Just off Island Princess SF-FLL 3/15-30 - Hits and Misses

[Sackat60]

Hi all,

 

Plenty of people have left detailed reviews, so I'll just post my list of hits and misses. Please note that these are from my perspective only. Individual results may (and do) vary!

 

Hits

• Our cabin, P620 - only an Ocean View, but exceeded expectations. I liked the low deck (5) aft location. It was close to the most unused elevators, one deck down and close the gym, Explorers Lounge and 2 decks down from the Promenade deck. I'll leave a separate review of the cabin. It also offered a cool perspective of the canal transit.
  
• Coffee card - got my coffee on deck 5, I loved my morning extra shot, skinny lattes, while also getting regular coffees for DH.
  
• 1 case of water - 12 bottles for $6.90. Better than carrying on board (IMHO) and nice to have for excursions.
  
• Wine Package - Bought the 7 wine bottle gold wine package ($217 plus 15% gratuity) once onboard. It was nice to select 7 bottles of wines (one at a time!) up to $45 each. They transfer the bottles between the MDR, specialty restaurants and Horizon.
  
• The gym - not bad at all. I loved my spin class and saw other classes I would have liked, but didn't have the time to take.
  
• Horizons Buffet. Go figure! I'm not a buffet fan, but this one was great. Loved making a little cheese plate for myself every evening before bedtime.
  
• Pop Choir!!! Completely unexpected and bucket list for me to join a choir, 40 years after my last choir experience. We practiced on all sea days and performed on the last evening. Great fun!
  
• Lotus (indoor) pool area. So nice, peaceful and never crowded. It was warm when cold outside and cool when it was hot.
  
• MUTS - First run movies, stars, ocean breezes.... fresh popcorn for DH,
  
• Princess@sea - loved picking my schedule every day and having it at hand. A good way to keep in touch with DH and friends.
  
• The crew!! What can I say. Callie, the Cruise Director is the best! Also loved Hannah, the choir director, Zumba instructor and a little of everything else.
  

Misses

• The Bayou was really bad the night we went in, which was early in the cruise. The gator ribs were tough and under-cooked. My DH's NY steak could barely be cut with a steak knife. The service was painfully slow (over 3 hours) although the restaurant was nearly empty. Now, I know some in our group went on another night and had a very different experience, so maybe ours was just a fluke.
  
• MDR - this is also a personal thing. I thought the food was just average, not the quality I expected. We surprisingly found the Horizon buffet to be much better. The chocolate desserts were exceptional however.
  
• The promenade. Loved it, but hated it was chopped off and didn't go all the way around. I like to run/fast walk for exercise and hated the constant U-turns or door opening.
  
• Bottled water sales before excursions - come on Princess, your excursions are costly and then you make people pay $2 if they forgot (or didn't know) to bring water. This is a small gripe, I know, but it's just a cheesy thing.
  
• Timing for shows and dining. With our early dinner of 5:15, which took over 2 hours, we just couldn't make the two early shows. The 5:45 show was a non-starter and you needed to arrive at 7pm to get seats for 7:30. And I had a hard time staying up to 9:45, so please do something to better stagger the show and dining periods.
  
• Baked Alaska - baked what?? swear they used marshmellow fluff instead of meringue on this concoction. And the thin cake and ice cream layers were just unimpressive.
  
• The lounge singer (mostly evenings in the Wheelhouse bar)- she didn't know the words to many popular old-time songs. Made me crazy hearing her make stuff up or mumble through the songs. She had a nice voice, but should have bothered to learn a few lyrics. Others in our group agreed with me on this one! I think she was with the Sunset Quartet. The other entertainers were all very good.
  

As for excursions, we did three from the ship (very unusual for me), which were all good and one (Aruba), where we just walked off and hired two guys on the spot to give 10 of us a tour of island. That was $20 each and excellent.

 

 

 

I'm sure I'll think of more later!! This cruise overall was a very nice experience. I may write later on stuff I should have taken and what I took but didn't need.

 

 

-Kathy

[socaljo]

Thanks! Looking forward to more!

[nanabananna]

Enjoyed reading the Pro and Con of the Island Princess and your time to post.

[riclop]

Thanks for your thoughts.

[pashka]

Thanks for the review!

, was the gym room free to use and sauna or what was the cost to use this area? Thanks!

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for your comments.

I hope you let someone know the comments about the singer while onboard and in your survey.

[Sackat60]

Thanks for the review!

, was the gym room free to use and sauna or what was the cost to use this area? Thanks!

