Talking with the Captain, Hotel Director, Cruise Director and Maitre d' of Island Princess

It takes more than great hardware to make a great cruise.  You can have the finest ship in the world but if the officers and crew aren’t good, it is going to be at best a mediocre cruise.  So too, if you have a really good team running the ship, it can be the difference between a good cruise and a great cruise.

            There was a very good team in charge when I was on Island Princess recently.  I liked the ship and its layout quite a bit.  However, the quality of service, the programming and the dining made it a cruise to remember.  All of these are hallmarks of a good management team.

            At the top was Captain Nicolo Bommarco.  Born by the sea in Venice, Italy, Captain Bommarco has been sailing passenger ships since 1984.  He has served on nearly every ship in the Princess fleet.

            Hotel General Manager Emilio Mazzi, first went to sea in 1968.  He is a true gentleman and reminded me of the managers of the grand hotels that we used to stay in when I was a teen.  Mazzi is relaxed and friendly but he knows how to make guests comfortable like those old school experts did.

            Another cruise industry veteran is Cruise Director Rick Joseph.  His first job at sea was at age 15 on Carnival Cruise Line’s first ship the Mardi Gras.  He went on to Holland America and then to become the youngest cruise director in the industry for Chandris.  Subsequently, he was closely involved in bringing out all eight of the R class ships for Renaissance.  Thus, he brought a great deal of experience with him when he joined Princess in 2002.  Moreover, with this background, his onboard lecture about ocean liners and cruise ships is not to be missed.

            I met with these three leaders and asked them to talk about Island Princess.  My goal was to have the people who actually run the ship tell about the ship and the cruise experience that they provide onboard.  The interview is posted at http://www.beyondships2.com/island-princess-interview.html

            But what about the dining on board Island Princess?  For this I turned to Maitre d’Hotel Ignazio D’Agostino.  Ignazio is seemingly everywhere - - the main dining rooms, the specialty restaurants, the galley etc.  As he said to me: “This job you can’t do it just because you have to do it, you have to love it.   You have to love it in the sense to be accommodating, be smiling, be friendly to the customer.”

            This was most evident at the Chef’s Table event.  Together with Executive Chef Klaus Baumgarten, Ignazio hosted a small group of guests in an evening that began with a visit to the ship’s main galley when it was in full operation.  This was followed by a multi-course dinner that was literally a feast.  The evening was enhanced by the commentaries by the Maitre d and the Chef about cooking and restaurant operations.  All the time, Ignazio was ensuring that the service was beyond perfect.     

            I asked Ignazio to give us some insights into the various dining venues on Island Princess.  They are incorporated into the dining guise that is posted at  http://www.beyondships2.com/island-princess-dining-guide.html

                         

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