Cruise from Hell: Island Princess Partial Canal Transit

[Northender]

The problem with the canal excursion was not that it went so late. The problem was that Princess knew we would not be going into the canal on the ferry until much later planned since the Island was late. Instead of saying we should stay on board and leave after lunch, they had us leave at the regular time. That left us riding around in busses for over 3 hours and over an hour sitting on the side of the road til the police told us we could not sit there. In over 4 hours we had 1 restroom stop during which not every one had a chance to use the facilities and the women were charged 25 cents if they wanted toilet paper. There was no food or water provided. Once on the ferry we had lunch at 5:00. This was almost 300 older people. It was avoidable. Obviously Princess knew they were wrong since they say they are refunding our money. I assume they will. I felt bad they did not reimburse those with beverage packages for that one day. That's $59! They, too, received a letter for a free drink which was redundant but Princess didn't get it. My point is they should have handled it BEFORE it happened not after.

 

I think 80% of the problems were disorganization and lack of communication.

 

As for the behind the scenes elevator usage for luggage, that didn't happen on this trip.

 

Thanks for the explanation. That would be upsetting to me. We are doing the ferry tour and riding around in a bus for hours, would tick me off.

 

Thanks

[johnandlinda]

We were on the cruise prior to this one. As we were leaving we overheard one of the crew saying that there were quite a few new crew members that were supposed to join Island on the 24th and were not gonna make it due to the snow storm. So maybe that had something to do with "attitudes" cause we certainly didnt experience that. We were first time Princess cruisers and we got to port at 1130 and were on the ship in our cabin by 1230...luggage was delivered by 130. We were a bit underwhelmed by the food, but thats subjective, but we had a great MDR server and waiter but we also noticed some others were just going thru the motions. We kinda wish they had posted what "theme" like German thy would highlight in the buffet cause that night we wish we had dined there. Long lines for the shows yes, and anytie dining issues seems to be a common complaint

[oskidunker]

There are basically 2 dining times. 5:30 and 8pm. If you choose anytime, that is when you will eat. If you choose fixed,that is when you will eat. Do yourself s favor,and pick fixed

[Bimmer09]

A true cruise from hell would involve things like toilets overflowing, round-the-clock fist fights with the crew, squirrels running amok in the dining room, or people vomiting in the pool.

 

Personally I am sick and tired of the squirrels running amok in the dining room.

The stewards do nothing to stop them!

 

Princess needs to have a Squirrel Control Officer on each ship before they lose my business!

 

Norris

[Brisbane41]

Just returned from the Jan 24 Partial Canal Transit. It was our first and our last Princess cruise. I decided to just list the pros and cons of the cruise instead of writing a long narrative about it. If you have any questions, just ask and I'll be glad to explain.

 

PROS

1. I met a great bunch of people who made the cruise an enjoyable one despite the many cons.

2. The coffee card...my lattes started my day off right

3. We had a mini-suite which was very nice and had more storage than I expected.

4. Donny Ray Evins was a headliner who sang Nat King Cole songs and was terrific.

5. Loved tea in the afternoon

6. They did a great job with the information talks onboard about the canal.

 

CONS

1. Embarkation was not good. The Elite line only had 1 person checking them in. Ours had only 4 or 5 doing check in. We received letters when to check in according to which deck we were on but once we were there we were told by the reps that "Princess does not check in by decks."

2. Once onboard we had to go to the back of the ship to get on an elevator to go to our cabins. Most of the elevators were commandeered for luggage delivery which made it very difficult to get anywhere.

3. Long ridiculous lines for anytime dining. Even reservations didn't help.

4. Long ridiculous lines for the shows. Many never got into the theater. We gave up after the first time we went.

5. Much of the staff were rude even to go so far as yelling at the guests. The room stewards, I think, were fine. Ours was good. The dining staff went through the paces but were not friendly and did nothing they didn't have to do. I heard more than one guest ask a crew staff or passenger service rep why they were speaking to them in "that" tone when all they had done was ask a question. The staff was obviously very unhappy.

6. There seemed to be a lack of communication from the top down. The staff learned about changes or delays as the passengers did over the intercom.

7. Everything seemed very disorganized.

8. The worst cruise tour I've ever been on, and hopefully will ever go on, was the rest of the canal excursion. A 6 hour tour turned into a 12 hour tour including 4 unplanned hours of bus travel back and forth across Panama. At first we thought we were on the wrong tour. Then we thought we had been highjacked. We were given our money back for this excursion but it would have been nice to take the tour as it was described.

9. The food was less than impressive. I personally really disliked their menus.

10. The buffet offered the same thing as the dining rooms with little other variety or options.

 

I believe there is a cruiseline for everyone. Princess is not for us. We will be heading back to Royal Caribbean with a new appreciation for them and their services.

