Exotic Panama Canal is a 15 day cruise on Island Princess. This was our fifth cruise on Princess (out of a total of 11 cruises) but our first with them since July 2005. Another Member has already submitted a review of this cruise so I will try not to duplicate her assessment where we agree. We flew in a day early and stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Airport and CruisePort hotel. An excellent choice because it offers shuttles from the airport and to the cruiseport. We had an excellent dinner at a fish restaurant close by. The hotel shuttle had us at the terminal by 11:20 and we were in our cabin by 11:40 - the earliest ever.To our complete amazement our bags were waiting for us when we returned from lunch at around 1:15 pm. We had a mini-suite on Caribe deck. It featured a fairly large bathroom with immense tub and a large living room area. Balcony seemed to be regular size. We found it very comfortable and the only complaints would be the sofa, which was stained and very tired looking and our bed, which was not really a queen bed, but rather two twins pushed together with an uncomfortable ridge in the middle which made "snuggling" all but impossible. Our stateroom Steward,"Alvin" was very responsive to requests and kept the room in great condition. However, he seemed to grow disheartened as the cruise wore on (perhaps he was ill). We ate exclusively in the Bordeaux Dining Room, with the exception of our Anniversary evening meal on Valentines Day, when we tried the Bayou Cafe. The food was excellent, especially if we listened to the recommendations of our fabulous waiter at dinner, Ryan. We avoided the Buffet on Lido deck completely, as we have on the two previous cruises, and came home with no cold or cough, again for the third consecutive time. I am convinced staying away from the buffet has several benefits, including less weight gain and staying healthy throughout the cruise. We always used the hand sanitizers provided. A note on "Anytime Dining" - we chose it but as in the past found it to be a bit of a farce. It really is not "anytime" unless you are prepared to come and wait each evening for a table. We like to eat later than the 1st seating for traditional fixed time dining, but earlier than 2nd seating, but in reality you have to accept a time on "Anytime Dining" that is the same as Fixed (5:45 pm) if you want the same table and waiter every evening, which we did. The first evening in the Dining Room was total chaos and included some very bad tempered head waiters and Maitre D as all this was sorted out, but by the second evening everything was fine. The entertainment was very good overall, especially the Production shows and the best one of those was the newest show on the ship "Do You Wanna Dance". A couple of the other entertainers I could have done without (banjo player and harmonica player) but many did enjoy them thoroughly. I thought the cruise staff was about the weakest I have ever witnessed and the Cruise Director was largely invisible during the latter part of the cruise. I noticed at least two of the Cruise staff leaving the ship on disembarkation day, so maybe there was a lot of training going on. The passage through the Panama Canal was the highlight of the cruise and was a very enjoyable day. We ordered the Champagne Breakfast for our balcony and enjoyed it immensely as the scenery passed by. They had someone commenting on the highlights as we sailed through the Canal, but unfortunately to hear him, you had to be in your room or on the open decks. Why they would not broadcast this on the speaker on our balcony is beyond me. Most of the other shore excursions we chose were just so-so, but we really liked the 4x4 expedition in Aruba. We cancelled the shorex in Nicaragua because of a warning that was printed on our tickets about bumpy roads, but it was a mistake to have done so, as other travellers told us it was wonderful. The Shorex Manager, Dave, did an incredible job of explaining the ports and the various excursions - by far the best I have ever heard on a cruise ship. The weather was fabulous throughout the cruise - no rain at all, and temps in the 80's most of the time, until the last three days as we headed towards LA when it cooled down dramatically, reaching the low 50's on disembarkation day. After disembarkation we stayed in LA at the Airport Marriott for two days and toured the area. All in all, a wonderful way to spend our 5th Anniversary, and brought back memories of our Honeymoon on sister ship Coral Princess in 2003. I would not hesitate to sail on Princess again if the itinerary was right. However, we have a slight preference for Holland America and will be sailing in South America with them next February.