Princess Cruises Reviews 825

Drone flyers avoid @PrincessCruises at all costs.

They are completely an utterly prohibited... and are really anal and dumb about it.

Additionally, food is average, communication is abysmal, entertainment is poor. All in all there are so many better options

Princess never gives refunds. Though I tried to resolve getting a USA $44.95 refund for a shore excursion, I never got one after calling them several times and emailing them several times. I cancelled one shore excursion with their excursion desk on the ship, when I could still get refunded all of my money. The person who helped me said I'd get a refund. I never got it for my January 2025 cruise.

1 Star Review for Royal Princess – Disgraceful Behavior by Executive Chef, No Accountability from Princess Cruises

I took the Royal Princess (Sydney to Eden, March 13–16, 2025) to celebrate my 29th wedding anniversary. The trip was enjoyable — until it was completely ruined by the unprofessional, arrogant behavior of Executive Chef Daniel Skrba

On the final morning, while waiting for my poached eggs, I had one hash brown on my plate. Lost in thought, I took a small bite — a simple mistake. Suddenly, this chef, who seemed more interested in barking orders than showing hospitality, confronted me loudly and aggressively in front of other guests. His tone was rude, overbearing, and frankly, unfit for someone in a leadership position on a luxury cruise line.

I calmly approached him later to ask about his tone, only to be met with even more disrespect, including unnecessary comments about my age. His attitude suggested he forgot he was speaking to a paying guest — not someone working in his kitchen.

I filed a formal complaint with Princess Cruises. It has been completely ignored. No response. No apology. No ownership.

If this is how Princess Cruises empowers its senior staff to treat guests, I suggest spending your money elsewhere. There’s nothing “royal” about being talked down to by a chef on an ego trip.

I wish I could give them zero stars for their lousy customer service. As other reviewers noted, they pull the wool over your eyes and when you complain they point out the fine print in their contract. Tips should be optional and dependent on service, right? Well, not so with Princess. They charged us $952 Crew Appreciation and when we told them that we had already paid $400 in tips to crew members whose service we appreciated and that we were not okay with the additional charges, we were told that it was too late to adjust that. Their argument was that we could have adjusted the amount to zero only before disembarkation (we had contested a charge a few days later). To me it's a scheme to squeeze the last dime out of passengers. Corporate America at its worst. I'm all in favor of rewarding the staff on cruise ships and the Crew Appreciation is used for bonuses. However, maximizing company profits by financing bonuses in this sneaky, roundabout way is not the way to go. How about fair wages instead - and paying bonuses out of the large profits Princess makes? (2023: $21.6 billion revenue and $2.1 billion free cash flow - the share holders were very happy with that)

I made a reservation directly with Princess on January 9th (Booking #8W9XCL, Cabin #E324, booked by Auston Auch) and paid the full amount of $3,799 on January 10th. My two friends, traveling from London, were especially excited as it was their first cruise. On February 3rd, I confirmed with a Princess representative that the payment was in their system and would be processed within 2-3 business days. However, on February 18th, I was shocked to learn from Hanna at Princess that our cruise had been canceled due to non-payment, despite our payment being confirmed by both the bank and Princess. This error caused us significant distress, as we spent hours searching for alternatives during peak season. We eventually booked with another cruise line at a much higher cost. While we salvaged our trip, the excitement was lost. After this experience, we are reconsidering cruising with Princess again, as this was the worst experience we've ever had.

Onboard service is great but UK Customer Service is shambolic at best, rude and aggressive at times.

Currently advertising a 15% off sale on onboard activities but prices are the same as the day before the sale. Customer Service claim the price was increased 'minutes' before the sale but when you ask to speak to manager of complaints the call agent claims to be 'the most senior person working for Princess in uk' - really? Manning Customer Service on a Sunday morning?

I booked a cruise with Princess for 2026 (over a year away!). They changed the itinerary, one less port stop which I had wanted to do and shortened the cruise. Despite this being a year away, they are refusing to give my deposit back or even part of it, stating their T&Cs say it’s not a substantial change. Awful customer service despite this being their doing and no lee-way on customer service at all! I will never book with them again. The greed for your money is disgusting!

Although a great cruise, I was supposed to get a refund about an excursion that was cancelled. I'm now here months after the cruise still fighting for my refund. They also charged me for other people's wine at dinner and just keep saying it's a "valid charge" so they won't refund that either. Avoid this cruise line if you want anything resembling good customer service

Princess cruises is a scam, be sure to read all fine lines, which I didn't my mistake, booked a cruise and received onboard credit which was charged on my credit card, I had to cxl the cruise and did not receive the onboard credit back, I called princess and there response was that the onboard credit was not refundable, so I called and asked if I did take the cruise and did not use the onbaord credit, would I get my money back and customer service said no, that was a non refundable charge..that to me is a sales scam..

In early December we noticed an advertisement regarding a cruise around Great Britain, interesting itinerary, extras included, looked like a good buy. We booked immediately after being informed by the travel agent that the deal was for 2 days only and would not be available after that. Two and one half months later we see the same deal advertised, we booked early because we believed what we were told. We feel we have been lied to, the agency states that they were told by Princess that it was a one time deal, then they were contacted with additional space. The optics of this practice is pressure sales or false advertising, We have contacted Princess Customer Service twice and they have not responded. We feel disrespected and used unfairly.

