January 2023 World Cruise

[caribill]

15 hours ago, voljeep said:

wasn't the production show "On The Bayou" held in the Universe Lounge ?

 

by far, that's the best show on any princess ship

 

Yes. On the Island they now (as in when there are cruises) do it in the Princess Theater, but without the stage that was specially designed for it.

[nocl]

14 hours ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

Lot's of naysayers here.  Have been on Coral, as well as "old" island, and the original island, as well as the new "ruined" island.  Yes, pre renovation was better, but post is still great.  Still much smaller than new builds.  

The passenger reaction to the changes was bad enough that Princess canceled the plan to do the same thing to the Coral.

[icat2000]

On 2/1/2021 at 1:44 PM, Cruise Wonderland said:

 

Yes indeed. There were also world cruises out of Sydney on Sea Princess in recent years.

 

To make it clear, my point is "Island Princess is the remaining smaller ship that can be used for the typical world cruise departing from US in January." 😉

Yes, I got that point.

 

Itinerary is boring point still remains 😄

[nocl]

1 hour ago, icat2000 said:

Yes, I got that point.

 

Itinerary is boring point still remains 😄

Surprisingly there are no ports on the world cruise, that cannot be reach by putting together normal Princess cruises.  I would have been nice if they had included a few unique ports that are not reached by other Princess cruises.

[icat2000]

30 minutes ago, nocl said:

Surprisingly there are no ports on the world cruise, that cannot be reach by putting together normal Princess cruises.  I would have been nice if they had included a few unique ports that are not reached by other Princess cruises.

That my thought process too. There no point in doing a World Cruise if it can be covered off by other Princess cruises.

 

The attraction for me about a World Cruise was that it offered something unique i.e different ports.

 

Also WC tend to attract higher pricing. I think Princess have really dropped the ball by getting rid of the smaller ships without placing with a similar size ship. There will always be the direhards who cruise the WC no matter what. 

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

7 hours ago, nocl said:

The passenger reaction to the changes was bad enough that Princess canceled the plan to do the same thing to the Coral.

Yep.  Lots of people overreact, in my opinion.  As I stated, I'm happy to cruise on the Island.  Perhaps people should just put together normal Princess Cruises on their big ships instead?  I also stated I preferred the ship before the modifications, as well as a number of other, older ships.  Many of those claimed at the time they would never sail on Island again, yet I have personally met some of them on Island cruises.  There are plenty of other lines with smaller ships to choose from.

[lois1112]

On 1/28/2021 at 12:14 PM, Syracusefan44 said:

Princess announced today that the January 2023 world cruise on the Island Princess will go on sale on February 10, 2021.

 

Does anyone know how long it typically takes before the world cruise “segments” are on sale on the Princess website?

 

https://twitter.com/princessukmedia/status/1354840586226958346?s=21

I'm thinking of taking this cruise as a retirement present to myself.      111 days is a very long time.    Any advise comments from people who have done this

 

 

On 1/29/2021 at 9:46 AM, LACruiser88 said:

We were interested in this cruise and were hoping that they would use the Coral for this World Cruise.  The Island is now our least favorite ship remaining in the Princess Fleet and we will avoid it!.

Why don't you like island.   What changed. 

 

 

 

[caribill]

7 hours ago, nocl said:

Surprisingly there are no ports on the world cruise, that cannot be reach by putting together normal Princess cruises.  I would have been nice if they had included a few unique ports that are not reached by other Princess cruises.

 

Those were the type itineraries that the newly departed Pacific Princess had.

 

For example, ports on my now cancelled Pacific Princess cruise included, among others, Townsville (Australia), Manila, Hualien (Taiwan) and Ishigaki (Japan).

[LACruiser88]

14 hours ago, lois1112 said:

I'm thinking of taking this cruise as a retirement present to myself.      111 days is a very long time.    Any advise comments from people who have done this

 

 

Why don't you like island.   What changed. 

 

 

 

One of our main reasons is the location of the gym.  We use the gym every day and to use a gym in a "dungeon" for a long cruise was depressing...

[pocomum]

On 2/1/2021 at 2:04 PM, nocl said:

It largely comes down to if you use the gym during a long cruise, and how much you attend the various entertainment activities which are normally spread out over 3 venues on Princess ships, now being restricted to the theater and explorers, with no third activity going on.  If you don't use the gym and don't go to the entertainment much, no problem. We found it much harder to find a seat at those activities on the Island than on any other Princess ship (R Class, Coral, Grand class or Royal class).

Thanks for the info. We love going to the shows, but I feel over 111 days, we will not go every night, so crowded nights can be skipped. We also do utilize the gym, but we don't plan to live in the gym, so for an hour give or take several times a week,  I'm sure we will survive. Actually getting excited. Hope we will be able to book AND cruise in 2021:)

[pocomum]

Just now, pocomum said:

Thanks for the info. We love going to the shows, but I feel over 111 days, we will not go every night, so crowded nights can be skipped. We also do utilize the gym, but we don't plan to live in the gym, so for an hour give or take several times a week,  I'm sure we will survive. Actually getting excited. Hope we will be able to book AND cruise in 2021:)

I mean 2023

[wowzz]

We cruised on the Island shortly after the "surgery". We had never been on her before, and therefore had no comparison to make. We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise, and it was only when we read about the supposed "butchery" that we realised we should have actually hated the experience! 

With regards to the gym - in my experience, only a minority of passengers use the gym. It is therefore entirely right that the gym should not enjoy a prime position in the ship. If you are exercising,  why do you need a view? 

