My wife and I have been cruising the Caribbean at least once or twice a year for the past 30 years. We've been on more ships than I can remember. The couple with whom we were travelling has similar cruise experience. We felt we never saw such a study in contrast before.

We were on the Coral Princess for the 10-day Panama Canal cruise sailing December 14 from Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale). Embarkation was an absolute breeze. We've never been whisked aboard so quickly or effortlessly. There were virtually no other passengers on the pier when we arrived at around 1 PM! Don't know where they were and frankly, never saw most of them on the cruise (more about that later).

On board we were met at the gangway and told where we could find our staterooms. First ship I've been on where someone didn't escort you to your room. Once we found it we tried to find the steward but he was nowhere around. Finally caught another steward who told us our steward was taking some kind of class (uh oh!). This steward gave us the basic information and was kind enough to open the door on the division separating our two balconies to form one long balcony. Read more