Princess reviews

[cruiseaholic777]

We cruised with Princess 10 of our first 12 cruises. Then they raised prices so we tried other cruise lines. Now that they are back inline with the prices, I have heard some bad reviews about everything. From the food to the entertainment. Are the reviews legit or just a few people that love to complain?

[MsSoCalCruiser]

If it was really that bad then you would probably be talking to us on a different forum.

 

I have sailed with Princess, Royal Caribbean, HAL, NCL, Celebrity, and Carnival. I always go back to Princess. I am a huge fan of the Princess Medallion and also Princess Plus. 
 

I love the Royal class ships the most, but that may change once a sail on the Sun Princess which is a Sphere class ship. I will be sailing on the Emerald Princess soon for 17 days, which is an older ship. I’m not too worried about it. I’m sure we will have an amazing time. 
 

Does the food look good to you?

[cr8tiv1]

What did you like about the other cruise lines?  Besides the pricing, what makes you want to consider Princess again?  What are your expectations?

 

I have tried some of the other lines.  I like the Princess brand for the balance between fares and excellent service.  I will not take a cruise on the Royal or Sphere class ships.  Just personal preference.  My cruise days are numbered since I am aging, my ships are disappearing, and I don’t care to travel far distances. 
 

Princess is comfortable.  The service is above the norm.  I can always find something to eat.  Princess has changed:  some for the better, some they did not think through, and some they should have left alone.  
 

The only way you will know if Princess is a good fit for you is to pick a destination and book a cruise.  “Critics” will always ring louder than those of us who are happy with Princess. 

[latebloomer56]

We always come back to Princess my favorite was Ruby for a long time but then we sailed on Regal so I'm torn between older and newer 😁 such a hardship.

We keep going back because of the crew I think all lines have good service as a rule Princess for us anyway has been a little better. Keep in mind when the older ships were out of service for a while some things were not addressed quick enough for some people so negative reviews came out, then as the saying goes everyone is a critic. You need to decide for yourself.

Enjoy your choice and the new food items.

[Shippy]

EVERY cruise line will have good reviews and BAD reviews.

A lot of it is really subjective to your expectations.

We have also found that the category cabin you stay in makes a BIG difference.

We now stay in a Penthouse. You cannot compare that experience to someone in a Balcony.

 Once you are in a suite, there are other perks besides just a bigger cabin.

That applies to all ships.

[HotRoot]

We have no loyalty to any cruise line.  It would probably be a shorter list to list the ones we have NOT sailed on.  Gave Celebrity and Azamara each one shot and the service was so bad we will not go back.  We do believe these were just off cruises.  But I am not going to pay money to confirm that.  On the top of the list, we have sailed multiple times with Seabourn, Regent, and SilverSeas.  All fantastic cruises at a premium price.  Our last four cruises have been on Princess in a mini-suite.  We will cruise in nothing less because we want to be guaranteed a sofa and bathtub.  We expect what we get at their price point.  Maybe on the luxury lines you do not need to ask for something.  It just shows up.  But, on Princess, we find that if you ask, you will get it.

 

I am one of the world's pickiest eaters.  I do not eat pasta or rice.  Nor cooked spinach.  Not for health reasons.  I just do not like them.  I have always been able to find something to eat.  I have been known to order off the children's menu.  That available all the time salad which is not listed on the menu is from the children's menu.

 

And this thread is about negative reviews.  I am trying to think of something negative to say but am coming up empty handed.

[Bobbi01]

I have cruised Princess, Carnival & Royal. I just sailed on Ruby after 10+ yrs away from Princess (not by choice) and was very pleasantly surprised to find that the entire experience was as wonderful as I remembered- food, service, entertainment- all outstanding!

[Itchy&Scratchy]

9 hours ago, cruiseaholic777 said:

Then they raised prices so we tried other cruise lines. Now that they are back inline with the prices

it was the opposite for us. Since RCI raised their prices sky high, we are back to Princess.

