Emerald Princess Review 10/1-10/8: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[octoberdana]

Emerald Princess Review- Mexican Rivera out of San Pedro 10/1-10/8

I’m writing this review on my last sea day on my balcony overlooking the ocean. What a peaceful scene and I’m doing my best to remember all the things that happened and that we experiencedon this cruise. This was only our second cruise (the other being in 2014 on Caribbean Princess). So we still don't have a lot to compare to, especially since much has really changed since our last adventure in August of 2014.

 

Embarkation: Westayed at the Crowne Plaza near the port, the hotel left a lot to be desiredfor the price, however location is king and it had that in spades. We skipped the shuttle and walked down to thepier ourselves, arriving around 9:45. Embarkation was pretty smooth and we were on the ship eating lunch inthe Botticelli Dining Room by 12:30 pm. We loved our state room location we stayed on Aloha deck room A747. It took some getting used to feeling the movementof the ship, but it was so convenient to the pool, horizon, and even the diningroom. Muster drill uneventful and quickmuch better than our last cruise. Wehave only been on the Caribbean princess so we took some time to familiarizeourselves with The Emerald. She is trulya beautiful ship. We absolutely loved thesail away party it was a lot of fun, we didn’t do the sail away party last timewe cruised so we enjoyed the drinks and the music and watching the boat go intothe ocean from the 15th deck. We had first seating dinner in Botticelli dining room, wait staff was adequatethough not super friendly. There was a Princess Dancers show in the theaterbut we skipped it, we went to Musical Bingo which was a lot of fun. Enjoyedkaraoke in Club Fusion for the evening…

 

 

Day 2 at Sea: Theyreally packed a lot into this sea day. DH sleeps late so I had breakfast in the buffet and then enjoyed walkingaround the ship. Played bingo a coupleof times, and had the pub lunch, it was fair. One complaint: the Wheelhouse baris not big enough for all he people who wanted the pub lunch it was packed andmany people left. It was formal nightbut the food in the dining room was somewhat disappointing. No steak and the only seafood offered wasShrimp Daniele. We enjoyed the Captain’sChampagne party and took in the show in the Princess theater. The entertainment during the evening was sogood. The first thing in Club Fusion wasdancing with the stars. It was packed,standing room only . The highlight of the night was the first round of thevoice of the oceans auditions- 16 singers. Some of them really bad but a couple were really, really good. The event was held in Club Fusion and it didn’thave enough room for all the people who wanted to watch. It was impossible toget drink service because there were so many people. But the entertainment between these twoevents was really great and we enjoyed our evening.

 

Day 3 at Sea: Thedidn’t pack as much into this day, honestly it was somewhat of a let down afterthe jam packed first sea day. Played oneround of Bingo and enjoyed lounging around the ship, lunch was pizza and icecream from Lido deck. Yum! Second night entertainment was a countryshow- which we skipped but we enjoyed the 2nd round of voice of theocean auditions. We also played sometrivia and just overall had nice relaxing day at seas. We were invited to theCaptains Circle event for Gold and Ruby members and honestly we would skip itnext time. They had a band play a fewsongs, the princess singers came out and sang 2 songs, and they did a drawing. One state room won Elite benefits for theduration of their cruise. Gave away acouple of bottles of champagne. Told usabout the upcoming medallion. They gaveus all free drink coupons but we had the beverage package so it wasn’t neededfor us. We did go to the show in the theaterwhich I didn’t care for, it was from Ric Steel- heard it was good but we don’t’care for much country music. We didn’tattend but they did have a 50/60’s rock and roll dance party. We watched the second round of auditions forVoice of the Ocean.

