A Princess Cruise review

My recent experience on the Princess Cruise’s Island Princess was only my second “proper” cruise, and I chose it rather randomly. My sister and I had agreed to keep an eye out for a cruise to take together, and ended up on a 10-day cruise along the US and Canadian east coast. We chose it mostly based on its convenient date – at the end of a month’s stay in the US for me – and equally convenient start and end point: Brooklyn, NY, not so far from my sister’s home in Connecticut.

Disclosure: This trip was NOT sponsored by Princess Cruises, but I was given a press rate. This amounted to a free Plus package (explained below) for me, but not for my sister. We paid the basic costs of the trip, plus a room upgrade, a Plus package for my sister, and an upgrade to Premium (also explained below) for both of us.

Another disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you click on one and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission. This will not affect your price.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on with my review of this experience on a Princess cruise:

Island Princess is one of Princess’s smallest ships, carrying 2,200 guests and 900 staff. It’s one of their oldest too, dating to 2003, but was refurbished in 2017.

Fun fact: Princess Cruises’ ships hosted the popular TV series “The Love Boat” back in the 1970s to 1980s. The whole series is available to watch on their in-cabin TVs.

Our itinerary

The itinerary of this cruise is not a common one for Princess. It started in Brooklyn, New York and headed south to Norfolk, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina. Then it turned north again all the way to St. John, New Brunswick, finishing with a stop in Boston and then back to New York. I have no idea how or why they chose this route.

Because of the odd route, this review will focus on the Princess Cruise itself, not the port stops or excursions. I’ll start with some general descriptions of Princess cruises and this particular ship, and I’ll finish with some observations about what I liked and didn’t like. You can use the table of contents below to jump to whatever interests you most.

Our “stateroom” on the Island Princess

Originally we booked a basic inside cabin. When, a few weeks later, we received an email from Princess announcing that we could make an offer on an upgrade, we took them up on it. We offered for both a somewhat bigger cabin with an ocean view, and a cabin the same size as our original one, but with a balcony. We got the ocean-view cabin.

The room was rather beige in terms of the décor, but very comfortable and relatively roomy. It was also absolutely spotless and in good repair, and stayed that way for the entire 10-day cruise. The bed had been separated into twin beds, as we’d requested, and each bed had a side table. The sheets were high quality and so were the pillows. There was a mini-fridge – empty – a desk, a small sofa and a chair. A TV mounted on the wall carried ship information of all sorts as well as an assortment of movies and TV shows. It also carried a limited selection of live TV: mostly news channels.

The bathroom was tiny, much like the one I had on my only other “proper” cruise on Celestyal. It had enough towel racks and a few shelves for our toiletries. We very much liked the shampoo, hand soap and hand lotion provided by Princess. The shower had good water pressure and the temperature was easy to adjust, but the space was so small that, for example, when I dropped a washcloth, I was not able to bend down and pick it up. Perhaps a skinnier person with good knees could squat in that space, but it was beyond me.

What I particularly liked about the room was that the bedroom was separated from the bathroom by a large wardrobe. Open on one side facing the bathroom, it formed a sort of walk-in closet. It had plenty of hangars for both of us and a large shelf above the rod. Next to it was a smaller wardrobe with about six shelves, containing a small safe and our life preservers. We were able to unpack all our things and store our luggage on the floor of the closet without it being in the way.

Our cabin on Deck 9 was far forward, just behind the ship’s bridge. I was glad of the location: it was far from the stairs and elevators and almost at the very end of the hallway, which meant we had no noise from people walking by our room. It was also sandwiched between two floors of staterooms, so no one was dancing the night away to loud music over our heads.

On arrival, our steward, Leonard, greeted us, and he took care of us the entire trip. His crew cleaned the cabin at least twice every day, and he was in the vicinity to answer questions all the time. Because he knew when we were or weren’t in the cabin, we were never disturbed by cleaners knocking on the door.

The food is excellent in both, and well-presented as well. The service is attentive and usually very quick. The menus are varied and include starters, salads, soups, mains and desserts, all of them with quite small portions, which I definitely appreciated.

The menus always have a couple of vegetarian options, but there’s also a separate vegan menu with some excellent choices. We discovered, though, that ordering from the vegan menu means a longer wait time. I guess these dishes don’t get the advance preparation that the main menu items get.

