Princess Cruise Lines
Reviews and Complaints

here is a copy of the letter we sent to princess... just read it and see how they treat passingers, you wont believe the horrible trip we had...I hope this gets out to a lot of people and the word gets out there, because the company doesn't seem to care ... Dear Mr. Buckelew, Oct.25, 2009

My name is Randolph Lowery and my partners name is Gerardo DiTraglia. The purpose of this letter is to enlighten you as to the incompetents of your officers and crew onboard the Emerald Princess transatlantic voyage Sept.23, 2009 through Oct.11, 2009. As businessmen and frequent cruisers we can assure you that we know what to expect and what not to expect from the crew of a cruise ship!

This was, without a doubt, the worst experience we have ever had on a cruise. The ship its self was beautiful, however; the crew made it a terrible experience. Your cruise director, Lisa Ball, was very condescending making it clear she felt superior toward the passengers, forgetting that they make her job and salary possible. We were appalled.

On our first day aboard Emerald Princess, we toured the ship while waiting for our luggage to reach our stateroom, when our luggage arrived we unpacked, then we decided to go to the sauna and relax, as a gentleman was doing when we toured, however; when we arrived a girl at the desk told us it was not available to us, because all hands were delivering luggage and they were short staffed, She said it is never open until the second day of the cruise. I asked her about the gentleman using it when we toured earlyer, she kept insisting that no one was in there and it was closed.

Here are a few other reasons we were unhappy and had such a horrible experience with Emerald Princess

OVER CHARGED ; Next we tried to purchasing cigarettes from the store. What a fiasco, the computer was down, the clerk hand wrote our receipt, two days later a printout of our bill showed we were charged $1, 372.93 for the two cartons of cigarettes, their receipt was gone, lost, no longer attached to the other paperwork. When asked about it, we were told it was an error. We can understand someone making an error, but when you work in the store that sells cigarettes, you should know they don't cost $686.46 per carton! Why not fix it then and there, rather then have the passenger have to find out about such a careless mistake. We were assured that there was only a hold on the money, A call to our bank confirmed they had most definately debited $ 1'372.93 from our account to your cruise line! This took days to correct, and many costly phone calls and frayed nerves.

MUSIC; There was classical music playing thru out the ship, we can understand in the piazza, resturants and cafe's. Out by the pools on the deck was the same broing music, people were bored unmotivated, We asked the crew working on the deck about it, they said Lisa had changed it on the first leg of the cruise when some old guy had complained about the music. We were told by your staff (it's really killing us go make a complaint)And we could tell it really was effecting the moral of the crew on the pool decks, they were very unmotivated, there for not motivating us, not selling us. There for us not partying, having a good time and buying drinks. Isn't it all about making the sale ? So we went to the pursers desk they referred us to Lisa Ball, We asked if there was anyway for some variety in the music, she said she couldn't just change the music like that, it had to be uploaded and would take 5 days, and then says she caters to her larger demographics on the ship. (Well we all paid for a vacation)!

BUFFET; One evening they had appetizers of mozzarella balls garnished with cherrie tomatoes, then on top of the mozzarella balls anchovie paste and an anchovie. Gerardo asked if he could please have some mozzarella balls without the anchovies, they gave him some, we went to our table began to eat, Gerardo spits out the mozzarella balls they were spoiled ! we go to the chef to tell him, he says there fine I'm Italian I know, Gerardo says I don't care what you are I'm Italian too and I'm telling you they are spoied. The chef smells them says there fine, Gerardo insisted that he eat one, he did and you should of seen the look on his face trying to swallow it, as if it were fresh. Then he has the nerve to say (well things go bad on a 17 day cruise) Well we go and try to finish dinner after that, when done we passed thru the other dinning room both the chefs were sitting there and said, hey guys were sorry about that, but we weren't on that line in the kitchen. Well if you are the head chef aren't you over all the lines in the kitchen? Then he has the nerve to say in Italian to Gerardo ( Comunque sia, gli americani mangiano tutto!) which when translated means;( by the way you Americans will eat anything!) We were appalled. Later that same evening, being that we didn't really eat dinner, thought we would go get some cookies and tea, when we looked at the buffet they hadn't removed the spoiled mozzarella balls, they were still there for people to eat and get sick!

