Review of Emerald Princess 2/27-3/5

[rs12065]

We just returned from the 7 night voyage of the Emerald Princess. As with just about any cruise we had a fantastic time, mainly because of the two couples we traveled with. Here are some of my observations of the ship.

 

Embarkation: As this was my first cruise as a Platinum guest, we breezed past the long line outside of the terminal and went immediately to the check-in counter where we got our cruise cards and we were on the ship by 11:40 am. Our cabins were ready so we dropped off our carry-ons and went to the Horizon Court for some lunch.

 

Cabins: We booked this cruise very late and wanted to get cabins close to our traveling companions. We were able to get cabins R310, R314, and R614. Being on the very high Riviera deck we were concerned that we might feel ship movements, but this cruise may have been one of the smoothest ever. I had not been on a Princess ship in at least 6 years, and I was surprised to see how small the cabins were, probably the smallest cabin I have ever stayed in. There was a desk with a small chair and an armchair that we constantly had to move because it either blocked the sliding door to the balcony or blocked the chair under the desk from being pulled out to use.

The beds were very, very comfortable and the cabin was in excellent shape.

The bathroom was tiny but efficient and of course had that body snatching shower curtain which did little to keep the water in the shower.

 

Food: We ate all of our dinners in the anytime dining room. Except for one evening the service was excellent and well paced. I was not particularly fond of the menu selections and preparations but I certainly didn't go hungry.

On the second formal night, our party of 6 was led to a table but the Maitre De stopped about 3 tables short of ours, pointed to our table and told us to sit there and then he promptly walked away. Seriously? There were no water glasses on the table and the waiter immediately came over with menus. We asked for water and mentioned we wanted to order something from the bar. After 15 minutes the waiter came back to take our dinner orders....no water glasses, no rolls, no butter and no drinks and bottle of wine we ordered. There were many unoccupied tables so the problem wasn't that the waitstaff was over worked. Just a bad night all around in the dining room.

 

Over all, we had a wonderful cruise. The last several cruises were on Carnival and RCCL and we appreciated the lack of annoying announcements heard on those other lines. Captain Marco Fortezze was difficult to understand over the speaker system, but hey, his English is way better than my Italian.

 

This cruise stopped at 4 ports. In Grand Cayman we rented a cabana at Royal Palms. Great location, great beach, good food and service. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and the day was mostly cloud with intermittent rain showers.

Roatan was beautiful but much more crowded than when I had been there last in 2008, and the proliferation of clam shells on beach loungers prevented views of the water unless you were in the first row. The weather here was beautiful and the water temperature perfect for cooling off.

Cozumel was again a cloudy day and we went to Seaquarium Beach but left after only few hours fearing it might rain (it didn't).

The last day was at Princess Cay. It was a beautiful day but we chose to stay on the ship and have the facilities to ourselves. Again, a beautiful, hot, sunny day.

 

Strangely, one of the pools, the Neptune pool, was so warm it could have been mistaken for a hot tub. The other pool was somewhat cooler and refreshing.

 

We are looking forward to another cruise with Princess. We do have a Mediterranean cruise booked on the Brilliance of the Seas in September, 2016, but we will probably do another Princess cruise in the Caribbean next year.

[WisCruiser2]

We were also on this cruise, and overall, felt it was one of the nicest we've been on! Can't do much about cloudy weather, but we didn't have to wear coats! I agree about the smooth seas, that was a bonus.

 

Didn't run into any bad service in the dining rooms -- we used both the DaVinci and Michaelangelo, depending on what time we wanted to eat. Except for the first night, we were seated right away as we always said we'd share. 1st formal night we were seated at one of the 2-tops without asking, which worked out well, too. Having been on a "Noro cruise" in the past, we were happy to see the salt & pepper shakers on the tables all week.

 

We snorkeled at all the ports, even with the intermittent rain in Grand Cayman. We got talked into going to Sky Reef on Cozumel at the cab stand (instead of Money Bar where we intended to go). Good snorkeling there, but it's also where several snorkel tours went so it got pretty crowded. West Bay Beach on Roatan was my favorite!

 

Some of our Roll Call got together for SailAway but the Meet & Greet was kind of a bust. We met a lot of nice people throughout the week and didn't run into too many obnoxious ones. That's what really made it a great time.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[mellon1]

We just returned from the 7 night voyage of the Emerald Princess. As with just about any cruise we had a fantastic time, mainly because of the two couples we traveled with. Here are some of my observations of the ship.

 

Embarkation: As this was my first cruise as a Platinum guest, we breezed past the long line outside of the terminal and went immediately to the check-in counter where we got our cruise cards and we were on the ship by 11:40 am. Our cabins were ready so we dropped off our carry-ons and went to the Horizon Court for some lunch.

 

Cabins: We booked this cruise very late and wanted to get cabins close to our traveling companions. We were able to get cabins R310, R314, and R614. Being on the very high Riviera deck we were concerned that we might feel ship movements, but this cruise may have been one of the smoothest ever. I had not been on a Princess ship in at least 6 years, and I was surprised to see how small the cabins were, probably the smallest cabin I have ever stayed in. There was a desk with a small chair and an armchair that we constantly had to move because it either blocked the sliding door to the balcony or blocked the chair under the desk from being pulled out to use.

The beds were very, very comfortable and the cabin was in excellent shape.

The bathroom was tiny but efficient and of course had that body snatching shower curtain which did little to keep the water in the shower.

 

Food: We ate all of our dinners in the anytime dining room. Except for one evening the service was excellent and well paced. I was not particularly fond of the menu selections and preparations but I certainly didn't go hungry.

