Ambassador Cruise Line Reviews 1,201

As we sailed 9 months before on Ambience, we were surprised some members of staff remembered us, the crew are so lovely. The food excellent
Entertainment first class
And the weather amazing

Duplicitous in order to avoid compensating new travellers for delivering a cheaper cruise and completely messing up transport to victoria Station. They hide in small print and take no responsibility. Very poor cruise line, would never travel with them again

Ship experience 4 star. Food 5 star. Customer service communication zero so far. Cruise returned 27th March but still not received the courtesy of a reply to my email about a serious issue; acknowledged 17th April 2026 saying allow 28 days. Today is day 28.

My wife and I booked two cruises with Ambassador. One for this coming August which is fully paid for. The other was for September 2027 ' Iberian sunsets and Mediterranean mornings' on Ambience.

As it is my wife's 70th birthday this summer and mine next summer we booked and had a contract for the top deluxe suite on both cruises.

Ambassador cancelled the September 2027 cruise because it would appear they have had a better offer for a private charter.

To be brief I have complained to the CEO by email and also to guest relations. I got an unacceptable reply from guest relations and now they are not responding. Have had nothing from CEO Christian Verhounig.

The company did offer a 20% discount to transfer but as I booked during a 20% off suites promotion it is useless. Very few sailings have suites available now anyway and if they do they will cost more for an itinerary we do not want.

Ambassador have basically ruined our holiday plans for 2027, (I only get one 70th) and dumped their loyal customers for the sake of a presumably better offer and a quick buck. Unethical in my opinion.

I am still waiting for my deposit back 2 weeks later.

I believe there has been other private charters on Ambience by the representatives of Jane Mcdonald and Tony Hadley with Marti Pellow.

Any attempts at engaging with guest relations are stonewalled so don't even attempt it here ambassador, you have my email.

I was a regular cruiser with Ambassador, and I feel sorry for the wonderful staff on the ships that they are represented by apparently money grabbing management, who do not seem to believe in the principles of a contract.

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Edit following a typical reply on here.

Response to guest services

You (Ambassador) cancelled the cruise. I had no choice in cancelling, I had to to get my deposit back. Ambassador had the deposit, and you apparently sent it back to the agent on Monday 18th May

My emails to you and the CEO were not feedback and needed to be treated by Ambassador as a complaint. Sadly it seems you are incapable of doing that. You did not answer my complaint so I reject your response here.

One of my questions was the following

'Can you please explain why you think it is acceptable to disrupt/ruin lots of holiday plans, offer pitiful compensation, just so you can take an offer that gazumps your loyal customers?'

I assume you didn't answer because there is no answer apart from pure greed

I guesstimate that the Ambience was over half booked and probably close to three quarters when you pulled the plug on your loyal customers. That's 700- 1050 bookings! You should be ashamed in my opinion.

Finally AI says this about taking a private charter of Ambience for September 2027. AI doesn't factor in greed it would seem

For September 2027, a full private charter of the Ambience cruise ship is highly unlikely to be available because Ambassador Cruise Line has already scheduled and opened public bookings for commercial itineraries during this exact window. To charter the entire ship privately, a client typically must secure the vessel before public deployment schedules are released or negotiate a buyout prior to significant ticket sales.

Just to say the staff on the ships are wonderful. Crap management of the cruise line in my opinion bring it down. I have a cruise booked and paid for for August. Should be interesting.

