My wife and I recently returned from a ten-day Mexican Riviera cruise on the Sapphire Princess , and our experience prompts me to write. We both have Platinum status with your company, and have mostly enjoyed other vacations with Princess. This trip, however, proved less than enjoyable and exposed some serious flaws with the management and culture on your ship.

During our cruise, the Telecom department was switching the onboard television service from an old analog system to a new digital one. We were advised at the beginning of our trip that this was happening, and that a technician would be in our room for a few minutes during the week to make the switch. Once the "upgrade" was done, however, we had almost continuous problems with the system freezing, constant buffering and reloading, and the like, which made it impossible to use the television, even the "From the Bridge" channel. We contacted the Purser's Desk on several occasions to get help, and they sent a technician many times to assist...to no avail, as the problems continued throughout the entire cruise. The Passenger Desk, however, continued to insist that the problem was fixed and that only a third of the ship had been affected.

We felt as though we were being given lip-service and being placated by the Passenger Services Desk every time we called, being told that the system was fixed and working when it clearly was not. Their attitude became surly and judgmental as the week progressed ("Why would you just want to watch TV on this beautiful cruise?" type of attitude!). We spoke to numerous other passengers who had an identical experience, in fact 100% of those we spoke to about the problem shared our frustration, not just a third of them. It felt like Princess was obfuscating the extent of the problem, and downplaying our frustration the entire week. Read more