Princess Cruises Reviews

Trying to contact Princess about a refund they owe is a nightmare. To speak to someone, I had to pretend I was booking a cruise. I’ve now been told by Princess refunds can take over six weeks. I wouldn’t recommend this cruise line.

We went on an Alaskan Cruise 7/16/22-7/23/22. This was my first cruise and, based on conversations with others who had gone on an Alaskan Cruise, my wife and I were eagerly looking forward to it. Based on recommendations, we chose one that went through the inside channel of Glacier Bay for optimal sightseeing. We were on the Crown Princess, the only choice for cruising the inside channel of Glacier Bay with Princess. 5 weeks after the booking we received notice that due to "scheduled engine maintenance" the ship could not run at full speed. As a result we would be getting into 2 ports late and one important port(Ketchikan) was being replaced with a smaller port(Icy Strait Point). 3 weeks prior to sailing we received additional info that "technical restrictions" regarding speed would further delay our arrival at Juneau(a total of 4 hours lost of a planned 10 hour shore time). Princess did give us a token amount of shipboard credit to make up for the changes but it was totally inadequate. We had planned a 5 week cross country trip around the cruise schedule so we did not want to cancel. That may have been our biggest mistake. The biggest disappointment was not being able to go through all of the inside passage as scheduled. We were told it was due to ice and wildlife, although a Holland America ship sailed by us and went on in. I'm convinced we didn't go through because of the ship's limited speed. Even though we turned around, we were still late to our next port and could not do our chosen excursion. The whole point of cruising the inside channel of Glacier Bay(at a substantial upcharge) is to see the glaciers, the largest of which we were unable to cruise to! In summary, our cruise included 4 ports and inside Glacier Bay Cruising. In our first port, Juneau, we lost 40% of our shore time. The second port, Skagway, went essentially as planned. The Glacier Bay cruising was cut short. Our third port, Icy Strait Point was a waste of time since we couldn't do our planned excursion due to inadequate timing and extremely poor organization. It certainly was not equal to Ketchikan! At our final port, Victoria, we were so late that all shore excursions were cancelled. A medical emergency accounted for some delay, but not all of it. Princess should have repaired the ship before the season so it could maintain an appropriate schedule. An Alaskan cruise is the cruise of a lifetime for many people. Princess let the passengers down and should be held responsible. I would not recommend them anyone at this time

Recently had a princess cruise on board the Enchanted Princess. My previous experiences have been with P and O and I've never had a complaint with them. But this trip with Princess was quite off putting. From day one it was constant queuing,whether it was for getting a drink or food, it was a case of queing for at least 10 mins to get an orange juice on some occasions in the evening at any of the bars you would wait for 30 minutes each time you wanted to get a round of drinks. I ended up going to my cabin and ordering room service after that, but that took at least an hour to arrive, if it arrived at all. I found some of the bar staff quite rude at times. The cabin crew were great and very friendly. Sun beds on all the decks were grabbed at 5.45 every morning and towels draped over them for the rest of the day to 'reserve ' them, which was so selfish. Nothing was done about it despite numerous complaints to the crew. I found out later that the ship was under crewed,no where near the usual staff capacity, usually you would have 6 or 8 barstaff at one bar serving, but there was only 2 or 3 or sometimes 4, hence the queuing. One other thing is the WiFi network, almost non existent in most places and the medallion net work was awful. We also had to miss our first port of call because of a choppy sea, which was the same state or better than when I went there previously with p and o and they landed us ashore on a choppy sea. I heard the ship shouldn't have sailed because of staffing issues. I had been praising cruising highly to two of our party, both had never cruised before and one had not been abroad before, so I felt especially bad. The ship itself was lovely and spotlessly clean with plenty to do but just not enough room to participate in because of too many people in one place. All in all, I will stick with p and o. None of these issues have I witnessed on their ships so far. It seems to me that Princess were being extremely greedy buy doing the cruise after taking people's money, but not even trying to amend any of the problems, reception had a massive que every day with people complaining.

Have to agree with the coments made about Enchanted Princess having just returned from 4 nights. To give you an idea I went back to the mini suite to order a light snack which turned up after 90 minutes stone cold. Drinks never arrived. Wifi is like going back to the old days when you dialed on an analogue line as it really is terrible. Dont bother booking a table in the dining room as its a waste of time as its all open sitting. If you want drinks order doubles as it can be a long wait. Having cruised many times this was not a good experince. I would put this down to the short cruise which does bring in a new type of guest but to be honest they just dont have the staff. Yes check in was very smooth but we had done all the hard work for them online which takes a long time due to the app always going down. We did attempt to go to a show but it was full. Huge queue and we gave up standing up at the back behind another 50 people. Not much to add but it really was a waste of money.

