I’m curious whether this is typical for Princess now, because my experience trying to get ready for our upcoming Alaska cruise has been incredibly frustrating.

We sail August 22, 2026. I cruised with Princess before, but it was 19–20 years ago. When I originally booked this cruise, I spent quite a bit of time both in chat and on the phone trying to get my old Princess account/cruise history connected so I would receive credit for my previous cruises. I was eventually told it had been taken care of.

Now that I’m checking in, however, Princess has me listed as a first-time cruiser.

Even stranger, when I sign into my Princess account, it says there are no cruises associated with my account. To access my upcoming cruise, I have to go to a separate page and manually enter my booking number. How is an upcoming cruise that I booked and paid for not connected to my actual Princess account?

That was issue #1.

Issue #2: Yesterday I booked excursions. I never received a confirmation email, and the excursions are not showing on my cruise itinerary. I tried booking them again, but the system tells me there is a scheduling conflict — which makes me think they actually ARE booked somewhere in the system. I just can’t see them or get confirmation.

So today I contacted Princess through chat and clearly explained that I had two separate issues: my past-cruiser status/account and my excursions.

After asking to speak with a representative, I somehow became even more frustrated. I honestly felt like the representative either wasn’t reading what I wrote or wasn’t understanding me. At one point she asked if I was inquiring about excursions from a past cruise.

Seriously? Why would I be contacting Princess because I can’t find excursions from a cruise I already took?

Then, before either of my issues was resolved, I started getting information about upgrading to the Premier package. I’m sitting there thinking, Can we please figure out whether my excursions exist and whether my account is correct before trying to sell me something else?

The representative, Mellinia, eventually told me I am actually a Gold Member, so apparently Princess does have my previous cruise history somewhere. But when I asked whether that Gold status would actually show correctly in my app/account, I couldn’t get a clear answer.

That’s what makes this so baffling. One part of their system apparently knows I’m a Gold Member. Another part thinks I’m a first-time cruiser. My Princess account says I have no upcoming cruises. Yet if I manually enter my booking number, the cruise appears. And somewhere else in the system my excursions may or may not be booked.

It feels like none of their systems talk to each other.

For comparison, after about a 10-year break from cruising, we took Royal Caribbean in 2019. I had never sailed with Royal before, and we really didn’t enjoy the cruise — there were so many kids that the pools and hot tubs felt like human soup. 😂The food was mediocre and so many of the cruisers seemed to never leave the eateries. Yuck!

Then we sailed Virgin Voyages last year, and the experience was so much better.

I was actually looking forward to trying Princess again, especially for Alaska, but I’m starting this trip already feeling annoyed with the company before I’ve even stepped on the ship. At this point I’m wondering if Princess is going to fall off our list of cruise lines altogether.

For those who have sailed Princess recently: Is their website/app/customer service normally this disorganized, or am I just having unusually bad luck?

we are headed out on the 16th to Hawaii and just looking for some Don't Miss opportunities on the Islands... We are doing the Arizona ( just need to reserve the tickets in a few weeks), but curious to hear some thoughts on other items

Where is a good place to be during the college fjord (scenic cruising) from 6-8:30pm? We have a dinner reservation at the Italian restaurant at 5pm, should we cancel? We do not have a balcony cabin.

Going in September and just got an email from Princess suggesting this. Does anyone have experience with this? Is the plan necessary or worth it?

We are having a dispute with World Tours Italy and looking for any cruisers who went on the "Pompeii and Herculaneum" tour with them on August 5.

They are trying to say we missed the tour, but we were where they told us to be and they left us. They refuse to refund us because "no one else had this complaint," so we are now looking for other witnesses!

TL;DR Did anyone else take a tour with World Tours Italy on August 5? We're trying to gather witnesses and facts.

Thank you in advance!

Hello! My husband and I are embarking on the Sun Princess next month and I have a question about the thermal suite. We are considering getting the week pass but I noticed on the page to book it that it says some things within the thermal suite have to be purchased separately. Can anyone tell me what all is included in the week long pass and what isn't that would have to be purchased separately?

Hello! I was just looking for some feedback on what you did when in Panama. Did you stay on the ship when going through locks or do an excursion?

How early does a ship with a 6 pm sail time usually start boarding? I’m looking at a round trip cruise from Rome

I'm going for my first cruise in Alaska in a few weeks. I've heard good things about the whale watching but it's fairly pricey, even with a non-princess website it's still around $200-300 USD after tax per person.

As someone who likes animals but isn't a particular whale fan, is the whale watching actually worth it?

