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Review summary
Princess Cruises has room for improvement based on customer feedback. Customers particularly appreciate service and professional, though some mention concerns about customer service and expensive.
Firstly, Princess Cruises turned out to be quite unreliable. We had six shore excursions planned, but the most important one — viewing the glaciers and icebergs — was canceled without adequate explanation. Another excursion, originally meant to take us to the city of Victoria, was substituted with a visit to a much smaller, unremarkable location, the name of which we don’t even remember. For these cancellations and itinerary changes, we were given just $200 USD per person as compensation — and even that had to be spent onboard. This felt insufficient and disappointing.
Secondly, getting access to drinking water onboard was surprisingly inconvenient. Guest cabins were located between decks 6 and 14 (we stayed on deck 8), but the only place with self-serve drinking water was on deck 15. Each time we needed water, we had to carry our own thermos all the way up, and elevator wait times could be long. Alternatively, bottled water (800ml) was available at the bar for over $3 USD each, but the bar staff were not always honest. On three occasions when two bottles were purchased, the family was twice charged for three. Refunds were only issued after complaints were made at the front desk.
Very disappointing.
This is the 8th cruise we’ve been on (including others from the same group - Royal Caribbean & Celebrity).
The ship (Sun Princess) is nice, but unless you are a meat eating American who likes X-factor style singers it isn’t for you.
The breakfast consists of around 20 stations, 17 of which seem to serve variations of exactly the same thing (bacon, sausage, beans, egg - and pretty much in the same format - e.g. there are no poached eggs or eggs Florentine.).
The buffet for dinner and tea is also poor. Same every day, and not great quality. It's also very bland. There are a couple of token Indian dishes, and even those are bland too.
The entertainment is naff singers for the main part. We had 2 dreadful comedians. The only bright spot was the magician (Mike Bones) who was great.
You have to pay for shuttles, the sunbeds get nabbed and left reserved all day without Princess doing anything about it, and even the kids sports area has basketballs but no football! It’s like non-Americans and non-meat eaters are second class citizens. Even the sandwich bar often only has a choice of meat sandwiches half of the time.
On top of that they force you to carry a tracker, and they state on their app that they are capturing your facial recognition data (no idea why, but it surely is unnecessary and seems a breach of privacy). I asked for a normal card rather than the tracker pendant (which is magnetic and emits EMF) but they said I couldn’t have a card.
I was looking forward to better entertainment and much better food, but left disappointed. This is the worse cruise we’ve been on for food, sport, entertainment and privacy.
I’m posting the review here, rather than at the end of the cruise, as if my experience with Celebrity is anything to go by, they tend not to bother listening to genuine feedback.
Realice 3 cruceros con Princess, el primero en 2023, a Islas Britanicas en el Regal, 15 dias. el segundo en 2024, trasatlantico en el Sun Princess 17 dias, el ultimo en junio 2025, fiordos, en el Emerald, 17 dias.
En el ultimo note una baja muy importante en calidad de espectaculos y comida.
Estos 2 itens para los cruceristas son importantes.
Los espectaculos con excepcion de una cantante, creo que se llamaba Lynda Evans, mediocres. Un hipnotizador que se veia claramente el engaño y encima lo repitieron. Un coro y musical de los propios tripulantes, imaginense.
Y otros por el estilo.
La comida. Mucha comida de olla y aspecto regular para abajo, los primeros dias habia salmon, despues lo remplazaron por otros pescados de regular preparacion. Carne poco. Fruta siempre verde. Postres repetitivos.
Un dia nos ofrecian croisants del dia anterior. Y varios dias faltaron.
Entre los puertos, habia 3, de pequeños pueblitos con muy poco interes.
Hubiera sido ideal, sacar por lo menos 2 e incluir 2 dias en Oslo.
He viajado en MSC, Norwegian, Celebrity y pense que en Princess habia encontrado mi naviera Premium.
No es mas una compañia premium.
We booked the Princess Premier Package and for 2 days now they've blocked my stepsons medallion insisting he can only buy non alcoholic drinks. He's 28 years old!! The ship is tired and a lot smaller cabins than other cruiselines we've used. Spent more time at guest services than enjoying the actual cruise
Changed room. Havent even started the cruise and already something is wrong. I fear for the cruise itself.
Apparently my reserved room is gone to a reactivation (dont know what it means) so i will get a reassigned cabin later. What? Dont we reserve a cabin for a reason? They will assign a cabin? Well expectation is getting very low,. Not looking forward to this. Amateurish.
Two weeks before a cruise that we booked 2 years ago we have been informed of major changes - including a cancellation of one of the ports. Customer service appalling and no sign of any compensation.
We have cruised with Princess exclusively for years all over the world, and this was our first post pandemic cruise and our first time to Japan - it did not disappoint.
We had a great experience and it felt like returning home after waiting so long.
Seeing Japan by cruise is so easy and felt so simple considering the language barrier. Everything was just as we remembered and we were so happy it was - good food, good staff, good itinerary, good times! We can’t wait to cruise again in August 2024 on the new Sun Princess!
every industry is rebuilding customer service post pandemic, not just Princess - patience is a virtue and it’s not hard to be understanding as new staff learn the ropes - it’s best for your well-being and those around you to be kind rather than cranky 🙂
Absolute worst customer service and experience I've ever had and absolutely incompetent staff. My girlfriend and I booked a cruise with a live agent over the phone and that person screwed everything up and I mean everything. it was supposed to be in Canadian dollars it was us, we were supposed to fly out of Toronto they had us flying out of Texas, they misspelled our names and got our address wrong even though we spell our names for them and they still got it wrong, they had a Canadian address with a Texas postal code and it wasn't even the right Canadian address. so we try another live agent to fix what the other person screwed up for over a month they tried and no results and then they said we went through the phone records and realized it's our fault but is your problem not princess cruises and that we would have to pay more if we wanted to go. I reached out to the president of the company and I never got an email back. My girlfriend is a repeat customer for princess cruises this would have been her fourth cruise but we had to cancel cuz we cannot pay more I find it pretty sad how poorly they treat repeat customers.
