(Almost) Live From Island Princess 1/29-2/8

[cruzinchris]

Welcome home Mike and Chris! You make an awesome CC team..sharing such wonderful information. We will be on the Island for our Alaska cruise end of Aug. We have been on 16 cruises but haven't cruised with Princess in a while ( sailed Sea Princess and Golden twice) You both have made me more excited to have chosen the Island Princess for our Alaskan adventure.

Thanks for taking the time during your cruise to make postings and I look forward to your reviews.

I would like to know if you think the Chef's Table is worth the extra money! We are interested in doing that as well.

 

Chef's Table was truly a highlight of our cruise, and, yes, it is absolutely worth the expense :) We'll include details about the experience in our cruise review.

Chris and Mike

[northcreek]

Thanks so much, we will be on this cruise 11/19/11 and look forward to your review. We have cruised many times but his will be our first Panama Canal and first time on the Island so we are really excited. We are also planning on signing up for the Chef's table, we have done the Ultimate Ship tour in the past and that was great.

[satxdiver]

We also just left the Island Princess and are now in Orlando for a few days. We arrived at pier 29 around 12:30 and walked through the registration and on to the ship in less than 15 minutes with no lines. We are not privileged but mere mortals :D so everyone was walking on at that time. After a stop at our stateroom we went for lunch at the HC where tables were at a premium.

 

One major complaint I had was on sea days when they played movie after movie on MUTS at 120+ db from 10:00 in the morning to midnight! If you think you are going to sit by the main pool on the lido deck and enjoy a somewhat peaceful afternoon in the sun on sea days, think again. We had a midship balcony room on the baja deck and we could hear the movie from our balcony it was so loud. They kept the cover on the other lido pool closed so the noise was kept out. We spent a lot of time in there but would rather have been outside.

 

The other complaint was the anytime dining option which we had. The first few days there were long lines and half hour waits for a table. The worst part was that we had to stand in line 15 minutes or so just to register and get our pager.

 

The second formal night (sea day between Costa Rica and Jamaica) they served lobster in the MDR. Everyone always seems to want to know. The last night they served mussels in a wine sauce which I never had before on a cruise ship and was a surprise as I like mussels.

 

We had a great time despite the two complaints. The stateroom was perfect as was our attendant. The food was average for a Princess ship. The ship was small at least for us but understandable since we were going through the Gatun locks. The entertainment was average and what we expected. We had all dinners in the MDR, lunch in the HC and breakfast in our stateroom on the balcony. Room service in the morning was punctual and accurate. We had the same lady deliver our breakfast every day which was a first for us. The weather was fantastic. We did have a choppy ride from Costa Rica to Jamaica where some were feeling it.

 

The Panama canal was simply awesome. We followed a freighter into the locks with it being one chamber in front of us. The Gatun locks and the other two consist of three chambers each a little higher than the one before. There are two sets parallel with each other so a ship can be going one direction while another one is going the other way. However we were told that ships go one way in the morning and the other way in the afternoon. At least when we went through at around 7:00 AM both sets of locks were passing ships in the same direction.

 

The locks are 1000 feet by 115 feet and the Island just fits particularly the width. They are building new locks beside the old ones that will be 1500 feet long and 150 feet wide with completion forecast for 2013.

 

After entering Gatun lake the Island went to a nearby landing point and dropped the tenders into the water to take all pax who had bought tours ashore. Only pax with ship booked tours were allowed to leave the ship. All other pax had to stay on the ship for a return through the locks to Colon. There was only a small dock and nothing else there but they did have waiting transportation for us mainly a bus. We did the rail tour in the glass dome car which was great. We traveled on the train to the Pacific and back where the same bus took us to the ship now docked at Colon. Aside from the small vendors at the port, there was not anything else to do at the port.

 

The same bus that took us to the train picked us up on the Pacific side and took us through the former US area to the Miraflor Locks where there is a really nice four story visitor center with observation deck on the fourth floor. We watched a freighter go through the locks destined for the Caribbean. They also had a film on the building of the locks and a lot of information on the new locks that will be operated in parallel with the old ones.

 

We did later meet a couple who had gone on the small boat tour partially through the rest of the canal. By bad luck they had fell in line behind a large freighter going to the Pacific and had to wait a lot arriving back at the ship late. They complained about all the wait time but enjoyed the tour overall.

 

We had been to Aruba before and will be returning next February so we walked off the ship and did a quick one hour tour through the shopping area before returning to the ship. We did a ship sponsored tour of Cartagena which was good. Given the short time, we chose the ship's tour.

 

We did a private tour in Limon with Okeydokey tours which was fantastic. There were six of us in the van with the driver and tour guide. The guide, Rey, was really good and made sure we saw everything and understood. At the end on the way back to the ship they took us to a local grocery store and Rey helped us pick out the coffee and other items we wanted. He then helped us at the checkout with the money transaction. I saw the same coffee we bought for about a dollar (prices are in Colons but they accepted USD and gave change in USD) being sold at the port for $7! I would certainly recommend Okeydokey tours. In Jamaica we stayed on the ship.

 

We disembarked carrying our own luggage. We were in group two and were outside the terminal by 7:40 AM. I heard a crew member say that the last sailing they had all pax off the ship by 9:15 AM.

 

I kept a copy of each of the Princess Patters and will copy them when I get home in two weeks.

