Emerald Princess Nov 16 short review

We sailed on the Emerald Princess trans-Atlantic in April and October of this year. On both of her trans-Atlantic voyages. She was in great shape, the staff and crew had high morale and we were extremely happy with both cruises.

On the October/November TA, we disembarked in Ft. Lauderdale, along with about 80% of the passengers who wanted to avoid all of the potential problems associated with Bayport/Houston.

While problems will occur, to blame the ship and its staff and crew for the weather or the well known problems associated with the home port may not be a fair assessment.

Thanks for the review

If a cruise line intentionally places a departure port on Antarctica and passengers complain about frigid temperatures at departure, whose fault is it that the passengers are cold, Mother Nature's or the cruise line's?

While I understand the point you are trying to make, if passengers book a cruise out of Antarctica and then complain about it being cold, I'd say that fault would be their own. :)

Two people on the same ship on the same sailing can have entirely different experiences.

In my case, I was on the same ship, but on the November 11th sailing.

My experience is shown with yours in red.

The rain and missed ports were not great, the limping into port at an 18% list to starboard and getting tossed out of bed when the winds hit the ship left a lot to be desired.

 

But the real problems are:

 

Sailing from Houston, big mistake, hard to get to port, fogged in, but that's the norm. Bad Luggage handling, long waits to get on board. Finally sailing out 20 hours late. Your in Texas too so no drinks or fun while stuck there. We arrived at 11 AM. Security was very slow. Once past security check-in was fast. We were directed to the Elite waiting lounge. Boarding started about 12:15 PM, a little late due to late arrival of the ship that morning. We left about four hours late due to late arriving passengers and new crew and supplies being loaded. No problems leaving. It was rainy and cold, but not foggy or with excessive wind.

 

Luggage handling, pay the porter then find out he left your bags at the curb, or when they are loading them on board dropping a few into the sea. Hand to God, when it was delivered they told the people it was in the rain for a while, but now we know it rains salt water in Texas, and Rick Perry says the environment isn't changing. Luggage arrived at our cabin about 4 PM. Dry.

 

Missed ports due to sailing from Houston. Made our two ports on the five day cruise. Fabulous weather at both ports.

 

But hey more sea days, well with a Cruise Director that is more focused on a really bad morning show, was no where to be found, no updates, no added activities so who wants more dead time with nothing to do. Our sea days had plenty of activities. Did not have extra sea days, so I did not experience extra activities or lack of activites on that type of day.

 

Meals in the Lido were cold, not sure they ever tried for warm, and forget about hot unless you wait and wait and wait for an omelet. But not sure we can blame the kitchen, since by the time you find a waiter for silverware or a cup of coffee its time for lunch. Temperature on our buffet food was fine. Silverware was already on table when we sat down. Waitstaff asked about our beverage desires within 20 seconds of our sitting down.

 

Main Dinning room was worse, bad food, over cooked Luke warm and lots of bad service. Our dining room wait staff (traditional) were two of the best we have ever had. Made sure we were always happy with the food which was cooked properly, warm when served and tasted good.

 

Bar service was hit or miss, you got waited on, but it was always a gamble to see if you got what you ordered.

 

The staff moral was low, few smiles, lack luster service, many areas were dirty, slow to clean up dishes or drink glasses. But watching staff yell at each other is so entertaining. We found friendly staff everywhere, even at the Purser's desk. Heard no staff members yelling at each other.

 

The shows were so so , had to walk out on the disco one the singing was so bad, but the dancers were good. Production shows were good, Comedians had to be the worst in their price range.

 

Casino, some great staff some so so, bar service slow, but I broke even, and with no ports it was open a lot.

 

Then there is the coming home, hit by winds and list so bad you roll out of bed, and then sleep at an angle all night, and get in 2 hours late. Slow getting off the ship, and then about half way they though the list they just tell everyone to go, that was a cluster to find luggage and get though customs. We were two hours late arriving due to fog, but did not have bad weather otherwise, so no listing with the winds. Obviously disembarkation was delayed with the late arrival and the walkoff groups were lined up for quite a while until disembarkation began. Non-walk off groups had to wait in areas other than the assigned lounges as the lounges were used by the walkoff groups. Customs/immigration at the time we disembarked was as fast as you could walk to it and only a few seconds after handing over passports and custom declaration. There were 9 agents on duty.

 

Then there is Texas, as you leave asking if you have booze or Tobacco as they are going to charge you tax to take it home with you. It was amazing seeing that no one had bought any :) Texas does this at the Port of Galveston also.

