My wife and I just returned from the 10 day Panama Canal Cruise. And I wanted to point out a few things we noticed about this cruise. First off we did have a good time, but we are very flexible travelers. One thing to keep in mind if you take this cruise is DO NOT take kids.

This cruise is geared towards the 60 plus and I mean Plus age group. If you look forward to poolside parties, belly flop and limbo contests this is not going to happen. What you will find is oldies music, people playing bridge and knitting classes. there are two nice kid areas but no real activities for them. There was about 10 kids on our cruise of 3100 passengers. On the plus side there were no screaming children running around slinging half melted ice cream everywhere.

The ship and crew were very nice. The room we had was an interior state room and was the largest interior room we have ever had. But I would not recommend A537 because it was next to the space where the exhaust pipes from the engine room go up to the top of the ship, so there was a constant hum in our room. (My fault for not looking at the deck plan) The stops in Jamacia, Cartegena,Panama,Costa Rica and Grand Cayman were fun and interesting. Here is our travel tip for this and many cruises. Do your research in advance. 90% of the cruise ship excurision you can do yourself and for half the price. First of all don't let the cruise line tell you that you have to take thier excursion. We have found the same activities being sold for half the price as soon as you step on the dock, and 75% less once you get away for the port area. Example princess sold the hop on hop off bus tour for$49.95. we purphased it outside the dock gate for $23.00. So research ahead of time and save a lot of money. We did take a ship excursion in the Canal zone. and had a wonderful tour guide. The only draw back to that trip was our guide had very little interest in letting us shop after a 3 hour walking tour in Panama City, and only relented to stopping after the entire bus instited we stop. Cartegena was amazing but there was not enough time to see much. Princess should really look at arranging the inteneriary to allow for more time there.Now to the biggie. THE FOOD. remember when I said earlier the the cruise was geared for the 60 plus crowd, well guess what. while the food is abundant, and more than you can ever eat, it is bland and was luke warm at best sometimes even cold. The bread was hard as a rock everyday and by day 9 the sight of the breakfast buffet made us ill. The best food on the boat was Planks,Sabatinis, and the Crown Grill, but all of these cost extra. Planks was flavorful and a alot of food. Crown was good. My Porter House steak was very fatty but good (Im a steak Snob) all in all for the price it was ok. Read more