Princess Cruises Reviews 826

On 16 August 2024, I confirmed, booked, and paid a deposit for a 7-day cruise for 2 departing from Sydney on 30 November 2024 and returning on 7 December 2024, covering stops in Hobart, Port Albert, and Melbourne.
What started as an exciting holiday plan turned into a frustrating and unacceptable ordeal due to the abysmal customer service and lack of professionalism from Princess Cruises.
On 25 September 2024, I received an email from reservations at princess cruises cruises stating:
"Our records indicate that a refund is due to you. Refund details are as follows: AUD 2,229.25."
Despite confirming the legitimacy of this refund on 26 September 2024, following numerous calls and emails, the refund process became a nightmare.
From 26 September to 31 December 2024, I spent countless hours trying to follow up on the promised refund, only to face conflicting statements and unhelpful responses from the Princess Cruises team.
On 31 December 2024, I was finally notified by a Customer Liaison Representative that the refund of AUD 2,229.25 had been processed incorrectly against my booking and would not be credited to my account. It took over three months for this information to be conveyed, during which Princess Cruises failed to communicate adequately.
Adding to the frustration, their own records indicated multiple attempts to process the refund on the following dates:
20 September 2024
2 October 2024
9 October 2024
27 November 2024
These repeated errors and conflicting updates demonstrate a severe lack of organization and professionalism. Throughout the whole process, the communication was appalling, and the customer service team seemed disjointed, offering no resolution or accountability for their mistakes.
To add insult to injury, in a so-called gesture of "good faith," the Customer Liaison Representative offered a $250 per person credit for a future cruise with Princess Cruises, valid only for 12 months. This offer was not only insufficient, but also insulting given the time, stress, and energy spent on trying to resolve their mistake. Expecting a customer to rebook with them after such an experience is audacious and completely tone-deaf.
This experience has left me with no confidence in Princess Cruises’ ability to manage customer service effectively or handle even the most basic administrative processes.
Based on my experience, I strongly advise potential travelers to consider alternative cruise lines that prioritize professionalism customer satisfaction, and excellence.
Princess Cruises’ extremely poor online reviews speak for themselves.
I regret booking with them and urge others to avoid the same mistake.

I just wanted to express my appreciation for the excellent customer service provided by Luyanda Chiya who assisted me through an online refund from our previous cruise in December 2024. Luyanda was professional, patient and very helpful throughout the process and talked me through each step to complete which made it so much better and a positive outcome. I was asked if there was anything more she could help with and sent me a copy of our next booked post cruise travel transportation details.
We are already happy loyal Princess Cruisers about to embark on our 6th cruise next month again now even more impressed with the admin assistance from Luyanda well done. Thank you again

I bought a cruise in August 2024 for my wife and me, leaving from Fort Lauderdale to England sailing in March 2025, choosing the cabin with a semi-obstructed balcony at the most affordable price. This January, I received a message from the company offering a lower price than what I paid for the cabin without obstruction.
We called Princess and requested an upgrade to a cabin without obstruction for the same price, which was higher than the new price charged. But, to our surprise, they said that this promotion was for those who had not yet fallen into the trap. For us, frequent Princess customers, who bought and paid for the cruise in advance, the price is even higher than what we had already paid.
Be careful when buying a cruise from this company, because you may fall into a trap thinking that the company is serious.

We loved both cruises taken with Princess so far on their Enchanted and Sky Princess ships. However their customer service is horrible. They simply don't answer any emails even if you mail several times and I cannot reach anyone on the phone either. An outstanding credit in our favor that was shown on our folio on teh day of disembarkation magically disappeared in the cruise summary that we got and nobody explained why or when we will receive the remaining credit left in our favor. Other cruise lines are better when it comes to after sales care...

We went A long awaited dream cruise to Alaska in August 2024 from Vancouver. The cruise itself was fine until the very last sea day on return, following the end of a very enjoyable theatre show, our 3 year old stumbled on a wine glass (that an inconsiderate passenger left by his stroller!) fell on top of it, cracking the glass and cutting his knee open on the full width of his knee. The medical staff did a sterling job and Princess duly gave us a medical bill of near enough $800 ($100 per stitch he needed to fix the wound). That was minor because we were going to claim on Insurance. That is where the positives ended. The attitude of staff from that point on was absolutely atrocious. The security team came along swiftly to take down notes and fill out an accident log, fine, procedue has to be followed but the way it was done make us feel like they were looking for something to pin the blame on the 3 year old (checking if his shoes were appropriate, if the buggy was appropriate, if he could walk normally etc) when we thought the cruise is 50% to blame for the accident for (A) allowing glasses to be taken into the theatre (B) without having sufficient procedures to collect empty glasses. In previous cruises we've been to, there were staff constantly walking to collect empty glasses. At the very least, the cruise could have had a marked section to place empty glasses, there was none of it within the theatre.

