Princess Cruise

To make a long story short, Back in May 2009, my wife and I took our very first Princess Cruise that was booked for the Mexican Riviera. However, due to unforeseen situations (swine flu), our cruise got diverted to a California Coastal Cruise. They credited our account as a Voyage Goodwill for 50% of the cruise fare to be used as a deposit for a future cruise (had to be booked by 4/30/11). On 3/21/2011, I booked another Mexican Riviera Cruise departing on 10/13/2012. I just found out today that back in September 2011, Princess had changed our itinerary from a Mexican Riviera cruise to, yet again, another California Coastal cruise, which I was never notified about.

So, I called Princess customer service and was told that if I switched the booking to the April 20, 2013 Mexican Riviera Cruise that it would be considered a new booking and that my Voyage Goodwill would be forfeited. So even though my booking was originally for a "Mexican Riviera" cruise, I would have to forfeit my $600 credit because it expired. I cannot begin to explain my frustration with Princess Cruises and this situation. I don't see why my Voyage Goodwill credit cannot be moved over and applied to my newly desired booking since my original itinerary was changed to the same cruise after the Book By Date of the Voyage Goodwill credit had already expired. If this doesn't get resolved, I will never cruise with them again. I wrote a letter to the President of Princess, the COO and CEO of Carnival Corporation and the Princess Cruises corporate office. We will have to wait and see what happens.

I purchased a honeymoon cruise for my daughter and her new husband. Due to the situation at the port with the cancellation of the public transportation and the car service that refused to carry them to the port, they were unable to get to the ship. We made a call to the customer service department and told them our situation. We were told by them "too bad". I have tried to get some sort of credit with the cruise company with no success.

One other issue I have with the company is they are constantly sending offers for half price cruises or two for one. They want to fill the ships, why not give a credit for the cruise and keep potential customers happy? Also, there were somewhere in the amount of 900 passengers that did not make the cruise like my daughter. What did they do for them? I am a very an unsatisfied customer.

I just returned from 7 day cruise to Western Caribbean on Crown Princess. When we entered our cabin, there was letter on the bed from the ship's doctor informing us they had norovirus onboard. We were advised to wash our hands, use Purell, and use our own washrooms. Nice way to start the trip. By Thursday morning, I started vomiting violently. Nurse came to our cabin and gave me 2 shots in 12 hours. Following that, the diarrhea began. They sent up Imodium, which did nothing. I was quarantined to my cabin for the remainder of the trip, escorted off the ship, as were all sick passengers (and there were many), and asked to wear latex gloves as I disembarked. I barely made it home and had to see my own doctor. I responded to Princess's online survey in a very negative fashion and requested a refund. We are Platinum members of Princess. This may be our last cruise with them.

I received a blanket response letter from Princess via email stating stomach flu is everywhere and refusing any refund, even for the days I was sick due to Princess. When we left the ship, I heard a Princess land-based employee tell someone this was a "sick ship" that just came into Ft. Lauderdale port. Many passengers were sick. We got onboard healthy but returned home quite ill due to Princess Cruises. Their cavalier attitude towards my illness has been duly noted by myself, my husband, and our cousins who traveled with us. We are all Platinum members with Princess. Next vacation will definitely be on land. And if I ever cruise again, it will not be on Princess.

As I write this, I'm still on the swim with the Dolphin's Tour from the Emerald Princess at St. Thomas. Eight hours into a six hour tour for 30 minutes of swim time with the dolphins which is too much hurry and wait. The guide has the personality of a Nazi prison camp guard who lacks total social and communication skills. The fact you have to clear customs twice is bad enough and the transportation was not coordinated and extremely complicated. The wait time for busses was extraordinary. Upon our return to St. Thomas, we cleared customs but the boat that brought us refused to take us to our ship. They had to make other arrangements to get us back to our ship. Oh, and the ship was supposed to leave a half hour ago. I could go on and on but my biggest concern is will I ever get back to the ship!

I have not cruised yet. I got a letter 2 days ago to say there's an outbreak of dengue fever in Bahamas. If you read about this, there is no cure. And if you have been bitten before, it could kill you. So, I asked for money back or even swop for another cruise. But they don't want to know. Is there any legal leg to stand on? Thanks.

I was on the cruise voyage 2133 to the Panama Canal on Oct.10-20 with state room D204. The smoke alarm went off in the middle of the night and sounded with a screaming noise for over an hour. We kept calling and they said it was being handled on the deck. Finally, they sent someone to silence it. He said he would report it and that someone would contact us for compensation. We also received a 4:00 wake up call we didn't ask for.

If princess wants to do the right thing and keep us happy customers they will contact me and tell me what they can do for us since we paid good money for this cruise and had a bad experience. I am sure the incident has been documented, please let me hear from you. Thank you in advance for your compensation which I will look forward to receiving.

On Sept 29, 2011, we boarded Emerald Princess in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for a 10-day trip. We waited over 1.5 hours to make it through the embarkation process, even though we complied with all online bookings and pre-arranged boarding passes, as a computer was down and process was only supported by a single computer.

The food was terrible. First arrival buffet lunch was cold and poor quality, with limited selection. The prime rib beef was sour and dangerous to consume. For breakfast the next day, the omelets were cooked in lard or oil, not butter, so we couldn't finish that either. The coffee has very poor quality in main dining rooms (DaVinci or Michelangelo) so we switched to eating breakfast and lunches in coffee shop and paid $30 for coffee card; better coffee and food served there. On the second night, we ordered filet mignon medallions, same result, we couldn't take more than one bite. We switched to plain chicken on salad. We tried Sabatinis restaurant and had better luck there. We entered a complaint card which was quickly responded to. Francesco arranged for us to try out the Crown Grill. Jose the waiter in the Crown Grill was unable to produce a bottle of wine ordered 30 minutes prior and when his assistant waiter was able to provide 5 minutes after reminder, we cancelled the bottle as we were midway through the service. Also, we tried the filet mignon and New York Sirloin, the former was of great quality cut of meat while the latter contained heavy gristle. Both arrived too cold to eat however, as they were sitting in kitchen too long. First time we ever walked out on a free meal before.

We booked a tour of Blackbeards Castle, Amber Museum and Shopping. Blackbeard never visited this island (he roamed from North Carolina up to Maine), there was no castle (only an observation tower built by the Dutch 300 years later). An open air truck took us up the hill to the entrance, but dropped us there; tour then became a walking tour downhill starting with gift shop, then Amber Museum (small shack with some trinkets in it) and intent was to then walk 1/2 mile to pick up water taxi for short trip back to the ship. We skipped this idea and paid another $30 Taxi fare to get back to ship from tour entrance as the weather was too hot for walking. We wasted $100, not counting the return taxi.

We booked a scuba dive in Dominica through Dive Dominica. The first dive was to Abyss dive site, dive guide stated that we had slight current and we were to be cautious. As I was the seventh diver into the water, I found myself three boat lengths past the stern immediately upon entering the water. It was difficult to swim back to the ladder, upon exiting the water on boat ladder. I pulled my leg muscle and was no longer able to dive during the rest of the trip as an injury prevented me from further diving. I missed out on Bonaire and Aruba.

I took a Golden Princess cruise to Alaska. I feel lied too, coned, most of all hassled. Not only does it cost a lot but the whole time you are on the boat, its more money. There's nothing for early people to do. The security makes no sense .I can buy a knife, as a gift and bring it on board but I can't have a quarter in my pocket. It was the worst vacation of my life.

I want to express my disappointment on a booking. According to the brochure which we received in mid August, we could book an oceanview cabin listed at $629.00 with promo code PL7, which was to expire on August 31, but we were told that the offer had already expired earlier than that date. Now, we have to pay $699.00 for the booking with an inside cabin only. Since we show our loyalty to Princess and we also took along two friends to join on this journey, we are asking if we can get an upgrade on our cabins to any room other than inside cabin.

A trust takes time to build and just one dishonorable incident has completely destroyed the loyalty that we have extended to Princess Cruises. We have travelled 56 days on Princess Cruises, including this new booking, and we look forward to completing our eligibility towards the elite category in the next six months. Now, we are seriously discouraged, saddened, and deeply hurt.

We hope that they can restore our trust by rectifying the price as advertised (i.e. an ocean view cabin listed at $629.00 with promo code PL7) and we will be happy to continue sailing on Princess Cruises and encourage our friends and colleagues to do the same.

On Dec. 14, 2006, I purchased Captain's Circle membership # **, authorization code **, for $100. I called on August 8, 2011, to ask for the promised refund since I do not plan to cruise again. I was told that Princess credited my card with 4 ending digits of ** on Dec. 14, 2010. I was not told of this. I do not have a card ending in that number. I called Chase and Discover to find out if I had ever had a card with that ending number. They said I had not. I was told by Princess that if that card was still not in use, another card would have been credited. I was also told that I would be contacted after they traced the payment.

Carole **

Took the Princess cruise to Northern Europe and St Petersburg from Ft Lauderdale.

It was the CRUISE FROM HELL:

-Virus spread to 1/3 of passengers

This voyage was the worst voyage I have ever taken with any cruise line. To top off this injury, I filed a complaint and talked to a representative named "Tammy". She did not listen to any of the facts. It seemed she had a written manual in front of her. It was like talking to a computer.

To top off all this insult, I originally booked the cruise with the Princess representative and you would think they would listen to their own customer complaint. WORST CRUISE LINE EVER! You are in good hands with Princess, unless you have a problem; then buyer beware!!!!

On July 22 my husband and I returned from a Princess Cruise aboard the Caribbean Princess to find we were missing our large piece of luggage in the Brooklyn NY Cruise Terminal upon disembarkation. We filed a form with Princess Cruises and traveled back to our home in California that day. That night there was a message from Princess Cruises that a person had called in and said he had our bag. The person at Princess Cruises gave us that person's phone number and said we could resolve the disposition of the bag with that person. The man who had our bag stated he is disabled, lives in a nursing home. It was the porter within the cruise terminal who had put our bag in this man's van by mistake. He said it was the cruise's responsibility to get the luggage back to us as he was not responsible for the mistake, nor would he pay for it.

I kept calling Princess Cruises regarding our lost bag. At first they said that the porters do not work for Princess Cruises, so they will not take responsibility for our lost bag. When I pointed out the bag was within the cruise terminal under the auspices of the cruise line, and the last we saw of the bag was when the cabin steward picked it up outside our cabin the night before, the person in the cruise lines Lost and Found reluctantly said she would have it picked up. We have not had the courtesy of a phone call from the cruise line. We had to keep calling the man in New York. The bag was not picked up. I have spent countless hours of frustration trying to get our bag back.

To date, July 5, I received a call from Federal Express asking me for a tracking number. I stated I did not have one since no one from the cruise line has called me. I asked where our bag was and was informed in New Jersey. I was told it is going ground and may get to us in four days. That means an unnecessary going on three weeks since we left the ship.

Just returned from a 17 day cruise on Coral Princess sailing from Ft Lauderdale to Vancouver, Canada. On Day 2 the ship was hit with Norovirus, Fecal/Oral contamination, with many passengers being contaminated in including my cabin mate. 5 days in cabin isolation and missing two ports of call. The ship had been hit with the same virus on the preceding cruise.

Just got back from a 28 nt cruise aboard Sapphire Princess. Great holiday, until on my return I noticed 4 boxed jewellery items were missing. We put our 2 large suitcases out prior to dinner and finished packing our 2 hand cabin suitcases after our meal, locked them and put them out for the hold after we retired. From the dock we collected our bags, unbeknown about the theft on board. We then kept our 2 hand baggage on us at all times.

I cannot believe this could happen, we have been on at least 10 cruises and never once has anything been taken. The items were mostly costume jewellery, but sentimental too. Also items had been bought from Oz, NZ and India as keepsakes. I contacted the ship to catch the culprit but they said to direct my complaint with Princess in Southampton. I called and gave my story to an uninterested operator and was told I would be contacted within the next 28 days! I am disgusted and disappointed to say the least.

