wow what a great trip. we initially chose the Panama as we had cruised before on the coral and wanted to travel on it again. it was going to the Panama and ending back at los Angeles which worked for us to fly back home to New Zealand.\so we started to plan. I have to say I find princess online booking service fantastic and \I book directly with them . the office in Australia have such helpful staff:).

we book all our excursions through princess and were not disappointed. some spent quite a while on the bus, but they are air conditioned and a great way to see the real country for an over view. we spent a couple of days in fort Lauderdale at an excellent hotel with breakfast included. it was just around the corner from the port. we took a walk the day before to see how far it was. but their is a guard so you cant just walk on. we decide to take the hotel shuttle and booked it for the next day. that worked out fine and was not too expensive. the shuttle driver was great and told us all about the ship with a few tips. as we are not priority boarding members the boarding did take a long time. we had bought a little trolley that we took water and soft drinks on board. so had plenty to drink while we waited. once we boarded and got our cruise cards. we were away to explore the ship again and do the lotus spa tour. we had pre booked a couple of massages and manicures. so nice to have treats to look forward to.

I think we also booked for the Dailey lotus spa which you can use every day and they have specials on the first day. it was great on the 7 day cruise we did t \Alaska but we didn't use it every day on this one. you have use of hot beds and saunas. its very peaceful. Read more