here is a copy of the letter we sent to princess... just read it and see how they treat passingers, you wont believe the horrible trip we had...I hope this gets out to a lot of people and the word gets out there, because the company doesn't seem to care ... Dear Mr. Buckelew, Oct.25, 2009

My name is Randolph Lowery and my partners name is Gerardo DiTraglia. The purpose of this letter is to enlighten you as to the incompetents of your officers and crew onboard the Emerald Princess transatlantic voyage Sept.23, 2009 through Oct.11, 2009. As businessmen and frequent cruisers we can assure you that we know what to expect and what not to expect from the crew of a cruise ship!

This was, without a doubt, the worst experience we have ever had on a cruise. The ship its self was beautiful, however; the crew made it a terrible experience. Your cruise director, Lisa Ball, was very condescending making it clear she felt superior toward the passengers, forgetting that they make her job and salary possible. We were appalled.

On our first day aboard Emerald Princess, we toured the ship while waiting for our luggage to reach our stateroom, when our luggage arrived we unpacked, then we decided to go to the sauna and relax, as a gentleman was doing when we toured, however; when we arrived a girl at the desk told us it was not available to us, because all hands were delivering luggage and they were short staffed, She said it is never open until the second day of the cruise. I asked her about the gentleman using it when we toured earlyer, she kept insisting that no one was in there and it was closed.

Here are a few other reasons we were unhappy and had such a horrible experience with Emerald Princess

OVER CHARGED ; Next we tried to purchasing cigarettes from the store. What a fiasco, the computer was down, the clerk hand wrote our receipt, two days later a printout of our bill showed we were charged $1, 372.93 for the two cartons of cigarettes, their receipt was gone, lost, no longer attached to the other paperwork. When asked about it, we were told it was an error. We can understand someone making an error, but when you work in the store that sells cigarettes, you should know they don't cost $686.46 per carton! Why not fix it then and there, rather then have the passenger have to find out about such a careless mistake. We were assured that there was only a hold on the money, A call to our bank confirmed they had most definately debited $ 1'372.93 from our account to your cruise line! This took days to correct, and many costly phone calls and frayed nerves.

MUSIC; There was classical music playing thru out the ship, we can understand in the piazza, resturants and cafe's. Out by the pools on the deck was the same broing music, people were bored unmotivated, We asked the crew working on the deck about it, they said Lisa had changed it on the first leg of the cruise when some old guy had complained about the music. We were told by your staff (it's really killing us go make a complaint)And we could tell it really was effecting the moral of the crew on the pool decks, they were very unmotivated, there for not motivating us, not selling us. There for us not partying, having a good time and buying drinks. Isn't it all about making the sale ? So we went to the pursers desk they referred us to Lisa Ball, We asked if there was anyway for some variety in the music, she said she couldn't just change the music like that, it had to be uploaded and would take 5 days, and then says she caters to her larger demographics on the ship. (Well we all paid for a vacation)!


BUFFET; One evening they had appetizers of mozzarella balls garnished with cherrie tomatoes, then on top of the mozzarella balls anchovie paste and an anchovie. Gerardo asked if he could please have some mozzarella balls without the anchovies, they gave him some, we went to our table began to eat, Gerardo spits out the mozzarella balls they were spoiled ! we go to the chef to tell him, he says there fine I'm Italian I know, Gerardo says I don't care what you are I'm Italian too and I'm telling you they are spoied. The chef smells them says there fine, Gerardo insisted that he eat one, he did and you should of seen the look on his face trying to swallow it, as if it were fresh. Then he has the nerve to say (well things go bad on a 17 day cruise) Well we go and try to finish dinner after that, when done we passed thru the other dinning room both the chefs were sitting there and said, hey guys were sorry about that, but we weren't on that line in the kitchen. Well if you are the head chef aren't you over all the lines in the kitchen? Then he has the nerve to say in Italian to Gerardo ( Comunque sia, gli americani mangiano tutto!!!) which when translated means;( by the way you Americans will eat anything!) We were appalled. Later that same evening, being that we didn't really eat dinner, thought we would go get some cookies and tea, when we looked at the buffet they hadn't removed the spoiled mozzarella balls, they were still there for people to eat and get sick!

