Island Princess Holiday Cruise Review...

I've had major trouble posting my review, so my next option is to start a new thread (this one) and then try to post it as a reply here.

Here goes...

Taters

I returned one week ago from our holiday cruise aboard the Island Princess. This was a 15 night cruise to/from the Hawaiian Islands from Los Angeles. I've previously cruised on Royal Caribbean and Carnival. This was my first Princess cruise and to be honest, I didn't see many differences between this line and the others.

My husband Kevin, daughter Jessie (15 years old) and I flew from Fairbanks on December 18th and arrived at LAX at 3:45 pm. My older sons and one son's girlfriend (all in their 20s) happened to be in town and they met us at the airport. It took over half an hour before the baggage arrived at the Alaska Airlines baggage claim area.

We stayed at the Four Points Sheraton LAX for two nights. I would recommend this hotel to anyone staying in the LAX area. The rooms were clean and nice and they offered a 24 hour shuttle to and from the airport. The rooms were $75 through the Sheraton web site. My only disappointment was that the hotel pool was closed for maintenance, though I never saw anyone working on it. The pool at the Marriot was available to us, though, and the Sheraton even offered free shuttle service, which all the kids utilized.

On the 19th we rented a mini-van from Enterprise. There was a "hotline" phone at the concierge desk and they were there in 5 minutes to take us to their facility. We all piled in and went to my sister-in-law's house and then we followed SIL, BIL and two neices to Venice Beach. The sky was absolutely blue and clear... The nicest day I've EVER seen in LA! We had dinner at SIL's house that evening and went back to the Sheraton for the night.

On December 20th we woke up and it was finally CRUISE DAY!!!! I get goofy over my cruises and was very anxious to pack up our belongings and get to the pier!

We took all the kids to a late breakfast and gave the older kids + girlfriend their Christmas gifts. I'd heard that the pier at San Pedro was usually an absolute zoo, so was a little leery about what we would encounter when we got there.

My sons are on the road with their band, so they had room enough for them, their equipment plus the three of us and all of our luggage in their van. It was a very tight squeeze, but we made it! When we got to the pier at 1 pm there was quite a line of passengers snaking out and around the building, but almost zero traffic! We kissed the boys and girlfriend goodbye, the porter took our luggage and Kevin, Jessie and I got in line. We filled out a questionnaire asking us if we'd been sick recently (which none of us had). The line moved quickly and we were in our cabin in about 40 minutes. Hooray!

We brought one bottle of rum and one bottle of vodka paked in our luggage. No problems getting them on board. We also had a twelve pack of Diet Coke, a twelve pack of Sierra Mist, a case of beer and three bottles of champagne which were in our carry-ons and with that, also no problem.

We were in an AF mini-suite, cabin B203. This cabin is situated 2nd from the front of the ship on the starboard side. This is one of only eight mini-suites on the Island Princess that does not have a balcony. This cabin is about 300 square feet and has the standard 2 TVs, larger bathroom with tub, refrigerator and fold-out couch. We opted for this type of cabin because we thought that with three of us sharing space for 15 days that we'd enjoy the extra elbow room INSIDE the cabin, which we did. We didn't miss having the balcony, as we spent a good portion of our cruise up on deck. We also enjoyed how QUIET our cabin was. There were some out-of-control kids on board that caused many passengers a lot of stress, but we were oblivious to this until we heard passengers complaining about it on something like our 11th day of the cruise.

The first day at sea was pretty rocky. I woke up at around 4 am, noticed the motion, took a Bonine and went back to sleep. Kevin didn't feel that well when he woke up, but one Bonine later he was fine. Jessie, on the other hand, was sick all day and didn't come out of the room until dinner time.

We had a Cruise Critic meeting in the Wheelhouse Bar. Aloha_Jackie (Jackie) and Mr. Lucky (Frank) were there, along with cruisingfreak (Minette) and Franknca (also Frank). It was wonderful to sit down and chat with the folks I'd been writing to for the past year. There were several no-shows (Trey, you can run but you can't hide! I know who you are!!! LOL), but that's ok, too. Some people are shy.

