andyman1970

Highly recommend Spain Day Tours - just came back from Spain / Portugal.  SDT was our tour provider of choice for Cadiz (for Seville) and Malaga (for Granada).  They are super-legit - in fact, they were one of the few tour operators able to secure Alhambra tickets whereas other firms thru Viator had to refund fees at the last minutes, disappointing several others on our cruise.  Looking forward to touring with them in the future.

Hi Andyman1970,

 

I really appreciate the update as I will be in suite L721 on the Aug 26th sailing.

What were your thoughts on suite L721 overall?

It's fine, but I'm not a good one to ask as I'm not one to spend time in the cabin. A cabin's primary function for me is sleep and shower. I get out there and meet new people on deck.

Don (OP) described the cabin well in photos. At worst, it may be disappointing for some that wish to have a wrap-around balcony.

Yet in 2016 the Island Princess is not going to Venice even one time.

Did they perhaps lose the bid on the port? Is it that time of the bidding cycle? Princess and RCCL had nothing in some ports for years......

Maybe I am getting older or because all of my prior cruises have only been 7 days, but it seemed like we were faced with near constant "up sale". Couldn't walk to the lobby or leave the ship without calls to stand for pictures. Cheesy backdrops or deck hands dressed as dressed as "gladiators", etc. We were solicited to make reservations at a specialty restaurant every time we ate in the buffet. Try to get info on the ship TV, Art sales, Jewelry specials, etc.

 

This was our first trip to Barcelona and we were traveling with my 74 year old mother-in-law and my 8 year old with a lot of luggage. When I asked the desk if they could get us the number to hire a driver due to our luggage (which I was carrying most of!) we were told that unless it was one of their travel connections, they couldn't help us! Turns out we didn't need a driver as there were plenty at the port, but we didn't know that!

 

Imagine a hotel desk telling you that they couldn't help you get a car!

 

That said, the rooms were nice. We had adjoining balconies on the Emerald deck. We were very happy with the anytime dinning, although I could never get a medium rare steak without sending the first one back.

 

We hired our own tours through APTours and two other companies and would highly recommend that option rather than the 30 or more people on each of the Princess tours.

Agree that Princess is very aggressive on upsell and in my experience far more aggressive than RCCL. I find it very annoying, but hey that's business.

I did inquire to one of the photographers regarding the incessant photo opportunities. That photographer was very candid by saying the Princess (or rather its owner Carnival) is actually punitive if the photographers don't take and sell a quota. Sounds like a Carnival sales and marketing department revamp is warranted :D

I echo your sentiments on APTours - they are very good, especially lunch at La Tagliatta.

Poor selections and content or poor quality projection?

Poor selections and poor volume management (too loud, and this coming from me, a rock band drummer of 30 years). \m/:cool:

No one really wants to see Beyonce in concert (sorry - can't call her show a concert). The Genesis and Billy Joel shows were fine.

Movie nite was hit or miss. The CD skipped and ultimately stopped during the Sound of Music movie under the stars.

Just a few thoughts in reply to some of the issues raised in this thread. I have just arrived back after 2 weeks today. To give some background we have sailed with princess for 10 years and have taken 15 cruises.

 

1. In Toulon you dock in sur la mer. There is a boat connection for 20 dollars return from princess, but just a 5 minute walk to the 8M sea bus is 2 euros each way.

 

2. The gym is awful and too hot

 

3. Food stunning especially the 50th anniverary meal.

 

4. Staff all excellent.

 

5. But...we were in room L711 - a new balcony room. After one night we insisted on a move as the vibrations were awful. If you put anything on the shelf above the hanger area it would literally bounce its way off! Many were unable to move as there weren't enough alternative rooms - these set up a campaign group against princess, insisting on compensation. One of them slept out in the open on the deck as it was so difficult to sleep in his room.

 

6. With the loss of the back pool, one of the remaining pools is always undercover. So...on sunny days the entire ship decends on one open pool area! Not great planning by Princess - we won't sail on Island Princess again sadly.

 

7. Enterainment worst I've ever known. Very little choice of shows and external entertainers.

 

We still love Princess and will continue to sail with them, but the changes to this ship are too many and has spoiled the feel of the ship. It didn't generally feel busy or crowded with the extra passengers but the inability to walk around the prom deck and sit at the tiered aft of the ship is unusual in the more modern ships.

 

Hope that all helps.

Interesting observations here - definitely agree on item 6, but I had very different experiences overall:

- Gym was surprisingly functional and right temperature; enabled my 6 mornings of workouts quite well.

- Food was only so-so at best in Horizon, deck grills and main dining room; if you want to eat well go to the specialty restaurants - this was very, very disappointing compared to past Princess cruises

- Staff was tired and worn down; perhaps there's too many people removing their Auto-Tips... I don't like that's its a bit difficult to give additional tips on demand for good service, and I'm pretty sure the staff hates it as well.

- Entertainment a bit limited in volume, but generally high quality including the comic, violinist and rock band.

- Quality of movies / concerts at pool JumboTron was poor.

Island Princess works very well for a port intensive itinerary, especially for ports that are limiting tourist volume and/or ship gross tonnage like Venice. I would hesitate for transoceanic and itineraries with more than 2-3 days at sea. You will run out of things to do and see on this ship.

I too enjoyed the cruise. As a matter of interest was your cabin in the aft of the ship? When we moved to mid ship it was fine, but the new cabin at the back was awful. I have sailed on many cruises and accept some movement but this was dramatically different. I was on lido deck on starboard side in a balcony room.

 

I read about the vibration issue before I sailed and presumed it was scaremongering or people being overly dramatic. However I can confirm first hand that this is a very real problem.

I had two cabins midship C421/C423 and barely felt any vibration in either cabin. My wife is very sensitive to motion, and therefore we don't take any chances on aft or forward cabins. She indicated that she was least impacted on this cruise compared to others.

We were also on the balconies of L721 for Venice sailaway (thank you Don!) and we could barely feel any vibration for the journey out of the Guiddecca canal (albeit I'm reasonably sure we weren't full thrust).

Princess is in the dark ages on this item. They need to digitize all photos and have 2-3 kiosks onboard for viewing, or better yet display them on your cabin TV. Printing proofs and hoping people with buy them is a waste of money which drives pricey per unit pictures.

I say this, yet we somehow bought 5 formal pics.

Don't get me started on the upcharge for digital rights.

Unfortunate to hear some had bad experiences with vibrations on the Island. I was on the same cruise with Don the OP and frankly I don't think the vibrations were any more noticeable than any other cruise I've taken.

It's a large ship with many moving parts. No one should expect silence but excessive noise also shouldn't overly impact passengers. Ship is fine for the Mediterranean itinerary as you don't spend a ton of time on it. However due to some of the stated limitations earlier in thread I would probably not recommend for a lot of days at sea.

Just got back from a Med visit, using Rome in Limo 2x: from airport to hotel and then from hotel to port. Cost was reasonable, travel was efficient and drivers were professional. Good choice for transportation in Rome.