Review Emerald med cruise with teenager. Pics & tips too

[Baltic waves]

Hi I was also on the Med cruise with a disembarkation time of 0945, we managed to leave ship just after 1030 when our colour was called.

[Lizzyanne]

Hi I was also on the Med cruise with a disembarkation time of 0945, we managed to leave ship just after 1030 when our colour was called.

 

Was any explanation given for the late disembarkation?

We are on this cruise at the end of September and have a coach to meet so would not like being delayed.

Thanks

[Baltic waves]

There was no real explanation given, but the dealays appeared to be on shore with a shortage of staff to unload the luggage

[Lizzyanne]

There was no real explanation given, but the dealays appeared to be on shore with a shortage of staff to unload the luggage

 

Thanks

Last time we were on Princess they were running way ahead of time so our colour had been called when we arrived at the meeting point, we sat and waited until we realised what had happened. I learnt to ignore the time given and to go early. Also found this happened with other cruise lines.

[Baltic waves]

Thanks for the tip, will try the same in future

[surran12]

"On the first night my son went along to the teen club (I needed to sign permission slip first), he soon made many friends and has commented that the teen club overall is better than both RCCL ships we have sailed with."

 

What's her name? :)

 

haha, I was thinking along the same lines! ;)

[littlesteelo]

Was any explanation given for the late disembarkation?

We are on this cruise at the end of September and have a coach to meet so would not like being delayed.

Thanks

 

All they said over the ships announcements was that it was a delay due to 'terminal logistics'

[Tom Baker]

Great review, thanks for posting, we're off to the Baltic on the 16th Aug and your review has certainly wetted our appetite.

 

We look forward to the quizzes on board though we never win as the questions always seem to be geared to the US passengers. We will have to find some like minded American friends to help us out :) ;)

[dforeigner]

Thanks for taking time to write a review.

[rdsqrl]

. . . We were deeply disappointed with the Trevi fountain part of the tour. The perimeter is surrounded by scaffolding and what looked like bullet proof glass. This restoration appeared to have been going on for quite some time. If we had known this, we would have chosen the tour similar to this but without trevi (the similar one was about $50 pp cheaper) I am contacting princess about this because I believe there is a misrepresentation in the tour description. . . .

While I sympathize with your disappointment (my parents went to Rome over two decades ago and my mum's still complaining that the Trevi Fountain was closed for renovations!), the fact that the fountain is currently closed for reno is a pretty open secret. At some point, one has to take responsibility for doing basic research on one's destination. Should Princess note it? Yeah, in a perfect world, but I don't ascribe to malicious intent what is probably more properly categorized as logistical impossibility to keep track of all the myriad of openings/closings in every tour description. Again, it comes down to the traveler.

Edited July 29, 2014 by rdsqrl

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your nice review, glad you had a good cruise.

[caribill]

I don't ascribe to malicious intent what is probably more properly categorized as logistical impossibility to keep track of all the myriad of openings/closings in every tour description.

 

If a site is closed for a week or so, I can understand your position.

 

When it is closed for months, the tour provider should notify Princess who could then modify the tour description.

[LidoLiz]

Great review, thank you!!

 

It sounds like your fellow cruisers were able to walk through the Civitavecchia port into town...was the port still under construction? (I had heard you had to take a mandatory shuttle that went in the opposite direction of the train station, which we hope to walk to on our Sept. cruise on Emerald.)

 

LidoLiz

[Touristbay]

The port is still under construction but you can walk no problems. If walking from ship it would take 30 mins to train station or free transfer to end of port and walk to station would take only 10 mins

[AJ28]

Hi, TouristBay we were on this cruise too and enjoyed it, thanks for review.

 

Re the shuttle to Civitavecchia, the bus does stop a bit further away than it used to but it will only take you extra ten minutes to walk to the station. This is what we did, it's not a problem.

 

Re the query about anytime dining. We usually ate earlier and opted to share a table so never had to wait at all. However, when we were leaving the dining room (7.30-8pm) it was busy with a queue.

 

We too were delayed getting off on disembarkation morning. 9:05 am became 10am. Not sure why. Thankfully car was five minute walk away, but getting out of Southampton took ages.