We chose this cruise at the last minute due to the very low price. Apparently this cruise was a 'late add' to the 2019 sailing schedule when the Island Princess did not go in for it's scheduled maintenance. There were 1,963 passengers, less then the full ship capacity of 2,100 guests. So there must have been several dozen empty cabins. We were not offered an upgrade.

The Island Princess is one of our LEAST favorite ships. We would not want to be on this boat for any longer than four days. Two reasons: The fitness center is way down on a lower deck in the stern of the ship right over the engine room. It is dark and dreary and suffers from vibrations and motions of the ship's movements. You can actually become sea-sick as you try to work out. Not a pleasant experience. Also: The Island Princess has no "International Cafe" in the main plaza! What? No International Cafe? It is unfortunate that this enjoyable public lounge -- found on every other Princess ship -- was somehow removed from the Island Princess. Sad!

Other things to pick at: The promised birthday balloons and birthday card on our cabin door never materialized. We were eligible for a free internet package, but Princess did not tell us this until the last day of the cruise. So all those free internet minutes were wasted. I asked at the Customer Service desk if they could make any sort of adjustment and was politely told in a very nice way to go pound sand. There was no listing of the popular 'champagne pouring' event in the Princess Patter ship's paper. Apparently many people didn't know it was happening. Thus this special event was poorly attended. Hopefully cruise host Benny Yau will do a better job next time!