, testing, and getting sick.  I always knew I’d eventually return to cruising, but I preferred to wait it out until things settled down a bit and life was somewhat back to “normal.”  

I always used to write a detailed photo review when I returned home from my cruises, with a journal-style day-by-day format. This cruise will be no different! If you are looking for a short and sweet review, you might want to look elsewhere… I tend to write like I talk, so my reviews are very long and take a few weeks to complete. On the other hand, if you like reading about lots of details, and if you want to see TONS of photos (including all of the daily schedules and menus), this is the review for you!  I do this as much to help others plan their vacations as to give myself a travel log to look back on and remember my wonderful cruise. Please feel free to ask questions and post comments along the way… I welcome your feedback!  All of the posts for the review will be in this larger purple font so it stands out if you just want to read the review and skip the comments and other posts. 

It may take me a little while to get all of my photos sorted and loaded onto my computer, so please be patient with me. Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip as a little something to hold you over until it’s time to post the rest!