An interesting aspect of my recent cruise on Carnival Panorama...
Was to see what had changed in the two years since the last time I was aboard.
I did a cruise on Carnival Panorama in January of 2020, just before the pandemic shut down cruising...
And then again, same ship, a little more than two years later, after cruising had resumed.
It was really interesting to see how things on Carnival Panorama had changed in those two years.
So, that's the focus of this video...
Every little thing that I noticed that was different during my 2022 cruise compared to my 2020 cruise.
Some things had changed for the better, and some things had changed for the worse.
Let's run it down right now.
As soon as we got onboard, the big surprise for me...
When we decided to have a drink to celebrate that we were on vacation...
Was that Carnival, which had always had Coca Cola products in all my previous cruises...
Had ditched Coke products in favor of Pepsi products.
Now I know that there's some people watching right now...
Who, upon hearing that, will say that they will never cruise with Carnival again, just because of that!
There's some diehard Coke drinkers out there.
Me personally, I was delighted with the change.
Because I like Pepsi products better than Coke. So, this was a nice surprise for me.
Another big surprise for the better was how much less crowded the ship was.
Our 2022 cruise was in February, and at that point the ship was only about two-thirds of capacity.
Now by the time you see this video, maybe that will have changed...
But at least at that time they were sailing at reduced capacity...
And that was nice for the ship to be a little less crowded than I've seen in the past.
If you've seen some of the videos I've put out over the last few weeks about our cruise...
You know that we booked a cabin in the Havana area of the ship...
So that we could take advantage of the big perk of being in a Havana cabin...
Having access to the very un-crowded Havana pool, hot tubs, sun deck, and outdoor bar.
Now there were a couple of things that I noticed that were different in the Havana area compared to two years ago...
One positive, one negative.
The big positive news that I'm happy to report is that someone at Carnival finally figured out that just because they named this area the Havana area...
Doesn't mean that they have to blast Cuban music out every speaker out here.
On our cruise two years ago, the Cuban music was so annoying! You couldn't get away from it.
They had it playing on every speaker in the Havana area.
And there are a lot of speakers, many of them pointed right at the loungers where people are trying to relax.
Imagine yourself relaxing in a lounger, on vacation... but there's loud Cuban music playing the entire time.
It got really annoying after a while. But anyway, I guess enough people complained, or somebody at Carnival just wised up.
Now, they were only playing Cuban music at the Havana bar itself.
All the other speakers throughout the Havana sun deck were turned off.
That was a very positive change, as far as I was concerned.
Now the negative change that I noticed in the Havana area was that they had gotten rid of all the magic buttons.
I don't know if you saw the video I did about our cruise two years ago, but I was very excited about the magic buttons around the Havana area.
This was something I had never seen before on a cruise ship, and it was such a great idea.
They had these little red buttons labeled service, and they were placed all around the Havana area.
When you pushed the button, it vibrated the smart watch that was worn by one of the bar staff at the Havana bar...
And told them the location of the button that had been pushed...
So that they could walk over there and take a drink order.
And then, of course, once they took your order, they'd go back to the bar, make you a drink, and come back with it a few minutes later.
This was so great for the people sitting in the loungers in the Havana area.
You didn't have to get up when you wanted a drink.
The staff would come to you whenever you pushed the button.
But sadly, all those magic buttons had been removed by the time we sailed on Carnival Panorama again in 2022.
I don't know why they got rid of them. It was such a great thing for the guests in the Havana area.
But they did. So, during our February cruise, we actually had to get up and go to the bar when we wanted a drink.
Well, speaking of drinks... Something else I noticed was that the little refrigerator in our cabin wasn't stocked with anything... it was empty.
In years past, they always stocked the fridge with various soft drinks, beer, snacks, and a few small bottles of booze.
But those days are gone. I actually think it's better to be empty like this.
A lot of people carry on a case of their favorite soft drink to avoid having to pay ship's prices for it.
So, having an empty fridge is a plus for them.
Also, parents traveling with kids... I'm sure they prefer an empty fridge to one stocked with temptations.
I don't know what the reason was, but the Internet access on the ship was horrible this time.
Like I said, I was just on Carnival Panorama two years ago and the Internet worked OK back then.
I actually keep a record of typical upload and download speeds I get when I'm on a cruise.
Two years ago, my records showed that download speeds on Carnival Panorama were typically around 25 megabits per second.
But this time, it was one of the worst Internet connections I've had on a cruise ship in a long time.
Lots of days, I wasn't even getting 1 meg per second.
Now it wasn't just me, either. I heard other people talking about it, too.
If anyone from Carnival is listening... this is 2022 now, not 1990.
People expect decent Internet service on a cruise ship.
And don't try to tell me that it's just not possible.
Princess, with their Medallion service has excellent Internet.
Royal Caribbean, with their service from O3B Networks has great Internet, too.
