The Long Road to Cabo, a Carnival Panorama Review: Day 8 – Mazatlánfeatured

:: Narrator:: They did not dock in Mazatlán. Sorry. Spoiler alert.

So let’s kick it old school: Murphy’s Law. If you’ve followed enough of my travels, you’re as familiar with Murphy and his good old law like we are. If you haven’t, Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And let me preface, there is plenty more that could have gone wrong (hello, Covid), but when it rains it pours and, well, we were proverbially getting as drenched as we could without getting Covid or, you know, it actually raining.

Stephanie and I were up with the sun (again) as the Panorama glided through the waters near Mazatlán. I went back to sleep, but it was already pretty clear to me that we wouldn’t be granted clearance. We were too far away from land and sailing far too slow.

We weren’t any closer to land when I woke, so we got ready as if it were a sea day. We packed our beach totes, not our shore bags. We threw on swimsuits and coverups, not shorts and tanks, and we headed down to breakfast in the dining room.

No sooner than we started getting our food that an announcement came in over the PA. This time, though, it wasn’t the Captain or the Cruise Director — it was Christine Duffy, the CEO of Carnival Corp. You know shit is getting real when the CEO conferences in and real it was: as expected, we were denied clearance into Mazatlán. She and many others had been conferring with government officials all night. It seems the issue wasn’t the number of Covid positive guests onboard but rather the large unvaccinated population of Mazatlán. Christine detailed how the CDC acknowledged the ship’s testing and isolation policies were well within guidelines, and that the company was frustrated that cruises weren’t given the same entry policies as airlines entering these states were. What went unacknowledged, however, was the real reason this was all happening in the first place: the large number of crew either testing positive or quarantining having been in contact with another crew who tested positive. There were whispers around the ship after an article was released the day before claiming 100+ crew members were quarantined.

So even though Carnival had absolved themselves of any responsibility by sending a letter a few days before embarkation saying we may miss ports and there would be no compensation, they offered everyone on board $50 in onboard credit as a result of the disruption in our itinerary and in the onboard entertainment (read: very little live music, no production value in the production shows and a short staffed Fun Squad). We expected nothing so we were content with what would amount to an extra steakhouse meal, but many others onboard weren’t as gracious and were (maybe) rightfully upset their trip was so disrupted. I don’t know if our standards are low or if we’re just used to things going wrong but we just kind of shrugged our shoulders and went back to our breakfast.

Our fellow passengers must have anticipated not going ashore in Mazatlán, either, because when we went up to the Serenity deck after breakfast, every single lounger, chair and space was taken. Not just saved. Like bodies in chairs. It wasn’t even 9:30 AM. So that was a new one. We ended up in loungers on deck 12 and spent our morning under the warm Mexican sun.

We had an abundance of options for lunch (Carnival really does excel in the made-to-order lunch options category) and we all went with tostada bowls at the Blue Iguana Cantina. It’s not Chipotle, but it’s probably the closest you’ll come on a cruise ship and it is downright delicious.

After lunch, we went back to the room to change out of our swim gear and found there was a visitor on our balcony. I don’t know how a hawk (yes, like an actual hawk) found their way onto our balcony in the middle of the ocean, but it was there and it could not get out. It kept trying to hop up to the ledge and falling. It kept flying into the glass…and falling. And, like, what do you do with that? We weren’t going out onto the balcony to mess with a hawk. I will mess with many things. I will not mess with birds. Big birds, small birds, any birds — I don’t mess with birds. So naturally, I got the eff out of the room right around the time that it finally found its way off our balcony and out towards the open waters. Stephanie found our room steward and awkwardly explained that our balcony was now covered in bird feathers and needed a cleaning and then promptly found herself locked out of our room because apparently the door battery was dead and our room steward had asked maintenance to change it and they never did. So bless his heart, he had to enter our balcony to clean it from another cabin and when Stephanie thanked him profusely, he said he was just trying his best. His name was Kadek and he was incredible all week (and especially with this bird drama). I can’t even imagine being that far away from home, your family, all of it — to live on a cruise ship where Covid is everywhere and being leaned on incredibly heavily because everyone is short staffed and still keeping a positive attitude and a smile on your face. Like it literally broke my heart what this crew was dealing with.