The food was terrible. There was not one meal in the 7 days that I could actually say we enjoyed.
Everyone at our table agreed it was the worst food we have ever gotten on a cruise.
Would not recommend this ship to anyone. We were on the Grand Princess to Alaska
Unsafe food for allergies, pregnancy and any dietary requirements
Princess has really gone downhill, which is a view shared by at least two senior members of staff onboard. Honestly, you couldn't pay me any sum of money to go on another Princess Cruise. Quick overview: my next few paragraphs are issues around food safety. After that it's what I wish I'd have known before I booked.
Food safety
My main issue is around food safety. IF YOU HAVE ANY DIETARY REQUIREMENTS, PRINCESS IS NOT SAFE FOR YOU. Please also note if you're vegan, there are no vegan dishes available.
I am pregnant and allergic to dairy (to be specific, milk products like cream, cheese and butter). I told Princess on the app and on the online portal before I boarded. I told my booking agent when I booked the cruise. The first night, there was no meal for me. Instead I ended up with a dry piece of meat with some vegetables, served after everyone else had eaten. Thereafter I was told to order my food 24hrs in advance, which I always did. Yet every single meal had food that was unsafe for me to eat and each time it was me who noticed the issue. I even had issues in the speciality dining restaurants. When I was served food I couldn't eat, I often got a poor attitude from staff such as "oh it didn't say that on your ticket" as if I was the one who wrote the ticket and they just seemed really annoyed with me. I then had to eat by myself, as my family had all finished eating. Every day this happened.
They did eventually make me a separate dessert, which I had no choice in, but it was the same one five days in a row and again later than everyone else at my table was served. They wouldn't serve everyone else the same food every day, so I don't understand why it was ok for me.
Despite me asking them not to, a chef came out to talk to me about my dietary requirements and pregnancy on the restaurant floor, where other diners could overhear what was being said. He promised to take care of my food and ensure it was safe going forwards, but then admitted he didn't know what pregnant women can and can't eat. I similarly had a waiter argue with me about safe food and later apologised to my husband, rather than to me. He then asked me to teach him what pregnant people can and can't eat. Frankly the lack of training around this is shocking.
I complained to Guest Services on board, who apologised every day. I was told every day the chefs would be told and that it wasn't good enough, and yet nothing ever changed. I was told I'd have a meeting with the Head of Catering, but that didn't happen. I raised my concerns after I left the ship, and was told it would be reviewed and they'd give me 20% of the cruise value back. It's really not good enough. I ended up ill on the cruise because, despite my efforts, I still ended up eating dairy. I dreaded meal times every day and it it ruined the holiday for my family too. I also tried eating in the buffet, but food is either not labelled or labelled incorrectly, and room service kept getting my order wrong.
Princess don't seem to take seriously that if someone has a severe allergic reaction to a food, this could cost them their life. Thankfully for me, it just made me ill.
Onboard amenities.
There are not a lot of places to go on the ship during the day. We headed to Alaska, so it was often too cool to sit outside. Inside areas during the day were mainly limited to the buffet area and the atrium, which was always packed and difficult to get a seat in. There was only ever one restaurant open for lunch. Even with reservations, there were often long queues.
Disability
We travelled with my in-laws who are deaf. There's really not a lot of provision for deaf people. They can't hear announcements, or the door bell, or answer their phone when it rings (or for them to know it's ringing). Again we told Princess ahead of time. They weren't on our booking, so they looked like separate travellers. Luckily they were travelling with people who could hear or they would have missed important information, like disembarkation at the end of the cruise or where to go each day on the ship to get off the boat and go ashore.
Wifi
It doesn't work out at sea. You can, however, still use the Medallion app without paying for wifi to do ship related things, like make table reservations and find where other members of your party are on the ship.
Medallion App
This has to be downloaded before you board the ship. You need the app to be able to access Wifi (and make table reservations etc). If it's not working, sign out of it and then sign back in.
Booked a cruise package through Princess including flights. Our return flight was cancelled the evening before we were due to return and Princess told us to sort it out ourselves with the airline at the airport. We’re not interested in helping at all or getting us to the airport.Our debark excursion was cancelled because of the flight issue and they refused to refund the cost. In addition, after agreeing my bill they added $300 after leaving the ship. Customer services are a joke, emails are being ignored and it looks like I will have to use Section 75 credit card protection to get my money back. Will never use the Carnival brand again.
If I could rate as a -10 then I would. The cruise itself was nice enough and what I expected; however, the dog sledding expedition was cancelled due to weather not allowing the helicopters to fly that day. The cancellation was not the problem. Princess has not refunded my $2,679.80 that I prepaid for this expedition for my family of 4. I have called weekly for the past 3 weeks and they promise "within 5 to 10 business days" I will receive a credit on my credit card. THEY HAVE NOT REFUNDED ME AS PROMISED. In 4 days, it will be a month since our cruise and we still have not received our money back. Total SCAM company. I have never in my life been ripped off this much money by a large company. Stay away from this company unless you insure your trip and arrange your own excursions.
Princess have now "enhanced" the cruise experience by removing many complimentary items and adding them to their packages. We found this out when we entered our cabin and found a printed note on the bed. It also stated that all of the pre booked packages had been withdrawn and in order to get the complimentary services added the the revised package an addition charge would have to be paid.
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