Emerald Princess Cruise Journal - Southern Caribbean Dec. 9 to 19 with Photos

[CI66774]

Apparently you had a nice time!We were aboard the Emerald the entire twenty days before you and the only thing that comes to mind,is that it sucked!I only make mention of this because corporate must have leaped on the crew and staff so that your cruise could be so enjoyable.Your welcome!:)

 

"Tom" - could you elaborate? Saying "it sucked" really isn't helpful to anyone. If you're (not your) going to state an opinion, it would be nice to have some specifics.

[cruiselover05]

So enjoying your review and your pictures are fabulous! We love the Emerald & will be boarding her for 30 days in March. It's cold & miserable here & reading about your cruise helps. Keep it coming.

[Bimmer09]

I just checked into your review today and am happy I did. Great photos and narrative. The underwater shots are superb.

 

Will keep following...

 

Norris

[AryMay]

IWe did Champagne reef (albeit as a boat snorkel, one of the Princess excursions) in Dominica as well. I didn't get to snorkel in Bonaire (my companion didn't really feel like snorkeling by then) but thought Champagne Reef was very nice for snorkeling. We also did Trunk Bay on St. John, and that had lots of fish, but the coral wasn't as nice. I really need to get back to Dominica at some point, it didn't feel like we got to see much, although I do think it was one of the best places to get souvenirs on the cruise (I got a really nice little handcrafted bowl from a local craftsman near the dock.)

 

I would love to visit St. John's someday! Getting there just seems a little more complicated than going to a beach on St. Thomas.

 

We also walked through the craft market near the ship in Dominica following our tour, but didn't buy anything. Being tired, dirty and still a slight bit wet we just wanted to hit the showers!

 

Still hoping you might share some thoughts/photos from the cruise??

Edited January 23, 2014 by AryMay

[AryMay]

Arymay

 

Thanks for the running review with photos. Could you elaborate more on your on board experiences. i.e quality of the food, experiences in the buffets etc.

Also if you have then, and can post then, download any Patters and/or menus. Again thanks much for taking the time to write and post your review, it is much appreciated.

 

I do have all of the Patters...no promises on getting them posted. Trying to sort through hundreds of photos and get this report written is taking a little longer than I had planned! :rolleyes: We'll see...maybe...possibly...

 

I'm a poor one to report on the food. Neither Bob or I are picky and like to try new things (now Laurel...that's a different story! ;)) But...I have trouble remembering details unless I write things down (which did't happen) or take photos (but didn't take many of the food.) For the most part if I don't have to cook I am happy! Right now the only thing I truly remember was that I loved the pizza...but didn't care for the lobster!

 

As far as the buffet...we ate all of our breakfasts and lunches there...never did make it to the MDR except for dinner. It was just too convenient to not eat in the buffet when our cabin was located one deck below. I thought the food was good...and probably a notch above Carival's buffet. I fully intended to make up my own cheese plattes from the buffet to enjoy in the evenings, but never did...just not hungry enough.

 

We never had to wait in line to get into the Horizon Court, but at peak times it was a bit congested. The different stations made it a little easier to navigate compared to Cafe Caribe which was just one straight line. We almost always sat at the back of the ship near the Cafe Caribe to eat. This area wasn't as crowded and became our "meeting place" so we didn't have to go looking for each other.

 

There were two sea days at the end of the cruise so I will have a few more photos from the ship later on in the report. In the meantime, let me know if you have any specific questions.

 

For us the ports were our main focus of the cruise...the bars and casino were not a priority at all. I had one free glass of champagne at the Captain's party and that was it. At the end of the cruise I'm sure our ship account was miniscule compared to most!

 

Thanks for taking time to post...it helps to know people are interested!

[AryMay]

So enjoying your review and your pictures are fabulous! We love the Emerald & will be boarding her for 30 days in March. It's cold & miserable here & reading about your cruise helps. Keep it coming.

 

OMG...30 days?! That would be wonderful!!!

[AryMay]

I just checked into your review today and am happy I did. Great photos and narrative. The underwater shots are superb.

 

Will keep following...

 

Norris

 

Thanks for the comment...and also thanks for the wonderful reviews you do!! I have practically "studied" your Alaska reviews looking for info for our upcoming cruise.

 

Laurel and I both had underwater cameras so we have a LOT of snorkeling photos. Laurel also bought a disc of underwater pics taken by a professional photographer on our snorkeling tour in Bonaire that are just gorgeous. It will be hard to pick and choose what to include in this review...they are all great. Also the dive operator in Aruba emailed Bob over 150 photos taken from their dives. So many pictures...it is overwhelming!

 

My goal...as I have done after our other cruises...is to put together a slide show set to music. It literally takes me FOREVER but I love to pull out the DVD's and relive our memories.