We have just returned from a second trip within three months, on the Enchanted Princess. The first trip was an 11 day return cruise to the Canary Islands, back in early May. The ship appeared around half full, (mostly balcony passengers) the WiFi and medallions worked pretty OK. There were very few queues if any and the staff were very friendly and attentive. The entertainment and food offerings were very good (although we were unable to load our own plates) and you could easily obtain a sun lounger. In all, and despite receiving news that my Mother had passed away unexpectedly on day two of our trip - our ship experience on the cruise was very acceptable, hence our return. Fast forward three months, to our four day trip to Rotterdam and Guernsey and we encountered a totally different experience. The ship was now running at over 100% occupancy, due to children/babies sharing their parent’s staterooms. Hence, there was now overcrowding in areas - more noise, lack of sun loungers. Queues literally everywhere for everything, including lifts. A twenty minute plus wait for a drink, whether it was queued for, or waiter delivered, appeared the norm. You considered yourself lucky, if you arrived at a quiet bar. At times there appeared very few bartenders, considering the size of the queues building up. When you factor in how long it takes to make the average cocktail - you could be stuck in a queue for a very lengthy spell. If on a drinks package, you could conceivably spend 5 hrs of your day, obtaining your 15 alcoholic drinks, with a median wait each time of around 20 mins. Clearly, the ship is at present, grossly understaffed - in pretty much every department. The WiFi and ability to utilise the medallion for orders, was at times pitiful. We spoke with both the reception and Internet cafe staff about the seemingly weary internet, but to little effect. My son had paid $100 for the use of four devices and was only offered a 50% discount, due to the fact that he was on a couple of occasions, able to access some substance online. His fiancé, who was on her first cruise - was visibly upset that she couldn’t communicate adequately with her family in the U.K. Certain people using android phones, did appear to do a little better than those utilising iPads, but overall, the general consensus, was that the ship’s WiFi system clearly can’t handle the current magnitude of passengers. My score, is mostly related to the second trip, as I now believe this is how things will continue for the immediate future. I will NOT be returning anytime soon, which is a shame, as our first experience of the ship was absolutely fine.

Just finished a short 4 day cruise on Enchanted Princess, never again. Although the ship itself is beautiful and the cabins excellent, that is the only plus I can think of. The service in every area was poor. The ship was full to capacity but the crew numbers were well below normal. I worked out that of the 4 days on board, I was queueing for well over half a day. This includes 3 hours for coffee at the cafe , 1.5 hours getting on and off at one tender port , half hour queueing for afternoon tea etc etc,if you wanted it, you had to queue. The service in the restaurant was poor and if you need a wine, order a double because you will struggle to get a top up. The food to be fair was very good, its just that the poor waiters were running around as fast as they could to serve but, they were so understaffed it was painful to watch. We had one incident where my partner found shards of glass in the bottom of her wine glass which she almost swallowed ! We also saw guests walking around the public areas without shirts on who were not approached by staff. To summarise, great ship, nice food but, the rest was hopeless.

At present in the fantastic Regal Princess, so so clean, entertainment awesome - food absolutely amazing - staff amazing everything is fantastic APPART,,, from the Medalion App,,, extremely extremely disappointing. No matter where we are on the ship, never works - can’t order drinks or food - can’t contact people - reported to reception a few times. Made no difference- so disappointed- as this could have given the ship 5*plus

Where do I start…..we found the service on this 4 night cruise abysmal. The waiters in the bars took your order, but never arrived with your drinks. This cruise, in my opinion, was overbooked and understaffed. The queues outside the Restaurants were long every night and there wasn’t any buzzing system as on other ships….you were just left standing there until there was a table available. Guests who had booked weeks in advance still had to join the queue. They offer Room Service, but things never arrive, or if they do it’s an hour later. Getting a speciality coffee in the International Cafe is so slow with queues stretching way down the ship. It’s easy to get a snack in there, but not a drink to accompany it. Extremely poor standard of cruising experience. I have cruised with several cruise lines so I am not new to cruising, but I can honestly advise DO NOT CHOOSE PRINCESS CRUISE LINE…..there’s much better out there!!!!

