Quick background: Our group - 6 to 12 persons - have been taking an annual 10 day cruise for some years now. Itinerary, availability and sailing dates are the deciding factors so we have been on various Celebrity, Princess, and Holland America ships. We have topped 100 days on these Premium or at least near Premium lines by now, mostly originating from Fort Lauderdale and have a decent perspective on the relative merits of these types of cruises. We recently returned from a 10 day Panama Canal cruise. Aruba, Cartagena, Panama, Costa Rica, Ocho Rios on the Coral Princess. The word for this cruise was - uneven. Some great, most OK, and some remarkably poor.

Embarkation: Great. Arrived at peak time and found no lines, no having to wait to reenter data previously entered. The on-line boarding pass process worked.

Ship entry: OK. No provision to greet passengers or direct them to rooms. Just sort of got dumped into to ship to fend for ourselves. The luggage only arrived at room five hours after boarding. Read more