 

I don't blame you. Princess "destroyed" the Island Princess with the removal of public rooms and the addition of excessive cabins.

 

I would not sail on that ship even if you paid me. It is forever on my blacklist.

 

Princess is not bad. I dare say had you tried a ship that had not been butchered and destroyed by the mentally retarded bean counters you would probably be going back for more and more Princess cruises.

[elliair]

Sorry you had a bad time.

We were on the Island in Nov and I agree about the DR lines.

The extra passenger load seems to impact a lot of things onboard.

 

I blame Princess for this knucklehead decision to convert the aft Promenade deck into more cabins. They did a hatchet job on the Island Princess - all to put more money in their pockets. THEY DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU OR I THINK. There's plenty of threads here about the Island Princess and they are not good ones either. There's no International Cafe, Vines, and about the only entertainment that was worth watching was, the gentleman from Las Vegas who sang Nat King Cole songs.

 

To the OP. Perhaps you should have done some research about the Island Princess here before you booked. Maybe the outcome would have been different for you - like not booking the Island Princess at all. I will not go on that ship again, but I will continue to cruise Princess.

[Wandalust725]

There are basically 2 dining times. 5:30 and 8pm. If you choose anytime, that is when you will eat. If you choose fixed,that is when you will eat. Do yourself s favor,and pick fixed

 

We had traditional dining which was supposed to be at 5:45 but was moved up to 5:15. Not wanting to get in the long lines for Any Time we stuck with it. Never made it to the Elite Lounge since it was from 5 to 7 every night.

[Colo Cruiser]

There are basically 2 dining times. 5:30 and 8pm. If you choose anytime, that is when you will eat. If you choose fixed,that is when you will eat. Do yourself s favor,and pick fixed

 

 

 

5:00pm and 7:30pm for our cruise.

[johnandlinda]

We were surprised at early dining time of 515 vs 545....it doesnt sound like much, but that 30 minutes kinda shortened the afternoon...we spent very lil time on our balcony this cruise and late afternoons before dinner was a fav time to do so on previous cruises

[Pushka]

There are basically 2 dining times. 5:30 and 8pm. If you choose anytime, that is when you will eat. If you choose fixed,that is when you will eat. Do yourself s favor,and pick fixed

 

Yes - we should be grateful to people alerting us to the Anytime dining issue on Island. We always pick anytime, because we are just never sure of when we want to eat, but just last week I changed from anytime to 8pm for our Alaska cruise. 8pm is showing for our cruise and I trust they will stick to that.

 

We don't really worry about the shows so much as we are usually happy after excursions to chill out and relax. So this part wont bother us.

 

The crew? That sounds an issue but hopefully that gets sorted real quick.

 

The excursion sounds miserable though.

 

I understand you would like to change the Title now to worst cruise. Our cruise from Hell was in 1980 on the Oriana. Took us 30 years to venture back to cruising.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Pushka

[cr8tiv1]

We had traditional dining which was supposed to be at 5:45 but was moved up to 5:15. Not wanting to get in the long lines for Any Time we stuck with it. Never made it to the Elite Lounge since it was from 5 to 7 every night.

 

After every cruise, I've written my post evaluation to Princess Corp about the time they assign to the Elite Lounge. Maybe if more passengers do this, they will consider moving the time of the Elite Lounge to 4:30 or 4:45. It isn't like the lounge is used before that time. They usually wrap up before 7 anyway (when they run out of food). Since at least half of the passengers are early traditional diners, that means a lot of Platinum, Elite, Suite passengers can not take advantage of this perk. Oh, wait...maybe that is what they are counting on.

[sunsetbeachgal]

We are just getting off the Coral and Anytime dining always had a wait, usually in the half hour range. And with the Islands additional passengers I can imagine the situation is worse. Too bad they didn't add any dining capacity when they added the new cabins...

[KruzPrincess]

I've booked a full transit on the Island Princess for later this year. I haven't picked traditional dining for years, but I picked it for this cruise. I actually don't eat in the MDR that often, but it will be nice to know I have a spot and won't need to wait in long lines. I'm disappointed in what Princess did to the Island, but I'm willing to give it a try. I've read a lot of positive reports from people who have been on her recently. I'm sorry the OP had a less than great experience.

[CapeCodFlyer]

So sorry this cruise wasn't enjoyable for you. We were on the Island Princes in December for the full Panama Canal transit and had a wonderful time. We were turned away from the theater once when we arrived 15 minutes before the show, so we showed up 20 minutes early thereafter and always had seats. We waited for anytime dining at most 20 minutes a couple of times, but found that if we arrived around 6:45 we generally were shown directly to a table. We enjoyed some dining room waiters and staff more than others, but nobody was ever rude or short with us.

