What's wrong with the Island Princess?

[Astro Flyer]

27 minutes ago, mitchandkat said:

Does it have the espresso drinks for which the coffee card works the same way?

 

 

It’s been several years since sailing on the Island & the La Patisserie was where we could get espresso types of drinks.  

Edited April 2, 2019 by Astro Flyer

[runnersuzy]

Can use the coffee card at the patisserie and on the lido deck near the pastries.  Vanilla bean latte with an extra shot of espresso.  Back one week and missing it already 

[mitchandkat]

Ahhhh. I’m ready!! Thank you for the peace of mind!! 

[chamima]

It hasn't been mentioned here but do the Island (and the Coral) have a Crooners?

[Porky55]

Hi folks - putting comments so far together - Island doesn’t sound all that bad. It just seems that those who sailed on Island Princess before  the 2015 changes are not too happy with what has changed.

But .... if you haven’t sailed on Island before, it is another lovely Princess Ship, busy and full during busy holiday periods, not so much at most other times. Everything else being experienced (read complained about) must be dealt with on all ships, on all lines at some point by all passengers; just part of cruising. 

Isnt this true?

 

Enjoy your cruising, Rose

Edited April 8, 2019 by Porky55

[partybarbie]

21 hours ago, chamima said:

It hasn't been mentioned here but do the Island (and the Coral) have a Crooners?

IMHO, the best Crooners is on the Island.  If Darshawn is still the bar manager, you must have him make you a raspberry creme brulee  martini.  My other favorite is a Bugsy. 

[chamima]

22 hours ago, chamima said:

It hasn't been mentioned here but do the Island (and the Coral) have a Crooners?

 

27 minutes ago, partybarbie said:

IMHO, the best Crooners is on the Island.  If Darshawn is still the bar manager, you must have him make you a raspberry creme brulee  martini.  My other favorite is a Bugsy. 

 

 

Is there  a piano player ?

[voljeep]

what's wrong - purists who sailed and remember the glory daze

[BoopTennis]

I agree that Crooners on the Island is awesome. Such fun martinis

[partybarbie]

15 hours ago, chamima said:

 

 

 

Is there  a piano player ?

Yes, just like on the larger ships.  Our piano player was Jim.  He was fantastic.  He no longer works for Princess, but plays at the clubs in Las Vegas.  We still stay in touch with him. 

[gerelmx]

Island Princess, 38 Nights Venice to L.A. (World Cruise Segment), will be my first Princess cruise, I booked it 2 days ago, friend recommendation 🙂 . Previously cruise with RCCL and X and I'm sure we will have a great cruise in spite of all the conflicting opinions that I have read. I begin this cruise without any planning and knowledge about Princess, I trust in my friend recommendation.

[Wyoming2010]

On 4/8/2019 at 5:03 PM, Porky55 said:

Hi folks - putting comments so far together - Island doesn’t sound all that bad. It just seems that those who sailed on Island Princess before  the 2015 changes are not too happy with what has changed.

But .... if you haven’t sailed on Island before, it is another lovely Princess Ship, busy and full during busy holiday periods, not so much at most other times. Everything else being experienced (read complained about) must be dealt with on all ships, on all lines at some point by all passengers; just part of cruising. 

Isnt this true?

 

Enjoy your cruising, Rose

 

This is what I was thinking.  Since we have not been on this ship, I have nothing to compare it to previously so hopefully we will enjoy it as a new adventure on a different ship! 

[blondee419]

Just got off Island this week after a full Panama Canal transit. The views below are entirely my own 🙂 If you have any other questions, please let me know and I'm happy to answer them! 

 

* She is incredibly understaffed! I can not stress this enough.  We were talking to one of the buffet stewards who is only a month away from getting off the ship. She said that they didn't add any crew space with the last overhaul AND they're down about 100 people. It showed.  A ship intended to have about 1600 now carries 2000+, with the same 900 crew. 

 

* The last 2 days from Puerto Vallarta to LA were extremely windy and cold, so people were driven inside. The loss of public areas meant that there was crowding. Oh, so much crowding. Tempers ran high, and activities were not as much fun. 

 

* The staff (excluding entertainment staff) do the best that they can. You can tell how stressed they are 😞

 

* The entertainment staff: DuVal was nowhere to be seen (Unless a LOT of people would see him) and I never heard him do most announcements.  Olivia was a typical 23 year old drunk kid, and by the end of the cruise was on my last nerve.  DJ Chris, Yris, Trewlawney,  and the new addition Kristoff were awesome, and did the best they could.  The productions I saw were quite solid, and for the most part on-board activities were as well.  Nothing spectacular one way or the other.  The enrichment talks were actually quite interesting as well. 

 

* The captain was not visible at all, minus the welcome speech at the champagne waterfall. The rest of the crew (especially the italians) were so much more fun and outgoing. Captain of the watch gave noon announcements, and a few other Italians were running disembarkations in ports each day were especially helpful and entertaining! 

 

~Blondee

 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

19 hours ago, blondee419 said:

Just got off Island this week after a full Panama Canal transit. The views below are entirely my own 🙂 If you have any other questions, please let me know and I'm happy to answer them! 

 

* She is incredibly understaffed! I can not stress this enough.  We were talking to one of the buffet stewards who is only a month away from getting off the ship. She said that they didn't add any crew space with the last overhaul AND they're down about 100 people. It showed.  A ship intended to have about 1600 now carries 2000+, with the same 900 crew. 

