Island Princess: Profile and Photo Tour and Review

This week, we are adding a profile of Princess Cruises’ Island Princess to Beyondships.


Island Princess may be Princess’ best kept secret. Not that many people seem to be familiar with her. She is not one of the large Grand class ships that are the mainstay of the Princess fleet. Nor is she one of Princess’ small R-class ships. And she isn’t one of the Sun class ships that primarily serve the Australian market these days.

Island Princess, along with her sister ship Coral Princess, are in a class by themselves. They are bigger than the Sun class but smaller than the Grand class. At 91,000 gross tons, they have the space for everything you would expect from a modern cruise ship but at the same time they are not overwhelming.

Furthermore, Princess has not packed them full of passengers. They have the best passenger space ratios in the Princess fleet and so you have plenty of elbow room in their large spacious public rooms.

I also was delighted by the service on Island Princess. When I was aboard her, she had the quality of service that you used to find only in European grand hotels. I have nothing but good memories of my cruise on Island Princess.

So why then is Island and her sister relatively unknown/ I think that it is because they were built to do two types of itineraries - - the Panama Canal and Alaska. Thus, they do not get around to the more popular cruising areas as often as other ships. As a result, they tend to attract more seasoned travelers who want a different cruise experience.

The profile of Island Princess, with programs, menus and other information about the ship, is at http://beyondships.com/Princess-IP-Profile.html. Our multi-page photo review of the ship is at http://beyondships.com/Princess-IP-Tour-1.html. Also, we have a review of Island Princess’ specialty restaurant the Bayou Café http://www.beyondships2.com/island-princess-bayou-cafe-review.html