REVIEW - Island Princess Panama Canal - Jan 18-28, 2012

[BoopTennis]

I'll have to write this review in pieces. So I will start with a simple summary and overview, then in additional posts get into more detail by day.

 

This was an AWESOME cruise! 2nd Princess cruise for us, we had also gone on other cruises. Everything was perfect. First 10 day cruise for us, prior had done 5-day or 7-day. Loved the 10 days and was a real chance to relax from work and even though it still went by too fast, it was the best time ever.

 

My husband and I sailed with 3 other couples. We had balcony cabins on the mid-ship bumpout area on Baja deck which we all really liked. We had B437 and our friends were next door in B439. This is on the starboard side. We had our balcony doors between us opened up for nice access to each other for cocktail hour etc.

 

Our other 2 couple friends were right across the hall in B418 and B420. They also had their balcony doors opened up between them. They were of course on the port side.

 

We love the location of the midship (less movement), of the bumpout (further out for visibility), and of Baja deck. We were right by stairs and elevators. We were only 2 decks down from Lido Deck Pool where we practically lived all the time, and Horizon Court buffet, so it was a quick hop up the steps to get there, so easy! It was also fun having cabins we could go to on both port and starboard side, because there were good views from both sides depending on the port etc.

 

The balconies on Baja deck are not as big as below us on Caribe deck, but we had wanted covered balconies. We still had sun for parts of the day on the balcony and were happy with our choices. Great rooms. Plenty of storage.

 

Embarkation was simple out of FLL. Ship was at Pier 2. 3 of us couples met up around 11 am, we went thru security and had seats in the inside boarding area. The 4th couple was a bit later so had to wait in line outside. They started boarding elite around noon i think, they started us at 12:30 and we were on the ship literally in minutes. We did not mind the wait inside as we were sitting and talking. We went to our cabins and the luggage was already there! Then off to start having fun!

 

Quick summary of trip:

 

Weds Jan 18 - sailaway at 4 pm!

Thurs Jan 19 - sea day

Fri Jan 20 - sea day

 

Sat Jan 21 - Aruba - 7 am - 12:30 we just walked off ship and walked to beach for the morning

 

Sun Jan 22 - Cartagena, Columbia - we had not planned anything in advance because we weren't sure if what we wanted to do, so we just walked off ship and found outside the gated area a van driver for all 8 of us that give us a really fun tour for 4 hours. worked out great

 

Mon Jan 23 - Panama Canal - AWESOME! We stayed on the ship, did not do an excursion, was happy with that. We left here, went back thru the locks to Colon. There we just got off the ship for awhile for short shopping and drinks in a nearby restaurant.

 

Tues Jan 24 - Costa Rica - we had a preplanned excursion with OkeyDokey Tours, they did a FANTASTIC job, we were very happy, more on that later

 

Weds Jan 25 - sea day

 

Thurs Jan 26 - Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We did the Princess Excursion that took us to Dunns River Falls and Mystic Mountain aerial tram and the bobsled -- so so fun what a great day

 

Fri Jan 27 Sea day then back to FLL on Sat Jan 28

 

We elected to embark on our own carrying our own luggage, so were able to do that the 2nd group at 7:20 am. It was a breeze, no issues with luggage, down and out the door and our ride picked us up. We had never done that before but it was simple.

 

More to come later but this cruise was 5 stars out of 5!

[tntfox]

It sounds like you had a wonderful time! Anxious to hear more as we sail March 18!!! :eek:

[LollyMoz]

We are also considering a Panama Canal cruise and I am anxious to hear all you have to say. :)

[pkamison]

I am also doing this trip on 3/18 so I am eager to read your review. Thanks in advance for posting.

[recyclelady]

We'll be doing the same trip on Feb. 27. We have a bump-out cabin on the Caribe. Look forward to your detailed report.

[gelo7]

Glad that you had an awesome cruise.

