We recently returned from a 10 day cruise on the MS Volendam to the Western Caribbean and Panama Canal and embarked from Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale is an excellent embarkation point, with the cruise terminal and airport only being a a few miles apart. This was our 4th HAL cruise and the Volendam is very similar to the other HAL ships we have traveled on (Ryndam and Rotterdam). Overall, we were quite satisfied with the service. The large libraries on HAL are a great feature--very elegant and comfortable. Last summer, we took the Emerald Princess for a 12 day Mediterranean cruise and were shocked and the closet-size library they had on this brand-new ship. Most of the public lounges are for drinking/ bars. We don't drink or gamble alot, so we find the HAL library (Explorers Lounge) a great place to sit, read, play board games, etc. We use the internet alot for business when we travel and HAL has a better system. On Princess, the internet accounts for the laptop (wireless) are separately-maintained from the workstation accounts, so it was alot harder to keep track of your time on Princess. Because we booked early, we had early seating in the dining room. The food was very good (we think a notch better than Princess). The Lido buffet is also good, but many are prone to overeat there. Eating together in the formal dining room is a sort of cruise ritual for our family and the food and service here did not disappoint us. One nice feature in the entertainment was a string quartet in the Explorers Lounge that played classical music. Also, HAL always has good lectures (a definite step up from Princess). We had a former military officer who lived in the Canal Zone do a five lecture series on the history of the Canal. This promotes the educational aspect of travel, which we do enjoy (We would probably not fit in on Carnival!) HAL's basic cabins are 30 square feet bigger than the new Princess ships and they have bigger bathrooms with a tub. Our first stop was Half Moon Cay and this island definitely exceeded our expectations. The beach is magnificent (brilliant white sand, bright turquoise water) and we enjoyed our morning kayak outing. The ship's crew served a delicious BBQ right on the island, so we did not have to go back to the ship to dine. We could have stayed here another day. After a day at sea, we arrived in Aruba. We booked the Jolly Pirates Snorkel Sail for the afternoon on our own (we arrived at noon, so we missed their morning sailing). This was a great excursion and the highlight was snorkeling over a sunken freighter. Although we stayed in Aruba until 10 p.m., all the shops closed at 5 p.m. ,so there was not much to do offshore after dinner. Curacao is more interesting from an architectural and historic viewpoint than Aruba. In the morning, we took the Willemstad Trolley Train, which is just OK--I would have to rate this one the lowest-value excursion of our cruise. It seemed to me that alot of this tour could be accomplished with a map and self-guided tour. We took a an afternoon cruise excursion to the Best Western Bay Club to beach and snorkel. This was a bit crowded, but had some very nice snorkel spots. Coming from California, this was our first encounter with Caribbean beaches and we love the white sand and warm, clear water. Going through the Panama Canal was a wonderful experience. After watching so many video's on the history of it, it was great to see if firsthand. We were told by so many people how hot and miserable the weather would be and , despite their warnings, it was actually quite bearable. Also, we were worried there would be hundreds of people on deck during the transit and you'd be unable to stand at the railings for pictures. However, that was not the case. There was plenty of room to stand and watch. Many people took advantage of their balconies to watch the Canal transit. We took a cruise excursion that takes you through the rest of the Canal from Gamboa to the Pacific. I strongly recommend this excursion if you are taking a partial transit cruise--it is great to be able to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific like that in just a few hours. The boat on this excursion is crowded, but it still a very interesting trip. Panama City has an impressive Hong Kong-like skyline and we would have liked to visit that city more. Colon, on the other hand, is a gritty, squalid place that we fortunately drove right through. The cruise staff does not even recommend that passengers walk around in Colon. HAL does draw an older crowd. This can be positive at times because the ship is quiet at night and you don't have the boisterous 'party' crowds. On the other hand, this excursion was plagued by alot of elderly passengers having a hard time getting off the excursion boat and up a small ramp. Our middle son was one of the last ones off the boat and I felt like I was watching a nursing home being evacuated. Seeing this reinforces our philosophy of traveling now and not waiting until we're in our 80's to travel and spend some money. One of the negatives on HAL Shore Excursion is going with alot of older people. It slows the group down because it takes longer to get off and on and sometimes they (older cruisers) are not particularly family friendly. In Costa Rica, we booked a tour through Oscar Brown over the internet. We had seen other blogs about this tour and how people liked it. The group was a good size--one family of 3 and us (a family of 5), so 8 in all. A private tour was a nice break after our all-day Canal Excursion. Oscar took us to see a sloth, the Del Monte banana plantation (very interesting), then we went on a an 11-station rain forest zip line trek. This was alot of fund and everyone in our family enjoyed it. Our group was small and our guides were good. This is an excellent way to see the rain forest. After this, we did a 45 minute cruise on the Tortugueros Canal. Our boat ride was cut short a bit as we had to back to the ship at 4 p.m. Oscar Brown's tour was definitely a good value. We would have preferred a longer stop here (Costa Rica)--we had to rush a bit when trying to buy a few souvenirs. The people in Costa Rica are very friendly and have a positive attitude. Sailing back to Fort Lauderdale takes two days at sea. Embarkation was very easy and organized and the short drive to the airport made our travel home uncomplicated. Our children were not keen on taking HAL. Our Mediterranean cruise on Emerald Princess had almost 700 kids (3200 passengers), so they were complaining about that before we got on the ship--but there concerns were unfounded. Our oldest son (age 16) went to the teen group (something he did not do on our Mediterranean cruise) and really connected with the other kids and ended up making alot of friends (even a lady friend, who lives about 30 miles from here!). Our youngest also went to the 'Tween' group and liked it and also made friends. Unfortunately, our middle son (13) was too young for the teen group and too old for the other. I would recommend this trip as a great spring-break getaway for a family.