Day by Day review of Island Princess 12/29/2011

[nasa1974]

Suitelive, would have copies of the daily ship activity pamphlet? I know it won't be exactly the same for our October cruise but it would be interesting to look at.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Suitelive, would have copies of the daily ship activity pamphlet? I know it won't be exactly the same for our October cruise but it would be interesting to look at.

 

I did keep them. I can scan and email them to you if you'd like.

[nasa1974]

Thanks that would be great.

[pw57]

What a great review, my husband and I along with 3 other couples will be sailing on the Island Princess leaving Vancouver Sept 26 and arriving in Fort Lauderdale Oct 13th. I was excited already for this cruise and now can't wait until we are actually on our way.

[Mocha'shuman]

Thank you for the awesome review. I am sailing on the Island Princess on May 16 out of Vancouver for a return trip of the Inside Passage. I wanted to read about the ship and your review covered so many bases. I do have a question, I don't think that you mentioned it but... How were the beds? I keep reading that the beds are too hard but are being replaced. Do you have an update of the bed situation.

 

Thanks 23 days until we set sail

 

Fern

[juniper berries]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your review. You are right that the planing of a cruise is as much fun as the cruise. I am in the prossess of planning a panama cannal cruise for 2014. Your reveiw made me want to be able to do it sooner rather than later. :) Happy cruiseing where ever you may roam.

[stunnedinva]

Thank you for the awesome review. I am sailing on the Island Princess on May 16 out of Vancouver for a return trip of the Inside Passage. I wanted to read about the ship and your review covered so many bases. I do have a question' date=' I don't think that you mentioned it but... How were the beds? I keep reading that the beds are too hard but are being replaced. Do you have an update of the bed situation.

 

Thanks 23 days until we set sail

 

Fern[/quote']

 

I was on the same cruise Dec/Jan, and had to use two foam toppers to make the bed comfortable. :eek: I hope they will have replaced the concrete mattresses before you board.

[NitaBcruising]

Does anyone know just how long it takes to transit the canal? I see it starts early in the morning. We plan to be up, but wondered how long this took.

[BoopTennis]

Hi, going thru the Panama Canal "Halfway" , from the Caribbean to Gatun Lake, took 90 min - 2 hours. Then the cruise we were on, we docked briefly in Gatun lake, then turned around and went back the other way

[NitaBcruising]

Hi, going thru the Panama Canal "Halfway" , from the Caribbean to Gatun Lake, took 90 min - 2 hours. Then the cruise we were on, we docked briefly in Gatun lake, then turned around and went back the other way

 

 

Thanks, we're doing a full transit. I just found the info on the Panama Canal board! :) I enjoyed the youtube history links someone provided!

[caribill]

Does anyone know just how long it takes to transit the canal? I see it starts early in the morning. We plan to be up, but wondered how long this took.

 

It took us about 8 hours.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Thank you for the awesome review. I am sailing on the Island Princess on May 16 out of Vancouver for a return trip of the Inside Passage. I wanted to read about the ship and your review covered so many bases. I do have a question' date=' I don't think that you mentioned it but... How were the beds? I keep reading that the beds are too hard but are being replaced. Do you have an update of the bed situation.

 

Thanks 23 days until we set sail

 

Fern[/quote']

 

I can only speak of the beds in the mini-suite. Before our cruise we did have our TA ask for a foam topper/egg crate. That did help and we were able to sleep fine. We prefer soft beds ourselves. We did ask for a top sheet from our cabin steward.

 

The lounge chair cushions in the Sanctuary are awesome and great for napping! :D Enjoy your cruise!!! I still have a bit of time before our next one... it won't be soon enough.

[Love.II.Cruise]

What a great review, my husband and I along with 3 other couples will be sailing on the Island Princess leaving Vancouver Sept 26 and arriving in Fort Lauderdale Oct 13th. I was excited already for this cruise and now can't wait until we are actually on our way.

 

Oh that sounds like a wonderful cruise! Next time we will have to do the full transit.

 

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your review. You are right that the planing of a cruise is as much fun as the cruise. I am in the prossess of planning a panama cannal cruise for 2014. Your reveiw made me want to be able to do it sooner rather than later. :) Happy cruiseing where ever you may roam.

 

I'm glad you liked the review.