The buffet

Called “Horizon Court,” the buffet is high on Deck 14 in the bow of the ship. It offers an extensive selection of hot and cold food over four meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. We ate most of our breakfasts up here because a buffet is quick and easy. The food is surprisingly good and varied. I didn’t try any of the cooked breakfast items so I can’t report on whether they taste fresh or whether they’re still hot. There was a cook making cooked-to-order omelettes, though I didn’t think to check if he was there every day.

At busy times, finding a seat at Horizon Court could be a challenge. Once you’re seated, staff members will approach, offering tea or coffee, but you can also fetch your own from the buffet. The Horizon Court is also where we got our specialty smoothies – included in our Premium package, which I’ll explain later – and where the “premium” desserts are located.

Specialty restaurants

These are the restaurants that cost extra, unless you have a Plus or Premium package.

Sabatini’s, on Deck 7, offers Italian specialties at dinner, and becomes a “casual dining” venue on some of the sea days. Like the Provence and the Bordeaux, the food is excellent, as is the service.

Bayou Café and Steakhouse, also on Deck 7, focuses on meat, making it distinctly less to my sister’s liking. She’s a vegetarian and did not like the decorative plates on the table when we arrived, which show an outline of a cow with the cuts of meat labeled. In order to accommodate her, our server fetched a vegetarian choice for her from Sabatini’s next door, while I happily enjoyed a very tasty rack of lamb. Again, the food and service are excellent. Like Sabatini’s, Bayou becomes a “casual dining” venue sometimes on sea days.

Other places to eat

The ship has two other eating establishments. After a month in New Haven, CT, eating the best pizza in the world, I didn’t try the Princess Pizzeria on Deck 14. A grill on Deck 15 offers hamburgers and hot dogs. I didn’t try that either. Why would I, when such elegant food is available in the restaurants?

On the other hand, Swirls on Deck 14 serves soft-serve ice cream as well as very fancy-looking sundaes with enough candy to keep you (or your kids) hyped up for hours. I did eat their specialties a couple of times!

Bars and pubs

There are plenty of these on board the Island Princess, so I won’t go into great detail. You can curl up on a comfy couch or armchair in the Wheelhouse and listen to an acoustic guitarist or enjoy some creative drinks at Crooner’s Bar while a pianist serenades you. If it’s more your style, order a tropical cocktail at either pool bar to sip while you soak in a hot tub.

A large standard set of cocktails, wine, liquors, mocktails and soft drinks seems to be available at all of the bars and cafés, but check each bar’s drinks menu for additional options.

Entertainment

While the Princess app lists all the planned entertainment, it’s not always quite right. Each evening we received an extensive printed list in our room of the next day’s activities and entertainment on board the ship, and as far as I could tell, that list was correct. The entertainment is predominantly music, shows, and comedians.

Music

Every day includes music at various locations around the ship. Most of these are small-scale: a guitarist or a pianist or a small band, with a range of different genres of music. All of them are good: true professionals, as far as I could tell. In the evening there are various opportunities to dance, whether in one of the bars or on the pool deck, or to sing karaoke.

Production shows

Besides the music, production shows take place almost daily. Usually there are two shows each evening in the Princess Theater in the bow of the ship on Deck 7. These shows are very good, for what they are. What I mean is that these are not full Broadway productions but rather 45-minute-long musical revues. The dancing and singing, though, are very high caliber, for the most part, and the sets are well done. I have little to compare it to except the Celestyal cruise in Greece that I took a couple of years ago. The Princess productions are far better. I still wish they’d do full plays or musicals with a plot rather than revues.

I chatted with a fellow passenger one day – one of the many loyal Princess customers I met on this cruise – who told me that the orchestra used in the shows is a particular selling point to him. None of the other cruise lines he’d taken, he said, had an orchestra to accompany shows. Instead, they use recorded music to back up the singers and dancers.

Comedians

The best entertainment on the ship, as far as we were concerned, were the stand-up comedians, who mostly perform in the Explorers Lounge bar. Each one was only on board for a day or two. In other words, they are not in-house comedians – that could get old fast. If you take a Princess cruise and there are comedians scheduled, make sure to arrange your evening around getting to their shows. Several of them do two shows: one earlier in the evening, and one racier 18+ show later on. If you enjoy the first one, it’s definitely worth going to the second; it’ll be completely different.