 

 

Day 4: Port Day: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Honestly the day started off not great. The excursion we paid for with princess was adisaster. 20 minutes late picking up andanother 20 minutes to load buses, skipped part of our tour, sat and waited alot, dead time, no lunch till 3:00 pm. Then couldn’t get back to port. HOT day… tired… Dinner was Indian menu so we opted for the buffet…however, that was all Indian too. So weopted for the International Café enjoyed my tuna sandwich and carrot cake. There was a sail away party with a DJ thatwas fun on Lido. So yummy! In the Princess theater for entertainment wasSteve Moris… He was hilarious and we laughed so much. Following that was probably my favorite thingin the whole cruise… the Olde Pub Show. The crew performed songs and had the audience get involved.. it washysterical. The wonderful shows made upfor the horrible port experience.

 

Day 5: Port Day: Mazatlán, Mexico. Today we pulled into Mazatlán around 7:30am. Hubby and I decided not to do anofficial tour. Instead we hired a taxidriver for 2 hours and he drove us all around Mazatlán. We saw the beautiful cathedral the ImmaculateConception. We also beautiful views fromthe beach and the rock divers. We then did some shipping on the pier, anddecided to go back to the ship for lunch. Well it was so, so hot that many other cruisers did the same thing. Both lines of Horizon buffet were open on aport day at lunch times. Pools werepacked with people; I did a little swimming in the Lotus Spa pool. I didthe ladies night at the jewelry store, they gave out pink champagne and gave aspecial gift to any lady wearing pink. We skipped the show in the theater and attended the Karaoke powerhour. Tonight was the Love Boat Discoparty but we were just not feeling up to being out on the pool deck, so I playeda couple of hours of slots in the casino.

 

Day 6 Port Day: CaboSan Lucas, Mexico. The port was superquick in Cabo. We docked at 7:00 am andall aboard was at 1:30. Barely enough time to really do much off the ship. We hired a glass bottom boat right off thepier for $25. He took us out to the arcand lovers beach. We saw a sea lionsleeping right on the rocks and had a great view. We decided we did not want the buffet lunchagain so we ate at Senor Frogs, because it was right by the tender boats. The afternoon Bingo had a technological snafuresulting in the session being cancelled and some unhappy cruisers. For entertainment this evening they did theusual Princess trivia and Karaoke, they also did a show by the Emerald Princessdancers- we skipped it. They also did ahilarious newlywed style game in Club Fusion, everyone was rolling laughing. In thepiazza at 10:30 they did Oktoberfest and balloon drop it was so much fun! This was the second formal night and they hadlobster and prawns in the dining room, as well as baked Alaska.

 

Day 7 Sea Day. It wasoverall a quieter day with most people packing, buying pictures, etc. They did offer the usual Bingo games, trivia,art auctions. The Voice of the Oceanfinals were at 4:00 in the theatre, it was a packed house and a lot offun. I was worried that it would takeforever to get our cruise cards back (they collect them when they give you avoting device), but it was super quick. The evening entertainment was a hilarious game show called Liars GameClub Show we laughed so hard, it was so much fun. Also, in the theater they had a variety showthat we didn’t go to, however we did go see the mentalist Julien Losa and thatwas very mind blowing!

 

 

Disembarkation: In true Princess fashion, was pretty well organized. Our meeting place was Club Fusion at 9:45. So left our State Room at 8:00 and went up to Horizon for breakfast and ate at the aft pool. Took our time and then sat at the pool. They came on and made an announcement that they were 20 minutes behind so we headed to Club Fusion at 10:00, they called for us to disembark at 10:05. Luggage collection was fast, customs was quick and we caught a Lyft to LAX. We were sitting at the gate for 2:05 pm flight at 11:35. Very smooth overall.

 

 

 

The good: We love thesize of the Princess ships and the Emerald is beautiful. We enjoyed International Café and we madegreat friends with our sort of tablemates at dinner. Thesun was out for every day of our cruise, and despite the heat it wasgorgeous. The ice cream and pizza onLido was so delicious, especially the ice cream in the heat. We made friends with several of the waitersparticularly in Club Fusion and they took good care of us. We loved our stateroom! We stayed in A747 on Starboard side and trulyloved it. Great location, and so privateand quiet in the back of the ship, little noise or traffic LOVED IT! We got the sip and sail and I really enjoyedhaving the drinks package especially for 3 sea days. Loved that I could get soda, coffee, bottled water,or cocktails and not worry about the extra charges to my room. Especially since it was so hot on and off theship.

