To get good panoramas you have to take good pictures.  Align your Pan head and tripod.
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That means the tripod base must be secure and the head leveled with a spirit level. Each shot position should be vertically and horizontally aligned. Nigel Smith (UK) and I came up with some good thoughts on this matter.

Three possible reason head might be out align.

1. The pan head vertical panel may not be at 90 degrees so when the bubble is level, the camera is not level.  Or the camera might be slightly tilted away from the vertical panel because the screw is not snugged up tightly.   One of the causes of image series stair stepping can be that your pan head vertical panel is not exactly at 90 degrees. It is worth checking this with a vertical level along the edge where you attach the camera then make any necessary adjustments. 

2. The pan head can be perfectly level at the base,  but the camera itself may be tilted down or up.

3. The camera CCD recording element may be out of alignment.

4. Click here to find see what I did to fix my standard tripod.

The idea is to have the top of each image be level with the next image. If image 1 is higher than the second and third.. or a downward stair step fashion.. the results will be that you will loose some vertical field of view in the final stitched image.

Click here for nodal point check

This panorama series is taking 3 shots at 120 degrees (3 x 120 = 360). Some cameras use different lenses thereby requiring more images to be taken for the panorama.

It appears it is not quite flat and there by making it necessary to level up on successive shots by an 1/8th bubble as you rotate through the series.

To find see what I did to fix my standard tripod