Princess
Diamond
7 Day Alaska Cruise

Rey Holtz

Age: 44
Occupation: IT Unix Administrator
Number of Cruises: 12

My wife and I sailed on the Diamond Princess on May 28th to Alaska. We had high expectations since all we’ve heard from our cruise agent was nothing but “high accolades”. Needless to say the cruise did not meet our expectations. We paid a premium price for this cruise and not only were we extremely disappointed but it was also the worse cruise we have ever sailed on.

Below please find a list of our complaints:

We arrived at the Seattle port at 1:00pm. We were amazed to see at least 1000 people standing in line under the sun (85 degree weather) waiting for “Express Check-in”. We were finally checked in about 3:00pm. The embarkation process was unacceptable as we have sailed on several occasions in the past and have never experienced such delay.

On Sunday, May 29th the captain made an announcement that due to a passenger’s “medical emergency” during the night, he had no other alternative but to turn the ship around and head back to the nearest port, Victoria. He stated that in doing so we had lost several hours in our sailing time to Juneau, and our arrival time would be impacted.

Later, we found out the so called “emergency” was upset ulcers and the passenger had re-boarded the ship in Juneau.

The original cruise itinerary had us arriving in Juneau on Monday May 30th at 12:30pm and departing at 10:00pm. At approximately 7:30pm the captain gave clearance for disembarking. It took us an hour to disembark due to the number of passengers trying to do so at the same time. We were told we needed to be back on board by 10:00pm, allowing us less than 2 hours to visit Juneau.

We returned to the ship at the time instructed by the captain, only to be standing in line for another hour to embark. As you can imagine getting three thousand people back on board with so little time, called for less security. We boarded with bags that were not scanned as so were many others. This again is unacceptable and is a breach in all the passengers’ security.

When we finally boarded and went for dinner, only one side of the 24-hour buffet at the Horizon Court was opened. It was chaotic to see over one thousand people trying to serve themselves and find a table to sit. When brought to the attention of one of the Horizon Court head attendants, his reply was “it is not my decision”. It was clear they did not prepare, nor anticipate almost 3000 passengers returning at the same time, nor did they attempt to accommodate the passengers. Again, unacceptable, simply all that was needed was for both sides of the Horizon Court to be opened.

And speaking of the Horizon Court, the quality, variety and presentation of the food were terrible. The food was always cold; in most cases it was obvious that it was prepared hours before it was served or leftovers from the previous meal.

The next day Tuesday, May 31st we arrived at Skagway. After un-boarding/boarding several times I confirmed that security was not being taken seriously.

On the last day of the cruise and with anticipation of visiting Victoria, we arrived on time. However, the captain made an announcement that he was unable to dock due to 45 knot winds. I, being a seaman know that the winds were nowhere near 45 knots. He finally gave the clear to disembark at 10:20pm, instructing passengers to be back on board by 11:30pm. Needless to say we, as almost all passengers, chose not to disembark because not enough time was allowed to visit the town and still make it back on time.

The disembarking process was very unorganized. Our “disembarking color” was assigned for 8:30am; however it was called over 1 hour later. We stood in line at the gangway for another hour until one of the employees shouted out that US citizens did not have to make the line. In other words, the entire disembarking process took over 3 hours.

As for the entertainment it was also bad. The 2 production shows were good but that is about it. The cruise director was the dullest we have ever experienced in any of the cruises we’ve sailed on.

Our entire itinerary was totally disrupted making us miss the highlights of the cruise; Juneau and Victoria. We did not receive the fair value of what we paid for. At no time was any compensation offered to us; i.e., more time on other ports, additional entertainment, drinks, etc. This is unacceptable.

After having no alternative last year but to cancel our cruise due to a critical accident for which you showed neither mercy nor flexibility in allowing us to reschedule, we still chose to sail with Princess because we had heard nothing but good things. Even after losing our money on our previously scheduled cruise we still chose Princess.

As passengers, we will not accept bad service and a poor itinerary which did not provide us with a fair value as previously mentioned.

At this time, we are requesting that Princess Cruises compensate us appropriately since we did not get our moneys worth on this cruise.

We are extremely disappointed and dissatisfied with Princess Cruises!!!!

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