Island Princess April 21, 2006 to Hawaii

Sit down, and relax and read this review. Its long, but so was the trip (15 days). Forget about other reviews which talk about too many kids (Christmas cruise), or terrible weather (January). We didnt have either of those. We were traveling while school was in session, so there were very few children. The Cruise Director said we had the best weather of the season. Remember, Hawaii had 40 days of solid rain before we got there, but we saw none of it (except Hilo where it always rains).

We have been on 11 Princess Cruises, and thought that Island Princess was the best Princess ship weve been on. This is both for the ships design, as well as the outstanding crew and Ill cover both those aspects. This ship is of Sun Princess size i.e. 2,000 passengers rather than the Grand Princess 2,700-3,100 size. However, it has all of the Grand Class features of the larger shipsand then some. The cabins are Grand Class style, not the smaller cabins found on Sun and its sister ships. The public areas of Grand Class are all thereSabatinis, Bayou (instead of Sterling Steakhouse), Explorers Lounge, Wheelhouse Bar, and a larger Universe Lounge/Theater instead of the Vista Lounge. In fact, most of the public areas such as these are actually larger on this ship than on Grand/Golden etc. The Sabatinis for example, is both larger by far, and also more elegant than its counterparts on other ships. So you have the best of both worlds! Read more