 

Embarkation at Port Everglades seems to be a problem except for Elite passengers, but that privilege will come with time. :) We had no problem with elevators on embarkation and Princess had elevator attendants to provide directions.

 

Others who previously sailed on the Island Princess say she was "butchered" but since this was our first journey on her, we didn't feel the least bit inconvenienced. We still strolled the Promenade deck and rarely found lines due to overcapacity except at the peak dinner times. We found the warmth and friendliness of the staff to more than make up for any inconvenience or minor waiting lines.

 

As i've previously said, if someone wants to find problems, you won't be disappointed with whatever ship you sail on, provided you look hard enough. If it's all about the journey, then being at sea will be pleasure in and of itself.

 

OP, sorry the Island Princess failed to live up to your expectations. She more than fulfilled ours.:cool:

[Cruiserkenn]

How could this not be true? I don't know where princess

thought the extra passengers they added to the ship were

going to go...

 

Thanks, Pablo. I appreciate the wisdom of your post.

 

Your post and the one about Mrs. Lincoln really focus the issues.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Just returned from the Jan 24 Partial Canal Transit. It was our first and our last Princess cruise. I decided to just list the pros and cons of the cruise instead of writing a long narrative about it. If you have any questions, just ask and I'll be glad to explain.

 

 

CONS

1. Embarkation was not good. The Elite line only had 1 person checking them in. Ours had only 4 or 5 doing check in. We received letters when to check in according to which deck we were on but once we were there we were told by the reps that "Princess does not check in by decks."

 

Not sure which port you embarked at (it seems the process is more port-influenced and not due to the cruise line), but on our last cruise, out of San Pedro, when we arrived in the terminal and got in line, there was only one other party in front of us. We got waved over to the platinum/elite line from the gold line (this was our fifth cruise with Princess). So we got checked in without any more wait

 

2. Once onboard we had to go to the back of the ship to get on an elevator to go to our cabins. Most of the elevators were commandeered for luggage delivery which made it very difficult to get anywhere.

 

We've been directed to a specific bank of elevators, but near the gangway entrance and not to the back of the ship. The luggage handlers do need to get the luggage on board.

 

3. Long ridiculous lines for anytime dining. Even reservations didn't help.

 

A couple of cruises ago we never did clear the waitlist for late traditional (which we always request). We didn't like anytime. Not because of a wait -- we just had one wait out of the seven or so nights we bothered with the MDR (out of a 14-night cruise, we ate half of the time in the Horizon...we usually always go to the MDR for dinner when we have traditional). We just didn't feel anytime was special, it did seem disorganized, we had different waiters every night (usually we get great waiters in traditional). We like knowing when we're going to eat and not have to think about dinner at all (I have no intentional of spending time on a cruise trying to make ressies). A few weeks after that cruise, hubby said let's make sure to get traditional the next time. We did and felt it was a better experience for us.

4. Long ridiculous lines for the shows. Many never got into the theater. We gave up after the first time we went.

 

On our cruises, somehow we always seem to get in to shows we want to see. Sometimes it's because we'll get there early, but sometimes it's because we had picked the right show and time, I guess.

 

5. Much of the staff were rude even to go so far as yelling at the guests. The room stewards, I think, were fine. Ours was good. The dining staff went through the paces but were not friendly and did nothing they didn't have to do. I heard more than one guest ask a crew staff or passenger service rep why they were speaking to them in "that" tone when all they had done was ask a question. The staff was obviously very unhappy.

 

That's unfortunate. We haven't encountered that on our cruises. Hopefully you addressed that in your post-cruise survey. Maybe even say that it seemed the crew seemed overworked or unhappy.

 

6. There seemed to be a lack of communication from the top down. The staff learned about changes or delays as the passengers did over the intercom.

7. Everything seemed very disorganized.

8. The worst cruise tour I've ever been on, and hopefully will ever go on, was the rest of the canal excursion. A 6 hour tour turned into a 12 hour tour including 4 unplanned hours of bus travel back and forth across Panama. At first we thought we were on the wrong tour. Then we thought we had been highjacked. We were given our money back for this excursion but it would have been nice to take the tour as it was described.

 

Were these delays that happened because of last minute issues like high winds kicking up? Shame you had a bad excursion. Usually we don't do any excursions, but we seem to have better luck with ship-booked ones when we do. On our last cruise, the tour we had on Kauai was one of the best times we've had in port for the three of us, including our teen.

 

9. The food was less than impressive. I personally really disliked their menus.

10. The buffet offered the same thing as the dining rooms with little other variety or options.

 

Not a foodie so I just want a variety of food so that I'll like something. On our Princess cruises, there seems to be some overlap between the MDR and the Horizon, but also some differences. We also had some go-to items such as the grilled chicken sandwiches at the poolside grill for lunch. My daughter ended up trying some new foods, and she usually isn't that adventurous.