ICELAND; In port we always go do our own thing, we do not like being part of any tours. We were told by friends we had to go to the Blue lagoon. So we went to a travel agent in Iceland and got a bus and tickets to the Blue Lagoon. Later a tour buss from princess with all the elderly and some crew members shows up. Everyone was enjoying how wonderful the geothermal seawater was. We stayed out there until the last bus was leaving to take us back to town, we loved it. Well upon returning we were out buy the pool and one of your photographers comes up and says did you guys see the video ? I got you in it! Well first off we weren't on the ship, which we know on every ship we have been on they video the cruise. Also we weren't on an Emerald Princess Tour, any other line we have sailed with when videoing someplace in a port you are asked to sign a release form. We feel very violated of our rites, We do not want to be affiliated with Princess Cruise line whatsoever!
This matter is being looked into.

SAFTY DURING RUFF SEAS; We hit ruff seas, on any other cruise we have been on when we hit ruff seas you always would see an officer checking on the deck. Not so on your line.!There was the problem of constantly flooded decks and no one even trying to squeegie them off. I asked why doesn't any one squeegie the deck, never really got an answer. They just had the yellow cones out. Water was splashing two decks up out of the pool, no one seemed to care, the deck hands were just standing around with there arms crossed. Those same elderly people Ms Ball was talking about catering to were having to tred a river of water, most with canes and walkers trying to get to the buffet. Also there were pieces of wood just floating on the deck that had broken off of the wall, I watched that wood float out there for more then two hours, in all that time not one of your crew members stopped to pick it up, if one of those elderly people would of hit that it all would of been over for them .All of the people that smoked had to stay in one little corner on the deck, the water was two inches deep and actually going in the automatic doors that lead to the staterooms. I asked why didn't they drain the pool, no one seemed to know. So I asked who was in charge of the deck always getting told someone different. So again I go to the pursers desk they said it had to come to the bridge. Finally after that someone comes out and takes some pictures and then they drain the pools. Safety should of really been the priority being the ages of most of the passangers.

TINDER TO GREENLAND; We all had to get tickets and sit in the theater to wait to be called, they had only two running, it took almost two hours to get on one. While waiting there were two guys that were buddy buddy with Lisa Balls little side kick Hollywood. Well he comes up puts his arms around them wispers, then one follows him back to the white doors for staff only, then a few minutes later the other one. He snuck them out and put them on the tender, So I said to Gerardo screw this and went to see and it went rite down to the tinder. So I went up to Lisa and told her She said oh no! as if he would never do something like that, I said ok then why are there two empty chairs next to ours ? she didn't say anything . I told her I wanted to talk to someone she said I would have to go to the pursers desk and that they would just refer us to her. I told her I waned to speak to the Captian, she says in her condescending way ( I can assure you that you will never speak with the Captain) But Kuzan took us to talk with Martin Ford, he said he would follow up when we got to port, but unfortunately nothing could be done on the cruise it would have to happen at the home office on land.We told him we were going to follow up as well.

BARS CLOSED; The lounges were closed early, one evening at 12:30 the casino closed so we went up to the skywalker lounge, being it's the only bar you can smoke in. We were told upon entering they had called last call and were closed, looking over to the bar to the left where you could smoke was crew members sitting there drinking . We could understand if they had already locked the bottles, but they hadn't. We feel they should of said we have called last call we can serve you one drink but we are locking up. So again back to the pursers desk. The next day Tim the food and bev manager calls says he asked but no one in the bar could recall last night ( they all cover for eachother)

Mr Buckelew,
we feel the officers working under you are not doing there jobs, probably not to the expectation that you would want. Knowing its all about the passangers experiences. This cruise was the worst experience ever! With what Lisa said about catering to the larger demografic, we feel this cruise should of been advertised as a seniors cruise! We spoke with many people on the cruise who still had life in them and were totally bored and dissapointed with your staff, saying the same as us they would never cruise with Princess or any of your other lines.We can assure that we (WILL NEVER) cruise with any of your cruies lines ever! And there are other cruise lines out there.We also feel we were ripped off, lost 18 days, We would of rather stayed home and worked those 18 days. Just to think about the money we lost while held captive on your ship. It would of been better to of stayed home.As we said we are business owners, we are also in the service industry, we cater to a very extensive client base. Here are just a few so you can see the kind of clients we are used to catering to: Martine Rothblatt, Terence Witt, Tessy Princess of Luxembourg, Bobby Dall they can all be googled, along with attorneys, doctors, media, pilots and also captains of ships! So for us to of been treated and talked down to the way we were is unexcusable.
The reason we addressed this letter to you Mr. Buckelew is we feel you need to know whats going on underneath you. We hope this letter makes it to you, We would like to hear back from you personally in this matter ...Randolph Lowery & Gerardo DiTraglia