I want to say before going on. The staff amazing food brilliant . !!
Bars very poorly stocked. Despite advertising certain ranges they never materialised
I want to high light the experience I had. I am wheelchair user , meaning I do not walk or stand.
I recently jumped ship , ( so to speak) and used Ambassador, with hubby and convinced 2 friends to do the same.
Firstly, I like my independence, relying on my husband when I need.
The ship is only equipped for the walking wounded. Disabled friendly is not one fits all.
My room spacious clean and a wonderful attendant .
But experienced these things.
1. I was unable to gain access alone, to my state room, not the best start . No auto door. Far too heavy to attempt to push. In a motorised chair, alone I could not push the door open. If my room attendant saw us. He would run to open our door. This was so sweet.
2 Putting clothes away. The hanging wardrobe space, was only any good if you were upright. No pull down arm to use the rail. As in pull it to your level . Place or remove cloths and push back. This was a disabled room after all.
3 Using bathroom in my room , I had to be pushed over the door way hump , despite being in motorised chair, also once damp it was even worse. So could not use bathroom alone.
4 The shower was as problematic. Another hump on the floor. Not a great deal of room once past the hump to try and transfer onto the wooden sleeted seat.No pulley stick to move the shower curtain. Again needed help into shower area. To be pushed over the floor hump .
5 The shower seat was a difficult to bring down. It was a wooden slatted affair dreadfully uncomfortable very old-fashioned reminiscent of a boys changing room in the 1920s..
6 there are very few disabled bathrooms in the ship itself. The one on the same level as raffles I had to take somebody with me because the incline and the door to negotiate was impossible once I was on the ramp I couldn’t open the door. The room was very spacious perfectly clean huge on the inside, but I couldn’t reach the hand soap or the sink and there was no chance I could look in the mirror.

7. All bars tightly packed in with seating. Made it so very difficult to sit along side my party. I felt dreadfully conspicuous asking everybody to move constantly. It was not just their feet. They had to move the their chairs or sofas for tables had to move to let me through. Nice and embarrassing for me. It prevented any quick drink before dinner. Was Justin difficult.
8. There are 2 levels into the theatre. Was only able to use one level. When in the theatre , there was an area for wheel chairs , more like a parking area. No where near any other seating. So I observed everyone parking their chairs and walking to a seat. If I sat in this area I would be alone segregated from my party. Not the greatest feeling.Personally I do not appreciate the segregation. My husband does not like to be away from me. It was a strange set up.
9. I experience a very miserable situation . I went to ask a question at customer service. Once it was my turn. I got to the chap dealing with me. Rather than answer my questions , he proceeded to talk to my companions, at the side of me. He never once looked at me or answered any of my questions. He just directed his answers to my companions .
Great!! Very much not appreciated.

These are a few of the things, that affected me as a wheelchair user. I have complained to ambassador. I told them it was a complaint. Their answer was: thank you for my feedback. It was never meant as feedback. It was a bitter complaint. I feel like I wasted my money and sadly took three other people with me and wasted their money, because although it did not affect them directly. One of them had to accompany.me everywhere I went , as I could not have any independence whatsoever.
So I do feel that it’s not fit for purpose if you are a wheelchair user,
I am fairly independent, I have been cruising for multiple years and wax lyrical about the fact I can be independent just not on Ambassador line.
I would like to mention there is nothing wrong with the actual ship. It’s clean the food marvellous the staff absolutely amazing but as a disabled wheelchair user, it was made extremely difficult and stressful. A small amount of forethought, could have remedied this.
It would have been helpful, to employ a wheelchair user , to negotiate the ship and point out these pitfalls. This would’ve given a fair representation.
I am sad to be submitting this. All totally avoidable .

Ambassador please read. I have minimised my complaint hoping to be fair. Lost on you guys. I have contacted customer relations, as I said above. My complaint was minimised to feedback.
Your appreciation for my miserable cruise was none existent. Money back guarantee, take that from your blurb.
Having cruised endlessly elsewhere 20 years plus . All negotiated in my wheelchair. Without complaint

It was easy to book our Scotland and Norway cruise. The day of embarkation our taxi arrived at the Ambassador dock and our luggage was offloaded for us and taken to the ship. We went through the arrival area and our passports were checked and photo taken then we picked up our key cards. We went on board and went to Borough Market and had lunch then went to our cabin and our luggage arrived. Each night we got a news letter of what was happening the next day. The trips we booked were for easy touring which ment most it was sightseeing by coach and easy walking as we are ambulant disabled. For getting on and off boat there was help available if ganglank was a bit steep. Breakfast and lunch was in the Borough Market with plenty of choice for all diets. In the evening we were on table of 4 and there a nice choice of food. Drinks were purchased using key card. There was the playhouse for plays, entertainment, captains welcome and there was also remmemberance day service. There was a choice of bars to have a drink. We also went on the Artic express. The captain kept us informed or what time we docked and update on weather conditions. The hospital could provide sea sickness tablets if required. All our trips were fantastic with the highlight of visiting Skara Brae. The day before docking they gave us our bills and gave everyone a chance to check them. This was all the things we purchased with key card and the excursions. Then before we docked they debited our debit or credit cards. We were given a disembarkation time and were to be after breakfast.. the luggage was taken away on last evening. We had to be in the playhouse. Then they announce when one would disembark. On getting off the ship we got trolley and stuff helped to find our luggage. We went out to the pick up area and got our taxi home. It was was a wonderful cruise and we took the right amount of clothes finding posh fo evenings, lounging around boat and warm for November trips

