World Cruise - 1/5/22 - Island Princess - 111 days

[voljeep]

RT - FLL/PE - guess we'll have to pass on that for now at least ...

[Sunandsealover]

Ft. Lauderdale ► Cartagena ► Panama Canal Full Transit Historic Locks (including the Miraflores, Pedro Miguel and Gatun Locks) ► Costa Rica (Puntarenas) ► San Juan Del Sur ► Huatulco ► Puerto Vallarta ► Los Angeles ► Hilo ► Honolulu ► Pago Pago ► Cross International Date Line ► Apia (Samoa) ► Auckland ► New Plymouth ► Picton (for Marlborough Wine Region) ► Christchurch (Lyttelton) ► Fiordland National Park (Scenic Cruising) ► Sydney ► Burnie (Tasmania) ► Adelaide ► Perth (Fremantle) ► Bali (Benoa) ► Singapore ► Kuala Lumpur (Port Kelang) ► Sri Lanka (Colombo) ► Abu Dhabi
► Dubai (overnight) ► Salalah ► Aqaba (for Petra) ► Transit the Suez Canal ► Jerusalem/Bethlehem (Ashdod) ► Crete (Heraklion) ► Kusadasi (for Ephesus) ► Mykonos ► Athens (Piraeus) ► Malta (Valletta) ► Catania (Sicily) ► Naples (for Capri & Pompeii) ► Rome (Civitavecchia) ► Florence/Pisa (Livorno) ► Genoa (for Milan) ► Monte Carlo ► Marseille (for Provence) ► Barcelona ► Ceuta (Spanish Morocco) ► Seville (Cadiz) ► Lisbon ► Agadir ► Lanzarote (Arrecife) ► Santa Cruz de Tenerife ► Madeira (Funchal) ► Bermuda (West End) ► Ft. Lauderdale

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

RT - FLL/PE - guess we'll have to pass on that for now at least ...

 

What is PE?

 

This cruise never really did interest us. Good thing as we never could have afforded it anyway.

Edited May 21, 2020 by Thrak

[Julia’s Journey’s]

1 minute ago, Thrak said:

 

What is PE?

 

This cruise never really did interest us. Good thing as we never could have afforded it anyway.

Port Everglades I would guess 

[Thrak]

2 minutes ago, Julia’s Journey’s said:

Port Everglades I would guess 

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...... Duh. Thanks.

[frugaltravel]

That trip would never appeal to me if for no other reason than it is on the Island Princess. Never again.

 

[Waynetor]

This is quite similar to the 2021 voyage.

 

Any idea when it will be available for booking?

[pms4104]

41 minutes ago, Waynetor said:

This is quite similar to the 2021 voyage.

 

Any idea when it will be available for booking?

May 28 for elites ... May 29 for everyone else

[Julia’s Journey’s]

4 hours ago, frugaltravel said:

That trip would never appeal to me if for no other reason than it is on the Island Princess. Never again.

 

Please tell me more, I have 30 days booked on her next year.

[17pandd]

The Island Princess is the Princess ship we nicknamed the Stinky Princess because there was one deck that always smelled like sewage the entire time we were on the ship.  We probably won't sail any of the older Princess ships again.  This year we were on the Crown with the failing parts and I got seasick for the first time in my life.  I don't know if it was because we had to sail slower (and skip a port) or if I simply got seasick.  With the wear and tear on cruise ships, they get pretty worn out.

[Waynetor]

I was on the Island for 58 days Jan - Mar 20, never heard a complaint about the ship condition 

[Steelers36]

Now I am going back two years to Winter 2018.  We were on for 60 nights around entire S.A. continent and it was all good.  Didn't really hear complaints about crowding nor dining issues, etc.  Not saying it is my fave ship in the fleet, but I would take her for a great itinerary - which S.A. is, along with WC's.  We tried to get onto a particular long segment of the 2021 WC and never got space.  Hope it goes ahead so we can find out how it works for WC duty.

[frugaltravel]

1 hour ago, Julia’s Journey’s said:

Please tell me more, I have 30 days booked on her next year.

I was on a full transit Panama Canal cruise a couple of years ago. Promenade deck was chopped up to add more cabins. A public venue was removed.

 

We had relatively long waits for ATD. We also had to get to the theater almost 1 hour before showtime just to secure seats. Ship generally felt very crowded.  Overall with so many choices I wouldn't travel on this ship again. Having said that I would travel on the Coral. A similar butchering plan for that ship was scrapped - fortunately.

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by frugaltravel

[blondee419]

12 hours ago, Julia’s Journey’s said:

Please tell me more, I have 30 days booked on her next year.

Full Panama Canal transit last year on her for my birthday.  They crammed on more cabins (i.e. passengers), and didn't expand the crew.  Very crowded in the venues during bad weather with more people & less space on board.  The crew were fantastic, but this is the first time I've had crew actually complain about their working conditions.  Also, we had an obnoxious CD (who was an assistant CD on our Hawaii cruise on Star in 2017). 

But, that's MY opinion, and believe me when I say that there are other people who enjoy Island. I did love her (non-chopped up) sister ship Coral when we sailed her to Alaska. 

Also, despite all that - you're on a cruise!!! So it's really just perspective sometimes.  I had a fantastic cruise, but I just wouldn't want to be on that particular ship again if I can avoid it. 

[mustgo]

When World Cruises first open up for booking, do they usually allow segments or just the full cruise.  We cannot do the full cruise for many reasons but  Dubai or Singapore to Rome hits a few stops on my wish list.

