We sailed on Panorama July 30 – August 6. Our cruise background: Family of 4 (2 sons), aged 50, 47, 14, 12. As a family, this is our 5th cruise (with 5 others prior to kids). First Carnival cruise since our first, 20 years ago; we’ve also cruised MSC, NCL, RC, Disney – all Caribbean cruises.

We had an overall excellent time on the Panorama. We enjoyed the variety of activities, food and drinks, and ports. For activities, we spent time on the Sports Deck – played mini golf, foosball, Sky Ride, Ropes Course. Tried out the water slides – Red Fun (tube) was pretty slow. Blue Fun (body slide) was better. We went to some family (PG) comedy as well as some adults only – generally enjoyed this option; comedy is one area that sets Carnival apart. We used the Library for several games of chess throughout the week – this space was actually usually pretty busy. We also attended a couple trivia games – these also were very heavily attended, but a good time. The kids did a session at Sky Zone as well. While they said it was 'ok', it was a one and done (pricing was reasonable - $12/hr including socks). Both of our boys also came and went to the Circle C kids club throughout the week - they thought that this was also, 'just ok' but nothing special. We didn’t attend the main shows - wasn't a fan of the singing shows as we peeked in on several to see if they were worthwhile; for us: no. We also didn't check out the deck parties.

We had stateroom 10274 (which we picked when booking). I really couldn’t have been happier with that selection. Sure, it’s tight with 4 of us, but really had no complaints. Our youngest wanted top bunk (pullman), as did oldest until we told him he could make the lower into a bit of a cave by hanging a sheet down around the upper, which he did and loved. The location on Lido was great for grabbing a snack or a drink. Never did it seem like a bother to run down to decks 4/5 for anything either, though we like to do a lot of walking, so YMMV. Read more