Bed Bugs!

Golden Princess Cruise Review to South Pacific

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 27

Overall rating:

3.3 out of 5
Golden Princess

13 Night New Zealand (Melbourne Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 10, 2020

Ship: Golden Princess

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: D510

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

Our first cruise was marred midway by some nasty bed bug bites! After about 3 days, we started waking up with big itchy bites, but thought they might have been mosquito bites. They inspected the room after my first complaint but said it was a "negative" finding. After waking up bitten even worse, we asked them to check again, but same "negative" finding. The evidence was all over my body, but that didn't seem to matter. In the end we looked ourselves by just searching the bed covers and found and trapped one in a glass. They finally moved us, but not before letting us know we were "lucky" to get a new room because someone had been medically evacuated.... I understand that bed bugs happen, it was just the way we were treated that was disappointing. We met with the Customer service manager in the end and some on board credit was applied, but it didn't really make up for the pain and discomfort from my bites that we're were hot, itchy and weepy. I just hope they fade ok and don't scar from the scratching. Overall, I did enjoy the facilities and days at sea, the port call days were good but rushed!

Embarkation

3 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5
liked the trivia and karaoke

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

1 out of 5
my 10yr old daughter didn't like it, not much to do, room was pretty small 14 yr old son didn't really like the teenagers club either

Service and Staff

3 out of 5
a few happy staff, but a lot looked pretty tired and devoid of emotion, like robots :-( Must be very draining working all that time with no days off

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5
our mini suite was a good size, but the sofa bed (as with most sofa beds!) was uncomfortable and our bed had bed bugs

Ship tip

check your bed for signs of bed bugs before you sleep in it, you can google them! if you wake up with itchy bites, tell someone immediately and make them take you seriously

Ports of call

Melbourne, Australia

3 out of 5
this was our home port

Cruise Fjordland National Park Did not visit port

itinerary changed due to rough weather

Port Chalmers (Dunedin), New Zealand

4 out of 5
had a lovely tour with Peter from Good Company tours

Akaroa, New Zealand

4 out of 5
Akaroa jet boat tour with Brett was amazing fun

Wellington, New Zealand

4 out of 5
fantastic museum there, just wish we had more time in port!

Napier, New Zealand

4 out of 5
loved Napier, will have to go back, did a lovely winery tour

Tauranga, New Zealand

4 out of 5

Auckland, New Zealand

4 out of 5
my home town! not enough time in port

Disembarkation

2 out of 5
very long wait for a taxi
Was this review helpful? 27

5 Comments

judip56    4 years ago

Are you certain they are bed bugs? Pretty sure it wouldn’t take 3 days for them to bite you.

rowena44    4 years ago

So sorry to hear this. I can't imagine that happening. You sound like you handled it well. Princess is lucky because what a way to ruin your cruise. Bedbugs... disgusting.

AdventureTime83    4 years ago

What was your room number if you dont mind me asking? We are cruising on the golden and want to make surenit wasnt one of ours. So sorry this happened to you guys on your trip that is horrible. :(

scltc    4 years ago

Agree people make it worse for others

jenyfur    4 years ago

Wow.... you’re nicer than I would have been about that. It’s not that there’s bugs (which is bad enough) it’s how you’re treated after. I wonder if they’re afraid people will bring bugs on and plant them in order to get a free cruise? People suck and I’m sure it’s been done