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For this Christmas season, our family decided to go to the Mexican Riviera on a 7 Day Cruise on the festive Carnival Panorama Cruise Ship! It felt extra special to go on a vacation during this time of year because I got to enjoy all of the pretty Christmas decorations that were being displayed throughout the ship and see many celebratory passengers with their Santa hats and Christmas themed al fits on the daily!

This Mexican Riviera Cruise by Carnival Cruise Line stopped at 3 different ports: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. We decided to go on two excursions that we booked directly from Carnival Cruises website. We went on the All Inclusive Las Caletas Beach Hideaway at Puerto Vallarta and the All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snorkel for Cabo San Lucas (scroll down or contine to read for my thoughts on these excursions). I know it's cheaper to buy an excursion last minute after docking, but I like the comfort knowing that the cruise ship worked with these excursions directly, so if there were any issues or delayed, we'd know that they would communicate them with our ship.

Our Balcony Stateroom

My husband is our leader in charge on our cruise vacations. He books all of them, including our excursions. For this cruise, he booked a balcony stateroom for our family of four. Our kids have been going on cruises since they were babies so we had not considered booking staterooms with a balcony until the kids got older.

When they were very little, we were hesitant to book balcony rooms for safety reasons. Now, that they are 10 and 8 years old, they understand the rules we'd set for them and that there are extra precautions with a balcony. All of the doors on the cruise ships are very heavy so if you're not careful, a slammed door can easily crush fingers and toes. We warned them regularly about this and they have not had any crushed fingers nor toes. However, our 8 year old did trip one time while he was trying to get inside from the balcony on this Panorama cruise ship. I would be wary to book a balcony room, depending on how responsible your kids would be in these types of situations.

What introduced us to booking balcony rooms was an unexpected free upgrade from a mishap that we had encountered on a Royal Caribbean Cruise a few years ago! You can read about this Royal Caribbean Cruise mishap on this blog entry link.

However, once introduced, being able to walk out any second and see a beautiful view immediately is extraordinary on a cruise ship and it got us hooked! Every morning on our port stop days, I could see our destination from a good distance when I'd wake up before most of the passengers did. See a video below of my view when we got to Cabo San Lucas (our third stop for this cruise).

Like all cruise ships that we had stayed on, there was usually a towel art placed in our stateroom every other day, after the stateroom attendant had freshened up our stateroom. Here are all of the ones that we had for this cruise vacation below. The rabbit one lost an eye before I got a chance to take a picture! It did initially come with two eyes. 

The name of our stateroom attendant was Lorenzo and he was the best stateroom attendant we ever had and we had been on 5 different cruises before this! I was so impressed. He was fast, polite, earnest and our room was in tip top shape after he freshened it up every day!

Food on Carnival Panorama

For most of the dinners on the cruise ship, we dined at the Vista Dining Room. Like many other cruises, dining in the dining room is complimentary with the cruise. We like to dress a little more decent when we dine at the dining room, even if some of the other passengers don't. On this cruise, I was especially impressed with their desserts and some of the appetizers in the dining room.

Vista Dining Room Entrees - What I Picked

There were times when I was so hungry that I devoured my entrees before I got a chance to take a picture of them! So, usually by the time dessert rolled around, I was full enough to remember to take a snap before devouring it! That is why I have more photos of desserts than appetizers (starters) and dinner entrees!

(Escargot as starter)
(Poke Bowl as a starter)
(Broiled steak as main entree)
(Fish entree as main entree)
(Crumble type of dessert)
(Sponge-like dessert)
(Citrus flavored dessert)
(Baked Alaska ice cream dessert)
(Peanut-free Cookies; freshly baked for one of my kids after telling the dining room attendants that he has an allergy)

Guy's Pig & Anchor Food Review

For breakfast and lunch, we typically dined at the Marketplace Buffet, but we also took advantage of Guy's Pig & Anchor for one of our lunches because we typically had to pay extra to eat there for dinner. For lunch, they were only open for a couple of hours and we lined up right outside, near the patio area of the restaurant to pick up lunch there, cafeteria style! They scooped all of the dishes for you as you tell them which of the four meats you'd like. I picked all four! See my plate below. They were all delicious!

I found out later, as we encountered more passengers, and had small talk that there were some who didn't know that Guy's Pig & Anchor was complimentary for lunch so make sure you check your Carnival app when you're on board to see what are all the free options and their hours for lunch every day!

JiJi Asian Kitchen

There was typically an extra charge for JiJi Asian Kitchen for dinner time, but for lunch, they offered a Mongolian Wok menu that was complimentary. Although I didn't take any pictures here, we ate here twice for lunch! The noodles were very tasty! They offered rice noodles and yellow wheat noodles as entree options. I highly recommend taking advantage of their complimentary entrees for lunch to shake things up a bit!

