Ambassador Cruise Line Reviews 

First time with Ambassador on Ambiance. Have sailed with other companies so able to compare.
Pros- Staff excellent, food excellent Coeliac diet extremely well catered for. All areas of the ship kept clean and we saw hand rails etc being regularly wiped. Cabin very clean and amazing storage space and large shower.
Sanitizer at the entrance to all restaurants(sad the number of people who just ignored them).
Shows were very good, nice to have plays on board very unique and a welcome change. Bands around the ship were also good and were excellent when they came together for a performance - best of Fleetwood Mac. Sea and Grass restaurant outstanding worth the extra.

Negative- Balcony far too small, air conditioning not good. Felt the Borough Market buffet too closed in for us with the furniture barriers separating the seating and then the closed in food area. Still not sure about being served your food there as it made me feel under pressure to make a quick choice- that is no reflection on the quality of the food, just prefer self service in the buffet. Saffron restaurant food was awful worst Indian we have had.

Overall the cruise was lovely and we enjoyed our time on and off the ship. It is an older ship and you can see that but we felt all areas were clean and well maintained. We would sail with Ambassador again if it was a cruise with the right destinations for us.

I went on Ambassador Cruise Line’s ship Ambience for the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. We went to the Netherlands and Belgium. It was very easy to visit places. The ship moored in IJmuiden, Netherlands and you can go to Amsterdam from there. The next day we moored in Zeebrugge and you can get to Bruges.
It was a great way to spend a weekend.
Back on the ship the food was very delicious, the cabin comfortable and great entertainment in the evening.

First cruise and what an experience. Entertainment great, plenty of things to do and food great

And when you comment on here , you get a bog standard, please put any comments in writing to guest relations. I have done that multiple times!!!

Everything went well, great food, staff and on board entertainment.

Excellent ship, such friendly staff, food was amazing. Shows and entertainment was outstanding.
Loved all the activities available during sea days and always plenty to do.
First time cruisers and our experience on Ambition was beyond our expectations. We would definitely book again.

Smooth sailing from selecting our cruise to arriving back home.
Staff were on hand whenever needed and were so friendly & helpful. Excursions were good value for money and our food was delicious.
Looking to cruise with Ambassador again.

We had a brilliant time. The cruise was wonderful right from the moment we arrived at the port. Food, drinks, cabins, entertainment and Norway were all amazing. We've booked another cruise with Ambassador for 2028 and are looking forward to this very much.

From start to finish my wife and I have not got one complaint from the cabin crew to the waiters from the different types of food to the entertainment it was first class

The ship, the staff, the entertainment, the room staff just everything was great.
One bad thing was the bar staff in the Cavern giving out the cheaper drinks when we had ask and paid for the premium drinks within our package.

Wonderful experience throughout. The scenery was spectacular & the port stops were great. Staff on the ship were fabulous - nothing was too much trouble for them. Food was great with a range of choices & the entertainment was second to none 😊

Having sailed on Ambience before I can say that everything was again excellent, facilities available throughout the ship was great, the communal areas were clean and tidy with excellent service by the staff . Restaurants have great choice and the food is wonderful. Would highly recommend, I gave in fact another 3 cruises booked on this ship.

The crew performed an illegal act and the company passed it off as "following orders" before Ghosting us!!!!

My wife and I just finished a 15-day Caribbean cruise, flying home to LHR on the 15th Dec 2025.

The last day arrangements to fly people back to the UK defy description. We breakfasted at 7 to attend immigration at 8. The way matters were arranged we missed both breakfast and lunch. The company response was It is what it is. Unacceptable.

When we came to disembarked my card was scanned to show us off the ship and your crew refused to let me leave. They could not tell me why. When I tried to leave a staff member physically blocked my path. Two other people were also taken out of the line. All three were herded to the side, held there, overlooked by another crew member is white uniform. It turns out your staff &/or business systems had been unable to process payments.

Pirates of the Caribbean. For your crew to physically prevent paying passengers from leaving is unbelievable. In the UK would constitute illegal imprsonment. The fact that we had to stand there while hundreds of fellow passengers filed past us to leave the ship added to our anger and was humiliating and totally un-necessary.

Our crime? One man with a cabin on deck 9 “owed” £2-00.

The second man had a suite on deck 10 and told staff he had paid over £12,000 for this holiday and now he was detained and treated like a criminal in full view of everyone passing. His crime, he “owed” £3-00.

I also had a suite and spent £1,200 to £1,400 on wine & etc. We were detained for some time until a woman from reception attended with a card machine and demanded immediate payment, without any evidence of what the debt was for. She had no idea why I was there and I refused to stay any longer while she returned to reception to investigate. I left.

The Bridgetown 3 were all high value customers. I estimate that between us we spent £25,000 if you include on-board incidentals. I still do not know why I was illegally detained. All 3 of us were of the opinion that your company had our credit card details and this incident was down to the cruise line and its procedures. So once again were we treated like criminals to be detained and publicly shamed?

We complained to Ambassador and after a 5 weeks delay were told the crew were ordered to behave like this. I responded that an illegal act cannot be defended by orders. Following this Ambassador Ghosted us. See previous reviews as this is their standard response to people who complain.

