The Island Princess -- The Ship Greed Destroyed!

My partner, Ron Harris, and I, Brian Provini, just completed cruise # 2708 aboard the Island Princess, March 30 to April 30 round trip from Fort Lauderdale.

The Problems with the Design of the Island Princess

I cannot express strongly enough our disappointment with the renovations done to the Island Princess in May 2015. We had been on its sister ship the Coral Princess, and we were warned by friends that the increase in cabins/suites and the gross reduction of public spaces made the Island Princess the unpleasant ugly sister. How right they were!!!

The ship was renovated in 2015. As part of the renovation/updating, Princess added about 300 passengers by increasing cabins/suites and eliminating public spaces. Because of this, the buffet, lounges, restaurants, the theatre, all public area are so crowded that it was often impossible to find a seat. What was worse was that wait time for dining and tenders might exceed an hour. Personally, I went to the buffet for dinner because of the long wait for Anytime Dining. I did not go to the theatre because it was impossible to find a seat unless I went to the theatre at least 45 minutes before the show. I was never able to find seating in the Wheel House Bar during happy hour, even the couches outside the bar were filled. At Cooners, for a great entertainer Jere Ringer, there were again never any seats available -- All because of the increase in passengers caused by the greed profit motive -- Cruises are supposed to be relaxing, not a fight for seats. There is no such problem on the Coral Princess.

I would not recommend this ship at all to anyone. If you have a choice, go on its sister ship the Coral Princess. Princess did not add cabins when it renovated the Coral Princess because of the negative outcry against what was done to the Island Princess. 

Princess cruises should Renew the Island Princess and return it to its former self -- fewer passengers and more public spaces.

The Staff Was Great Though!

Dining and Bar Servers.

Jorge from Brazil; Renjith from India; Guntur from Indonesia; Vinodh from India were excellent server. They were friendly and seemed to want to do everything to make passengers enjoy themselves. They would always take a few minutes to chat, to ask us how we were doing, and seemed to be happy to serve passengers. They made us feel very welcome and well taken cared of. They would go that one extra step to make certain that passengers received excellent service. They always smiled at passenger and greeted them no make how busy he was.

Front Reception Desk

Mary from Chile was an excellent customer service representative with excellent skills. She listened to what passengers had to say. She took responsibility for trying to understand the passengers problem and then finding a good solution. She was very interested in truly helping passengers so that problems they were facing would not ruin their cruise. She is an excellent model of what a Front desk customer service representative on any Princess cruise ship should be.

Entertainment Staff

Callie Smit, Cruise Director; and four of his staff members, Maddie, Sandra, Hanna, and Gonzales (Riff) went beyond the expected lengths to make certain passengers had a fun experience. Callie is certainly one of the best cruise directors that I have encountered. Not only did he have a fantastic sense of humour, he was willing to take the time to stop to chat with and listen to passengers. Maddie, Sandra, Hanna, and Gonzales seemed to truly love their job and the passengers. They tried their best to make certain everyone was enjoying himself or herself. They use humour to make activities more fun and tried, as much as possible, to remember passenger names, to make all the entertainment activities so memorable.

Conclusion

It is a shame when not the great staff, not the great crew, not the great food, not the great entertainment, can make up for the uncaring renovation of a ship causing horrible crowding which ruins a cruise,