Princess Cruises, Diamond Princess Review

Overall Rating

Our cabin steward was wonderful.

Cheaply made ship. Buffet food was not good. Virus ran rampant on the ship. Ship decided to abandon two ports. Treated people unfairly. DO NOT RECOMMEND

We were extremely disappointed and frustrated with the May 22-29 Alaskan Cruise we took on the Diamond Princess.
We were robbed of the two major ports, the reason we took this cruise.
We were forced to spend an entire day sitting and waiting in Seattle's community center while they figured out what to do with us because the ship was damaged and we could not board.
We were forced to spend four full days trapped on the ship instead of only two because the ship did not travel at normal speed.
We did not take the scenic inside passage route shown on the Princess website maps, so we did not see the scenery that we should have.
We were NOT given equal opportunity as hundreds of other people on board to reschedule the cruise at another time when the ship was fixed.
The food and shows were not of the quality that we expected or experienced on a former cruise. Buffet was horrible.
We were not able to do any whale watching tours, as all were cancelled due to Juneau and Victoria port cancellations.
We were not able to visit my uncle in Juneau, as that port was cancelled.
What follows is a detailed summary of the trip:

We had long anticipated and saved for a trip to Alaska. It was my dream vacation. I had heard about the incredible scenery. I wanted to see whales, glaciers, and to visit my aunt and uncle in Juneau. A cruise seemed to be the ideal way to see Alaska. I booked a cruise with CruisesOnly on the Diamond Princess for May 23 - 29, with itinerary as follows:

Inside Passage - Roundtrip Seattle - 7 Days
7-day Inside Passage Cruise sailing roundtrip from Seattle via the Inside Passage to Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Victoria and glacier-viewing in Tracy Arm.

As you may know, the Diamond Princess sustained damage the day before we were to sail. Instead of boarding at noon, we were herded onto a bus and taken to the Seattle Center. Our bus driver drove fifteen miles in the wrong direction before figuring out where she was supposed to be going, so instead of being the second bus to the center, we were closer to the twelfth (we received numbered cards and were #8 - each number seemed to fill 1.5 busses). We sat at the center for the next six hours waiting to be taken back to the ship. None of the staff seemed to know what was going on. We were just told to wait.

We finally boarded a bus and got back to the ship about 7:00 pm. Because of the delay the normal dining wasn't an option, so our only option was to eat at the buffet. After we had boarded and settled in, we were informed that we would not be stopping at the Juneau and Victoria ports. This meant that we wouldn't get to see my uncle, who had taken off work and planned to spend the day with us, and we wouldn't be able to see the glacier in Juneau. It also meant that whale watching was out of the question, as Juneau and Victoria were the only ports with these tour options. The whole reason we'd taken the trip had just fallen apart. I was so upset that I was in tears, but I felt trapped and exhausted. Once our luggage arrived, we headed for bed. I was extremely disappointed and frustrated to learn that after we had gone to bed, a couple of hundred passengers were allowed to leave the ship with a FULL REFUND and paid airfare and hotel. This option should have been given to all of the passengers. I would have rescheduled the trip. All customers should have equal rights to options and every one should have been informed of the options and not discriminated against. I guess I learned that the obnoxious angry passengers are the ones that will get what they want in this type of situation.

Except for the trip into Tracy Arm, we were at sea nowhere near shore. There was nothing to look at. During the trip, my husband logged latitude and longitude points on his laptop's MapPoint program as we traveled. The route that we took involved much more open sea than is shown on the Princess website map and the log of the cruise map.

Princess gave us a person to contact after we left ship to discuss concerns. We wrote to them and were basically told to "take a hike".