My husband and I booked a cruise to South American with Princess to sail on 1/16/11. It was suggested that I book my air also with them. I booked it 9/24/10 with my Princess "travel planner", who has since been relieved of his duties at Princess. I believe that this is due to his incompetence. Therefore, it's my word against Princess since he is no longer there. He booked us on a very complicated series of flights which require us to book 2 hotel rooms, one at Dulles on the evening of 1/24/11 because our flight leaves at 5:30 AM, and we live 165 miles from Dulles; and the second hotel because we arrive in Chile at 8 PM on 1/25/11 because the ship sails at 6 PM on 1/26/11. We have friends leaving at 6 PM on 1/25/11 on an overnight flight directly to Chile and arriving in the morning of the sailing.

I've dealt with many Princess "customer care" people. I wrote to several in corporate headquarters. Their reply to me was that "I agreed to the schedule". I explained that my husband is 70 years old and not in good health and cannot withstand 48 hours of this kind of air travel. They were very unsympathetic. This is our 20th Anniversary and we wanted it to be special. It is now a nightmare. We cannot afford to travel often and I was naive in dealing with the travel planner, but I believe that he was unclear and definitely unknowledgeable. I've paid almost $6,000 for this trip; money that I cannot afford to lose. All that I am asking for is an air schedule that does not require 2 hotel rooms, layovers, and all the time that's involved. I would appreciate any help that you could offer. Thank you.

We had a 16-day cruise booked for 4/24/10. On 2/2, I had a hip replacement and they broke my leg. I had infection flushed out in February On 3/26, I took my first step and femur cracked, and I was admitted with a compound fracture. I had my hip newly replaced and my femur repaired on 3/29/10. I was admitted to hospital on 4/23/10 with staff infection. I spent 5 days in hospital getting infusion of medication. When released,I had to return daily 7 days a week for antibiotic infusion for 6 weeks. Princess will do nothing for me. No credit for further cruise or any other compensation.

On July 25, 2010 we took the Princess Cruise Eastern Caribbean cruise. 1 hour into the cruise, the ship lost power as we floated for 4 hours in the dark, with no power or steering. The captain never told us there was no steering. We missed our first port, Princess Cay Bahamas (owned by Princess Cruise) no explanation was given. We were told that they have the right to modify the itinerary whenever they want. They gave a $300 room credit only. Then added an $11.50 mandatory tip per day per passenger and a 15% for your bar tab.

The service was poor, the food was poor, the attitudes of the crew sucked, the excursions are expensive but to get off that boat I'd pay anything. I had an asthma attack from the power outage and lack of air conditioning and climbing 8 floors to go eat, and then they ran out of food. I could have traveled from home to be at sea for 2 days and save $750 in airfare and found a cheaper cruise line for 3 destinations instead of the 4 I paid for.

My complaint is the lack of health protection for passengers aboard Sun Princess Oriental Adventure. Our voyage started on the 31st of June 2010 from Freemantle Australia. After only six days, my wife contracted the Noro virus, which we were informed by the staff had caused an outbreak amongst the staff and passengers on the previous voyage of the Sun Princess

The whole cruise was a complete letdown. My wife never got to enjoy the formal meals or the sites ashore, and I had to spend much time on my own. At times we were told that up to 30% of the crew and passengers were down with the virus. I have emailed the agents to request some form of compensation, but they have not had the courtesy to reply to my email. This is the worst cruise experience we have ever had.

The cruise was utterly spoiled as we could not enjoy the first-class meals provided the entertainment aboard or the shore excursions. I had to try to amuse myself without my partner to talk to and to look at the sites. The pain and discomfort that my wife suffered and their callous treatment from the nursing staff was below what we would expect from a company of this size and reputation. This was an expensive cruise and we feel we got very little for our money.

I asked for a credit for our cruise from Santiago to Fort Lauderdale. Their updates and their agents caused us to leave. To make the cruise, we flew to Mexico City. We were told that the Santiago airport was closed. We went to the LAN corporate office, and their manager was shocked that we had even tried, as he had no contact with his people. We needed a hotel and airfare for home. It cost almost $1450. All of their updates were gone. When we got home, we already had another cruise booked with them. They said they couldn't help us, as they had to protect the insurance business. We missed cruise, and the costs of returning home and flight to Mexico City were wasted.

A passenger, Robert, was the victim of Legionella which required daily treatment by the ship's medical facility for the entire voyage and several weeks at a hospital in Antibes, France immediately following medical evacuation. At age 90, the disease was considered life-threatening. Tests confirmed the diagnosis and the Centers for Disease Control so informed the ship's company. Doctors and microbiologists attributed the cause to inhalation of contaminated water in the cabin shower.

Princess investigation was necessarily restricted to source, as all other aspects were beyond dispute. They made numerous tests of the water tank samples all of which were negative for Legionella over the time period. Their medical records also showed no other case suspicious for Legionella. Their conclusion that the disease was not contracted on board. It blatantly avoids any other possible source and totally ignores all scientific research since the first outbreak over twenty years ago:

"Legionellosis infection normally occurs after inhaling an aerosol (suspension of fine particles in air) containing Legionella bacteria. Such particles could originate from any infected water source. When mechanical action breaks the surface of the water, small water droplets are formed, which evaporate very quickly. If these droplets contain bacteria, the bacteria cells remain suspended in the air, invisible to the naked eye but small enough to be inhaled into the lungs. This often occurs in poorly ventilated areas where a condensation air conditioner can spread it throughout the entire room, infecting anyone not immune to the strand of bacteria.

SOURCE: wikipedia.org/ wiki/Legionella

The cost was $2,673.96 on-board medical department fees plus not totaled hospital fees in France on May 4-17, 2010; plus daily transportation wife's visits.

This complaint is in reference to a cruise/tour taken on May 31,2010 from Vancouver, B.C. on the Island Princess which included a 7-day land portion from Whittier to Copper River to Denali, Mt Mckinley and finally Anchorage. Several optional tours at different destinations were also booked in early March of this year.

One of these was Kantishna Experience at Denali for June 10th. As a photographer, this was possibly an opportunity of a lifetime. Although our tour was paid and confirmed on March 12th, we received a note on June 9th stating that this tour had been canceled and instead you booked us on the Tundra Wilderness tour. No valid reasons for this switch have ever been forthcoming. In all likelihood, I may never travel to Alaska again and have missed my window of opportunity and severely tempered our 50th wedding anniversary celebration.

In preparation for this tour, I initially booked with the Park Service prior to March 12th to be sure of its availability. Subsequently, I was assured by your agents that it could be included through Princess and was persuaded to cancel my Park Service reservations (4 persons). The fees to Princess were paid up front and the Kantishna Experience was supposedly guaranteed. Your $25/person apology amount (good on Princess only) was an insult.

To further exacerbate things the Tundra Wilderness tour was rushed at the request of two persons who had another tour scheduled at 1:30pm. This was grossly unfair to the other 49 passengers on this tour. There was very little stopping for photo ops as advertised. I'm sure you must have had numerous complaints about this as well. They were all justified.

My second complaint is with your computer registration system. I spent considerable time and effort pre-registering our credit cards as suggested to speed up the embarkation process for the four persons in my party. I was very rudely informed at embarkation that this credit approval had to be done again. Apparently what gets entered in your computer stays there and not disseminated to the proper places.

At McKinley lodge we found the grille inexplicably closed until 2pm. Since our bus for Anchorage departed at 2pm that left only the main dining room to find a meal and it didn't open until noon. Fortunately they were kind enough to seat us early and we were able to eat comfortably before leaving at 2pm. There were others not quite so lucky I'm afraid. Traveling with Princess again is not in our plans.

Princess Cruises. Sadly my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer 8 weeks ago. Since then she has undergone an operation and will shortly commence chemotherapy and then radiotherapy. We were due to go on a cruise with Princess Cruises in Aug of this year but have been advised to cancel. We asked Princess if they might consider (out of compassion and understanding) and to refund out deposits but they have flat refused. They have offered to transfer to a cruise next year but we'd have to pay a hefty admin cost and even then the treatment will take at least 12 months so it is something we cant do. We can't believe how unfair they are being and wondered if we had any recourse.

The following is a letter that I sent to Princess Cruises after our honeymoon cruise. Their response has been sorry and thank you for your feedback.

"Dear Customer Relations, I have thought a while about writing this letter; in fact usually I wouldn't write a letter like this, I would just keep my feelings to myself. However, in this instance I feel I need to make my feelings know considering the trip in question was my honeymoon and I feel like in the end I really didn't get one at all.

"My husband and I got engaged in September of 2009 and we booked our honeymoon in December. Our wedding did not take place until October of 2010 and our honeymoon itself was not until March of 2010. It was going to be a wonderful 10 day Southern medley Caribbean cruise. We had picked out the cabin we wanted on the Baja deck cabin 342 (because your agent told us that was a good deck that would not feel much movement). We saved up a lot of money so we could have a balcony; I mean it was our honeymoon, why not splurge. We had looked forward to it for months and we had been saving for it since our engagement. This was not our first cruise we had been on others before with other cruise lines, but we had been told that Princess was a more upscale cruise line, obviously we were misinformed.

"We set sail the first night and the boat began to sway immediately and did not stop for the entire trip, even with calm seas. We both had no problems with sea sickness it is the constant feeling of movement that became very annoying. For the newest ship in the fleet it did not have the stability of older ships we have sailed on in the past. We had requested the anytime dining status being that we were on our honeymoon. Every night when we would arrive for dinner we would get attitude from the staff when we would tell them that we did not wish to dine with anyone else. We would then be escorted to a table for two that was four inches from another table. What is the point of dining alone if you are dining on top of the people next to you?

"We were also not impressed with any of the wait staff on board. We had bad service at most of our dinners, except for the one night we paid to go to a specialty restaurant. We shouldn't get good service only on the night we paid for dinner. Most nights once we would get a drink we would never be able to get another one. The fact that on every bill we signed there was a gratuity line was appalling. We took a cruise partly because it was all inclusive and there is no tipping to worry about. We should not have to be worried about tipping at any point during the cruise and it should not even be something that is an option. If individuals want to tip servers they can do so on the last night with the optional envelopes but to put the gratuity line on the bill, the servers do not give good service based on that line.

"The entertainment was good, but we would have to go an hour early to get a seat for a show. That is ridiculous. We wasted so much time just sitting in theaters so we could see a show, we finally stopped going to see the shows because we did not want to waste our time sitting in empty theaters. We saved up a lot of money so that we could go on the shore excursions and they were run very poorly. There needs to be a better system at the ports than a large mob. People panic and think they will not get a spot and begin to push and shove. The worst shore excursion we took was in Curacao, it was a real estate tour, and we were driven around on a bus to look at homes. We did not spend $120 to be driven around to look at the homes of the island. The offerings that were given weren't all that wide to begin with; you need to offer more than just bus tours and scuba diving.

"The days at sea were a joke. My husband had to get up at 5:45 in the morning so he could get in line to pay for peace and quiet at the sanctuary. When we would arrive at the sanctuary we were usually greeted by security, and the people at the public pool below, fighting and yelling at the people in the sanctuary to shut up. This is the quiet we paid for, yelling and screaming, all while security did nothing but stand there. Our other option was to go to the other pools to have our eardrums blown out by music and "Spring Break" like games.

"The food was anything but great. It was bland and tasteless most of the time and the options left much to be desired. The bright spot was the Piazza and the International food area, which was the saving grace for our meals. The buffet was ridiculous, there was no direction or planning that went into it so even if there was food that you wanted to eat you couldnt get to it since no one knew if they were coming or going at any one time.

"We are so disgusted and disappointed that this was our honeymoon. I spent most of our trip crying feeling like I didn't get a honeymoon. This is something you look forward to for a long time and it is supposed to be special and instead we feel like we didn't even get to have one. It was the worst vacation we have ever taken and it was the worst waste of money ever. We feel like we have been robbed almost. We will be sure to tell everyone we know about how awful it was and we will be sure to tell any agency we can that rates and or reports on travel.

"I hope that in reading this letter you take a look at not only your service but the overall way that your company operates and you make some changes. No one individual or couple should ever leave feeling like it is the worst experience they have ever had let alone feel like you have ruined the only honeymoon they will ever get." We are out $4438.50 and our honeymoon was ruined.

