Princess Cruises Reviews 824

Never gave 1 star for a cruise ever and in fairness, although the public areas were lovelly, too many issues;
- Food poisoning. Princess ignored the fact that the only people who were ill, were the people that ate the seafood. Other passenger reports, but their response was passed on via Norovirus.
- Food consistently cold and 1hr wait between starters and mains...Didnt get better after telling maitre D
- Public areas freezing cold. People wearing puffer jackets, hats and rubbing hands up and down ribs. I'm from North East, and I was cold
- Mens toilet outside of dining room at 19.20pm was dirty, towels on floor. Princess apologised for the mess made by passengers but maybe the frequency that they are cleaned (Hrly) needs a review. They missed the point that this was the beginning of service...Do the toilets really get that busy when the restaurant has only just opened!
- One cabin in party, toilet flooded when flushed when joining ship. >1hr to respond to the point they had to go to reception.
- This was a 5 says cruise and at the end of day 2 I had to go to reception to ask for clean towels and toilet roll
- Customer Service..Did not exist. When I raised a complaint about public areas being cold, the response from reception was "I Know'.....and???? no solution offered and no follow up. Complained on return and their customer service managing the complaint refused to take responsibility for the issues raised. They said the staff resolved the issues....They did not.....We were on a 5 day cruise, cabin was not properly serviced for first 2 days, public areas cold till the day we got off, food poisoning for 2 days...Pathetic Princess.....Never again

We have been paid in full for an upcoming cruise for months. Yet, when we try to make dinner reservations through their app; it states we must be paid in full first. In addition, i was able to get "cruise ready" through the app where you are required to do so, but my wif can not. There is a glitch in their app. We have spent literally hours upon hours with customer service to try and get this resolved. It is not. They will not forward our calls to a supervisor. We have been hung up on more than once. Promises of a return call have never happened. They got our money and care about nothing else. This has been going on for months and we can't even prepare for our cruise. But before they hang up on us, they always try to sell us a package when we literally purchased their premier package already. Zero customer service.

We have been cruising with Princess for the last 10 years and over that time our experience with them has been great. But unfortunately now and again things do go wrong and I have always found that their staff are always friendly and helpful. Like Ellie in Guest relations department who has just been extremely helpful and resolved a few issues that we had on our previous cruise. Ellie you are a star thank you.

The pre cruise service was outstanding. We have had three cruises with Princes and the actual cruises have been first class. The advisor we dealt with, Ken McConachie, was a real star. He had a wealth of knowledge and experience and gave us great advice, He facilitated all our requests and did so in a pleasant, clear helpful and knowledgeable fashion. He has removed any concerns we had about our forthcoming cruise. A super employee without doubt.

We booked our first cruise with Princess and so far customer service is the worst. I called before booking to ask if price drop is there any possibility to refare the booking. I was told yes. We booked a week ago and saw the price change, our boat is only cruising in 10 months, and when we called they said we can’t do anything this is the price for this week booking. So either agent 1 or agent 2 is lying. There is no refare compare to other cruise. It was just a lie for us to book and if we wish to cancel they are still charging us fee. It is our first experience booking with princess and it will be the last regardless how great it will be. If customer service can’t do anything, i rather look elsewhere. And we are experienced cruisers….

Cabin - Caribe 228 - Level 10:
Reviews for Caribe were bad and it was true. My cabin had no air flow the entire 10 days cruise. Other passengers also submitted daily report of poor ventilation. I had cough the entire cruise and even though l reported the poor air flow daily, l was given $350 future crew credit which l declined and now have to file a complaint report.There was another caribe cabin which had the same issue and it was even worse, the passenger had an accident climbing off the wall bed.

Daily activities :
Since my last cruise at Diamond Princess in July 2025, there has been a 50% drop in activities and daytime entertainments. No daytime classes in dancing, games, cooking etc. No talks except cruise destinations, gems and art .
Evening entertainment at the Theatre :
It was my third cruise within 10 months and it was the same musical, comedian, 1950 rock in Pink Cadillac. It was extremely boring; no variation.

Passengers:
Mostly from Asian countries and they speak loudly and l used masks all the time due to the strong sense. Some do have the bad habit of rinsing their mouth in public sinks. And some didn’t know the toilet flash , so it can be challenging.Overall l found all of them very friendly and it was great to be with the Scottish crowd, very humble and great company.

Excursions:
Very expensive $179 for 6 hours.Most passengers avoided excursion and mostly Americans and the odd British. I went to all longest day trip only for because :
No- public buses, trains, WiFi, google, sat.nav.
Locals do not speak English
Taxi drivers not qualified or have valid licence so if there was an accident, l double l could claim travel insurance.
Port day time arrival was usually late and early departure.

