Island Princess - 4/19 Sailing - Very Long

[lv2cruiseanywhere]

Glad to read your extensive, comprehensive, excellent review of the Island. We will be sailing to Hawaii on her in February 2006. Can't wait now.

[lv2cruiseanywhere]

Thanks, bdjam, for your insightful, comprehensive, and detailed review of the Island Princess. We will be sailing RT to Hawaii in February 2006 and have never been on the Island.

Thanks again, we can hardly wait now!

[bdjam]

[font='Comic Sans MS']Wow! You all were digging deep to pull this old thread up![/font]
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[font='Comic Sans MS'][/font][font='Comic Sans MS']I’m afraid I don’t know what nights would be best for the specialty restaurants – it sort of depends on what you like and what is being served in the dining room. If there’s something specific you’re looking forward to in the dining room – my choice for that would be rack of lamb…I never want to miss rack of lamb night – you could ask your server and they should be able to tell you when the right night to be out of the dining room would be. But I don’t recall the order of the menus. We did the Bayou Café the night we left Maui to head back to the mainland…I don’t know what we missed in the dining room, but the food and service there were excellent and well worth the additional charge. I’ve heard luke-warm reports on Sabitini, but I think you need to be in the right frame of mind for the culinary experience you’re going to have there. [/font]
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[font='Comic Sans MS'][/font][font='Comic Sans MS']There was a mix of passengers on board – there were some who were quite elderly and there were some who were in their 30s. There were at least four honeymoon couples on board. We had less than a dozen kids on our sailing – we sailed at a time when there were no school vacations, obviously. We are also in our mid-40s and found many people in our demographic. It really was a mix across the board. [/font]
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[font='Comic Sans MS'][/font][font='Comic Sans MS']Let me know if you want any other info…[/font]

[kendon]

Wonderful review, next best thing to being there! Never been on the Island, but the Coral is my favorite ship by far after cruising 9 different ships. Anyway, I've been admiring your writing and your humor (as well as your idea of what a real cruise should be). Do you write for a living, or just enjoy telling stories?

[bdjam]

[quote name='kendon']Wonderful review, next best thing to being there! Never been on the Island, but the Coral is my favorite ship by far after cruising 9 different ships. Anyway, I've been admiring your writing and your humor (as well as your idea of what a real cruise should be). Do you write for a living, or just enjoy telling stories?[/QUOTE]
[font=Century Gothic]LOL – I don’t write for a living but I do a lot of communication via the written word. So I guess I like to tell stories? Thanks for the complement...and I think we have common ideas of what a cruise should be...[/font]

[Kruznut]

Bdjam, I enjoyed your comprehensive review. DH and I did this itinerary 11/05/2004 and i must say we too had a wonderful cruise on the beautiful Island Princess. It was our second time sailing on her and she is definately my favorite in the Princess fleet.

[bdjam]

Thanks – glad you liked it.

[cruzinchris]

Good morning, bdjam.

Due to the continuing inefficiency of this message board, I have spent very little time here in recent weeks. I even excused myself from perpetuating a roll call that I started in April for the 1/28/06 sailing of the Caribbean Princess. If and when the boards begin to function properly, I might return as the cruise gets closer.

 

I read your review in the wee hours when it's easier to access this board. I also didn't want to keep DH awake with my asthmatic hacking! While I have admired your posts since I first came on board the CC site last December, I believe that this is the first of your formal reviews that I've read.

 

As with all of your posts, your review is eloquently and thoughtfully written with astute observations and creative presentation. It was a pleasure to read - and re-read; I think I enjoyed more the second time!

 

DH and I will do an encore sailing on the Caribbean Princess in January, but the jury is still out on whether or not we will do an onboard booking for January, 2007. We'll definitely do a future cruise booking, but I'm not sure that it will be for a specific ship or itinerary in 2007. Your review of the Island Princess may have been enough to cast the swing vote in favor of a Panama Canal cruise on the Coral.

 

When DH and I first started cruising (with our then young daughter) in the early 1980s, he was not at all fond of this type of travel. DD and I loved it, so we compromised with alternating resort vacations and cruises. I often felt that DH was dragged into this without much enthusiasm, and, before we discovered Princess, this was probably accurate. He has developed a real affinity for cruising in recent years, but I said that I would be happy to do a resort vacation in 2007.

 

Lo! and Behold! DH said, "What!?! We'll be Platinum after our cruise in January, and I'm looking forward to free internet access!" I said, "Well, I've been dreaming about a week-long long stay at the JW Marriott Resort & Spa in Cancun." We've stayed at Casa Magna a few times, and, when the JW Marriott was under construction, we agreed that we would plan on a stay here upon its completion.

 

Living in Michigan, we eagerly anticipate winter getaways. The destination isn't as important as escaping the cold and snow; in fact, I've often said on this board, "I don't care where the ship is going as long as I'm on it!" Your review may well have sealed the deal, and DH and I will probably book the Coral to the Panama Canal for January, 2007.

Bon Voyage!

Chris

[bdjam]

Chris – as you can tell from the review, I think Coral and Island Princesses are brilliant ships – I don’t think you can go wrong on either. If you favor the amenities of the Grand Class, but prefer a small, less passenger dense ship, these are for you. You should enjoy Coral Princess as much as I did Island Princess! And thanks for the complements!