My wife and I have now completed 5 cruises with Princess Cruise Lines. We are experienced cruisers and have cruised with Norwegian and Royal Caribbean so we have a basis of comparison. In short, the food on Princess has become progressively worse, particularly on the Caribbean cruises. Examples: Mashed potatoes that are gray and translucent, steaks that are 1/2" thick and hard as shoe leather, broths that are made with hot tap water and bullion, ranch dressing that tastes like vinegar, etc.

The buffets have generally become quite bad. My wife and I are not overly particular but when the food is worse than the worst restaurant in your home town something is wrong! I thought food was supposed to be the highlight of a cruise. To be fair the poolside food (burgers, fries, pizza and dogs) were good. We probably won't use Princess next time.

I booked and paid for a Princess cruise leaving from Valparaiso, Chile on 3/2/2010. Due to the earthquake of 2/27/2010, I along with over 1800 of the 2600 passengers booked, could not get into this dangerous area as flights were halted for days. Princess insisted that the cruise was on schedule and if we did not get there, we would be considered as no shows, thus a Voluntary Cancellation. Finally they admitted that the cruise departure was being delayed by several days, but it would not be cancelled and it was still our obligation to get there.

Since flights were still on hold this was impossible. Due to the disruption to their operation, Princess truncated three days of the cruise, eliminating three of the seven stops, yet stubbornly insisted that this did not amount to their cancellation. Had they admitted the cruise was cancelled, they would by contract have had to refund the passengers money. Instead they claimed we were no shows and imposed a 100% cancellation penalty on us and advised us to submit an insurance claim if we had any.

We had purchased Princess Vacation Protection but it does not cover Acts of God, therefore at best we will receive a 75% restricted credit with Princess, and no refund, resulting in our losing about $1000.

Princess took $26,000 from seniors and gave them nothing. Recently, our group of 20 friends booked a cruise that was scheduled to depart on 2 March from Valparaiso, Chile, to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. After months of careful planning and work to coordinate flights, visas ($5000 in fees and postage), calendars, immunizations and other related logistics, an unexpected event occurred at our port of departure. An earthquake hit Chile, causing significant damage to major cities and ports. Star Princess' response to this disaster was slow and calculated. They delayed making any decision to cancel the cruise and selectively communicated to us whether they were going to leave or not.

At the 11th hour, Star Princess decided to proceed with their scheduled departure from Chile. The obvious problem was getting to the port, which was physically impossible for all of us. Princess failed to disclose the following: a.) prior to March 3, closing of the airport to all but military and emergency operations; b.) the implementation of Phase I (March 3-5) and Phase II (March 6) restoration of the domestic and international flight services into Santiago Chile.

American Airlines informed us that they could not fly us in until 7 March. Despite warnings from the United States government to avoid traveling to Chile, Star Princess informed its clients that they needed to be present either at Valparaiso or the cruise's first scheduled stop at Punta Arenas (which would have cost an extra $85,000 to have us all fly there). We even tried to fly in from Rio De Janeiro to the next port Ushuaia, because the last minute Princess cancelled Punta Arenas, and this domestic fare would require another $21,000 and an additional 11 hours of flying. The message from Star Princess was show up and board or forfeit the payment we made to them. There would be no refunds.

Interestingly, American Airline and Delta Airline graciously refunded our money and even the Mom and Pop tourist companies based in Chile and other Latin American countries gave our money back. Star Princess took $26,000 from us. We have nothing to show for either our money spent or the time we invested into getting together for one of our dream trips among close friends.

We implore Star Princess to do the right and conscionable thing, which is to schedule our group on another cruise or refund our money. To date, we've gotten nothing except bureaucratic responses and excuses. For the time being, I ask you to not do business with Star Princess, unless you want to risk paying something for nothing. We lost a lot of money and time besides incurring a great deal of stress that is adversely effecting our high blood pressure members. We had worked hard all our lives exercising honesty and frugality. We are allowing ourselves a few joys in our remaining life while in relatively decent health. We are horrified at the callousness and deceptiveness Princess has demonstrated over this incident. They should pay for the pain and suffering people incurred through this ordeal

Upon arriving the ship was a sure sign of things to come when one of the staff members told us that the lifts were not working and using the stairs would be good exercise for us. Luckily, my family and I am not wheelchair bound or disabled. We asked where our deck would be and because of the lack of English spoken and understood were directed to the wrong area. We took it upon ourselves to find our cabin. My family unpacked our luggage with the exception of my youngest daughter, whose bag had not arrived. This was a bit worrying, but eventually turned up a couple of hours later. My husband tried to lock our valuables in the safe but it was not working.

I called pursers for assistance with the maintenance man arriving to inform us that he would be back with his tool. 2.5 hours later, we are still waiting in the cabin for him. I called pursers desk again to find out if he was coming back. She explained that he would be there in 15 minutes. This made it by 7.45 pm and we needed to leave to have dinner for the second sitting. Purser said that he would be there in 5 minutes, so we waited but he did not show. We left the cabin for dinner with all our valuable items and passports. Had to carry these around all night with the chance of maybe having them lost or stolen. The situation was not resolved until the next night.

Table service at the Regency, second sitting, at table 133 was below standard. The waiters were not qualified and very confused. Meals and wine were delivered to the wrong people sitting at our table. My husband was missed a couple of times when it was time to order. Most of the night was spent waiting for everything and our glasses remained dry for long periods of time. Waiters leaned across to deliver wine to next person. No knowledge of the menu and communication was very difficult.

On one occasion my husband found a flying insect in his salad. He showed a staff member who took our room number. A delivery of strawberries and wine were given as an apology.

Due to the fact that we were 2nd sitting at dinner, we found it very difficult to get seating at the 10.15 shows. On previous cruises, second seating has had pre-dinner shows therefore eliminating first sitting diners from taking all the seats. Ultimately, we just did not bother trying to see any of the entertainment because quite honestly, it was not worth seeing and below standard for an overrated 4 star ship.

The policy for adult only pools did not work on the Sun Princess. We were not able to use the spa or pools due to the overwhelming volume of children. We complained to staff and were told that they were paying passengers. Children were not supervised and were allowed to jump and dive into pools when there were signs warning of the dangers. My teenage daughters were unable to swim in a pool that was continually bombarded with children exploiting the rules. Staff seemed to turn a blind eye. I also find it extremely offensive that to escape the circumstances I would be charged a $10.00 admission fee per person per session to access the Sanctuary. This should be a free service provided to adults to escape from everyone else's children. We paid to use all the facilities on the ship already. The information given in the (booking conditions and passage conditions) does not state under the heading "what you fare does not include" that I would have to pay to use a pool.

The majority of passengers are English speaking and many we have spoken to have had difficulties communicating with staff. We have had to ask 3-4 times to get them to understand that I wanted a cup of tea.

On numerous occasions my husband and I contacted Valentina, Front Desk Supervisor to express our concerns. We had lengthy discussions with Valentina and she provided us with a letter of apology. Valentina has also forward a four page letter that was written by us outlining some of the problems experienced on Sun Princess to customer relations.

We asked Valetina if there were restriction on the number of children allowed on any cruise. We were informed by Valentina that there were 400 children travelling with us and they accepted many children from the same age group. On previous cruises, we have had trouble getting a reservation due to age group limits.

This is not our first cruise. However, we will certainly not travel with Princess again. Everything has been below standard and we would not class this ship as a 4 star. I have written an email to customer relations on the 30th December 2009, encouraged by Valentina, front desk supervisor upon the Sun Princess, regarding this unsatisfactory journey upon the Sun, Coral Isles cruise that departed Sydney on the 17th December 2009, stateroom E323.

An automatic response was emailed on 30th December explaining that there response time was at least 20 working days. I rang on two occasions to find out the progress on the 2nd February and 17th February to be told by Ryan that they had not even looked at the case. 48 days after my initial email, I received a phone call from Ryan at Carnival to advise me there basically was nothing they could do. They could offer no compensation. He could only apologize numerously about all of the problems aboard the Sun Princess and offer feedback to the ship. I proceeded to tell him that I wanted to speak to his manager about the situation but he only has a supervisor. There is no one else to speak to. Ryan was the end of the line. I ended the conversation with the threat of bringing a solicitor into the situation.

To add to our disgust, on the last morning before disembarking in Sydney, we proceeded up to deck 14 to have breakfast at the buffet. We found that to our horror, passengers were serving their own food and drinks even though we were on code red. My husband spoke to the supervisor on deck 14 regarding this and he stated that "we were sort of still in code red", whatever this means. My husband then proceeded to the purser's desk and asks if we were still in code red. The purser stated that we were still in code red. This was a severe breach of the procedures for this code. It appeared to us that we had docked in Sydney and the staff were not concerned if infected passengers spread the virus further and brought it on shore.

It seemed as though from the minute we boarded the ship it was not going to be a pleasant time for my family. On two occasions we tried to watch a movie in the Princess Theatre. In the movie, Up, the picture stopped 1/3 in and credits come up, then the sound continued. We waited for around 10 minutes and walked out. The second time was A Christmas Movie and the opposite occurred. We had a picture but the sound was distorted. We walked out again.

Our stateroom attendant was also not very friendly and hardly spoke to us at all. On numerous occasions, he would only knock and then enter the room without announcing his presence, and a few times my teenage daughters were getting changed. We are most disgusted and disappointed that we have paid for a four star cruise that clearly was not. We have traveled on a five star cruise and we were extremely satisfied. I would class Sun Princess much lower than a four star. We were overcharged for services and satisfaction that we did not receive, and believe that we should compensated by Sun Princess.

My husband and I booked an Alaskan Land and Cruise trip with Princess. Everything went through AAA, but was booked by Princess including the airfare. Delta airlines was used. On our return trip home, there was a major problem with our Delta flight from Atlanta to Tampa. We filed a complaint going through AAA. Since Princess had booked our flights, the complaint had to go to Princess as well as Delta. Well, Delta did right by us. They gave us vouchers for future flights and they also refunded to Princess a total of $200.

This is where the problem arises. Delta refunded to Princess via visa credit card on 10/9/2009. Princess kept saying they could not find the visa credit, even after I gave them receipt numbers, date it was processed and the last four numbers on the visa card it was issued to (I must add a note that I was also having to go through an AAA representative, but I was the one doing the leg work. She would call Princess and I would never hear back from her unless I phoned her. She wasn't really pursuing this, that is another matter entirely).

Finally, on January 14, 2010, Princess has finally found the credit issued to their visa account. Here's the kicker. They are charging us $100 half of the refund as an air services department air administration fee. Not only do I feel this is unfair, but they had my money since 10/2009 and finally refunded the $100 to us on 2/7/2010. Four months later! Now if we had owed them the money, it would have been a totally different story I'm sure. A lot of mental aggravation and the fact that I was cheated out of $100.

We have previously enjoyed cruising with Princess and had no reason to expect anything but an excellent and enjoyable trip this time as well. We were again pleased with the service, meals (with some exceptions), entertainment and ports of call. What completely marred our vacation, however, was the presence of what we believe to be bed bugs in our cabin!

The first bites were noticed upon awakening the first morning at sea; however, we thought they might possibly have been insect bites acquired while in Ft. Lauderdale prior to boarding. More bites were noticed upon awakening on the second day at sea, and yet another bite along with a large red and itching patch appeared on the third morning. At this point a visit to the doctor was made and an anti-itch cream was prescribed. The doctor did mention that he had seen this problem before. The accommodation manager was notified, and we were told that our mattress and bedding would be changed immediately.

The following morning a further six bites appeared! The accommodation manager was again notified; he stated that he was "monitoring the situation". The bites continued for another two days (the 7th day of our cruise). Although a request was made to speak to the purser, no phone call was received, only a short note left in the room stating that the results of their investigation had come back negative. You would think that they were looking for something very large and easily spotted. It was intimated that these bites were incurred in the various ports of call. As this has never happened on any previous cruise, that idea seems a convenient excuse.