The cruise Director was FANTASTIC. This cruise the entertainment was so muchbetter than our previous cruise on the Caribbean Princess. It was very diverse and there was somethingfor all age groups.

The new luxury beds are so comfortable, seriously loved howwelcoming and comfy they were.

 

The bad: The food inthe buffet was not great. Almost everylunch and dinner most of the dishes were Indian, Asian, or Spanish. Very little variety in type of food. The breakfasthowever, was very boring and they served the exact same things every morning inthe buffet. The food was also cold. Since I’m not a morning person I prefer toeat in the buffet so I don’t have to talk to people. The food in the dining room was mostly good, althoughone night was Indian night so we skipped that completely. The first formal night the food was justregular, however, the 2nd formal night was lobster and prawns. Service was overall adequate, but drinks tooka long time to come out as junior waiters now bring the drinks to thetable.

The internet is not only slow but the pricing is ridiculousI paid $69 for 120 minutes and I probably only got about 40 minutes of actualusage time out of it.

The popular events weren’t held in big enough venues soseating was tight or standing room only. In the major events in Club Fusion or Explorers lounge it was hard toget service because there were so many people.

 

The ugly: The air conditioningbroke in Puerto Vallarta and really didn’t work at all until the last seaday. You are talking about being inMexico where the heat and humidity is just awful. Many passengers were complaining and somethreatened to get off the ship in Mazatlán because it was so dreadful hot. It was 90+ degrees in many state rooms, andeveryone was sweating on or off the ship. The passengers who complained with their room number got a $25credit. The rest of us didn’t getanything. Apparently, the airconditioning broke because there was build up of some type from the ship makingthe transition to the cold of Alaska to the heat of Mexico. It really did make for a miserable couple ofdays, as there was no place to go to cool down.

Excursion fiasco: Ialready touched on this but the excursion was a huge disappointment. There was more that went wrong, but don’twant to belabor it. That happening andthe next day air conditioning breaking certainly made for a couple ofuncomfortable days.

 

 

Other Items of Note:

Time change was rough- we were on LA time 2 days of thecruise, and 1 hour forward for the rest. Time in Puerto Vallarta was different than ship time.

In all three ports someone came back to the ship late andheld up sail away.

Happy Hour was daily 3-4 in Wheelhouse and 10-11 or10:30-11:30 in Club Fusion

Milkshakes were not included in the premier/AIPB package

There were a lot of piano music/singing dancing events goingon throughout the evening in addition to the shows/karaoke/etc. I alreadymentioned. There truly was something foreveryone.

This was the Cruise Director’s last voyage before hisbreak. He was fantastic, very high energyand personable.

There were quite a few kids on the ship more than I wasexpecting during the school year.

Talked to many Princess Elites who are unhappy with thechanges that have been made recently/the cutbacks. Still tons of Elites and Platinum on thiscruise.

The new Princess@Sea was pretty cool and let you see the day’sactivities without carrying around the Paper Patter, which I reallyappreciated.

 

 

 

Final thoughts overall a great cruise. We are anxiously awaiting our next cruise inFebruary on Allure of the Seas. Can’twait to do some comparisons. Met a tonof interesting people on the cruise, many long term cruisers who all had differentthings they liked about Princess. Mostof the boat was from California so we did notice a more diverse age range on this ship, but less geographical diversity. One of my favorite things about this cruise was I truly met some greatpeople and even exchanged a few email addresses. I liked the itinerary but think I wouldprefer to do it in reverse, with Cabo first, then Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta and two sea days at the end that would have let us stay longer in the ports. We purchased our first set of Reflections DVD and looking forward to watching them and reliving the cruise. The Emerald Princess is a great ship, very welcoming and made for a great cruise overall. Service was overall good and a relaxing cruise.