[nocl]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

We cruised on the Island shortly after the "surgery". We had never been on her before, and therefore had no comparison to make. We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise, and it was only when we read about the supposed "butchery" that we realised we should have actually hated the experience! 

With regards to the gym - in my experience, only a minority of passengers use the gym. It is therefore entirely right that the gym should not enjoy a prime position in the ship. If you are exercising,  why do you need a view? 

Not so much the view as it is the ventilation.  Very poor with the new location on the island.  It also is the only ship in the Princess fleet that does not have the gym on the upper deck areas. 

 

[Thrak]

On 1/31/2021 at 9:41 PM, nocl said:

If you have been on the Coral, the ships started out the same.

 

Go in and look at the floor plans for each ship and you can see the difference.  The major differences are

 

1. The Universe Lounge of Decks 6 and 7 have been removed on the Island and replaced with additional staterooms.

2. the Gym has been moved from the stern area of Deck 14 to a totally  inside space on Deck 6. Which is quite miserable if you are a person that likes working out on a long trip.  No view, poor ventilation.

3. Where the Gym was on deck 14 they added more staterooms.

 

So in a nutshell they increased guest capacity from the original 2000 to 2200, while at the same time removing the Universe lounge one of main public areas from the ship.

 

You left out the important fact that there is no International Cafe on Island Princess. The IC on Coral is a bit on the small side but at least it's there. La Patisserie on Island Princess is not even close to being a replacement for the missing IC.

 

There is also the important fact that, when they turned the back portion of the ship into all cabins, they truncated the Promenade Deck so that you can no longer walk around the aft portion of the ship.

 

 

On 2/1/2021 at 7:54 AM, voljeep said:

wasn't the production show "On The Bayou" held in the Universe Lounge ?

 

by far, that's the best show on any princess ship

 

Yep. On The Bayou was designed to make use of the rotating stage in Universe Lounge. I did see it performed in the Princess Theater the one time we sailed Island Princess. Not... The... Same...

 

We were actually booked on Island Princess for May of this year. I don't like the ship and thought I would never sail it again but my wife really, really, really wanted the itinerary. The cruise was cancelled so that took care of that. Unless there is a future instance where my wife is "married to the itinerary" I will not book on Island Princess.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Thrak

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, nocl said:

Not so much the view as it is the ventilation.  Very poor with the new location on the island.  It also is the only ship in the Princess fleet that does not have the gym on the upper deck areas. 

 

I would agree with you about the ventilation.  

[caribill]

7 hours ago, pocomum said:

Thanks for the info. We love going to the shows, but I feel over 111 days, we will not go every night, so crowded nights can be skipped.

 

The cast will only be able to present four or five different production shows, so these will be shown at least once on each segment of a world cruise. A number of the other theater presentations will also be repeated during the cruise. Guest entertainers will likely be different for each segment.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

The cast will only be able to present four or five different production shows, so these will be shown at least once on each segment of a world cruise. A number of the other theater presentations will also be repeated during the cruise. Guest entertainers will likely be different for each segment.

I have been on half of the WC in three separate years. On each occasion, the usual dance cast disembarks and a special dance group joins the ship. They present totally different stage shows. I don't know if that will continue post-COVID.

 

As you say, guest entertainers will change during the cruise and many will be from a country from the part of the world the ship is travelling in.

[waltd]

WC , I believe, goes on sale today for Elite members.   Yet when I log in no pricing shows.    So far doesn't look like they are offering segments.   Anyone see anything different.

Thanks

Joe

Edited February 9, 2021 by waltd

[dog]

40 minutes ago, waltd said:

WC , I believe, goes on sale today for Elite members.   Yet when I log in no pricing shows.    So far doesn't look like they are offering segments.   Anyone see anything different.

Thanks

Joe

I see three offerings for the January 2023 WC. I could book it today as elite. 
not my choice to do this, though. 

[paradiselivin1]

There are only the 3 offerings for now. They started with the two 111 day offerings FLL/FLL & LA/LA and after a few hours offered the 97 day LA/FLL. Many of us booked as a backup for the 2022 WC.

[muggo11]

Yup. We booked this morning as a back up if 2022 WC falls through. Pricier, for sure. Interiors were scarce and suites sold out. No obstructed ocean views either. 

[leck57]

On 2/3/2021 at 5:00 PM, caribill said:

 

Those were the type itineraries that the newly departed Pacific Princess had.

 

For example, ports on my now cancelled Pacific Princess cruise included, among others, Townsville (Australia), Manila, Hualien (Taiwan) and Ishigaki (Japan).

 

You are so lucky to avoid Townsville. Dump.

[caribill]

7 hours ago, muggo11 said:

Yup. We booked this morning as a back up if 2022 WC falls through. Pricier, for sure. Interiors were scarce and suites sold out. No obstructed ocean views either. 

 

Since this cruise is sold three ways, cabins are allocated among the three ways and thus each cabin is only available in one of the three ways.

 

If you check looking at starting in one of the other two embarkation ports, you might see greater availability.

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Since this cruise is sold three ways, cabins are allocated among the three ways and thus each cabin is only available in one of the three ways.

 

If you check looking at starting in one of the other two embarkation ports, you might see greater availability.

While this is true, it seems all 3 segments show little availability, though that will change as holds fall off.  We are on the "lengthy waiting list" for a suite category per our travel agent.  Odd since so many claim the Island is so terrible.  Lot's will change before sailing.

[oskidunker]

On 1/29/2021 at 7:55 AM, frugaltravel said:

Glad I am not interested in this cruise. Been on the revamped Island Princess and never again.

agree. Too bad they picked this ship. I wish they would sellmit. Nobody wants it. 

Quote

 

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by oskidunker