Day by Day review of Island Princess 12/29/2011

[goldens4ever]

Hope you don't mind a question....

 

Who was your CD?

 

Not that it matters that much....just wondering!

[Love.II.Cruise]

Hope you don't mind a question....

 

Who was your CD?

 

Not that it matters that much....just wondering!

 

Our CD was Richard Joseph.

[Loonbeam]

Even during spring break you won't see as many kids on this itinerary. That said as I have noted elsewhere, the sanctuary on the Island offers a better value than some of the others because of the Private pool. Given the itinerary, its a HUGE plus.

 

We leave in 3 weeks for this cruise...thanks for all your hard work in sharing your amazing cruise! It is so nice to hear about your trip....what was good and get some ideas of what we should do...

 

We have never tried the Sanctuary before....but maybe for this trip...as it is Spring Break...

 

Looking forward to more posts!!!

[lcmslady]

Reading through this has me so excited - we just booked a full transit on the Island for January 2013 last night.

 

I know on other cruise lines, the captain sometimes opens the Heli-pad so that you can get up to the very front of the ship. Are these areas behind the 'secret' doors on 10 & 11 the only way to get as far forward as possible?

 

Please keep the info and pictures coming - this is great stuff!

[Loonbeam]

There is no heli-pad on the Island. Those are the most forward outside areas. The Horizon Court windows are the most forward actual point I think)

 

Reading through this has me so excited - we just booked a full transit on the Island for January 2013 last night.

 

I know on other cruise lines, the captain sometimes opens the Heli-pad so that you can get up to the very front of the ship. Are these areas behind the 'secret' doors on 10 & 11 the only way to get as far forward as possible?

 

Please keep the info and pictures coming - this is great stuff!

[Love.II.Cruise]

Reading through this has me so excited - we just booked a full transit on the Island for January 2013 last night.

 

I know on other cruise lines, the captain sometimes opens the Heli-pad so that you can get up to the very front of the ship. Are these areas behind the 'secret' doors on 10 & 11 the only way to get as far forward as possible?

 

Please keep the info and pictures coming - this is great stuff!

 

They did not open that area you are describing where the bow is. But many people were on deck 10 & 11 where the 'secret' doors are.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Jan. 4, 2012 , Day 7: Limon, Costa Rica

 

 

Today we decided to do the Sloth Sanctuary, Jungle Canoe & Walking Tour through Princess... and it was a downpour of rain when we left on our tour. Thank goodness we had our thin plastic raincoats from home. We had an air-conditioned bus to the Sanctuary with narrative of the area. We learned a lot about bananas... so much that I actually look in our grocery stores to see which ones are from Costa Rica!

 

Fortunately, when we arrived to the facility it was not raining. There were so many people there that the order of what is described in the tour does not happen in that order. If there are three groups then they shuffle you around. Not a big deal. We found the canoe ride to be scary and fun... if everybody suddenly leaned to the right to take a picture, you felt like the canoe was about to tip over! :eek: However, our canoe guide knew no English. None of the canoe guides knew English and there were several of them that took us down the river at once. But at least he could point... but sometimes we had no idea what to look for.

 

Below are some pictures from our canoe ride.

 

 

 

 

Looking straight up from the canoe...

 

[Love.II.Cruise]

And a type of bat?

 

 

And finally our guide points way up into the tree... that took some time to find... a sloth as high as can be!

 

 

After the canoe ride we saw two volunteers at this Sloth Sanctuary from a college in the US. I felt terribly bad for them. They were selling sodas and beers out of cooler to us. Shouldn’t they be working with the sloths and learning something? :confused: What a shame! And maybe they do when they don’t have visitors, but if I were their parents and I found out they went to volunteer in Costa Rica and were selling beers, I wouldn’t be happy.

 

We ended up in a group that had the most children and it seemed every child had their own small digital camera and did not know how to use it properly, nor the parents. The woman in the pictures below asked several times to not take flash photography because it hurts the eyes of the sloth. Flashes continued and she got irate. She also tended to call many people in Costa Rica “stupid” and “idiots” about their treatments and knowledge of sloths and in our opinion bragged on and on about how zoos continually call her for advise (calling the zoos “idiots” the whole time as well - at least they were smart enough to call for some advise). We both thought she was arrogant and seemed bothered by us being there. Everything was about her. How she did this and she did that. We kept thinking, surely other people work here and also take care of the sloths? But there was no sense of team work when she talked.