Sunshine's mom, Dorthea, found US several days later and we finally got to meet Collette. Yaaaa!

The days at sea, both coming and going, were fantastic! Plenty to do, or not do, whichever suited us! We spent a lot of time at Crooner's Bar. Our favorite server, Sabrina, was always there with a smile and a good story. She SHAKES those martinis, I'm tellin' ya!

We also enjoyed out time in the casino. A lot! We were up, we were down, we were up, we were down. I think we lost a little bit of money... A hundred bucks or so? But after 10 days of going to the casino (which was closed for the five days we were in the islands) I think we did alright.

We went to one production show, but were not impressed, so didn't go to another. We did go see most of the comedians and musical acts. We loved Duncan Tuck's first show in the Princess Theater (awesome flaminco guitar playing), but were disappointed in his "cheesy" longe singer act in the Universe Lounge later in the cruise. We loved the man (sorry that I've forgotten his name) who plays the "Fastest Banjo in the World".

One act that I will not soon forget was seeing Willy Tyler and Lester! I am one of those people who is sort of stuck in the 70s. I love all the old TV shows and my CD collection has maybe one thing in it later than 1981. So I was thrilled to see Willy Tyler and Lester listed in the Princess Patter! If you watched shows like the Carol Burnett Show, Flip Wilson, Nipsy Russel, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, etc., then you know who Willy Tyler is. He is a ventriloquist and Lester is his dummy. On the last night of the cruise I got a chance to talk with Willy. I got my pic taken with him and he gave me an autographed photo. We talked about his wife and kids. What a nice guy! What a treat! My Brush With Greatness!

We played bingo a couple of times and lost. We went to the Pyramid show. Loved the splash pool up at the front, top of the ship. Loved all the hot tubs. We walked on the promenade deck many mornings. 2.8 times around the ship equals one mile.

We had second seating, traditional dining. This was the worst dining room service we've ever experienced on a cruise. We booked this cruise 15 months in advance. We asked for a large table. Instead we got what we soon started calling the "Afterthought Table". This was a 4 top table for the three of us. Everytime a waiter waked by with a tray we had to duck. We noticed that most of the other waiters had two large tables. Our waiter, Vasco, and assistant waiter, Chutemon, also had two large tables... Plus us. Vasco was wonderful in trying to accomdate us, he really tried hard for us. Chutemon was NOT wonderful, or even mediocre, really. At one point in the cruise I had to ask her to come over to us because I REALLY needed a glass of water, that I'd also like some iced tea if she had time, and I mentioned to her that she had completely ignored us for the PAST 4 NIGHTS! She tried to do a better job after that, but only because I'd said something to her. Many nights our dirty plates would sit in fron of us for 20 minutes or more while we waited to order dessert. Many other things like this went on, so we took the auto-tip off of our bill and left envelopes for everyone. Vasco the waiter we tipped over the reccomended amount, same for Danilo our room steward. For Chutemon, however, we left a smaller tip. She was lucky to get one at all.

The food, most of it, was very good. The desserts were lacking. I discovered the made-to-order fettucini alfredo on one of the last nights of the cruise and it was awesome! One huge thing that bothered me was that there were french fries served with some of the beef dishes during dinner in the dining room, even on formal nights. Bad, bad, bad.

We enjoyed the meals that we had in the Horizon Court, as well as the burgers from The Grill. The pizza was the best cruise line pizza I've ever had. Reminded me of Cozzoli's pizza in Miami in the 70s.

One thing that I must mention are our new friends, Aloha_Jackie and Mr. Lucky (Frank). Jackie and I posted like crazy back and forth prior to the cruise. Before Kevin, Jess and I left for LA, I told Kev that I just KNEW that I would get along well with Jackie and that he'd better watch us, 'cause I felt like she and I could get into some big trouble together!!! Well, it's true... We all met and we clicked and Kevin and I now have some very special friends in Jackie and Frank. XOXO you guys!!! We all plan to get together in California, Vegas or another cruise or wherever in the future. What great people! Thanks Cruise Critic for bringing us all together! Jackie and Frank are stuck with us now!

