Priceline Review

Thursday, January 23rd

2025 Cruise Vacation Site Reviews

Priceline

• Deals available you won't find when booking direct (save thousands on luxury cruises)
• Provides up to $1,000 in onboard credits and various bonuses like stateroom upgrades
• 110% Best Price Guarantee if lower price found within 2 days
• Onboard credit available for cruises starting at $750 (lower threshold than competitors)
• User-friendly website with comprehensive search filters
• Live chat support with real customer service representatives
• Cancellation fee can be waived with rebooking

Priceline offers online travel agent services for booking hotels, rental cars, flights, experiences, and cruises. They've been operating since 1997 and are a subsidiary of Booking Holdings. At the time of our visit, they listed nearly 11,000 sailings.

Website is user-friendly

Priceline is pretty simple to navigate to find cruises. Although they handle a variety of travel reservations, they have all the functionalities you'd expect to find from a booking site that specializes in cruises, like filtering for specific ships, departure ports, and more. If you get stuck at any point in the process, there's a live chat option that will always connect you to a real person.

Priceline offers sailings that are unavailable by booking direct

We visited Priceline's "Balcony cruise deals” category and found a 12-night luxury cruise of the Panama Canal aboard Holland America's Rotterdam. Priceline listed a balcony room at $1,199 (or $100/night) per person for 2 adults. When we went to compare the price to book directly through Holland America, those sailing dates were not even available. The same itinerary with dates a few weeks later was a few thousand dollars more expensive. So, if you're wondering if you can find good deals through Priceline, the answer is "absolutely.”

Bonuses and onboard credits available

At a glance, most sailings via Priceline are listed with potential bonuses including up to $1,000 in onboard credits, stateroom upgrades, 60% off a second guest, kids sail free, and so on. (It would be nice if you could filter results for those available with specific deals, but it's not a dealbreaker.) The more you spend on your cruise, the more you get back in onboard spending for at-sea luxuries, like spa treatments, alcoholic beverages, and specialty dinners. Most cruise booking sites only start offering these credits on cruises over $1,000, but Priceline starts at $750.

Get refunded 110% of price difference from competitors

Priceline, like several cruise booking sites in this review, offers a 110% Best Price Guarantee: if you find the same cruise for a lower price within 2 days of booking, they'll refund you 100% of the difference plus 10% to sweeten the deal. However, if they lower their own price after you book, they won't necessarily refund you anything, as one chagrined customer found out the hard way.

Fees for booking and canceling

Priceline charges a $24.99 non-refundable booking fee. If you need to cancel your cruise, you'll be on the hook for a cancellation fee of $100. This can be waived if you book another cruise that sets sail within 1 year of your cancellation, but you have to complete your cancellation and new booking over the phone. You'll need to read the cancellation policy of your chosen cruise line to find out how much you'll be refunded and if there are any other applicable fees. (We recommend doing this before you book your cruise - no one likes that kind of surprise.)

Customer reviews can be misleading

Priceline has earned an "A-” from the BBB and an "average” 2.8-star rating on Trustpilot, but the actual rating with the latter is probably lower: we encountered quite a few 5-star reviews that were about the hotels customers stayed at, not about how Priceline performed their services. (Also, Priceline has paid for falsely positive PR in the past - they were confirmed clients of a company that used sock puppet accounts to edit Wikipedia articles to make businesses look better than they deserved.)

Past customers don't trust Priceline

There weren't very many reviews on Trustpilot from customers who had booked cruises through Priceline, but those we did find were negative. One customer was unhappy about having spent $3k on a cruise and only receiving $50 in onboard credits. Another customer booked their vacation package direct, but the cruise line or other agency used Priceline as a third party to book their hotels before their cruise. Priceline booked the hotels for the wrong date (by a lot), and instead of making it right by eating the cost, they kept the customer's money - even after the customer spent four hours on the phone with Priceline. That's the kind of mistake you'd fire your travel agent for.

Can't recommend highly

Priceline is a mixed bag when it comes to cruise bookings. Their website is easy to use and they offer deals you may not find elsewhere, and you can earn onboard credits with less spending than other booking sites require. However, these benefits are overshadowed by booking fees, strict cancellation policies, and numerous customer complaints about poor service. When compared to dedicated cruise booking sites, Priceline falls short in specialized features, reliable customer support, and trustworthiness.