[BoopTennis]

As mentioned before, embarkation was easy and luggage beat us to the room. We quickly started investigating the ship to see what all was where. First we headed to Horizon Court to grab lunch and sat out on Lido deck by the pool. We spent a LOT of our time on this deck! We just hung out there in the sun, they have the MUTS screen there to listen to concerts or watch movies on. We had perfect sunny warm weather for 10 straight days so were lucky there.

 

 

 

Our balcony rooms were roomy enough for us. Norman was our steward and did a great job, got us anything extra we needed. We had the automatic tipping but also left some extra from time to time when he did special things for us as well as at the end of the cruise. Our room was always refreshed when we came back from being somewhere. We put our empty suitcases under the beds and the closet had plenty of room. The shower is small as all cruise showers are, but bearable. Bathroom floor often got wet during a shower but no big deal.

 

Muster drill was at 3:15 so we grabbed our lifejackets from our rooms and headed to our stations in the bars or casino or whatever so you were able to sit for the muster talk, which was nice. No standing outside in groups like I have in the past.

 

 

 

The pool (at least the Lido pool) was fresh water not salt water. It warmed up as the week went on.

 

For sailaway out of FLL we went to the top deck in the back, good view to say goodbye. Up there we found a fun giant chess board set painted onto the deck, I had fun with that sitting down on the “queen” spot since I was wearing a white coverup.

 

 

One guy in our group of 8 purchased the soda card since he drinks a lot of soda. None of us purchased the coffee card. The syrup coffee that you get for free is not as good as the brewed coffee (which they do serve at dinner for free) but it just was not a big deal for us. Juices are available for free in Horizon Court for breakfast only if you ask your server for them (they aren’t just out easily available). Otherwise we were drinking water or foo foo drinks the rest of the day.

 

We chose Traditional Late Seating dining. This seated at 7:45 pm. We have always done this before and it’s a personal preference. Since we had a group of 8, we all wanted to be back together for dinner and we did not want to be rushed during the day getting ready. It worked out great for us. There was still time for shows or late movie if you wanted to. In fact the first night we did go up the Lido deck again for the late MUTS movie which was Real Steel that night. For the MUTS night movie they put pads on the chair loungers on the Lido deck and provide blankets and popcorn. It was great fun like the old drive in movie days.

 

Oh, I had pre-purchased internet before I got on the ship. Got 310 minutes for $103. I had to check for work now and then but also used it for brief messages home to check on things. Worked out good and I had just 3 minutes left when all done. Internet on the ship is slow, so you need to use time wisely and preferably get on early in morning, or late at day, or when the Early Seating dinner was eating when it was less busy. I had my own laptop and was able to use it from my room.

 

Our first (partial) day was very busy and so much fun with all the anticipation of everything to come!

[Northender]

Thanks you. Cannot wait to hear more. Hoping to do PC in 2013.

I am wondering about the "Partial" transit vs Full Transit. Is it just as enjoyable, etc.:)

[BoopTennis]

Dear Northender, I have not done a full transit so cannot comment on that. I will review Panama Canal day in detail later, but we went thru 3 locks, got halfway thru and anchored in Gatun Lake for awhile, some people got off to do excursions, we stayed on ship. Then the ship turned around and went back thru the same 3 locks the other way back to the Atlantic/Caribbean.

 

If you keep going thru to the Pacific, I think there are 2 more locks. After a few times of going thru a lock (its fascinating) but you sort of get the idea.

 

By the way, doesn't seem right, but in this case one travels from the Atlantic to the Pacific by going EAST (actually southeast). Seems like one would go WEST to go to the Pacific. Sounds wierd. I had to look at a map

[Northender]

Thanks again. Looking forward to the next installment:)

[Cruzin-K]

I am hoping to do this itinerary, either later this year on the Coral, or next Fall on whatever ship fits my schedule at that time.