KFor our 50th wedding anniversary we wanted to have a very special memory making holiday to the arctic circle. Having already done a fjords cruise some years ago we thought we'd found the perfect holiday, visiting Norways far north with a chance of seeing the northern lights, waking up surrounded by snow capped mountains was what we were looking forward to most. Topped up by visiting reindeer and huskies and seeing amazing scenery. Within 24 hrs our holiday took a turn for the worse with a tannoy announcement that due to high seas and storms our itinerary would change, not holding off travelling north until the weather subsided but a completely different cruise in the western edge of the baltic. (A cruise we had already done a few years ago) instead of waking up in the mountainous region of Norway, we woke in various industrial dockyards of middle Europe.
Now we fully understand the safety aspect of travelling in heavy seas, but this was day one of a 13 day cruise and no attempt was made to get back on track with the original itinerary. Can't help thinking that this cruise could have been handled so differently, floating around the baltic was not what we'd signed up for and feel robbed of what should and could of been an amazing holiday. The 1 star is for the staff who were very friendly and work so hard. Consider cruising on a bigger ship that isn't so weather dependant. Or a cruiseline who can weather a storm.

My wife and I booked an arctic cruise with Ambassador.
Within 20hrs our dream cruise became a cruise nightmare. It was announced that we were to have a complete change of itinerary. This company by some miracle were able apparently to find 6 new ports( shipping terminals ) in 4 new countries, along with all the land based facilities needed for a cruise ship!
Within 24 hours they had arranged tours to book and buses from the shipping ports to each capital city!
We did not want to go to these cities or we would have booked to go to them.
The issue a huge portion of us have is there was no way this was not pre planned. We would have cancelled this cruise and booked with another provider had we been informed, yet Ambassador insist this was because of weather, funny this because every other cruise line still went to the Arctic on the same dates, yet Ambassador informed us it was because of the safety of the crew and passengers, the only excuse to stop people claiming their money back.
Absolute bunch of scammers. Don't waste your holiday or money with these liars. It isn't just the money, our holiday time is precious and they just hijacked our holiday,ruined our 2 weeks and our dreams of visiting the Arctic, which is unforgivable!
My wife bought the WiFi package as soon as we heard the news of the change,according to the shipping weather they knew about this storm 24 hours before we sailed, meaning they could have informed us, giving us the option of cancelling, which was denied. She also checked the ASI which showed this cruise was NEVER headed for Bodø, our first port.
Legal proceeding are now taking place.

Very disappointed with the level of communication after our first cruise set sale for the arctic circle in Norway on the 22nd of March knowing full well it wasn't going there. We weren't given the choice to not go and were trapped once on board. Still waiting for a response from them. Any future bookers please read the small print.

I certainly won’t be cruising with Ambassador again.
I excitedly booked a once in a lifetime cruise (bucket list trip) to the Artic Circle. I upgraded my room as I was expecting to see fab view, scenery, possibility of the Northern Lights and lots of wild life in their natural habitat.
22 hours into the trip the captain announced that we would be changing course and heading to the Baltic and visiting Cities which weren’t on my bucket list and no beautiful views outside my window. Some of the ports they had chosen were pointless places. The reason for this change was due to extreme weather conditions. However, there were other cruise lines that were in the same “boat’ sheltered for a day and then headed up to the Artic Circle to continue their bucket list holiday. The weather did improve. The Baltic cruise was a much cheaper cruise. Ambassador have not offered any compensation for changing to a cheaper cruise.
Also Ambassador knew the weather was bad before we set off do why wasn’t we given the option to get off in Tilbury.
Check your t & c’s before you travel with this company as so far I have not been offered any compensation for receiving a cheaper cruise. I paid nearly 4K.
The communication from them has been very poor.
Come on Ambassador management team get your act together
Disappointed solo traveller

