My husband and I celebrated our 50th birthdays this year and our 30th wedding anniversary. We really wanted to do something special and after looking at vacation ideas, decided on a cruise. We had never been on a cruise and the Panama Canal was the destination of choice. We looked at several itineraries of different cruise lines and found the one Sun Princess had to offer was perfect for us and gave us the options we wanted.
Our port of embarkment was Fort Lauderdale, and having never been there, we flew in one day early. Ft. Lauderdale was fun and we had a great time. We checked out of our hotel at 11:00 AM and went straight to the ship. We really thought we would have to wait to board, but we didn't. At check in, they took a printed copy of our charge card, gave us our cabin cards which act like a credit card on the ship and away we went. It was so easy and painless, we were surprised.
It was exciting being on a ship this size for the first time. Once on the ship, we found our cabin. Not knowing what to expect, I had booked a balcony room. It was nice, but we were never in our rooms, except to sleep. The balcony was an expensive place to dry our swim suits. Our cabin was C312, the Caribe deck. This was a nice deck, as no rooms had an obstructed view. This deck also had a laundry room on it. This was one thing that was a little tricky, trying to get to the washer and dryer, there are only two. We did bring our own soap and dryer sheets. I am glad we did, so we didn't have to buy any. Being on the ship for 17 days, you do have to wash some clothes, unless you plan on bringing a lot with you. There is not a laundry room on every deck, so sometimes you had to wait until late at night or very early in the morning to use the facilities.