Summary: My wife, Audre, and I took the Island Princess to Hawaii, departing March 7, 2006. It was one of the most enjoyable and relaxing vacations we ever took. The ship is beautiful and very clean, the crew friendly and efficient, and the itinerary with many sea days was perfect for us. We enjoyed it so much that we booked the same trip for next January.

Beginning & End: We live in Orange County, CA, so San Pedro is really easy for us, only an hour drive from home. We took an airport limo service up and back for the cruise. I read all the horror stories about the embarkation and debarkation in San Pedro. We saw none of that. Maybe we were just lucky, but I think there are some things to do that help. A friend of mine who took this cruise twice before gave me good advice on this. For embarkation, get there late. Sounds like most people who have problems show up early and get stuck in lines. We got to the terminal around 2:00 PM and took only 10-15 minutes to get from curbside to the gangway. Things slowed down actually getting on the ship, but that was due to the photographers stopping everyone and lots of people waiting for the mid-ship elevators as they got onboard. There are a lot of older people on this cruise, many with walkers, wheelchairs, scooter, etc. We had no problem with that, but it does slow things down when everyone is trying to go to the same place at the same time, especially at tendered ports. Debarkation was even easier. I am serious, it took us less than 25 minutes from the time we left our cabin at the stern of the ship (D718), got off the ship, past through Customs and Immigration, got our luggage and a porter, walked outside, loaded up the limo and were back on the freeway. I actually timed it because we had heard of so many problems. Again, I think part of our success is that we were one of the last groups to get off the ship; all the crowds trying to catch flights were ahead of us. Advice we got was to stay in our cabin until they threw us out. We did not stay that long, but took our time leaving the cabin. I strongly suggest that those of you flying in for this cruise have at least a day or two on either side of the cruise in the LA area. That will avoid all the stress of doing so much traveling in one day.

Food: We did Anytime Dining because we could not get Traditional First Seating. It worked fine; we called each morning to make a dinner reservation for that night. Sometimes we asked for a table for two, sometimes asked for a table for six and just met new friends those nights! Never had a problem getting the time or table size we wanted. Food was very good, other than a couple of over-done entrees (one fish, one chicken) my wife got on the way to Hawaii. We had dinner in the dining room ten nights, room service (which is a very limited dinner menu, I took a trip to the buffet to add some things) one night, and Sabatini's three nights (all three formal nights). I cannot say enough great things about Sabatini's. We had a table for two each time, and each time we spent over three hours having a true dining experience. Claudio, the maitre' de, and Daniele, the head chef, were wonderful to us. It is worth far more than the $20 per head they charge. We also liked the pizza up by the pool, some of the best thin crust we have had. Read more