Island Princess Panama Canal Christmas & New Years Cruise

Island Princess Cruise Review to Panama Canal, Central America

philipa47

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 9

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

Verified Review

15 Night Panama Canal Westbound (Ft. Lauderdale To Los Angeles)

Sail date: December 20, 2016

Ship: Island Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: A302

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

Favorite part: The cruise ship personnel were considerate, accommodating, helpful and courteous. The anytime buffet was always clean, neat and organized. There was plenty of staff working the buffet section that we did not wait for coffee service or a clean table, The buffet location towards the bow is very nice being able to look out windows while dining. The Chef & Head Maitre D cooking show was Great and tour of the galley (kitchen) was wonderful.

The ports of call were a good selection Aruba. Cartegena Columbia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Huatulco. Cabo San Lucas. All in our party desired a longer port stay and would have paid $$ to have an extended time in port.

Improvements: We met 3 wheelchair bound clients that had a difficult time getting around the ship and through doors as even after the recent refurbish in port ADA accommodations were NOT done.

Princess added more rooms and removed VERY desirable features, outside track around boat, International restaurant, relocated gym making it smaller and no windows, cigar lounge was small with poor ventilation and very small television screen in back corner of room, bar service in the lounge was non existent until we met with head waiter for this section,

The entertainment was okay but not as good as other cruise lines.

The seated dining room food options were good but did not change as frequently as other cruise lines.

Recommend: I would probably not recommend this boat for future cruises but would consider a newer Princess boat with a nice gym, outside track & other dining options that were not as spendy as the Island Princess. There are other restaurants that offer different food selection but this was an added cost of $45 per person