I’m bummed about the button not being in the Havana area. I am sailing on the Panorama in October and staying in the Havana area and your first video is what encouraged me to do it
We also prefer receiving a paper copy of the next day’s activities. Always travel with a highlighter and use it to indicate those activities we are interested in!
Excellent information in this video. We are Princess cruisers in our mid 60's and have decided to "taste test" several different lines for comparison. Carnival is first in line. When you said they switched from Coke to Pepsi I was delighted. My husband leaves it up to me to study each cruise line (and then he proceeds to ask me tons of questions) and its very helpful to get this information from a vlogger such as yourself. Thank you for sharing :)
Thanks for your excellent content, as always! We did our first post-covid cruise on Carnival Magic in June. We were extremely disappointed and experienced even more cutbacks than what you shared in this video. Guy’s hand cut fries had been replaced with unseasoned frozen french fries as just one example. We had an aft-wrap vista balcony which was unusable due to soot. Cabin steward refused to clean it and said it was not on the schedule that week for power washing. Guest services was indifferent and said they can’t control the way the wind blows. When you pay for a “premium” balcony and they refuse to at least wipe it down or spray some water out there, it was highly disappointing. Like you, we also experienced extremely slow internet speeds and heard complaints from other passengers as well. We both agreed that would probably be our last cruise on Carnival. Just don’t like the way they have trended in recent years and unfortunately this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Btw for those of you who hate having to use the app for the schedule, the printed schedules are available at the Java blue café along with the daily crossword puzzle etc
We were on the panorama in February as well but I suspect one or two cruises later since we were sailing at full capacity (minus the cabins held for Covid isolation) Internet was definitely poor. I could understand if we were moving but it was almost impossible to connect while in ports with the ship docked. The coke to Pepsi switch started before the pandemic as well but maybe in 2020 they hadn’t used up the stock of coke. I don’t remember the last time I saw a stocked minibar on a carnival ship either. For those asking about sailing full it actually wasn’t bad. I had booked that cruise thinking it would be empty but apparently that week is when west coast schools have a break. Even with a full ship lines and waits were short. We did anyone dining and if you followed the design there was no waiting at the dining room (sign in on app and request table, they tell you when it was ready and you head down) People that didn’t do that had long waits. The only other place we had issues was leaving the ship at mazaltan. You have to take a tram to leave the ship and can’t walk through the port. There was no lines and no queues so people were standing all over and mixed in with carnival excursions. Almost caused a few fights when people thought others were line jumping. A simple set of ropes and cones or signs could have solved that problem but overall for a full ship I never felt crowded. Still not as nice as sailing into the Msc Mergavalis on October when we had less than 900 on a ship that held 4500 but it a good cruise
Great Video! Just subscribed. Was curious about getting to the ship from the airport. We are going in late October, and flying into Long Beach the day before to avoid any hiccups. Any suggestions on a hotel, and transportation? Thanks again for all the great info!!! Can't wait to start cruising again!!!!
I suggest you just use Lyft or Uber for getting back and forth between the airport, the hotel, and the ship. In the Los Angeles area, you never have any trouble get a Lyft or Uber and the price is far better than any of the other options.
It was exceptionally good... even the beginning and end of the cruise in California. The cruise was in February. Normally, at that time of the year, the weather in Mexico is excellent but the weather in Southern California can be a little chilly. But we got lucky and they were having an unusual February heat wave in Southern California. So, every day of our cruise, the weather was excellent. I always like to do the Mexican Riviera cruises in January or February for several reasons: The weather in the Mexican Riviera is usually excellent. It is not the time of the year when temperatures are TOO hot, nor is it their rainy season. The whale watching in Cabo San Lucas is excellent at that time of the year. Cruise prices are about as low as they get at this time of year. The weather back at home, where I live, is about as bad as it gets at this time of the year. The ships are less crowded than at many other times of year. See another one of my videos about this cruise at ruclips.net/video/-286mt-xgYk/видео.html
You mentioned that you could no longer view forward from deck 5. Why didn’t you mention that there are 3 decks above that have access to forward viewing ?
I was on the Horizon in February. Internet was comparable to what I have at home, although it did drop out completely for a while. I suspect Panorama would be on a different satellite than those of us "back east".
Only 15 times. :-) If you go to jimzim.net/CruiseHistory.html and then do ctrl+F to open the search feature of your browser, type Cozumel in the search bar and you'll see links to 15 different cruise reviews from my cruises involving a visit to Cozumel.