One activity that the four of us participated in together was the Scrapheap Competition. We constructed a boat that floated a case of beer across the pool and back and was propelled by Jackie. We had a week to put it all together. The competition was fierce, but our beloved S.S. Shagedelic won!!! Go Team Shagedelic! We won gold-now-green-later medals AND the case of beer!!!! It was quite lovely being celebrities on board for a few days and showing off our case of water-drenched Coors to all of the Little People. LOL (Taters is taking a big bow!!!)

More to follow in Part 2...

Taters

The ports were all really nice. We arrived in Hilo on Christmas Day. Kevin went to high school in Pahoa (15 miles from Hilo) way back when and hadn't been to Hawaii in 25+ years. We drove to his old school, old neighborhood, etc., and went to visit his mother's grave. We also went to Akkaka Falls and the Inland Lighthouse. Wonderful day.

We drove around Kiluah Kona and visited the Place of Refuge. Jessie and I did some shopping near the pier while Kevin took the rental car back to Alamo.

We rented a car in Honolulu and did lots of things... Tried to go to the Iolani Palace only to find that it was cloed on Sundays and Mondays. (It was Monday when we were there). We went to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling. The reef is dead and it's really nothing to write home about. We drove to the North Shore where the waves had been 40 feet high that morning.... By the time we got there it was as calm as calm can be. Oh well! We stopped for appetizers and headed back to Honolulu around sunset. We went to the Aloha Tower Marketplace and looked around for a little while and boarded the ship around 9 pm.

We went on the whale watching tour in Maui and were a little bit disappointed because we didn't see much, but that's how it goes sometimes... Those whales aren't on a schedule, you know? We then went to a beach and enjoyed the rest of our beautiful day.

Kauai was our last stop and the one we were looking forward to the most. I'd booked a helicopter tour with Safari Helicopters on my own. We were one of the first 100 or so passengers off the ship that morning and Safari was there to greet us. We were their only passengers, so we zipped over to their office near the airport. We LOVED our flight and thought this was the highlight of our vacation. Please note that if you want to book a helicopter tour on Kauai, you should book it for as early in the morning as possible. This island clouds up in the afternoon and thus afternoon flights are often cancelled. After the helicopter tour, Safari drove us to the airport so that we could pick up a rental car.

We drove in the direction of Princeville, with nothing special in mind to do, and stopoed at the Coconut Marketplace for a bite to eat. As we were having our meal, I noticed that the traffic headed back towards the airport was at a standstill. I asked the waitress if it was usually like that and she said that yes... I'ts bad like that most of the day. We threw caution to the wind and kept driving. Saw the sign for the Kiluea Lighthouse and decided to give it a looksee. While we were there we ran into a good friend of ours from Fairbanks. Small world! From the lighthouse path you can see whales spouting in the ocean below and we all thought this was one of the prettier spots in the world. After that we made a couple of stops here and there, made our way back towards town (all in good time...the traffic - ugh), one mandatory stop at Hilo Hattie's (I'm not much of a shopper) where Kevin found me a bottle of Macadamia Nut Liqueur and we were out of there. Back to the airport to drop off our car and into the Alamo shuttle back to the Island Princess.

Our last days at sea enroute to LA were fun, nice and wonderful and I LOVED them! On the last night, Jackie and Frank treated us to dinner at Sabatini's and we really enjoyed that. Thanks guys! I couldn't believe how much food they brought us. Wonderful meal. I'm still full!

We had a 4 hour stop in Ensenada the day prior to getting back to LA. While we were docking we saw seals swimming around from our cabin window. Awesome! Ensenada is an ugly port where we got off the ship for about 10 minutes in the pouring rain, just long enough to look at the shops and that was it.

The Christmas and New Year celebrations were wonderful and it was so nice for me to not have to cook or clean of decorate for these events. Whew!~ I loved it.

Jessie loved the kids program and made lots of new friends. There were some kids being dowright beastly on this cruise and she stayed away from them...

All in all we had a fantastic time. Would do it again in a heartbeat. I think, though, that if Princess wants to be a cut above Royal Caribbean and Carnival, that they need to improve their dining room service. Traditional dining used to be an event for us, but it was so-so and ho-hum on this cruise.