 

Hi - sorry I took awhile to answer (I am not yet retired, so have been swamped at work). Yes, the gym is free. My DH used the weights. The machines (treadmills, ellipticals and cycles) were also free. However the classes (in a separate enclosed room in the gym) mostly had a cost (with a gratuity added!). Spin and yoga were $12, but you could get a discount if you signed up for 10 sessions (we had 10 sea days). I think there were some other classes, but I don't recall which. There was also a free Zumba class on the Lido deck (14) every morning at 9am. I can't answer about the Sauna as I didn't seek that out.

[Sackat60]

Thanks for your comments.

I hope you let someone know the comments about the singer while onboard and in your survey.

 

No I actually didn't who to bring it up to onboard, but did mention it in my survey. I was just a little sad as I loved the old songs she was singing, but bummed when she didn't seem to know the words to some standards like Unchained Melody or even more modern ones like the Beatles "A little Help from my Friends". I didn't notice at first as I was just enjoying the music, then as I realized she was singing a lot of gibberish or humming through the words, it bugged me more and more. When I mentioned it to friends (in case I was just nuts), they commented on the same thing.

[Sackat60]

Hi again! Still wishing I were back on the boat (it will be a week tomorrow ;-(), but wanted to add some of my personal hits and misses (what I did right and what I would do differently):

 

HITS:

• I packed a extension cord and multiple USB charger hub! Between the two of us, we had 2 iPhones that we used the @sea app on, 2 laptops and an Apple watch (which works great even when disconnected from it's phone btw). There was only one outlet in our stateroom and one in the bathroom, so I set up a charging station every night on the little table with the USB charger connected to the 3 foot extension cord. I unplugged it during the day and stored the cords and charger in a drawer (took about 10 seconds to do each night and morning).
  
• I followed CC advice and waited for spa specials to schedule my spa time.
  
• Already mentioned previously, but I am very glad to have bought the coffee card and pack of water.
  

Misses:

• I should have listened to CC and packed a night light. I didn't need it, but DH commented several times that a little light in the bathroom would have been helpful. I'm adding that to my list.
  
• I hate to own up to this one, but I packed too many shoes (ouch!). There were two pairs of dress shoes that I didn't even wear. One was too dowdy and the other pair was pretty but too uncomfortable. My Sketchers for casual walking were good enough for the one time I needed closed toed shoes for the behind the scenes tour.
  
• I also packed too many dressy clothes and too many swimsuits and not enough shorts and tank tops. I would have been better off doing mix and match with black skirts and pants with dressy tops and wearing some of the casual dresses more than once (no one will remember in 15 days). And I brought 3 different swimsuits with matching cover-ups, but only used one once to sit in the Lotus hot tub for a bit one evening. I need to own up to how I like to spend my time (busy and running around vs laying by the pool!) and plan accordingly. I did the same for DH...too many dressier clothes and not enough shorts. I ended up doing laundry to wash shorts and tank tops twice!
  
• Same thing with the multiple books I brought (fortunately most were ebooks, but a couple were physical). I didn't read a single book. Too much else to do for me.
  
• I should have brought my bike shoes. The spin bikes did have clips and my running shoes are too big for the toe straps, so I wore the Sketchers. I would liked to have taken more spin classes, but my toes hurt after the first one.
  
• I should NOT have brought my 2 extra bottles of wine. With the 7 bottle package I bought onboard, I ended up paying close to the overall price of the extra ones I carried, and between that and BOGO hour for mixed drinks, I had plenty.
  
• Overall, I just packed too much! It was fine with the good transportation, including luggage handling, we had for embarkation, but miserable for DH and me to haul 4 suitcases, two backpacks and other bags around FLL after getting dropped off. And it was just a lot of stuff to put away in the room (which had loads of storage spaces!) and then to pack again for disembarkation.
  
• Too many ship's tours. We did three of these and while each was good, they were expensive and usually involved big buses and a lot of waiting. It was still a wonderful time (not really a "miss"), but in the future, I will do better research and do private tours or just wing it.
  

I listed these in the hopes some of the info may be useful to others. Overall, I can't say enough good things about our cruise experience. There was never a truly unpleasant moment in all 15 days!

[wakeupinanewland]

Very helpful! Thanks!

[rayliang]

Thank you for the review

 

you are the second person to mention that the HC is better then MDR... really surprising for me and hopefully will get fixed when the ship comes out of dry dock this week.

 

I also have a question regarding coffee. So does the HC have coffee in the morning for breakfast? or do we need to get a coffee card for even just basic run of the mill coffee?

[Clarea]

Excellent feedback, thank-you.

[Thrak]

Thank you for the review

 

you are the second person to mention that the HC is better then MDR... really surprising for me and hopefully will get fixed when the ship comes out of dry dock this week.

 

I also have a question regarding coffee. So does the HC have coffee in the morning for breakfast? or do we need to get a coffee card for even just basic run of the mill coffee?

 

Coffee in HC is always complimentary.

[jdvmd]

Thanks for your review.