Island Princess Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This cruise represents the first half of our Panama Canal adventure. I will review the return trip separately but we enjoyed both legs equally because of the wonderful customer-focused attitude of the crew members coupled with an interesting itinerary. My husband and I traveled together on this trip.

This cruise represents the second half of our Panama Canal adventure. I reviewed the first leg separately and we enjoyed the return just as much because of the wonderful customer-focused attitude of the crew members coupled with an interesting itinerary. My husband and I traveled together on this trip. 

This was our first cruise. We loved the fact the cruise experience could be what you wanted it to be. Things we enjoyed: eating in anytime dining, afternoon tea, presentations by naturalist Mark Harris, Wheelhouse bar and singing by Phoenix Rising, comedy and majic acts in theater, trivia contests, medallion net, message services and online services with ocean ready.

The scenery was beautiful the service was fabulous and a good time was had by all.

Overall a really great cruise which affords plenty of opportunities to see the aurora, assuming the weather cooperates. Northern lights opportunities include Evening at Tromso and two evenings at Alta for viewing from land, as well as possible viewing from shipboard leaving Tromso and Alta as well as evening in Lofoten shipboard. Luckily weather cooperated and and we were able to view northern lights at all locations. On two of the nights the bridge announced appearance of the lights over the intercom, on the others they did not and one had to be up and about on their own. As noted Port of Stavanger was skipped due to inclement weather. Captain made and announcement day before, indicating the reasons, and that they were looking for another port if possible. Well no other port was found, nor did they even find a fjord for scenic cruising. this made for 4 sea days in a row!! No other info from bridge i.e. we looked at so and so port but could not dock because of.... Updates on this mater would have been appreciated. No compensation whatsoever, not even a drink!!! Medallion class app: first time we used it. Pretty easy to upload documents etc. pre cruise which are then available at check in. As supplied kind of clumsy and dorky wearing medallion around neck. We bought wrist straps for I think $12 each much easier and comfortable. Very convenient as the medallion serves as id card leaving and boarding the ship, opening stateroom door , and ordering drinks etc. to wherever one happens to be. Easy to reserve dinner time in MDR. Unfortunately cannot reserve specialty restaurants. Also can only communicate with front desk/guest relations. cannot use the app to communicate with dinning, shore excursions etc. still need to call or visit these departments. Shore excursion section only shows trips available to purchase, does not list those you already have bought , this would be useful. Section called journey which supposedly lists onboard activities such as entertainment is not user friendly, hard to figure out whats going on. The printed Patter that you receive each pm is more useful.

We had a great time on this cruise. Always something to do on the ship and was never board. One thing. The Panama Canal cruises are usually full of older people. Not like the Caribbean cruises. I am 62 years old and was in the younger 10 percent onboard.

Had a wonderful cruise experience would definitely cruise with Princess Cruises again. The cleanliness of the ship, the wonderful food, the adventurous excursions all lead to us having an exceptional vacation.

All in all, everything was great. The Panama Canal Cruise 🚢 is highly recommendable.

From my point of view it was a good cruise but there were issues. Almost at maximum capacity but staff still same number as for 1000 person cruise. The staff was stretched very thin. This resulted in delays in the dining room so food wasn't as hot as it previously (4/27/22 cruise) was. Also delays in minor maintenance. While I did not have these issue, there were lots of people with no a/c or hot water in their showers. Long lines at customers service for first 3 days of cruise. Things got better after that. I love sea days so enjoyed them all. Especially as we neared Iceland and began having almost 24 hrs of daylight. Sunset 1230am sunrise 200am no real darkness beween. Day 10 of 18 day cruise began mask mandate. Except when actually eating or drinking masks to be worn at all times inside ship. Numerous positive Covid cases. Staff started disappearing. By day 15 room service was reserved for quarantine rooms. On day 17 had lunch with a gentleman who said he had walked the entire ship and counted 73 quarantined cabins. Staff not included in that number. It was what it was. Got home from cruise and have remained Covid neg. All in all I enjoyed this cruise. And yes I would do another on Island Princess.