 

But really the best part of the Port of Houston, and Emerald Princess was getting on a flight out of Texas and knowing you will never be on the ship from hell or at that port ever again.

 

My advice, if you are not at final payment and can change, do as fast as you can.

To summarize our experience: Great ship. Great crew. Great cruise.

So yes, Princess shoulders a good bit of blame even if it cannot "control" the weather because it can avoid it should it choose to forego the sweetheart deal it gets for sailing out of Bayport. Princess gets a great economic deal, and in so doing, it gets the blame for the side effects that come with it.

This is really no different than Carnival Corp agreeing to take

their ships to crown bay rather than havensite, for a sweet-heart

deal on port charges in crown bay.

Although CB is a little better now, for the first 5 years, it was

a complete nothing compared to Havensite.

As long as passengers book the cruises, the cruise lines will

continue to make the same choices...

We sailed Carribean Oct 27th until Nov10th so a B to B to B of 14 days.

We did have the worse Stateroom attendant of any of the 30+ cruises we have been on. We were asked by Customer Relations about him but my wife said she did not want to comment, there must have been complaints as he was demoted / removed from room duty.

We had our cabin changed at boarding which caused our luggage to be sent to the wrong room this problem was enhanced by our room steward saying he could not help us and I would have to retrieve it myself

.

One bag went missing and i had multiple trips to the front desk explaining the problem was caused due to our cabin being changed by Princess which they denied.

The women actually said Princess never changes cabins once booked in spite of the passenger in front of me having just complained that the cabin she had been upgraded to was not as good as what she had booked.

By 9:00pm I was fed up and an officer got involved he came back saying the bag did not make it on the ship. That was a jolt as our meds were in it and I had seen it go in the cage to be loaded on the ship. He then said he miss spoke as it was on the ship but they did not know where.

He started asking me to describe it, as I was doing this I caught sight of the bag behind the counter off to the side. I pointed it out to him, he retrieved it and said it was being held by security and they must have left a message on my cabin phone. I told him once again that the bags had been tagged with my original cabin number!

Apologizes were made and we dealt with security who held some kitchen knives we had bought during our travels in Switzerland.

On our last leg of the cruise our dinning table which was for 6 the first nine days of the cruise was turned into a table for eight which was cramped and not suitable as even our waiter could not access it properly. We had met long time friends on the ship and went to the any time venue with them as the fixed time was now uncomfortable due to a stupid decision made by someone in charge. The other guests said they would not return as well though they may have continued after we dropped out.

One night at Any time we asked for a table for four, we were asked if we would join a larger table we said no and they gave us a beeper. After waiting twenty five minutes and watching at least thirty other dinners arrive and be seated with no dinners leaving my friend went and gave the Maitre D an earful and we were seated immediately. We passed at least four empty tables for four on the way to our table and the dinning room was a third empty. This I consider extremely poor service and next time aboard a Princess ship I will complain immediately if told to wait when there is ample seating.

Are there problems on the Carribean as well as Emerald yes, did it ruin our cruise no.

Is Princess slipping I would say yes and that staff training is lacking attitude is poor.

We have traveled enough to know to let it go as problems will happen.

Overall we had a great time and I bought six more future cruise deposits so we will be back.

After a terrible embarkation and even worse disembarkation in Galveston on Royal Caribbean a few years ago, we swore off ever going out of Texas again. I'm hearing the same things with Bayport...but alas, we have friends who wanted to sail out of Houston in February so we are giving it another go...

It does sound like it is hit or miss depending upon the sailing, time you arrive, etc. I'm working on our plan to try and avoid the horrible wait times. We are only "Ruby" on Princess so no Elite lounge, etc. I still think we'll show up early at port and hopefully have a seat inside before boarding. Then we might just wait and be the last people off the ship as we won't have a plane to catch, etc. and doubtful we could be up and going to be the first off. Hopefully that will help avoid the worst of the issues at the port.

As for the ship service/food, etc. I think that is all subjective. Hopefully any issues will be resolved by February after the ship and crew have more experience going out of Houston.

After a terrible embarkation and even worse disembarkation in Galveston on Royal Caribbean a few years ago, we swore off ever going out of Texas again. I'm hearing the same things with Bayport...but alas, we have friends who wanted to sail out of Houston in February so we are giving it another go...

