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Birthday Party Ideas for Kids in San Luis Obispo

February 9, 2025
Minecraft Birthday Party Favor

Planning a birthday party that's just right for the season can be tricky. There are questions about whether it should be family with relatives only, with friends only or both? So far, we have hosted birthday parties for our sons at Pacific Flips Gymnastics, Pismo Bowl, Ravine Waterpark with a canopy rental, and at Pismo Beach on the sand where we brought and set up our own canopy (literally on the beach).

For each birthday party that we had planned out here on the Central Coast, it has been a success and our birthday boys had a great time!

Pacific Flips Gymnastics Birthday Party

Pacific Flips has two locations: Grover Beach and Santa Maria. We've planned a birthday party for our child at the Grover beach location and had an excellent experience with organized play and music! Their birthday packages are either for 90 minutes or 2 hours. Parents are welcome to come watch and when we planned this for our kindergartener, all of the parents stayed to watch.
Pacific Flips Birthday Party Review
They set up 2 tables ahead of time per your reservation and you just bring your decorations. I came 15 minutes early to and set up the tables they provided with a Minecraft theme. This was my decoration for our son's birthday party below:
Minecraft theme birthday party idea
I want to note that we had the party at the older Pacific Flips Grover Beach location. They have moved since to a different part in Grover Beach.
For more pictures and details, read about our detailed experience
in this Pacific Flips Birthday blog entry.


Pismo Bowl Birthday Party

Pismo Bowl Kids Party

Located in the central area by the Pismo Beach Pier, Pismo Bowl was a great spot to host my son's 11th birthday. We invited 5 of his friends and their families to bowl with us. It was a great time for a dozen of us. We did a birthday package and reserved the spot ahead of time. I came 15 minutes early to decorate the two tables that were reserved for us for food.We had 2 hours to ourselves with two bowling lanes, side by side.
Bowling in Pismo Beach
After we bowled together, we continued to hang out together at the arcade where everyone got to roam around a little more. I highly recommend coming here for a birthday party, especially if you have a winter birthday. Address: 277 Pomeroy Ave, Pismo Beach, CA 93449


Ravine Waterpark Birthday Party

Ravine Waterpark Canopy Review

Since the canopies at the Ravine Waterpark can get sold out during the summer, I booked a canopy for the exact spot of my choice as soon as the waterpark allowed me to book for the season. This waterpark is located in Paso Robles and is only open during the summer and since one of my sons has a summer birthday, we had a birthday party here with just our family (my husband, older son, birthday boy and me), the grandparents, and an uncle and his fiancé. The canopy rental does not include tickets also you would also need to buy tickets and order food a la carte. With a canopy rental, we had a designated server who came and checked in on us periodically so we never had to wait in a line to order. Here's a video tour of the exact cabana that we rented at Ravine Waterpark below:

Read more details about Ravine Waterpark on my blog entry about Ravine Waterpark.

Other Birthday Party Ideas for Kids:

The list below are places that I haven't hosted a birthday at, but I've visited these places personally and feel that it would be great for kid's birthday parties! So, here are some more ideas:

Mustang Waterpark Birthday

Even though we've never hosted a birthday party at Mustang Waterpark in Arroyo Grande before, we have rented a canopy as a celebration for our son's birthday with just the four of us! It was at the tail end of the pandemic. My birthday boy still had a great time and made some random friends there. The canopy space there is smaller than the Ravine Waterpark, but I feel that it's more appropriate if you have little ones the water park is smaller and you can keep track of the kids a bit better. Like Ravine Waterpark, when you rent a canopy, a designated server comes around and takes your order periodically so you never have to get in line to order food.
Mustang Waterpark Canopy Review
Read my full detail review of Mustang Waterpark.


Central Coast Aquarium Birthday 

For a 2 hour slot, you can have a birthday party for your child at the Central Coast Aquarium in Avila Beach. They host birthday parties on Saturdays and Sundays.  Their minimum birthday packages is pricey but it's very engaging and is complete with decorations.
Central Coast Aquarium Birthday Party Idea
To see more pictures of the aquarium, read our review blog entry of Central Coast Aquarium. I've volunteered to chaperone at a field trip here before so got to have a more private party experience.