[AryMay]

Driving through the city of St. George…the local market area was being renovated (according to Clement) so many people had set up shop on the sidewalks, selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables.

 

 

 

Most of the day was just spent driving…with very few stops. It gave us a chance to see a good part of Grenada, but it started to get old after awhile...it would have been nice to stop more often and explore. By the end of the day we were all tired of spending so much time in the van.

 

Many of my photos were just shot through the van window. No explanation or story to go with them…it is just what we saw driving by. Hopefully it gives you a little flavor of life in Grenada.

 

 

 

 

[AryMay]

 

 

 

 

 

It was interesting to see these fishermen pulling in their nets...

 

Edited January 23, 2014 by AryMay

[lovevacadays]

I am loving your review and photos. Thank you for sharing.

[AryMay]

One stop we did make was at a nutmeg factory…fitting because Grenada is known as the “spice island”. There is nothing better than freshly ground nutmeg over homemade rice pudding…yes, I was excited to see this place! I first purchased whole nutmeg in Jamaica on our first cruise and have been a nutmeg lover ever since!

 

 

Nutmeg grows in three layers…the outer hull, the shell, and the “nut” that is the actual spice. Here is a nutmeg tree:

 

 

What I didn’t know was that the shell is also covered with a thin red layer that is “mace”. Once the mace is removed and dried it becomes orange-yellow. Ground mace has a flavor that is a combination of cinnamon and pepper. Here is what the mace looks like before it is removed from the nutmeg:

 

 

Because we were there on a Saturday no production was taking place but we did get to tour the building. The factory seemed very primitive. Large wooden racks were used to dry the nutmeg before it is sorted.

 

 

The nutmeg is raked so that it will dry evenly.

 

 

[AryMay]

The nutmeg is placed in water...the good ones sink, the bad floats. In the past, this process was all done by hand. One couple on our tour had been here about 20 years ago and said that women sat on the floor doing the sorting.

 

 

 

 

 

The factory was rather dark and dreery...but oh what a view out the window!

 

[AryMay]

As we drove, Clement pointed out many different trees and plants that grow on the island.

 

A cocoa tree…

 

 

 

Bananas

 

 

 

Papaya

 

 

More nutmeg

 

[AryMay]

A wild goat

 

 

Palm nuts

 

 

 

An old plantation house

 

 

Although we had nice weather all day, it was evident that we were in a rainforest by the heavy mist hanging over the hills.

 

 

[melody hounddog]

You are bringing back such wonderful memories! We spent four months in Grenada in 2006 and toured the nutmeg factory. Thanks for the pictures. It hasn't changed a bit!

[AryMay]

You are bringing back such wonderful memories! We spent four months in Grenada in 2006 and toured the nutmeg factory. Thanks for the pictures. It hasn't changed a bit!

That would be so great to visit an island for an extended time and REALLY experience the culture. I always tell people that cruising is just a "sampler" vacation. You get a glimpse of each place, but to truly experience it you must go back for a longer stay.

[AryMay]

Time to continue on with more of Grenada...

 

Clement pulled off on the side of the road at Grand Etang National Park where some monkeys were playing. We got out of the van and watched them for a short time and got some photographs. There were a lot of other vans and people in the area so not sure if there was something to see besides the monkeys or not...we didn't stick around long enough to find out.

 

 

 

 

We passed by a Rainbow Eucalyptus tree:

 

 

A little closer view...

 

Edited January 25, 2014 by AryMay

[AryMay]

The mountains in Grenada are beautiful...but I'm glad I don't have to drive them on a daily basis. One of the many hairpin turns...

 

 

Some of the views as we drove...

 

 

A zoomed in view of the Emerald Princess. (My new camera has a 50x optical zoom and I've really been having fun with it!!)

 

 

 

So many power lines!! Our city has buried all of our utility lines so I forget how ugly these things are.

 

 

[AryMay]

Our final stop of the day was at Annandale Falls. There is actually another waterfall that you pass by just before getting to Annandale Falls, but it was alongside a busy road and it didn’t appear that there was any place to pull over.

 

Annandale Falls must be included as a destination on every tour. With two cruise ships in port that day, the parking lot was filled with vans and there was a crowd of people coming and going. There was a small fee ($2 I think) to view the falls which Clement paid as part of our tour price. Here is a photo of Clement with one of the locals…you could get your photo taken with her for a fee.