 

It does sound like it is hit or miss depending upon the sailing, time you arrive, etc. I'm working on our plan to try and avoid the horrible wait times. We are only "Ruby" on Princess so no Elite lounge, etc. I still think we'll show up early at port and hopefully have a seat inside before boarding. Then we might just wait and be the last people off the ship as we won't have a plane to catch, etc. and doubtful we could be up and going to be the first off. Hopefully that will help avoid the worst of the issues at the port.

 

As for the ship service/food, etc. I think that is all subjective. Hopefully any issues will be resolved by February after the ship and crew have more experience going out of Houston.

Our First Cruise Ever was out of Galveston on Feb 9, 2013. DCL Magic. We had a great experience and will be returning on the DCL Wonder in Nov 2015 on the EB PC cruise. For us it was a joy drove up at 10AM drop bags 4 orther family members waited while I parked car across the street. All walked into terminal two checked in waited maybe 15 mins and boarded around 11 great cruise and easy off. Help with luggage getting off and no wait on customs. We will sail out of Bayport on the Emerald Princess in 8 days. Will let you know how that goes.

We live 4.5 hours in Houma La. from the port and it beats the hell out of going any were else, including New Orleans. I think Princess needs to have a better plan B for bad weather. Late this past Sunday because of fuel barge. There are not that many other options for these ships to work from.

I would hope that the fixes coming to the Houston Ship Channel will help.

In 2007 we sailed on the brand new Emerald Princess on its inaugural transatlantic cruise. It was the first ship with the Piazza and International Cafe and the new features were exciting. I've been on it since and had good experiences, but not the thrill of that Venice to FLL cruise seven years ago.

After a terrible embarkation and even worse disembarkation in Galveston on Royal Caribbean a few years ago, we swore off ever going out of Texas again. I'm hearing the same things with Bayport...but alas, we have friends who wanted to sail out of Houston in February so we are giving it another go...

 

It does sound like it is hit or miss depending upon the sailing, time you arrive, etc. I'm working on our plan to try and avoid the horrible wait times. We are only "Ruby" on Princess so no Elite lounge, etc. I still think we'll show up early at port and hopefully have a seat inside before boarding. Then we might just wait and be the last people off the ship as we won't have a plane to catch, etc. and doubtful we could be up and going to be the first off. Hopefully that will help avoid the worst of the issues at the port.

 

As for the ship service/food, etc. I think that is all subjective. Hopefully any issues will be resolved by February after the ship and crew have more experience going out of Houston.

My wife and I are sailing 1/11/2015 on the Emerald, we have cruised 2X out of BayPort and never had a problem, but we live about 20 minutes away. The Houston Cruise terminal sits on an unprotected area at the shore entrance to BayPort. Strong north winds and a narrow channel can cause problems for the ship trying to leave the port.

February is a pretty cold month for us with cold fronts about 3-7 days apart, most of the time the fronts roar in with 25+ north winds and blow for a day or two before settling down. When the wind begins to switch around to the SE, that is when we usually get fog in Galveston Bay. The travel time from the cruise terminal to the end of the Galveston jetties (5 mile marker) is about an hour and a half steaming time.

Once the Emerald passes the end of the jetties, it enters the navagational fairway, and must travel at reduced speed until clearing the offshore oil platforms.

I hope all goes well during your cruise.

My wife and I are sailing 1/11/2015 on the Emerald, we have cruised 2X out of BayPort and never had a problem, but we live about 20 minutes away. The Houston Cruise terminal sits on an unprotected area at the shore entrance to BayPort. Strong north winds and a narrow channel can cause problems for the ship trying to leave the port.

 

February is a pretty cold month for us with cold fronts about 3-7 days apart, most of the time the fronts roar in with 25+ north winds and blow for a day or two before settling down. When the wind begins to switch around to the SE, that is when we usually get fog in Galveston Bay. The travel time from the cruise terminal to the end of the Galveston jetties (5 mile marker) is about an hour and a half steaming time.

 

Once the Emerald passes the end of the jetties, it enters the navagational fairway, and must travel at reduced speed until clearing the offshore oil platforms.

 

I hope all goes well during your cruise.

Been watching closely and it is min 2.5 hrs from Bayport Terminal to Galveston. After that you are in Gulf. We are on Dec 7 cruise and recieved notice from PCL to arrive between 12 - 1 pm. Its is also in POHA parking info. I see basied on info from the first three cruises any reason to arrive at terminal before 11 to park. No one no matter what level you are seems to be boarding brfore 11:30 that was earlies reported last week. Have a magical cruise. Guess best thing to do is do not be in a rush and expect the unexpected.

