Island Princess - condition of ship

[luvtravel]

There are six of us booked for a 28 day cruise next year on the Island Princes.  Good itinerary.  We joined in because we've enjoyed Princess in the past and had no qualms.  Now reading about the changes Princess made by removing several restaurants for 250 more cabins on a small ship that seems to be needing a great deal of maintenance....we are now worried about being on it for 28 days with not great food or choices for meals and increased crowding by removing restaurants, common spaces and adding at least 500 more passengers.   Why does Princess use their worst ships for longer journeys.   Are we worrying too much about this?   

[skynight]

You may wish to read through this large posting

 

[Steelers36]

56 minutes ago, luvtravel said:

There are six of us booked for a 28 day cruise next year on the Island Princes.  Good itinerary.  We joined in because we've enjoyed Princess in the past and had no qualms.  Now reading about the changes Princess made by removing several restaurants for 250 more cabins on a small ship that seems to be needing a great deal of maintenance....we are now worried about being on it for 28 days with not great food or choices for meals and increased crowding by removing restaurants, common spaces and adding at least 500 more passengers.   Why does Princess use their worst ships for longer journeys.   Are we worrying too much about this?   

#1 - they did not remove several restaurants.  The biggest thing they removed was the aft show lounge.  You can go to Princess.com and compare deck plans between Coral and Island.

 

#2 - they did not increase capacity by 500.  It was 200.  Guests - not cabins.

 

#3 - I am not so sure it needs a lot of maintenance.  They did upgrade a number of areas when they did the remodel.

 

#4 - you will have lots of food choices and it has a very nice and bright buffet area with forward and side views. 

 

#5 - I will admit that if you show me two exact itineraries and a choice between Island and many of the other ships in the fleet, I would choose the other ship.  But I do think you are over-worrying and you also have exaggerated false info about the changes.

[NownZen]

We were on the Island this summer and really enjoyed it. We saw no maintenance issues. Closing in the end of the ship has had one impact for me. There is no place to sit and watch the wake, something I enjoy a lot. The hallway that goes to the new rooms (going by the Bayou cafe) is pretty quiet and there always seems to be empty seats for a nice quiet place to sit and look out.

A very nice feature of the Island is the forward facing buffet. We would always sit by the windows in front (moving if necessary when someone left). There is a covered pool in the center and two ping pong tables above. The atrium is quite nice with bars around it.

In terms of maintenance, there is a continuing effort going on. At the sail away we noticed they were loading on rolls of carpeting and one day they redid the buffet carpeting.

I would prefer the original layout (or the Coral which was not modified) but I would be happy to sail on the Island again. The itinerary would be the deciding factor.

[luvtravel]

Thank you all for your responses!

[Level six]

We are on now for 30 days. It has been nice, never had a problem with any crowding so far. But I think the cruise starting on the 11 th is full. I will get back to you then. This cruise is about 60%   

[luvtravel]

Thank you Level six!!