[cruzinchris]

We also just left the Island Princess and are now in Orlando for a few days. We arrived at pier 29 around 12:30 and walked through the registration and on to the ship in less than 15 minutes with no lines. We are not privileged but mere mortals :D so everyone was walking on at that time. After a stop at our stateroom we went for lunch at the HC where tables were at a premium. Thanks for your synopsis, satxdiver. We were onboard, in our stateroom and already unpacking at 11:30! We left one bag with longshoreman that was delivered before 1:00.

 

One major complaint I had was on sea days when they played movie after movie on MUTS at 120+ db from 10:00 in the morning to midnight! If you think you are going to sit by the main pool on the lido deck and enjoy a somewhat peaceful afternoon in the sun on sea days, think again. We had a midship balcony room on the baja deck and we could hear the movie from our balcony it was so loud. They kept the cover on the other lido pool closed so the noise was kept out. We spent a lot of time in there but would rather have been outside. Mike and I had a midship balcony on Aloha and could sometimes hear bass booming on MUTS or the party band when we were on our balcony. Smoking was never an issue in surrounding staterooms :)

 

The other complaint was the anytime dining option which we had. The first few days there were long lines and half hour waits for a table. The worst part was that we had to stand in line 15 minutes or so just to register and get our pager. We had late traditional seating but spoke with passengers who experienced long waits for anytime dining. Princess needs to revisit the entire anytime dining situation and, hopefully, come up with a plan that pleases passengers who prefer the flexible alternative.

 

The second formal night (sea day between Costa Rica and Jamaica) they served lobster in the MDR. Everyone always seems to want to know. The last night they served mussels in a wine sauce which I never had before on a cruise ship and was a surprise as I like mussels. There seemed to be a few new choices on some of the dinner menus, particularly fish/seafood. On the formal night, I prefer the prawns and was offered more if I wanted them.

 

We had a great time despite the two complaints. The stateroom was perfect as was our attendant. The food was average for a Princess ship. The ship was small at least for us but understandable since we were going through the Gatun locks. The entertainment was average and what we expected. We had all dinners in the MDR, lunch in the HC and breakfast in our stateroom on the balcony. Room service in the morning was punctual and accurate. We had the same lady deliver our breakfast every day which was a first for us. The weather was fantastic. We did have a choppy ride from Costa Rica to Jamaica where some were feeling it. We thought the food was slightly better than on larger ships, and we liked having our Head Waiter (Martins) prepare several dishes tableside and served to everyone in our section. The only other ship that offered this was the Dawn Princess (January, 2007). We had seen all of the production shows and hope that Princess introduces something new before our next cruise.

 

The Panama canal was simply awesome. We followed a freighter into the locks with it being one chamber in front of us. The Gatun locks and the other two consist of three chambers each a little higher than the one before. There are two sets parallel with each other so a ship can be going one direction while another one is going the other way. However we were told that ships go one way in the morning and the other way in the afternoon. At least when we went through at around 7:00 AM both sets of locks were passing ships in the same direction. We viewed the locks operation from our balcony while listening to the commentary on the TV. The approach in the morning while it is still dark is amazing!

 

The locks are 1000 feet by 115 feet and the Island just fits particularly the width. They are building new locks beside the old ones that will be 1500 feet long and 150 feet wide with completion forecast for 2013.

 

After entering Gatun lake the Island went to a nearby landing point and dropped the tenders into the water to take all pax who had bought tours ashore. Only pax with ship booked tours were allowed to leave the ship. All other pax had to stay on the ship for a return through the locks to Colon. There was only a small dock and nothing else there but they did have waiting transportation for us mainly a bus. We did the rail tour in the glass dome car which was great. We traveled on the train to the Pacific and back where the same bus took us to the ship now docked at Colon. Aside from the small vendors at the port, there was not anything else to do at the port.

 

The same bus that took us to the train picked us up on the Pacific side and took us through the former US area to the Miraflor Locks where there is a really nice four story visitor center with observation deck on the fourth floor. We watched a freighter go through the locks destined for the Caribbean. They also had a film on the building of the locks and a lot of information on the new locks that will be operated in parallel with the old ones.

 

We did later meet a couple who had gone on the small boat tour partially through the rest of the canal. By bad luck they had fell in line behind a large freighter going to the Pacific and had to wait a lot arriving back at the ship late. They complained about all the wait time but enjoyed the tour overall.

 

We had been to Aruba before and will be returning next February so we walked off the ship and did a quick one hour tour through the shopping area before returning to the ship. We did a ship sponsored tour of Cartagena which was good. Given the short time, we chose the ship's tour. We didn't disembark in Aruba having been there several times and likely to cruise there again next winter.

 

We did a private tour in Limon with Okeydokey tours which was fantastic. There were six of us in the van with the driver and tour guide. The guide, Rey, was really good and made sure we saw everything and understood. At the end on the way back to the ship they took us to a local grocery store and Rey helped us pick out the coffee and other items we wanted. He then helped us at the checkout with the money transaction. I saw the same coffee we bought for about a dollar (prices are in Colons but they accepted USD and gave change in USD) being sold at the port for $7! I would certainly recommend Okeydokey tours. In Jamaica we stayed on the ship. We did a walking tour of Walled City in Cartagena, an eco-jungle tour and banana plantation in Limon, and Mike disembarked in Ocho Rios to purchase some Blue Mountain coffee while I finished laundry.

 

We disembarked carrying our own luggage. We were in group two and were outside the terminal by 7:40 AM. I heard a crew member say that the last sailing they had all pax off the ship by 9:15 AM.

 

I kept a copy of each of the Princess Patters and will copy them when I get home in two weeks.

 

I'll work on Mike's and my review today - in between unpacking and laundry :D

Chris