After months of anticipation we, and our friends Bev and Sid, were finally on our US Air flight from Philly to FLL for our November 5th, 10-day Panama Canal cruise on the Coral Princess. We always arrive the day before a cruise, not wanting to let the airlines or the weather mess up our cruise plans. We arrived at 1:00PM and took the free shuttle for the 10 minute ride to the Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale Airport North Hotel. The Hyatt Place is an all-suite hotel that is conveniently located adjacent to the Harbor Shops Shopping Center and less than a mile from Port Everglades. At $116/nt, including breakfast and free shuttles from the airport and to the ship, we thought is was a good value for a 3-star hotel.

After checking in we walked over to the Harbor Shops for some lunch. There are at least 10 places from which to choose. We settled on the Lauderdale Grill, which is sort of a sports bar offering very good salads, sandwiches and southwestern/Mexican fare. The shopping center also has a Publix market for any of your last minute needs and a Total Wines store. We bought a mixed case of wine, which we had boxed to take on the ship. Later in the day our friends Barb and Joel from Delray Beach joined us for dinner at Gilbert's, also in the Harbor Shops. Gilbert's is not fancy, but offers excellent food at reasonable prices. I had one of the best burgers and sweet potato fries ever.

Next morning we were up early, had our free hotel breakfast, and walked across to the Publix in the Harbor Shops to do some last minute shopping for the cruise. It was very exciting to see the top of the Coral Princess from the Harbor Shop's parking lot. We checked out of the hotel and took the free shuttle for the 5 minute trip to the ship. We arrived at 11:45, checked our luggage and gave the porter an extra $5 for safe handling of our case of wine. We were on board and in our cabin by 12:15. Read more