Review: Island Princess Christmas Cruise Panama Canal Dec 20-30, 2018!!

[BoopTennis]

3 hours ago, MusicalBear said:

Thanks so much for posting your review with menus for this cruise.  We will be doing the same cruise the end of January 2019, except we will be docking in Ocho Rios.  I have a private tour for Limon so hopefully we will see more sloths. 

 

Was the Crown Grill menu available the first night?  It's my birthday and was thinking of splurging.

If you mean the insert with the specialty upcharge dinners available in the MDR, yes I think they were there the first night and every night. have a great cruise! (and a fun bday)

[newdestination]

Great review!  Thanks for doing it; brings back happy memories of our 10-day Panama Canal cruise a year ago on the Caribbean Princess.  

[golfb4cruzing]

7 hours ago, BoopTennis said:

Lotus Pool is the indoor one, right?  which was great this trip because at least two if not more of the days were extremely windy, crap blowing all over the place, inside it was quiet and relaxing.  It got quite a bit of use

That’s correct. We swam every day and most nights. I met a guy, I did not know before the trip, that graduated same high school as me. I graduated with his brother. Small world and we stay in touch via FB. 

[BoopTennis]

Day 10 - SEA DAY - Sat Dec 29

Ugh, the final full day. so sad.  It was a nice day tho, less windy then some other days. Hung around the pool, played some cards again, relaxed, just had a very nice day

at one point by the main pool they had a guy carving a big chunk of ice. Interesting, watched it for awhile but then moved away and never saw what it turned into LOL

 

 

 We played Bingo in the Explorers Lounge. None of us won

Then we moved to Explorers for Trivia (and cards)

 

 

Dinner

 

 

 

 

[BoopTennis]

Now I hate to even post this photo.  It was the seafood starter, and was delicious, but I did not think it was attractive at all. I almost did not eat it LOL.  but it was very good

 

another starter very good

 

the last night of course is the night that all the chefs parade through and we all wave our napkins.  They used to carry flaming Baked Alaska through the dining room but no longer, fire hazard I imagine. 

 

  

[BoopTennis]

I had some rhubarb ice cream yum

 

And some apple pie, with, you guessed it, some of that vanilla bean sauce

 

we shared some Baked Alaska at the table

 

 

[daydreamer16]

10 hours ago, golfb4cruzing said:

We did the Canal in 2016 on the Coral and had a great time. This time we are going on the Island in October so this was perfect. Our favorite spot was the Lotus Pool area.

Your the opposite of us: We did the Island, Panama Canal in February 2015 and now we doing the Coral Panama Canal next month. Loved the Lotus pool even on hot days when it was too hot to sit by the outside pool!

[golfb4cruzing]

Been on Ruby up to Regal and the Coral is our favorite. We enjoy the smaller ships. Not all the bells and whistles but the ship had a great vibe. 

[BoopTennis]

Sunday Dec 30 - time to get off the ship! Bummer.  We all had late flights out of FLL so were in no hurry to get off.   When the "form" was delivered a couple days prior, we chose the last possible time we could to leave the ship. We were out of our cabins by 8 am as requested, then went to breakfast then hung around the Lido pool until 9:30. We finally wandered down off the ship, collecting bags was easy but customs lines were very long by then

It took awhile to get taxis, then we went back to the hotel we had been at the first night and yes, played cards, and eating/drinking/relaxing until time to head to the airport. What a fantastic cruise.

 

I will now find my Patters and list the various movies that were showing during the cruise

 

 

[BoopTennis]

MOVIES shown on this cruise:

 

MUTS: (most of these if not all were later shown on the cabin TV)

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Coco

Jumanji (original)

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Skyscraper

Incredibles 2

Sunday was football games all day long

The Muppet Christmas Carol

The Greatest Showman

Home Alone (christmas day)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Christopher Robin

Hotel Transylvania 3

Black Panther

Crazy Rich Asians

The Holiday

I Feel Pretty

The Princess Bride

Avengers: Infinity War

Hearts Beat Loud

 

Other movies shown in Princess Theater:

Christmas with the Kranks

Elf

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

A Christmas Carol

Fred Clause

The Catcher was a Spy

Anon

The Polar Express

 

i will attempt to get the Patters scanned in later

 

[BoopTennis]

Patters - from Day 1 - lets see if this works

 

 

 

I might start a new thread with the Patters....

 

[Dovebear]

We have really enjoyed reading your review and it is great timing for us as we are on the Island in April.  Great to see menus for the MDR as we now have an idea of the possible dishes.  Loved the pictures of the dishes.  Fantastic review and very informative

[BoopTennis]

We had a great time on the Island. There are a lot of reviews out there that say they ruined the ship when they made changes and added cabins.  We were on the Island several years ago before they made the changes. There was nothing about the changes that affected our enjoyment of the cruise in any way, just my own personal opinion. It never felt crowded, we were able to do everything we wanted to do.  That is simply my view, may be different than others.

 

I liked our mid aft Aloha balcony location.  Easy one flight up to pool and buffet. No noise issues at all.

 

I never saw any "chair hog police" on this cruise like I did on our last couple cruises, on other ships, which I think was a good thing to do.  On those cruises they put a notice on the empty pool lounge chair with the towel, gave them 30 minutes, if no activity, their towel and stuff got picked up and allowed others to sit. 

 

They did have a balloon drop on the last night which I failed to mention earlier

 

 

if anyone has any questions I will attempt to answer but may not remember LOL....

 

 

 

[daydreamer16]

Thank you for posting your review, I like your upbeat and positive attitude!

[TSM AND JP]

Thank you for this wonderful review.  We are going on The Coral Princess Panama Canal cruise on January 31st.  After reading your review,  that can't come fast enough.  Love all the pictures you have posted and the menus.  Thanks again for taking the time to do this.

[MaryBethV]

Loved your review and all of the photos - thank you for taking the time. 🙂 

 

[Guinness1000]

Great review!

 

I remember it was a bit rocky on the sea day between Costa Rica and Grand Cayman. 

 

[BoopTennis]

4 minutes ago, Guinness1000 said:

Great review!

 

I remember it was a bit rocky on the sea day between Costa Rica and Grand Cayman. 

 

Yes awesome video. We experienced more high winds and rocking on this cruise than ever before. 

[usahawk1]

Thank you for this thread, we will be on her the end of February. Never been on the island princess. It was nice to see what to expect.

[xamsx]

Thank you so much for your review. No one seems to post about the Island Princess, and I really appreciate you taking the time to do so.

It looks like the first sea day and the second sea day were the formal nights? 

[BoopTennis]

16 minutes ago, xamsx said:

Thank you so much for your review. No one seems to post about the Island Princess, and I really appreciate you taking the time to do so.

It looks like the first sea day and the second sea day were the formal nights? 

Formal nights were Friday day 2 which was the first sea day and then Thursday day 8 which was also a sea day ( but not the 2nd sea day)

[Paula_MacFan]

Really enjoyed your review and positive comments about the Island and your entire trip.  Thanks for taking the time to post it!  Makes me really look forward to our Island cruise next year.  

[BoopTennis]

Have fun! I love having a cruise to look forward to. I need to get another one booked!

[happy cruzer]

Lovely review.  You really know how to enjoy!

[cheride]

Thanks for such a fantastic review! We'll be on the Island soon so it was great to see so many details.