Island Princess Review

Island Princess - Hawaii

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Island Princess
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BueBayou
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Dec 2006

My husband and I enjoyed this 4th cruise with Princess. The ship is beautiful, well-maintained. Public areas were spotless, there was always someone scrubbing something! Congratulations to Princess staff and its high level of service. Always helpful, friendly and smiling. Our room was comfortable and clean. One thing could be improved: the bed was a pain in the back. Literally. Better mattresses would make the nights more restful. However this cruise was not perfect because of Mother Nature. It's been said, I'll repeat it. It was lovely in Hawaii, but sea days were just too windy, too cold and too rocky. For weeks prior to the cruise, I was anticipating the pleasure of sipping a coffee/glass of wine on my balcony, walking every morning/every night around promenade deck, reading by the pool. Well, we rarely did any of these, the wind was too strong.

Around noon on day 3, I got sick, spilling my guts by both ends, running a fever, dehydrated. When I called the medical center, I was told to wait in my room until they call me and tell me to come down. When they did, my husband got me there in a wheelchair, I was too weak to walk. After a lot of paperwork, I was told I had an 'acute gastroenteritis'. All in all, the doctor (from South Africa) spent about 80 seconds with me and yet managed to be impatient and rude, like I was interrupting his vacation. Sure I understand he was busy that night but that's no excuse to his poor attitude. In the bed next to mine was a 70 year-old woman. A young male assistant (med student?) was rudely barking numerous questions to her. It turned out the lady was seasick, not guilty-of-something. I was confined to my cabin for 48 hours and complied until the last minute. The next day I was told to go down again at the med center (temperature taken, tip of IV removed). The nurse (from New Zealand - forgot her name) was nice. When the doc saw me, he opened the door to a room with 3 words: wait in here. Never bothered to ask: feeling better this morning? My point is that, on a ship, the med team should be prepared to deal with common situations such as seasickness & gastroenteritis without 'loosing it'. Apparently Celebrity has a much more caring approach, shows more consideration to its passengers (details in Norovirus thread). Enough with that bad experience.

When husband & I were in top shape again when we arrived in Hawaii. We had reserved a rental car in each port, it was so nice to visit at our own pace. Hardly any people when we were at the beautiful Botanical Garden in Hilo. In all ports, we just drove along the coast, walked on post-card beaches, marveled at spectacular views. In Maui we considered that tendering was taking so long we figured it would be 12:00 by the time we picked up the car ,not much time left if we were to be back by 4:30. So we canceled the car, stayed on the ship and finally enjoyed the pool on a warm day.

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