Terrible company I’ve been waiting since November to get money I won in the casino , I was told on the ship it would credit to my onbatd account , not true , and now I’ve been trying for 3 months to get the money I’m owed , I would not recommend this company and certainly won’t be cruising with them again

I have never traded with this company, or taken any cruise, yet I have started receiving SMS spam from them.

If this is their attitude to data protection, imagine how bad it must be if you're an actual customer. I will be reporting this to the ICO. Avoid.

Do Not Use Princess.
Money hungry rats refused to refund or credit our deposit. Booked a 20 day Greek Is & Croatia cruise. Over priced but covered all the places we wanted to visit. Sudden Health issues necessitated change of plans. Requested refund or credit 3 times they refused point blank

Whilst we enjoyed the actual cruise from Brisbane to New Zealand.13 Jan to 27th Jan. We are appalled at their billing methods for on board expenses, such as trips and spa. I opted to pay by debit card to avoid extra charges if you pay by credit card. I was under the impression you paid at the end of the cruise. All payments showed immediately on my bank account as pending but reduced the amount of cash in the account. When the cruise was over they took the full amount again as one payment but left all the pending payments. Meaning we have a cash shortfall of £ 500+ that we can’t access. I got in touch with our “cruise specialist” who referred it to guest relations, nothing happened, I tried to ring guest relations myself and the person in a call centre somewhere said you couldn’t speak to them and it could take 28 days for them to get back to me. I got back onto the cruise specialist and asked her for a direct line number or email. To be fair someone eventually made contact with me from the UK GR, who took details and said it would have to be released by someone in America so would take a couple days. That was 10 days ago and still everything is pending. I’ve been in contact with the our bank who have said they can’t do anything until 30 days have passed. So it looks like I will have to wait. Take this review as cautionary tale and if you do book a Princess cruise pay by credit card. Another thing we didn’t like was the constant trying to sell you things. We’d no sooner stepped on the ship when we were being asked to upgrade the package we’d bought before we’d even had 1 drink. If you went to a well being talk, it was really a sales pitch. Although the cruise was enjoyable we will not be choosing Princess again. This has really spoiled the whole holiday experience. Surely in this day and computer age they can program their billing system to cancel all pending payments when they take the full amount or just take the pending payments.

Booked and fully paid cruise in Aug 2024, sailed in No 2024. To reserve excursions at ports of call you are required to prepay in advance via credit card. Prepaid 4 times on credit card in Oct, sailed in Nov. and completed cruise in Dec. Attempted to dispute discrepancy on folio before disembarkation, was told it was correct. Returned home to pull up evidence receipts from Oct to discover Princess failed to reflect the correct prepaid credits on account for the reserved excursions. It took 14 attempts from Dec 2024 to Feb 2025 to contact Princess cruise and credit card via email, phone, and Instagram to explain in various ways that they needed to do research and follow the charges to Princess in order to locate the over payment to receive the refund. They located the overpayment and was told it will take 6 to 8 weeks for the refund to process. We also requested to cancel the future cruise credits immediately due to this experience, the response was quicker than the first incident and was told refund will be 5 to 7 business days. Contacted credit card company and uploaded the necessary documents to show refund due from Princess when that happens. Consumer warning, piss poor billing practices and failing to address customer complaints when disputing the charges according to another platform.

I have taken numerous Princess Cruise vacations and cannot say enough good things about them. Their ships are kept immaculate, always seeing crew cleaning throughout the day. The entire crew are friendly, professional and courteous. Our stateroom was comfortable, always kept clean and made. The dining venues were plentiful from traditional dining rooms, buffet, specialty pizza called Alfredos, Crown Grill Steak Restaurant, Sabatinni's Italian Restaurant and the International Cafe which is open twenty four hours. The bars and lounges are plentiful. The entertainment was varied and tasteful. I have been on twenty three cruises with Princess, and highly recommend them.

Our room Suite had drainage smell throughout the whole 14 day cruise which they could not resolve. It took signifcant negotiations throughout our entire holiday to obtain miniscual compensation, despite having booked and paid for an expensive upgraded room/suite.
Their Customer Relations team dismissed our complaint stating the compensation level offered was fair and reasonable stating we should contact ABTA if not satisfied
Many thousands of £'s spent to holiday and live among drainage/sewerage aromas every day and night
Will not be cruising with Princess again

Thank you to Isabel at Princess Cruises for her kindness and understanding when listening to my personal issue regarding my forthcoming cruise.
We are now looking forward to it!

Horrible data integrity. Booked flight for upcoming international trip. Princess reported my name to the airlines wrong and refused to change it. Specifically they merged my first and middle name as one. They said that's how they do it and wouldn't change it. I told the rep that my name is wrong and not truly represented. She basically said if you don't like it cancel and book somewhere else. Seems it was too much work for them to click the space button to correct the error they created. Ready to cancel entire trip.

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