Perhaps someday, but I don't currently have any future cruises booked with any cruise line. That doesn't mean we won't ever cruise again! We just don't have anything booked right now. If we were going to cruise with Norwegian again, it would have to be in The Haven. That's the only thing I can think of that would lure me away from a stay in the Havana area on Carnival. I'm really happy on a Carnival cruise in the Havana area, and I'd be happy to do that same cruise over... once a month for the next year! The only thing I can think of that would be a cruise in The Haven on NCL. But for the price of one of those, you can do two cruises in the Havana area on Carnival. So, I'm probably more likely to do two future cruises in the Havana area on Carnival ships than one cruise in The Haven on Norwegian.
Yes, spa treatments cost extra no matter what kind of cabin you book on a Carnival ship. Even if you book a spa cabin, any spa treatments like massages and facials are going to cost you extra. So, booking a Havana cabin doesn't get you any benefit as far as the spa is concerned. But of course, a Havana cabin comes with a lot of OTHER benefits.
Coke vs Pepsi...I like Pepsi better too. You said Havana cabin this time, instead of Cabana Suite. Can I assume you did a standard balcony? If so, how was it? I have to say that getting rid of the magic buttons would have been upsetting to me. The magic buttons make you feel like you're sailing in a high dollar suite in a suite only section. I wonder if they thought it was too much work on the staff? I like the fridge empty too. That way I have a place for leftovers, the chocolate strawberries Caitlin gets us (Thank You Caitlin!!!!) or bottles of water. When you spoke about the kids' temptations fridge issue, I couldn't help but think that at some point in the past there were probably parents that came back to liquored up kids in their room. LOL. As for muster...Royal Caribbean, on our recent Navigator cruise, only had us watch a video on our phone and check in at our muster station. That was it...Done. As for the app over printed material. I actually grew to love the app over the printed version on Royal. First...I got to see all the activities on every day of my cruise, not just the next day. I also got full menus in the MDR ahead of time right at my fingertips. Say goodbye to yellow highlighters. Royal's schedule is one tab away from your own schedule in the app and each time you click on an activity you want to do, it magically gets added to your personal schedule, and, if you choose, a reminder notification dings you 30 minutes before it starts. I didn't even have to purchase the internet for that. So long to worrying about catching up with fellow cruisers or needing a walkie-talkie...I purchased the texting part of the app that, for a small fee, I want to say like...$1.99 per day, it allows you to text anyone that wants to join in on your text circle. We sailed with another couple and that was very valuable. As to the straws. I have a really funny story to share with you, perhaps later. As for the background music...I notice it too and nothing offended my ears too much on Navigator. Does Carnival have a roving piano player? It's a really neat feature I've seen a lot more on Royal. I've even seen the pianist in an elevator. They play a small spinet and the one on Navigator was dressed up like a steampunk piano. The guy was incredible and had an equal, if not better repertoire than the Schooner Bar pianist. I hope they get the fries back to normal before we sail on Panorama, because I'm doing my best to convince Michelle to go on it, and a lot of it is your love of the Guy Fieri restaurants. I want those fries and nachos! One more question...You guys are certainly at a high loyalty status on Carnival. How many free drinks does Carnival give when you reach a high loyalty status, and can you order the drinks at any bar and at any time? Royal's recent change from having to drink the four free drinks per day at Diamond status in the Diamond Lounge only at happy hour, to allowing Diamonds to drink them anywhere and at anytime was, in a word, awesome. Glad you had a great cruise and thanks for another informative and great video, Jim!
Regarding the cabin... you must have missed my previous video. Take a look at ruclips.net/video/gBTwzJ07RjA/видео.html Regarding free drinks for Diamond-level passengers... I wish! You get invited to a party for all the diamond-level guests and there's free drinks at the party, but that's about it. I wish Carnival had similar perks to Royal Caribbean. However, on this cruise, we bought the drink package... so, the drinks thing was really not an issue.
@@JimZim Thanks, Jim. I'll check out the video. I did miss it. BTW...I can't believe Carnival doesn't have free drink perks. The four per day we get (5 when we get to Diamond Plus) has us dropping the drink package and saving a lot of money. I recently did the math on a $68 per day package ($80.24 w/automatic 18% gratuity...Add in another 6% sales tax if you purchase the package on ship before embarkation and it's another $4.08 per day to get to $84.32 per day). But at $80.24 per day per person, a seven day cruise for us is $1,123.36, and that's about equal to another cruise in a standard balcony for one of us. Great video, again. I'll head over and watch the other one on your cabin.