 

Planning cruises is a lot of fun. We just planned another one ourselves. And we can't wait until our transatlantic cruise this fall! :)

[Loonbeam]

I put scans up here:

 

http://panamacanal.pamandjeff.net

 

Suitelive, would have copies of the daily ship activity pamphlet? I know it won't be exactly the same for our October cruise but it would be interesting to look at.

[eljabe]

Thanks for posting this link - I'll be cruising in March 2013 on the Coral - so I'm sure things will be different - but it was good to see what the possibilities might be!!

[TallinnGirl]

3 weeks until we are on the Island Princess! Can't wait! :D

[Love.II.Cruise]

3 weeks until we are on the Island Princess! Can't wait! :D

 

I'm sure you'll have a blast! Enjoy your cruise! ;)

[nasa1974]

I put scans up here:

 

http://panamacanal.pamandjeff.net

 

Loonbeam, Thank you very much.

[cruiselvr1]

After taking pictures of the ghost ship we then grabbed breakfast at the Horizon Court at 6:00am. Afterwards we walked by the Sanctuary and saw many people waiting to reserve loungers. We then went back to our room to take a snooze and Overboard was playing on TV. Later in the morning we went up and enjoyed the Sanctuary. There were many white caps on the ocean today.

 

Today we decided to have a light lunch at the Sanctuary. My DH ordered the Beef & Beet on Rye which was a lean roast beef sandwich, pickled red beets, leaf lettuce, low-fat mayo and horseradish. I ordered the Chicken Caesar Wrap which was sliced chicken, crisp romaine lettuce with Caesar salad dressing in a what was advertised as a spinach tortilla (but it was regular). Both were excellent!

 

Tonight was our first formal night. On this cruise we decided to not bring formal wear. However, we didn’t want to be inconsiderate to the recommended dress code and other passengers for dinner. We had arranged for the Ultimate Balcony Dinner for this evening. This came with roses, two cocktails, half bottle of champagne, photo, and dinner served course by course. It was to windy outside for the flowers, so they stayed inside.

 

Below is a picture of the hor d’oeuvres and our table set up:

 

 

For the main appetizer we had the crab quiche. There was so much crab in this quiche, it alone could have been a main course. I decided I needed to not eat everything if I was going to try to make a New Year’s pool party. My DH wouldn’t let anything go to waste. He loved it. And of course they also gave us a basket full of bread.

 

 

 

 

After the appetizer we had a salad course which consisted of endive, goat cheese rolled in herbs, tomatoes, sliced pears, and mixed greens topped with their balsamic vinaigrette. This is a great salad, but it is large. Beware the goat cheese balls. With the herbs on the outside you may not realize there is a ball of cheese in there and accidentally put the whole thing in your mouth at once like I did.

 

 

Beef and Beet? UGH No fried Chicken Sandwiches or nice greasy hamburgers with FF.

[cruiselvr1]

After taking pictures of the ghost ship we then grabbed breakfast at the Horizon Court at 6:00am. Afterwards we walked by the Sanctuary and saw many people waiting to reserve loungers. We then went back to our room to take a snooze and Overboard was playing on TV. Later in the morning we went up and enjoyed the Sanctuary. There were many white caps on the ocean today.

 

Today we decided to have a light lunch at the Sanctuary. My DH ordered the Beef & Beet on Rye which was a lean roast beef sandwich, pickled red beets, leaf lettuce, low-fat mayo and horseradish. I ordered the Chicken Caesar Wrap which was sliced chicken, crisp romaine lettuce with Caesar salad dressing in a what was advertised as a spinach tortilla (but it was regular). Both were excellent!

 

Tonight was our first formal night. On this cruise we decided to not bring formal wear. However, we didn’t want to be inconsiderate to the recommended dress code and other passengers for dinner. We had arranged for the Ultimate Balcony Dinner for this evening. This came with roses, two cocktails, half bottle of champagne, photo, and dinner served course by course. It was to windy outside for the flowers, so they stayed inside.

 

Below is a picture of the hor d’oeuvres and our table set up:

 

 

For the main appetizer we had the crab quiche. There was so much crab in this quiche, it alone could have been a main course. I decided I needed to not eat everything if I was going to try to make a New Year’s pool party. My DH wouldn’t let anything go to waste. He loved it. And of course they also gave us a basket full of bread.

