Princess Cruise Lines
Reviews and Complaints

To whom it may concern.

I went to see my locally travel agent in melbourne aus about booking a christmas cruise with my old employer princess cruises... Ex bar staff... Married my sweet heart, casino girlfriend 20-yrs ago.
The travel agent came up with a great deal for 4 of us 2 + kids 2 + adults around the $4k mark brilliant noooooooooooooooooo!

We were informed that we cannot have the above package deal, because pc had to leave places for people with no kids! Talk about discrimination...

(People with no kids can go on a cruise anytime of the year)
Its a christmas cruise hello! Santa gifts children! Very disappointing in princess cruises.

I put in soo many years of hard work for this company... What a let down.. What a load of crap princess cruises.!

I encountered very unpleasant bug bites from my stateroom #14218, while vacationing with extended families.
I filed complaint ( with video attached, which was shot in the stateroom ) with the princess cruise line on June 8, as soon as we got home.

I did NOT even get an apology from the cruise line company.
I showed all my bugbites to the help desk on the ship and asked to see a doctor early in the morning. The front desk gentleman told me to go back to my stateroom and the doctor will come, it never happened.

6th of October 2017 at sea on the Sea princess

When I booked my cruise online I booked a ultimate balcony dinner as a special moment to propose to my partner. After filling my dietary requirements I stated I am allergic to Seafood/Shellfish. I was asked what day id like my balcony dinner I selected the first night onboard. Once I boarded the ship and looking foward to my special dinner I rang room serive to ask what time and I was told they cant do it the first night of the cruise ( no mention of this when I booked it) so I asked for it to be the following night. I put in my order and said no seafood because im allergic I was told no worries and they will see me at 6pm the following night. After being sea sick all day thursday I rang room service and asked if they could move it to friday night as I just wont be able to enjoy the moment they said yes. Friday night at 6pm my waiter comes to the door and start setting up first he brings in an entree that has prawns, caviar and salmon on it when he came back with the drinks I said sorry you have to take this as im allergic, so he brings in another plate with a baked pastry on it. After being dissapointed with entrees and not being able to eat that I asked what the pastry was filled with and I was told it is a crab cake, again I send it back and said im not sure if anyone read my dietry requirements or listened when I spoke on the phone but im deadly allergic. Im very dissapointed with that fact that after booking it for the first night I was told no cant have it and then im being sent food that I clearly stated I cant eat due to allergies. I would like a full refund on my balcony dinner. Im highly dissapointed that if I trusted that I was listened to I would not be here, I will not be taking anpther cruise anytime soon as I feel noone cares.

I am very disappointed in princess cruises lack of responsibility
in releasing pending authorizations from my bank.
I have tried many times including getting my bank to ask for early release
of these accounts, What they are doing is holding back my own funds for no apparent reason, they were paid in full when leaving the ship.
I have written to the Australian Law Department outlying my complaint and
hopefully they will be able to rectify this matter.

Re Part tour of Europe and Baltic Cruise 10/8/2017-29/8/2017

Member #: 635606084C GW2H2G

Dear sir,

We were part of this cruise which ended in Copenhagen on the 29/8/2017. Our room number was 604.

We were your customers on the land section of this cruise. We do have some complaints with regards to the standards of restaurants used by your land tour operator, and some of the tours that were of no value to us, the castle tour especially!
1. We believe that the quality and content of the food provided to us during this period of the land tour was very inferior to the price we paid for the cruise, especially the restaurant in Vienna, where (5) five of the group were sick and a doctor had to be called to the hotel to examine these people and the restaurant in Berlin which according to your brochure

Quote: " it is the finest restaurant in Berlin " and in actual fact it was probably not more than a two star restaurant, no Michelin restaurants here!

I was really disgusted with the menu, all the food presented to us was " Pork, Pork, Pork " in different forms. I asked for a steak and salad and was refused. So that evening I finished up with nothing to eat, even though I paid for a so-called sumptuous meal in the finest restaurant in Berlin! Ha Ha.

We will not be recommending your cruise line to any of our friends. We even found out that our American friends had a choice to choose their cabin before we set sail, whereas we Australians did not. Why do you have different standards, that in my language is called discrimination!
We enjoyed the food on board the ship and the tours that we attended to very very informative, although everything was RUSH RUSH RUSH, we feel that we should have had more time on these tours considering we paid over $A17, 000.

We hope for a positive response from you.