There were many other, some serious, issues on this sailing which I will not bore you with.

I will NEVER sail with them again. Do so at your peril

As we sailed 9 months before on Ambience, we were surprised some members of staff remembered us, the crew are so lovely. The food excellent
Entertainment first class
And the weather amazing

Duplicitous in order to avoid compensating new travellers for delivering a cheaper cruise and completely messing up transport to victoria Station. They hide in small print and take no responsibility. Very poor cruise line, would never travel with them again

Ship experience 4 star. Food 5 star. Customer service communication zero so far. Cruise returned 27th March but still not received the courtesy of a reply to my email about a serious issue; acknowledged 17th April 2026 saying allow 28 days. Today is day 28.

My wife and I booked two cruises with Ambassador. One for this coming August which is fully paid for. The other was for September 2027 ' Iberian sunsets and Mediterranean mornings' on Ambience.

As it is my wife's 70th birthday this summer and mine next summer we booked and had a contract for the top deluxe suite on both cruises.

Ambassador cancelled the September 2027 cruise because it would appear they have had a better offer for a private charter.

To be brief I have complained to the CEO by email and also to guest relations. I got an unacceptable reply from guest relations and now they are not responding. Have had nothing from CEO Christian Verhounig.

The company did offer a 20% discount to transfer but as I booked during a 20% off suites promotion it is useless. Very few sailings have suites available now anyway and if they do they will cost more for an itinerary we do not want.

Ambassador have basically ruined our holiday plans for 2027, (I only get one 70th) and dumped their loyal customers for the sake of a presumably better offer and a quick buck. Unethical in my opinion.

I am still waiting for my deposit back 2 weeks later.

I believe there has been other private charters on Ambience by the representatives of Jane Mcdonald and Tony Hadley with Marti Pellow.

Any attempts at engaging with guest relations are stonewalled so don't even attempt it here ambassador, you have my email.

I was a regular cruiser with Ambassador, and I feel sorry for the wonderful staff on the ships that they are represented by apparently money grabbing management, who do not seem to believe in the principles of a contract.

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Edit following a typical reply on here.

Response to guest services

You (Ambassador) cancelled the cruise. I had no choice in cancelling, I had to to get my deposit back. Ambassador had the deposit, and you apparently sent it back to the agent on Monday 18th May

My emails to you and the CEO were not feedback and needed to be treated by Ambassador as a complaint. Sadly it seems you are incapable of doing that. You did not answer my complaint so I reject your response here.

One of my questions was the following

'Can you please explain why you think it is acceptable to disrupt/ruin lots of holiday plans, offer pitiful compensation, just so you can take an offer that gazumps your loyal customers?'

I assume you didn't answer because there is no answer apart from pure greed

I guesstimate that the Ambience was over half booked and probably close to three quarters when you pulled the plug on your loyal customers. That's 700- 1050 bookings! You should be ashamed in my opinion.

Finally AI says this about taking a private charter of Ambience for September 2027. AI doesn't factor in greed it would seem

For September 2027, a full private charter of the Ambience cruise ship is highly unlikely to be available because Ambassador Cruise Line has already scheduled and opened public bookings for commercial itineraries during this exact window. To charter the entire ship privately, a client typically must secure the vessel before public deployment schedules are released or negotiate a buyout prior to significant ticket sales.

Just to say the staff on the ships are wonderful. Crap management of the cruise line in my opinion bring it down. I have a cruise booked and paid for for August. Should be interesting.

I want to say before going on. The staff amazing food brilliant . !!
Bars very poorly stocked. Despite advertising certain ranges they never materialised
I want to high light the experience I had. I am wheelchair user , meaning I do not walk or stand.
I recently jumped ship , ( so to speak) and used Ambassador, with hubby and convinced 2 friends to do the same.
Firstly, I like my independence, relying on my husband when I need.
The ship is only equipped for the walking wounded. Disabled friendly is not one fits all.
My room spacious clean and a wonderful attendant .
But experienced these things.
1. I was unable to gain access alone, to my state room, not the best start . No auto door. Far too heavy to attempt to push. In a motorised chair, alone I could not push the door open. If my room attendant saw us. He would run to open our door. This was so sweet.
2 Putting clothes away. The hanging wardrobe space, was only any good if you were upright. No pull down arm to use the rail. As in pull it to your level . Place or remove cloths and push back. This was a disabled room after all.
3 Using bathroom in my room , I had to be pushed over the door way hump , despite being in motorised chair, also once damp it was even worse. So could not use bathroom alone.
4 The shower was as problematic. Another hump on the floor. Not a great deal of room once past the hump to try and transfer onto the wooden sleeted seat.No pulley stick to move the shower curtain. Again needed help into shower area. To be pushed over the floor hump .
5 The shower seat was a difficult to bring down. It was a wooden slatted affair dreadfully uncomfortable very old-fashioned reminiscent of a boys changing room in the 1920s..
6 there are very few disabled bathrooms in the ship itself. The one on the same level as raffles I had to take somebody with me because the incline and the door to negotiate was impossible once I was on the ramp I couldn’t open the door. The room was very spacious perfectly clean huge on the inside, but I couldn’t reach the hand soap or the sink and there was no chance I could look in the mirror.