Booked our first ever cruise with Ambassador for a trip to Norway billed as an Arctic explorer and northern lights 13 night cruise. We’re really looking forward to husky sledding, a night at the Holmen Husky Lodge and ‘chasing the Aurora’. Due to adverse weather (which was known about in advance allegedly but not communicated to us passengers) the itinerary was completely changed into a Baltic cities cruise some 24 hours or so into the sailing. Ambassador’s failure to adequately acknowledge or deal with customer complaints is staggering. Please be aware that if you book with Ambassador, you may not get the cruise you actually paid for! On a positive note, the crew onboard ship were marvellous.

Complete Itinerary changed after 27 hours from Arctic Circle to boring Baltic cities due supposedly to bad weather. Other cruise Line ships sheltered from the storm and then continued their voyages up to Alta, they did not do a complete change of Itinerary like Ambassador

The weather was known before we left Tilbury but passengers were not informed about the change until 24 hours had expired which means the guarantee that Ambassador boast about was worthless. The cynic in me says that the timing was deliberate to prevent people from exercising their rights under the guarantee to leave the ship at Oslo for a full refund.

Emails to Guest Relations and CEO have gone unanswered. Reply received so far was the standard corporate copy / paste and did not address any of the issues raised

This was my first and will be my only experience of Ambassador as although the crew were mostly lovely and the food passable their customer service if you have a problem or a complaint is abysmal. I always judge a company by how they resolve issues and Ambassador have failed on all counts.

I expect the standard response of send my complaint to Guest Relations but will be waste of time as I have already done that but to no avail.

Edit (14/05/2026) Ambassador responded but only to say Guest Relations were in contact with me but that was a while back and only to say tough accept the situation as it is. They have not responded to any of my follow-up emails including those to the CEO.

I booked the northern lights cruise for the once in a lifetime itinerary. I understand that weather can change these plans however I never would have expected that bad weather that may have disrupted us for a day or two, instead changed our Itinerary completely to a Baltic cruise. They were aware of the weather before our departure however only announced this after 27hours.

Unfortunately I had visited all the alternative ports before and as we were not informed I had not packed accordingly.

The customer service was appalling and I have not had a response to my complaint. Two weeks annual leave wasted along with this year's holiday fund.

Why travel with Ambassador Cruises?

We have finally arrived home and should have been excited to share memories from a “holiday of a lifetime.” Sadly, the experience was the complete opposite.

Instead of the Arctic cruise and Northern Lights experience promised in the brochure, we felt we were sold a completely different holiday — essentially a 7-day Baltic city cruise stretched into 13 days. It was deeply disappointing and, at times, felt like we were trapped onboard with no realistic option to leave and fly home.

Many ports were uninspiring, with little or no welcome information available, closed attractions, and very limited replacement excursions. While other cruise companies appeared to take shelter from bad weather and then continue their itineraries, we seemed to spend our time looking at concrete docks and revisiting cities we had already seen before.

To make matters worse, we repeatedly raised concerns with staff, only to be met with rude and dismissive attitudes. Different crew members gave conflicting information throughout the cruise, leaving passengers feeling completely kept in the dark.

Our suite also had a persistent smell of sewage/faeces. It took days before maintenance attended to the issue, and only near the end of the cruise were we offered another cabin — by which point my husband was unwell, so we reluctantly stayed put with nothing more than air freshener offered as a solution.

What upset us most was being told that our “expectations were too high” and that we had booked with a “budget cruise company.” Their prices are certainly not budget, and neither was the holiday they advertised.

We will never travel with Ambassador again.

