back from emerald princess- southern caribbean

[sunandfun4me]

hi, all! back from our emerald princess sailing to the southern caribbean (princess cays, dominica, grenada, bonaire & aruba). i was on the 9/29 sailing and am happy to answer any questions! :)

[blueridgemama]

Welcome home! Hope you had a fantastic cruise. We're doing this same cruise in April so I will look forward to this thread. Heard there is a bug issue (mosquitos) on Princess Cay. Did you find that this was an issue?

[Lineaway]

I have been on 6 different cruiselines in the last 10 years and some several times. I have booked my first Princess cruise this Jan. I guess I saved the best til last. I am on a Balcony Baja deck.

 

 

Questions

Princess Cays: I was going to rent a Clamshell. Is there decent snorkling off the beach or should I leave my gear onboard? Any suggestions on what to do on this stop besides lounging? How bad was tendering? Any comments?

 

We have anytime dining, most lines run about 90 minutes for dinner. Is/was it the same for Princess? Do you know what wait time was if you had anytime dinning?

 

What day do they start asking for flight times on the rtn. Is it the third day? I tend to miss this and get my luggage tags late. My bad.

 

What kinds of beverages do they offer in the Buffet? Any juices?

 

What are average drink prices?

 

Does this ship kinda shut down like HAL did after 9?

 

Thanks

[1 HappyCruiser]

Was there a seafood buffet the first night or any night for that matter?

[Lovergirl]

If you could possibly post the Patters from this cruise that would be AWESOME!! We would love to know what type of onboard activities will be offered on sea days.

thanks!!!

[sunandfun4me]

Welcome home! Hope you had a fantastic cruise. We're doing this same cruise in April so I will look forward to this thread. Heard there is a bug issue (mosquitos) on Princess Cay. Did you find that this was an issue?

 

hi, blueridgemama! my dm and i didn't go over to princess cay. we don't live far from the beach here at home so, we kind of shamelessly hung out on our verandah all day. :cool:

 

we did talk with several folks who did go to princess cay. can honestly tell you that a good time was had by all who i spoke with. and no problem with bugs/mosquitos.

 

april is much drier than september/october. i think you'll be fine!

 

you will love emerald and her itinerary! let me know if i can help with any other questions.

[sunandfun4me]

I have been on 6 different cruiselines in the last 10 years and some several times. I have booked my first Princess cruise this Jan. I guess I saved the best til last. I am on a Balcony Baja deck.

 

 

Questions

Princess Cays: I was going to rent a Clamshell. Is there decent snorkling off the beach or should I leave my gear onboard? Any suggestions on what to do on this stop besides lounging? How bad was tendering? Any comments?

We have anytime dining, most lines run about 90 minutes for dinner. Is/was it the same for Princess? Do you know what wait time was if you had anytime dinning?

 

What day do they start asking for flight times on the rtn. Is it the third day? I tend to miss this and get my luggage tags late. My bad.

 

What kinds of beverages do they offer in the Buffet? Any juices?

 

What are average drink prices?

 

Does this ship kinda shut down like HAL did after 9?

 

Thanks

 

Hi. lineaway. On princess cays, my dm and i didn't get off the ship since we live very close to the beach here at home and just prefered lolling about. spoke to a good handful of folks who did get off the ship that day and they all had a very good time. my own take, i'd leave your snorkle gear on board for princess cays....wait for bonaire if you like snoreling or diving! princess cays is kind of a loll about and be lazy stop but there is a tour thru the ship you can take that will take you over to eluthra, bahamas. it leaves early and is pricey for what it is. didn't take the tour...just my opinion. tendering...well, that was half of the reason dm and i decided to loll about on the verandah...looked rather rocky to us, though everyone who went on the tender did live to tell about it! :)

 

anytime dining - we did this...call ahead...we called around 4 or 5 for a 8/8:30 res and walked right in. way better than just showing up and being handed a beeper.

 

we got disembarkation info delivered to us about 2-3 days in to our sailing. we live in south florida so i can't speak for airport transfers (we just drive our sorry selves home) but i can tell you that princess' disembarkation process is fantastic. dm and i gathered our baggage, got a porter and were thru customs within 10 minutes!

 

beverage service in the buffet is whatever you'd like. that's one of the things i really liked about princess...waiter service at you table at the buffet. soda, wine, water...whatever you'd like. as far as drink prices, depends where you live, but i found them reasonable...and if you're a wine drinker, you can bring as much as you'd like on board in ft. lauderdale (i think beer, too, though i'm sure someone can confirm this!)

