Just Back! Island Princess to Alaska Review

[Target]

Wow! What a trip! I have mainly good things to say, but there are a few items that could use a little work by Princess. It was our first Princess cruise, and the only other cruise we have taken was on Disney.

 

Embarkation:

We stayed overnight in Vancouver at the Fairmount Hotel (beautiful hotel by the way), so we were bussed to the pier for embarkation. We arrived around 12:30 and went through pretty quickly. The immigration line was the longest, but we cleared that within half an hour. Once on board, we could go right to our rooms (on Disney we had to wait), so we could drop our carry on luggage and go to the buffet. NOTE: FYI. I had purchased some food items for our room (chocolate covered strawberries, cheese tray and chilled shrimp). When I ordered them through the gift program at Princess, I instructed them that I wanted them in our cabin upon arrival. I did not want to go to the buffet with the masses, so I ordered the food in our cabin to avoid that. Suprisingly, the food was not there, but certificates to order the food were. They were not valid for the first day, and to order them, a six hour advance notice had to be given. Quite honestly, if they had told me this when I ordered the items, I would not have placed the order. It defeated the purpose of ordering them! Oh well. We got them throughout the cruise instead.

 

Room:

Our room was an AB mini suite and we had been "upgraded" from an AE GTY. The room was great as was our steward, Leo, from the Phillipines. Our bathrobes were not in the room, but Leo grab two for us. NOTE: FYI. We asked for the robes on the Cruise Personalizer. We had heard that it was a "hit and miss" kind of thing. If you are truly looking for the robes, find your steward upon arrival and ask him to get them for you if they are not in your room. We talked with Leo at 2pm and he said they were almost out of them. I did not bring my robe because I thought it would be there-not a big deal, just check on it right away if you would prefer the robe (their robes are quite nice by the way!). We took the suggestion of a poster to bring our own pillows (I don't care for feather pillows which Princess provides) and that worked out fabulous! We brought blue pillow cases so Leo would know they were our pillows. We brought brand new pillows and left them for Leo or a crew member to enjoy. Left us room in our suitcase for souveniers!

 

Food:

The food is the biggest area of concern for us. We only have the Disney cruise to compare to, so bear with me as I explain our thoughts. We were in traditional seating, and the dinner meals were outstanding! Wonderful! The buffet (as stated elsewhere on these boards) was lacking in quality. It is what I would call "typical cafeteria food." There were alot of rice type dishes, casserole type dishes and food that was kind of blah. There was a salad bar (good), cheeses, fruit which were all good, but the hot food was not very good. The staff were very attentive towards the food, replacing the empty containers, etc. It was just interesting to see such a difference in quality between the dining room and the buffet. The buffet on Disney was outstanding and the food just tasted better in the buffet. NOTE: FYI. Room service menu is very limited. 4-5 cold sandwiches, hamburger, hot dog, salad, french fries, chips, chocolate chip cookie. The two times we used room service, the food was not good. The hamburger was ice cold, as were the fries. Because it was cold, the hamburger was very tough and dry. My husband had the same experience with the hot dog. The second time we used it we got turkey sandwiches. The sandwiches had the crust removed, so there were literally two bites to each half! Very small, almost a tea size sandwich. When the sandwiches arrived in our cabin, the bread was already dry! Again, comparing with the Disney cruise, their room service menu was very extensive and the food arrived hot and tasted great! The food on the Island Princess was very inconsitent throughout the ship. The dining room was great, buffet was so-so and room service was terrible. I was surprised it wasn't more consistent throughout. One last note on the food. I read on the boards that you could order from the main dining menu. All you had to do was go down during the day, read the posted menu and order what you wanted during your meal time through room service and you can eat in your cabin the same meal as in the dining room. NO! The only people who can do this are FULL SUITES. No one else! We were disappointed because we had decided not to do the Formal Nights because my husband dresses up for work every day and wanted a "real vacation" without dressing up. We decided it would be okay to skip them, because we would still be able to get a nice dinner in our room. We were surprised that we couldn't get a regular meal in our room. Here is what I don't understand: They encourage people to respect the formal dress code and not come in to the dining area in smart casual wear on formal nights. We made sure we respected this request and did not go to dinner on formal nights since were would not be in the right attire. Because we are respectful of this request, dinners that are already cooked and waiting for us in the dining room cannot be brought to us through room service? Part of me understands why people still show up on formal nights in their khakis...we almost felt like we were being punished because we didn't bring our formal wear. We missed out on lobster tails as well as another wonderful menu because of this. Was it our choice to skip formal night? Yes. However, our decision to skip was based on the information we read here telling us that we could still get our meals in the room. Had we been told that we couldn't get our meals in the room, we may have reconsidered. I suggest that Princess evaluate this situation and offer "Entree only" meals on formal nights through room service. Offer the meals only at the normal meal hours to help simplify things. Just a suggestion.

