Princess Cruises, the leading cruise line in Alaska, has announced its biggest-ever Alaska season for 2026, with eight Princess MedallionClass™ ships sailing to the Caribbean, Panama Canal, Mexico, Hawaii, and the California Coast. The new Star Princess will increase the number of Princess Cruises ships sailing to Alaska to eight, making it the cruise line’s biggest ever season. The Sun Princess, originally slated to begin sailing on February 8, 2024, has officially begun its maiden journey, setting sail from Princess Cruises’ newest ship, Sun Princess.
The Star Princess® is the company’s newest next-generation cruise ship designed to bring guests to the world and the world to them. Tickets are now on sale for the 10-day inaugural Princess Cruises Confirmation Program through March 31. The Grand Princess will now sail two voyages from Brisbane and Sydney, while the Grand Princess will no longer sail in Australia for the 20252026 season.
Princess Cruises has pushed back the inauguration of its newest ship and canceled several sailings for next year due to a delay in ship manufacturing involving its newest ship, the Star Princess. All of the ships began sailing in the last seven years. The oldest Princess Cruises ship, Grand Princess, is 26 years old. Crown Princess is scheduled to depart on September 19 for seven-day Inside Passage voyages to Alaska.
📹 What I Wish I Knew Before I Sailed a Princess Cruise
I made a big mistake. You see, I took my first cruise more than a decade ago. And in that time, I’ve sailed most major cruise lines.
📹 5 Things we LOVED and HATED on Princess Cruises
We recently sailed on the Enchanted Princess, which is one of Princess Cruises newest ships. Princess Cruises is known as a …
My wife and I cruised for 27 wonderful days on the Ruby Princess last Dec. 2022. We had a excellent cruise. We had assigned seating at 5:20 in one of the main dining rooms with little to no wait at all to be seated. I also prefer no shorts, T-shirts, or hats in the main dining room at dinner time. Ordering food, or drink using the app was a big plus for us never having to wait more than 30 minutes if that.
We’re about to do our 8th Princess Cruise over the last 12 years (and 1st to the Mediterranean) on the Enchanted Princess. I know people look down on the buffet but we actually enjoy it…the food is good with lots of choices, we can get what we want without waiting, sit by a window and finish in 30 minutes instead of a normal 90 minute MDR meal. As a couple willing to sit with other people in the MDR, we’ve never had to wait more than a few minutes to be seated. Just be aware you’re going to be there for a while! Haven’t had any problems getting drinks quickly through the app while on the Lido deck and other public areas but never tried it from our cabin. There are large interactive screens everywhere, showing the activities for each day if you don’t want to use the app. We’ve always enjoyed our Princess cruises. There might be occasional hiccups but we’ve found the service and value to be excellent overall.
I love the dress code! There was little more disappointing on my last Carnival cruise when my family was nearly the only group dressed nicely on the FORMAL night. When my wife and I spent our 10th anniversary on a Princess cruise, we were elated to find a much more sophisticated atmosphere. When you want something to be nice and romantic, nothing is worse than your neighbors being those obnoxious drunk college kids in shorts and tank tops. And we’re not old. We just like nice things.
My wife and I were on the Grand Princess in Dec. We booked the same MDR for the same time everyday with the medallion app and on our first MDR dinner as we entered we asked the mader’d if we could have the same table with the same wait staff every night and we got it and every MDR dinner we just walk up to the front and in to our same table
We just finished our Diamond Princess cruise and loved every minute of it. Service was excellent and prompt. Love the Medallion app and it saved us so much walking. Found it unbelievably convenient; having drinks and food delivered to us wherever we are was so wonderful. We are booked again for a lengthier cruise and so looking forward to it.
