This was our 7th annual New Years Cruise with Carnival. We were excited to be on a new boat, and were looking forward to our trip. Although overall we had a great experience, Carnival Panorama seemed to try very hard to not make it a good trip.
I will start with the negatives, and move on to the positives:
Walking on board was a huge disappointment for us as we were used to walking on to a large and sprawling atrium. This one is 3 levels high, and we did not even enter the boat at the atrium itself. The floor to ceiling video projection pillar is very cool. But it was not the atrium we were used to on other ships.
We loved our cabin and balcony and even location. It is very bright, quiet, and close to everything. We really liked that we could walk down the hall and go right out to the lido deck (we were one level above). It is also close to an elevator. At no point did we hear anything going on elsewhere in the ship unless people were walking by right outside. "Ricky" our cabin steward was outstanding.
Staying at the Hilton downtown has a great park and ride deal for up to 7 days of parking and free transportation to the ship port.