Island Princess Review

Island Princess - Hawaii

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Island Princess

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Sail Date: Dec 2005
Traveled with children

Background Info: Four of us, my husband and 2 children ages 1 year and 17 years old, cruised together, sharing a balcony cabin. We got the largest room that was available at the time. This was our first cruise on a cruise line other than RCL - we had cruised RCL four times in the past several years and enjoyed all our cruises with them very, very much. We understood Princess did not cater to children as much and were prepared for that - but they did boast their holidays were full of families so that is why we selected this particular time. It was our first trip to Hawaii, and since I despise flying, what could have been better than sailing to Hawaii (or so I thought). This turned out to be our worse cruise and I adamantly recommend against Princess cruises to anyone I speak with.

Embarkation: The only good thing about the cruise is that we did walk right on with the absolute minimum of problems.

Hotel: I always like to book us into a hotel room the night before and stay the night after the cruise. We had one very close call with almost not arriving the day of embarkation due to vehicle problems and I don't want to take that chance again. There are nice hotels very close to the LA pier with shuttle service and that is convenient. We stayed at the Holiday Inn at Los Angeles Harbor and they even will allow you to keep your vehicle parked at their hotel, indoor, covered parking, for the duration of your cruise. There is a small fee for this, but cheaper than the pier parking. Stateroom: Our stateroom - I just cannot say enough bad things about it! We are used to booking suites on RCL and having lots of room. Princess doesn't have rooms like that available - I booked this cruise 14 months in advance and could only get a "mini-suite". They don't seem to have larger rooms. The worst thing however, was the smoking. Passengers in a room a couple doors down from us smoked the entire cruise and the hallways were filled with the smell of smoke all of the time. I could not believe it!!! RCL does not allow smoking indoors - Princess has a different view on it. Our cabin steward took $20 from our room - we know because we left the money on the bed and came back a few minutes later when we realized we did that. The steward was just leaving the room and when we walked in the money was missing. The hallways were unbelievably SMALL!! We had a baby stroller and could not maneuver it down the hallways. One of the reasons is because they left their service carts in the hallways the entire time. Very dangerous.

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