Yours truly

Joseph and Sheila Bianco

Mr & Mrs S Hogan 11 Rickard Street Ryde. NSW 2112 Australia 5th August 2017
Your Ref # GNMQ4J – Golden Princess – 75day, Circle Pacific Cruise, Mini suite D210
Dear Sir or Madam
Two important, incidents seriously impacted on the enjoyment of our recent cruise – we were always tense and worried, wondering when this noise was coming back, and we were afraid to use our balcony from fear of something dropping on us again.
1) Avery loud banging noise in our Mini suite, in the very early hours of the morning, between 4.00am and 5.00am. This went on continuously for more than 5 days in a row, before anything was done. Other people in adjoining cabins also experienced this noise and complained, ie: about this very loud and annoying banging and hammering noise. It did stop for a day or so, but then returned again, then for a couple of days, then later it miraculously ceased - no apologies or explanations were provided or given, as to its cause or how it was fixed – or if it was going to possibly happen again and again? The anxiety each night was a real pain – was it going to occur again early the following morning? This was not a cheap inside cabin – this was fully priced mini suite $62, 000.00 for 75 days. What a disappointment and a what rip off – our room was in a poor state of repair!
2) A large wine glass was dropped or thrown from the open deck, on level 15 which struck the steel dividing panel between our two dividing balconies, shattering and showering us with tiny glass fragments and fine particles of broken glass. I still cannot believe how we missed having these glass particles in our eyes, as we were sitting down on the balcony at the time, when we were sprayed and showered with these fine shattered glass fragments. The shattered, long arrow shaped, jagged glass stem, narrowly missed, spearing and penetrating my daughters head – it missed her head by millimetres. It is a miracle that no one was seriously injured or killed by this dangerous act. We were splattered with sharp, finely shattered and splintered glass fragments from the wine glass –frightening and unbelievable.
My concern and complaint is as follows:- Why did it take so long to find and fix this noise problem, and when it was supposedly fixed, how did this problem then continue to re-occur. Why we were not informed, as to what the problem was, and what was fixed, so we had peace of mind, that it would not re-occur. Basic common decency and manners should dictate, that people should be told and reassured, what the problem was, and that it had been fixed – honestly, is that asking too much, I don’t think so?
Now to the more serious matter, of being showered by glass fragments from a shattered wine glass, which was dropped or thrown from the open deck level 15 down onto us, as we sat innocently on the balcony of our mini suite. This is a very serious safety matter, where our health and well being was not properly protected by your officers and the security staff on board. When this serious incident occurred, I phoned the Pursers desk and asked if a senior officer could come down immediately to our cabin and balcony to see, examine and investigate this very serious and dangerous incident immediately. None was forthcoming, in fact I had to ring the Pursers desk 3 times, as no one came and there was finely shattered glass fragments all over our balcony floor – it was impossible to step anywhere on our balcony without standing on shattered glass fragments. After quite some time, a couple of cleaners came to sweep and clean up the glass. I asked them where was the senior officer, to see this mess before they cleaned it up – they just shrugged their shoulders, as if to say they didn’t know – they were told to clean it up. What sort of response is that, when people are sitting innocently on their balcony minding their own business, and then they are showered by fragments of a shattered wine glass and nearly speared in the head by the long, arrow shaped stem. (I have taken a photo of this glass stem to prove my point). What I’m trying to say is, this was not some sort of minor, harmless occurrence –innocent people’s lives could have been destroyed for ever – losing their sight, with glass fragments in their eyes or worse still speared in the head or face with the narrow stem of the wine glass. When some serious incident like this happens, there should be a serious mandatory investigation into who or what had caused this incident. How did it occur (was it a accident or was it people fooling around on deck 15), and what precautions should be taken to ensure this sort of incident does not occur again. I don’t think that’s asking too much?
