You can read all the negative comments that other cruisers have written about our June, 2012 cruise to Britain and Western Europe. No one is exaggerating in their displeasure for what we endured. I just want to add a few more comments about the lack of customer service. We encountered so many minor examples of non-service, but there were two biggies. One night we went to the dining room for dinner, and my 20 year old niece found the table cloth folded under instead of hanging down from the table top. When she pulled it out, a large area was covered with bright red bloody hand prints. The Princess staff wanted to tuck it back under and cover the table cloth with more napkins. We insisted on a new table cloth. Another example was on the fourth sea day, I decided I wanted a hamburger for lunch. I went to the outdoor grill and waited in line to get my hamburger. The gentleman in front of me wanted a hamburger. Princess had a nice system with the lettuce, tomato, and onion already stacked. The Princess server opened a bun, added the lettuce stack and then put the hamburger patty on top. The patty flipped off and landed half on the man's plate and half on the counter. The server immediately moved the hamburger patty to one side and fixed the man another burger. Then I asked for a hamburger. The server got my bun, my lettuce stack, and then proceeded to place the aforementioned patty on my bun. I am terrible at speaking up for myself, but I did ask him why the patty was not good enough for the previous gentleman but was good enough for me. He and the man in charge of grilling just looked at me like I was an obnoxious pushy passenger.

I did fill out a comment card twice during the cruise about negative customer service. Both times the cruise ship manager called me and left a message on our stateroom phone. My niece pointed out that he always called me back while we were on day long excursions. I also filled out the cruise evaluation that I received via email after my return home. I did request that a Princess representative call me. The form specifically asked for a telephone number where I could be reached during the work day. They never tried to call. A week later I received an email from Princess saying that my concerns had been delivered to the appropriate departments. If I wanted to talk to them, I would have to call them.

One thing that other cruisers have not mentioned is that when we were told that we could not tender into Edinburgh, the ship did receive new passengers from Edinburgh. My sister was so upset at the announcement that we would not make this port that she went and walked the deck to blow off some steam. She watched a tender come to the Carribean Princess and saw people transfer from the tender to the Princess pulling huge pieces of luggage. We don't understand why they could come to the ship, but we couldn't make the reverse trip. Read more