ICELAND; In port we always go do our own thing, we do not like being part of any tours. We were told by friends we had to go to the Blue lagoon. So we went to a travel agent in Iceland and got a bus and tickets to the Blue Lagoon. Later a tour buss from princess with all the elderly and some crew members shows up. Everyone was enjoying how wonderful the geothermal seawater was. We stayed out there until the last bus was leaving to take us back to town, we loved it. Well upon returning we were out buy the pool and one of your photographers comes up and says did you guys see the video ? I got you in it! Well first off we weren't on the ship, which we know on every ship we have been on they video the cruise. Also we weren't on an Emerald Princess Tour, any other line we have sailed with when videoing someplace in a port you are asked to sign a release form. We feel very violated of our rites, We do not want to be affiliated with Princess Cruise line whatsoever!
This matter is being looked into.

SAFTY DURING RUFF SEAS; We hit ruff seas, on any other cruise we have been on when we hit ruff seas you always would see an officer checking on the deck. Not so on your line.!There was the problem of constantly flooded decks and no one even trying to squeegie them off. I asked why doesn't any one squeegie the deck, never really got an answer. They just had the yellow cones out. Water was splashing two decks up out of the pool, no one seemed to care, the deck hands were just standing around with there arms crossed. Those same elderly people Ms Ball was talking about catering to were having to tred a river of water, most with canes and walkers trying to get to the buffet. Also there were pieces of wood just floating on the deck that had broken off of the wall, I watched that wood float out there for more then two hours, in all that time not one of your crew members stopped to pick it up, if one of those elderly people would of hit that it all would of been over for them .All of the people that smoked had to stay in one little corner on the deck, the water was two inches deep and actually going in the automatic doors that lead to the staterooms. I asked why didn't they drain the pool, no one seemed to know. So I asked who was in charge of the deck always getting told someone different. So again I go to the pursers desk they said it had to come to the bridge. Finally after that someone comes out and takes some pictures and then they drain the pools. Safety should of really been the priority being the ages of most of the passangers.

TINDER TO GREENLAND; We all had to get tickets and sit in the theater to wait to be called, they had only two running, it took almost two hours to get on one. While waiting there were two guys that were buddy buddy with Lisa Balls little side kick Hollywood. Well he comes up puts his arms around them wispers, then one follows him back to the white doors for staff only, then a few minutes later the other one. He snuck them out and put them on the tender, So I said to Gerardo screw this and went to see and it went rite down to the tinder. So I went up to Lisa and told her She said oh no! as if he would never do something like that, I said ok then why are there two empty chairs next to ours ? she didn't say anything . I told her I wanted to talk to someone she said I would have to go to the pursers desk and that they would just refer us to her. I told her I waned to speak to the Captian, she says in her condescending way ( I can assure you that you will never speak with the Captain) But Kuzan took us to talk with Martin Ford, he said he would follow up when we got to port, but unfortunately nothing could be done on the cruise it would have to happen at the home office on land.We told him we were going to follow up as well.

BARS CLOSED; The lounges were closed early, one evening at 12:30 the casino closed so we went up to the skywalker lounge, being it's the only bar you can smoke in. We were told upon entering they had called last call and were closed, looking over to the bar to the left where you could smoke was crew members sitting there drinking . We could understand if they had already locked the bottles, but they hadn't. We feel they should of said we have called last call we can serve you one drink but we are locking up. So again back to the pursers desk. The next day Tim the food and bev manager calls says he asked but no one in the bar could recall last night ( they all cover for eachother)

Mr Buckelew,
we feel the officers working under you are not doing there jobs, probably not to the expectation that you would want. Knowing its all about the passangers experiences. This cruise was the worst experience ever! With what Lisa said about catering to the larger demografic, we feel this cruise should of been advertised as a seniors cruise! We spoke with many people on the cruise who still had life in them and were totally bored and dissapointed with your staff, saying the same as us they would never cruise with Princess or any of your other lines.We can assure that we (WILL NEVER) cruise with any of your cruies lines ever! And there are other cruise lines out there.We also feel we were ripped off, lost 18 days, We would of rather stayed home and worked those 18 days. Just to think about the money we lost while held captive on your ship. It would of been better to of stayed home.As we said we are business owners, we are also in the service industry, we cater to a very extensive client base. Here are just a few so you can see the kind of clients we are used to catering to: Martine Rothblatt, Terence Witt, Tessy Princess of Luxembourg, Bobby Dall they can all be googled, along with attorneys, doctors, media, pilots and also captains of ships! So for us to of been treated and talked down to the way we were is unexcusable.
The reason we addressed this letter to you Mr. Buckelew is we feel you need to know whats going on underneath you. We hope this letter makes it to you, We would like to hear back from you personally in this matter ...Randolph Lowery & Gerardo DiTraglia