Booked to do a northern lights & arctic cruise on 22 March, on Ambition,but itinerary completely altered to a 13 night Baltic cruise instead. Really no comparison. Reason given because of weather, but this surely did not require the entire change. I’m sure most people would have been happier to miss a port and still get to see Norway instead of what we did get.
Our “compensation” amounted to a discount if we booked the same type of cruise when it was due to go again later that year or March 2027. No refund on what we had paid despite the fact that most of us had spent a great deal of money for a bucket list cruise and the necessary clothing for it. For a lot of us, even with discount, we can’t afford to do this again and furthermore, as a solo cruiser, the discount really amounted to nothing in comparison to what we had paid for the cruise we were on.
I’m hugely disappointed in Ambassadors’ complete lack of appreciation for our circumstances.
I’m sure all of us appreciated the service from the staff, but we just were not where we wanted to be.
It also appears that many cruisers are being refused compensation by their insurance companies for missed ports, which just rubs salt into the wound.
Some real and proper understanding of the situation by Ambassador would be nice!

My wife and I were hoping to tick off one of our bucket list experiences with Ambassador at the back end of March this year to enjoy the delights and experiences of Norway, on their Arctic Explorer and Northern lights 13 night 14 day cruise aboard Ambassador Ambition. We had booked experiences dog sledding, going to a Sami Village, doing a Viking evening and so on. As well as that there was the Northern lights and whale watching to look out for….. well that’s what this pair of pensioners were hoping for anyway. We had even spent around £800 extra, on Ambassadors recommendations, for cold weather protective clothing.
Unfortunately, that all came crashing down by late afternoon/evening of the second day. Amazingly, just outside the 24 hour period where their T&C’s took over!! Funny that isn’t it??🤬😡 Especially when you find out that Ambassador knew they would be doing this and the reason why on the morning before we set sail from Tilbury! Passengers were told, just after the captain and crew had met everyone in the ships theatre, and said how much they were looking forward to our itinerary with us, via a message over the ships tannoy, that due to bad weather conditions ahead and of course passenger safety, we would be turning right into the Baltic and heading for Oslo.
That’s good I hear you say, what’s the problem.
We were then taken to industrial ports around the Baltic for the rest of the two weeks!! The storm by the way caught up with us the following day and was gone again about 12-18 hours later, and only a choppy’ish sea to contend with.
Meanwhile, it transpires that three other cruise lines, like us, found ports for safety for the next 12-18 hours, then carried on with their original itineraries!! Where they enjoyed smooth running
For the rest of their cruises.
Essentially, we feel were conned by Ambassador, we have complained both onboard and when we got home, and so far not a squeak from
Ambassador.
Are we happy with Ambassador….. NO!
Would we want to recommend Ambassador to anyone asking? At this point definitely NO!!
Will we be sailing with Ambassador anytime soon? NO not on your nelly!!!
We are feeling both devastated and abandoned by Ambassador at the moment, and can only hope that they decide to speak to us soon….
You have been warned!

We booked a Northern Lights & Arctic Circle cruise with Ambassador, yet the voyage became a significantly altered itinerary very early into the trip, despite the adverse weather concerns appearing to have been known before departure.

To be absolutely clear, the safety of guests and crew should always come first, and no reasonable passenger would expect a ship to sail into unsafe conditions. The issue is not that changes had to be made, but the growing sense that the likelihood of those changes may have been known before the ship departed Tilbury, while passengers were still allowed to board without being given the full picture.

This was not a minor port adjustment. A cruise marketed around the Norwegian fjords, Arctic scenery and Northern Lights experience instead became largely a Baltic cities itinerary, with several industrial or commercial port stops that offered a completely different holiday and a far lower level of enjoyment and value than the cruise originally booked.

What many guests found most disappointing was the lack of transparency surrounding the decision-making and communication process. Being informed only once at sea has inevitably led some passengers to question whether commercial considerations were prioritised over openness with customers before departure.

Adding to the frustration is the apparent inconsistency in how complaints are being handled. Through contact with other passengers, it is clear some guests have received follow-up calls from Guest Relations, reviews of their cases, and extensions to goodwill offers, while others have received only a generic copy-and-paste response with no further engagement whatsoever.

We are still awaiting a fair, transparent and consistent resolution regarding how this situation was handled.