[Thrak]

3 hours ago, blondee419 said:

Also, we had an obnoxious CD

 

Can you tell us who that was? I know Matt O'Brien was due to leave Island March 17 but don't know who took his place. The CD thread wasn't updated. I hadn't planned to sail Island again but my wife really wants the itinerary for next May so we're booked. The cruise may even actually happen. There is a particular person we previously had as assistant CD that was so horribly obnoxious I might even cancel a cruise if I were to find him as CD.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Thrak

[blondee419]

12 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Can you tell us who that was? I know Matt O'Brien was due to leave Island March 17 but don't know who took his place. The CD thread wasn't updated. I hadn't planned to sail Island again but my wife really wants the itinerary for next May so we're booked. The cruise may even actually happen. There is a particular person we previously had as assistant CD that was so horribly obnoxious I might even cancel a cruise if I were to find him as CD.

DuVal Gamble.  He wasn't around unless he was the center of attention. Not approachable at all unless there was a large audience around.  

[CineGraphic]

 

17 hours ago, Julia’s Journey’s said:

Please tell me more, I have 30 days booked on her next year.

 

The Island Princess and Coral Princess are sister ships, and they both used to be charming, but they took the Island, and added more cabins in the back without adding any more capacity to the rest of the facilities. They also ate up a lovely aft show lounge  in the process. I believe they originally had plans to do the same with the Coral, but thankfully she was spared from being butchered, and she's a fav of many because of that.

[Thrak]

2 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

 

The Island Princess and Coral Princess are sister ships, and they both used to be charming, but they took the Island, and added more cabins in the back without adding any more capacity to the rest of the facilities. They also ate up a lovely aft show lounge  in the process. I believe they originally had plans to do the same with the Coral, but thankfully she was spared from being butchered, and she's a fav of many because of that.

 

They also moved the fitness center to a lower deck venue with no windows. That really peeved a lot of folks. Also, even though they did all of that massive remodeling they failed to add an International Cafe. Weird. When we sailed Island last time we had just sailed on Coral the cruise before. The differences were really obvious. We kept heading aft and "running out of ship" as we just came to a wall where they had remodeled. I did see the Island Princess version of On The Bayou which was being done in the Princess Theater. Nope. Not the same effect at all as when performed in the Universe Lounge. I really hope that whoever was the architect of all those changes was fired.

[BabySarge]

Matt O stayed on Island Princess until 1 April when he was repatriated/allowed to go home to the UK.  He is IMHO one of the best, if not THE best, cruise directors I have ever sailed with on Princess.  He boarded the Island Princess on 9 January the same day we did for our 58 day Circle SA as an emergency replacement and hit the ground running.   Would book a cruise just because he was the CD which in 30 cruises with Princess is not something I ever thought I would say!!

[Tophat4321]

Been on Island once. Never again. Newer ships for me.

[welly world]

19 hours ago, pms4104 said:

May 28 for elites ... May 29 for everyone else

Do you happen to know if any other itineraries are being released then?

[AtlantaCruiser72]

3 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

They also moved the fitness center to a lower deck venue with no windows. That really peeved a lot of folks. Also, even though they did all of that massive remodeling they failed to add an International Cafe. Weird. When we sailed Island last time we had just sailed on Coral the cruise before. The differences were really obvious. We kept heading aft and "running out of ship" as we just came to a wall where they had remodeled. I did see the Island Princess version of On The Bayou which was being done in the Princess Theater. Nope. Not the same effect at all as when performed in the Universe Lounge. I really hope that whoever was the architect of all those changes was fired.

 

The ships originally had 1000 cabins (2000 pax double occupancy) and the Island refit increased her to 1107 cabins (2214 pax double capacity), so about a 10% increase in passengers on any given voyage.  As many have said it has impacted all the public spaces and dining areas as they were built based around the original pax #s, and had some public space emilinated to fit the additional cabins.  That said, I always felt Island/Coral were quite a bit overbuilt for the number of guests and rarely felt crowded in their original state (which was a good thing). 

 

Having sailed Caribbean Princess as well as her older siblings Grand and Golden I agree with many people who have the similar feelings about the Caribbean Princess - too many additional guests (about 500 more than her older siblings), with no additional public space, so she feels overcrowded almost everywhere you go.  Emerald, Ruby and Crown, while similar in passenger numbers to Caribbean, marginally fixed the problem by improving passenger flow and enlarging/moving several key venues like the Wheelhouse bar.  Still more crowded than the original Grand triplets, but not as bad as Caribbean .  

 

There was a "cabin-stuffing" craze that started a few years ago across all the Carnival Corp Brands where they were chopping up perfectly good ships to increase cabins while decreasing public space - HAL Veendam and Rotterdam suffered the same fate as Island Princess as did the HAL Vista Class vessels (though the effect there was less dramatic).  It seems to have come from the top and been mandated to the individual brands and then subsided to some degree.  I am assuming it was determined that the reduced average fares (due to unfavorable passenger reception of the changes) on the "Frankenships" as I call them,  does not justify doing any more of these projects.

[Steelers36]

Tagging @ceilidh1 and @Coral.  One or both of you usually post Princess info in advance for new releases.  Do you have particulars for the 2022 WC and segments on Island?  Looks like sales open next THU & FRI.  TIA.

 

[Coral]

17 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Tagging @ceilidh1 and @Coral.  One or both of you usually post Princess info in advance for new releases.  Do you have particulars for the 2022 WC and segments on Island?  Looks like sales open next THU & FRI.  TIA.

 

I think this is all old stuff previously posted.....

 

PC_2022WorldCruiseReferenceFlyer.pdfPC_2022WorldCruiseBenefits.pdfPC_2022WorldCruiseAtAGlance.pdf2022-WorldCruiseSailingScheduleFaresAmenities-05-2020-2.xls