WHERE'S THE REFUND FOR MY OVERPAYMENT? SEE SUMMARY
Royal Princess Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 16
7 Night Inside Passage With Glacier Bay National Park (Seattle Roundtrip)
Sail date: June 24, 2023
Ship: Royal Princess
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: M539
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
THINK TWICE ABOUT PRINCESS CRUISES, READ THE REVIEWS ON YELP, GOOGLE, AND SOCIAL MEDIA, AND GOOD LUCK GETTING A REFUND CHECK FROM PRINCESS CRUISES AFTER YOUR CRUISE IF YOU'RE OWED A REFUND $!!! We pre-paid cruise, excursions, etc before sailing (Plus package) for our 7-day Alaska cruise from Seattle. Our most expensive excursion was canceled by the ship or vendor the day of and no one even notified us until we packed up and got ready to leave the ship. No notification in the room, on the app, or anywhere about it being canceled. Although it was disappointing, we understood because it was a flight canceled due to weather which was unavoidable, and better safe than sorry. The bad part is that we stayed within our package and have an overpayment that our credit card was billed for due to the canceled excursion ($1,314). It's a lot billed to our credit card, now interest so we could use our refund to pay it back. I just got off the phone with 1-800-PRINCESS AND the agent told me “It’s not a lot of interest.” I've contacted customer service, customer relations, email, live chat, and everywhere almost 20-30 times within the last 6 weeks. I must've spent 8-10 hours so far on this to get our refund $ back. They all give different information, timeframes, etc. The customer service line is so loud with outside noise and strong accents that I couldn't hardly understand. Emails come back with an auto delay message, blah, blah, blah. They never even mailed us our expenses (portfolio) after the cruise and I had to call, request, and email multiple times to even get that (they won’t give it to you onboard and say it will be emailed). I think they want you to not realize, forget, or give up if you're owed $. Good thing I took a screenshot of the account on our room tv monitor as we were walking out to go home. Did you know that they "assume" if you have an overpayment that you want it kept as a "future cruise credit?" unless you contact them and beg, plead, and demand your $ back? The food was not even that great. They charged $1,028 for the drink package once we reviewed the breakdown and our portfolio (that’s $514 per person for 7 days). Drinks were average $10 so between the 2 of us we'd have to drink around 100 drinks in 7 days (that's about 14 drinks per person/day) to even break even on that portion. Our medallion didn't work properly as advertised. We hung our room service breakfast order on our door hanger as we had an early wake-up day and no food came. Ordered food on the app with our medallion to come to us and it never came either after waiting in our room for 2 hours. We requested 2 twin beds and had 1 queen bed. We requested robes in our room and there were none (not really a big deal but if you’re paying $7,500+ for a 7-day vacation it would’ve been nice for my wife). Also, just a head’s up: as of August 12, 2023, some things that were previously included now have a charge from my understanding and they are: Vines, Salty Dog Gastropub, O'Malleys, Ocean Terrace, Alfredo's and Gigi's — will now offer three-course, fixed-price menus. Regular passengers will pay $14.99 for these meals, but Princess Plus and Princess Premier guests can dine for free. A one-time activation fee of $14.99 for OceanNow on-demand food and drinks delivery to your location on the ship, no matter where you are (app/medallion location food service did not work on our Royal Princess cruise). The fee will be waived for passengers who book either of the all-inclusive Plus & Premier packages. Princess Plus or Princess Premier packages can get free room service delivery. Everyone else will have to pay a newly added $5 delivery fee per order. And lastly, I believe they may now be charging to mail your medallion to you. Our port time in Victoria B.C. Canada was cut short only 3 hours from 9 p.m. to midnight so why even bother? We spent over $7,500 on a 7-day cruise for 2 with excursions, not including airfare, and will never go back to Princess!!!Embarkation
Embarkation was hectic but easier than usual as we were Ocean Ready on the app before we got to the port.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Not impressed at all! Buffet wasn't all that great. Didn't like the expensive steak restaurant. We did like the Pizza restaurant, and that's about it.
Onboard Activities
N/A didn't do any activities. Rain/wind outdoors first part of cruise. The Piazza entertainment was decent.
Entertainment
Entertainment was OK
Service and Staff
Out steward Mr. Robert was awesome!
Ship Quality
Well cleaned and maintained. We could smell the fresh paint as they painted in the middle of the night. Like gasoline in the hallway!
Cabin / Stateroom
It was OK but online request was for 2 twin beds not 1 queen bed. The balcony door alway stuck and they said it was supposed to be like that.
Ship tip
THINK TWICE
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Said we would see 2-3 glaciers on our whale watching trip and saw none. Only a few whales off in the distance. Only the backs of the humpback whales and one tail fin. Not worth $300+
Took the train. It was OK but we were rushing back to the ship and that was very stressful.
Stay on the ship. Fish & Chips are $32 LOL. It was OK to walk around but nothing but souvenirs and jewelry stores. If you do have time it's a nice walk to Creek St.
Disembarkation
Easy with the medallion but VERY long line to bus/airport transfer. We tipped valet $40 to help us.
11 Comments
karlgrgurich 1 year ago
Sorry you had a bad experience. We had an excursion cancelled on the Regal Princess in June as we couldn’t port due to weather. Was refunded to our on board account that day. ( we had paid our excursions with OBC when booking, so it went back to that). I too don’t like some of the changes Princess is making, but it seems that they are doing what many other cruise lines already do. Sadly. We’ll still cruise with them as we have enjoyed each cruise we’ve done in the past. But yes…cruising is not the same as years ago
willwork4cruz 1 year ago
That would stink to not get a quick refund. How did you find out about the excursion being canceled if they never notified you? What do you mean that you stayed within your amount? Sorry that Princess assumed you and your wife sleep in the same bed. Yes drink packages are expensive but you knew the price when you purchased it so no fair complaining you overpaid. Those restaurants (except the pizza joint) were not free before.
water227 1 year ago
I just did a cruise on Royal Princess in April. I feel your pain, and I, too, experienced the same poor customer service. It took me 3+ months to get paperwork from them regarding me Covid quarantine. Endless hours on calls and emails with peeps that had no interest in helping a customer. I learned that never leave the ship without accurate paperwork in hand. I paid for spa pkg and Plus pkg and didn't get to use it due to quarantine (sick for 10 days, quarantined for 7 days out of 15). Ask for a partial refund and was told a flat no. No compassion whatsoever. Eventually, this kind of customer service will hurt them. It's a costly vaca to come away so unhappy. Sorry for your experience, I know it's frustrating! Luckily we have plenty of other options. :)
RetiredRay 1 year ago
Someone who did not get the word that Princess was downgrading to be more like other lines. Surprised he could not get anything decent in the buffets, the Royal class has (maybe had?) a very good buffet with lots of choices. Only problem is that if you do not walk all the lines you might think it is limited.