Loved this trip. Nothing is ever perfect, but I would sail Princess and this ship again. However, I’d also consider choosing a value-priced cruise, in order to return sooner to Alaska!

We lucked out with nice weather for most of our days with the glacier. Park rangers board the ship and explain a lot about them

This was a cruise and land tour. We started out in Fairbanks at the Princess Riverside Lodge. The lodge is very close to the airport and the Riverboat Discovery Cruise excursion. Highly recommend the Riverboat Excursion. Lunch is included and was very good. It is about a 5-10 minute drive to anything else from the lodge. It is not easy to walk anywhere from this location. We found the Airlink Shuttle to be a good deal. It cost $3.50 per person or a $10.50 minimum to most downtown locations. The Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum is a must see. You do this on your own; it is not an excursion offered by the cruise line. The train to Denali was great. Breakfast was included in the 4-hour ride. The train depot is a short bus ride away from the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. Most of the businesses here don't open until the 3rd week of May. The restaurants and the shops at the lodge were open. Recommend Lynx Pizza and Grizzly Burger. The only bus tour into the park was the Natural History Tour. It was interesting and we did get to see the mountain. We took a bus to Whittier via Anchorage. We had a 2-hour stop for lunch in Anchorage. The bus took about 7 1/2 hours total; the train takes 9 1/2 hours. The Island Princess is a nice ship. We really enjoyed all the open spaces and the views. Princess really knows how to make you comfortable. The beds are like sleeping on a pillow. Staff is exceptional. If you are looking for a relaxing cruise, this is the ship for you. We thought the entertainment and the food was the best.

I enjoy the Alaska cruise scene, this was my 4th trip. I want to go again

It was a very fun cruise I ate way to much I shopped a lot I had a really fun time on the tours I went on and I cant wait tell my next cruise

I loved everything about the Island Princess, Princess cruise lines and Alaska! What I upsets me is all of the people who go on to post only negative reviews. This trip was amazing from start to finish. I wish we could have had better weather in our first two ports, but that is the only thing I would change if I could. Princess upgraded us from the obstructed ocean view cabin to an unobstructed ocean view cabin at no charge. We were then offered a balcony cabin at a very good price and took them up on the offer. We are so glad that we did! Once we got to Glacier Bay our Balcony was the place to be. The sky's were clear the sun shone bright and  ship cruised in so close to Marjorie glacier. The views were spectacular. The shower was on the small side, but it proved to be sufficient for personal hygiene and if we wanted to enjoy relaxing in hot water the hot tubs on board are a wonderful place for that. The crew goes above and beyond what is expected at every level. 

This was a 13 day Cruisetour. Everything was great. The Princess lodges on the land tour were beautiful! Highly recommend excurdions: Best of Juneau, White Pass Yukon Tour, Denali Tunda Tour, we did the 8 hour tour I definitely recommend upgrading to this or 12 hour tour, the bus is air conditioned, we saw eagles, falcons, sheep, moose, caribou, and a grizzly with 2 cubs. Well worth it.

Going through the old locks was a great experience. It is amazing how back in 1913 that they were able to build such a detailed and proficient canal with the materials and know how of that period of time. The new locks are totally different and operate in a much different manner. We took the tour to the new locks and it was amazing the difference. In Aruba we did the Atlantis Submarine and totally enjoyed it. Not to compare with the glass bottom boats we have been on in the past. We actually went down 135 feet on the sub and saw old wrecks and a lot of unusual fish. We visited Columbia, Grand Cayman and Costa Rico also which were amazing. We did the trolley city tours to become more familiar so our next trips there we can plan more excursions. I would highly recommend this cruise that was truly a history lesson and great adventure.

If it wasn’t for the smell in the cabin it would’ve been a fabulous cruise

It’s a great way to see the eastern Caribbean. The only bad part is that you change time zones 4-5 times on a ten-day cruise. You will get confused. But this is not the fault of Princess!

We took this cruise to gain familiarity with ship prior to planned world cruise aboard in 2021. We were pleased.