Do not sail on the Island Princess

[memoak]

2 hours ago, Treasure Hunter said:

Almost half the cruise. There was no hot water the first day. Then there was for three hours. Then no water the next day . Then the next day no toilets. All seems fine now but no apology or information 

So if your home water heater dies how long does it take you to get a new one installed ?  Give people a break. I have been on a ship with no toilets at all for 12 hours not pleasant but it was not a deal breaker

[TRLD]

1 minute ago, CenTexan said:

I can confirm the hot water issue on Island. We just disembarked June 4 and after reporting the "tepid" water in the sink and shower (on Day 3, Day 5 and Day 7), it finally got fixed on the 9th day of the the 11 day cruise. This was in a mini-suite. When the toilet wouldn't flush, I called Guest Services and it was fixed within the hour. Also, the AC seems very poor in hot climates - we kept it at lowest setting entire time and slept with only a sheet for a cover. The crew were friendly, the food okay, but the beat-up room (stained carpet, scratches on tables, some grout mold in shower) was like a pricey but run-down hotel being propped up. I guess that's why the fare is lower than the newer ships. Won't do Island again.

Personally I do not like the Island but mostly because of the modifications reducing public space, moving the gym, etc.

 

Coral a much nicer ship.

[Treasure Hunter]

No mention of compensation. I don’t even care anymore. I was my fault for booking her because of the convenience of leaving from Brooklyn. Our 12 day cruise on the Enchanted from Fort Lauderdale in January will cost exactly the same. I am putting it behind me because I intend to enjoy the rest of the time on board but it would have been nice if management ( ie the ghost of a Hotel Director) was more responsive.

[Treasure Hunter]

By the way, their handling of problems through clear communication mirrors the departure information 

[Treasure Hunter]

Dear Memoak. I guess your cruise standards are a lot lower than mine. I have a wonderful plumber who comes the same day. Same with our electrician. We are very loyal ( sailing Princess since 1990). But I don’t put blinders on when I’m served an inferior product). Who stole my Princess ships and what did they do to them.

[AZaTaz]

56 minutes ago, 555 said:

I really think the only people that like the ship are those that never sailed on it before they messed it up. 

Your assumption is incorrect. I like the Island.   I sailed on the Island twice before they added the new cabins and twice since. I will be on her in less than a month for 31 days and have no worries. Could something go wrong, of course!  But then that is true of all ships. If you cruise enough days I would suggest it is a very lucky sailer that does not have incidents. 

[ChutChut]

43 minutes ago, memoak said:

So if your home water heater dies how long does it take you to get a new one installed ?  Give people a break. I have been on a ship with no toilets at all for 12 hours not pleasant but it was not a deal breaker

Sorry - but continual flooding, water outages, etc. on one cruise? Nope - not acceptable. No toilet for over 12 hours? How did you relieve yourselves? I expect the ship to be in reasonably good working condition. 

[ChutChut]

3 minutes ago, AZaTaz said:

Your assumption is incorrect. I like the Island.   I sailed on the Island twice before they added the new cabins and twice since. I will be on her in less than a month for 31 days and have no worries. Could something go wrong, of course!  But then that is true of all ships. If you cruise enough days I would suggest it is a very lucky sailer that does not have incidents. 

Isolated incidents happen but this appears to be a chronic issue that needs to be addressed and fixed. Moreover, it appears the lack of communication, etc. is making it worse. 

[AZaTaz]

Have you been reading the live thread from the island?  The poster there was actually in one of the cabins that was flooded. Two totally different perspectives of same incident. 

3 minutes ago, ChutChut said:

Isolated incidents happen but this appears to be a chronic issue that needs to be addressed and fixed. Moreover, it appears the lack of communication, etc. is making it worse. 

 

[ChutChut]

5 minutes ago, AZaTaz said:

Have you been reading the live thread from the island?  The poster there was actually in one of the cabins that was flooded. Two totally different perspectives of same incident. 

 

Yes - I've been reading his blog. He had to change cabins, etc. because of the flood, etc. It sounds bad even from his blog. It's totally normal that two different people might have different views/perspectives, etc. I don't discount either. 

