Here's your first look at Carnival's newest ship, Carnival Panorama!
There's not much actual video of Carnival Panorama on YouTube yet because construction only recently completed.
But a new friend of mine named Victoria, who lives in Italy...
Has a connection that got her access to the Fincantieri shipyard...
Just before the shipyard delivered the Panorama to Carnival.
Victoria is a YouTuber herself. Her channel name is "Cruise Passion".
And when I found this video of her walking through Carnival Panorama with a DJI Pocket...
I subscribed immediately. And if you're a cruise fanatic, you might want to also.
Victoria's been on over 50 cruises and her channel has a lot of videos...
Every one of them is about cruise ships.
I got in touch with Victoria, and she was kind enough to let me share with you here on my channel...
These videos that she shot onboard Carnival Panorama.
This ship is a big deal to people like me that live in California...
Because she'll be based in Long Beach and she is by far...
The biggest and best cruise ship to ever be based year 'round in California.
She'll be doing Mexican Riviera cruises 52 weeks of the year.
Before this, Carnival has never had such a great ship permanently based in California.
All the best cruise ships were usually in Florida.
California only got the older ships that Florida was done with.
But that's all changed now with Carnival's decision to take their newest, most state-of-the-art ship and base it in California.
So, us Californians don't have to fly across country to get to the good cruise ships anymore.
One of the best will be based year round at the port of Long Beach.
I'll be sailing on Carnival Panorama soon, so I'm really excited about this new ship...
And I've cruised on her two sisters, Carnival Vista and Carnival Horizon...
And have come to really appreciate this class of ship.
I've done a lot of Carnival cruises, and these Vista-class ships are Carnival's best, in my opinion.
Anybody that lives in California and has never been on a cruise before...
THIS is the ship that should be your first.
Don't sail on some older cruise ship for your first experience.
You want to start with one of the best there is, so you don't get a bad first impression.
And Carnival Panorama, I think, will give you a great introduction to what cruising is all about.
Right now we're walking in for a look around the Vista Restaurant...
Which is the main dining room onboard Carnival Panorama.
It's ironic that they call it the Vista Restaurant.
On her sister ship, Carnival Vista, it would be funny if they called their main dining room the Panorama restaurant now!
As you can see, there were no passengers onboard at this point, when Victoria shot this video.
Fincantieri, the shipbuilder, still owned the ship at this point.
They were just about to do the handover ceremony at which point Carnival would own the vessel.
It was so great that Victoria had full access and was able to just roam around and give us a look at Carnival Panorama.
This is a very highly anticipated ship for us cruise fanatics here on the west coast of the United States.
And it's always frustrating when a ship is under construction and we want to see pictures and videos of the ship...
But of course, they're still building it... and you don't really want to see it until it's all done.
So these videos that Victoria shot, wandering around the ship...
This really is the first good look that most of us have had at Carnival Panorama with construction complete.
Right now we're entering a very special area of the ship known as the Havana area.
There's a Cuban theme back here...
At night there will usually be a Cuban band playing right there on that bandstand.
But what's special about this Havana area that Victoria is walking through right now...
Is the cabins that are back there in the Havana area.
Families with young children are not allowed to book a cabin back here!
I've cruised on both of the sister ships, Carnival Horizon and Carnival Vista...
And both times I opted for a cabin back here in the Havana area of the ship.
I'm 62 years old... If there's an adults-only area on a cruise ship, that's where you're going to find me!
But here's the thing about the Havana area...
As we go through these doors here, out to the Havana pool area...
We're now in a restricted area of the ship that most passengers don't have access to.
Only guests staying in a Havana cabin are allowed back here.
Now you have to imagine this on a sunny 90 degree day in the Mexican Riviera.
And you and just a small number of other Havana cabin guests have access to the pool and the Jacuzzis in this area...
Which makes it the least crowded area of the entire cruise ship.
Now we're about to enter another place I'm very excited about!
This is where you find some of the best food on the entire ship.
This is Guy Fieri's Pig And Anchor restaurant.
We ate there several times on the sister ships.
The food is fantastic!
Guy Fieri is some kind of food genius.
If you've ever had one of the burgers from Guy's Burger Joint, you know what I'm talking about.
His barbecue joint, the Pig And Anchor, is just amazing.
They've got what Guy Fieri calls "Trash Can Nachos" which blew my mind when I had them.
They were so much better than any nachos I had ever had before.
But the nachos are just the beginning!
They have some of the best barbecue food I've ever had.
Of course, there's a wide variety of restaurants onboard the Carnival Panorama.
A little something for everyone.
Who's up for some sushi?
And I can't think of a single cruise ship I've ever been on that didn't have a steakhouse.
The Blue Iguana is a great place for burritos or tacos...
And at breakfast time, this is where you're going to find me...
Carnival Panorama's buffet restaurant, known as The Marketplace.
The Cloud Nine Spa is a popular place onboard.
Here's the fitness center.
You will not find me here... that's not my idea of how to spend vacation time!
We're entering the thermal suite now where you'll find saunas and steam rooms and this big thermal pool...
Which you're just going to have to imagine with water in it.
It was empty on this particular day since it was still going to be quite a while before they had real passengers aboard.
If you like spending time in a spa, using the big thermal whirlpool or the sauna or the steam room...
Think about booking a spa cabin on Carnival Panorama.
Passengers staying in spa cabins have full access to the thermal suite at no extra charge.
Now we are out on the Lido deck, which is the center of the action during a Carnival cruise.
I'm sorry it was a cold, gray, wet day in Italy the day that Victoria shot this video.
You're just going to have to imagine this on a sunny 90 degree day cruising down to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas.
The mid ship pool area... that is where the big party is.
If you're looking for fun, it's right here...
Or at least it will be, as soon as the ship is operational and doing those Mexican Riviera cruises.
Believe it or not, Victoria even had access to the ship's navigational bridge.
That is a difficult invitation to get under normal circumstances...
But on this day, with the ship still at the shipyard and under the control of Fincantieri...
Anything goes!
The bridge of a cruise ship is a pretty cool place.
I have had a few bridge tours over the years.
If you ever get the opportunity, take it. At least once.
That wraps up our tour of Carnival Panorama.
Huge thanks to Victoria from the YouTube channel known as Cruise Passion.
She's the one that shot all this video of the Carnival Panorama.
It was very nice of her to let me share it with you here on my channel.
I'm putting links up on the screen right now...
To a couple of interesting cruise ship videos there on Victoria's channel, Cruise Passion.