Either way, after the security guys took statements from witnesses to the incident, they conveniently concluded that the CCTV that was covering the area of the incident was 'not working', how convenient! we were then duly sent the bill which we asked the guest services to charge. Regardless they sent another letter in the morning of disembarkation to pay the bill which I called guest services who asked me to ignore as they have the card on file to charge up. I went to the guest services desk to get a copy of the accident report and they still didn't tell us anything about the bill being an issue. And eventually when we were disembarking and checking out from the ship with an injured 3 year old in great pain, the system flashed up for unpaid bill, which is when we lost our patience. The security guy asked us to jog back to guest services to pay the bill with a rude tone. I lost my patience and asked them to get guest services back to me if there is an issue as I had 3 interactions with them that confirmed the bill payment was fine, especially for one that ideally Princess should not even have issued to us when they are partially to blame! At no point of this did any staff member apologise for the incident that occured and made us feel as if we were entirely responsible for the incident. At this point, my 7 year old lost his calm and burst out crying and said "Princess are the worst holiday company, we are never coming back, let's just leave". the hotel manager of the ship saw this and took us to a side to understand what happened, I gave her the credit card asking her to go get payment for the 4th time. After a discussion with guest services, they decided to write the bill off which she acknowledged that never should have been issued and apologised for the distress caused, the first person to have shown any level of empathy.

The drama didn't end there, we raised a complaint with Princess with this and after a lengthy period of silence and a prompt chasing them, they came back saying the company does not take responsibility and this is an unfortunate accident and a level of personal responsbility has to be taken. What a response! Embarassing at best and saying a 3 year old trying to get on his stroller parked up at the appropriate location stumbling over a wine glass that was left by an insane guest partially due to not having appropriate facilities to collect glasses and on a busy carpet that no one would have even seen even if they looked to find a glass there it was hard to notice it. Safe to say we were looking to book our next cruise just an hour before this accident and a cruise company we were going to sing praice, but now it is a cruise company we would safely recommend to stay away at all costs because they are after taking your money and your safety is all your responsibility. My son after several months, says we are never going to go with Princess on any holidays ever again! now there's customer feedback.

I love that Princess is so nice organized that you don't have to go thru those long lines to board or get down at the end of your cruise. The crew is very polite & helpful when you need. HIGH FIVE to these amazing people that serve us on this cruise: OZ Entertaiment Director, Andrew THE BEST BARTENDER (he makes the tastiest coffee every morning for us THANK YOU), Moni & Edward at the Dining Room, Johnny Bar on Deck 6 and Alejandro PHOTO SHOP. You guys ROCK!

Thank You for the Captain for making a hard but needed decision
You guys are great. Will cruise again, people on board are also lovely.

Made reservations for the British Isles cruise and went through princess to book flights for myself, hubby and grandson. I made all our reservations early so I could get the stateroom and flight and plane seats we wanted. Airline changed the time so I called Princess to see if they could up the arrival time in London. First they said I had no reservations for the flight and transferred me to another agent. He would not listen. Kept talking over me. Told me to call back if I found a reservation number. I then called Princess again at another number, got transferred and then told I had a reservation but no assigned flight seats. This is Dec. 30th and I made my reservations in the beginning of August and was given assigned seats. This rep said no seats reserved and all I could get were seats that no one usually wants (no view, sandwiched between rows, and front row usually back in your face). I had made the request due to husbands issues and grandsons first flight. So we are now in the very back (2) and in another row(1). I am so angry to say the least. Angry to the point I am thinking of cancelling the whole trip with Princess and going with another cruise line. This is ridiculous. Oh and this agent said there were no such seats as the other agent gave. What!? No more Princess for us! I do not recommend Princess.
As for the cruise, trying to get information regarding my grandsons forms needed, well, never got an answer just to look online. Customer service terrible.