The cruise line has been politely contacted repeatedly; and, of course, they have assured us that "passenger comments are always welcome at Princess." Big deal! We have contacted the Centre for Disease Control with documentation and photographs for their reference. Hopefully, by doing so, this situation will not arise for any other unsuspecting passengers. It resulted to continuous itching for a period of fifteen days.

We booked a cruise for January 2010 to the Mexican Riviera on the Sapphire Princess in October 2009. From the time we booked, when we viewed our itinerary on the website, there was a spot that said we were entitled to a $100.00 shipboard credit. On the last day of the cruise when we reviewed our charges, we saw that the credit had not been applied. I spoke with the Purser's office and was told that they saw the credit, but could not apply it.

Since it was late Friday night and we were disembarking the next morning, I would have to contact Princess customer service on Monday. We called them and were told that there was no credit and they could not honor a verbal offer. I told them that it was on the website for my personal cruise and what the Purser had told me. I was told that I was mistaken and that I must be looking for free stuff. I explained that I just wanted what I had been given, but they were rude and nasty and made me feel like a criminal for asking for what I had been told to expect.

It was the final straw for a trip that was not all that great. The food was bad, the entertainment was poor, the ship was in need of a good cleaning, painting and maintenance (toilets did not work). This is our second cruise with princess and we will never travel with them again. Everyone should think twice about giving money to a company that does not put it's customers first.

On 12/23/09 I was in Ruby Princess, Voyage R938 in Antigua for the Youth SNU-810A- Sail, Snorkel & Beach tour. I was in distress as soon as I came up in the water, I called out for help and no one from my catamaran, with 3 crew members aboard, heard me or helped me until I was at the ladder. I thought I was going to die.

When I finally got aboard and went back to my seat, I heard someone calling for help and saw a man, all alone, calling for help. No one heard him, I yelled to my crew people, they in turn called over to the catamaran near us and a crew woman jumped in to assist this man. A Zodiac was brought over and he was put in there and given CPR. He died and believe me if I hadn't called out no one would have paid any attention to him. This was a completely unsafe tour. Usually on any boat tour a safety talk is given - where the life preservers are located - there never was any safety talk, never had us sign a release, never talked about how to put on a snorkel mask, never asked if there were new snorklers until we arrived at the site and people were jumping in the water.

There was no Princess crew member on this excursion. I saw this man die. I'm sure his wife doesn't know what happened before or during this experience. She was already in the water when her husband died. No one on the Ruby Princess wanted to talk to me. I was given a comment sheet to fill out and at the end of the cruise was given a letter from the Shore Excursion Manager, Gordon ** where he expressed his concern about my "disappointment with this tour". Disappointment - I thought I was going to die and then still shaking from my experience, I watched a man in distress and unattened.

Do not ever use Princess Cruise to book your air for a cruise. We paid Princess ~$500 for a one day extension in Auckland at the end of our cruise. Princess booked us on a 6:15 a.m. flight that day which required a 3:30 a.m. transport to the airport. We tried to rebook ourselves so we could use the extension and Princess said we would forfeit 75% of our airfare if we did. When we pushed them to rebook, they said there would be a $2200 "rebooking fee." I personally verified that there were multiple alternate flights available all the way up to our return which permitted Princess to meet the terms of our contract.

Even though we paid $351.66 for their "vacation protection," they have totally refused to refund for this unmet part of our contract. This was compounded by their using four separate flights both for departure and return (the return four segments took 36 hours). Our first connection during departure had an unmakable connect time (which we managed to modify ourselves with help from the airline). It is obvious that this is strictly a low cost bean counting organization which will totally disregard contractual obligations.

Please be very careful when you go on Princess cruises. They are horrible people on the ship and in their main office. From day one on this ship, it was horrible that I forgot my birthday. Then it went to asking the staff where was such and such, and their famous words was "I don't know working on a ship and don't even know where things are located."

Then it went to being treated wrong in the photo department by their staff which has no knowledge how to deal with persons with disabilities. And most of all, do you think they care about you at all? They answer you in such a way with their nasty mouth. Their staff was so unhelpful to you, and they sat there and looked at you like you were the dumb ass. And when you ask for help with something, believe me, they sit there and do not help you and then lie when you say something to them. And then, I get treated like a criminal based on what she said that I never said to her. Then I get harassed by their staff. There is so much more to tell about this low-class ship.

Here is the last thing I went through. On the last night, I went to go eat at the buffet, and I had to complain about the food which was terrible throughout the whole cruise. But this night was the last, and it was past terrible. They were supposed to have prime rib but ran out and had nothing to replace it.

I complained, and this kitchen helper was there. I was complaining to everyone, and he kept touching my shoulder and on the back of my chair. I felt him; he was so close, and he kept touching me. This was as I was eating, and I kept moving my chair, so he would stop. And when he left, I left because I did not want him to come back and touch me again. So I left my food.

It really did no good to complain on the ship. All you get it was "I will talk to them," so why even complain? When I got home, I complained to the main office. I send them six pages of everything that happened on the ship, and most of all, about the employee who put his hands on me I put in my complaint. Then Joana **, the one who handled my complaint, said it is OK for him to touch me. I said it is not OK. And they never offered my money back or even half; they gave me nothing. Please beware of this cruise line.

There was an outbreak of novovirus on this ship during my vacation from 16/12/19 to 29/12/09. The infection control policy on this ship was a joke. If a family member was affected the unaffected family member was allowed free access to all areas of the ship despite that they were using the same bathroom facilities as the unaffected person. Some of the decks were not cleaned properly, with many water spills not mopped up at all. Deck 12 was particularly filthy.

Your staff is not trained for persons with disabilities they are very poorly trained. The last but least In the conversation on Friday December 4, 2009 it was said by your staff on the phone that she feels that your ship is not for me because of my disability. Now we have a new case this one will move foward and NO you will never treat someone with a disability differently you will treat the the same like everyone else and give them access to everything on your ships! Just one more thing I tried to let you walk away easy with just my money back rather then go the ADA I was willing to give you the benfit of the dout and then when Ms know it all called on Friday and said that to me about I don't belong due to my hanicap .

This Letter is my complaint of everything that happen and the issues and problems that occurred on the Emerald Princess during my vacation from 10-18-2009 to 10-25-2009. On October 18th, 2009 it was my birthday when I called princess cruise and also my travel agency told them more then once it was my birthday when my reservations was made it was noted, I even called so many times to make sure. Once on the ship I noticed that on everyone's door but mine had balloons. I had No balloons, No singing Happy Birthday to me at dinner and No cake they forgot me but not everyone else. They did not even realize it until I complained....

Photo Gallery the next issue and problem that I had on ship. I'm a person with a disability. on this day that I walked to the photo gallery my ankles was very swollen. it was very hard for me to walk when I reached the photo gallery. they just closed it which I understand. however when I tried to explain my situation to Lisa to please try to understand how much my feet hurt and that I had a very hard time to walk here she could look at my feet and ankles and see how big they was. I ask her to please show my pictures to me. Lisa made the choice not to be understanding and considerate and still said NO

I ask her to call her supervisor more then once as she made me wait and wait sitting on my walker. I got to the point I felt I was waiting to long and I ask Lisa what should I do? She responded back in a very harsh voice and her words not nice at all and her tone of voice was very disturbing to me. she said you can wait if you want to or you can leave. it was my prerogative in such a nasty tone of voice. I was in tears for the reason this lady has no idea how I felt with feet swollen and the pain I was in. Later I was near the purser desk and one of Lisa coworkers came over to me and told me how sorry she felt that Lisa did that to me. But how come Lisa did not come to me and apologize.

This is the third issue. Amanda C. was sitting at the captain circle host desk on deck six near the purser desk. I walked over to Amanda asking if she could please help me. St. Thomas has a Jewish Temple that I would like to go see so I was asking her for help and ask her for information about the Temple, she responded "I don't know. " then I asked Amanda since you don't know please call someone that might know and can help me. the phone was in front of her. never picking it up not even a attempting to try to pick it up. so I asked her again. she just sat there and looked at me like I was asking to much from her or I was stupid for asking her to help me....

When I was in the office talking to Kusan about the pool I was telling her that I could not get into the pool because of my knees. I could not climb down or up the ladder but I would love to get into the pool. however no one ever let me know that there was a lift there to get into the pool. no staff let me know this, a passenger let me know this. however I feel this should have been told to me by staff.

There is one more thing that I and Kusan talked about in the office. I have psoriasis on my legs and before I went on ship it was clearing up a lot but when all this stress from employees it caused me to have a bad out break. that's what stress does when you have this, ask Kusan she knew because someone in her family has the same thing I have, and we talked about it. I'm blaming Princess cruises for my psoriasis outbreak.

I and Kusan also spoke about the other issues that I had. that's all I got was they spoke to them and how sorry they are this happen. that's not good enough for me. my 3 days so far I had problems. 3 separate problems. my cruise was ruined. I told Kusan I'm not happy at all. I went on [their] cruise line in good faith. I heard how nice it was I say they was wrong. at this point I know there is better cruise lines out there that stand behind there name.

There is one more problem that I had on ship. I will tell you about after I tell you about the food. the dining room that I was in the food was very bad. did not enjoy it at all. I have been on other cruises and I know that it could had been a lot better. Only two times I was sitting with other people to enjoy and have a conversations. the other times I had to sit alone wish I did not enjoy at all. I went to dine at Sabatini's. the food was great but even there I had a problem. I had to call over the head waiter. I was finished with my hot appetizers. I was left to sit there for 15 to 20 minutes just waiting. I was going to get up and leave. I paid extra $20 to get served. not to sit there and wait and being over looked. terrible service.

I mentioned this above. there was several persons on ship that when asked by a passenger where this is or where that is their famous words are I don't know. how can a person work on this ship day after day not know? Or is it that they don't want to tell you so they say I don't know. Really think [they] poorly train staff. they have no manners, they lie, they are dishonest, they are inconsiderate, they are not nice, ship is very poorly run and most of all have dirty nasty help that can't leave there hands off of passengers and touch you without permission. with that said I now will tell you about this issue like they say saving the best for last.

On October 24, 2009 between 8:15pm to 9:00pm I was at the dinner buffet. come to find out they ran out of Prime rib because once again very poorly ran and really should of cooked enough or did they run out. then should of cooked something equal not pork roast. cook something everyone eats. give a choice. I myself do not eat pork all the time. I did complain to the head man wearing a suit walking around and to the head cook.

I was sitting to my table trying to eat this terrible food that I did not enjoy. I was told if I did not like it to go get a pizza or a burger. I did go without dinner that night. the veggie burgers are so bad I throw it in the garbage. Back to when I was sitting to my table at the buffet. one of [the] kitchen help was talking to me about the food. matter of fact he was the one and told the cook I would like to speak to him about the food. As I was sitting in my chair picking at my food I noticed that kitchen help kept touching my shoulder. I did not get his name and that was my choice. after he kept touching my shoulder and many times I tried to move my chair. when he was to close to the back of my chair touching my back I tried to scoot my chair forward so he would not touch my back. I tried my best to not cause a scene. I have a bad temper at times....

I called the man with the suit over I complained again about the food. he took my plate away and I left. That does not excuse [the] poorly run ship and staff to do as they please and to touch the passengers without permission. it is not ok and yes I could of complained but what would I get other then I spoke to him and I'm sorry just like all the other problems I had on ship....

I really hope that this is all the complaints. I hope that I did not forget anything. if something comes in my mind believe me I will send it in writing via computer right away. I still I'm very unhappy about the cruise. it was ruined and it should of never happen. I went on your ship as my intentions was to relax and have fun. it did not happen like a planned. I was under more stress on the ship.... They refuse to give me my money back after all this what they did to me. please never go on princess. you waste your money

My husband and I were to take a cruise for our honeymoon, but first we were told by the airport that one of the flights - arranged by Princess and money accepted by Princess - was booked with an illegal connection and because there was not sufficient time between connecting flights, the airline could not guarantee that our luggage would arrive in Tahiti with us. Princess insists this is not the case, and they are not responsible.