[SCX22]

Seems like pipe bursts and flooding have happened at least two other times on the Island:

 

In 2017 (Reply #2)

 

In 2023 (Cabin Review)

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=705312

 

[vjmatty]

48 minutes ago, AZaTaz said:

Your assumption is incorrect. I like the Island.   I sailed on the Island twice before they added the new cabins and twice since. I will be on her in less than a month for 31 days and have no worries. Could something go wrong, of course!  But then that is true of all ships. If you cruise enough days I would suggest it is a very lucky sailer that does not have incidents. 

I think that poster was referring to how the aft was butchered, as well as adding passengers while losing common areas.  Not just about the current incidents. 

[vjmatty]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

So if your home water heater dies how long does it take you to get a new one installed ?  Give people a break. I have been on a ship with no toilets at all for 12 hours not pleasant but it was not a deal breaker

May not be a deal breaker for you,  but for some it would be a bladder breaker for sure. 

[Sea Hag]

22 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

May not be a deal breaker for you,  but for some it would be a bladder breaker for sure. 

This is true. It's a very rare night that I don't have to get up and trek off to the bathroom. I'd be a very unhappy cruiser to have to leave the cabin in the middle of the night and find a working public toilet.

[vjmatty]

3 minutes ago, Sea Hag said:

This is true. It's a very rare night that I don't have to get up and trek off to the bathroom. I'd be a very unhappy cruiser to have to leave the cabin in the middle of the night and find a working public toilet.

Same here…all this “drink x ounces of water per day” has me up at least once, especially if I don’t finish the water by 6pm.  This is also why I don’t like the “bed near balcony” configuration on the Sun Princess. I need fewer steps dammit. lol 

[TRLD]

1 hour ago, ChutChut said:

Sorry - but continual flooding, water outages, etc. on one cruise? Nope - not acceptable. No toilet for over 12 hours? How did you relieve yourselves? I expect the ship to be in reasonably good working condition. 

They never claimed continually flooding 

 

They said 3 different incidents.

 

No hot water lasting a few hours.

A water outage due to a broken pipe length unstated the next day

Toilets not working on the third day again length of problem not stated.

 

While certainly not the best string of events, seems to be more of inconveniences.

[vjmatty]

1 hour ago, TRLD said:

They never claimed continually flooding 

 

They said 3 different incidents.

 

No hot water lasting a few hours.

A water outage due to a broken pipe length unstated the next day

Toilets not working on the third day again length of problem not stated.

 

While certainly not the best string of events, seems to be more of inconveniences.

Yes that makes it much better 🤦🏻‍♀️

[ChutChut]

2 hours ago, TRLD said:

They never claimed continually flooding 

 

They said 3 different incidents.

 

No hot water lasting a few hours.

A water outage due to a broken pipe length unstated the next day

Toilets not working on the third day again length of problem not stated.

 

While certainly not the best string of events, seems to be more of inconveniences.

Now that you listed the issues - it's worse than I thought.

[geocruiser]

4 hours ago, TRLD said:

They never claimed continually flooding 

 

They said 3 different incidents.

 

No hot water lasting a few hours.

A water outage due to a broken pipe length unstated the next day

Toilets not working on the third day again length of problem not stated.

 

While certainly not the best string of events, seems to be more of inconveniences.

Plus you get to pay for the experience!

[skandsea99]

How frustrating an experience to put it mildly.  

 

We booked less than two weeks ago for the  Princess June 25 cruise and all we have on the itinerary is embarkation and debarkation as Manhattan or Brooklyn.

 

When did you get notified  where to board?  I just read an Island Princess  thread from the end of May this year near the end of the voyage  passengers were being told a different debarkation point than Brooklyn and some were changing plans late in the trip  to leave from there.  Then the Captain announced it was Brooklyn.

 

This cruise uses up credits from a cancelled cruise (and more cruise $ on top plus a lot of $ in NYC  and to get there).  We figured we would give Princess one more shot after our last unsatisfactory experience onboard and bad communication beforehand online and by phone.

 

Hmmm....