San Luis Obispo Children's Museum Birthday

San Luis Obispo Children's Museum Birthday

This children's museum offers a birthday package experience and there have been many times where I've considered booking a birthday package here, but felt that it would be hard to connect with families and have the kids mingle with each other throughout the timeframe because the space is three stories big! However, I have no doubt little kids would have fun here! We've been to San Luis Obispo Children's Museum for their free Moonlight Hours and the kids can spent at least an hour or two here! Read my full review of San Luis Obispo Children's Museum.


As always, you could always reserve a spot at a park with the city office for a particular date within San Luis Obispo County for parties.

Go to the SLO family-friendly restaurants section to see restaurants with a play area. These places are also great options for birthday parties.

List of Things To Do Just for Fun in San Luis Obispo County With Kids

 

El Mirador in Pismo Beach Permanently Closed

February 5, 2025

A month ago, I dined at El Mirador and raved about how they made a fantastic California burrito on instagram.
El Mirador Pismo Beach Closed
Then, today, I walked down the same street to check them out again and realized they are now permanently closed.

The exact message they had on their window was this:
"Permanently closed
From the bottom of our hearts,
thank you for over 28 years of support - El Mirador"

El Mirador is Closed El Mirador Pismo Beach

I'm sad that they permanently closed, but glad that I was able to enjoy their California burrito before El Mirador closed a few weeks after.

Within a week of each other, I've visited a brand new coffee shop named Dulce Cafe in Grover Beach as they just grand opened, and then I tried to visit a different shop that was opened for 28 years, to find that they have permanently closed. Life can be ironic.

Read My Reviews for Restaurants in Pismo Beach

 

Arroyo Grande Oil LLC on Credit Card or Bank Statement

February 1, 2025

I was checking my credit card statement and I saw a post for $170 by "Arroyo Grande Oil LLC" that was noted as a personal transaction.

I was very alarmed to see this! So I called my credit card company by locating the customer service toll free number that was printed on the back of my credit card. When I got to a real live representative, I asked them if they could help provide more context on where that charge was coming from and they said there's a telephone number tied to that post. The number is: "8054735400". I googled that number and it linked to the City of Arroyo Grande Website as their main number! Then, I remembered that my son recently took a Winter Camp at the Arroyo Grande Chamber of Commerce office for that very amount. (I know, winter break day camps can be expensive!) So, I felt silly and was relieved that it was for my son's Winter Camp so I didn't dispute the charge. However, it's quite odd that a Winter Camp transaction would show up as "Arroyo Grande Oil LLC" on my statement. What are your thoughts on that?

Before calling the credit card company, I thought someone must have fraudulently used my credit card to get gas and other things. I was really concerned. I'm glad that's not the case, but I think if there's another person who regular checks their credit card statement, like I do and sees that transaction, they wouldn't initial think that it's the City of Arroyo Grande's account for a kid's day camp. The word "Oil" and the LLC part threw me off, for sure.

I wanted to blog it here in case someone was getting super concerned like I did, and a google to this post might offer them some relief.

Organizing Ideas:

 

LEGOLAND California Hotel Stay Review Around Christmas Time

January 7, 2025
Legoland at Christmas Time in Carlsbad

We started the new year with a LEGOLAND vacation! I am a native San Diegan, born and raised, but have moved away after I got married. Coming back to San Diego to visit LEGOLAND California is especially nostalgic to me as I used to work for a software company that builds booking engines that sold tickets online, and the client at LEGOLAND used to invite me to visit them for free every year, before I even had kids!

I don't get free tickets anymore, but as a mom, I still try to find deals online to save money. We took advantage of the veteran discounts for the hotel stay and attraction tickets since my husband is a veteran. If you're a military family, make sure you check the military or veteran rates first. Sometimes LEGOLAND does offer deals on their main LEGOLAND website that is for everyone and not just military families like occasionally the $39 kid's ticket deal or free kids tickets with adult ticket purchase. I suggest taking the extra time to shop around and compare to find the best deals. If you have the DD-214 form, you can upload it to GOVX.com and oftentimes get a better deal for veterans for many different attractions. We currently don't live very close to a military base so online options is what we focus on. When I was a military wife, before my husband finished his last military term, we were able to get really good deals on Disneyland tickets at the Navy base when we lived in San Diego!

