We had never sailed with Princess Cruises before and chose this cruise because of the itinerary. Unfortunately, we were not very happy with the Island Princess.

For the 60 day cruise we booked a Premium Suite on Baja deck. We wanted to be comfortable during the 60 days and also wanted a balcony from which we could also see the views from the back of the ship. The stateroom B745, which we chose, is very comfortable. We liked the small entry hallway – nobody could see in to the room when the door was open. The bathroom (with bath and shower) and separate toilet with hand basin, are large and roomy. The stateroom furniture and beds are very comfortable and we had sufficient wardrobe space. The steward, Marlon, did a great job.

We did have a problem with the balcony furniture. The balcony for this suite is not very deep (which we knew) but the furniture is too large and left very little space for movement. Further to that it was very shabby, heavy, Italian style metal furniture from which the paint flaked off every time we touched it. The cushions and mattress on the sunbed were always damp and salt stained. We asked to have the furniture changed but only the seats could be removed. The sunbed was so large and heavy, we were told that it could only be removed by a crane! Guest relations informed us at the start of the cruise that this would be done within the next month (February) but this never happened. As we were expecting the advertised “upgraded furniture” we were very disappointed and have complained directly to Princess Cruises. A further missing suite amenity was the “CD/DVD player with access to a complimentary DVD library”. As this amenity was one of the reasons we booked this expensive suite we placed a complaint. We were informed that during dry dock (December 2017), all the televisions were changed for flat screen ones and that they didn’t have time during dry dock to fit up the DVDs (or video on demand?). Guest relations offer was to fit up DVDs for both televisions in the stateroom either with extra furniture or by fixing shelves to the (new) walls. We turned down this offer since shelves on the walls and more furniture would take up more room and could be a cause for accidents. Guest relations told us that they reported this to HQ and, as other guests had also already complained, Princess were working on the amount which would be refunded for this missing amenity. Our written complaint to Princess has been replied to but the reply is unsatisfactory. Our biggest complaint is why weren’t we informed in advance? Read more