Food :
Diamond Princess was bottom of the league but has been the winner on the recent 2 surveys. . The food is outstandingly good so l didn’t mind the lack of activities or entertainment as the food was very varied with generous portions . The waiters were very fast and efficient. As l have a simple diet due to my allergies, Diamond Princess was able to cater for me. Ru, the Director of Beverages would come daily to check that l had the right food. He is very impressive and highly respected but he is retiring end of 2026.

Overview of Vietnam:
It was my second cruise to Vietnam and l came to cruise Halong Bay; it was beautiful but it was a short 30mins by a small boat trip for 6 hours excursions with the junk boat going at 2-3knots. Not good value of money $179! Included lunch was awful e.g.instant plain noodles , 2 chicken pieces and 3 prawns each. And the onboard selling of pearls.
The supposedly scenic day cruise by Princess was short and by the time we finished breakfast and rushed to our balcony, it was all over !
Vietnam is unappealing; it has no disposal of rubbish and it is littered with rubbish everywhere. There is no public toilets, the vegetables are fertilised with human waste, so it’s not advisable to eat street food.Constantly hassled by street venders in the cities. It is so dirty and dusty with motorbikes everywhere. 30 death from motor daily. There are 80 millions bikes with population of 100 millions people. The locals have a very hard life and great admiration for their resilience.
I enjoyed the excursion to Saigon and the history of the Vietnam war and the visit to the Palace to view the bunker radio rooms and my highlights were seeing the Chinese and soviet tanks and the military plane F5.
I had the opportunity to taste the best French Vietnamese cuisine at Hoi An - 6 dishes with a beer for £18. Excellent oversea food on cruises excursion.

I gave one star for the location in Vietnam and the air ventilation onboard Princess. There is a documentary report of their ventilation system during the COVID when there were a lot of incidents, available at Google.

Princess Diamond is still my favourite ship and though l had no air flow in my cabin, the issue was taken seriously - communication and service was effective. But it is an old ship , grand and to be expected. The crew has enormous energy, friendly and happy.

To be clear, I have received NOTHING from Princess Cruises, absolutely nothing after over 40 attempts at resolution including elevating it to Princess's Executive Office.

Their unresponsiveness to my customer requests for information and resolution continue and they have added lying and shifting blame to a fictitious male travel agent. Their responses, too, are conflicting, change, and are clearly not legal, ethical, equitable, timely, or in good faith. Princess has an extremely low customer satisfaction score for resolution even after dealing with exigent conditions during COVID. Customers frequently are forced to seek legal action against them or support through travel advocate services.

My travel companions, too, after nearly a month of exhausted attempts at resolution have received the same responses in trying to be reimbursed for 1000's of dollars of services not rendered by the merchant. This situation is estimated to impact 250 people on just this one cruise alone. Princess is illegally and unethically holding at least $250,000.00 of customers money just for this cruise alone.

Our flights were cancelled due to exigent conditions impacting airspace in the Caribbean. Princess kept our money estimated at $250,000.00 for one ship alone!!

I am physically and emotionally exhausted. This has all transpired between 1/3/26 and present as I continue to attempt to resolve the situation with the merchant.

According to my records, I contacted my travel agency as directed by Princess by phone at least 31+ times on 1/3, 1/5, 1/9, and 1/12 totalling over 2 hours of conversations. I also contacted my travel agency via email on 1/5 and 1/21. These attempts dead ended since Princess was not responsive to the travel agency in regard to any formal reimbursement or credit policy.

NOTE THAT PRINCESS CRUISES, THE MERCHANT, DIRECTED ME TO MY TRAVEL AGENT FOR RESOLUTION IN INITIAL PHONE CALLS I MADE TO THEM. THEY TOLD ME THEY COULD NOT HELP ME INCLUDING NOT BEING ABLE TO SEND ME A CANCELLATION NOTICE OR A FORMAL REIMBURSEMENT OR CREDIT POLICY BASED ON THE EXIGENT CONDITIONS IN THE CARIBBEAN. THESE IMPACTED 10'S OF 1000'S OF TRAVELLERS IN THE CARIBBEAN. OTHER CRUISELINES IN THE CARIBBEAN IMMEDIATELY ISSUED REIMBURSEMENT AND CREDIT POLICIES.

The merchant to date has not initiated ANY attempts to contact me or credit any portion of the almost $2000.00 they are holding. They have made no attempt to reimburse even taxes, port charges and other pre-paid expenses that I never used such as tips, drinks, and WIFI. I voiced these concerns to them. Again they showed no concern and were not responsive.