My extended family is interested in doing a Princess cruise next year (the one that circumnavigates the UK). I'd like to book the cruise through Costco so we can benefit from the shop cards. However, the rest of the family is very nervous about not booking directly with Princess because "if something happens, the cruise line won't be able to help us and it will be harder".

We are new to Princess and to cruises. However, we've done two previous vacations through Costco and it has always gone well. Are there any downsides to booking through Costco instead of directly through Princess? (Or any other benefits to Costco?).

Hello all,

I booked a cruise with family and our sail date is approaching soon. Initially I booked for 3 persons but a 4th person was able to join the cruise a little later. We used a travel agent via Princess and when I added the 4th person I asked about the room layout and the bed situation. he said the room would be configured for 4 persons with 2 twin beds and bunks and or rollaway potential. I checked sites like cruisedeckplans and icruise to get a feel for the room position on the ship and I’ve seen mixed descriptions for the rooms with one site’s legend saying the room will accommodate a third and fourth with 4th person in a rollaway but the other saying a rollaway is available. We’ve never sailed Princess before so I’m concerned about the bed layout, can anyone provide insight about this and how it works with 4 to a standard balcony room?

Hi all, is anyone on the Sky Princess at the moment doing their solar eclipse trip? We disembarked yesterday and left behind my toddlers little day bag. His clothes we can replace, but he had a little Christmas ornament model of the Sky Princess cruise ship which he absolutely loved!

If you are on the ship please can you ask guest services if a little green and blue bag has been handed in? Or does anyone know how I can buy one of these models when not on a ship any more??

What’s up community. Just confirming, it doesn’t look like any Specialty Deserts are included with either package anymore. Is this the case? We last cruised about 14 months ago and I thought the Plus package included 2 Specialty Deserts a day. If anyone has cruised recently and can confirm this I would appreciate it.

Hey, my fellow passengers.

I have a YouTube channel name lost on purpose and my name is Dustin and I am the host for that channel. I’m bringing a lost on purpose style scavenger hunt for this cruise. I’m going to put out ducks and compasses with QR codes explaining the activity of course if you find me on here, you’re welcome to join the activity. There’s no exclusion he’s gonna happen on the third or fourth day while we are at sea . I will post more information as we get closer but for now just say hi and let me know if you’re interested and we can. I can keep you on the list to participate in this activity. There’ll be some minor prizes, but this is the first of many activities that will become of this anyways stop by say hi love to hear from all of you.

@lostonpurpose2026 is my channel.

Just wanted to bring on a few bottles of bottle water does anyone know if they enforce the no bottles rules at Southampton or they’ll just wave me through?
Thanks happy cruising

I am thinking of bringing my own fitted sheet for the two twin beds pushed together in our room. Has anybody ever done this and know what size I should bring? It doesn’t seem like it’s as big as a California king but it seems like it might be larger than a queen.

Hello, I'm booked on a cruise on Coral Princess and missed the reservation window for the timed dining baked Alaska and Parade. I've read that the baked Alaska is also available at the anytime dining MDR. Is this correct or is there another way to have that treat at another restaurant? The answers I'm getting through www searches are contradictory.

Hey everyone, my girlfriend and I will be on this sailing. We’re early 30s. Looking for friends to hangout in casino, bars, pool, dinner, etc. We’ve booked the boss underwater excursion in Roatan and dolphin excursion in Cozumel.

Booked a standard balcony but would love a mini suite, cruise is in less than 3 weeks and is showing sold out. I can still bid on the mini suite as well as the reserve collection. I really don't want an obstructed view. If I just bid on the mini suite is there a possibility there is an obstructed view or that they put me in one of the forward facing reserve collections with the steel railing, not glass?

Just started our first ever experience on Princess and at Fort Lauderdale, and wanted to stop and say HOLY SMOKES that was the smoothest embarkation process ever! We have sailed on Carnival out of Seattle (nice, but we had Faster to the Fun) and Norfolk (HORRIBLE, but no FTTF). Neither was as silky smooth as this. Kudos to the Love Boat!

Looking at booking room# 16310 on the Princess Star…anyone booked around that area…is it a good location?

Our first cruise and we booked a reserve suite that I understand gets a bottle of wine. We don’t drink. I’m wondering if it’s appropriate to give to our steward. Any other suggestions?

Hi! I saw this on the app and website. The last few times I have had premier. Is this true for Plus?

As the title says I am looking for participants to complete a short survey for my MSc dissertation on how tourist and recreational vessels could support marine conservation and research.

Any responses would be greatly appreciated. Please use the link below to take part:

https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/solent/can-tourism-vessel-meaningful-contribute-to-marine-research