Island Princess Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Great staff, clean ship, and lots to do...or not do. Easy to find activities, a good selection of food, or easy to just relax and do nothing. We missed one stop due to weather inhibiting our travel time, but the captain did a great job making us feel safe in gale force winds over two days. 

The passengers I met is what made this cruise great. The staff wasn't as friendly as other Princess Cruise ships and the layout of the ship isn't to my liking. But over all I did enjoy this cruise. Not sure if I'll ever sail on the Island again but I certainly will continue sailing with Princess cruises.

My favorite part of the whole cruise was being in the Canal for two days. The first day sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The second day we had a great day trip. Took the Dome car on the train back to the Atlantic. We saw the canal from a very different view point. Then got on a bus and drove over one of the "New" canal locks and saw some of the much larger tanker ships being pulled through the new locks by tug boats, one in the front and one in the back. Then riding back to the Pacific by bus. Three different views and with a great guide, Arthur, that was born and raise in Panama. Great, Great Cruise.

The best part of this cruise was going through the canal with appropriate commentary and the excursion on the following day. This is our 4th transit, the second on the Island since it's enhancements and the best. I lived in the Canal Zone for two years when my father was stationed there in the late 1950's.

Overall, the cruise was wonderful, the staff is friendly and accommodating, the food is good, the ship is older, so bathrooms are kind of hidden. We had a good time. Embarkation is tedious, disembarking is easier.

May might not be the best time to take the trip as it is the beginning of the rainy season so it was very hot and humid. Aruba was the biggest surprise as it is a desert island and there is not too much to see. Princess Cruises did a very good job overall and the food was very good. The canal itself is worth a try just to see it and experience the ride. Everyone took US dollars so there was no need to exchange money.

I liked the food in the dining room, it has improved since previous cruises.  The wi-fi was not working properly with my phone in the fitness center.  I missed not having reruns of the love boat show on the tv's in my room.  Fitness equipment is outdated and also not maintained.  The selection in the horizon court was okay.  More entertainment would be nice. But no, I would not recommend this cruise ship to anyone, it's a bit too old needs major upgrading.  Our steward who was Marlon, was amazingly, could not asked for a better and smarter steward.  Never had to ask him for anything, he was on top of his game. Best steward we ever had.  He made the cruise delightful in that respect.

This was our first cruise so I don't have a comparison.  We enjoyed our trip very much.  I thought everything on the Island princess was well done and very organized.  Food was very good and entertainment was also very good.  Time at some of the ports was very short but enough to enjoy our excursions we planned.  Showers were very small on this ship but usable.  Nothing really negative I would recommend this cruise line and ship.

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,

Great ship - not too big, not too small. Clean and fancy; no complaints there. Cabins in midship are ideal for easy access to everything. Didn't hear a sound through the walls which is a big plus for me. My only issue is w/ the clientele. Just about everyone on board is elderly so if you're looking for a younger crowd to hang with or look at, you're out of luck. We kept calling it "the floating retirement home." The activities also reflect this age group (Zzzz) and are only/always focused on some sort of upsell. But the ship, itself, is terrific. 👍🏻

Panama Canal was amazing, should be on everyone's bucket list.

Service staff on board were excellent. Very friendly and helpful. They kept that ship so clean and in turn kept the passengers healthy.

Princess Line itself I was not impressed with. The up sell and general gouging on board was ridiculous. It literally took me more than a half hour to buy 3 pictures due to sales pressure to buy crap I didn't need or want. I rec'd a coupon for the Effy store ( as I had purchased jewelry) that read 'As good as cash' for $200. Turns out it only applied to items in the store that were over $1,000. $6 to do a load of laundry (yourself not the steward!). Drinks were over-priced and they attached another gratuity to each drink (in addition to the daily per person gratuity). They charged double for a shuttle to the airport ($34/person, we paid $17/person). On and on....

Panama Canal was definitely the highlight of the cruise. Ship was clean, food was average, service people were very, very good. Got tired of all the sales push for everything on board. When you did purchase, the upscale process got old really fast. Had a wonderful time but will look at other cruise lines next time.

The ship was nicely updated and the entertainment was excellent.   However our 5:45PM dinner seating was changed to 5:15.  The lounge for second lever Princess cruisers was scheduled from 5PM to 6PM, preventing us from taking advantage of the daily event due to our dinner dining schedule.   Also, due to high winds were not able to tender for our stop in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.  No compensation was made for skipping this stop on our trip.

Beware of F722 room at the back of the ship.  Nice interior but so noisy from motor and perpellar.  The staff was great and very accommodating.  The ship is nice and clean.  Meals in the dining room were good.  Anytime dining was crazy the first night but after that we could make reservations and that worked.  Too short of time in the port itinerary is a complaint but the canal was exciting.  More entertainment during the day at the pool would be nice and some extra classes like yoga etc not for an extra charge.  We had a great time and well worth the money.

This is a wonderful cruise with many interesting ports to visit.  Of course, the Panama Canal experience itself is almost unbelievable when one considers the technology and engineering that was necessary to design and build it -- and we are talking about the late 19th/early 20th century.  Our other favorite was Costa Rica and the Rain Forest.  Breathtaking!!

Every port had interesting excursions.  Because of the great onboard credits we got through Princess and , we were able to see a lot of beautiful things along with the Panama Canal.  Only downside was the limited amount of time we had in each port.