[easyboy]

We were also on the Emerald last year and liked sailing on her. We also found the crew to be hardworking and friendly.

[warthog2608]

Interesting and informative review. We went on a Mexican Riviera on the Grand and had a little different experience. I really enjoy all 3 of the ports you visited and have gone to all 3 many times as a non cruiser. When we visited the ports on the Grand we just went on our own since we know our way around. (wife is from Mazatlán).

 

 

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[Lucky TGO]

Thanks for sharing. Very nice review. :)

Tony

[Jojiboy]

Thanks for sharing your review.

 

 

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[socaljo]

Thanks for taking the time to write the review! I'm going on the Emerald in 32 days with a friend for her very 1st cruise, it's been fun watching her excitement build! We are doing the 5 day - 1 port (Cabo) and I'm even happier now that we chose this one. She's excited to experience the sea days! And I LOVE sea days...so we'll be happy girls!! :D

[sunsetbeachgal]

If this cruise had a lot of kids, fasten your seat belt for the Allure! We did the Oasis last November and they were everywhere! [emoji15]

 

 

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[octoberdana]

Thanks for taking the time to write the review! I'm going on the Emerald in 32 days with a friend for her very 1st cruise, it's been fun watching her excitement build! We are doing the 5 day - 1 port (Cabo) and I'm even happier now that we chose this one. She's excited to experience the sea days! And I LOVE sea days...so we'll be happy girls!! :D

 

We absolutely loved Cabo and really wished we would have had more time there. You ill love it, be prepared though it might still be smoldering hot. So plan accordingly. :)

 

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[octoberdana]

Interesting and informative review. We went on a Mexican Riviera on the Grand and had a little different experience. I really enjoy all 3 of the ports you visited and have gone to all 3 many times as a non cruiser. When we visited the ports on the Grand we just went on our own since we know our way around. (wife is from Mazatlán).

 

 

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What did you experience?

[azbirdmom]

We were on the same cruise. We also experienced the mess with excursions in Puerto Vallarta which I attributed to it being the Emerald's first visit there this year. The pier was narrow and with so many different tours called at the same time many people got lost. We were on the Las Caletas excursion and had to walk approximately a mile to get to the boat that would take us there. We lost over half the people and waited about 45 minutes for all of them to make it to the boat. Not a good start but it turned out to be a fun excursion.

 

We also were among the unlucky few who lost air conditioning in Puerto Vallarta - our steward said it was affecting a handful of cabins aft that day including our suite. He had called it in and hoped it would be fixed soon. The AC started when we sailed away but then in Mazatlan the AC for the entire ship was down. I called Passenger Services immediately when we returned from our excursion and they said everyone was miserable and that they were informed by the engineers that it should be better once the ship started moving. I was polite with them and didn't expect anything so we were surprised to get a letter on the last day of the cruise telling us what caused the issue and giving us $75 per person OBC. Maybe we got more because we had two days of inconvenience? In any event it was a nice gesture, especially when we did not expect compensation.

 

We were on the first disembarkation walk-off group that was supposed to go at 8 but that was about 15 minutes delayed. Sounds like the delay continued throughout the morning. Once we were called disembarkation was quick as was the pickup from the Doubletree Hotel shuttle. We highly recommend the Doubletree - good deal being able to leave your car there and use their shuttle to and from the port. Will definitely stay there again when we drive to the port.

 

We enjoyed the cruise very much and will likely do this itinerary again in the future.

[blallee23]

Great review. We will be on the Emerald next month with the same itinerary.

[AZ Ocean Lover]

Thank you for your review. I have to tell you that I admire your patience regarding writing about the AC. No AC this time of year in Mexico would have been one of the first things I ranted about (and I don't rant easily!).

 

We are going at the end of the month on the same itinerary on the Ruby so it was a lot of fun reading about your experience.