November 2, 2009

To: Mr. Alan Buckelow and Customer Relations
Princess Cruises

From: Miriam Gordon

Booking Number- XH3X2Q

This Letter is my complaint of everything that happen and the issues and problems that occurred on the Emerald Princess during my vacation from 10-18-2009 to 10-25-2009. I will go into complete detail about everything that happens from the first day to the last.

On October 18th, 2009 it was my birthday when I called princess cruise and also my travel agency told them more then once it was my birthday when my reservations was made it was noted, I even called so many times to make sure. Once on the ship I noticed that on everyone’s door but mine had balloons. I had No balloons, No singing Happy Birthday to me at dinner and No cake they forgot me but not everyone else. They did not even realize it until I complained. I was told that my room steward was the person that forgot. I’m going to blame where the blame belongs on Princess Cruise and David Pearce the executive housekeeper who is suppose to check to make sure everything is perfect and done correctly. This room steward is a hard worker, I feel she is over worked but in spite of this she always speaks “Hello I hope you have a nice dinner or enjoy yourself always with a smile. Always good morning with a smile. Long hours but she speaks always and that smile just makes you feel to smile back. She realized once I complained she felt so bad she was sorry it happened, and I understand why over worked and long hours and I can only guess how much you pay them shame on you these poor people. So once again I Blame princess cruise. By the way my room was always spotless, clean towels. Being the cruise send me flowers after they made a mistake that admits it was the cruises fault and flowers just does not get it when the problems continued. At the end of the cruise I received a make a difference card, I say my room steward made a difference to me for the reason she showed me how sorry she was about my birthday and she is a very very hard worker. This lady is the only one that said she was sorry out of all the other problems that I had not any of your staff on the ship said they was sorry that caused the problems.

Photo Gallery the next issue and problem that I had on your ship. I’m a person with a disability on this day that I walked to the photo gallery my ankles was very swollen it was very hard for me to walk when I reached the photo gallery they just closed it which I understand however when I tried to explain my situation to Lisa to please try to understand how much my feet hurt and that I had a very hard time to walk here she could look at my feet and ankles and see how big they was. I ask her to please show my pictures to me. Lisa made the choice not to be understanding and considerate and still said NO I ask her to call her supervisor more then once as she made me wait and wait sitting on my walker I got to the point I felt I was waiting to long and I ask Lisa what should I do? She responded back in a very harsh voice and her words not nice at all and her tone of voice was very disturbing to me she said you can wait if you want to or you can leave it was my prerogative in such a nasty tone of voice basically she was saying damn if you do damn if you don’t, her don’t care attitude. I was in tears for the reason this lady has no idea how I felt with feet swollen and the pain I was in I could not excuse her for talking to me like that I really think that she could have been more understanding and should have been nicer. Later I was near the purser desk and one of Lisa coworkers came over to me and told me how sorry she felt that Lisa did that to me. But how come Lisa did not come to me and apologize.

