My wife and I had been wanting to go to the Pantanal for a couple of years now and we finally went this August. The wildlife was amazing, the lodges were very good and the food was fantastic despite us being vegetarians!
Our first 4 days were in Porto Jofre where we stayed in the Hotel Pantanal Norte for 4 nights. The next couple of night were in Piuval lodge near Pocone.
The wildlife sightings across the 2 locations were brilliant. Porto Jofre was 4 days of 8-9 hr river safaris in the Cuiaba river. And Piuval was land safaris in their sprawling ranch.
About the wildlife - The jaguar sightings (which we mainly went for) were fantastic. We saw about 15-16 jaguars over the 3-4 days of safaris in Porto Jofre. Also had other quality sightings of many tapirs, giant sea otters, giant ant-eaters (in Piuval), marmosets, howlers, capuchins, capybaras, caimans etc. The bird life was superb as well with Jabiru Storks, Hyacinth Macaws, Toucans, Aracaris and so many other species. It was everything we expected it to be!