Island Princess

[57eric]

Can someone remind me why the Island Princess is the consensus least favorite ship in the fleet?  I thought it had to do with extra cabins having been added and a lack of public space.  However, I see the following passenger space ratios in my Berlitz book (higher is better):

Grand     41.8

Coral      46.4

Island    46.4

Crown   37.2

Royal     39.9

From this is looks like the Island Princess is among the least crowded ships.

[Tyskie]

Extra cabins aft - taking away the viewing aft areas that Coral has

No International Cafe

No aft Lounge just Princess Theater if memory serves me

Prefer the Coral over Island but we go with itinerary first, then ship.

 

 

 

[eclue]

21 minutes ago, Tyskie said:

Extra cabins aft - taking away the viewing aft areas that Coral has

No International Cafe

No aft Lounge just Princess Theater if memory serves me

Prefer the Coral over Island but we go with itinerary first, then ship.

 

 

 

Taking away the International cafe is the problem.....my husband loves that place, but we are still do a transatlantic on her in May

 

[LACruiser88]

They moved Fitness Center to deck 6, in a dungeon!

 

Our least favorite ship remaining in the Princess fleet.

Edited November 13, 2021 by LACruiser88

[skynight]

The 46.4 number is no longer valid since the entire aft section was converted. It is more like 41 to 42. Remodel included:

Adding of cabins aft on decks 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 resulting in additional capacity for 200 more passengers without adding, actually removing, any additional public space. This is the biggest issue. Lounges, theater, DRs, pool areas, remain the original size. 

Terrace Pool removed.

Fitness center moved to an interior space on deck 6.

No International Cafe. Only ship in the fleet without one.

Universe Lounge removed. No aft lounge like the original sister ship the Coral, and like all other Princess ships.

360 promenade removed.

With all that mentioned people have reported have a nice cruise experience on the Island. 

 

[ebeluga]

No International Cafe?! I did not know that.  Wonder how and what I would do on a world cruise!

[57eric]

18 minutes ago, ebeluga said:

No International Cafe?! I did not know that.  Wonder how and what I would do on a world cruise!

And yet, of the entire fleet, this is the one Princess chooses for that purpose!

[memoak]

The Coral has significant more open room than the Island. Love the Coral. The Island not so much. 

[Bgwest]

1 hour ago, 57eric said:

And yet, of the entire fleet, this is the one Princess chooses for that purpose!

Precisely the reason we passed on the 2024 WC. We will NOT spend that kind of money and that kind of time on any ship that's a trainwreck like the Island has become. 

[ebeluga]

35 minutes ago, Bgwest said:

Precisely the reason we passed on the 2024 WC. We will NOT spend that kind of money and that kind of time on any ship that's a trainwreck like the Island has become. 

I think I might change to do just certain segments now.  Can't imagine many sea days without having the enjoyment of Int Cafe!

[Steelers36]

6 hours ago, 57eric said:

Can someone remind me why the Island Princess is the consensus least favorite ship in the fleet?  I thought it had to do with extra cabins having been added and a lack of public space.  However, I see the following passenger space ratios in my Berlitz book (higher is better):

Grand     41.8

 

Coral      46.4

 

Island    46.4

 

Crown   37.2

 

Royal     39.9

 

From this is looks like the Island Princess is among the least crowded ships.

I'd say those measurements are out-of-date and they have not bothered to check if anything has changed since first calculating them.  I think a lot of the annual travel books just repeat a lot of the old info and don't have the time or budget to investigate and update everything.

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, skynight said:

No International Cafe. Only ship in the fleet without one.

Both ISLAND and CORAL have La Patisserie.

[Steelers36]

We booked a 60-night voyage around S.A. for Winter 2018 (FL/PE round trip) on ISLAND.  I was more than a little concerned as I was well aware of the changes and the opinions here on CC.  Many were certain Princess was going to do the same thing to CORAL, but the opinions from the customer base waylaid those plans. 

 

While I would have wished that voyage was planned with almost any other ship in the fleet before sailing, we found that it was not nearly as bad as it was made out to be from all the commentary I had read.  It was the most fantastic voyage we have taken to date. 

 

We will choose a voyage on the itinerary first and ship second.  In fact, we had another unique voyage booked on ISLAND before it was pulled for WC duties (pre-Covid timing).  So, the first experience did not prevent us from going again.  ISLAND had its pluses as a more intimate ship (than the larger Princess ships).  We have not been on CORAL, but I have little doubt we would like it better. 

 

I can understand how both CORAL and ISLAND are assigned WC duties as they would want/need to use a smaller vessel for that.  I think what would be good for Princess to do is alternate years such that the WC originating from Sydney gets ISLAND or CORAL every other year and FL/LA in N.A. get the same.  So far, the CORAL has been doing Australia WC exclusively and the ISLAND has been doing N.A. WC. 

[Thrak]

5 hours ago, eclue said:

Taking away the International cafe is the problem.....my husband loves that place, but we are still do a transatlantic on her in May

 

 

Island never had an IC so it wasn't "taken away"

 

15 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Both ISLAND and CORAL have La Patisserie.

 

Yes, both have La Patisserie but Coral has a (small) IC. In my opinion, La Patisserie is poop compared to IC - even the smaller IC on Coral.

 

As for why I dislike Island Princess: They took away the Universe Lounge which had my favorite Princess show On The Bayou. In it's place they added a bunch of cabins which also meant no more full Promenade - it's blocked off in the aft section as there are now cabins there. Some hate the fact that the Fitness Center has been moved to a lower deck with no windows. I don't use the place but, if I did, I would hate not having windows and sunlight.