Then the first flight was canceled due to mechanical reasons. The flight department at Princess was not yet open to assist us there were no flights leaving the airport that would get us into LA in time to catch the connection to Tahiti to make the boat. We went back to our travel agent who spent hours on the phone with Princess trying to help us. We requested we be booked on a later departure date, which we all assumed would not be a problem since one week before our departure, Princess offered us over $2000.00 onboard credit to postpone our honeymoon.

They refused. They also refused to assist us in any way - to the point of refusing to allow our travel agent speak to anyone in the flight department. They insisted the fault lied with the airline, who insisted the fault lied with Princess (again, Princess accepted payment for the airfare and arranged everything).

Their only offer was to book us on flights the next day into Tahiti. We could then - on our own and at our own expense - find a hotel in Tahiti to spend the night, book an inter-island flight to the next port, and "maybe" they would have someone take us to the boat. Otherwise, we would have to do that on our own too. When asked if Princess had any staff at the two ports who would assist us, we were told no. Our contact included transportation to and from the airport, and they refused this.

Even my travel agent could not get over how "nasty" and "rude" Princess was to them and us. They were unbelievably uncooperative and just so mean to us. In the end, we could not take our honeymoon without some guarantee that we would arrive on the boat safely. I disputed the charge with my credit company that day (10/19/09) and on 11/6/09 was refunded the money by my credit card.

I received a letter from Princess dated 11/24/09 stating they could not agree to my request for a refund because their standard liability statement absolves them from everything...apparently this includes gross negligence. So we may still have to fight to get back the over $8000.00 we paid for the cruise, not to mention the emotionally distress at not having a honeymoon and having to deal with all this. This could have been resolved that day to our mutual satisfaction had Princess been the slightest bit cooperative, but they simply didn't care.

Smoking on the Island Princess. Princess fails to protect non-smokers from the well-known negative health consequences of second-hand cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoke.

Princess makes no effort to enforce the minimal rules they do have. If you point out a violation of the rules to the Pursers office, they will listen to you and do nothing. Security people who are supposed to enforce the rules can see people smoking in non-smoking eating areas - and not say or do anything. I understand that Princess employees don't want to hassle customers, but letting smokers pollute the air wherever they want is grossly unfair to non-smokers.

There is so much Princess and other cruise lines could easily do to make things better - like have all smoking cabins on the Port side and all non-smoking cabins on the Starboard side; and restrict smoking in public rooms to enclosed designated areas. Celebrity and RCI have taken a step in the right direction by banning smoking in cabins and on balconies, but more is required!

P&O Cruises Australia seems to be leading the way in limiting smoking on cruise ships. Their policy is: "In the interest of our passengers' health, safety and enjoyment during their cruising holiday, smoking is not permitted indoors, including in cabins, suites and on private balconies. This is in line with Australian standards. Outdoor smoking venues will be published in the Pacific Daily on board your cruise" The smoking policies of most cruise lines can be found [online]. Princess is not alone in catering to smokers and disregarding the health, safety and enjoyment of non-smokers.

Princess wants to pretend that sensitivity to tobacco smoke is just a matter of personal preference and opinion--not a real health and safety issue. You would think the Star Princess fire of March 23, 2006 would have made it abundantly clear to Princess management how dangerous smoking in cabins and on balconies is to the physical safety of passengers, crew, and the ship itself.

Princess once told us in a letter that cruise ships were not like airplanes, and that passengers could not be expected to wait for the next Port to smoke. I would respond that smoking is completely optional, and treatment options are available for those wishing to quit smoking. Breathing fresh air is not optional; in fact, it is an absolute necessity for people with respiratory issues like Asthma, and is generally necessary for everyone's good health-- including smokers.

Princess says that smoking is prohibited in dinning areas and theaters. However, when smoking is allowed in cabins, the clothing of smokers is saturated with the stench of stale smoke that goes with them throughout the ship. The stench lingers for a long time after the smoker leaves the area. This definitely affected our enjoyment of public areas.

Some public areas are divided into smoking and non-smoking sides. This ridiculous approach results in the whole area being filled with cigarette smoke. The only effective way to control the spread of cigarette smoke in public areas is to eliminate it at the source. Otherwise, you should label the public areas as Smoking Only.

Non-smokers pay the same price as smokers for a cruise. But smokers have the power to prevent non-smokers from enjoying most of the ship's features by the simple act of smoking and polluting the air in an area. If cruise lines were fair, they would charge non-smoking passengers substantially less because they cannot enjoy the ship as much as smokers.

Cruise ships seem to be the last refuge of smokers. Smokers think nothing about lighting-up in the presence of non-smokers. They often seem to enjoy exposing others to their second-hand smoke. Cruise line management is extremely reluctant to offend the sensibilities of smokers. They don't seem to realize how many non-smoking customers they are loosing after each trip. According to the CDC, only 19.8 of U.S. adults smoked cigarettes in 2007. Cruise management had better start being concerned about the sensibilities of the 80% of the population that don't smoke, if they want to remain a growing industry.

Princess management doesn't want to know what their customers think about their smoking policy. They could easily find out by including smoking in the things they put in their evaluation questionnaire....Princess could easily ask these questions if they were interested in what their customers thought about smoking. The fact that they don't ask any smoking questions tells me how desperate they are to allow smoking in spite of their fiduciary duty to the stockholders. They don't ask the questions because they don't want to know the results that would probably require them to take actions to limit or band smoking. By not asking any questions, management can pretend that everything is fine, and that they are not aware of any serious problem allowing smoking causes their customers. This is folly on steroids!

Princess needs to join the rest of the civilized world and highly restrict smoking on ships so that non-smokers are not continually subjected to the stench and health impacts of second hand smoke, the potential of spending many hours/days in a life boat, or worse - cancer from second smoke or death by fire.

I personally favor an absolute ban of any type of smoking on cruise ships--with violators removed from the ship at the next Port (like they do for drug possession or use). My wife and I have decided to boycott Princess until they completely ban smoking on their cruise ships. The perks of being Platinum means nothing compared to the stench of cigarette smoke.

wife and I have decided to boycott Princess until they completely ban smoking on their cruise ships. The perks of being Platinum means nothing compared to the stench of cigarette smoke.

This cruise was horrible. Both my husband and I came down with shigella from food poisoning on the ship. We had no idea until my husband was tested once we got home because his case was quite severe. He is going on day 7 of his infection. My infection has recovered on it's own.

About Princess Cruises: 1. Food was bad. Unsafe. 2. Personnel are contract and are poorly trained. 3. Unfriendly personnel with attitudes. 4. Officers were in hiding. 5. Sapphire Princess was a cheaply built ship. No style or class.

in the amount of $200.

Upon disembarking Sunday, June 21st in Rome, we were all greeted with tremendous rain. Although Princess has no control over the weather, I do believe the luggage pickup arrangements were AWFUL! My luggage was housed "under" a tent awning and the dock area was greatly flooded. I say "under" because my luggage was at the edge of the tent and instead of being somewhat protected, it was as if, it was left under a shower head. Not only did the rain get it wet, but the extra run off from the tent itself poured onto and into my luggage.

The entire contents of my luggage were soaked, ink from books and bags, along with the dye from clothing and shoes bled. In addition books I had brought along and purchased were ruined. Had I not opened my suitcase for our extended stay in Rome, I am certain, additional damage would have resulted. The total damages are $181.94 USD. 3rd request 10/30/09

Contact Attempts: Original phone call from Rome 6/21: Assisgned Case #187735 Letters/Replies 6/27 7/9 7/14 7/20 7/27. Emails 7/20 8/2 8/7 8/19 9/25. Rome Emails 6/21 8/19 9/25

I booked an Alaska cruise (booking number XW9WVV) through my travel agent. The cruise was booked directly with Princess but the air travel was done using American Airlines award tickets. The flight information was given to Princess and incorporated into our booking. Numerous times over the three months prior to the cruise, including one week, 3 days, and 1 day prior to the cruise, my travel agent confirmed the arrangements with Princess. Everything was confirmed as in-order. When we arrived on our flight to Alaska we found that we had flown into Anchorage but we should have traveled to Fairbanks. In order to get to the proper place we had to purchase two (2) one-way tickets to Fairbanks. We immediately informed Princess and our travel agent of the problem. Our travel agent told us that when she contacted Princess they accepted the mistake as their mistake in not catching the mismatch in travel arrangements. Follow-up letters to Princess to affect a remedy have resulted in Princess denying all responsibility and refusing any compensation.

On 1st September at 5.30am while on board the Grand Princess which was anchored at Copenhagen our seven year old daughter fell out of the top bunk and cut her left cheek. She required medical assistance the wound needed glueing and strips to close the wound. The rail at the side of the bunk was not suitiable to prevent our daughter falling out.

We have traveled several cruise lines and we have just had the worst experiance of our lives. Princess has just turned into a floating hotel for the anchent. Our first problem was day 1 in the shops onboard. Most of the items in the liquor store were all gone and unavaliable for sale. The excuse was that they sold out last sailing and did not replenish their stores. Well I found that very inconserdiate, I paid to come onboard with the same amenities the last cruise had.

The 3rd day I woke up early and wanted some coffee. I walked into the hall and there was an older man in his 80's lost in the hall. I asked his cabin # and he was unable to tell me so I asked his name and he couldn't tell me that either. I had to get purser to come up and get him to the hospital. Then a customer had to be air lifted off the ship due to life threating issues and we had to turn the ship and sail to Vancouver to off load them. Princess has changed to babysitting people that should never be on a ship in the first place.

Forget trying to get an elevator we had to walk so many stairs I blew out the rest of my knee.Standing in line to leave or reboard the ship was just agonizing. The older pasanagers were never ready to be screened or show their ships card id.

It was a cruise from hell and the kicker was the Lobster was served raw and the waiter knew it and still served it after waiting 30 plus minutes. I saw a lot of food stealing. Several older pasangers would come up in the morning and take a plate of smoked salmon and place it in gallon size zip-lock bags and return to their room's. It really was just sickning.

All the entertaiment was baised in the 50's and most of the people were in their bedroom's early and their still playing singers I have never herd of. Well I guess I just paid for 10 days of just what I do at home is take care of the elderly. I am just sick about the whole thing. I will never travel Princess again.

We booked a cruise July 24-Aug 1st. To begin with the bunks were in the ceiling and very dangerous to get in under neath them , not to mention getting around the ladders. Our names and the names of our grandchildren were posted on the door which I consider dangerous. We could not sit outside our balcony because there were smokers on either side of us and we could not breathe. There was not enough time in the ports of call to explore as much as we would have liked. Route not good. Food was not the best we have had. A big disappointment. The other complaints are minor related.

Our family had planned a cruise for august 9th on Princess cruise lines departing from seattle. One member, my sister, was struck down by a massive blood clot and is hanging onto life unconscious for the past week. If she is still with us by the time of the cruise we will consider it lucky. Attempt to cancel and reschedule the cruise, even with modest penalty is futile, but Princess sends its condolences and states we do have an option of coming on the cruise and try to make the best of it. We are told that cancellation benefits come with cancellation insurance only, no matter what the circumstances are.

Princess Cruise Lines are declining in several areas. Knowing that the bottom line is profit, customers can readily see the shift from quality to cost cutting. The top complaint over all others is the dining room experiences. First, not only was the dress code not enforced, men covered with sweat were seated without hesitation in the main dining room for breakfast. Now this is more than an ambiance issue, it is now a health issue. Absent were the hand sanitizer dispensers as well. Many times guests were seated that were dressed well under the advertised code - tank tops and shorts on men at the evening meal? Yuk. Princess is no longer the Love Boat - they are now the Dirty Boat.

Their communications are horrible. They just ignore you. We frequently travel cruise lines and brought 12 people with us on this trip. I will never go on a Princess Cruise again. They lost our business because of their rude and disrespectful Lost and Found department. Lost valuable items

We made a reservation, thru' travel agency (Upper Deck Cruise) based in Florida for Alaska cruisetour for upcoming summer. We paid our deposit with credit cards ( 4 families paid there own $1400) and then travel agency asked us to pay rest of the amount by check and offered further discount. ( We had use this travel agency about 7-8 years ago ) so not even doubting once we all send checks of $6509.73 X4.