First Port Stop: Puerto Vallarta

All Inclusive Las Caletas Beach Hideaway Review at Puerto Vallarta Stop

We had a wonderful experience on the excursion that we picked for our family at Puerto Vallarta. After getting off of the Carnival Ship, we looked for a sign with the name of our excursion. Then, when it was time, they led us to a boat where they took us to Las Caletas, a pretty cool secluded hideaway beach with many activities. Lunch, an open bar, and all activities, which included: paddle boating, kayaking, kids adventures (zip lines, donkey rides and rope climbing just for kids!), and viewing sea creatures! It kept us busy all day. I highly recommend booking the 'All Inclusive Las Caletas Beach Hideaway' excursion as an adventure.

Having lunch was the first thing we did when we got to the island! The Las Caletas lunch buffet was very delicious! It's only open between a certain time frame so make sure you eat as much as you can before you start walking on their trail to the beach to start adventuring. The kids really enjoyed the Kids Adventure! We accompanied them while they were riding the donkeys so got to participate a bit as parents. Then, we observed from a distance as they ziplined, climbed and hiked. 

Afterwards, my husband and older son swam while my younger son and I kayaked. It was a fun day! The excursion was so worth it!

Second Port Stop: Mazatlan

The day after our first stop at Puerto Vallarta, we had our second stop: Mazatlan. We knew each port stops were just 1 day apart from each other and since we had such a busy day at Puerto Vallarta with the excursion, we opted to not do an excursion for Mazatlan, since we we were also going on another excursion for our third (and last) stop. I was pretty tired, and so were the kids. We just walked around the shops that the complimentary shuttle immediately took us to. Then, within an hour of shopping at Mazatlan, we just hopped back on the shuttle to get back on cruise ship to enjoy fun activities on the cruise ship. We took advantage of the fact that most of the passengers were exploring at Mazatlan to have a nice and smooth adventure around the cruise ship with less crowd. The kids enjoyed hours of "kids choice" that was on the itinerary that day at the kids club at Camp Ocean (read my full review of Camp Ocean below), and my husband and I had a quick lunch at JiJi Asian Kitchen for their complimentary Mongolian Wok menu again.

Third (Last) Port Stop: Cabo San Lucas

Our last stop at Cabo San Lucas was my favorite stop on this 7 Day Mexican Riviera Cruise by Carnival. The place was so beautiful with clear ocean water and a landscape with peaks and valleys.

All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snorkel Review at Cabo San Lucas Stop

As mentioned earlier, we booked an excursion here. The excursion name was: All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snorkel Excursion. It included a snorkeling adventure on a sailboat, a snack tray at the beginning of the trip and a lunch towards the end of the trip. They also included fun alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. We had a blast! The service by their crew was very amazing and their communication throughout the way about boat rules, safety and our plans was very reassuring. Shoes were not allowed on the boat, so we left our shoes at the dock.

There were passengers who booked specific boat trips just to see the arch in Cabo San Lucas, but with this All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snokel excursion, we also got to see the famous arch and other cool landmarks.

When we got to our snorkeling spot, the water was so clear that I could easily see all of the fishes just from standing on the boat! My husband and my older son went snorkeling to get a really close look and swam with the fishes.

There were less than a dozen passengers on this sailboat so I felt like we got to have a more private experience in Cabo San Lucas. It was a bit pricey and my kids couldn't enjoy the snacks and lunch that they provided, because of their allergies, but they still had a great time and made great memories with us! You can view a short video of our personal adventure on the All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snorkel at Cabo San Lucas.

Complimentary Kids Club on Carnival Panorama - Camp Ocean

Almost every day on the cruise, my kids enjoyed stopping in at the kids' club on Carnival Panorama to partake in one of their events on the itinerary and mingled with other kids. The name of the kids' club for my kids' age group is Camp Ocean. On their itinerary at Camp Ocean, there were fun themed parties, STEAM projects, craft time and more. A "wow" factor on this cruise was they even provided a phone for us so that the kids' club staff could be in contact with us quickly while the kids were being supervised by their youth staff there. We had never been given a phone before and we'd been on 5 different cruise ships before this one! I felt that this was extraordinary service and I liked it!

Fun Activities on the Panorama Cruise Ship

There were a lot complimentary activities for adults and kids on the Carnival Panorama Cruise Ship! They had a few pools, hot tubs and also a water park area! Other complimentary activities included: SkyRide, Rope Course, Mini-Golf, Chess, Foosball, Ping Pong, Shuffleboard and Basketball.