 

 

 

I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy your cruise. However it seems the staff you spoke to exaggerated a bit. The Island is the sister to the Coral.  The Coral has 2000 PAX with 895 crew and the Island has 2200 PAX with 900 crew: neither the Island nor the Coral “were intended to have” 1600 PAX. The Island added 200 PAX and 5 crew. The crew to PAX ratio went from 1:2.2 to 1:2.4. Really no big deal. (The Royal is 1:2.6)

 

I’ve sailed the Island multiple times and will be on her again in May. I’ve never found her to more crowded than any other Princess cruise ship. And the service has always been exemplary. 

 

While occasionally on any cruise ship you’ll find a disgruntled crew member, I’ve always taken them with a grain of salt. In my experience they’ve been fairly new to the industry, didn’t realize the reality of what they signed up for and are almost finished with their contract. 

I hope your next cruise is more to your liking. 

Edited April 28, 2019 by HaveDogWillTravel

[fishywood]

19 hours ago, blondee419 said:

* She is incredibly understaffed! I can not stress this enough.  We were talking to one of the buffet stewards who is only a month away from getting off the ship. She said that they didn't add any crew space with the last overhaul AND they're down about 100 people. It showed.  A ship intended to have about 1600 now carries 2000+, with the same 900 crew. 

 

HaveDogWillTravel beat me to correcting the passenger capacity. To be perfectly precise, when built Island Princess had a double occupancy capacity of 1974 passengers; it now has just over 2200. (There used to be an exact non-rounded number in the Cruise Atlas but the latest edition has rounded-off capacity numbers for every ship now).

 

The staffing issues on your cruise were probably due to end of season turnover. You were on Island Princess' full transit repo cruise to move from Ft Lauderdale (where it sailed the 10 night partial transits all season) to Alaska. There probably was a bit of understaffing due to those whose contracts ended being allowed to disembark in Ft Lauderdale with their replacements due to board in Los Angeles or Vancouver. And the CD's staff was probably a mix of those on the last cruise of their contract and those who just joined to start their summer. 

 

Just a possible hazard one has to allow for when booking an end/beginning of deployment season cruise. I have been on several and if you take the time to chat with even more crew members you will find a high percentage either ready to leave or just boarded. Or as you say with mates who managed to end their contract the cruise before. The good thing is that there are often great last minute deals on these cruises.

[Steelers36]

On 4/7/2019 at 8:31 PM, chamima said:

It hasn't been mentioned here but do the Island (and the Coral) have a Crooners?

This has been answered above, but you can find out what each ship has - and where it is - by referencing the deck plans for each ship on the Princess website.  Alternatively, you might be a recipient of the annual Cruise Atlas (which is also online as a PDF).

 

[TM]

We've sailed on the Island both before and after adding more cabins.  Quite honestly we did not notice any real crowding with the addition of 200 passengers.  We were on her last summer for 2 weeks in Alaska.  Regarding the comments previously about Duval as the CD - honestly we found him to be one of the best and most energetic CDs we have had in 25+  cruises on Princess.

 

If you want to find something wrong with the Island or any other ship you can.  If you want to have a great relaxing vacation without worrying about what is wrong and nitpicking all the small stuff you can certainly do that too.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[blondee419]

8 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy your cruise.

....

 

8 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I hope your next cruise is more to your liking. 

On the contrary - I did enjoy my cruise. I'm sorry that I didn't make that more clear! However, of the cruises i've been on, this was not the most exciting one.  The pax were (as to be expected) those who have the money and free time to be able to take off that long, or, older.  (I'm fortunate to have a job where I can take off 3 weeks at a time at my age.) That also contributed to the overall quiet vibe, IMO.

 

I thought that Island added 200 cabins, which is about 400 pax, and that is not insignificant when the crew is not proportionally increased.   On the last 2 days, with the weather, there was much more crowding in the public areas than the previous 13 days.  Additionally, there were about 100 staff who were down for the count in the food service areas by the end of the cruise (there was some bug going around - both mom and I got it, and the medical centre was definitely over flowing), which can't be controlled. 

 

~Blondee

[Colo Cruiser]

1 hour ago, blondee419 said:

 

 

 

I thought that Island added 200 cabins, which is about 400 pax, and that is not insignificant when the crew is not proportionally increased.   On the last 2 days, with the weather, there was much more crowding in the public areas than the previous 13 days.  Additionally, there were about 100 staff who were down for the count in the food service areas by the end of the cruise (there was some bug going around - both mom and I got it, and the medical centre was definitely over flowing), which can't be controlled. 

 

~Blondee

I agree..........

Yes it is very significant. It was more like 150 plus additional cabins with the additional 3rd and 4th berths in some of them it would be an additional 350 ish passengers. Significant because of the loss of a very large 2 deck high show lounge/the loss of 1/3 of the promenade deck and several of the aft viewing decks.

With NO additional entertainment space added and NO additional dining space added it has a very detrimental impact on the passenger space and service. IMO

NORO puts an additional strain on service with sick crew members. It is a ripple effect throughout the ship. Especially food service as you mentioned.

[golfb4cruzing]

Well we did the Canal on the Coral back in 2016 and now in October we will be on the Island for the same partial Canal trip. Our main area was the Lotus Pool area because it was covered and not really utilized. The Coral was fantastic so we are hoping for a repeat on the Island. Either way it's time away and time to recharge.

[Ofmyheart]

We too just got off the Island after her full Panama Canal Transit,

 

The Captain could be call Capt invisible unless as was earlier posted was REQUIRED to be visible. Duvaul was around when needed also. 

 

Yris was great! Loved her, and again AGREE Olivia was clueless! 

 

I have been on the Island before refit and now post, for some reason I still like her but not quite as much. And additional staff sure could have been used. Chris even made comment that finally at PV they had a full Activity Staff.