Island Princess Cruise Reviews - Reviews

After realizing that we would not be able to visit St. Petersburg, this cruise was really a good selection with excellent ports and excursions available.

Has been a pretty good experience. Tours were a little too expensive.

We enjoyed the cruise overall. A few rough sea days closed the outdoor venues and we couldn't use the hot tubs. The food was overall good but the staff were amazing. They work very hard to accommodate all requests and never get a day off. They need more staff but those on board do their very best. I don't like the lack of a sitting area (or even chairs) in the balcony rooms. We did like the speakers who talked about the ports and the informational sessions.

We are avid cruisers and decided to try Princess for the first time. We were excited about this cruise, with the highlight being a stop in Svalbard, at Longyearbyen. We originally booked a balcony, then upgraded to a mini-suite under the impression we would be in club class. After spending $20K+ including excursions we were excited to go. On the second night, after eating in club class the first day and being seated on day 2, we were informed we were not club class, removed from the club class dining area, and with the chaos occurring in the main dining room we reluctantly ate at the buffet. We shrugged it off and decided it was the travel agents mistake. I will not go into a lot of detail as you are likely already aware of how disastrous the 1st leg of the journey from Ft Lauderdale to Southampton was since there were many elites and numerous complaints. There are always minor issues on every cruise but we certainly didn’t expect to be on a shakedown cruise. Hour-long waits for dining, cold food, 2+ hours for meals and then a Covid outbreak that was handled poorly. With 8 out of the first 9 days at sea we had high expectations of the medallion app that you continuously hype and require everyone to use. What a disappointment. No Wi-Fi service, no explanation and I had to ask for a refund 13 days into the cruise (after being told by other passengers that they already received a letter informing them of a refund). I guess if I hadn’t asked we would have never received a credit. Next came a letter informing us that the stop in Svalbard had been canceled. Now granted, we were offered the ability to cancel the Norway portion of the cruise if we wished, but since we were informed while on the 5-day at sea portion and no access to Wi-Fi to make other arrangements, it was a meaningless gesture. So here we were, 5 days at sea, crappy service, no Wi-Fi and a Covid outbreak with little info available, closing areas, canceling activities, spotty enforcement of mask requirements but the dining rooms filled in the evening, so we were unsure of our risk. Like I said, we paid $20K for a Princess shakedown cruise. When we reached Iceland we were at least able to get off the ship and purchase data for our phones. After the 1st portion of the cruise we were given a survey to fill out and we expressed these concerns and frustrations but heard nothing back. The Norway portion of the cruise was a significant improvement despite the disappointment of missing Svalbard and replacing it with stops more associated with a northern lights cruise. We want to thank several of your crew for their smiles, attitude, helpfulness and great service. Especially steward Dadapeer, main dining waiter Jason, drink servers Belho, Hornamla, Pranab, Daniel and Kanie, the bartenders in the casino and explorers lounge and dining hostess Duscia, who after an initial misunderstanding went out of her way to make our experience as enjoyable as possible. We met many platinums and elites on the cruise who kept telling us not to judge Princess by this cruise, but what else can we rely on after 34 days? This wasn’t the worst cruise we’ve been on, but it came close. We certainly got the impression that Princess does not value our business and it’s unlikely we will return.

Super cruise....highly recommend it. Great stops such as Easter Island, Rio during Carnival, Beagle Channel glaciers were super, Panama Canal crossing, Devils Island, Cape Fear, etc. Great Entertainment.

Took the cruise to see Easter Island, Nazca lines, Patagonia, Falkland Islands and Carneval in Rio, which we enjoyed.

I think the biggest problem, was the food was average, and not enough variety. But on the other hand, the entertainment was way above average.

Overall, l had a nice time. This is the 1st cruise for my aunts and they’re planning their next one already.

Overall, l had a nice time. This is the 1st cruise for my aunts and they’re planning their next one already.

The ship was very comfortable and clean. I had an inside room, very roomy. Staff was very helpful everywhere. I purchased through wholesale club travel, which was good. Bad part was I bought excursions from Shore excusions on the website, I assumed this was from cruise line. Buy your excursion onboard, Shore Excursions wanted me to walk outside protected area to meet someone unknown on an island with recent past assaults on tourist, be smart think safe I didn't get a refund but my safety is worth the monetary loss. Shore Excursions was misleading and rude with customer support, buy only from onboard cruise ship.

We are so glad we did not book an excursion but stayed on the ship during the 3 licks in the canal. We had the ship for ourselves and were able to take beautiful pictures all day long.

We were disappointed with the food quality on Island Princess both in the regular dining room, Horizon Court and especially the speciality restaurants. The service on Island Princess was amazing. Although we enjoyed going to the Panama Canal, we thought Cartagena, Columbia was a very disappointing port. We will discourage anyone considering this particular itinerary. Due to the disappointing food quality, we may consider switching over to the Norwegian cruise line for any future cruises. . We are pretty sure we are done with cruising the Caribbean. We will fly to St. Thomas or St. Maarten to stay at a resort.

We had a lovely time. The ship is beautiful and most of the crew delightful. Really loved the sea days. Lots to do on the ship.

Overall it was a good trip. We would travel on this ship again.

Would have been a perfect cruise with the exception of Cartagena Columbia.

the best ever cruise, excellent food, professional shows, friendly stuff

We enjoyed the cruise and wish we had travelled with some friends as it seemed many groups had done this. Great ship and crew.

Wonderful cruise, but we will stick to larger and newer ships from now on.

Very nice cruise. Interesting going through locks. We enjoyed our cruise and it had just the right amount of sea days.

A very nice cruise. Going thru the Panama Canal locks is an experience. It is amazing this canal was built over 100 years ago with technology available then and that it is still doing the job as well today as when it opened. It is a monument to the people who designed and built it. One hopes that the new locks, which are designed to conserve some of the fresh water necessary to lift/lower the ships, will last as long and be as reliable as the original.