With that last statement in mind, I would like to say that I would go on another Princess cruise, but not before I try Celebrity and Holland America.

Taters

Great Review. Enjoyed reading it. So glad you had a great time. You seem like the type of person that makes lemonade out of lemons. :)

As I said yesterday Annie, I enjoyed reading your review. Brought back many memories of our cruise. Can't believe we got off the ship just last week. Seems so long ago.

I do miss our daily online chats. I'm in withdrawal!!!!

Minette

You didnot mention what Jessie your 15 year old daughter did on those sea days ???????

As I said yesterday Annie, I enjoyed reading your review. Brought back many memories of our cruise. Can't believe we got off the ship just last week. Seems so long ago.

 

I do miss our daily online chats. I'm in withdrawal!!!!

 

 

Minette

Hi Minette!!!

I miss our on line posting back and forth, too! I even looked up your thread for you Sea Princess cruise, thought I'd "crash" it, LOL, but as of yesterday, no one had posted on that thread since before our cruise!

You and Marty are the greatest!

Annie

You didnot mention what Jessie your 15 year old daughter did on those sea days ???????

Hi kruisy...

My daughter spent a lot of time in the teen area. She made quite a few friends. They ate a lot of meals together and enjoyed the hot tubs, ping pong, shuffleboard, etc... She also went to the movies in the Princess Theater quite a bit and since she's a teenager, she also slept a lot!!! LOL She had a great time.

Taters

Hi Minette!!!

 

I miss our on line posting back and forth, too! I even looked up your thread for you Sea Princess cruise, thought I'd "crash" it, LOL, but as of yesterday, no one had posted on that thread since before our cruise!

 

You and Marty are the greatest!

 

Annie

Thanks Annie.

You & Kevin are great too!!!

Think I'll post on the sea princess cruise again. Get it started up. Crash it anytime you like.

Minette

"We had a 4 hour stop in Ensenada the day prior to getting back to LA. While we were docking we saw seals swimming around from our cabin window. Awesome! Ensenada is an ugly port where we got off the ship for about 10 minutes in the pouring rain, just long enough to look at the shops and that was it."

Ensenada is a clean and modern port in the cruise ship area. My lady and I took a walk outside of the port area last November touring the small stands. All the stands were selling one thing, Baja Road Rally t-shirts! As we strolled back to the ship, the view of the Island was awesome. The ship was lighted up in the twilight and was a beautiful sight.

I have cruised a lot with Princess and have never seen French Fries served with any dinner meal unless someone has specifically asked for it (it is on the always available menu). Was this listed on the entree menu (beef wellington with french fries) or did you just see people with beef dishes and french fries with it? That is too bad about your evening service. I probably would have switched to Anytime dining.

I agree about the pizza - it is the best :)

Thank you for your great detailed review.I have booked this cruise for September this year,although have visited twice before with Princess this will be the first time on Island Princess.

Thanks for the great review.. I will be on the same cruise in 3 months..

I have cruised a lot with Princess and have never seen French Fries served with any dinner meal unless someone has specifically asked for it (it is on the always available menu).

 

Was this listed on the entree menu (beef wellington with french fries) or did you just see people with beef dishes and french fries with it?

 

That is too bad about your evening service. I probably would have switched to Anytime dining.

I ordered prime rib that stated that pototoes blah blah blah would be served along with it... Sorry but I forget what type were listed, it was a french word... never would've imagined that those fancy words meant french fries! LOL

As far as switching to anytime dining, we didn't feel it was an option for us. When we cruise with our teenager, we like to have a specific time to meet for dinner every night and we've always had traditional dining and didn't see a reason to change one of the things we've always loved about cruising!

Also, I forgot to mention that after the first night's dinner, we went to the maiter'd and asked if we could switch to a larger table and he told us no, that all of the larger tables were full of large parties sailing together and families... Then I read Sunshine's post that said they were initially put at a table in a loud area and were switched to a larger table in a better area of the dining room. She, her mother and son also had late traditional dining on this cruise. Maybe her tip to the maiter's d was bigger than mine? LOL

Anyhow, this didn't ruin my cruise, just made me think less of Princess' dining room staff and policies.

