Island Princess - Honest Thoughts Please

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, gkkapp said:

The ship was only 45% full so I really can't answer the question.

I think there's a reason for that.

The other ships are currently sailing  at    100 plus capacity. 

[cruisingrob21]

If I recall, the Island was drydocked and modified to keep her just under a tonnage limit that the Port of Venice was planning to enact (I think it was 99k) in the early 2010s.  I don't believe they did enact that regulation but have since basically sent most all cruise ships to another port nearby.

 

That being said, Princess had planned to make the changes to the Coral as well but ultimately did not.  Perhaps it was negative feedback about the Island?  We won't know for sure.

 

If choosing just on ship alone, I'd go with the Sky. As much as I enjoy the Coral and Island before drydock, what they did to the Island was a mistake.  They removed the aft Universe lounge (when they could have just made it 1 level), closed off the wrap around promenade, added no new public spaces yet more passengers, put the gym and kids club inside with no windows, and presumably did it all to make the ship slightly more profitable.  As others have mentioned, the layout is a bit backwards of typical Princess ships, but it worked for me.  The only advantages I see with the Island is that it does have fewer passengers, retains a covered pool, and the forward buffet does nice doubling as a forward observation lounge - something which Princess ships simply don't do.

 

The Coral and Island were perhaps my favorite ships before they did the hackjob on the Island.  Still love sailing the Coral when possible, but she's in Australia now for the foreseeable future.

[57eric]

On 2/17/2023 at 12:41 PM, PescadoAmarillo said:

 

 

it’s been very clear for a few years that Princess is purposely running their unique and (some might say) most interesting itineraries on the Island, including the World Cruise, now that the Pacific has been sold. They know it has a negative reputation- deserved or not- since the refit and is enticing people with, frankly, the best itineraries Princess offers. We have looked seriously at the cruises in Scandinavia and Iceland in late summer and fall (including the northern lights itineraries), as Princess offers nothing else quite like them, but haven’t been able to get past the reports of ship crowding and lack of dining options.

I sadly agree.  What other cruise line reserves its best itineraries for its worst ship?  In fact, is there a cruise line that has a "worst" ship as obvious as the Island is Princess'?

[SargassoPirate]

11 hours ago, 57eric said:

I sadly agree.  What other cruise line reserves its best itineraries for its worst ship?  In fact, is there a cruise line that has a "worst" ship as obvious as the Island is Princess'?

Try the NCL Epic, which I call the Epic Mistake.  Only cruise I could hardly wait to disembark.

[gkkapp]

12 hours ago, 57eric said:

I sadly agree.  What other cruise line reserves its best itineraries for its worst ship?  In fact, is there a cruise line that has a "worst" ship as obvious as the Island is Princess'?

The Island Princess took over the itineraries for the Pacific Princess.  Because of this I was able to visit Riga, Latvia last year.  Latvia is the home of my Jewish ancestors.  I had a wonderful tour with a Jewish genealogy researcher (did work for me some years ago).  While I couldn't go to the original village I got to walk where my ancestors walked in Riga and I was able to go to Rumbula, the second largest mass murder site of WWII.  I was able to pay my respects to my ancestors who lost their lives there.  The Island is a nice ship and the itinerary was perfect.

 

<<<Karen>>>

[JSandage]

We just booked the Island for the 15-day Panama Canal Ocean to Ocean cruise for May 2024. We are Platinum level and for the first time ever, we have booked a suite. This will be our 10th cruise, the 7th with Princess. We have sailed on the Coral twice and loved it. Our last Princess cruise was on the Sky. Beautiful big ship but I didn't like it as much as the smaller ships. I found it hard to learn my way around and we spent so much time back-tracking trying to find where we wanted to be. We usually book a mini-suite and were spoiled by Club Class dining for our Alaska cruise on the Coral, looking forward to club class dining again as a suite benefit. This will be our 50th wedding anniversary celebration and already can't wait!! Any other suite benefits you can tell us about we might not be aware of? Thanks in advance!

[TAMU Dad]

Traveling transatlantic in May on Island Princess by way of Iceland.  Been on many Princess cruises but not this smaller size ship.  Can anyone answer what the typical showtimes, these days are at night so can see what is available for private dining in main rooms each evening before the first show time scheduled?

