Los Angeles to the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise Reviews

I choose the Vista because of its new design and elegance. I was fully expecting to enjoy the high end Oceania service and quality, but mush to our disappointment it fell far short of the normal service and quality of food. I booked this on opening day over 2 years ago and was looking forward to this marvelous itinerary that showcase our ability to enjoy this brand new ship. Right of the bat the ...

Wanted to transit through the Panama canal. Having been on Oceania before we were looking forward to this cruise. Previously we were really impressed with the service and food. Sadly Oceania's standards have dropped greatly. The quality of the staff on board is not very good. One is constantly trying to get service and often we have had to resort to find the restaurant manager and asking ...

My friend had previously taken several transatlantic cruises with Cunard many years ago and was excited to try their Panama Canal cruise, so I decided to go with her. Cunard positions themselves as a premium cruising line and prices their cruises accordingly, with emphasis on dressing up for dinner, unfortunately the experience doesn’t justify the pricing. It was billed as a regular cruise ...

The itinerary seemed both exciting and romantic. Plus, there was no overseas travel involved for us (from Chicago). We were also looking to sail on the Queen Elizabeth. An unexpected bonus was successfully bidding on a Princess Grills cabin. Everything came together even better than we had hoped. We loved the QE and being in the Grills for 14 days was just amazing. The value is clearly there. The ...

We lived in San Francisco 50 years ago and wanted to combine a nostalgic stay there with a leisurely cruise back to England via the Panama Canal and Atlantic crossing. Oddly we were unable to board in SF and had to fly to LA whilst we met passengers on board who had had to do the reverse! Cunard or Imagine Cruising to blame? Who knows. As regular Celebrity cruisers we were a little anxious ...

We have been on Princess Cruise previously in 2013 (Sapphire Princess) and really enjoyed our cruise great food and amenities , we felt cared for with nice communal areas and good restaurants so felt confident that it would be of a similar standard for an enjoyable cruise. What a let down! On a positive embarkation was easy and staff were very helpful. I agree with previous review on this ...

We took this cruise because it had a full transit of the Panama Canal. This was the last cruise with this itinerary for the season. A Panama Canal transit had been on our bucket list for a long time, but it has taken many years for a cruise with a schedule that made it doable considering our work schedules. We have cruised with many lines and this was our first (and only) cruise with Princess. ...

We chose this cruise because it was a complete transit of the Panama Canal. The cruise had 5 stops plus a full day transiting the canal. Stops were Puerto Vallarta and Huatulco, Mexico; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Panama City, Panama; and Cartagena, Columbia. We booked local tours through Travel Advisor for all ports but Puntarenas which we booked through Princess. The Princess tour in ...

Chose this ship because it had a Pickleball court and we wanted to play a lot on sea days. On the first day we headed to deck 19 to play only to discover that the plastic playing surface did not allow the ball to bounce at all. The net was in disrepair and everything was covered in soot from the smoke stack. Not possible to play and sure why the court even exists. On day 2 I went to the Fitness ...

The Emerald Princess is a roomy ship with plenty of outdoor space. I was most impressed with all of the staff. Shows were great. I did notice some cutbacks in the choices of food in the MDR. Overall, it was a great trip. Plenty of daily actives and enjoyed the pool at the back of the ship. Our third trip on the Emerald, we had never gone thru the Panama Canal or been to the ports of Huatulco, ...