Island Princess - Pros and Cons from Recent Cruisers

[mbglib]

Hello, I have read various reviews about the Island Princess and am pretty hesitant to sail her, but I would like to take some of the itineraries offered.  I am looking for pros and cons from people who have cruised on the Island Princess lately.

 

Also, I read an old review that said all the balconies on the Lido and Aloha decks were open with no covering.  Is this still true?

 

Thank you.

[memoak]

Check for other ships with similar itineraries. The Coral is similar but without all the added cabins 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, mbglib said:

Hello, I have read various reviews about the Island Princess and am pretty hesitant to sail her, but I would like to take some of the itineraries offered.  I am looking for pros and cons from people who have cruised on the Island Princess lately.

 

Also, I read an old review that said all the balconies on the Lido and Aloha decks were open with no covering.  Is this still true?

 

Thank you.

It looks like there are some covered (BC) Balcony cabins on the Aloha deck.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 25 by Ken the cruiser

[CruiserJBM]

Love the Island, sailed her over Christmas and New Years.  As long as you temper your expectations, you will enjoy her.  She is smaller, older, and doesn't have a lot of the fancy new things like, well, almost every ship since her and Coral were laid.

 

That being said, she is clean, the staff is amazing, the food was great, and she does sail to some great places.

 

You can also check Facebook (if you have it) for the Island Princess - 2024 World Cruise group.  Very active, and they have been on her for almost 80 days straight now.

 

Jerry

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, mbglib said:

Hello, I have read various reviews about the Island Princess and am pretty hesitant to sail her, but I would like to take some of the itineraries offered.  I am looking for pros and cons from people who have cruised on the Island Princess lately.

 

Also, I read an old review that said all the balconies on the Lido and Aloha decks were open with no covering.  Is this still true?

 

Thank you.

We were on the Island for 25 days back in Jan 2020 on an Easter Island cruise from Ft Lauderdale to Santiago. Needless to say we had an awesome time! But then we enjoy sea days! 😁

[mbglib]

Thank you Ken and Jerry.  We like sea days too.  

[LACruiser88]

Currently, the Island is our least favorite ship in the Princess fleet.  Once upon a time it was one of our favorite ships.  IMHO, the cabin additions and moving the Fitness Center to Deck 5 was a major mistake which Princess acknowledged by canceling the same modifications to the Coral.

 

With all of this being said, we are booked on the Island for the March of 2026, 54-day, roundtrip Los Angeles voyage.  The itinerary trumps the negative aspects of the ship.  🙂

[Paula_MacFan]

We were on the Island for 12 days in September & October 2023 for a European cruise.  We had a wonderful time!  The Island does a lot of unique itineraries so if you want to do those trips, then the Island is the ship 🙂  We decided to overlook the 'doom and gloom' reviews and go for the itinerary and experience, and weren't disappointed in any way.  We had a very nice mini suite in good repair, we had plenty of good food and entertainment, and the ship was in overall good condition.  We would not hesitate to sail her again if the trip was right.  Go for it!  

[mbglib]

Thank you LACruiser88 and Paula.  Great info.

[salabc]

confirm we were on board last summer cruising the north sea

the ship is indeed smaller so not so many fancy  facilties but we never felt her crowded she was clean and staff was great  ( i liked a lot the buffet on the bow)

 

[JGmf]

Thanks for asking this @mbglib. 

 

We booked the Island Princess for a late August 2024 Med cruise based solely on the itinerary.  That said, I was having a little buyer's remorse when I read a lot of negative and mixed reviews.

 

I'm pivoting to a full-on rosy outlook, though, and assuming the ship will provide excellent service, a clean room, plenty of cocktails, ample food, and safe passage to wonderful ports.  I'm pretty luck to be doing that!

 

 

[partybarbie]

Having sailed on the Island both before, and after, her major changes, I still like her. I would highly recommend booking one of the newer cabins on the aft end. She has one of the nicest Crooner’s bar and I like the coffee bar at the bow of the ship. It’s still possible to do laps on the Promenade deck if one just uses the exit doors on the aft end.

 

 The ship’s real shortcomings are the small casino, no International Cafe, a small, windowless gym, and no pool in the Sanctuary. If these issues are deal breakers for you, you won’t like the ship. Otherwise, you’ll be fine.

[memoak]

11 minutes ago, partybarbie said:

Having sailed on the Island both before, and after, her major changes, I still like her. I would highly recommend booking one of the newer cabins on the aft end. She has one of the nicest Crooner’s bar and I like the coffee bar at the bow of the ship. It’s still possible to do laps on the Promenade deck if one just uses the exit doors on the aft end.

 

 The ship’s real shortcomings are the small casino, no International Cafe, a small, windowless gym, and no pool in the Sanctuary. If these issues are deal breakers for you, you won’t like the ship. Otherwise, you’ll be fine.