In our 22 days onboard Emerald we had absolutely no problems with any of the staff we encountered. We gave our room steward a generous tip. My wife did a "make a difference" card on a headwaiter for his help on her dietary issues. I filled out one on a personal trainer. We had anytime dining and ate frequently in the horizon court, so had a variety of servers. The server in the International Cafe was constantly refilling our coffee. The server behind the counter remembered my favorite snacks after a couple of days. We had good weather throughout our cruise and few embarkation/disembarkation issues, so perhaps those were major contributors to the issues the OP encountered. If so, I think it was a rare anomaly.

We were on the transatlantic crossing, disembarking in Houston Nov. 11. We had a fantastic cruise! The food was great and the staff were all very friendly and helpful! We enjoyed our cruise so much we are sailing on the Emerald again in January.

Sorry to hear you had such a terrible cruise. We have thoroughly enjoyed the Emerald in the past but I do think changing staffs, CD and etc. can make a big difference in the quality of your tour. Port of Houston has also had several bad reviews. Seems your cruise was doomed from the beginning. I noticed you sail with Carnival a lot, so maybe you will be happier there.

Sorry you had what sounds like a pretty unhappy cruise. We have been on the "delay" end of cruises out of Houston both going out and coming in.

It bothered us so much we are leaving tomorrow morning to get on the Emerald Princess - whenever she leaves :-)

It bothered us so much we are leaving tomorrow morning to get on the Emerald Princess - whenever she leaves :-)

Yay! Enjoy your cruise! :)

We've sailed out of Houston (Galveston) with no issues whatsoever other than the crappy hotel in Galveston (I selected it from the Internet based on location and price so that was my fault...) we stayed at the night before embarking.

 

And that my DW's checked bag didn't make it on our non-stop flight (the airline's fault, of course) but did make it prior to cruising (since we stayed a night before in that crappy hotel so I guess that was good planning after all...).

 

The ship both left and returned on time and we missed no ports.

 

We were happy I planned ahead and had a rental car reserved to return to the Houston airport - others we saw didn't and they ran out of cars so they had no timely and easy way to get to the airport.

 

Bottom line: we had no issues cruise-wise sailing out of Houston. We would do so again.

You sailed out of Galvaston, that is not the same as Houston. I agree with you the Galvaston port was great the week before, very organized and well run.

Along side in Houston. http://www.portofhouston.com/cruise-information/live-cruise-terminal-cam/

Sorry you had what sounds like a pretty unhappy cruise. We have been on the "delay" end of cruises out of Houston both going out and coming in.

 

It bothered us so much we are leaving tomorrow morning to get on the Emerald Princess - whenever she leaves :-)

Beautiful day today, partly sunny and warm. Have a strong SE wind. Have a great cruise.

So far the cost is really adding up - first a cost of $100 million to build a terminal with no cruise line wanting to use it.

Now we are paying cruise lines to use it, because it sat empty for 5 years:

the incentive - $685,000 to Princess and $6 million to Norwegian

Now, the bad part - after all of this, the cruise lines wanted more and got it, so we now pay tax dollars of over $10 million for a port nobody wanted, did not approve, nor will be used after we stop paying cruise lines to bring in ships.

They had such a hard time trying to park the ship when we arrived on Nov 11 on the Emerald Princess, that people were stacked up, couldn't disembark and were missing flights, transports, etc.

But - sure the port is now used. For awhile.

You sailed out of Galvaston, that is not the same as Houston. I agree with you the Galvaston port was great the week before, very organized and well run.

We have sailed out of Galveston AND Houston several times....and on the Emerald out of FL for 10 day Eastern Caribbean cruises 5 times now.

I LIKE the Bayport terminal better than Galveston personally. We have never had parking (we drive) or boarding issues there.

We sail on the Emerald again 7 Dec and looking forward to it!

I think EVERYONE needs to realize that weather (and ESPECIALLY tender ports) are always subject to safety/weather concerns. Trust me, the weather might not look "all that bad" when the Captain announces they will not be taking you into Belize City (or some other port) in the MORNING, but they need to anticipate the RETURN TO THE SHIP later that day as well.

Ports in Hawaii get weathered out frequently in the winter as well...NOT something unique to Texas ports/Princess cruise lines.