Activities

The ship offers so many activities I couldn’t possibly list them all. At times, it seems a bit like adult summer camp in that it includes things like crafts workshops and silly competitions. I tried the sudoku competition one day. We both took part in one whose name I forget that involved a series of silly tasks, with each round weeding out more competitors. I was out in the first round (stacking red Solo cups with one hand). My sister, on the other hand, got to the final. She lost on the last task: balancing short pencils on the back of her hand, tossing them up and snatching them with the same hand. Her competitor won by managing it with seven pencils at a time.

The schedule includes various meet-ups several times during the cruise: for singles, LGBTQ+, classic car enthusiasts, or veterans, for example.

There are more activities on sea days than port days, not surprisingly. About half of our days were sea days on this trip.

Pools

The Island Princess has two pools on Deck 14, one outside (the Lido pool) and one in a glassed-in space (the Lotus pool). Both are quite small; more for a dip than for actual swimming. The Lido has three hot tubs around it, while the Lotus has two. Lounge chairs circle the pools on Decks 14 and 15 and in various other places around the ship. There’s also a small splash pool on Deck 16.

The Sanctuary

At the very back of the ship, the Sanctuary has lounge chairs in shade or sun ($20 for a half day) and cabanas (more). It’s a child-free space with very soothing music playing quietly in the background. Its separate staff offers “bento boxes” and drinks delivered to your lounge chair.

Promenade

A wood-floored promenade rings the ship on Deck 7. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go quite all the way around, so walkers and runners have to cut through the ship from one side to the other. Nevertheless, I loved to walk this length of deck and enjoy the sight of the ocean and the ship’s wake.

Spa

A spa offers all the usual spa treatments. I had a pedicure that was absolutely wonderful. The pedicurist managed to cover up all the flaws in my ugly toenails. In order to drum up business, the spa offers both raffles and various taster sessions, complimentary consultations, and “master classes.”

Casino

The casino is pretty large and has both slot machines and gaming tables. I don’t gamble, so I can’t say much about what the atmosphere is like. The casino offers various events and competitions to lure people in.

Shopping

The ship is home to a number of shops, and those shops work very hard to get people to come in and spend money. That meant, while I had no intention of buying anything, that I ended up visiting most of the shops at least once. They hold raffles, for example, and to win you have to be in the shop at the time of the drawing.

The most active shops are Effy, a high-end jewelry chain, and Park West, which sells art. Park West held art auctions during the cruise, and I found them very interesting, never having been to an art auction before. I didn’t like some of the art, but they had some wonderful and colorful Peter Max works, as well as a couple of Picasso and Dali prints.

Fitness

The gym on Deck 6 has the usual equipment: exercise bikes, various weight machines, free weights, ellipticals, etc. In a separate aerobics room are a set of spin bikes and mats for the various classes on offer. Each class is only a half-hour long, which means the real fitness mavens tend to take more than one each morning: yoga, spinning, pilates, etc.

A pickleball court on the top deck is sometimes used for competition and sometimes just for random play. Unfortunately, it’s in full sun and quite windy. Yet this didn’t seem to stop people from using it.

On sea days there are free Zumba sessions on the pool deck.

One thing I would recommend in terms of fitness is something even I could do: use the stairs. When the pool is on Deck 14, your room is on Deck 9, and your preferred restaurants and bars are on Decks 5, 6, or 7, you end up getting a lot of exercise just by avoiding the elevators. I managed to beat my step goal every day of the cruise.

Facilities for children

I did not see very many children on Island Princess, but it has clubs for both children and for teens. However, this is not a cruise line that focuses on children. I can imagine that if I was going to take kids along on a cruise, something like Disney would be more entertaining and child-focused for younger kids. For teens, any cruise line with things like water slides would work better, I think. It would also attract more families with teens so they’d be able to enjoy some socializing on board.