After all checks cleared , one other family showed interest in joining our trip for upcoming August 2009. And we try calling trtavel agency for about 2-3 days, and no answers, finally we got most dreadful call saying SORRY.. we never paid Princess cruise your balance and now our company does not have any money to pay, we are doomed. well, we started talking to Princess Cruise, to see how can they help us,? WE put a letter together asking for help from uppen managment, but you can not even talk to anyone else but, Chris Marchese who refuse to let us pass our information or talk to any other person in top managment. Talking to her is like talking or hitting head on brick wall. They made us take payment resposibility from almost Bankrupt travel agency to our personal name, and right after that surprisingly price went up from $6509.73 to $ 7800, as Princess tells us forget about any sympathy, pay us more or we have plenty of people in wait list who will pay us full amount.

Very poor customer service, Chris Marchese asked me if I was looking for " Free Sailing" well, if I was would I have booked our trip 4 months in advance? and paid in full to the agent that was recognised all these years by Princess all along and now Pricess has nothing to do with them. It was nice and dandy when they got them business. Nice going Princess Cruise. I don't think, you all will be in business for too long with this poor customer relation departmnet and no Ethics.

This was the worst vacation I have ever been on! I will never go through Princess again. They compare the Carnival Line as a sister ship, not even close! They knew going on April 25th about the swine flu and didn't let any of us know that we would not be going into mexico. we should have had a choice to cancell and re-book at a later date. We bought the vacation protection and should have been informed!!!! I live in California and have been to San Deigo many times. The ship was not fun, food not good, service not good, people not friendly. Asking for a refund on full amount and a cruise on CARNIVAL. Wasted 7 days of our lifes that we can't get back, Out $2000 for a crappy vacation

Due to the Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico, our cruise on Princess Sapphire was cancelled and they rescheduled our cruise for Southern California. We are not pleased and wanted to reschedule our trip for another time. They refused and the customer representative (Christina) was rude and hung up on me. We were't asking for our money back we just wanted to go somewhere else since the CDC put out the health warning. I will never travel with them again and will suggest to anyone else the same.

in Jan 09 i cancelled a trip via Lakeside travel and was informed that i would receive a full refund of $1000. Princess insist the only way they can refund the money is on the card in which it was paid. i informed them that the bank had merged with another bank and the card no longer existed and could they refund using the new information. Same account just different bank name and debit card. They said they could not that the money sould follow the new card and if not it would be rejected and bounce back to them at which time they could then mail me a check. i have provided them with all the bank information showing them that i nor the bank never received this money. A Princess rep told the travel agent they would mail me a check.

A month later i still did not have the money. 3 1/2 months later i still do not have the money and the bank and princess are arguing on who has the money and neither one will give me my money! can you help? also, inform everyone to be careful on what you choose to pay with your debit card. had i written a check or paid with cash or credit card we would not have this issue...according to the travel agent.

At one point the travel agent had agreed to give me the money and would be returned to the travel agent when the money was found but has now changed their mind. although the banks attitude has not been great i truely think the money is still with Princess. the bank nor princess are doing anything to locate the money or expadite my refund! Both are telling me sorry and that they have done all they can to help me. thank you for your assistance!

i really need my money back! although $1000 may not be alot to some it is to me and i need to take care of unpaid bills!

Princess Cruises sponcers On Deck for the Cure a Susan Komen foundation to find a cure for brest cancer.However, 25% is taken out to cover a portion of the costs of the program. This is a lot of money that is not going to the charity.Why is 25% taken out for a walk around a ship and a $1:00 baseball hat? When we asked about the 25% no one could tell us why?

Beware of Princess Cruises. Once they get your money you are on your own. They could care less whether you ever make the cruise ship. We had booked a 28 day cruise on the Tahitian Princess departing from Papeete Tahiti on Dec. 19, 2008 and arriving in Ft. Lauderdale on Jan. 14, 2009. Due to weather, our NW flight from Detroit to LA was delayed 2 hours and arrived after our connecting flight to Papeete had departed. We called Princess and they were absolutely no help. We were told that we were responsible for making our own arrangements to catch the ship.

We flew to Tahiti the next morning arriving 12 hours after the Tahitian Princess had sailed for Moorea and hour before she departed for Bora Bora. There were no seats available on commercial flights to Bora Bora, the last port we could possibly catch the ship before it sailed for South America. If we were on our own, we would have had to abandon our dream cruise and forfeit the $19,000 + we already had invested. Princess could have cared less as they already had our money and their Princess Gold Travel Insurance does not cover this as a trip cancellation.

Fortunately for us there were 11 other Princess clients (2.0% of the total 640 booked passengers) who also found themselves in the same predicament. We were able to join together and charter an Air Tahiti at $1115 each to fly the 13 of us to Bora Bora in time to catch the ship. When we returned home we filed a claim for our $2600 hotel, meal and additional air travel expenses with Princess Gold Travel Insurance. We were only reimbursed $500 each per their trip delay policy which merely represented a refund of our insurance premium. We appealed to CEO of Princess. In their response letters Princess basically claims no responsibility for anything even though they made the transportation arrangements. It is buyer beware when dealing with Princess Cruises.

We are out $1600 of unreimbursed trip delay expenses for hotels, meals and additional air travel.

My husband and I just returned from a 10 day Panama cruise. From the very beginning there was computer difficulties with the charge cards that you use on board in lieu of cash. Mine would only work for charges and nothing else, and my husbands would only work for stateroom access. I repeatedly stood in lines to try and resolve the issue. The customer service desk could not get it right. Several others were experiencing the same problems.

During dinner each evening we would order drinks with no issue. The table server never asked for a card and there was never an issue until The last night of our cruise, when she informed us our card was blocked. My husband left the table without eating and I went to the customer service desk. They confirmed there was no problem with the charge card, just his.

Earlier in the week, our credit card had been blocked by the bank because I had not notified them we were traveling out of the country and of course they waited until we were seated at dinner to spring that one on us infront of our friends too, so when this happened my husband lost it. This time, I went back to the dining room to complain to the dining room manager and was told so sorry, mistakes happen. My husband was so embarassed, it ruined our last night on board to say the least. She never once checked my card, just assumed because he was a man that the billing information would be under him.

We were so terribly embarrased that I told the head waiter that we will never cruise with Princess again. We have cruised 4 times with them and this was the very worse and most disorganized time we have spent with them.

food was bad, room not clean, internet was included in the room i booked, anyone reading this note, u s federal law states if you pay for goods or services with a credit card and you dont get what you paid for and you try in good faith to resolve the issue with the provider of the goods or services you might have the right to no pay for the portion of goods or services you feel you did not receive, contact your credit card dispute dept and read the diclcosure that comes with all credit cards

I had great trip on Caribbean Princess, but last night my lEATHER- SUITCASE somebody break. I had problem to take my goods by one suitcase-wheel. That leather suitcase cost me $210.00. I wont compensatory damages. I able to send by E-mail fotos of suitcsse with breaken wheel sistem. with damage

My husband and I purchased a cruise a year in advance to go to China thru Princess Crusie Lines. Thirteen days prior to leaving i had an accident and had to have emergency surgery for a spinal cord compression. We have tried everything with letters and phone calls to see if Princess would work with us, to give a voucher for future travel.

They were able to fill our room because our friends whom we were to travel with went ahead with their travel and found the room to be booked. My husband had worked for 32 years as a Firefighter and i was booking this cruise for his honor of retirement.

We paid over 4,500.00 for this cruise and Princess said that we were short a few days of getting a refund!!! This is alot of money to not get any refund or voucher. They still had the opportunity to book the room out, as they obviously did. We did not buy the insurance but were never told that they offer no refund at the time of being offered the insurance. However, with at least two weeks before the ship left we think they they should offer us some sort of restitution. They have left us no recourse but to get an attorney.

I purchased a New England/Canada Cruise for my wife and myself in September. We purchased the insurance, which we thought would cause us to be reimbursed if we missed the cruise through no fault of our own. We also purchased our airline ticket through Princess (even though it was 30% higher than available rates) because we were told that if we purchased our tickets through Princess, our air fare would be covered if we were unable to get to the ship.

We arrived at the airport on time and boarded the first leg of our flight. After boarding we were told there was a problem with the airplanes tire and it had to be replaced. For the next several hours we made repeated calls to Princess, Delta Airlines and Berkely, the insurance carrier to try to work out a way we could make the cruise. All to no avail. After filing claims with the insurance carrier and repeated conversations with Princess customer service, all we could receive was a 75% credit on a future cruise.

There was no provision to include the airline in any settlement. We talked to Delta, but their represenative said since the tickets were purchase through Princess and not by us, they could not help us, which makes sense. I have spent at least 20 hours trying to negotiate a fair settlement over the phone, but it seems Princess has a take it or leave it mentality.

For us to receive any kind of service for our loss, we will have to spend at least another $1,200 for an equivalent cruise. This is a poor way to do business with the ***** and people need to know what kind of company they are dealing with before they find theirselves in the same situation we found ourselves in.

02/24/2008 - New Emerald Princess. Annual cruise for us. My husband got very sick Influenza A (worst one possible). We purchased the travel protection. Berkeley Care covered medical expenses after our insurance then only a percentage off from that. We have asked for reimbursement for my husband's cruise since he was out of commission for 5 days of our 10 day cruise. No food, no entertainment, no pool side, no shore excursion, and no kind of reimbursement from princess. What good is the travel protection and princess?

My husband is never sick and he was sick for a good 3 months after coming home.

Food was poor after first week, flight arrangments with poor service on Delta. Disembarkment was very slow & no one could tell us what was wrong.

I purchased a bottle of Estee Lauder Beautiful Perfume. I did not open it until I returned home. The product looked exactly like the sample I tried on ship but when I opened the one at home it just has a faint smell and does not hold up.It is very disappointing.

Loss of 54.00 tax free and duty free.

When she first enquired about booking the cruise on The Princess,19/08/08 to 01/07/08, she explained her dietary requirements and was told that she would be catered for on board. She made the booking, believing this to be true. Once on board, she received a letter advising her to contact the Head Chef. However it was very clear, that no provision for such diets had been made--with the exception of Soya milk being available and of course the few basic foodstuffs that do not contain Gluten, Wheat or Dairy products.

She is neither naive nor unrealistic and fully understands that the menus provided for diets such as hers are limited. To this end she takes a supply of snack bars wherever she goes, to supplement whatever is made available for her to choose from. However, I was shocked to find out, that had she not had these snack bars - she would have had virtually nothing to eat the whole time that she was on board! She did enjoy the cruise itself-- however each mealtime turned into an embarrassing nightmare for her as no matter which of the restaurants she went to and no matter how many times she spoke to the head Chefs and Waiters-- there was hardly anything that she could eat. On several occasions she actually left the dining room and her companion because she was so hungry she could not bare to sit with the other diners.

I find it incredulous that she actually had to sit down to a plate of plain boiled rice as the others ate 5 courses. The restaurants even ran out of Cornflakes - one of the few cereals she can eat! Food allergies such as these are quite common and the food manufacturers have responded to this by making many alternatives available, therefore I cannot understand why she was made to suffer in this way. No-one, let alone a woman of her age - should be left with so little to eat in an enclosed environment such as a cruise.She is very lucky not to have suffered a serious medical condition as a consequence.

I wrote to Princess on her behalf (the above is an extract from that letter) on the 07/07/08. Princess have finally replied to her in a letter dated 27/08/08, saying that their records show that her requirements were submitted in the correct manner so they didn't understand how provision was not made for whilst on board.

In light of this they have 'as a gesture' offered her a 250 dicount voucher on a future cruise that must be used before 29/08/10. Quite frankly this is an insult-after such a hellish trip would anyone consider using that company again? This may not be a legal matter,however I would appreciate any advise on what I should do next or who I should contact. Thank you.

