We are not fans of gigantic cruise ships. As mature passengers, we don't need climbing walls, waterpark slides, bumper cars, etc. In 2017 we sailed the Eastern Caribbean on Holland America's Koningsdam. The choice of ports was determined by the ship's itinerary as we wanted to sail on this new ship and that was where she was headed.
This year we had a destination in mind, the Panama Canal, and the choices were determined by which cruise lines did partial transits. Holland America had such a ship, but the internet reviews were so negative, we opted for Princess Cruise Line's Island Princess. In order to fit in the original Panama Canal, these ships by necessity cannot be the gigantic ships that dominate cruise companies these days.
I did a lot of research on the Island Princess before booking our cabin. I knew we wanted mid-ship as that is the most stable. 80% of the cabins on this ship have balconies so that was an obvious choice. There are web sites that point out the pros and cons of various decks on specific ships. For example, you probably don't want to be below the buffet (chair scraping noises) nor above the disco lounge with late-night music. Discussion of the balcony layouts on the Island Princess pointed out that some balconies had no covering while some had partial covering. Ours had partial. We could stand on our balcony on deck 10 and look straight down on the balcony below which had no covering. They had no privacy.
Likewise, some of the mini-suite balconies jutted far out from the ship so no privacy either as the other balconies in a row with privacy partitions could see everything.
There were other positive aspects to our cabin choice I didn't realize until we were on ship. We were close to the mid-ship elevators which went to all of the public floors. We were almost as close to the forward elevators which only serviced floors 7 thru 15. The buffet dining was in the bow on 14 (really 13 as ships skip that number); very handy for us to get to. The Princess Theater with the evening entertainment was on deck 7 in the bow. If the elevators were full, we just walked down 3 flights of steps. We were also just 2 floors up from the library.
So it pays off to study the elevator/stairs situation before deciding on a cabin. The cruise lines don't always tell you that not all elevators go to all levels. Cruise Critic can be helpful.
The negative aspect was that the ship launderette was in the aft (stern) which required a long walk for doing laundry. I did wash clothes twice bringing my own Tide pods, but you could buy detergent. The washer and drier and detergent dispenser used tokens instead of coins. You bought the tokens by swiping your ship card through the machine's slot, and the charge was billed to your account. Cruise ships these days are mostly cash-free environments. Holland America did not have self-laundry facilities, but a laundry service for something like $20 per small provided bag. Princess also has comparable fee laundry services, but also this do-it-yourself. It took less than 1 1/2 hours to walk to the laundry at the far end of the ship, wash and dry clothes, walk to my cabin and fold and stow the clean items.
I always did laundry on a day at sea. The first time there were lots of available machines, the second time quite crowded and busy, but I only had one load. When you inserted the token and chose your cycle and temperature options, it displayed the minutes you had purchased (which varied a bit due to choices). You could go away and come back close to the end time. One feature I did not like was that the drier had to go to zero before you could add time. So the only drier available to me had 10 minutes left, but I had to come back to add a token for my needed time after the 10 minutes elapsed rather than finding a place to read my book for 30 minutes. There were no chairs in the laundry. There were 2 ironing boards and free irons.
We flew into Fort Lauderdale the night before the cruise. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Plantation (a suburb) in an area where we stayed in 2017. The hotel provided free shuttle service from the airport, free shuttle to the cruise ship, had breakfast, and was in a safe neighborhood with restaurants within walking distance. Some people stay in hotels near Port Everglades, but restaurant choices are limited and walking in the dark not advised. Most eat in the pricy hotel or take a taxi. These hotels are the ones booked thru Princess.We are pleased with Plantation hotels and don't mind making our own reservation.