 

 

 

 

We did get to see a video presentation about the Sanctuary and how it started. We also went on a walking tour with our bus driver. Part of this is near the two lane highway and kinda takes away from the “I’m walking in a rainforest” idea. The only things we saw on this tour were some spiders. It was disappointing.

 

They did feed us four pieces of fresh fruit, which we had to eat fast and leave since there were not enough tables and more people were coming. Then we were shuffled into the gift shop. Typically when we visit a place of this nature we make a donation, but this was one time where we didn’t. We feel a little guilty for not making some sort of donation, but there were too many things that happened that left a sour taste in our mouth.

 

You do not get to touch or hold any sloths on this tour. We did kinda expect to at least pet one (heck we were offered to hold one in Colombia for $2 and take our picture with it, but decided to wait until we were on this tour). We’ve been to so many other museums and zoos around the world and have been able to touch dolphins, sharks, sting rays, star fish, koala bears, kangaroos, etc. To be fair, the description of the tour didn’t say either way if we would be able to touch a sloth, but I think there should be something that states, “No one will not be permitted to touch any of the sloths.”

 

My husband and I would not recommend this tour based on our experience, but I’m sure others have different opinions and feel differently. If someone else would like to share their experience here, please do so. I know other people go on the same tours and can get an entirely different experience. As we left the facility, it had just started to rain again. I guess we got lucky about the rain!

[Love.II.Cruise]

There was this area by the ship that was like a huge covered flee market. It was great! There were rows and rows of vendors. We bought several shirts and then I was on a hunt. I wanted to bring home a beautiful salad bowl with a large fork and spoon with matching individual serving bowls. We went up and down every aisle. Finally, on the last aisle in the back, second vendor from the end, I found them. These were absolutely beautiful made of wood from Tigerwood. I made the purchase and he did a great job wrapping it up.

 

As we walked back to the ship with our thin plastic raincoats from home, we had the following discussion:

 

My DH and I were carrying our gifts to the ship in the rain and I said, “Yeah, I finally got a piece of Tiger Wood!” :D Oh no... what did I just say?!? :eek::eek:

 

My DH buckles over and starts laughing so hard. Boy did that come out wrong! :o

 

We went to our room, dropped everything and picked up our books and went to the Sanctuary. When we did finally get hungry, we decided to try the Oktoberfest Dinner Buffet. There is a favorite german restaurant that we love at home and we were curious how this would compare. We both think they did an excellent job of serving different sausages, meats, and sauerkraut. We even thought their hot mustard was decent (we love anything and everything spicy). One gentleman went by us choking on the hot mustard in search of water. So beware if you take to much. :p

[cormike1]

It is always so nice to see people enjoying reviews whether it is for upcoming cruises they are taking, or having taken the same cruise in the past. I too did a partial transit and after reading so many great reviews posted my own. It is a nice way to give back. There was also one really stand out, specific review done by "sweetangel" years ago that if you are interested should check out! (I will put a plug for mine in as well).

 

Suitelive...keep it coming, I love it especially with photos installed, I could not figure out how to do that!!

 

cibaygirls....I did read your writeups and really enjoyed them to. I try and read alot of posts about cruises I take so that I don't say once I get home "If only I had read that I would have known to do that"

 

Suitelive.....you didn't get off the ship to do any tours at the Canal? May I ask why?

 

Thanks.

 

Corinne (and Mike)

[Love.II.Cruise]

Suitelive.....you didn't get off the ship to do any tours at the Canal? May I ask why?

 

Well, a couple factors resulted in this decision.

 

We've done long day tours in the past and tend to not like them. We figured we would be up by 5:00am to make sure we would be outside by 5:30am. After going through the canal you can choose to tender off, go on a tour and you are off the ship until either your tour ends or the cruise ship arrives in Colon. That would have been a very long day!