What really upset and annoyed me was, a senior chap did turned up about an hour or more after the incident occurred – he was not apologetic or overly concerned. I explained that after this incident occurred, a woman on level 15 had pointed down to us, indicating who it was that had dropped or thrown the glass, if this matter had been acted on promptly and immediately, the perpetrator of the act could have been found, identified and made to explain why and how this occurred – also surveillance tapes could have been checked to see who carried out this dangerous act – accidental or otherwise? I do not believe the staff acted appropriately to protect us, after our health and well being was threatened and put at serious risk – their concern and interest was minimal. In fact, I said to the officer who attended and later to a more senior officer on the phone (I think his Christian name was Martin and he had an English accent), that I was going to take this matter further when I got home, and I asked him, would you have treated this matter so causally, if it was him or a member of his family that this had happened to? – no comment, what sort of response is that?.
Princess needs to lift its act, with regards to customer safety and their complaints and their service generally, otherwise long term passengers will vote with their feet. You only had to talk to people on board the ship on this last cruise, to find out how many have cancelled their pre-booked cruises. We have already booked on the 106 day around the world cruise which leaves Australia in early June 2018 next year Sydney to Sydney on the Sea Princess. We are seriously thinking of cancelling this cruise on the Sea Princess, we await your response and reply.
We are loyal, long term Elite, Princess Cruisers. – We are also Elite on Cunard, so we are long term cruisers. In fact this year alone 2017, we completed the 84 day around South America, Sydney to Sydney just prior to joining this 74 day Pacific Circle, Sydney to Sydney cruise. This last cruise cost us nearly $62, 000.00 and it turned out to be disappointing and a absolute nightmare – we had the mini suite “from hell”, the floor tiles in the bathroom kept lifting off and sticking to our feet, lights that would not work or contumely blinked, our fold out lounge was in such a poor state of disrepair, we had an old lump of 4” x 3” block of wood, which was strategically positioned and placed, to hold up the damaged or faulty steel frame in position, the door handle on our balcony sliding door was nearly falling off – you had to carefully juggle it, to close it. We were frightened to use our balcony, with the fear that something else was going to drop on us, and then being woken up early at ungodly hours from our sleep 4.00 and 5.00 am, with loud hammering and banging noises in our room. People say you pay for what you get. Sadly we paid a very high price for what we didn’t get – shame on Princess for treating, 2 long term, loyal, Elite customers, so disdainfully and so poorly. Why employ security staff who chose to ignore serious, dangerous and hazardous acts. Who for reasons best known to themselves, superficially and neglectfully treat complaints and grievances, who cannot be bothered, and who tell people to take the matter up, whenever and with ever they want, when they get home, off the ship – what sort of customer service, treatment and/or behaviour is that – is any staff member on board accountable for their action or their inaction?
I hope I get some sort feed back and a positive response to this long and detailed letter. Otherwise you leave us with no other alternative or option, than to look further a field, at another cruise line, not linked to Carnival and/or its subsidiaries. We will also ensure that we post our experiences, thoughts and grievances on Cruise Critic for all those interested Cruiser out there, to see and to be fully informed and aware, in precise detail, how poorly and shabbily we have been treated by Princess, and why it would be better to look elsewhere. We await your reply. “Our mini suite from hell”, our room number was D210. I dare say, the maintenance issues I mentioned, are still there – some fragments of the broken glass, still laying on balcony floor, the floor tiles still lifting off the bathroom floor, every time you walk into the bathroom, all the lights not working, the large lump of wood, wedge into position to hold up and support the steel frame of the sofa lounge, and the sliding door handle, loose and difficult to use, ie: to close the sliding door properly.
We encouraged and paid for our daughter to join us on this cruise, she is a High School Teacher. She has sadly walked away with a very disappointing and poor impression of Princess, their customer service and relationship and cruising in general. I’m sure she will go back to school to share and paint a very tainted and poor impression of her experience of Princess and this cruise, with her colleagues and her students – I say shame on Princess. I will be sending this letter to Princess cruises in Sydney and America and Carnival’s Head office in America for their action and response.
Yours faithfully Stan and Julie Hogan

