The Long Road to Cabo, a Carnival Panorama Review: Day 7 – Puerto Vallartafeatured

A few days before we left, we received a letter from Carnival. The letter detailed a number of things that could happen onboard, like getting turned away from ports or itinerary changes. In the back of our heads, we always knew it was possible, we just didn’t actually think it would happen.

Stephanie and I were up way earlier than we needed to. By 6:30 AM, we were on the balcony watching the sunrise over the Puerto Vallarta landscape. It was absolutely stunning. We saw a pod of whales off our balcony and we were just so…happy. To be there. To see this.

I tried going back to sleep, but I kept getting pulled to the window, to the color of the sky and the stunning coastline. So instead, we sat on the balcony and went through all the things we wanted to see and do. We didn’t have any plans for Puerto Vallarta and we kind of planned to wing it. Shop. Get tacos. Find the Hop On Hop Off bus. Maybe go to Wal-Mart because while I’m sure it’s the same as the Wal-Mart at home, I’m super curious what a Mexican Wal-Mart is like. So it’s not like we had a huge day planned, but those “wing it” days are my favorite kind of port days.

We got dressed and pulled our stuff together and met up with Mom to go to breakfast down in the dining room. The port day breakfast menu was robust and the food was delicious. Mom planned on staying on the ship, Stephanie and I planned on being back before 4:00, we detailed it all out.

By the time we finished breakfast, we still hadn’t gotten the all clear to disembark. We headed up to Ocean Plaza for some iced coffees and to look out at what was happening in port from the Lanai. Around 10:00, the captain came on — while we had gotten the all clear to come into port, the port authority wouldn’t let anyone off the ship unless they were rapid tested. The ship didn’t have the testing available to rapid test everyone who wanted to get off, and the port authority didn’t have the infrastructure to do the testing, either. The captain was clearly very angry so Lee came on after to reiterate some of the points: things had been escalated to the highest level of the port authority and there was nothing to do but sit and wait.

So we sat, we waited. For the first hour, at the Lanai and Ocean Plaza, then up in our cabins, and when it became clear nothing was immanent, we decided to go up to deck 12 to see as much of Puerto Vallarta as we could from the ship.

At noon, we headed down to the Lido deck for some lunch — if we couldn’t have tacos in Mexico, we could at least have tacos in Mexico on the ship! Lee came on again to say the Fun Squad were working hard to revise some activities to entertain us while we waited for more information, and that they’d be opening up Pig & Anchor BBQ as an additional lunch option for everyone.

We still didn’t have much information after lunch, so we headed back to the room, popped on a movie and waited. Around 1:00, the captain and Lee came on to make the final call that we would not be disembarking in Puerto Vallarta today.

This is what we learned: there were five positive cases in guests onboard. 20%+ of the crew was tested daily and all crew were vaccinated, all crew eligible for a booster had received one and any crew in contact with someone who tested positive got quarantined. We’d get a refund of our taxes & port fees for our missed port day, and the crew were just as disappointed as we were, especially the captain. The ship had received initial clearance and the local government simply changed their minds. It was disappointing for sure, but I don’t think I’ll ever be as disappointed as our missed port day in Santorini a few years ago, when high winds cancelled our port day literally as we were about to board a tender. That was devastatingly disappointing. Not docking in Mexico in a port we’ve visited before and likely will visit again? We could deal with that disappointment. I’ll take a disappointing day on a cruise ship over a normal day at home any day.

With nothing else ahead of us for the day, we just kind of wandered around. The bars were still (mostly) closed as many staff had the day off, though some were opening up. The shops were closed. The Fun Squad were trying to figure things out. So there wasn’t a ton to do yet. The Serenity Bar was open, so we grabbed some sangria and then walked around deck 12 to get in all of the views of Puerto Vallarta we could get since that would be just about all we’d get of PV on this trip.

We headed back to the room to relax for a bit, re-emerging around 4:00 PM for trivia. This was Name That Song: Diva Edition and we tied for first with a staggering 37/40. The tie breaker was a dance off and I’m not about that life, but the moral victory was enough for me — I don’t know what I’d do with another ship on a stick!

The ship was still in port (and would remain so until around 7:00 PM) so we caught a quick glimpse of sunset from the balcony and then made a dinner reservation in the app for the main dining room. The speciality restaurants were mostly filled up for the rest of the week and tonight was Bitter and Blanc night in the main dining room, so my tour de nostalgia was rolling towards another stop.

I want to give a shout out to the dining staff, particularly Stanislav, who had served us both nights we dined in the MDR. The dining staff felt hit hardest by staffing shortages — the dining room seemed to be kept to 50% capacity or less and I don’t think that was a COVID measure. The dining staff was spread woefully thin and still kept an upbeat attitude and were just so wonderful. Kudos to them. Also kudos to Bitter and Blanc, which tastes exactly the same as it has for the past 15+ years. If they ever take this off the menu, I might legitimately cry.

There was no concert tribute tonight so we headed up to a screening of Jungle Cruise at Movie’s Under the Stars. We didn’t stay for the entire viewing, though — too cold and too many sick people coughing so loud we couldn’t hear. We strolled around the shops, stopping in Cherry on Top for some sweet treats and hanging around the atrium, where there was just about the only live music we could find on the ship outside the Piano Bar.

The ship was moving incredibly fast for having left port two hours early and the motion just puts me to sleep, so we took our treats back to the room, popped on Rookie of the Year from the (free) On Demand menu and spent the rest of the night relaxing with an old favorite. We didn’t feel great about our chances in Mazatlán, but we’d be up and ready to suspend our disbelief if the day presented itself to us!