 

Entertainment:

The opening night show was cute. Singers were good and the juggler was fascinating (although his show seemed to go a little long-many people walked out). The second night's show was good with all singing. We didn't attend any other shows because they were just too late for us and we were too tired to attend. We heard the comedian was good. There was also a xylophone guy and a magician. Didn't get any feedback on those folks. We didn't use the casino or go to the clubs. We don't do that at home either. At our dinner table, we had a newlywed couple in their late 20's from England. They were quite disappointed with the activities (or lack of) on the ship for the younger set. We shared that the Caribbean would be more of a destination for their age, not Alaska. Alaska is for the folks who have always wanted to go there. We were on this ship for the ports, not the ship activities. So that is how we made our decision to go on the Island Princess.

 

Overall ship:

The ship was beautiful and I did not come upon a single staff member who wasn't helpful. We really enjoyed the ship and it's staff. We didn't do too many things on the ship outside of our port visits. We were up so early in the morning to watch the docking and depart the ship that we were in bed asleep right after our late seating for dinner (and we are in our 40's!!). We vowed to tell our kids we were up until 3am, so they wouldn't think we were "wimpy" for going to bed so early! We were exhausted!

 

Execursions:

We did not do an excursion in Ketchikan, our first port. We decided to just walk around and check it out. We were only there until 2:30pm and there seemed to be a mad rush to get back to the ship from the excursions. The line to get back on the ship was still long at 2:30 when we were supposed to be sailing away from the dock. We did the Pilot's Choice excursion through Temsco (we booked this on our own) in Juneau. We had the time of our lives! There were six of us including the pilot and we stopped on two glaciers. It was eerie just having us 6 walking around on this immense glacier with no one else around. We brought an empty water bottle and brought back some glacier water as a souvenier. We had a 50 minute tour by helicopter and walked on each glacier for about 15 minutes. I will never forget this excursion! Awesome! In Skagway, we took the White Pass Railroad and there was some breathtaking scenery! We are rail fans so the trip was fabulous for us. Some of the younger kids on the train were restless on the way back because we were going by scenery that we had already seen.

 

Cruising Glacier Bay and College Fjord was amazing. We didn't see much calving at all in Glacier Bay. College Fjord had numerous glaciers and we saw alot of calving from the Harvard Glacier. Whole sections of walls came down. The naturalist on board said it was the most calving he had ever seen there. We felt very fortunate!

 

Two side notes:

We were in D407 with an exposed balcony. Not a problem until we were cruising Glacier Bay. Someone threw their coffee over their balcony and right into ours. Quite a mess! Also, the ATM on board is in the casino. There is a $5.50 charge to use the machine! A little steep, but they do have a captive audience.....

 

 

Overall, this was the trip of a lifetime! It will probably be our last cruise, just because we can't afford to do this type of vacation. Our kids have enjoyed a Caribbean crusie on board Disney and my DH and I enjoyed our Alaska cruise. It is time to go back to our driving trip vacations in the future!

[Cali girl]

I totally agree with you about the food. We were on Sapphire princess 7/25-8/1. We are in Alaska and couldn't get decent seafood? Hello? Food was warm at best and lacking in variety. You were lucky to even get dining room seating. Although we were "confirmed" for second seating, upon arrival, we were infomed that they just use that word, dosen't mean that you have dining room dining.. I love it!

 

Aside from the food, the whole experience was wonderful. We loved the excursions and people. We feel blessed to have had the opportunity to see that part of our country.

 

Overall, I enjoyed RCL more than Princess though-

[LARGIN]

about the food.. Did you try the "Bayou" or "Sabatini's" ???

[shmabbies]

I should probably post this as a new thread but for the heck of it I'll start here. Has anyone else experienced this "can't order the dinner menu unless in a full suite" deal? We've been on many Princess cruises and NEVER in a suite and have always had dinner delivered to our cabin. We scout the posted menu early in the day and place the order 4-5-ish. It's always arrived on a cart with everything hot and wonderful. Our last Princess cruise was February 2003 in South America so if this is a universal change when was it done? Or is it certain ships or certain destinations? I would be caught up short without the formal clothes too because that's one of the reasons we do room service i.e. to avoid formal nights. Any experiences would be appreciated!

[Cali girl]

We had an ocean view room and were not able to order off the dinner menu. I tried and they said that I could have the soup!? I pretty much gave them a "what?!!!!???" They could have cared less. So , in the end, no dining room food for me!

 

We didn't try the pay restaurants.

But I wouldn't bring lots of formal clothes anyway--people were so casual on our ship.