I was on the Heart of Alaska Tour for 12 days begining on July 3--we were at the denali lodge when I received my luggage--the small one had the handle ripped off and the large one had a broken and bent metal bar on the inside--the man at the desk told me that they had three more suitcases in the same cond.the day before--

I call when I get home and I am told that I have to get a written estimate for the repair of the two--well other than a shoeshop repair there are no luggage repair places--the total amount for the two is $150--to replace-- neither are repairableI'm told to fax a letter with the shop estimate--I have none--and the fax has cost me another $7.50--also I have to keep the broken ones till they tell me--

While getting my new video camera inspected before getting on our Alaskan cruise the inspector dropped it. The camera does work, but not very well now. The on/off button was smashed. It was a clear case of neglegence on their part. I had to hand it over in order to get it approved.

Now Princess won't give me the time of day to get the problem taken care of. They have ignored all attempts to get this resolved because they know they are big and I am just an individual. They don't respond to any plea for assistance saying that it is just to bad for me. I bought this camera to take video of our once in a lifetime experience and that was ruined by neglegence.

The camera cost approximatly $350. The On/Off button is smashed.

I was extremely disappointed by the recent performance of Princess on their Heart of Alaska cruise package on the Island Princess in June 16th to 23rd, 2008. The cruise itself met my family's expectations, but Princess's response to some travel difficulties was grossly irresponsible. A company's character is revealed by what it does when things go wrong, not when things go as planned.

My mother and sister unfortunately had a connecting flight cancelled, which was beyond their control or Princess's. However, Princess's customer service was of zero support to them. They refused to help them arrange hotels, change flights or provide useful information. And, it was impossible to get an actual person on the telephone - they were given the run-around by many people, sat on hold for long periods of time, and were finally told to contact one woman who was never in the office and had no voice mail.

All of a sudden the Princess that managed to bombard us weekly with special spa and land excursion offers stopped being communicative. They could have at least made some recommendations for lodging in Ketchikan, but instead pretty much abandoned guests who were already stressed with a rough day of travel and the disappointment of missing two nights on the boat.

I also unfortunately became a victim of Princess's inability to support a guest. We were to go by train from Princess McKinley lodge to Anchorage. The train was delayed numerous times, and we could not get a straight story on what was going on. At this point several of the customers with flights that evening expressed concern and asked what Princess could do to get them to Anchorage. The woman who was supposed to be in charge was totally incompetent - when the train became delayed, she let everyone split up and did not communicate to the group as a whole. Some went into town and were not aware of the problem, others were told conflicting facts - each of the 8 or so different bus drivers seemed to have a different view of what was happening.

Passengers were obviously upset and asking for information. Rather than addressing their concerns, this supervisor was literally hiding behind the busses and avoiding people! Also, she was either being dishonest or had no clue what was going on - at first we were told the hotel transportation manager was working on a solution. However, when several people became so frustrated with a lack of action that they asked for the hotel manager's phone number, we were told the managers had gone home for the day and that they were not available. The supervisor was completely unsympathetic to our plight, and impatient with our questions.

We were also told that none of the eight empty buses could be used to take us to Anchorage since they were reserved for incoming passengers. Princess also refused to use a 12-passenger mini van which the staff road in to take those with flights to Anchorage, again sighting the need to greet the arriving guests. It was obvious that Princess's greater commitment was to its arriving passengers than those departing.

We were then told the train would not arrive until 8:15 in Talkeetna - too late to get us to the airport in time. The woman who was supposed to be helping the travelers mentioned that there was a private taxi service in town that might be an option - that was Princess's solution after nearly two hours of inaction! I and another passenger asked the supervisor if she could at least call the taxi for us, as our cell phones did not have local reception. Incredibly, she refused to do us even this simple courtesy, instead suggesting that we walk to a local restaurant with a pay phone - when she was holding a working mobile phone in her hand! A group of people including myself was able to get a taxi, completely of our own doing - which showed up in less than five minutes - after Princess left us with no information or action for nearly two stressful hours.

The hardships of that day erased a lot of the relaxation and enjoyment my family had on the rest of the trip. The cruise itself was fine, but if anything goes wrong on your trip at all - even if you are stranded by Princess's own doing, do not be surprised if you are abandoned. You should consider this carefully when picking your next cruise line; I personally do not trust Princess for my travels because of their irresponsibility for helping our family when we needed them most.

Princess strands and abandons customers. If anything goes wrong, you are on your own.

booked a cruisetour to alaska, in april did not take cruise insurance since my wife and i are in good health and never would cancel this because we were excited to go.. my wife fell at home and broke both arms, plus other bruises to the face etc,had our travel call princess to reschedule to a date in august, as my wife saw in surjury the agent spoke , with princess and spoke to a rep who offered to change to aug sail date with about 250-300 in extra charges due to increses such as fuel etc,

i was grateful to princess but had to wait 5 hours till my wife recovered to confirm it was ok with her she was so excited that since her mishap she could heal and still fulllfill her dream, i went to travel agent from hospital he calls to confirm change and end result no change allowed . i spoke with princess rep who was harsh and rude saying no insurance to return of fees or re schedule allowed, also if my wife still wanted to go would need a doctors note saying she could go, but would have to be reviewed by there medical team and may and probably denied acces to the trip

loss at this point of 6800 cruise fairs and 600 dollars in pre booked land tours when i called later to princess that day to at least save the cost of land tours i was told i could not evan cancel thos e evan though i booked them my self and my wife was to when she booked them they could be canceled 24 hrs prior to sailing dates wife fell jun 28 operated on june 29 tried to cancel all with princess june 29 start of vacation 7/2/08

My wife and I are celebrating our 45th anniversary this year (2008) and our son and daughter-in-law took us on a 7-day cruise on Princess out of San Juan. To our astonishment, Princess Cruises added $10.50 per day per person to our bill listed as hotel charges that the line said would be distributed among attendants (total of $295 for the four of us).

We learned that these were actually gratuities -- not hotel charges at all, to be distributed among waiters and attendants on the ship). We are generous tippers and had already been tipping waiters/attendants all week. We tried to contact the purser's office as soon as we became aware that the charges had been added but they had conveniently closed early and it was the end of the cruise so we could do nothing.

I have no problem if a cruise line asks upfront if customers would like to pay gratuities in a lump sum so as not to fool with gratuities during the cruise. BUT WE WERE TOLD NOTHING ABOUT THESE EXPENSES. By adding these to our credit cards without our informed consent, I feel Princess essentially stole our money.

I booked a cruise with Princess Cruises last fall. They were offering a promotion to repeat customers giving away a piece of luggage valued at $350 when you booked the cruise. I called the cruise line months before the cruise and asked how I would get my luggage. The first time I called they told me they weren't sure but guessed it would be delivered to our house before the cruise.

As the cruise date got closer and the luggage did not arrive I called back and asked again about the luggage. This time I was told that the luggage would be in our stateroom when we arrived on the ship. Since we were getting another piece of luggage on the ship, we took one less bag and stuffed the two pieces of luggage we brought with us expecting to use the new piece to distribute our belongings and have a place to transport our souvenirs when we returned.

When we got on the ship there was no luggage. We went and talked to the purser and he informed us that the luggage would be shipped to our house after the cruise. I asked how we were supposed to transport our stuff home since we were counting on the extra bag. He informed us that they sold luggage on the ship or we could buy in any of the ports we stopped in. Thanks for the useless help!

We ended up buying a few cheap small bags since we had enough luggage already and would be getting the new piece from Princess upon our return home. No need to spend another $200-300 for an extra bag we wouldn't need. We got over that and enjoyed the rest of our cruise.

Upon arriving home there was no luggage and we didn't get anything for the next month. I finally decided to call and see where our luggage was. The first time I called they blamed it on manufacturer delays and promised it would be delivered in a couple of week.

After a month, still no luggage. I called again and again they blamed the manufacturer and told me it was coming. After another few weeks, another call and this time they told my wife that it would be delivered in the next two weeks. Not sure what excuse that time.

After the two weeks passed and no luggage, we tried calling back. This time they would funneled us to a specific person (Betsy Haines X44411) who never was there so we never got to talk to her live and she wouldn't return calls. Today I finally talked to someone who put me on hold for 10 minutes and then gave me another excuse and promised delivery in another month. This time the excuse was that our name did not get transmitted to the manufacturer and would be transmitted in the next week or so. Then it would take 3 weeks to ship from China. We'll see if it ever shows up.

I am out the $350 luggage I was promised and time I wasted to contacting them numerous times. I was also inconvenienced on the cruise and the return trip as we had to deal with multiple small bags to transport our belongings back from the cruise on the bus, at the airport and to our vehicle. They are out a previously loyal cruiser. Time to look at other cruise lines.

This is concerning excursion ITO-A2 Kilauea Volcano. We have encountered some problems with this tour, which I took pictures and notes and name of other passengers. According to the letter we received they were provided with full details. The first thing is according to a park ranger this tour was closed two days prior to this excursion, which means that the tour operator should have taken the proper actions and advise Princess personnel of this condition, instead they decided to proceed knowing that it would not be possible to see the Volcano due to high sulfur concentration. I am assuming that the Princess shore excursion personnel was not aware of this situation.

I reported this event to the shore excursion personnel upon my return to the boat. It took 5 days and two reminders to the shore excursion personnel before we were given any indication of action or news which finally resulted in a refund of only 60 percent of the purchase price. Not only should we have received a full refund the same day, but faster results. I had to intervene twice to finally being told that we will receive a letter the day prior to our cruise termination which I felt was totally unacceptable.

The comments in the letter dated February 29, 2008 Voyage M805, which states as a gesture of goodwill a 60 percent refund has been applied to your account is an insult to my intelligence. We are not talking of a big amount here, which is not the main reason of this E-Mail, but the quality of service we received in this particular case. Besides of a full refund we should have received a satisfactory result the same day. Another concern, which we did not report but should have, is that in the excursion in Kuai (LIHK1 - Zip line, wagon and trekking), the description on your web site said that we would have lunch in a, and I quote: Robinson Crusoe style restaurant built in a tree overlooking the jungle, well all we got was a sandwich, small salad and brownie in the wagon that was used for the tour. The sandwich lunch was good but it was far from the restaurant in a tree (if there is one!). This is false advertising and should be corrected on your web site if the passengers are not going to get what is advertised.

Loss of money, time, frustration and unpleasant vacation time on board.

My parents are Platinum members of this cruise line. They went on a cruise for their 50th wedding anniversary, and my siblings and I wanted to surprise them while they were on the cruise. I called weeks in advance to have their room decorated, a bottle of wine sent to them, and a bouquet of flowers sent to them....all to happen on different days, as a continual surprise on their cruise. It is extremely hard to surprise my parents, as well as hard to buy them things, so this seemed perfect. I paid for these things well in advance, and called again 2 days before they sailed to be sure all was as I wanted it to be. I was told it was. The decorating was to be 2 days post sail, the wine sent in the middle of the trip, and the flowers on the return trip from Hawaii. I was VERY disappointed to get my parents e-mail saying how they arrived on the ship and in their room they had flowers and wine from all of us! I am not sure about the room decorating, but I can't tell you how upset I am that EVERYTHING was delivered at their arrival!

I was told by the lady on the phone that an on-board credit would be given to them. That is NOT THE POINT: the surprise was the gift, as they can well afford to buy these things on their own. Then I was told I would be refunded the money--again--THAT IS NOT THE POINT! The SURPRISE WAS THE GIFT. I would like someone to look into this so my disappointment doesn't have to be also that of someone in the future also trying to surprise a loved one.

I am so dissatisfied with how I was treated by Princess Cruises that I feel it worth my while to let others know how Princess Cruises treats their customers should any problem arise in their cruise. In my family's situation, our problem came up when we paid $15 per person ($60 total for 4 family members) to have our bags check on to the airlines for us by Princess. The sign-up form for this stated that in certain cases this might not work and if so, a full refund would be issued. In my case it did not work. At the end of the cruise, we took a tour of San Juan, PR (offered by Princess Cruise). The tour terminated at the airport. We were dropped off in front of our bags on the curb. The tour director instructed us to remove our bags, proceed to the airlines, etc.