[JamieLogical]

I just returned to Princess in May after having sailed with them for the first (and I thought last) time over the Holidays in 2022/2023. That sailing on the Emerald was and still is the worst cruise I have ever been on (24 so far).

 

I am glad I gave them another shot on the Enchanted in May and I will be doing another on the Enchanted in August. That being said, they are still not my favorite line. Had I not been getting very good casino discounts, I probably wouldn't be sailing with them.

 

Here are some of the things I dislike:

• I love the concept of the Medallion and Ocean Now, but it never ever ever works. I can't even tell you the number of times I have tried to order drinks or food through the app that never arrived. And once you place an order, you feel trapped, like you can't move on from your current location or even just go up to the bar and fetch a drink for yourself, because they might show up "any minute" with your order. If it actually worked, it would be awesome to be able to get drinks and food delivered to wherever you are.
• I feel like, because of Ocean Now, there are far fewer roaming servers in bars and lounges taking and delivering drinks than on other lines I sail. And since you can't reliably get a drink from the app, you have to go and stand at the bar to get drinks.
• Room layout. Okay, I know lots of people disagree with me, but I HATE that big open closet. I hate that the first thing I see when I walk in the room is a mess of hanging clothes and laundry and shoes. I am a neat person and I want everything to be tucked neatly away. Plus, I feel that space could be MUCH better utilized for a functionally sized bathroom. Which brings me to the other thing I hate about room layout, the teeny tiny bathrooms with shower curtains. I will now only sail in a mini-suite because I just cannot tolerate the smaller showers with shower curtains, which means when competing on price, I am comparing mini-suite prices to balconies on other lines and Princess rarely wins unless I get a good casino discount.
• 15 Drink Limit. I never drink anywhere close to 15 drinks in a day on a cruise, but I seem to almost always bump up against my limit because when I order drinks for both my husband and I, I get charged double, and I get all sorts of other people's random drinks charged to my account. I have to go to GS or do a crew chat in the app to get charges for Spicy Margaritas or shots of Jagermeister  (as if I have ever ordered one of those in my entire life!) from my account. It is just such a source of hassle and stress. When my husband and I want a round of drinks we have to keep checking who has fewer charged to their account for the day to see who has to go up to the bar and order this time. It's just dumb. We aren't drinking 30 drinks a day between the two of us.
• Making reservations for "anytime" dining. I know they are working to "fix" this in the coming months, but I want either fixed dining or true anytime dining. It seems dumb to me that I have to make reservations for every night in the dining room.
• Smoking in the casino. I am not sure it's this bad on all their ships, but the casino on the Enchanted is small and even though a portion of it is designated as non-smoking, it makes no difference because the whole place is a giant ashtray. Other lines do the segregation of smoking and non-smoking areas better or have no smoking at all.

 

Things I like about Princess:

• I like the newer ships. The Enchanted is MUCH MUCH better than the Emerald was. It was in much better condition. Though, I will say most of the ships I sail on with other lines are newer and in better condition than what Princess sails. I can't believe how old some of their ships are!
• I like the live music throughout the ship. My husband and I really enjoy live music in small venues and Princess does this about as well as Celebrity does.
• I like the casino program. I seem to get offers and discounts for playing the little that I do whereas I rarely qualify for offers and discounts on other lines (I play the same amount each day on every line).
• I like the Plus/Premier packages. It is nice to know exactly how much they are going to cost in addition to the base fare. I really hate lines who have sales and discounts and surge pricing on their drink packages.
• On my most recent sailing, I liked the quality of the food in the MDR. I can't say anything like that about my Emerald sailing in 2022/2023 where the food was just HORRIBLE. But I am hopeful what I experienced on the Enchanted is more the norm.
• I like that there aren't tiers of wifi service. The only difference in plans is number of devices.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

15 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

I love the concept of the Medallion and Ocean Now, but it never ever ever works.

it worked for us all week (several times a day), except for 2 times.