Vacation to Go booked me on a Princess Sapphire Cruise to Antarctica leaving December 18, 2024, and returning January 4, 2025.
This whole experience was a disappointment, I had to cancel my cruise due to a medical issue. My disappointment is the way I was treated:
1. I requested that Princess Cruise Line cancel or reschedule my trip and was informed that it would be a 100 percent cancellation fee, and then I could rebook my trip later. Bottom line, I would have to pay for the entire trip, and airline fees again. They would not give me any credit. I would be treated like a brand-new passenger.
2. I gave them a 2-week notification, they got to keep all my money and resale the trip to another customer, thereby making twice the money for the same trip, and I basically got nothing.
3. Vacation to Go and Princess Cruise Line did not tell me about their Vacation Protection Plan that I could have bought that would have protected me on this cruise (including getting credit for the tour). I was only directed toward Generali Insurance purchase.
My recommendation for these Cruises is to:
1. If you have to cancel before the cruise, cancel 24 hours before the cruise so that the ship can update their personnel manifest.
2. If you cancel due to a medical issue, do not cancel your trip before you see a health care professional (doctor, etc.), You will need them to validate your insurance claim (VERY IMPORTANT).
3. Purchase a Vacation Protection Plan or other Insurance (Generali is an excellent Insurance company). You never know when an emergency will arise before or during the Cruise.
4. Always read the final terms and ask plenty of questions, putting all your faith in one person can be problematic. This cruise would have been my first.
Princess Cruise Line was a big disappointment to me, and I find it hard to believe they treat customers in such an uncaring way and are only focused on the money.

When I booked a cruise I was told 350 onboard credit then I was told could not have it. Day to late the reason being for that was that they were checking out our future cruise credit..very crafty...cancel now they want 50 pounds to cancel. No way am I paying that

They've been one of my favorite cruise lines in the past, however. Even as an Elite member they charge you for receiving your medallions in advance of your cruise even though you opted to pick them up at the port to save on the shipping (they Refused to refund the shipping even though I selected port pickup). They no longer give you coffee shop credits for Elite members instead of the mini bar setup if you don't drink alcohol which was a great option in the past. Also they no longer give you ANY free internet minutes as a perk for Platinum or Elite members. I'm not sure what the perk is for an Elite member other than laundry service.

Overall PC provides good service BUT... DO NOT use their travel insurance if it is offered by AON. They are a scam company and if you go to Trustpilot and search on "AON Travel Insurance" 92 percent of the reviews are one star. Do not use them.

My first but certainly not our last with P&O Ventura. We enjoyed every minute of the Portugal and Canary 13 days . The food was outstanding and In the buffet the crew were serving and I found this so much better than passengers dipping into the food .There had been norvo virus on board but with the constant cleaning the crew were doing I wasn't worried. Our cabin was spotless and cleaned every day . I will definitely go again and again with them

My 4th cruise but first ( and likely last) with Princess Cruises. From Melbourne to New Zealand and back - 14 nights.
The agency rated the ship 4 star - but it is not - this is a 20 year old ship that needs a make over / upgrade.
Positive things : Stateroom was nice and always good cleaning , staff very friendly ( though my cabin steward was a bit grumpy)
Premium package was great at a good price (AU $ that was a good thing - also in the casino )
Medium : Food was okay but not more than that (desserts were great though) , entertainment were medium , seating around the ship was okay , pools looked allright
Bad : time at stops ( especially in Christchurch - should be 2 days so you could have some long tours to the west to Mt. cook , Franz Josef etc ) , tournaments arranged on board poorly organized , Golf link is a joke .. not maintained - very bad quality
REALLY BAD : that I got diarrhea from hotdogs delivered to my room - isolated more than 24 hrs - Princess so far not taking any responsibility ( it can only be those hotdogs) , no compensation - no investigation … That is so bad .
This cruise had potiental to be really great ..

NEVER book a Princess cruise. My Mother broke her shoulder and they charged us the full cost of the cruise as a "cancellation fee". Morally reprehensible company. Avoid at all costs.

Where to start!

I booked our trip of a lifetime with Iglu Cruises on the Princess Sapphire Cruise ship.

Before the cruise I ordered some bespoke princess medallions on the 8th of June that did not show up on the day of arrival for the cruise. (Could not be delivered because we live in England) According to boarding team they would be in the room, when we arrived they were not there and on visiting the medallion shop onboard the ship they said the order got cancelled with no notification, that really set the scene for this holiday, a complete lack of communication.
They were special honeymoon medallions that could not be ordered on the cruise so we had to buy alternatives.
Most importantly I am still yet to receive a refund for the orginal medallions Nearly two months since the cruise!