 

I believe there is a cruiseline for everyone. Princess is not for us. We will be heading back to Royal Caribbean with a new appreciation for them and their services.

 

The posts in this thread make me glad we sailed on the Island on the 2005/06 holiday cruise before the changes. Even though we would have liked MUTS and the International Cafe. At least we got to finally experienced these on the Golden for the next cruise. Princess fits us nicely, but it's good that there are different cruise lines out there.

[Skai]

Hyperbolic thread title.

 

I was so looking forward to reading about a "cruise from hell".

 

I feel cheated.

[windsor26]

I've booked a full transit on the Island Princess for later this year. I haven't picked traditional dining for years, but I picked it for this cruise. I actually don't eat in the MDR that often, but it will be nice to know I have a spot and won't need to wait in long lines. I'm disappointed in what Princess did to the Island, but I'm willing to give it a try. I've read a lot of positive reports from people who have been on her recently. I'm sorry the OP had a less than great experience.

 

Please ensure that on the nights you do not intend to use your assigned table you informyour table companions or your waiter it is good manners and so few do it:D

[Griller]

+1

 

Those squirrels can be quite pesky!

 

Indeed they can, when we did the Panama Canal transit the squirrels kept running off with the bread rolls we had been told to save for the Mules.

[Griller]

I've booked a full transit on the Island Princess for later this year. I haven't picked traditional dining for years, but I picked it for this cruise. I actually don't eat in the MDR that often, but it will be nice to know I have a spot and won't need to wait in long lines. I'm disappointed in what Princess did to the Island, but I'm willing to give it a try. I've read a lot of positive reports from people who have been on her recently. I'm sorry the OP had a less than great experience.

 

We just had a similar situation with second seating dining when other tablemates didn't come often at all, so the regulars on the table all asked to be moved to a smaller table together.

That worked so much better. It made for a pleasant dining experience without having to wait 20 minutes most nights to see if the others would turn up.

[Mackenzie1]

I would edit the title if it let me!

 

Even the crew was complaining about the redesign and how it made no sense. It did increase their workload and it shows. Several of them said they were still planning to do the same to the Coral Princess. They said it's like they don't even see the problems created. Hopefully enough complaints will bring attention to the problems created and maybe they will rethink the Coral.

 

From what I've read , Princess has canceled its plans to change the Coral Princess (thankfully!) The original Princess Grand class ships, like the Star Princess, actually have an appropriate passenger to dining ratio. Unfortunately, Princess added another deck to the original ship plans (the Riviera deck) for future builds (like the Caribbean Princess), which made the subsequent Grand class ships too crowded in the any time dining rooms, too. The problems with the Island Princess are the most pronounced, though.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Mackenzie1

[ddled]

We just got back from Carribbean Princess and had a great time, but I think the complaints about Island show a bad trend in cruising. Royal is doing the same thing-did it to Liberty. Somewhere there are bean counter advisors that are messing up the ships-packing too many people on the same platform. Our only recourse is to not sail these butchered ships and let the companies know why. doubt we can get enough word out, but it is something. Saw the same trend on Infinity-more cabins than the design calls for results in not enough to do and lines everywhere. I think they saw the airlines do smaller seats and more passengers and went there. :(

[RedneckBob]

A cruise from hell for me if the ship runs out of grits :D !

 

Per my thread on my review of an Hawaiian cruise currently playing on page one of the Princess CC Board, I also experienced long lines on the Ruby and especially trying to see a show at the Princess Theater. Who designed a 800 seat theater for 3,200 passengers with only 2 shows a nite. You had to get to show 30 minutes early or be turned away.

[kendon]

Just to focus on one silly thing a moment...the 25 cent charge for toilet paper. Things like that bother you if you are a tourist, not a traveller. They charge for it all over the world...it is a luxury in some places. One of the items in my backpack was a small roll of the stuff. Tolerance and patience is SO important when travelling anywhere. To get the most out of a trip, I read about the culture first.

[susancruzs]

Good point! Every traveler should check the aisle in all discount stores that has travel size items. Several companies have a neat travel size paper roll, never travel without it!

 

I read these "worst cruise ever" reports just to see what expectations are and complaints people have. Having traveled world wide for over 30 years, some things are absolutely amazing. I have yet to complain about lines, tour logistics, food, or anything else out of my control.

 

True, it is my vacation but there are thousands of other people and factors involved. I'm in the camp, why stress, get upset over big picture things. I've never had a bad cruise. Of the 25+ some were better than others, but no "worst ever"!