Personally I don’t think they rate one star most definitely the worst Cruise I have ever been on food was rubbish this was on the enchanted princess sailing from Southampton on the 1st of July for 14 nights I must’ve gone to Customer Service every single day to complain about something or other mainly the food in all of the restaurants they they gave me complimentary dining and it was just as bad my wife’s expensive handbag was damaged by the ship was like a black sludge we took it to Customer Service he tried to clean it and gave up and give us a form and told us that we could claim when we got home I sent the form to Princess cruises Customer Service and they told me to take it to my own insurance company when I mentioned the food they said it’s subjective and as far as they’re concerned their food is wonderful they obviously haven’t spoken to any other passengers hopefully people reading this may feel the need to phone them up and let them know how rubbish their food is as other people have mentioned the medallion it was a waste of time the Wi-Fi was a waste of time the only thing I will say was the staff were absolutely brilliant probably some of the best people I’ve met Shane they work for a really bad company and you don’t appreciate their hard work

I have been trying to contact princess Cruises concerning the bill they charged me at the end of the cruise. I thought I had got things straightened before I left the ship from a holiday I shared with a friend. Getting home she found that they had transferred all my expenses to her account. Then when I looked at my credit card statement they had taken what appears to be a random amount including her expenses so she was now down to $0. Firstly this is a gross violation of my privacy (and my companion) as we were both privvy to each others spending. Secondly in 4 attempts to take money they have failed and even made up the last amount - no idea where it came from. I am not disputing that I have a bill to pay but this is rediculous and also each time there is a transaction I will have to pay a fee due to the currency changes. I have had an email from them to say that they will look into it but that was posted 14 days ago. I don't expect such poor service and will think again before I book on another princess cruise.

Just completed our 14 cruise, this one was on Enchanted Princess and our 1st cruise since Covid began so we were expecting a few changes but as a platinum cruiser with Princess it was the worse one by far!!!!! The medallion app is only good for one thing...locating other shipmates. You order drinks and so many times it said delivered yet we never got them, said there was no availability in the main dining room and there was plenty. People were getting up early and reserving sun loungers then going off elsewhere (even sometimes on excursions, so were gone for a long time) although they said items would be removed if unattended for 30 mins this never happened so again like the @#£@! pushing in at the bar (see below) many many guests were thinking of themselves and saying @#%& to everyone else! The first half of the cruise was clearly understaffed due to covid outbreak amongst the staff, so the poor staff that were working were under so much pressure and I really did feel for them. There was spa staff serving in the bars, restaurant managers clearing plates in the buffet and it was nice to see how they all came together and mucked in but they looked exhausted. There was a lot less waiting staff available and as the app didn't work half the time you had to queue at the bar for a drink, which would have been OK if a queueing system was in place to stop all the selfish @#£%^ pushing in and getting served before others that were waiting. We opted for the Princess Plus option and I have to say this is also a con, the WiFi was shockingly bad and slow, the drinks were very hit and miss and often a glass of wine was more like half a glass, depending on who served and where you got it, sometimes I'd get a cocktail and it just tasted watery and weak and not as it was advertised at all Princess should not be charging their customers full price for half the service and as a loyal Princess customer I shall now be looking elsewhere for my next cruise! This is the first and only time my party of 4 were glad to get off a cruise and thank god it was only for a week!!!!!

Terrible service - cannot get a reply on email - would not recommend them for anything - How hard is to reply to an email ?? Would never think about going on an actual cruise with them - when they cannot even respond to an email - Rip off merchants

Whilst cruising on Regal Princess there was a film crew making a (Reality) TV series. We found that locations on the ship were being closed without prior warning and we were not getting access 100% of the time to the facilities we had paid for. We had to put up with swearing and unruly behaviour from the people appearing on the show and the producer was rude and confrontational to me. This caused a lot of upset and Guest Services on board have done nothing to resolve this. The whole cruise experience was been ruined. We should have been notified of the filming prior to the cruise to give us the opportunity to transfer to another date but instead a note was left in the cabin once the cruise started which was too late. Numerous passengers were upset by this experience. I have contacted Princess at least 5 times since by return and apart from an automated reply I have heard absolutely nothing, diabolical so called customer service (non-existant).

now Princess are saying we can't have any money back, my Husband is a disabled Pensioner and I am his Full time Carer. so it is not like we have money to just throw away. it is really bad of the Company not to help. we won't be advising that Princess Cruises to any one, it is disgusting of them, and will not be using them again.