MedallionClass

Our steward, Leonard, knew when we were or were not in our cabin because of our medallions. Every passenger on Princess is issued with a medallion about the size of a quarter, which passengers wear on a lanyard around their necks or in a wristband or clip. This device works as a pass for everything offered on the ship. Cabin doors open automatically as you approach. The device gets scanned when you buy anything – to put the charge on your account – or when you leave the ship at port or re-board again.

These work very smoothly and efficiently, but of course they also make it really easy to overspend. At times they seemed a bit creepy: staff members addressed me by name without even scanning the medallion. Apparently their devices could read them from afar.

Staff can also check where you are on board, as I discovered at one point when I was trying to track down my sister.

Conveniently, the case on the medallion is waterproof, so we pretty much never took ours off except to sleep.

The medallion works quite seamlessly with an app that passengers are encouraged to download. This app allows you to check off which activities you plan to do, creating a personalized schedule. You can reserve a table in any of the restaurants, book a spa appointment, or get directions around the ship, something that comes in quite handy. My sister and I tracked each other as well as sending messages through the app. The only thing the app seems to lack is a sound effect to let us know when we receive a message. We ended up using Facebook Messenger instead.

Princess packages

On the Island Princess, the two restaurants with service and the buffet restaurant serve all passengers at no extra charge, as do the pizza stand and the grill. Two specialty restaurants cost extra.

Certain basic beverages, particularly tea, coffee and juice at breakfast, are included, but other drinks incur an extra charge. Wifi costs extra and tips are more or less required as well.

For this reason, Princess offers two packages for passengers who don’t want to pay everything as they go:

1. The Plus package includes drinks up to $15 dollars, all tips, two meals at the specialty restaurants, and two “casual dining” meals, which are lunches offered at the specialty restaurants just on sea days. It also includes two fitness classes – all of which are just 30 minutes long. Wifi for one device comes with this package.
2. The Premium package includes a bigger selection of drinks up to $20, all tips, two meals at specialty restaurants, unlimited casual dining meals and unlimited fitness classes. It adds unlimited digital photos and three printed photos per person, plus free chances for “Princess prizes” from the casino. It also includes reserved seats at the production shows. Two “Premium desserts” per day (!) and Wifi for up to four devices come with this package too.

We initially signed up for the Plus plan, but upgraded to the Premium for two reasons: so my sister could take as many of the fitness classes as she wanted, and so that I could get new portrait photos, since the ones I use online were taken several years – and even more kilos – ago. She made full use of the fitness classes, but I didn’t get the photos I wanted. It turned out that when they said unlimited photos, they didn’t mean the photo studio. They only meant the photographers around the ship who snap pictures for whoever wants them. Photo studio photos cost $99 each.

So instead, I posed whenever I got the opportunity – which was often – for the photographers who set up shop around the ship and also outside the ship at each port.

I tried many of the cocktails and other drinks that were priced over $15, as did my sister. We used both of the opportunities to eat at the specialty restaurants, but only managed to have one “casual dining” meal because of how little this was offered.

As for the so-called premium desserts, there are indeed some special cakes reserved for premium passengers. I didn’t find them that special, though, to be honest. We also could eat the fancy sundaes offered at the ice cream venue, but again, I wasn’t that impressed with them. They are pretty, to be sure, and loaded with all kinds of toppings and decorations, but the ice cream itself isn’t particularly good quality. The best desserts are on the menus of the restaurants, and my Premium package wasn’t needed for that.

The reserved seating for the production shows came in very handy. As long as we showed up more than five minutes before the show, seats right in the middle of the theater were still open for us, even when people were standing at the back.

Should you buy one of the packages?

The answer to this is: it depends. It depends on how much you drink, mostly, and perhaps on how much you want to take classes in the gym or use wifi. It would be perfectly possible to take a Princess cruise without any package. However, you’d still have to pay for drinks and tips and various other costs, and it can all add up.

The price for wifi as a separate charge is high enough that just in terms of wifi plus tips plus drinks, you’d be better off with the Plus package. Generally data plans do not include when you’re out at sea. You’ll need to sign up for a global system or you’ll get monster charges. Or you could just be disconnected from your phone for the duration of the cruise, only using it in ports on your data plan.