Dwayne, our contact, was very helpful during the whole process.

Overall it was a nice cruise.  This was our first on Princess.  Although I thought Princess was nice, I like RC better.  Much older crowd on Princess.  Could be due to this being a 15 day cruise.  Ports were ok, Canal was awesome.  We had a Junior Suite and it was very nice.  Large Tub with Shower is a must.  Service in Dinning Room and Horizon Buffet was lacking.  Dinner's were stretched out for 2.5 hours and trying to get someone to give you a drink or silverware in buffet was always a problem.  Some days they ran out of clean dishes which caused long back ups.  Bar service was very good, especially around the pools.  I liked the free ship WIFI that allowed you to message anyone aboard and provided a schedule of activities as well as ship board expenses right on your phone.  On board activities were somewhat lacking and this could be because of the age group.  Lots of wheel chairs which caused long lines on excursions.  No offense, but they really need to separate the excursions into two groups, those that have mobility and those that do not. 

I went on this cruise with my husband, my daughter (11) and my friend.  We enjoyed all the ports of call especially going through the Panama Canal. In Some of the ports it is advisable to book excursion since there is nothing to do in the port (Costa Rica and Nicaragua) On the other hand in other ports you can just go to the beach and visit some stores ( Aruba, Huatulco ) The entertainment on the ship was great, since there was so much variety (your typical shows etc but also they had a guest former LA District Attorney giving seminars> I really enjoyed his seminars) The entertainment director was amazing. I think she never slept. Food was ok and the staff was very courteous. The shore excursions were very well organized accept one when we got back from Granada one hour after everybody was supposed to be on board. Luckily we booked through Princess so the ship was waiting.  (This taught me a lesson not to book with local vendors to save few $$) Huge disappointment was the ship layout. The ship was remodeled and redesigned in 2015 and more cabins were added. I do not understand who could have designed the remodel…. Actually … who would approve such a remodel! As a consequence of adding more cabins the running tract does not go all the way around the ship, but as you are nearing the bow you have to run through the ship to the other side!  One has to open the door run pass the elevators open the door out and keep running. (I would be probably ok with all this if I did not call Princess before I booked the cruise and asked them if there was a running tract on the ship, since the Grand Princess does not have it.) I decided that I would run on the treadmill in the gym. That is when I found out that the gym is not on the upper floor overlooking the ocean as usual, but in the middle of the 6th floor! The gym is small and when you are running you are looking at the wall. It has NO windows at all - NADA.  I have never seen anything like that.  Another thing I like to do on a cruise is to play craps. However, I was informed that since they added more cabins next to the casino, they shrunk the casino and took the crap table away.  As a result of more cabins being added the kids club for different ages is located on different floors and it is like a little hole.  To summarize, if you go on this cruise on Island Princess for the ports of call, buffet and entertainment you will love it. If you like to run, go to the gym and play craps do not go on this ship.

I went on this cruise with my husband, my daughter (11) and my friend.  We enjoyed all the ports of call especially going through the Panama Canal. In Some of the ports it is advisable to book excursion since there is nothing to do in the port (Costa Rica and Nicaragua) On the other hand in other ports you can just go to the beach and visit some stores ( Aruba, Huatulco ) The entertainment on the ship was great, since there was so much variety (your typical shows etc but also they had a guest former LA District Attorney giving seminars> I really enjoyed his seminars) The entertainment director was amazing. I think she never slept. Food was ok and the staff was very courteous. The shore excursions were very well organized accept one when we got back from Granada one hour after everybody was supposed to be on board. Luckily we booked through Princess so the ship was waiting.  (This taught me a lesson not to book with local vendors to save few $$) Huge disappointment was the ship layout. The ship was remodeled and redesigned in 2015 and more cabins were added. I do not understand who could have designed the remodel…. Actually … who would approve such a remodel! As a consequence of adding more cabins the running tract does not go all the way around the ship, but as you are nearing the bow you have to run through the ship to the other side!  One has to open the door run pass the elevators open the door out and keep running. (I would be probably ok with all this if I did not call Princess before I booked the cruise and asked them if there was a running tract on the ship, since the Grand Princess does not have it.) I decided that I would run on the treadmill in the gym. That is when I found out that the gym is not on the upper floor overlooking the ocean as usual, but in the middle of the 6th floor! The gym is small and when you are running you are looking at the wall. It has NO windows at all - NADA.  I have never seen anything like that.  Another thing I like to do on a cruise is to play craps. However, I was informed that since they added more cabins next to the casino, they shrunk the casino and took the crap table away.  As a result of more cabins being added the kids club for different ages is located on different floors and it is like a little hole.  To summarize, if you go on this cruise on Island Princess for the ports of call, buffet and entertainment you will love it. If you like to run, go to the gym and play craps do not go on this ship.

We signed up for this holiday cruise to see if it's going to be an annual thing.  It was a disappointment as we didn't feel the cruise really had the holiday spirit except for the New Year celebration.  Needless to say, this will be our last holiday cruise.  Holiday cruise costs more but we didn't feel like we got anymore enjoyment than a regular cruise.

There were some gingerbread house display and Christmas ornament outside the cabin and that's the extend of the Christmas celebration we saw.  Totally lacked the Christmas spirit to give cruisers a joyous feeling.  The New Year celebration on the open deck was nice.