 

I'm hoping to see some more photos of the ship, not just the ports, if you have more :D

[BillB48]

I am wondering about the "Partial" transit vs Full Transit. Is it just as enjoyable, etc.:)

 

Strictly speaking to see the Canal a full transit would be the best choice. Now with that said there are some advantages to partial transit cruise as it is a great cruise. A few pluses in no particular order.... you can do it in 10/11 days instead of usually 14 days (or longer) on the full transit cruise; you don't have to worry about embarking at one port and then flying home from your disembarkation port, in other words you have a regular closed loop cruise; a partial transit cruise and while in Panama take the excursion that is a partial transit of the Pacific Locks and Gaillard Cut. This combination of cruise and excursion will give you a very good feel as to what the Canal is all about. Another thing is you can do either cruise in any order and they will compliment each other. Chances are if you do the partial transit cruise first, I'm sure you will want to take the full transit cruise as well!

 

Yup, we have done both, more than once.... just looking for an excuse to do it again:)!

[BoopTennis]

I love sea days! So relaxing and fun. No schedules. Plenty to do on the ship if you want but you don’t have to.

 

We ladies started out with great intentions so got up early Day 2, grabbed breakfast at Horizon Court (the guys loved the made-to-order omelets there); I stayed with cereal and fruit and saved my calories for later in the day J. Sometimes we ate in Horizons Court (See pic below) and sometimes we carried it out to the deck outside. HC is located on same deck as Lido Pool at the very front of the ship so can eat and look out over the water where you are cruising. HC court always had plenty of food choices for us. We had all our breakfasts there. One couple had room service breakfast a couple days which they enjoyed. Plenty to choose from for snacks and lunch, fruits, salads, soups, desserts, cheeses, full entrees.

 

After quick bite we went to Deck 6 in the Universe Lounge at 9:30 am for “Zumba Dance” with cruiseship gal named Kez. Here is her pic taken a different day. She is awesome and I don’t know when she ever slept because she led all sorts of activities all day every day! They had this exercise dance routine for 45 min-1 hour every day, great exercise!

 

 

Next we headed to Deck 5 Atrium area for Poster making for Panama canal. This was very fun and you can do it any of the days leading up to the Canal. They provide blank poster paper and all sorts of markers, paint, glitter, etc, and you can design however you want. The theory is Canal Day you hang this out on your balcony or up on upper deck and wave and they take pics of you! It was a lot of fun to do. Here was mine:

 

 

 

Most of the day we hung around the pool and relaxed. In the afternoon there was a martini Cocktail demonstration and they invited 5 gals and 5 guys (one of our gals got picked) to get involved and shake up some drinks and they got free drinks! very fun. They take videos of activities like this and show it on the Cabin TV and also sell the DVD if you are interested.

 

Some of the guys spent time at the Casino, regular playing and sometimes they had special events. Hubby said not too many if any were at the Craps table which he likes to play (generally older group cruising on this ship).

 

Another pool activity was golf chipping into rings in the pool, shown below. Lots of guys and gals signed up for that. There are always prizes for everything

 

 

 

 

Lunches on the ship for us were either HC or the grill overlooking Lido deck which had great hamburgers, also had hot dogs and brats. I liked the hot dog as well I did not try the brat. Also next to that was pizza, had 3 choices each day. I had Marguarita pizza one day. Huge slices, it was ok; not my favorite so didn’t try that again but it was good enough.

 

I did not get a photo of it but there is an ice cream bar close to the Lido pool on the other side of the elevators. Soft serve ice cream is free. “Hard” ice cream and shakes were a fee or you could buy the card up front. Ice cream was about a daily stop for us for afternoon treat. I also loved the little fruit tart they had in HC and had one of those for a snack each day LOL.

