Stayed the night in Pan Pacific Vancouver & they took care of our luggage the morning of embarkation, so bypassed the luggage cue. No need to pass through U.S.A immigration check until we arrived in Seattle which was another unexpected bonus & were onboard Coral princess by 12.15pm.Prior to leaving New Zealand we pre-purchased shore excursions,unlimited soda & more package & pre-paid gratuities to help save time once onboard.Upon check in we had our drink package sticker on our room card & all our shore excursion vouchers were promptly delivered to our stateroom.

Our first port of call was Victoria where we done the Craigdarroch castle etc excursion and the tour guide was excellent with plenty of history & local knowledge.Seattle was o.k but unfortunately we were late arriving for the Boeing factory tour & it got cancelled.Personally I was more disappointed with the folks off the ship as they were more interested in returning than finding a solution to the problem.Not everyone but 80%.The problem arose due to a immigration delay at port.Princess were fantastic at refunding & apologizing for the inconvenience.Leaving Seattle the stern of deck 10 was a excellent vantage point.Astoria Oregon was a beautiful place along with it's interesting history & antique shops.San Francisco was one of my personal highlights with a memorable trip to Alcatraz,be sure to book early in advance or you'll miss out.Made our own way to the Golden Gate bridge by local bus & enjoyed every minute.Took in some local suburbs on the way back & were intrigued at the authenticity of China town.Los Angeles is a big place so be sure to book a excursion if you want to see the highlights.The USS IOWA is tied up at port which was impressive on it's own.Cabo san lucas Mexico was interesting,we got a water taxi around to the beach & made our way back to the ship,highlights being got hands on with some Macau parrots & Iguana reptiles.Nigcaragua was o.k whilst waiting for our excursion we got a $5 taxi ride around the seaside town that was worth every penny & enjoyed our excursion out to a farm with views of volcanoes & enjoyed the entertainment along with refreshments all included by the lake.Very beautiful place.Costa Rica was a wow factor,be sure to take your binoculars & a good camera.On the excursion to the Macaw sanctuary we had a boat tour where we were lucky to spot three crocodiles in the wild,two of them being huge man eaters.Be sure to check out the Macaw sanctuary the folks there are doing an outstanding job.Be sure to take insect repellant though.Of course the biggest highlight is the Panama canal being a huge engineering feet 100 hundred years old,costing over 5000 lives many due to yellow fever.A great vantage point is the bow & stern of deck 10 where we spent all day from 6am till 5pm taking photos with a lunch break in between.The old city tour in Colombia was pretty good & wasn't as third world as people make out.The fortress was cool along with the museum of the Spanish inquisition.The emerald museum was just a jewerlly shop.You can get some bargains on souvenirs so don't jump on the first guy you see.I'd never heard of Aruba before but see it's a blip on the map off the coast of Venezuela.Was beautiful sailing into port noticing the enticing seaside resorts.We got a taxi to the beach & enjoyed swimming in the clear aqua waters,fantastic.Two days later we were in Fort Lauderdale & our holiday was just about complete.We're happy we took 22nights from Vancouver,or there's 17nights from San Francisco or 15nights from Los Angeles.The food & service onboard was faultless & very professional.Dinner times we ate mostly in the Bordeaux dinning room,where you can order as much or less as you prefer,so if you're a big eater don't be shy.Horizon court was the buffet self service which was also very nice with different selection daily & professional prompt service.If time was on myside though I preferred the silver service where you were made to feel special.Theirs no pleasing everyone though as one lady commented on the chicken broth that it tasted like yesterdays chicken,how she could tell was beyond me.The entertainment onboard was also great.I felt the Princess dancers could have preformed longer shows but the comedians & magicians were outstanding.Being down the front of the theatre at show time was a great place to be for detail.Overall I felt this holiday was great value for money,now I'm home I enjoy browsing for future cruises & are sure to enjoy Scandinavia & Russia in 5 months time onboard the glamorous Regal Princess ;-)