Island Princess Panama Partial Transit, January

[darknightsdespiser]

In case anyone is interested - thoughts rather than review:

This was our 5th Princess Cruise and follows 2 on Emerald and 2 on Sea Princess for comparison.

 

Good Things:

Ship - lovely, bright, airy and everything in logical places.

Bar service - exceptional - The Crooners staff were in fact some of the best entertainment

Itinerary - good mix of sightseeing and sea days

Service in general, easy embarkation, disembarkation

Promenade Deck always open for walking round when I wanted to

Panama Canal commentary, just enough to be interesting

Cabin and balcony were nice

 

Average Things:

Food - nothing particularly wrong, just not as "wow" as on previous ships

Entertainment - The Rhapsody Trio (classical) were wonderful

Magnitude (the "party band") were excellent

A comedian (Scott someone) was quite funny

A comedy ventriloquist was ok but not worth going back a 2nd time

The 2 production shows we saw were ok, more below

A comedy singer (Duncan something) was just awful

The Crooner (Peter Rosetti) was boring, had repertoire of around 10 songs before asking for requests; although difficult to tell as everything sounded the same.

 

Bad Things:

Panama excursion by train - badly organised, poorly timed and overran by more than 2 hours.

Entertainment timings - some of the production shows were on at 6.30pm and 8pm; so impossible to go to if you wanted to dine at a normal time.

Entertainment choices - 1st cruise I have been on without a live band poolside most afternoons for sailaway/ happy hour; one day we were offered Barry Manilow on MUTS, ffs!

Anytime Dining - anytime to suit them, we were nearly always given a pager

 

Bad Things not specific to this cruise:

People running on the Promenade Deck (the clue is in the title!)

Surely the technology exists to load coffee card details onto your cruise card to save carrying an increasingly battered piece of card around.

Movies Under the Stars - if only that was true - in fact it means loud ancient movies blaring every afternoon making the pool and sun decks a no go area between 2pm and 4pm for anyone wishing to relax.

 

In general I felt for the first time that the average demographic was being catered for and felt that as a non retired, non American the entertainment left a lot to be desired.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for your thoughts,

 

Our train excursion on our canal cruise was very good.

Sorry you had the delay.

 

We also thought Duncan Tuck was excellent, we have seen him an several cruises.

To each his own I guess. :)

[zahav1]

[quote=darknightsdespiser;415Bad Things:

Panama excu37703]

 

 

Surely the technology exists to load coffee card details onto your cruise card to save carrying an increasingly battered piece of card around.

.

 

The comment on the coffee card cracked me up :D, on my last cruise, only two week ago, I had to cover my coffee card with clear packing tap since it was falling apart. Please Princess add some more technology to simple things.

[Woobstr112G]

Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Pam in CA]

I agree with the comment about the train excursion. You see very little because there are trees lining the Canal blocking your view and if you're sitting on the non-Canal side, you have no chance of seeing anything much less taking a photo as the people next to the window will be hogging the window.

 

As for putting the coffee card on your cruise card, that's possible but unless the card is swiped, there would be no way to track the number of punches for specialty coffee. If they did have to swipe, it would add significant time to the service. Just bring a small card holder and put the card in that. If you have an old badge holder, that would work.

Edited February 2, 2014 by Pam in CA

[Fuzzyape]

Not sure how the coffee cards work, but in response to Pam's statement, I'm not sure it would add significant time, though a customer's indecision could. You swipe the card there are coffees left or there are not.

 

But maybe I'm not thinking something through.

 

I enjoyed reading the OPs input though. Thanks much for the thoughts.

[caribill]

Not sure how the coffee cards work, but in response to Pam's statement, I'm not sure it would add significant time, though a customer's indecision could. You swipe the card there are coffees left or there are not.

 

But maybe I'm not thinking something through.

 

 

But if you are getting the unlimited fresh brewed or unlimited hot chocolate, there is no need to swipe a coffee card, just show it.

 

And how would you deal with unused punches that can be used on a future Princess cruise?

 

Also, your cruise card does not have any information on it beyond a number/code that tells who you are. Just like a regular credit card, it does not have information that can be changed at a Point Of Sale device.