My wife and I cruised aboard the Majestic Princess pre-Christmas out of our home port of Sydney Australia. We found the Medallion Class app fine and the delivery times for ‘fing me’ ordering were reasonable (ranging from 5 mins to 30 max). We avoided the MDR on the basis of the need to book and the queues and simply rotated between Alfredo’s (walk up) specialty dining (choice of 4 including the seriously good Harmony Chinese) and the Horizon buffet a couple of nights. One of the highlights aboard the Majestic Princess that we liked was the (no cover charge) forward Hollywood Conservatory with a fully glassed-in retreat featuring a bar, pool & hot tubs and a quiet front-of-ship quiet area for reading and relaxing. Can’t fault the cruise and as this was a recy for an Alaskan cruise aboard the Majestic out of Vancouver later this year, we will be returning. I enjoyed your article and now subscribe to the website. Good stuff 🦘👍🏻
The dress code sounds fantastic to me 🙂 I love cruises were you get the chance to dress up and i love going all out for formal nights 🙂 there’s nowhere here we’re we live in land that we can dress up to the 9s, so love a cruiseline that is a bit more fancy 🙂 i would love that about Princess ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I cruised with Princess twice last year, and my experience with room service was very positive and timely. I also had very short wait times for the dining room (without reservations). In keeping my luggage to a minimum, I opted out of the formal nights, but on the casual nights, it was not overly dressy. I wore crop pants and a nice blouse. I think I even wore capris with a nicer blouse a couple of times. (I did ask ahead for my own mental health). I hope it hasn’t altered much as I will be again next month.
I personally love the dress code yes dressing up now and then is a good thing 1 or 2 nights depending on how long the cruise is Shorts bikini bathing suits during the day but when the sun is starting to set out this pants on and a collared shirt Easy summer dress or pant and a nice top If you want shorts all day go to buffet or Mexican resort
Nice article on the Enchanted Princess! We havent sailed on that ship yet, but have sailed on the Regal Princess and Sky Princess and really liked both. Your criticism of the app is spot on – there are things we liked about it, but it definitely needs more work. We didn’t eat in the MDR on either ship because we just wanted the flexibility to eat any time, so aside from the specialty restaurants we ate in the buffet. Which was very good on both ships. I usually bring a sports coat for formal nights and always have a nice pair of slacks or two in addition to shorts, so dress code is not an issue for us. Overall we like Princess a lot – it fits our personalities well. You can be casual or not as you wish. The pizza on the pool deck is amazing.
I think your issue with the delivery time for drinks was 1) you ordered at a very busy time for the staff, 2) the cruise lines are still understaffed and training their new hires. I agree with you the system has some bugs that need worked out, especial the daily activities. Thank goodness they will still give you a paper copy of the Patter. We’ve always made a same time reservation in the dining room ahead of sailing, and haven’t had any delay issues to get into the MDR. As for the dress code in the MDR, thank you Princess. It’s well published on there website of the codes existence. If cruisers would just educate themselves to the cruise company’s procedures, we could all be on the same page, and enjoy cruising more!
We’re loyal Princess cruisers and agree with your lists. For the daily schedule I prefer the web app (whatever it’s called, ocean concierge?) but use the app to order food and locate my travel mates. On the negative I like to point out that the new ships, beautiful as they are, have lost the Wheelhouse, Explorers, Skywalkers, Crooners (on some) and the outdoor walkaround deck. We’re dancers and walkers and prefer the older ships…worried about what’s in the Sun.
Last Christmas, we sailed from Sydney to New Zealand on Majestic Princess. It was our first time on Princess and we absolute enjoyed it. I have only previously sailed on RCL so i can only compare to that. You are spot on regarding the daily schedule. It was a real pain, thankfully i requested for Princess Patter, we bring it along everywhere we went on the ship! RCL app was better in that aspect where they used list instead of a gantt chart. Other than that, the medallion was really awesome. Food delivery was free and the app brought it to another level being able to enjoy it everywhere. The texting as well. On RCL there was a $5 charge to do texting. I unfortunately had covid and was isolated for a few days during my trip but Princess did a great job in keeping me happy. I was supposed receive credits for the nights isolated but it has not been credited yet.
I have been on Norwegian and Carnival. I did not have a good experience on either one. While on Carnival, I had asked for a special needs room because I was with someone that needed it. They gave us a room at the top of the stairs from the Casino. I asked for a change because I have Asthma, and as most of you know, Smoke smells really are not good for this condition. They were really go about moving us to a smaller room that was right next to the vent that also comes from the Casino. They had to keep coming and doing an Oxygen cleaning on our room as this was the only room we could get other than the first room. In the end they compensated us a little for the on board spending, but not sure I want to cruise with them again if they do not have rooms that are a bit more accommodating for the medical as well as special need requirements. Also went on Norwegian. This one was extra horrible. I went to the Spa the third day that we sailed and got a lump under my right arm. Thought nothing of it at the time but by the third day I was not feeling well and had started to get a fever. I also got this lump under my arm.. By the 5th day I was so sick and running a high fever. All I wanted was to stay in the room and sleep. I ended up with MRSA and had to spend three days in the Hospital when I got back. I have sent three emails to Norwegian and they have not even acknowledged my emails. I do not think I will take another cruise with them unless they gave me something nice to compensate the trouble I had to go through.