All attempts for reimbursement have been initiated by me. If I had not, they would have just kept the $2000.00 I paid. I voiced this concern to them as well. They expressed "that is their policy." When I asked for a copy in writing, they refused and shifted blame to a fictitious travel agent.

I contacted the merchant by phone directly on 1/9 initially and then still after ZERO response from them again on 1/15, 1/22, 1/23, 1/26 via numerous phone calls, messages via Instagram messenger, and several emails to 3 Princess executives including the CEO. I am a CEO myself and informed them of this. I informed them I have made dozens of attempts to resolve the situation at the lowest levels possible through multiple channels to no avail. I requested a full refund stating the abominable service and blatant and recurring unresponsivesness and legal and ethical implications. Those attempts ended in 2 different Princess representatives calling me over 4 days and lying about a fictitious male travel agent who I do not have and making no attempts to even minimally return the prepaid fees charged to me that I never used. I voiced these concerns to them and to the same 3 Princess Executives I originally contacted. Princess's Executive Office response to my second email was to lie more and reference the fictitious male travel agent again.

I requested a full refund and credit to my credit card. As is clearly seen, anything less is simply not equitable and is valueless and not acceptable to me. Any person under these circumstances would not knowingly do business with such an unreputable company. I am a first and last time customer of Princess Cruises

This experience has been atrocious and beyond stressful. I at the time was stuck 3000 miles away from home unable to get to my travel destination. The legal and ethical implications are also clear. Princess Cruises is openly violating consumer protection laws and regulations and is knowingly ripping off its customers and does not care.

absolute crap company at this point. used to be 100000% better. Stay away.

We have spent over £50,000 with Fred. Olsen on two holidays, including a large family cruise booked via them with Princess Cruises.
At the time of booking, we clearly told the Fred. Olsen agent that our daughter-in-law was pregnant and that a baby would need to be added later. We were explicitly told this would be fine and would cost no more than £300.
When we later contacted them to add the baby (now 9 months old at time of travel), we were first told we’d need to upgrade the room for £1,700. When we instead offered to add the baby to our suite, the price suddenly became £999.
We explained what we were told at the time of booking and asked them to review the recorded call. They flatly refused, would not escalate the issue, and simply repeated “this is our policy.”
This isn’t about Princess Cruises’ pricing — it’s about Fred. Olsen misrepresenting costs at the point of sale and then refusing to investigate when challenged.
Very disappointing customer service, zero accountability, and not what you expect after spending this level of money. We are now having to consider formal escalation purely because Fred. Olsen won’t review their own call recordings.

After being a P&O guest for over 30 years, I thought I’d try Princess, mainly to experience some different destinations. To my surprise and joy, I was immersed in a completely different culture. Who knew ? Friendly, safe, calm, competent , yet vibrant crew, fabulous itinerary on the vessels, relaxed uncomplicated holiday atmosphere. I now realise I was putting up with cruising previously as I just loved being at sea, and largely ignoring the things onboard that riled me. Now I can have my cake and eat it ! Phenomenal vessels, great atmosphere throughout , wonderful destinations with life changing experiences on the organised excursions. I have room for several brands now, inc Oceania, P&O to a degree, NCL, RCL etc., but I’ll be returning to Princess regularly now. I want a carefree break, I work hard enough not to waste my hard earned cash and I want to ensure I laugh, dance, make friends, no pretentiousness, I am welcomed on board by an great crew and I’m appreciated. Princess, you’ve restored my faith in cruising and instilled a new respect for your industry. You just seem to get it right !! Looking forward to booking Alaska next, bring it on. Thankyou !!

Very old ship that was dangerous. The interior flooded and people were injured.
Cruise with Princess? NEVER AGAIN

Went to Norway with Princess cruises. Had an absolutely amazing time. Cabins were really comfortable. Staff were polite and helpful. Would definitely recommend

Have done quite a few cruises and Princess comes top for us. Can't fault anything. Staff are all amazing and go above and beyond, right from booking to being on board. Especially Ellie Gower-Crane, who was extremely polite, efficient, friendly and sorted our querie with ease. Also love the Medallion class and app. Makes life so much more simpler. Would definitely recommend Princess Cruises.

After being on several cruises and the first time cruising on Princess, the cruise fell short of expectations, the inclusive eateries are very few choices, everything is an up charge, the service was just OK, much better service, eatery and entertainment options on Royal Caribbean. Needless to say my first time on Princess will be my last.