Barry & Wendy Taylor

we returned from a cruise yesterday 20/7/17 Sun Princess VLD13G cruise booking number - Noumea - New Caledonia cruise Brisbane - Brisbane 10 August 2017 returned 20 August 2017

We noticed charges doubled up
12/7 $46.98 from our personal credit card which is shown on our bank statement
13/7 $47.92 on our bank statement
15/7 $51.91 on our bank statement

We then notice we have paid our cruise account which includes these same amounts
13/7 $47.40
14/15/7 $51.35

How come these charges are on our own personal bank account plus on the cruise card
Have we been charged twice

[protected]@hotmail.com

Our cruise voyage number was 8721 disembarking from Singapore to Shanghai on the majestic princess. Our cruise date was June 18 until July 9. We have cruised with Princess for 90 sea days and this is the first time I can truly say we were disappointed in many things. On day of disembarkation there was no one outside of the terminal to give us directions or assist us and my husband is in a wheelchair. The things I'm complaining about might seem trivial to the company but after spending 15, 000.00 for cruise, flights, visas and money spent on board and in the ports I think we are justified. I tried to buy a paperback book three days into the cruise and was told there weren't any more because this was a Chinese cruise. I heard this same expression at least 20 times during the cruise. We asked where the map of the voyage was as the husbands liked to look at it. Again I was told by an officer there wasn't one but low and behold two weeks into the trip we found it in the art gallery again poor communications among the staff. We chose to eat at the dining room on deck 5, the first day I asked where the menu was and was told I would have to go to deck 16 to see the menu. I asked many times why and was told different reasons, finally after complains to the front desk and many officers I met with the head of the dinning rooms and low and behold the next day the menu was on a table out side of our dining room it only took two weeks to correct this simple request. The internee cafe was another source of frustrations, one person and two terminals for 3500 passengers. My husband owns his own business and needed to check his email daily, we were told that this ship is again for the Chinese and they bring their own tablets, phones ect. We did bring our tablet only to have it break in Singapore. You can imagine my husband confined to a wheel chair having to wait some times up to an hour or just leave. There wasn't one day that I didn't encounter toilets out of order in the public restrooms. One day I went to the front desk to complain about something, the phone was ringing and ringing there were four front desk staff present talking to each other, my person was in the back looking for a supervisor. I finally couldn't take it any longer and asked if anyone was going to pick up the phone which they did and sure enough it was a guest asking for assistance. I know there are things beyond Princess control but the way customs was handled in Hong Kong and Korea have got to be fixed. We had to go though customs in Hong Kong with every one else and it took us two hours to get back on the ship. Korea everyone was given a specific time to leave and of course no one stuck to their times and the times were not enforced by the staff. The worse part we encountered and I vowed at that time was disembarkation at Shanghai . 3500 passengers, 7000 pieces of luggage and no one who spoke English outside to help, again imagine my husband in a wheelchair and me trying to find three pieces of luggage. The only thing that was very positive is you have two employees that are an asset to your company. Harry Sui front desk personal who remembered my name as we became good friends with all my trips to the front desk, he was pleasant and attempted to help me as best as he could, the other person was our cabin Stewart Tomislau Gicev he went above and beyond to assist my husband and we are truly grate full. I don't have the booking number of our cruise our names are Lynette Smith and Ignacio Naranjo we were cruising with another couple Donayda and Guillermo Alonso. I would appreciate if some one could respond to this letter and just not ignore us as we have already given deposits for future cruises which will depend if Princess wants us to continue as customers.

Cruise ref: GR9J8R. Folio: 1753. Stateroom A635 Sea Princess voyage from Fremantle to Dover. I purchased a DVD mainly for the Pop Choir concert which I was a member, as a memento for myself and to show my family. Unfortunately the quality of the sound in particular was very poor, and is not a true reflection of how the performance sounded on the day. Some voices are louder than others and some sound like a solo performance. Pity there's no opportunity to view before buying. I am very disappointed, it is overpriced and not a good copy. I paid $24.99 AUD. I want a refund, or a better quality DVD. I have twice emailed princess cruises.com on 17/07/17 & 24/07/17 and been given a generic reply and booking ref: Q27888, and to date had no further response.

Myself and my husband have returned from a cruise on the Royal Princess Cruise ship from Athens around the Greek Islands on June 9th 2017 for 7 days.
Firstly my husbands case turned up within an hour of boarding the ships, we arrived at the terminal around 11:30, my case didn't turn up until 6.30pm. The reason for this was due to the fact they thought I had a syringe in my case which I understand but why couldn't they have informed me 5 hours earlier? I spend most of the first day hunting down my case unable to change into something more appropriate for the facilities of the ship. A couple of days later we went on our first excursion pre-booked with princess only to find the coach we were on had no air conditioning as it didn't work, no seat belts and quite frankly not fit for purpose. The weather was around 35 degrees outside the coach so inside it felt like double, I found this extremely stressful but after complaining once back on the ship we did eventually receive 40% refund, however I really don't think this was much of a gesture. Then the following day we went on another excursion again pre booked through Princess and again no air conditioning but this time another coach was sent out. Now forgive me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that the Royal Princess is a 5* luxury cruise ship. I was also very disappointed in the standard of food in the main restaurants, I do not think a burger was fine dining, I expect that in the buffet restaurant which was far better than the main restaurants. Several people did say that the standard had slipped. I also found the entertainment very dated, where were the west end shows - not even one, instead a dated magician, singer and comedian. I have to say I've been on 2 cruises in the past one with P&O and one with Thompson and both food and entertainment were much better. Finally on the last day we were told to be off the ship by 10am out of our cabins by 8am, it just felt like we were discarded immediately. Our flight wasn't till 9pm that evening, luckily we did book a hotel room nearby but I have never felt so unwanted on a cruise ship before, I suppose we were lucky they allowed us to have breakfast!