 

Another factor that played into this decision is that we plan to return to the Panama Canal when the expansion is complete. I'm sure when we return, we will do something different.

 

We instead enjoyed seeing the ship go back out and enjoyed a nice snooze in the afternoon before dinner.

 

I do know some people stayed on because they disliked the fact that the only way you could do a tour was if it was through Princess. Some people thought the prices were high and it was a way for Princess to earn an extra buck. Honestly, we didn't feel this way. We made our decision based on the length of the day and the fact we plan to return to the area. To us, going in and out the canal was an excursion itself.

[cormike1]

Aaahhhh that makes perfect sense to me. I really enjoyed the days when we were on the Emerald, and had been to specific islands already, and stayed onboard. We spent the day at the aft pool and sometimes it was like it was "our" ship lol. The only port we have been to on this upcoming cruise is Costa Rica and we were not in the same spot. I can't wait to read your experience at the "Sloth Sanctuary" as that is the one I would like to do. I retired 2 years ago and when I run into people I haven't seen for awhile and they ask me what I am doing, my reply is that I have turned into a sloth and love every minute of it. Now I want to see what I am imitating LOL.

 

Corinne (and Mike)

[Love.II.Cruise]

Aaahhhh that makes perfect sense to me. I really enjoyed the days when we were on the Emerald, and had been to specific islands already, and stayed onboard. We spent the day at the aft pool and sometimes it was like it was "our" ship lol. The only port we have been to on this upcoming cruise is Costa Rica and we were not in the same spot. I can't wait to read your experience at the "Sloth Sanctuary" as that is the one I would like to do. I retired 2 years ago and when I run into people I haven't seen for awhile and they ask me what I am doing, my reply is that I have turned into a sloth and love every minute of it. Now I want to see what I am imitating LOL.

 

Corinne (and Mike)

 

I just posted the review... you'll have to go back to the previous page to see it though.

[Loonbeam]

We went through that entire market looking for stuffed sloths. Never found a one, but there was some really nice stuff there and on the blocks outside the port as well. Highly recommended for those shopping in the ports.

 

One note about buying wood items. When you get them home to the US or elsewehere, depending on the humidity the wood will slightly change size, this can make boxes, etc stick...

 

 

 

There was this area by the ship that was like a huge covered flee market. It was great! There were rows and rows of vendors. We bought several shirts and then I was on a hunt. I wanted to bring home a beautiful salad bowl with a large fork and spoon with matching individual serving bowls. We went up and down every aisle. Finally, on the last aisle in the back, second vendor from the end, I found them. These were absolutely beautiful made of wood from Tigerwood. I made the purchase and he did a great job wrapping it up.

 

[lcmslady]

They did not open that area you are describing where the bow is. But many people were on deck 10 & 11 where the 'secret' doors are.

 

Thanks - that tells me where we need to be!!

[Love.II.Cruise]

Jan. 5, 2012 , Day 8: Sea Day

 

Today we went to the thermal suites (actually we did on other days and I had not mentioned it). This was our second time on Island Princess. When we sailed on her in 2005 she did not have the thermal suites, MUTS, or the Sanctuary, etc. So we were looking forward to seeing these renovations on this ship. There are 4 stone beds in the thermal suites and four different types of steam room/saunas along with a shower. One had an aroma of eucalyptus (I love eucalyptus!)... another had lavender. The dry heat was also very nice. In two of the four rooms the led lights in the ceiling, resembling stars, did not work through the length of the cruise. We also thought the area where the stone beds were was too bright and the music was down so low you could barely hear it (my DH didn’t hear it until I had him focus on listening for it). I asked someone in the spa if they could dim the lights. The could not. Later on in the cruise I told them if they couldn’t dim them, then they should consider putting in reduced wattage bulbs. They did think that was an option and took note of it. On other ships we’ve always enjoyed the thermal suites, but we thought this one was in need of a little TLC.