This is the third issue Amanda Coulter was sitting at the captain circle host desk on deck six near the purser desk. I walked over to Amanda asking if she could please help me. St. Thomas has a Jewish Temple that I would like to go see so I was asking her for help and ask her for information about the Temple, she responded “I don’t know” your staff famous words “I don’t know” then I asked Amanda since you don’t know please call someone that might know and can help me the phone was in front of her never picking it up not even a attempting to try to pick it up so I asked her again she just sat there and looked at me like I was asking to much from her or I was stupid for asking her to help me. I thought that your staff was here to help us or at least try I was wrong I guess on this ship we are on our own way not only this lady Don’t know anything but there was more then a few of your staff that I asked where is this place and the answer I heard was I don’t know. Amanda was not busy I was the only person there so it could not be that she was to busy. I then asked her if she had a problem with this Temple or my religion. I felt I gave her enough time if she was going to help me she never did instead she burst out in tears at the time I had No idea why and what did I say to her I had no clue I walked away from her because this was not normal way to act when that’s all I did was ask for help when she just sat there and did nothing I ask a question that’s all and I asked her nicely to please get someone else that maybe can help me she did nothing at all. She picked up the phone then and was crying to some one I was in the pursers line to cash a travelers check I was standing in line when I looked over at her and there was a man wearing all white she was talking to him and then I saw her leave before she left she pointed me out in the line and this man came over to me name unknown and this lady named Kusan was there also he said for me to go into this office now in a stern tone in his voice and so did Kusan Furrer get in the office Now! I said I will not until I finish cashing this check then I will go not before not before and that’s what I did as this man stood there and watched me like a criminal, embarrassed me in front of other passengers all because this Amanda lied and was untruthful about what was really said she added her own words in this what I never said to her and this man and Kusan believed her even before they ask me anything I was being treated like a criminal? This was handled in a wrong manner she told this man that I called her antis emetic and I never said that to her at all she added those words on her own, she lied. When I did go into the office I learned who Kusan was the senior assistant purser when I went into the office at that time I was asked what did happen and I told them the truth what I said to her. I will say this you allow your staff to lie about what passengers say I refuse to believe you allow this type of action to happen what kind of people you hire on your ship. Two days later I went back to speak to Kusan in the office my thoughts was this lady lied about what was said because I was her escape goat I feel she really did not want work at this area where she was so she lied about what I said to her to get out of there maybe she was bored. I’m wondering what is your policy on employees that lie and are untruthful and make up and turn something around such like she did here and use her own words that she added to this. And made Kusan and the other gentleman harass me and made me feel like a criminal. At this point I wished I never went on this cruise. It will be interesting how you are going to handle this and repair this to make me see different about your cruise line and this is not how your employees are and I can have a great time and stress free like I was suppose to.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was sitting to my table trying to eat this terrible food that I did not enjoy I was told if I did not like it to go get a pizza or a burger I did go without dinner that night the veggie burgers are so bad I throw it in the garbage. Back to when I was sitting to my table at the buffet one of your kitchen help was talking to me about the food matter of fact he was the one and told the cook I would like to speak to him about the food. As I was sitting in my chair picking at my food I noticed that your kitchen help kept touching my shoulder I did not get his name and that was my choice after he kept touching my shoulder and many times I tried to move my chair when he was to close to the back of my chair touching my back I tried to scoot my chair forward so he would not touch my back I tried my best to not cause a scene I have a bad temper at times. Yes I could of said no and to stop but knowing me I would had raised my voice or I could of hit him but then what I would be the one in trouble I thought about it and made the choice to leave when he left and before he came back I would be gone and that’s what I did I called the man with the suit over I complained again about the food he took my plate away and I left. That does not excuse your poorly run ship and your staff to do as they please and to touch the passengers without permission it is not ok and yes I could of complained but what would I get other then I spoke to him and I’m sorry just like all the other problems I had on your ship. If you would like to pursue this matter with this person that can’t leave his hands where they belong I would and if you would like to take this to a legal level I would do that to I guess we can find out his name if you like I remember his face and we could narrow it down to the staff working that time I was there, it was only one buffet open at the time I was there so it should not be so hard. I have plenty of time to take this matter to a legal level if you like it is your choice.

I really hope that this is all the complaints I hope that I did not forget anything if something comes in my mind believe me I will send it in writing via computer right away.

I still I’m very unhappy about the cruise it was ruined and it should of never happen I went on your ship as my intentions was to relax and have fun it did not happen like a planned I was under more stress on the ship it caused health problems with my psoriasis. I feel like you took my hard earned money that I had to saved for this cruise. You do not train your staff enough to handle problems that arise in a correct manner and I hope you settle this other then a letter of we are sorry I will not accept it as all I’m going to get. After all this was your fault due to your unruly staff. I was asked what I would like to make me happy I would like my money back I’m willing to except another cruise on another ship I’m willing to give you another chance to show me all of your staff knows how to act in a civil manner and since you ruined my cruise. There is one more thing that I and Kusan agreed upon is the pictures that I picked out was supposed to go to Kusan and she is supposed to send them to Santa Clarita, CA I have no idea who she send them to or what department they went to can you please find out for me, here is all her info Kusan Furrer Senior Assistant Purser, Princess Cruises, 24844 Avenue Rockefeller, Santa Clarita, CA. [protected] {661} 753-0000 who ever has the pictures please me Miriam Gordon Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you,
Miriam Gordon