 

15 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

I HATE that big open closet. I hate that the first thing I see when I walk in the room is a mess of hanging clothes and laundry and shoes. I am a neat person and I want everything to be tucked neatly away.

we love it. We can actually access the closet (unlike on MSC, RCI and X) and even leave 2 suitcases in it. I also love it that I can change in that closet hallway out of my teen's sight and vice versa.  It allows for a lot more privacy than the other cruise line's cabins.

 

 

 

Had a hard time getting to the hanging clothes on MSC:

 

 

same on RCI Oasis class. Less than a foot of space between the sofa and the closet.

 

 

I do dislike the shower curtain on Princess.

 

15 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

I have to go to GS or do a crew chat in the app to get charges for Spicy Margaritas or shots of Jagermeister  (as if I have ever ordered one of those in my entire life!) from my account.

 

We couldn't see which alcoholic drinks were purchased on our account, only the quantity: 4 out of 15. We never even got to 10 per person, even when I or DH were getting them for both of us. We never had anyone else's drinks charged to our folio.

 

15 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

It seems dumb to me that I have to make reservations for every night in the dining room.

no one has to.

 

15 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

Smoking in the casino.

it's really bad. The smoke smell wafts to the surrounding areas.... Yuck.

Edited Thursday at 01:57 PM by Itchy&Scratchy

[cruzsnooze]

I prefer RCL and Princess to other mass market cruise lines. The food on Princess has gone down hill but still acceptable. The buffet on RCL is more to my liking. My next cruise is on Viking so I will be expanding my sphere of ships.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

48 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

I just returned to Princess in May after having sailed with them for the first (and I thought last) time over the Holidays in 2022/2023. That sailing on the Emerald was and still is the worst cruise I have ever been on (24 so far).

 

 

 

Things I like about Princess:

• I like the newer ships. The Enchanted is MUCH MUCH better than the Emerald was. It was in much better condition. Though, I will say most of the ships I sail on with other lines are newer and in better condition than what Princess sails. I can't believe how old some of their ships are!
• On my most recent sailing, I liked the quality of the food in the MDR. I can't say anything like that about my Emerald sailing in 2022/2023 where the food was just HORRIBLE.

OK, I have to ask because I just said that I wasn’t worried. I’m about to sail for 17 days on the Emerald. What was so bad about the ships condition and the food on the Emerald? 

[JamieLogical]

13 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

OK, I have to ask because I just said that I wasn’t worried. I’m about to sail for 17 days on the Emerald. What was so bad about the ships condition and the food on the Emerald? 

 

To be fair, this was way back over Christmas and New Years of 2022/2023. They were woefully understaffed. But here is my full liveblog from that cruise. It was a genuine disaster. In fact, the couple we cruised with on that sailing, who we had met on a previous cruise, hasn't cruises since then, it was so bad. Fortunately we still visit them every time we travel through NYC for our own cruises.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 02:46 PM by JamieLogical

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

We couldn't see which alcoholic drinks were purchased on our account, only the quantity: 4 out of 15. We never even got to 10 per person, even when I or DH were getting them for both of us. We never had anyone else's drinks charged to our folio.

 

The first time I chatted with crew through the app to clear up my drink total, they told me about the Spicy Margaritas. Later I found a place in the Ocean Now section of the app that showed your past "orders," but it's actually everything charged to your medallion, not just orders placed through the app. It only goes back so far so you can't get to previous days, but that is where I saw the Jagermeisters charged to my account.

 

Edited Thursday at 03:10 PM by JamieLogical

[Cruise Raider]

We’ve cruised on several cruise lines and it used to be that Celebrity was our favorite but Princess cruises out of our home port of San Francisco, the majority of our cruises have been on this line.  
We had a completely paid in full cruise on Celebrity with a lot of onboard credit because they canceled our cruise for a charter a couple of times so, in April 2023, we decided to take it out of Los Angeles.  Since we were already a down there, we also booked a side by side cruise with Princess.  
Celebrity, while it had its share of positives, was just a bit disappointing.  When we walked onto the Discovery, we both just commented that we felt like we were ‘at home’.  