 

Today they served the Mexican Lunch Buffet outside by the pool. It was very popular. We ate a late lunch splitting a plate from this buffet. You can’t compare this to fajitas in a mexican restaurant when they are served sizzling and smoking, but we did think this was a good buffet. :)

 

I’ve seen on CC people talk about cross contamination in the buffet. We never thought that was an issue and decided to pay attention this time around. We completely understand some of the issues now. For example, the omelet station uses one bowl to pile your desired ingredients for your omelet to transfer to the grill. This bowl is reused for all the omelets made. So if you are a vegetarian, you might get a piece of left over ham from the previous persons’ omelet. My DH noticed there were walnuts at the pasta station. They take your desired ingredients and make you a pasta toss. However, the pan isn’t cleaned between usages and there could be left over walnut oil or even a nut in the pan. We can see this being an issue for allergies. I also saw one gentleman in the salad area grab the tongs from the cut up hard-boiled eggs to grab his romaine lettuce, all the while eggs dropping into the lettuce. He then used the tongs from the carrots for the ham. To all those that are concerned about cross contamination... I never asked why, but I totally see it now!

 

Tonight was the second formal night. Our plan was to go use the hot tubs while everyone else was at dinner and then have room service. Well, guess who forgot her bathing suit? :rolleyes: So instead we opted for a salad and pizza later in the evening. We ran into someone that went to the formal dinner who was getting pizza. He said he didn’t care for dinner in the MDR that night and that we didn’t miss anything. We do think that Princess has the best pizza at sea. We find it is consistent in taste from ship to ship.

 

Around 10:15pm we were walking around outside and enjoying the fresh air with a drinks in hand. We stopped the by the ice cream bar. We asked what time they served soft serve ‘till and he said 11pm. We decided to walk to the nearest bar, finish our drinks, drop off our glasses and go back for soft serve. We arrived back at 10:30pm. They were no longer serving soft serve. The machines had been emptied and were in cleaning mode. We were offered regular ice cream and we took it. If you really want soft serve, we suggest you get there before 10pm. If you want ice cream and don’t want to pay for it, show up after 10:30pm.

[upperdarby]

Well, a couple factors resulted in this decision.

 

We've done long day tours in the past and tend to not like them. We figured we would be up by 5:00am to make sure we would be outside by 5:30am. After going through the canal you can choose to tender off, go on a tour and you are off the ship until either your tour ends or the cruise ship arrives in Colon. That would have been a very long day!

 

Another factor that played into this decision is that we plan to return to the Panama Canal when the expansion is complete. I'm sure when we return, we will do something different.

 

We instead enjoyed seeing the ship go back out and enjoyed a nice snooze in the afternoon before dinner.

 

We took almost the same cruise on Royal Caribbean about 6 years ago. My DH had always wanted to see the canal, especially after reading David McCullough's book about the building of the canal. So, since I book all excursions (he doesn't give me any help, just says "Whatever you want") I decided to book the excursion that you pick up in Gatun Lake. Then we were taken on a small boat through the rest of the locks to the Pacific Ocean. Let me tell you, the experience is completely different on a small ship. We would go through the locks with several other small boats or sailboats, and the locks look enormous when you are looking up at those concrete walls. My husband still talks about that trip, he had a wonderful time. Then we were bussed back across the isthmus to Colon where we boarded the ship again. It was a very long day, but it was an experience not to be missed.

[goldens4ever]

We took almost the same cruise on Royal Caribbean about 6 years ago. My DH had always wanted to see the canal, especially after reading David McCullough's book about the building of the canal. So, since I book all excursions (he doesn't give me any help, just says "Whatever you want") I decided to book the excursion that you pick up in Gatun Lake. Then we were taken on a small boat through the rest of the locks to the Pacific Ocean. Let me tell you, the experience is completely different on a small ship. We would go through the locks with several other small boats or sailboats, and the locks look enormous when you are looking up at those concrete walls. My husband still talks about that trip, he had a wonderful time. Then we were bussed back across the isthmus to Colon where we boarded the ship again. It was a very long day, but it was an experience not to be missed.

 

Thanks for posting this.....we have booked the ferry through the rest of canal...and I have been trying to decide if we really want to do it....as it is a long day and we have something booked at each port.....but your description has tipped my decision to keep the excursion...we will just have to get lots of sleep the 2 days at sea to be ready!!!