 

 

As we approached the walkway to get to the falls, there were multiple stands set up selling spices…all appeared to have the same items. The vendors were aggressive…yelling and trying to get people to stop at their stand. Clement took us to one of the stands and introduced us to the girl working there and told us she would be a good person to buy from. I assured her I would be back and we continued on. There was a short walk to the falls on a paved path that passed by all sorts of tropical plants and flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

[AryMay]

Local divers were at the falls and would climb to the top of the cliffs and dive into the pool below for tips. (Levi’s dive into Titou Gorge the previous day was much more spectacular!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking back from the falls the girl at the spice stand remembered me and before I even had a chance to say anything, she had called out and reminded me of my promise to stop. Besides several bags of nutmeg, I purchased eight of the spice necklaces she was selling…their scent was amazing. I was also excited to see they were selling vanilla. For the last 12 years, I have managed to buy enough vanilla on our cruises to keep me supplied for all of my baking. I had finished my last bottle right before the cruise so was looking to stock up.

 

The vanilla was bottled in recycled bottles with a handmade label stuck on…she said she had made it herself. Since I was buying so many things, I was given a better price…$17 total for 3 small bags of nutmeg, 3 bottles of vanilla and 8 spice necklaces.

[whataboutport]

Wow that is a great price! Do you have pics of the spice necklaces? I'm not sure I understand that. Is it in a pouch?

[AryMay]

We have learned from previous cruises that often the best shopping is done in the local grocery stores! At the end of the tour, we asked Clement to drop us off at a grocery store close to the ship. Bob was excited to find nutmeg banana ketchup. Banana ketchup was something we had purchased in St. Lucia on a previous cruise and really enjoyed...but NUTMEG banana ketchup was something new! So far we haven’t opened the bottle so no comment on how it tastes. I also bought another small bottle of vanilla.

 

The currency in Grenada is the Eastern Caribbean dollar. Luckily they were willing to take our US dollars and their cash register did the conversion automatically. The change was given in the local currency.

 

 

 

As we were walking back to the ship, this guy started carrying on a conversation with us. At first I just thought he was being friendly, but then realized he wanted us to pay him to be a tour guide. Bob’s backpack was so loaded down with bottles of banana ketchup and vanilla all he wanted to do was get back to the ship!

 

 

The Sendall Tunnel is located right by where the ship docks.

 

 

 

Had we not been so tired it would have been interesting to climb up and see this fort overlooking the city...but the hill was steep and there were so. many. steps. Really...this would have been something that should have been included on our tour I think.

 

[AryMay]

As we headed back to the ship I convinced Bob we should just stop for a bit and check out the craft booths set up near the pier. Can you believe it…I bought more vanilla! I’ve given some away, but kept enough that I should be set for some time!

 

Here is a photo I took of some of our purchases in Grenada. (Notice the vanilla is in recycled pop bottles!) The scent of the spice necklaces was so strong that for a couple of days I could actually smell them in our cabin before we opened the door! I am sorry to say that they have not retained the scent. I have read that you can rejuvenate the smell by dipping the necklaces in hot water, but it didn’t seem to work for me.

 

 

With one more big bottle of vanilla, Bob’s pack was now just about ready to burst, but I insisted we look through the Esplanade Mall at the cruise ship dock. Our only purchase was a Grenada t-shirt for him so at least it didn’t burden him down too much more.

 

 

With this being our first Princess cruise I was surprised to find out that at each port there is a crew member handing out chilled washcloths to passengers as they return! How nice…and something that I had never seen on Carnival.

 

 

 

[AryMay]

One last look at Grenada as we set sail for Bonaire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AryMay]

Winding up our day in Grenada…

 

While I was getting ready for dinner, Bob grabbed my camera and ran outside to get some sunset photos. I did the next best thing…watched the ship’s cam on TV.

 

 

And also a moon shot...

 

 

Not having made a prior reservation for dinner, we agreed to share a table…but asked to be seated with other couples. Maryna (the hostess at the Michelangelo Dining room) was just about ready to seat us with some others waiting when the head waiter came and asked us to go to the DaVinci Dining room instead. The DaVinci Dining room was used for traditional dining until 7:30 and afterwards it switches to Anytime Dining…but even though it was only around 6 pm they had a table for 8 open and that’s where we ended up. I felt bad because one of the ladies in our group had problems walking and I could tell getting up the steps was hard for her. Here is a photo of Bob and Maryna taken later in the cruise.

 

 

We skipped the entertainment in the Princess Theater...cabaret singer Lovena Fox…and instead went to the game show, Princess Pyramids, in the Explorers Lounge.

 

 

There was one couple competing who kept the whole lounge in stitches laughing. They had been married 71 years and the wife had the hardest time trying to get her husband to guess a word from her clues. She finally had to give a hint for “Bill Clinton”. I’m not able to print what she said (the post would get deleted for sure!) but he got it! The whole room was howling!

 

The night ended with the Ultimate Deck Party by the pool. Bob, Kent & Laurel had gone to several line dance classes during the week and this gave them a chance to put the lessons to use.