But speaking of dealing, I couldn’t deal with any of this (the bird constantly flying into the glass stressed me the eff out), so I sat out on Ocean Plaza with a cold brew, a donut and a nice vantage spot to watch a 70s disco dance class followed by a session of Golden Girl’s trivia.

Mom and Stephanie came and found me and while Kadek took care of our balcony and cabin door, we walked a few laps around Ocean Plaza and then went up to Serenity, where the Serenity Bar had that great sangria menu (our vice this week) and the best spot to get some afternoon sun.

Once our door opened again and our balcony was free of bird feathers, we siesta’ed back in the room. We watched Chopped on the Food Network, we lounged, we relaxed and did nothing because there really wasn’t anything left to do. But that was okay — doing nothing is relaxing and we all needed a bit of that in our lives. We’ll go go go (especially when we travel) until we’re forced to stop.

I decided to walk a few laps on the jogging track while Stephanie showered and started getting ready for dinner and it was just so…nice…outside. I saw our hawk friend circling the ship. Maybe he makes a winter home here, I don’t know, but I hoped it was far away from our balcony for the rest of the cruise. My friends were texting me that there was snow at home and as I was sitting down to enjoy a nice ice cream cone, I was scrolling a Daily Mail article and noticed a familiar picture. I read the caption and it started with “A travel blogger named Nicole posted on Facebook…” YOU GUYS. The Daily Mail took my Facebook pictures and notes and just…put them in an article? Silver lining, I can call myself an internationally published photographer but my goodness. My Instagram, Facebook and Reddit were filled with reporters that wanted to interview me about “my experience on the ship” and I wasn’t about to chat with anyone on my vacation because, one, didn’t want to, two, didn’t have the time and three, don’t want my name on any of this in case my current or future employers decide to have some Googling fun with my name. But it was also low-key hilarious. We all got a kick out of it.

We had dinner reservations at Cucina del Capitano tonight, Mom’s choice (and favorite). I don’t love it as much since the menu changes went into effect, but it’s still a steal at $15 for a robust Italian meal. We settled in with the garlic cheese bread and some wine when Lee came over the PA — we had been cleared to enter Cabo the next day! There was an audible cheer throughout the ship and the excitement from Lee being able to finally deliver some good news this week was palpable.

Dinner at Cucina del Capitano was solidly good, though very heavy. They took the steak off the menu so I tried the veal for the first time and it was good. My warm apple tart dessert that I usually love was served cold. Mom raved about the short rib (like she always does). It was a good meal, but one I can really only have once a cruise.

After dinner, we headed to the theater for showtime, a concert tribute of the Rock Revolution show. This time, though, Lee told us we’d be treated to an “enhanced” concert — the performers would wear costumes instead of their casual wear, there’d be lasers and special effects and best of all — live music. No one confirmed anything, but these “enhancements” coincided with a number of crew members getting released from quarantines after the new CDC guidelines were released, reducing contact quarantines for vaccinated, asymptomatic contacts from 10 days to 5.

The show was spectacular and I could only imagine how great it would have been as a full production show. The performers, especially, seemed really energized by being able to dance a bit and perform more than they had been all week and they were all really incredibly talented. We really enjoyed this one.

Mom headed back to the room and Stephanie and I headed to the Alchemy Bar, our evening hang this cruise, for a couple of rounds of cocktails and chatter with the bartenders. The drinks at the Alchemy Bar are strong, but they are SO good.

With an early arrival time in Cabo, we headed back to the room to call it an early night. Half of the on demand movies weren’t working, so we settled on The Greatest Showman (again) and a bag of mixed candy from Cherry on Top. We laid out our outfits, got our bags ready and crossed our fingers for a less eventful day in Cabo San Lucas.