Edited June 11 by skandsea99

[555]

14 hours ago, AZaTaz said:

Your assumption is incorrect. I like the Island.   I sailed on the Island twice before they added the new cabins and twice since. I will be on her in less than a month for 31 days and have no worries. Could something go wrong, of course!  But then that is true of all ships. If you cruise enough days I would suggest it is a very lucky sailer that does not have incidents. 

You are a rare individual indeed. Most people aren't going to put up with those inconveniencies especially when there are newer ships available that don't have similar problems. 

[Tigrou]

14 hours ago, SCX22 said:

Seems like pipe bursts and flooding have happened at least two other times on the Island:

 

In 2017 (Reply #2)

 

In 2023 (Cabin Review)

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=705312

 

 

Also during my cruise in July/August 2023 as detailed in my review.  

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=704321

 

[MsTabbyKats]

10 hours ago, skandsea99 said:

How frustrating an experience to put it mildly.  

 

We booked less than two weeks ago for the  Princess June 25 cruise and all we have on the itinerary is embarkation and debarkation as Manhattan or Brooklyn.

 

When did you get notified  where to board?  I just read an Island Princess  thread from the end of May this year near the end of the voyage  passengers were being told a different debarkation point than Brooklyn and some were changing plans late in the trip  to leave from there.  Then the Captain announced it was Brooklyn.

 

This cruise uses up credits from a cancelled cruise (and more cruise $ on top plus a lot of $ in NYC  and to get there).  We figured we would give Princess one more shot after our last unsatisfactory experience onboard and bad communication beforehand online and by phone.

 

Hmmm....

I'm on that sailing...it's Brooklyn.

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 6/9/2024 at 10:25 PM, ChutChut said:

Another poster has a Cruise Critic blog and has been detailing the broken pipes, etc. on your trip. So sorry about it. Sounds bad. Princess really needs to fix these issues 

Last year in March/April on a 35 night cruise which took in the US and Caribbean we were informed of an cabin upgrade from inside to sea view, very nice you might say. Well it was except they forgot to tell anyone else on the ship. It was the day before sailing  picked up an email informing me of the change, so had to remove all labels off luggage and print new. After a less than satisfactory travel to Southampton we were confronted with massive queues of passengers and luggage piled high as Ventura (P&O) had arrived five hours late. After boarding her we made our way to our new cabin. P&O ships use a card system to access your cabin. This is also used for charging to your credit card and any OBC you might have. Cards in different peoples names. Used them to access cabin and once inside expecting a Celebration Package I had paid £400 for. Which consists of dressing gown and slippers, bottle of champagne, flowers, two presentation champagne flutes, cards to access two Speciality restaurants, cards to present to Spa for a massage or facial, also to be able to book a formal photo and frame. Nothing in the cabin. Took me 17 days to get sorted, no photographer onboard until half way though cruise and even then no frames. We missed Bermuda so 10 sea days before the first port ( Freeport Bahamas). US immigration at New Orleans took hours. Some despite a supposed two day stay didn't get through until 16.30 in the afternoon. We had a trip to a shopping Mall in Miami and we had a disabled passenger in a wheelchair. The lift on the coach didn't work, so they were left behind. We were supposed to get a map and vouchers for the Mall, but didn't and between the tour guide and the coach driver neither seemed to know when we were to return to the ship. We got back started the long trek through the airbridge to where we could board the ship. No we couldn't board as another ship had caused a bow wave and the airbridge wasn't connected to the ship correctly. After waiting in temperatures of over 90 degrees for 15-20 minutes were told to go back to the terminal and access the ship at quay level. A queue of around fifty started to board, around 20 got on and they decided they didn't want people on the quay so back to the terminal and another 15 minutes before up the airbridge to the ship. Onboard we had norovirus, Covid and a leak which flooded most of one deck. That's without 3 medical emergencies and rescue a yacht with two young girls and a man of 40 years of age who was trafficking them.

[memoak]

5 hours ago, 555 said:

You are a rare individual indeed. Most people aren't going to put up with those inconveniencies especially when there are newer ships available that don't have similar problems. 

We have experienced issues with these kind of things on many cruises and many lines. Old and new ships alike