Vacations are meant to be relaxing and joyful - full of fun and adventure! This Hawaiian cruise on Golden Princess was all but that. I am sure that most of my fellow passengers had an ideal vacation on this cruise. Indeed, I hope so. That was our intention as well. But I would also like to think that what happened to a small group of us on this voyage was an exceptionally rare occurrence. Less than half way through the two week adventure, my traveling partner and I stepped onto an elevator that took us for a ride that makes Disney's Tower of Terror seem quite tame!As we stepped inside the elevator, we joined a number of other passengers on level four. The car stopped on level five to let off two riders. Once the doors closed, the agonizing thrill ride began! Suddenly, without warning, the elevator roughly shot up to level fourteen like a bullet, then almost instantly dropped back down, like a car wreck, to level seven! Here, the car paused for a moment then shot up to level nine before quickly and painfully dropping to level seven again.The mostly elderly females who occupied the car with us, tried to remain calm - as we all did, in fear of yet another sudden drop, while hanging on tightly to the hand rail. The car lingered here for a moment, so we began to push various buttons (such as "door open"), none worked. The emergency phone was located very near the floor. My partner and another rider attempted to use the phone. It was nonfunctional, as was the alarm. Nothing worked, not even air conditioning, if there was any.While my partner was bent down on the floor with the emergency phone, the car suddenly dropped yet again. I knew he was hurt. I worried about the elderly ladies as well. At the time, I felt shaken but unbroken. The car remained still now, after this final rough plunge. Time seemed to stand still. The minutes we were stranded seemed like hours. Finally, we began to knock on the doors and yell for assistance.When the doors finally opened, some of the crew was there. An elevator technician seemed to rush us on. He told us to proceed quickly to our rooms "quietly." In the days since this incident, I have had neck and shoulder pain constantly, which I did not have prior. I was told on-board, that unless I had a physical emergency, requesting a medical exam would waste the doctor's time! My partner did see the medical staff, where we were both treated horrendously at first. His back was still spasmodic at the time.I protested having to pay for the exam, as Princess was clearly at fault due to the malfunction of their ship's elevator. Protesting was to no avail, as we weren't allowed to "win" the argument. As well as the medical report, we had to fill-out accident reports, had numerous interviews and interrogations with a variety of staff, passenger services and even security personnel. All the while missing out on the enjoyment we had planned and paid for.It was five days after the accident before anyone even bothered to apologize to us for what happened. Princess did not attempt to show ownership nor responsibility for their elevator incident. Our subsequent treatment immediately following the incident and for days after was unacceptable and inappropriate. We personally had to track down the fellow passengers who were involved. With 3000 passengers this was not an easy task, but passenger services informed us that they were not at liberty to give any information they had.Two of the elderly ladies, said that they stayed in their rooms for most of the remainder of the trip due to the fact that they were afraid of the elevators and felt too frail to walk up and down all of those stairways, especially with rough seas. Another, said that she stayed a bit intoxicated to escape the pain and memories of the incident! Some vacation!To shorten the remainder of this review, Princess has yet to do anything for us. We have made many calls and have had to submit additional reports to so many different individuals. None of whom seem to know what any of the others are doing! Our vacation was ruined and we returned home injured, disappointed and sad. We missed out on enjoying our dream cruise. I simply ask Princess, if only they would put themselves in our shoes, does this seem fair? Should we have been treated like this at all? It's not like some fake 'slip and fall' that we all hear tale of. This was real. Frightening. And beyond our control. When even an apology from Princess was too much to ask for, what seems fair?Shouldn't we expect Princess to step-up and take ownership of what happened in an elevator they maintain? Shouldn't we expect Princess staff to acknowledge what happened to us with sympathy and concern rather than sarcasm and rage? They were there. They knew what happened. Princess eventually took the on-board medical charges off the bill, but what about the repercussions of this incident? What about our losses and loss of enjoyment? What about the excursions that we paid for early on, for each island, for which my partner was so heavily medicated by the ship's doctor, that he doesn't remember any of it? It was necessary, yes, but again, this was not supposed to happen. At this point, I am unsure what will happen, but it doesn't look good. I sailed on Golden Princess in the past, without incident. Does this indicate how Princess normally deals with the unexpected? Who will step-up and be the professional? Where was the compassion, the concern, the simple kind word that could have made such a difference? It wasn't on this cruise. The head of customer services on this cruise did show some sympathy and gave an apology on behalf of Princess near the very end of the cruise. But so many others had been viciously rude and indifferent - at the least. The "future cruise" director even told me to "...take it up with the guy who invented elevators...," as he rolled his eyes and gave a ridiculously smile. He was but one of so many who passed it off for days.On a good note, my fellow passengers were awesome, particularly those members of cruise critic. I am in no means trying to ruin the cruise for anyone. I smiled, laughed and joked right along with them. I tried to make the most of every minute, knowing this might have been my only chance. I sincerely hope others did enjoy the cruise as much as we had hoped to. I have not been spooked from using elevators nor from cruising. I just think this was a case where no one from Princess (on the ship) wanted to accept responsibility, and were additionally afraid to show any concern, because it may have appeared to acknowledge accountability for the situation, perhaps? I am left with a million questions and feel as if we were cheated out of our vacation and harmed in the process. I am hopeful that Princess will do what is right and fair. I must not let them sweep this under the rug. Happy cruising to all! I'm NOT bitter! LOL!This was my 11th cruise, and if all goes well, there will be more and the reviews will be awesome! Let us hope that things like this do not happen often and if they do, it will be taken care of responsibly and with due diligence.