We did book our air reservations thru Princess. Previously, we booked our own out of Indianapolis. Princess EZ-Air had great rates from Fort Wayne. Theoretically this meant an hour's drive home rather than almost 3 hours from Indy. The downside turned out to be the limited flights to Fort Wayne, most arriving after 9 p.m. on our homeward journey. You have to be off the cruise ship pretty early in the morning. We sat for hours in the Fort Lauderdale airport, then our flight took us to Chicago to catch the plane to Fort Wayne. I should have talked our travel agent into another airport as our flight left an hour late from Chicago (not weather-related). We often have bad luck with Chicago, notable delays. We lost an hour to the time-zone change as well. Didn't get home and to bed until midnight. A long day.
The advantage to booking Princess EZ-Air is that the ship will wait for you if you are delayed on embarkation day. The Island Princess waited maybe 45 minutes for 4 passengers travelling together who arrived after cast-off time but apparently had EZ-Air. We were on promenade deck and saw the cruise ship terminal staff come hurriedly with them and their luggage to the loading ramp where a crew member and a security guard waited. As soon as they were on, the ramp was drawn into the ship and we were on our way. Most travel agents will strongly suggest arriving the day before. I heard horror stories in the ladies restroom of the cruise terminal of being the last flights leaving Detroit and Chicago on Monday the 28th with over 700 later flights canceled because of the extreme weather. Our flight left Indiana early morning before the snow had started arriving in the afternoon.
The embarkation process at Princess was quite similar to Holland America. You put your ship-info tagged bags on a cart outside the terminal. After you go thru security and present your passport (which must expire no earlier than 3 months after the cruise) and boarding pass to receive your ship card (photo taken) and boarding group number, you go to waiting areas and sit. Princess actually had two waiting areas, one for the masses and one for the elite level passengers (suite holders, loyalty members with high level status). The elites boarded first from a second-floor lounge. Once the process started, we lowly ones started boarding about 35 minutes later. A little after noon, our group number was called. We had a carry-on bag which we took with us to the Bordeaux dining room. Most people went to the lido deck buffet, but this dining room was available. On Holland America this dining room option on embarkation day was only available to alumni (returning customers). It was pleasant to sit at a white cloth-covered table and be waited on. The menu had appetizer choices, entrees, and dessert. I had a tasty portion of salmon. If your ship has this option on embarkation day, go for it.
We did have to wait awhile until our cabin was available. We walked thru public parts of the ship becoming familiar with things. We liked that this ship had a library. Holland America had gotten rid of theirs.
Our checked luggage didn't arrive to our cabin until after 4 p.m., about an hour after the required emergency muster drill. We had early traditional dining at 5:15 in the Provence dining room, but we did get mostly unpacked before dinner.
On our ship, the Bordeaux handled the flex-time dining. The Provence handled the two fixed seatings of 5:15 and 7:15.
There was a waitlist for fixed early dining. We like the fixed time because you do not have to wait with a pager for an empty table and you have the same wait staff the whole time.
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| Boban from Serbia was our head waiter |
Supposedly flex diners can make a same-day reservation for a specific time, but there were complaints the phone line was busy in the morning when the reservation needed to be placed. We didn't really eat too early because it took time to order from the menu, and the appetizer came first, with the main course usually not until 6:00 or 6:15. It did mean any excursions arriving back at the ship after your assigned time forced you to go to the buffet that evening, which happened to us on the Panama Canal day. Princess has a section of the menu that is "favorites" that are available any night (fried chicken, shrimp cocktail, French onion soup, salmon), but of course the fun is to try new things. I had beef medallions (not very tender), kingklip (a firm white fish dense like halibut with little flavor other than the glaze on it), Beef Wellington on the gala night (my husband had lobster), pork belly. The last night they served Baked Alaska.
We couldn't go to the 6:15 show in the Princess Theater, and had to arrive 30 minutes early to find a seat for the more popular 8:15 showtime. I knew this would be the case from the internet discussions about Island Princess. We just took a book with us and read during the wait. A lot of people placed alcoholic drink orders with the ready-to-help staff to while away the time. The entertainment was excellent with dancers and singers with a small orchestra, and Broadway-type shows, a comedian, an illusionist, a soloist who shared his talents and training background by singing Friends in Low Places (Garth Brooks style) to Nessa Dorma (his opera training days) and others in-between.