[Timbles]

"Milkshakes were not included in the premier/AIPB package"

 

I am wondering why this would be since in the Terms and Conditions of the Premier Beverage Package is specifically says "Smoothies and milk shakes (if available)" :confused:

[azbirdmom]

Thank you for your review. I have to tell you that I admire your patience regarding writing about the AC. No AC this time of year in Mexico would have been one of the first things I ranted about (and I don't rant easily!).

 

We are going at the end of the month on the same itinerary on the Ruby so it was a lot of fun reading about your experience.

 

It was pretty miserable but I guess we were lucky enough to be on excursions most of the time when it was down so our misery was at least limited. The AC did work when we were underway, just not when docked in Puerto Vallarta or Mazatlan. It was brutally hot in both places though so not a good thing. This was the cause according to the letter we received from the Hotel General Manager on October 7th:

 

"Our recent re-position from the cold waters of Alaska to the warm waters of Mexico caused marine growth that had developed in the intake pipes of our seawater cooling system to die, therefore clogging the filters and greatly diminishing the capacity of our cooling stations. Our Engineering team worked around the clock to remove and clear the filters, and we are pleased to report that conditions have been restored back to normal capacity."

Yuck!

[octoberdana]

It was pretty miserable but I guess we were lucky enough to be on excursions most of the time when it was down so our misery was at least limited. The AC did work when we were underway, just not when docked in Puerto Vallarta or Mazatlan. It was brutally hot in both places though so not a good thing. This was the cause according to the letter we received from the Hotel General Manager on October 7th:

 

"Our recent re-position from the cold waters of Alaska to the warm waters of Mexico caused marine growth that had developed in the intake pipes of our seawater cooling system to die, therefore clogging the filters and greatly diminishing the capacity of our cooling stations. Our Engineering team worked around the clock to remove and clear the filters, and we are pleased to report that conditions have been restored back to normal capacity."

Yuck!

 

We got back on the ship early in Mazatlan to escape the heat, only to be greeted with more heat. :( I'm glad that they gave you guys something it was truly miserable. I honestly thought I was going to pass out for a while, I went to the pool just to escape it and I'm not a swimmer.

 

 

As for the previous poster who asked about the milkshakes, I told the employee at the ice cream place that i had the package but she said it was a recent change. I considered having customer service remove it but the lines were horribly long and I decided $2.50 wasn't worth it. Also I just realized that my spacing didn't copy over from Word, sorry about the words crammed together. :(

[Timbles]

"As for the previous poster who asked about the milkshakes, I told the employee at the ice cream place that i had the package but she said it was a recent change. I considered having customer service remove it but the lines were horribly long and I decided $2.50 wasn't worth it."

 

My guess is the ice cream employee must have thought you had the soda & more package which has recently dropped milkshakes. I detest spending more than an minute or two in the customer service line, not wasting precious vacation time like that!

[BritinSoCal]

>> The food in the buffet was not great. Almost every lunch and dinner most of the dishes were Indian, Asian, or Spanish. << We're on the Emerald next month, so here's hopping the Horizon Court menu is as described - especially wrt dishes from the Indian sub-continent! For breakfast there's usually poached fruit (apple or pear) and Congee - so Mrs SoCal and myself are generally sorted from a culinary perspective.

[floridalover5623]

We were on the same cruise. We also experienced the mess with excursions in Puerto Vallarta which I attributed to it being the Emerald's first visit there this year. The pier was narrow and with so many different tours called at the same time many people got lost. We were on the Las Caletas excursion and had to walk approximately a mile to get to the boat that would take us there. We lost over half the people and waited about 45 minutes for all of them to make it to the boat. Not a good start but it turned out to be a fun excursion.

 

We also were among the unlucky few who lost air conditioning in Puerto Vallarta - our steward said it was affecting a handful of cabins aft that day including our suite. He had called it in and hoped it would be fixed soon. The AC started when we sailed away but then in Mazatlan the AC for the entire ship was down. I called Passenger Services immediately when we returned from our excursion and they said everyone was miserable and that they were informed by the engineers that it should be better once the ship started moving. I was polite with them and didn't expect anything so we were surprised to get a letter on the last day of the cruise telling us what caused the issue and giving us $75 per person OBC. Maybe we got more because we had two days of inconvenience? In any event it was a nice gesture, especially when we did not expect compensation.