Sadly we will not be cruising with them again. I was excited to be using a no-fly UK based cruise line. However our experience was dreadful. We booked a suite on deck 12, which was just a single room balcony cabin. My vegetarian partner could not eat much as his options were very limited. Then to top it all they completely changed the itinerary from an arctic Norwegian northern lights cruise to a Baltic city mini-break. All other cruise ships waited for the storm to pass, but our ship went to Oslo and despite there being another 12 nights they didnt try to rejoin the planned route. We filled out complaints forms on the ship and to date they have not responded 44 days later despite promising to reply within 28 days. Totally disgusted. They planned the alternative route before we left but deliberately witheld the information, so we could not claim our refund due as first time unhappy cruisers with them. Update: still zero response and I did contact GuestRelations!

I am writing to you as one of the hundreds of disgruntled customers following the cancellation of the A22604 itinerary.

This cruise itinerary was out of the ordinary and a very special one in that it was scheduled to visit the west coast of Norway right up to Tromso and Alta within the Arctic Circle. It was going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience Norway’s Sami tribes and see how they live in subzero temperatures for most of the year, ride on Husky led sleds and a lot more. Additionally it would give passengers the best situation to witness the Northern Lights. Since 2000, I have been fortunate to cruise most of the World on several cruise lines with my wife who sadly, suffers from Alzheimers dementia and is now in a care home. Visiting the Arctic had always been on my “bucket list” and this was my first cruise with Ambassador and the first as a solo passenger.

The ship left Tilbury on 22 March as scheduled and guests were told almost immediately to expect severe weather in the North Sea. Then within 24 hours, on the second evening on board, before our first port (Bodo), it was announced that the whole itinerary was cancelled due to extreme weather and high seas in the North Cape. By the following morning a letter to all guests dated 23 March, gave information about a totally new itinerary visiting ports in Scandinavia bordering the Baltic Sea. This revised itinerary was of no interest to me and many other guests as I had visited these ports previously on other ships and on business. I therefore registered my feelings with the reception desk on board almost immediately and asked for the "Ambassador Guarantee" to be put in place thus providing a full refund as this was my first experience with Ambassador and I was not “happy”.
Despite a number of message exchanges, I have heard no more of this request from Ambassador. The letter referred to, acknowledging the disappointment of cancellation, also offered guests a 50% future cruise discount on 4 Northern Lights Cruises (2 in 2026 and 2 in 2027), or 25% discount on a “Solar Eclipse” cruise in 2026 or 20% off any other sailings departing before 31 December 2027. Whilst these appeared at first to be generous offers, they took no account of the disappointment experienced by many guests who had booked this cruise for the sole purpose of visiting the Northern Cape and had no opportunity to book any future cruises at the time. As it turns out, the discounts were based on the full brochure price of the cruises being offered. I did try to book a future cruise but there were no actual solo prices available for the “Outside” cabin type I was in at present. The only offer was to get the percentage discount off the price of 2 people. This would mean a new booking at 75% more than I had paid for this cruise, which I was not about to do. I am therefore left with absolutely no compensation for the lost itinerary. I also believe that solo travellers were being discriminated against.

I fully understand and acknowledge the safety reasons why the original itinerary was cancelled but I believe Ambassador knew this cruise was going to be cancelled prior to disembarkation from Tilbury. I say this as I'm sure the Company had the knowledge of the sea conditions in the North Cape from their other ship (Ambience) which was already suffering from high seas in the same area together with sophisticated weather forecasting technology. I also found it suspicious that they were able to announce a completely new itinerary within 12 hours of notification that the cruise was effectively cancelled. It comes as no surprise to hear that some ships from other cruise lines did in fact brave the weather and continue on their journeys.

Needless to say I am very unhappy and have request a full refund but as yet with no success.

DO NOT BOOK AMBASSADOR . Ambassador are the Ryanair of the season. Even one of their own officers says this...look if you want to play roulette over whether where you go is actually what you booked and paid for then give them a go BUT if you planning your bucket list dream holiday then please please dont trust it to Ambassador. Dont get me wrong the experience on the ship by the staff was amazing but we paid for a cruise around the Norwegian fjords and to hopefully experience the northern lights. To go on husky rides and spend the night in the husky lodge. To feed reindeer and see the absolutely outstanding sights norway has to offer. What we got was container ports and couple of sightseeing stops that needed an hour on the coach to get anywhere worth seeing. Ambassador refuse point blank to acknowledge they did anything wrong. Well Ambassador let me tell you that you messed up BIG TIME and you must listen to your customers and try to put things right