This is the longest cruise my wife and I have done, and we weren't disappointed. Yes, Adventure is an older ship and needs a refurb, but this itinerary and the ship's staff made this a vacation of a lifetime. We've been cruising since 2003 on Royal, Princess, and Celebrity, but Cartagena, Colon, and Puerto Limon were all first-time ports for us.

We booked a city tour of Cartagena through Royal which was a good way to get a broad view of the area, and had just enough "on our own time" to satisfy our curiosity of this city. While our guide, was knowledgable and friendly, the aggressive peddlers on the streets detracted from an otherwise beautiful city.

For the stop in Colon, we also booked an excursion through Royal. This experience included a tour of the Panama Canal locks at Gatun, as well as a walking tour of Portobello. While we found the locks very interesting, there was only about 45 minutes allotted to this portion of the tour (we wish this would've been longer). The experience in Portobello was a disaster. Royal never should have offered this excursion on Independence Day in Panama. The locals were enjoying their parades, bands, and other festivities and our 40-person bus aggravated an already taxed traffic situation. We felt like we were more in the way in Portobello, and even had to walk along a busy road to find our transportation back to the pier. Read more