 

When we sailed Island Princess we kept "running into a wall" when we headed aft. It was disconcerting to have access simply "end" when we "should have" been able to continue on to the Universe Lounge. The ship seemed "weird" to us. One 7 day (southbound from Alaska after a land tour) on Island Princess was enough to convince us we didn't like the ship. It was likely made worse because the last cruise before that one was a 17 day full Panama Canal Transit on Coral Princess. Having sailed Coral it really pointed out how different Island was. We loved the aft viewing decks on Coral and they no longer exist on Island. Heck, even the cabin we love to book on Coral no longer even exists on Island.

[nini]

We are two rare Princess fans who did not care for the Coral. We felt a bit claustrophobic and really did not like the buffet area in front of the ship. This was a Panama Canal cruise and the windows there seemed to always covered in condensation and were dirty, obstructing any possible views. We have enjoyed all of the other Princess ships on which we have sailed.

However, the cruise was a full transit and was excellent. The guest moderator also held several talks in the theater and he was super informative. It was his 211th (or thereabouts) transit through the canal and he spoke for about 10 hours during transit day.

[chamima]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Both ISLAND and CORAL have La Patisserie.

 

Is La Patisserie on the Island open 24 hours?

We LOVED the Pacific but the lack of somewhere to even get a cup of tea past 11 was always a negative (which didn't stop us from sailing on her).

[Steelers36]

10 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

Is La Patisserie on the Island open 24 hours?

We LOVED the Pacific but the lack of somewhere to even get a cup of tea past 11 was always a negative (which didn't stop us from sailing on her).

I don't recall, but I don't think so.  And it may have changed.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Steelers36

[sewgood]

3 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Both ISLAND and CORAL have La Patisserie.

Last time we sailed on the Diamond ( it has been a few years since then) it only had the Patisserie and no IC. There is a big difference between the two.

At the Patisserie there is a tray of cookies or 1/4 sized sandwiches or pastries that are the ones available at breakfast placed out to help yourself to, no soup, no hot food and no salads.

There just wasn't the variety of the IC. I hope this has now changed from five/six years ago.

We also sailed on the Dawn and the Sea Princess which only had the Patisserie and my husband refused to sail on Princess ships without the IC after our first cruise on the Sun Princess with the IC.

9 hours ago, 57eric said:

Can someone remind me why the Island Princess is the consensus least favorite ship in the fleet?  I see the following passenger space ratios in my Berlitz book (higher is better):

Grand     41.8

 

Coral      46.4

 

Island    46.4

From this is looks like the Island Princess is among the least crowded ships.

Since the ratio is the same for the Island and the Coral these figures were not updated when the renovations (some would say destruction) was done to the Island.

[skynight]

Correction to my original post. No International Cafe on both the Island and Diamond. They have the Patisserie. Princess reports that it is open from 6am onwards, which to me means it closes at some point in the late evening. Princess also reports that the Patisserie serves specialty coffee and teas and also have some baked treats. I have read that the baked treats are limited. 

[Thrak]

23 hours ago, nini said:

We are two rare Princess fans who did not care for the Coral.

 

We "mostly" love Coral. We book an aft OV cabin and have a huge "balcony" which is actually an aft viewing deck. It's awesome to step outside in the evening and see dolphins playing in the wake. It seems many folks have no idea these decks are there so the loungers are often empty. In the evenings we are often the only folks out there. We love to have a drink out there while getting ready for the evening.

 

Having said that, I really don't like the way the Atrium is setup at all. On Grand class ships we love the atrium area but, on Coral, it's "weird" and not a comfortable place to hang out. When there is something "going on" there it's up on that center area which means it's not all that spiffy for actually viewing what the action is.  We really do love the ship for canal transits though.

[nini]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

 

We "mostly" love Coral. We book an aft OV cabin and have a huge "balcony" which is actually an aft viewing deck. It's awesome to step outside in the evening and see dolphins playing in the wake. It seems many folks have no idea these decks are there so the loungers are often empty. In the evenings we are often the only folks out there. We love to have a drink out there while getting ready for the evening.

 

Having said that, I really don't like the way the Atrium is setup at all. On Grand class ships we love the atrium area but, on Coral, it's "weird" and not a comfortable place to hang out. When there is something "going on" there it's up on that center area which means it's not all that spiffy for actually viewing what the action is.  We really do love the ship for canal transits though.

 

I get what you are saying. Actually, you were the "Guiding Light" that helped me book our cabin, E736, which was as far aft as you can go to being aft. It was nice to have the usually empty aft decks to hang out on. However, we wanted to go through the old locks and this was the ship that was available.

[GJCruiser]

We have no issues with the Island. Really like the aft cabins that were added. The Intl Cafe is of no use to us. So as you see, to each their own!!

[geoherb]

My Patters from 2019 indicate La Patisserie closes at 11 p.m. each day. I had great back-to-back cruises on the Island to and from Alaska. I loved the wide Promenade Deck, even though I had to walk through when doing laps. It beats the lack of a walkable Promenade on the Royal class ships. I did miss the Universe Lounge. A lot of times events that had been held there on our previous Island Princess cruise (before the changes) were squeezed into the Wheelhouse Bar or Explorers Lounge--venues that did not accommodate the number of people as well.

[Thrak]

5 hours ago, nini said:

 

I get what you are saying. Actually, you were the "Guiding Light" that helped me book our cabin, E736, which was as far aft as you can go to being aft. It was nice to have the usually empty aft decks to hang out on. However, we wanted to go through the old locks and this was the ship that was available.

 

We book B731. Love that location on Coral. 😍