We’re generally Princess fans, since it was out first long cruise in the Med. But i would share your sentiments on nearly all the positive and negative sides.We were on Discovery for the Love Boat Cruise last Fall and the app, the on-line ordering and prizes we all agree with. Disappointing when you compare to how great the staff handles customer service which is also awesome on Princess. For those that want to circumvent the dining lines and add some more services, if you are comparing a Deluxe Balcony to a CLub Class Mini, it may not be that much different when you consider the perks that come with it like it’s own room in main dining with nearly zero wait.
Thank you for this awesome article with great tips. I’ll be sailing Ruby Princess in January so your tips are very helpful, especially the chat feature in the app. I find both the app and the website to be very frustrating and not user friendly at all. I tried to order bottled water to be delivered to my stateroom and every time I hit BEVERAGES, the hour glass would go on forever and then time me out. This happened even when I used a different browser. Also Princess guest services have very limited hours and I called many times and was told to call back the next day. I’m concerned about the dress code for formal nights. As I suffer from foot pain I’m unable to wear fancy shoes. Can I just order room service in those nights or go to the buffet?
Wow… we had the same table every night, and we never had to wait. It might have been that we had a larger party, but we never had a problem. We have always loved cruising on Princess. So sad you had such a wait. We loved the ordering on the app…it wasn’t the best for sure- but we did love the menu on it and were able to find things. The chat didn’t work at all – we did better with messenger. They didn’t have the Princess prizes when we cruised in the spring. We love formal nights! and we liked to be able to find people. 🙂
I am sorry that you had to wait so long to be seated for dinner. I also recently was on a Princess ship and did not experience long wait times to enter the dinning room. Usually we could just walk right in and they’d seat us. Also the food delivery service was pretty fast on the days we ordered it so maybe your waiters and delivery staff were just super busy.
Just got off the Royal Princess and that food delivery was slow! It took about an hour each time we ordered and was missing items. the food quality was lacking as well. we didn’t have to wait for dining but we made sure to have a reservation each night beforehand. I didn’t know there was a dress code in the MDR. It was cold outside so no one had on shorts or flip flops though. I thought the entertainment was lacking but that could be because it was 45 -60 degrees outside and no one went to the pool or top decks and everyone was stuck inside. Spa was lovely and loved using their facilities.
My experiences. I usually arrived for dinner around 15 minutes before the dinning room, not a long line as I arrived early & was inside in around 5-10 minutes. Drinks or food were sometimes slow using the Medallion App but never as long as you described. During the World Cup I ordered 2 sandwiches + drinks for myself & a friend & they arrived in around 30 minutes. I would be curious if you go on another Princes cruise to see if your experiences were any different & post what you experienced/felt. Were you aware that the formal night dress code is not enforced so it was not a requirement to dress up to eat in the main dinning room for dinner? Wonder why that was a complaint? I’ve over 35+ cruises so it’s my #1. Partly because I get a generous OBC as being a veteran & owning stock in Carnival Corporation. As much as $500 extra OBC on a 14+ day cruise.
We have cruised on Princess several times including the Enchanted Princess. We thought their entertainment was top notch, and we didn’t experience issues getting into the Main Dining room. However, their Future Cruise desk only had one part time employee with random hours. We aren’t happy with the new Princess Plus package. It now bundles multiple things that we would never want, so we may be switching cruise lines.
Going in March, first time on Princess. I tell you trying to use the Medallion app is a nightmare. Nothing works! Making me regret booking with them even before the cruise. The app is useless, can’t download our docs cuz it just gives me error msgs. I talked to 3 different reps, also chatted online 3x, still no resolution. Even them doesn’t know how to work their app. So frustrating! We never had an issue with the RCL app when we sailed with them last year. We may have to do everything at the port on sail day.
Princess Elite level cruisers Just off Carib Princess, ate in MDR abt 6:00 pm many nights and never waited more than 30 seconds to be seated. I don’t bring a tux and only wear a tie on formal nights, but always wear long pants and a collared shirt in the MDR I don’t consider that “dressed up”……….we don’t cruise for the “apps” or the special gimmic “prizes” but that’s just us…… your requirements may be different but they seem silly………IMO anyway
My only complaint is the app, and I say this as a software engineer. It’s buggy, and it crashes at the drop of a hat. Even trying to set up my account, I ran into many, many scenarios in which tapping a link or a ‘forward’ or ‘back’ arrow would close/crash the whole thing. Other than that, Princess is great!
