Island Princess Cabin D201

[KJR999]

We are on the Island Princess Northern lights Cruise 4th to 18th October from Southampton and booked a Premium Oceanview Cabin. Cabin is fine but is very noisy when docking, leaving port or when anchored. The front thruster which is push the ship off the dock or help it turn is very noisy and the cabin vibrates whilst it is on. Even worse when anchored off shore, pulling up the anchor is even worse. Last night we left Alta in Norway at 4am and  had nearly an hour of extreme noise which woke us up and  could not get back to sleep until after it had stopped. 
I strongly recommend that people avoid booking the forward Ocean view cabins as they will all suffer with the same noise problems albeit for short periods.

We reported the issue to Princess on aboard and they were unable to move us. They said they were considering offering a future cruise credit which is of no use to us.

I think this is a known problem and Princess should make customers aware of this the same way they advertise obscure balcony’s.
 

 

[mtnesterz]

Welcome to Cruise Critic. 

We don't know if this is a first cruise for you or perhaps a first on Princess. 

By you saying a future cruise credit was, "...of no use to us..." I took your meaning that you either don't wish to cruise again, or at least not cruise with Princess.

Regarding an advisory of noise and vibration, I'd make the analogy that when boarding an airplane, there is no advisory and it's expected that you will experience noise and engine vibration, also roll, pitch and yaw to a greater degree than on a ship. Plus changes in cabin air pressure with altitude, whereas a ship is always at sea level, unless it isn't, which would be a really bad thing.

The steel hull echos the engines, generators, pumps, gearing and maintenance that all make noise throughout the ship and it's like a hospital, it all runs 24/7.  Sorry you found the experience disturbing.

[KKB]

6 hours ago, KJR999 said:

We are on the Island Princess Northern lights Cruise 4th to 18th October from Southampton and booked a Premium Oceanview Cabin. Cabin is fine but is very noisy when docking, leaving port or when anchored. The front thruster which is push the ship off the dock or help it turn is very noisy and the cabin vibrates whilst it is on. Even worse when anchored off shore, pulling up the anchor is even worse. Last night we left Alta in Norway at 4am and  had nearly an hour of extreme noise which woke us up and  could not get back to sleep until after it had stopped. 
I strongly recommend that people avoid booking the forward Ocean view cabins as they will all suffer with the same noise problems albeit for short periods.

We reported the issue to Princess on aboard and they were unable to move us. They said they were considering offering a future cruise credit which is of no use to us.

I think this is a known problem and Princess should make customers aware of this the same way they advertise obscure balcony’s.

Appreciate the heads up.

Interesting...C201 is a Mini Suite Window (no balcony), not a Premium Oceanview room.

We are in C203 next week.

We shall see how it goes...I had an issue on MSC when my forward room made a nearly endless loud whirring sound from the engines. Triggered migraine in short order. Had to be moved...of course a smaller room, even tho I knew the room next to my bigger room from the last cruise (I did B2B) was open.

I have heard anchor noises before & they don't seem to have the same affect--let's hope so!

[KJR999]

20 hours ago, mtnesterz said:

Welcome to Cruise Critic. 

We don't know if this is a first cruise for you or perhaps a first on Princess. 

By you saying a future cruise credit was, "...of no use to us..." I took your meaning that you either don't wish to cruise again, or at least not cruise with Princess.

Regarding an advisory of noise and vibration, I'd make the analogy that when boarding an airplane, there is no advisory and it's expected that you will experience noise and engine vibration, also roll, pitch and yaw to a greater degree than on a ship. Plus changes in cabin air pressure with altitude, whereas a ship is always at sea level, unless it isn't, which would be a really bad thing.

The steel hull echos the engines, generators, pumps, gearing and maintenance that all make noise throughout the ship and it's like a hospital, it all runs 24/7.  Sorry you found the experience disturbing.

 

[KJR999]

Appreciate your reply! This is our 40th cruise, 10th on Princess and have no plans to sail on Princess again based upon our recent experience.I agree that both Ships and planes have their own noises and vibrations, but the noises we have experienced are more extreme and are akin to airplane jets engines roaring loudly prior to take off to get the plane up to speed to take off.

[SargassoPirate]

6 hours ago, KJR999 said:

Appreciate your reply! This is our 40th cruise, 10th on Princess and have no plans to sail on Princess again based upon our recent experience.I agree that both Ships and planes have their own noises and vibrations, but the noises we have experienced are more extreme and are akin to airplane jets engines roaring loudly prior to take off to get the plane up to speed to take off.

It's too bad there's not a website like seatguru.com for ships.  I always use seatguru.com when booking flights just because of their advisories about the drawbacks of certain seats.

 

On ships, we stay away from the very aft or forward cabins, those under the Melanoma deck, and those above a venue such as BBKings.  Passengers above, below, and across the corridor works well.  We also avoid "upgrades" since they are upgrades in category and not necessarily in location.

 

 

[DCThunder]

20 hours ago, KKB said:

Appreciate the heads up.

Interesting...C201 is a Mini Suite Window (no balcony), not a Premium Oceanview room.

We are in C203 next week.

We shall see how it goes...I had an issue on MSC when my forward room made a nearly endless loud whirring sound from the engines. Triggered migraine in short order. Had to be moved...of course a smaller room, even tho I knew the room next to my bigger room from the last cruise (I did B2B) was open.

I have heard anchor noises before & they don't seem to have the same affect--let's hope so!

I was in B208 for 14 days going to Norway in July/August and loved the cabin and the location.  I know it's one deck up and on the port side from your cabin, but I had no issue with noise or vibration from the thrusters or any other mechanical noise.  Good luck.

[ldubs]

2 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

It's too bad there's not a website like seatguru.com for ships.  I always use seatguru.com when booking flights just because of their advisories about the drawbacks of certain seats.

 

On ships, we stay away from the very aft or forward cabins, those under the Melanoma deck, and those above a venue such as BBKings.  Passengers above, below, and across the corridor works well.  We also avoid "upgrades" since they are upgrades in category and not necessarily in location.

 

 

 

I would like to see a site that provides just cabin layout details and photos.  The ones I've looked at that claim to do this usually are showing generic info from the cruise lines.  I would likely temper any cabin evaluations based on location because there are too many variables.    

 

We also avoid forward cabins.  We might prefer aft cabins depending on the ship and deck.  We would not avoid a cabin under the lido deck.   Above a night club would be a different story.    

[KKB]

31 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

I would like to see a site that provides just cabin layout details and photos.  The ones I've looked at that claim to do this usually are showing generic info from the cruise lines.  I would likely temper any cabin evaluations based on location because there are too many variables.    

 

We also avoid forward cabins.  We might prefer aft cabins depending on the ship and deck.  We would not avoid a cabin under the lido deck.   Above a night club would be a different story.    

Cruisemapper is a good source for floor plans.

Otherwise I just Google my room ship & room number & click on videos & images & hope I see something!

Looking at the deck plan & knowing similar ships, I can often find same category on a similar ship at worst.

[DCThunder]

1 minute ago, KKB said:

Cruisemapper is a good source for floor plans.

 

I like cruisedeckplans.