I have been utterly disappointed with our last cruise on the Crown Princess - Baltic Heritage - 3 June to 17 June 2017 regarding gluten free. I have Coeliac Disease and have done so for 30 years and have cruised with Princess Cruises many times and have always been treated so well by the Head waiter who has always gone out of his way to help me... on this occasion the desserts were absolutely disgusting ... tapioca ... a chefs special! I only found out towards the end of the cruise that the Horizon Court served up up gluten free cakes and pies! and they were delicious. I find it very hard to justify a "chef's special" like tapioca and strawberries and cream, and some other awful kind of brown jelly concoction when there are such delights in the Horizon Court. I did mention this to the head waiter and one would have thought that he would have sent someone to go and fetch a nice cake or fruit pie from there instead of giving me such awful desserts. The pizzas made on deck with gluten free flour were disgusting they were all soggy and inedible. The bread in the Michaelangelo dining room sometimes took 30 minutes for it to be toasted. One evening the bread was inedible even toasted. On the second to last night I was persuaded by my head waiter to come back to the Michaelangelo dining room as I had started to go to the Horizon Court and I was given a choice of 3 types if gluten free bread, ordinary white, sundried tomato and herb bread. This was a very welcome change and I said to the head waiter it is a pity I did not have this from the start and he said better late than never! I have been so disappointed this time around by the gluten free issue that I shall be looking at other cruise lines where other Coeliac passengers have given me recommendations. I completed the survey on my return from the cruise and asked that someone should get back to me but I have heard absolutely nothing.

I have attached a jpeg copy of our complaint regarding the services maid by your Matrie D' during our Cruise at Majestic Princess last May 5 to 14, 2017.

Last May 7 to 14, 2017 we were a group of Presidents, Stockholders of 12 companies and their family traveling on your Majestic Princess. We are loyal Princess customers; some of us having done 6 or more cruises. This was our first time to be declined to sit together by your Maitre ‘D even if we made prior arrangements in Manila four (4) months before departure. We tried again because we wanted to be together just once a day and we were told we were too big a group. We contacted our Manila office because we were not allowed to speak to someone higher than your Maitre ‘D.

Please find the attached document for your perusal and appropriate action.

Hello, We booked this cruise as a getaway following my husband's ill health. Princess Cruises was highly recommended to us. The cruise was the Dawn's last cruise and Princess let down its loyal customers (many of whom had booked the Dawn for sentimental reasons). The company ran out of many drinks (Stout, Gin, Johnny Walker Red and Black and Red Wine unless it was top of the range at $80 - $120 per bottle). Our toilet was blocked for 5 of the 12 days and many cruisers had to use the public toilets! Food was also winding down and towards the end of the cruise, fresh fruit, prunes etc was non existent. Air conditioning in the dining areas was so bad that the waitresses were carrying portable hand held fans. The casino was shut early in order to have the machines serviced for handover to P & O. Entertainment during the day was extremely limited. Shops were shut midway during the cruise for stocktaking! Staff were constantly apologising and were fabulous considering the awkward position that their employer had put them in. I am hoping that Princess is going to offer a reimbursement to all passengers. No comparison to our wonderful Holland America Cruises!

My husband and I purchased a painting on a cruise in August 2016 and it has yet to arrive. They claimed to have shipped at end of September/beginning of October, but we received no delivery notice, email or call.

Once I found the paperwork, I contacted them in January 2017. I was told it would be reshipped. I gave additional email and phone contact info. Called them again a month later Feb 22 2017 and was told that shopping would be expedited. Called them again today, March 13th and was told that it was being expedited AGAIN and I should receive in two weeks.

This is a scam and I cannot believe that Princess Art is not owned by Princess Cruises.

One of our favorite pass-times on Princess is relaxing in the Sanctuary on the various ships. Reservations for specific loungers and chairs in the Sanctuary cannot be made on line but rather must be made in person and it's first come first served. Years ago we made the mistake of boarding at 2:00 or 3:00 P.M. and there was almost nothing left. Accordingly, we always make sure to be at the head of the boarding line to get our pick of the locations. The problem is their brand new "progressive boarding procedure".

When we made our reservations for the upcoming cruise on the Royal Princess there was no mention of this procedure. In fact there has been no mention of it on any of our correspondence from Princess until just yesterday (March 6th). I've saved copies of every e-mail with our booking summaries. No we are informed that due to the deck we will be on, that we won't be able to board until 2:30. This isn't fair and had we been told at the time of booking, we'd have chosen a cabin on another deck instead (only one deck up) to board at 12:00. Unless we are able to board at the earlier time we will almost certainly not get our preferred locations in the Sanctuary and possibly find it fully booked. If this would happen our trip will be ruined.

The only solution would be issuing us priority boarding passes. So far all we get is "there is nothing that we can do". Our confirmation number is MMCD2W and the cruise departs in 12 days.