7. All bars tightly packed in with seating. Made it so very difficult to sit along side my party. I felt dreadfully conspicuous asking everybody to move constantly. It was not just their feet. They had to move the their chairs or sofas for tables had to move to let me through. Nice and embarrassing for me. It prevented any quick drink before dinner. Was Justin difficult.
8. There are 2 levels into the theatre. Was only able to use one level. When in the theatre , there was an area for wheel chairs , more like a parking area. No where near any other seating. So I observed everyone parking their chairs and walking to a seat. If I sat in this area I would be alone segregated from my party. Not the greatest feeling.Personally I do not appreciate the segregation. My husband does not like to be away from me. It was a strange set up.
9. I experience a very miserable situation . I went to ask a question at customer service. Once it was my turn. I got to the chap dealing with me. Rather than answer my questions , he proceeded to talk to my companions, at the side of me. He never once looked at me or answered any of my questions. He just directed his answers to my companions .
Great!! Very much not appreciated.

These are a few of the things, that affected me as a wheelchair user. I have complained to ambassador. I told them it was a complaint. Their answer was: thank you for my feedback. It was never meant as feedback. It was a bitter complaint. I feel like I wasted my money and sadly took three other people with me and wasted their money, because although it did not affect them directly. One of them had to accompany.me everywhere I went , as I could not have any independence whatsoever.
So I do feel that it’s not fit for purpose if you are a wheelchair user,
I am fairly independent, I have been cruising for multiple years and wax lyrical about the fact I can be independent just not on Ambassador line.
I would like to mention there is nothing wrong with the actual ship. It’s clean the food marvellous the staff absolutely amazing but as a disabled wheelchair user, it was made extremely difficult and stressful. A small amount of forethought, could have remedied this.
It would have been helpful, to employ a wheelchair user , to negotiate the ship and point out these pitfalls. This would’ve given a fair representation.
I am sad to be submitting this. All totally avoidable .

Ambassador please read. I have minimised my complaint hoping to be fair. Lost on you guys. I have contacted customer relations, as I said above. My complaint was minimised to feedback.
Your appreciation for my miserable cruise was none existent. Money back guarantee, take that from your blurb.
Having cruised endlessly elsewhere 20 years plus . All negotiated in my wheelchair. Without complaint

It was easy to book our Scotland and Norway cruise. The day of embarkation our taxi arrived at the Ambassador dock and our luggage was offloaded for us and taken to the ship. We went through the arrival area and our passports were checked and photo taken then we picked up our key cards. We went on board and went to Borough Market and had lunch then went to our cabin and our luggage arrived. Each night we got a news letter of what was happening the next day. The trips we booked were for easy touring which ment most it was sightseeing by coach and easy walking as we are ambulant disabled. For getting on and off boat there was help available if ganglank was a bit steep. Breakfast and lunch was in the Borough Market with plenty of choice for all diets. In the evening we were on table of 4 and there a nice choice of food. Drinks were purchased using key card. There was the playhouse for plays, entertainment, captains welcome and there was also remmemberance day service. There was a choice of bars to have a drink. We also went on the Artic express. The captain kept us informed or what time we docked and update on weather conditions. The hospital could provide sea sickness tablets if required. All our trips were fantastic with the highlight of visiting Skara Brae. The day before docking they gave us our bills and gave everyone a chance to check them. This was all the things we purchased with key card and the excursions. Then before we docked they debited our debit or credit cards. We were given a disembarkation time and were to be after breakfast.. the luggage was taken away on last evening. We had to be in the playhouse. Then they announce when one would disembark. On getting off the ship we got trolley and stuff helped to find our luggage. We went out to the pick up area and got our taxi home. It was was a wonderful cruise and we took the right amount of clothes finding posh fo evenings, lounging around boat and warm for November trips

KFor our 50th wedding anniversary we wanted to have a very special memory making holiday to the arctic circle. Having already done a fjords cruise some years ago we thought we'd found the perfect holiday, visiting Norways far north with a chance of seeing the northern lights, waking up surrounded by snow capped mountains was what we were looking forward to most. Topped up by visiting reindeer and huskies and seeing amazing scenery. Within 24 hrs our holiday took a turn for the worse with a tannoy announcement that due to high seas and storms our itinerary would change, not holding off travelling north until the weather subsided but a completely different cruise in the western edge of the baltic. (A cruise we had already done a few years ago) instead of waking up in the mountainous region of Norway, we woke in various industrial dockyards of middle Europe.
Now we fully understand the safety aspect of travelling in heavy seas, but this was day one of a 13 day cruise and no attempt was made to get back on track with the original itinerary. Can't help thinking that this cruise could have been handled so differently, floating around the baltic was not what we'd signed up for and feel robbed of what should and could of been an amazing holiday. The 1 star is for the staff who were very friendly and work so hard. Consider cruising on a bigger ship that isn't so weather dependant. Or a cruiseline who can weather a storm.