Beth Caldwell
Age: 43
Occupation:Travel Agent
Number of Cruises: 30+
Cruise Line: Princess
Ship: Island Princess
Sailing Date: October 6th, 2006
Itinerary: Hawaii
Arriving at port Los Angeles around 11:30am
we dropped out luggage off, Princess was doing their pre-boarding. We chose to
take the streetcar or the red car to the San Pedro Fish Market restaurant for
lunch and as always the food was wonderful.
When we arrived back at the ship a little after 1pm we were inside the building
within 20 minutes. It was total of just over an hour before we were in our
cabin. Embarkation went very smooth and fast. I am happy to say that half of our
luggage was already at the cabin when we arrived.
From the time we arrived on the Island Princess she is a very clean ship and the
crew is always working to keep her that way. They take keeping the passengers
healthy very serious when you walk into the buffet there is a person standing
there with the hand sanitizer for you before you can grab anything. The buffet
in the Horizon always had hot food. Hot food can be a bit of a rarity. The foods
trays are always are full or very close to being full. The food is very good.
The Wheelhouse Lounge has the ball room or big bands type music playing at
night, every night. This was my favorite lounge. It also had a small history
museum of Princess and P&O.
The piano man Bill Barclay who is in the Bayou Cafe and jazz club is
outstanding.
The staff in all areas of the ship are very helpful & courteous.
The mustard drill was nice they were held in the lounges instead of all in lines
up on deck for what always seemed a lifetime.
The entertainment every night was wonderful from big names like Don Ware (a
writer from the Cosby Show) to Willie Tyler and Lester, to Juggles on unicycles,
and many more in between.
The cruise director is Billy Hygate. It is nice to see some with the company
like him for over 23 years.