Our 10 day cruise ended up being 8 days at sea and only 2 stops. There were supposed to be 5 stops but because of COVID-19 or bad weather we were not allowed to dock at 3 ports. As we were cruising we found out that Princess was suspending all cruises for 60 days because of concerns over COVID-19, so this kind of reminded us of the TV Show The Last Ship. We are thankful that Nobody on our ship got sick from COVID-19, and we praise God for to 2 medical emergencies that happen on the ship that they were doing better when we got back. Overall a good cruise and I would do the same cruise again. Just with a Mid Ship Cabin.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Embarkation was not bad, however it was very apparent that the people doing the medical screening were not medical personnel. My wife is an ICU Nurse and when she was scanned to see if she had a temperature the scanner read 27.8c. My wife told the screener that that reading was incorrect and it couldn't be 27.8c. We took out our cellphone and did the conversion and 27.8c is about 83f. My wife asked the other screener to recheck her temperature and that reading was 35.7c which is about 96f. She once again told the first screener that his scanner was wrong and she also told the second person that scanned her that the other person had a bad scanner. But neither person did anything about it. They kept using a scanner that was about 7 degrees off. This means that someone could have gotten on the ship that had a temperature that otherwise wouldn't have been allowed on.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Food wasn't bad. But I will say this, they had the best pizza I have had on any ship. I even cruised on an Italian Ship and the pizza on that ship didn't even come close to the pizza I had on Island Princess
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Didn't do much on this cruise. The crowd was a lot older than I expected. So for me, there wasn't a lot that I wanted to do on board.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Lacking, very Lacking. There were not a lot of stage shows. On a 10 cruise, I would think there would be at least 6 or 7. If I'm not mistaken I think there were 2. For some of the entertainment they showed movies. This was not the movies under the stars, which they also did, but this was the entertainment for the night instead of a stage show. Not what I was expecting.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Room attendant was great. But because we did anytime dining we didn't always have the same wait staff, and some were just better than others. No bad service, just some were a little more friendly than others.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Even though the ship was a smaller ship, it was a very nice ship. Nice design and nice layout.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
The cabin was not bad. However I will not get a cabin at the very back of the ship again. The bed was to soft for me, but my wife LOVED it. HAPPY WIFE, HAPPY LIFE.
Ship tip
The Island Princess is a smaller ship, but for me personally I like the larger ships. The ship is older but it is very nice inside. It was refurbished in 2017 and they did a great job. There wasn't a lot of production shows on board, and every thing seemed to close down around 10PM.
The port was nice, however I have never been on a cruise where the people trying to get you to buy stuff were so aggressive. I felt like I was always in a protection mode just trying to protect my wife. This was our 22nd cruise, so I'm not new to cruising, but this place was the MOST AGGRESSIVE I've ever been to.
I really liked Limon. It was amazing to see sloths in real life. My wife fell in love with them and bought several things with a sloth picture on it. Much more relaxed vibe than Columbia. The people there were not nearly as aggressive and that made that port more enjoyable.
I live in Florida so for me Ft. Lauderdale was no big deal. We drove down the day of the cruise and drove back right after we got back. I will say this. It use to be if you rented a car from Alamo that you could get a free shuttle ride from the airport to Port Everglades. They no longer do that, so now it's a taxi ride or Uber.
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