 

Thanks!!!!

 

 

Suitelive...thanks again for all of the info!!!!!

[GradUT]

Goldens4ever, we did the Canal by Ferry excursion when we were on the Island Princess a couple years ago. As Upperdarby says, it's an experience not to be misses. You won't regret taking this tour at all!

[Love.II.Cruise]

Jan. 6, 2012 , Day 9: Grand Cayman

 

We were fortunate enough to have been in Grand Cayman a year ago. We had been here before then, but when we arrived to Grand Cayman a year ago, we did not recognize it at all! It turned out since the weather was bad last year, we anchored on the other side of the island, where there is nothing. Fortunately, last year we had a tour arranged to go swimming with the dolphins. We thought it was worth every penny and highly recommend it! :D

 

This year we were hoping to anchor in the more popular area and we did. We did not have a tour arranged since we just wanted to walk off and explore on foot. We did some shopping and went to Breezes. We were given a great table for two outside.

 

 

 

I couldn’t resist and had to order a Category 5 Hurricane drink! I just love the umbrella turned inside out. :p

 

 

[Love.II.Cruise]

We asked the waiter what he ate at the restaurant and what were his favorite dishes. He recommended the fish special platter and the jerk chicken. And that is what we ordered. Both were excellent and very delicious. In fact, the jerk chicken was so good I emailed the restaurant with a picture of the drink above and asked if they sold the sauce that was served on the side of the jerk chicken, or possibly sold a recipe book. Unfortunately, they never responded.

 

Below are pictures on tender back to our ship...

 

 

 

 

At one point during the cruise our steward asked if it would be okay to change our carpet (it would take a couple hours). It wasn’t until then did we notice it was stained in several areas. I suffer from allergies and at times things can set it off without warning. They did assure us they did not use glue. However, since my allergies were doing well and under control, we asked that they not replace the carpets until the next cruise.

 

I have not discussed the MDR very much in this thread. In the past we have always gone to the MDR every night. But this time, we decided if we were not hungry, there was no reason to go (and neither of us gained weight on this vacation). We decided we could just grab something light at the buffet if we wanted. We went to the dining room about half of the evenings. The food overall was good. But if we didn’t like something, we simply did not eat it. We love to cook (as seen by our Christmas dinner in the link on the first page). Often times we find we can cook something at home better than some restaurants in our area. If you have 5 star restaurant expectations for food on Princess, you will be disappointed. But you will not go hungry. :)

 

We had done Anytime Dining (first time we did this with Princess) and we never had to wait for a table for 2. This may be because we always went early. But we did find some wait staff great and others mediocre. It seemed that if you were not the wait staffs permanent table for the week, that they did not give you the same amount of attention and service. We do think there is something to be said for having the same wait staff night after night.

[cruisingpeople]

 

Thanks for posting this.....we have booked the ferry through the rest of canal...and I have been trying to decide if we really want to do it....as it is a long day and we have something booked at each port.....but your description has tipped my decision to keep the excursion...we will just have to get lots of sleep the 2 days at sea to be ready!!!

Thanks!!!!

Suitelive...thanks again for all of the info!!!!!

 

As stated by both upperdarby & GradUT, this excursion is one not to be missed. It is the bus ride that really knocks you out. More so the ride back. Unfortunately, our tour guide wanted to drive by Panama Town Hall during rush hour. That made for some extra grumblings within our bus. If you have early traditional dining, you might want consider advising your table mates and waiter that you might not be back in time, just so they don't wait for you.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Jan. 7, 2012 , Day 10: Sea Day

 

 

We were given an ultimate balcony breakfast as a gift. We’ve had the ultimate balcony breakfast on many occasions without a glitch. Everything was great this time except the quiches were cold instead of hot. We did not complain since it was free and we had to get going to do the Ultimate Ship Tour.

 

We were notified in our room that we would be having the Ultimate Ship Tour today and we were very excited. :D There were 18 of us on the tour. We met at Wheelhouse bar and from there proceeded on our tour. We visited the bow of the ship where the anchor and ropes were to tie the ship to dock. It was a little rough today, but exciting and scary at the same time when we hit a wave and could see out the holes for the ropes to tie off some big splashing of waves. This is when I noticed we had a very stern looking security officer with us. She did not seem like one to mess with. She continued to follow us on the entire tour.