Booked the Princess cruise aboard the Grand Princess back in September of last year in the hopes that they would have softened their COVID mask restrictions. In June when we needed to make a decision on whether to cancel the reservation they had done away with the mask restrictions with only requiring them in certain situations. We went ahead with the booking. Boarded the ship on 8/3/22 only to have the captain announce over the PA system that masks would be required whenever indoors. If we would have known this we would have cancelled our reservation back in June. This is totally unacceptable. If they want to cruise with a required mask mandate that's fine but they need to communicate this in advance. Why in the hell would I want to spend a week on Alaskan cruise wearing a mask? I will never ever book another cruise with Princess and will tell everyone I know not to either. This is worse than a bait and switch. At least with that you can walk away from the deal.

Returned from an Alaska cruise on the Discovery Princess 3 days ago. We have been on over 25 cruises prior to the pandemic and I am tech savvy. The crew on board did great by us. Their Medallion app is the reason we will never cruise with Princess again and the fact the ship was severely overcrowded. They brag about this app but everyone hates it, the staff and passengers. You have to make reservations for all your dinners on the app. Make them at least 2-3 weeks prior to departure as you won’t be able to do it on the ship for 3 days into the cruise. When you use it will bring back fond memories of dial up internet. You will never be able to view the dinner menus until 2-3 days into the trip. Book specialty restaurants weeks ahead even though you will not be able to use the credit you get with the drink packages. You get credit when you show up for your reservation. Almost all info has to be entered with this app prior to departure. What should have taken 10 minutes to do on a computer took 1.5 hours on the phone. As far as the ship it was designed to sail in the Caribbean not Alaska. Lots and lots of open deck space but when the wind is blowing 40 mph off a 45 degree ocean everyone is crammed into the buffet or the central atrium area without a vacant seat. Entertainment was good and unexpectedly bad. All the performers on the ship are exceptionally talented. The productions show “Spotlight bar” was one depressing song after another, most of which I had never heard prior. Who ever came up with songs for the singers needs to get counselling and prescription for antidepressants. The other show “Rock Opera” was OK; at least I had heard half of the songs but again depressing songs. All other performers in the Theater were outstanding but the production shows were for the first time ever not the stand outs for entertainment no matter how great the singer and dancers were. Theater on this ship is Stadium Theater seating 1500 people sitting elbow to elbow in enclosed space with only a handful of people wearing masks. Everyday about 95-97% of passengers did not wear masks ever. My wife and I wore N95 masks whenever we were inside the ship, dined by ourselves early in the evening and left when the dining room started to fill up wore masks to all the shows. And my wife woke up with Covid on the day we got off the ship. We are vaxed and double boosted the last 2.5 month prior to sailing. I practiced dentistry for 40 years and know masks, how to wear them, and how to stay health on a cruise as we have never gotten sick on a ship. Not even the Holland America we got caught on and extra 12 days at the start of the pandemic. Unfortunately unless the cruise lines decrease the number of people on the ship and allow people to spread out you are going to get sick if you cruise. The reason being is you have to get tested within 72 hours of sailing which gives you 2 dinners you could go out with friends and contract Covid then bring it on the ship which is what happen here. Just because they are tested doesn’t mean they are not going to be in 24-48 hours

Really not sure that I have made a wise choice after reading these terrible reviews. It also worries me when companies do not respond to praise/criticism from the paying guests. i.e. I am so pleased... I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed etc. It smacks of we don't care about the customer but we do care about our shareholders and a big healthy profit. I am due to sail from Southampton in September and after booking a balcony decided to try and change to a deluxe balcony given the reduction in cost. It is now some £400 less than when I paid a year ago. Via my travel agent Cruise. Co UK I am told that I could upgrade but would have to pay the original price they advertised a year ago !!! Unbelievable and I can well see why only 1.7 rating on trustpilot. More than willing to report back if my cruise goes well on a more positive note but I have no expectations.

The high service level has definitely gone with staff shortages. An app that doesn't work. Long waiting times for drinks. And chaos where room numbers given for drinks that might not have been paid for. Underage drinking onboard. Really dissatisfied with the dinner service with wrong meals arriving. Not a 5 star service that I paid for.

the pre departure service and the online app are very poor and on several occasions do not work trying to get answer from the Southampton no the Philipines or the USA is very poor and a disgrace very disappointed, trying to up load certificates and book fine dining absolutely useless and I am now blocked online won't work tried for hours

Sailed on Sky Princess with 3660 passengers and totally packed. Salied to France, Spain and Guernsey. Cabins great and Steward Francisco totally amazing with so many tips regarding the shows. Buffet on 16th floor busy but still ok.with fast service on drinks. Went for sit down meal at Estrella Restaurant with amazing manager Darko and staff, Phoebe, Rocky and many others. Pools too busy but expected. Strongly recommended. Going on a 2nd cruise to norway and Denmark in two week's time and same ship Sky Princess.