Princess Cruise Lines
Island Princess Cruise Review
Alaska

Gerald Altman
Age: 82
Occupation: Retired
Number of Cruises: 24+
Sailing Date: May 6th, 2006

The Good:
The food, the room steward (very helpful and friendly), the general appearance of the ship, inside and out.

The Bad:
The main theater is a huge facility with many seats, but with only two narrow aisles. I would hate to be in the middle of a show and a general alarm is sounded. It would result in a stampede with many fatalities, aside from a great danger to many handicapped cruise guests.

Miserable tender service where the ship had to be anchored. They used only two tenders for a ship with 2000 passengers.

On every cruise I have taken, the captain and his senior staff presented themselves on formal nights. Not on this cruise! Cocktails served on formal evenings were tiny and weak.

The Ugly:
The Purser's Office. There was general indifference, ranging from minor matters such as not informing guests that they could get daily news bulletins delivered to their cabins to serious failings, such as the way they sabotaged the disembarkation of the travel group I was in. The cruise line had made airline reservations for the group for a mere 2 1/2 hours after landing, but would not let us off the ship for an hour (despite promises that we would be among the first to exit the ship), then by failing to provide transportation to the airport, forcing us to take taxis that would not accept our transportation vouchers. This resulted in missing our flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles, and a resulting wait of 7 to 10 hours before getting a flight out. This was compounded by the cruise line management's stonewalling when they were informed of this fiasco; to this date they have not contacted anyone among the 30 people in this group about compensation for taxi fares or anything else.

I cannot speak for the other 28 of us, but my wife and I have resolved that this first Princess Lines cruise will be our last.
 

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