Island Princess Review

Prairie Cruiser 2 through the Canal

Review for the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise on Island Princess
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Prairie Cruiser 2
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

Rating by category

Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Service
Cabin

Additional details

Sail Date: Feb 2009

We embarked from Acapulco. We arrived in Acapulco two weeks prior our cruise departure and stayed at a small boutique hotel called the Villa Vera. This is second time that we stayed there and thoroughly enjoy it. The rooms are as nice as any place that we have stayed in Mexico and the service is very good. We waited until 4 o'clock to board the ship (boarding began at 1'oclock) and embarkation was a breeze. We virtually walked on. We dropped our carryon luggage in our stateroom and headed up to the top decks for a drink and to look around. Our stateroom was right at the front of the ship on Dolphin deck. It had no balcony but had some extra space because of this. We were very pleased with everything in it. The bathroom was a little small but this is a ship, not a hotel. The Island Princess is a beautiful ship, lots of wood and brass and glass. It took a couple of days to learn how to get around but it is set up pretty well to get to the main areas, the buffet and the dining rooms. We spent most of our time while on board sitting around the pools. We had no trouble getting deck chairs and it didn't seem that there was any problem with people trying to reserve chairs. There was lots of space around the pools so it seemed very comfortable. Our dining experiences were mostly positive. We sat at a table of eight, with another couple that we were travelling with and two couples from Britian that were travelling together. At our original table there was a draft from the air conditioning which made it unbearably cold and the dining room staff was very accommodating and was able to relocate us all together. Other than a couple of beef entrees the food in the dining room was very good. The breakfast fare in the Horizon Court (buffet) was good but not special.

We did not partake in any of the ship activities instead stayed on deck and enjoyed the spectacular weather.We had no children along so did not use any of the children's programs. The service and staff to a person was very very good. We had no problem with any staff member and a couple were outstanding. Our room steward, Ruel, was fantastic. He worked around our schedule and everything was done without bothering us and done to perfection. Entertainment on the cruise was good with the highlight being the night that the crew talent performed. The head waiter, Hector and the cruise director, Billy were very good. We booked a number of shore excursions through Princess and they were all very good. We felt safe and quality of transportation and food was fine. The price versus the value seemed to be in line with what you should expect. Disembarkation went very smoothly and quickly. We chose to look after our own luggage and we were off the ship very fast and into a taxi within 15 minutes. All in all it was a very nice holiday and we thought a very good value for the money once the ticket prices and onboard tab were included. We would definitely cruise Princess again.

Cabin Review

Even though we had a cabin at the front of the ship and one rough day at sea it didn't move as much as I thought it would. It would be nice if someone could invent a shower curtain that wouldn't snuggle up with you. We had no balcony but had a very large window. Didn' miss the balcony.

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