I still prefer the Coral and will be sailing her next year 

[Steelers36]

I am in the camp of we will sail on the Island again for a special itinerary.  As for the Coral, no doubt it can be a better experience, but Princess does not have these ships sailing the same routes, so it isn't an option to take Coral over Island.  One exception - Coral has been doing the WC out of Australia whereas Island does it from Florida and California.

[ldubs]

We enjoyed a cruise on the Island very much.  The added cabins were not a big issue to us.  To me, the big difference is the lack of International Cafe.  Is it my favorite ship?  No.  If the itinerary I wanted was on the Island, I wouldn't hesitate.  We are "half full" type personalities.   If a bunch of negative talk on a forum will throw you off, then it is understandable you night enjoy a different ship.  

[StrawberryHill]

We have been on the Island Princess twice, once thru the canal and once in Norway.  We still prefer the Coral Princess because it seems less crowded and there are more public spaces.  The Island is still a nice ship because of its size.  Beware of the added cabins. They are "additions" and not part of the original ships structure.  The walls are much thinner and they tend to allow more noise from the adjacent area thru.   You can compare the Coral and Island deck plans to see which cabins were added to the Island.

[TRLD]

Unfortunately Princess uses the Island for some of its more unique itineraries. As such one has no choice but to sail on her to do those itineraries. 

 

Sailed last on her doing the search for Northern Lights cruise. Since it was a very cold weather cruise the inside spaces, due to its reduced public space, compared to Coral and other Princess ships, did seem to be extremely crowded.

 

Our least favorite of all Princess ships, on the other hand its unmodified sister ship, Coral, is our favorite of all current Princess ships.

[Paula_MacFan]

I already commented in general about our Island cruise, but after reading the comments on crowding I thought I'd add some perspective from our recent Regal cruise.

 

We sailed the Island in Sept/Oct 2023 and Regal in Jan 2024.  We'd been on Regal 2X prior as well.  Comparing the two we felt the Regal was more crowded.  Public spaces that we liked much better on Island vs Regal:

 

The Wheelhouse on Island is full-sized, has a dedicated musician/band space with a small dance area, ample seating, and multiple entrances.  The Regal Wheelhouse is a small space cobbled onto the front of the Crown Grill.  There is no dedicated musician space, it's open to the corridor walkway, and people have to line up for the Crown Grill which blocks the bar area.  Every night on Island we enjoyed music events in the Wheelhouse. We dislike the ambiance of the Regal Wheelhouse.  I have pictures of people lined up waiting to enter CG totally blocking the bar area and stretching down the corridor.  

 

The Island has an Explorer's lounge.  Every night there were good musical shows there, with a fabulous house band, plenty of room to dance, and ample comfortable seating.  We also saw a funny comedy/magician show there one night.  The Regal has the abysmal Princess Live instead of Explorer's, with uncomfortable and limited seating, and is focused on trivia and game shows.  We'll take Explorer's over Princess Live every time.  

 

The Island has a nice Crooner's which had music every night of our cruise.  It was well attended and fun.  The entire week we were on Regal there were zero musicians in Crooner's, as everything is focused on the Piazza below.  That was disappointing as on prior Regal cruises there had been music in Crooner's.  

 

These are just a few examples of what we recently found to be better public spaces on Island vs Regal.  Right now if I had the choice between Island and Regal, depending on itinerary, I'd probably chose the Island. 

 

[HippieChick02]

On 3/24/2024 at 10:05 PM, LACruiser88 said:

IMHO, the cabin additions and moving the Fitness Center to Deck 5 was a major mistake which Princess acknowledged by canceling the same modifications to the Coral.

I just saw that the island has the fitness on deck 5 and I'm actually looking forward to that. In most other cruises, I always found the fitness centers far away and hard to get to, like certain elevators only in certain parts of ship, etc. The idea that I'll finally be able to find it and get to it easily sounds great!

[HippieChick02]

On 3/26/2024 at 4:18 PM, Paula_MacFan said:

The Wheelhouse on Island is full-sized, has a dedicated musician/band space with a small dance area, ample seating, and multiple entrances.

 

Every night on Island we enjoyed music events in the Wheelhouse. 

 

The Island has a nice Crooner's which had music every night of our cruise.  It was well attended and fun.  

 

 

I highlighted just the parts of your message that mentioned music every night in Crooners and Wheelhouse. The cruise I'm taking in less than 20 days doesn't have this event information listed in app only the music in the Piazza. Is it posted closer to date? Or just unannounced and you just show up to see who's playing?

[Paula_MacFan]

On all of our recent cruises the schedule wasn't updated until much closer to sailing. The app should reflect the daily schedule as you get closer. Even then we had schedule changes day by day during the cruise. On our last cruise in January they reprinted the paper daily schedule due to so many changes. Rest assured there will be many entertainment options 😀