 

 

Day 2 is the first of two formal nights. Because we had the late seating it gave us time for a nice cocktail hour before our dinner, we took turns going to our 2 balconies on our side or the friends 2-balconies on the other side for cocktails. Beautiful for watching the sunsets as we cruised along

 

 

 

 

Our guys all wore dark suits and white shirts and ties, no tuxes. Us ladies wore dresses. Saw a lot of different type of wear but mostly not tuxes I would say. I loved all the food. There is not much I don’t like so I tried lots of new stuff but did not take pics of the menu and probably can’t remember everything. I did take a pic of a chilled pina colada soup that I had was very good. (tasted like a drink tho not soup LOL). OH and one of the first nights they had for dessert a flourless chocolate cake. If you like chocolate (I do) GET THIS. It’s the only night they have it. I would’ve ordered it every night DO NOT MISS!

 

[BoopTennis]

MUTS movies at night were the following:

 

Day 1 Cowboys & Aliens (I wrote the wrong one on my first review segment)

Day 2 Captain America: The First Avenger

Day 3 Real Steel

Day 4 Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Day 5 Panama Canal Documentary

Day 6 I Don’t Know How She Does It

Day 7 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Day 8 The Help

Day 9 Moneyball

Day 10 Dolphin Tale

 

There is a cute morning show on the cabin TV every morning 6-11 am hosted by the Cruise Director Richard Joseph and Kez. They are pretty funny and told about things going on and also had little games and prizes. The TV also has ESPN and CNN and a couple channels they showed movies on, as well as cruise info.

 

As mentioned before, we had a balcony room which I love. I love to look out at the water and love the sound of the water when the sliding door is open.

 

 

We were able to have the steward open the balcony divider door between our balcony and our friend’s next door. Half of the door opens and swings over to be parallel to the other half so there is an opening, hopefully the photo below shows it. It opens up the balcony and makes it more fun to have friends go back and forth. We left it open the whole time and would just go knock on their balcony window when we wanted them LOL

 

 

 

 

We spent a lot of time on the chairs on the Lido Deck, reading books, people-watching, soaking up the sun, listening to music, just relaxing and even taking naps!

 

 

 

Sport deck (way up on top, back of the ship) is a good place for sailaway. Also up there is a basketball court. Here we are enjoying a fun drink on the sports deck.

 

 

 

 

Here is a pic of a Mojito that one of my friends ordered

 

[Woobstr112G]

Op;

 

Thanks for posting yor great review and pictures.....:):):)

 

Bob

[JWJs]

Great review with lots of details and wonderful pictures. Thanks for posting. :)

[fathercop]

Thanks for the review. I am looking forward to Panama and the Island Princess come October.

 

Good luck to you and enjoy your cruising.

[Musky Ike]

We leave next week for this cruise! I'm so excited to hear what a great time you had.

[tntfox]

I am also doing this trip on 3/18 so I am eager to read your review. Thanks in advance for posting.

 

pkamison ~ You're on our sailing -- come on over and join our Roll Call! We'll be happy to have you! :D

[BLS]

Love your review. Makes me want to book a Panama Canal Cruise! (we've done 2 and would go again in a heart beat)

[BoopTennis]

Docked in Aruba around 7 am or so. We did not make formal plans for Aruba, just wanted to get off the ship on our own and go find a beach to hang out awhile. Had quick breakfast in HC then got off the ship and took a left and walked along the road. Looking at a map beforehand and reading about beaches we knew there were a lot of beaches all along there. The beaches are public but certain areas the hotels have their own chairs and do not rent them out. We finally found an area with chairs and hung around and went out in the water which was a little chilly but bearable and always fun to play in the waves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked back to the ship after a couple hours, a couple of the gals stopped for brief shopping near the cruise terminal, then reboarded in time for 12:30 sailaway. There are many good places for sailaway, one is way up on Sports Deck, top deck, in the back, where the chess board was at.

 

Afternoon hung by the Lido pool, of course. Every day we had at least one J foo foo drink. They didn’t really advertise a “drink of the day” like I have seen on other ships but we tried lots of fun drinks. I think one of my favorites was Bahama Bay Breeze, had coconut rum and other good stuff. Pina Colada was also excellent. It was so big I had to share it sometimes, it fills you up. I had a regular Pina Colada but you can also get it with strawberries or something red in it.

