This was my 16th cruise and 5th on Princess. The Panama Canal had been on my bucket list for several years and I was glad I had the opportunity to see it in person. The canal is everything you expect, a marvel of engineering and LOTS to see. We arrived (my wife and I) at LAX and were met as usual by the smiling Princess Rep. She said I Remember you, which is quite possible since we cruise out of L.A. Fairly often. We retrieved our luggage and boarded our bus for the ship. Oh wait, we wound up at a Sheraton Hotel. Since we were early the ship was not ready yet so they took our bus to join at least one more bus load in a hospitality room, this was both good and bad. Princess had set out coffee and danish for all and they were doing the check in for the ship, that was the good. Once we got to the ship we merely need to pick up our on board cards. The bad was that we were there for close to 2 hours before being transported to the ship. In these days of airline uncertainty I try to get the earliest flight from my home city which of course means arriving ahead of boarding time if all goes well.I had never been on the Island Princess before, but we had done an Alaskan cruise on the Coral, its sister "Panamax" ship. The ship appeared to be in good condition clean etc. As usual we opted for an "obstructed view" stateroom, quite a savings over regular oceanview or balcony cabins. The room was comfortable, (the beds were a bit hard) and plenty of storage space. Our Room Steward, Ricardo, was EXCEPTIONAL always a big smile and greeting and never did my ice bucket go dry! He told me he had been on the ship since 2003 and it was obvious he loved his job and dealt well with passengers.I do like the Island Princess layout, it is easy to navigate and the elevators were pretty fast. On the ship most everyone was friendly and I think that the activities staff, Nikki, Aries, and Dave were probably the best I have encountered. I had met Nikki before on The Golden Princess so it was good to see a familiar face, Dave had been on the ship for a little over 20 days and Aries had just joined the ship, their enthusiasm was great and they all did a SUPER job! I also joined in the Princess Pop Choir, we had a total of 5 rehersals and then a performance on the second to last sea day in the Atrium. The Atrium on the Princess ships, and several otehr cruise lines, have gained new life with performances bars and eating areas making use of what was formally a desserted territory. Joe Sackenheim from the Princess singers and dancers was our leader, he was a lot of fun to wrok with and I think we sounded pretty good! Well we got a big round of applause when we were through, not sure if it was BECAUSE we were done or that we sounded good. Anyway I enjoyed it! We had anytime dining scheduled for this trip and actually opted out of the dining room several nights as we both felt the menu was not as diverse as it had been on previous Princess Cruises. I actually made the comment that the Horizon Court Buffet food was better and a wide selection than other Princess Cruises we had taken, In general the service in the dining room was OK, but we never did find an exceptional server there. In general the service, filling water glasses and taking away empty plates was very good in the Horizon Court.While I do like the layout of the Island quite well, there are a couple of things I think Princess needs to address. One is the air conditioning system. For a ship that operates in a hot humid climate the air conditioning system seemed TOTALLY INADEQUATE! This was especially noticeable on port days when doors were open and the hot humid air would come rolling in the Atrium and the mid ship elevators. I suggested that thye may want to consider an air curtain, like you often see at the mall stores to help keep the heat out of the ship, but even on sea days the central of the ship was at times quite uncomfortable. Our stateroom A/C was barely adequate even after I had maintenance there twice to increase the airflow. The only way to keep it comfortable was to keep the drapes closed all day. Glad I didn't pay for an UN-obstructed oceanview cabin. The other area was the Internet Cafe, while the facility layout is pretty decent, 2 different areas, the computer system was SLOW SLOW SLOW and many times the computers would lock up after you signed on eating up your precious minutes. I filed two complaints and each time after I did it seems that they must have reset the server as the system did work a bit better. The Internet Cafe Manager was LESS than helpful and gave some lame lip service the one time I verbally complained.We only scheduled one shore excursion that being the train in Panama City. This is a WASTE of money as the train really doesn't allow much of a view of the Canal, in-spite of what is written in the description, and the windows of the train were filthy no way could you see well let alone take good pictures. The highlight of the excursion was a visit to the Gatun Locks. I got a lot of great pictures and it gave me the opportunity to see in advance what to look for the next day when the Island went through the canal. The return trip to the ship was by bus, 1-1/2 hours (no restroom) and at best was boring and rough as the Panama roads are for the most part pretty bad even the limited access highways. I really think they pre build the bumps in. Back at the ship where the bus stopped left an approximately 2 foot step to the ground, this was hard on me and the other over 60 passengers. The least they could have done was furnished a small step on the ground. BTW, this is a tender port and the dock can be very unsteady and steep, this really needs to be improved.Once in Ft Lauderdale the dis-embarkation was quick and easy, we took advantage of the Princess Bag Check Program that sent our bags right to the airport with the next time we saw them in Phoenix, WELL WORTH the $20.00 per bag fee. The instructions from Princess were a bit vague regarding the boarding passes so I went ahead and printed ours none the less. I had taken advantage of Southwest Airlines early boarding that guarantees an early boarding number (think A group) so it worked out well since we were guaranteed a boarding number without having to worry about trying to check in 24 hours in advance.All in all it was a pretty good cruise, I would not recommend it for someone who can not take exposure to high heat and humidity. As far as the Island Princess is concerned; I liked the crew, the food was OK, but the ships HVAC system and computers need improvement. We will be cruising Holland America next month so we will have a pretty close comparrison on quality and service.