As for drinks, you could get the occasional alcoholic drink as a freebie at shop events: remember I mentioned how they try to get people into their stores? That often involves things like a complimentary glass of champagne. But you’d have to pay for non-alcoholic drinks as well, at least outside of breakfast. It’s doable but you’d need to do the arithmetic to see if you could buy the drinks you want for cheaper than the package.

By the way, you can choose not to upgrade and then, after you arrive on the ship, check out the menus to do the math. Figure out what you’re likely to spend and then upgrade to the Plus if it seems worth it.

Should you buy the Plus or the Premium package?

I’d recommend the Plus plan for most people.

• If you want to work out, skip the classes and just work on the various equipment available in the fitness room. That’s free even without a package.
• There are plenty of drinks at $15 or less – you will be spoiled for choice even without the more expensive drinks.
• Get to production shows early enough to get a seat.

Only get the Premium package if

• You want the highest-end liquors and wine.
• Fitness classes are important to you.
• You absolutely need wifi on more than one device.
• Those middle seats in the theater are very important to you.

Accessibility

The Island Princess is entirely wheelchair accessible, as far as I could see, except Deck 16, where the splash pool, shuffleboard and pickleball court are. There are a number of accessible staterooms.

Environmental concerns

When I told people I was planning to go on a cruise, more than one person made a comment like “They throw their trash and sewage in the ocean.” This may have once been true, but it is not anymore. Cruise companies are aware of environmental issues and are taking steps to ameliorate their impact. This doesn’t make them sustainable in the way that, for example, traveling by train is sustainable, but they are gradually improving. To my knowledge, the best so far are cruise lines like Hurtigruten and Havila, which are switching to hybrid-powered vessels.

On this Princess cruise, I looked for signs of environmental concern. Certainly they are moving away from disposable packaging. Bottled water was available on demand, but not offered in restaurants or bars. The straws in cocktails are made of paper rather than plastic. The only disposable drink cups I saw – at a bar that offered coffee drinks – are made of recycled plastic and claim to be biodegradable.

Princess’s information about environmental policies on their website states that they comply with the voluntary standards of the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. Like all major cruise lines, they have reduced the sulfur content of their fuel to reduce carbon emissions. They either produce fresh water onboard the ship from sea water or tank it from onshore sources. Wastewater and sewage are dealt with according to international regulations. And they are making efforts to reduce plastic waste, augmented by a system of sorting and recycling onboard the ship to dispose of various types of waste properly.

Princess’s environmental statement is promising. It’s certainly moving in the right direction, but cruises still produce a lot of carbon waste compared to other forms of transportation. This is not sustainable travel. If this is something that concerns you, but you still want to go on a cruise, look for cruise lines that are actively experimenting with other forms of propulsion: things like hybrid-powered, biofuel or sailing vessels.

What I liked about this Princess Cruise

1. The food on the Island Princess was simply excellent.
2. The service was excellent as well.
3. Our beds – complete with hypo-allergenic pillows – were comfortable, and we could control room temperature via a thermostat.
4. I loved that there was enough room in our cabin to fit our clothes and luggage.
5. Our cabin was on the 9th deck out of 16 (though there is no level 13). At night, the ship’s engine was very quiet and the ride was smooth. I felt only a very slight rocking, even when we passed through a thunderstorm one night. We heard the thunder, and the seas were 1.5 meters, but the ship barely rocked.
6. The wifi was remarkably good.
7. I never had trouble finding a lounge chair. While people did claim them, draping their things over them, there were simply enough to go around. The same goes for finding a comfy chair in, for example, a pub.
8. The crew was very efficient with debarking and boarding at each port stop. I didn’t have to wait at all. Even the initial boarding in Brooklyn went very quickly. I did have to wait quite a while to get off the ship in Boston. Because it was the first stop back in the US after visiting a Canadian port, I had to wait with the other non-US citizens to pass through a Homeland Security check. This wasn’t the fault of Princess Cruises though.
9. When our shower didn’t drain well, a plumber came very quickly and fixed it.
10. They have good drinks menus with a range of mixed drinks, wines, hard liquors, cocktails, mocktails and soft drinks. The drinks menus vary slightly from venue to venue.
11. The inside Lotus pool was quiet and pleasant to spend time in, with the added bonus of being somewhat air-conditioned. It was my favorite place to hang out on the ship.
12. My sister’s favorite place on the ship was the Sanctuary because of how quiet it is and the personal service.
13. There was always room in the hot tubs when we wanted a soak – three large ones around the outdoor pool and two somewhat smaller ones at the indoor pool.