Smoking on the Island Princess

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

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

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

P&O Cruises Australia seems to be leading the way in limiting smoking on cruise ships. Their policy is: “In the interest of our passengers' health, safety and enjoyment during their cruising holiday, smoking is not permitted indoors, including in cabins, suites and on private balconies. This is in line with Australian standards. Outdoor smoking venues will be published in the Pacific Daily on board your cruise” (see www.pocruises.co.nz/AlreadyBooked/CruiseHandbook/Pages/SmokingPolicy.aspx).

The smoking policies of most cruise lines can be found at: http://www.shipdetective.com/ships/programs/smoking_policies.htm . Princess is not alone in catering to smokers and disregarding the health, safety and enjoyment of non-smokers.

Princess wants to pretend that sensitivity to tobacco smoke is just a matter of personal preference and opinion – not a real health and safety issue. You would think the Star Princess fire of March 23, 2006 would have made it abundantly clear to Princess management how dangerous smoking in cabins and on balconies is to the physical safety of passengers, crew, and the ship itself. See http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=1576 for details of the horrific fire.

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

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

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

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

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

Princess management doesn’t want to know what their customers think about their smoking policy. They could easily find out by including smoking in the things they put in their evaluation questionnaire, like:

v Should smoking continue to be allowed in cabins?
v Should smoking continue to be allowed on balconies?
v Should smoking continue to be allowed in bars and lounges?
v Should smoking continue to be allowed on the Promenade Deck?
v How effective is enforcement of the Smoking Policy of this ship?
v Does allowing smoking on this ship negatively impact your enjoyment of the cruise?
v Does smoking on this ship negatively impact your health?
v Does allowing smoking on this ship cause you to be concerned about the safety of cruising?
v What could we do to reduce the impact of smoking on you?
v How important is it for you to be able to smoke on this ship?
v Should smoking be banned on this ship?

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

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

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

Princess changed the entire itinerary for their Mexican cruise to include the coast of California. Offered no compensation, no shipboard credit, no ability to reschedule, nada. These guys are as greedy as they come.

I went on a three hour tour with my friend Mary Anne, a professor, a skipper and a millionaire. The tour was fine at first, but then there was this big storm that blew us off course. We ended up stranded on an Island for several years before we were rescued. There we made our own hut and learned how to survive for 25 years before we were rescued. To our surprise the world changed. I considered writing you a letter but my friend told me about something called "email" where you can send a reply directly by email and not pay postage, which is good since the price of the stamp and everything else went up in the 25 years we were stranded.

I don't think that I will take your boat tour again.

Recently, my wife and I took a cruise on the Ruby Princess. This is a new ship and this was it's fifth cruise. We have cruised before, four times with Carnival. We thought we would try a more "upscale" cruise line. WOW, what a total disappointment! Our state room was much smaller than a comparable level selection with Carnival. No spa bath tub, Top sheet on the beds are attached to the blanket so you can't cover up with just the sheet. The balcony was not private as advertised. People have a full view of the balconies of the lower decks. Had to pay extra for ice cream, juices and pizza. (all free on Carnival) Soda "cards" cost $40.00! WORST of all was the food. Cold coffee, warm juice, warm milk, dripping wet sandwiches, stale bread, dried out meat, slimy gooey scrambled eggs, paste like oatmeal, very greasy sausages, nearly rotten slimy fruit (reused)dried out pastery, etc. Very little menu change from day to day. The food on all of our Carnival trips was of a much better quality and freshness. Believe it or not, the meal we had at McDonalds on our way home was much better than 90% of anything we consumed on the ship! We never dreamed that this "upscale" cruise line would serve such low quality meals. I believe most of the food is saved and reused for many days. Also, My wife left behind some clothing. She contacted them and we never got any reply. We also complained about the above mentioned problems to Princess lines and got no response. NEVER AGAIN!

In short, my wedding dreams have been shattered!

