Thanks for asking.....After 15 Carnival Cruises (since the 1990's), I think I am really done with Carnival for a long time. The Panorama crew and their service was impeccable and personable. The problem is that the mass cruise market has just become way too congested (e.g. just too way too many people and too many queues) on their ships. The shows were great, but the showroom layout and sight lines were the worse ever (and that was considered an improvement from the other Vista ship we were on). The casino was, for the first time in my 80 cruises, unplayable! Reason: The entire casino is the dedicated indoor smoking area 24 hours a day. Its so bad, that transiting non-smokers had to go up one deck and cross over before going back down stairs. What a dreadful design and my play was the least ever on any cruise ship because of this. On the other hand, the new NCL Encore has a non smoking and separately ventilated and isolated/enclosed smoking casino and it was wonderful except even the NCL Encore suffers from the same passenger congestion issues. I am still a big fan of cruising, but I think its time to look at less passenger ratio ships in terms of "elbow room." I'll try more River cruises (which I love!), once this Covid virus is past us. My estimate is that is won't be until year 2022 that this pandemic is under control so that cruising becomes as safe as it was before this started. Otherwise, trust me, its not worth the stress to travel this way.Originally Posted by Zooms
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