 

We were on the first disembarkation walk-off group that was supposed to go at 8 but that was about 15 minutes delayed. Sounds like the delay continued throughout the morning. Once we were called disembarkation was quick as was the pickup from the Doubletree Hotel shuttle. We highly recommend the Doubletree - good deal being able to leave your car there and use their shuttle to and from the port. Will definitely stay there again when we drive to the port.

 

We enjoyed the cruise very much and will likely do this itinerary again in the future.

We've been on the Emerald a number of times & only once has the AC been just OK. The oher trips it was sometimes hardly working & one time we actually had to change rooms it was so poor.

They've had problems with the AC for years now & never seem to solve it. Working AC is more important to me than some OBC.

We've solved the problem for our future cruises.

We just gave up on booking the Emerald and haven't had a problem since. :D

[octoberdana]

>> The food in the buffet was not great. Almost every lunch and dinner most of the dishes were Indian, Asian, or Spanish. << We're on the Emerald next month, so here's hopping the Horizon Court menu is as described - especially wrt dishes from the Indian sub-continent! For breakfast there's usually poached fruit (apple or pear) and Congee - so Mrs SoCal and myself are generally sorted from a culinary perspective.

 

It was poached pears every morning. I don't mind them serving Indian food, but every meal for days got quite frustrating especially with very little recognizable options for those of us with American culinary tastes. ;p

[warthog2608]

It was poached pears every morning. I don't mind them serving Indian food, but every meal for days got quite frustrating especially with very little recognizable options for those of us with American culinary tastes. ;p

 

 

 

Even though our favorite cuisine is Indian, I’m not sure how good shipboard Indian would be. Probably wouldn’t like it

 

 

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[travelphreak]

"Our recent re-position from the cold waters of Alaska to the warm waters of Mexico caused marine growth that had developed in the intake pipes of our seawater cooling system to die, therefore clogging the filters and greatly diminishing the capacity of our cooling stations. Our Engineering team worked around the clock to remove and clear the filters, and we are pleased to report that conditions have been restored back to normal capacity."

 

Special appetizer for tonight - steamed mussels!!!:D

[azbirdmom]

"our recent re-position from the cold waters of alaska to the warm waters of mexico caused marine growth that had developed in the intake pipes of our seawater cooling system to die, therefore clogging the filters and greatly diminishing the capacity of our cooling stations. Our engineering team worked around the clock to remove and clear the filters, and we are pleased to report that conditions have been restored back to normal capacity."

 

special appetizer for tonight - steamed mussels!!!:d

 

LOL - glad I didn't have seafood for the rest of the trip!

[azbirdmom]

We got back on the ship early in Mazatlan to escape the heat, only to be greeted with more heat. :( I'm glad that they gave you guys something it was truly miserable. I honestly thought I was going to pass out for a while, I went to the pool just to escape it and I'm not a swimmer

 

Us too, we were back on the ship just after 2 looking forward to a nice shower and then enjoying the cool. Instead we ended up going to the Lotus Spa pool to cool off. Sorry you almost passed out - it's definitely a situation that could have gotten dangerous for many on the ship.

[BritinSoCal]

Even though our favorite cuisine is Indian, I’m not sure how good shipboard Indian would be. Probably wouldn’t like it

 

Generally it's pretty good, else the crew would probably mutiny. Actually the curry dishes on our Regal Baltic cruise were excellent - not quite up to Chunking Mansions or a decent Black Country Balti standard, but heads and shoulders above the fare we're presented with here in Southern California...

[curtdesilets]

Thanks for the review. Very helpful! Question: We have a CLUB CLASS Dolphin Level Mini-Suite on an upcoming Emerald cruise from San Pedro. Says boarding time is 1230-130pm for our deck. That will be too late for lunch. Can we show up early with the CLUB CLASS and get lunch on board?