I suspect that the service buttons were removed because of a lack of crew members. They’re having trouble fully staffing the ship, and now even more so as it pertains to employees from Ukraine and Russia :(
The straws in the drinks now are edible. If you don't get one with your drink you can buy one, I think it was $3.50. So yeah, bring your own straws with you.
I am shocked and surprised that you like Pepsi products better than Coca Cola products on the 2022 cruise on Carnival Panorama than on the 2020 cruise on Carnival Panorama before the global pandemic! Well Jim Zim, you still have the Coca Cola steam train manufactured by LGB that still runs on an analog control system and sometimes you run it with DCC which stands for Digital Command Control. As always, I am Thomas Comeau and I will see the replies from you, Jim Zim and I also love your collection of 25 G scale model trains!❤🇺🇸🌐🚂🚃
I'm actually just fine with them blocking off the deck 5 viewing area. You could look right on the crew lounge area. Those guys need a place to get away from us.
The mask was awesome! That’s good that they switched over to biodegradable straws nothing should be plastic at any restaurant or vacation. And they probably got rid of the buttons because they have less staff.
I’m bummed about the button not being in the Havana area. I am sailing on the Panorama in October and staying in the Havana area and your first video is what encouraged me to do it
We also prefer receiving a paper copy of the next day’s activities. Always travel with a highlighter and use it to indicate those activities we are interested in!
We're loving this new muster drill procedure. We were on the Glory in October and ours took about two minutes at the most.
Excellent information in this video. We are Princess cruisers in our mid 60's and have decided to "taste test" several different lines for comparison. Carnival is first in line. When you said they switched from Coke to Pepsi I was delighted. My husband leaves it up to me to study each cruise line (and then he proceeds to ask me tons of questions) and its very helpful to get this information from a vlogger such as yourself. Thank you for sharing :)
Thanks for your excellent content, as always!
We did our first post-covid cruise on Carnival Magic in June. We were extremely disappointed and experienced even more cutbacks than what you shared in this video. Guy’s hand cut fries had been replaced with unseasoned frozen french fries as just one example. We had an aft-wrap vista balcony which was unusable due to soot. Cabin steward refused to clean it and said it was not on the schedule that week for power washing. Guest services was indifferent and said they can’t control the way the wind blows. When you pay for a “premium” balcony and they refuse to at least wipe it down or spray some water out there, it was highly disappointing.
Like you, we also experienced extremely slow internet speeds and heard complaints from other passengers as well.
We both agreed that would probably be our last cruise on Carnival. Just don’t like the way they have trended in recent years and unfortunately this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I think the crew lounge area is a great idea. They work hard and need to relax!
Btw for those of you who hate having to use the app for the schedule, the printed schedules are available at the Java blue café along with the daily crossword puzzle etc
We were on the panorama in February as well but I suspect one or two cruises later since we were sailing at full capacity (minus the cabins held for Covid isolation) Internet was definitely poor. I could understand if we were moving but it was almost impossible to connect while in ports with the ship docked. The coke to Pepsi switch started before the pandemic as well but maybe in 2020 they hadn’t used up the stock of coke. I don’t remember the last time I saw a stocked minibar on a carnival ship either. For those asking about sailing full it actually wasn’t bad. I had booked that cruise thinking it would be empty but apparently that week is when west coast schools have a break. Even with a full ship lines and waits were short. We did anyone dining and if you followed the design there was no waiting at the dining room (sign in on app and request table, they tell you when it was ready and you head down) People that didn’t do that had long waits. The only other place we had issues was leaving the ship at mazaltan. You have to take a tram to leave the ship and can’t walk through the port. There was no lines and no queues so people were standing all over and mixed in with carnival excursions. Almost caused a few fights when people thought others were line jumping. A simple set of ropes and cones or signs could have solved that problem but overall for a full ship I never felt crowded. Still not as nice as sailing into the Msc Mergavalis on October when we had less than 900 on a ship that held 4500 but it a good cruise
Love your videos. Thanks for making them.
Thank you for your analysis 👍
Great Video! Just subscribed. Was curious about getting to the ship from the airport. We are going in late October, and flying into Long Beach the day before to avoid any hiccups. Any suggestions on a hotel, and transportation? Thanks again for all the great info!!! Can't wait to start cruising again!!!!