We then received notification on the ship without any notice that we would not be going to amber cove port!
We had booked an excursion in advance, and as of yet two months on have had no notification of the credit for the excursion for the waterfall experience. (I will add I received a credit with an unknown amount! No idea if it’s the right amount? Yet to get any confirmation!)

Then we move onto the boarding process:

The boarding process was awful, my partners suitcase got lost, we arrived on the ship at 11am and did not get her case until I visited guest services at 5:45pm.

Then we entered our room, the room was not clean the bed had hairs in it and the fridge had old food from the last passengers. It’s just not acceptable.

I will add I thought your porter Flezio did a superb rectifying the issue, then doing a superb job looking after us from then on.

Then we move onto the excursions team, who forgot to give us 2 of 3 excursion tickets, it wasn’t until I chased them did they notice they had only given us 1 of the 3 tickets.

The SPA team, my partner went to get a honeymoon massage for us both, and the spa team had not been informed it was our honeymoon, they usually get informed and offer us special deals, another poor piece of communication.
However they did rectify this on board the ship and we got a 25% discount.

Then we move onto the outside pool, my wife now has green hair tips and my swimming shorts that were not cheap were white and are now green which are completely ruined. Again another expense that I will not get any money back!

We have reported these incidents to the guest services team throughout our stay on the ship, who tried their best to rectify some of these issues, but although Silvia tried to resolve them they remained consistent problem after problem.

Overall I was really disappointed with the whole experience, fundamentally we paid a large sum of money for this honeymoon trip of a lifetime and it has not lived up the expectations of what we had pictured.

I would strongly recommend if you are from the UK not to travel with Princess Cruises.

It’s just a shame I can’t upload pictures to show you all!

The cruise itself was fine, it was everything else on board that spoilt it. The shows all but 1 were awful, the duty free prices on board are more expensive than taxed items ashore, even Tesco prices are cheaper. Drinks are expensive too, and the tour prices are such a rip off.
My main grip however is that you have to register a payment card even if you don't buy anything. Our on board spend was enough, so we owed nothing when disembarking the ship, yet 100 dollars was taken out of both our accounts. 3 weeks later this still hasn't been returned. We've phoned & emailed which has resolved nothing.
Customer services is terrible. No one can actually say when it will be credited back. Shame on you princess.

People leave other countries because they are S$## holes. What has happened to America is businesses like Princess are treating us like people get treated in other countries. Never have I run into a larger collection of idiots and crooks than Princess. They block access to real people that can help, flush any record of what they agreed, and send you through an endless barrage of "let me put you on hold for a while to investigate this" Bottom line, the customer support bottom tier's sole job is to buffer the real employees from access. They only want to lie about what you get, then change it all. I must have called 30 times before the trip even began to straighten up their screwups. 1/2 the time you get an idiot. I've been on a call for 20 minutes only to be transferred to someone else who had no role in what I was trying to do. This was about the 5th time I got the brush off! I have not even taken the trip yet. They would be well served to straighten up their act prior to the cruise so that when the inevitable issues occur on the ship, they was hit a sore wound from the onset!

We booked some things in advance. However due to weather conditions we had to cancel them. We were promised onboard by Guest Services that these would be credited back to our credit card ... HOWEVER they instead showed up as a credit for a future cruise instead! DO NOT BOOK OR PAY FOR ANYTHING such as dinners, breakfast, excursions, spa, etc IN ADVANCE with Princess Cruise. ALSO we did a Bid for an Upgrade which cost us over $1000 and which resulted in the same cabin on the same deck, they said the "upgrade" would bypass lines and waiting, our 1st time to the dining room the wait was over 30 minutes!!! This cruise company is horrible and deceptive. We have booked our next cruise with a competitor for April 2025 in the Mediterranean. Also the ship had many mechanical issues, public bathrooms not working, our cabin bathroom plumbing leaked and we had to put a bucket under the sink so the floor would not flood when we used the sink! The family game room game machines were not working! They did not mail our Medallions until very last days prior to cruise, put us in a panic and their Ocean Ready department handled it poorly. Finally, they have staff that will call you trying to get you to book and pay for things in advance ... DON'T! That was a Big Mistake!

Princes Cruises is cheating customers with complimentary sauna on Caribbean Princess. They are showing the sauna on deck maps, but when you buy a cruise and board the ship, they will reveal you that there are no longer any saunas onboard, not free or paid, and if you want to use their crappy thermal suite steam room during your cruise, it will cost you an extra US $200.

I would say save your money and go with another cruise line been chatting to others and yes bar service which we did pay a high premium for is very disappointing staff allways served Americans first