 

 

 

 

After the appetizer we had a salad course which consisted of endive, goat cheese rolled in herbs, tomatoes, sliced pears, and mixed greens topped with their balsamic vinaigrette. This is a great salad, but it is large. Beware the goat cheese balls. With the herbs on the outside you may not realize there is a ball of cheese in there and accidentally put the whole thing in your mouth at once like I did.

 

 

You are very respectful to other passengers. Even though I enjoy dressing on formal nights, others don't. I don't care if someone dresses or not.

[cruiselvr1]

For our main course we had the filet and lobster tails. I immediately noticed they forgot my DHs lobster tail and signaled to him to not say anything. The one they gave me was large enough for us to split. I only had two bites of the lobster and gave the rest to my DH. We both thought the lobster we made in the Keys was better. Go to the beginning of the review and click on the link that will take you to pictures of the Christmas Dinner we cooked for ourselves. You’ll see pictures of the lobster we made for ourselves. The filets for the ultimate balcony dinner were perfectly done.

 

 

 

Last but not least was dessert. From left to right were 4 types of mouse, chocolate, pistachio, strawberry and vanilla.

 

 

Our favorite was the pistachio. And if that wasn’t enough they brought us petit fours! :eek: This was a wonderful meal and despite my DH ate everything except his full dessert and all the petit fours, I think we could have split each course and been perfectly satisfied.

 

Notice how as the evening progressed the sun had set. I love the progressive changing of the daylight in these photos.

 

 

Okay, so dinner was now over and guess who wasn’t feeling well? DH. Our plan was to go to the pool party dressed elegant casual for New Year’s. My DH was in a food induced coma by 10pm. I stayed up and read next to him in bed through the New Year's and went to sleep about 1am. When we got home my DH found out his parents went out on New Year’s and went to a party. He then vowed that this next New Year’s he would be up for it. Only time will tell. ;)

If you paid for it, you better let them know you didn't get. I am probably one of easiest to please, but I want what I paid for.

[cruiselvr1]

With our loungers being in the covered area, we were fortunate that they did not get wet. In the picture below we had the two loungers furthest to the right all the way in the back.

 

 

If you rent a lounger in the sun and then it rains, I think you are SOL. They do get wet and seem to become unusable. Sometimes they just leave their plastic raincoats on these chairs so they stay dry for the next day (as seen by the turquoise coverings above on the front loungers).

 

Here are few more pictures of the Sanctuary:

 

 

 

Tonight was our first night that we went to the Dining Room. This cruise we went with anytime (first time we do this on Princess). We figured since we knew we wouldn’t be attending formal nights, that we shouldn’t book a table for the entire cruise. I finally tried what others had suggested... an appetizer of Fettuccine Alfredo. Yummy! And it wasn’t too much. This way I could still enjoy an entree. We asked for a table for 2 and I will say the tables are quite close together. So close, that it was unavoidable to speak to the table next to you. If the tables are this close together, I’m not sure why they should even bother having tables for 2 (this is only our opinion of this ship - I know others are different).

The difference is if you decide not to go to the MDR, you don't need to tell your table mates if your not going to be there the next day.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Beef and Beet? UGH No fried Chicken Sandwiches or nice greasy hamburgers with FF.

 

I know Beef and Beet sandwich might sound weird, but it was really good. The Sanctuary is more about "healthy" eating in my opinion. But if you asked for a nice greasy hamburger with FF, or a hot dog, or a slice a pizza... they would have happily gotten it for you. ;)

 

You are very respectful to other passengers. Even though I enjoy dressing on formal nights, others don't. I don't care if someone dresses or not.

 

Thank you. Even though we chose not to go to formal nights, we did not want to offend anyone and this is why we did the UBD experience on formal night.

[TracieABD]

SuiteLife-

Great review and fabulous pictures!

Thank you for sharing all of this!:)

[Love.II.Cruise]

If you paid for it, you better let them know you didn't get. I am probably one of easiest to please, but I want what I paid for.

 

Although we did pay for the lobster and one was missing, it was WAY too much food for us. I had just a tiny amount of the lobster and gave the rest to my husband. To be honest, I think we could have split every dish and been just fine. This did put my DH into a food induced coma... he missed New Year's! :eek: But he did promise me next year he wouldn't. ;)

 

The difference is if you decide not to go to the MDR, you don't need to tell your table mates if your not going to be there the next day.

 

We were going to book traditional seating for a table for 2, but since we knew we wouldn't be at the dining room for half of the nights we figured we should do anytime dining.