I am currently on a princess Cruise between Sydney and New Zealand and have just realised that their method of medallion tracking is actually a total intrusion of privacy. For example, if you visit any of the restaurants and the service is inconsistent and the food is not to expectations all the staff appear to have a control overview as they know exactly where you are at any time whether you are in your cabin or the toilet or generally just walking about. I personally had a very poor experience in the Crown Grill restaurant where the service was very poor and the food extremely badly served. As most people do they move on after the bad experience however when I went for a drink to one of their Bars, they appear to know exactly where I was with my complaint and it would appear that they track your every move around the ship, whether you are going to the toilet or to a bar or restaurant for a drink. This kind of service and privacy intrusion is totally unacceptable and needs to be made aware to most of the public before they book a princess Cruise. The management and staff seem to have total control over you and have no respect to the bad service they deliver. 

Using AI voices for their audio ads and you can hear it a mile off. Hire real actors who don't sound like robots!

I actually gave up £1000 deposit on my next cruise with them NOT to travel with them again it was that bad. It's taken me a long time to write this review because I just wanted time to get over how ghastly it was before I wrote it. The ship was full of very loud, very entitled people. They were often drunk, wearing shorts and crocs and making loud racist/homophobic statemetns and guffawing. The casino was in the middle of the ship and people were allowed to smoke in it so the whole central atrium was full of cigar/cigarette smoke. They did a LOT of bait and switch. I ordered a reasonable priced bottle of wine with dinner. It didn't arrive until the meal was nearly over and then when it did it was a different wine. I clocked this and asked to see the wine list before they opened it. Thank goodness I did as the one they were trying to open (and charge me for) was more than ten times the price. I queried it with the wine waiter and he said they didn't have the wine I'd ordered and this was "the nearest alternative". The same thing happened with my spa treatments. I'd booked something relatively affordable and then turned up and found that they had substituted it for something costing WAY MORE and when I asked them if the treatment was going to be charged at the same price as the one I had actually booked I was told no, it would be charged at the massively inflated price, so I chose not to accept the substitution. I also turned up and found that my other treatments had just been cancelled and nobody had informed me. The most horrible thing was going to the hydrotherapy spa area and a man filming me on his mobile. When I pointed it out to staff they said that people are allowed to take their mobiles into the spa and film people if they want to. I just found it really pervy. I've done a lot of cruises and never been in one where people are allowed to film other passengers in their swimwear. I didn't go back in there. There is no way that I would ever chose to travel with them again. I had booked a later cruise with them well over a year away and I was told I would loose my entire deposit if I cancelled. I cancelled anyway. It's a bitter pill but there is no way I'd ever travel with this line again.

Cruise line is great but the recommendation that you use AON to insure your travel plans is a big mistake. AON are terrible. They do not honor claims and are totally dishonest. Their website is a joke and their mission statements are pure BS. Save your money go to another insurance company.

Booked directly online as first time cruises with Princess.
Found the website as if from the Stone Age and the deposit hefty.
At the time of booking noted that the deposit was refundable on the website but this wasn’t transferred onto the invoice in any way.
Fast forward 9 months and we have to cancel. Rung the Australian number and then automated voice message said to use the online chat as it claimed you’d be communicating with a cruise expert.
I used the online chat with 4 different team members and didn’t find one of them expert as none of them could help with my query and need to cancel, instead requested I ring the number back and speak to someone directly. This contradicted the automated message which said you can cancel using the chat function.
Fast forward a week and 6 more calls to the Australian number. At no point was anyone actually based in Australia but far flung around the world.
None could help with the information I needed to cancel and kept directing me to ring the Australian number which I was already ringing!!!
The final call (number 7) I was on hold for nearly an hour, therefore nearly 3 hours on the phone with all the calls but got through to someone who knew what to do.
The refund was authorised and was told between 10-15 working days before the Credit Card would be refunded. Took 22 days!
All in all a poor customer experience from Princess Cruises and we will never venture with them.
As an add on, if a first time cruiser and a new itinerary is about to be released, those prior cruisers are given the option to book first and then the general public a week later when the rubbish cabins are then available. Totally disagree with this policy as should be a first come first served basis for all.

I emailed Princess prior to Christmas to obtain medical information from an event onboard Sapphire Princess in July 2025. I was informed to complete a POST DISEMBARKATION FORM in order to obtain the needed medical information to appeal denial by our insurance carrier which was submitted prior to Christmas. I called Tuesday, January 6th, and Customer Service Rep told me (parapharsing) " You will get the information when you get it". I emailed Mr. Mario Siebeli, VP of Guest Relations on Tuesday, January 6, 2026 and NO RESPONSE to me email. I tried emailing Mr. Gus Antorcha (President of Princess) today (January 9, 2026) and he must either have a different email format or blocked my email.
We are up against a HARD STOP to appeal the medical insurance denial. Princess just doesn't seem to care about loyal customers.

I really have to reconsider sailing with Princess in the future.