Day 7 and 8 Carnival Panorama Cruise

Cruise – Day 7 and Day 8 (3/13/2020 and 3/14/2020)

Day 7 was our last sea day. Looking back this was our last day in the last two months that we were able to do any fun activities outside the house. I’m really glad we book advantage of some of the activities we ended up doing. This day was also a stressful day as the whole COVID-19 situation was getting worse. Jeremy and I watched the news everyday so we were aware of what was going on but as it was getting closer to getting off the ship things were feeling more real. It felt like we were floating on our own island while the world was going crazy.

Anyway, we started the day off early as we had purchased tickets to the 8:15am Dr. Seuss Breakfast! You purchase tickets on the first day when you get on the ship and we decided to go with the early option. Looking back I think the 9:45am option would have been better. We had stayed up really late the night before because the kids went to the pirate party. The kids were a little tired and grouchy but we made the best of it. The tables were decorated so fun! All the food was Dr. Seuss colors and theme! Kylie loved the music and did some dancing! Blake was really tired and didn’t participate in much. He did like the character pictures though which was surprising.

After breakfast we dropped the kids off at Camp Ocean. They had lots of crafts and games that they played. Jeremy and I went to the gym to workout. We went to the Groove for St. Jude party on the Lido deck. It was nice to just lay in the sun and have a drink. Jeremy and I also did the roller coaster and the ropes course. I was really excited for the coaster but it was a lot scarier than I thought. It was really windy when we went and it felt like I was going to blow off at any second. It was still really fun and a great view. The ropes course was insane! I used to do these things with no problem but this was so scary! Jeremy had no problem at all but there were some paths that were crazy. After doing it once, Jeremy wanted to do it again but he wanted to do it fast. I decided to suck it up and do it again and just not think and just go fast. It wasn’t as bad the second time. My motion sickness was starting to kick in a little from doing the coaster and then the ropes course. Next time I would probably do one and then take a break. Overall, they were both really fun and we were glad we did them!

At 2pm, we picked the kids up and surprised them with tickets to the Sky Zone. We have never been to a trampoline park before so we thought it would be really fun. This was Blake’s favorite part of the trip. They had a trampoline area, balance beam, and a sky ladder. The kids loved the sky ladder! Blake was able to go all the way to the top a few times. Kylie was so close and probably would have done it but our time ran out.

After the Sky Zone, we took the kids to the lido deck to grab an ice cream cone. We planned on doing the Family Scavenger Hunt but after getting the list we decided to just grab ice cream instead. We had fun looking out the window and talking. We headed back to our rooms to watch TV and start the packing process. Next was dinner time. We dropped the kids off at Camp Ocean and they ate dinner with their friends. Jeremy and I had dinner together and then did a little shopping. It was the last night so we took one last look at the shops. We also purchased a few of the family pictures. There were a lot of good pictures but we decided to go with the five-portrait deal. I wish they were lower the prices on the random pictures they take while you are on the ship because they are fun pictures but just too expensive. I went back to the room and packed everything up and then we picked up the kids. We went on one last late-night food run! This night was my second favorite! We all grabbed our own favorites and then took it back to our room and ate it. The pizza was a popular choice but the ice cream was hands down the kids (Kylie’s) favorite! I also decided to head out and surprise Blake with a Shirley Temple! I went to every bar on the ship looking for sierra mist and cherries. I finally found it at the last bar and they gave me the last cherry! Blake was so excited!

We woke up the next morning and headed to the restaurant for breakfast! This part was stressful. We had reception again and started reaching out to work to find out what our works were doing with the current COVID-19 situation. We knew at this point that Blake could not go to school for 14 days which at the time sounded impossible. We safely got off the boat and found our shuttle. We arrived safely back to our car and loaded up. We started our drive home. We stopped at a gas station and went to the bathroom. I saw some mac and cheese, cereal, water, etc. and I tried convincing Jeremy we needed to buy it all but he assured me that we will be just fine. We finished our drive but stopped at Chick fil a once we were in Phoenix. As we were in the drive-thru line we told the kids a little bit about what was going on and told Blake he can’t go to school for at least two weeks. Surprisingly they understood pretty well and there wasn’t much push back at all.

After we got home, Jeremy went to Costco and bought a ton of food. Our house was literally almost empty because we had been gone so we knew we needed to stock up as we need to quarantine for at least 14 days. Jeremy was able to find almost everything we needed except for toilet paper and paper towels.

I am so thankful that our family was able to go on this trip! It's crazy how close we were to not getting to go on this vacation. I feel for those that had to cancel their trips. We booked this cruise almost a year ahead as it was a brand new ship that first sailed in January 2020. This was the first big vacation that we have taken as just a family. I was extremely excited and very nervous about how it was going to go. Of course it could have started off better but overall after writing all these blogs I've realized how much fun and how many memories our family created. In the moment there was a lot going on and anytime the kids were at Camp, Jeremy and I were talked about the COVID -19 situation. We did not tell them about it at all as we didn't want to worry them or change the experience for them. I know the kids are going to talk about the "big boat" for a very long time! They still talk about the blue and yellow slides and how much they miss them! I hope once things settle and a vaccine comes out, that we will be able to go on another "big boat" as a family. I think it's the perfect way for a family to vacation. We had a good balance of family time and couple time. We mostly used the Camp at night for dinner and to work out which was really nice.