Taters

I ordered prime rib that stated that pototoes blah blah blah would be served along with it... Sorry but I forget what type were listed, it was a french word... never would've imagined that those fancy words meant french fries! LOL

 

 

 

Taters

I was also shocked when the french fries were served with the Prime Rib. I think we were supposed to be having baby new potatoes, with the meal. Guess they must have run out of them. LOL!!!

Minette

I was also shocked when the french fries were served with the Prime Rib. I think we were supposed to be having baby new potatoes, with the meal. Guess they must have run out of them. LOL!!!

Minette

It does sound like something went wrong (they ran out of the original potoato or a cook rebelled, etc. .). I always seem to order Prime Rib on both nights it is offered and have never received french fries before. I would also be disappointed if this was served.

Great review and thank you for sharing all that wonderful information.

Great review, thank you. We will be on the 3/05/05 cruise to Hawaii and can't wait. Like you we will be doing a helicopter tour on Kuai. We are booked with Jack Harter Tours. After a lot of research by my wife we decided on him. We are also doing it in the morning.

After one inside room and one oceanview I don't thinkwe could ever not book a room with a balcony though. But if it's room you want than you were right to book that room.

I also don't ever remember french fries being served with dinner except if you ask for them. I have had both the beef wellington and the prime rib and they usually came with a baked potato. Sure hope they changed that since last year.

With a name like "Taters", I would think you like french fries! :-)

Thanks so much for the great review. Not too many seem to be doing them on the Island Princess Hawaii cruise.

My only dining experience with PRINCESS was TERRIBLE as well. The service was REALLY BAD, mostly because our waiter had too many people to serve, and one table was full of complainers/hard to pleasers/and drunks. They complained about everything, and the M'D made the server SUCK UP to them the rest of the cruise. In the process, we got bad, slow, or no service. It was worse than any land restaurant I've been too.

All is forgiven, and we are giving PRINCESS one more chance to make it up to us. I hope they come through.

Dining is one of the cruising highlights for us, and RCI has set the bar very high. This time, bad service WILL NOT be tolerated on this long cruise.

Hopefully, these experiences are not the norm.

Hi Taters, glad you had a good time (except for the dining experience). We sail on the Island 2.18.05 and I wonder if you could provide more information on your car hire in Honolulu. Who did you use? Where did you collect the car? How did you get there or was a shuttle service provided? If you went again would you miss out on Hanauma Bay?

Also what for you was the highlight of the at sea days?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Taters, glad you had a good time (except for the dining experience). We sail on the Island 2.18.05 and I wonder if you could provide more information on your car hire in Honolulu. Who did you use? Where did you collect the car? How did you get there or was a shuttle service provided? If you went again would you miss out on Hanauma Bay?

Also what for you was the highlight of the at sea days?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Pilgrim Pete:

We rented from Alamo near the Honolulu airport. When we got off the ship, we were unclear as to whether or not there'd be a shuttle, so after 15 minutes of waiting in the rental car pick up area and not seeing shuttles for ANY rental car companies, we hopped into a cab. The fare was under $15 if I am remembering correctly. We asked the gal behind the counter if there actually was a shuttle and she said no.

Some friends of ours rented a car from one of the large hotels on Waikkiki Beach... The Hilton, I think. This may have been closer than the airport and in all honesty, I don't know if there is a shuttle there or not.

If you have been snorkeling in the Caribbean, then you will be greatly disappointed in Hanauma Bay. Like I said before, the reef is dead. It's colorless and there weren't many fish. You have to pay to get in and then watch a mandatory movie (a joke) on safety and protection of the reef. If they were really interested in saving Hanauma Bay, they would close it to the public and let nature begin it's healing course. This place is a huge money maker and so to let it go they'd be saying goodbye to millions of dollars every year. I'm sorry if I sound crass and edgy about this, but I feel that the Park Service is really being hypocritical about this one. Humph! I won't go there again.

