2022 February Vacation: Part II - Aboard the Carnival Panorama

The morning after our day at Universal Studios, we slept in, enjoyed a good breakfast at Denny's, hung out in the hotel lobby to kill some time, then took an Uber down to the cruise ship port. A drunk lady kept trying to give us a fish swimming in a wine glass while we waited outside in line to get into this large dome building. The cruise ship workers expedited us into the building to keep her from bothering us. 

There was a lot of back and forth as they sent us around to different workers in order to verify that the kids and I were recovered from Covid and had submitted the proper paper work, but eventually we made it through the building and onto the ship.

We knew from an email that we'd been given a free room upgrade for being 3rd time Carnival cruisers, but we didn't know what exactly that upgrade was until we got to our room. It turned out to be an ocean view in a larger room than we'd ever had before. We'd also wondered how they were going to accommodate the kids. Turned out there was a couch that folded into the wall and converted into bunk beds. We all slept quite comfortably. I'm really impressed with how they use their space. 

We enjoyed a lovely California sunset as the ship began sailing south. 

The kids really wanted to go to Camp Ocean, so we went there first only to find out the big line we waited in was just to register the kids. The session didn't start until 7:00pm. We got the kids dinner then I took Allison swimming while Oscar took Tyler up to play mini golf and soccer pool. The kids had fun at camp ocean that night while Oscar and I had a lovely dinner in the dining room.

Everyday housekeeping would leave us a new fun towel animal in our room. The coolest was on Thursday when they placed a towel animal on every single lounge chair up on the pool deck. Unfortunately we were in a huge hurry to get to our excursion that morning, so I didn't get a picture, and they didn't do it on either of the following mornings. 

Our housekeeper Apolo, really went above and beyond tidying our room. He put a sweet message on the mirror for us, placed Allison's beanie boos with the towel animals, and even lined up our shoes neatly. 

Oscar tried to block out sunlight in the morning with all of our stuff so it didn't wake us up too early. It didn't quite work. Some light still crept through. The kids were usually so exhausted from staying up late at camp, though, that they kept sleeping long after the light began creeping in. 

On our first full day at sea Tyler slept in until nearly 11am. We had to take turns going to breakfast, going for walks, and getting Allison up to camp. The morning camp session went from 9:00am - 12:00pm that day. Tyler got in just the last 40 minutes. 

After camp we took the kids up to do the ropes course. It was trippy to be doing it on a moving ship! It was really hard when Tyler and I tried it again later that week on a windy day. 

I don't have any pictures of us since they wouldn't allow us to have cell phones or fanny packs, but there was also a sky bike going around the top of the ship. Tyler was just tall enough to do it. 

From 12:00 - 2:00pm the onboard Italian restaurant offered a free make your own pasta bar. We treated ourselves to pasta and smoothies after climbing the ropes course.

Allison and I changed into our swimsuits and went up to go down the waterslides and swim in the pool. The water was a nice temperature, but the wind and cloud cover weren't so fun. 

Here's Allison dancing after dinner and the kids building with salt and pepper shakers. 

Every night in the dining room we'd eat the Carnival chocolate melting cake. They didn't serve it at the buffet, and we knew Tyler would love it, so I checked him out of camp a few minutes early to come down and sample it. He was very pleased!

Oscar and I enjoyed walking around the outdoor jogging track at night, especially when it was warm enough to not need a coat.  There was an 7:00pm - 10:00pm session of camp every night, which is much later than I would normally let the kids stay up, but we made an exception for the cruise. The kids loved camp, and Oscar and I enjoyed getting to have a date every night. We'd watch a comedian, go for a walk, play some soccer pool or mini golf, watch the nightly entertainment, and have a fancy dinner.

Soccer pool was neat! When I have a large backyard, I want to build one of these in it. 

Oscar joked around that we were on this trip to celebrate his Comcast quincenera - 15 years working for Comcast.

The kids did a LOT of artwork at Camp Ocean. We couldn't keep it all, so I took pictures of everything.

Allison even wrote a story about going on a boat. She wrote in the same style as the early reader books she reads in Kindergarten. It reads

"Lets Go On a Boat"

The boat. 

Let's go on it. 

Whale they have fun?

Yes. They whale have so much fun.

Yay!

So many crafts...

On our final night in the dinging room, the crew entertained us with a baked Alaska parade. 

Oscar made a time lapse video of the sunrise from our cabin window on our final morning back in California. I woke up before the kids did and went out to the deck to enjoy the lovely views

After eating we hung out playing games on the sunrise deck until we had to go (we were required to leave by 10:45am). Our flight wasn't until 4:00pm, so we weren't in any hurry. Once we were off the ship we ordered an Uber to the airport, which turned out to be a big old shuttle bus all to ourselves. We asked for extra large since there were 4 of us plus luggage, but we didn't need a vehicle that big!