 

We went to the Princess theatre and stood on stage. From there we were given demonstrations of the lighting, sound, dropping of the stage, curtains, and even the a few dancers showed up. We then saw their dressing room. Both men and women share the dressing room and believe it or not, during quick changes it is volunteers by crew that assist the dancers in changes. During this ship tour, the female dancer told us they only had men assist in quick changes. We each held a very heavy costume with lights in it and continued on our tour.

 

The order I’m presenting this in is not necessarily the order of the events. We went to the main galley area where the executive chef greeted us with a cocktail and began to describe a day in the main galley of this ship. I say main, because he said there were 9 galley’s on the ship! :eek: They make bread 24 hours a day. They do not have room to store it so it is made fresh around the clock. Amazing!

 

The day we were on this tour we went by the prep area for dinner and you could tell it would be crab night. We also got to see several plates already decorated for dessert for the evening. We then proceeded to a walk-in refrigerator. The one we entered was a vegetable refrigerator and all of us easily fit in it! I would say it was 90% empty. The Executive Chef said his goal was to have this empty by the end of the cruise where at that point it would be filled back up. This was one of many walk-in refrigerators.

 

We got to see the laundry room in full action. Wow! We were amazed. They had a huge automated washer and dryer where when the items in the washer were done they were moved to the dryer by a machine, which they demonstrated. Don’t quote me on this, but I think it held about 100 bedding sheets. They had an automatic ironing combined folding machine for bedding sheets. It just takes two people to feed it a sheet and voila... ironed, folded sheets in just seconds. :) Same idea on towels. One person to feed the cleaned towel and it was folded at the end.

 

We also went to the print shop and this I thought was a little old school. The machine seemed like an antique (but we are no experts); it seemed efficient enough for the size of the ship. This is where every single piece of paper came from on the ship. Across from the print shop was the photo shop. This was in a process of upgrade. They said in the future they would have the technology to pull all your photos via face recognition technology. Awesome.

 

We also got to go to the medical facility. The evening before we had heard that the reason we left late was due to getting an older woman off the ship that had passed away. I had to ask the doctor about how dead bodies were handled on a ship. He said they had enough room to freeze three bodies. If they cannot offload them into a port within a day or two, they must freeze them. Each case is unique. They will transport the body to port if they are capable of handling it. Same goes for medical emergencies. If they feel the port has the equipment to handle the situation better than the ship, they will make you depart. If the ship feels they are better equipped, they will keep you. In most cases they depart you. On this cruise there were 2 doctors and 3 nurses.

 

We also got to go to the engine room. In our view we found this the most disappointing. The main factor was the person talking had what we would call "broken english." Even when trying to translate information from the metric system to the english system, he struggled and would stumble with different numbers. Oh well. :rolleyes:

 

The bridge was nice. At this point we are moving quite a bit and I recalled telling someone on our tour that we were right above our cabin. He couldn’t believe we would voluntarily pick such a cabin. We had seen bridges before so it didn’t surprise us that there wasn’t a huge steering wheel. Afterwards we got to go into a room that appeared to be a conference room for the captain and his immediate crew. We had hor d’ouerves and champagne and got to ask more questions. We asked if there was a brig on board and the security officer with us the entire time told us “no.” If they want to restrict someone, they do it via their room. There is a way to lock passengers in their room. And of course that lead to the humorous reason as to why the pizza was so thin... to slip it under the door! :p

 

They gave us each a chef’s jacket, robe, and a few pictures that a princess photographer took of all of us. To be honest, we would have preferred raw pictures of the areas we saw. But this was a great tour and we thought it was worth every penny! By the way, not one person on this tour was new to cruising. Everyone had sailed before on a cruise.

[Love.II.Cruise]

After the ship tour, we went to Horizon Court after the tour to go see the Pastry displays. This food was art. We didn’t try anything, but it looked really good.

 

 

 

 

[Love.II.Cruise]