A big part of cruising is the food. Princess rates pretty high. We ate breakfast in the Bordeaux twice on sea days when we had a leisurely schedule as dining room eating did take longer than the buffet. This is open seating, no assigned places.
The Horizon Court buffet had plentiful choices at breakfast. The internet warned against the scrambled eggs (I later heard passengers comment on how bad they were) so I ordered the custom-made omelet instead. They gave you a slip with a number which you gave to the roving waiters who delivered your eggs to your table. Cold and hot cereal, cooked potato slices, pancakes, small round waffles, fresh fruit, pastries (not as good as Holland America's), breakfast casseroles, bagels, bacon, sausage. That about covers my range during the trip, but there were other items I am sure.
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| Suishi was the special feature one day at lunch |
We had lunch off the ship on 3 excursion days, ate the first lunch in Bordeaux dining room, ate a burger and fries at The Grill overlooking the pool one day, and took advantage of sea-day restaurant specials twice. Sabatini served breakfast to the elite passengers, offered a surcharged dinner, but usually was closed for lunch. Twice, however, it offered pizza at no cost. We ate lunch there once.
The Bayou Steakhouse was open in the evening for a surcharge, but once on a sea day it offered a British pub food free lunch. We had the steak and kidney pie and had bread pudding for dessert. Other choices were ploughman's platter and fish and chips. So we only ate lunch 3 times at the Horizon Court buffet. One of those days I felt like I was lacking veggies/greens on this trip; I created my own salad (choice of greens) with peppers and carrots and tomatoes and added grilled chicken and cheese from the sandwich bar. We didn't snack at the buffet in the afternoon or evening though it was open. We did have a free ice cream at Swirls near the pool. It wasn't very good. The day we had a hamburger we went to the buffet and ate chocolate cake.
We did a few times take some cookies with us to snack on later.
Room service was always available, but we didn't use it. Alcoholic beverages and sodas always cost extra on a cruise ship. Likewise, bottled water, but I had signed up for and paid pre-cruise for a 12-pack of water to be put in our cabin. Our cabin had a small refrigerator so we had cold water to take on our excursions.
I went to 3 p.m. afternoon tea the day we had a 7:30 reservation at the steakhouse. Otherwise it was too close to dinner time. It was fun to have waiters walk around large tables of guests offering scones, and pastries, and little sandwiches. I tried milk in my tea for the first time ever and found I like it.
The filet mignon at the Bayou restaurant was great. For the appetizer I tried a BBQ alligator rib and Bob had mudbug chowder. Our travel agent had gifted each of us with a $29 surcharge certificate. We chose the Bayou rather than Sabatini's.
The outdoors pool was always crowded.
The indoor covered one also was busy with few lounges available. The stated rule was you could only save a lounge for 30 minutes, but it wasn't enforced and people left books or bags there for hours.
The hub of the public areas was the atrium with a specialty coffee bar, bar lounges with a pianist in the evening, various musical combos.
After reading hints about cruising, I took a magnet clip to hold our restaurant vouchers and excursion tickets. The walls are metal on a ship. This kept them out of the clutter accumulating on the vanity desk (activity sheets for the day, port guides, etc.) Princess has a LAN (local area network) that you can use on smart phone or ipad, etc. to access the schedule of activities, excursions for the day and send a message to your contacts. That feature did not work well because no tone or alert lets the contact know there is a message waiting.
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Princess does have a formal dress code, 2 nights for a 10-day cruise. Those not wanting to dress up could eat at the buffet instead of the dining rooms, but on a Caribbean cruise the dressiness is not as elegant as say on European cruise. My husband wore a dress shirt and sports coat and I also dressed fairly casually.
This was not very dressy but looked OK with jewelry. It packed well.
Lacy top with crepe black pants with rhinestone earrings did the job.
I will put some photos and brief information about our ports of call in a future post.
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