As far as highlights of our days at sea go, how can I list them all? LOL There was so much to do or not to do, but the highlight of any cruise is always meeting new people and enjoying the freedom of having no set schedule. I loved the pools and the food and the bars and the casino and wandering around the ship looking out to sea! Cruising is one of the great highlights of my life!!!! I never want to go to bed the last night of the cruise, 'cause when I do I know that my vacation is over. (Sniff sniff)

Taters

If you have been snorkeling in the Caribbean, then you will be greatly disappointed in Hanauma Bay.

Hi Taters:

Overall we had a wonderful time. As you recall, we took our kids and grandkids. I'm glad your daughter had a good time in the "Off Limits" area as ours soured pretty rapidly when they either didn't have the activities that were announced or they rescheduled them. As for the kids on board, I agree, there were some bad apples and I think Princess did right in allowing more than their usual 200 but when over half of the 260 some kids are teens and the "Off Limits" area only holds about 30, they are asking for trouble. Where are these kids to go except to hog the spas, pool or congregate on stairways. I think Princess has an obligation to at least find an are for them to meet even if they have to do without the revenue from one of the clubs. It isn't fair to the teens or to the rest of the adults on board. I wrote a letter to Princess about this and this is part of what I said:

However, the most egregious problem was Princess’ handling of all the teenagers on board. The holidays are a wonderful time to cruise with the family and I can understand and condone Princess’ relaxing of limitations in this area but there should have been a red flag warning when over half of the youngsters were teens. Your teen area can hardly handle 30 people, much less the 129 teens on board. When I asked the counselors how they were going to handle all of the teens, they responded that less than half ever show up. That should be red flag number two. If these teens are not occupied, they are roaming the ship and congregating on stairways susceptible to causing problems.

We had 3 teens of our own on board. We told them before embarkation that we wanted them to enjoy the cruise but that we would not tolerate any trouble making or we would pull their cruise card and confine them to their stateroom. Our teens were initially enthused with the program we found in our cabins for the “Off Limits” activities. However this soon soured when activities were not held as posted and when some only allowed 20 people to participate. Our 14 year old granddaughter was very uncomfortable by the “making out” that some teens were allowed to do in the Off Limits area. Fortunately, they were able to amuse themselves with games in the card room, the sports area on deck 15, miniature golf and reading. But others hogged the spas, congregated on stairways, jumped into the pools and were loudly disrupting. There seemed to be a lack of security when extra should have been added as Princess knew so many teens would be on board.

I would like to recommend a procedure that would provide better control of children on board that should result in a more pleasant cruise experience for all when the capacity of the Off Limits area is exceeded. First, Princess should develop a document that all parents and/or guardians have to sign before they embark spelling out the conduct expected of their children and holding them responsible for the actions of their charges. The signers would acknowledge that repeated failure to comply with these requirements would subject their entire family being put off the ship at the next port with it being their responsibility to find a way back home. This document should contain but not be limited to the following items:

1. An 11:00 PM curfew for anyone under 18 years of age unless accompanied by a parent or guardian except for participation in an official Off Limits or Kid’s Zone activity.

2. No congregating on stairways.

3. No actions that disturb other passengers such as loud horseplay, foul language, etc.

4. Obeying posted signs for the pool area such as no jumping or diving.

5. No destruction or misuse of property. (A table was thrown overboard, one of the large chess pieces was tossed on top of the sports area netting and a passenger’s motorized scooter was stolen and damaged.)

6. Other items as appropriate.

Princess also has to increase security on all passenger cabin floors with active patrols all evening to eliminate rowdy behavior. Counselors have to be more firm with teens so that no inappropriate actions take place. Princess also needs to find a place for the teens to congregate without using public areas. If Princess allows this many teens on board, it has the responsibility to provide such an area for both the teens sake and the happiness of adult passengers.

There is one other situation that the staff on board (some from Mexico themselves) confirmed that happens on every holiday cruise. It seems some affluent families from Mexico also like to take this cruise. These families normally have nannies that take care of their children and for some reason chose not to take the nannies along on the cruise. These parents normally do not discipline their children and either don’t know how or do not want to discipline them on board. They would allow an 8 year old to take a gaggle of youngsters to the pool or the Lido deck. Children would put their hands into the food and run around unsupervised. Princess needs to provide the suggested document in both English and Spanish for parents to sign. And then they should monitor and enforce these provisions.