Benny Dancing at LEGOLAND 

As a Christmas present and to celebrate the new year, taking our sons to LEGOLAND and staying at the LEGOLAND California Hotel were a surprise! They had an amazing time and to me, this was our favorite trip compared to the past two LEGOLAND family visits that we've had.

LEGOLAND California Hotel VS. LEGOLAND Castle Hotel

A few years ago, we stayed at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel, which is also located within the resort and just yards away from LEGOLAND California Hotel. Therefore, we have stayed at both the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel and LEGOLAND California Hotel. See a couple of pictures of the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel that I took. It's quite different from the LEGOLAND California Hotel because LEGOLAND Castle Hotel looks just like a castle, while LEGOLAND California Hotel looks more like a LEGO hotel, but still offers a few different types of rooms. We picked the Pirate/mermaid theme. You could also pick an Adventure theme or a Ninjago theme. The exterior architecture of the LEGOLAND California Hotel showcases more on the large LEGO bricks that we all know very well. It's very exciting to approach the entrance for the first time! I actually prefer staying here at LEGOLAND California Hotel than the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel!

LEGOLAND California Hotel Entrance Picture

In front of the main entrance of the LEGOLAND California Hotel is a dragon that actually blows steam periodically! It was so fun to see! Because our room was located on the front end of the hotel, we could actually hear it blow steam whenever it did! Below is the picture of the view from our window.

View of Room at LEGOLAND California Hotel

One of the best things that made staying at one of LEGOLAND's hotels more worth it than staying at a Carlsbad hotel outside of the LEGOLAND property was that we got to go the LEGOLAND attraction park 45 minutes before it was open to the rest of the visitors! Furthermore, the breakfast buffet was included with our stay and it was a pretty good buffet too! It had eggs, sausages, bacon, a line of pastries, oatmeal, yogurt, biscuits and gravy, pancakes or French toast (depending on the day), chilaquiles, all you can drink coffee and soft drinks and more! Unlike staying at a Disneyland Hotel, staying at a LEGOLAND hotel offers complimentary breakfast with no extra cost! It's just part of the room stay and the walk to the main attraction park walk was easy and super close! Even though breakfast was free at the Bricks Family Restaurant inside of LEGOLAND California Hotel, you should still make a reservation for the time that you'd like to dine with your family. I want to note that the restaurant looks really different from the picture that they had on their website.

Bunk Beds in LEGOLAND California Hotel Room

My kids' favorite part about our hotel room was that they had bunk beds with their own TV in their own kid's section of the room! The hotel also supplied some legos in the room for the kids to build as well. You can view a video of their bunk beds in the top video that I've embedded towards the top of this blog entry. I took a video, instead of a photo.

Hotel Room Picture of LEGOLAND California Hotel Bathroom Picture at LEGOLAND California Hotel

I really enjoyed the parents' bed too with a pirate theme and a view. I especially liked how clean our bathroom was. The decorations with pirate/mermaid-themed legos were wonderful! I want to highlight that the bathroom does not have a lock, so although we could slide the door closed, we weren't able to lock it for privacy.

Check In Process

A few years ago, when we stayed at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel during the pandemic, the check-in process was very annoying and stressful! The check-in time was 4PM, but we had to wait around until 6PM to be able to get into our rooms because they were still cleaning and sanitizing them!

LEGOLAND Check In in Carlsbad

It's 2025 now and the check in process for LEGOLAND California Hotel was much easier! The check-in time was 4PM as well, but they kindly informed us via email that our room was ready around 2:30PM! Not only that, when we arrived in the lobby, we could do self check-in using kiosks which made the process so easy! There was a personnel who did come around to check to see if we had any questions and gave both of my sons a lanyard as a gift. I thought that was very nice! Right after checking in, we started a scavenger hunt to find the code for the treasure box in our room. Inside the box were two sets of legos and a magazine. I didn't take a picture of this, but I love how LEGOLAND went the extra mile with customer service and making sure the kids had a great memory to bring back home. If you would like to see a picture of the treasure box to unlock, I did take a picture of it at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel when we stayed there 3 years ago. See the treasure box from LEGOLAND Castle Hotel during our past stay.