I was surprised to find my bags there, since I had paid to have them checked directly on the airlines by Princess. The bags were unattended on the curb. We followed our tour guides instructions and checked our bags onto our airlines ourselves. The next day 1/13/08, we contacted Princess and explained the problem. After about 25 minutes on hold, the representative agreed to refund the $15/person ($60) to our credit card. Several days later, only $30 had been credited. In vain, I made numerous follow up calls spending over an hour on the phone. Each time I was told the person who could take care of this was not available but would call me back. In spite of numerous calls and my warning that I would go to the Better Business Bureau, no one called me back, and no refund for the $30 still owed me was issued.

Note: The total amount I spent for the cruise and while on the cruise was around $9000, and they will now nickel and dime me over $30 for a service they did not provide me which I paid for? In any case, I had to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. This resulted in a letter from Princess Cruises agreeing to pay me the $30 they owed me for services not rendered. The self-serving letter I received from Princess after my complaint with the BBB, stated they are proud to offer the innovative Shipboard Airline Check-in Service. They acknowledged that I experienced some problems using the service. They said they were sorry for any area of the cruise that did not meet my expectations. There was no explanation or apology for the way I was treated over weeks and hours worth of phone calls just trying to receive a refund that I was due. I am really not at all unhappy that their innovative Shipboard Airline Check-in Service did not work out for me and my family. I know nothing is perfect. No big deal. What astounds me though, is the poor manner they treated me on the numerous attempts I made to be treated fairly and receive my refund. Maybe it is true that you don't know much about a company until you experience a problem.

We booked a cruise on Princess, along with our friends, in early September, 2007. We made a deposit on the cruise, booked non-refundable airlines tickets to the departure port city, and bought non-refundable travel insurance. A couple of days later we got a call from our travel agent. She advised us that we would need visas due to a 9-hour stop in Brazil, a scheduled stop on the cruise. This visa is required even if you stay on the ship! It turns out it will cost us over $200 each to acquire this visa. We are also required to get yellow fever shots at a cost of about $80 each. I feel this very important information should be noted prominently on the cruise itinerary on Princess.com, not buried deep in the website. A $2200 per person cruise is now approximately a $2500 cruise.

A check of Holland America's website clearly shows a footnote about the Brazilian visa requirement on their cruises with stops in Brazil. It's amazing that they are even stopping in Brazil for 9 hours when it is causing such an expense and hassle for their customers. My friend has called Princess to complain but to no avail. They feel that since they state somewhere in their website that it is the passengers responsibility to get the necessary documents.

This will cost us about $300 per person.

We did not get a promised price reduction. We made reservations for the Star Princess Cruise, March 6, 2008, from Buenos Aires. The booking was made Feb 23, 2007, over one year in advance for my wife and me. We asked, because of the long time before the cruise, that if there was a price reduction we would get the reduced price, and we were told by the agent, "Yes". The travel agent is Rose Morrissey of Pavlus Travel, 1-866-843-4835.

On previous cruises this agreement had been honored; however, now she states Princess will not allow it. It appears Princess deliberately waited until our credit card was charged the higher fee, 73 days before the sailing, and then reduced the fare. This is costing us $1,140.00.

From the moment we boarded the ship in San Pedro there were no robes in the room, and it smelled like the room was not clean. Had to go to the Pursers Desk for immediate attention for robes and never received any slippers. My daughter's birthday was on Tuesday December 18th, and there were no balloons on the door like other rooms. Again had to go the 6th Deck and complain. The communication from the Captain could only be heard in the hallway and in the restaurant--forget it with all the noise. So unless you ran out into the hall to hear any announcements you probably would not be informed of current events or conditions. The bus boys on the Lido deck would walk right in front of you, if you were trying to get a beverage or pick up silverware. Last but not least, my luggage was lost when we went to claim in the baggage area. I walked off this cruise in tears rather than a smile!

With all the stress from this cruise and worrying about my luggage being lost I started to almost have a seizure at the Long Beach Airport before boarding the plane back to Phoenix.

I booked a family reunion cruise for our family a year in advance on board the Caribbean Princess. Our family of 10 had not been in the same room much less same state in over 10 yrs. So this gathering was very important to us as we didn't know when we'd be able to do it again, since my father had just been diagnosed with cancer. From beginning to end we were treated so rudely, terribly, and harassed. Princess Cruises had no waiting wheelchair for my Dad when we got to port to port, so Mom and I had to find one. Upon entering the ship and being told to go to the 15th floor for buffet, my mom went through the sliding doors and tripped on a four-inch raise that was not marked, and had no warning sign. She hit her head and arm on a metal rail. We had to REQUEST that someone from medical come see her, then they wanted us to pay the $90 charge. Due to bruising and swelling, she was laid for two days and could not leave the ship.

I had pre-ordered food platters be delivered to each cabin, and 2 of them didn't show so I inquired about it. I asked to be informed when the screw-up was fixed because they said it would take 24 hrs. to find out if I had paid for them or not. Anyway, they delivered them that night without telling us, and of course we were held up over 3 1/2 hrs at dinner; so when they got the platters left outside their door, they were not only warm (they were seafood) but the bread was hard and inedible. The kids (all over 18) were harassed and even followed by their so-called security every night, being requested for ID's 3 times in the first 2 hrs. Things only went from bad to worse. They tried double-billing us for our reservation that my mom made months before to celebrate my birthday at their private steakhouse. They had my mom in tears while they wanted to argue with her. When that finally got cleared up and we showed up for our reservation, we were told they had none for us!

We complained every time something went wrong, but nothing was ever done. I HAD to request a meeting with the staff purser, but he didn't see us until the day before the end of the cruise. And he only said there was nothing he could do but we were free to complain once the ship docked! I cried every night on this ship, and got so depressed that I only left my cabin to eat. When we got home I wrote a 25-page letter detailing EVERYTHING that went wrong for each day, and believe me there several problems each day! All I received back was a letter stating they were sorry regarding the lack of professionlism and staff. Then they had the nerve to say at the end of the letter that they would consider it a pleasure if we decided to cruise with them again, and that they felt that would be a pleasurable experience. Are they kidding? They made no refund of anything they screwed up on--billing or anything else. My parents are Platinum mambers and would never go on PRINCESS AGAIN. They are terrible.

Twelve of us booked a cruise on September 14 with Princess Cruise Lines. We booked it because after shopping around the price was affordable. Today, November 20, I was emailed that an additional $70 per cabin will be charged to us for gas surcharges. I am really mad. If we do not pay this, they are telling me our cruise will be cancelled.

I recently took a 7 day cruise on Princess Cruises. I purchased prepaid internet minutes to use the onboard computers in order to keep up with my emails.. After my internet minutes were used up, quickly, I just paid as I go. After a while I notice the minutes and money ($350) were adding up fast. I talked to others using the Internet Cafe. They too felt the minutes were being added up quickly and not enough time on the computer.

After talking to a few people we felt that the satellite internet connection was taking along time to connect. I complaint to the Internet Cafe Manager. He told me, You know how you guy get while surfing the net?. I then complaint to the front desk onboard. I was told that they are not responsible for the satellite being slow and that this happens. I think they should put a warning on their flyers that show prices for internet use. That way people will be worn of the delays and waste of minutes and money.

I also sent letter to Princess Cruises and advised them of my complaint, no resolution. Princess Cruises Customer Relations Specialist, Arielle Gauer, sent me a response which shows their great? customer service that said, Further correspondence with our office will not garner a change in resolution nor generate further response.

Dec 1, Princess Cruise 11 days Mexican Riviera, Dawn Princess, cabin C508. To bed first night, smelled previous person who had slept in bed on pillow case. Looked in between the sheets out of curiosity and found two black curly hairs. It was late. Suffered the night and requested clean sheets and pillow cases the next day. It was provided. Did not smell previous bed user after bed change. However out of curosity, watched closely during OUR departure concerning the changing of the bed for the next persons. It was made up before we left and the sheets and pillow cases were NOT changed!!

I was part of a party consisting of 13 people. This same group of people goes on a cruise every two to three years. This was our first cruise with Princess, and it will definately be our last. Our cruise was in late October, 2005. Obviously we were all worried about the weather. For an entire week we watched footage of hurricane Katrina barreling towards Florida. We called Princess on multiple occasions to verify that the cruise was still going to happen as planned. They told us everything was all set to go.

Things started to go wrong once we got to the airport. Our airline informed us that Princess had called to inform us that the ship was leaving 3 hours early and that we were not going to make it in time. What followed was 7 days of absolute horror. We ended up spending 2 days in Boston and making (and changing) flight plans for 13 people no fewer than 4 times in order to catch the ship at one of the port of calls. We were informed that if we did not meet up with the ship, we would lose all of our money and receive no refund as it was "our fault for missing the ship". I could go on for pages describing the hell that their Customer Service put us through but I won't. Needless to say we caught up with the ship on Tuesday and were just happy that our vacation was about to start. Wrong.

Here is a quick summary: They wouldn't let us on the ship. We had to fight our way on. We didn't go anywhere we were expecting to go. Service on the ship was horrific. The crew had no interest in providing a pleasurable experience. Make no mistake, when I say the service was horrible, I truely mean that. In every aspect of the ship, the service was horrible. By the end of the week, we just wanted to go home. This was, by far, the worst vacation I have ever experienced. We have traveled with Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian and have nothing but high praise for all of them. Princess doesn't even come close to meeting their standards.

We were kicked off the Sky Princess on a 28 day cruise. My husband had a problem with swallowing and they told us they didn't want him dying on their watch. We were put off in Rabul and given two bottles of water and told not to eat or drink anything. We were given a face mask because the nearby volcano was spewing ash into the air every few minutes. We also were given quinine in case we were bitten by mosquitoes. We were sent to a hospital that had been closed three months previously and the doctor was the ambulance driver (we found out later). I begged to be let back on the ship but was refused.

We were not reimbursed for the days left that we were not on the ship. Not eating for two days because of what we were told and being scared to death because of where we were.

After the hurricanes in Summer of 2004, Princess Cruises knew that one of their destinations, Princess Cayes, would be closed for an indefinite period of time. I booked my cruise in September and sailed in December. Upon arriving at the ship, I was informed that we wouldn't be going to Princess Cayes. Several staff members informed me that they knew we wouldn't be going to Princess Cayes several months back. Had this been brought to my attention earlier, I would've selected to travel with another cruiseline. Princess Cruises failed to disclose this information in a timely manner, nor did they give passengers a full refund option. I brought this to their customer service group and was told that nothing could be done about it. My credit card company took my claim and got $500 (the cost difference for 2 passengers between Princess and another cruiseline) back for me. Now Princess is threatening to send a collection agency after me!

My husband and I recently spent the worst 15 days of our lives aboard the Island Princess. To begin most had been on board between 4 and 5 hours when during the lifeboat practice the man next to my husband fainted, so the departure was delayed an hour while he and his companion were taken off the ship and into a waiting ambulance. We then got underway ans as we passed the breakwater I began to feel sick. As it had been about 5 hrs. since we had dined in the Horizon Court I atributed my illness to something I ate and spent the next 4 days in bed quite ill.

This leads to my next series of complaints. Becuase I was under quarantine the bed linen could not be changed and I was left in extreme discomfort. The sheets were worn, threadbare and did not fit so they bunched and wrinkled beneath me. When I recovered and ventured outside I found that the ship is not handicap friendly. The tresholds were not easy to get a wheelchair over and the doors could not be opened by someone in a chair. When my husband mentioned to the steward at the next station that the treshold between sections was loose, the steward sarcastically asked, "Does it bother you?.

The tour of the Islands was uneventful. However, when we began our return home I again became ill, this time so severely that I required two visits from Dr. Mark and Nurse Tim, both of whom were most kind and concerned. It was through them that we learned that I was not the only person on board who was ill. The hospital was doing a land office business and that I was the least of the doctor's worries.

Bad Service and unable to remove gratuities from billing due to long line on ship and risk of loosing our flight. We also were forced to purchase a round trip airfare at time of departure in RI due to an error made by Princess Cruises and incurred emotional distress due to the heavy travel volume on April 16 2005 and the fact that the plane was already over booked. We are being charged for services not rendered, specifically airfare and gratuities we do not feel are deserved.