Island Princess Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,228 reviews

Following “The Path Between the Seas” on the Island Princess

Review for the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise on Island Princess
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darkenstormy
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Oct 2009
Cabin: Balcony

Following "The Path Between the Seas" on the Island Princess

Where to next? For me, it's all about the ports, and every cruiser needs to sail a Panama Canal itinerary at least once. But which one? There are both full and partial transits, but both definitions can be imprecise. A full transit from ocean to ocean while aboard the cruise ship may not give an opportunity to venture ashore anywhere in the area, and a partial transit can include the opportunity to both see Panama and transit most of the canal. If you want to go the "full" route, look for repositioning cruises in the spring and fall. But don't dismiss partial transits - offered regularly by Princess on their Panamax twins Coral and Island Princess. My wife and I covered the Canal fully... and hit other highlights... aboard Island Princess on a 10-night roundtrip sailing from Fort Lauderdale from October 11-21, 2009. It was our eighth cruise, and our fourth on Princess.

Pre-cruise hotel options abound in Fort Lauderdale. We chose the Hyatt Place Fort Lauderdale Airport North. A rate just under $100 bought a comfy bed, a noisy A/C and a tepid shower in a clean, modern room with a 42-inch HDTV. Within walking distance are a supermarket and a Total Wine location for any last-minute cruise essentials as well as several restaurants for your last dinner ashore. With great difficulty, we made our way to Kelley's Landing, a "New England" seafood restaurant that lists their address as 17th Street but is actually way down Cordova Road on the right. It was busy and not quite up to New England seafood standards. We should know... we live there, and had flow out of Boston that morning. It's pretty expensive too. There were a few members of our Cruise Critic roll call there, so we had a chance to get acquainted. Then we headed, exhausted, off to the Hyatt Place to collapse. The hotel has a free shuttle from the airport and offers one to the cruise terminal as well, but on embarkation morning there were so many people waiting with their luggage an hour and a half before the first run that we said "No way!" and called a cab. A ten-dollar bill and 10 minutes time got us to Port Everglades.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BA

Good midship location in a quiet area. Caribe deck balconies are much bigger than others!

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