We are booked on the Grand Princess, 15 day Hawaii Cruise (October 29).
I attempted to reach Jessica Boykin, to change our dining choice from anytime to traditional. When I booked this cruise it was because of a credit my husband and I received due to a bad experience on a prior cruise on Emerald Princess. I also was attempting to book air transportation to San Francisco. I called the end of October 2016, when I called the call went to a recording having me follow many prompts. The system had me on hold for well over 15 minutes and all of a sudden the call dropped back to the original message from Jessica that she was on an extended leave and if needing to speak to someone follow the prompts. A company as large as Princess I would think that they would have their act together and automatically send her calls to another agent to assist passengers in her absence. Because of the hassle I just decided to book my own air, and wait until she returned from leave. Finally I heard back in January, I sent Jessica all the information of our friends, that I convinced to accompany us on this cruise requesting we be seated together at the traditional dining. I also sent a request to Jessica inquiring if Princess did any one way fares because one of my co-workers has a daughter living in Honolulu and would like to join us at least to Hawaii. I never heard anything back and it's been over a month. I booked through Princess because of the 250 credit but encouraged our friends to book through Costco they offered the same exact thing but offered 600.00 onboard credit, looking back I should have booked through Costco I would have been $350.00 ahead. I did receive a e-mail from Jessica a couple of weeks ago but had nothing to do with our current cruise but trying to sell us another cruise. If you can't fulfill my requests on this cruise why would I consider taking another cruise with Princess. I, as well as you understand there are other Cruise companies and I am trying to give Princess a second chance but at this rate I can't see there being a third.

My husband and I were scheduled to celebrate his 70th birthday on the Pacific Princess, sailing October 16, 2016. Less than 24 hours prior to our departure time we received an email from Princess saying the ship had run into rocks, putting it out of commission. We understand these things happen and are thankful no one was hurt. Our complaint is how Princess has handled things since. Immediately after receiving the email we phoned Princess to confirm the email wasn't a hoax. They confirmed that it was not and during this conversation assured us the price we paid for this cruise would be honored for the cruise in the future. The following day we attempted to book the closest available cruise (same number of days, same region, same category). We were then quoted a price nearly three times the cost of the cruise they cancelled. They refused to honor the price we paid and told us we could keep checking back and see if the cost went down in the future. To add additional insult to injury, we then found the "full refund" they advertised to the public we would receive did not include the cost of the Vacation Protection we purchased. So, it's costing us $209.28 for a cruise Princess cancelled less than 24 hours of our departure date. Does this sound like a cruise line you want to book with? We have been on over 60 cruises (not all with Princess but we are Platinum members with them) and have never encountered a less scrupulous company. Additionally, they refuse to put anything in writing. Buyer Beware!

I received an email offer from Princess Cruises Casinos for a complimentary one-week cruise (not covering sundry expenses) sailing in November 2016. But as I read through the conditions for eligibility, this was their stipulation: Offer only available to residents of the US or Canada (offer not available to residents of Québec). Being from Québec City, this exception to Québec disturbed me so I decided to find out the motive behind it.

I called the number provided on the offer on Saturday, June 11 at 11h20, and spoke with Chandra. I asked her to find my profile on their system and read to me my home address, which she did. I then repeated the offer from Princess to her, including the part about Québec, and wanting an explanation for disallowing this province. She did not have an answer for me. I was put on ‘hold’ for quite some time, after which she returned, informing me that she had spoken with her supervisor who recommended I contact the ‘Yield Department’ at Princess in the course of the following week.

So on Tuesday June 14, at 17h15, I phoned Princess once again (they are based in California), and asked for the ‘Yield Department’. Shakira, who answered my call, would not transfer me to that department, but attempted to take care of my inquiry herself. Once again, I was dealing with a person who wasn’t qualified to explain the reasoning behind such a company policy. From that moment, I was literally given the run-around. First supervisor, Heather, replied to Shakira that Princess did not have my full home address and therefore made the error of sending me the invitation, but that they’d make an exception and honor their offer to me. They did have my address, since Chandra, on Saturday, had pulled it up without a problem. In total, I was kept on hold close to 40 minutes, as so-called supervisors succeeded each other in passing the buck. Finally, Marissa advised Shakira to tell me that I should contact Princess Cruises Customer Relations via email. She did not have a particular name for me to address my concern .

So I had come full circle, with no more explanation than when I started.

What does it all mean? Can cruise lines actually discriminate in such a manner? What was their rationale for rejecting Québec? And why aren’t they transparent about their practices if such practices are indeed justifiable?

I thought I’d give you a heads-up on this matter and maybe even on related issues, as they might be more prevalent than we suspect. Personally, I’m incredibly disappointed in the way Princess has dealt with the entire affair and I’ve lost faith in them

Sandra Theriault

The following complaint has been dismissed by Lisa 08238 Via phone call of 4/7/16. She did not see anything wrong with the activity described below.

I asked for upper management to review and call me. I received a phone call today 4/8/16. The following complaint has also been dismissed by Sandy Smith [protected]. She stated she spoke to the Captain of the Ship and the Captain said there were no groups or such activity on the ship.
SEE ADVERTISEMENTS AND GFAFIC VIDEOS PHOTOS BELOW AS PROOF.