Last time we cruised from Galveston, well, lets just say was not the BEST experience ever...Hurricane Ike took a bulls-eye on the port, our car got washed away, and after 2 extra days floating out at sea, we finally got into New Orleans....where they had their hand out for $$$ to transport you to the airport where you paid "walk up, no advance purchase rates" for emergency travel home, and took what you got and were grateful for it. Was it Princess we were cruising with, NO!!! Did I blame the cruise line for the weather issues/inconveniences/costs...NO. WE had not bought cruise insurance, OUR fault! Made no difference what the cruise line was, the entire, ugly experience was NOT their fault.

PS...the part I enjoyed most about your post was realizing I will not have to sail with you from Texas in the future...

So far the cost is really adding up - first a cost of $100 million to build a terminal with no cruise line wanting to use it.

 

Now we are paying cruise lines to use it, because it sat empty for 5 years:

the incentive - $685,000 to Princess and $6 million to Norwegian

 

Now, the bad part - after all of this, the cruise lines wanted more and got it, so we now pay tax dollars of over $10 million for a port nobody wanted, did not approve, nor will be used after we stop paying cruise lines to bring in ships.

 

They had such a hard time trying to park the ship when we arrived on Nov 11 on the Emerald Princess, that people were stacked up, couldn't disembark and were missing flights, transports, etc.

 

But - sure the port is now used. For awhile.

Interesting. Was the referendum to build the port VOTED on by the folks in Houston? Hindsight is often 20/20 and time will tell, but I have a feeling with all the new ships being built and the fact that so many of the existing ports are "full" they will have to keep using Bayport for Texas sailings.

Interesting. Was the referendum to build the port VOTED on by the folks in Houston? Hindsight is often 20/20 and time will tell, but I have a feeling with all the new ships being built and the fact that so many of the existing ports are "full" they will have to keep using Bayport for Texas sailings.

Yes, when the bond issue for port construction was made public, the county commissioners added a cruise terminal as a "carrot" to increase public support.

The Corp of Engineers just granted a permit to widen the BayPort channel and increase the depth to 45'. The dredging project is expected to take 18 months, I would hope widening the the turning basin at the cruise terminal is included.

We keep hearing this over and over on way too many projects that come under government approval. OK so now you have to ask who got the money?

Empty terminal sitting in Mobile and only Carnival remains in New Orleans, but New Orleans is building a new cruise terminal. Now it is a seven hour trip from the Gulf to docks at New Orleans. Big Pilot Bill. OK if you make the trip in the day light. But that does not happen very much. Houston ship channel dredging is being done because of the 3rd channel of the Panama Canal and the bigger ships that draw 42 ft. Nothing to do with cruise ships.

New Orleans is getting port calls from many large cruise ships for a day stop. But no new ships that work out of it. The RCL ship pulled out. Trips up and down the Mississippi at this time of year also face fog problems. I wright this with a forecast of dense fog tomorrow AM.

I hope that EP can get in and out on Sunday, Dec 7, 2014 in a reasonable fashion, I will be on it.

If this industry is doing so great and putting billion dollar ships in the water then they should build the terminals. If its not profitable they will not build it. If the people voted on it just like the football stadiums they would vote no. I do not consider football stadiums or cruise terminals something that government should be using tax payer dollars to build. They can regulate them but not build them.

Several cruise ship lines have built there own islands for a stopping place, and generate a profit with it. Best example is Castaway Cay with DCL. Carnival now has three I think. Will be doing the one in Mahogony Bay next week.

Dec 7 Cruise. I thought going out of Houston was great. We boarded early and had no delays. and we had great weather so we had a great time. We had drinks at the bar and watched football on the big screen after boarding, which is great.

My two biggest beefs were the service and the beds. I hate when gratuity is included in the price. It doesn't give anyone any incentive to wait on you. Everywhere we went, no one waited on us. The pool was the worst in that regard. Even after buying a bucket we couldn't get anyone to check on us to open the new bottles. When we found someone, they didn't even have an opener on their person. Very agraviating!

Did anyone else have a problem with the beds?? I could barely move in the morning, my body ached so bad. I had to get in the hot tub every morning. I never had that problem before in my life, so I'm thinking the mattresses must suck.

Entertainment was so so. We had a great time because we had a great atitude, however I think we will head back to Royal.

We to had a great time, thd food, service, staterooms, and passengers were great. Port was great.

Sorry that some had issues with bed we did not. Maybe case after going all day when head hit pillow we were gone.

Though CD was good and keep us laughing. For us as FTC on Princess we enjoyed the 180 degree change from DCL. Mickey and Minnie can go just so far.