On the second formal night, our party of 6 was led to a table but the Maitre De stopped about 3 tables short of ours, pointed to our table and told us to sit there and then he promptly walked away. Seriously? There were no water glasses on the table and the waiter immediately came over with menus. We asked for water and mentioned we wanted to order something from the bar. After 15 minutes the waiter came back to take our dinner orders....no water glasses, no rolls, no butter and no drinks and bottle of wine we ordered. There were many unoccupied tables so the problem wasn't that the waitstaff was over worked. Just a bad night all around in the dining room.

 

Over all, we had a wonderful cruise. The last several cruises were on Carnival and RCCL and we appreciated the lack of annoying announcements heard on those other lines. Captain Marco Fortezze was difficult to understand over the speaker system, but hey, his English is way better than my Italian.

 

This cruise stopped at 4 ports. In Grand Cayman we rented a cabana at Royal Palms. Great location, great beach, good food and service. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and the day was mostly cloud with intermittent rain showers.

Roatan was beautiful but much more crowded than when I had been there last in 2008, and the proliferation of clam shells on beach loungers prevented views of the water unless you were in the first row. The weather here was beautiful and the water temperature perfect for cooling off.

Cozumel was again a cloudy day and we went to Seaquarium Beach but left after only few hours fearing it might rain (it didn't).

The last day was at Princess Cay. It was a beautiful day but we chose to stay on the ship and have the facilities to ourselves. Again, a beautiful, hot, sunny day.

 

Strangely, one of the pools, the Neptune pool, was so warm it could have been mistaken for a hot tub. The other pool was somewhat cooler and refreshing.

 

We are looking forward to another cruise with Princess. We do have a Mediterranean cruise booked on the Brilliance of the Seas in September, 2016, but we will probably do another Princess cruise in the Caribbean next year.

 

We were on the Emerald Princess from 1/23 to 2/27 and though Captain Marco Fortezze was very friendly and one of the best captains. We had an emergency rescue at sea, which he kept us abreast of every step of the way from 6:30 a.m. until complete. Someone once told me in order to speak Italian, you just need to put a and a before and after each word, he was Italian. It is probably just as hard for them to understand English.

 

In our opinion, the Captain and all the crew were the best ever. We love the Emerald and will miss her in the Caribbean.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the comments.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for your review.

 

Keith

[floridalover5623]

Cabins: We booked this cruise very late and wanted to get cabins close to our traveling companions. We were able to get cabins R310, R314, and R614. Being on the very high Riviera deck we were concerned that we might feel ship movements, but this cruise may have been one of the smoothest ever. I had not been on a Princess ship in at least 6 years, and I was surprised to see how small the cabins were, probably the smallest cabin I have ever stayed in. There was a desk with a small chair and an armchair that we constantly had to move because it either blocked the sliding door to the balcony or blocked the chair under the desk from being pulled out to use.

The beds were very, very comfortable and the cabin was in excellent shape.

The bathroom was tiny but efficient and of course had that body snatching shower curtain which did little to keep the water in the shower.

 

Food: We ate all of our dinners in the anytime dining room. Except for one evening the service was excellent and well paced. I was not particularly fond of the menu selections and preparations but I certainly didn't go hungry.

On the second formal night, our party of 6 was led to a table but the Maitre De stopped about 3 tables short of ours, pointed to our table and told us to sit there and then he promptly walked away. Seriously? There were no water glasses on the table and the waiter immediately came over with menus. We asked for water and mentioned we wanted to order something from the bar. After 15 minutes the waiter came back to take our dinner orders....no water glasses, no rolls, no butter and no drinks and bottle of wine we ordered. There were many unoccupied tables so the problem wasn't that the waitstaff was over worked. Just a bad night all around in the dining room.

 

 

 

 

You could have dragged the chair & stashed it in the closet. It lets you move around the cabin a little easier.

 

Also the bread & butter missing on the tables seems to be a new cost saving feature on the Emerald. Why provide them if you don't eat them. On our trip they gave us 3 pieces of butter at a time. When the main meal arrived & you asked for more they had to make a special trip to the kitchen. Strange way to save money. The waiters were not happy about it.

[blue_sea]

In February we returned to Princess after a few years of cruising P&O round the Caribbean. I must say that on the Emerald Princess standards have dropped significantly. Having elected to go anytime dining we found the service extremely poor. On more than one occasion the waiters couldn't even find the table he was directed to. The selection and quality of food was poor with very meagre portions for example often a very small piece of poorly cooked meet with just one small potato and a hint of carrot on the side. Not the sort of main course I expected. Service was also poor often waitng up to 3 hours to complete. Stating at 19.00 for an inadequate meal that finished at 22.00 was frankly a disappointing experience. The Maitre'D seemed to be harassed most evenings clearly he knew what was going on so he chose to avoid most passengers. Most waiters whilst friendly gave the impression that they understood our orders but frequently the wrong person received the wrong course or in some cases had to miss out completely. We got the impression that the crew were confused most of the time.

 

As for breakfast, in the main dining room service was poor, quality questionable and quantity meagre. Imagine receiving just one rasher of bacon with a cooked breakfast, that

happened frequently and toast was a rarity, you order it but it may not arrive. Even when requesting coffee we lucky to have more than one cup poured during the meal. Just bear in mind this cruise departed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida many passengers expected better than this. Alas we ended up in the buffet which was not our preferred dining option !!

 

As done many times before we went for a minisuite suite stateroom and found this was quite adequate with a very good cabin steward but it has to said Princess have removed all the little extras we expected, why ? With the exposed balcony on deck we would have at least expected bathrobes as standard !! Many readers may think this as strange but look over the side you will see D deck balconies.

 

 

Having cruised 12 times in the last 6 six years we can honestly say that this was our worst and now wonder if Carnival have reduced things too far. Princess (Carnival) should be ashamed to calling this 5 star cruising clearly they have managed to dissuade one pair of Platinum members from cruising with them again.