I suggest you just use Lyft or Uber for getting back and forth between the airport, the hotel, and the ship. In the Los Angeles area, you never have any trouble get a Lyft or Uber and the price is far better than any of the other options.
We are going as well at the end of October. We usually use uber!
Great video... What was the weather like for that cruise.
It was exceptionally good... even the beginning and end of the cruise in California. The cruise was in February. Normally, at that time of the year, the weather in Mexico is excellent but the weather in Southern California can be a little chilly. But we got lucky and they were having an unusual February heat wave in Southern California. So, every day of our cruise, the weather was excellent.
I always like to do the Mexican Riviera cruises in January or February for several reasons:
The weather in the Mexican Riviera is usually excellent. It is not the time of the year when temperatures are TOO hot, nor is it their rainy season.
The whale watching in Cabo San Lucas is excellent at that time of the year.
Cruise prices are about as low as they get at this time of year.
The weather back at home, where I live, is about as bad as it gets at this time of the year.
The ships are less crowded than at many other times of year.
See another one of my videos about this cruise at ruclips.net/video/-286mt-xgYk/видео.html
You mentioned that you could no longer view forward from deck 5. Why didn’t you mention that there are 3 decks above that have access to forward viewing ?
I was on the Horizon in February. Internet was comparable to what I have at home, although it did drop out completely for a while. I suspect Panorama would be on a different satellite than those of us "back east".
Jim, have you been to Cozumel on any of your past cruises?
Only 15 times. :-)
If you go to jimzim.net/CruiseHistory.html and then do ctrl+F to open the search feature of your browser, type Cozumel in the search bar and you'll see links to 15 different cruise reviews from my cruises involving a visit to Cozumel.
Once again a great review!
Do you all plan on going on the NCL Prima?
Perhaps someday, but I don't currently have any future cruises booked with any cruise line. That doesn't mean we won't ever cruise again! We just don't have anything booked right now.
If we were going to cruise with Norwegian again, it would have to be in The Haven. That's the only thing I can think of that would lure me away from a stay in the Havana area on Carnival. I'm really happy on a Carnival cruise in the Havana area, and I'd be happy to do that same cruise over... once a month for the next year! The only thing I can think of that would be a cruise in The Haven on NCL. But for the price of one of those, you can do two cruises in the Havana area on Carnival. So, I'm probably more likely to do two future cruises in the Havana area on Carnival ships than one cruise in The Haven on Norwegian.
@@JimZim Understand completely!
I did notice on the Prima Class the Haven has been moved to the rear. Might be nice!
Great video, I'm on the Pride now, like the Fun Times you can ASK for a physical MDR dining menu
Very good point!
My guess is there was not enough staff to service the buttons?
I love your videos and your radio voice
I think they were removed because of Staff shortages. Hopefully they will come back when they can get the staff levels back up.
Is the spa treatments extra when you’re in the Havana area?
Yes, spa treatments cost extra no matter what kind of cabin you book on a Carnival ship. Even if you book a spa cabin, any spa treatments like massages and facials are going to cost you extra. So, booking a Havana cabin doesn't get you any benefit as far as the spa is concerned. But of course, a Havana cabin comes with a lot of OTHER benefits.
Where did you get your You Tube sweater?
I found it on eBay. I suspect it was something that RUclips gave out to employees, and one of the employees didn't want it, so they sold it on eBay.
@@JimZim ok. Thanks. There are some tees on Amazon that say like, subscribe, comment.