 

no worries - princess definitely doesn't roll the sidewalks up at 9 p.m.! :D

 

have a great cruise! let me know if i can help with any other questions!

[sunandfun4me]

Was there a seafood buffet the first night or any night for that matter?

 

hi, 1 happy cruiser. i'm not sure about a seafood buffet the first night as we went to the mdr. i will look thru our patters and let you know though. :)

[sunandfun4me]

If you could possibly post the Patters from this cruise that would be AWESOME!! We would love to know what type of onboard activities will be offered on sea days.

thanks!!!

 

hi, lovergirl. if not tomorrow, then i will try to get some of the patters up over the weekend.

[caribill]

What kinds of beverages do they offer in the Buffet? Any juices?

 

 

Coffee (made from syrup, not fresh brewed), tea, tap water, juices at breakfast (several types, ask if you do not see the type you want), lemonade at times after breakfast, milk.

[6travelers]

Thank you for offering to answer questions. What did you do and think of Grenada, Aruba and Bonaire? I am on a cruise in December and would be very appreciative of any observations, insight and opinion. Thank you again, Pam :)

[FawnRiver]

We're on this itinerary in January, but our last two cruises were with Princess in the Caribbean both with stops at Princess Cay. We always get a clamshell, its nice for the shade and its on the quiet side of the beach, not far from where they serve lunch. DH said the snorkelling isn't too bad. I found the water there a little too chilly for me, so I didn't try myself. Its the obligatory beach day, so we can do more interesting stuff at the other ports.

 

Tenders do depend on the weather, I'm not fond of small boats (used to hate big ones until I tried cruising ;)). On the return tender on our first cruise it got really rough, but DH and I were sitting with a really nice couple and the wife just kept talking to me to get me to concentrate on what she was saying instead of what a rough ride we were having. I probably would have lost my lunch, if not for her - bless her. If you don't have good balance, sit inside the tender, not on top.

 

As to the disembarkation stuff, I think that's on the second last day, if memory serves (our last 2 cruises were 7 days so it could be different).

 

There's lots to do after 9pm, thankfully (DH and I do late traditional, so we're not out of the dining room until 10pm). There's usually a show of some sort in the Princess Theatre, a comedian in the Explorer's Lounge, musicians in Crooners and of course MUTS (movies under the stars), plus other stuff. We usually go see the comedian's late show and then I go see the movie and DH hits the casino.

 

OP - thanks, I look forward to seeing the Patters (can't start planning soon enough and I've already done everything I can up to this point) You wouldn't happen to know what any of the Spa specials were, would you? I'm a spa junkie and while I do prebook a few things, I always leave room for the specials :D.

[Liz54]

We did this cruise last year and LOVED the itenerary.

Took snorkel gear to Princess Cays. Thought the snorkeling was fun, but as another poster said - not like Bonaire. In Bonaire we did a shore snorkel with Rene. (Google her). It was our best shore excursion EVER. Also in Dominica we did a cooking demo that was fantastic. A small group hands on cooking class with local foods followed by lunch. They pick you up at the ship and give you a small tour on the way to their house in the hills where the cooking happens. Just a wonderful group of Islands!

[Lineaway]

Thanks for the info. We are Princess first timers. Going on the Ruby

 

I didn't know you could call ahead and make res. when you are anytime dinning. Thats a good tip.

 

I'll bring my Snorkling gear to Princess Cays.

 

I don't mind the rough water for Tendering what I was wondering is are there long lines or wait times to go either direction? I thought Costa did a terrible job at tendering, only used a couple tenders, issued special passes and the rest of us waited and waited, they had lines going up the stairwells and alot of really angry people. They were pushing their tours and giving those people priority, RCCL did the same thing to us once. Carnival, HAL and NCL seemed to have it down rather well, multi tenders and quick turnaround they didn't seem to need to give anyone although they may have.

[robtulipe]

I believe one of your port stops was St. Thomas. Did you dock at Crown Bay Cruise ship dock, the pier west of Charlotte Amalie and how was the shopping there?

I read that it isn't very good in comparison to Havensight, the docking facility across the harbor from the downtown area.

[FawnRiver]

Thanks for the info. We are Princess first timers. Going on the Ruby

 

I didn't know you could call ahead and make res. when you are anytime dinning. Thats a good tip.