[barbarat]

Would like to add to the review of Island Princess - just got back to UK Monday

We thought Dining room food was wonderful - probably surpassed what we had hoped for. We only went to the buffet once or twice - breakfast or lunch. I found that the lunch choice was fair in that it covered tastes from Sushi to Curry, to grill items and that the staff were very attentive in filling up and in clearing tables.

 

Our cabin (C421) was well positioned - by centre lift/stairs, but had no noise/disturbance from this. A bonus for us was the laundomat on every deck - we embarked the ship after a Canadian Rockies landtour so made good use of this facility.

 

We didn't attend any shows (up early to see ship dock so was falling asleep early) but did go to Naturalist talks which were interesting.

 

Overall Cruise & Rockies landtour were great, something I would not hesitate to recommend

[Target]

We ate in the Bayou Restaurant for lunch and it was marvelous!! Very tasty! I forgot to mention that, sorry!

 

Barbarat, we had three couples from England at our dinner table (they did not know each other). One couple from Gurnsey (sp?) and one from London. I did not get to know the third couple. Honeymooners who only came to dinner twice and he was very hard to understand. John and Wendy were from London and Louise and Janet (mom and daughter) were from Gurnsey. Very lovely people and we really enjoyed learning about their hometowns. They also took the Rockies tour and enjoyed it as well, although John was ready to get off the bus after 5 days!! :)

 

I am not sure when the dinner in the room changed, since I thought it was still intact! Maybe when Carnival bought Princess? I heard that is when the coffee changed as well!

Laura

[JannyO]

Thank you Laura for the great review. We are on the Island 1 month from today (Alaska Southbound) Hubby and I aren't very fussy about food so I think we'll do just fine. He is concerned about watching his NFL on Sunday tho-the man has his vacation priorities!!

 

Jan

[vettechick]

We just returned from SB on Island and were not allowed to order room service from dining room menus. We, too, were excited about getting crab legs in our room so we could enjoy the view and were told only items on the room service menu could be ordered. Attitude by room service was terrible! As a side note, however, the night of lobster we (again) were eating in the Cafe and heard an announcement about a large pod of dolphins heading our way. We immediately left our nearly completed dinners and went back to our balcony where we watched 100 dolphins from our room! We would have missed it completely if we were in the dining room.

 

Something I haven't heard anyone say yet was the language problem most of the wait staff and stewards have. Most barely speak English or don't speak English at all. This made it very difficult when we actually did order room service (they got our order wrong even though we were on the phone for 15 minutes!) and the waiters on desk didn't understand our drink orders all the time (ordering a Fosters from his cart is so difficult??).

 

I asked for a robe on the second day and the steward brought it fairly quickly.

 

Yes, the pillows are horrible! Very small and hard -- bring your own if you have room in your luggage.

 

Shows were pretty good, but one of the staff shows was a little raunchy/tacky.

 

Another note for those of you planning on taking pictures on deck. This ship is nearly completely surrounded by blue glass windshields on all decks making it very difficult to take pictures. There is a small area on the Sun Deck at the back of the ship that is unobstructed. Other than than, you have to shove your way onto one of a few staircases for a good photo. Best shots were those taken from our own balcony or from Promenade deck.

 

Let me know if you want any other info.....

[vettechick]

There won't be any football watching on this cruise. TV is VERY limited. All you get is the Island Princess channel, web cam and some CNN.

[kdt]

Thanks for the tip about the blue-tinted windshields. I was wondering about that from a few of the photos I've seen of the ship.

 

JannyO, it sounds like we will be on the same sailing. It is hard for me to believe it is in one month!!

[Target]

Vettechick,

YES! YES! I forgot about the language barrier with room service. He kept saying "mustard and ketchup" and I could not, for the life of me understand him! I had to repeat things over and over and was very frustrated when I got off the phone. We only used them twice and both times were very frustrating! They should put better english-speakers on the phone for room service.

 

There is an ESPN channel on board because we watched a Yankees game on board. We do lose that signal periodically, so if you are in Glacier Bay or College Fjords, you will not get a signal. You will also be cut off from the internet on those two days, so plan for that. Our kids thought we fell off the edge of the world....didn't hear from us for almost three days. (we didn't realize email would drop). I am thankful for the internet connections though. It is nice they are offered (pricey, but appreciated). It did give me an excuse not to check my work emails because of the cost....:)

 

Also, there are portions of the port and starboard sides on deck 15 where you can get great shots. You cannot get them at the front of the ship because of the blue panels. Whoever thought of those should be ..... oh well. Wouldn't it be great if they had a bunch of focus groups of travelers ranging from well travelled to new travellers to determine the layout of their next ship?? Who do I write to?

 

Laura