Where did you sail from/to? I want to take an Alaska trip in June on Crown Princess. Do you know if the Swimming Pools are heated. I cannot seem to get an answer from the phone# provided, one agent guessed “they must be heated” another ” No Princess pools are heated”. Thanks for your informative VDO
That’s interesting about Princess Prizes! How many days was your cruise and how many times do you think you entered your room to win the $150? Were you able to use it pretty much anytime during sea days, or did the casino ever close? I’m going on a princess cruise 2/20 and considering getting it (either upgrading to premium or just buying the package) but it’s so difficult finding info about it online, and even the official Princess rules aren’t very clear. I vote yes on a article!
I was on Enchanted for 20 days in Nov/Dec 2022 and I had the exact same likes and dislikes as you. Spot on! I have two stories to share regarding getting lattes delivered to me…… 1) Every morning I would order a vanilla latte in a to go cup and an OJ to be delivered to our cabin. 45 to 50 minutes later it would arrive every morning. One morning I waited 1 hour and 20 minutes for the latte. When I picked it up, it felt only have full but I waited so long for it that I couldn’t wait to take my first sip…..I almost choked on it……it was warm milk with vanilla syrup. THEY FORGOT TO ADD THE COFFEE!!!! I waited 1 hour 20 minutes and they forgot to add the coffee. To this day, I still can’t believe it. 2) I ordered an iced vanilla latte one afternoon while sitting in the casino to be delivered to me in the casino. 2 hours later, I was still sitting at the same table in the casino and still no iced latte….I gave up all hope. We continued on with they rest of our day and evening. 5 or 6 hours later, we finally made it back to our cabin and there was a HOT latte just sitting on the desk. Well by this time it was cold but I hadn’t been in my cabin for probably 9 or 10 hours. Instead of delivering to my location, they just brought it to my cabin and the order was wrong, it wasn’t an iced latte. Oh well. It’s just a shame they don’t have this delivery process down a little better.
We like Princess we’ve been with them for years when we started the food was great but now it’s not so good at all to the point you could loose weight on the cruse their quality has really gone down and also the selection. Where this is very evident is in the buffet which we like to go periodically. I come back to the table with about as much food as a five year old. The last cruse we were on they had one dish one day I enjoyed out of seven days. We are at the point of trying a new line. It’s something I don’t look forward to getting on the cruise.
February 11th concluded our week cruise on Sky Princess, a Sister ship, I agree with your positives and most negatives. We had flexible dining each night at 5:40pm and never waited. The bread served with all meals is hard as a cannon ball. The mattress in our cabin was so crushed, for a ship this new, it had a deep indent in the belt line area that made it so uncomfortable. Yes, the app for ordering food or drink is useless…orders never arrive. Wake up Princess!!!!
We just came back from St Thomas on Sky Princes. Cons: 1. Medallion – it was absolutely ridiculous to expect senior citizen to install stupid Apps and try to rd small text in a phone. It was a long wait for customer service to help me. I had no use for the medallion. Just give me a room card. I would have cancelled the whole trip except I paid in full. 2. Safety article – Most of the TV were not working to watch the article tat was require for all passengers. Most passengers were scrambling from cabin to he theater trying to find what was going on. In genera, almost all communication were poor. 3. There was no dress code. People wore whatever TF they wanted 24/7 liked they all came from the pool. .- T-shirt, shorts, flip flop. Formal nights meant nothing for over 50% of passengers. 4. Market Fresh buffet 24/7, our go to places for breakfast, lunch, dinner. It was not always crowded. However, the foods were not the best. They had lots of boring Indian, Middle East, European foods which were not suited for most Americans. No one wanted over cooked, dry, tough roast beef. I was shocked to see they served roast chicken pieces. They did had a variety of seafoods; fish, shrimp, scallop, oysters, calamari. I added the worst bacon in Sky Princess. They o American style bar-b-q. I missed meat loaf, fried chicken. They served almost no Chinese foods (fried rice, chow mein, dim sum, bar=b-q spare ribs). Grade C+ 5. 3 Main restaurants – I had reservation at 5:30 so never had to wait. However, the foods were not special and portions were small.