I suspect this is just Carnival being too cheap to pay for the good technology that other cruise lines have.
In the video I made about my 2020 Carnival cruise...
I pointed out how cool it was that passengers had access to a viewing area on deck five, at the front of the ship...
That looked out over the bow of the ship and provided fantastic views.
It's an especially great place for photographers to get photos of what's in front of the ship.
I was really surprised to find out that Carnival doesn't let passengers have access to that viewing area anymore.
They've blocked off the entire forward outdoor section of deck five now, and made it a crew-only area.
I noticed that they put loungers out there now, the loungers didn't use to be there...
So I suspect that this was all about providing an additional outdoor area for the crew to relax.
Because if they all just hang out indoors when they're not on duty...
That's more of a Covid risk than if you can get them to go out on deck.
Of course, Covid has forced a lot of changes in the cruise world.
Proof of Covid vaccinations was required of passengers to board the ship.
We also had to show proof of a negative Covid test within the three days prior to boarding.
And we all understood that wearing a mask would be required onboard...
Except in our cabins or when eating or drinking.
All that was different from our 2020 cruise...
But I certainly didn't mind having to do those things in order to reduce the risk of people getting Covid during the cruise.
The pandemic did change one thing for the better, and that was the muster drill.
It's so much quicker, and so much less of a hassle now.
All we had to do was show up at our muster station and have our keycard scanned to prove we had been there...
And then, while we were there, we just watched a crew member demonstrate the proper way to put on a life jacket....
And that was it. It took us all of ten minutes... and we were on our way.
So, that was definitely an improvement from the pre-pandemic days when those muster drills just went on way too long.
An unfortunate casualty of the pandemic was printed menus in the restaurants.
You had to scan a QR code in order to bring up a menu on your phone.
Personally, I prefer a printed menu... and hopefully someday soon those will make a comeback.
Carnival's daily newsletter, the Fun Times, was also a casualty of the pandemic.
They no longer deliver those to your cabin each evening... unless you ask them to.
They're trying to get passengers to just use the Carnival app...
To get the information they need about activities on the ship, dining times, and things like that.
But I was glad that once I asked the cabin steward for a printed copy, he brought one every night after that.
Having a cocktail is a fun part of a cruise for most people.
I normally just drink straight from the glass... but my wife prefers drinking through a straw...
And she noticed that they don't use plastic straws any longer on Carnival Panorama.
They still have straws... they're just made out of some kind of biodegradable organic material.
She wasn't a fan of the new straws, and she'll be bringing a supply of her own straws next time we cruise with Carnival.
I don't know who picks the music that plays in the background in the hallways and near the elevators on Carnival Panorama.
I was the Program Director of a radio station earlier in my life, so I pay attention to these things.
Two years ago on Carnival Panorama I remember being impressed by the music that they had playing in the background on the ship.
But somebody different must be picking the music now.
There were some bad choices on the playlist this time around.
Before I wrap this up, one other little observation...
I don't know if you're aware of this, but...
The French fries that they serve at Guy's Burger Joint... And also in Guy's Pig & Anchor restaurant...
One of the reasons that they taste so good is that they are seasoned with a special seasoning salt.
But did you know that there's an unusual secret ingredient in the seasoning salt that they use?
There's just a tiny bit of Cayenne pepper in the seasoned salt...
Just enough to excite your taste buds a little bit.
It's one of the things that makes you eat those fries and say "wow, these are really good!"
But one thing I noticed during my recent cruise on Carnival Panorama was that...
Somebody had put just a little too much cayenne in the seasoned salt this time.
Usually, the cayenne is very subtle.
You don't really notice what it is. It just gives a pop of flavor.
This time, I think someone got a little overzealous with the cayenne...
It wasn't subtle this time.
Now to be fair, it wasn't enough to make me not eat those fries anymore during the cruise...
But I do have to say that I think if Guy Fieri himself had been aboard...
He would have stepped in and had them re-make their seasoned salt with a little less cayenne.
With all that said, though... I want to make sure that you understand that I LOVED my cruise on Carnival Panorama.
It was one of the best cruises I've ever been on.
I would go back and cruise on Carnival Panorama again in a heartbeat...
And I definitely recommend the ship to anyone, no matter what your age.
There's something for everyone on Carnival Panorama.
From fun things that'll keep young people busy...
To quiet places for us old farts to relax...
And the food... Well, there's something for every taste in food, too.
I like the casual Guy Fieri food, and I'm not just talking about the burgers...
The stuff at the Pig & Anchor is fantastic, too.
But there's all sorts of different kinds of food available... truly something for everyone.
Carnival Panorama remains one of my favorite cruise ships...
I look forward to sailing on her again someday...
And it's a ship that I strongly recommend to you.
I'm Jim Zim. Thanks for watching!