Princess victim of Carnival;s "WalMart" approach to cruising

Island Princess Cruise Review to Panama Canal, Central America

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 66

Overall rating:

2 out of 5
Verified Review
Island Princess

15 Night Panama Canal - 2 Day Canal Experience (Ft. Lauderdale To Los Angeles)

Sail date: October 02, 2016

Ship: Island Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: A337

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

While the service was outstanding, the food was average at best. The menu was weak for a cruise of this length. The "Horizons" was a conglomeration of what looked like "leftovers". Why in the world do you serve sub sandwiches at 3;30 instead of lunch? The whole cruise seemed to be a scaled down cruise because it was a reduced fare cruise. The fare was reduced because of the season. We took the chance on that (even bought the insurance). Princess seemed to try to make up for the reduced fare by docking at a totally worthless port in Mexico and by serving second rate food. The pushing of wine programs from the minute we came on board was shameless and very irritating. My wife and I both caught a cold and in trying to control it both for ourselves and the ship population were forced to pay $18 for a bottle of cough syrup. Our first cruise on Princess to Alaska was a treat. You are obviously heading downhill and we will be hard pressed to cruise on Princess again.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
DaDa (in charge of taking care of our cabin) was superb. Gerry and Borak (sp?) 6'7" in the main dining area were 1st class professionals.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

3 out of 5

Cartagena, Colombia

3 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 66

3 Comments

loge23    8 years ago

Onboard presently with a significantly better experience.

TeamDavonavo    8 years ago

What was the worthless port in Mexico?

kknorr0320    8 years ago

All cruiselines and resorts overcharge for cold medicine. It's a good idea to take some with you.

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