A good experience but...

Island Princess Cruise Review to Transatlantic

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 79

Overall rating:

2 out of 5
Verified Review
Island Princess

17 Night Venetian Passage (Ft. Lauderdale To Venice)

Sail date: March 21, 2015

Ship: Island Princess

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: D522

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 9 years ago

Review summary

We intended to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary with a memorable cruise from Ft Lauderdale to Venice, Italy.  Although we knew that this was this ship's last cruise before dry dock, from the beginning  things did not go as smoothly as expected.  First, the luggage problem.  We arrived by means of a taxi from the airport and could not find where to drop our luggage.  At the end my wife and I ended up taking our luggage all the way to our cabin because the port personnel nor the ships' staff assisted us with it.  Although we maintained a positive attitude throughout the voyage, we have never been so uncomfortable with a cruise before.  The ship seemed tired as judged by its maintenance and the energy of its crew.  For example, a refrigerator in the room was completely inoperable but the maintenance technician stated it was normal.  I could have had the refrigerator replaced but opted not for the aggravation.  From then on we were not surprised by all other incidents encountered throughout the sailing.  As we began dragging our luggage we ended dragging our luggage from the ship to a tram about 500 yards away from the ship in Venice to the Piazzole in Venice to pick up a rental vehicle.  We must have gotten a good deal on the voyage but we paid dearly for the extras.  I will have to make it up to my wife because we did not enjoyed this anniversary as we did with Holland America during our 35th anniversary.  I got what I paid for.  

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

1 out of 5
Port personnel and ship staff at, both, boarding and disembarking were terrible

Ship Quality

1 out of 5
Bad equipment and terrible odors throughout the floors.

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5
The refrigerator did not work. The remote control for the tv's was worn out and some keys did not work. We did not get robes, as requested, and only after we mentioned it to our room attendant we were offered robes. Room service for fruits, breakfast and other services were deficient, and only after complaining the desired services were obtained

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

1 out of 5
Terrible port experience with Princess

Funchal, Madeira

3 out of 5
Everything closed for the holidays and weekend

Barcelona, Spain

3 out of 5

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

1 out of 5
This is not Rome. Rome is a long ride away!

Naples, Italy

3 out of 5

Venice, Italy

1 out of 5
Terrible disembarkment
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4 Comments

mantoy3954    9 years ago

I'm leaving in 2 days to take the cruise from Venice to Miami hope all is good with the ship

Bubba54    9 years ago

Sorry you had a bad cruise, hopefully the next one will be better.

glomarrone    9 years ago

So sorry that all these problems you encounted ruined your cruise.

noname111    9 years ago

I am researching ships on which I have a future cruise booked. This review was helpful to learning more about Island Princess and its crew. Thank you.

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