Through no fault of my own, I now find my wedding plans have been cancelled. Countless preparations organising this event have got to be rectified. Friends and family have to rearrange their plans. Printed stationery has got to be discarded. Booking fees have been lost. All this and more because your company has let me down at a time that should of been one of the happiest in my life. I am of the opinion that your company has shown no remorse what so ever for cancelling our wedding and shattering our hopes and dreams of our perfect wedding day onboard the Caribbean Princess Ship.

It is my understanding - though I have still not received any written conformation from you - that our cruise of 5th April 2009 it is cancelled, ending my plans for marriage on 13th April 2009.

I am very disappointed and feel deeply distressed that you have cancelled what should have been the happiest day of our lives.

When organising a wedding it is very stressful and expensive, trying to ensure that everything has been considered and arrangements are made, and in ample enough time to ensure that you can arrange exactly what you want. This is an arduous enough task for most weddings, but when a cruise is added and dates and travel are involved, this stress is multiplied tenfold.

Therefore, having achieved what we felt was a monumental task in organising family and friends to join our holiday cruise wedding; we were devastated when your company cancelled.

Can you imagine the inconvenience? The changed plans? The spoiled stationery? The lost purchases and irredeemable expenses?

As I am from an Italian background, I am including some of the Italian traditions in our wedding. When our plans were set, we had our wedding bands designed and made. Within these are engraved our names and wedding date. These are now worthless.

It has always been my dream to get married on a cruise ship so we did a lot of research and contacted various companies to get information and prices for the cruise and wedding. After many recommendations and reviews for your company we decided to book our wedding and cruise with you. We had been told your service was better than other cruise companies.

As you had exactly what we wanted on offer we decided that we would book with your company.

Obviously at a wedding, planning for family members is critical. As my brother is studying for his A-levels and is unable to take time off school during term time we had to ensure that we booked our cruise during set and published school holidays. Therefore we decided to go Easter 2009.

We spoke to our other family members who were joining us to ensure that the time was convenient for all and as you can imagine, this took some organising, especially as a number of them run their own companies and time away is for them very difficult to plan for.

Eventually everyone confirmed that they were available at our desired time and we decided to book November 2007.

Unfortunately things didn’t run smoothly. Looking back at the whole experience of booking with your company the first time I became unhappy with the service I received form your company was to do with our departure flights from the UK. We were given the option of flying from Manchester or London Heathrow to Miami for an over night stop, as we live in the midlands area and have 2 members of the party that are over the age of 70 we decided that Manchester would be the best option for us as the travelling time would be less that travelling to London. I contacted yourselves to find out which airline you would be arranging our flights with so I could find out their baggage restrictions for transporting my wedding dress. I was advised that you would be using American airlines having contacted them I was told that they do not fly direct from Manchester to Miami. So I contacted your company again to find out what flights we would be taking to arrive in Miami. I was then advised that we would be taking the following route Manchester to London Heathrow to Chicago to Miami. With waiting times at the transfer airports our journey time would have taken approximately 27hrs to fly from Manchester to Miami although if we had flown from London Heathrow to Miami which does have a direct flight journey time would have been approximately 9 hours. At no point were we made aware of this and had I have not requested details of which airline we would be using, we would not have been informed until closer to our cruise date when we would have been unable to cancel. I don’t understand why an option of flying from Manchester instead of London Heathrow is offered if the first part of the journey will be a flight from Manchester to London Heathrow.

Our evening wedding reception for when we returned to the UK for all of our family and friends that are unable to make the cruise had been arranged and payments made. As we are now looking at possibly changing the cruise to the following year we are going to incur additional costs due to the hotels annual price inflation. The hotel can not confirm the additional costs until 12 months prior to the event date.

We had designed and produced our own evening wedding invitations and save this evening card’s, as we wanted them to be unique to us and in keeping with our wedding theme and colour schemes. Our save this evening cards had already been given out to most of our family and friends which we have had to contact and tell them that it is cancelled.

Our grandparents that are within this party will also be incurring additional costs for their travel insurance, they are still awaiting a response as to whether they will loose the money that they have paid for the April 2009 cruise and to get travel insurance for the following year will have an increased premium as their age will have increased as they will be 71 and 76.

