Pearl Sea Cruises

We chose Pearl Sea Cruises because of its Cuba only itineracy. The only plus to the trip was the wait and cleaning staff, plus the people to people experiences. Problems with the cruise: 1). Very large portion of guests became sick with a cold, hacking and coughing on long (2-9 hour bus trips). Expect cause was 2 hour cleaning time allowed by company between our arrival and the next departure. Time only to change linens and vacuum. No time to disinfect ship. 2). All gym equipment on ship was non-operational, rusted fast or electronics inoperative. 3). Lectures were 1 hour of rambling with 1-4 slides. No intelligible content. The very worst cruise line that we have ever been on by a wide margin.

Do not book with company! If you cancel they only return half of your deposit even if you cancel 5 months in advance. This is extortion. I cancelled within 36 hours of booking and they refuse to return my full deposit for a cruise that is 5 months away. They indicated that this is "their policy" and this exorbitant fee is for administration fees. I was shocked that they are charging $250 to cancel and why is the fee not fully refunded. What administration fee could cost that amount of money...this is extortion. The Pearl Seas representative in the cancellation department indicated he had no control over this and it is standard. I asked for an itemized list of what this fee is being applied to and was told that is not possible. I asked for the name of the CEO of the company and that also was not available and I could "look it up online"... terrific customer service! Do not expect to get you full refund back if you cancel. Good luck.

A terrible experience - 11 day to Cuba at great expense. Itinerary changes at last minute from 7 to 3 ports of call. The information / brochure are false. The food was disgusting and often inedible. The only cruise ship I have ever experienced the fear of not having enough to eat (and not a big eater!). Coffee drinks out of a machine. Tea service - get it yourself (the hot water and tea bag). Carpets in your room damp and wet. Serious rocking and rolling with everything going flying around you, nothing secured down. Sick bags left all around the hand railings. The one plus is that the staff were very helpful and friendly but they can only work with the tools they are given. My advice is choose another cruise company. I would not cruise with this company again even if they paid me.

Pearl Seas Cruises cancelled the first trip to Cuba just days before departure was scheduled. We were half way to Miami from New York when a fellow passenger called to say things had changed. A call on our end to Pearl Seas confirmed that the cruise w a no go. We did receive the cost for the cruise within a month or so. All expenses related to this have never been acknowledged or reimbursed by Pearl Seas. The rental car, hotels, plane tickets for our return trip were not reimbursed. The really sad part is that when you call Pearl Seas there is absolutely no customer service. We have left numerous voice mails that have never been acknowledged. Even a letter saying they do not want to reimburse us would be better than no communication. This would have been our second. Raise with Pearl Seas. Needless to say, we never use their cruise line again.

My mother has traveled with this company previously, and selected their Cuba cruise for a trip with my husband and me. We were going to meet her in Miami three days before the cruise, which was supposed to start this coming Friday. I say "supposed to" because my mother got a call early Monday morning saying it been canceled because the company has not obtained the necessary permits. (I don't know if the problem was on the cruise company's end or on Cuba's end.) My mother had also been signed up to go on a Panama Canal cruise with them last year, which also got canceled at the last minute. My mother received all of her travel documents weeks ago, but as of the beginning of last week my husband and I had not received ours. I called the cruise company and was told to speak to my travel agent about it. She tried calling Pearl as well, and said the first person she spoke to was extremely uncooperative and on helpful, so she waited a few hours and called back. She got someone else who said the documents would be overnighted to us. We were supposed to have left yesterday, which they knew full well last week, and our documents *still have not arrived.* We will not be planning to travel with them again.

We mad our reservation and then realized 2 weeks later that we could not go. The cruise was 6 months away. We gave them a $1800 deposit and they kept $850.00 for a cancellation fee. No compromise on their part. These guys are thieves and I would watch doing business with them. No mention of a cancellation fee when we made the reservation. It was in small print on our confirmation which we received AFTER they had charged our American Express.

We called about taking a fall cruise and asked what rooms were available. Only 1 room was available which was the worst room on the whole ship. They stated that if we put a deposit down on the trip that they were sure rooms would become available. They stated that if nothing became available they would refund our deposit. They lied and held over half our deposit and were very rude when when asked for the remaining balance DO NOT give them a deposit unless you have IN WRITING what you are going to get

UPDATE: I finally received the refund check today, September 5, 2017. While I will bump my rating up a notch because at least they issued it, it still seems wrong to have to work that hard, particularly when the cruise was cancelled by Pearl Seas. Ultimately, I am grateful it arrived. Original Review: 10 months after our cruise to Cuba was cancelled, and I have yet to receive the promised reimbursement for airline cancellation fees, despite many emails and phone calls. Beware of this company!!

I booked a trip to Cuba for Christmas. Nov.they canceled because they did not have permits. I took out an insurance policy if I canceled but if they cancel I am out the 720.00. Pearl Seas could have cared less !BEWARE they do this all the time.

After Pearl Seas cancelling a cruise to Cuba for lack of a permit and our inability to board and after paying for the cruise, we have yet to receive a refund. Despite calls and repeated requests from the travel agent.

Warning _ they are selling a cruise they are NOT authorized for - be prepared for a call 3 days before sail date to cancel and they they leave you with ALL your travel expenses!,, False advertising !,,