We Booked Cheapest Cruise We Could Find for Family: Carnival Panorama

When my husband told me how much it’d cost to take our family of four on an all-inclusive Carnival cruise, I was skeptical.

For about $466 a person — taxes and gratuities included — we’d get six nights in a balcony cabin, two stops in Mexico, and access to onboard entertainment and all-you-can-eat food.

The cost sounded so low that I thought it seemed unlikely the trip would be particularly fun … or even pleasant.

But we’d never been on a cruise before, the price was right, and we were curious. So we packed up our 3-year-old and 2-year-old girls and hoped for the best as we set sail aboard the Carnival Panorama in late September.

Our cruise departed from Long Beach, California, so we also had to pay for plane tickets. However, our family lives in Hawaii, so we’re used to flights taking up the majority of our vacation budget.

Luckily, we had family in California we could stay with prior to embarking, and the West Coast is easier and cheaper for us to access.

And by the end of the trip, we all agreed that our budget vacation was worth every penny.

Our balcony room had just enough space

Once we boarded the ship and headed to our cabin, I was feeling optimistic. Because we have young kids with early bedtimes who take naps, we’d opted for a balcony room.

It cost a little more than an interior or ocean-view room, but the balcony provided a great oasis for my husband and me to play cards or chat after the girls had gone to sleep.

I also liked that it provided some extra space for our family to spread out whenever the room felt too cramped.

Housekeeping visited our small room daily, and our girls looked forward to seeing the animals made out of towels that they left behind.

All in all, the space was surprisingly comfortable, clean, quiet, and easy to live in for a few days.

The ‘all-inclusive’ food felt shockingly high-quality to me

As a bit of a health nut, I was a bit worried about what we’d be eating on board.

I had pictured all-inclusive cruise food as mostly consisting of endless cups of ice cream and unlimited buffets of burgers and fries.

Those sorts of bites were certainly available, but there was way more variety and many more health-conscious options that appealed to both adults and kids.

Some of our favorite bites included grilled chicken with chimichurri, teriyaki salmon, vegetable curry, and chia pudding. The food also tasted shockingly good.

The buffet exceeded my expectations, plus our cruise included access to numerous sit-down restaurants on the ship. The ones we visited had equally impressive food, plus an above-and-beyond wait staff who helped us get the girls through sit-down meals.

For those who have traveled with kids, finding food for little ones multiple times per day can be exhausting (and expensive). Having high-quality food at our fingertips at nearly any hour was a huge perk of our cruise experience.

There were tons of options for free entertainment on the ship

Before we left, I expected my family to live at the pool and buffet, mostly because I assumed there wouldn’t be much else to occupy us on the ship.

Instead, I found that each day had an itinerary loaded with activities and shows, many of which were included in the cost of our cruise.

A lot of our time was spent doing kid activities, such as story time and mini golf, but we were pleasantly surprised at how many “grown-up” activities we participated in. Trivia and live music were just as fun for the kids as they were for us (though I would recommend using the ship’s complimentary childcare service during any comedy shows).

There were plenty of activities to keep us occupied without spending any more money, but we did opt for a few extras.

A Dr. Seuss breakfast — complete with green eggs and ham — was worth the splurge, as was the Build-a-Bear Workshop experience, where the girls could make their own stuffed animals.

All in all, the whole family agrees: Our favorite part of each day was listening to free live music while the girls tore up the dance floor after another (amazing) sit-down dinner.

We saved money by doing our own tours instead of booking port-day excursions

This six-night cruise included two days in Cabo and one day in Ensenada. Rather than paying extra to book any special pre-planned excursions, we chose to take port days by storm (and double stroller).

Prior to the cruise, we did our research and mapped out areas in both Cabo and Ensenada that we felt would be accessible to us. Then, we spent port days checking out playgrounds, coffee shops, family-friendly beaches, and taco stands — and even made it back on board for naptime.

Add-on excursions for our family of four could’ve cost us hundreds of dollars, so skipping them saved us a pretty penny and, honestly, a lot of stress.

Planning our own adventures allowed us to travel at our own pace while still getting a feel (and taste!) of the city.

Our cruise wasn’t perfect, but it was honestly pretty close

Six nights was the perfect amount of time for us to feel refreshed and develop a routine, though by the last day, we all craved our own space, and I was grateful we hadn’t chosen a longer cruise.

Although the trip was generally low-stress, I also sometimes wondered whether we were missing out on some of what the cruise and its stops had to offer by sticking to a tight budget.

In hindsight, paying a premium for access to less crowded pools on the ship or booking one formal excursion that allowed us to get a better feel for local culture would have probably enhanced our experience.

Even so, this low-cost cruise not only allowed us to survive a vacation with toddlers but also to enjoy it with minimal stress. We didn’t have to research and track down meal options multiple times a day or adhere to a tight schedule.

And because we hadn’t splurged on a pricey trip, we found ourselves feeling less pressure to optimize every second and more able to live in the moment.

I’m still surprised the cheapest cruise we found was one of the best vacations we’ve ever booked, and I hope future vacations can leave us as impressed as this one.

I definitely look forward to booking another Carnival cruise. Next time, maybe we’ll head to Alaska.