Princess Cruise Lines - Reviews and experiences

I wasn’t sure how to start this — maybe with the ports that never happened, or with the nice little things that actually worked. Anyway, we boarded thinking "relax, see a few places," and things got... bumpy. First, one of the Orkney stops changed ages before we even left, which was disappointing but okay, you roll with it. Then Edinburgh — they tried to anchor for like 45 minutes and finally gave up, saying the water was too rough. Thing is, the cruise before us missed it too, so I kept wondering if it was truly the weather or something else. That was the port I was most excited about and we lost an excursion (not even through the line) so, yeah, money down the drain. Frustrating.
La Havre was another headache — drawbridges up because of a tall ship exhibit meant buses to Paris weren’t running until much later. We missed our bus and again, another booked outing gone. It felt like the ship could’ve warned us sooner; a heads-up would’ve helped.
On the day-to-day side, the buffet was hit-and-miss. Repetitive choices, kind of bland at times, and twice I found hair in my food — gross, of course. They did send chocolate-covered strawberries to the cabin as an apology, which was thoughtful, but it didn’t exactly fix the buffet vibe. Drinks at the buffet were mostly self-serve; that’s fine if you’re okay with it, I guess.
Service overall? Not consistently friendly except for our room steward, Jose — he genuinely saved a lot of the trip. He was attentive, quick, and just nice, which mattered. Some entertainment was pretty weak (hypnotist, a few singers), but a handful of shows were actually great — the Whitney Houston tribute was a highlight, and a couple of the dance numbers were fun. I liked starting mornings with an iced coffee from the International Café and lounging on deck 7; the beds were comfy enough to sleep well after busy days.
Tone-wise I went in skeptical and left kind of glad for the good bits but annoyed about the big misses. For the price we paid, there wasn’t enough to fully justify it, sadly.

I got an email from the cruise line about a change in our Mediterranean trip on the Sun Princess cruise on May 25th. Instead of going to Kotor, Montenegro, we're going to Bar, Montenegro, a small town. There aren't any tours for this stop, and I couldn't find much to do in the town online. Princess said the change was due to water shuttle problems, but Bar doesn't seem like a great replacement port.

I wouldn't suggest booking cruise excursions because they don't account for public holidays, often cancel last minute, cost a lot more, have big groups which can feel rushed, and don't seem to care about negative reviews. You might want to try websites like Viator or GetYourGuide for cheaper prices and smaller groups. Or you could book directly with local companies like MantaSOS in Ecuador for a more authentic experience, but you might need to do some research first.