Coke vs Pepsi...I like Pepsi better too. You said Havana cabin this time, instead of Cabana Suite. Can I assume you did a standard balcony? If so, how was it? I have to say that getting rid of the magic buttons would have been upsetting to me. The magic buttons make you feel like you're sailing in a high dollar suite in a suite only section. I wonder if they thought it was too much work on the staff? I like the fridge empty too. That way I have a place for leftovers, the chocolate strawberries Caitlin gets us (Thank You Caitlin!!!!) or bottles of water. When you spoke about the kids' temptations fridge issue, I couldn't help but think that at some point in the past there were probably parents that came back to liquored up kids in their room. LOL. As for muster...Royal Caribbean, on our recent Navigator cruise, only had us watch a video on our phone and check in at our muster station. That was it...Done. As for the app over printed material. I actually grew to love the app over the printed version on Royal. First...I got to see all the activities on every day of my cruise, not just the next day. I also got full menus in the MDR ahead of time right at my fingertips. Say goodbye to yellow highlighters. Royal's schedule is one tab away from your own schedule in the app and each time you click on an activity you want to do, it magically gets added to your personal schedule, and, if you choose, a reminder notification dings you 30 minutes before it starts. I didn't even have to purchase the internet for that. So long to worrying about catching up with fellow cruisers or needing a walkie-talkie...I purchased the texting part of the app that, for a small fee, I want to say like...$1.99 per day, it allows you to text anyone that wants to join in on your text circle. We sailed with another couple and that was very valuable. As to the straws. I have a really funny story to share with you, perhaps later. As for the background music...I notice it too and nothing offended my ears too much on Navigator. Does Carnival have a roving piano player? It's a really neat feature I've seen a lot more on Royal. I've even seen the pianist in an elevator. They play a small spinet and the one on Navigator was dressed up like a steampunk piano. The guy was incredible and had an equal, if not better repertoire than the Schooner Bar pianist. I hope they get the fries back to normal before we sail on Panorama, because I'm doing my best to convince Michelle to go on it, and a lot of it is your love of the Guy Fieri restaurants. I want those fries and nachos! One more question...You guys are certainly at a high loyalty status on Carnival. How many free drinks does Carnival give when you reach a high loyalty status, and can you order the drinks at any bar and at any time? Royal's recent change from having to drink the four free drinks per day at Diamond status in the Diamond Lounge only at happy hour, to allowing Diamonds to drink them anywhere and at anytime was, in a word, awesome. Glad you had a great cruise and thanks for another informative and great video, Jim!
Regarding the cabin... you must have missed my previous video. Take a look at ruclips.net/video/gBTwzJ07RjA/видео.html
Regarding free drinks for Diamond-level passengers... I wish! You get invited to a party for all the diamond-level guests and there's free drinks at the party, but that's about it. I wish Carnival had similar perks to Royal Caribbean. However, on this cruise, we bought the drink package... so, the drinks thing was really not an issue.
@@JimZim Thanks, Jim. I'll check out the video. I did miss it. BTW...I can't believe Carnival doesn't have free drink perks. The four per day we get (5 when we get to Diamond Plus) has us dropping the drink package and saving a lot of money. I recently did the math on a $68 per day package ($80.24 w/automatic 18% gratuity...Add in another 6% sales tax if you purchase the package on ship before embarkation and it's another $4.08 per day to get to $84.32 per day). But at $80.24 per day per person, a seven day cruise for us is $1,123.36, and that's about equal to another cruise in a standard balcony for one of us. Great video, again. I'll head over and watch the other one on your cabin.
I suspect that the service buttons were removed because of a lack of crew members. They’re having trouble fully staffing the ship, and now even more so as it pertains to employees from Ukraine and Russia :(
I like a less crowded ship. Could be our age to, Lol!! But by the time I cruise in August it will probably be at full capacity, smh.
I hope the ship is not crowded, going in September 2022. Hope that it's not swamped.
The straws in the drinks now are edible. If you don't get one with your drink you can buy one, I think it was $3.50. So yeah, bring your own straws with you.
I am shocked and surprised that you like Pepsi products better than Coca Cola products on the 2022 cruise on Carnival Panorama than on the 2020 cruise on Carnival Panorama before the global pandemic!
Well Jim Zim, you still have the Coca Cola steam train manufactured by LGB that still runs on an analog control system and sometimes you run it with DCC which stands for Digital Command Control.
As always, I am Thomas Comeau and I will see the replies from you, Jim Zim and I also love your collection of 25 G scale model trains!❤🇺🇸🌐🚂🚃
I'm actually just fine with them blocking off the deck 5 viewing area. You could look right on the crew lounge area. Those guys need a place to get away from us.
The mask was awesome! That’s good that they switched over to biodegradable straws nothing should be plastic at any restaurant or vacation. And they probably got rid of the buttons because they have less staff.
The lack of Coke products is very disappointing. One more tick against Carnival for me.
Yeah, I'm sure there will be people who will not cruise Carnival again because of that!
Dont worry theres plenty of coke on these cruises ❄️⛷
Norwegian is the same. No coke.
All you need to do o is ask for the menu.
Yeah, DROP the Havana thing and the Havana music. Just call it Jamacian or Carribean.
No magic buttons such first world problems.