-----------------------

I wrote more about the underage drinking at the champaign waterfall and a few other items.

We had excellent waiters. We had a table that sat all 11 of us and they did a good job. There always was a lull though before the main entree that I think was due to the struggle for meals between the traditional dining restaurant and the PC folks. BTW, I'm one of those that orders fries with my prime rib. (G) But I had to ask for that. Being in first seating, I guess we had a better opportunity of them not running out of anything. (BG)

We had a great snorkeling cruise in Maui. I don't know why they announced that the waters were murky due to recent rains since we were going to Molikini crater that isn't affected. It was just the areal where the sea turtles are so they extended the Molikini stay and skipped the turtle area. People were given the opportunity to cancel and most did, giving us an almost empty boat. Molikini was great - clear water and a lot of fish. The sun came out brightly as we arrived. The ride out was rough but we stopped to see whales, something those on whale watching cruises didn't get to see. The ride back was pretty smooth and the view of the island great from the sea.

You didn't mention Beatlemania - they had the best act on board. We caught both nights that they performed. Even our kids and grandkids enjoyed them. We also enjoyed Lester and some of the other acts were better than we'd seen before on Princess but we were disappointed with "Let's Rock" as it really was more a show tune bit and the tunes they dug out were either not that great or unknown to us.

We spent a tad of time in the casino. My son won over $1,000. Over $200 on 3 card poker and the rest on the Wheel of Fortune slots. They got rained on at the volcano but still enjoyed it. Same thing happened to them at Waikiki Beach but they also enjoyed that. We just strolled around Kona while some did the Parker Ranch and others a glass bottom boat. We had a great day at Lydgate Park on Kauai - rented 3 cars to do this.

I can't think of anything else off hand. Any other folks with questions I'd be glad to post my opinions. We all see things a little different and some things accept without a problem and others detract from the voyage. As I said at the beginning, overall this was a great cruise. Having my family along contributed to that. My grandkids love cruising as do my kids. We've spoiled them pretty well. (BG)

Frank-in-CA

Glad to see this post:

The wild and out of control families were too much.

Thanks Taters and Frank for your reviews. I was on the Island for the Christmas/New Year's cruise too. Had a wonderful time despite several unruly groups of kids. Many nights I encountered the same situation, how a toddler (still sucking on a pacifier) could be awake at 1am or 2am being supervised by a child about 7 years old. Perhaps they were looking for their nanny?

On another note, I had the late seating at dinner. As was stated before there were large family groups onboard from Mexico that would show up around 8:30 or 9:00pm. What many people didn't know is that these family groups didn't like ordering from the dinner menu. Each evening they would order "speciality" items which would back up the kitchen. Nothing like having 200+ speciality orders all at the same time. Our waiters, who were very attentive and professional, often would apologize to us for the delay in bringing out the next course, picking up dishes, etc. The delay for the most part was the backlog in the kitchen and waiters trying to put together the speciality orders for the large tables.

Just a little "food for thought."

Frank:

Thanks so much for posting the excerpt from your letter to Princess. I agree wholeheartedly about Princess having a contract for families with kids/teens to sign acknowledging the rules and the consequences when the rules are broken. When we sailed on our back-to-back cruises on Enchantment of the Seas (RCI) we had to do this. Very simple, very easy and very to the point. Kevin, Jessie and I were all happy to sign.

I was in contact with one of the counselors on board the Island Princess, Heidi, on a regular basis. She and Jess got along very well and Jess liked to "hang" with her quite a bit. Jessie was in "Off Limits" when the incident with the priest occured and so felt even more inclined to stick with the counselors after that. This is one thing that I felt Princess handled well, putting that man off the ship in Hilo.

Even though there were some strange things that happened on this ship, we still had a wonderful time. I can't say that I won't sail at Christmastime again, but I will say that if we ever book a cruise again during high season, we'll definately book another cabin at the very front of the ship. Like I stated in my review, we were oblivious to most of the negative goings on until something like day 11 or 12.

Annie