ComplaintCensus

CruiseKings: most-reported complaints

Automated analysis of 329 public Trustpilot reviews published 2022-09-26 to 2026-09-07. TrustScore 4.9 from 2,880 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is CruiseKings legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.

Reviewers most often report that customer support is unhelpful, accounting for 35% of the 43 identified complaints. Misleading pricing and other unspecified issues are also frequently cited, each representing 23% of the complaints. Additionally, 16% of reviewers mention that support is unreachable. The reports regarding unhelpful support, other issues, and misleading pricing show a rising trend, while complaints about unreachable support are falling.

How to reach CruiseKings

These are the contact details CruiseKings publishes on its Trustpilot profile, as of our last check on 2026-09-24 — phone 0800 197 8050, email [email protected], address 6 & 8 Forbes Drive, Ayr, KA8 9FG, GB.

43complaints identified
1%of recent reviews analysed
100%of negative reviews get a company reply, typically within 6 days

The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2022-11-11, uses Trustpilot’s paid features, and last replied to a negative review on 2026-09-15. Trustpilot ranks it 15 of 52 in Cruise Travel Agency. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-24 and found 7 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.

Forum footprint: 4 MoneySavingExpert forum discussions mention this company (browse). Roughly 0 of the top, relevance-sorted search results were posted in the last 90 days — an approximate figure by construction, not a true recency count. Recent thread titles: “E: 28/02 Win a Norwegian Fjords cruise!”, “E: 31/07 Win a 7 night Caribbean Cruise (inc. flights and 1 night Miami stay)”, “E: 07/04 Win! A two-night cruise to Dublin”.

Elsewhere: 4.6★ on Google (0 reviews)

TrustScore over time

4.9 → 4.9 across 14 census measurements since 2026-08-12. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.

Reply behaviour over time

Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-08-15 (100%, 6.3d) · 2026-08-18 (100%, 6.3d) · 2026-08-21 (100%, 6.3d) · 2026-08-24 (80%, 6.3d) · 2026-08-27 (80%, 6.3d) · 2026-08-30 (100%, 5.8d) · 2026-09-02 (100%, 5.8d) · 2026-09-08 (83%, 5.8d) · 2026-09-12 (83%, 5.8d) · 2026-09-15 (83%, 5.8d) · 2026-09-18 (100%, 6.0d) · 2026-09-21 (100%, 6.0d) · 2026-09-24 (100%, 6.0d).

Severity: 28% of this company’s 43 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.

Reviewers here waited a median of 6.2 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (44 reviews record both dates).

Measured reply time: across 39 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 3.9 days — the company profile reports an average of 6 days. The two are measured differently: ours counts only replies we captured to negative reviews.

Reply quality: of 39 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 62% engaged with the specific problem and 28% were generic templates.

Review provenance: 298 company-invited reviews in the recent window average 4.98★, while 44 organic (uninvited) reviews average 4.68★.

13% of its 332 recent 5★ reviews came from accounts that had written only that one review when we captured it (the median across companies is about 39%). A high share is a reason to look closer, not evidence of fake reviews.

Sector benchmark: support unhelpful makes up 35% of this company’s complaints vs a 31% median across 122 ranked companies in its sector.

Review velocity: 978 of this company’s 2,880 Trustpilot reviews (34%) were written in the last 12 months.

What are the most common complaints about CruiseKings?

Support unhelpful

15 reports · 35% of complaintsrising since 2025-06
“iv had this situation today qout price and email the price and details sent. We call accept the price you confirm and pay then there is a mistake on your side”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-06-15 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-06-19: “Dear Mr Moghaddam, Thank you for your feedback and for taking the time to speak with me today. Whilst we always strive to get things right, occasionally misunderstandings can happen and I truly…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

“room had been cancelled by cruisekings!!”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2025-04-28 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2025-05-01: “Dear Andrew & Anna, I am sorry to hear of your recent experience, it is really disappointing to hear that you faced a stressful situation upon arrival to your hotel. I have been trying to contact you…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: to make contact.