 

I'll bring my Snorkling gear to Princess Cays.

 

I don't mind the rough water for Tendering what I was wondering is are there long lines or wait times to go either direction? I thought Costa did a terrible job at tendering, only used a couple tenders, issued special passes and the rest of us waited and waited, they had lines going up the stairwells and alot of really angry people. They were pushing their tours and giving those people priority, RCCL did the same thing to us once. Carnival, HAL and NCL seemed to have it down rather well, multi tenders and quick turnaround they didn't seem to need to give anyone although they may have.

Elite (I think) and full suite passengers get priority boarding. For the rest of us to get to the tender you'll go to one of the dining rooms get assigned a group number and then get called when a tender is ready, it doesn't take too long. I think last time it was about 10 minutes, maybe. The turnaround is really quick, you go down one flight of stairs and out to the platform to board. The wait to go back can be a little long, we waited too long to come back last time and got caught in the rush but it still only took about 20 minutes or so. They have multiple tenders going back and forth so if you don't want to wait at all, you might want to get an early start going and coming back.

[gerryl12]

Have snorkeled on Princess Cay a couple of times. It is not fantastic snorkeling but it is ok. They do feed the fish in a couple of spots so the fish swim close to the viewing stations where they are fed. There is a good variety of fish to look at and swim with.

I intend to take my snorkel gear on both of our stops there next month.

[gerryl12]

Do you remember what the entertainment is in the show lounge at night?

 

Thanks.

[chamima]

hi, all! back from our emerald princess sailing to the southern caribbean (princess cays, dominica, grenada, bonaire & aruba). i was on the 9/29 sailing and am happy to answer any questions! :)

 

Thanks for doing this thread. We are going in February and I wondered about lunch in the MDR on the days the ship goes to Bonaire and Grenada (half days). Also, we don't get off at Princess Cays so is the MDR open that day?

[whitecap]

Thank you for offering to answer questions. What did you do and think of Grenada, Aruba and Bonaire? I am on a cruise in December and would be very appreciative of any observations, insight and opinion. Thank you again, Pam :)

6travelers; We did this itenerary from 9-29 to 10-9 2011 and I posted information from the ship during the cruise and a review after. The threads are: Setting Sail on Emerald Princess 9-29-11 and Review, Emerald Princess Southern Medley 9-29-11. Hopefully some of the information in those threads may be of help.

[eurodl]

I've been researching cabins on the Emerald. DH and I are looking to book for 2013! Seems so far away. Anyway...trying to decide between mini-suites. I prefer the Dolphin deck to the Emerald deck since you have a deck of cabins between you and the public areas. My concern is the uncovered balconies. Don't really like the idea of having people looking down on us and I've heard sometimes people will throw things down to the lower balconies. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Also - did they have live texas hold-em poker in the casino?

[whitecap]

I've been researching cabins on the Emerald. DH and I are looking to book for 2013! Seems so far away. Anyway...trying to decide between mini-suites. I prefer the Dolphin deck to the Emerald deck since you have a deck of cabins between you and the public areas. My concern is the uncovered balconies. Don't really like the idea of having people looking down on us and I've heard sometimes people will throw things down to the lower balconies. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Also - did they have live texas hold-em poker in the casino?

We have sailed the Emerald three times, each with a AA minisuite on Dolphin Deck, and never had a problem with people throwing things down on our balcony.

[1 HappyCruiser]

I've been researching cabins on the Emerald. DH and I are looking to book for 2013! Seems so far away. Anyway...trying to decide between mini-suites. I prefer the Dolphin deck to the Emerald deck since you have a deck of cabins between you and the public areas. My concern is the uncovered balconies. Don't really like the idea of having people looking down on us and I've heard sometimes people will throw things down to the lower balconies. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Also - did they have live texas hold-em poker in the casino?

 

I haven't had the problem with garbage being thrown wither & since in 2013 they'll be no smoking on balconies :D they'll be even less of a chance of anything being there in the morning.

[eurodl]

Good point HappyCruiser. One of the many reasons we decided to stay with Princess. :)

Had a hold on HAL but found out the ship was going in for drydock right after our cruise. Not the only reason we decided against them. Would like to try them in the future though. Won't go back to RCCL :(

[6travelers]

Thank you very much whitecap for providing the links to your posts on your cruise. I appreciate it and look forward to reading them. Very nice of you.

 

Thank you, Pam :)