 

What we missed on Celebrity:

Bright and airy feeling open public spaces 

The Medallions and app (we use Ocean Now regularly and it always works for us)

Daytime activities, games and events, even on sea days

The complimentary room service with the package 

Casual dining venues without going to the buffet / pool deck for lunch (international cafe, Alfredo’s, Ocean Terrace).  While Celebrity has Cafe Al Bacio, I don’t care much for sweets.  

Reasonably priced specialty restaurants

Snacks in the PES lounge (we make dinner out of it on Princess and at least on the cruise we were on with Celebrity, no more hor d’ourves were being passed out) 

Open closet design 

Super comfortable beds and pillows 

On demand movies on the stateroom TV

Starlink WiFi (on celebrity, the WiFi was absolutely worthless) 

 

Things I really loved on Celebrity:

No indoor smoking, not even in the casino 

All glasses in the MDR and bars are Riedels, even the water glasses 

All cabins having a seating area 

Bathrooms have that dimly lit nightlight mirror as well as tons of storage space

Apple Store onboard (where we each got new tax free iPads with all our onboard credit) 

Things I thought were equal on both lines: 

Food quality but my DH would have given this one to Princess 

Friendly and excellent service

Not such great wine choices within the lowered priced packages 

Specialty coffees 

Outdoor seating areas 

 

All in all, we were just kind of bored on Celebrity and it felt too dark in the indoor public spaces.  We felt like the side by side comparison was very telling as we felt so much more enthusiastic about being on a cruise once we were back on Princess.  

We also feel that the Royal class ships offer much better dining offerings than the Crown/Grand class ships do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bemidji Ty]

We took one of the first cruises on the Discovery after cruising opened up again.  Somewhere, you may find my review.  We left thinking, "This is probably our last Princess cruise."  The food, music, noise, service was very disappointing.  Last summer, we were invited to cruise with friends to Alaska on the Ruby.  We did and it was much, much better.  Not up to pre-lock down levels - but much better.  We just got off a 14 day Alaska cruise on the Grand.  My wife and I both commented, "This is more like it!"  Cruise and Enjoy!

 

Cheers

[voljeep]

Under staffed seems to be a common theme...

 

by Princess choice?  or just not enough qualified people who 'want' to work for Princess/Carnival Corp?

[suekel]

11 hours ago, cruiseaholic777 said:

We cruised with Princess 10 of our first 12 cruises. Then they raised prices so we tried other cruise lines. Now that they are back inline with the prices, I have heard some bad reviews about everything. From the food to the entertainment. Are the reviews legit or just a few people that love to complain?

I have 8 cruises booked.  If they sucked that bad, I would not.  

[MsSoCalCruiser]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

 

To be fair, this was way back over Christmas and New Years of 2022/2023. They were woefully understaffed. But here is my full liveblog from that cruise. It was a genuine disaster. In fact, the couple we cruised with on that sailing, who we had met on a previous cruise, hasn't cruises since then, it was so bad. Fortunately we still visit them every time we travel through NYC for our own cruises.

 

 

I have rearranged my day, and I am sadly giving up some time at the gym (😂😂😂) so I can read your entire review while sipping iced coffee. It’s a rough life, I know. Thank you so much for sharing your review with me!

[dreaminofcruisin]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

 

The first time I chatted with crew through the app to clear up my drink total, they told me about the Spicy Margaritas. Later I found a place in the Ocean Now section of the app that showed your past "orders," but it's actually everything charged to your medallion, not just orders placed through the app. It only goes back so far so you can't get to previous days, but that is where I saw the Jagermeisters charged to my account.

 

 

Was this on the old version of the app or the new version? I would really like to be able to see this when it happens and I haven't found this in the app.  It has only happened a couple of times to us, but it would be nice to see what was charged.

