I had always wanted to take a Panama Canal cruise ever since seeing the canal while I was down in Panama with the Army. Just wanted to do it in a little more luxurious manner this time. We booked a 10-day partial transit of the canal on the Island Princess. Overall the cruise was great and we loved the Island Princess. On to the details.

We flew down to MIA the day before and had a car service take us up to Fort Lauderdale for our stay at the Embassy Suites on 17th. Car service was very efficient and cost the same as a cab. For some odd reason it seems to take forever to get luggage at MIA. Hotel was nice hotel and meet our needs. We meet some folks from our roll call for dinner at the Quarterdeck, which was great. Got some wine the next morning at Publix that was walking distance to the hotel. Surprisingly, Publix had an excellent selection of wine. Had planned on taking a cab to the pier, but the hotel had a cheaper deal $7 PP via a van so we opted for that. Arrived at the Pier about noon and embarkation was fast and easy. There was no line to wait in and we were on the ship within 20 minutes of arrival. Dropped our carry-ons in the room and off to eat lunch, explore the ship, and attend our meet and greet.

This was the first time we had been in the Island Princess and we loved the size of the ship, layout, etc. Never had a problem finding a seat at a show, deck chair, etc. We had a balcony cabin on the Aloha deck. One word of caution about the Aloha deck is that there is a large overhang which limits the view and picture taking (N/A to the cabins in the bump out) It does block direct sun well, but to me it was a hinderance. The only thing we ever had to wait for was a table at dinner. We had anytime dinning and usually had a part of 4 or more and ended up with a pager. I asked the Matre'd about the wait and he said that many folks from second seating were going to anytime dinning which was causing the delays. Apparently they did not enforce the seating. Not a big deal. We did get taken up to the traditional dinning room several times for anytime dinning by the Matre'd so they did their best to work around it. Wait was never really long. Read more