Island Princess Review

Seeing the Panama Canal throught the lens of a Nikon D300

Review for the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise on Island Princess
User Avatar
old_photobug
First Time Cruiser • Age 2020s

Rating by category

Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Fitness & Recreation
Service
Cabin

Additional details

Sail Date: Feb 2009

Who goes on a cruise to have a 5:30 AM wake-up call every morning? What we got on the Island Princess was tantamount to that. We were in A507 right next to the service elevators. Between 5:30 and 6:00 AM every morning the doors would open to the elevators and we could hear the trolleys with fresh linens and other supplies rumbling across a ribbed floor (bumps to keep the trolleys from rolling about in the room.) The first morning it was so loud that I thought we had sailed into a thunderstorm. Then, the trolleys would be slammed against the wall and secured. There would be several of these delivered every 15 to 30 minutes. We complained to the front desk, but alas, there was nothing anyone could do except talk to the supervisor. It was a little quieter the next morning, but after that it was the same again. This was our sixth cruise, the previous being on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and Holland America. We had been delighted with HAL, but we wanted a change of pace; maybe something between the party atmosphere of RCCL and the somewhat too quiet atmosphere of HAL. We were so disappointed at nearly every turn. The room seemed considerable smaller than the HAL room of about the same square footage. HAL used every inch for storage and gave us a nice living room type setup. It had a nice relaxing chair and love seat to sit and read, etc. The IP room wasted a lot of area. The only seat was one chair at the vanity. If you wanted to read or just relax, you had to do it on the bed. My wife and I are rather small. The shower was so small we could hardly turn around. One of the comedians said that to use them you rubbed soap on the walls and rotated. He was more right than wrong on that one. One would think that a ship built in 2003 would have taken into account that most people are much larger now than 1950. We are used to cruise ships finding creative ways milk every penny from us, but the Island Princess took it to absurd levels. As we entered the ship someone was trying to sell us a plastic cup for unlimited soda refills for $46.00. As soon as you were seated in any dining room, someone was trying to sell us a bottle of water. The ship's water was excellent and the bottled stuff could have never equaled it. Then the wine waiter came by. On RCCL and HAL, you could get ice cream on the desert bar in the buffet. On IP, it was an extra charge and a small Sundae was about $3.50 to 5.00 depending on how you dressed it. There were the usual art auctions, gambling, cocktails, and so on. But, one thing that really staggered everyone I talked with was the $150 for a tour of the ship. As we were exploring the ship, we were surprised that you had to pay $15-25 just to visit the aft deck. IP had created a nice lounge area with upgraded deck chairs, which was fine, but you could not walk through the area to get to the other side without paying. On all our previous cruises the suggested gratuity was $7.00-$7.50 per day per person. We were a little surprised to see that it was $10.50 on the IP. With the spotty service, I inquired about reducing it and was handed a long form to fill in. I inquired if we could specify that certain of the staff could receive more of the amount and were told that it could not be divided out. The food on the Lido deck buffet was very disappointing. We had breakfast there a few times and the bacon was as thin as a newspaper and dripping with grease. The food selection was very poor with very little fresh fruit, except melons and pineapple. On HAL, we enjoyed the different ethnic foods for lunch around the pool. On IP, you could get a slice of pizza (very good pizza at that) and that was it. On the other two lines, we could get a free lemonade at most of the bars. However on the IP, it was a battle to get a glass of lemonade. They only served it in the Lido buffet and you had to take a seat and get a waiter to get it for you. The time varied from 10 to 20 minutes to get the waiter's attention and the lemonade delivered. The service in the two main dining rooms was very uneven. One night it took us almost three hours to get our complete meals. Usually it was 30 minutes between courses. However, we did find a couple of very good waiters and when we started asking for their tables, things went much better. (Thank you Miska and Barbara.) I was very disappointed with the entrees. There was little difference in the selections of salads and soups from night to night. I was so happy to see steak on the list the last night. However, I was very disappointed in the preparation. I'm not sure how it was cooked, but it was covered with tasteless gravy. I found out why when I cut into it. It was tough and dry. Our cabin steward was very nice and called us by name the first time he saw us. His service was good and he anticipated our needs. I had a couple of requests of him and was served in less than five minutes. But, most of the rest of the staff members were cool, indifferent, or downright rude. The manager of the photography department was the rudest of all. I went to his free presentation on how to use your camera. The first thing he did was offer to clean everyone's lens. He had a microfiber cloth and he proceeded to take his thumb and rub ever camera lens vigorously to clean the lens. As an advanced photographer, I was tempted to yell out, don't let him ruin you lens with all that crud on that cloth. If any camera had grit on the lens, he proceeded to grind it into every lens he cleaned after that. I went to the photo booth where he was working and tried to ask him a question. He was very rude and just blew me off telling me that he was busy tallying the receipts from the previous night at the time. We were disappointed that one of the excursions that we booked about a month in advance was sold out. We went on the standby list, but were not able to go. That meant that by the time we found out, it was too late to book anything else that interested us. But, that is pretty normal on all cruises. Since it was a simple bus and walking tour to a downtown area, I would have thought they could have added a bus or two before we got there. The excursion office had very limited hours, so it was difficult to talk to anyone. One night, when I found it open, there was a very long line waiting to book excursions. Finally, one of elements I enjoy most on a cruise is the music. It was practically non-existent on the ship. I like the poolside live music on the RCCL ships and the lounge music on the HAL ships. But, there was little music and most of it was not all that good. By the pool, they played recorded music during the day. I enjoy country music, but I think others probably got pretty sick of the steady diet as that was what was playing most of the time. The theater productions were excellent. However, the theater only seated about 800 people and there were about 2,000 on board. They repeated each show three times, but two of those three shows began at 10:30 PM. Getting a seat for the 8:30 show meant going about 7:30. By 8:00, it was totally full. Since dinner went about 2 ½ hours, it was difficult to get there by 8 PM. Because they repeated the shows on two nights, we only got three or four different productions. The other nights featured a pretty good standup comic. There was a second theatre that had a juggler and some other one-man shows. One night they featured some big band sounds from a small combo, which was OK, but not great. On the plus side, the ship was immaculately clean. There was no wear anywhere and the dEcor and appointments were as nice as I've seen anywhere on land or sea. All the public areas were well lighted and comfortable. The service at the purser's desk was excellent. The person always listened to me and tried to meet my needs. This ship had the best embarkation and disembarkation of any I've ever been on. Usually they had two gangways working at every port and did and exception job of getting people on and off. I think our longest wait was maybe five minutes to get back on. The security personnel were especially friendly and helpful. I always felt safe walking around alone at night on the decks. There were security cameras every few feet around the decks, especially in the more remote parts of the ship. I would have to rate the whole experience 6.5 out of ten.

Cabin Review

Very poor layout. It was an interior cabin on the Aloha deck. There was only one chair and it was designed for the vanity. We had to sit on the bed to read or watch TV. There was lots of wasted space in the cabin that could have been configured to allow at least one easy chair. The bathroom was fine, but the shower was very small and tight. It did encourage water conservation because you had to turn the water off to soap up. We were awakened at 5:30 to 6:00 by the service elevators delivering the linens for the day.

previous reviewnext review

Find an Island Princess Cruise from $628

Any Month

Get special cruise deals, expert advice, insider tips and more.By proceeding, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

© 1995—2024, The Independent Traveler, Inc.