[latebloomer56]

1 hour ago, Bemidji Ty said:

We took one of the first cruises on the Discovery after cruising opened up again.  Somewhere, you may find my review.  We left thinking, "This is probably our last Princess cruise."  The food, music, noise, service was very disappointing.  Last summer, we were invited to cruise with friends to Alaska on the Ruby.  We did and it was much, much better.  Not up to pre-lock down levels - but much better.  We just got off a 14 day Alaska cruise on the Grand.  My wife and I both commented, "This is more like it!"  Cruise and Enjoy!

 

Cheers

So glad to hear you enjoyed the Grand, we will be on this ship to Hawaii in Oct.

Last time on Princess was the Sapphire in 2022 ship wasn't in tip top shape we had issues with our cabin. However the crew was awesome with handling the two issues, yes we waited a couple days but others were having similar issues. Because of their responses we booked again this year. Food is subjective I liked the food didn't use the app to order anything nor do I ever seeing this happening so no comment on that. Love Princess crew members.

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

Was this on the old version of the app or the new version? I would really like to be able to see this when it happens and I haven't found this in the app.  It has only happened a couple of times to us, but it would be nice to see what was charged.

 

This was in May, so whatever version of the app that is/was.

[LeeW]

Our first cruise was second sailing of Caribbean Princess and have been Elite for years.  Now we mostly cruise Royal Caribbean.  Have only one Princess cruise scheduled this year.  Generally we like Princess - good sized rooms, newer ships have great buffets, fair production shows and guest entertainers.  

 

Dining room food is not much different than before.  New Love Boat Dream is ok, not quite as good as old.

 

We don't like the paid Sanctuary - expensive, hard to get shady seats and hard even to get into.  We no longer use it.

 

New push towards drink/gratuity/casual/wifi packages has eroded Elite benefits some, but it just means we don't use the casual restaurants at all, don't order room service and only get one wifi package with discount.

 

We were on Sky Princess Norway last year and thoroughly enjoyed it despite the changes.  Medallion didn't work for me before shutdown to open cabin door and still doesn't.

 

Princess still is best option for Alaska and still sails interesting other routes.  If you liked it before you will likely still like it.

[memoak]

15 minutes ago, LeeW said:

Our first cruise was second sailing of Caribbean Princess and have been Elite for years.  Now we mostly cruise Royal Caribbean.  Have only one Princess cruise scheduled this year.  Generally we like Princess - good sized rooms, newer ships have great buffets, fair production shows and guest entertainers.  

 

Dining room food is not much different than before.  New Love Boat Dream is ok, not quite as good as old.

 

We don't like the paid Sanctuary - expensive, hard to get shady seats and hard even to get into.  We no longer use it.

 

New push towards drink/gratuity/casual/wifi packages has eroded Elite benefits some, but it just means we don't use the casual restaurants at all, don't order room service and only get one wifi package with discount.

 

We were on Sky Princess Norway last year and thoroughly enjoyed it despite the changes.  Medallion didn't work for me before shutdown to open cabin door and still doesn't.

 

Princess still is best option for Alaska and still sails interesting other routes.  If you liked it before you will likely still like it.

The medallion does not open your door it just unlocks it. The only Elite perk that is duplicated on the plus package is 1/2 of Wi-Fi 

Edited Thursday at 05:56 PM by memoak

[BamaVol]

29 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

This was in May, so whatever version of the app that is/was.

It was still there as of last week although I couldn’t give you the path I followed to access it. 
 

To the OP, I’ve taken 8 cruises, 3 on Princess. I’ve never had a bad cruise. Not with Royal Caribbean not with Norwegian not with Princess. Was everything perfect? Never. But nothing to ruin a cruise. Nothing that I couldn’t get fixed with little effort. I have no complaints about the food. I have sailed ocean view, balcony and mini suite and my cabins were fine. The entertainment was to my liking. The crews are the best I’ve encountered. Spend time on the other forums and you will see complaints there too. Some in every forum are legit. Some are just people who enjoy complaining.