BOOKING THE CRUISE
November 17, 2015 we booked and paid for 3 cabins for a family cruise for the 1/31–2/7/16 Mexican Riviera on the Ruby Princess from San Pedro through Princess Cruises directly at [protected]. Cabin 301 MVL5G, Cabin 307 mVL6R, Cabin 309 MVL5V.

The ship was delayed leaving port from the standard 4:00 pm until 11:30 pm nearly 8 hours due to a major storm front out at sea. From the time we arrived, we were uncomfortable with some of the activity that was taking place on the ship from some of the on-board groups. I asked a crew member if we can disembark being I saw some people still boarding this cruise due to some of the activity happening on the ship that we were uncomfortable with that we saw and I was told NO. Therefore my family spent most of the time being uncomfortable due to Princess majority blocked out spaces to allow several extremist groups activity taking over and Princess being well aware of the activity that would being taking place on their family oriented cruise ship. This cruise was far from a family oriented cruise as advertised. This was a Princess organized more like a private sex club boat cruise.

IT WAS AN EXTREMIST SIDE OF A GAY THEMED CRUISE AND IT WAS NOT DISCLOSED
(SEE EXTREMIST BEAR DRAG QUEEN AND GAY CRUISE ADVERTISEMENTS AND CRUISE PHOTOS ATTACHED). MANY ADDITIONAL VERY GRAPHIC PHOTOS AND VIDEOS AVAILABLE.
The Ruby Princess January 31 through February 7, 2016 was an extremist drag queen bear gay themed cruise quite full and it was undisclosed to us when we booked the cruise and it was undisclosed to us when we checked in at Registration. We understand that Princess does not ask travelers about their religion, sex or creed, and we do not have any issues with the LGBT groups, however we discovered after being on the cruise that this cruise was preplanned and advertised for nearly a year in advance for Princess to host extremist side of the gay community groups on this particular sail and to close off many public areas on the ship for the 5 or more separate these extremist gay groups that were on board. Some of the passengers from some of the groups were even unaware themselves of the other extremist drag queen groups and massive extremist group bookings on this cruise as well as other gay couples we talked to during supper and they were insulted as well and in speaking with other gay couples during dinner, they made a comment that this themed cruise was not their cup of tea and they were insulted that they were not informed of this extremist group activity. The couple also noted that there was open sex in public areas and there were children and family around in these areas. I am NOT exaggerating or making this up.
(SEE EXTREMIST DRAG GAY CRUISE ADVERTISEMENTS CRUISE PHOTOS ATTACHED).

Princess Cruises forced me to feel uncomfortable as I was sitting at the pool area watching the public demonstration of sexual conduct and lewdness. There were adults and children of all ages surrounding the pool and food areas. The extreme lewdness behavior of sexual conduct was offensive.

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Princess Cruises forced me to feel uncomfortable as I was sitting in the main theater trying to enjoy a show.
I wandered into the Princess Main Theater to sit down and watch a movie. Just before the movie started, there was some sort of comedy stage show taking place such as Michael Jackson shaking
his cum off his baby over the balcony railing of his hotel room. I was shocked of the live content of the sexual comments. There were dirty cum jokes and etc. The movie started and I noticed the theater was filled with extremist drag queens in drag beating the air with hangers throughout scenes of the movie. I was so insulted I walked out of the theater.

Throughout the cruise in the evening hours in the clubs were mostly dedicated by Princess Cruises to these 5 gay hardcore groups. I am NOT exaggerating or making this up.

(SEE EXTREMIST DRAG QUEEN BEAR GAY CRUISE ADVERTISEMENTS AND CRUISE PHOTOS ATTACHED).
One of the nights Happy Hour was noted in The Princess Patter in Sky Walkers, which is near the children's game center. Upon entering Sky Walkers, I walked into Sky Walkers of nearly 300 men naked down to G Strings. I walked in and looked toward the right at the dance floor and I saw raw sexual conduct taking place. I asked one of the crew “is this happy hour.” I have never seen happy hour like this before. The crew said this is a private club and I said “No it is not, it is in the Patter.” And, one of the extremist Drag guys said they were just thrown out of Club Fusion. I said “WOW” I can see why. Right next to the shops and open public area. One of these extremist group members got into a conversation with me and said we are all going “ALL BLUE.” I asked what Blue is.? He said we are stripping down?

As I walked out a crew member peeked in the doorway and I asked him if Princess allows this conduct because I have never seen anything like this on any family cruise. This resembles a private sex club in an offbeat area of a major city. The crew member said there are so many on this sail, smiled, shrugged his shoulder and walked away. After 9pm, throughout the cruise, this ship turned into nearly a total wild hard core sex club at sea. Most of the families on board tried to stay only at the center of the ship atrium area due to the issues on board.