Long pants is not all a man requires for formalwear. He requires a tuxedo. That’s the only formalwear for men. A suit is business wear. A shirt and tie is… For a garden party? A wedding? Open collar: Friday at work. It got me on my last Princess cruise that more women dressed up; ie gown or cocktail dress, whereas most men seemed to think that if they had to button up the front of their shirt and tuck it in, they were all “formalized”. I saw a woman in a full, sparkling gown on the arm of a guy who just put a blazer on over a button-front shirt. There’s an inherent sexism in it: Women: spend a couple of hours getting ready. Men: take ten. C’mon. I wore tuxedo both “formal” nights (or “gala” or “dress to impress” or whatever they call it now); white dinner jacket the first night, black velvet jacket the second. Blazer over button-front shirt every other night. And there’s nothing uncomfortable about it. “It’s uncwomfowtable!!” is just a BS excuse for laziness. Cost isn’t a justification, either: my one pair of black pants I’ve owned for years, ditto the french-cuff white shirt (the only one I own), the black satin bow tie and cummberbund I bought years earlier for $15 at a costume store (nobody’d know if I didn’t say!), and the black jacket I’d bougt on sale at Winners (the Canadian version of Nordstrom Rack or Saks off 5th). The only thing I paid for ahead of the cruise was the white jacket, which I ordered off Etsy (tailor made to my dimensions) for CA$80. Besides, a guy gets to wear shorts and flip-flops all day, every day.
Thank you for your review. We’re on the Enchanted Princess right now and we agree with your pros and cons. The long wait time for dinner in the main dining rooms is ridiculous. The first night our whole dinner at the Santorini dining room took 2.5 hours. We waited 50 minutes and when we got seated we had to wait 30 minutes for our drinks. They may be understaffed and cannot turn tables fast enough. We’ve cruised with Holland America on the Koeningsdam before and the food was noticeably better than Princess as you mentioned. We would also add that their shore excursions were very lame and nothing special. This was our first cruise on Princess and it was good but certainly not great. We will choose Princess again if they have an itinerary we like but not because of the Princess brand.
Just MY opinion regarding the dress policy.. I realize there are those that don’t want to dress up, but that’s what the Horizon Court, Slice, and the Grill are for. Want casual?? then go there to eat dinner. We cruise because it’s special, and we enjoy dressing nice. On formal nights, I don’t wear a tux or tie, but I do wear a fine dress shirt. (usually Robert Graham) and slacks and sport coat. If you start allowing shorts in the Main Dining room for dinner, then what’s next?? T-shirts and baseball caps? Don’t think it won’t happen. A few years back, some guy tried to enter the dining room with shorts and a wife beater tank top… NO KIDDING!!! Thank God the staff turned him away. But it shows the mentality of some PAX…. and once you allow it, it will be downhill from there. As I said… JMO
I sailed on the Ruby Princess last week. The food was OK but nothing special. The stage shows where bad – on the 2 nights we had them. The Comedian was barely acceptable – on the only 2 shows he had. The Specialty dinning in the steakhouse was actually good – but not memorable. The balcony room had NO couch. The bar and piazza entertainment was vary good. Nearly ALL drinks can be had on the bottom drink package and the specialty deserts were hard to find and not that premium. Things close early like the pool and bars. Bottom line, stay with Carnival and only go on a Princess cruise if it is going somewhere you want to go, not for the entertainment on the ship since it pretty much lacks good stage shows and comedians. On Carnival ships we have better shows, better comedians, more shows and acts nightly, same quality food (even better on steak/lobster night in main dinning room), etc. And a disclaimer here, I own Carnival stock and I am disappointed with Princess because it is part of Carnival Cruise Lines and does not bring in a good value for my investment.
I have cruised Princess several times over the years and I would not consider it a luxury cruise line on the same level as Crystal, Regent Seven Seas, and Silver Seas. Its right there with Celebrity, Holland America, Royal Caribbean and NCL. My personal preference ranks Celebrity tops with Royal next and Holland third. As a long time cruiser I don’t care for the driection that all of the cruise lines are going in by downplaying formal night and letting people dress more casual. But there are a lot of things that havae changed over the years that I don’t agree with.
We just returned from a Princess Cruise and to stay the food was awful is an understatement. Every meal was bland and cold. Many breakfast items were precooked. Cheesecakes were tasteless!!! The selection of dessert in the buffet was pitiful! On several occasions they even blocked off the coffee machines and just had waiter service! I also wish these chefs were taught how to make gravy, because it tasted like dish water!