“Ross never called but hid behind the email wall”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2024-07-04 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2024-07-05: “Dear Mr Allison, Thank you again for taking the time to speak with me today. Although I was disappointed to read your initial review, I am pleased that our conversation today has given you some…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

Other

10 reports · 23% of complaintsrising since 2025-06
“So we were up at 2.30. Dumped at the import 30 minutes before the airport opened.”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2025-08-30 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2025-09-05: “Good Afternoon, Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback regarding your holiday. We truly value the opinions of our customers, and over the past few days I have attempted to contact you…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: to make contact.

2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“All I can say, don’t want to know after the booking is done.”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2024-06-07

The company replied on 2024-06-11: “Dear Mrs Chudasama Thank you for taking the time to speak to me yesterday. Customer care is at the heart of everything we do, and it was disappointing to read your comments. I hope our conversation…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“I have told cruise kings,that the invoices/ receipts are not mine. Still yhey send details to me”
3★ Trustpilot review, 2026-05-06

The company replied on 2026-05-13: “Good Afternoon, Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback regarding your experience with us. We value the opinions of our customers, and over the past few days I have attempted to contact…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: to make contact.

Misleading pricing

10 reports · 23% of complaintsrising since 2025-06
“advertised the cruise I wanted with "Free up to £500 on board spend per couple". When receiving the quote this didn't show”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2024-09-20

The company replied on 2024-09-25: “Good afternoon Thank you for taking the time to speak to me today. We take great pride in our service here at CruiseKings, and I was really disappointed to hear of your experience. As a follow up, I…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: to make contact.

1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“iv had this situation today qout price and email the price and details sent. We call accept the price you confirm and pay then there is a mistake on your side”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-06-15 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-06-19: “Dear Mr Moghaddam, Thank you for your feedback and for taking the time to speak with me today. Whilst we always strive to get things right, occasionally misunderstandings can happen and I truly…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

“booking confirmation arrived next morning with +£2k on the total price.”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-04-29 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-05-04: “Dear Leanne Thank you for taking the time to speak to me last week. I would like to stress how sorry I am that your experience has not met the normal CruiseKings standards. From time to time mistakes…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: refund.

Support unreachable

7 reports · 16% of complaintsfalling
“Shocking post holiday service- lack of empathy and refusal to reimberse”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2022-10-01 · classified as a severe complaint

2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“however after replying NO ANSWER whatsoever!!!”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2024-09-10

The company replied on 2024-09-12: “Good afternoon Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on our service. I am truly disappointed to read your comments, this is certainly not our usual standard. At CruiseKings, we value our…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: to make contact.

2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“Received no reply or follow up at all to my query for a quote.”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2024-08-09

The company replied on 2024-08-13: “Thank you for taking the time to review our service. I am sorry to hear of your experience, this is not reflective of our normal level of service, and I would really appreciate the opportunity to…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

Not as described

4 reports · 9% of complaintsfalling
“Firstly cruise booking was supposed to be including soft drink package, but we had to pay on the ship”
3★ Trustpilot review, 2024-01-06

1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“transfers and free at sea were not on there”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2023-04-10

The company replied on 2023-04-20: “Dear Mrs Pryce Thank you for time last week, I really appreciate you taking the time to discuss your experience. Once again, I would like to extend my apologies and I am pleased that I have been able…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“when we arrived at the Riu Plaza in New York Times Square, they did not have any record of our booking.”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2022-09-26 · classified as a severe complaint

Hard to cancel

3 reports · 7% of complaintsfalling
“room had been cancelled by cruisekings!!”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2025-04-28 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2025-05-01: “Dear Andrew & Anna, I am sorry to hear of your recent experience, it is really disappointing to hear that you faced a stressful situation upon arrival to your hotel. I have been trying to contact you…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: to make contact.

“Ross never called but hid behind the email wall”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2024-07-04 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2024-07-05: “Dear Mr Allison, Thank you again for taking the time to speak with me today. Although I was disappointed to read your initial review, I am pleased that our conversation today has given you some…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

“could then not get Insurance spent a day trying phoned them back next day to cancel it ad they said had lost our deposit”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2023-11-06 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2023-11-16: “Good Afternoon Mr Turner I am sorry to hear that you were unable to obtain adequate travel insurance which meant that you had to cancel your holiday. I have been trying to contact you to discuss your…”

Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.

Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-08.