[Paula_MacFan]

On 3/13/2023 at 2:15 PM, JSandage said:

Any other suite benefits you can tell us about we might not be aware of? Thanks in advance!

https://www.princess.com/learn/ships/staterooms/suites/

 

PrincessSuite_eFlyer.pdf

[JSandage]

@Paula_MacFan Thank you!!!

[Murray's Pop]

We have been on several ships, Island, Grand, Star and most recently the Regal.  The Island is a smaller ship and did not seem crowded at all during a Panama Canal cruise.  We did not like the layout of several areas. The casino was small and the blackjack tables were up against the wall with not much room to get around.  Access to some areas required you to go up or down a deck to get there.

 

Our favorite is the Grand, followed by the Star, then the Island and our least favorite is the Regal (way too crowded).

[gottagocit]

On 3/8/2023 at 9:22 AM, gkkapp said:

The Island Princess took over the itineraries for the Pacific Princess.  Because of this I was able to visit Riga, Latvia last year.  Latvia is the home of my Jewish ancestors.  I had a wonderful tour with a Jewish genealogy researcher (did work for me some years ago).  While I couldn't go to the original village I got to walk where my ancestors walked in Riga and I was able to go to Rumbula, the second largest mass murder site of WWII.  I was able to pay my respects to my ancestors who lost their lives there.  The Island is a nice ship and the itinerary was perfect.

 

<<<Karen>>>

It’s very good that you were able to visit the site where your ancestors were from and you were able to pay tribute to them. I know that was a special trip for you. 
We will be in Riga for a couple days this fall as part of our land based trip to the Baltics and Scandinavia. Looking forward to seeing that area and to traveling to the far north in search of the Northern Lights in Tromso Norway. 

[tcdcruiser]

The Island is reported to going into extended dry dock in  2024.  Note the calendar gap for late May and June 2024.

 

Does anyone know what's plan?  Seems like a long refit. 

[Sarnia 432]

14 hours ago, tcdcruiser said:

Island is reported to going into extended dry dock in  2024

we asked about this gap in schedule when we were onboard the Sapphire in January, as we are booked on the cruise prior to the gap and we’re wondering about a B2B.  The future cruise rep was unable to find out from corporate why there was a gap, but she said it wasn’t dry dock as this was scheduled for September 2024.  

[tcdcruiser]

Thanks.

 

Sounds like  a secret mission.   In fantasy land I hope they are returning the ship to match the Coral.

Edited March 19, 2023 by tcdcruiser

[MissP22]

9 minutes ago, tcdcruiser said:

Thanks.

 

Sounds like  a secret mission.   In fantasy land I hope they are returning the ship to match the Coral.

So you're hoping for them to remove all those extra cabins back so they can provide more public space. 😁😁😁 

We all needed a fantasy laugh this morning. 

[MzAnne]

we are forever hopeful that the extra cabins will be removed, however, i doubt it.

I'm booked June 28-July 26th and look forward to being On Island again.  sailed on Island back in 2006 to Hawaii and enjoyed the ship.  no IC isn't good.

 

[JimmyVWine]

3 hours ago, MzAnne said:

we are forever hopeful that the extra cabins will be removed,

There is "healthy optimism" and then there is "debilitating irrationalism."  Waiting for a cruise line to spend millions of dollars to remove cabins and create non-revenue generating open space sounds like the type of paralyzing futility made famous by Didi and Gogo.  

[vjmatty]

53 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

There is "healthy optimism" and then there is "debilitating irrationalism."  Waiting for a cruise line to spend millions of dollars to remove cabins and create non-revenue generating open space sounds like the type of paralyzing futility made famous by Didi and Gogo.  

 

While I agree that removing the cabins is an unlikely event, words like "debilitating" and "paralyzing" are a bit dramatic and extreme, particularly with the posters words "however I doubt it" which you chose to cut from the original quote.

[JimmyVWine]

39 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

 

While I agree that removing the cabins is an unlikely event, words like "debilitating" and "paralyzing" are a bit dramatic and extreme, particularly with the posters words "however I doubt it" which you chose to cut from the original quote.

Except those words were applied to Didi and Gogo and they definitely apply.