Feb 9

Feb 9 Day 2 - A Fun Day At Sea

As Carnival Panorama sails to our first port of Cabo San Lucas, we get to enjoy our first “Fun Day at Sea”. What better way to start off the fun than by sitting in on the Live Morning Show with Cruise Director, Emma Nixon. Emma is the most energetic and visible Cruise Director with whom we have ever sailed. And, we have sailed with more than 120 of them!

*Live Morning Show with Emma Nixon and Belo*

We spent most of the morning trying to compete in the many trivia contests going on around the ship, but sadly, no 24-carat gold (plastic) “Ship-On-A-Stick” will be coming back to our stateroom today. Today was a good day to spend indoors since it was 52 degrees and cloudy for most of the day.

We did stop by Pixels Digital Gallery on Deck 5 midship to take a look at some photos we had the ship’s photographer take of us last night. On Carnival Panorama, cruise ship photography has finally gone all digital. You no longer have to search for yourself through hundreds of photos on wall after wall of photos. At Pixels, you walk up to one of the many iPad-style terminals, type in your folio number and birthday, and voilà: all photos of you will appear on the screen. You can order prints right from the screen, or obtain a digital copy on a USB thumb drive. You can also do all of this from your smart phone or iPad using the Carnival Hub app (free to download). Purchased photos can even be downloaded directly to your smart phone! It is very cool, and a technology that is long overdue.

For lunch we decided to enjoy a couple slices of pizza at Carnival’s legendary Pizzeria Del Capitano on Deck 10 aft. I am pleased to report that Carnival’s pizza is as good as ever, certainly one of the best on any cruise ship. I had a couple of slices of Pepperoni and Rickee had the Quattro Formaggio (four cheese). You no longer even have to go to the pizzeria on Deck 10 to enjoy Carnival’s pizza. Just use the Carnival Hub app to order your pizza delivered to your stateroom, or anywhere on the ship! There is a charge of $5 per pie for delivery.

Carnival’s pizzas are made fresh with real mozzarella cheese and San Marzano tomato sauce. The crust is thin, crispy and has just the right amount of chewiness. It is really good. Pizza is available 24 hours-a-day, and if you go pick it up yourself at the pizzeria, it’s FREE!

This evening, we stopped by Piano Bar 88 (Deck 5 midship) to enjoy Ben on the piano. Piano Bar 88 is a little different than we remember on Carnival Vista. The room seems smaller and it is now open to the Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse dining room. I am assuming that a wall will close off the bar from the dining room when the sing-along starts at 9:00pm.

We were a little surprised that nobody came over to take a drink order from us at Piano Bar 88. We sat there for about an hour while waiting for our dinner reservation at Bonsai Teppanyaki. We saw a bartender and a waitress, but nobody came over to take an order. There were five other occupied tables, and we only saw one of them waited on. A few walked up to the bar to place an order, which I certainly could have done. I think I just wanted to see how long it would take for someone to come over to take a drink order.

Our experience at dinner could not have been more of a contrast. Once we arrived at Bonsai Teppenyaki, we were greeted and shown to our seats at one of the two ten-person Teppenyaki tables. I don’t want to go into too much detail here because we will be posting a separate and thorough review of Bonsai Teppenyaki on our website soon. However, I can tell you it was one of our most fun and enjoyable cruise ship dining experiences in recent memory.

Bonsai Teppanyaki is a new concept on Carnival and it is one we hope they expand. There is a $32 per person charge to dine here, and it is worth every penny. Not only was our Chef, Ronaldo, very funny and entertaining, the food was delicious. Bring a big appetite because there is a LOT of food.

After our excellent dinner, we had time to get in line at Liquid Lounge (Decks 4 & 5 forward) for this evening’s production show, Celestial Strings. The Liquid Lounge is set up differently than other Carnival ship theaters we have seen in the past. The center section of Deck 4 seating is made up of individual, moveable chairs. This allows the theater seating to be re-arranged to accommodate shows like Celestial Strings.

There are stage elements placed throughout the seating area so, depending on where you sit, performers are literally singing and dancing right in front of you.

The combination of costumes, choreography, dance and amazing vocals make this the best production show we have ever seen on a Carnival ship. We recommend that you arrive early and get a good seat on Deck 4. The seating in the balcony on Deck 5 comes with a lot of blocked sight lines and just does not give the best viewing experience.