 

We took a look at the Sanctuary area, we decided against it. We never had an issue with chairs, and liked being where the action was. The sanctuary did look comfortable and peaceful for those that like that, it was at the back of the ship and had a nice view out back.

 

I thought some people might be interested in seeing how the midship bump-out cabins are positioned relative to others on this ship. There are several cabins in a row on the midship bump out section, both on port side and starboard side. The photo below shows the midship bump out section from outside the ship

 

 

The next photo is taken from the balcony of B418 (port side) looking towards the front of the ship. You can see the balcony wall that divides B418 from the corner bump out cabin which is B416 (we were not in that one). I don’t know how windy it might be on the balcony of that corner cabins since no wall to protect from wind. This photo also gives you a good view of how the bump out looks, you are out further from the ship than the other cabins which was great for visibility both directions.

 

 

This next photo looks from our Baja balcony directly down below us to the Caribe deck. The Aloha deck (one right above us) and Baja deck balconies are both fully covered. The Caribe deck below us is partially covered, but also the balcony is larger than the Baja deck, thus you can see it sticking out a bit below us. So people from above can see down into part (not all ) of your balcony if you are on the Caribe deck.

 

[PotatoBug]

So people from above can see down into part (not all ) of your balcony if you are on the Caribe deck.

 

I believe the gentleman you can see is on Dolphin, and if my calculations are right that's D418 - which we'll be in for the FLL-YVR relo in 2013 (on the Coral).

 

Thanks for the review, and the fabulous pictures.

[bigguy6]

Boop Tennis

 

We are on this cruise starting Feb. 17th. I have a few minor concerns, one of which you might be able to address. At breakfast and lunch was ther adequate seating avaiable in the Horizon Court buffet.

[BoopTennis]

Dear BigGuy6, we never had an issue finding seats in Horizon Court for either breakfast or lunch. Sometimes they had special lunches out on the Lido deck in addition to Horizon Court -- one day they have a FABULOUS fresh fruit buffet, was awesome. Another day they had a Mexican buffet. The only day it was really busy was for breakfast last day when we were dis-embarking but still found seats. There are also tables and chairs on Lido Deck, outside of Horizon Court, that you can sit at and be outside if you want while you eat.

[BoopTennis]

We were in port 9 am – 3 pm. Sailing into Cartagena I did not know that is it a pretty large city with a lot of newer tall buildings.

 

We had not preplanned an excursion for this port. Instead we walked off the ship to find a taxi driver to tour us around. We walked thru the first group of aggressive taxi-drivers, talked to a couple about fees, but then walked past them thru the gate to the outside area. Here we hired a van for 4 hours and had a great time (there were 8 of us and we could all fit in one van). He took us to the monastery first. Outside there someone had a sloth so my friend got a picture holding one.

 

 

 

The inside of the monastery was interesting and beautiful.

 

 

We learned that "PARE" means STOP in Columbia (but most cars don't stop LOL)

 

 

Next we drove to the walled city. The van driver dropped us off and we walked all around for awhile.

 

 

 

 

 

He took us to another part of the city and we walked some more. Finally he stopped at an emerald factory/store (pretty sure that was part of the deal, they get a piece of the action, it was interesting but we did not buy anything there). But all in all it was a nice tour, the driver did not speak great English but we got around fine.

We had fun laughing while we tried to use our poor Spanish skills to talk to him. We got back to the ship about 1 pm so grabbed lunch when back on board.

 

 

 

Back on the ship we hung out on Lido deck again and cocktail hour on the balcony.

 

There are cookies are available every afternoon around 4 pm in the atrium area.

 

There is a laundry room on our deck near the back of the ship; it had several washers and dryers. $2 (quarters) per use. You don’t have to bring quarters you can get those at the front desk if you want. I brought those combo detergent-and-dryer sheets you can buy and used those, they are so handy no messing around with powder or liquid soap. There were also two irons and ironing boards to touch up wrinkles.