Waterpark with Waterslides and Splash Pad

I was really impressed with the waterpark on the Carnival Panorama Cruise Ship! There were two nice water slides (with a minimum height requirement for both) and a big splash pad area for all to enjoy!

SkyRide & Rope Course

My husband went on both the SkyRide and Rope Course. He did the SkyRide one by himself, but went on the Rope Course with my younger son. If you're afraid of heights, I wouldn't recommend participating on these. However, for the adrenaline junkie, these were great! There was a minimum height requirement for both as well!

Mini-Golf, Chess, Foosball, Ping Pong, Shuffleboard, and Basketball Court

My kids, my husband, and I played mini-golf, foosball and ping pong together. These activities provided a great way to bond together as a family and get some fresh air. We didn't get a chance to play shuffleboard on board, but I did shoot some basketball shots while everyone was sleeping one early morning by myself! My sons also played Chess together one afternoon.

Daily Itinerary

Every day on the cruise was a different itinerary. There was free music entertainment every day in the Promenade and Piano Bar. We could also participate in fun trivia events and contests. They always gave us a print out of the daily itinerary for the next day the night before, but we could always check on the app to see the entire itinerary for the entire cruise.

Sky Zone Trampoline Park and Arcades (Extra Costs)

There was a Trampoline Park on this cruise ship called Sky Zone so we paid a bit extra for the kids to jump around on the last afternoon of our stay. The kids really enjoyed it. It was organized play for 50 minutes. They got to keep the orange socks that they provided for jumping!

To play video games, the kids could play for free at Camp Ocean on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox consoles. However, for different games, there was an arcade on Level 6. You just use your stateroom key to charge for credits for any game. We only went there a couple of times.

We had a really fun Christmas vacation on the Panorama Cruise Ship by Carnival. Every night, I felt so blessed to have had a wonderous view of the sea. We can't wait for our next cruise adventure! View reviews for our past cruises.

Cruise Tips Specifically for the 7 Day Mexican Riviera from Carnival Cruise:

• Be prepared to not be able to park at the Long Beach Port. For a shorter Carnival cruise that we also embarked on from this Long Beach port in the past, the parking situation was really easy. We drove in, found parking and parked. There was ample parking. However, for this particular cruise for the month of December, there were not enough parking spaces, so after being stuck in traffic for over 1.5 hours to get to this parking lot for what was supposed to just a 10 minute commute from our Hyatt hotel that we stayed at, they told us we had to park somewhere else! They gave us a flyer with an address and told us we had to park elsewhere only once we entered the parking lot! They gave us the option to drop off the heavy luggage for bag check-in at their bins first, if we wanted to do that. Since we were already there, my husband dropped off the heavy luggage with my sons and me. However, he had to leave the parking structure to find parking at the Convention Center Parking Lot, which was what the flyer instructed him to do. It was a big fiasco! Thank goodness, our family had allotted enough time to do this. Otherwise, we would've been late. So, my husband dropped us off, drove to the Convention Center Parking Lot, which was literally next to the hotel that we had stayed at, then had to wait for a bus to get back to the Long Beach Port! After being stuck in traffic for 1 mile for 1.5 hours, this took almost another hour! I asked a worker there if this last minute parking situation happens often and he said, "no", and that it's because a couple cruises were still out at sea and haven't made it back yet, so there were still cars parked from earlier embarkation. So, be prepared for all that if you're planning on traveling during a busier season like we did for the Carnival Cruise. Allot more time for last minute parking changes like this!
• Stay close to the Long Beach Port the night before, if you're commuting from faraway. We live about a 4 hour drive away from Long Beach and knew Los Angeles traffic is unpredictable, so to be more rested by the time we embarked, we decided to stay at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach the night before our embark day. The Hyatt Regency Long Beach is only 1.7 miles away from the Long Beach Port. I thought that it was a very pleasant stay and liked the hotel! It's centrally located and had a lot of stores nearby, where we could walk to. If I could do it all over again, I would leave to park at the Long Beach Port for the Carnival Cruise a lot sooner, like 2 hours sooner, so that we could know about the parking situation before all the bad traffic started! We thought our close proximity gave us enough time to just relax at the hotel and do the Swan Paddle Boat Ride! See a short clip of our Swan Paddle Ride Adventure at the Hyatt Long Beach below. We'll skip the paddleboating next time.
  
• Pack bug spray for Mexico. When we arrived in Mexico, my younger soon got bug bites. We brought a bottle of bug spray, but had forgotten to spray it on him and he ended up bringing home 5 welts as a souvenir. So pack the spray and remember to use it, too.