One day I walked into a full sauna, looked like a grizzly bears den. After 10 minutes as I was walking out to go to the shower next door, I overheard a comment from one of the Bears “that little guy is hung like a horse, ” another guy said “yum yum”. This activity on the ship was unacceptable and I was very uncomfortable.

Princess Cruises should have disclosed to us that this was a special themed sail to an extremist group. There were many families with children on board and I witnessed the exposure of this activity to children on board.

THE FOOD AND THE SERVICE IN THE FORMAL DINING ROOM
The food in the formal dining room was appalling and beyond a disappointment. Fire the chef. We are seasoned platinum level travelers with Princess and the quality of food was just awful. Princess / Carnival is a billion dollar company and the food and service should be 5 star. The food quality was atrocious and the selections were less than a low end cafeteria. Shameful. Cruisers / Families take cruises versus hotels and other travel ventures for the 5 star service / food and entertainment.

The waiters’ lack of attention with non-existent table service made it worse.
We had to ask more than once for water refills. Why would we even have to ask?
We had to ask for butter for the bread. Really! Asking for butter for the bread?
We asked for hot tea and never received. Shame.

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We asked for Chocolate chip cookies for dessert and the waiter said no. HE SAID NO. The chocolate chip cookies are in the buffet area and the chocolate chip cookies are in the Cafe on Level 5. HE SAID NO. The Waiter should have gotten the chocolate chip cookies from one of those two areas. HE SAID NO. Shame.

One person in our party is lactose intolerant and it was prearranged during our booking. On the first night, the head waiter told her that he would give her a menu each night for the following day so they can review together. WELL THAT NEVER HAPPENED. She was unattended and on her own for guess work. CHECK OUR PREBOOKING. AND E-MAILS. IT WAS NOT A SURPRISE. Definitely NOT the excellent guest experience. Princess did not care about dietary needs. Princess needs to re-address their quality control and retrain staff.

We chose to leave our formal assigned seating and eat at the anytime dining. The service there was just mediocre fair. Shame. Training. Invest in your employees and train them.

THE HORIZON COURT BUFFET
The Lido Deck on the first day was good, looked very nice, clean and very good service. The days following it was like a light switch went to the OFF position and we are like the crew on a Cargo Ship. Felt like Bait and Switch the following days. Poor service, low quality choice of foods, oily, very slopping presentation. The service in the Buffet area was very poor.

THE BURGER AND HOT DOG GRILL
The attitude from the female cook at the hamburger grill at the pool area was rude all week. Not shy, not a language barrier, just in spirit and mean. She was not friendly, no smiles, no hospitality and she gave off a poor attitude and caused us to feel that we were just a bother. Order and move on. NEXT. That is how she made us feel. She needs customer front-line service training with a SMILE.
The hamburgers were very plain. The Veggie Burgers normally excellent were sloppy and disgusting. Did you change food vendors?

INFIRMARY
My mother got very sick on the cruise. She was taken to the Infirmary. They ran tests, drew blood, administered an IV and administered pain medications. The Doctor noted gall bladder issue and was referred to a medical center for emergency surgery.

LOST ITEMS
I made a report at Pursers Desk for lost items and filled out a Lost and Found Report but have had no response. Additionally, my wife walked away from the treadmill for a moment, came back and her black Sol Republic Ear Buds were gone.

SUMMARY
There was not much about this sail that we enjoyed. The extreme lack of service, the poor quality food and the disappointment is all that remains. We are very embarrassed that we brought other family members with us. I refunded some of my family members out of embarrassment as they thought we pulled a bad tasteless prank on them and put them on an extremist sex club cruise.

We are not the only cruises complaining. During the cruise, we heard many negative comments about this sail.

REQUESTING
We are requesting full refund and future cruise for myself and our family. This was all paid by me for our family.

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Please see below grafic pictures and videos takin onboard the princess ruby sex club cruise not disclosed to us !

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We have a booking for a sailing on January 23, 2014. We booked a suite for my husband and our daughter ( mid twenties). This was a Christmas present for her to join us on a short cruise. Yesterday, she was in an accident and hurt her neck and she will be unable to sail next week. We did not buy vacation protection. I called to cancel her from the cruise. I was not calling to ask for a refund, just to notify them that she would not be sailing with us.
I was told that we have to pay $299 to cancel her. It is amazing to me that we paid to add her to our reservation and now we have to pay to remove her from the reservation. That just does not seem to be a reasonable policy. Regardless of whether we cancel her today or she is a "no show" next week., we will be required to pay the $299. We additionally paid taxes and fees but we will get those back at some point. I have submitted a complaint to the Princes customer relations to see if they would reconsider or perhaps gives us a ship credit toward a future cruise but I have not heard back at this point.
We have been loyal Princess cruisers but we may need to take our business elsewhere.