It’s always wise, when you take a cruise, to plan to arrive in the departure city the day before or even longer. That way you can be sure that flight delays won’t make you miss the departure. Book a hotel in your departure city on Expedia or Booking.com or Hotels.com.

What I didn’t like about the cruise

Lack of clear communication

The main problem we had was with communications. Here are some examples of where the communication could have been clearer:

1. The day’s schedule as given on Princess’s app didn’t always match the schedule given to us each day in our cabin.
2. We were Premium guests, but it wasn’t always clear what that precisely meant – what it included and didn’t include. Princess’s website and app exaggerate the value of Plus and Premium packages. What I mean is that it says, for example, that its “Ocean Now” program, which is essentially delivery of food or drink to guests anywhere on the ship, is free for Plus or Premium guests. However, that isn’t exactly true: if it’s drinks, the drinks are included and the delivery is free. If it’s food, it seems, delivery is indeed free, but the food itself isn’t. And that seems to be true even for food that would normally be included.
3. Another example of such exaggeration is the idea that we, as Premium guests, could have “unlimited Casual Dining.” That sounded great to us, because we don’t particularly like crowded buffets. It turned out that “Casual Dining” only took place in one venue, only at lunchtime, and only on sea days. We waited about a half hour in line for a Casual Dining venue one time, but didn’t bother again after that, since the Bordeaux and Provence were so good.
4. I didn’t get the portrait photos I wanted because of the lack of clarity about what was included.

Other issues

1. While every single staff member we came in contact with was wonderfully attentive and helpful, we got the impression their hands are somewhat tied by corporate higher-ups. For instance, while the food is excellent and the menus change every day in the two restaurants with table service, the menus seem to be produced elsewhere, and contain a rather annoying mistake. They have a legend at the bottom stating that (V) stands for vegetarian, yet only some – and sometimes none – of the items on the menu have a (V) next to them. The waiters were happy to let us know which items actually are vegetarian but were unable to fix the menus for subsequent meals, telling us that they would pass on our complaint.
2. A similar problem happened with the classes offered in the gym. On Princess’s app, some of the class listings stated that there was an extra charge. We took that to mean that, if it didn’t list an extra charge, it was free. My sister, who planned to work out every day, was surprised to find out that there is a charge for every class, not just some. (Plus guests get two free classes per cruise. Premium guests can take as many as they want.) And again, the trainer just told us that he would pass our concern on to corporate.
3. I would have preferred to have only one of us – my sister – upgrade to Premium. She profited from Premium because of all the fitness classes she took, but for me it wasn’t worth it. However, Princess requires that both guests in one cabin have the same package.

Is this a good or a bad thing? I don’t know. I’m curious what a larger ship with all the extras would be like. Could we find places of peace and quiet or are such ships all about being active all the time? What about the extra-small ships like those operated by Windstar or some of the river cruise companies? Or the very different format of an expedition trip like Hurtigruten or an adults-only Virgin Voyages ship? I would like to try the whole range to see what suits me best.

Clearly Princess is exactly what many people want. We met lots of passengers who had traveled on Princess many times before: some of them take Princess cruises exclusively. I asked a few about the food. They all responded that it is some of the best food on the seas, but also that it’s somewhat less excellent on the bigger Princess ships.

We didn’t take any of the excursions, instead heading out on our own. The excursions are expensive, and I generally don’t enjoy being herded along with a large group of people. For Charleston and St. John we downloaded audio walking tours and partly followed those, which suited us just fine.

In any case, we both had a great time. Cruise ships travel both literally and figuratively outside of real life. They’re a place of luxury, where guests are coddled and can while away the hours in complete idleness, if we want. There are no expectations of us at all except for general self-indulgence. For us, this was strange and sometimes uncomfortable, but also pretty wonderful.

I have tried here in this Princess cruise review to answer any questions that I could think of, but I’m sure I’ve missed things. If you have a question about Princess Cruises in general or Island Princess in particular that you think I could answer, please add it below in the comments!