The cancellation itself, if it has indeed actually occurred, has been very poorly conducted. Despite the fact that I booked the holiday and a contract therefore existed between your company and myself, I was NOT the one who was notified of the cancellation. It was my mother who was told the cruise was cancelled, even though my mother is not essentially a part of the contract agreement between ourselves. I find this lack of professionalism particularly disturbing, especially when – as already stated – I have yet to receive written confirmation of the cancellation.

Fortunately my relationship with my mother is a good one and I trust her word. It’s easy to imagine that in some other families bonds between family members are not so strong and that messages could be misinterpreted, forgotten or even withheld. I genuinely hope this practice of contacting uninvolved third parties is not a standard one within your company.

The whole experience has been extremely stressful and has had an affect on our health. We are finding that we are having sleepless nights; the matter is always on our minds and we are unable to concentrate on things and, frankly, it doesn’t look like this stress will ease any time soon. I had to miss an afternoon off work, which I was unpaid for, due to the fact that I was absolutely devastated that our wedding, the day I had been planning and was so excited and looking forward to have been cancelled. We are having to ensure that we have cancelled all arrangements for April 2009 and looking to rearrange for the following year. Which we are now finding will incur further costs to ourselves, which we had not previously budgeted for.

Therefore I feel that your offer to price match our cruise price of what we would have been paying for April 2009 and a $250 onboard spend for each couple is not acceptable as this is nowhere near the costs that we will incur due to you cancelling our cruise and wedding. My brother will have finished his A-levels, when we are looking at other cruises, therefore we will not have to stick to school holiday times and we are finding that the prices that we are being quoted are less that that of what we would have paid for April 2009, therefore the price matching is of no advantage to us as we will not save any money.

I appreciate that I am certainly very emotionally involved in this matter but then weddings are an emotional subject – and holiday companies do attract us with their offers. So when these services are cancelled (or not, as only third party conveys this message to date, not a letter), when arrangements need to be undone, when money is lost and people are disappointed and inconvenienced, the matter cannot help but be an emotional one.

Mid 1998 I contacted a local travel agent to book a Princess cruise for 4 (my fiancé and I and my two daughters) to celebrate the Millennium -- i.e. New Years Cruise 1999. I was told that no brochures had yet been printed but that the details -- dates, ports, and so on -- were available, and that we could make a booking for a deposit of $500 per person (total $2,000 US) to hold two specific staterooms.

Booking so far in advance of travel I was concerned about cancellation policy, but my travel agent was assured by her Princess Cruises contact that the same cancellation policy would apply in December 1999 that was in place for all other Princess cruises -- that is, NO PENALTY would apply until 6 months prior to the travel date. I went ahead with the booking, paying the $2,000 to Princess, assured that our deposit was fully refundable up until June of 1999.

Early in 1999 (well in advance of the ‘6 month’ penalty date) I advised my travel agent that circumstances were such that the four of us were not able to travel together at the Millennium and that she should cancel the cruise and, of course, refund our deposit. A few days later she advised me that our booking was cancelled but that Princess had REFUSED TO REFUND OUR DEPOSIT citing a ‘new’ policy, which was added to the Millenium brochure on printing, prohibiting any and all refunds for cancellation of Millennium cruises.

Princess was adamant on the point, and refused to even negotiate. It mattered not to them that they had changed their policy AFTER we made the booking, nor that they would quite likely resell the space to other passengers.

Needless to say, many letters and phone calls were made to Princess. I told them that I was a repeat customer, a member of their Captains Circle (“where loyalty means rewards and recognition”… according to their literature) offered to allow the $2,000 to be credited towards future travel, and so on -- but nothing moved them. They simply confiscated our $2,000 which, in my opinion, was an immoral action on their part.

As you can imagine, I have not forgotten or forgiven this mistreatment by Princess and believe that the $2,000 (plus interest) is still owed to us. Of course, we would never consider doing business with Princess again.

My husband and I have been on three cruises since our unpleasant experience with Princess and I think I can fairly say that Holland America, Celebrity and Seabourn have each profited well in excess of the $2,000 Princess wrongly confiscated, and we would be delighted to travel with any one of them again.

We are often asked for cruise line recommendations -- and at every opportunity we advise potential passengers not to trust or travel with Princess.

There are many fine cruise companies who treat their passengers honestly and with respect. Unfortunately, I do not believe Princess is one of them.