2 Day at LEGOLAND and SEA LIFE

Our tickets were a 2 Day Ticket for LEGOLAND AND SEA LIFE. We spent the first day going to only a few of the rides because by the time we had arrived at the resort, it was already 1PM and the lines for some of the rides were really long. In between having fun at the LEGOLAND attraction park, we check-in and relaxed for a bit before coming back there to ride more rides until they closed at 7PM. (Every season, the hours are different so check their website before you plan your vacation.)

2nd Day at LEGOLAND Carlsbad SEA LIFE Aquarium Review

On the 2nd day, we took advantage of the early park entry as a hotel guest there and my kids got to ride on more rides that they didn't get to ride on the day before at the LEGOLAND park. We also visited the SEA LIFE Aquarium on the 2nd Day as well. The SEA LIFE Aquarium is small, but the kids still had fun getting stamps and touching the sea anemone. See my video of our 2nd Day at LEGOLAND/SEA LIFE below.

I've been to SEA LIFE Aquarium about 6 times between 2010 - 2025 and it didn't seem to have changed very much within these 15 years. Our ticket included a visit to SEA LIFE, so that is why we visited again.

My kids are 10 and 8 years old now, so it won't be very long until my kids will start to prefer other vacation activities. I'm grateful that my kids really enjoyed our LEGOLAND Vacation this time and I hope to be able to come back one more time with them before they become teenagers.

Building LEGOs at LEGOLAND California LEGOLAND Wall(My older son and I built legos together at LEGOLAND and placed them on their wall self at the LEGO WORLD area.)

Related Reading Suggestions About LEGOLAND:

LEGO Sets for Building

 

7 Day Family Carnival Cruise to Mexican Riviera Review

December 30, 2024

Carnival Cruise Review for 7 Day Riviera

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

Stateroom for four with bunk beds on Carnival Cruise View of Puerto Vallarta from Stateroom with Balcony

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. 

Rabbit Towel Art With Missing Eye Elephant Towel Art on Carnival Cruise Turtle Towel Art on Carnival Cruise Heart Towel Art on Carnival Cruise

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 on Carnival Panorama Cruise (Escargot as starter)
Poke Bowl Starter on Dining Room on Carnival Cruise (Poke Bowl as a starter)
Broiled Steak Dining Room at Vista Dining Room on Carnival (Broiled steak as main entree)
Seafood Dinner Entree at Dining Room on Carnival Panorama (Fish entree as main entree)
Crumble Dessert on Carnival Cruises Review (Crumble type of dessert)
Dessert Portion in Dining Room on Carnival Cruise Line (Sponge-like dessert)
Desserts in Vista Dining Room on Carnival Cruise (Citrus flavored dessert)
Baked Alaska on Carnival Cruise Picture (Baked Alaska ice cream dessert)
Peanut-free Cookies for Kids on Carnival Cruise (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!

Guy's Pig & Anchor Food Review

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

Puerto Vallarta Stop on Carnival Cruise

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.

Las Caletas Island Excursion Review Restrooms at Las Caletas

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

Mazatlan Port Stop on Carnival Cruise

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

Cabo San Lucas Port View from Carnival Cruise Cabo San Lucas Stop on Mexican Riviera

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.

All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snorkel Excursion Carnival Review Cabo Adventures Sailboat Picture of Food on All Inclusive Luxury Day Sail & Snorkel Excursion

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.

Picture of Arch in Cabo San Lucas Cabo San Lucas and Jeff Bezos Vacation Mansion

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.

Fishes Water in Cabo San Lucas Snorkeling Picture at Cabo San Lucas

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!

Phone for Camp Ocean on Carnival Panorama

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!
Waterpark on Carnival Panorama Review

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!
Sky Ride Review
Rope Course Review on Carnival Cruise

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.
Mini Golf Picture on Carnival Panorama Rope Course and Chess Picture on Carnival Cruise on Panorama

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.

Music on Carnival Cruise Piano

Sky Zone Trampoline Park and Arcades (Extra Costs)

Trampoline Park Review on Carnival Panorama

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.

Night View of the Sea on Carnival Cruise

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.
 

About Me


San Luis Obispo Mom Originally from San Diego, California, I'm a San Diego State University alumna, veteran's wife and mom of two kids who were born two years apart. After living on the East Coast for 6 years, we now reside in San Luis Obispo County and here, the exploration continues. In between work and momming it, I like to exercise.
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